How Collibra and SAP are revolutionizing Data Governance by Bridging the Enterprise Data Divide

5 February 2025
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In today’s data-driven world, the ability to efficiently manage and utilize data is paramount for business success. As Datashift, we have explored the potential of the partnership between Collibra and SAP and explain why it matters.

Organizations that use SAP products are bound to store key business data which needs to be extracted, combined and mixed with data from other sources or platforms. Maintaining and visualizing these data streams is vital for decision-making – especially if SAP is your main operating & transaction system. 

This collaboration is designed to empower business users, streamline data management, and enhance data governance practices of SAP data.

The hidden SAP data problem slowing your operations

  1. It is difficult for non-SAP operational users to know what is where and how to use it.
  2. The data shows inconsistencies and is not to be trusted – lack of visibility on transformations and filtering of the data.
  3. SAP technical knowledge is often concentrated within a few key resources or experts which creates dependencies and lack of responsiveness.
  4. It is difficult to know who uses, alters or adds records in your SAP data. Which processes are we impacting in case of changes?

A match made in data heaven: SAP and data teams working smarter together

Managing SAP data is complex, especially with siloed teams and fragmented information. Without strong data governance, collaboration weakens, documentation suffers, and visibility declines.

Collibra Data Governance with SAP data solves these challenges by enabling:

  • collaboration between your SAP operational teams and your data consumers.
  • your business analyst teams to shop for data from your SAP sources through the Collibra Data Catalog.
  • an increase of your data documentation, making you less dependent on specific key users.
  • a better visibility of the operation-to-report pipeline which makes it more robust and responsive.

In the end, your business makes better, more transparent decisions with higher trust. In a nutshell, you get better, faster, more resilient insights from your data and better combination between SAP and your other data sources.

From data chaos to business clarity: real SAP success stories

Several organizations have already reaped the benefits of this powerful partnership. For instance, a leading retail company was able to streamline its data governance processes, resulting in a 30% reduction in data retrieval times, according to Collibra. Another financial institution improved its regulatory compliance by leveraging Collibra’s lineage capabilities to track data origins and transformations across its SAP and non-SAP systems.

How Collibra and SAP are transforming data governance for operations teams

The Collibra and SAP partnership enables visualizing the SAP and non-SAP data into a comprehensive business data fabric, enhancing data governance and its quality.

Whether it is through reports, dashboards or data platforms, the SAP data landscape is extracted, combined and transformed through your data pipelines. In the end, it is the basis of the insights that bring key business decisions from your business executives.

A platform to manage the transparency and accountability of the end-to-end pipeline is what the Collibra and SAP partnership proposes. Businesses can gain efficiency by governing & making visible the manipulations of SAP data coming from a variety of SAP Products through SAP DataSphere.

Enabling informed decisions to be taken based on trusted data improves operational efficiency and compliance.

As a business, when should I consider leveraging the Collibra & SAP partnership?

  1. When you have SAP data storage that you want to govern actively: The Collibra Data Governance partnership is essential for ensuring that your SAP data is accurate, consistent, and compliant. It provides robust governance tools to manage and monitor your data, ensuring it meets regulatory requirements and supports reliable decision-making.
  2. When you have a multitude of other non-SAP data that need to be combined with SAP data for your internal reporting: This partnership is invaluable for integrating diverse data sources. Collibra enables seamless combination of SAP and non-SAP data, creating comprehensive data products that enhance internal reporting and provide a holistic view of your business operations.
  3. When you need to ensure high data quality: Combining SAP data with Collibra’s data quality tool allows you to maintain the integrity and reliability of your data. By continuously monitoring and improving data quality, the partnership ensures that your data is fit for purpose, reducing errors and enhancing the overall effectiveness of your data-driven initiatives.

Figure 1: Visualizing the SAP data structure and how it can be combined with your existing Data Sources

3 powerful use cases that show how Collibra and SAP solve data challenges

1. Navigating the Maze of SAP data with Collibra Metadata Catalog

    SAP systems are known for their vast and intricate data structures. Collibra’s Metadata Catalog simplifies this complexity by offering a comprehensive view of SAP data assets. Users can effortlessly search, discover, and understand data across the SAP ecosystem. This enhanced visibility not only saves time but also ensures that users can quickly find the data they need, driving efficiency and productivity.

    2. Technical SAP Data Lineage

      One of the stand out features of the Collibra and SAP partnership is the ability to document relationships between SAP data and other data assets.

      By harvesting data lineage in your data transformation, storage and reporting tools, Collibra provides a clear and detailed map of data flow and dependencies. This capability is crucial for maintaining data integrity, ensuring compliance, and supporting robust data governance practices.

      Figure 2: Collibra Technical Lineage - Data Source to Report

      3. Mapping SAP database elements to your business processes

        If we imagine that you have a structured SAP process documentation for your operations, cataloguing or ingesting these processes alongside your SAP data assets in Collibra brings a world of possibilities. For example, your operational entities can now map their processes to the actual data elements that they use, create or modify.
        On one hand, your data teams can find what the data is used for and on the other, your consumers can look at how that data is being maintained and in which department.

        Mastering SAP Data Governance: the key to operational success

        The Collibra and SAP partnership is a game-changer for businesses looking to harness the full potential of their data.
        By providing business-oriented documentation, simplifying data navigation, and enabling self-service data consumption across SAP and non-SAP data professionals, you reduce the time to insights and maintain a competitive edge in making better, faster and more accurate business decisions.

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