SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) is widely recognized as a comprehensive data warehousing solution that enables organizations to consolidate data from diverse sources for reporting and analysis. While SAP BW natively integrates well with SAP systems, real-world business environments often require extraction of data from non-SAP systems, such as relational databases, flat files, or third-party applications. This article explores the methods and tools SAP BW offers to efficiently extract, transform, and load data from non-SAP sources.
Enterprises commonly operate heterogeneous IT landscapes containing non-SAP systems like Oracle, SQL Server, IBM DB2 databases, CSV or XML files, and web services. These systems house critical business data such as customer transactions, inventory logs, or external market data.
Integrating non-SAP data into SAP BW enables:
SAP Data Services is a powerful ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) tool that supports extracting data from numerous non-SAP sources. It provides connectors for databases, files, web services, and more. Data Services enables complex transformations, data cleansing, and scheduling, making it ideal for large-scale and complex integrations.
SAP BW supports direct extraction from flat files. Files such as CSV or XML can be uploaded into BW using:
DB Connect is a native SAP BW interface that enables direct connection to external relational databases via Open SQL. It allows SAP BW to extract data from tables or views in non-SAP databases such as Oracle or SQL Server without intermediate staging.
Advantages:
ODP framework supports extraction via OData services, RESTful APIs, or other web services. It’s useful for integrating cloud or modern web-based sources.
Middleware platforms such as SAP PI/PO (Process Integration/Process Orchestration), Informatica, or Talend can bridge SAP BW with non-SAP sources by handling extraction, transformation, and delivery.
Extracting data from non-SAP systems into SAP BW is essential for creating a unified, enterprise-wide data warehouse that supports comprehensive analytics. SAP BW offers multiple methods — from simple flat file uploads to sophisticated ETL tools like SAP Data Services and DB Connect — enabling businesses to integrate diverse data sources effectively.
By choosing the right extraction technique based on the source system’s characteristics and business requirements, organizations can ensure timely, accurate, and valuable insights from their combined SAP and non-SAP data landscape.