It’s no secret that data is the lifeblood of any organization. But, oftentimes, finding the most efficient and effective ways to collect, manage, and exchange that data can be a pretty difficult feat.
This is where SAP Data Management solutions come in to help, offering comprehensive management, integration, and governance functionality to consolidate various data sources, improve digital transformation initiatives, and maximize functionality across their SAP system.
Keep reading to learn more about SAP Data Management software, how it revolutionizes business processes and improves data-driven decision-making, and where our SAP consultants can fit in your organization.
What is SAP Data Management?
While data plays a vital role in shaping the structure of an organization and improving decision-making processes, it is actually quite useless without a well-defined data management, strategy, and governance model designed to ensure data security, quality, and integrity across teams.
SAP Data Management software is designed to help organizations access, collect, organize, and store their most critical business data more effectively. It offers a wide range of capabilities to monitor activities across data warehouses, ensure high data integrity and availability, and improve data accuracy throughout the entire organization.
By equipping business users with intelligent tools and resources built to handle large amounts of customer data and connect various data sources in one location, the SAP Data Management System makes it easier to handle the entire data management lifecycle — from data collection to review, standardization, storage, master data management, and more.
Understanding Enterprise Data Management in SAP
Inefficient data management processes and poor data quality can be costly for companies, leaving their most sensitive business data open to security threats, reducing operational efficiency, and ultimately leading to quite a bit of wasted time and money across the entire enterprise.
By leveraging the right SAP solutions for their unique data management needs, organizations can accelerate time-to-value for core data orchestration and migration tasks, obtain greater insights into customer and product data, and combine disparate data sources into a single source of truth.
The data management process in SAP involves a few critical steps, including:
- Ensuring proper data collection, processing, validation, and storage
- Determining how data is accessed and leveraged by apps and users
- Improving data quality and availability across teams
- Protecting and securing sensitive operational data
- Integrating various types of structured and unstructured data from disparate sources
List of Core SAP Data Management Solutions
Here’s a closer look at a few of SAP’s core data management and governance solutions:
1) Data Warehousing Solutions
SAP’s intelligent data warehousing solutions make it easier for users to view and access structured data and create comprehensive reports and models based on accurate business data.
SAP Datasphere
The SAP Datasphere, formerly SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, is a fully integrated and persona-driven Data-Warehouse-as-a-Service (DWaaS) solution designed to help companies reduce the complexities of system deployment processes and promote cloud-based data management.
SAP Datasphere architecture is built to connect on-premise data warehouse deployments and extend them into the world of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) functionality, enabling users to leverage hybrid data management scenarios and move critical business data into the cloud.
SAP Business Warehouse (BW)
SAP Business Warehouse is a legacy data warehouse offering that can be run on any kind of database, giving customers the ability to run reports through the memory layer instead of compressing the data into SAP BW from the start.
SAP BW/4HANA
SAP BW/4HANA is the successor to SAP BW, providing advanced data management features that help users manage data on top of the SAP HANA database, leverage a modern customer data interface, and improve overall business performance across teams.
2) Data Lifecycle Manager
The Data Lifecycle Manager is an intelligent tool based on SAP HANA Extended Application Services that collects data from SAP HANA and moves it to other storage sources through three distinct data states.
The predefined states of data include:
- Cold storage: Stores unnecessary data in an external drive until it is needed.
- Warm storage: Provides disk-based extended storage for non-critical business data.
- Hot storage: Manages currently-used data in the memory layer.
3) SAP Data Intelligence
SAP Data Intelligence, or the SAP Data Hub, combines artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to consolidate critical business information, improve collaboration between IT teams and other departments, and improve data orchestration, discovery, and governance.
4) SAP Agile Data Preparation
SAP Agile Data Preparation makes it easier for users to connect data sources, such as databases and spreadsheets, to facilitate data manipulation and transformation as needed.
5) SAP HANA and HANA Cloud
SAP HANA is SAP’s main in-memory database, offering critical capabilities that help users collect, sort, manage, and store data for both on-premise and cloud-based solutions.
SAP HANA Smart Data Integration
This tool loads data into the SAP HANA database in either real-time or batch mode and offers a few intelligent features, like custom adapters and the SDI tool, to enable better insights and facilitate more efficient integration.
SAP HANA Smart Data Quality
The SDQ component serves as a sub-component of SDI transformations, including data and address cleansing, geospacial data enrichments, and more.
SAP HANA Smart Data Access
With the Smart Data Access tool, companies can access third-party SAP and non-SAP data sources without copying each data point directly into the HANA database, saving users valuable time and reducing data bloat across the system.
SAP HANA Cloud Services
This fully integrated suite of applications enables users to access various data management functionalities vis SAP HANA Cloud and the SAP Datasphere, bridging the gap between traditional databases, data warehouses, and data lakes across the entire technical landscape.
6) SAP Data Services
SAP Data Services provides a comprehensive enterprise information management solution that helps users ensure data quality, facilitate better data exchange, and improve connectivity between SAP and non-SAP systems across an organization’s entire technical landscape.
7) SAP Master Data Governance
SAP Master Data Governance (MDG) allows users to consolidate and combine enterprise master data from multiple sources, identify data quality, and define data management workflows across the entire organization.
8) SAP Information Lifecycle Management
With SAP Information Lifecycle Management (ILM), companies can easily block and delete unnecessary information from their SAP systems, making it easier to maintain compliance with data privacy laws and regulations, like the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) requirements.
Key Capabilities of SAP’s Modern Data Management System
Here’s a closer look at the main features and capabilities included in SAP Data Management software:
Data Fabric
By leveraging scalable machine learning (ML) and data orchestration functionality, users can connect and integrate their critical business data, support all data fabric implementations, and improve data-driven processes and insights across the board.
Content Management
With SAP Data Management, companies can connect their structured and unstructured data in one location, improving user experiences, driving improved data quality, reducing procurement costs, and improving overall returns on investment.
Master Data Management
SAP Master Data Management provides comprehensive data management solutions designed to help users gain a better view of their master data, ensure accurate data, and address digital and operational challenges head-on.
Data Quality Management
By leveraging accurate and complete location data, companies can review data more efficiently, ensure on-time deliveries, and enhance customer satisfaction across teams and departments.
Data Integration
SAP’s intelligent data integration capabilities allow users to process, integrate, and connect both structured and unstructured data from SAP systems and third-party tools within Big Data or other areas of enterprise data management software.
Why is Efficient Data Management Important?
All data-driven technologies, applications, advanced analytics solutions, and business processes depend on seamless and efficient access to critical business data.
A modern data management system, like SAP Master Data Management or SAP HANA Data Management, helps companies ensure their data is accurate, available, and accessible for all authorized users, making it easier to manage large data volumes and improve data quality across teams.
How Can We Help?
Whether you need help leveraging SAP’s data management solutions to consolidate critical information in a single master data management layer, additional support navigating integrations with the SAP Business Technology Platform, or just an extra hand getting started with SAP, Surety Systems can help.
Our senior-level, US-based SAP consultant team has the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to help you manage all your most important SAP project needs and make the most of your investment.
Partnering with the Best
Interested in learning how SAP Data Management solutions can help you protect your critical master data domains and ensure efficient customer data management across your entire organization? Ready to get started on a project with our team of expert SAP consultants?
Contact us today for more information!
