deep dive into leveraging new features and functions of sap netweaver bw 7.4

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Deep Dive into Leveraging New Features and Functions of SAP NetWeaver BW 7.4

Dr. Bjarne BergCOMERIT

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In This Session

• You will learn what is new in SAP NetWeaver® BW 7.4 and how you can leverage it in your organization

• We will look at the SAP NetWeaver BW 7.4 on HANA capabilities as well as the non-HANA functionality

• We will show a demo of a very large dataset in SAP NetWeaver BW 7.4 on HANA through SAP BusinessObjects and see newfont-end capabilities

• At the end of the session you will have a very good understanding of the new capabilities and how you can use it in your company

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The Reasons for Moving to SAP NetWeaver BW 7.4

• BW 7.4 was available as of May 2013 and has been well tested

BW has now been around for over 16 years!

BW Version Release Date End of mainstream maintenance1.0E Dec-98 Jan-991.2A Feb-99 Jun-991.2B Jun-99 Jun-042.0A Feb-00 Feb-052.0B Aug-00 Dec-052.1C Dec-00 Dec-053.0A Nov-01 Dec-053.0B May-02 Dec-063.1C Nov-02 Dec-063.2 Mar-03 Dec-063.3 Aug-03 Dec-063.5 Mar-04 Mar/Dec-10

2004S Jun-07 Dec-107.0 (~"7.1") Dec-08 Mar-14

7.3 Mar-11 Mar-167.4 May 13 May-19

#1 reason for upgrade:

“Because I had to!”

#2 reason for upgrade:

SAP BW on HANA

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SAP HANA and BW 7.4• For BW 7.4 on HANA, SAP has continued to

move more of the process intensive functions from the application to the DB server

As we will see later, the benefits of this approach are dramatically faster data activation, data transformations, and query executions

• This takes advantage of the performance improvements of an in-memory DB

• It also reduces the need for data transfers between application and DB server

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What We’ll Cover

• Taking advantage of New Development capabilities• Leveraging New Front-end Enhancements in BW 7.4• Using New ETL Features• Demo of BW 7.4 on HANA• New Security capabilities• Planning and Consolidation with BW 7.4• Wrap-up

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SAP HANA and BW 7.4: Unified Modeling Tool Platform

• SAP has spent significant time on simplifying the modeling tools in their landscape. This includes tools in SAP HANA Studio, inside SAP NetWeaver BW, and also for the ABAP development tools.

• All new tools are based on the Eclipse platform for simplicity and to make each tool easier to use

There are also new BW Modeling capabilities for the new “Open ODS View” and the new “CompositeProvider”

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New Business Content Optimized for BW on HANA

For those “green fielding” a HANA implementation, or planning to develop analytics in these areas, serious consideration should be spent on leveraging this new content

• This takes advantage of HANA optimized transformations, consolidated InfoObjects, more line item details, and in some cases leverages the BW models and the HANA models in combined scenarios

• SAP has developed specific new content for BW on HANA

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BW Workspaces and Agile Data Marts

• BW 7.4 continues to leverage the concepts of BW workspaces for technically savvy business people to be allowed to develop their own data marts that can be changed on-the-fly without IT support

• This creates more flexibility for business units that are sharing a BW 7.4 environment

You can leverage the concept of Workspaces in both SAP NetWeaver BW 7.4 as well as in SAP BusinessObjects 4.x for increased agility for developers located in the business units

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HANA Optimized BW 7.4 DSOs and Performance Improvements• HANA-optimized DSOs are also available for BW 7.3, but as of 7.4

Optimized DSOs are now obsolete — sufficient improvements have been made to push logic down into HDB that standard DSOs perform as well as (if not better than) optimized DSOs

• This means that data activations are done much faster at the HANA database layer

• The change log is no longer a calculated view, it is now a DB table

There is no need to migrate 3.x outbound flows from DSOs to realize activation performance

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Moving OLAP from Application to the Database Layer

• To share workload in traditional DWs, systems relied on splitting execution of logic between the database and multiple application servers

• BW 7.4 is moving as much logic as possible to the much faster in-memory database. It also reduces time spent on data transfers between application and database servers.

• This trend started with BW 7.3 with RKFs, exception aggregation, and handling of hierarchies

• With BW 7.4 this is enhanced to remove temporary result tables and the execution of joins and unions

In SP6, we see even more movement of OLAP functionality to the DB. This includes exception aggregations of formulas, advanced hierarchy handling, and the treatment of non-cumulative key figures at the database server level.

New Terminology: The OLAP Engine is now called

the “Online Analytical Processor”

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Enhancements to BW 7.4 OLAP CacheIn BW 7.4 there are some improvements to the OLAP cache. It is now an Analytic Engine function, which means that the Analytic Engine can also run without an OLAP cache.

Mode 0: The Local cacheIn this mode, the database cache is activated. The system then works exclusively with the local cache.

Cache mode D: Database cacheIn the D-mode, the cache data is persistent in database tables. In this mode, no data is displaced, and the memory size is unlimited. The database instance that the table sits on carries the load. More space is required, but this method also saves time.

Cache mode I: Cache inactiveThe data is read again in every navigation step

Consider using cache mode D for the most frequently used queries that require calculations and are relatively slow. In this mode, the use of aggregates (for non-HANA systems), is not needed.

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Creating a Logical or Federated EDW with BW 7.4

• By using the BW virtualization layer, you can now create a federated EDW

• Data can be linked and accessed through the HANA Smart Data Access (SDA) and ODBC to any source

• You can use a single query to BW and non-BW based EDWs through an Open ODS View or a Composite Provider

• There is no need to physically move data from other EDWs to BW to have a Federated EDW

Many companies have multiple reporting systems that they want to integrate without writing ETL programs and moving data. SAP NetWeaver BW 7.4 on HANA can help you avoid this.

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SAP HANA and BW 7.4

• BW 7.4 on HANA introduces the Smart Data Access that allows us to create: Virtual table (real-time) links to a

source system CompositeProviders to link BW DSOs

and “native” HANA views and tables A flexible logical EDW that can be

remodeled without moving data• We also get a shared modeling tool

based on Eclipse

Using the new Operational Data Provisioning (ODP) we can also remove the need for PSAs, thereby simplifying data architectures and reducing data latency

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BW 7.4 Virtualization Layer

• Using Smart Data Access (SDA), an OpenODS view can read data in Hadoop, IQ, Teradata, ASE, and other HANA systems

• For managed persistence developers can switch from virtual to persistent storage without a need for a PSA, or to make any changes to queries

SAP is currently piloting the Persistence option in BW (for updates on this, see SAP Note 1922533)

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BW 7.4 Managed Persistence and Modeling

• In BW 7.4 we also get much more flexible modeling. For example, the managed persistence scenario may include transformations for field-level DSOs and the use of DTP.

• Individual source fields may also be linked to existing InfoObjects and Open ODS views

• While an object from a source, such as views, data source, and tables may be flagged as facts, master data, or text

SAP is currently piloting the Persistence option in BW (for updates on this, see SAP Note 1922533)

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Enhanced DBA Cockpit for BW 7.4 on HANA

• With the new DBA cockpit you can now see memoryconsumption and disk size for row tables. Before youcould only see column tables.

• There is also major new functionality in the DBA Cockpit Cancel backups is possible and backint backups is available Display blocked threads and session information Kernel profiler can now accept custom trace thresholds The replication status is available if errors occurred

The DBA cockpit is available from transaction code DBACOCKPIT as long as you have the authorizations for S_TCODE and S_RZL_ADM in your security profile

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Model Integration with BW 7.4 and HANA• Many companies have developed “standalone” HANA systems and are now

moving their BW systems to HANA• With the Open DataStore layer, these customers can link HANA views,

tables, and BW DSO data to create models for simplified querying

SAP is currently piloting field-based modeling in OpenODS Views (for updates on this, see SAP Note 1922533)

• You can even include InfoObjects in your modeling efforts• Using virtual tables and HANA’s Smart Data Access (SDA) methods, you can

also include data from external systems

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SAP HANA and BW 7.4 — Open ODS View• For BW 7.4 we get a new object called an Open ODS View• This new object allows us to include external data models in BW and

to query BW and non-BW data in a single BEx query

In the past, BW had been criticized for the complexity to integrate non-BW data in an EDW. The new Open ODS view and the new CompositeProvider solves most of these issues.

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Enhanced CompositeProviders

Note: VirtualProviders and InfoSets are currently planned for BW 7.4 SP6

• The enhanced CompositeProvider allows you to consolidate BW MultiProviders, HANA-based Virtual and Transient Providers, and InfoSets

• You can also use the CompositeProvider join data from other HANA DataMarts and applications

• There is also new support for non-cumulative key figures (i.e., inventory numbers)

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Building a CompositeProvider

Another new feature: DB Connect can now be used to replicate data to BW from any schema in SAP HANA

• In this example from SAP, data from two InfoCubes and One DSO is joined in a CompositeProvider using the graphical view (there is also a form view)

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Changes to BW Accelerator for BW 7.4

• HANA is the preferred database for all BW 7.4 systems

• However, for those with a traditional database and BWA, the upgrade to BW 7.4 consists of only minor changes to how BWA works

• After the upgrade, calculating the exception aggregation for a single key figure in BWA is possible for conversions before aggregation, but no longer available for quantity conversions

In real client tests, HANA has been found to be up to 2.9 times faster than BWA due to better handling of OLAP functionality as well as data retrieval

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Cool New Feature: Automatically Generate HANA Models from BW• You can now automatically

create new HANA models based on InfoCubes and DSOs in BW

• The generated HANA views access the data in the InfoProviders

• All HANA view capabilities are available for the BW data

In addition to the BW model import in the HANA modeler, this functionality leverages the existing metadata in BW to create new views

• BW Security is leveraged and views can be accessed by tools such as SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, Lumira, and other SAP BusinessObjects tools

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HANA Analysis Processes (HAP) with BW

• Since BW 3.5, we have had a tool called Analysis Process Designer (APD)

• This tool can be used for regression, forecasting, clustering, association rules, and basic statistical functions

• In BW 7.4 with HANA, many of these functions can be executed much faster at the database level (HAP) using even more advanced functions from libraries such as the R-statistical functions, L scripts, SQL scripts, procedures, PAL, and much more

You can automatically store the results from these processes and use them for reporting

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What We’ll Cover


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Taking Advantage of the Fiori Launchpad

• The SAP Fiori Launchpad is a tile-based entry point to Fiori apps for mobile or desktop devices. When it was launched in May 2013, it came with 25 pre-developed applications from SAP.

• With BW 7.4, it can be enriched with specific analytical objects, reports, and planning applications.

The Fiori Launchpad is basically a shell with search and organization capabilities back to applications, reports, and analytical objects

• The tiles displayed to a user depend on the role assigned. Users can also personalize their interface by selecting from any published ready-to-use tiles from the “tile catalog.”

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Deploying More Social Media Integration with BW 7.4• With SAP’s social media called

SAP Jam you can deploy your analytics in a shared environment for comments, collaboration, and sharing of key reports and findings. This is also available in SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1

• You can also use the programming interface of the Social Media ABAP Integration Library (SAIL) and build customized objects based on common tasks supported in the library

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Other Enhancements — Easy Query and ODATA

• A cool new feature is that if you flag a BEx Query as “Easy Query” and as interfaced by “OData,” you get a planning and reporting interface you can deploy to mobile devices

After you flag the Query in BEx Query Designer as “Easy Query” under advanced properties, go to the Easy Query Manager, use the transaction code: EQMANAGER

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What We’ll Cover


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Leveraging Enhanced Graphical Dataflow Modeling

• The graphical dataflow modeling in BW 7.4 has been enhanced with two new functions that are useful

• You can now activate objects inside the dataflow without having to leave the ETL modeling screen

DB Connect can be used to replicate data to BW from any schema in the SAP HANA database

• You can also save all dataflows as a web page and place it on a portal (i.e., SAP portal, SharePoint) and use it for accessible documentation that is easy to maintain

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BW 7.4 and Operational Data Provisioning (ODP)

Data in the Operational Delta Queue is highly compressed and therefore does not require as much space as the PSA

