Build & Certify business content for SAP BW/4HANA

SAP’s new data warehouse solution SAP BW/4HANA also comes with SAP standard business content which is preconfigured with data models catering to various industries and their business scenarios. A complete list of such content, their usage and installation pre-requisites can be found here:

https://help.sap.com/viewer/06e872f914a44d77b6c692b0273ca400/2.0.0/en-US/20b4b01f5baf46af8fbd439c741adf00.html

There can be a customer business scenario where the standard content does not fit and would need a separate set of a data model. It is now possible to build such content to fill the gap arising out of newer business scenarios and various solution integrations.

Here is an overview of the process to build the content and how to get the GTM benefits from the certification program at SAP.

Build Requirements

• SAP system landscape consisting of SAP BW or an OLTP system. The system settings of  are set to content development system.
• It is required to have a registered namespace for the content that you will build. Namespaces help in uniquely identifying the content and this helps during the various phases of the product lifecycle management and also during customer support. A unique namespace can be requested here: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/namespaces
• The BW4 content is to be delivered in “D” version. This can be done by system-wide settings as described here: https://help.sap.com/saphelp_scm41/helpdata/en/53/ec2c37b995184890c6d8ba5b668a86/frameset.htm

Content Delivery Requirements

Here I would like to talk only about the delivery approach that a certified content would follow.

Just like the SAP standard content is available for installation as SAR files, the SAP certified content developed by the third party would also be available as installable files for customers.

For this, the Add On Assembly Kit (AAK) tool would be used to define the delivery strategy, package the content objects and deliver them as an installable SAR file. With this approach, not only the content building guidelines would be ensured, but also the partner can benefit from the easy to use features the tool provides. These features can be useful for customer support during the lifecycle of the content, including support packages, upgrade packages or building completely new content.

On the customer’s part, the SAINT transaction is run to install the partner delivered content package, and then proceed to activate the business content as per the installation guide.

With the help of the AAK tool, partners can conveniently deliver the installation file to the customers. For post-installation support, the partners can deliver appropriate support packages for different requirements of the customer’s SAP system, for e.g. correction to the delivered objects, customer’s SAP system upgrade, customer’s decision to discontinue use of the content, etc.

Content types and general restrictions

• Currently, the recommended content should not include the conversion scenario from SAP BW to SAP BW/4HANA scenarios. As such the content must be developed on an SAP BW/4HANA system that has a similar version as the customer’s system and certification is available for such cases.
• The AAK tool also helps in completely deleting the content from a customer’s system, but this feature is currently restricted to only the supported types of BW4 objects. By the end of 2019 most BW4 object types would be supported for automatic uninstallation from customer system.
• The content should not change the SAP delivered content.

Certification and GTM benefits

As briefly talked before, the content providers( partners and ISVs ) can get their content certified by SAP. The certification process checks for the correctness of the content packaging and its installation on a customer like a system. The process also checks for the uninstallation steps as applicable for the content. After a satisfactory demonstration of all the checks and a high-level functional demo of the actual content, the certification process is completed.

The certification awards a certificate, a detailed test report from the performed checks and demos, an SAP Certified logo as well as a listing on the exclusive SAP Certified Solutions Directory.

In addition to that, if the partner has an active SAP Partner Edge program status, they can also request our colleagues for listing in SAP App Center.

Getting Started

If you have a business content to complement SAP BW/4HANA, you can get an idea about the technical guidelines here: https://help.sap.com/saphelp_scm41/helpdata/en/53/ec2c37b995184890c6d8ba5b668a86/frameset.htm (Please note, the information here is for BW and is applicable mostly for BW4).

You can contact icc-info@sap.com for the certification related inquiries and access to AAK tool.

Certification related support from SAP

SAP Integration and Certification Team will work with you very closely at all phases of the certification preparation. They will guide you with the best practices around content packaging with AAK and ensure your correct approach towards a successful certification.

References and Resources

Additional Information about the certification process: Integration Certifications on SAP BW/4HANA

Business Content Partner/ISV guidelines: https://help.sap.com/saphelp_scm41/helpdata/en/53/ec2c37b995184890c6d8ba5b668a86/frameset.htm