Introduction to the Integration Kits

The integration kits provide native access and integration to commonly used Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications. They achieve this by providing unique access to the data via the ERP's application layer, via the application's published programming interfaces, or API. A complete list of supported ERP applications is defined in Table 15.1.

Table 15.1. Features by Integration Kit

	SAP		Peoplesoft		Baan/SSA	Siebel
Integration Kit	R3	BW	Enterprise	EPM
Software shipped with product	X	X	X
Integrated security	X	X	X	X	X	X
Sample reports	X	X	X	X	X	X
Portal/UI integration	X	X				X
Crystal Report access	X	X	X		X	X
Web Intelligence access		X		X
OLAP Intelligence access		X

This unique approach to data access allows the integration kit to honor the security, access all the data, make sample reports, leverage the metadata of the ERP application, and provide real-time access to the data.

Honor the Security

Organizations spend a lot of time and effort setting up security in their ERP applications. The integration kits are made so that users do not have to recreate this security. This results in organizations having to change security only once in their ERP application and this change is then reflected in the reports.

Access to All the Data

Many ERP applications, such as SAP, do not store all their data in the underlying database. Some of the data used in SAP can be found only in programmatic sources, such as cluster tables and other objects unique to SAP. Therefore, if your reporting tool could connect to only the underlying database, you would likely miss some critical pieces of data that might dramatically affect your business decisions. With the BusinessObjects integration kits, you do not have to worry about this problem because the kit connects to the application layer of SAP and can thus leverage SAP functionality and gain access to all forms of data storage that SAP provides.

Sample Reports

Sample reports are provided for all the integration kits. These reports not only provide a basis on which to start; but more importantly provide examples on how to report off hierarchies and use variables, to name just a few.

Leverage the Metadata of the ERP Application

Changes made to the application might not necessarily be reflected in the database. The native drivers connect to the application's metadata and should see any of the changes. For example, SAP R3 has cluster tables that you will not find in the underlying database, but they are visible in the SAP R3 data dictionary.

Caution

In determining whether your ERP application is supported by BusinessObjects integration kits, you should not be concerned with the specifics of the underlying database, but instead focus on the specific version or patch level of the application itself.

Provide Real-Time Access to Data

With this approach, data is not extracted from the ERP application in order to report against it. In some cases it might make sense to extract the data to a data mart or data warehouse, and the ERP provider or Business Objects may provide solutions for that. A lot of production reporting requires real-time data, however, and the ERP's own tools might prove inflexible and difficult to use.