{"id":3371,"date":"2024-08-01T17:15:48","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T15:15:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluetelligence.de\/?p=3371"},"modified":"2024-11-13T15:08:41","modified_gmt":"2024-11-13T14:08:41","slug":"calculated-key-figures-in-sap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluetelligence.de\/en\/calculated-key-figures-in-sap\/","title":{"rendered":"BI Self Service: Why Departments should have access to SAP Key Figures"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Abstract — As software developers in the area of SAP Business & Analytics, we repeatedly encounter “time wasters”, i.e. everyday Business Intelligence processes that could be approached much more effiecient. This article deals with the dependency between business departments that work with dashboards and reports and IT, which in turn processes tickets when errors occur. As a solution, it discusses the BI Self Service concept, which can help to speed up these processes and thus save costs, time and nerves. Specifically, it involves utilizing data cataloging to provide business departments with insights into the metadata of their key figures and reports – thus relieving the burden on IT and making business processes more efficient.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Use Case: Usually an Error in a Dashboard<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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We all know how it goes: Business dashboards are supposed to provide clarity – but if they don’t display the correct values or show error messages, the opposite is of course the case. This is particularly bad if the department notices the error shortly before a meeting in which the dashboard is needed.<\/p>

The error often stems from one of the key figures used in the SAP system – especially if the key figure is made up of several other key figures in the system. We call this a ‘nested key figure’. Another term that is often used is the ‘calculated key figure’.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Calculated Key Figures Have Their Pitfalls<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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The key figure ‘Expected Incoming Orders’ in a sales dashboard can, for example, be made up of four to six other, equally nested key figures – for example, the sales probability, the open offers, and so on.<\/p>\n

Finding out whether there is an error in one of the many key figures in the SAP system takes a hell of a lot of time.<\/p>\n

What exactly is taking so long? As long as the department can only detect the error in the dashboard, but cannot see which other underlying key figures the incorrectly displayed key figure contains, it can only submit an unspecific support ticket to IT. The IT then have to search for errors and investigate the entire background of the key figure in the SAP system. And since IT is known to be swamped with tickets, the problem will not be solved in time before the meeting (or the next one).<\/p>\n

As promised, this article is not only about problems, but also about solutions – and the solution in this case is BI Self-Service – more precisely, a Data Catalog. And a driver tree. Let us explain, why.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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