Matt Chudy, Luis Castedo, Ricardo Lopez

SAP HANA

from
Sales and Distribution in SAP ERPPractical Guide

Bonn Boston

Explore SAP HANA as a new technology in SAP, and learn how SAP
HANA provides additional functionality to Sales and Distribution for
analytics.

SAP HANA
SAP HANA is the technology that allows you to perform massive analyses of realtime data in-memory. The in-memory database was created as a response to the
business need to immediately access real data in real time. Retrieving information
is a challenge, especially when a massive amount of data is handled. In-memory
data reads around 15 times faster than a traditional database stored in the hard
drive. Therefore, in-memory databases can read records in about 5 nanoseconds,
as opposed to traditional databases, which read disk records in 5 milliseconds.
Your applications, analytics, and programs will run faster in an in-memory environment such as SAP HANA. Using SAP HANA, your company will be able to
unlock new customer insights rapidly, because it provides you with data mining
and predictive analytics and storage solutions, in addition to real-time operation.
SAP HANA is projected to be the platform for future SAP development, including
analytics and applications. It currently provides you with an enhanced solution
for data storing and analytics. Therefore, its important for you to understand the
basic concepts as well as the overall technology.
This chapter will further investigate SAP HANA, and look more deeply into SAP
HANA analytics related to the Sales and Distribution component, specifically in
SAP HANA-Optimized BI content. Youll learn about SAP HANA-Optimized BI
content for SD to obtain customers sales orders, deliveries, and billing analytics.
Youll also learn about SAP Fiori data sources from orders to invoices, and queries
that are commonly used.
Lets get started by taking a look at SAP HANAs internal components.

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SAP HANA

SAP HANA Components

The in-memory database combines a row-based, column-based, and object-based
database technology. This combination gives a unique view of how SAP explores
the parallel processing capabilities of the latest CPU architecture using RAM
memory. The traditional database data replicates on average once a day or weekly
or monthly, commonly known as the refresh cycle; therefore a traditional DB
wont contain fresh data. This traditional method uses OLTP (Online Transaction Processing), where a traditional databases memory is distributed at the hardware level and hard disk to serve the applications on daily activities.
In contrast, in an SAP HANA in-memory database, the transactions are updated to
the in-memory (RAM memory) in a matter of milliseconds. Figure 1 shows you a
simplified comparison between the traditional versus the in-memory database
architecture. The in-memory solution will give you the benefit of better hardware
usage for each application, and faster analytics in real time for all SAP ERP components, including Sales and Distribution analytics. It resides in the SAP HANA
appliance (DB), and the entire cache of data is stored in RAM.
Traditional

SAP HANA

Business
Objects
Application

SAP ERP

Other

Business
Suites
OLTP

OLTP

Other
Objects

SAP HANA
appliance BD
in-memory

OLTP
Other
Sources

SAP BW

Figure 1 Example of traditional DB and SAP HANA BD

You now understand what SAP HANA does, but you should also know what SAP
HANA is, in a technical respect. SAP HANA is not a single component, but rather
a collection of software and hardware under the SAP HANA rubric. The main
components are depicted in Figure 2 and explained in more detail in the following list.

Galileo Press, Boston 2015

SAP HANA as a Platform

SAP HANA
SAP HANA
database

SAP HANA
Studio

SAP HANA
Appliances

SAP HANA
Application Cloud

Figure 2 SAP HANA Main Components

SAP HANA database

Relates to the main database itself, and the in-memory database called SAP
HANA DB.

SAP HANA Studio

Refers to the modeling tools provided by SAP to model the data for SAP HANA
DB.

SAP HANA Appliance

Refers to the combination of hardware and software specially adapted to the
hardware. Several vendors offer this hardware/software combination as appliances. SAP HANA Appliances refers to the SAP HANA DB, Studio, and other
tools as appliances.

SAP HANA Application Cloud

SAP HANA is also available as a service under the cloud. Delivery of an appliance could also be granted via the cloud.

The combination of the above key components gives us whats known as SAP
HANA. Lets now address how SAP HANA is more than a database, and how it
becomes a platform.

