PBS OA4ERP - Continuing to Turn the Development Wheel

Information lifecycle management, which organizes and supports the use of methods such as data archiving, data storage, nearline storage and system decommissioning, continues to play a central role at PBS.

The PBS add-on solutions offered for this purpose are now being used successfully by more than 1500 customers worldwide. More than two thirds use the PBS Archive Add-ons, the remaining third also use the supplementary solutions PBS Database Analyzer, PBS Nearline Analytic Infrastructure NAI (data analysis and data management ERP), PBS Content Link (archive server), PBS Nearline Storage CBW (data management BW), and PBS Enterprise Content Store ECS (system decommissioning).

As company founder and shareholder Günther Reichling explained to more than 100 participants at the start of the 2017 Information Day, "growth continues to be steady and sustainable."

For 26 years now, the successful Bensheim-based company has been concentrating mainly on the development of the solutions it offers and sees this as its core business. The PBS products are distributed by numerous sales partners in Germany and abroad.

For the DACH region, these include ComSol, Gisa, HPC, Schulcsik Consulting and NexQuent Savento.

Important innovations

Prof. Detlev Steinbinder's presentation made it clear that PBS is still turning the development wheel. He showed where PBS solutions are headed. As an SAP supplementary solution provider, the company is naturally aligned with SAP's strategy, or adapts to it.

According to him, "The development of the PBS Archive add-ons for S/4 Hana is already very far advanced. And the NAI for S/4 is also executable. Furthermore, there is PBS Content Link in an S/4 Hana version. Likewise, CBW is being made available for BW/4 Hana."

In addition, Prof. Steinbinder focused his presentation on important innovations affecting the existing product portfolio. For example, in the Archive Add-ons (for ERP), the availability of so-called CONEX extractors for SAP HR, a special set of data extractors for human resources management.

This makes it possible to virtually extract all data from "old" HR systems and display or use it with the PBS Enterprise Store, for example. Another new feature supports compliance with far-reaching EU data protection directives.

The PBS Nearline Analytic Infrastructure (NAI) solution has been enhanced in such a way that it is now possible to manage and analyze receipt data from POS systems directly via an SAP ERP system, thus fulfilling data access requirements for tax audits, for example.

Furthermore, it is now possible to analyze and process data in the NAI more easily. This is done via an interface called Query Builder. A new feature of the PBS Content Link (PCL) is that it now also offers Hadoop support.

This means that a (distributed) Hadoop environment can be used as an archiving system. With the PBS Enterprise Content Store (ECS) solution, a standard solution for system decommissioning, not only data can be stored, but also the associated documents or lists.

And: You can display them online. Last, but not least, there are innovations in PBS CBW (for BW). These include features such as support for updates in nearline storage (also known as Straggler Management), archiving of ADSO objects, migration support for NLS solutions, and an improved DB Analyzer BW.

New solution

PBS also presented an innovation aimed at SAP ERP users during its Information Day. It is called Operational Analytics for ERP (OA4ERP) and is a standard solution for data management and analysis of SAP ERP and non-ERP data.

Whereby OA4ERP requires an operative SAP ERP system (ECC, S/4 Hana, IS). The solution was developed in cooperation with the companies Listec and RSM Consulting.

This allows ad hoc analysis of very large data sets, regardless of whether the data originates from an SAP ERP database, an SAP archive, or even external non-SAP sources.

Included are various analysis templates for reporting, planning and forecasting scenarios. The use of different front ends is possible. The use of OA4ERP is intuitive and is aimed in particular at specialist departments in companies.