SAP BPC Embedded Fundamentals for Planning Applications

The EPM AddIn for Embedded is the primary interface used to input and report data. in this lecture we will look at some of the basics of the AddIn and cover:

·        EPM Ribbon and Context

·        Report manipulation

·        Editing Options

·        Formatting

The EPM AddIn has a wide variety of features and are too numerous to cover for the purposes of these lectures. A full description of features can be found here:

https://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boeo10/en/EPMofc_10_user_en.pdf

To take a comprehensive approach, we need to take a look at the data first from SAP BW and then from SAP HANA Modeler.

As a refresher, remember that MultiProviders can be used to union data in other InfoProviders. This lecture will take you through the whole process of creating a planning application on a MultiProvider and will cover:

·        Creation of a MultiProvider

·        Creating Aggregation Levels for MultiProvider

·        Creating Queries for MultiProviders

·        Creating Embedded Models for MultiProviders and

·        EPM AddIn for the MultiProvider Scenario

SAP Business Objects Analysis, edition for Microsoft office (or Analysis from now on) is a very easy to use Excel-based application that integrates nicely with SAP BW queries an IP functions. It takes several days to teach the Analysis' reporting and planning functions, so we will not try to cram it all in here. This lecture will give you a feel for how Analysis works, we will also revisit some of the concepts covered in previous lessons and apply them in BoA to:

• Add a query as a datasource
• Save a BoA Workbook
• Add new planning records by adjusting our query
• Add planning sequences to the BoA workbook.

The standard IP functions are used extensively in the simpler planning scenarios. In this lecture we will work through the standard IP planning functions of:

• Copy, 
• Clear,
• Revaluation and 
• Repost.

Each of these planning functions will be added to the BoA workbook we created in the previous lecture. For comparison purposes, we will also add them to a EPM Add-In workbook.

As a quick teaser for the next lecture on FOX, we will also write a FOX statement that emulates the standard copy function.

FOX is a simple scripting language used in BI-IP to perform calculations. In this lecture we will cover the following topics:

• Variables functions (VARV, VARI, VARC) and the DO-loop
• The FOREACH loop
• Internal Tables

As usual, the downloadable materials contains the configuration settings for the scenario. The FOX code can also be found in this section.

In this lecture we will cover Characteristic Relationships. We will look at:

• Derivation during data input
• Post processing of characteristic relationships, consisting of reposting and deletion of invalid combinations.

The preparation for the lecture is contained in the Quantity Planning Configuration.pdf document under 'Downloadable materials'.

In this lecture we will convert the Characteristic Relationship created in the previous lecture as an Attribute lookup, to an ABAP Managed Database Procedure (AMDP). We will cover the following steps:

• Create a class as a container for the Characteristic Relationship
• Crate 2 methods, one as an ABAP implementation and one as a sql implementation
• Test and trace the execution of both the ABAP and sql implementations.

As usual, the source code is in the downloadable materials to this lecture.

Top-down distribution is used for disaggregation of planning data. We will use top-down distribution in this lecture to disaggregate volumes planned on Material Group and Fiscal Year to material and fiscal period.

The preparation for this lecture is contained in the Aggregated Planning Configuration.pdf document under 'Downloadble materials'.

We now have a situation where we have:

• Prices planned on Material Group and Fiscal year level, 
• Volumes planned per Material and Fiscal Period. 

In this lecture we will go back to FOX to calculate revenues for each material. The Revenue Calculation Planning Sequence will also be added to the InfoProvider to calculate revenue when submitting the records.

In this lecture, we will replace the FOX revenue calculation with an AMDP.

This lecture continues with the creation of an AMDP Planning Function.

Thank you for attending this course. Please check back often as there are always new developments in SAP BPC and I will continue to add lectures in the future.

In this lecture we will take a quick tour of the Pricing Conditions we are interested in. We will also look at the tables and structures involved.

In this lecture we cover the creation of views and the creation of Generic DataSources to extract the data to BW. The layout of all the views created is in the downloadable materials to this lecture.

In this lecture we are going to cover the 

• Extraction of the data records from the pricing condition tables in ERP, 
• the DSO we are going to use as the staging objects and 
• the transformations from the DataSources to the DSO.
• We are also going to view the Process Chain required and add the infopackage and DTP to the chain

Be sure to check the downloadable material to this lecture for the code and more information.

In this lecture we will create the final two objects before we dive into BPC itself. We will create a real-time InfoCube and a MultiProvider.

In this lecture we are going to create two Characteristic Relationships, one as an attribute lookup and one as a class. The code for the CR is included in the downloadable materials.

In this lecture we will use the two Characteristic Relationships we created in the previous lecture and add them to a planning sequence. This lecture will cover the following topics:

• Creation of an Aggregation Level,
• Creation of a filter
• Creation of two planning functions, one for each CR
• Creation of a planning sequence and
• Compression to remove the re-posted record.

This lecture gives a brief overview of the Input Schedules and Planning Sequences we will create in this section.

In this lecture we will build an input schedule, the Detailed Price Planning Input Schedule, step by step. We will perform the following steps:

• Create an Aggregation Level
• Create a Filter
• Create an Input Ready Query
• Insert the Query into a BoA workbook and
• Plan some values

All the other input schedules and their settings can be found in the downloadable materials to this lecture.

Two ways to debug FOX code in SAP BPC Embedded/BI-IP:

1 - Debug the FOX code itself as FOX script, covered in this lecture

2 - Debug the generated ABAP code, covered in ‘FOX Formulas’ lecture

In this lecture, we will add buttons and functions to the A4O workbook, to make things easier for our users. By adding these buttons to the workbook, we give the user the option of running all functions from the worksheet without accessing the Analysis tab. We will:

• Add buttons to the workbook
• Create the VB code
• Assign the macros to the VB buttons
• Change data-source of the Planning Sequences to reference a cell.

The full Analysis for Office User Guide can be found here:

https://help.sap.com/viewer/ca9c58444d64420d99d6c136a3207632/2.4.4.0/en-US/f26f30bf6c9b1014bf2c9a7eb0e91070.html

This lecture will cover a simple currency translation scenario. Prices in Euro will be translated to a target currency selected with a variable. More specifically, this lecture will cover:

• Creation of a Currency translation Type
• Maintenance of table TCURR
• The Currency Translation Planning Function and Sequence.