SAPinsider 2019 Compendium BI-Analytics-HANA

SAP BI and SAP HANA Collection
9 articles to help you better utilize, manage,

and run SAP® BI and SAP HANA® solutions
Sponsored by
2019 SAP BI and SAP HANA COLLECTION
INTRODUCTION
The paradigm shift has occurred, and companies that view technology as a cost center are
becoming dinosaurs – fast. Leading companies now view technology as a critical driver of
sustained, long-term growth, particularly when it comes to business intelligence (BI) and
analytics. Yet, harnessing BI and analytics solutions requires a unique blend of critical thinking,
strategic vision, and technical chops. How do you know if your company (and you!) have what
it takes?
The answer is to immerse yourself in practical education. To that end, SAPinsider has assembled
a nine popular articles on SAP BI and SAP HANA solutions. They provide both strategic and
tactical insights into how you can better utilize, manage, and run SAP BI and SAP HANA
technology. Sponsored by BI, Analytics & HANA 2019, an annual conference which occurs March
19-21, 2019 in Las Vegas, this asset is the perfect complement to the conference, which offers
more than 80 in-depth sessions, dozens of dedicated networking opportunities, and endless
opportunities to build your professional network, ensuring that you make better business
decisions, and get access to the top technologists working with SAP solutions.
This compendium is merely the tip of the iceberg and barely scratches the surface of what
you can tap into at upcoming BI, Analytics & HANA 2019 conference. Step one is to absorb the
content in this collection and then step two is for you (and your team) to join SAPinsider and
SAP at this important annual event. Between this collection and the educational and networking
experience at the conference, you will be positioned to successfully complete your next project
and advance your career.
I truly hope that this content benefits you and I hope that you will take the next step and join me
in Las Vegas, March 19-21, 2019.
Kind regards,
Bridget Kotelly
Conference Producer
P.S. Early registration rates are in effect, so sign up soon to lock in the lowest price!
CONTENTS
4 Data is the Key to the Intelligent Enterprise
6 An Overview of SAP BW/4HANA and Key Considerations When Making

the Decision to Migrate
by Sergei Peleshuk, SAP BI and HANA Architect
17 Managing Data with SAP Solutions – SAP HANA and Non-HANA Use Cases
by Robert Heidasch, Chief Innovation and Technology Lead, Accenture
29 Southwire Powers Up with Analytics to Redesign User Roles

Wire and Cable Manufacturer Reduces Segregation-of-Duties Conflicts and Improves
Roles by Leveraging Insights from SAP User Transaction Histories
by Heather Black, Senior Editor | SAPinsider
35 Tips, Tricks, and New Features with SAP HANA Calculation Views
by Joerg Boeke, SAP NetWeaver BW solution architect and senior consultant, BIAnalyst GmbH & Co.KG.
55 Simplify Running SAP HANA

Hyperconvergence Brings Real-Time Infrastructure
by Greg White, Solutions Marketing Principal, Nutanix
59 Deploying Machine Learning to Build an Intelligent Enterprise

by Peter Russo, Global Vice President, Head of SAP S/4HANA Marketing, SAP
63 3 Tips for a Successful SAP S/4HANA Migration

by Jorge Ruiz, Product Marketing Manager, Winshuttle
65 Bridging the Data-Driven to Insights-Driven Gap with SAP BW/4HANA

by Thierry Audas, Senior Director of Product Marketing, SAP SE
3 This compilation is sponsored by BI • Analytics • HANA 2019, a collaboration of SAP and SAPinsider
Data is the Key to the Intelligent Enterprise

SAPinsider, Volume 20, Issue 1
This fifth article in the Intelligent Enterprise series emphasizes the importance of the application of
smart analytic technology to the vast amounts of data accumulated daily. Recognizing data as a key
asset and deriving insights from it are the key to workplace transformation.
The quality of a company’s decision-making depends on its ability to analyze massive amounts
of information, both the structured and unstructured data that is the foundation of an Intelligent
Enterprise. SAP Cloud Platform holds the components that make up the digital core for the collection,
management, and analysis of that data, including SAP Analytics Cloud and opens the way for
innovation through access to technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence
(AI), machine learning, and blockchain.
SAP Cloud Platform is the entryway for independent service vendors (ISVs) to create innovative
applications. It has unleashed their ability to extend or build new applications that improve service to
customers, the experience of employees, and the efficiency of operations such as manufacturing and
the supply chain. SAP HANA allows massive amounts of data to be processed and analyzed instantly,
and SAP HANA is the DNA of all the solutions and apps that SAP delivers to customers. By partnering
with SAP, ISVs have access to powerful tools such as SAP Cloud Platform and SAP HANA, offering
application development capabilities and data management capabilities, including governance,
integration, and discovery from any source, in any format to rapidly develop, integrate, and extend
business applications — all on the open digital platform.
For example, the finance industry faces the issue of fragmented data across multiple systems,
making corporate performance management (CPM) complex. In response, ISV partner Wolters
Kluwer has integrated its unified CPM software, CCH Tagetik, with SAP HANA, providing 50 finance
processes from budgeting to planning and forecasting. With CPM processes on one platform and
automated reporting and analytics, finance departments have better visibility into their companies’
performance. This digital transformation also helps finance departments make use of SAP Digital
Platform capabilities around big data, advanced analytics, and cloud technologies.
Vertex Inc., a provider of tax technology and services, offers a range of tax services in a software-
as-a-service (SaaS) model using SAP Cloud Platform. A long-time partner of SAP, it collaborated
with SAP to integrate the Vertex Tax Accounting application. The application is also certified by SAP
for use with SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (SAP BPC). It leverages SAP BPC data for
calculating tax processes such as compliance, audits, and planning, thus reducing risk. It can manage
multiple ledgers and currencies as well as track countries’ Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
(GAAPs). Vertex has also collaborated with SAP to offer SAP Cloud Platform-based applications,
leveraging SAP HANA for use-tax calculations, reporting, and exemption certificate management
in the indirect tax space, such as for the calculation of the value-added tax (VAT) or sales taxes.
Automation ensures that users have access to accurate, real-time tax rules, rates, and exceptions.
Incture Technologies Pvt Ltd designs digital applications on SAP Cloud Platform. It has created
applications that make employees’ work easier in the HR, finance, project management, and supply
chain areas through digital transformation. In its Cherrywork venture, for example, Cherrywork
Workbox consolidates workflows and tasks into a single inbox via pre-packaged workflow and user-
interface templates. With a single view of all tasks and insights from the available data such as time
taken or service level agreement (SLA) breaches, users can analyze where process improvements
need to be implemented. The Cherrywork Leave and Attendance application improves attendance
compliance with a workflow that routes requests for leave and travel duties through pre-defined rules.
The Cherrywork Supply Chain Collaboration Portal application integrates suppliers into the supply
chain ecosystem, allowing for automated entries that reduce manual errors and providing reports on
the tracking of goods, services, and deliveries. Other applications cover processes such as budget
allocation and management, shopping cart creation, order management, and accounts payable
automation.
Embedded analytics through SAP Analytics Cloud provides the ability across industries to use
augmented analytics, machine learning, and natural language to optimize decision making. For more
information about the digital core, go to http://bit.ly/2yRXnbM. Additional SAP PartnerEdge Build
information can be found here or by following @SAPPartnerBuild.
An Overview of SAP BW/4HANA and Key

Considerations When Making the Decision to
Migrate
by Sergei Peleshuk, SAP BI and HANA Architect
Sergei Peleshuk provides an overview of SAP BW/4HANA and key considerations to think about
when making the decision to migrate. Understand how the effort of implementing SAP HANA-based
enterprise data warehousing empowers businesses, leads to greater returns, and reduces total cost of
ownership.
SAP BW/4HANA brings a new opportunity for agile enterprise data warehousing (EDW) modeling
and fast delivery of business analytics’ requirements for organizations seeking solutions in reporting,
planning, dashboarding, Big Data, and predictive and prescriptive analytics. SAP is working on
combining SAP HANA and SAP BW into one product, and, today, SAP BW/4HANA is the recommended
technology for an EDW platform by SAP.
While SAP BW/4HANA leverages the capabilities of native SAP HANA on large datasets, it also does the
following:
• Simplifies and speeds up data modeling by using reusable master data with texts, hierarchies,
and navigational attributes
• Improves jobs scheduling and monitoring via process chains
• Offers a simplified approach to modeling and multi-temperature architecture
• Provides non-cumulative modeling for inventory management and headcount
• Makes available business content for SAP originating models
• Offers an analytics manager for faster development of complex queries
SAP BW/4HANA now has an increasingly agnostic focus across the enterprise and is more open to
receiving and processing non-SAP and unstructured social media data. The SAP Business Planning and
Consolidation 10.1 embedded model is supported with the SAP BW/4HANA Starter add-on.
(Note: Basic knowledge of data warehousing products and/or experience with traditional SAP BW is a
prerequisite.)
What Makes SAP BW/4HANA Different

SAP BW/4HANA is not just a new version of SAP BW. SAP BW/4HANA is only available on the SAP
HANA platform, and is not part of SAP NetWeaver—it has been completely rewritten and optimized for
SAP HANA. All future innovations are associated with the new product and not with the older series
of SAP BW 7.x on SAP HANA. In SAP BW/4HANA, traditional SAP business intelligence (BI) business
content is no longer supported. There is new SAP HANA-optimized content instead that leverages the
Operational Data Provisioning Framework-based extractors, advanced DataStore objects (DSOs), and
CompositeProviders.
If you look at the big picture, including SAP S/4HANA (a recent ERP application from SAP), SAP
BW/4HANA is completely independent from and is not a prerequisite for SAP S/4HANA, and vice versa.
SAP S/4HANA provides operational reporting for current data from a single SAP application. SAP
BW/4HANA delivers a modern data-warehousing environment that allows organizations to report and
plan on current, historical, and external data sources from many SAP and non-SAP applications.
Simplified Modeling, Increased Agility

The next version of Layered Scalable Architecture (LSA++) standards are designed to provide simplified
modeling and architecture. Data models become more open, dynamic, and flexible, removing borders
between data warehouse layers and reducing the number of persisted data stores.
In LSA++, users are no longer required to create multiple layers of aggregated DSOs and InfoCubes.
Most of the key performance indicators (KPIs) can be designed using SAP BW queries and
CompositeProviders that logically connect objects together in unions or joins. CompositeProviders and
SAP BW queries can be exposed to native SAP HANA models in complex predictive and data-mining
scenarios.
It is fair to say that, in SAP BW/4HANA, the propagation/staging layer (e.g., advanced DSOs) and
virtual data marts (e.g., CompositeProviders) can be used for most reporting and planning modeling
requirements. In some specific scenarios, though, corporate memory (advanced DSOs), architected
data marts (advanced DSOs), and agile data marts (SAP BW workspaces), can be added to the
architecture as well (Figure 1).
Figure 1 LSA vs. LSA++ architecture
Most of the existing data flows in SAP BW can—and should—be simplified in SAP BW/4HANA by
leveraging LSA++ principles and by its ability to access data directly in the staging/propagation layer
without compromising performance (Figure 2). A lot of complexity in the old flows becomes redundant
and must be completely removed when implementing the simplified LSA++ architecture.
Figure 2 Example of the simplification of data flows when migrating to SAP BW/4HANA
New Source Systems and Business Content