SAP HANA as a Platform

SAP HANA is more than an enhanced database, as you may have realized by now.
SAP HANA established a platform for today and SAP developments to come
because its a combination of software and hardware. SAP HANA will provide
your company with both solutionsdata storage and data analyticsin one
place, providing you with fast results that translate into real-time answers to your
customers demands.

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SAP HANA

SAP HANA combines database and application platform capabilities under an inmemory operation. This technology lets you transform transactions, analytics,
text analysis, and predictive processing, allowing your company to operate in real
time. Figure 3 shows the three main levels of SAP HANA as well as how any data
can be processed (structured data, social network, text or machine data, or RFID)
via the SAP HANA platform to leverage every unique opportunity, from regular
user terminals to mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones.

Laptop

Smartphones

Tablets

SAP HANA Platform

Database and
advanced data
processing services

Structured
and unstructured
data

Application platform
services

Social networks

Integration and data

visualization services

RFID

Machine data

Mission-critical
deployment services
(on premise, cloud,
or hybrid)

Transactional

Other apps

Figure 3 SAP HANA Platform

Using the SAP HANA platform, your company can run all transactional and analytical applications on the same data at the same time in real time. Because its inmemory, its designed to handle massive amounts of data at unprecedented
speeds; furthermore, SAP HANA can be deployed on premise or in the cloud, simplifying your IT department and reducing the complexity of your architecture.
Here are the key characteristics of the SAP HANA platform:

Solutions based on in-memory computing

Platform combining hardware and software

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SAP HANA Migration Options

Real-time data analytics and predictive, including data created as it happens

Ability to manages large volume as well as detailed data

Flexibility and scalability

Real-time applications

You now better understand whats important about SAP HANA and how you may
benefit from it. However, a new question may arise: what does it take to convert
to SAP HANAs in-memory environment? Lets take a look at the overall choices
SAP provides to their customers for SAP HANA database migration.

SAP HANA Migration Options

Since its creation, a number of companies have already successfully migrated to
SAP HANA. In fact, based on its experience, SAP has created three main migration
strategies to meet the needs of a diverse range of clients and ensure successful
migrations. The three main migration strategies are depicted in Figure 4. Each
offers specific advantages. All of them have been thoroughly road tested by SAP.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

New Installation

Classical migration

One-step upgrade and

migration with DMO

New system in
SAP HANA

Step 1: Update
SAP system with
SAP HANA

Decide whether or
not to change the
existing solution

Step 2: Migrate
traditional
database to
SAP HANA DB

Use Database
Migration Option
(DMO), which
combines upgrade
and database
migration in one
step, one tool,
and one
downtime

Figure 4 SAP HANA Migration Options

Lets look at the different options:

Option 1: new installation

This option represents a change to the existing landscape and solution. Its
commonly used when starting over in a new environment or to take design
correction actions.

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SAP HANA

Option 2: classical migration

This option is based on two steps: the initial update to the SAP system (SAP
HANA), and then the migration of the traditional database into SAP HANA DB.
This strategy is mostly used when you need your new environment to look
similar to your old one.

Option 3: one-step upgrade with DMO

This will give you the upgrade and migration in one step, as a big bang
approach. These are frequently perceived as the most risky option. However,
they also represent the minimum downtime required out of the three options.

Now wed like to address how SAP HANA impacts Sales and Distribution, via SAP
BW and analytics. Today, SD is enhanced with this new SAP HANA technology,
so lets explore the details in the following section.

SAP HANA-Optimized BI Content in Sales and Distribution

In Chapter 1, we introduced some of the concepts in BI/BW, which are applicable
for SD, as well as commonly used terminology. Until recently, SD enhancements
have been based primarily in the BI area with the use of active DataStore objects
(DSOs); well discuss the features that are available now, but keep in mind that
SAP HANA for SD is expected to continue to grow and to provide further functionality in the near future.
We also introduced SAP HANA-Optimized BI content for Sales and Distribution
in Chapter 1, which well examine in more detail in the following sections.

