It's going to rain EDI - B2B Capability On-Cloud vs On-Premise

[vicky20691]

This time of year is for all the SAP Enthusiasts to get themselves acquainted to all upgrades by SAP and the SAP's road-map for various products. All SAP enthusiasts and customers who belong to integration world are eager to know about the new B2B capabilities introduced by SAP on the cloud platform in July 2017.

I am one of the many curious folks out there and was excited to get started with the B2B capabilities on Cloud Platform. I am listing out few key points to know about B2B capabilities on SAP Cloud Platform and a comparison between the on-premise B2B add-on and B2B on SAP Cloud Platform.

1. B2B capabilities for EDI message processing are available on Enterprise license of SAP Cloud platform.


2. SAP has delivered pre-packaged ASC X.12 and EDIFACT messages ( not all yet ).

Let's have a look at the comparison between on-premise add-on and on-cloud capability which helps us to get an idea about the road-map too

 

S. No	SAP Cloud Integration	On Premise B2B add-on
1	ANSI X.12 and EDIFACT are supported till now	EDIFACT, EANCOM, ANSI X12, Odette, Tradacoms, VDA and Plain are supported
2.	The message XSDs are provided as pre-packaged content	The message XSDs are provided as pre-packaged content
3.	Till now only ANSI X12 Version 004010, 005010 are available in pre-package content	All the versions of ANSI X.12 are available pre-delivered in add-on
4.	EDIFACT version D.01B, D.96A, D.98A available	All the versions of EDIFACT are delivered with add-on
5.	AS2 adapter is provided. EDI messages can be sent over HTTP(S), AS2 or SFTP.	AS2, HTTP, EDISeparator, X400, File, SFTP adapters can be used to transmit EDI messages
6.	Security can be kept intact as all adapters support certificate authentication	For secure communication AS2, HTTP and SFTP must be chosen for integration
7.	More optimized development with all flows being handled in single iFlow as EDISplitter is available as event in iFlow rather than adapters. * Refer link below	Multiple Iflows to be created for acknowledgement and document splitting as EDISeparator comes as an adapter
8.	Only below ANSI messages are available till now 110 - Air Freight Details and Invoice 180 - Return Merchandise Authorization and Notification 304 - Shipping Instructions 325 - Consolidation of Goods In Container 810 - Invoice 820 - Payment Order/Remittance Advice 824 - Application Advice 830 - Planning Schedule with Release Capability 838 - Trading Partner Profile 846 - Inventory Inquiry/Advice 850 - Purchase Order 852 - Product Activity Data 855 - Purchase Order Acknowledgment 856 - Ship Notice/Manifest 860 - Purchase Order Change Request - Buyer Initiated 861 - Receiving Advice/Acceptance Certificate 862 - Shipping Schedule 866 - Production Sequence	8. all the ANSI messages are available
9.	No TPM portal	A fully functional TPM portal available with
10.	Plain messages not supported so difficult to handle custom EDI messages	In house custom formats can be handled with Plain messages in EDI content manager

 

Link for point 7 –

https://blogs.sap.com/2017/07/17/b2b-capabilities-in-cloud-platform-integration/

 

Adapter List

https://help.sap.com/viewer/368c481cd6954bdfa5d0435479fd4eaf/Cloud/en-US/55325f2a722c4f67bb7752b369b...
Pre-packaged content

https://cloudintegration.hana.ondemand.com/shell/discover/contentpackage/ASCX12Version004010

 

 

With more pre-packaged content delivered in near future for more EDI standards will certainly make it more interesting to process EDI messages. The iFlow is really more optimized in terms of development with the EDISplitter not being an adapter.

 

I would really love and I am sure will love to see the following features in near future -

1. A user friendly TPM portal soon in the Cloud platform.


2. Plain message processing as clients always have some or other custom requirements.