SAP BusinessObjects is a portfolio of business intelligence software solutions that allows users to access data and analyze and report information. SAP BusinessObjects enables

--Reporting --Interactive analysis --Advanced analysis --Dashboards and visualization --Data exploration --Information infrastructure

With the solution, you can create reports by building queries using a "universe": relevant data by business function that is retrieved from the data warehouse. It may include sales, vendor, payroll or other details based on the universe's design. Universes are made up of objects and classes. "Objects" are the specific elements of data related to business activity, and "classes" are a grouping of those objects.

Log in to SAP BusinessObjects. A dialog box will prompt you to specify the data you want to access. Choose to build a query based on an already existing universe or retrieve data from another data source such as Microsoft Excel or an ASCII file.

In the new reports wizard, click "Begin." If you are selecting data from a SAP BusinessObjects universe, select the universe from which you desire to query data and click "Next," then "Finish." A query panel will appear with the universe you selected. The elements you select on this screen will be used to retrieve the data and structure the report.

Review the available classes and objects that appear on the left side of the query panel. Select the object that you want to appear on your report by double-clicking or dragging the field name to the Result Objects section of the query panel. If you are running a query on all objects within a particular class, drag the entire folder to the Result Objects section. Place the objects in the order you want them to appear on the report.

Use objects as conditions or filters. Apply the condition by using a predefined condition or by creating a condition statement. Create a condition statement by dragging the object you want to filter to the Conditions section of the query panel. A list of the operators will appear on the left side of the query panel. Operators listed will include equal to, different from, greater than, between and matches pattern.

For illustration purposes, assume you are running a customer report and want to select or filter customers only in the state of Ohio. Select the object "customer state" and the operator "equal to." Next, type "OH"; this will restrict the results to only Ohio customers. Create more than one condition statement by using a combination of "or" and "and" statements. Execute the report. Format the report by applying page totals, inserting indexes and summary totals by select fields. This report can be exported as an Excel file or printed directly from SAP BusinessObjects.