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Table of Contents
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
1
Hamerman, Paul and R “Ray” Wang. “ERP Applications—The Technology And Industry Battle Heats Up.”
Forrester Market Overview, June 9, 2005
2
White Paper
Figure 1: True Context of Data Revealed Only with Proper Analysis of Data
4
White Paper
6
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• Stored. Storing data across multiple business applications often leads to redundant and
inconsistent data. For example, various attributes of customer master entity information are
frequently stored in multiple business applications, such as customer relationship
management, sales force automation, and sales and marketing applications. Customer
information, such as names, titles, addresses, and purchase history, may be stored in different
formats or duplicated across different systems, preventing a single view of the customer.
Data migration teams need to understand and accept that there may be “dirty” data. To address
data quality issues when migrating legacy applications into SAP, data migration teams should
consider the data’s:
• Existence. Does the required data for the SAP solution exist? Does it exist within the
enterprise, or possibly in a partner’s or outsourcing vendor’s environment? If it doesn’t exist,
what is the business rule to populate the required information in SAP?
• Validity. Do data values fall within an acceptable range or domain? For example, if the legacy
applications have 73 U.S. state codes instead of 50, is this valid?
• Consistency. Is the same data stored in multiple applications in a common format? For
example, is “John Doe” from Company XYZ the same as “Mr. Jon Doe” from the same
company?
• Timeliness. Is the data that is required to support the SAP business processes available at the
optimal time?
• Accuracy. Does the data correctly describe the properties of the object it is meant to model?
• Relevance. Does the data meet and support the SAP business processes?
Data migration project teams commonly leverage custom code to support the data conversion
process required to address data quality issues. Custom code can initially offer some degree of
flexibility. However, as the number and complexity of integration touch points increase, custom
coding limitations in scale and maintenance are exposed.
Legacy System • SAP tool that helps migration teams orchestrate data
Migration migration processes
X X
Workbench • Able to schedule and run techniques listed above, such
(LSMW) as BAPI, IDOC, or DMI processes to load data into SAP
• Supports both Batch Input as well as Direct Input
techniques
8
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In most cases, if just a portion of the data being loaded into SAP does not pass the SAP
application validation, then SAP will reject the entire record. Examples of data validation
performed at the SAP application layer include:
• Syntactical. Is the field length and data type of the material master number valid?
• Semantic. What is the context of the data? Does this number identify a customer or vendor?
• Structural. Does the purchase order header and line item meet proper parent/child
relationships or cardinality rules?
• Dependency. Is this bill of material valid even if one of the referenced material master records
has not yet been created in SAP?
10
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Analysis
10% Test Test
30% Analysis Analysis 30%
40%
Build
Build
Build
60% Test 30%
Figure 3: Proactive Analysis of Source Data Saves Both Time and Money
PowerCenter’s data profiling capabilities provide comprehensive, accurate information about the
content, quality, and structure of data in virtually any operational system. Organizations can
automatically assess the initial and ongoing quality of data regardless of its location or type.
With its comprehensive data profiling capabilities, PowerCenter: PowerCenter’s data profiling reports help
• Reduces data quality assessment time with easy-to-use wizards and pre-built metric-driven migration teams determine if the legacy data
reports that comprise a single interface for the entire profiling process has quality issues and how to properly
• Addresses ongoing data quality in legacy applications with Web-based dashboards and address them.
reports that illustrate changes in data content, quality, structure, and values over time
• Ensures end user data confidence by automatically and accurately profiling any data
accessible to PowerCenter—virtually any and all enterprise data formats
Figure 4 shows an example of a PowerCenter data profiling report. The report shows how
PowerCenter automatically infers the primary and foreign key relationships across three tables in
a legacy application.
Figure 4: PowerCenter Profiling Report Inferring Primary Key and Foreign Key Relationships between
Multiple Legacy Application Data Sources
Data Sources
0 20 40 60 80 100
2
Eckerson, Wayne and Colin White. “Evaluating ETL and Data Integration Platforms.” TDWI Report Series, 2003
3
Ibid
12
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PowerCenter provides universal data access, allowing the data migration team to source virtually
any and all enterprise data formats, including:
• Mainframe data
• Structured data
• Unstructured data (e.g., Microsoft Word documents and Excel spreadsheets, email, binary
files, .pdf files, etc.)
• Semi-structured data (e.g., industry-specific formats such as HL7, ACORD, FIXML, SWIFT, etc.)
• Relational data (e.g., DB2, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, etc.)
• ERP (e.g., SAP, PeopleSoft, Siebel, etc.) and file data
• Message queues (e.g., Tibco, IBM MQ Series, JMS, MS MQ, etc.)
Figure 6 shows the breadth of PowerCenter’s data access capabilities.
Sources of data for SAP implementations
tend to be dynamic. Extracting data from a
Real-Time Data Sources Enterprise
TIBCO IBM WebSphere MQ Software Sources relational database-based legacy application
JMS SAP MSMQ WEBM Mainframe AS/400 JDE
Web Services today does not preclude SAP data migration
PeopleSoft Siebel SAP
SAS Essbase Lotus Notes teams from having to meet future sourcing
Unstructured Data requirements, such as mainframe or mid-
PDF Word Excel range applications.
Vertical Standards
(e.g., HL7, SWIFT, ACORD)
Print Stream BLOBs
Any proprietary data Informatica
format/standard PowerCenter
Across the Firewall/WAN
With PowerCenter, SAP data migration teams can source directly from a mainframe application
as if it were a relational database. PowerCenter’s data access capabilities offer SAP migration
teams the flexibility to source these “softer” forms of data which traditionally would be left up to
manually interpretation and processing—or worse, left unaccounted for in the migration process.
