Ann, SAP has the ability to create archival objects consisting of data
extracted from SAP into "flat" files (essentially text strings). As Ginny
noted, these actually remove data from SAP in a batch archiving process.
The objects are still available on line for research, however, they take up
less space, and generally are stored in less expensive storage space. They
can also have a retention applied, and and they can be deleted when the
retention expires.

There are a number of archival objects which are built into the standard
SAP package, and you can also design and develop your own objects - our use
of these have generally been in the general ledger/accounts
payable/accounts receivable area. These areas allow for the removal of data
from the active system relatively easily because of their transactional
nature, and fairly straightforward retention requirements.

One of the big challenges relates to the data warehouse nature of SAP - it
is difficult to extract data for archival purposes that may be accessed for
multiple on-going transactions, particularly if there are conditional
retentions involved (for example, retain 6 years after separation from
employment). This is particularly the case with HR data and related payroll
data.

The GL related data was low hanging fruit - the principle motivation being
a slowing of overall system performance. Archiving the GL data did improve
performance. However, the biggest data store is in payroll/HR, and that
data is much harder to archive, due to the reasons noted. My guess is your
IT team will eventually want to archive some data due to performance
issues. Our performance issues started to surface about 10 years after
initial implementation.

-- 
Dwight Wallis, CRM
Multnomah County Records Management & Distribution Services Manager
1620 SE 190th Avenue
Portland, OR 97233
ph: Records- (503)988-3741
ph: Distribution - (503)988-3533, x29131
cell: (503)260-2263
fax: (503)988-3754
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