Data Warehousing. Paper

Transcription

1 Data Warehousig Paper Implemetig a fiacial balace scorecard o top of SAP R/3, usig CFO Visio as iterface. Ida Carapelle & Sophie De Baets, SOLID Parters, Brussels, Belgium (EUROPE) ABSTRACT Fiacial iformatio is vital for all departmets of a compay. Now that your compay has successfully implemeted SAP R/3, a vital questio comes ito all mids: How to esure that the busiess operatios are workig towards the strategic directio set by the board of maagemet? The aswer to this questio is the Balaced Scorecard. The Balace scorecard is a maagemet system that traslates the missio ad strategy of a orgaizatio ito a coheret set of objectives ad measures (See Ref.). This paper will demostrate the differet steps to achieve the buildig of this powerful decisio support system tool o top of SAP R/3 ERP system. First, we have to access the SAP R/3 fiacial data. The SAS/ACCESS to SAP AG's R/3 tool combied with strog busiess kowledge of SAP AG s R/3will be thekey success factor to this step. Secodly, we have to build a powerful reportig tool to serve as a basis for the strategic aalysis. For this, we itegrate the SAP operatioal iformatio with the SAS CFO Visio. SAS CFO Visio will provide the decisio-makers with a effective measuremet system that will be the startig poit for a successful implemetatio of the fiacial balace scorecard. The paper icludes a demostratio of SAS CFO Visio ad a balace scorecard built specifically for the fiacial decisio-makers. It cocludes with the feasibility ad beefits of buildig such a powerful decisio support system o top of SAP AG s R/3 fiacial module. INTRODUCTION I today s busiess eviromet, few factors remai costat very log. Maagers eed to quickly assess the profit ad other fiacial impacts of these chages. Decidig the best respose to chages is ever easy, but oe thig is clear. Maagers eed certai types of iformatio for their profit-makig decisio aalysis. The referece system for maagig operatioal iformatio is the SAP AG's R/3 system. The SAP AG's R/3 system surely cotais all the maagers eed to make their decisios successful. The oly process that is required to provide decisio makers with appropriate iformatio is to focus o key data from the operatioal system ad trasform them ito valuable iformatio. HOW? How ca we trasform thousads of data keyed i every day ito oly few key idicators that will be the base for the strategic decisio of the compay? Oly the combiatio of: oe tool oe method the kowledge of the SAP R/3 system could lead us to a successful solutio. The tool is CFO Visio, the method is the balaced scorecard ad the kowledge is based o several projects of buildig a decisio support eviromet for compaies. PAPER S APPROACH It was already demostrated i a previous paper (see Ref.2) the feasibility ad profitability of usig SAS software as a Decisio Support System o Top of SAP. This paper goes a step further ad demostrates how to give the had to the users allowig them to build Balaced Scorecard with the ecessary iformatio provided by the solutio ad the appropriated tools, SAS CFO Visio. This paper gives a approach for creatig a decisio support eviromet ad how give to the users the ecessary iformatio ad tools. This eviromet will be more directed for fiacial maagers ad will be desiged at two differet levels: the totally aggregated level : the ratios of the balaced scorecard The oe-level dow: the reportig that allows deeper figures aalysis. The approach offers a full ad trasparet itegratio of the SAP R/3 system with the aalysis eviromet. This solutio is based o real projects lead at compaies from differet sectors: utility, productio, pharmaceutical compaies. STRUCTURE The busiess case story: cotext of the compay uder aalysis. Overview of the SAP AG's R/3 operatioal eviromet. Balaced scorecard approach. The SAS CFO Visio tool. The solutio desig ad implemetatio. ¾ Data Source Aalysis, SAP AG s R/3 data models. ¾ SAP AG s R/3 data extractio process. ¾ Fiacial database models ad costructio. Coclusio.