• In BW 7.4 SAP has enhanced ODP to allow for using SLT and other BW systems as sources for BW

• This creates a share technology platform for data extraction and allows for single extraction and multiple data targets

• It also removes the need for a Persistent Staging Area (PSA) for the data loads based on ODP

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Real-Time Data Warehousing Becomes Much Simpler

You should seriously consider this technology for real-time operational reporting and for the

month-end financial close process

• Since SLT is now supported for Operational Data Provisioning to BW, we can push data real time to BW InfoProviders in a much simpler manner

• The data in the Operational Delta Queue (ODQ) can also be used by other applications

• Again, since PSA is not required, the dataflows get much easier to develop and maintain

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Use ODP/ODQ to Simplify Data Movement

• Using standard extractors from ERP, you can use the Operational Delta Queue (ODQ) to move data to one or more BW systems

• SAP’s ETL tool, Data Services, can access the ODQ and also move data to other non-BW applications without the need to extract the data twice

• An ODQ inside BW can also be used to move data to other BW systems

The old Application Link Enablement (ALE) and IDocs are replaced with synchronous

Remote Function Calls (RFC)

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Optimized Transformations and Data Activation• Activating data for reporting

against the BW NIRV table was a very slow process in the older BW systems. With some number range buffering (BW 7.0) and package fetch (BW 7.3) this was somewhat improved, but it was still not extremely fast.

• To speed up activation in BW 7.3 on HANA, and transformations in BW 7.4 on HANA, more of this was moved to the database layer

• Currently, transformations include conversions, master data reads, formulas, data mapping, and SQL scripts using most InfoProviders and loading to a DSO

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BW 7.4 — OpenHub Enhancements

• A cool feature is that a query can now be used as the data source of a data transfer process (DTP) of type full This means that you can use the extraction of query data and

the subsequent data distribution to an OpenHub Destination • You can also send data using a query provider on an ad-hoc basis

and OpenHub can be used to send data to other HANA systems• It is even possible to create delta data movements for

DataSources and InfoProviders, making OpenHub a key technology in any EDW landscape

With OpenHub, SAP BW is not a “data jail” and data can easily be integrated between platforms and other reporting systems

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Non-Active, Data Archiving, and Near-Line Storage in BW 7.4 on HANA• For most companies that have been using

BW for many years, significant benefits can be gained by implementing Near-Line Storage (NLS) based on Sybase IQ

• NLS support for InfoProviders with non-cumulative key-figures are planned for release in BW 7.4 Service Pack 7 (Source: Brian Wood, SAP AG, TechEd 2013, http://blasthemy.com/sap/TechEd13/1_Session_PDFs/RDP/RDP207/RDP207.pdf)

• With BW on HANA, non-active data such as PSAs can be held on disks, thereby reducing the memory consumed by BW.

Currently, there are DBSL-based direct connections to Sybase IQ version 15.4 for very large databases (VLDB) and large binary objects (LOB). Platforms supported include Sybase IQ

ODBC NLS client for BW Application Server on Windows and Linux (x86 64 bit).

• Traditional data archiving is still available via the BW SARA transaction

http://blasthemy.com/sap/TechEd13/1_Session_PDFs/RDP/RDP207/RDP207.pdf

http://blasthemy.com/sap/TechEd13/1_Session_PDFs/RDP/RDP207/RDP207.pdf

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What We’ll Cover


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SAP NetWeaver BW 7.4 on HANA

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What We’ll Cover


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Read Access Logging

• In BW 7.4 you can also start logging read access for specific domains and users

• You can select specific fields to be monitored

• You can also monitor all operating processes of BW 7.4 using SAP Solution Manager 7.1.

Do not turn on read access monitoring for all fields and users in large active BW systems. If you do so, the logs can get very large.

