SAP Data Integration

What is Data Integration?

Data integration is the process of providing a single, unified view of information by combining data that resides in different sources. The process of data integration involves a set of practices, tools, and architectural procedures.

Data integration has become a business imperative as organizations see competitive advantage in data quality, data governance, data modeling, and the challenges of isolated or siloed data. The extract, transform, load (ETL) process is a commonly used data integration model.

SAP offers a suite of data integration tools. These tools are available on premise or in the cloud and cover a variety of different use cases. Data integration tools provided by SAP include SAP Data Services, SAP Cloud Platform Integration for data services, SAP HANA smart data integration, SAP Cloud Platform smart data integration, SAP Landscape Transformation Replication Server, and SAP Data Hub.

Vendors like Qlik, Quickbase, Stonebranch, Boomi, and TIBCO provide data integration capabilities for SAP customers.

What is Data Integration?

Vendors like Qlik, Quickbase, Stonebranch, Boomi, and TIBCO provide data integration capabilities for SAP customers.

Benefits of Data Integration

In addition to consolidating information, data integration can also ensure that the data is clean, accurate, and enhanced for business use. It is also an important component to any effective data management strategy, and can help companies optimize analytics, ensure consistency between operational applications, share data outside of the organization, coordinate data services, and support data migration and consolidation.

Key Data Integration Considerations for SAPinsiders

Include end users in decisions about data integration. TIBCO’s Senior Solution Engineer Iain Harfield explains that while the primary decision makers for integration strategies are often those in charge of lines of business with enterprise architects driving the implementation strategy, end users also play a pivotal role in building our an integration strategy. “…not including them in the process can put an organization at risk of providing solutions that fall short of addressing business challenges,” Harfield says.
Blend SAP ERP data with non-SAP source data. SAPinsider’s 2021 integration research revealed that 90% of respondents need to integrate non-SAP data with their SAP data. In an SAPinsider thought leadership article, Qlik’s Vice President of SAP Business Matthew Hayes discusses the endless ways a business can benefit from integrating SAP ERP data with non-SAP source data. “The irony is that SAP data becomes more valuable if you expand it with related data from other sources,” Hayes says.
Deploy data lakes and data warehouses in the cloud. SAPinsider’s Data Management and Data Warehousing in Cloud Benchmark Report found that deploying data in a hybrid model was a popular choice for analytics, ERP, and supply chain data. To mitigate the challenge a hybrid model can pose from an integration standpoint, SAPinsider recommends that integration be achieved, in part, by moving data into a centralized cloud data lake or data warehouse.

How to Migrate to the New DataSource Concept in SAP NetWeaver 2004s

Published: 01/April/2007

Reading time: 17 mins

A new data flow concept has been introduced in SAP NetWeaver 2004s. SAP still supports the existing classic 3.x data flow, which allows customers to migrate as their needs warrant. Although the migration is not required, it presents a host of new capabilities. Key Concept A DataSource can only exist in one of two states:...…
- SAP Business Application Studio
Integrate Your SAP Data into SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation

Published: 11/September/2009

Reading time: 26 mins

The purpose and the semantics of transaction level data in SAP ERP can differ significantly from what business users expect to see in SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation when they perform their forecasting and consolidation activities. Taking these differences into account when integrating data into SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation is often more complex than...…
Uncover New Insight into Your Customers with mySAP CRM Analytics

Published: 15/August/2006

Reading time: 27 mins

Find out how mySAP CRM Analytics, a group of tools offered with mySAP CRM 2005 and SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence to help you optimize your customer data. Learn about the mySAP CRM extraction mechanism and cross-application analysis tools you can use with your data. Then, explore the standard tool sets available, including customer analytics, product...…
Part 2: Data Modeling Strategies to Avoid Data Inaccuracy and Ensure Consistency

Published: 01/March/2007

Reading time: 38 mins

Overcome the challenge of retaining the original master data attribute validity from when transactions occurred. Key Concept Developers only tend to use time-dependent master data attributes when a source system provides them as time dependent. However, SAP NetWeaver BI can also record time-independent master data from a source system as time dependent. This can greatly...…
- SAP Business Suite
SAP Data Services Part 1: Integrating with SAP Business Suite Sources

Published: 11/October/2016

Reading time: 15 mins

Gain an overview of SAP Data Services and how to extract data by leveraging SAP Business Suite extractors. Key Concept SAP Data Services can integrate with the SAP Business Suite to transport data by using extractors that streamline the extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) process for this type of deployment. SAP Data Services (formerly SAP...…
- SAP Data Services
SAP Data Services: Integrating with SAP Business Suite Sources

Published: 11/October/2016

Reading time: 28 mins

Gain an overview of SAP Data Services and how to extract data by leveraging SAP Business Suite extractors.
Get the Most Out of SAPSprint for Server-Based Printing in Microsoft Windows

Published: 22/April/2009

Reading time: 19 mins

SAPSprint is the latest service for server-based printing on Windows. Learn how to install and configure this service with its default options. Drill down into the technical implementation to learn how to manage print requests, restart print processes, configure front-end printing, and include barcodes. Key Concept Processing in SAPSprint means generating print data via the...…
Getting Started with SAP BusinessObjects Data Migration

Published: 13/May/2011

Reading time: 18 mins

Migration projects require iteration of data loads to better understand data, as well as close collaboration between business and IT. Beyond that, migration projects also need to be driven by software with functionality that allows you to convert legacy data into the appropriate format of your SAP solution. Discover what you need to know to...…
- SAP Process Integration
Build Integration Scenarios Entirely within SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio: The Process Integration Designer Perspective

Published: 17/February/2012

Reading time: 19 mins

Starting with SAP NetWeaver Process Orchestration 7.31, the new Process Integration Designer perspective within SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio was introduced for configuring integration scenarios in the Integration Directory. Learn how to configure and run integration flows connecting two systems with each other. Walk through a complete scenario built from scratch. Key Concept The new Process...…
Tips and Tricks for Data Conversion in SAP NetWeaver BW and SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation

Published: 05/April/2010

Reading time: 19 mins

Automating data loads from SAP ERP and SAP NetWeaver BW into SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation, version for the Microsoft platform is not a trivial task. Creating new SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation InfoObjects in SAP NetWeaver BW while keeping the original standard objects allows you to create an audit trail of all the transformations...…