Case Study: End-to-end data lineage and governance for SAP S/4HANA Cloud

The challenge

The client faced a significant visibility gap regarding their data assets residing within SAP S/4HANA Cloud. They required a robust solution to document and govern datasets effectively. The primary challenges included:

• Lack of lineage: There was no clear visibility into data provenance—specifically, how data flowed from source systems (such as Workday and SAP ECC) into S/4HANA, and how it was subsequently consumed by downstream reporting tools.
• Data volume & complexity: The SAP environment contained millions of technical objects. A “bulk ingest” approach would have created noise, making it difficult to identify relevant business data.
• Disconnect between Business and IT: There was a missing link between the technical data residing in SAP and the logical/business context required by end-users.

The solution

A comprehensive metadata management and lineage solution was implemented using Collibra, spanning approximately six months. The technical execution involved:

• Scoped metadata ingestion via JDBC: Utilizing Collibra Edge and standard JDBC drivers (CData), the team established connectivity to SAP S/4HANA Cloud. To ensure performance and relevance, the ingestion process was strictly filtered to specific subject areas, avoiding the retrieval of redundant technical objects.
• Cross-system custom lineage: The team developed custom lineage flows to map data movement from external source systems into the S/4HANA environment. This resulted in mapping between Workday, and 3 instances of SAP ECC flowing into S/4HANA. .
• Multi-layered architecture: A complete semantic framework was constructed to bridge the gap between IT and business:
  1. Physical layer: Technical metadata from SAP and source systems.
  2. Logical layer, business layer and reporting Layer: Custom workflows allowing Stewards to manage Data Sets and link them to business and physical assets in Collibra including Reports from BI tool

The results

The implementation delivered a fully transparent data landscape, enabling the client to achieve:

• Full data traceability: Users can now trace the complete lifecycle of data with a single click—from ingestion in source systems (ECC/Workday), through processing in S/4HANA, to consumption in management reports.
• Granular impact analysis: The solution allows stakeholders to perform impact analysis, visualizing how changes in a specific dataset might affect downstream departments, HR functions, or executive reporting.
• Enhanced discoverability & context: Business users gained the ability to search for data assets and immediately understand the business context, ownership, and usage, effectively breaking down data silos.