SAP Business Warehouse Release 7.3 was introduced in 2011. In this release, features have been added to simplify development effort (using wizards and new modelling objects), technical performance improvements were made and the connectivity was enhanced. Below you can find a highlight of the new functionality that has been added to the release.
 

  • Graphical data modelling:
    • build data flows logically before actually implementing them
    • copy existing flows, even into templates which can be rolled out
    • business content data flows
  • New InfoProviders:
    • Semantically Partitioned Object (SPO) for reducing maintenance on logically partitioned DSOs/cubes
    • Hybridproviders for reporting in near real-time situations
    • Transientproviders for reporting on SAP ECC infosets
    • Analytical index
  • The new hierarchy framework supports loading hierarchies in a flexible way using the standard BW objects like transformations so virtually any source can be used. BusinessObjects (BI) connectivity improvements for Data Services and Information Steward.
  • Business Warehouse Accelerator (BWA) was improved to support BWA-only cubes, allow exception aggregations, support BusinessObjects (BI) reporting.
  • Performance optimization
    • faster activation of master data and DSO records
    • better SID handling
    • enhancements for initial loads
  • Process chain monitoring has been better integrated in the administrator workbench, faster and more detailed analysis is now available.
  • The BI Administration Cockpit has been extended.
  • A new transformation rule type "read from datastore was added to simplify reading a reference DSO, and navigational attributes in DSOs can be used in transformations.
  • Data distribution out of BW by the open hub has new features such as XML and the support of hierarchies.
  • HANA can be used as BW database from SP5.
     

Apart from the technical and connectivity improvements, most of the features could be simulated in an earlier release, however in a more maintenance-intensive way and with a bit more risk. Customers who want to align and reduce this cost and risk will benefit to switching to SAP BW 7.3. The technical benefits show a performance gain of up to 40% compared to previous releases.

For more information on SAP Business Warehouse 7.3, do not hesitate to contact the SAP BW Competence center at element61.