Technical Articles
SAP BW/4HANA Conversion: Steps to consider
Abstract
This blog post provides SAP Business Warehouse customers a checklist that they can use in the preparation of their project, and during the actual SAP BW conversion. The checklist contains the various conversion paths, and their individual steps in different tabs, including the corresponding SAP notes. The checklist is in no way intended as a substitute for a dedicated project plan, but rather to provide support in terms of effort orientation. For initial project planning and rough structuring, it makes sense to think through all project parts one by one. The checklist is available for download as an attachment to SAP Note 2383530. Hint: For better readability click on the individual project phase figures shown below.
General Information
SAP BW/4HANA is SAP’s next generation data warehouse solution. It is a new product, built entirely on SAP HANA. When a company wants to install SAP BW/4HANA, the question arises of which method is most appropriate. Generally, the “greenfield approach” (new installation of the system) or the “in-place conversion”, “remote conversion”, “shell conversion” (existing BW system) come into question. The third method is Landscape Transformation, which consolidates several systems with different master data. In this blog post you can read more about the different conversion paths, and in this blog post you will get an overview of useful webinar series regarding the conversion processes.
Regardless of the type of migration, the Simplification List and the Conversion Guide are suitable as a starting point. The Simplification List describes the differences between SAP BW 7.x and SAP BW/4HANA. The individual notes explain what needs to be done in the conversion process. The purpose of the Simplification List is to support customers in converting their system from SAP Business Warehouse to SAP BW/4HANA. The Conversion Guide is the end-to-end documentation of a conversion to SAP BW/4HANA. In addition to the first steps, the document also describes the various paths of the conversion so that readers can get an idea of the tasks and challenges.
In-Place Conversion
In-Place Conversion: General Sequence
In-Place Conversion: (T1) System Requirements
In-Place Conversion: (T2) Maintenance Planner
In-Place Conversion: (T3) Pre-Checks
In-Place Conversion: (T4) Custom Code Check
In-Place Conversion: (T5) In-Place Conversion
In-Place Conversion: (T6) System Conversion
In-Place Conversion: (T7) Post Conversion Tasks
Remote Conversion
Remote Conversion: General Sequence
Remote Conversion: (T1) System Requirements
Remote Conversion: (T2) Maintenance Planner
Remote Conversion: (T3) Pre-Checks
Remote Conversion: (T4) Custom Code Check
Remote Conversion: (T5) System Provisioning
Remote Conversion: (T6) Remote Conversion
Remote Conversion: (T7) Post Conversion Tasks
Remote Conversion: (T8) Go-Live
Shell Conversion
Shell Conversion: General Sequence
Shell Conversion: (T1) System Requirements
Shell Conversion: (T2) Maintenance Planner
Shell Conversion: (T3) Pre-Checks
Shell Conversion: (T4) Custom Code Check
Shell Conversion: (T5) System Provisioning
Shell Conversion: (T6) Shell Conversion
Shell Conversion: (T7) Post Conversion Tasks
Shell Conversion: (T8) Go-Live
SAP BW/4HANA Conversion Note Analyzer: Which XML do I need for which conversion scenario?
At certain project steps, different XML files need to be maintained in the system using the SAP Note Analyzer. The following table outlines which XML file is relevant at which point in time.
Summary
Converting an SAP BW system to SAP BW/4HANA is not a simple process. SAP offers appropriate services, and tools where possible to guide customers through the process. However, these tools are not intended to standardize badly designed models or legacy systems. In every conversion there is a need for redesign, and manual adjustments.
Additionally, check out this blog post with technical details regarding SAP BW/4HANA conversion, and attend SAP Training “BW4HC: System Conversion to SAP BW/4HANA”. I also recommend to visit the following SAP Wiki page regularly. This site informs you about new developed features for SAP BW/4HANA conversion.
Please let us know, if you have any specific questions. SAP’s Chief Product Expert for SAP BW/4HANA Conversion, and Solution Architects are directly involved in this topic.
Thanks to my colleagues Udo, Uwe, Eduard, and Frank for the excellent cooperation, and all their important input.
Best regards,
Deniz
Fantastic input Deniz. Well done!
