Introduction To The SAP BW Bex Analyzer

SAPBWBExAnalyzerCourseSaleDiscount The Business Explorer Analyzer (BEx Analyzer) is the analysis and reporting tool of the Business Explorer that is embedded in Microsoft Excel. You can call up the BEx Query Designer in the BEx Analyzer, in order to define queries.

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Subsequently, you can analyze the selected Info Provider data by navigating to the query created in the Query Designer and create different query views of the data. You can add the different query views for a query or add multiple queries to a workbook and save them there.

You can save the workbook in your favorites or in your role on the BW Server. You can also save the workbook locally on your computer. Beyond that you can distribute the workbook by e-mail to recipients.

In this document we will learn how to access and run BEx queries in addition to introducing some reporting functionalities used within BEx.
Access BEx Analyzer

To start the BEx Analyzer, choose StartAll ProgramsBusiness ExplorerAnalyze. This will open Microsoft Excel with the SAP BEx plugins enabled.
Login

Click on the Add-ins tab

Add-Ins Tab

Add-Ins Tab

Choose the Open Icon in the BEX Analysis toolbox

Open Icon In The BEX Analysis Toolbox

Open Icon In The BEX Analysis Toolbox

In the Opened menu click on “Open Query

Open Query

Open Query

 

A window will pop up asking you to log on to the BW system. Insert your SAP BW username and password?Note that the User for BW client is different from the user in ERP client.

BW Log In System

BW Log In System

Run a SAP BW Query

We’ll take a “Fulfillment Rate” Query as an example:

Choose InfoAreas (from the menu on the left or through the search drop down menu) → Choose Customer Relationship Management → double click to enter the CRM InfoArea

How To Log In CRM Info Area

How To Log In CRM Info Area

Double Click on the ERP Analytics
ERP Analytics

ERP Analytics

Double Click on Sales and Distribution Analysis
Sales And Distribution Analysis

Sales And Distribution Analysis

Double Click on Sales Overview Cube
Sales Overview Cube

Sales Overview Cube

Choose Fulfilment Rate: Values Report
Values Report

Values Report

 

A Selection Screen appears, click on OK button to run the query

Selection Screen

Selection Screen

Input Variables for Reports

TIP: The variable input boxes throughout BEx Analyzer often show only the key or text. To view the key and text such as the fund center and fund center name, click on the Display Object button that looks like a wrench and select [Key]Text.

Display Object Button

Display Object Button

Selecting Multiple Variables
Many times, you will want to choose multiple customers or a range of customers. What do you do? Well, Click on the “Select From List” button to enter multiple variables.

How To Enter Multiple Variables

How To Enter Multiple Variables

In the drop down box for Show, you can select Single Values or Value Ranges. Just select “Single Values” for this example.

Single Values

Single Values

You can select multiple Customers by highlighting and then clicking the right arrow button to move them to the Selection box. Click OK.

Selecting Multiple Customers To Selection Box

Selecting Multiple Customers To Selection Box

To enter a Sold-To Party range, select Value Ranges in the Show drop down box. Select “Between” in the next drop down box and enter your beginning and ending Sold-To Party values. Click OK.
Entering Sold-To Party Range

Entering Sold-To Party Range

3 Personalization of Selection Screen

Query with Variables:
If you select a query that has variables, you can personalize variables settings according to your need, and so you do not need to select them every time you run the query. You can delete personalization of a variable any time.

There are 2 methods for personalizing your selection screen:

Personalize Variables:

Open Query that has a Selection Screen. We’ll take here as an example the Fulfillment rate report. To Personalize a variable click on icon Icon , the Personalize Variable Screen appears.

To Personalize A Variable

To Personalize A Variable

Select the Variable that we want to personalize, bring it to personalized variable area, select it there and click on Modify Selections button.

Modify Selections Button

Modify Selections Button

Choose a value for your variable, and click on the OK button.
Variable Value

Variable Value

Check Variable Entries:

After you enter the variable values, you can click Check button to validate the values entered. If the query was defined with mandatory variables to enter before running the query and you didn’t define them in the selection screen then you‘ll have error messages on top of the variables screen.

