Identifying Key Aspects of SAP BW/4HANA Modeling

SAP BW/4HANA is a packaged solution to rapidly deploy an enterprise-wide data warehouse, and provides a complete tool set for the development of dedicated objects that support advanced data modeling.

A modeler creates a data flow that guides data from the source systems into special storage objects such as DataStore Objects (advanced). As data travels through the flow, it's possible to define transformations to clean up data, and fill in missing values using lookups and formulas. During the load, data can be checked for quality and bad data can be flagged. Once the data is loaded, it can then be modeled using tools that add extra business semantics, such as assigning currencies to measures, or defining hierarchies.

The modeling layer is comprised of physical objects that store the data and logical objects that create shapes of data ready for the business user to consume. To consume the data model, a developer creates a Query on top of the logical objects to define the specific layout of the report and any special requirements such as subtotals, sorting order, extra calculations, and filters.

SAP BW/4HANA offers the following key features:

• Strategic and tactical reporting in an enterprise data warehouse.

  If you want to present a historical trend to support strategical or tactical decisions, gather daily or monthly snapshots, enrich and accumulate them as overview data. DataStore Objects (advanced) in SAP BW/4HANA are designed for the persistence of historical data, long time-series, including data lifecycle management (storage priorities, nearline storage, archiving).

• Stable values.

  If the value basis for reporting must be reproducible, define the enterprise-wide storage of correct values (single point of truth).

• Loading snapshot and delta data on a periodic basis.

  SAP BW/4HANA has objects like DataStore Objects (advanced), that support snapshot and delta scenarios, atomization techniques like process chains, and good monitoring features, especially for, but not limited to SAP sources.

• Master data reporting.

  Build queries and reports on SAP BW/4HANA master data InfoProviders when you must provide an overview over available master data, including historical changes. Within SAP BW/4HANA, hierarchies can be created and stored. For one hierarchy, different versions can be kept available, also covering time dependency.

• Complex and data quality improvement scenarios.

  With SAP BW/4HANA, you can apply a complex logic. This allows you to:

  • Harmonize master data from different systems.
  • Check the referential integrity.
  • Omit duplicated values.
  • Generate delta values if there are changes.
  • Define sophisticated key performance indicators (KPIs).

  With SAP BW/4HANA, define inventory management, which distinguishes initial values, inflow and outflow.

• Report on a harmonized set of data.

  SAP BW/4HANA provides transformation capabilities for harmonization during data load processes. Harmonized results can be stored and provided for reporting using SAP BW/4HANA InfoProviders. Moreover, harmonization techniques exist that are applied during reporting, such as currency conversion.

• Using SAP BI content.

  Use the standard models in SAP BW/4HANA. This configured content is called BI content and is extensible by customers.