A Quick Guide for Connecting Non-SAP Frontends to SAP HANA Applications
There may be numerous reasons for choosing one BI Platform over the other. Here are a few examples: • Positive user experience, inhouse competence, user preference • Capabilities that other tools do not have • Vendor relationship • Compatibility/Integration with existing/preferred infrastructure • Market leadership in a specific domain or industry • Total Cost of Ownership
Regardless of what applications are used on the backend (SAP ERP, ECC, S4, Datawarehouse, etc.) it is obviously possible selecting frontend technologies and platforms independently. Below I review scenarios and basic steps for connecting SAP HANA based applications to non-SAP BI tools, typical pain points, and ways of addressing them.
Modelling may consist of several steps depending on organization’s architecture, approach and technologies used. In case of an Enterprise Data Warehouse it is common to have a model designed in SAP BW and expose it to external tools via HANA views using the following approach and application development steps:
Table of Contents
Why non-SAP Frontends? 1
Modeling Depends on Selected Architecture 2
Modelling in BW/4HANA vs. HANA Native 3
Users, Roles, Authorizations 4
Limitations When Integrating Non-SAP Frontends and How to Address Them 4
Final Words 6
Below I outline a list of issues, drawbacks and ways of addressing them based on a practical project implementation when integrating SAP BW/4HANA models with MicroStrategy 2019:
