AB Medica

Background

AB Medica is an Italian company specializing in advanced medical technologies, including surgical robotics, telemedicine, and innovative medical device

Objective

AB Medica aimed to transition part of its BW reporting from SAP BW to SAP Datasphere by executing a structured migration process. The goal was to migrate BW objects into SAP BW Bridge, ensuring seamless integration and continuity of existing reporting functionalities. This migration aimed to modernize the data architecture while maintaining reporting accuracy and operational efficiency.

Tech Stack

Source System: SAP ECC
Database: Oracle, SAP HANA
Data Warehouse: SAP BW, SAP Datasphere
Connectivity: ODP

ETL Process

Extract: ODP
Transform: TRNFs with ABAP or AMDP
Load: Loading ADSOs with DTPs

Migration Tool

RSMIGRATE (+ Manual migration)

Scope of the migration project

The goal of this project was to migrate a selection of process chains related to Financial Information (FI) as a pilot to test and evaluate SAP Datasphere.

Challenges:

The legacy SAP BW system, which was not on HANA, posed several challenges:

RSMIGRATE Limitations:

The migration tool could not handle all complexities, necessitating significant manual intervention

Table Structure Differences:

ADSOs in BW on HANA (and BW Bridge) have different table structures, requiring manual adjustments.

Outdated Components:

Legacy 3.x routines and some function modules were incompatible with the new environment. These function modules were replaced with SAP-recommended methods from relevant SAP Notes. Transformations with 3.x code were revised and updated to 7.x standards. Additionally, classic DSOs were migrated to advanced DSOs, requiring changes to their names, structures, and any references in the code to ensure proper functionality.

Process Chain:

The process chain also needed to be updated for several reasons. Old objects, such as InfoCubes, had to be migrated to Advanced DSOs. This migration changed the object type, requiring revisions to specific process types in the process chain that were originally designed for the InfoCube. These process types had to be adjusted to ensure compatibility with the new ADSO (Advanced DSO) structure, including those related to Cube-type processes.

Conclusion:

This pilot migration served as an important step in assessing SAP Datasphere’s capabilities and compatibility with AB Medica’s reporting needs. Despite the challenges posed by the legacy BW system, the migration provided valuable insights into the effort required to transition to modern SAP systems and highlighted areas where future automation and optimization could significantly reduce manual work.