The report generation process has several drawbacks, as described below:
• Report generation is done via SAP clients. Each SAP client license typically costs $2000/end-user (or more, depending on the market)
• Each report requires an ABAP program to be developed and stored in the repository. ABAP is a 'programming language' developed by SAP to access the business data stored in the SAP system.
• Business Managers who to generate a report submit requests to the SAP system using mainframe like I/F, specifying report parameters via system codes defined in the SAP modules. Business managers generally are not familiar with such system codes. The requirement of such codes makes the user-interface unfriendly and counter-intuitive, dramatically reducing the productivity of managers.
• Each ABAP program can generate reports only in a fixed format. If a sales manager needs to add/delete a new column to/from the existing format, an ABAP expert is required to modify the ABAP program.

Infoeweb® SAP Reporting Solution

The ABAP programs invoked by the InfoeWeb solution typically conduct general purpose retrieval (e.g. retrieve current sales volumes, retrieve whole year sales volume, generate a list of materials, etc). Most SAP users have already developed rich sets of such ABAP programs, making them available in their registries. In the case that such ABAP programs are not available, developing such general data retrieval ABAP programs is quite easy.

The InfoeWeb® SAP Reporting Solution:
• Provides a web-based (HTTP) interface to business managers, enabling the creation of a portal for various reports. Business managers are able to request or generate various reports without accessing the SAP system via an SAP Client application. Furthermore, the web-interface uses meaningful names, instead of system codes, making the system very friendly for non-technical business managers in comparison to the direct use of SAP clients.
• Requires only one SAP Client license for all users, in contrast to the traditional SAP model of a separate client-license per end-user, resulting in reduced SAP license costs.
• Provides an easy and flexible means of definining reports, using a visual drag/drop interface in contrast to ABAP programming. ABAP generally requires experts to define a complex report format and to develop its corresponding program. In the InfoeWeb Solution, InfoeWeb's proven visual tools can be used to create report templates using only drag and drop operations.
• Provides capabilities to integrate diverse data stored in local files or in other applications with SAP data into a report.
• Retrieves business data from the SAP system through the InfoeWeb SAP Adapter which invokes a specified ABAP program stored in the SAP registry, to access the SAP system. The InfoeWeb SAP adapter receives the result set of the ABAP program.