>
> Anyone knows if there is a way to connect R with the ERP SAP?

Very big question.
An ERP is an accounting system typically for a large business or
governmental entity (ERP = "Enterprise Resource Planning" system).  Modern
ERPs are typically built on top of (multi-user) relational data base
management systems (RDBMS).

R has many ways to connect to relational databases -- see the "R Data
Import/Export" manual in your R installation.
In the MS Windows version of R; menu "HELP" "Manuals (in PDF)" R can import
text files or link to databases; see the RODBC and RDBI packages.

Unless you are an auditor you are unlikely to get direct ODBC access to the
ERP's transaction tables -- it would be a huge security risk. From a
security standpoint end users should not have arbitrary write access because
they could accidentially or maliciously alter senstive data. Even read-only
access can be sensitive, because of salaries, costs and confidential
payments to third parties (perhaps as part of a lawsuit settlement) and
non-public financial information such as revenues and profits prior to their
being announced to securities markets. Moreover, under the hood, the data
are in normalized in third or higher normal form (spread out in a lot of
tables) in an attempt to achieve "one fact in one place." As a practical
matter; if you needed 20 items they might be in 20 separate tables. You need
an experienced SAP data base query writer to write queries to consolidate
the data you need into a manageable number of views (queries or virtual
tables).

There are also data and currency conversion issues. Some systems store
accounting data in pennies to avoid floating point round-off and then divide
by 100 (or reformat) prior to publishing. Consolidating across business
units may require currency conversions and you have to know what exchange
rate to use.

>From the point of view of SAP you are no different than an end-user who
wants data in an MS Excel worksheet. SAP can write a text file, create an
ODBC connection (possibly to a data mart, or data warehouse/BI layer rather
than the transactional system) or write an Excel XLS file directly. Here is
a link to a discussion of the options on the SAP side.
http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/bi-solution-architecture?rid=/webcontent/uuid/c022b01b-0439-2d10-96bd-c9bce12b2177

You will need to be able to explain to the business analyst:
1. The priority of your project and who approved it (office politics).
2. What specific data items you need (ask for a "Chart of Accounts" in an
electronic format that you can search, copy and paste).
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_46c/helpdata/en/c7/a88ab243dd11d182b30000e829fbfe/content.htm
3. How often do you need the data: one-time or every month, week, day or
hour?
4. Do you need the data to match official published totals? (very sensitive
question -- because of the timing of the accounting cycle and post period
adjustments).
5. How much history do you need? (may cause issues if accounting statements
have been restated or if data is archived).

The electronic Chart of Accounts will be your "Rosetta Stone" linking
published data, account numbers and how the data is stored in the system.

What data you need and how often will depend on what you are doing with the
SAP data in R.
Are you?
1. Forecasting Sales
2. Looking for outlier transactions
3. Optimizing inventory
4. Measuring or reducing risk?
5. Financial modeling / stress testing?

Is this a one time project or periodic report?

Jim Callahan, MBA
Orlando, FL


> Message: 21
> Date: Sat, 31 Jul 2010 11:17:30 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Andre <a.azevedo@adp.pt>
> To: r-help@r-project.org
> Subject: [R] How to connect R with SAP
> Message-ID: <1280600250951-2309018.post@n4.nabble.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>
> Hello,
>
> Anyone knows if there is a way to connect R with the ERP SAP?
> Thanks.
>
> --
>

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