General
How to receive the BW newsletters
To see the newsletters for BW, you can subscribe to Mailjet to receive news by email :
- Go to Maijet widjets
- Enter your email address
- Click on Subscribe now.
- If you already subscribed, the system will tell you that "This email is already existing".
- In case you subscribed successful, email from Mailjet will send to your mailbox, you need to confirm again by click on "Click here to Subscribe"
If you get this screen, your email is already subscribed.
Link to subscribe - group of BW:
Installation related
Before a training, how to check if Analysis works correctly or not?
- In Windows Start menu / All Programs, there should be a folder "SAP Business Intelligence" in which there is "Analysis for Microsoft Excel".
- Click on Microsoft Windows Start Button
- Click on "SAP Business Intelligence" Folder
- Click on "SAP Business Objects Analysis" folder
- Select Analysis for Microsoft Excel
If you don't have this, please see how to contact your local IT Infra-structure helpdesk via: Solvay infrastructure Local Team
By clicking "Analysis for Microsoft Excel", you can open Excel with a tab "Analysis".
Click insert and then "Select Data Source".
If you see the following window, just click "Skip" to go to the next interface. Otherwise, just ignore this step.
Warning
Normally this window must not be displayed.
When you get this that means the Ao_app config file is the default one.
A specific one should have been installed within the Solvay installation package.
The following "Select Data Source" interface shows. WBP is the BW server.
BW - Production - WBP
After you select the BW server ( WBP ), you can click OK to logon automatically with SSO or click Cancel to manually input a User/Password .
Please note if you don't have a WBP account, you will not be able to logon.
To connect the server you will get one of these windows
How to check my Saplogon version
To check the Saplogon version :
Execute the "SAP Logon" program. It should be in your Program Files --> SAP Front End --> SAP Logon :
If you do not find this it means the SAP Logon is not installed on your PC .
This will open a SAP window displaying the list of all SAP Servers. Click on the top left corner of the window and then select About SAP Logon...
This will open a new window that displays the exact version number :
The current release is 7.4 and the Patch Level is 7, so if yours is not exactly the same, please contact the insfrastructure Service desk tem to upgrade your SAPUI.
How to check Analysis for Microsoft version
- Open Microsoft Excel
- Select "File" menu and on the left hand menu, select Analysis. Then, click on about Analysis
Account related
How to get an access to BW reports?
Refer to the procedure Getting BW installed
I do not remember my BW user name. How do I find it ?
Note that generally your BW login will be the same as your WP1 or PF1 login.
If still not ok, Please contact SBS Support.
How to reset the BW password ?
You can reset your password yourself by using the SAP GRC Access Control portal password self service.
The first time you will need to set the answers your two secret questions.
Alternatively you can ask directly for a password reset to SBS Support.
How to deactivate or delete an account ?
Please contact SBS Support.
I received an email about account beeing disabled soon. What to do ?
Once per month the IS Security team sends a reminder to users which have not used their account for more than 3 months.
If you do nothing, the account will be disabled and then deleted automatically by IS.
If you want to keep the account, just log in once into Business Warehouse.
What languages are supported by BW ?
The tool itself (tool bars, menus...) can be displayed in many languages but most of the reports are only designed in the English (EN) language so we recommend to select that language.
You can choose the language in the connection screen by clicking on "Options >>"
If no language is selected, the default language defined within your account is applied.
Broadcasts (Reports sent automatically)
What is a broadcast ?
A broadcast is a report that is sent automatically to users on a scheduled basis.
The report can be sent in several formats (Excel, PDF...) to an email or to a business objects inbox. It can be scheduled to be sent on a daily, weekly or monthly basis.
How to create or modify a scheduled report (broadcast) ?
As a user you cannot create new broadcasts or modify the existing ones.
For any new broadcast, or a change in an existing one, please contact SBS Support.
For a new broadcast make sure you mention :
- The report to be broadcasted (where to find it and the name)
- The schedule of the broadcast (which day to start and frequency : weekly, daily, monthly...)