The flexibility to access all types of enterprise data in a single data integration platform offers
significant advantages over hand-coded data migration approaches, including:
• Increased productivity. With the ability to centralize data access and management,
PowerCenter frees data migration teams from having to maintain and be dependent on a
cumbersome, time-consuming process where programs are developed to extract and stage
data for each source of legacy data.
• Reduced risk. Sources of data for SAP implementations tend to be dynamic. Extracting data
from a client/server-based legacy application today does not insulate the team from future
requirements—for example, having to migrate over mainframe and mid-range applications from
applications resulting from a corporate merger or acquisition. PowerCenter reduces the risk of
both current and future data migration efforts by providing access to a broad range of
enterprise data formats.
Figure 7 shows a simple PowerCenter data migration mapping in which the customer master
data from multiple mainframe sources are being sourced and prepared in a valid SAP DMI
format.
Note how a single PowerCenter transformation within the mapping replaces the traditionally
coding-intensive effort for preparing a well-formed and valid file ready for loading into SAP. All of
the detail shown in the DMI customer master object is entirely imported directly from the SAP
application layer.
SAP NetWeaver
Informatica people integration
Multi-channel access
Data
PowerCenter Portal Collaboration
Lifecycle Management
integration
PowerExchange
application platform
J2EE ABAP
DB and OS abstraction
Figure 8: Complementary Data Integration between SAP NetWeaver and Informatica PowerCenter
PowerCenter can access all non-SAP types of enterprise and legacy application data. It also
provides the application integration to prepare and move all non-SAP data in a bi-directional
manner with SAP.
SAP NetWeaver enables transactional based data integration requirements with the capabilities
offered with SAP XI. SAP XI also orchestrates all data integration related to business process
integration requirements, including SAP-to-SAP data integration (e.g., mySAP ERP to my SAP
APO). Finally, from an end user perspective, SAP Portals provides a proven front-end platform for
business intelligence and visibility across the enterprise.
4
White, Colin. “Data Integration: using ETL, EAI, and EII Tools to Create an Integrated Enterprise” TDWI Report
Series, November 2005
16
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5
Reusability/Team
Productivity
FIREWALL
XML, Messaging,
and Web Services
2 3 4
1 7 8
Access source Access target/data
Relational and systems/data Execute
Flat Files Migration
Target Application
9
Synchronize
Mainframe and
10
Midrange
Audit/Lineage
PowerCenter’s metadata management capabilities provide visibility across the entire data
migration process—from sourcing legacy applications and cleansing the legacy data, to preparing
it in the format required for upload by SAP. PowerCenter enables data lineage problems to be
traced at a metadata level.
5
Eckerson, Wayne and Colin White. “Evaluating ETL and Data Integration Platforms.” TDWI Report Series, 2003
Figure 10: PowerCenter Data Lineage Diagram enables tracking and auditing of end-to-end migration from legacy applications to SAP
PowerCenter helps data migration teams trace and prove how data has been converted and
moved. The enhanced data visibility and tracking helps organizations comply with reporting
requirements. These capabilities also help with user adoption, instilling new SAP application
users with confidence that legacy application data has in fact been converted and moved.
Furthermore, PowerCenter alleviates the politics associated with data migration projects. Data
migration activities, whether related to legacy applications or the target SAP application, can be
centralized within a single, unified data integration platform. This promotes effective and
PowerCenter has been awarded “Powered By
productive communication between legacy and SAP resources, and between technical and
SAP NetWeaver” status by porting the
functional resources.
PowerCenter platform and PowerCenter Web
Service Hub to the SAP J2EE platform. SAP
users can access PowerCenter’s Web Services Informatica and SAP: Working Together for Joint
capabilities directly through SAP NetWeaver’s Customer Success
own Portals front-end.
Informatica and SAP are in partnership to ensure organizations successfully implement SAP
applications. Evidence of this strong partnership is demonstrated through:
• PowerCenter’s “Powered By NetWeaver” certification
• Informatica and SAP’s Master Relationship Agreement
The global Master Relationship Agreement • A long track record of proven joint customer success
between Informatica and SAP underscores
and validates how PowerCenter offers a “Powered By NetWeaver” Certification
certified and proven solution for SAP data Informatica is a preferred vendor in SAP’s partner ecosystem and has achieved a level of
migration projects. certification unequalled by any other data integration platform provider. In addition to developing
a growing library of SAP certified interfaces, PowerCenter is a certified member of the “Powered
By NetWeaver” program, which is a certification level above typical software vendor
certifications. “Powered By NetWeaver” is a program where partners develop solutions directly on
the NetWeaver application platform.
18
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20
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The Data Migration Readiness Assessment is designed to help any SAP customer understanding
the challenges and risk in a data migration project:
1. Identify data risks early
2. Scope and plan migrations effectively
3. Deliver SAP implementation on time, on budget, and in scope
Figure 11 shows how the Data Migration Readiness Assessment works.
2
Identify candidate sources
1
Source
System
3 • Identify 1-2 SAP entities
e.g., ItemMaster,
1 • Extract source data CustomerMaster
• Analyze source data
• Identify 3-5 attributes
• Identify risks in source data
Source
System
2
Legacy SAP
Stage Stage SAP
Source
System
3 4
• Create mappings to SAP
• Identify risks in mapping
Source
System
4
Figure 11: The Data Migration Readiness Assessment Jump Starts Data Migration Projects
© 2006 Informatica Corporation. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. Informatica, the Informatica logo, and, PowerCenter are trademarks or registered trademarks of Informatica Corporation in the United States and in jurisdictions
throughout the world. All other company and product names may be tradenames or trademarks of their respective owners.
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