Automate Master Data Loads from BW to BPC

http://blog.nttdatasolutions.com.au/sap-bpc-10-netweaver-platform-automate-master-data-loads-from-bw-to-bpc/

Introduction

Back in 2010 shortly after SAP released BPC NW 7.5, SAP SDN published a how-to document for automating the loading of master data and hierarchies from BW to BPC. Please click here to read instructions.

This document addressed (some modification required) the issue of how to get the master data from BW that is loaded nightly via a BW process chain from ECC into BPC,  closing the loop for master data maintenance whilst still allowing BPC users to create ad hoc master data for planning requirements.

The standard BPC data manager package has vastly improved since then, however the issue still remains:  How to automate the BPC master data update and include in the nightly BW master data update?

Key Point

The back end of BPC was completely re-written for BPC 10 for the reading and writing of transactional and master data; meaning the solution provided in the afore mentioned how-to guide no longer works.

BPC 10 Standard Data Manager

SAP BPC provides a standard approach to loading master data from BW info objects into BPC. This uses the BPC Data Manager package along with transformation and conversion files. With the addition of start and end routines this has become a more useful option. However the creation and maintenance of these files is another skill set and the scheduling doesn’t allow for integration into existing BW process chains.

SAP BPC 10 Data Manager Package:

Corresponding Process Chains:

The original how-to guide for running a BPC process chain is still viable using updated hint files for the new BPC 10 process chains. However this still requires the creation of BPC transformation and conversion files. As a BW technical guy, I don’t want another place to monitor and maintain, I want to be able to update BPC master data the same way I did for IP and BPS.  So how do I do it?

The Step-by-Step Solution

SAP BPC 10 has a new web based administration client for the administering of Models (BPC 10 talk for Applications) and Dimensions. It also allows the maintenance of master data and hierarchies:

Display of account master data prior to update from BW:

The update to the BPC infoobject is done using the standard BW approach. This works for text, attributes, and hierarchies:

* Note: Any conversion from BW to BPC format would be done in the BW transformation. In this example I have concatenated the chart of account and the account number to become the BPC account.

The data is then loaded from BW to BPC using a BW DTP:

Once data is loaded it needs to be activated as in standard BW:

The final step is to run the BW to BPC update program:

The BW master data now appears in BPC:

Hierarchies

The Standard BW hierarchy transformation can be complex to map from one info object to another:

NTT DATA Business Solutions provides two alternatives to manually creating a transformation for each hierarchy.

1) BW to BPC hierarchy copy program

This program takes a hierarchy from a BW infoobject and copies it to a BPC Dimension, taking care of the transformation and allowing prefix’s and compound infoobjects.

2) Utilising NTT DATA Business Solutions BW to BPC interface to automatically map the source to the target using the pre-determined configuration

This can all be then put into a BW process chain and added to the nightly schedule:

ABAP program variant:

Want more information on automating data loads?  Please contact a NTT DATA Business Solutions BI expert today on +61 2 8908 4200 or