Updating of data in APO DP - what is 'best practice'?

[Former Member]

I am using APO DP V5.

I am using XI as an integration broker to receive data from external sources which is to be loaded into APO DP.

There are of course different ways of doing this, for example:

1. From XI, pass an XML message which then loads a delta queue in APO BW, loads an InfoCube, which is then used to load data into an APO planning area

2. From XI, pass the data into BAPI parameters, which are then used to directly update data in an APO planning area via a BAPI call (eg BAPI PlanningBookAPS)

What is the recommended 'best practice' here?

Thanks,

Bob Austin

[somnath_manna · Accepted solution]

Hi Bob,

I do not have experience in SCM 5.0 and XI but shall give my views from general experience.

What kind of data you are loading in APO DP is the driver for the two ways mentioned by you.

Traditionally (older versions of SCM/APO and non XI interface) Sales History is captured into an Infocube and then loaded to DP Planning Area. The reason - you normally use this Infocube for generation of CVCs which is the Master Data in APO DP. Moreover you will use this data to generate Proportional Factors for disaggregation of Statistically generated Forecast at aggregate level to the lowest level. So there is a requirement for loading Historical data from external systems to APO DP via an Infocube.

The other kind of data would be market and sales forecast. This is a timeseries data which need to be directly loaded to the Planning Area for immediate Interactive Planning. In that case rather than putting it in an Infocube and then periodically loading the data from the Infocube to the Planning Area, its better to load the data directly in the Planning Area. There the BAPI will be a good option.

Hope this gives some ideas to your query.

Thanks,

Somnath

[Former Member]

bob

just to elaborate on what somnath has said:-

to populate the KF in DP you have the following options

you should be able to load the DP key figures (eg sales history),

or should be generated (eg forecast)

or should be calculated (using macros)

or should be maintained by the user (eg adjustment KF)

or should be loaded directly (eg Forecast from Customer )

BAPIs are best used when loading Order series data which cant be CIFed for some reason - to replicate transactional data that is not obtained the standard way

one important step that should be part of the DP data load process is the CVC generation/maintainance. Its easy to generate new CVCs(which is often needed) with the same infocubes that are used to load the planning area as a basis