SAP - BW and XI need?

[Former Member]

Hi All,

Can anyone tell me why we need XI when we interface beween SAP and BW?

[Former Member]

Kumar,

The main need of XI between SAP and BW is, loading the transaction data.

Until now, you have to schedule the extract jobs (in BW which will pull data from source) to load data into BW. Using XI you can now post the data into BW.

Regards

Shravan

[Former Member]

Thanks for all your input. Here is the argument, why can't we use ALE, or other ways before XI 3.0 come in place between SAP-BW ? Even ETL with having connectivity available to SAP?

If we are loading the data from other legacy systems, why can't use any ETL tool that has powerful extraction/transformation/quality services?

[Former Member]

Its a good argument for XI or for the matter any middleware..

Qns are

1) Is XI reqd to do this integration?

2) Cant an ETL/ALE based transfer accomplish this..

3) How do I manage multiple failure points in my data load process!!

Its a good question and Answers NOT SIMPLE to arrive @ unless you are able exactly state and fix your reqmt..

and this is not the first forum to raise this question as well!!

[moorthy]

If you use XI here, you will be having very good Monitoring Capability. You can track status at any given point of time. If you use BPM then it will be useful for sending Approval Mails etc..

Hope it will add a little

Regards,

Moorthy

[Former Member]

Hi Kumar,

The integration of SAP XI and SAP BW offers the following advantages:

• Central maintenance of message flow between logical systems of your system landscape.

• Options for transformation of message content between sender and recipient.

Mappings help you to adapt values and structures of your message to the recipient. In this way, you can transfer different types of files to a SAP BW system using interface mapping. However, in any case, it is necessary to transform the data into a format that corresponds to the interface of the function module that is generated in SAP BW and used for data transfer. The function module contains a table parameter with a flat structure. This means that the data have to be transformed so that they fit to a flat structure in SAP BW.

• Using proxy communication with SAP BW.

Proxies are executable interfaces generated in the application systems for communication with the SAP XI Integration Server. We recommend the use of proxies for communication with SAP BW because they guarantee Full Quality of Service (Exactly Once in Order). They also guarantee that the data is delivered only once and in the correct sequence. The SAP XI Integration Server keeps the serialization as it was established by the sender.

Also go thru these links which are really good and it answers your question very clearly:

http://www.sap.info/index.php4?ACTION=noframe&url=http://www.sap.info/public/INT/int/index/Category-...

http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw04/helpdata/en/9b/821140d72dc442e10000000a1550b0/content.htm

http://www.microsoft-sap.com/technology.aspx

I hope I have answered your query.

Regards,

Abhy

PS: AWARD POINTS FOR HELPFUL ANSWERS.

[MichalKrawczyk]

Hi,

please read the "introduction" paragraph

from this document:

https://websmp101.sap-ag.de/~sapdownload/011000358700001585032004E/NWHowToPushXIBW.pdf

SAP mentions EO QoS handling as a one of the reasons

Regards,

michal