- The format : PDF, Excel
- The targets : emails or BO account lists (If Email, specify the Subject to be used).
For an update, please make sure you mention the name of the report or the subject of the email
How to get removed from a broadcast ?
To be removed from a broadcasted report list, please forward the email you received saying that you would like to be removed from that broadcast.
How to display local (Chinese, Korean...) characters in descriptions of some fields like material, customer, etc. in BW reports ?
For Chinese, Korean and other non-EN(FR, and PT) users, usually they should use EN to logon BW. But sometimes, users need descriptions to be in local languages. For example, they would like to know the Chinese descriptions of materials. In such case, users can do the following two things to get the local language descriptions. But this is not perfect, because the dimensions and key figures in BW might be in technical names ( instead of local languages ) and not recognizable.
- To set "Chinese" in Windows Control Panel / Regional and language options
- To logon BW with the language, for example, ZH for Chinese, KR for Korean, etc..
Here are the detailed steps:
1. Choose Start -> Control Panel
2. Double-click on “Regional and Language Options” and you will see a popup screen.
3. Under the “Regional Options” tab, select “Chinese (any country)”
4. Click on the “OK” button.
5. When you logon BW, input the local language, ZH for Chinese for example.
6. Select the report to refresh.
Please note here that the folder or report names might not be the same as in the English environment, because they are not maintained in local languages.
7. After you refresh the report, the descriptions in Chinese are displayed, but the names of dimensions ( Material, Customer ) or Key figures might be in technical names and unrecognizable
Navigation
What is a "Core Query" and "Core Workbook" ?
"Core" means that it is standard content that was created for anyone: it does not have any specific rules that restrict the usage to a specific Business Unit or country or zone.
Other reports are "Specific" : GBU Specific, Country Specific (ex : for tax purposes).
What difference between a query and a workbook ?
A Query is an object that contains the way to extract the data from the database. It defines the fields (Characteristics), calculations (Key Figures), filters from the database.
A Workbook is an excel file with one or more embedded Queries. It can have several queries is used to save the result and the layout of the report.
A typical use is to execute a query, change the layout and then save the result as a workbook.
The BW team provides both queries and worbooks to users (Workbooks are usually used because we can include documentation in the excel sheets).
How to delete many values in a prompt
- Step 1 : In the Prompt, Select « + » and choose « Add Lines using Filter By Member ».
- Step 2 : Uncheck the “Select all” checkbox.
- Step 3 : Only check the Companies/Plants you want to access to.
How to avoid refreshing the whole workbook when I uncheck the "Merge Variables"
Report results
BW will not repeat all the values in each line and instead will show a blank value. Is there a way to have BW repeat the values ?
By default in the BW queries, it will not "repeat the key values" in each line. This is because it usually makes it easier to read the results. But it also prevents you to use some excel features (filters, sorts, pivot) since the values are empty.
Users can change the output display here
When I run my BW report, the data I get is obsolete and has not been updated. Why ?
The BW data is not updated in real-time. Mostly BW is going to copy the data from the sources one time per day (see details).
It is possible that the copying of the data is still in progress or has not been done since the new data was created. If possible, please retry after the loading process is completed. If not solved, please contact SBS Support
When I run my BW report, there is error message about size limit
When run the report and you get error message below
Solution:
Please note that SAP recommend that the number of cells in the workbook should not more than 500,000 cells (rows x columns). Please try to reduce number of cells by removed unused characteristics or key figures from the report. If it is really required to have more than 500,000 cell, you can change the configuration below. However, in some report may have the new issue about "out of memory" for this configuration.
- Change the configuration file at C:\Users\<Windows ID>\AppData\Roaming\SAP\Cof\Ao_user_roaming.config
- Insert <ResultSetSizeLimit value="-1" /> just before </configuration> or if it already existing, modify the value to "-1" instead of "500000" as default
Errors messages and main issues
Go to Business Warehouse Troubleshooting section
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