Sales and Distribution SAP HANA-Optimized DatStore Objects (DSO)

DSO is the technology that SAP HANA created in an effort to reduce storage
amount and accelerate data loads, using in-memory optimized data structures.
The data model follows the LSA++ requirements, for the use of SAP BW on
HANA.
SAP HANA-Optimized BI content is available for Sales and Distribution in the following areas:

Sales orders

Delivery data

Billing data

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SAP HANA-Optimized BI Content in Sales and Distribution

Condition data

Delivery service data

LSA++
The Layered Scalable Architecture (LSA) is the reference architecture for building an
Enterprise Data Warehouse with SAP BW. LSA++ is optimized for BW running on SAP
HANA.

You can find a list of the most commonly used DataSources in Sales and Distribution in Table 1. The data flow starts from the extraction of the Sales and Distribution table into the DataSources, which in turns flows to the Infosources, DSO, and
Multiproviders as described.
SD DataSources Description

Infosource

DSO

Multiprovider

2LIS_11_VAHDR Sales Document

Header Data

/IMO/SD_IS10 /IMO/SD_D10 (/IMO/SD_M10)

2LIS_11_VAITM

Sales Document Item Data

/IMO/SD_IS11 /IMO/SD_D11 (/IMO/SD_M10)

2LIS_11_V_ITM

Sales-Shipping Allocation
Item Data

/IMO/SD_IS16 /IMO/SD_D16 (/IMO/SD_M10)

2LIS_12_VCHDR Delivery Header Data

/IMO/SD_IS20 /IMO/SD_D20 (/IMO/SD_M10),

(/IMO/SD_M20)

2LIS_12_VCITM

/IMO/SD_IS21 /IMO/SD_D21 (/IMO/SD_M10),

(/IMO/SD_M20)

Delivery Item Data

2LIS_13_VDHDR Billing Document

Header Data

/IMO/SD_IS30 /IMO/SD_D30 (/IMO/SD_M10),

(/IMO/SD_M30)

2LIS_13_VDITM

/IMO/SD_IS31 /IMO/SD_D31 (/IMO/SD_M10),

(/IMO/SD_M30)

Billing Document
Item Data

2LIS_11_VACON Order Condition Data

/IMO/SD_IS14 /IMO/SD_D14 (/IMO/SD_M40)

2LIS_13_VDKON Billing Condition Data

/IMO/SD_IS34 /IMO/SD_D34 (/IMO/SD_M40)

HANA Information Model

Backorders overview

/IMO/SD_D50 (/IMO/SD_V01)
Virtual Provider
(/IMO/SD_M51)

Table 1 Data Flow in Key DSOs for Sales and Distribution

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SAP HANA

Note
If you are in SAP BW 7.30 on SAP HANA with SP8 or higher, conversions from standard
DSOs to SAP HANA-optimized DSOs are no longer required. If you have a previous version, conversion will still be required.

SD Rebates Processing: Optimized with SAP HANA

In Chapter 5, specifically Section 5.5, we addressed the most typical rebate processing procedure in Sales and Distribution, including standard and retroactive
agreements. A rebate is a special discount granted to a customer retroactively.
The calculated rebate amount depends in its entirety on the invoiced sales
archived by your customer during a given period of time. Rebates are defined via
the condition records.
Due to their retroactive accumulation, rebates normally face large data volumes,
especially when those rebates cross fiscal years or even, for consumer goods,
when many customers (possibly millions of them) are accumulating rebate discounts under one or several condition records. The problem is very common.
Under the traditional rebate approach in SD, at the end of the period, rebate
credit memos are issued. A table index was introduced to handle the high processing times and volumes that occur at the end of the rebate period. This index
provides links to all rebate-relevant invoices (SAP Table VBOX).
Youve probably faced problems with this rebate index table (VBOX) before, especially if youre part of a large company. Its very common to find that VBOX
grows significantly over the course of the rebate period. VBOX can reach billions
of database records under scenarios with 1,000 or more rebate customers. A large
VBOX with billions of records could represent 20% or more of the entire database
space, which could also slow down the database performance.
What are your options when this happens? The most common solution is to split
VBOX for the customer rebates, and to rebuild the index table. Both activities are
risky and costly for your company. SAP HANA is an alternative solutionyou
may be surprised to hear that some SAP customers are now actually dropping the
SAP VBOX table. With SAP HANA, the primary documents or invoices can be
accessed without the need for indexes, primarily due to the speed of SAP HANA
data recovery and display. Under SAP HANA, rebate conditions are easy to access

