How a Leading Life Science and Technology Company Intelligently Optimized Its SAP BW Migration with Data Products

Untangling a Web of Complexity
Over decades, the company’s SAP BW system had evolved into a labyrinth of interconnected queries, DataStore Objects, and composite providers, all powered by dynamic ABAP code with embedded functions. Its data teams faced a daunting reality: How to migrate such complexity without losing the critical business logic that drives daily operations? Traditional migration approaches meant starting blind, with no clear visibility into dependencies or the ability to selectively modernize components.

Transparent Migration Through Data Products
The One Data software provided the breakthrough with its unique capabilities to transform what could have been a multi-year migration nightmare into a structured, transparent process. While the data payload was translated from ABAP to SQL and transferred to Snowflake, the platform extracted all metadata from both SAP BW and ERP systems, creating a visual map of the entire landscape. But unlike traditional tools that simply document existing structures, One Data enabled the team to simultaneously plan and build new structures suitable for the target environment.

The game-changer was the ability to treat each migration component as a data product. Whitin the Use Case Builder, the team could visualize complete data lineages across SAP BW and ERP landscapes, understanding exactly how business logic flowed through their systems. Instead of migrating everything at once, they selectively built new data products, even enhancing them by incorporating additional data sources from other systems like Azure Synapse.

The platform’s automation packages bridged the gap between business requirements and technical implementation. Business teams defined requirements in their own language, while One Data automatically translated these specifications into dbt-ready code, complete with column descriptions, quality requirements, transformation logic and target storage configurations for Snowflake – all pushed directly to GitLab. This eliminated countless coordination cycles and removed the need for developers to write boilerplate code from scratch.

Migration Without Compromise
The company successfully migrated its SAP BW logic to Snowflake without sacrificing any business value. Data engineers received development-ready code with full context, while business analysts could validate data products before deployment. What traditionally would have required months of manual translation and verification was now accomplished in weeks, with complete transparency at every step.

By treating SAP objects as governed data products rather than mere technical assets, the company didn’t just migrate – it modernized, creating a foundation for ongoing innovation in its new Snowflake environment.