SAP BW InfoObjects
InfoObjects are crucial to the SAP business intelligence application. InfoObjects receive and obtain important information from the source, then modify and arrange the information into either a standard or custom-made report. The InfoObject is thesmallest building block in SAP BW. It is utilized in InfoProviders (InfoCubes, DSOs, MultiProviders, Queries, etc…). Picture InfoObjects as compact Lego pieces that when incorporated together, make a much bigger Lego formation (InfoProvider). InfoProviders are made from InfoObjects and form something precious that makes it possible for end users to report from. We have five different types of InfoObjects to choose from in the SAP BW environment.
Types of InfoObjects:
A) Characteristics (Employee, Customer, Material)
B) Key Figures (Quantity Sold, Amount, Weight)
C) Time Characteristics (Year, Month, Period, Quarter)
D) Unit InfoObjects (Currency Unit, Measurement Unit)
E) Technical Characteristics (Data Load Request ID, Change Run ID, Package ID)
A) Characteristics:
This class of InfoObject symbolizes a business entity that you are are going to be analyzing. For example: material, customer, or region.
B) Key Figures:
This kind of InfoObject represents numeric measures of business entities. We employ the use of each of these to examine characteristics by weight, quantity, price, amount, etc…
C) Time Characteristics:
This sort of InfoObject
represents
when a transaction occurs. For example, fiscal year, month of sale, day of sale, quarter in which something sold.
D) Unit InfoObjects:
This sort of InfoObject represents
what unit of measure a key figure is using. For example, we may be using the metric system to determine weights for our end user, so as a substitute for pounds we will be using kilograms.
E) Technical Characteristics
SAP internal InfoObjects that gather information containing automatically generated IDs that are being utilized for monitoring and administration of the SAP BW system. For example, each single load into SAP BW involves a unique request ID that ties back to a exclusive load so administrators can diagnose inaccuracies or remove a bad data load.
See if you could spot the InfoObjects that we would want to use as a way to answer this business question…
ABC Corporation is interested in finding out how much of product x shipped on date x to factory x.
0NAME (ABC Corporation), 0MATERIAL (Product x), 0DATE (Ship date x), 0LOCATION (factory location) would be our characteristics needed
0AMOUNT (Quantity shipped) would be our key figure used to measure the quantity of products shipped
It's obvious that we would need at a minimum, an InfoProvider that included the above five InfoObjects. This is important when creating in BW to get the clients to let you know all the pieces they are seeking to analyze (InfoObjects) so you can create an InfoProvider containing applicable InfoObjects that will create meaningful reports and in turn information for the business.
SAP delivers a plethora of InfoObjects standard. These objects belong to the BI content (Business Content). BI content is SAPs hope for an out of the box answer to your business requirements. These objects start with ‘0’ and it is not advised to revise them. Unfortunately, more often than not, delivered InfoObjects will likely not meet your needs for development, you can effortlessly create a custom-made object that will meet your requirements. You can create custom Characteristic, Key Figure, and Unit InfoObjects.
Find
some more _information_ by visiting <a href="www.sapbwtraininghq.com">SAP BW Training Headquarters </a> at www.sapbwtraininghq.com
Lead SAP BW consultant Robert J. Davis of SAP BW Training Headquarters
SAP BW Training