Half past six in the morning in Germany

It is half past six. I look at the monitor. Three red lights signal errors in the nightly data provision for the business warehouse.
Three out of twenty-eight. That's not a bad rate.

The cause of the error is quickly analyzed. To clean it up, a mouse click on "Repeat" is required. An easy task. Not every day the solution is so simple. But every day there is something to do. That's my job. I am an SAP BW administrator.

I monitor loading processes into the business warehouse. I analyze loading errors, make corrections, and take care of the quality of the data relevant for evaluation in the company.

I help the business unit adapt the data model when new reporting requirements arise. And I am available as an internal consultant and first point of contact for evaluating new software products. The sales professionals at the software houses are distrusted, especially those at SAP.

Once again, someone from SAP was there. He told us about unprecedented possibilities. A database system called Hana is supposed to bring about a revolution in software engineering. And our company would benefit from it: extreme cost savings.

The operating effort would be reduced to almost zero by "real-time reporting". How often have we heard prophecies of this kind!?

Berlin, August 11, 2016, 2 p.m.

A meeting is organized at short notice. Real-time reporting has been burning under the nails of our chief controller for a long time. It wasn't twelve months ago that I had to evaluate requests for real-time evaluations in SAP BW.

My verdict at the time: technically feasible - with a doubling of project and operating costs. The costs involved then led to the decision not to take the step.

I become suspicious when the SAP consultant explains: Hana real-time reporting is cheaper to implement than developing classic SAP BW applications. The chief controller takes notice - gives me a questioning look.

I must intervene before untenable expectations are raised. In my argumentation, I will go far afield: An outline of SAP's historical strategies, of products introduced and withdrawn again, of full-bodied promises that were not kept...

The euphoria has faded from the chief controller's facial expression. I am satisfied.

Berlin, August 12, 2016, 9 a.m.

The IT manager asked me to come in. Apparently, he was contacted by our Chief Controller. At his request, I reflect on the results of the last meeting.

He shares my opinion that new SAP products should not be introduced prematurely and untested. However, he could not completely refuse the request from Controlling. After all, the business department has long been demanding that IT provide real-time evaluation options.

His proposal to develop a prototype on the new platform sounds reasonable.

Berlin, August 16, 2016, 10 a.m.

A partner company of SAP has provided us with a BW-on-Hana system and a specialist for prototype development for validation purposes. An external consultant is now sitting in my office to develop realistic real-time evaluations according to my specifications.

I choose a particularly complex use case: POS data from our sales branches. Several hundred cash registers send receipt items directly to SAP BW: mass data.

Evaluations are only possible the next day. The loading and transformation processes take almost the whole night. These process chains often cause problems due to loading aborts. Not to mention the effort required for extensions to the data model.

The loadings, tests, corrections, reloadings, re-tests required after the adjustments cost time and therefore money. But our assignment of the Hana specialist ends already next week. That's about as close as I can get, I think. Inwardly, I'm looking forward to the final presentation. Anticipatory schadenfreude? Yes, perhaps.

Berlin, August 27, 2016, 4 pm

Despite all my expectations, the presentation of the SAP BW on Hana application is crowned with success. There is certainly room for improvement. However, the consultant can display the sales figures virtually in real time.

A dashboard shows the sales success of the last hour per store in clear graphics. The chief controller is thrilled. That's impressive for me, too.

But I have mixed feelings: What's in store for me now? Further education? Retraining? Will I manage to adjust to the new technology? The consultant seems to sense my thoughts.

He shows the tools he used to develop. This is SAP BW as I know it. Also, the QueryDesigner for report definition is still the tool of choice. I can work with that.

A new tool has been added: SAP Hana Studio. But it looks very familiar to me. I also learn why. It is Eclipse, an open development platform that I still know from my studies.

Should SAP really rely on programming environments that were not invented from scratch? Acquiring know-how in the use of SAP systems could become much easier in the future, especially for career starters.

Berlin, August 30, 2016, 4 pm

After the success of the presentation, the management did not hesitate to allocate funds for a migration of all existing SAP systems to Hana. The operational savings and the ability to develop reporting applications much more efficiently were convincing.

There are also promises of competitive advantages when data is analyzed in real time and you can directly influence business processes. I was assigned to the project for the migration of the SAP BW system. There will be a lot of work to do in a short time. I probably won't be able to write in the diary here for a while.

Berlin, September 4, 2016, 6:30 a.m.

It's half past six. I am still the first one in the office. I look at the monitor. Three green lights indicate that the process chains have run through without errors. Three out of three.

The introduction of real-time reporting goes hand in hand with virtualizations in the data model. Data no longer needs to be loaded, transformed, physically cached multiple times.

The number of process chains has been reduced to a minimum. At half past six in the morning, there is actually no longer any need for me to check loading processes.

Nevertheless, I am not bored. I use the quiet mornings and the time I've freed up to develop completely new analyses. For example, I've discovered that traffic jam reports and the weather have an impact on sales in our stores. I can't wait to hear what our chief controller has to say about this!

Addendum

This story is purely fictional. The author of the diary entries is also fictitious. What is not invented, however, is the need to be able to perform evaluations in real time.

However, the reticence of many companies when SAP touts innovations is just as uninventive. Not every software introduction by SAP in the past has been a success from the customer's point of view.

Some strategically positioned products were replaced by new technologies a short time later. The conflict of the diary author stands for the ordeal of all those SAP users who have not only gone through positive experiences after a product launch.

As a result of his experience with marketing campaigns and the onset of disillusionment in the real project business, he is initially averse to innovations. However, due to pressure from the business, the IT specialist cannot avoid dealing with Hana.

This is also a very real scenario. In the end, the hero of the story realizes his mistake. He experiences that Hana can solve a number of everyday problems immediately and also creates freedom to deal with the core issues of the company: how to optimize the business.

The story was an attempt to rekindle interest in Hana despite omnipresent criticism of SAP. Hana represents an enormous potential for innovation. However, the focus is often on detailed technical issues such as in-memory technology, column-based data storage, compression methods or parallel processes.

This is rarely important to the user. The car should drive. Most drivers are largely unconcerned about the design of the engine. The maximum speed of the vehicle is also of little importance in inner-city traffic.

But what if a car is no longer needed at all because the groceries are delivered directly to the door? What if you no longer have to drive to work because the job can be done from home?

Expenses for gasoline and maintenance costs are eliminated - and you save time that can be used creatively. It is the economic issues that are important for a company, as well as the accompanying changes to business processes.

This is often not considered in the current, often very technical discussions around Hana.