There are fewer source system types in SAP BW/4HANA and, at the same time, more data-provisioning
opportunities for real-time data integration via the ODP–SAP Landscape Transformation (SLT)
replication server or SAP HANA Smart Data Integration, direct/virtual data access (via SAP HANA Smart
Data Integration), or data loads (via SAP HANA-optimized BI content and extractors [ODP]). The ODP
source system replaces the SAP source system. All Business Content data sources (extractors) that are
released for ODP are supported (Figure 3).
Figure 3 The number of source-system types are reduced from 10 to four
New SAP BW/4HANA Business Content was released in December 2016. It combines the enterprise
data warehouse capabilities of SAP BW/4HANA with explorative and interactive real-time analytics
using the SAP HANA in-memory database. It includes a preconfigured set of application models for
selected business areas and industries. Delivered data models follow the recommendations for the
LSA++ optimized for SAP BW/4HANA. The data models contain queries, CompositeProviders, DSOs
(advanced), InfoSources, key figures, characteristics, and transformations for SAP R/3, S/4HANA, and
other selected applications. Business Content for SAP BW/4HANA also includes data flows for master-
data provisioning of InfoObjects, which are used in these data models.
There are two new distinct content add-ons:
• The SAP BW/4HANA Basis Content add-on (BW4CONTB) provides (besides other objects) a set
of almost 3,000 InfoObjects (from the former BI_CONT) and a newly defined set of variables.
• The SAP BW/4HANA Content add-on (BW4CONT) provides data flows and transformations
for master-data provisioning of the InfoObjects and transactional data flows and models (e.g.,
advanced DSOs and SAP HANA CompositeProviders for different business areas—for example,
sales and distribution, financials and material management, and industry [such as retail and
utilities]).
SAP HANA-Optimized Models Lead to Faster Loads and Query Execution

In the SAP HANA-optimized models, there is much fewer persistency objects and, therefore, fewer data
loads are required. Business-logic complexity, lookups, and data-integration rules are normally hidden
under CompositeProviders, SAP BW queries, and SAP HANA views. SAP BW/4HANA operates only with
SAP HANA-optimized objects; therefore, data loads and query executions run substantially faster.
Due to the in-memory nature of the SAP BW/4HANA database, no aggregates or roll-up processes
are required — there is no need to design performance-specific objects and there are fewer database
indexes. All these advantages lead to faster data loading and data processing.
Smaller Data Footprint

Figure 2 shows an example of a data-flow optimization for SAP BW/4HANA by reducing several data
layers and persistency objects. Specifically, in the new data flow there are two advanced DSOs at the
staging layer and a CompositeProvider. All kinds of data aggregations, slicing, and calculations are
usually done in the virtual layer by leveraging CompositeProviders, SAP BW queries, or SAP HANA views.
This optimization, together with the compression of SAP HANA data, leads to a substantially smaller
data footprint and smaller SAP HANA database size requirements. When planning a migration to SAP
BW/4HANA, the same sizing process used for SAP BW powered by SAP HANA applies to the migration
to SAP BW/4HANA. (For more information about this, see SAP Note 2296290.)
Field-Based Modeling: When Do You Still Need InfoObjects?

Objects in SAP BW/4HANA can be modeled with InfoObjects or with fields. Field-based modeling can
be especially useful when integrating non-SAP data. Modeling InfoObjects requires more effort, but
offers several advantages. When deciding whether to model with fields or with InfoObjects, you should
consider the modeling flexibility offered by fields versus the enhanced functions and performance that
come with the InfoObjects
Field-based modeling allows faster integration of external data sources as it no longer requires that
InfoObjects be created one by one. Connecting and consuming external tables in a CompositeProvider
or an SAP BW query becomes easy via SAP HANA Smart Data Integration. Field properties and
aggregation rules can be configured directly in the CompositeProviders.
There are a few restrictions, however, where InfoObjects are still required. For example, in the embedded
version of SAP Business Planning and Consolidation, all the components of direct-update advanced
DSOs must be defined as InfoObjects. Another example is non-cumulative models (e.g. stock or
inventory reporting), where InfoObjects are required. If you need to leverage attributes or hierarchies,
InfoObjects are required as well.
SAP HANA-Optimized Transformations

Complex business logic is usually defined in transformations. When transformations are required, it is
crucial to make them SAP HANA-optimized for better performance. When a transformation is activated,
the system checks whether it can be performed in SAP HANA. If the transformation has an ABAP
Managed Database Procedure, it must be performed in SAP HANA.
Click the check icon to the right of the transformation’s name field to see if the transformation can
be performed in SAP HANA (Figure 4). The system then attempts to create the transformation in SAP
HANA. If this is successful, the transformation is flagged with Can be performed in SAP HANA. If the
check is not successful, you can find out why by viewing the log.
Figure 4 Check if transformation can be HANA-optimized
SAP HANA Analysis Process and Predictive Analytics

You can use an SAP HANA analysis process (commonly referred to as HAP) to analyze data from
certain perspectives—for example, to calculate ABC classes or to find scoring information and outliers.
With the SAP HANA analysis process, SAP BW/4HANA users can use the functions of the SAP HANA
database and combine these with the functions in the SAP BW system. An SAP HANA analysis process
is always made up of exactly one data source, a function for data analysis, and a data target. An SAP
HANA analysis process can also be used as the source for another SAP HANA analysis process.
Multi-Temperature Architecture and Partitioning

Partitioning or semantic groups may be useful when modeling advanced DSOs with large amounts of
data (Figure 5). SAP BW/4HANA has a limit of 2 billion records per advanced DSO; however, for better
performance during reporting SAP recommends that the number of records in one advanced DSO or
partition be limited to a few hundred million (e.g., 500M maximum).
Figure 5 An example of multi-temperature configuration by partition
SAP BW/4HANA has a flexible dynamic-tiering capability for advanced DSOs on the object or partition
level, leveraging multi-temperature architecture.
New Data Flows

New modeling capabilities combine advanced DSOs, transformations, CompositeProviders, Data
Transfer Processes (DTPs), and source systems into new Data Flows (Figure 6). This is a neat way to
group modeling objects together by functional area and to maintain enhancements.
Figure 6 An example of a data flow in SAP BW/4HANA
SAP HANA Studio versus the SAP GUI

In SAP BW/4HANA, the SAP GUI — for the most part — is replaced with SAP BW modeling tools that
provide an Eclipse-based, integrated modeling environment for the management and maintenance of
SAP BW/4HANA metadata objects. These tools integrate with ABAP Development Tools as well as with
SAP HANA modeling and the consumption of SAP HANA views in SAP BW/4HANA metadata objects,
like Open ODS views or CompositeProviders. The SAP BW Modeling perspective provides you with
predefined views and configuration for your SAP BW modeling tasks organized in projects.
Although most of the old transaction codes are still available in SAP BW/4HANA, transaction code RSA1
is no longer used the same way as in classic SAP BW, and developers are encouraged to use the new
Eclipse-based interface including new Data Flow modeling capabilities.
Leverage BW Queries, Native SQL, and Mixed Scenarios

With the modeling functionality available in either SAP BW/4HANA or SAP HANA, mixed modeling
makes it possible to access SAP BW/4HANA data (e.g., queries, advanced DSOs, InfoObjects, and
CompositeProviders) from any schema in the SAP HANA database, and to access data from any
schema in the SAP HANA database (e.g., tables and views) from SAP BW/4HANA (Figure 7). You can
thus create scenarios where data, which is modeled in the SAP BW/4HANA system, is merged with data
modeled in SAP HANA.
Figure 7 Exposing SAP BW/4HANA models to native SQL
The BEx Query Designer tool is no longer available in SAP BW/4HANA. Old BEx Queries can be
converted to SAP BW queries in the SAP HANA studio BW perspective. Moreover, SAP BW queries
automatically generate SAP HANA calculation views that can be consumed in SAP HANA SQL-based
applications and predictive analytics (Figure 8).
Figure 8 The BW/4HANA Query editor in SAP HANA studio
To access the page describing how SAP HANA views are generated for SAP BW queries, click here.
SAP BW queries in SAP HANA studio have the same capabilities or more compared to the old BEx
Query Designer tool. In addition to the older SAP BW on SAP HANA version advantages and SAP HANA
optimizations, execution of queries is pushed down to the SAP HANA server (including exception
aggregation). Also, execution of SAP BusinessObjects Business Planning and Consolidation embedded
planning functions (e.g., disaggregation) is pushed down to the SAP HANA server.
Key Considerations When Making the Decision to Migrate

Agility of data models, cloud infrastructure, and self-service-user capabilities are key contributors to
successful business analytics solutions. SAP BW/4HANA makes an important step forward in terms
of improving EDW’s agility and flexibility. Complex modeling solutions (e.g., reporting, dashboarding,
planning, and predictive) on large datasets can be designed in days instead of weeks, and introducing
changes to business logic or data models becomes a much easier process going forward.
SAP BW/4HANA advances development of a modern data warehouse to address new types and
locations of data whether from SAP applications or any other source. SAP BW/4HANA also supports
the trend of analyzing data in its original location to minimize movement and duplication of data,
including data lakes and data in motion. It delivers real-time flexibility and overcomes the challenge of
data silos. The addition of sophisticated data-temperature management and compression ensures that
data is tuned for both results and cost.
A set of new features and capabilities in SAP BW/4HANA leads to improved agility. This is due to its
simplified architecture (SAP HANA-optimized queries exposed to SQL on top of CompositeProviders
connecting objects from various data layers), simplified modeling capabilities (fewer modeling objects,
new data flows, field-based modeling), easier access to variety of data sources either directly (SAP
Smart Data Interface) or in real time (SLT and ODP), and SAP HANA-optimized Business Content that
improve performance.
Agility and simplified architecture lead to new possibilities in analytics, creating more efficient models,
smaller data footprints, and, consequently, lower TCO. Faster response time to changing business
requirements is another benefit. Building mockups and proofs of concept for various reporting, planning,
and predictive scenarios becomes a much easier task and is faster to implement.
Cloud readiness allows new ideas to be prototyped and put into operation in days, not months, with
minimal upfront investment. Out-of-the-box deployment to SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud, Amazon Web
Services (AWS), or another provider make the cloud-deployment option a great choice to start with
SAP BW/4HANA. SAP Cloud Appliance Library (CAL) has an SAP BW/4HANA offering for both trial and
subscription usage (for more information about SAP CAL, click here.
You should also leverage a range of self-service business analytics tools on top of SAP BW/4HANA.
They can be deployed at a relatively low cost, either on premise or in the cloud. A range of modern
front-end capabilities from SAP include SAP Business Objects Analysis, SAP Lumira, Design Studio,
BusinessObjects Predictive Analytics, and BusinessObjects Cloud. SAP front-end tools are normally
better integrated with SAP BW/4HANA in terms of hierarchies’ integration, unit/currency conversions,
planning data-write-back capabilities (Integrated Planning and Business Planning and Consolidation
embedded), and report-to-report interfaces. However, companies also have other options, and
sometimes prefer non-SAP self-service BI tools. Popular BI vendors and tools (Microsoft Power BI,
Tableu, and Qlick are just some examples) can connect to SAP HANA data warehouses, offering
companies a multitude of choices when selecting front-end user capabilities.
Sergei Peleshuk ([email protected]) has more than 15 years of

experience implementing BI technologies for global clients in retail,
distribution, fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), oil, and gas industries.
Sergei is an expert in modern BI tools and technologies available on the
market, including SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW), SAP HANA, SAP
BusinessObjects, and SAP Lumira. Sergei maintains a business intelligence
portal at www.biportal.org.
Managing Data with SAP Solutions – SAP HANA

and Non-HANA Use Cases
by Robert Heidasch, Chief Innovation and Technology Lead, Accenture
See some examples of integration solutions based on SAP-provided replication tools that you can use
to integrate SAP and non-SAP applications. The tools support a wide variety of data types (structured
and unstructured) and formats (including data streams).
The new SAP HANA replication and consolidation capabilities can simplify the architecture of the
solution and optimize the data transfer and transformation process. You can almost freely define
processes and their execution using SAP HANA technology. The optimization often may require
additional development effort by experienced architects and developers.
I provide you with some examples of data replication solutions using SAP Landscape Transformation
Replication Server (SAP LT Replication Server), SAP Data Services, and SAP Event Stream Processor
(SAP ESP). Then I present the data replication and integration capability provided by SAP HANA:
SAP HANA smart data access, SAP HANA streaming analytics, and SAP HANA smart data
integration. I close with an example of how to use the new SAP HANA replication tools to integrate
various data sources — SAP business applications, unstructured data provided in files, streams
delivered by smart devices, and Big Data storage solutions such as Hadoop.
Depending on your use case and complexity, you can consider which options are more valuable for
your enterprise solutions. You need to consider the complexity of your enterprise landscape and the
required replication and transformation functionality to choose the right replication tool. For example,
you may use SAP HANA to support data replication and integration use cases in a simple landscape,
but in a more complex landscape, you may use a centralized replication solution based on SAP
replication tools.
I also present the aspects that you need to consider to avoid wrong or not properly working solutions
that have performance or functional problems related to data consistency.
Use Cases for Data Replication and Transformation

