In the last two months I have been in a couple of customers who were interested in the integration of SAP Strategy Management 10.0 with SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4.0. In this post I would like to explain what that integration is about.
First of all, a brief introduction about the solution. The SAP Strategy Management (SSM) software allows aligning the Strategy Plan of the company and its key objectives and spread it across all the organization. It is an out of the box Enterprise Performance Management solution in which you can insert the most important KPIs of your company in Balanced Scorecards or Strategy Maps and control their performance in relation to the Strategy of the company. Within SSM you can also create initiatives to implement improvements or corrective actions and link them to the objectives or KPIs.
Sometimes the customer has requirements to implement reports or further analysis on top of SSM and these cannot be covered with the standard functionality of the solution. In that case, the best option is to implement the integration between SSM and SAP BusinessObects reporting tools. Some examples of what you can do with that integration:
- Implement bespoke Dashboards with your SSM KPIs and Objectives
- Implement universes and allow users to exploit information from SSM with Web Intelligence without consuming additional SSM licenses
- Implement pixel-perfect Crystal Reports on top of the SSM
- Foster ownership with Publications. For example, send a list of KPI’s that are not performing well to their responsible users
For implementing such integration, you can follow the SAP SSM Configuration guide. However, in some cases, there is lack of documentation and you have to do things outside the script. In other cases, the existing documentation has not been updated yet to BI 4.0 and SSM 10.0. And finally, sometimes the documentation is wrong or the software has bugs and you cannot setup the integration.
In this post we will analyze following scenarios:
- Web Intelligence reporting on top of a SSM Models
- Web Intelligence reporting on top of a SSM Data Model (Clariba-developed solution)
- Crystal Reports on top of SSM (exploring different options)
- Dashboards on top of SSM (exploring different options)
These scenarios have been implemented with following software components:
- SAP NetWeaver 7.3 SP08
- SAP SSM 10.0 SP06
- SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4.0 SP05
- Crystal Reports 2011 SP05
- Dashboards 4.0 SP05
1. Web Intelligence reporting on top of a SSM Model
As per SAP documentation, we can setup the ODBO Provider in order to build a Universe on top of SSM Models. The problem is we still have to use the Universe Designer instead of the Information Design Tool of the BI 4.0. Bellow are the steps for setting up the ODBO Provider and implementing your first report on top of the SSM:
- Go to your BO 4.0 server and make sure you have a Multimensional Analysis Service in the BO server. Stop the MDAS Server and the Connection Server in the Central Configuration Manager
- Copy the ODBOProvider folder from the <drive>:Program files (x86)SAP BusinessObjectsStrategy ManagementInternetPub path of your SSM server to the BO server
- In the SSM server, run the SSMProviderReg.bat file in the BO server. Make sure you have administrator rights in the BO server. Once completed, check in the regedit that you are able to find the register SSMProvider.1 in the Windows register
- Modify the windows register to insert following string in that path (assuming that you are using a 64-bit Windows): HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREWow6432NodeSAPSSMODBOProvider "servletUri"="/strategyServer/ODBOProviderServlet"
- Access the following path in BO server: <drive>:Program Files (x86)SAP BusinessObjectsSAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0dataAccessconnectionServeroledb_olap
<DataBase Active="Yes" Name="Strategy Management 10.0">
<Aliases>
<Alias>Strategy Management 10.0</Alias>
</Aliases>
<Library>dbd_sqlsrvas</Library>
<Parameter Name="Family">SAP BusinessObjects</Parameter>
<Parameter Name="Extensions">sqlsrv_as2005,sqlsrv_as,oledb_olap</Parameter>
<Parameter Name="MSOlap CLSID">SSMProvider.1</Parameter>
</DataBase>
- Start the MDAS Server and the Connection Server

- Now we can go to the Universe Designer and start implementing a Universe on top of our Model. The first step is defining the connection. In the connection list (retrieved from the Connection Server) we can see now the new register we have inserted, Strategy Management 10.0:

- Define the connection parameters. You must be an SSM user with proper permissions and you must inform the server's complete address (FQDN) and its port.
- Once connected to the SSM server, you will see the list of available Cubes. The AS category allows access to the measures (based on attributes and dimensions) in the Application Server model.The SM Adapter allows access to the strategy dimension, which represents the strategy management dimensions Scorecard and Initiative. Scorecard detail not relating to the KPI such as comments are not presented.