lnformationsstrukturen

The SAP Open Information Warehouse

On an application level, the LIS is a component of the SAP Open Information Warehouse . Also belonging to this application level are the Finance Information System (FIS) and the Human Resources Information System (HRIS). The Executive Information System (EIS) is also included on a cross-application level.

The aim of the Open Information Warehouse is to integrate the data of various information systems. All important information within a company is transparent and easily accessible for decision-makers. The user can select various views and aggregation levels for the data. In the Open Information Warehouse, important information is stored in separate databases parallel to the operative systems (Purchasing, Inventory Controlling, Shop Floor, Sales, etc.). Data from the operative systems is thus converted into informative key figures that aid the decision-making process. In this way, the business processes of the operative systems (for example, goods receipt, purchase order, order, billing document, notification) form the data basis for the Open Information Warehouse.

The Information Warehouse supports the analysis of data and provides easy-to-use and informative reporting techniques, which extend to the graphically supported presentation of data.

The LIS as a Component of the Open Information Warehouse

The following section describes the Logistics Information System and its concept as part of the Open Information Warehouse in more detail.

In accordance with the Open Information Warehouse concept described above, the information systems in LIS are continually supplied with data from the operative applications (Sales, Purchasing, Production, Plant Maintenance, etc.). This level is also described as OLTP (Online Transaction Processing).

Above the OLTP level is the Logistics Data Warehouse . When a business transaction is carried out in the operative application, important information is updated to the LIS statistical data basis. This first creates a quantitative reduction in the volume of data due to the periodic updating process and, secondly this causes the information to be reduced qualitatively down to the statistically-relevant parts.

The Data Warehouse is supplied with the operative data from the OLTP level. This data flows into the information structures and forms the data basis of LIS. Both LIS and the standard SAP System provide lnformation Structures , and make it possible for you to compile information structures yourself and define the rules for updating them. User-defined information structures thus enable you to add individual enhancements to the LIS information systems.

Easy-to-use analysis and reporting tools for evaluating data are available at OLAP level (Online Analytic Processing).

These reporting tools include: