What is DSO in SAP BW? Why Use It?

What is DSO?

A DSO is a two dimensional storage unit which mainly stores consolidated and cleansed transaction data or master data on a lowest granularity. DSO stands for Data Store Object.

It is a two dimensional Transparent Table.
Data is stored at detailed level.
With DSO, it is also possible to overwrite data fields.
Detailed level reporting can be obtained from a DSO.

Why use DSO?

Lets take an example of Sale order Data, which has to be extracted from SAP R/3 system(OLTP:Online Transaction Processing data which keeps changing) into BI. The Sales Orders created in the R/3 system could be edited at any point of time after creation of the record. Initially when sales order records are created in R/3, these records are extracted into BI. Once the records are changed in R/3, the changes need to be made in BI.

Data is extracted from SAP R/3 system and loaded into Data Store Object.
Initially, records are stored in New Status in the DSO. Records are stored in the New Table.
Once the DSO data is activated, data is stored in the Active table.The New Table does not hold that data anymore.
When records are changed in R/3, for these changes to reflect in BI, the changes are extracted into the DSO.
Now the data is stored in the new table until the DSO contents are activated. The Data has to be further loaded into Info cube from which reports are being delivered.
DSO has Overwrite and additive functionalities. If all characteristics are same, key figures are aggregated/overwritten based on the functionality chosen.
Cube is additive in nature. If all characteristics are same, key figures are aggregated.

Types of DSO

DSOs can be classified into the following types: