Reference
SAP analytics glossary
As of 2026-07-27
126 SAP analytics acronyms and terms, each defined in one line — BDC, Datasphere, SAC, BW/4HANA, CDS, RISE, Joule, IR35, umbrella companies. Written for a consultant who has to answer in the meeting, not for a search engine.
126
Terms defined
EN · FR
Bilingual
| Term | Stands for | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| ABAP | Advanced Business Application Programming | SAP's proprietary programming language; still ubiquitous in S/4HANA. |
| Analytics Designer | SAC Analytics Designer | SAC low-code framework for building analytic applications beyond standard stories (scripting, custom UX). |
| API | Application Programming Interface | Contract for programmatic access to a system (REST, OData, GraphQL, SOAP). |
| Ariba | SAP Ariba | SAP's procurement / supplier-network cloud suite. |
| AUG | Arbeitnehmerüberlassungsgesetz (DE) | German labour-leasing law; 18-month cap on deployment of a single contractor at one client via the AÜG model. |
| AWS | Amazon Web Services | Dominant public cloud; largest hyperscaler hosting SAP workloads via RISE or self-managed. |
| Azure | Microsoft Azure | Microsoft's public cloud; #2 hyperscaler and deep SAP co-innovation partner (Entra ID, Teams, Fabric links). |
| BADI | Business Add-In | SAP's object-oriented enhancement mechanism; extension points for customer ABAP logic without modifying core. |
| BAPI | Business API | Stable, object-oriented RFC wrapper exposed by SAP; meant for external callers to read or update business objects. |
| BDC | SAP Business Data Cloud | Unified data platform launched Feb 2025; bundles Datasphere, SAC and Databricks. |
| BPC | Business Planning & Consolidation | Legacy SAP financial planning + consolidation tool; being replaced by SAC Planning. |
| BTP | Business Technology Platform | SAP's cloud platform for extensions, integrations and AI services. |
| Business Data Cloud | SAP Business Data Cloud (full name) | Unified data platform launched Feb 2025; bundles Datasphere + SAC + embedded Databricks under one commercial umbrella. Full name of the BDC acronym. |
| BW | Business Warehouse | Classic SAP data warehouse product family; BW on HANA and BW/4HANA are current variants. |
| BW Bridge | Datasphere BW Bridge | Tool that lifts on-prem BW content into Datasphere without full rewrite; cloud-transition shortcut for BW/4HANA shops. |
| BW/4HANA | BW/4HANA | Classic on-prem SAP data warehouse; mainstream maintenance extended to 31 December 2030 (April 2026 SAP announcement). |
| CDS | Core Data Services | SAP's declarative data-modelling layer for HANA and S/4HANA. |
| CI/CD | Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery | Automated build-test-deploy pipeline; BTP CAP + UI5 apps increasingly shipped via GitHub Actions or Azure DevOps. |
| CO | Controlling | SAP ERP management-accounting module: cost centres, internal orders, profitability. Pairs with FI in every S/4 rollout. |
| Concur | SAP Concur | SAP's expense-management SaaS (acquired 2014). |
| CPI | Cloud Platform Integration | SAP's iPaaS on BTP; message mapping, flow orchestration between SAP + non-SAP. |
| CSRD | Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive | EU directive phasing in from FY 2024; double-materiality ESG reporting. Drives SAC Planning + Datasphere ESG use cases. |
| CTO | Cut-Over | Planned production switch from the legacy system to the new one; often a weekend event. Not to be confused with Chief Technology Officer — in SAP project context, CTO almost always means Cut-Over. |
| Data Fabric | Data Fabric | Integration architecture layering metadata + virtualisation across sources; Datasphere is SAP's take. |
| Data Mesh | Data Mesh | Decentralised data architecture: domain teams own 'data products' exposed via a federated catalog. |
| Data Product | Data Product (Datasphere) | Curated, versioned, consumer-facing dataset inside Datasphere Catalog; the 'API' of a data-mesh domain. |
| Databricks | Databricks | Lakehouse platform co-founded by the Spark creators; core partner of BDC since Feb 2025. |
| Datasphere | SAP Datasphere | Cloud data-warehouse layer of BDC; rebrand of Data Warehouse Cloud. |
| DAX | Data Analysis Expressions | Formula language of Power BI / Analysis Services; often paired with SAC comparisons. |
| dbt | Data Build Tool | Open-source SQL transformation framework; the reference ELT tool on Snowflake/Databricks. |
| Delta Lake | Delta Lake | Open-source ACID-compliant table format on object storage; the storage layer of Databricks + BDC. |
| DevOps | DevOps | Practice unifying development + operations; on SAP stack typically realised via CTS+, gCTS, Cloud Transport Management. |
| DORA | Digital Operational Resilience Act | EU regulation in force since Jan 2025; ICT resilience obligations for financial entities + critical third parties. |
| DPA | Data Processing Agreement | GDPR Art. 28 contract between controller and processor; mandatory for most SaaS. |
| DWC | Data Warehouse Cloud | Previous name of SAP Datasphere (renamed Mar 2023). |
| DWH | Data Warehouse | Centralised analytical store; Datasphere, BW/4HANA, Snowflake are examples. |
| ECC | ERP Central Component | Previous-generation SAP ERP (NetWeaver-based); mainstream end-of-maintenance 2027. |
| ELT | Extract Load Transform | Cloud-era inversion; load raw, transform inside the warehouse (Snowflake/Databricks style). |
| ETL | Extract Transform Load | Classic data-integration pattern; transform happens before load into target. |
| EU AI Act | EU AI Act | First horizontal AI regulation in the world; risk-tier classification in force 2025-2027. Affects any Joule deployment. |
| Event Mesh | SAP Event Mesh | BTP event-driven messaging service; publish/subscribe backbone between S/4, extensions and non-SAP apps. |
| EWM | Extended Warehouse Management | SAP's next-gen warehouse module: slotting, labour, yard, wave management. Replaces the legacy WM module in S/4. |
| FI | Financial Accounting | Core SAP ERP module: G/L, A/R, A/P, bank, asset accounting. Central feed for any Datasphere finance model. |
| Fieldglass | SAP Fieldglass | SAP's VMS (vendor management system) for contingent workforce; the onboarding tool many freelancers meet before a mission. |
| FinOps | Cloud Financial Operations | Practice of monitoring + optimising cloud spend; increasingly applied to BDC consumption units. |
| Fiori | SAP Fiori | SAP's design system and UX framework for S/4HANA apps. |
| GCP | Google Cloud Platform | Google's public cloud; third hyperscaler option for RISE and the home of BigQuery. |
| GDPR | General Data Protection Regulation | EU 2018 data-protection regulation; scopes lawful basis, consent, subject rights. |
| GROW | GROW with SAP | Public-cloud S/4HANA offering for mid-market (launched 2023). |
| HANA | High-performance Analytic Appliance | In-memory column-store DB at the heart of S/4HANA, BW/4HANA, Datasphere. |
| HCM | Human Capital Management | Umbrella term for HR on SAP: SuccessFactors (cloud) + on-prem HCM (ECC/S/4). Payroll, time, org, performance. |
| HEC | HANA Enterprise Cloud | SAP-managed private cloud for HANA + SAP workloads. |
| IaaS | Infrastructure as a Service | Pay-as-you-go raw compute/storage/network; the bottom cloud layer (EC2, Azure VMs, GCE). |
| IBP | Integrated Business Planning | SAP's supply-chain planning suite; demand, supply, S&OP, inventory. |
| ICS | Integration Suite | Broader SAP BTP integration bundle; includes CPI, API Management, Event Mesh, OCM. |
| IDoc | Intermediate Document | SAP's XML-like structured message format for EDI/B2B; ubiquitous on ECC interfaces. |
| IP | Intellectual Property | Rights over created works; contract clause determines if client or freelancer owns code. |
| IR35 | UK IR35 Off-Payroll Rules | UK tax rule determining whether a limited-company contractor is a 'disguised employee'. Heavy impact on the UK SAP freelance market. |
| ISO 27001 | ISO/IEC 27001 | International information-security management standard; frequent EU counterpart to SOC 2. |
| Joule | SAP Joule | Generative-AI copilot embedded across the SAP stack (2024+). |
| JWT | JSON Web Token | Compact signed JSON token carrying claims; common OIDC access-token format between BTP services. |
| Kafka | Apache Kafka | Open-source distributed event-streaming platform; de-facto real-time backbone paired with SLT / Replication Flow. |
| KPI | Key Performance Indicator | Quantified metric tracking progress against a business objective. |
| Lakehouse | Lakehouse | Architecture that puts warehouse-grade SQL on top of lake-style object storage. BDC + Databricks exemplify it. |
| LLM | Large Language Model | Transformer-based model trained on vast text corpora; Joule wraps multiple LLMs under one copilot UX. |
| MDG | Master Data Governance | SAP MDM product: central governance of customer, vendor, material, finance master data. |
| Medallion | Medallion Architecture (Bronze/Silver/Gold) | Databricks-popular layering: raw Bronze → cleaned Silver → business Gold. Common pattern inside Datasphere too. |
| MFA | Multi-Factor Authentication | Login requires two+ factors (password + TOTP/push/biometric). |
| MLOps | Machine Learning Operations | DevOps discipline for ML models; training, registry, deployment, monitoring, drift detection. |
| MM | Materials Management | SAP ERP procure-to-pay module: purchasing, inventory, vendor master. Paired with SD in any supply-chain rollout. |
| MSA | Master Service Agreement | Umbrella contract governing all subsequent SOWs; terms, liability, IP, termination. |
| MVP | Minimum Viable Product | Smallest build that delivers end-to-end value; extended iteratively. |
| NDA | Non-Disclosure Agreement | Contract restricting the sharing of confidential information; standard pre-mission step. |
| NIS2 | Network & Information Security Directive 2 | EU cybersecurity directive expanding NIS1 scope; transposition deadline Oct 2024, enforcement ramping 2025+. |
| OAuth | Open Authorization 2.0 | Delegated-access protocol; backbone of third-party integrations that call SAP APIs on a user's behalf. |
| OData | Open Data Protocol | RESTful query protocol; dominant pattern for SAP API exposure (S/4HANA, BTP). |
| ODP | Operational Data Provisioning | Delta-based extraction framework; deprecated for BW4/Datasphere in favour of CDS views. |
| OIDC | OpenID Connect | Modern OAuth 2.0 identity layer; JSON + REST, preferred for new SAP-BTP + browser apps. |
| OLAP | Online Analytical Processing | Multi-dimensional query paradigm; slices/dices via hierarchies and measures. |
| OLTP | Online Transaction Processing | High-volume, short-transaction workload typical of ERPs; contrast with OLAP. |
| OSS | Online Services System | SAP's support portal; launchpad for SAP Notes, incidents and Service Marketplace. |
| PaaS | Platform as a Service | Managed runtime + services on top of IaaS; BTP itself is a SAP-flavoured PaaS. |
| PaPM | Profitability and Performance Management | SAP modelling + allocation engine on BTP; drives activity-based costing and profitability scenarios. |
| PII | Personally Identifiable Information | Any data identifying a natural person; central concept of GDPR compliance. |
| PM | Plant Maintenance | SAP ERP maintenance module: technical objects, work orders, preventive schedules. Common in asset-heavy sectors. |
| POC | Proof of Concept | Short-scope build to validate a technical or commercial hypothesis before full project. |
| Portage | Portage salarial (FR) | French employment vehicle where a portage firm employs the consultant and invoices the client. Alternative to SASU/EURL. |
| PoV | Proof of Value | Variant of POC focused on demonstrating measurable business value, not just technical fit. |
| Power BI | Microsoft Power BI | Microsoft's BI suite; the most frequent SAC comparator in mid-market deals. |
| PP | Production Planning | SAP ERP manufacturing module: BOMs, routings, MRP, shop-floor orders. Discrete and process industries. |
| Qlik | Qlik | Associative-engine BI vendor; strong EU footprint and a frequent SAC migration source. |
| Qualtrics | SAP Qualtrics (XM) | Experience-management suite; divested out of SAP in 2023, but the Qualtrics-SAP integration continues. |
| RAG | Retrieval-Augmented Generation | Pattern that grounds LLM answers in retrieved documents; the core technique Joule uses on SAP help + customer data. |