Tools provided by SAP can be used for data replication and transformation in a complex enterprise
landscape where the sources and target systems could be running in hybrid local, on-premise, and
managed or public cloud data centers. Business-relevant data can be located in SAP and non-SAP
business applications.
Often the enterprise architecture includes less invasive solutions. A new business application
could be running side by side with the current core solution component — for example, the sidecar
deployment solution. The existing SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) system could be
extended by running new business applications on SAP HANA in parallel. That includes the so-
called accelerator or analytic applications running on SAP HANA and native SAP HANA applications
(applications developed using SAP HANA capability and technology and deployed directly in SAP
HANA).
Another typical example in SAP BW powered by SAP HANA or SAP BW/4HANA is running a sidecar
deployment allowing additional consolidation of SAP HANA capabilities and the SAP BW-provided
reporting capability. SAP BW powered by SAP HANA and SAP BW/4HANA allow you to consolidate
data in an online application programming (OLAP) environment supported natively in real time instead
of batch-oriented data operational processing and reporting.
Figure 1 is an example of the replication and transformation architecture of SAP and non-SAP
business solutions and the side-by-side running of a new business solution. Business data is created
as an integration of source data using the SAP Landscape Transformation Replication Server (SAP LT
Replication Server) and SAP Data Services solutions.
Figure 1 Replication architecture using SAP LT Replication Server and SAP Data Services
The SAP LT Replication Server is used to replicate business data into the side-by-side business
application on SAP HANA on the database/table level. The real-time replication with less data
conversion guarantees that the business data as defined in the SAP system is then used as the
base or skeleton (as presented in this use-case) for the business functionality provided by the new
business solution.
SAP Data Services is a batch-oriented solution mainly used to replicate data from a SAP and non-SAP
business solution with extensive data transformation to the target business application. Therefore
you may decide that the data needs to be converted to the required target SAP-aligned data format.
In my presented use-case the SAP Data Services are used extend the base or skeleton business data
replicated by SAP LT Replication Server and combine them to new business format that is used by the
business application logic in target system.
To simplify the solution you can use tables as a source of the SAP Data Services-based replications,
the business data provided by the external application programming interface (API), such as Open
Data Protocol (OData), and unstructured data stored in files that are linked to the transactional and
structured data in the business application. The business data provided by OData very often has more
value because present the data from business level perspective. This means, the data provided in this
level contains the information including the business logic and business-relevant customization.
The target tables of the data replication of the SAP LT Replication Server and SAP Data Services
solutions can be separated, to avoid conflicts and inconsistence in the target business data
persistence. For example, you may define the tables with the structure required by the target business
solution using naming or schema separation to avoid accessing/writing at the same time from both
replication tools and its processes: SAP LT Replication Server and SAP Data Services.
Figure 1 shows a schema separation as an example. The separation may help to achieve a consistent
data replication independent of the replication type (real time, batch, or scheduled) and frequency.
In my example, the data replicated from the SAP source system using SAP LT Replication Server is
replicated faster and is available in the target solution when the data replicated from non-SAP system
using scheduled SAP Data Services replication is running. If the combined data (from both source
systems) is required for the target solution (target system), the business logic needs to implement
a data consistency check. This means that the application’s implementation needs to check if the
whole required business data that defines business transaction/object (complete data required to
perform business functionality) is already available to avoid an inconsistent data view.
To simplify the solution, you can use Core Data Services (CDS), the SAP HANA-provided capability that you
can use to implement the SAP HANA-level defined checks and views to the replicated business data. This
means you can use CDS functionality to define business logic that allows you to expose the data stored in
SAP HANA to the business application and the reporting tool. The data presented by the CDS views is in a
consistent state and therefore can be used further for business operations.
However, the implementation of the data consistency in the application logic (code of business
application) or CDS view can have a significant influence on the application’s performance. This
is because the implemented logic is running all the time you access the data stored in the original
tables. Therefore, Figure 2 presents the example architecture that uses the staging area in the target
system (see staging tables) to consolidate the data from various data sources replicated using
different tools.
Figure 2 Example architecture using the staging area
The staging area consists of all already replicated data. You need to define the consolidation logic
only once in the consolidation job that moves the complete consolidated data (from a transaction
perspective of the final data format) from staging tables to final tables. After the data (e.g., data entry
for one consolidated transaction) is checked and marked as complete, the consolidation process can
move the data from staging tables to final tables. The data move avoids data duplication. This means
the data is stored in the target system only once. If data is stored in staging tables, it is incomplete or
erroneous, and if the data is stored in the final tables, it is transactional complete.
You should be aware that the whole solution is not a real-time solution and the data availability
depends on the slowest data replication and transformation process that influences the particular
transactional data view. The use of the staging tables could have an additional impact on the total
replication time because of additional consolidation steps. However, this solution runs only once, and
the final, ready-to-use business data can be directly consumed by the business application logic or
provided via direct table access or via a CDS view to the reporting tools.
Looking now at new use cases and the modern enterprise solution, you may realize that business
digitization requires data integration from a wide range of internal and external data sources — for
example, data provided by devices/things (the Internet of Things [IoT] use cases), social media,
websites, and instant messaging systems.
Figure 3 presents an example of data replication and consolidation architecture that uses the SAP LT
Replication Server tool to replicate the base data from the SAP business application (a process that is
similar to the one I described in previous examples) and the SAP ESP tool to collect social media and
streaming IoT data. Both data sources are then stored in the staging area that is used to consolidate
the data.
Figure 3 Replication architecture using SAP LT Replication Server and SAP ESP
In this case the staging area has additional value to the whole business solution because it can be
easily used to transform and then consolidate data having completely different data formats. If the
data is unstructured, for example, audio files, photos, and videos that don’t fit into traditional and
modern databases such as SAP HANA, you can use a second storage/database in the staging area.
For example, you can use SAP Vora with Hadoop (which is not presented in the Figure 3) to store
this kind of unstructured data. You then can run the consolidation process across both storages/
databases, extract the business-relevant data, and store it as final, ready-to-use data in the final
tables.
This example can be combined into bigger and more complex solutions that use all the replication
and transformation tools provided by SAP.
Scenarios Supported by the SAP HANA Capability

SAP HANA is the SAP solution to store, maintain, and consolidate data from your enterprise
solution. Therefore, the integration of the replication and transformation capability to SAP HANA can
significantly simplify the enterprise architecture from a technology, business, integration, security, and
licensing perspective.
I now describe the new capabilities provided by SAP HANA: SAP HANA smart data access, SAP HANA
streaming analytics (formerly SAP HANA smart data streaming), and the consolidated SAP HANA
smart data integration solutions.
SAP HANA Smart Data Access

SAP HANA smart data access is a remote data access functionality provided as of SAP HANA
Support Package Stack 06. You can use it in SAP HANA SQL queries to access tables defined in
SAP HANA as virtual tables and data that is stored in remote SAP or non-SAP databases (in so-called
persistent tables).
You can use this functionality in SAP- and client-provided business applications to support new data
integration and replication scenarios. For example, you can use this functionality in an integration
scenario to access remote database data in SQL running in SAP HANA without permanently copying
the data. This option is very useful if the access performance of the remote storage is not an issue
(including network and data access in business process execution). If you realize performance
problems, you can define replication logic in your business application running on SAP HANA. This
smart functionality uses SAP HANA smart data access to access the remote data and copy it on
demand to generate a local copy of the required data. In this case you build a business solution with
an optimized logic regarding the required data access, its structure, and the size of the SAP HANA
platform, which results in performance-optimized business functionality.
Additionally, you can use SAP HANA smart data access capability to access the data from various
data sources, combine it using SAP HANA capabilities (e.g., use of Predictive Analysis Library [PAL]
algorithms and business logic implemented in CDS) to build a data-optimized model that can be
consumed by business application running on SAP HANA (e.g. SAP Business Suite on HANA and SAP
S/4HANA) and directly by SAP and non-SAP business intelligence (BI) solutions (e.g., including SAP
Lumira or Tableau).
SAP HANA smart data access can support the development and deployment of the next generation
of analytical applications that require the ability to access and integrate data from multiple systems
in real time regardless of data location. This means you have unlimited flexibility on the data sources
and transformation capability, which can be used to fulfill the business requirement of the SAP,
partner, and client-defined business functionality.
Figure 4 shows SAP HANA smart data access as a virtualization technique that is used in advanced
business applications for solution-specific data replication and integration requirements.
Figure 4 Overview of the architecture of the SAP HANA smart data access solutions
Here is a summary of the features of SAP HANA smart data access:
• You can locally use data that is defined and stored in other SAP and non-SAP sources or
databases. SAP HANA smart data access uses a virtual table that points to remote tables in
different data sources.
• The access to the remote data is in real time regardless of its location (you need to consider
network latency).
• The access of data via SAP HANA smart data access typically does not affect the sizing of
the SAP HANA database. This means that because the data is not stored in SAP HANA the
sizing of permanent used data in SAP HANA is not changed. However, the dynamically loaded/
accessed data could have an influence on the sizing of the temporary used data in SAP HANA.
For standard solutions SAP suggests you define 50 percent of the total SAP HANA memory
size as temporary memory–memory used to execute DB requests. Depending on the size of the
dynamically loaded data using SAP HANA smart data access, you may consider adapting the
standard configuration to the current solutions-based memory usage.
• Unlimited flexibility on the data sources and transformation capability. Users can define
application/solution-specific data transformation logic using SAP HANA technology and
functionality to replicate, integrate, and optimize access to business-relevant data.
SAP HANA Smart Data Integration

SAP HANA smart data integration was introduced in SAP HANA Support Package Stack 09. It is
intended to simplify the data load and replication into the SAP HANA platform and the running on
SAP HANA business applications/solutions. SAP HANA smart data integration provides an all-in-one
package of data-loading tools containing the capability of SAP Data Services and SAP LT Replication
Server.
It includes the SAP HANA smart data access solutions and therefore in new SAP HANA installations
you often hear about SAP HANA smart data integration, even though SAP HANA smart data access
is used. The inclusion of SAP HANA smart data integration reduces the complexity and provides a
single user interface (UI) to support all the available functionality.
SAP HANA Streaming Analytics