Incredibly helpful to our partners and customers. Thank-you Deniz for this great piece of work !
Hello Deniz
Excellent work. I will add this to the Blog - https://blogs.sap.com/2016/12/15/on-the-road-to-bw4hana-first-stage-accomplished/
https://blogs.sap.com/2016/10/11/software-application-lifecycle-management-sap-bw/#bw4hana
Best Regards Roland
Thank you very much Deniz!
One question regarding point 6.4 of the Remote Conversion as well as 6.3 of the Shell Conversion:
One of the advantages I see within the Shell resp. Remote Conversion approaches is that I do not need to clean-up the 1000s of activated / created but no longer used 3.x data flow objects...
So in my opinion the severity "Mandatory" would be just applicable for the objects which should be converted. Is that correct?
Thanks in advance and best regards Paul
Hi Paul, thanks for your question.
Yes, you are right. With regard to remote and shell conversion, you don't have to care about obsolete 3.x objects. Caution: SAP BW/4HANA does not allow 3.x objects. As soon as 3.x objects are in use in any way, these objects must be converted (RSMIGRATE). With In-place conversion, however, these objects must either be converted or deleted.
Hi Deniz,
Thanks for the blog!
I am sure this is a great help for customers on their journey to SAP BW/4HANA.
Best Regards,
Eduard
Hello Deniz,
Thanks for consolidating the steps at various phases. This is extremely useful information.
Best Regards
Bhavani
Excellent Deniz. It is very helpful 😊 thank you.
Excellent write up Deniz.
Best Regards
Astrid Tschense provided a nice overview of SAP Activate - 2021 version for BW/4HANA which packages up the above templates into the Activate methodology. It also provides some additional Templates and detailed conversion guidelines which are FAQs from customers.
https://blogs.sap.com/2021/01/22/sap-activate-methodology-for-the-transition-to-sap-bw-4hana-new-roadmap-release/
Nice Post !! Great piece of work !!
I'd like to add that my new book on SAP BW/4HANA 2.0 covers most sections listed in the change management box. Check it out at https://bit.ly/3gu8X1k
Regards, Thorsten
Thank you all SAP guys !!
Thank you!
This is very helpfull.
In my opinion there should be a bigger focus on the preparation phase. In my experience, based on real BW system In-Place migration, I faced the biggest difficulties in this phase, specially when I had to prepare old InfoCubes and DSO to be migrated.
It was not easy to compress request for DSO with huge amount of request, same for Stock InfoCube.
Another problem I found was in queue migration, the tool that should move from SAPI to ODP was not working at all, so I needed to create a new ODP system in BW and syncronize the data load for delta... very dangerous step...
Finally, where can this step list found to be downladed?
Thank you
Stefano
Hi Stefano,
Thanks for your feedback and sharing your experience.
The checklist is available for download as an attachment to SAP Note 2383530
Best regards,
Deniz
hi Deniz,
Thanks for shared this details
Any Standard Effort Estimation template available for BW/4 HANA Migration/Conversion project?
if any reference blog or any other material with relevant link then kindly share the same.
Regards
Balaji
Hello Balaji,
Thank you for your question.
It is not easy to give a general answer to this question. The effort depends very much on the number of objects, organizational structure, optimization needs, and type of conversion.
For a general overview of the system, the SAP Readiness Check for SAP BW/4HANA can be used (SAP Note 2575059). The report "TMW_BW_RC_DOWNLOAD_ANALYS_DATA" provides a high-level overview and can be used as a basis. Furthermore, the Pre-Check tool attached to SAP Note 2383530 should of course be used to define the effort. (Report "RS_B4HANA_CONVERSION_CONTROL")
Best regards,
Deniz
Hi Deniz,
Thanks for your inputs
Regards
Balaji
Thanks Deniz for collating all useful links, wikis and guides related to BW4HANA conversion at one place.
Regards,
Harish
Excellent work Deniz. Thanks for sharing!!
Excellent blog Deniz! This will be so helpful for customers and partners preparing for or already going through a SAP BW/4HANA conversion project. 🙂
Thank you for sharing Deniz.