Sap Ag

Bernd Hartmann

Ekkehard Lange

Jens Becher

Michael Hild

Calculations to be performed on a massive data set may be delegated to a plurality of local servers for parallel processing. Each local server advances through a subset of database objects to determine if the objects are relevant to the calculation. If so, the objects' data is used as an operand to the calculation to generate intermediate results at the local server. The intermediate results of the various local servers are transmitted to a central server, which generates final results and transmits them back to the local servers. The local servers write the final results into each object in its respective subset, where relevant. The method is efficient because each object in the database is opened at most twice. Opening and closing database objects often involve transfers from bulk storage and, therefore, are some of the most time-consuming operations that computer systems perform.

Distributed processing system for calculations based on objects from massive databases

An automated accounting and reporting system supports flexible assignments of accounting objects to financial statements. At a reporting time, financial statement items may be generated from accounting objects by surveying the stored accounting objects and copying and aggregating key figures from the accounting object to the financial statement items. The financial statement items form the basis of the financial statements. The copying and aggregating may occur as specified in a plurality of rule sets. To change assignments between the accounting objects and financial statements, it is sufficient to provide a replacement rule set that specifies different copy and aggregation operations.

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Walldorf, Germany

Bernd Hartmann