SAP Data Warehouse Cloud (SAP DWC) represents SAP’s next-generation data warehousing solution built on the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). It empowers organizations to integrate, model, and analyze data from various sources, including SAP S/4HANA, with flexibility and scalability.
In this article, we’ll explore how to build a data model in SAP DWC using SAP S/4HANA as a primary data source. This process is essential for businesses looking to leverage operational data for real-time analytics and decision-making.
SAP S/4HANA is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite known for handling critical business functions in real time. However, its transactional data is not always ideal for analytical reporting. SAP DWC complements this by providing a dedicated environment for analytical data modeling, reporting, and integration across sources.
Benefits include:
- Real-time analytics on live data
- Unified semantic modeling
- Scalability and integration with other SAP and non-SAP sources
- Business and IT collaboration using graphical and SQL-based tools
Before building the data model, ensure the following prerequisites are met:
- Access to SAP Data Warehouse Cloud environment
- Connection to an SAP S/4HANA system (on-premise or cloud)
- Valid user credentials with data modeling privileges
- Required business knowledge of S/4HANA modules (e.g., FI, SD, MM)
SAP DWC supports both live and replicated data access:
- Live Access: Real-time queries on S/4HANA without data replication.
- Replicated Access: Data is copied into SAP DWC for better performance and transformation capabilities.
- Go to the Data Builder in SAP DWC.
- Select the Data Source as your newly configured S/4HANA connection.
- Choose the tables or CDS (Core Data Services) views you wish to import (e.g.,
I_BillingDocument, I_SalesOrder).
- Import and replicate them into your space if needed.
- Use the Graphical View in Data Builder to visually design your data model.
- Drag and drop the imported entities (tables or views) into the canvas.
- Define relationships using joins (inner, left, etc.).
- Apply filters, calculated columns, or semantic enrichments as needed.
¶ 5. Validate and Deploy the Model
- Run validations to check for join consistency, type mismatches, or cardinality issues.
- Save and deploy the model to make it available for consumption.
- Once deployed, the model can be consumed directly in SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) for interactive dashboards and visualizations.
- Use SAC’s live connection feature to build real-time dashboards on top of your SAP DWC model.
- Use CDS Views: Leverage S/4HANA's prebuilt CDS views which encapsulate business logic and semantics.
- Model in Layers: Separate your models into data acquisition, harmonization, and consumption layers.
- Govern Access: Use SAP DWC’s space and user role management to control data access and modeling privileges.
- Monitor Performance: Use performance monitoring tools to identify and optimize heavy queries or data joins.
Integrating SAP S/4HANA with SAP Data Warehouse Cloud enables organizations to transform operational data into actionable insights with agility and precision. By following the steps outlined in this guide—setting up the connection, importing data, modeling, and enriching semantics—you can build scalable, maintainable data models that drive better decisions across your enterprise.
Whether you’re a data engineer, analyst, or business user, SAP DWC bridges the gap between raw enterprise data and business intelligence in an intuitive and powerful way.