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SAP Fiori for SD

and update. You can change rebate conditions to current rebate customers, or
make new customers rebate-eligible. Not using the VBOX index also has other
advantages: your database size will be reduced, allowing savings in data redundancy.
Overall, rebate processing is streamlined with SAP HANA by encouraging fewer
process steps and avoiding updates to the index, in addition to the flexibility provided by the easy access to the customers rebate information. Once you have
migrated into an SAP HANA environment, we recommend that you try this solution for rebates. This is just one example of how SAP HANA is improving current
solutions.
Another application under SAP HANA is SAP Fiori. We briefly discussed this in
Chapter 1, but now lets discover how Fiori will enhance the Sales and Distribution functionality.

SAP Fiori for SD

SAP Fiori is a collection of applications created by SAP under the new SAP user
experience (UX) paradigm. SAP Fiori is part of the HANA suite of products
launched in 2013. Since then, more than 300 applications (apps) have been
launched in Waves 1 to 5 as of July 2014, and more SAP Fiori app waves are forecasted in the next couple of years.
SAP Fiori supports the most common line of business by providing applications
in Finance, HR, Manufacturing, and Sales and Distribution.

SAP Fiori 1:1:1:3:N Concept

SAP Fiori applications are designed on the 1:1:1:3:N concept, as a way to simplify
your SAP screens and improve the user experience. Figure 1.5 shows the constant
evolution from the current SAP GUI into simpler and more user-friendly UX
screens on mobile devices and workstations. You can understand the concept of
UX 1:1:1:3:N as it refers to 1 (User), 1 (Scenario), 1 (Code), 3 (Screens), and N
(Platforms). This is how you will benefit from significantly better screens, simplified flows, and renewed transactions with the use of SAP Fiori apps.

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SAP HANA

SAP GUI Traditional

SAP Fiori

Figure 5 SAP FIORI UX Evolving

SAP Fiori UX, App Types

To provide you with the best user experience, SAP Fiori provides four types of
apps. Lets discuss the differences between them:

Transactional
Task-based apps, where tasks such as change, create or approve are performed.
You can run transactional apps using your current database. For transactional
apps, SAP HANA migration is not mandatory.

Analytical
Apps dedicated to trigger insights and KPIs, or other related analyses.

Factsheet
Apps that allows you to search and explore information.

SAP Smart Business

Apps that allow you to analyze and evaluate strategic or operation KPIs in real
time.

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SAP Fiori for SD

Note
Since transactional apps dont require SAP HANA migration, youll be able to experiment with SAP Fiori on your current database using transactional apps almost immediately.

SAP Fiori SD Apps

Out of the 300 apps that have been released in Q2 2014, Table 2 shows the most
commonly used SAP Fiori apps that are specifically designed for SD. We recommend that you verify the listed apps, and determine which ones are most suitable
to your specific needs and business. You should also check to see whether any
further waves of apps have been released. As a reminder, transactional apps can
be implemented with your current database, which means that installation of the
SAP HANA environment is optional for this type of app. (Thats right: you can
benefit from SAP Fiori transactional apps without even installing SAP HANA!)
SAP FIORI App

App Types

Create Sales Orders

Transactional app

Customer Invoices

Transactional app

My Contacts

Transactional app

My Leave Requests

Transactional app

Track Sales Orders

Transactional app

Track Shipments

Transactional app

Customer

Fact sheet

Customer Billing Document

Fact sheet

Goods Issue

Fact sheet

Material

Fact sheet

Sales Contract

Fact sheet

Sales Group Contract

Fact sheet

Sales Order

Fact sheet

Table 2 Commonly Used SAP Fiori Apps for SD

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SAP HANA

SAP FIORI App

App Types

Sales Quotation

Fact sheet

Delayed Deliveries (in Transit)

Analytical app

Delayed Deliveries (POD)

Analytical app

Delayed Deliveries (Total)

Analytical app

My Quotation Pipeline

Analytical app

Sales Performance

Analytical app

SAP Smart Business for Sales Order Fulfillment

Analytical app

Transportation Cost

Analytical app

Uncovered Sales Orders

Analytical app

Table 2 Commonly Used SAP Fiori Apps for SD (Cont.)

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