2 Data Warehousig BUSINESS CASE CONTEXT BUSINESS STORY The compay of our case study is a productio compay, sellig dog food. The compay is structured ito 3 busiess uits. There is oe busiess uit by regio i the coutry uder aalysis. BUSINESS QUESTION The maagemet wats to examie the performace of the Busiess Uits. Oe first poit of attetio is the compariso of performace ratios betwee the three busiess uits, which should t be too far from each other because the oly differece is the regio. This first high-level ratio aalysis leads to the coclusio that the Busiess Uit is ot performig as good as the others. A drill-dow aalysis through these high level ratios will show us the reaso ad help us implemet a strategy to improve the performace of the Busiess Uit. OVERVIEW OF THE SOLUTION The most appropriate ratios to aswer the busiess questio will be show oto the Balaced Scorecard scree. O the basis of that scree, a oe-level dow aalysis will be made possible thaks to appropriate reports developed uder CFO visio. It will the be possible to aalyze i details what were the factors leadig to such bad or good ratios. INFORMATION SOURCE The operatioal data were take from the SAP stadard test cliet (IDES). We maily took data from the fiacial module of SAP (FI module) ad some were take from the Material Maagemet module (MM). These data have bee maipulated ad trasformed ito ratios ad reports ready for aalysis. SAP AG S R/3 KNOWLEDGE SAP R/3 ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE Uderstadig the SAP AG's R/3 operatioal system: The SAP data schema is extremely complex ad cotais a large umber of tables with cryptic ames ad ukow relatioships. That s why it is importat to have the kowledge of SAP R/3 whe buildig a data warehouse eviromet ad a decisio support system. It is importat to kow where to go ad fid the useful iformatio ad to uderstad their busiess meaig. SAP R/3 defies a multilevel structure i terms of ested classificatios, which are kow collectively as the EDM Eterprise Data Model. The itetio of the Eterprise Data Model is to eable user of a database etwork to assemble the data relevat to that eterprise ad to attach the correct iterpretatio to it. The purpose of a eterprise data model is to make sese of ad take accout of how the busiess uses the data structures defied i the active ABAP/4 data dictioary. ABAP/4 DATA DICTIONARY The ABAP/4 Dictioary describes the logical structure of the objects used i applicatio developmet ad shows how they are mapped to structures i the uderlyig relatioal database. It makes cetral descriptio of all data used i the system without redudacy possible. The ABAP/4 Dictioary provides a logical view o the applicatio data ad the orgaizatio of this data i the uderlyig database system. By a extesive use of the data dictioary it is also possible to easily extract the ecessary descriptive iformatio for all buildig elemets from data model to variable. The latter meas that the documetatio part metadata, which is very importat i data warehousig, ca be take from the operatioal eviromet. These metadata are as said to be very well documeted ad because of this, very useful for D.S.S. purposes. BALANCED SCORECARD It is ot the purpose of this paper to outlie a deep theory o Balaced Scorecard. We just wat to illustrate how we ca trasform operatioal data ito key performace ratios. I our case study, the compay has idetified the key performace areas to be reported. The maagemet was allowed to look ito further details o the basis of high-level ratios. These details were show uder CFO visio reports. SAS CFO VISION SAS CFO Visio is a comprehesive fiacial maagemet solutio empowerig executives with busiess iformatio eeded for timely, iformed decisios imperative to a orgaizatios growth ad competitive advatage. The SAS CFO Visio provides: Itegrated fiacial data warehousig ad o-lie aalytical processig (OLAP), offerig ulimited views of busiess iformatio ad the ability to iteractively drill-dow through large amouts of detailed iformatio, icludig seamlessly accessig trasactioal data. Comprehesive multi-currecy reportig, icludig the Euro, which facilitates viewig fiacial reports i a ulimited umber of currecies, all at the click of a mouse. Ability for fiace professioals to quickly icorporate chage ito their busiess structures, produce dyamic reports, ad effectively aalyze their busiess questios. Ability to access fiacial ad o-fiacial iformatio from ay data source, so fiace professioals ca sped more time aalyzig busiess iformatio quickly ad iteractively, ad less time accessig ad maagig data. The beefits of a complete, itegrated solutio, icludig reduced system maiteace, decreased reliace o IT, ad the most advaced decisio support capabilities. These capabilities of SAS CFO Visio allowed us to build a complete fiacial aalysis of our compay uder the form of a Balaced Scorecard with direct drill-dow capabilities to relevat detailed reports.

