General understanding : SCM & BW

[Former Member]

Hi Guru,

I am into SAP BI 7.0. I have below systems available for me. Do please address my concerns.

I have ECC 6.0 & BI 7.0 as of now . ECC and BI are connected to get all the logistics and financial information from ECC to BW. it's working fine and we can create analytic also from current BW system. We also want to implement SCM (APO & DP) now. My questions are below.

1. Do i need to have separate BW system for SCM config (APO & DP) or my current BW system can configure SCM BW stuff also because i understand that we don't need to install any additional component related to SCM in BI content so one BW system should work. With that said, Do i need 2 BW system or 1 BW system will work ( for SCM related stuff and other logistics & FI related reports ) ?

2. If i can configure SCM (APO & DP ) configuration & my other standard BI content in one BW system then how data will flow from BW objects to SCM objects like Material, Material_Group as in SCM Material, Material_Group infoobjects starts wtih 9MATNR.. etc...

Do please respond me

Regards,

Komik Shah

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Komik,

1) you donot need a separate BW, the same system can process and report data from ECC & APO

2) The data transfer between APO & BW happens through the BW component inside APO itself, you use the standard data extraction and replication process between APO BW and the BW system to transfer data. You can also use PI to transfer data between the two systesms, but not very common I guess.

Regards,

Ashok

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Ashok,

Thanks for your prompt reply.

I understood your 1st answer. I am confused in 2nd answer.

" The data transfer between APO & BW happens through the BW component inside APO itself, you use the standard data extraction and replication process between APO BW and the BW system to transfer data. You can also use PI to transfer data between the two systesms, but not very common I guess. "

If i can configure APO BW and standard BI content in one BW system then do i need PI (Process Integration ) tool to transfer data between APO BW and standard BW system ?

Regards,

Komik Shah

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Komik,

No. You do not need PI. It is one of the options for integrating the systems.

The integration method used genarally between the systems is the standard BI extraction and replication processes.

This does not require PI.

Regards,

Ashok

Edited by: Ashok Babu.R on Nov 4, 2011 10:08 AM

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Thanks Ashok...

Can you provide some document or link on connecting BW infoobject with SCM infoobjects. If you have any ?

Assigned points..

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Komik,

http://www.erphowtos.com/guides-a-tutorials/search_result.html

In the link above, please enter

Search keyword : APO

Search category : BW

The first hit with the name "SAP BW-APO System Landscape and Interface Considerations" gives you an overview and quite a bit of details of the integration.

some internal SDN links:

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/5f229690-0201-0010-84ba-9ee...

https://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/servlet/prt/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/4fe5d590-0201-0010-6c8d-ada...

Regards,

Ashok

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Ashok,

I discussed with the SCM guy. He said that APO DP related configuration will be done in SCM BW. There is no way to configure DP Key Figures, Planning Object Structures, LiveCache extractor and backup InfoCubes in the "Normal" or "standard" BW system.and afterwards i will have to create the links between the Backup and InfoCubes created in the SCM BW to report the DP LiveCache Data in the "Normal" or "standard" BW which means that i need 2 BW system one is SCM BW and other is Normal or standard BW system.

Can you help me to understand how SCM works ?

Regards,

Komik Shah

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Komik,

Your friend is absolutely right.

This is how it works. But you do not need a seperate SCM BW system. SCM BW is completely integrated in APO system. You donot have to setup a seperate SCM BW system.

As your friend has mentioned, you create the actual infoobjects in SCM BW and map them to std. BW objects and extract the data using standard BW extraction processes.

Regards,

Ashok

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Ashok,

OK!!! i got you to some extent and we also don't have 2 SCM BW system in place. We have one SCM BW system where all APO DP configuration will take place and one Normal BW system where i will have all data from SD,MM,FI,CO,PP modules. So, now my questions are below.

1. in SCM BW system, Can i configure all standard BI content for SD,MM,FI,CO & PP modules which i was suppose to configure in Normal BW system and that way i don't need separate BW system for Logistics & Financial reports ?

2. If your answer to 1st question is NO means we can't configure SD,MM,FI,CO & PP modules in SCM BW system then we will have to configure standard BI content in Normal BW system and afterwards i will have to map those SCM BW objects from SCM BW system with Normal BW system.

Thanks again for all your help. Can you send me mail id so that i can reach you to get rid of this confusion ?

Regards,

Komik Shah

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Komik,

SCM BW is mainly for objects and data related to demand planning.

It is also used as an interface for transferring data from APO to BW for reporting purpose.

But it is not meant to be used for reporting requirements of R/3 data. You can use extractors to move R/3 data to std BW directly.

APO data relevant for reporting is extracted to std BW from APO through SCM BW.

Thus both R/3 & APO data are available in BW. You can now generate your reports based on both the data.

Hope it is clear.

regards,

Ashok

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Ashok,

Thanks for the useful information provided to me. I am very much clear now.

How about master data flow ? Will it be from R/3 -> BW -> APO or R/3 -> APO directly or R/3 -> APO -> BW ??

Regards,

Komik Shah

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Komik,

APO Planning relevant data flows from R/3 to APO directly through CIF.

Reporting data does not flow from R/3 to APO because it is not necessary. Data for reporting is extracted directly from R/3 to BI. Similarly data is extracted from from APO BW directly to BI.

In BI system you can generate reports form the data received from APO and R/3 and publish them.

Regards,

Ashok

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Komik

For Master Data flow in DP look at the thread here -

Rishi Menon