Business is either rendering service or selling products.

It keeps detailed information

about this.

Data classification Explanation

Master data Data that you know about your organization e.g.
Products, Materials, Customers, Vendors, Services,
employees. This data is constant/rarely changes
Transactional data Data that is known after an event happens e.g. purchase
of a product by a customer e.g. sales, invoices, employee
promotions. This is day to day operational data

Just-In-Time inventory management vs Warehouse management if you have

accurate data of your stock levels at any given time and the consumption rates then
you may want to apply JIT in your inventory process. This is important for your re-
order levels of raw materials or parts/accessories used in manufacturing of
products, and can also be used to either reduce or eliminate storage-related costs.

To ensure data consistency and integrity, an organization allocates specific roles to

specific functions to maintain master data e.g. vendor & customer data by Finance,
and employee data by HR.

Transactional data is stored in the OLTP environment. This environment contains

your most current data. To use it in BI for analysis, it is transferred to the OLAP
environment. This is the data warehouse layer, and is used to consolidate data from
several data sources.

The presentation layer is then used to read data from the data warehouse (BI) layer
and present is to users as reports using various layouts and techniques.

Data from your operational environment is copied from one data source (database)
to BI using technology tools to Extract, Load and Transform (ETL) existing data, and
then present it in the form of reports for analysis, decision making and business
forecasting. Data transformation converts the data from native formats of the data
source e.g. csv to target/destination formats understood by SAP BI. BI tools can then
apply business logic to determine the reports and queries design.
From PSA, Transactional data is loaded into Data Store Objects (DSO) then to
InfoCubes. DSO is where data is consolidated. From PSA, Master data is loaded into
Master data tables.

InfoObject is equivalent to a field of an R3 table. To create one you need to

determine its attributes, length, allow upper/lower case. Use tcode RSA1 Data
Warehousing WorkBench

InfoArea corresponds to folders/directories used to logically group related

InfoObjects. Subfolders (InfoObject Catalogs) can also be used to group the
Characteristics and Key Figures for an InfoObject.

InfoObjects can be;

Quantifiable/measurable (Key Figures)

Non-quantifiable (Characteristics). Key figures include mainly quantity or
amount values. Characteristics are further classified as;
o Unit Characteristic
o Time Characteristic
o Technical Characteristic (RSD5)

Master data can be loaded to characteristic infoprovider (infoobject), whereas

transactional data can be loaded to infocube or dso.

SAP BI comes with an integrated tool called Business Explorer (BEx) that contains
query designer, analyzer, web application designer, web analyzer

SAP BI can use BO for advanced reporting.

A key advantage of SAP BI is that it comes with predefined objects that can be
adopted by an enterprise with little or no customization. These predefined objects
are based on research done over many years on industry best practices. You
therefore do not need to recreate these business objects, meaning that business
functions can implement them immediately. This also means less time spent on
design leading to shorter project implementation time frames.

Another advantage is that it is scalable and capable to analyze data from multiple
data sources including flat files, databases, web application data, mobile devices
data and Ms office (Excel) data.
To extract data from SAP ECC to SAP NI run InfoPackage this transfers the data to
the PSA. In RSA1, a data target is defined for each datasource the target for the
infoprovider is the infocube. From PSA data is transferred to the Infocube (via data
transfer process dtp). Before running dtp ecc table fields (or data source fields) are
mapped to BI infoobjects to allow for the transformation. In the
transformation/aping in BI new fields can be derived from the source fields e.g.
revenue = price * qty.

infoCubes are multi-dimensional structures used for multi-dimensional reporting.

BEx query designer queries design & development

BEx analyzer to view reports

Universal Data Connector (UDC) Interface is used to transfer data from one DW
system to another DW system - - this is for a multi-dimensional system interface

Attributes can be Display only, Navigational, Exclusive, Transitive or Compounding.

