In the SAP ecosystem, Data Acquisition is a fundamental process that enables organizations to extract, transform, and load (ETL) data from a variety of source systems into the SAP BW (Business Warehouse) environment. This process is crucial for enabling robust business intelligence, reporting, and analytics within an enterprise.
This article explores the core concepts, methodologies, and technologies involved in connecting to source systems for data acquisition in SAP BW.
Data acquisition in SAP BW refers to the process of collecting data from various internal and external systems, transforming it into a usable format, and storing it in BW for analysis. These source systems could include:
SAP BW acts as a centralized repository, integrating heterogeneous data sources to provide a unified view of business operations.
SAP BW supports several types of source systems, each with specific connection and data transfer methods:
ODP simplifies the extraction process by providing a standardized interface to connect BW with source systems such as S/4HANA, SAP HANA, and even SAP BW itself. It supports delta and full extraction efficiently.
SLT allows real-time replication of data from source systems into SAP BW or HANA. It is useful for time-sensitive applications and scenarios that require minimal latency.
SAP BusinessObjects Data Services is an ETL tool used for acquiring and transforming data from various structured and unstructured sources into BW.
Though not for data acquisition per se, Open Hub allows BW to distribute data to external systems — essentially reversing the data acquisition flow.
Data acquired into BW follows a structured data flow:
Each stage in the data flow ensures data integrity, consistency, and readiness for analytical processing.
While SAP BW provides powerful tools for data acquisition, challenges include:
Data acquisition is the lifeline of SAP BW, enabling businesses to consolidate and transform data from various systems into actionable insights. By effectively connecting to source systems — whether SAP or non-SAP — organizations can ensure high-quality, timely data availability for their analytics platforms.
As enterprises increasingly adopt hybrid and cloud architectures, SAP BW continues to evolve with advanced connectivity options like ODP and SLT, making data acquisition more scalable, efficient, and intelligent.