Third-party data extraction tools play a key role in implementing SAP BW-based global data warehouses when you need to source data from SAP R/3 and non-SAP applications. This chapter described how SAP BW Staging BAPIs load data. PowerCenter integration with SAP BW gives you sufficient information on steps needed to implement this tool.
Note that before implementing a third-party tool with SAP BW, a careful analysis of individual tools must be done. Ask vendors how they perform data transformation specific to SAP BW, manage change capture, access SAP R/3 and non-R/3 data sources, capture and manage metadata, and handle large data volumes. These are just a few questions to ask. I highly recommend that you do a conference room pilot to really evaluate if the selected tool is right for your production environment. Verify that the tool can load large data volumes in SAP BW in a time that meets your SAP BW production operations and not just a demo or test environment. While this chapter focused on third-party data loading tools, the next chapter describes how third-party tools access data from SAP BW.
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