Informatica and SAP

SAP and Informatica have a relationship spanning more than 10 years, starting with the
initial release of BW and expanding to encompass all SAP modules. SAP and
Informatica have committed to continue supporting our common customer base. With
SAP becoming more central to the enterprise, connectivity to SAP has become critical.
Informatica has enhanced its technology regarding SAP to span data profiling, data
quality, access of semi-structured and unstructured data, and data transformation.

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• Informatica has been an SAP partner since 1998 with certified connectors for SAP
R/3, ECC, CRM, Industry Solutions, point of entry data quality, and Netweaver
BI.
• Master Relationship Agreement (MRA) signed in 2005 for global cooperation for
services projects related to data migration
• SAP Conversion Agent by Informatica resold by SAP for complex data exchange
with SAP XI (Industry formats and unstructured data)
• Certified connectivity:
http://www.sap.com/ecosystem/customers/directories/SoftwareISVSolutions.epx?context
=21B87D61C0F646A22B2A6DB254A010CA8C9C141B7529F029910FE6FF9EEEC5A7
01BF20EED61AC07159D98BAA068EBE1B8C5C7665EA2226374E942CF1D2A49D202
711A97F135182CC%7cC61C8714634CB70DC763A0A3D8A00FFA

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Much of the requirements of data integration with SAP are increasingly carried out by
people outside of direct involvement with SAP working with Basis and security
administrators. To facilitate the enhanced productivity of the developers responsible for
finding and leveraging SAP data and connectivity methods, Informatica continues to
focus on accessing SAP metadata for use-case-specific activities. Data architects, data
integration designers and developers, and business analysts require access to specific
information regarding the SAP data environment:

• ‘Where-used’ and data lineage for data stewards, architects, and auditors.
• Default value, conflict resolution, and profile reports and dashboards for business
analysts.
• Design windows that mimic SAP look and feel but expose metadata content and
context for the data integration developer and architect.
• Access to Informatica APIs for accessing Informatica data integration services,
earning Informatica a Powered By Netweaver certification.

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Selected Use Cases

Data Warehousing
Data warehousing remains, from a data perspective, as an activity that sets the pace for
data transformation and data access. From a data access perspective, data warehousing
increasingly must accommodate its feeds with those of other data integration
implementations. For example, it must work with MDM implementations and coordinate
with enterprise mandates on setting a data governance process in motion. All data
integration initiatives must be designed to acquire, transform, and deliver data using
multiple processing and delivery mechanisms with varying latency settings.

From an SAP perspective, Informatica has evolved its data access offerings for SAP in a
manner that encourages metadata browsing, data lineage and where-used studies, and a
set of options regarding data access. Data accessed from Netweaver BI can often also be
accessed from Business Content on ECC directly, for example.

SAP data feeds into PowerCenter, Informatica Data Explorer, and Informatica Data
Quality processes as just another data source, taking advantage of the full range of
Informatica data integration capabilities.

PowerCenter mappings are created independently from the implementation; an SAP data
source or target is specified separately from the release or location of the actual SAP
system, making it possible to apply the logic against multiple implementations without
rework.

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Data profiling of SAP data is rendered through the PowerExchange for Netweaver. Data
quality plans are also supplied and can be either imbedded within PowerCenter
workflows or run separately using the same plan.

Data Migration, Upgrade and Synchronization

The release of ECC on the new 6.40 Basis Kernel has provided a challenge for many
SAP customers. SAP provides a rich set of capabilities with this new release, but
converting legacy SAP data to the new platform is a daunting task. Customizations that
were necessary in the legacy system may no longer be required in the new. But how will
the data be cataloged? How fit-for-purpose is the existing data?

Informatica provides an open methodology, subject matter expertise, and extensive

technology platform to enable customers migrating from SAP or non-SAP legacy
systems to the new ECC environment to assess project risks based on data readiness.

Informatica Professional Services developed the Velocity Migration Methodology and

has made it available to Informatica customers and partners. This open methodology
includes substantial data migration assets based on Informatica profiling, data quality,
orchestration and data integration technologies. Services expertise and technology-based
assets provide a jump-start capability to customers looking to reduce the risk exposure
that is often largely unquantified due to lack of knowledge about the gap between legacy
data stores and the new data requirements.

