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Introduction

Reports and analytics information is the heart of any business; without adequate data, organizations cannot make accurate decisions. Recognizing this fact, SAP has provided extensive support for numerous categorized reports in multiple business domains. Alloy by IBM and SAP (hereafter called "Alloy") is the first collaboration product from IBM and SAP and, from its first release, has supported reporting management (REMA) modules, to give a seamless user experience. This product enables Lotus Notes users to access and act on various SAP processes and data from their Lotus Notes user interface, without their even being aware of SAP systems in their organization.

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Alloy high-level architecture

Figure 1 shows a schematic of the Alloy architecture, the backbone of which is Web services communication between trusted parties, namely IBM and SAP. Both asynchronous and synchronous communication is supported between IBM and SAP, whose workflows are enabled in Lotus Notes through this architecture. IBM invokes an SAP Web service for requesting SAP metadata and SAP workflow entities.

For some operations, SAP sends synchronous responses. For others, it invokes an IBM Web service for sending asynchronous responses to Lotus Domino, which processes the SAP responses and directs them to the required users as emails or other Lotus Notes documents. The documents sent to the Lotus Notes client can have some associated contextual information, which is made available in the sidebar. Also, some actions can be performed by users from the sidebar content.

The Web service calls from IBM to SAP are termed outbound, and the Web service calls from SAP to IBM are termed inbound.

In the Alloy 1.0 release, three scenarios that are ready to use without modification, Leave, Trip, and Reporting, are supported, and extensibility is provided through support of workflow decision management. To support all these scenarios, SAP metadata must be present on Lotus Domino and on the Lotus Notes client side. This metadata is obtained from and synchronized with SAP regularly. This synchronization can be scheduled or can be based on administrator or user demand.

Application roles

To control who can perform which actions for the different scenarios, roles are configured in Alloy. SAP manages the roles, and Alloy reads the roles to control the scenario-specific menu options exposed to the users.

The following user roles are provided in Alloy 1.0:

• Manager roles:
  
  • Workflow decision management
  • Leave management
  • Travel management
• Employee roles:
  
  • Report management (only one role for reporting, with no distinction between manager and employee)
  • Leave management
  • Travel management

Metadata handling

Alloy reads the SAP configuration and provides it to users in the form of, for example, leave types or report templates:

• SAP pushes metadata through Web services to Lotus Domino.
• The client updates automatically, pulling metadata from Lotus Domino.
• Application logic is driven from SAP by customization of the metadata for different roles.
• The sidebar elements are stored in the metadata repository.

Refer to the Alloy Information Center topic, Frequently asked questions, for details about the different options available for the supported workflows.

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Managing reporting

The REMA module supported in Alloy provides reporting capabilities for both enterprise resource planning (ERP) and business intelligence (BI) reports. ERP reports come from the SAP ERP backend system, while BI reports come from the SAP BI back-end system.

Reports are technical objects in the SAP back-end system that generate the necessary information as output in a well-formatted manner. Every report customized for users on the back end has a report template associated with it. This report template is sent to the user as explained later in the "Report templates catalog" section. Users can choose to personalize the query options, scheduling options in a copy of the report template and saving it as a personalized report template on the Lotus Domino side. Users can also run the report template to get the report delivered to their inboxes.

Assumptions

Note that we make the following assumptions:

• The Alloy component has been installed on the Lotus Notes client and Lotus Domino server.
• The Alloy component has been installed on the SAP side.
• All the necessary Lotus Domino- and SAP-side configurations are completed, such as the following:
  
  • SAP has the necessary content group for Alloy reporting users.
  • The user has the necessary Alloy-specific role on Lotus Domino.
  • The SAP report templates are configured in the SAP back end for this role.

Refer to the Alloy by IBM and SAP Administration Guide for installation and configuration details.

Features

Now let's discuss the details of the various features provided in reporting management that are supported in Alloy version 1.0. These features include the fetching of report templates (report catalog) from the SAP back end, personalization of these report templates, running the templates to get reports, and sharing the report templates or reports with other reporting users.

Report templates catalog

The report templates catalog contains master and personalized report templates. Master report templates are configured by an administrator and made available to users in the report catalog. Personalized report templates are those that users have created by modifying the properties of existing report templates (either master or personalized templates). Also, there can be personalized templates that others have created and shared with other users.

Figure 2 shows report templates under multiple SAP-defined categories such as Reports from SAP ERP Backend System and SAP Pre-Delivered Reports. The Updated By column easily distinguishes between master templates (created or updated by SAP administrator) and personalized templates (updated by Alloy reporting user).

Report templates synchronization

The Report templates catalog is available locally to the user and on the Alloy server. Both the local and server-based catalogs are kept in sync by a background job, the schedule of which is configured by the Alloy administrator. If you are a first-time Alloy user, the local report templates catalog is freshly fetched from SAP to the Alloy server, and from there to your local client. Also, when you customize an existing or a new template, or when you receive a shared customized template, this job ensures that updates from the server are sent to the client as quickly as possible.

