May 7 – 9, 2019

Learn about Microsoft’s journey with BPC 11.0 on BW/4HANA & HANA 2.0 on Azure

Sundar Shanmugam, Senior Program Manager, MicrosoftElke Bregler, Principal Software Engineer, Microsoft

Naren Baliga, Director, SAP

Session ID # 83721

About the Speakers

Sundar Shanmugam• Senior Program Manager,

Microsoft

• 15 Years of SAP Solution Delivery experience across wide spectrum of Industries and SAP Products

• Bucket List: Play the drums like a pro ☺

Elke Bregler• Principal Software

Engineer, Microsoft

• 23 years SAP Basis experience;16 years with Microsoft IT

• Bucket list: Travel from Alaska to Patagonia

Naren Baliga• Director, SAP

• 23 years industry experience

• Fun fact: Early engagement at SAP was Outlooksoft, predecessor of BPC!. Worked at both SAP & Microsoft full-time

• Bucket list: Meditation in the Himalayas!

Key Outcomes/Objectives

1. Scalable Planning Solution

2. Quicker Time-to-Value

3. Lower TCO

Agenda

• SAP BPC @Microsoft Introduction

• Design Principles

• Solution Architecture

• Key Design Elements

• Running BPC 11.0 on BW/4HANA on Azure

CUSTOMER

SAP BPC 11.0 on BW/4 HANA on Microsoft Azure

Driving intelligent decisions

SAP BPC @Microsoft IntroductionOur BPC journey began, with our

Devices group for Revenue, Opex,

CapEx and Margin Accounting

Embarking on a modern foundation

for Revenue Planning for our “Cloud

& AI” businessLots of lessons

learnt!

Utilize the native app, infra, telemetry & monitoring features of Azure

SAP BPC 10.1 Standard

Design Principles

• Scalable Planning Solution1. Keep it Simple2. Form Design3. Minimize manual Master Data maintenance 4. Workbook Performance5. Build Resilience6. Integrate Security from start7. Data Reconciliation

• Time to Value8. Standardization (Re-usable Process / Objects)9. Test Automation

• Lower TCO10. Infrastructure & Installation

ETL (BODS)

Z Table + aDSO

Source 1 Source 3Source 2

Data Sources

Staging - aDSO

A.aDSO

Composite Provider

Aggregation Level

LOB 1 LOB 2 LOB 4LOB 3 LOB 5 LOB 6

3 Years Historic Data + Rolling Forecast /Budget – 24 months

Reporting Layer Input enabled BW Queries

Analysis for Office

Query

Virtual

Persistent

Virtual

Persistent

Inbound FilesOutbound Files

Solution Architecture for Revenue Forecasting

Due to the in-memory nature of the SAP BW/4HANA database, no aggregates or roll-up processes are required on top of the aDSOs

Channel 2

P.aDSO A.aDSO P.aDSOPost Plan Calculation aDSO

F.aDSOB.aDSO

Channel 1

Composite Provider

Legend A – Actual B – BudgetF – ForecastP - Plan

CUSTOM FUNCTION MODULE TO UPDATE THE Z TABLE / aDSO Table

ETL Options

No Delta from Source

Data Modelling❖ Standardize Characteristics and Key Figures, especially if they

are flowing from different source systems❖ Characteristics – Keep it limited

❖ Consider standard out of the box characteristics❖ Consider versioning, Audit Trails

❖ Key Figures – Standardize data type ❖ Use Currency / Unit of Measure as appropriate❖ Standardize decimal precision for currency, quantity and %

values❖ Evaluate Account based vs separate Key Figure

❖ Hierarchies❖ Consider appropriate no of levels / Grain

❖ For Planning❖ For Storing

❖ Consider time dependent hierarchies for changing hierarchies

❖ Separate Actual vs Plan aDSOs❖ Determine appropriate no of pairs

❖ Consider data volume❖ Common Characteristics❖ Data Sources

❖ Share Composite Provider and Aggregation Levels❖ For products with similar reporting and planning needs

❖ Minimize Data Duplication❖ Consider storing of comments using new feature for document

