Analyzing Data in the BEX Analyzer

Team-Fly

By filtering and restriction, you simply limit the scope of data you want to analyze. However, after getting the needed data set, you might need to do further analysis, such as on the most profitable products by region or the best salespersons for specific products, and so on.

Before navigating data, take a look at the Query Display sections, as shown in Figure 11-13. The top section shows selected navigational attributes of a query. The bottom half shows the results based on the selected navigational drill-down values. Drilling further down expands aggregated data to its individual entities based on selected characteristic values.

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Figure 11-13: SAP BEX Analyzer Query Navigation and Result Areas.

The two quick techniques for drilling down data are described here:

  • Right-click the query navigational attributes. Select Drill-down and display the view horizontally or vertically-as Across and Down, respectively-as shown in Figure 11-14. For example, right-click the Customer navigational attribute, select Drill-down, and select the Down display view. The BEX Analyzer adds a new column, Customer, and displays individual revenues by material and customer. It displays total revenues by the material but breaks down the list by individual customer. To remove this breakdown, select the navigational attribute, right-click, and select Remove drill-down.

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    Figure 11-14: Drill-Down Methods to Navigate Data in SAP BW BEX Analyzer.

  • The second technique is to right-click the characteristic currently present in a row in the query result section; for example, Material. Then select Insert drilldown according to Customer, as shown in Figure 11-14. Interestingly, the end result is the same. The only advantage of this technique is that you have several additional options.

Figure 11-15 shows revenue breakdown by product among all customers. If you would like to see revenue breakdown by individual Customer instead of Material, you can swap dimensions easily. Right-click any Material value in the row and select Exchange Material with Customer. The query recalculates the numbers and displays data, as shown in Figure 11-15.

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Figure 11-15: Swapping Dimensions. Revenues are Broken Down by Material and Customer on the Left and Revenue by Customer and Material on the Right.

Suppressing Repeated Key Values and Row Totals

Thus far, you have seen query results without repeated characteristic values. For example, as shown in Figure 11-15, the query result on the right shows the customers only once and displays blanks in subsequent rows if the customer has ordered multiple material-products. The data is easy to read and looks good.

You might also notice a subtotal line that gets added for each product, customer, and calendar year combination. This makes data very hard to read and understand, as shown in the left side of Figure 11-16.

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Figure 11-16: The BEX Analyzer Default Displays Data with Repeated Characteristic Values. Setting the Query Property to Suppress Repeated Values Makes the Same Data Display Much Clearer and the Data More Presentable.

You can suppress repeated values by changing the Query property. Right-click anywhere in the Query area and select Properties. In the Query Properties dialog box under Display, check Suppress repeated key values and click OK. With this setting, BEX Analyzer reformats data and displays it nicely, as shown on the right side of Figure 11-16.

Now the repeated key values are not displayed in Figure 11-16, but too many subtotals are listed in the results. You may want to list only the subtotals by Material and not subtotals for all characteristics. To do so, select a characteristic for which you want to suppress subtotals and right-click to display the available options. Select Customer, Suppression of totals row, and Always, as shown in Figure 11-17. This recalculates subtotals and displays subtotals by Material; however, it still shows revenue breakdown by Calendar year without its subtotals, as shown on the right side of Figure 11-17.

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Figure 11-17: Displaying Subtotal Values Against a Given Characteristic During Drill-Down Navigation.


Team-Fly


Business Information Warehouse for SAP
Business Information Warehouse for SAP (Prima Techs SAP Book Series)
ISBN: 0761523359
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 1999
Pages: 174
Authors: Naeem Hashmi

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