Using the SAP BW Extractor to Activate and Capture Data

SAP BW Extractor is a program in SAP ERP that captures and prepares data through an extract structure that can be transferred to the BW (Business Warehouse). This program can be from a standardized DataSource or may be customized too. Both help to describe a delta load process or a full load of varying types. SAP BW can remotely access the data transfer aspects of the SAP BW Extractor.

Let’s analyze now what happens to the SAP BW Extractor when moved to S/4HANA or even other SAP BW Extractors that are compatible with S/4HANA. In such cases, will all data be lost?

The SAP ECC system per se cannot be used for analysis but only for transactional and operational purposes. Hence, for analyzing ECC data, an SAP BW Extractor has to be used for extracting the data from the SAP ECC system to an SAP Business Warehouse system. Hence, essentially, a BW Extractor connects the CC system to a BW system. Afterward, the BW system can be made to perform analytical activities by connecting to the Business Intelligence (BI) system.

The process of data extraction using the SAP BW Extractor starts with help from multiple application-specific extractors. These are then hard-coded for the Data Source and delivered along with the BI Content of the Business Warehouse. An SAP BW Extractor is optimized to match the precise architecture of the Data Source.

Moreover, there are several generic extractors for extracting SAP data from the source systems that can be transferred to the SAP Business Warehouse. The complete process is automated. An SAP BW Extractor will know which data to extract and which are the tables from where the data has to be read after the Data Source is named by the generic extractor.

Users can also choose to extract SAP data generically. It consists of master data texts or attributes, transaction data from all transparent tables, database views, and SAP query functional areas. For these types of data, the data at the Data Source is generically read and transferred to the Business Warehouse. An advantage is that SAP data can be exported directly to Excel by clicking on the exporting icon and choosing the specific spreadsheet button.

SAP BW Extractor carries out three types of SAP data extraction.

· Content Extraction: It is used to extract BW content, FI, HR, CO, SAP CRM, and LO cockpit.

· Customer-Generated Extraction: Here, SAP BW Extractor is used for LIS, FI-SL, CO-PA.

· Generic Extraction: This is based on DB View, Infoset, Function Modules.

The SAP BW Extractor to be used for a particular extraction mode depends entirely on the unique needs of businesses.

The development of the SAP BW Extractor was mainly to feed the SAP Business Warehouse applications. For users not using the SAP Business Warehouse this tool is highly optimized for SAP data extraction.