DB

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5 Level 6 Level 7

Second Dimension Hierarchy Children Per Parent 1 4 6 8 10

Single Dimension Hierarchy Children Per Parent 1 3 5 7 7 10 5

Combination Combined Record Count 1 12 360 20160 1411200 14112000 70560000

1

4

6

8

10

0 0

1

3

5

7 7

10

5

0

10000000

20000000

30000000

40000000

50000000

60000000

70000000

80000000

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

Tipping Point

• Record count growth when using hierarchy across 2 dimensions

Hierarchy OptionsOption 1 Option 2 Option 3 Option 4

1. Leverage Hierarchy • For a scalable solution• For quicker time to value

2. Choose appropriate option • Balancing Future Flexibility vs Data Volume

3. Avoid customization• Balancing Manual Master Data vs Complex coding

4. Do you need to use multiple dimensional hierarchies? • Choose appropriate levels for each dimension

Planning Functions

❖ Dynamically read the active planning node from the planning query / hierarchy (Using Variables)

❖ Dynamic switching of key figures based on business rules – Example Product

❖ Dynamic switching of calculation algorithm based on user decision

❖ Reading data from planning buffer vs tables

❖ Saving the derived value. Is it required? If yes, why?

❖ Can you automate the pre-steps?

❖ Usage of FOX vs Custom coding using ABAP / AMDP

❖ Avoid Hard-Coding

Select the Option

– Months = (Current Period / Same Period in Previous Year ) – – Months Previous Version

– Months Previous Version

YoY Growth %

Previous Year Previous Version

ProductLicense

License

Revenue

Dynamic Hierarchy Level

Revenue

User

AllocationOption 1 Option 2 Option 3 Option 4

→ Leverage standard disaggregation Options for scalable solutions and lower TCO

Ref

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nce

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od

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yste

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visi

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Reference SystemSecurity Db

Reference SystemUser to Dimension 2

Mapping

Reference SystemUser to Dimension 1

Mapping

Analysis Office

Excel Add-In

Data is refreshed once every 4 Hours

BICS CALL

User AuthorizedUser Not Authorized

Invoke custom code in SAP BPC

11.0 for Dynamic Authorization

validation

Please apply for Reference System Access

Approved

Business User

Business User

Security Integration

Pre

-exi

stin

g S

ecu

rity

Ap

pro

val P

roce

ss

Authorization data - dynamically updated and

integrated to the workbook and BPC model.

Data Reconciliation

• Consider using an exception report for validation

– Best practice is to reconcile at the total level and then spot check at multiple levels

– Consider automating the validation of values in the exception report so that manual intervention can be eliminated

• Determine the optimal timing for data movement

– Find the right cadence of data movement to satisfy business needs

Lessons Learned

• Scalable Planning Solution1. Keep it Simple2. Form Design3. Minimize manual Master Data maintenance 4. Workbook Performance5. Build Resilience6. Integrate Security from start7. Data Reconciliation

• Time to Value8. Standardization (Re-usable Process / Objects)9. Test Automation

• Lower TCO10. Infrastructure & Installation

Running BPC 11.0 on BW/4HANA In Azure

OS: WindowsSAP BW and BPCNetweaver stack

sync*SAP HANA SAP HANA

SAP HANAOS: SUSE LinuxSAP HANA database async*

DR

* HANA 2.0 Multi-Target-Replication

Azure Monitor:Reporting, Telemetry, Monitoring and Reporting for OS, Infrastructure and Application

Principles For Installation

• Use Standard Azure SKU’s for flexibility• Right-size to current needs (+ next 6 month)• VM design for HANA to allow growth in disks for future growth (and resizing of VM)• One HANA instance and one Tenant database per VM• SAP Application stack on Windows to use existing processes• SUSE Pacemaker for High Availability with HANA• “Snooze” systems/application servers, that are not needed• Select smallest possible SKU for DR servers; upsize when needed (DR exercise or real

DR)• Leveraging SAP LaMa for HANA administration and refresh• All Telemetry and Monitoring via Azure Monitor integration: One Single point to

analyze, report and alert from

Lessons Learned

• HANA Backup to Azure blob• Integration of HANA into Azure Monitor via custom solution for single Monitoring

solution (Azure Monitor)• SAP Sizing is a guideline only; our used case required way less resources than predicted

Stress testing on a non-prod system to verify production requirements. It is easy to resize VM sizes in Azure on demand.

• HANA Data masking limitations: only string data, needs to be implemented per column. Our ask: All data types to be masked and setting configurable as a default for the database (e.g. so that dbas do not see the data)

• Custom scripts to work-around missing HANA features (some covered in HANA 2.0 SPS04):– Automated registration of DR HANA server– Regular logging of HANA state (primary, secondary, offline)– HANA failover in cluster environment

• HANA certified for M-series SKU’s – check availability in Regions

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Access the slides from 2019 ASUG Annual Conference here:

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Presentation Materials

Q&AFor questions after this session, contact us at sushanm@microsoft.com,

elke.bregler@microsoft.com and naren.baliga@sap.com

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