The next new capability provided by SAP in SAP HANA Support Package Stack 09 is SAP HANA
streaming analytics (SAP HANA smart data streaming). It is a high-speed event stream processor
based on a scalable configuration of SAP HANA. It supports real-time processing of incoming
information and is well integrated with the SAP HANA database and monitoring. You can integrate
this functionality in your client-specific business logic. It gives you a perspective on the current state
of information and dynamically provides support for potential problems and inconsistencies.
From a functional perspective SAP HANA streaming analytics covers SAP ESP and therefore can be
used to support business scenarios integrating IoT streams, social media data sources, and other
stream-based solutions. It is an optional component, which means that before you use it you need to
check if it installed and configured. For more information click here.
Figure 5 is an overview of the capability provided by SAP HANA Support Package Stack 09 that can
be used in your environment to integrate data from different sources. SAP HANA supports the main
capabilities provided by standalone tools. The in-memory processing and engines provided in SAP
HANA accelerate the business solution execution that can (if properly designed) massively boost
performance.
Figure 5 The replication and integration architecture using SAP HANA smart data access, SAP
HANA streaming analytics, and SAP HANA smart data integration
To simplify the solution setup, SAP provides ready-to-use connectivity agents. However, if something
is not defined or provided in standard delivery, SAP HANA smart data integration enables you to build
custom adapters with an open framework and a software development kit (SDK) to integrate any data
sources.
Because this functionality is integrated into the SAP HANA system, you need to consider the use
of the functionality in the sizing of the SAP HANA systems and the potential performance-related
implications that can occur in the productive environment. This step is especially important in the
production phases when you use the integrated solutions of SAP S/4HANA with embedded analytics.
You can expect overlapping actions related with the extensive data loading and replication, daily
operational activities in SAP S/4HANA (e.g., booking many documents), and execution of reports that
could be resource consuming.
Use Cases for Data Replication and Transformation Using

SAP HANA
The use of SAP HANA-provided data replication and integration functionality can significantly simplify
the architecture and reduce the implementation time and costs of the use cases. Therefore, let’s look
at an example of the architecture of the replication and integration solution using the SAP HANA
smart data access, SAP HANA streaming analytics, and SAP HANA smart data integration (Figure 5).
The source systems in the example are the SAP business applications that run on a non-SAP
database (e.g., SAP ECC 6.0 running on Microsoft SQL server), the files containing unstructured
business data (e.g., Microsoft Word documents that contain product descriptions and specifications),
IoT devices (e.g., smart devices with sensors that provide data streams with the machine data and
status), and Big Data solutions (e.g., Hadoop cluster). This setup could be a typical example of SAP
business applications in which business data is extended by unstructured data in the file system
and Hadoop. It uses the IoT infrastructure to add value to the reported real-time machine events, for
example providing its state and information about its environment (such as temperature or pressure)
that can be used together with business information to provide new business functionality (e.g., asset
maintenance and automatic generation of a service request).
SAP HANA smart data integration is used to replicate the data from the SAP business solution to the
staging area of the target business solution. The data could be accessed directly from the non-SAP
database using the appropriate open database connectivity (ODBC) connector or from the application
using the application API and OData. Finally, SAP HANA smart data integration can also use the file
connector to access the unstructured data source such as files or Word documents and extend the
data provided by the SAP system.
SAP HANA streaming analytics is used to connect and consume data provided by smart devices and
its sensors that contains business-relevant information (e.g., machine status and environment-related
information such as temperature or pressure). All the analyzed data is stored in the staging area,
allowing you to create new business functionality. It connects the material data to support the status
and material demand of the production line.
Very often the amount of data in modern applications requires the use and integration of big data
solutions such as Hadoop. SAP HANA smart data access allows you access to the stored data and
its direct consolidation in the SAP HANA-based business application.
(Note: SAP offers SAP Vora as the integration tool between SAP HANA-based solutions and the
Hadoop environment. It requires additional licenses. The use of SAP Vora can accelerate access to
the Hadoop data, but is out of scope of this article.)
After the data is stored in the staging tables, the consolidation process can check its consistency and
then move it to the final table defined in the SAP HANA platform. The target tables are used directly by
the business application and the reporting tools or via a CDS view.
The used replication technology and tools in SAP HANA should be considered in the sizing and
resource planning of the solution. You can highly simplify the architecture using the embedded
technologies (e.g., optimized engines for text mining and data compression) in the creation of a
better integrated view to the business data, but you also need to check how the data model and the
operational data are consumed by the end user.
I hope my examples of the data integration and replication capabilities provided by SAP HANA help
you better evaluate potential integration topics. Table 1 presents a high-level overview of SAP tools
and SAP HANA capabilities.
Feature SAP LT Repli- SAP Data SAP SAP Event SAP HANA SAP SAP HANA
cation Server Services Replication Stream smart HANA smart data
Server Processor data stream- integration
access ing
analytics
Real-time repli- ++ O (very ++ ++ / + ++ + ++
cation restricted) (depending
on com-
plexity)
Batch/ sched- + ++ - - + - +
uled data
replication
Transformation + (simple) ++ + (simple) + O + +
Streaming data - - - ++ - ++ +
Replication from ++ ++ O (license) ++ ++ ++ ++
SAP systems
Replication from O (license) O (license) O (license) ++ ++ ++ ++
non-SAP systems
Table 1 Summary of the features/use cases provided by SAP data replication tools, including SAP
HANA-provided capability
In Table 1 I used the ++, +, O and – signs. These symbols have the following meanings:
++ Very strong support of this functionality
+ Support of this functionality,
O Functionality supported with restrictions
- Functionality not supported
Depending on your use case and complexity you should consider which SAP replication and
transformation tools and options are more valuable for your enterprise solutions. You also can
consider the enterprise architecture and its guidelines to build enterprise-compliant landscape
of integrated business solutions. You should, for example, check if the simple landscape can be
supported by SAP HANA-supported replication and transformation capability, or if you need separate
tools that are typically used in more complex integration enterprise landscapes. The use of separate
and centralized replication functionality may have a significant benefit against the SAP HANA-based
solutions if you plan to build and reuse replication functionality between different sources and target
systems.
Robert Heidasch ([email protected]) is the chief innovation

and technology lead in the global Accenture Technology Platform,
which is responsible for SAP Leonardo and the new digital technology
defining business value and driving the digital transformation of complex
enterprise solution for Accenture diamond and strategic clients. Robert
is the Accenture certified Senior Digital Architect and Senior Technology
Architect. He is coauthor and trainer of a couple of SAP technology-
related trainings for the in-memory platform and architecture of new
business applications (e.g., SAP HANA, SAP Cloud Platform, and SAP
Leonardo applications for solution architects and technical architects, all
of which were provided by Accenture in Europe, the US, and Asia).
Southwire Powers Up with Analytics to Redesign

User Roles
Wire and Cable Manufacturer Reduces Segregation-of-Duties Conflicts and Improves
Roles by Leveraging Insights from SAP User Transaction Histories
by Heather Black, Senior Editor | SAPinsider, Volume 19, Issue 3
Preventing access risk and ensuring regulatory compliance are top priorities for any business, and cable
and wire manufacturer Southwire Company, LLC, understands how analytics are required to successfully
achieve these goals. Concerned that access-related risks were unacceptably high, Southwire embarked
on a multi-phased project that aimed to remove, reduce, and mitigate these risks and to design more
efficient user roles. Learn how Southwire Company, LLC, leveraged Security Weaver solutions to identify
risks, remove or reduce segregation-of-duties (SoD) conflicts, optimize user role design, and improve
overall business processes.
Successful companies are often built on a simple idea: Make life better for ordinary people. Southwire
Company, LLC, was founded on this premise. Due to post-war wire shortages in the late 1940s, many
rural farming families were living without electricity. With a mission to bring power to rural families
living in Carroll County, Georgia, Southwire’s 12 employees started producing wire using second-
hand machinery in 1950. Nearly 70 years later, the family-owned business has become a leading
manufacturer of wire and cable in North America with 7,500 employees in over 30 locations across the
US and beyond, including Canada and Mexico.
Southwire manufactures and sells wire and cable products for the distribution and transmission of
electricity — from the power plant to the outlets in a residential home — and the depth and breadth of its
products make the company unique in its industry. Its offerings include high voltage cable for overhead
and underground transmission, wires for manufacturing machinery, and wiring for light fixtures in homes
and office buildings.
To support its operations and processes, Southwire has maintained an SAP solution landscape since
2010, which began with the implementation of SAP Treasury and Risk Management to manage the
high volume of copper going through its rod mill. It has since expanded to include other solutions, such
as SAP Business Warehouse, SAP Process Integration, the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence
suite, SAP SuccessFactors solutions, and SAP Hybris applications. Anchoring this SAP environment is
SAP ERP, which is used by all of the company’s business divisions to enable processes such as order to
cash, plan to inventory, and procure to pay. As its use of technology has increased, user access across
technologies and business functions has become both a key to operational efficiency and, if poorly
managed, a material and unacceptable risk.
In a sizable and growing business such as Southwire, where large numbers of users access a variety
of applications and information daily, avoiding segregation-of-duties (SoD) conflicts is critical to
ensure regulatory compliance, prevent errors, and avoid fraud. Identifying existing user access risk
due to SoD conflicts in its SAP landscape became a pressing mandate for Southwire’s IT Center of
Excellence team in early 2017, when it was tasked by the company’s board to minimize and mitigate
SoD conflicts across the organization.
Driven by this directive, the IT team embarked on a multi-phased project aimed at understanding
the scope of the issue, identifying conflicts, mitigating risks, automating user provisioning, making
support operations more efficient, and improving the role catalog. The project started with an
investigation phase to first gain a full picture of the issue, which was followed by a planning phase
to determine what the solution should look like, an implementation phase, and finally a continuous
improvement program that would systematically analyze and improve role designs. Analytics were
critical to each stage and continue to play an important part in Southwire’s access management
strategy.
Getting Plugged In
To initially scope the project, Southwire implemented the Separations Enforcer application from
Security Weaver to identify and manage SoD conflicts in its SAP ERP system. (For more information
about Security Weaver, see the sidebar at the end of the article.)
Separations Enforcer enabled Southwire to do a rapid yet thorough analysis of its SAP landscape for
SoD conflicts and sensitive access risks with reports that were readable and comprehensive. The
solution was also able to handle custom transactions because of its advanced pattern-matching
capability, which extends its analytics beyond explicitly defined SoD rules to automatically discover
SoD-relevant custom transactions that have not yet been included in the SoD ruleset.
“Previously, we had no tool in the legacy systems that would identify the number of SoD conflicts,
and we had no means of reporting on them,” says Chris Easterwood, Vice President of Southwire’s IT
Center of Excellence. The reports generated by Separations Enforcer revealed a surprising number of
conflicts — approximately 10,000 — and when the company’s board saw the results, it passed down
another directive to the IT team to address these conflicts.
To understand how to mitigate or remove a conflict, the team needed a way to look in depth at what
transactions each user was exercising in the system. In the second quarter of 2017, Southwire
selected Security Weaver’s Transaction Archive application to accomplish this task. Transaction
Archive provided Southwire with detailed SAP transaction code execution histories that could be
filtered by user, transaction, time period, user group, and other criteria. It not only showed which
users were using which transactions, it also showed what transactions were being exercised in a role
across the population of users who had the role. In addition to role and user analytics, Transaction
Archive discovers and monitors Remote Function Calls (RFCs) within the SAP system to improve
security across the integrated landscape.
The decision to go with Transaction Archive was an easy one because of its rich analytics. It also
integrated easily with other Security Weaver solutions in use at Southwire as well as with the core
SAP ERP system. “We decided to pursue Transaction Archive to help us better understand our
past and present user activity and provide that information in a meaningful report for IT and for
the business,” says Bryan Mann, Manager of SAP Basis and Security in Southwire’s IT Center of
Excellence.
The in-house IT team implemented Transaction Archive within a day across Southwire’s global SAP
instance using the standard change management functionality within the SAP system. The solution
went live throughout the company’s SAP landscape, covering all of its SAP users, in August 2017.
Shining a Light on User Roles

