In the digital age, data growth has become a significant challenge for organizations across all industries. Effectively implementing an SAP DART strategy presents an opportunity to address data growth challenges while ensuring compliance with audit requirements.

By leveraging the Data Retention Tool (DART), businesses can proactively extract and retain critical data from their SAP systems to reduce overall data footprint, optimize storage resources, and maintain a comprehensive audit trail.

DART facilitates data archiving processes to reduce the data stored in live production systems significantly, free up valuable storage space, improve system performance, and streamline data management processes.

Case Study

A leading consumer goods company faced significant data growth challenges due to the large volumes of transactional data generated across its global operations. By partnering with Platform 3 Solutions, they implemented a comprehensive DART solution to extract and archive relevant data effectively. This strategic move reduced their data footprint, optimized their storage costs, and ensured compliance with industry regulations.

Best Practices for Secure and Compliant Data Storage

Adhering to best practices for secure and compliant data storage is essential when storing DART extracts in the cloud. Organizations should implement robust security measures such as encryption, access controls, and regular backups to protect sensitive data from unauthorized access or data breaches. Additionally, it is crucial to ensure that the chosen cloud storage solution complies with relevant industry regulations and standards, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) that are dependent on the organization’s industry and geographic location.

Advantages of using Archon Data Store for DART Extracts

Archon data store offers several advantages for storing DART extracts, making them an attractive option for organizations seeking efficient and reliable data management solutions:

• Scalability: ADS can easily scale up or down to accommodate changing data storage requirements, providing flexibility and cost-effectiveness.
• Accessibility: DART extracts stored in the cloud can be accessed from anywhere, enabling authorized personnel to retrieve data quickly and securely, regardless of their location.
• Disaster recovery: Reputable cloud storage providers offer robust disaster recovery and data redundancy measures to ensure that DART extracts are protected against data loss or system failures.
• Cost-effectiveness: ADS often provide cost-effective pricing models to reduce the need for organizations to invest in expensive on-premises storage infrastructure.
• Security and compliance: Leading cloud storage providers prioritize security and compliance by providing advanced security features, regular software updates, and compliance certifications to meet industry standards.

By following the SAP DART rule of thumb and leveraging secure cloud storage solutions, organizations can streamline their data management processes, enhance data accessibility, and maintain compliance with regulatory requirements—all while benefiting from the scalability, reliability, and cost-effectiveness of cloud computing.

Approaches for SAP DART Implementation:

At Platform 3 Solutions, we recommend that organizations consider three distinct approaches to determine which is most suitable for their specific implementation:

• Proactive with standard SAP DART segments: This approach involves running DART extracts for each period to cover all relevant application areas based on the organization’s industry and audit requirements. It is a comprehensive approach that ensures data is readily available for audits but may result in higher storage costs and processing times.
• Informed Proactive with standard and expanded SAP DART segments: Building upon the previous approach, this strategy incorporates insights from previous audits and any additional fields requested by auditors. These supplementary fields are then added to the DART extract to provide a more targeted and tailored solution while still maintaining a proactive stance.
• Reactive: In this approach, organizations wait for the audit request before confirming the specific data segments, fiscal periods, and company codes under review. Once identified, the necessary DART extracts are generated. While this approach minimizes storage costs and processing times, it may leave organizations scrambling to meet audit deadlines if requests come unexpectedly.

When choosing the right approach, organizations must consider factors such as their industry’s audit frequency, historical audit requirements, storage resource availability, and the criticality of meeting audit deadlines. Balancing proactive and reactive strategies can help strike an optimal balance between data availability, resource optimization, and compliance readiness.

Processing Time Comparison

In a recent SAP DART implementation for a US aviation company, we observed a notable difference in processing time when running the end-to-end DART extraction process from live production systems versus archived data. The archived data required an additional 30% processing time, highlighting the potential impact on meeting audit deadlines.

This processing time discrepancy underscores the importance of carefully considering the source of data for DART extracts and weighing the trade-offs between storage optimization and processing time requirements.

Platform 3 Solutions can assist clients in developing strategies for optimizing processing time and resource allocation, ensuring that audit requirements are met without compromising system performance or incurring unnecessary costs.

SAP DART Version 2.8

It’s essential to stay up to date on the latest SAP DART updates and enhancements to ensure you can benefit from the latest features and bug fixes. To illustrate, recent versions have introduced such improvements as DART support within data archives, allowing organizations to extract data directly from archived sources.

Choose Platform 3 Solutions for a successful SAP DART implementation

Implementing SAP DART effectively is crucial for organizations to maintain data integrity, meet regulatory requirements, and optimize storage resources. By understanding audit requirements, leveraging expert guidance from trusted companies, and adopting the appropriate DART strategy, businesses can streamline their data management processes and stay ahead of the curve in an ever-evolving regulatory landscape.

To ensure a successful and efficient SAP DART implementation, it is recommended to collaborate with experienced consultants and experts like us here at Platform 3 Solutions. There are several challenges associated with the process; avoid the headache and choose expert support and customized tooling to ensure you have a streamlined path to success.

We offer full support and assistance in pursuing data archiving solutions as part of your S/4HANA or cloud transformation roadmap for full compliance with federal or organizational regulations and optimized resource utilization. Contact us anytime for a free 1:1 consultation 

As data volumes continue to grow and compliance standards become more stringent, the importance of effective data retention and archiving solutions will only increase. Platform 3 Solutions remains committed to providing cutting-edge SAP DART implementation services, enabling clients to navigate the complexities of data management and compliance with confidence and efficiency.