CHIMEI Corporation
Customer & challenge
Based in Taiwan, CHIMEI Corporation specializes in producing high-performance materials. Their product portfolio includes polymer materials, synthetic rubbers and specialty chemicals that are used by over 6,500 customers worldwide. Learn more at https://www.chimeicorp.com/
As part of the migration from SAP ERP to S/4HANA, it was necessary to modify the data import from SAP S/4HANA to a SQL Server database. Previously, CHIMEI used Microsoft’s OLE DB application programming interface to access their data via SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). From there the data was accessed by Power BI for reporting and dashboards. However, Microsoft’s API does not fully support the in-memory database platform SAP S/4HANA. As a result, they needed to find an alternative solution.
“Xtract IS is a small, sophisticated and easy-to-use ETL tool that we can use to provide our operating units
with data from SAP S/4HANA in the SSIS data flow simply and without any in-house development effort on our part.”
Candice Chien, CHIMEI Corporation
Solution with Xtract IS
After searching online for an SAP integration tool for SSIS, CHIMEI found Xtract IS. First impressions were positive, as they appreciated how Xtract IS is based on SAP-certified technology, is fully no-code, and seamlessly integrates into the SSIS environment. To see if Xtract IS met all their requirements, CHIMEI downloaded a free trial license and tested the interface for two months. They found the technical deployment process to be very simple. The tool was easy to use while providing robust SAP integration options. After the trial period, CHIMEI adopted Xtract IS for production and started to use it in their new processes. Through the tool, data is now extracted from SAP S/4HANA to the SQL Server database, where SQL Server Tables are used as the target schema. Power BI is still used as the front end for the individual departments.
CHIMEI uses Xtract IS every day to give employees from finance, logistics and sales a look into the current ERP order status. A key benefit is that the SSIS projects can be scheduled so that the data in the SQL Server environment is always as current as necessary for the individual departments. Among other things, this includes information about customers, products, and sales regions.
Candice Chien from CHIMEI noted:
“SAP S/4HANA is the central data source for reporting that our company must be able to rely on every day. With Xtract IS, we are able to extract this data from SAP reliably and automatically to the SSIS data flow.”
Challenge: Providing SAP S/4HANA data for operational units via Power BI
Solution: Implementation of the SAP interface Xtract IS for integration between SAP S/4HANA and MS SQL Server.
Installation time: Two months, including testing
Added value: Reliable provision of ERP data for operating units in the SSIS data flow
- No need for in-house software development
- Quick implementation
- Reliable, high-performance SAP data extraction
- Direct integration of SAP extraction processes into Microsoft’s SQL Server Integration Services