In case a create/update/delete request fails, all the changes that you have made are rolled back consistently, so that both the client and server copies of the templates retain the old parameter settings, scheduling options, and any other edits.

Create/update/delete

In Figure 2, we also saw the possible actions on report templates. The run option is explained later in the "Running reports" section. Figure 3 shows the possible edits that you can perform on the report template using the View Properties option. Note that the master report template cannot be changed (Save) or deleted (Delete); instead, it can be copied into a personalized template and then changed.

A personalized template can be changed (Save), copied (Save as New), or deleted (Delete). Fields such as Report Name, Short Description, Delivery Format, Notes (for any comments), Schedule, and Parameters are editable.

In addition, context-sensitive help is available in the form of lists, for example, the list of available airlines in the Parameters field in figure 3. Some parameters are mandatory, and some are optional. Sometimes default values are preconfigured in mandatory parameters.

If you select a schedule (Daily, Weekly, and so on), the report execution is scheduled on the SAP side, and reports are delivered to your inbox according to the schedule. If you want to delete a personalized template, you can do so from the catalog (see figure 2) or from the opened report template (see figure 3).

When you select Save/Save As New after doing the edits, you are prompted with the "Run the report after saving" window option (see figure 4). If you click the check box, a report based on the newly customized template is run and delivered to your Inbox.

Based on – link to master template

All personalized templates are based on a master template. The Based on field highlighted in figure 5 provides a link from the personalized template to its master template.

Clear Catalog action

The Alloy administrator can clear the catalog manually from the Alloy server (see figure 6); however, doing so deletes users' personalized report templates and thus should be done with caution. This action can be requested, for example, when a user’s personalized templates have become unusable.

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Running reports

You can run report templates for a specific purpose, to get a one-time report; you also can use a schedule, to get them periodically. Data in the report can be embedded or can display as an attachment, based on the report types. Different delivery formats are supported by the various SAP back-end systems for the different report types, as shown in table 1, where ERP = SAP ERP back-end system, BW = SAP BI back-end system, and ALV = ABAP List Viewer (function modules) that can be used to form reports.

Actions

During installation, your mail file is merged with Alloy design elements, and thus different report-specific actions are available for the reports using your inbox. Also, there are special views under Delivered Reports to help you locate reports separately. Let's go over the different actions you can perform:

Run. The report template can be run to get a one-time report delivered to your Inbox (see figure 7).

Figure 8 shows an example report in the inbox with the available actions circled, that is, Edit, Run Again, Open in Spreadsheet, Share, and View Properties.

Run Again. If you want to run the report with the exact same parameters at a later time, click the Run Again button from the report. This step can be a handy alternative to running the report from the report template and specifying the same parameters.

Share. Alloy lets you share report data or report templates with other users within the organization, with the help of roles and access validation checks performed by SAP. A report or template can be shared with multiple users who have the Reporting role assigned to them and who have access to the specified report data or template based on SAP-configured validation rules. For this reason, the normal mail Forward option is disabled for reports, and instead the Share option is provided.

This action is routed through SAP, and valid users receive the shared report or template, while the sender receives a notification in the event that sharing is not allowed for an intended user.

There are three options available, determined in the SAP back end by means of the report template configuration:

• Share report data only
• Share report template only
• Share report data and template

Master templates can never be shared. Also, for some master templates, the SAP configuration can dictate that any personalized templates derived from these master templates can never be shared (as is the case with report data). Alloy always checks this configuration and, based on the configuration, exposes the possible sharing options to the user.

You can specify the sharing option, the list of recipients, and any optional comments while sharing (see figure 9).

Open in Spreadsheet. Often you need to sort and organize the report data using a spreadsheet. For ERP reports, the Open in Spreadsheet action is integrated into the report; for BI and BW reports, Excel data is added as an XLS attachment. When you select the Open in Spreadsheet action for ERP reports, the report data is opened in:

• IBM Lotus Symphony™, if Lotus Symphony is installed on your system
• The Excel application, if Excel is installed
• Otherwise, a CSV file is created, and data is opened in the supported application.

See figure 10.

View Properties. Selecting the View Properties action takes you to the report template corresponding to the opened report.

Side-shelf integration

In today’s world of collaboration and integration, it is extremely important to provide users with all related contextual information. In the case of reporting, it could mean providing reports related to the opened report or providing a complete list of delivered reports. In the case of leave and travel, related reports can also be relevant, as can frequently used menu options such as Create New Leave/Trip/Report.

Alloy offers such a side shelf (see figure 11). A sidebar plug-in is available to render supporting data for a business object, and a widget catalog is used to allow easy provisioning of the sidebar plug-in.

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Configuring SAP for reporting management

Report templates shown within an Alloy user’s report catalog in the Lotus Notes client are configured in the SAP back end. You can view and change this configuration using the SAP Log-on desktop application, logging in with a valid SAP ID and password (see figure 12).