Since that time, Southwire has successfully utilized Transaction Archive to optimize roles and improve
security. The reports generated by Transaction Archive have enabled Southwire to:
• Analyze user transaction history, including which transactions were executed and by which
users, how often they were executed and in what sequence, and when the transactions were
used
• Evaluate role efficiency in terms of how roles are used — such as what percentage of users have
exercised each transaction in a role — to ensure that the roles are not bloated with access rights
• Identify unused roles and then remove those roles to improve the user experience and reduce
SoD conflicts
The data provided by Transaction Archive has made it possible for the IT team to redesign and
optimize roles. “Previously, we managed roles manually based on what we thought users would need,”
says Mann. “Transaction Archive makes the process more intelligent — it allows us to design our roles
around what the users are actually doing.”
Using Transaction Archive and Separations Enforcer together enabled the IT team to significantly
reduce conflicts, from approximately 10,000 to fewer than 1,000. For example, an SoD analysis of
Southwire’s finance group using Separations Enforcer revealed several conflicts among users. “When
we looked at those particular users in Transaction Archive, we discovered that they never actually
used the transactions causing the conflicts,” says Easterwood. By changing the roles for these users
and taking away rights to transactions they didn’t use, the IT team was able to reduce the number of
SoD conflicts without affecting user productivity.
“Once we did that, many of the SoD conflicts that had been on the report simply disappeared,” adds
Easterwood, “and we were left with just the SoD conflicts for transactions that were actually being
used, which we could easily monitor going forward.”
The sales group was another area with SoD conflicts. Once Separations Enforcer identified
the conflicted users, Transaction Archive enabled the sales group and the IT team to see what
authorizations sales administrators were exercising. Then, using that information, the IT team was
able to reduce the number of conflicts by redesigning user roles in a targeted way. For example, some
users were viewing data using a transaction that allowed changes to the data when a display-only
transaction would have sufficed. “Knowing this enabled us to remove access that would allow them
to change something when all they needed was to display it,” says Easterwood.
Connecting with the Business

Separations Enforcer and Transaction Archive also enabled the IT team to better partner with
business users — a critical step in mitigating SoD conflicts. The IT team worked with the business
side to review what their users were accessing, the transactions they were executing, and the
transactions they never used.
“With Transaction Archive, we were able to communicate with the business exactly which
transactions their users were actually using, and which transactions could be better used either by a
different department or by other resources available in the company,” says Mann. “We also used that
information to help the business to better define their processes.”
Because IT and the business are the core users of analytics from Transaction Archive at Southwire,
with the business users usually serving as the final approvers for SoD mitigation, it was important
that the tool was easy to use for both teams. “We provided a one-hour workshop for each of the
functional areas on how to use the product,” adds Mann, “and after that, with just a few questions here
or there, most of the business users were proficient.” Sharing the workload across IT and business
users has been a critical success factor for access management at Southwire.
Wired for Success

The Transaction Archive tool has become an integral part of Southwire’s SAP environment, according
to Mann, and is used daily by IT and business users. The ability to quickly and easily see exactly what
users have been doing in the system, and have it presented in a consolidated, meaningful report, has
yielded significant returns — first and foremost by decreasing the overall number of SoD conflicts by
more than 90%. “The number one benefit is that by the end of the project, we were able to present a
report to the board that reflected a significant reduction in SoD conflicts,” says Easterwood.
Other benefits produced by the project have been time and cost savings, including reducing the time it
takes to investigate conflicts from days to minutes. “It is a lot simpler to get to the information that we
need,” Easterwood reports, “and it takes less time to review what users are doing in the system than
anything we’ve had in the past.” The team was also able to use its existing resources to implement,
administer, and manage the tool, as well as review and respond to reports, saving the company from
having to spend money on additional resources, which would have cost more than $100,000 per year.
“It limited the resources we needed to work on the project,” adds Mann.
In addition to enabling the IT team to efficiently address immediate access risks, the visibility into
user activities provided by the tool has helped IT and the business make progress toward its overall
goal of building better roles for users. “It gives us insight into how the system is being used, and we
can then take that information and make better decisions about how roles should be designed,” says
Easterwood. The role redesign — which is an iterative process of designing, testing, and adjusting
roles before moving them into production — is an ongoing endeavor that will continue over the next
few years. “It’s a continual process,” adds Mann, “and Transaction Archive will continue to play a
valuable part in the overall project.”
Southwire Company, LLC

Headquarters: Carrollton, Georgia
Industry: Wire and cable manufacturing
Employees: 7,500
Company details:
• Founded as Richards and Associates in 1937 by Roy Richards, Sr. in Carroll County, Georgia, as a
company to put up power poles and lines for utility companies
• Began manufacturing wires and cables in 1950 with 12 employees as Southwire Company to
meet the need created by post-war wire shortages
• Currently operating in more than 30 locations across the US, Canada, Mexico, and other
locations
• Leading manufacturer of wire and cable in North America
• www.southwire.com
SAP solutions: SAP ERP, SAP Business Warehouse, SAP Process Integration, the SAP
BusinessObjects Business Intelligence suite, SAP SuccessFactors solutions, and SAP Hybris
solutions
Third-party solutions: Security Weaver Transaction Archive, Separations Enforcer, Secure

Provisioning, Authorization Help, Risk Visualizer, and Reset Password
Security Weaver Helps Southwire Control Risk Through

SAP User Analytics
Security Weaver partners with organizations to rapidly deliver efficient controls. Its solutions and
services satisfy the most demanding enterprises without sacrificing the usability imperatives or
ignoring the budget and staff constraints of smaller companies.
Any organization improving the business value of its compliance-related investments can trust
Security Weaver to deliver governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) solutions fitted to match its unique
requirements and individual technology roadmaps. Security Weaver’s solution architecture ensures
superior application performance, rapid implementations across diverse environments, and high
returns on compliance-related investments.
Security Weaver provided Southwire with a proven platform for reducing cost and increasing
productivity in its SAP environment. Regarding this partnership, Terry Hirsch, CEO at Security Weaver,
says, “At Security Weaver, we pride ourselves on offering solutions that can be deployed quickly, scale
indefinitely, and support best practices, with low ongoing maintenance requirements. We are pleased
to see that Southwire has successfully leveraged our solutions to create a leaner, more efficient
enterprise, and to optimize its user management processes.”
Security Weaver also offers automated password reset, role recertification, and role management
solutions, as well as GRC implementation services, solutions for transaction monitoring, process
auditing, and emergency access management. It offers custom applications to the smallest and
largest SAP customers.
Visit www.securityweaver.com/SAP-insider for more information.
Tips, Tricks, and New Features with SAP HANA

Calculation Views
by Joerg Boeke, Managing Partner at BIAnalyst GmbH & Co.KG
Joerg Boeke explains how to use SAP HANA calculation views and procedures as data providers for
complex calculation views. He explains the concept of graphical joins versus SQL Script-based joins in
procedures being fed to calculation views. Step by step he demonstrates the new modeling concept and
its advantages to cut down load times as well as remodeling phases.
More and more SAP system users are implementing SAP HANA as the foundation and database for
existing SAP BW installations. Some may just be replacing an existing database with the modern SAP
HANA database to gain speed in query execution and warehouse management. This is, of course, a
keystone of an SAP HANA implementation within SAP BW, but not the only one.
From my point of view, the tight integration of SAP HANA functionality using SAP HANA studio or Eclipse
to design new ways of data warehouse management is at least as important as reporting performance.
Why use old habits with SAP application layers, storing more and more data in persistency layers, when
it’s possible to calculate new reporting data on the fly? Using SAP HANA-based staging to enhance data
flows without the physical staging of incoming data in several layers (SAP staging layer architecture
[SLA]) is something I am working on at a customer site.
My approach can help you to be flexible when it comes to design changes because there is no unload or
reload of data in staging layers when business logic changes. It also keeps your operation costs for SAP
HANA at a minimal level because less data in an SAP HANA database means less expense for licensing.
(In a modern SAP BW powered by SAP HANA environment, it is wise to switch to virtual data staging
instead of old-school data staging via persistency layers. SAP HANA calculation views and procedures
for complex scenarios help to calculate data on the fly to cut down unload and reload phases to zero
when it comes to business-related changes in data staging or extension/reduction in a data model. In
the SAP HANA environment using SAP HANA studio or Eclipse, SAP BW operators can very easily switch
from the old-fashioned models to the new calculation-view-based modeling concept or run a mixed
scenario of both worlds.)
An SAP HANA procedure is a database-stored procedure that gives you programming functionality with
the help of SAP HANA SQL Script, similar to ABAP functions. Now I guide you through the creation of
SAP HANA data flows with the help of calculation views (graphical and SQL Script-based views), as well
as some pitfalls you may run into.
My example (Figure 1) is a simple mixed approach.
SAP BW powered by SAP HANA mixed approach
SAP BW schema
SAP HANA
Composite
Provider
Reporting user
SAP HANA schema
Graphical calculation view
Graphical
calculation view
SAP external HANA SQL Script

view DS01 calculation view
DDIC
DSO 1
table
Figure 1 An example of the mixed data approach using calculation views
That means you use existing SAP BW inbound data (DataStore object [DSO] based, as in an SAP BW entry
layer). You also join SAP BW table information (such as an SAP Data Dictionary [DDIC] table) into one
combined calculation view you can use in combination with an SAP HANA Composite Provider for BEx or
Analysis for Office reporting. You can also use calculation views directly in Analysis for Office reporting. (I
do not cover authorizations such as direct reporting on calculation views without a Composite Provider).
All the screenprints are based on Eclipse as the development studio for SAP HANA BW development. I
am running Eclipse Neon 3 and the latest SAP BW and SAP HANA add-ons. The actual set of SAP BW
modelling tools can be found using SAP Note1944835 - SAP BW Modeling Tools - Delivery Schedule
1944835 - SAP BW Modeling Tools - Delivery Schedule.
In the following explanations and examples, I use data based on an external SAP HANA view. In my
example, I use technical DSO content data to feed data and consume data in a graphical calculation view.
I use this data in combination with a SQL Script calculation view in a third graphical calculation view to
join both data. I explain the difference in accessing data by regular joins in a graphical calculation view
compared with SQL Script-based calculation views and explain the advantages of SQL Script calculation
views. At the end, you can use the third calculation view, joining all views to a single point, to feed a
Composite Provider for reporting users with the help of BEx queries or directly in combination with
Analysis for Office.
(Note: I assume that you are familiar with SAP HANA studio or Eclipse. Therefore, I do not explain the
basics, such as switching perspectives.)
Start Your Walk Through SAP HANA Calculation Views

