SAP Data Strategy


What Is SAP Data Strategy?

Business and IT executives are convinced that data equates to value. Yet, to convert data into tangible business value, companies need a strong data strategy.

SAPInsider research on Data Management and Data Warehousing on Cloud found that 58% of respondents are completely or mostly satisfied with how their data strategy is meeting their organization’s data access, reporting, and intelligence requirements, while 33% are partially satisfied.

What Is SAP Data Strategy?

Business and IT executives are convinced that data equates to value. Yet, to convert data into tangible business value, companies need a strong data strategy.

SAPInsider research on Data Management and Data Warehousing on Cloud found that 58% of respondents are completely or mostly satisfied with how their data strategy is meeting their organization’s data access, reporting, and intelligence requirements, while 33% are partially satisfied.

A data strategy is a vision for how a company will collect, store, manage, share, and use data. Increasingly, enterprises recognize the importance of formulating an enterprise data strategy that spans across SAP and non-SAP data.

A good data strategy is driven by the business strategy. It translates the goals, risks, and requirements of the business into data models, processes, policies and technologies. Without a good data strategy, the organization is likely to have inefficient and poorly executed business processes, frequent data privacy and compliance issues, poor data analytics, customer dissatisfaction due to delays and errors, and significant costs due to manual operations.

Many specialist consultants can help companies with data strategy such as Pythian and cbs-Consulting.

Data Strategy Elements

There are four commonly acknowledged elements of data strategy that generate questions to consider:

  1. Goals and Objectives for Data: What are the goals for data? For example, goals may be to enable enterprise analytics and smooth business processes, provide data to business users efficiently, and reduce data storage costs. Companies also have short-term goals such as consolidating data stores in one location or cleaning up master data.
  2. Organizational Roles: What are the roles that manage or use the data? Data architects and engineers may build the data infrastructure, data scientists may use it for analytics, while business users may create, update, or use specific data based on their role.
  3. Data Architecture: Where will data be stored and how will it be accessed? A wide variety of storage is used both on-premise and on cloud. Increasingly, companies are consolidating data on the cloud in the form of data lakes, data hubs, or data warehouses with SAP HANA or other solutions. Vendors like Dell, NetApp, NTT Data, and TIBCO offer robust solutions to store and manage data.
  4. Data Management: How will data be governed, converted, transported, and archived? Data is considered a business asset; similar to a physical asset, companies develop ways to govern its use and manage it over its lifecycle. There is a proliferation of vendors offering services such as master data governance, including the Laidon Group.

In addition to the above, companies are now considering a short-term data strategy around how to migrate to SAP S/4HANA. This presentation, Data Readiness and Preparation for Your SAP S/4HANA Implementation, outlines how to develop a data foundation during and before the migration.

20 results

  1. Drive SAP Innovation with Real-Time Data Analytics, Process Automation, and Intelligent Innovation

    October 05, 2023

    Organizations need to maximize their SAP investments and unlock the potential of the data stored in those systems while they navigate the complexities of moving to the cloud. They need to solve the problem of optimizing processes, enhancing productivity, reducing TCO, and leveraging advanced analytics to drive growth. The goal is to provide insight into…
  2. Data Services Cloud

    Enabling a Data Fabric that Links Strategy to Execution

    Reading time: 4 mins

    Many organizations are slowly beginning to realize the fact that they have a significant gap between their data strategy and execution. Disparate landscapes and varied business user requirements to reactive approaches in addressing specific, high-value needs can make it difficult for organizations to meet their business objectives. In this article, we will explore how SAP…
  3. Datasphere

    Strategy and Execution: Closing the Gap

    Reading time: 1 mins

    SAP Datasphere goes beyond what was enabled by SAP DWC with source data neutrality and data ecosystem partnerships in a three-tier construct that is similar to competitor offerings with data consumption tier, or “front end” of the data story that enables business users to access, analyze, and visualize data; a platform tier, including SAP Datasphere…
  4. How Microsoft Helps Meet Growing Data Requirements

    Reading time: 11 mins

    Data is the lifeblood of modern business. Organizations are collecting vast amounts of information in order to intelligently run operations and gain an advantage within their field. In this digital economy, companies have a growing need to scale up their data capacity so that they do not fall behind. SAP users in particular often require…
  5. Data Governance Strategy

    5 Steps to Build a Holistic Data Governance Strategy That Ensures Master Data Quality

    November 16, 2022

    Do you struggle with building an effective data governance strategy? Master Data Management without Data Governance is a recipe for disaster. Companies need to have a holistically-defined Data Governance framework. This framework should stipulates the processes, policies, and standards on the use of data. This webinar will explore how to build a holistic strategy and…
  6. Data Protection Strategy

    Developing a Data Protection Strategy for SAP HANA

    October 27, 2022

    As companies accelerate on the path to digitalization and digital transformation, their organizations are becoming more vulnerable to data protection risks. Developing a data protection strategy for SAP HANA is no longer an option but a requirement. Organizations today rely on leveraging data for their day-to-day operations as well as decision making and hence, loss…
  7. Johann Lubbe image

    Town Hall: Prioritising Data as a Strategic Asset

    Data is a critical business asset, whether that’s realised to its full potential is up to the business. How an enterprise prioritises data as a strategic asset will determine its survival, growth potential, and competitive advantage. This content is for SAPinsider Premium Access members only.Log In Join Now
  8. SAP S/4HANA image

    System Optimization using SAP S/4HANA’s Data Aging

    Reading time: 6 mins

    There has been a significant increase in data generation owing to enhanced usage of applications and increasing digitization of business processes. To derive true value from the data, this has to be stored and processed efficiently. The larger the quantity of data, the more complex it is to sift through to gain insights. This is…
  9. Enabling Data-Driven Enterprises with Data Lakes for SAP

    November 19, 2021

    Today’s leading companies are leveraging the massive amounts of data generated by SAP systems, devices, and people to create new, re-imagined business processes. To turn data into a competitive advantage, companies must establish a modern data platform that can not only effectively integrate SAP and non-SAP data sources, but is also capable of supporting the…
  10. Building a Winning Culture For Data Analytics Excellence

    Reading time: 4 mins

    A Series on Data Excellence By Deepa Salem, Vice President and Research Director, SAPInsider “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” – a quote commonly attributed to Peter Drucker, the management expert. This fact rings true today in the realm of enterprise data analytics strategy. Without a data culture that catalyzes the strategy and brings it to life, any…...…