How will reporting and the position of SAP BW change as a result of S/4HANA?
SAP S/4HANA offers a wide range of analytics options and is even more powerful thanks to its close integration with the Analytics Cloud. As soon as S/4HANA was released, the question arose as to whether a data warehouse was still needed at all. In this context, statements were (quickly) made predicting the death of SAP BW. In our article, we would like to provide an assessment of this and outline how reporting and the position of SAP BW will change as a result of S/4HANA.
What is embedded analytics anyway?
First of all, it is important to understand what embedded analytics is all about. Embedded analytics is a summary of the analytical capabilities of S/4HANA and aims to create virtual analytical data models in order to access the underlying tables in real time. These virtual data models can then be accessed by business apps in processes, analytical Fiori apps and other analytics tools (SAC, Tableau, etc.) - as well as a DWH for data extraction. It is embedded because it builds on the operational system on the one hand and blurs the boundary between operations and analytics through integration into business processes on the other.
Figure 01: Virtual Data Models - (VDMs) in SAP S/4HANA
Technically speaking, the virtual data model (VDM) is based on ABAP Core Data Service (CDS) views, which "consume" the physical tables. In these views, you can implement your own logic for the virtual calculation of key figures or the connection of two other views (e.g. view for FI header and item data, etc.). This VDM is also used for S/4HANA business processes. SAP delivers around 9,000 CDS views, 90% of which are not available for analytics.
In the past, it was not recommended to run reports directly on SAP ERP in order to concentrate system resources on transactional processes. The execution of reports should not disrupt the operational business. With SAP HANA, most of these restrictions have been lifted. Reporting based on S/4HANA is generally not a problem.
What is the difference to an embedded BW?
Embedded analytics and embedded BW are often confused. Since NetWeaver 7.0, ERP systems have always had an SAP BW in their guts - free of charge. In addition to its own reporting use cases, BW is also used technically to provide a platform for BPC Optimized, for example. It should be seen as a functional extension of ERP or S/4. Its use as an enterprise data warehouse, for example to integrate data from distributed systems, is not recommended. In addition, it should not account for more than 20% of the total HANA data volume.
Use should be considered with caution. There is no SAP BW/4HANA migration strategy and none is planned. What will happen after 2027 (end of SAP BW 7.5 maintenance) is completely unclear.
Do I still need a separate data warehouse?
As a rule, companies have a heterogeneous system landscape. In addition to S/4HANA, there will be other application systems, e.g. CRM systems or production control systems. All systems contain information that is analytically relevant. The value of the information increases when it is placed in a common context. A data warehouse provides a suitable environment for placing information in a cross-system context. Although S/4HANA offers very powerful options, these are generally not sufficient when it comes to integrating heterogeneous systems and a historical view of information. This results in the need for an additional data warehouse.
How does S/4HANA change the positioning of SAP BW?
The analytical possibilities of S/4HANA should be fully utilized. This applies in particular to operational reporting. Only those things that cannot be mapped well using this should flow into a separate data warehouse. There is no dogma that reporting must necessarily be based on a DWH. An optimal, preferably virtual integration of the two worlds ensures a redundancy-free analytical basis.
Figure 1: The various cloud architecture options | isr.de
One conceivable scenario, for example, could be that local (i.e. non-integrated) operational real-time reporting takes place in S/4 HANA, while company-wide integrated reporting continues to be provided via the DWH (e.g. SAP BW).
This is not a development that is limited to S/4HANA. There are more and more systems in addition to the data warehouse that offer analytical options (e.g. Power BI integration with MS Navision). It makes just as little sense to dogmatically integrate these systems into SAP BW in order to only run reports via the DWH if requirements do not make this necessary.
SAP BW or a data warehouse will continue to be an important central component of a virtual analytical platform, but not the only one. Decentralized, distributed approaches will be found here more and more frequently. It is important to achieve good integration and orchestration so that they do not remain isolated solutions. This applies to data streams as well as access to the resulting analytical net-of-truth, e.g. via central data virtualization.
Christopher Kampmann
Head of Business Unit
Data & Analytics
christopher.kampmann@isr.de
+49 (0) 151 422 05 448
