I discussed some of the basic concepts of SAP BW here and here. I was just going over some material on SAP R/3 implementation and came accross this idea of doing a post about SAP Business Warehouse implementation Vs and SAP R/3 implementation. To start with, SAP R/3 implementation look at the process efficiencies which result due to automated transaction processing. SAP BW business warehouse implementations emphazise purely on the reporting and dectiosn making needs of the organization.

When one looks at a SAP R/3 implementation in an organization, the main intention of the management is to look at processes as an integrated whole rather than in silos. SAP R/3 implementations do take care of the reporting needs of the organization, but only at the transaction processing level. So in a typical R/3 implementation, time is spent on
defining, designing, configuring and implementing the transactional processes. The time spent on analytical reporting is much lesser. My experience says it is almost a 80-20 ratio. Here is where the BW implementations come in. For management decision making, they need a good support of reliable transaction data in a consistent format to rely on. BW reports, infocubes, key figures can help management meke these decisions in a better way.

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