SAP data warehousing solution is the basis of SAP BW which converts the scattered and disjointed data into valuable information. The customization of data warehousing solution and its integration with all the SAP solutions gives the power to company management to analyze the data according to their needs and make decisions for better business and in line with the market trends and demands.
SAP data warehousing solutions performs tasks to the data irrespective of the source which means it can accept data from either a SAP or a non SAP source. These tasks are integration that is loading the data from the source, transformation, consolidation, cleanup, storage and staging for analysis and interpretation. SAP data warehousing solutions reside in SAP BI suite and once data is ready for analysis and interpretation the analytical and reporting tools of SAP BI suite are used to present it in desired format to give timely, quick and multi dimensional insight.
Data acquisition is one of the processes in SAP data warehousing in BI. Data can be retrieved form SAP or non-SAP sources these sources can be relational databases or user defined sources like Dbase, Excel etc. flat files, API or legacy applications like oracle financial etc. The data loading is done on the request and is monitored through a proper process specifically designed for every type of source.
Data transformation is the next step in SAP data warehousing solution as the data collected from different sources needs to be normalized and transformed into the format acceptable to the target BI object for processing. Data transformation is data synchronization which is done by BI objects DataStore, InfoSource, DataStore Object, InfoCube, InfoObjects and InfoSet serving as source objects whereas BI objects InfoSource, InfoObject, DataStore Object and InfoCube serving as target object.
Apart from data staging and data processing SAP data warehousing solution also provides the capability of data distribution to BI applications or data can be distributed to be loaded to other applications. Open hub destination and data mart interface are used for distributing the data to SAP or non-SAP applications.
Data Warehousing Workbench is the central point of most of the processes used for data warehouse management. This workbench performs many functions like monitoring the loading of data and administration of infoproviders, archiving and classification of data according to its history, authorization to access the data for data security and consistency, and creation of documents with related information about content of BI objects which can also be used during reporting. Data warehousing workbench of SAP data warehousing solution also provides change and transport organizer which allows the users to collect the newly developed or incorporated BI objects and transport them to required target system.
Real time data acquisition of SAP data warehousing solutions allows the user to transfer the data to BI reporting tools in real time. It transfers the data at short intervals to keep data up to date and reporting more relevant. The data is transferred to delta queue or PSA table which is then transferred to operational DataStore layer at frequent short intervals.
