SAP BW is a component of SAP’s dimension product, this tool will help an organization to analyze data extracted from the SAP R/3 applications and also from an external data sources. The SAP business information warehouse can also be integrated with other new dimension product such as SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer (SAP APO), the SAP Business to Business (SAP B2B) and also the SAP strategic Enterprise Management (SAP SEM).

SAP BW is a tool that runs on OLAP data engine and it’s a comprehensive data warehouse solution using a dimensional reporting and analysis format that will help the management to do an end to end analysis and an overall performance of each department in the organization. The SAP BW is also equipped with preconfigured information models and reports and an automatic data extraction and data loading features.

It’s using a Microsoft Excel user interface that enables you to create, format and analyze report with a high performance result because it uses a dedicated server to do all its report generating processes.

The architecture of business information warehouse

The business information warehouse includes a relational online analytical processing (OLAP), automated data extraction, a preconfigured data repository, the front end (The business explorer) and the Administrator Workbench.

There 3 main layers in the SAP BW architecture.

1. Business Explorer: This is the top layer of SAP BW, it serves as the reporting environment for the end users. It consists of BEX Analyzer (to create consumer, standard and ad hoc reports) and BeX Browser (to organize workbooks into channels and clusters) for analysis and reporting activities.

2. Business Information Warehouse Server: This is the middle layer of SAP BW that facilitates data storage and also data retrieval. it has 2 primary tasks:

a. Data warehouse management and administration. This task is handled by the production data extractor.
b. Data storage and representation. This task is handled by the InfoCubes and the optional data store(ODS).

3. Source Systems: This third layer is serves as the data sources, as mentioned before, this source data can be from various types of external data sources, external systems and even flat files.

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