Do You Know The Benefit of SAP Business Warehouse?
When it comes to making use of the many advantages of SAP, we focus a lot here at SAP BW Consulting, Inc. on SAP Business Warehouse (SAP's Data Warehouse) and more broadly, analytics. Sometimes, a casual conversation reveals that we need to address some issue of how to implement or otherwise work through a SAP BW project. One that came up recently regarding the benefits of SAP implementation, and surprisingly from a SAP Consulting manager, was the question, “so what’s the benefit of SAP BW, afterall, it is just a reporting tool, and the system has many reporting tools built in besides SAP”?
Interesting question, so thought I would address what I view as the Top 10 Benefits of SAP BW.
Benefits of Data Warehousing
- High ROI
Approximately 10.57 dollars for every dollar invested, especially when coupled with mobility. This shows the extreme importance of SAP in business, particularly the analytics capability. - Cross-Application Visibility into Business Process Performance.
Not sure where you pull Airline Route Profitability from in SAP R/3?
That is because the answer comes from dozens of systems spread across multiple entities, including air traffic control! - Permanent Data Storage as opposed to transactional data that disappears shortly after generation.
If you are an airline, a SAP BW datawarehouse is an excellent way to store a PNR (Passenger Name Record). - Improved Customer Service Levels.
Lose baggage a lot. Not sure why or how. A datawarehouse is an excellent detective tool. - Increased Capacity Utilization Rates.
Run a railroad? Cargo volumes dropping? Not sure why?
You are going to need a datawarehouse to attack all the elements of the problem.
You're also going to need an event management system. - Proactive Decision Making Enabled by Real-Time Data.
Ever try to run a tanks and tubes operation (Lysine, Refinery, Chemicals) with data that is not real time? - Questions get asked that weren’t even considered prior to a SAP HANA enabled datawarehouse.
Want to know how much fuel was pumped into that jumbo jet? Were there any disputes as to the amount pumped according to the pump operator versus the airline? - Configuration problems with SAP R/3 get Surfaced Quickly.
Run a Retail Operation?
When was the last time you really investigated your MRP strategies and alert levels? - Marketing, Sales & Operations Planning Work Better with Better Data.
Forecast accuracy an issue? How about forecast compliance? - Bad data is Quickly Identified by SAP BW.
With a reported $600,000,000,000.00 (Six hundred Billion Dollars) lost in the U.S. every year due to bad data, this is really one of the top benefits of SAP BW.
Data Quality and Data Governance Are Closely Related
Can You Identify Bad Data Quickly?
The last benefit, identifying bad data, is actually something that human beings have an amazing ability to overlook. For instance, take a look at the following paragraph. You can, no doubt, read it perfectly. It is one of the incredible abilities of the human mind that we can see what we need to see, even when it is not really there.
“Aoccdrnig to rscheearch at Cmabridge Uinvrevtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in what oredr the litteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a ttoal mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is besauae ocne we laren how to raed we look for the eenssces of the jmulbed ltteers. The huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but preecsievs the wrdd as a wlohe. We do tihs ucnsoniuscoly wuithot tuhoght.”
Whose Sales Forecast Should You Trust
Unfortunately, within the realm of SAP BW bad data identification and repair, you often run up against the problem of data being somewhat jumbled. For instance, when making a sales forecast, you need to take both the estimates of the sales account executive and combine it with the hard core data manipulation abilities of SAP BW and SAP CRM to come up with a weighted sales forecast that meets the sniff test.
A sales manager will often want to read the sales forecast in the most positive light possible, but experience, coupled with the relative data and experience, allows the skilled sales manager to interpret the data, no matter how jumbled it may appear to be on the surface. This ability to interpret, combined with the on-going feedback loop provided by the SAP BW system, means your forecast should become more accurate over time.
By the way, can you read the paragraph above? Why don’t you write how you read it in the comments below and let us check it to see if you read it correctly.
Looking To Start a SAP BW Project - You Will Want To Use Our SAP BW Project Estimator
With all the benefits of SAP BW, you may want to start a project yourself. To help get you started, we have recently developed a completely FREE online SAP BW Project Estimation tool, which will tell you both how many SAP BW consultants it will take as well as how long it will take them to implement your datawarehouse.
10 Advanced SAP BWProject Estimation Techniques [Online Tool]
What are 2 Primary Focus Areas for SAP Airline Customers?
