InfoProviders 
Definition
Generic term for BI objects into which data is loaded or that display the views of data. This data can normally be evaluated with BEx queries.
Use
InfoProviders are metaobjects in the data basis that can be uniformly seen as data providers within a query definition, and whose data can also be reported uniformly. The type of data retrieval, the degree of detail or "proximity" to the source system in the dataflow diagram differs from InfoProvider to InfoProvider. However, this makes no difference in reporting, where they appear as objects that provide data that is suited for an evaluation using a BEx query.
The following image shows the role of the InfoProviders in the data flow:
Structure
The term InfoProvider encompasses objects that physically contain data:
Data is loaded into these InfoProviders by staging.
On the other hand, they can also be objects that do not physically store data, but which display logical views, such as:
· InfoSets
The following image gives an overview of BI objects that can be used in reporting. They are divided according to InfoProviders containing data and InfoProviders that only display logical views and do not contain any data. In the BEx, the system only accesses one InfoProvider. It is not important here how the data is modeled.