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Data migration loads into SAP via the Data Transfer Workbench can be easily substituted
with IDocs or BAPIs with minor changes to PowerCenter workflows and mappings. Use
of LSMW or ADM can be focused on data loading instead of data transformation and
data access. Informatica provides the missing pieces in terms of completing the linage
and where-used puzzle, not just in the present but over time. Combined with data quality
score-carding and operational statistics, IT and the business stakeholders obtain a
common understanding of the conversion process and data points on its status. Auditors
can easily obtain information about the process from start to end at any point in time.

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 • Proven Experience and Open Methodology
• Technology platform
− seamless data access to complex sources and targets
− Accelerate iterative discovery, design & development process
− Ensure proper data validation, documentation, and audit trail
− Migration dashboard
• Data Quality certification process.
• Migration Assessment and Jump Start capabilities.
• Leveragability of assets after the engagement.
• Alignment with integration standards & technologies.

MDM and Data Governance

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Connectivity Characteristics
• Set of ABAP/4 programs installed in SAP system

PowerCenter accesses SAP through its native interface, the remote function call
or RFC. This allows access to the SAP application layer and provides the primary
method to call SAP functions and methods for accessing metadata and data
objects.

• Provides optimized way to import SAP metadata into Informatica repository

PowerCenter objects placed on the SAP module of choice provides a data

integration focus for viewing and accessing SAP metadata. While SAPgui
provides access to SAP objects, Informatica functions collect and display, using a
similar look and feel, a subset aimed at getting the necessary information from the
desired module, whether it is the Data Transfer Workbench, Business Content,
ALE, application-layer tables, functions and hierarchies, or any RFC-enabled
function.

• Configuration for automatic program name generation – name space and

starting number

When accessing data from application-layer tables or hierarchies, data is extracted

via SAP-certified OpenSQL, which is generated to conform with the data required
by the PowerCenter mapping. This generated ABAP is managed within the
development class established and a link between this program and the
PowerCenter mapping is maintained in the PowerCenter Metadata Repository.
The OpenSQL ABAP program includes additional optional metadata such as join

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 order and type, function calls, authorization calls, and any additional desired
ABAP code blocks. This inclusion renders most code customization unnecessary.

• Support for run-time functionalities

• Pass mapping variables, filters

Variables and filters can be derived within PowerCenter or in another

environment and passed by PowerCenter at runtime. These can include
any relevant filter parameter, filename,

• Job scheduling and status tracking

• Foreground and background mode

Access to SAP data requires a sense of timing. Since security is

paramount with SAP, proper authorization is checked and RFC
connections are typically configured to time-out after a set period of time.
To accommodate SAP security and connection settings, Informatica
provides multiple ways to access communication-user extractions,
including foreground and background dialog connections, direct streaming
of data into PowerCenter, and staging for later access. This allows both
PowerCenter operational administrators and Basis administrators to
establish the best method for data extraction that minimizes and impact on
SAP.

PowerCenter is certified as powered by NetWeaver, meaning that either

SAP or PowerCenter can initiate PowerCenter workflows. Also, SAP
provides OpenHub services to allow for bidirectional communication
between Informatica and SAP Process Chains. This certification also
extends to a SOA
• Compatibility across multiple SAP versions

• Read data from SAP at the application layer using ABAP, BAPI, ALE-IDOC
or BCI support
• BAPI method – PowerCenter calls the specified SAP BAPI and uses that
function as the source in a mapping

• ALE-IDOC method – PowerCenter receives an IDOC from SAP and

processes in a real-time manner

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• BCI method – PowerCenter leverages ALE/IDOC technology to integrate
with SAP Business Content Extractors

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 • ABAP method – PowerCenter generates ABAP to project, join and filter
from any table in SAP catalog.

• Post data into SAP at the application layer using BAPI, ALE-IDOC or DMI
support
• BAPI method – PowerCenter calls the appropriate SAP post function
BAPI and uses that function as the target in a mapping
• ALE-IDOC method – PowerCenter targets data into the IDOC, and the
IDOC is posted to SAP
• DMI method – PowerCenter targets data to a Data Migration Interface
formatted file. SAP’s Data Migration Workbench is then used to import
the file. No further treatment of the data is necessary on the SAP side.
• Bi-directional
• Reads from the SAP Application Layer
• Writes into the SAP Application Layer
• Real-time support
• ALE/ IDOC enabled for both read and write
• Business Content Integration (BCI)
• Leverage SAP’s Business Content extractors to load non-BW targets

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• Data Migration Interface support (DMI)
• Improve productivity of Legacy System Migration Workbench by
eliminating need for hand coded transformations

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