Fundamentals of SAP Data Extraction – Techniques and Tools

Before moving to the fundamentals of SAP data extraction and the tools and techniques of how to extract SAP data, it is necessary to understand what SAP Data Services is.

SAP Data Services

SAP Data Services is a software application. Its main goal is to integrate and transform data so that users can start systems to extract SAP data from different sources. Among them are data stores, databases, web services, and applications. After extraction, this data is integrated, transformed, and processed for advanced analytics that businesses may use for informed decision-making to get ahead of the competition.

SAP data has a wide range of functions. In the traditional data transformation functions, users can carry out several activities, such as calculations, joins, lookups, filters, and aggregations. Moreover, the application is amenable to text analysis and auditing. It is also possible to carry out data quality operations with SAP data. These include data profiling and matching, geocoding, and data standardization.

A critical feature of SAP data is that it supports Change Data Capture, a function that facilitates data input to stream-processing systems and data warehouses. SAP data is also compatible with real-time services to get instant responses wherever applications can query Data Services. However, this action is based entirely on a pre-fixed workflow and batch processing, a process that was the traditional approach to data transformation.

What is the SAP Extractor – the Technology and Functions 

Technology driving the SAP extractor

As seen earlier in this post, an important feature of SAP Data Service is the ability to integrate and transform data. By using this technologically advanced feature, it is possible to develop and execute workflows to extract SAP data from various sources. These include data stores, databases, web services, and other applications.

After going through the process to extract SAP data, businesses can transform and format the processed data for real-time analytics and bring it in sync with their requirements. Additionally, SAP data is widely used for querying Data Services, which results in faster responses according to a pre-defined workflow. This is together with batch processing, which was a form of data transformation in the past.

The SAP Extractor is a very effective management tool of SAP that is optimized to extract SAP data from the source systems. The extracted data can then be moved to downstream business intelligence systems or data warehouses.

In a nutshell, then, the objective of the SAP Extractor is to extract SAP data for inputting into SAP BW applications. This function can also be used to integrate data with the SAP Extractor. It is applicable even when the user is not using BW but is an SAP client.

Functions of the SAP Extractor

Let us now explore how the SAP Extractor functions to extract SAP data. The whole process is seamless, fully automated, managed, and operated by SAP without human intervention at any stage. The Extractor is either in the form of a Data Source or customized to offer particulars of full-load delta processes of various types. In both cases, the transfer activity of this program is controlled remotely by SAP as part of their fully-managed function.

The workflow to extract SAP data cannot be started immediately for transfer to the input layer of the SAP Business Warehouse. Users must first use an Info Package in the scheduler to outline the load process. Once this is done, a request is sent to IDoc to the source system at the time of implementation of the Info Package with process chains used for executions.

Extracting SAP data – the procedure

The process to extract SAP data is dependent on the application used to do so. BI content can be accessed by the Business Warehouse after the Extractors are hard-coded for the Data Source. Before progressing further from this stage, it should be ensured that the structure of the Extractor used matches that of the Data Source.

Users can choose from several types of Extractors to extract SAP data and move it to the Business Warehouse. After the Data Source is linked with the Extractors, they can identify which data is to be extracted and the tables that have data in real-only format. As stated before, the function to extract SAP data is fully automated and controlled remotely by SAP.

An advantage is that the SAP Extractor can extract SAP data regardless of the application. However, this will happen only when the Extractor contains database views, master data attributes or texts, SAP query functional areas, or transaction data from all transparent tables. All these types of data, the Data Source reads and transfers it to the Business Warehouse.

Over the years, the SAP Extractor has evolved into an advanced and cutting-edge tool that has made it a leader in the niche of Enterprise Resource Planning products. It is now considered to be on par with other top ERP systems like Oracle, Microsoft, Salesforce, and other competitors.

Types of SAP Data Extractors

SAP Extractors to extract SAP data are available in three forms.

• Application Specific Content Extractors that are used to extract SAP data with BW content, FI, HR, CO, SAP CRM, and LO cockpit.
• Application Specific Customer-Generated Extractors that are used to extract data related to LIS, FI-SL, and CO-PA.
• Cross Application Generic Extractors that work exclusively with the DB View, Infoset, and Function Modules.

For organizations wanting to extract SAP data, one of the three must be selected that precisely match their requirements.

The SAP ETL (Extract, Transform, and Load) tool is the most effective medium to extract SAP data. It first extracts data from single or several sources and transforms the data to match the data structure of the target system. This data is then loaded into the target location, which may be a data warehouse or a central storage repository.