Loading of Master Data from Connected SAP Systems

Purpose

You can use this process to copy master data and hierarchies from connected SAP systems to the consolidation system (SEM-BCS).

In particular, the process considers the loading of organizational units and combinations of consolidation units.

Loading Master Data and Hierarchies

You load the master data and hierarchies from individual InfoObjects in the BI system (SAP NetWeaver Business Intelligence). The following two cases are possible:

  • You use virtual InfoObjects from the SAP source system (mySAP ERP) to load the master data and hierarchies.

    The SAP source system provides the master data and hierarchies in a DataSource, which you assign to an InfoSource in the Data Warehousing Workbench of the BI system. You use the consolidation function Load from Data Stream to copy the master data and hierarchies to the consolidation system.

    Note Note

    The procedure for loading hierarchies will change in the next release.

    End of the note.

  • You load the master data and hierarchies from InfoObjects that already exist in the BI system.

    You use Load from Data Stream to copy the master data and hierarchies to the consolidation system.

Loading Combinations of Consolidation Units

You use Load from Data Stream to load the combinations of consolidation units, for example, combinations of profit centers and companies, of an InfoProvider (InfoCube or DataStore object) from the BI system. The consolidation system determines the valid combinations from the transaction data.

You can also load the combinations directly from a DataSource of the SAP source system.

Prerequisites

In the consolidation workbench, you have made the Customizing settings for the data basis and for the consolidation area in which you want to use the master data and hierarchies. You have created a source data basis and specified it in the data basis.

Depending on the sources from which you want to copy the master data, hierarchies, or combinations of consolidation units, the following prerequisites must be fulfilled:

  • If you copy the master data and hierarchies directly from an SAP source system:

    • DataSources, which provide the attributes and texts for master data, have the following prerequisites:

      • They must be DataSource 3.x.

      • The DataSource you use needs to support direct access to the data. You have set the indicator Direct Access in DataSource maintenance of the SAP source system.

    • If you use hierarchies, the source field and target field in the transfer rule of the InfoSource need to be technically compatible. This means that the fields have the same type, length, and conversion exit.

    • If you use a PSA DataSource for hierarchies, the transfer rule of the InfoSource must consist of simple moves from source fields to target fields only.

  • If you copy the master data and hierarchies of InfoObjects from the BI system:

    The master data and hierarchies exist in the InfoObjects.

  • If you copy the combinations from consolidation units of an InfoProvider (InfoCube or DataStore object):

    The transaction data from which the system determines the combinations is in the InfoProvider. For example, this means that you need to have used a BI upload to the InfoProvider to upload the data from Enterprise Controlling (EC-CS/EC-PCA).

Process Flow

The following explains the process flow for copying master data and hierarchies from virtual InfoObjects. The figure shows an overview of the components for which you make Customizing settings.

In the Data Warehousing Workbench, you activate the DataSource of the SAP source system. You assign an InfoSource to the DataSource and link the fields of the DataSource to the InfoObjects of the InfoSource. See section "A. Customizing in the Data Warehousing Workbench".

In the consolidation workbench, you create a Load from Data Stream method for each InfoObject that you want to copy. In this, you define the mapping rules and optional source and target selections for copying the data from the InfoObject to the consolidation system. See section "B. Customizing in the Consolidation Workbench".

When you run the methods for loading from data stream in the consolidation workbench, the consolidation system loads the master data and hierarchies from the DataSource of the SAP source system into the internal data structures of consolidation. See section "C. Execution in the Consolidation Workbench".

A. Customizing in the Data Warehousing Workbench

  1. If you use a DataSource from SAP Business Content, you copy this to the active version (see Copying Business Content DataSources).

    Otherwise, you create a DataSource in the SAP source system. For more information, see Data Extraction from SAP Source Systems.

    The system then performs a metadata upload automatically. This replicates the DataSource to the BI system (see Metadata Upload for SAP Systems ).

