SAP Business Connector Integrating R/3 to Global Web Deployment Using XML and Business Connector

Presenter contact info Dan Perron

Learning Objectives Can SAP Business Connector (BC) be used to do robust Enterprise Application Integration? What skills are needed to perform BC Integration? What business issues might be expected in a global deployment? Is this a platform for future-looking projects?

Some background & timeframes Project kickoff was late 2001 Design work done without R/3 technical expertise eDistribution designed to work with or w/o connectivity to R/3 backend system Many batch extract processes to populate master data in “middle office” (BroadVision application) Functions below would call R/3 (if available) via BC BC already in use for other functions in target country

The business problem “Distributors need to be able to create orders, check status, and verify price, availability, shipping and delivery data – real time – any time.” Six types of interfaces Sales order simulation (similar to quote) Sales order entry Material availability check Delivery note detail Packing List detail Order Status check

Business challenges US (Square D) vs. France (Schneider Electric) “Business-owned” vs. “Hold-my-hand” Local language support Meeting times & locations Communications – even routine a challenge Training and local administration Distributors vs. direct sales efforts

Technical/system challenges 30 SAP systems running 5 versions in 18 countries Distributed data centers & network management SAP vs. Legacy Systems Custom vs. off-the-shelf functionality Availability issues in overseas systems Synchronous design In-house managed vs. outsourced support & ops No EAI focus

Technical/system challenges (cont.) Platform for solution: modified BroadVision apps HTTP calls to BC; RFC BAPI to R/3 SAP Versions: 3.1I, 4.0b, 4.5b, 4.6b, 4.6c Multiple SAP BC installs local to target country Target Countries: Spain, China, UK (plus non-SAP) Others France, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Hungary, Poland, Turkey, Singapore, Japan, Czech Republic, US & Russia

Conceptual process flow

Step-by-step process Receive XML File: Receive the BroadVision XML file into the Business Connector in a format that the BC can understand. Map XML file to SAP RFC-XML format: Map the data from the BroadVision XML to the SAP RFC-XML format. Execute appropriate BAPI in SAP: Perform the Remote Function Call (RFC) to SAP sending the appropriate data that was mapped in step 2. The RFC will return a return code and return message that tells the status of the transaction. Format fields: Some of the resulting data needs to be formatted so that it can be imported into BroadVision. This step is actually a loop that changes all SAP fields to the BroadVision format. Map resulting RFC-XML to BroadVision XML Format: Map the data returned from SAP to the XML format expected by BroadVision Send XML file to BroadVision: Send the resulting XML to BroadVision

Issues encountered Initial connectivity challenges HTTP Post calls to BC with XML doc passed Difficult to trace & debug Standard BAPIs became custom ones midstream BC upgrades midway R/3 access to host countries difficult to secure Restart schedules required coordination CTS / TMS for rollout? Upgrade support for BC stops after 4.7 No clear migration path to XI at last check Initial implementation very simple in config; some hard-coding

Successful implementations Spain – fall 2002 China – mid-2003 UK – Dec 2003 Projects schedule generally more constrained by change management & training of local business community than on BC or web solution development

Current state – October 2004 Additional rollouts outsourced to French IT company Turned over all docs to them Feb 04 No further deployments thus far (last deployment was UK – Dec 2003)

Key Learnings Don’t try to make a silk purse out of BC (Not robust EAI solution; simple integration only) Standard iDOCs & BAPIs far preferable R/3 DDIC, web development, and XML skills are key Design solution around standard R/3 transactions rather than trying to modify / customize SAP Async rather than Sync interfaces where possible Strong business leadership needed to deploy Need upgrade / migration path to XI

1613 Session Code: Dan Perron