Example of a data source is 2lis_11_vahdr which picks data from vbak table or
2LIS_02_HDR for purchasing header table data (EKKO)

To load data from source system;

A. Modelling
1. Choose source system
2. Choose data source data source is linked to transparent table
3. Replicate data to data source in BW
4. Choose Info Provider
o Real: Holds physical data and is used as the data target. This can be
InfoCube, Data Store Object (DSO/ODS), characteristic info provider
o Virtual: multi provider, infoset, virtual provider

B. Extraction
1. Execute info package (IP) to get data from source system to BW (Data src/PSA)
2. Build Transformation (mapping)
3. Execute Data Transfer Process (DTP)

Loading data in BW from a flat file

There are 6 types of InfoProviders in BI InfoCubes, DSO, MultiProvider, Infoset,

InfoObjects Characteristics with Master data and Attributes, and Virtual providers.

To load the data into BW perform the following steps;

1. Run tcode RSA1 and select InfoProvider

2. Right-click InfoProvider and create InfoArea
3. Select InfoObject (under Modeling options) and Right-click the InfoArea created
above. Then create 2 InfoObject Catalogs - One for Characteristics and another
for Key Figures.
4. Create InfoObjects for each of the 2 InfoObject Catalogs (eg EmpId, EmpDept,
Grade, Age, Sal)
5. Select Source Sytems (under Modeling options) and Right-click and create source
system (chose File system)
6. Double-click on the created source system to open window for dataSources.
Right-click on dataSource and create application component.
7. Select the application component created above, Right-click and create
dataSource. Specify the datasource type (eg transactional data). Once the
dataSource is created, specify the filename to be uploaded in the extraction tab,
if flat file contains a header record, and data format (in this case csv). Use
proposal tab to simulate data load process. In fields tab, check the properties of
the fields. Use preview tab to check the data records that will be loaded into BW.
8. Right-click on the datasource and create InfoPackage. In data selection tab click
check button to verify if the InfoPackage has been created without errors. Verify
values in extraction tab. Select start button in schedule tab to start process of
moving data to PSA. If process is ok, a confirmation msg Data was requested
appears in status bar.
9. To check if data was loaded successfully to the datasource, select datasource
object, then double-click to open it. Select GoTo Menu - - > Technical attributes -
-> double-click the PSA table to open and display its contents. Alternatively,
select Monitor button and pick recent most transfer to PSA, then select PSA
Maintenance button to view the loaded records.
10.Once data has been transferred to PSA, select infoprovider - -> InfoArea - - >
right-click on your object and create infocube. Using templates already created
for Characteristics & Keyfigures define Characteristics (under dimensions) and
keyfigures for the infocube. You can use drag&drop to assign the characteristics
and keyfigures from the templates . once activated, you can see the infocube
under the infoarea.
11.Select the infocube, right-click and create transformation. Select DataSource as
Object type, then specify the datasource and source system to be used in the
mapping of fields from the datasource to the infocube.
12.Select the newly created folder for the DTP, right-click and create DTP. Activate it
and select the execute button.
13.To check if data was transferred successfully right-click the infocube and select
display data, the click button fld selection for output, to select the fields to be
displayed. You can also view the data content of the infocube by using manage
option on the infocube context help.
14.In the datasource you can also display the data flow using the context menu.
15.For transaction data you can also check using SE16/SE11 for table
/BIC/F<datasource> to see if data was uploaded successfully.

You can configure the data sources in ECC system via SPRO - -> Data Transfer to
Business Warehouse - -> Generic DataSources
Master data comprises of Attributes, Texts and Hierarchies
Justification for BI

A typical organization/enterprise has several business units (departments) that are

constantly communicating and exchanging data/information with each other and
with third parties (external stakeholders such as vendors, customers) as they seek
to achieve the enterprises goals and objectives. The effectiveness of the
communication and exchange of data/information is determined by the structures in
place and the technology used to support these structures. Real time access to
information (such as inventory data) can be of real benefit to an organizations
planning processes. Delays in access to information can result in customer
dissatisfaction leading to loss of revenues or loss of business opportunities. An ERP
provides the opportunity to centralize storage of data and provide unified view for
user access to information.