MODULE BI3-M2-02 - BASIC CONCEPTS

Case Study 1:
Sales Dashboard
Basic Concepts

Product
SAP BusinessObjects
Dashboards 4.0

Level
Undergraduate
Beginner

Focus
Dashboard Design

Author
Sonja Hecht
UCC Munich

Version
2.0

2011 SAP AG

MOTIVATION

PREREQUISITES

This case study gives a basic

introduction into dashboard design
with
SAP
BusinessObjects
Dashboards. You will learn how to
create and run a simple dashboard.
Therefore you will use an existing
spreadsheet model and different
types of components, including
chart
components,
selector
components, text components and
picture components. Furthermore
you will get an overview on how to
implement drill-down capabilities
within a dashboard.
After completing this case study,
you are able to create your own
dashboard including the introduced
components.

The fundamental understanding of

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards is
a prerequisite for the students,
covered in chapters Introduction and
Basic Concepts.

LECTURE NOTES
This case study is based on SAP
BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 and
Excel 2007. As prerequisite each
student requires the Excel file
sales_dashboard.xls that includes the
spreadsheet model used for this case
study.

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Business Scenario

You are the assistant of Global Bikes global sales manager. The sales manager
regularly requests an overview on the number of bikes sold within the two countries
Germany and USA. Above that, he is always interested in the development of these
figures over time for selected bikes.
As year end is near you are sure the sales manager will ask for updated sales
figures for the year 2011 soon. Usually you create these figures from different
reports from your Data Warehouse and provide this data as Excel sheet to your
sales manager. But last time he complained about the presentation style of the
data, as most data is provided in tabular form and it therefore is difficult for him to
get a quick overview on what is going on.
You know that other departments are already using SAP BusinessObjects
Dashboards and they are very satisfied with the results. Therefore you plan to use
Dashboards for future reporting tasks and you implement your first dashboard that
provides an overview on sales figures for 2011. As you have already prepared an
Excel sheet with all data required, you plan to use this spreadsheet as basis for
your dashboard.
As next step you think about how the data should be presented on the dashboard.
Therefore you make a rough drawing how the dashboard should look like before
your start with SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards. The result of this step looks as
following:

Sales Dashboard
Select country

Number of bikes sold

Germany
USA

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Task 1: Create a new SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards project and import a spreadsheet
Short description: You create a new SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards project that is based on an
existing spreadsheet including the global sales data.
1. Please start SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards:
Double click the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards icon on the desktop.
Select Continue on the next screen as shown below.

2. You are going to use an existing spreadsheet model. Therefore you select the
option Model with Spreadsheet data. From the Open window, select Desktop
and then the spreadsheet model sales_dashboard.xls.

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The sales data is now available in the embedded spreadsheet of SAP
BusinessObjects Dashboards:

3. Save the SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards project on your desktop.

File Save as SalesDashboard_##.xlf (## is your two digit number)

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Task 2: Create headline for your dashboard
Short description: You create a
headline for your dashboard using a
label component.

1. At first, you create a headline for your dashboard. On the Components panel,
select the tree view and drag a label component to the top left corner of the
canvas.
Components panel Select tree view

Text Label

Double click on the label to open the Properties panel. On the General
tab enter Sales Dashboard as text. On the Appearance - Text tab,
change the font size for text to 24 pt.
Adjust the size of the component if required to view the full text.
Task 3: Create a bar chart and a combo box selector to show number of bikes sold for one country
Short description: You create a bar
chart that shows the number of bikes
sold in 2011 for a selected country. You
use a combo box so that the user can
change the country.

1. For this scenario you add a bar chart and a combo box to your dashboard. On
the Components panel, select the tree view and drag a bar chart to the top
right corner of the canvas and a combo box selector to the top left corner of the
canvas.
Components panel Select tree view
Components panel Select tree view

Chart Bar Chart

Selectors Combo Box

2. First, you configure the properties of the combo box. The combo box selector
moves all data for a selected country from the sources data area (B4:G19) into
the target destination (C22:G29).

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Source data

Destination

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Double click on the combo box selector to open the Properties panel.
Configure the properties as shown below:
a) Properties panel General: Configure labels, insertion type, source data and destination.

b) Properties panel - Behavior: Insert selected country into spreadsheet

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3. Now you configure the bar chart. This chart visualizes data from the destination
area (C21:G29). The destination area is populated during dashboard runtime
with data from the source area. For testing purposes, you copy some of the
source data (C4:G11) into the destination area (C22:G29). This data is used
only for testing during design time and will be overwritten during run
time of the dashboard.

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4. Now double click on the bar chart to open the Properties panel. Configure the
properties as shown below:
a) Properties panel General: Configure the chart title, subtitle and the data area to bind data to the
bar chart.

b) Properties panel - Appearance: Hide chart background

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c) Properties panel - Behavior: Enables sorting by data to show the bikes as ranking based on the
number of bikes sold

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5. Now you have finished a first version of your dashboard. Save
your changes
and run the preview
to check your dashboard. The dashboard should
look as follows:

6. Test the combo box selector by choosing option US. The bars of the bar chart
should have changed.

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Task 4: Add drill-down functionality

Short description: You add drill-down
functionality to your bar chart to show
how sales figures have developed over
time for a selected product. Details for
the selected product are shown in a line
chart in the bottom of your dashboard.

1. At first you configure the drill-down functionality of your bar chart. By click on a
bar in the bar chart, the source data of the selected bike (within range
C22:G22) is written into a target destination (C32:G32).
Enhance the configuration of the bar chart as shown below:
a) Properties panel - Insertion: Enable Data Insertion

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2. Add a line chart to the bottom area of the canvas.
Components panel Select tree view

Charts Line Chart

3. Configuration the line chart as shown below to visualize data for the selected
bike.
a) Properties panel - Insertion: Enable Data Insertion

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b) Properties panel - Appearance: Hide chart background

4. Save
your changes and run the preview
Your dashboard should now look as follows:

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to check your dashboard.

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Task 5: Adjust the layout of your dashboard
Short description: You adjust the
layout of your dashboard by adding a
logo using an image component and a
short user documentation using a label
component.

1. Add a label component to the canvas and position it below the combo box
selector.
Components panel Select tree view

Text Label

2. Configure the label as shown below to show a user documentation for the drilldown functionality.
a) Properties panel - General: Configure the label component to show
following text: Select a product in the bar chart to visualize the
development of sales quantities over time.

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b) Properties panel Appearance: Choose Show Fill and select light blue
as background color for the label

3. Add a image component to the top right corner of the canvas.

Components panel
Component

Select tree view Art and Backgrounds Image

4. Include your favorite Logo into the dashboard. The SAP University Alliances
logo is used in the example below.
Use the Import button in the properties panel of the image component to
import the logo from your desktop.

5. Save
your changes and run the preview
to check your dashboard.
Your dashboard should now look similar to this one:

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Task 6: Export your dashboard into PDF

Short description: You are now
happy
with
your
dashboards
appearance and you want send it to
your boss. Therefore you export your
dashboard to PDF.
1. File Export Export to pdf

2. Open the PDF document and check your dashboard.

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