3 Data Warehousig SOLUTION DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION. DATA SOURCE ANALYSIS, SAP AG S R/3 DATA MODELS. To build this solutio the data source is maily SAP R3/FI-GL. It will be explai the data model ad the mai etities. INTRODUCTION. Util owit was explaied the problem to solve, the goal of the system to develop ad the eeds, i this chapter it will be explaied how to build the solutio. As i every project it s ecessary: To aalyze the data sources To defie the data model To defie the data flow (loadig, mappigs, trasformatio rules, aggregatio...). This chapter will describe globally the three mai parts of a applicatio desig. SAP-FI DATA MODEL DESCRIPTION (FIGURE-): Data Source A alysis Uderstadig the SAP R/3 FI Figure Chart of Accout GL tras.

4 Data Warehousig Chart of accout (figure2-figure3) Figure 2 -Chart of accout id List of chart of accouts -CorporateChart of accout id G/L accouts (chart of accout) Group accout Figure 3 G/L accout (compay code) Compay code

5 Data Warehousig G/L TRANSACTIONS MODEL (FIGURE-4). Master data Key: Documet Figure 4 Key: Documet mber Accoutig documets G/L accout Vedor Customer. You post busiess trasactios to accouts ad display lie items i accouts. For each geeral ledger (G/L) accout that you require, you must create a record i the compay code. The G/L accout record cotais data that cotrols how you eter ad process data i this accout.

6 Data Warehousig SAP AG S R/3 DATA EXTRACTION PROCESS. Tobuildthedataextractio process it s ecessary to do these tasks: ) Create with SAS/ACCESS to SAP AG's R/3 the access to the useful table described i the poit before. 2) For recurret process it s easier to iclude the Access process geerated automatically by the SAS/ACCESS to SAP AG's R/3 i your periodic batch, for example after the accoutig mothly closure. FINANCIAL DATABASE MODELS AND CONSTRUCTION. SAS CFO Visio works with FDB Fiacial database. The model of the SAS CFO Visio is compoud of fact tables ad dimesios tables. The dimesio tables are paret/child tables, which meas that all the levels of the hierarchies are cotaied i the same table. The lowest elemet cotais the lik to its direct upper elemet ad so o. The fact table cotais the figures ad the lowest elemet of each dimesio. REFERENCES Robert S. Kapla, professor of the Harvard Busiess school. 2 SUGI24 Data Warehousig sectio: Usig SAS software as a Decisio Support System o Top of SAP FI Fiacial Accoutig Module (Ida Carapelle, SOLID Parters). CONTACT INFORMATION (HEADER ) Your commets ad questios are valued ad ecouraged. Cotact the author at: Author Name: Ida Carapelle, Sophie De Baets Compay SOLID Parters S.A. Address Boulevard Wahis 2 City state ZIP B-030 Brussels Coutry Belgium (Europe) Work Phoe: Fax: Ida.Carapelle@solidparters.be Sophie.DeBaets@solidparters.be Web: What must be doe to build the FDB based o SAP R/3 FI-GL model: Buildig Of the Fdb ) Load i SAS CFO Visio the fact table, which is i this case the Geeral Ledger trasactio of SAP R/3 Fi-GL system. 2) Load i SAS CFO Visio the Accoutig Dimesio, which is the Chart of accout of SAP R/3 FI-GL. 3) Defie or load i SAS CFO Visio the Compay orgaizatio Dimesio, depedig o the complexity of the Compay orgaizatio. 4) Defie or load i SAS CFO Visio the time dimesio. Remarks: i CFO a model could be copied easily, that allows the user to play with the ew models for simulatio ad so o, keepig itact the real oe. The user could also create his ow dimesio. For example to group the accoutig accout i other way of the chart of accout. I this case the chart of accout remais the legal oe ad the user is able to produce other reportig for iteral usage. CONCLUSION This case study has cofirmed that it was possible to build Decisio System Support eviromet o the basis of SAP R/3 operatioal data. Not oly the buildig of the Decisio Support eviromet was described but also the exploitatio of the eviromet has bee demostrated through the costructio of a measuremet system that will be the startig poit for a successful implemetatio of a fiacial balace scorecard. THE CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS HAVE BEEN: ¾ Kowledge of SAP R/3 relatioal model: Idetify the right data to build relevat ad correct Fiacial Iformatio. ¾ Idetify the user s questios about the subject area to esure the DSS to give the eeded aswers. ¾ Use the correct tools to aswer the users eeds: SAS CFO Visio. ¾ Give the had to the users offerig flexible tools to add their Busiess Itelligece.