Building a Data Warehouse from SAP using iWay and WebFOCUS O. Julian Plys PMP, Sunoco, Inc. Carole Benoit, Tek Systems, Inc.

What you will learn Why create a DW outside of SAP? How can you use iWay tools for this How to structure your data for easiest extraction and efficient reporting What WebFocus BI tools to use The story of how we did this at Sunoco

Why create a DW from SAP? Control & flexibility over data design history merged with new data merging with outside data conformed dimensions SCD – Slowly Changing Dimension Reduce the transaction load on SAP - separate transaction from queries Flexibility in BI front end tools Cost reduction SQL development vs. BW development License costs – SQL Server vs BW

A Little Data Warehouse History 1980’s – the Information Center 1990’s – the Data Warehouse 2000’s – New Tools, New Specialties CRM – Customer Relationship Management MDM – Master Data Management Data Quality; Data Cleansing Business Intelligence tools

It was 20 Years ago today…

IBI taught us how to play…

The Sunoco Decision We wanted the flexibility We wanted the cost reduction Decision: Build a reporting oriented Data Warehouse alongside SAP implementation. Use WebFocus reporting and BI tools to expose SAP + other data to end users

The Action Plan Connections to SAP – iWay ETL processes shared between iWay and SSIS Data Warehouse design based on Dimensional modeling techniques Structured Reports OLAP and AdHoc Tools – Report Assist

The iWay SAP Query Adapter

ETL Processes Move SAP data to Staging Area (MSSQL) in raw form (overnight and near real time) Use ETL tools to load dimensional structures (SSIS) Load dimensions first, then measures Combine with outside data while loading Error check and Log while loading

Data Design Principles Dimensional models simplify SAP complexity Further complexity simplified in views Masters created from views Dimensions and measures joined using native SAP keys Can perform SCD (Slowly Changing Dimension)

Before – SAP Structure

AFTER – DW Structure

WebFocus Reporting MRE Dashboard for standard reports Every Dimensional Structure / View becomes a Report Object Each report documented on Dashboard page Metadata is built into the WebFocus Master Metadata comes from SAP Query Adapter (in English !)

WebFocus BI Tools OLAP Reports become embarrassingly easy to create with dimensional model and metadata in Master File Description Every View becomes a Report Object End User training customized with existing report objects

Dramatis Personae 1 Project Manager 1.5 Analysts 1 Data Designer / ETL Specialist 1 Report Developer The Cavalry Charge at the end 4 additional developers 2 additional analysts 3 IBI consultants

Time Frame Jan 2006-Apr 2006Interviews, Environment set up May 2006-Aug 2006Analysis, Requirements Sep 2006 – Nov 2006Development, Testing and Delivery Dec 2006 – Feb 1, 2007Intense Dev, Test, Deliver Feb 2007 – Apr 2007User training, New Requirements, Project wrap- up

More Information iWay Manual = Adapter Administration for UNIX, Windows, OpenVMS, i5/OS, and z/OS – Chapter 54 Using the Adapter for SAP R/3-ECC Ralph Kimball Books on DW design, ETL: The Data Warehouse Lifecycle ToolKit, Ralph Kimball et al., John Wiley & Sons, 1998 – 2 nd edition available The Data Warehouse ETL ToolKit, Ralph Kimball et al., John Wiley & Sons, 2004 The Data Warehouse Toolkit 2 nd Edition, Ralph Kimball et al., John Wiley & Sons, 2002

Questions