This blog post tries to give you a big picture of how BOBJ products integrate with SAP applications.

BusinessObjects products integrated with SAP to enable data access into SAP systems in following ways:

Crystal Reports

You need to install Integration Kits for SAP to enable access to SAP data.  There are multiple database drivers to access different SAP data source:

• SAP BW query driver and BW MDX driver to access BW data.  BW query driver accesses bw query while BW MDX driver accesses both BW query level and InfoProvider level.
• OpenSQL driver accesses SAP data via OpenSQL interface.
• ODS driver enable access to SAP ODS data source.
• InfoSet driver enable access to SAP R3 InfoSet.

Web Intelligence

After install Integration Kit for SAP, you’ll have the option to connect to SAP BW in the connection creation dialog.  With BW selected as the data source, the Universe becomes the OLAP universe.  OLAP universe carries over the BW definition and maps BW query objects into Universe objects, characteristics into dimensions and key figures into measures.  In OLAP universe, the table structure area is empty and you cannot do much to customize the universe.  Please refer to _Using SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence in Universe Designer_ for more detailed information.

Xcelsius

In general, there’re two ways to leverage SAP data in xcelsius: the classic indirect way and the latest direct way.

• Indirect: Use Live Office to bridge xcelsius data access to crystal reports or webi.  The basic procedure is: create a crystal report/webi based on SAP data source with methods mentioned above, then insert the report into a Live Office document, and finally import the Live Office excel into xcelsius and set up the Live Office connection.  You can choose to use Query as a Web Service (QaaWS) as well.  To use QaaWS, first create a QaaWS off an SAP based universe, then set up the connection to that QaaWS within xcelsius.
• Direct: Xcelsius 2008 SP2 released a new feature to enable direct access to BW with BICS technology.  With this new feature, you can connect to BW directly within xcelsius connection setup dialog.  In addition, you can publish the visualization to BW and Portal.

Business Objects Enterprise (BI Platform)

Integration Kits for SAP enables SAP authentication and SSO capabilities.  Once the administrator imports SAP roles into BOE and assign appropriate rights, users can logon to BOE with their SAP credentials and view reports based on SAP data source without entering credentials again.