Do You Make These 7 SAP BusinessObjects Webi Mistakes? [Best Practice Guide]

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Do you want to make highly effective and user friendly SAP Webi Dashboards? 

For a seemingly simple digital reporting tool, designed as a simple dashboarding tool, we have found several mistakes to avoid and Best Practices to implement deploying your Webi Dashboard.

Webi Dashboard

Webi Mockup with a Table resized 600

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a seemingly simple Webi dashboard based upon some exceptionally complex, highly dynamic, global high-tech manufacturing processes.  Multiple IT systems are used to populate it.

The 7 mistakes to avoid:

 

  1. Testing: Lack of testing is the #1 mistake.

  2. Mockup: Not making a mockup of the final output is #2.

  3. Requirements: Not doing proper requirements gathering.

    What is proper requirements gathering? 

    Good requirements gathering starts by making a mockup of what the final report or analysis dashboard is going to look like and how it will be used.

    The best mockup will look just like the final Webi or xCelsius report.

  4. Simulation: Not sitting down with the customer and simulating how each button will work, what it does and what's what and what data will come up.

    • How will the data selection be done.

    • What does the end user have to do to select their data.

    • How will the end user navigate around within the dashboard.

    • How will they drill down.

    • How will they drill up.

    • What will the presentation (ie. Charts or Tables) look like.

    • What type of display will it be.

    • Where will they be placed on the dashboard.

  5. WireFrame: Not waiting until step 4 is completed before trying to develop it on the computer, in short, once it all works reasonably well on paper, then it is time to try developing it on the computer. 

    (Remember, coders write software, resist the temptation to code before requirements are gathered)

  6. Data Provenance; Not knowing where the data is coming from, what tables, what field(s) are in that table and who is the system and data owner.

    • Do you have the data owners phone number?

       This is especially critical when you are working in the very common multi-system environment.

  7. Complete Testing: Not testing every cell and every value before you can stamp it ready for production.

    The statistical approach or the “lets test a few” approach does not work.

    Every cell has a unique data flow and every data flow must be tested.

    If you don’t test 100%, then something will slip through and then you will have costly rework and schedule delays as a result.

    Can your budget support unplanned rework because someone did not test their work?

Why do all the above?

  • The cost of doing the mock ups on paper with pencil and paper first are orders of magnitude less expensive than trying to do prototyping on a live system.

  • Bottom Line:  Tell me what you want now, or tell me later but you still have to tell me what you want.



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Lonnie D. Ayers, PMP

About the Author: Lonnie Ayers is a Hubspot Certified Inbound Marketing consultant, with additional certifications in Hubspot Content Optimization, Hubspot Contextual Marketing, and is a Hubspot Certified Partner. Specialized in demand generation and sales execution, especially in the SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Partner space, he has unique insight into the tough challenges Service Providers face with generating leads and closing sales using the latest digital tools. With 15 years of SAP Program Management experience, and dozens of complex sales engagements under his belt, he helps partners develop and communicate their unique sales proposition. Frequently sought as a public speaker in various events, he is available for both inhouse engagements and remote coaching.
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He also recently released a book "How to Dominate Any Market - Turbocharging Your Digital Marketing and Sales Results", which is available on Amazon.

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