First, switch to the SAP HANA Development perspective (Figure 2). I recommend using this
perspective in the case of SAP HANA development. The reason for this recommendation is that in all
other perspectives you are unable to create SAP HANA hdb procedures.
Figure 2 The SAP HANA Development perspective
The first calculation view is a plain graphical view. Right-click your development package and select
New and then Calculation View as shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3 Dialog to choose a calculation view
This action displays the screen shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4 Calculation view dialog
(Note: If your screen looks different, make sure that you have selected the Repositories tab. I
recommend using this approach because via an SAP HANA development perspective and repository
display, all functionalities that can be used that might be obsolete in the SAP HANA modeling
perspective and Systems tab are displayed on the screen.)
In Figure 4 enter your desired calculation view technical name, such as MY_NEW_VIEW (not shown).
Keep the default Type, which is Graphical, and click the Finish button.
By default, the system generates two objects: Semantics and Aggregation objects (Figure 5).
Figure 5 SAP HANA calculation view scenario area
On the left, you find all the available design objects. Start with the Projection option. Drag and drop
it to the blank area of the scenario. The Projection gives access to all available objects within SAP
HANA, such as DDIC tables, InfoProviders, master data, and already existing SAP HANA views.
When moving your mouse over the projection object (Figure 6), you see a green plus sign.
Figure 6 Projection with displayed data access symbol
Click that plus icon (data access) to open a dialog in which you can search for your desired object.
You can read the data and then add that object to your actual view.
The dialog that opens after you click the plus icon allows you to search for your desired object. In
my example, I entered the search string for SAP BW technical content object WIS_C03 (a copy of
SAP technical cube TCT_C03, which is an InfoCube). As you can see in Figure 7, the search result
returns all available SAP HANA objects, such as the InfoProvider itself and all existing partial (e.g.,
dimensions) tables.
Figure 7 Search result for projections
I choose the InfoCube itself, which is indicated by the Cxx postfix (the third item from the top), by
double-clicking the entry or simply selecting the entry and selecting the OK button. I recommend
creating ADSO (a type of standard DSO) technical names that refer to its type such as C (for type
Cube).
Besides adding the selection to your projection and displaying the name, you see the structure of
the selected object in the studio detail pane, (in my example the InfoCube structure) displaying
InfoObjects as well as cube SID entries (Figure 8).
Figure 8 Projection with displayed structure
Clicking the bullet-shaped icons in the detail view adds that particular InfoObject to the output (Figure
9) of that projection and changes its color to orange (selected). This selection is similar to adding
fields of a table to a customized view in transaction SE11. The LED shaped icon works like a toggle
switch. A gray color means the field is turned off (for usage), while orange means the field has been
turned on.
Figure 9 Projection with three selected InfoObjects
Because InfoCubes use SIDs as well as InfoObject keys, the selection might be a bit time-consuming.
For a better view to InfoCubes, I recommend activating the external SAP HANA view of that particular
InfoCube via the change view in the Administration Workbench. Or you could automate the activation
of all cubes /DSO.
If you already activated the external SAP HANA view, you can select that view directly from the
Projection search dialog (Figure 10).
Figure 10 Activated external SAP HANA view
Selecting this external SAP HANA view makes your life with calculation views much easier. As you
can see (Figure 11), only InfoObjects and their text elements, if they exist, are displayed. You can add
them to the output of your projection.
Figure 11 Projection of external SAP HANA view for DSO type InfoCube WIS_C01
To map the projection to the existing aggregation object in the scenario pane, click the circle icon
above Projection_2. Hold down the mouse, drag a connection (line) to the bottom icon of the
aggregation object, and release the mouse. Now your projection is connected (Figure 12).
Figure 12 Projection is connected to Aggregation
Selecting the aggregation object unveils the structure of all the fields of your projection. You can
decide if you like all the fields or just a few. If you like all of them, the best approach is to right-click the
header area (black header) and select the Add All To Output (Figure 13) option, which automatically
maps all existing fields to the output without having to select the entries one by one.
Figure 13 Add all the fields to the output dialog
After this step is done, you can activate the calculation view by clicking the activation icon from the
top menu in Eclipse (Figure 14).
Figure 14 Activate the calculation view
After activation, you can directly display the data for each individual object by right-clicking the object
(e.g., projection) and selecting Data Preview (Figure 15). (The details of querying the data are beyond
the scope of this article.)
Figure 15 Dialog to display the data preview
To enrich my example with some more details, I add the data from a new ADSO. As before, drag
Projection to the scenario, click the plus icon, and select your desired object (in my case the
InfoProvider is named WIS_D01 as shown in Figure 16).
Figure 16 Add DSO WIS_D01 to the second projection
You should see both projections. The first one is already connected to the aggregation object. Now
you join those two tables.
(So that you do not lose all existing mapping, drag and drop the join object from the right side directly
onto the connection line between the first projection and the aggregation object. This automatically
adds the join without breaking any mapping. Now you should have the scenario shown in Figure 17.)
Figure 17 A scenario with the added join object
The last step is to drag the output of the second projection to the input of the displayed join.
Since you now have a join between both objects (WIS_C01 and WIS_D01), you need to define the join
condition between your desired fields.
Just select the output fields by clicking the orange bullets and for the join condition drag and drop a
line between the join objects. I joined 0CALDAY by transferring the data from Projection_2 and just
turning on additional fields of Projection_1. InfoObject 0CALDAY (Figure 18) is now the join condition,
but it will not be transferred to the output data because otherwise you would have the field 0CALDAY
twice.
Figure 18 Join with join condition on 0CALDAY
Right-clicking the join connection opens a dialog in which you can swap the tables (important for
outer joins) and display the Edit… option (Figure 19).
Figure 19 Join options
When you are using the join edit mode, a new dialog appears in which you can set the different join
conditions as well as cardinality (Figure 20). To keep it simple leave the standard join condition (inner
join) active.
Figure 20 Join option dialog
As you can see, the graphical join does not allow you to define complex join conditions (e.g., with
WHERE statements or complex filters) as done in ABAP joins. To create such joins, you need SQL-
based calculation views. In these calculation views you can define whatever join condition you like.
As an alternative, you can pass the coding for such joins and table accesses to an SAP HANA
procedure to be more flexible. These procedures can be used system wide for all purposes. First, you
have to create a new procedure. Right-click your package and select New and then Other… as shown
in Figure 21.
Figure 21 Dialog for new objects
In the next dialog select Stored Procedure (Figure 22).
Figure 22 Select Stored Procedure
Provide a name and target schema for the new procedure (Figure 23).
Figure 23 The initial dialog for stored procedures (hdb procedures)
Now enter your SQL Script code (Figure 24). My example adds the activation and request information
from SAP BW tables RSREQDONE and RSMONICDP to the final calculation view.
PROCEDURE “JOEBOE”.”system-local.public.JOEBOE::P_GET_BW_MONITOR_DATA”
(OUT TABLE_OUT table
“RNR” NVARCHAR (30),
“ICUBE” NVARCHAR (30),
“DP_NR” NVARCHAR (30),
“STATUS” NVARCHAR (4),
“QMSTATUS” NVARCHAR (4),
“REC_INSERT” INTEGER,
“REC_UPDATE” INTEGER,
“DATUM” NVARCHAR (8),
“UZEIT” NVARCHAR (6),
“TSTATUS” NVARCHAR (4),
“TDATUM” NVARCHAR (8),
“TUZEIT” NVARCHAR (6))
LANGUAGE SQLSCRIPT SQL
SECURITY INVOKER
DEFAULT SCHEMA “MY_SCHEMA”
READS SQL DATA AS
BEGIN
/*****************************
The upper table has to be defined exactly like the receiving SQL Script calculation View
*****************************/
-- Table out will receive all data in exactly the order as given by upper table from
-- next SQL call. It should be aligned to the fields being used in SQL scipt calc view
table_out =
select distinct
TB1.”RNR” ,
TB1.”ICUBE” ,
TB1.”DP_NR” ,
TB1.”STATUS”,
TB1.”QMSTATUS” ,
TB1.”REC_INSERT” ,
TB1.”REC_UPDATE”,
TB2.”DATUM”,
TB2.”UZEIT”,
TB2.”TSTATUS”,
TB2.”TDATUM”,
TB2.”TUZEIT”
from “SAPT04”.”RSMONICDP” as TB1
INNER JOIN “SAPT04”.”RSREQDONE” as TB2
on
TB1.”RNR” = TB2.”RNR”
WHERE TB2.”DATUM” > ‘20160101’ AND
TB1.”ICUBE” like ‘0TCT%’ AND
(TB1.”QMSTATUS” is NOT NULL AND TB2.”RECORDS” > 0)
order by TB1.”ICUBE” ASC;
END;
Figure 24 Sample SQL Script code for a join between tables in SAP HANA
The first part in my sample code is the declaration of the table fields used in the join condition. Those
fields that are declared are sent to the calculation view later (similar to internal tables in ABAP).
SECURITY INVOKER respects the authorization the individual user might have running the procedure
later on. The table out parameter receives the result from the select statement and passes the
information to the output table (table_out) you use later.
Activate your procedure after the coding is bug free by using Ctrl + F3 or the activation icon from the
Eclipse menu.
The next step is to use this procedure in a calculation view type SQL Script. (Remember the procedure
is not mandatory; you could use the code directly in SLQ script-based calculation views.) Right-click
the package and select New, then Calculation View. Within the familiar dialog (Figure 25) make sure
to select type SQL Script (the default is Graphical) and provide mandatory information such as the
name.
Figure 25 The Calculation View dialog with selected type SQL Script
The next dialog displays a familiar scenario view, but with only two simple objects (Figure 26).
Figure 26 The SQL script calculation view
Click the Script_View object and see that the code as well as output pane are displayed. The code part
is rather simple (Figure 27). As you can see, you only call the procedure that you just created.
/********* Begin Procedure Script ************/
BEGIN
--Call procedure that does Join and structure definition to return its value to calculation view
call “MY_SCHEMA”.”system-local.public.JOEBOE::P_GET_BW_MONITOR_DATA”(:var_out);
END /********* End Procedure Script ************/
Figure 27 Sample code for SQL Script-based calculation views
The var_out table declared in the procedure must now be connected to the output fields of the
calculation view. The type of fields (Figure 28) and the exact sequence have to be aligned to the type
and sequence of your table_out definition inside your procedure (see the code in Figure 24).
Figure 28 Calculation view output fields
After all the settings are done, activate and test (data preview) the SQL-based calculation view.
The final step is to combine this calculation view with the previous example. Just add a new
projection, click the plus icon, and search for your SQL-based calculation view (Figure 29).
Figure 29 Search for the calculation view
Calculation views allow you to insert not only standard SAP BW objects but also all SAP HANA
objects (such as calculation views).
Turn on the desired output fields in your new added item, as described with Figures 8 and 9. Add a
new join condition and map the existing components with the new SQL Script-based calculation view.
The output should look similar to my example (Figure 30).
Figure 30 The final calculation view integrating SAP BW and SAP HANA components
You can use this introduction to SAP HANA calculation views to help build scenarios combining
graphical and SQL-based calculation views for all kinds of purposes. You could in some cases bypass
the classical staging in DSO and cubes completely by directly adding this calculation view to a
Composite InfoProvider for reporting purposes.
The benefit of using SAP HANA calculation views if that you can use the view I just created in a
projection of several other views (reusable) as I did with the SQL Script-based view in this article.
Joerg Boeke ([email protected]) is an SAP NetWeaver BW

solution architect and senior consultant working at BIAnalyst GmbH
& Co.KG. He has 19 years of experience in SAP NetWeaver BW, having
worked on it since SAP BW 1.2A.
Simplify Running SAP HANA

Hyperconvergence Brings Real-Time Infrastructure
by Greg White, Solutions Marketing Principal, Nutanix
SAP recently announced a new certification for SAP HANA on hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) to
provide more choices for its customers, helping them to reduce costs and complexity while realizing the
value of SAP HANA. Learn how Nutanix has partnered with SAP to help demonstrate that, with minimal
overhead, virtualized SAP HANA databases on HCI can achieve the performance and scalability required
for successful deployments.
SAP has a reputation as a forward-thinking company, seeking to help its customers reach new heights
on a journey that is grounded in driving business value and embracing innovation. Most recently, a
focus on enabling digital transformation has expanded to the vision of the intelligent enterprise that
organizations can embrace to make them more competitive and better suited to achieve their missions.
A key foundational component of this vision is SAP HANA, which offers organizations the opportunity
to dramatically change the capabilities and velocity at which they do business. Manufacturing efficiency
and time to market, retail strategy, customer retention, and financial organizations’ fraud and risk
capabilities are just some of the areas where SAP HANA is driving digital innovation, bringing companies
new value. To fully realize this vision, however, changes are required to the approach and delivery of the
IT infrastructure used to power the business.
Luckily, the IT infrastructure ecosystem for running SAP applications and databases, including SAP HANA,
is also in a paradigm shift. The public cloud has been one driver of the innovations witnessed in recent
years. As IT, database, and application teams have learned how easy it can be to spin up a virtual machine
on the cloud of their choice, they have started to demand this same experience for their SAP infrastructure.
There is also the trend of on-premise solutions created from new technologies — like hyperconverged
infrastructure (HCI) — that are not only scalable and flexible to adapt to change, but also fast to deploy and
easy to manage. In the SAP HANA world, this means delivering customers a new solution option that can
combine the advantages of the traditional approaches for running SAP HANA such as the standalone SAP
HANA appliance delivery model and the SAP HANA tailored data center integration program.
“Non-production SAP HANA workloads typically account for about 30-50% of the total SAP HANA
landscape, if not more, so these present a great opportunity for creating new efficiencies by taking
advantage of the flexibility of a virtualized, common infrastructure resource pool and simplified
deployment, updates, and retirement of instances.”
— Greg White, Solutions Marketing Principal, Nutanix
A New Hyperconverged Option for SAP HANA Customers

