Ariba and SAP (SRM and ECC) integration

I recently worked on an Ariba integration project and would like to share my exp and findings. We implemented below Ariba modules:

• • Ariba Sourcing Professional– Upstream
  • Ariba Supplier Information and Performance Management-Upstream
  • Ariba Contract Management Professional –Downstream
  • Ariba Savings and Pipeline Tracker

In our scope of work SRM was  used for contracts which were created in Ariba and only a read only copy was passed to SRM. SRM was being used for PO creation and further invoicing was done in ECC. Now due to the unique landscape in mind it became a bit challenging .

As the standard integrator work well with the ECC system but not SRM some of the data being extracted lacked the SRM specific checks like:

• User Attributes currency , company code specific checks
• User roles and Authorizations in SRM
• Product category vs GL mapping
• Authorization to create specific document type based on user attributes
• User specific pur grp information

Since the data is only sent from ECC system and not SRM so, the business had to do away with SRM specific checks when raising a contract in Ariba.  After you have decided on the starting the Ariba implementation ensure you follow the below strategy plan for master data extraction.

You need to ask or know the answer to below questions:

• What data is needed in Ariba
• Do you have that data being extracted using Standard extractors
• What data set will be a one time vs incremental load in the system
• What shall be the frequency of the incremental load

The way standard integration works is that the file gets downloaded as a CSV file from the ECC system to the Ariba system. This  gets stored in a shared folder drive and uploaded manually to Ariba or can be stored in a shared folder and directly loaded in Ariba.

Basis and security may need to add some commands which are External OS Commands via SM69 and add to the existing roles so you are able to extract the files.

Master data extraction program which we used was /ARBA/MASTER_DATA_EXPORT. Since there was a couple of changes which was needed I copied this as a Z program

There is a particular code which sends the file to the local folder and the removes it since I wanted to know what the data was being extracted I commented that code which can be found at below PERFORM statement.

PERFORM remove_directory USING gv_filepath.

After you execute the program and after you have hidden the code it will send the file extracted as CSV in your drive folder:

Adding custom filters to the extracted data

The data which will get extracted above is all the data from the system. The standard program ARBA/MASTER_DATA_EXPORT calls different FM like for user, GL , Vendor related FM and extracts the data..

SAP has provided provision of adding some customer specific filters like you may want to only filter some specific company code, or you want to filter only specific employee group etc. For adding custom logic in the data being sent can be maintained in /ARBA/TVARV table. In order to understand what values is the program looking for I read the code. So the standard program there is a FORM validations. It contains specific filters for each of the data sets like below one you can use /ARBA/SL_PARTNER_TYPE.

Filter criteria in the main program ARBA/MASTER_DATA_EXPORT as seen below

This FM /ARBA/PREFILTER reads data from table  /arba/tvarv

Sometimes the standard program /ARBA/MASTER_DATA_EXPORT may call a FM like / /ARBA/VENDOR_ONLY_EXPORT and this will contain the pre-filter value like seen below .

Another Fm which is called to filter the data based on user parameter is /ARBA/PARAMETER

This also calls the same table   /ARBA/TVARV

You can talk to the Ariba SPOC and they can help you to udnerstadn all parameters. I referred the link  to find the list of all parameter or if you are a bit technical and if you can manage to read the program and the different FM it calls it can be seen in the code what are the available parameters that the program is checking for.So I maintained this value in the table

Below are some of the values in the table: /ARBA/TVARV that I maintained

This is not an exhaustive list and the SAP Ariba contact point for your project should let you know of the specific parameter which you would like to use to build on a custom logic for extraction.

I will be creating a separate blog on the other learning and technical object details which I used in the Ariba implementation project

Thanks for reading and let me know what you think of the blog

Do read my other blog on  Ariba certification here:

Regards

Vinita