| Replication Flow | Datasphere Replication Flow | Datasphere's native data-replication capability; pulls tables from SAP + non-SAP sources on a schedule. |
| Reverse ETL | Reverse ETL | Pushing curated warehouse data back into operational SaaS (CRM, marketing, ERP). Mirror of ETL. |
| RFC | Remote Function Call | SAP's proprietary RPC protocol; still the plumbing behind most SAP-to-SAP data exchanges. |
| RISE | RISE with SAP | Commercial bundle for cloud S/4HANA migration: subscription + tooling + services. |
| RLS | Row-Level Security | Access-control pattern where visible rows depend on the querying user's attributes. |
| ROI | Return on Investment | Ratio of net benefit to project cost; central to any BDC/Datasphere business case. |
| S/4HANA | SAP S/4HANA | Current-gen ERP running on HANA; ECC end-of-maintenance 2027 drives migrations. |
| SaaS | Software as a Service | Fully-managed app accessed via browser; SAC, Ariba, Concur and SuccessFactors are all SaaS. |
| SAC | SAP Analytics Cloud | Cloud BI + planning front-end; dashboards, stories, analytic applications. |
| SAC Planning | SAC Planning | Planning module inside SAC; drives forecasts, budgets, rolling scenarios. Gradually replacing BPC. |
| SAFe | Scaled Agile Framework | Enterprise agile methodology; common organisational wrapper for multi-team S/4 + Datasphere programmes. |
| SAML | Security Assertion Markup Language | XML-based enterprise SSO standard; still the most common federation protocol between IdPs and SAP. |
| SD | Sales & Distribution | SAP ERP order-to-cash module: sales orders, pricing, billing, shipping. One of the three core S/4 logistics modules. |
| Semantic Layer | Semantic Layer | Business-friendly model over raw tables; defines measures, dimensions, hierarchies once for every downstream BI tool. |
| SF | SAP SuccessFactors | SAP's cloud HCM suite; core HR, performance, learning, recruiting. |
| Signavio | SAP Signavio | SAP's process-mining and process-modelling suite (acquired 2021). |
| SIT | System Integration Testing | Testing stage that checks interfaces between modules and external systems. |
| SLA | Service Level Agreement | Contractual uptime + response commitments; SAP cloud typically 99.7-99.9%. |
| SLT | SAP Landscape Transformation | Real-time table-level replication tool; feeds HANA/Datasphere from source systems. |
| Snowflake | Snowflake | Cloud data platform; frequent reference in BDC competitive deals and in Datasphere benchmarks. |
| SOC 2 | SOC 2 (AICPA) | US audit standard on security/availability/confidentiality; de-facto table stake for SaaS vendors. |
| SOW | Statement of Work | Contract appendix scoping deliverables, milestones and acceptance criteria. |
| SOX | Sarbanes-Oxley Act | US 2002 financial-reporting law; shapes segregation-of-duties + audit-trail requirements on any S/4 rollout of a US-listed firm. |
| SSO | Single Sign-On | One login grants access to multiple apps; SAML, OIDC, Kerberos are common flavours. |
| Tableau | Tableau | Salesforce-owned visual analytics tool; common SAC comparator in US-centric rollouts. |
| TCO | Total Cost of Ownership | License + implementation + run + migration cost over a multi-year horizon. |
| TJM | Taux Journalier Moyen (daily rate) | French-market term for a freelance day rate, typically billed excl. VAT. |
| Transformation Flow | Datasphere Transformation Flow | Visual + SQL pipeline authoring inside Datasphere; materialises derived tables from replicated raw data. |
| UAT | User Acceptance Testing | Final validation stage before go-live; run by business users on realistic data. |
| UI5 | SAPUI5 | JavaScript framework underpinning Fiori apps (MVC, data-binding, controls library). |
| Unity Catalog | Unity Catalog | Databricks' central governance + lineage + access-control layer across workspaces and clouds. |
| VAT | Value-Added Tax | Consumption tax added to invoices; rules differ across EU/UK/CH for cross-border services. |
| Vector DB | Vector Database | Store for embeddings enabling semantic search; HANA gained vector-engine capabilities in 2024. |
Definitions written by Analytics Legends from public SAP documentation and field practice; as of 2026-07-27.