SAP recently announced a new certification for SAP HANA on HCI to provide more choices for its
customers, helping them to reduce costs and complexity while realizing the value of SAP HANA.
Since the start of this journey, Nutanix has partnered with SAP and shared its passion for innovation,
for simplifying and driving efficiency, and for delivering business value and has helped demonstrate
that, with minimal overhead, virtualized SAP HANA databases on HCI can achieve the performance
and scalability required for successful deployments.
Performance is critical, but it has also become imperative for IT teams and Basis administrators to
operate SAP landscapes more efficiently, minimizing management overhead and achieving faster
time to value with easier deployment and scaling. This new certification will help organizations that
are seeking infrastructure solutions that can satisfy growing needs while reducing the time spent
on routine management tasks across an entire SAP landscape — from development and quality
assurance (QA) to testing and production.
Nutanix Enterprise Cloud, which is now able to run SAP HANA workloads on the same software
that is also certified for SAP NetWeaver and other SAP applications and use cases, builds on a
foundation of hyperconvergence to create a flexible platform uniquely capable of solving challenges
faced by SAP customers. The architecture converges servers, storage, data protection, virtualization,
and networking with one-click operations, like performing a complete infrastructure software and
firmware upgrade with zero-downtime, full application automation, and multi-cloud management,
creating a software-defined solution that is ideally suited for deployment in primary data centers.
With a compact footprint and simplified remote management, Nutanix Enterprise Cloud is also
perfect for secondary data centers, disaster recovery (DR) sites, and edge locations including
production facilities, distribution centers, and remote or branch offices. All infrastructure and
applications across an entire operation can be managed from a single interface — Nutanix
Prism. Prism not only provides a consolidated view that is highly graphical and intuitive for both
infrastructure and Basis teams to monitor and report on, it also leverages modern machine learning
algorithms to predict future resource needs and provides proactive and actionable recommendations
for better infrastructure administration. Nutanix software for running SAP landscapes, including
application servers and databases, is layered on top of server platforms from Lenovo, Dell EMC, HP,
Cisco, and more. Server nodes can be added incrementally and non-disruptively to a cluster when
more storage or compute is needed, providing easy linear scaling and predictable performance. The
hardware and software abstraction together provide SAP customers with a simplified journey to an
enterprise cloud, which means they get to experience public cloud-like benefits — such as elasticity,
simplified management, consolidated infrastructure visibility, and speed — in their private, on-premise
infrastructure.
Simplify SAP HANA on Nutanix Enterprise Cloud

When it comes to running SAP HANA, Nutanix has partnered first with Lenovo and Dell EMC to offer
solutions on their Intel Skylake SP-based platforms. SAP HANA and applications servers can run on
the same cluster using a built-in, enterprise-grade hypervisor from Nutanix, AHV. Using AHV further
simplifies infrastructure demands by removing another silo that must be maintained and updated,
freeing teams to focus on new, value-add activities. Scale-up use cases with virtualized SAP HANA
instances up to 2.3TB are initially supported in both production and non-production deployments.
Non-production SAP HANA workloads typically account for about 30-50% of the total SAP HANA
landscape, if not more, so these present a great opportunity for creating new efficiencies by taking
advantage of the flexibility of a virtualized, common infrastructure resource pool and simplified
deployment, updates, and retirement of instances. Development, QA, sandbox, training, and other
landscapes can be rolled out, expanded, and refreshed quickly and easily while also maximizing how
the physical server and storage resources are consumed.
For production systems, a single management plane providing insight into all the elements of
the infrastructure stack removes manual, time-consuming tasks and interactions with separate
IT teams when Basis admins need to diagnose application issues and respond. By leveraging
hyperconvergence and enterprise cloud for running SAP HANA, teams can experience the ease-of-use
qualities of the appliance model along with the ability to adapt to changing needs of the SAP HANA
tailored data center integration approach.
Investigate Hyperconvergence Today
Modern applications and databases, led by SAP and SAP HANA, have become key to the success
of IT organizations in the digital age. The possibilities that HCI and enterprise cloud offer for SAP
environments, now also including SAP HANA, are worth investigating to help meet the demands of
digital and business innovation.
Nutanix Enterprise Cloud replaces the complexity of separate silos of infrastructure, increases resource
utilization, and enables scaling for future demands while delivering the performance and availability that
business-critical SAP landscapes need. As management tasks are reduced or eliminated, teams spend
more time enhancing SAP applications and planning and delivering new services. To learn more about
Nutanix Enterprise Cloud solutions for SAP software, visit Nutanix.com/sap.
Greg White
Solutions Marketing Principal, Nutanix
Deploying Machine Learning to Build an

Intelligent Enterprise
by Peter Russo, Global Vice President, Head of SAP S/4HANA Marketing, SAP | SAPinsider,
Volume 19, Issue 1
An absence of strategy trails only domain expertise as the reason why many companies have yet
to adopt artificial intelligence and machine learning. Companies are challenged with how to apply
these and other breakthrough technologies for business value. This article details several examples
of how organizations can deploy machine learning today, and how SAP S/4HANA and SAP Leonardo
come together in the cloud and on-premise to address the many innovative opportunities the
technology brings.
Chances are that you cannot scroll through your inbox each morning without running across at least
one email trumpeting the impending arrival of artificial intelligence, blockchain and machine learning.
They are just two of today’s hot topics in a long list of new technologies that promise to radically
transform the way business is done -- much as electricity, production lines, computers, and the
internet transformed business and society in days past. As a long-time innovator for businesses, SAP
is keenly focused on utilizing breakthrough technologies to help companies of all stripes deliver on
their digital transformation goals.
SAP has been researching the topic extensively, both from a pure technology standpoint and from
the perspective of business value. Results from SAP’s latest global survey of business leaders show
two big hurdles to adoption. Given its nascent status, the major challenge to adoption of artificial
intelligence and machine learning is a lack of domain expertise. But, a close second is an absence
of strategy. Said another way, “How can I take a transformative technology and apply it for business
value?” This is not so different from the introduction of past technological innovations.
Machine Learning with SAP S/4HANA and SAP Leonardo

The following are several examples of how organizations can deploy machine learning now, and how
SAP S/4HANA and SAP Leonardo come together to create an intelligent ERP system — in the cloud
or on-premise — capable of addressing today’s needs and tomorrow’s opportunities. Figure 1 shows
examples of how automating knowledge work with SAP Leonardo, in conjunction with SAP S/4HANA,
can achieve the impossible.
Figure 1 SAP’s vision for enterprise machine learning
Bringing SAP S/4HANA and SAP Leonardo together results in a more flexible and intelligent
enterprise. It’s not a question of “either / or.” Customers in every industry are demanding innovation.
Companies are responding with new products and services that better meet individual needs. These
new offerings impact every facet of business, not just the front office. Companies must address end-
to-end processes, across departments and lines of business, to deliver on new customer experiences,
products, and services. To do this effectively, companies need an intelligent ERP solution that can
be continuously enhanced and extended with innovative business services and applications, built on
emerging technologies including machine learning, block chain, and IOT. Customers that have big
innovation appetites or prefer to be early adopters have already begun this journey.
A Look at Machine Learning in Action

Below are three examples of intelligent applications of machine learning from SAP in very different
areas — the finance space, the supply chain, and the consumer world. One of the more prominent
intelligent applications is SAP Cash Application. Utilizing matching criteria from historical financial
clearing data and machine learning, SAP Cash Application automatically matches invoices with
incoming payments, allowing businesses to further scale shared service centers or redeploy finance
professionals to more strategic activities. Routine transactions are processed autonomously. Unlike
previous automation in this space, SAP Cash Application is constantly learning from an organization’s
financial data. Companies no longer have to worry about manually maintaining complex rulesets.
Instead, the system is continuously evolving, becoming smarter and more capable. While this
obviously delivers new scalability through increased automation to an organization, it also empowers
employees to shift away from monotonous work. Finance professionals can focus on the outliers
where their efforts deliver a higher value to the organization.
Machine learning, of course, is also applicable outside of the core finance space. Another area
of focus for SAP is the Digital Supply Chain, which is at the epicenter of the new ways in which
companies interact with their customers today; nimbler and more buyer-centric. With SAP Stock in
Transit, business users get real-time prediction of delayed shipments, allowing them to mitigate or
lessen the impact to operations. This proactive approach minimizes late deliveries throughout the
supply chain, thereby increasing customer satisfaction.
Finally, most people use machine learning in their everyday lives, even if they do not realize it. Digital
assistants such as Siri, Google Home, and Alexa are finding their ways into consumers’ hands and
homes. This is where SAP CoPilot comes in. Users now have a consumer-grade, business context-
aware digital assistant to help them work smarter and more efficiently. SAP CoPilot allows users
to find and interact with almost any piece of information in their enterprise. Thanks to the machine
learning embedded within, SAP CoPilot is constantly improving, allowing users to perform their work
more efficiently and effectively.
Figure 2 shows a host of new intelligent apps created with SAP S/4HANA and SAP Leonardo.
However, this list just scratches the surface of what is possible with machine learning. Leveraging the
power of SAP S/4HANA and SAP Leonardo, you can also build your own intelligent applications to
extend existing functionality or develop entirely new use cases for digital technology.
Figure 2 Creating new intelligent apps with SAP S/4HANA and SAP Leonardo
The Future of Intelligent SAP Applications

Tomorrow’s killer enterprise applications will no doubt leverage innovations built on machine learning,
blockchain, and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. SAP is making it easy for companies to collect,
analyze, understand, and act upon a vast new world of data, on one holistic in-memory platform,
fed directly to core business processes. This, then, is the future of ERP systems. Hundreds of
companies are already enjoying intelligent applications that increase the efficiency and effectiveness
of core business processes, while providing visibility and foresight out to the edge of the enterprise.
Given that insight, flexibility, and responsiveness are critical to success, companies cannot rely on
yesterday’s technology.
Visit http://machinelearning.saps4.me/ to learn how machine learning is enabling intelligent ERP.
Peter Russo is Global Vice President, Head of SAP S/4HANA Marketing for SAP
3 Tips for a Successful SAP S/4HANA Migration

by Jorge Ruiz, Product Marketing Manager, Winshuttle | SAPinsider, Volume 19, Issue 2
SAP S/4HANA is helping companies simplify their landscapes by deploying a digital core that can keep
pace with the real-time nature of the digital world. Whether you are new to the platform or upgrading
from an existing SAP ERP system, best practices can be applied to make your migration smooth and
effective. Learn three key tips from real-world SAP S/4HANA migrations that have helped companies
meet their deadlines and realize the benefits of SAP S/4HANA more quickly.
SAP S/4HANA can help alleviate the increasing complexity and real-time nature of today’s digital world,
and many organizations are already experiencing the benefits of running on the platform. With SAP
S/4HANA, businesses can establish a digital core to connect the enterprise with people, business
networks, the Internet of Things, and big data, as well as benefit from using a platform that offers
real-time analytics and simplifies functionality, data structure, and user experience. And while many
companies are eager to implement SAP S/4HANA, some are unsure how best to go about it.
I’ve worked closely with migration teams who have paired best practices with flexible solutions to meet
or exceed tight go-live deadlines for transitioning to SAP S/4HANA. Here are the top three that can
help companies execute successful migrations and realize the benefits of real-time data access more
quickly.
1. Remove Unnecessary Custom Code

