Ranking in Web Intelligence organizes and prioritizes report data by chosen criteria. You can sort items by importance, such as top sales regions or best-selling products.
You select a measure, such as sales revenue or quantity, and specify how many top or bottom entries to display.
This helps you make decisions by focusing on critical performance metrics that impact business objectives.
For example, generate a report of the top three products by 2024 sales to identify revenue drivers and inform marketing.
Add a Ranking
To insert a ranking, use the Build panel.
Ranking Parameters
The Rank Parameters panel provides options such as:
- Ranked By: If you choose a ranking dimension, the system ranks the data based on the aggregated values of the Based On parameter for that dimension. If you do not select a ranking dimension, the system ranks the data using the aggregated values of the Based On parameter for all dimensions in the block. In both cases, the ranking returns the top or bottom rows in the block based on the selected measure.
- Calculation mode:
- Count: This mode filters for a fixed number of values, such as the top 10 products.
- Percentage: This mode filters for a percentage of the total count of values. For example, you can show the top 20% of your salespeople.
- Cumulative Sum: This mode ranks values until their total sum reaches a specific amount. For example, you can display top products until their combined sales reach one million dollars.
- Cumulative Percentage: This mode ranks values until their total sum reaches a specific percentage of the overall total. You can use this to apply the Pareto principle, showing the top products that make up 80% of total revenue.
For more information about this topic, please read SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence User's Guide
Database Ranking
You can rank data based on specific criteria directly in the database instead of retrieving and processing all data in Web Intelligence. This method improves document performance by reducing the amount of data you need to process.
For example, you need to generate a report listing the top five products with the highest sales revenue from a sales database containing thousands of entries. The database ranking function allows you to set criteria to rank products based on their sales figures and retrieve only the top five entries directly from the database.
Let's Summarize What You've Learned
- Prioritize your report data to identify the top or bottom performers.
- Create rankings in the Build panel based on a specific measure.
- Refine your results by choosing calculation modes such as count or percentage.
- Improve performance by applying ranking directly at the database level.