You can enter a transaction code in the editable field for the transaction that you want (see figure 13). For instance, if the transaction code relevant for the report template catalog configuration is simgh, then to start a new transaction, you enter /nsimgh.

After you enter this text, the Information Worker Implementation Guide (IMG) displays (see figure 14).

If you select the row for Information Worker Implementation Guide and click the Display IMG Structure button (shown in figure 14), the IMG sections are displayed as shown in figure 15. These sections are General Settings, Workflow Pattern Customization, Report Administration, Application Flow Settings, and Check Tool.

Expand the Report Administration section, and select Create Report Catalogs from the list (see figure 16).

Now, you can see the report catalogs configured in the SAP back end listed as shown in figure 17, which shows the categories of HCM, REBI, RERP, SAP, TEST, TRVL, and WB.

Report templates can be configured in report catalogs, and access can be controlled at the report-template level. The example shown in figure 18 shows that the report template is available only for SAP users who are part of the REMA.USERS role. From the same transaction, you can configure the different delivery types for a template, the system timepoints, data change events, and related reports for a particular template, as shown in the left navigation pane (refer to the SAP documentation for more information).

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Troubleshooting

This section covers some common issues and shows how to resolve them.

No master report templates are being created in the report catalog

Resolution: Determine whether any exception conditions, especially connectivity exceptions, have been reported in the Lotus Notes client through Help - Support - View Log or View Trace. If there are such exceptions, check the local notes.ini for the entry $NDERPMDWS_URL and correct it, if needed.

If there are no errors in the local client log or trace, the Lotus Domino administrator can check whether the user has the required Reporting User role assigned and whether any connectivity exceptions have been logged in the Lotus Domino console Log.nsf. The SAP admiistrator can check if there are report templates assigned to this role.

Personalized templates are not usable and need to be removed

Resolution: From the Lotus Domino administrator UI, perform a Clear Catalog action (refer to figure 6), to remove all the master and personalized templates from the Alloy-server-based report catalog. Then, when the Lotus Notes client is restarted, it performs a call to fetch the latest report templates from SAP; the latest Master Templates come down to the Alloy server and to the local report catalog.

The user loses all personalized report templates from the report catalog and receives the latest master report templates available on SAP.

The report from the catalog menu item is not available in the Lotus Notes mail Create menu

Resolution: The REMAUser role might be missing; check the roles assigned to this user in NDERPWS.

For some report templates, the Run action is not available in the UI

Resolution: This situation occurs because at the SAP back end, the report template has been configured to disallow unplanned runs. It might, however, be possible to set a scheduled run. To do this configuration, open the template in Edit mode and set the scheduling options as required.

For some report catalog templates, the Delete action is available for some users, but not for others

See figure 19.

Resolution: This problem occurs because the Delete action is available to users for personalized templates, as these are created and maintained by the user. The action is not, however, available to the user for master templates, which are created and maintained by the SAP administrator.

The Share action from reports is seen differently for different reports

Specifically, these situations might occur:

• For some reports, the Share action is not available
• For some other reports, it provides the report data-only option
• For some other reports, it provides the report properties-only option
• For some other reports, it provides the following options:
  
  • Report data only
  • Report properties only
  • Both report data and properties

Why are there such different options available for different reports?

Resolution: These options are configured in the report template on the SAP back end, and the choices given to the user for the Share action reflect this configuration.

Refer to the Alloy by IBM and SAP User Guide and the wiki article, "Basic troubleshooting guidelines for Alloy software by IBM and SAP 1.0" for more FAQs and troubleshooting tips.

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Conclusion

Reports and analytics information is an essential business tool. Alloy by IBM and SAP provides the configuration for various categorized reports and also supports extensive complex queries by use of customized report template parameters. Using these features, Lotus Notes users can seamlessly analyze pertinent data and make accurate business decisions.

Resources

• Participate in the discussion forum.
  
  
• Read the developerWorks® article, "Performance report: Alloy by IBM and SAP 1.0."
  
  
• Read the IBM Lotus Notes and Domino wiki article, "Basic troubleshooting guidelines for Alloy software by IBM and SAP 1.0."
  
  
• Read more articles about Alloy on the Lotus Notes and Domino product wiki.
  
  
• Refer to the Alloy content in the Lotus Notes and Lotus Domino Information Center.
  
  
• Refer to the IBM Support technote, “Domino 8.0.2 and Notes 8.0.2 system requirements for Alloy v.1.0."
  
  
• Refer to the product page for Alloy.
  
  
• Watch the Alloy demo, "Optimizing decision making and improving productivity."
  
  

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Table of contents

• Introduction
• Alloy high-level architecture
• Managing reporting
• Running reports
• Configuring SAP for reporting management
• Troubleshooting
• Conclusion
• Resources
• About the authors
• Comments

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