Variable Entries

Variable Entries

Create a Variant

Open Query that has a Selection Screen. We’ll take the example of the Fulfillment rate report. To create a new Variant Selection, click on the Save as New Variant button

To Create A Variant

To Create A Variant

Specify a description and Save

Specify A Description

Specify A Description

Choose your selection and save them to the variant.
Choosing Your Selection

Choosing Your Selection

A pop up appears asking you if you want to overwrite your variant with the current settings, Click OK.
Overwrite Existing Variant Pop Up

Overwrite Existing Variant Pop Up

 

Reporting Functionality

Remember: Although BEx Analyzer runs within Excel, the functionality for items such as moving columns, sorting, adding rows, and using formulas is handled differently. Rather than using the Excel commands you must use the Analyzer functions, described below, for these types of operations.

Change the Order of Columns

Right-click on the column you want to move. Select Swap With and choose the column you want to move to.
Order Of Columns

Order Of Columns

Order Of Columns Results

Order Of Columns Results

Change Display Options (Key and Text)

Right-click on the column you want to change and select Properties from the pop-up menu. In the Presentation drop down box, select how you want to display the data.

Key and Text is the most common choice, but if you do not need to see both, selecting one or the other can help minimize the number of columns displayed and saving viewing space.

Change Display Options

Change Display Options

Right click on the column that you want to change and select Properties from the pop-up menu.

In the Suppress Result Rows drop down menu select one of the following:

  • Always Suppress = Hide Results/Subtotals
  • Always Display = Never Suppress = Always Show
  • Display if more than 1 value = Results show unless there is only one item
Change Results Rows

Change Results Rows

Hide a Column

Right-click on the column you want to hide → Choose Remove Drill-down.

Hide A Column

Hide A Column

Unhide a Column

Select the Filter button. Right-click on the name of the column that you want to un-hide and choose Drill down according to a characteristic in Rows.

Unhide A Column

Unhide A Column

Filter by Available Figures

In the Filter box, right-click on the column name to be filtered. Choose Select Filter Value….

Filter By Available Figures

Filter By Available Figures

Select single values or value ranges, move to the right box, and click OK.
Select Values Or Value Ranges

Select Values Or Value Ranges

Change Report Variable Values

In the BEx toolbar, select Change Variable Values.

Change Report Variable Values

Change Report Variable Values

Choose the desired new variables
Variable Values

Variable Values

Save Report as a Favourite

You can add a frequently used report to your Favorites folder by right-clicking and selecting Add to Favorites.

Save Report As Favorite

Save Report As Favorite

The Wrap Up

The Bex Analyzer is the main front end tool used to check and analyze reports. This document was intended to introduce and familiarize mainly end users with some of the many functionalities of the Bex Analyzer.

If you found this article useful I would really appreciate you leaving a comment. If you want more articles on SAP BW, just let me know in the comments box too.

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About the Author:

Pete has been working with SAP technologies for over 10 years. He started out as an ABAP consultant and then moved on to BW where he has worked many different clients covering a wide variety of industries. "I love introducing SAP technology (especially BI) to new clients and showing them how they can go from zero to hero within their business in super fast time". Contact me on twitter @PeterMoxon

3 Comments
  1. julie

    I’m looking to have the personalized variable to be extended to all the user not jusst myself. How do I do that?

    Currently we have a company code variable that pops up when BEx is run.

    User has to enter ‘CE00’ each time. I want this text to automically be displayed so they don’t have to enter it without each person setting up their own personalization.

    Can I fix this from designer query to do this?

    • Jacob

      Hi Julie.

      You should be able to set that as the default value for the variable. You can do this in the query designer, but it means you are changing the variable and you should probably do this in your development system and then have the changed variable transported to production.

      If that does not work, then you can set a default value for the variable in the variable exit in I_STEP = 1. Requires very simple abap code.

      But I am wondering WHY you put a variable for company code, if you do not want the users to choose different values? In that case, just remove the variable from the restriction of the company code in the query and restrict to the particular value you want everyone to use. In effect, you will have a company-code specific query, which I think is what you want.
      Again, you might want to do this in development and then transport the changed query.

      Good luck!
      Jacob