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Using New Security Features

• For even more restrictive access and control, there are five new Authorization Objects in BW 7.41. S_RS_ODSV: Open ODS view 2. S_RS_ODSP_H ODP: Extraction from SAP HANA3. RSHAAP for HANA analysis process4. RSHAOT for HANA analysis elements5. S_RS_HCPR SAP HANA for CompositeProvider authorizations

For those on obsolete BW 3.5, or those who has not done a security conversion in 7.0, the new amortizations have to be activated

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What We’ll Cover


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Updated Interface and BPC Copy Planning Functions for BW 7.4• BPC recently got a new

redesigned Web 2.0 interface to simplify and modernize the tasks in BPC

• With SAP BW 7.4 you can now copy planning functions to save development time when extending basic planning models

The BPC 10 functionality for BW 7.4 is found in Support Pack 10 and there is new terminology: The Planning Engine is now called “the Planning Processor”

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New DSO for BW-Integrated Planning and More

• Planning on a DataStore Object for Direct Update With BW 7.4 you can use DataStore objects for direct update in

planning mode as planning-specific InfoProviders

• Planning Applications Kit In BW 7.4 you can use the new technical scenario for planning The planning engine can have read access to the HANA database

and use the ABAP Planning Applications Kit (PAK) internal routines in HANA for faster execution

For BW 7.4, you can also perform planning using internal database routines

If you set Key Figure Values as “available” in planning. You can use the new planning function type that will set values for key

figures and distribute them according to reference data.

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BW 7.4 — Unified Planning and High Cardinality

• BW 7.4 is also taking the unified planning in BPC on SAP NetWeaver® further You can now use the speed of HANA while keeping the Excel

interface, leveraging the BPC admin interface, and continuing to use the PAK planning manager in Integrated Planning.

• You can also overcome the 2 billion limitation in BW by flagging the correct InfoObjects as “High Cardinality” (no SIDs are generated) This can be used for planning and in DSOs as well

For Integrated Planning on BW 7.4, you can now push some of the logic down to HANA script and you can now also delete DSO records instead of just removing values

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What We’ll Cover


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Other Fixes and Enhancements in BW 7.4

• For Integrated Planning on BW 7.4 you can now push some of the logic down to HANA script and you can now also delete DSO records instead of just removing values

• The Analytical Manager in BW has also been improved for faster calculations for MTD, YTD, exception aggregation, period comparisons, and rolling averages

• You can now also get more than 60 Characters in BW. The new attribute and output length can be up to 250 characters and long-text for Characteristics can now be stored as CHAR 1333.

BW 7.4 has addressed much of the smaller fixes that were minor irritation items in BW 7.3

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Some of the features in BW 7.4 are HANA- specific

Others are available for traditional RDBMs

This is an overview of what is available for HANA and non-HANA BWs

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Future Changes to SAP NetWeaver BW

• While SAP has not formally committed to new features on BW. They have indicated that a focus will continue to be on: Cloud deployment enhancements Simplified data modeling Unification of planning functions Tight integration to NLS for Sybase IQ Tight integration of mobile planning functions Enhancements to Hadoop integration

These enhancements will be ongoing in 2014 and some are included in SP6

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Where to Find More Information

• http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-35096 SAP Community Network – SAP NetWeaver Business

Warehouse 7.4• http://help.sap.com/nw_platform

SAP Help Portal – SAP NetWeaver BW 7.4• www.stechno.net/sap-notes.html?view=sapnote&id=153967

SAP Business content release note 153967 for BW 7.4

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-35096

http://help.sap.com/nw_platform

http://www.stechno.net/sap-notes.html?view=sapnote&id=153967

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7 Key Points to Take Home

• BW 7.4 is the first release to take full advantage of SAP HANA• Many of the functions in 7.4 are also available to non-HANA

customers• The new CompositeProviders and the Open ODS View makes

HANA and BW tightly integrated and capable to support EDWs better

• Real-time data warehousing is fastly becoming the new norm • Social integration and mobile deployment is now mainstream• BW 7.4 provides a platform that should break from the past

development approaches of BW (real-time, LSA++, virtual, and in-memory)

• Most customers should consider this move in 2014!

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Your Turn!

How to contact me:Dr. Bjarne Berg

[email protected]

Please remember to complete your session evaluation

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Disclaimer

SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, SAP NetWeaver®, Duet®, PartnerEdge, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Wellesley Information Services is neither owned nor controlled by SAP.

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