According to a survey report by IDC, 40% of companies considering a move to SAP S/4HANA believe
that migrating custom code will be a key challenge. SAP customers should use the move to SAP
S/4HANA as an opportunity to simplify their systems by validating all extensions and modifications.
Reviewing existing custom ABAP code in SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) and removing
any nonessential custom code will help companies avoid additional work during the transition. SAP
customers can also use more flexible alternatives for customization that are fully SAP S/4HANA
compliant — such as those offered by Winshuttle — to reduce the number of RICEFW objects across
all SAP modules that require ABAP resources. This can help ease the transition, cut down the number
of technical resources required, reduce the time spent on the transition, and lower the cost of the
implementation.
2. Use a Phased Approach

Organizations moving from SAP ECC to SAP S/4HANA should plan for a two- or three-year transition
period. Mid-to-large-size companies should also plan for a phased approach to SAP S/4HANA, where
they will gradually move different instances, modules, or regions to the new system. During this
multiple month- or year-long period, SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA will run in parallel. This phased
approach will help organizations mitigate risk, manage change, and validate the changes to the
architecture and business processes. Meanwhile, it’s important to engage business users who know
the data and processes best to evaluate and optimize existing business processes.
3. Engage Business Teams

According to a data migration customer survey by Bloor Research, half of respondents identified
business engagement as the most critical success factor for their data migration project. But
this shouldn’t be surprising: Business users are the ones who understand business rules and can
resolve data quality issues, so making these key resources available in the early stages of the
transition is vital.
Winshuttle offers a solution that is certified by SAP for integration with SAP ECC and SAP S/4HANA
and can help migrate large volumes of master data and transactional data into SAP S/4HANA. A
powerful data management tool in both new and old architectures, it delegates migration tasks to the
business users who are responsible for the data to better tight timelines. It also empowers users to
easily extract data from SAP ECC directly into Microsoft Excel, where business users can easily clean
and manipulate data — and validate it against SAP data before uploading it into SAP S/4HANA.
Learn More
Whether you are implementing SAP S/4HANA for the first time or migrating from an older SAP
system, these three tips can help to facilitate error-handling and ensure high data quality in the new
system. And by leveraging Winshuttle, you can provide your business users with the tools they need
during the migration and support your organization throughout the transition period. To learn more,
visit www.winshuttle.com/s4hana for the full list of best practices for your transition.
Jorge Ruiz
Product Marketing Manager
Winshuttle
Bridging the Data-Driven to Insights-Driven Gap

with SAP BW/4HANA
by Thierry Audas, Senior Director of Product Marketing, SAP SE | SAPinsider, Volume 19, Issue 2
Discover how SAP BW/4HANA integrated with SAP Analytics can help your organization distill data into
actionable insights that can spur the growth of your business. Learn about three challenges related to
data and analytics and how SAP BW/4HANA enables your business to take three strategic steps toward
evolving into an insights-driven organization.
Digital transformation continues to permeate and disrupt every business, from healthcare and
transportation to telecommunication and retail. To compete effectively in a tech-driven economy, digital
must be a strategic priority; failing to make it a priority and resisting change can often impede business
growth.
Digital transformation is an organizational change brought about through digital technologies. These
include cloud, data warehousing, big data, and analytics, which combine with rejuvenated business
models to drive business growth. Organizations slow to adopt a data-driven approach are now being
urged to move toward an insights-driven strategy, which translates into a more streamlined customer
experience, better customer relationships, and an emphasis on actionable data.
As a leading player in the data management and analytics market, SAP’s next-generation packaged data
warehousing solution, SAP BW/4HANA, enables businesses to become insights-driven and to reimagine
business performance.
Adapt or Die
Digital transformation creates more dynamic and more diverse data. Collecting all this data is only the
first step. The more critical step, however, is turning that data into actionable insight through digital
technologies. Some experts have expressed that the situation is dire and believe that 40% of businesses
will fail in the next 10 years if they don’t figure out how to accommodate new technologies.
In 2017, SAP commissioned global research organization Forrester to develop thought leadership
strategies focused on how businesses can bridge the gap and transition effectively and efficiently from a
data-driven to an insights-driven organization.1 The benefits gathered from this research were clear:
• Insights-driven public companies are growing by an average of 27% annually and it is projected that
the collective revenues of the top 30 insights-driven companies will be $1.8 trillion in 2021
• Insights-driven businesses are predicted to grow by between 8 to 10 times faster than the global
economy
Data allows companies to evaluate what has happened in the past and enable more effective
planning. Gathering data into one central data warehouse lays a solid foundation for an insights-
driven culture by providing the capability to analyze and translate disparate data sources into
intelligent, actionable information the business can use.
Modern Data Warehousing Benefits.

The development and deployment of new data warehouses are driven by agility, leveraging the cloud,
and the next generation of data. Driving digitization is achievable with a true big data warehouse,
which offers several advantages for businesses seeking to adopt effective strategies. These include:
• More self-service access to any data
• Improved system performance and scalability
• Faster and higher return on investment
• Improved business intelligence and immediate, live insights
• More consistency and quality in ongoing strategic decision making
An effective digital strategy requires an organization to have an in-depth understanding of its

customers, people, processes, and the digital changes that impact its real-time performance. On that
basis, a roadmap to change can be formulated to disrupt and transform business processes.
SAP BW/4HANA integrated with SAP Analytics solutions enables a massive adoption of trusted
actionable analytics across a business, offering deployment options in the cloud or on premise.
More Data Does Not Equal More Insight.

For the past decade, businesses have been drowning in data but found themselves starving for
insight. Organizations struggling to adapt to change may assume that more data equates to more
insight, but this is not always the case. Transforming data into insight requires an organization to
have a complete understanding of the customer journey, coupled with the right tools and people with
the right skills to turn that data in actionable insight.
The Forrester research previously cited identified three key challenges relating to data and analytics,
namely:
• Inconsistent quality of the data available among the sources utilized
• Data materializing far too rapidly for organizations to manage it effectively (SAP has found that
the closest estimate suggests 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated every day)
• An abundance of unconnected data sources, which may result in “noisy” data (for example,
meaningless or unstructured data that cannot be interpreted correctly)
For many businesses, data is an underperforming asset that fails to provide essential insights.
Furthermore, most businesses simply aren’t equipped to make the vital decisions needed from
this data.
Systems of insight power insights-driven businesses. The real challenge lies in distilling the
information available down to create pertinent insights required to drive positive growth. Data
analytics and management must become more agile and flexible to support the urgency with
which insight is required. The answer lies in data-centric alliances for greater efficiency and the
adoption of technology that is equipped for future business needs.
Bridging the Gap with SAP BW/4HANA

The study also highlighted the need to ensure strategy embraces technology that is equipped to
respond to future business needs and unifies data around a single, multi-layered data platform.
SAP BW/4HANA, which is built on SAP’s advanced in-memory platform SAP HANA, empowers
businesses to transition to an insights-driven organization in three strategic steps:
• Simplify the provisioning of timely business insights
• Capitalize on the value of all business data already available
• Innovate with one trusted source to create a truly insights-driven business
Data practices are transformed for agility and efficiency, offering live and immediate insights that are
deployed at scale on premise or in the cloud. Data management and analytics becomes more agile
and flexible, reducing business costs and risks while driving growth. SAP BW/4HANA is a new big
data warehouse solution that complements SAP S/4HANA embedded analytics and enables SAP BW
customers to modernize enterprise data warehousing.
Creating an Insights-Driven Business

The SAP BW/4HANA solution enables innovation with analytics use cases for insights-driven
organizations that weren’t achievable before with classic SAP BW. For example:
• Construction services start-up Katerra runs SAP BW/4HANA as a natural extension to

SAP S/4HANA for real-time analytics and integration with other data sources. Simplified
operations and implementation enable Katerra to stay nimble.
• An industry leader in lubricants and automotive chemicals, Valvoline, plans to run SAP
BW/4HANA in SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud. Its goal is to become more insights-driven and
ensure agile insights are more readily available to the data analysts community throughout the
organization.
Businesses that learn to leverage the insights from their data as a strategic asset are the ones that
will deliver better insights to drive decisions and deliver a more profitable business. Senior executives
from forward-looking organizations agree. Omar Bumann, Head of SAP Services at Swisscom AG,
said about the SAP BW/4HANA project, “Our biggest accomplishment is that we have created a
single central data warehouse that is adaptable as situations change. It allows us to work nimbly
with the business to react to market developments.” Insight-driven decisions are critical to achieving
digital transformation and to make more informed decisions. SAP BW/4HANA enables those insights
with true big data warehouse capabilities that leverage modern digital solutions, maximize business
adoption, and reimagine business processes with automated intelligence.
Learn More
To learn more, about the new SAP-commissioned thought leadership study about becoming an
insights-driven business, visit https://bit.ly/2GOvR51. Also, be sure to listen to this SAP webinar,
where you’ll hear insights from experts from Forrester Consulting, Valvoline, and SAP: https://bit.
ly/2FBEWsx. You can find out more about SAP BW/4HANA by visiting https://bit.ly/2JChzlW, and
engage with the SAP BW/4HANA community at https://bit.ly/2IIPUyk
1
ow to Become An Insights-Driven Business, a January 2018 commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on
H
behalf of SAP
Thierry Audas
Senior Director of Product Marketing
SAP SE

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SAP BI and SAP HANA Collection

9 articles to help you better utilize, manage,

6 An Overview of SAP BW/4HANA and Key Considerations When Making

29 Southwire Powers Up with Analytics to Redesign User Roles

55 Simplify Running SAP HANA

59 Deploying Machine Learning to Build an Intelligent Enterprise

63 3 Tips for a Successful SAP S/4HANA Migration

65 Bridging the Data-Driven to Insights-Driven Gap with SAP BW/4HANA

Data is the Key to the Intelligent Enterprise

An Overview of SAP BW/4HANA and Key

• Improves jobs scheduling and monitoring via process chains

• Offers a simplified approach to modeling and multi-temperature architecture

• Provides non-cumulative modeling for inventory management and headcount

• Makes available business content for SAP originating models

• Offers an analytics manager for faster development of complex queries

What Makes SAP BW/4HANA Different

Simplified Modeling, Increased Agility

Figure 1 LSA vs. LSA++ architecture

New Source Systems and Business Content

Figure 3 The number of source-system types are reduced from 10 to four

There are two new distinct content add-ons:

SAP HANA-Optimized Models Lead to Faster Loads and Query Execution

Smaller Data Footprint

Field-Based Modeling: When Do You Still Need InfoObjects?

SAP HANA-Optimized Transformations

Figure 4 Check if transformation can be HANA-optimized

SAP HANA Analysis Process and Predictive Analytics

Multi-Temperature Architecture and Partitioning

Figure 5 An example of multi-temperature configuration by partition

New Data Flows

Figure 6 An example of a data flow in SAP BW/4HANA

SAP HANA Studio versus the SAP GUI

Leverage BW Queries, Native SQL, and Mixed Scenarios

Figure 7 Exposing SAP BW/4HANA models to native SQL

Figure 8 The BW/4HANA Query editor in SAP HANA studio

Key Considerations When Making the Decision to Migrate

Sergei Peleshuk ([email protected]) has more than 15 years of

Managing Data with SAP Solutions – SAP HANA

Use Cases for Data Replication and Transformation

Figure 2 Example architecture using the staging area

Scenarios Supported by the SAP HANA Capability

SAP HANA Smart Data Access

Here is a summary of the features of SAP HANA smart data access:

SAP HANA Smart Data Integration

SAP HANA Streaming Analytics

Use Cases for Data Replication and Transformation Using

++ Very strong support of this functionality

+ Support of this functionality,

O Functionality supported with restrictions

- Functionality not supported

Robert Heidasch ([email protected]) is the chief innovation

Southwire Powers Up with Analytics to Redesign

Shining a Light on User Roles

Connecting with the Business

Wired for Success

Southwire Company, LLC

Third-party solutions: Security Weaver Transaction Archive, Separations Enforcer, Secure

Security Weaver Helps Southwire Control Risk Through

Visit www.securityweaver.com/SAP-insider for more information.

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