SAP HANA vs SAP BW/4HANA vs Mixed Strategies: A Comparison Guide
SAP is a leading provider of enterprise software solutions, offering a wide range of products and services for various industries and business scenarios. Among its portfolio, SAP has two powerful data warehouse solutions: SAP HANA and SAP BW/4HANA. Both of them are based on the SAP HANA platform, which is a high-performance in-memory database that enables real-time analytics and applications. However, they have different features, capabilities, and use cases that make them suitable for different scenarios. In this blog post, we will compare SAP HANA and SAP BW/4HANA, as well as explore the option of using mixed strategies to leverage the best of both worlds.
What is SAP HANA?
SAP HANA is a data platform that can serve as a data warehouse, a data lake, or a hybrid solution. It allows you to store, process, and analyze large volumes of structured and unstructured data from various sources, such as ERP systems, IoT devices, social media, etc. SAP HANA can also run advanced analytics, such as predictive, spatial, text, graph, and streaming analytics, as well as machine learning and artificial intelligence. SAP HANA can be deployed on-premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid mode.
SAP HANA is designed for scenarios where you need to access and analyze data in real time, with high performance and flexibility. For example, you can use SAP HANA to:
- Build custom applications that require complex calculations and logic
- Perform operational reporting and analytics on live transactional data
- Integrate and harmonize data from multiple sources and formats
- Enable self-service data exploration and visualization
- Develop innovative solutions using advanced analytics and AI
What is SAP BW/4HANA?
SAP BW/4HANA is a packaged data warehouse solution that is based on SAP HANA. It is the successor of SAP Business Warehouse (BW), which is a traditional data warehouse solution that runs on various databases. SAP BW/4HANA inherits the features and functionalities of SAP BW, such as data modeling, extraction, transformation, loading (ETL), data quality management, security, governance, etc. However, it also leverages the capabilities of SAP HANA to offer enhanced performance, scalability, simplicity, and openness.
SAP BW/4HANA is designed for scenarios where you need to consolidate and integrate data from various sources and systems, and provide a consistent and agreed-upon view of your data across the enterprise. For example, you can use SAP BW/4HANA to:
- Build a corporate data warehouse that serves as a single source of truth for your business
- Perform strategic reporting and analytics on historical and aggregated data
- Support planning and forecasting processes with integrated planning tools
- Enable business users to create their own queries and reports using predefined models and templates
- Connect to external data sources and applications using open interfaces
What are mixed strategies?
Mixed strategies are the combination of different planning strategies that are available in the SAP system. Planning strategies represent the business procedures for the planning of production quantities and dates. They range from pure make-to-order production to pure make-to-stock production, as well as many hybrid strategies that balance customer demand and inventory levels.
Depending on the strategy you choose, you can:
- Use sales orders and/or sales forecast values to create the demand program
- Move the stocking level down to the assembly level so that final assembly is triggered by the incoming sales order
- Carry out demand management specifically for the assembly
You can also combine planning strategies for different materials or components in your bill of materials (BOM). This allows you to optimize your production planning according to your business needs and constraints.
For example, you can use the following mixed strategies:
- Planning with final assembly (40) for a finished product that is assembled on demand from stock components
- Planning at assembly level (70) for an important assembly that is produced based on sales forecast values
- Gross planned independent requirement (11) for a component that is produced regardless of stock levels
How to choose the best strategy for your scenario?
There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to choosing the best strategy for your scenario. It depends on various factors, such as your business goals, requirements, challenges, opportunities, resources, etc. However, here are some general guidelines that can help you make an informed decision:
- If you need real-time access and analysis of your data, with high performance and flexibility, choose SAP HANA.
- If you need to consolidate and integrate your data from various sources and systems, and provide a consistent and agreed-upon view of your data across the enterprise, choose SAP BW/4HANA.
- If you need to optimize your production planning according to your customer demand and inventory levels, choose mixed strategies.
Of course, these are not mutually exclusive options. You can also combine them to leverage the best of both worlds. For example:
- You can use SAP HANA as a data lake to store and process raw data from various sources, and use SAP BW/4HANA as a data warehouse to structure and harmonize the data for reporting and analytics purposes.
- You can use SAP BW/4HANA as a corporate data warehouse to provide a single source of truth for your business, and use SAP HANA as a data platform to build custom applications and solutions that require complex calculations and logic.
- You can use mixed strategies to plan your production quantities and dates, and use SAP HANA or SAP BW/4HANA to analyze your production performance and efficiency.
Conclusion
SAP HANA and SAP BW/4HANA are two powerful data warehouse solutions that are based on the SAP HANA platform. They have different features, capabilities, and use cases that make them suitable for different scenarios. Mixed strategies are the combination of different planning strategies that are available in the SAP system. They allow you to optimize your production planning according to your customer demand and inventory levels. You can also combine these options to leverage the best of both worlds.
We hope this blog post has helped you understand the differences and similarities between SAP HANA, SAP BW/4HANA, and mixed strategies, as well as how to choose the best strategy for your scenario. If you have any questions or feedback, please feel free to leave a comment below.
Disclaimer: This content is generated by AI.