Migrate SAP BO to Looker with a real semantic layer

 

Migrate SAP BO to Looker (Google)  - Rebuild a real semantic layer! “  To name things badly is to add to the misfortune of the world  ,” said Albert Camus. Naming them well can also help ensure the success of a business!   This was the great success of SAP BO, which, with its "Objects", translated very abstract IT concepts into business information that could be manipulated by as many people as possible.   This goes back a long time now, and many companies are leaving SAP BO, which is starting to become obsolescent and which is poorly suited to the Cloud.   Leaving BO also means separating from its “Objects”, organized in its very popular semantic layer, the “Universes”.    But not necessarily. Particularly if the migration takes place to Google's Looker, which natively provides a semantic layer.   We explain how.  Step 1:   A migration from Universes to Explores Looker  Our migration engine {openAudit} will divide the BO Universes (Business Objects) according to each context and fact table actually used in the BO reports used. Our migration engine is based on real use of the source BO platform.  Each BO Universe will be transformed into several Looker Explores based on a star model centered on the fact table. {openAudit} will only include what is used in SAP BO.   Each Explore Looker will allow users to create ad hoc queries, explore and visualize data. It is a faithful resumption of the semantic layer, but it will remain quite far from the original Universes due to the technical specificities of Looker vs SAP BO.    To make life easier for the profession, it seemed necessary to add a device to our migration engine.  2nd step :    Adjust this migration to make it more usable by businesses  We have enriched our migration engine by dynamically providing a “control table”. It will allow the output to be simply configured, to move towards an ideal semantic layer, potentially very close to that of SAP BO.    The first run of our migration engine will feed the control table and produce LookML (Looker modeling language).  The processing will thus be "controllable", which will allow the profession to "play" to modify the Explores to its convenience.  The LookML will be versioned.    Conclusion   The release of SAP BO is perilous. In particular because the semantic layer generates strong support. Google Looker is a solution that will allow you to reconstruct a very functional semantic layer.    To make this semantic layer as "experiential" as it was in SAP BO, our migration engine will build a control table to produce an output that can be very exploited by the business lines, almost instantly.    Our migration solution has just been validated by Google Cloud Marketplace!