SAP BW integration with S/4 HANA Finance

[Former Member]

Hello Experts,

I have a case where a customer has a greenfield implementation of S/4 HANA. Apart from S/4 they have other sources (SAP and non-SAP). The amount of data is expected to be significant and I don't think that it makes sense to load all of this data into BW 4/HANA on the same instance.

My initial idea is to propose using a separate instance of BW as a data warehouse where all the data (from S/4 HANA, other SAP systems and other non-SAP systems) will be consolidated. Currently they are not using SAP BW as a data warehouse.

Do you think it's a good option? Is there a standard business content for S/4 HANA in BW (data sources, infoproviders with transformations, infoobjects), or will it be necesarry to build this content from scratch and use CDS data extraction from S/4 HANA because standard extractors won't be available as they were before?

Also, will it be possible to extract data from S/4 to standalone BW if this BW system is not on HANA?

Best regards,
Vlad

[erdempekcan · Accepted solution]

Hi,

About your concern for the embedded BW or seperate installation;
In terms of sizing, embedded BW should be max. 20% of the S4/HANA installation. Since you're talking about a huge data volume, a seperate installation will be required.

Also, embedded BW is a netweaver version, not BW4/HANA.

There's a new version of BI Content for BW4/HANA. You can find the details in link below.
The content is based on the standard data sources and they're still working with S4/HANA. Currently there's no CDS based data sources delivered with BI content.

https://help.sap.com/viewer/p/SAP_BW4HANA_CONTENT

Regards,
Erdem

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Erdem,

Thank you for the swift reply. So is my understanding correct and a separate installation of BW4/HANA is a way to go here? Looks like there is plenty of standard content for BW4/HANA (based on the information under the link you provided).

What if I need to extract data from systems that are not S4/HANA? For example, from SAP CRM (not on HANA)? Or some sort of non-SAP system?

Best regards,
Vlad

[erdempekcan · Accepted solution]

Hi,

If you're above the 20% limit and talking about other source systems, yes separate installation is the best option.

For the models that are not delivered in BI content, you should build them on your own until SAP provides them. However, field based info provider modelling is possible in BW4/HANA; which will reduce your effort.

Regards,
Erdem

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi,

What is the proper approach for data retrieval from non-SAP systems to BW/4 HANA? Smart Data Integration? SLT? BODS?

And if I need to extract the data from SAP CRM or another SAP system (not S4/HANA), will standard extractors work in this case? Or will I have to create custom extractors in CRM, replicate them to BW/4 HANA and extract the data this way?

Best regards,
Vlad

[erdempekcan · Accepted solution]

Hi,

All methods are proper, it just depends on your requirement, source system, licensed tools etc. You can evaluate them by pros and cons according to your needs.

Standard SAP extractors in other systems will work for BW4/HANA as well.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thank you. It was a very useful dialog!