APO SNP - Reporting options

[Former Member]

I am using APO SNP V5.

For reporting from my SNP planning area, I see from transaction /SAPAPO/SDP_EXTR that one can either copy the planning area data to an InfoCube <u>directly</u> or populate a Cube via an <u>export datasource</u> for a particular aggregate (eg 9AMALO).

What reporting functionality is provided by the 'export data source' approach over and above the simple 'copy to Cube' approach.

Thanks,

Bob Austin, Atos Origin

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Bob,

Either way you generally donot report on data in APO-BW but extract to standalone BW and report.

I believe when you say "InfoCube directly", you mean "data backup" option here.

In this option, it takes the complete backup of planning area and you can create a new cube with that. You have no control on selection. lt takes all the objects(chars and keyFigures) and creates a cube with the planning area data.

But in case of export generate datasoure, you can generate a data source and a datasource is created in Datamarts. You have complete control of everything here. You have to generate your own cube and load this data from PA in this case. You can report on data in cubes but people prefer extracting this to BW and then report.

This is to my knowledge. I would appreciate if others can add to this.

Thanks.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Visu,

Thanks for your reply.

What I am trying to understand is whether the 'data back up Cube' would allow reports such as 'show all forecasts for a product||location combination', or whether this is only possible via an export data source base on aggregate 9AMALO.

Regards,

Bob.

[srinivas_krishnamoorthy · Accepted solution]

Absolutely, this should be possible with the data backup cube. The data can be sliced and diced based on your requirement in BW reporting.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Srinivas,

OK, so why would one <u>ever</u> want to go down the route of using the export data source on the planning area?

There must be some 'added value' provided by reporting via the export data source on the planning area.

Do you see the point I'm making?

Thanks for your feedback so far on this!

Regards,

Bob.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Bob.

A back up info cube would only show what was in the planning area at the time of back up.

If you used an extract data source, you could employ other BW tools to begin some smart reporting.

A simple example would be to capture a number of forecasts for mat/loc combinations over time in order which when combined with the eventual actual sales can be used to generate various KPI's regarding forecast accuracy. e.g., How accurate was the forecast 6 months out versus 12 months out etc?

This would not be possible with back-up unless you were capturing all results from previous forecasts in the planning book (which would be a questionable amount of data).

hope this helps.

M

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Mark,

Thanks for your contribution!

I think I'm missing something here... surely both the Cube backup and a Cube based on an export data source are both 'snapshots' taken at a point in time, so any forecast accuracy reports over time would need comparison of such snapshots.

I'm also not really appreciating the 'added value' of reporting options available from the 'export data source' route. The fact that SAP provide the various SNP aggregates as the basis for data source suggests to me that they do provide 'added value' over reporting available from the simple backup Cube.

Regards,

Bob.

[srinivas_krishnamoorthy · Accepted solution]

SNP internally stores distribution related KFs on three characterstic (means of transport, from and to location). So the aggregate is different from other key figures and hence the backups are done on these two different aggregates 9AMALA and 9AMALO. This could be useful say if you want to find out the total load on a T-Lane by a mode. You are right that the reporting is on snapshot data and not on realtime one. I do not think with the present technology the latter is possible.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Srinivas,

OK, but could you <u>also</u> report on total load by mode for a lane via the backup Cube?

Regards,

Bob.

[srinivas_krishnamoorthy · Accepted solution]

Absolutely, the backup infocube lends itself to different slicing and dicing possibilities. You require probably the 9AMALA backup on the three transportation attributes that I mentioned in my last note.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Srinivas,

OK, but in your reply you are mentioning both the simple backup Cube <u>and</u> the Cube based on the export data source using aggregate 9AMALA.

My question is 'if you <u>only</u> have the simple backup Cube (of the overall planning area), can one do all the slicing and dicing and see, for example, distribution data for a product||location combination'?

Or, do you actually need the Cubes based on the export data sources using aggregates?

Regards,

Bob.

[srinivas_krishnamoorthy]

Dont think there is anything standard. One can provide a BEX interface to the extracted infocube. You may want to do 9AMALA aggregate extraction as well as it can provide useful reporting information around distribution.