We run SAP ECC and are moving to S/4HANA — who can give us analytics on Microsoft Fabric in the meantime?

Fabric can read ECC without BW, though not safely by pointing a pipeline at production tables. The dependable routes are a delta-enabled extractor over the ODP framework, or replication into a staging database or read replica that Fabric reads instead. An existing BW system shortens the work, because the extraction and some business logic are already done. Without BW that logic is rebuilt in the lake, which is scoped work, not a blocker.

The extraction and mapping layers break; the measures and reports should not. S/4HANA consolidates finance line items into the universal journal, reorganises material documents, and moves customer and vendor masters under Business Partner. If the conformed layer was designed as an insulation boundary, the rebuild stops there. If report measures reference raw ECC field names directly, every report breaks at once — which is the mistake worth paying to avoid up front.

With an explicit ownership rule, not with judgement at refresh time. Every conformed fact table carries a source-system column, every company code carries a cutover date, and one rule decides which system owns which period for which entity. The control that catches errors is a reconciliation per company code per period against both source systems, run on each refresh rather than at month end.

A gateway is needed whenever the SAP system or its replica sits on-premises or in a private subnet, which covers most ECC estates. The gateway makes an outbound connection, so inbound firewall ports stay closed. Separately, SAP holds its own contractual position on third-party extraction of data from its systems. Confirm your use rights with your SAP account team before the build starts — that is a commercial question, not a technical one.

Three lines from two suppliers. Microsoft bills Fabric capacity as an F-SKU, charged hourly and pausable, with F2 the smallest. Microsoft also bills a per-user Power BI licence for viewers below F64, while at F64 and above a Free licence plus a viewer role is enough to read content. The third line is delivery, quoted by source count, company-code count and governance requirements. Capacity is usually the smallest and most predictable line.

The first module runs four to six weeks from kickoff, or six to eight for multi-company-code or strict-governance environments, against three to six months for an equivalent custom build. The work is not wasted if the conformed layer is designed for a source swap: KPI definitions, the security model and the reports carry forward, and only extraction and mapping are rebuilt. Treat that second build as a planned line item.