IM - Data Integration

Warning: Do not try this at the office! A complaint often heard about SAP BW systems is that they are too fast :-). Loading data as well as running reports happens in a blink of an eye leaving SAP BW administrators and report users with almost no time to get a cup of coffee or have a chat with their favorite colleague.

Introduction ABAP… for many developers who put their first steps into SAP’s proprietary programming language it means an adventure of discoveries and refinement that can take a long long time. As it has for me (and still is), over the many years since which I am using it in my job as an SAP BW consultant.

Introduction When building a data warehouse with SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW), data often needs to be manipulated, transformed or enriched. Sometimes this can be implemented using standard master data lookups or formulas (although this is often suboptimal from a performance point to view), but when the logic of business rules become complex and standard out-of-the-box or drag and drop BW functionalities cannot meet the requirements, ABAP routines are usually the solution.

Introduction In order to create a sustainable solution it is important to establish a repetitive method. If you want to make sure that for each picture you take, you will also be able to make a quality print, then you need to make sure that you define each single step from the raw image up to the print; which image to start from, which functionalities to apply on the raw image and in which order, which functionalities to apply in Adobe Photoshop and in which order, how to go about when sharpening the image, what about resizing the image, etc.

Introduction Often reports need to show data in a tree-like structure. This is enabled via characteristic hierarchies in SAP BW. High level data is displayed using the top nodes of the hierarchy. More detailed data can be visualized by drilling down to the lower nodes of the hierarchy. Consider an example hierarchy Customer Contacts Hierarchy' that is used to qualify the telephone calls a telecommunications call center receives.  

Introduction Data integration processes are very time and resource consuming. The amount of data and the size of the datasets are constantly growing but data and information are still expected to be delivered on-time.

­Introduction The Matrix is a 1999 American science fiction-action film starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss.

Introduction This is the story of a ‘blue’ and a ‘green’ hospital …