  2. You create the InfoObjects, which copy the master data and hierarchies from the SAP source system, and define the InfoObjects as mediums of virtual master data (master data access: remote).

  3. You create an InfoSource and in this, assign the DataSource of the SAP source system. You assign the InfoObjects created previously to the fields of the DataSource (see Creating an InfoSource).

  4. You create an InfoObject catalog for characteristics and add the InfoObjects created previously (see Creating an InfoObject Catalog).

    Note Note

    When you load the master data and hierarchies of InfoObjects from the BI system, in the Data Warehousing Workbench, you create only an InfoObject catalog for characteristics, which contains the InfoObjects from which you want to load.

    In the consolidation workbench, you make the same settings as for loading from SAP source systems.

    End of the note.
B. Customizing in the Consolidation Workbench

  1. In the source data basis, you enter the InfoObject catalog for characteristics.

    If you use an InfoProvider, for example, for copying the combinations of profit centers and companies, enter this in the source data basis.

  2. For each characteristic that you want to copy to the consolidation system, and for the combinations of consolidation units, create a method for loading from the data stream. You choose the data type, the characteristic (if more than characteristic exists for the data type), and enter the source data.

    For the data types Consolidation Units, Consolidation Groups, and Other Master Data (with the characteristic ConsUnitCombination), make additional settings for loading master data and hierarchies on the Settings tab page. You can choose whether to load master data, hierarchies, and/or hierarchy relationship attributes (for example, accounting technique). You can also configure that the system is to load the master data from the text nodes of the hierarchy, for example, the master data of profit center groups. Depending on which options you choose, the corresponding target fields of the consolidation system are available on the Mapping tab page.

  3. On the Mapping tab page of the method, you assign the fields of the InfoObject to the target fields in the consolidation system. If required, you also assign values to the other attributes in the consolidation system. For more information, see Mapping.

    The system sets some of the attributes of the characteristics in the consolidation system automatically for the data collection (see the section Result) if no values have been assigned in mapping.

    Note Note

    You can summarize the source hierarchy for the data collection by making the relevant settings in mapping. For more information, see Summarization for Copying Data to the Consolidation System.

    End of the note.

  4. On the Selection tab page, you can restrict the source data to be copied and the target data. For example, when copying profit centers, you load only the profit centers of a particular controlling area, or when copying combinations of profit centers and companies, you load only the combinations for the current fiscal year. For more information, see Selection.

Notes on Data Collection from EC-CS/EC-PCA

If you copy a profit center hierarchy from Enterprise Controlling (EC-CS/EC-PCA) and have defined the combination of profit center and company as a characteristic with the role Consolidation Unit in the consolidation system, the system determines the consolidation unit hierarchy from the profit center hierarchy and the combinations of profit centers and companies. In this case, you make the following additional settings for the method Load from Data Stream in the consolidation workbench:

  • As source data, you enter both the profit center InfoObject and the InfoProvider that provides the combinations of profit centers and companies.

  • To copy the consolidation unit hierarchy and to copy the master data of the consolidation groups, you can specify that profit centers also become consolidation groups (see End Nodes in Source Hierarchy Become Consolidation Groups).

C. Execution in the Consolidation Workbench

You run the methods for loading from the data stream in the consolidation workbench directly.

You can perform test runs by executing a method but without saving.

Result

You have copied the master data and organizational unit hierarchies from the SAP source system to the consolidation system.

Default Values for Attributes of Consolidation Units

The system has set the following attributes for consolidation units that have been newly assigned to a consolidation group (if you have not assigned any other values in mapping):

  • Year of First Consolidation: Current year

  • Period of First Consolidation: Current period

  • First Consolidation at End of Period: Space as initial value

  • Year of Divestiture Accounting: 9999 as initial value

  • Period of Divestiture Accounting: 012 as initial value

  • Divestiture Accounting at Start of Period: Space as initial value

Example

The following examples of loading master data and hierarchies show Customizing for the method Load from Data Stream in detail: