Expert Server / S/4 HANA Future
Dear all
in a parallel blog I started a discussion on wishes of the community for a follow up solution of WWI I would like to start second discussion on “Expert Server” design even considering the fact that we do not have such an amount of threads regarding this topic in comparison to WWI topics.
My expectation and wishes for a future solution can be listed as:
1.) no external Hardware needed any more
2.) Easy to be used interface for defining rulesets
3.) Still to have the open to “check” results (explanation of ruleset results)
4.) still to have the option to define a “sequence” of rules to be executed in one run
As we will have a S/4 HANA driven solution the “implicit” assumption is: the rulesets will be executed “fast” (in comparison to the Rule sets of today)
These are the more “nice to have wishes”:
As we do not know the futue design we can use some “thinking” about what solution might be possible based in S/4 HANA architecture. Looking to EHS as of today:
1.) Rule sets are started from hit list
2.) Rulé sets can be started for a list of specifications
So at least these kind of “Use cases” must/should be supported in the future solution.
Now, based on some principle design ideas of S/4 HANA, SAP could deliver a future solution as:
1.) if a “specification” (or how the object might be “named” in the future) is “ready” (based on some check criterias) the S/4 HANA solution might automatically trigger the execution of the effected rulesets and there is no need that the user will act. At least (Based on SAP Fiori ideas) the user should get a “worklist” interface in SAP Friori to “know” the lists of specification which have “enough” data so that ruleset can be started; in this case the user decided if the ruleset is started or not
2.) Looking on some “MOC” ideas (Management of Change ideas) presented by SAP: my be e.g. content has been uploaded or other (what we call primary data) was changed the system might generate an “automatic” generation of a “where used” list and then for the identified objects the “effected” rulesets might be started automatically
This is a kind of collecting ideas story. So please provide feedback on the assumptions/wishes you have for a future solution.
C.B.
Hello Christoph,
There are couple of options available to move away from the Expert Server, like SAP released it for the SAP PLM Recipe Development, where to carry out the compliance check no Expert Server is needed and system uses the predefined Facts and Conditions defined in the configuration option. However to expand the function to cover the EHS Specification is very complex due to varied mapping and logic involved in the rule execution. One needs to have option of inputting Facts / Inputs and Outputs definitions dynamically using a configuration or preferably master data entry option and the dependencies of one rule over the other, Above all Thresholds and calculation scripts and also Mapping of Phrases. Once the rules are executed system can show the log, and the results in test mode or commit mode.
If it were the Webdynpro Component I believe it would be very easy to get the worklists and tasks but it being a ECC component it is difficult to integrate that option without a major change.
Thanks and Regards
Jayakumar
Dear Jayakumar
many thanks for your valuable feedback. In my blog i did not mention the solution developped by SAP for SAP Recipe Development.
- First reason: I forgot that we have here a "non Expert based"solution (in this tool)
- Second reason: i have no experience in using this solution (as we do not use SAP RD)
Your feedback fits very well to my wishes. Lezt us wait for feedback of others
C.B.