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Function documentationSales Time Series

 

You can use the sales time series to provide input data for demand modeling and forecasting.

Demand Data Foundation (DDF) uses an inbound interface (function module /DMF/BI_SALES_DATA) to receive the sales time series through a Remote Function Call (RFC). For more information, see the function module documentation (transaction SE37).

Integration

DDF integrates with applications that create point-of-sale (POS) data. It can receive the sales data from an SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW) application or a non-SAP application.

Prerequisites

  • You have configured DDF.

  • You have ensured that the master data (such as the product location) associated to the specific sales and inventory data exists and is available in DDF.

  • If you assign offers to sales data, you have ensured that the offer exists and is available in DDF.

Features

  • The inbound interface receives historical sales data and delta sales data.

  • The inbound interface receives the sales time series with the defined type of granularity.

    Note Note

    Your historical data must be at daily granularity. Weekly data is currently not supported. For more information, see Customizing (transaction SPRO) under Start of the navigation path Cross-Application Components Next navigation step Demand Data Foundation Next navigation step Imported Data Next navigation step Time Series Next navigation step Define Time Series for Key Figure Configuration End of the navigation path.

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  • The system performs various data validation checks on the received data. For example, it checks whether the product location master data exists and is available in DDF.

Activities

To receive the sales data, the inbound interface provides the following options:

  • Historical

    To receive the historical sales data, you have two options depending on how your system landscape is configured: one option bypasses the staging tables, while the other option uses the staging tables.

    • If you are using SAP BW, you can use the /DMF/BI_IF_TS report (transaction SE38) to receive the data directly into the production tables, bypassing the staging tables.

    • If you are not using SAP BW, you can develop your own integration program to receive data from your external system into the DDF staging tables, using the /DMF/BI_SALES_DATA function module. Note that this requires an additional step to move the data from the staging tables to the production tables.

  • Delta

    • By default, DDF receives the delta sales data in the staging tables.

      You can configure the POS Inbound Processing Engine (PIPE) to send the data to DDF. For more information, see POS Data Transfer and Audit.

    • You can choose to bypass the staging tables and save the data directly in the production tables. For more information, see Customizing under Start of the navigation path Cross-Application Components Next navigation step Demand Data Foundation Next navigation step Basic Settings Next navigation step Integration Next navigation step Define Import Settings End of the navigation path.

    Note Note

    To review any erroneous data records, you can use the Monitor Imports function (see Monitor Imports).

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