Avoiding SAP BW Implementation Pitfalls

 

Common Pitfalls

 

If you are like the majority of SAP BW users, you are on version SAP BW 3.X  or earlier (according to a recent ASUG Benchmarking Survey) and are hesitant to embark on either a SAP BW upgrade or even to implement SAP BW in the first place due to the many pitfalls you may have heard about.

 

 

Leverage Our Successes 

 

With many, many SAP BW implementations completed successfully, we have learned how to avoid many of the common SAP BW implementation pitfalls.   

 

 

 

Those pitfalls typically fall into several well-defined areas:

 

1. Improper Scoping of the project
   
   This means trying to do too much at once 
   or
   Not doing enough to justify the investment. 
   
   
2. Improper selection and deployment of the team members.
   
   A SAP BW team can be as small as one or a large as 100+ members!
   
   Neglecting the requirement for specialized SAP BW BASIS support, which is very distinct from the normal SAP BASIS Netweaver support required.
   
   
3. Starting the SAP BW implementation project at the wrong point in time.
   
   If you are live and are now doing the BW implementation, the ideal situation is to start it between 3 and 6 months after Go-Live as now you will have data available to work with.
   
   
4. Waiting to deliver something useful to the end-user.
   
   
   1. Bill Inmon, the acknowledged father of data warehousing, made the point long ago, users don’t know exactly what they want until you show them what you got.  
      
      Recommendation was and is:
      
      
      • Use standard SAP BW Business Content to deliver useful demo content
        
        
      • Shoot for a 3 to 4 week delivery schedule per query to the end-user.
        
        
      • Assume every query will show your source data to be bad and will require data cleansing, harmonization, and synchronization to correct.

                                     

In subsequent blogs, I will talk about some other key SAP BW Implementation pitfalls and how to avoid them but for now, I wanted to leave you with this short video on one of the prerequisite steps-performing a KPI sweep.

 

 

In the meantime, we offer end-to-end SAP BW Consulting support.