Transferring Attribute Data from SAP BW 

Purpose

You can transfer to SAP CRM the values determined in the SAP Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW) and place these values in attributes – essentially business partner attributes. You can fill the following types of data targets in SAP CRM:

·        Marketing attributes

·        IC attributes

·        Fields belonging to user-defined tables (enhancements specific to business partners)

·        Analytical Data Storage

You can transfer data from the following sources in SAP BW:

·        InfoObject attributes, such as attributes for the InfoObject Business Partner (0BPARTNER)

·        Queries, in which the master data – such as the business partner – is unique

To transfer data from SAP BW, start by defining a data target in SAP CRM, and then use this data target in SAP BW to model the data transfer process in the form of an analysis process.

Prerequisites

·        You need to have authorization for the authorization object C_CRMBWTGT.

·        You need to have implemented SAP BW from Release 3.0B. In SAP BW, one of the following roles needs to be assigned to you:

¡        Customer Value Analysis (SAP_BWC_CUSTOMER_VALUE)

¡        Customer Behavior Analysis (SAP_BWC_CUSTOMER_BEHAVIOR)

Process Flow

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        1.      In SAP CRM, create the attribute that you want to fill with data.

¡        You create marketing attributes from the SAP CRM Easy Access Menu under Marketing ® Segmentation of Business Partners ® Marketing Attributes ® Maintain Attributes (see also Working with Attributes)

Assign the attribute you created to an attribute set.

¡        You define tables in the ABAP Dictionary, which you can call up in the SAP menu by choosing Tools ® ABAP Workbench ® Development ® Dictionary

The table has to fall within the customer namespace (that is, the table name has to begin with Y or Z) and it has to have the business partner number as its key.

¡        Analytical Data Storage: See Analytical Data Storage

¡        In the next step, you create IC attributes directly as the data target.

        2.      In SAP CRM, define a data target for the attribute.

You perform this in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management by choosing Settings for SAP Business Information Warehouse ® Data Transfer from SAP BW ® Release Data Target for Replication from SAP BW (for marketing attributes and tables) or Maintain Attributes and Select BW Key Figures for Business Partners (for IC attributes). For information about the procedures to follow, see the documentation for each respective IMG activity.

In the IMG activity Release Data Target for Replication from SAP BW, you can specify under Enhanced Maintenance whether the data should be uploaded to mobile clients during a data transfer. However, if you activate the upload (by selecting the appropriate indicator), this can have an adverse effect on system performance depending on the amount of data and the number of mobile clients.

        3.      In SAP BW, model an analysis process for the data transfer.

You do this from the menu of the role Customer Value Analysis or Customer Behavior Analysis by choosing Transfer Analytical Results to CRM ® Fill CRM Attributes.

When you define the analysis process, the attributes you defined in step 2 are available as data targets.

For information on modeling and executing an analysis process, choose Help ® Application Help in the Analysis Process Designer in SAP BW.

        4.      Perform the analysis process and with it the data transfer in SAP BW.

Note that filling a marketing attribute for the first time takes much more time than any subsequent updates. For the first run, an assignment needs to be made between the attribute and the business partners. This assignment does not have to be repeated for subsequent runs.

Result

The data is transferred from SAP BW into the CRM attribute you created.

Example

You would like to use the ABC class determined for a customer in SAP BW as a marketing attribute in SAP CRM.

For information about ABC classification in SAP BW, see the SAP Library for SAP NetWeaver under Release ‘04 ® Information Integration  ® SAP Business Information Warehouse ® BI Platform  ® Data Mining ® ABC Classification.

To do this, create in SAP CRM a marketing attribute ABC Class and assign it to an attribute set (see step 1 above). You define this marketing attribute as a data target in Customizing for SAP CRM (step 2). In SAP BW, you define an analysis process with the following nodes (step 3):

·        Source of the type Attribute with the attribute Business Partner (0BPARTNER) selected

·        Transformation of the type Filter so that the business partners to be read are restricted, for example, to the customers in a specific country.

Data target of the type CRM with selection of the data target that you defined previously

You set a data flow arrow between the filter and the data target to assign the BW attribute ABC Class for the attribute 0BPARTNER to the marketing attribute ABC Class that you created.

When you execute the analysis process, the ABC class determined in SAP BW is read for the filtered business partners and written to the marketing attribute.