How to convert Retail Site master from SAP ERP to S/4HANA

When you are doing a system conversion to SAP S/4HANA, and you are using sites in your source system. You may face to the questions like, how do site master collaborate with BP master in S/4HANA? What are the necessary steps for the migration of site master data from SAP ERP to SAP S/4HANA? Any restrictions for the site master conversion procedure?

Harmonization of Site Master and Business Partner

With those questions, let’s start from harmonization of site master and business partner.

In SAP S/4HANA, the business partner (BP) is the single point of entry used to centrally managing master data for business partners, customers (C), and vendors (V), unlike in SAP ERP, where C/V master data can be handled separately. The specific transaction codes used to maintain C/V master data separately in SAP Business Suite are not available on SAP S/4HANA. Note 2265093 S4TWL – Business Partner Approach.

The site master is affected by this data model harmonization because a site always has the role of a customer and can optionally also have the role of a vendor. It means a customer master record and optionally a vendor master record is assigned to a site.

The integration of C/Vs with BP data (by means of CVI) is not supported on SAP ERP for C/Vs assigned to a site, but it is mandatory on SAP S/4HANA. Integration requires migration of C/Vs assigned to a site during the SAP S/4HANA conversion where BPs are created for these C/Vs. This step is illustrated in the following picture.

As a result of the business partner approach, some site-related processes are different since SAP S/4HANA 1610 and above compared to SAP ERP:

• Maintenance of site master
  • Maintenance of BP (C/V) data via central BP maintenance.
  • BP maintenance integrated in site maintenance dialog.
  • Pre-selection of BP roles relevant for site.
  • Elimination of redundancies between site and C/V (e.g. address data, departments, receiving points).
• Distribution of site master
  • Data Replication Framework (DRF) as common framework for data distribution (BP and site).
  • DRF allows for new distribution scenarios (direct and pooled distribution) and filter settings besides manual distribution.
• Archiving of site master
  • Archiving marker for site includes archiving marker for BP (C/V).
  • Archiving of BP only possible after archiving of site.

Site Master Conversion to S/4HANA

Retail site master conversion is only possible to S/4HANA OP 1610 or above. When you are ready to conduct site conversion to S/4HANA, there are three phases during the whole procedure: Preparing for conversion, Conversion, Preparing operations after conversion.

Preparing for conversion:

• BP Conversion and Preparation for Conversion to SAP S/4HANA: Although the creation of a leading BP for the C/V must be performed before the actual SAP S/4HANA conversion. C/Vs assigned to sites are excluded from this step. No BPs will be created for C/Vs assigned to sites.

For more information about BP conversion and the BP pre-check, please see the central consulting SAP Note 2265093.

• Preparation for Site migration.

Before conversion to S/4HANA take place, we recommend a cleanup of site data and of Customizing related to sites and the C/Vs assigned to sites.

Second, the following (Customizing) activities are required in preparation for the migration of site data to the BP approach(Configuration details refer to XXXX_v2.1_SiteMasterConversionGuide.pdf in SAP Note 2310884):

• • Activate CVI synchronization options.
  • Activate PPO requests and creation of post processing orders.
  • Define BP number ranges and groupings.
  • Define number assignment C/V to BP.
  • Define BP role for direction C/V to BP and BP role category for direction BP to C/V.
  • Maintain field assignment for C/V integration (if relevant data is used for C/V assigned to sites).
  • Implement BAdIs (if required or desired): Adjust BP number of new BPs created for C/Vs assigned to sites (BADI_CHANGE_BP_NUMBER, method CHANGE_BP_NUMBER). Adjust ID of new BP role for site (BADI_CHANGE_BP_NUMBER, method CHANGE_BP_ROLE_NAME_BPSITE).

Third, If a site has both a customer and supplier role, one common BP is created for the C and V assigned to the site. In order to create a BP with central data shared between the C and V role, there must be no conflicts in this data between an existing C and V that are assigned to the same site. If conflicts exist, the data must be consolidated prior to BP creation during conversion to SAP S/4HANA in order to avoid data loss or issues with BP creation. Table in document XXXX_v2.1_SiteMasterConversionGuide.pdf in SAP Note 2310884 describes the potential conflicts that need to be resolved prior to SAP S/4HANA conversion.

Fourth, a mandatory pre-check is performed at the beginning of the SAP S/4HANA conversion process in order to check whether the prerequisites for the site migration to BP are fulfilled.

For information about the messages issued during the pre-check, see the XXXX_Table_Pre-Checks.pdf, which is also attached to SAP Note 2310884.

The checks of the pre-check for site migration are only performed for C/Vs assigned to sites and only for other entities that are relevant for these C/Vs, such as C/V account groups. The relevant SAP Notes for executing the pre-check by using the preparation report are:

• • SAP Notes with pre-checks and preparation report that are only relevant for the conversion target release SAP S/4HANA 1610 using the previous pre-check framework: SAP Note 2310871 / SAP Note 2336853
  • SAP Note with pre-checks and preparation report that are relevant for the conversion target releases SAP S/4HANA 1709 and higher, using the new Simplification Item Check (SIC) framework: SAP Note 2502552
  • The following SAP Notes are only required for the implementation of the BAdIs that are called during the pre-check and during the migration to rename BPs and new BP roles: SAP Note 2315639

SAP Notes for the implementation of methods that call the BAdI methods:  SAP Note 2348529 / SAP Note 2456668

• • SAP Note 2310884: Consulting SAP Note for the pre-check

Last, The CVI Customizing check report CVI_UPGRADE_CHECK_RESOLVE checks the necessary CVI and BP Customizing settings for each client and proposes a solution for missing or wrong Customizing entries. You can use this report to check the Customizing settings for C/Vs assigned to Retail sites when called using transaction code SM_CVI_FS_CHECK_CUS.

SAP Note 2451504 / SAP Note 2344034 / SAP Note 2265093

*Since Mar 2020, the customizing check report CVI_UPGRADE_CHECK_RESOLVE has been replace by new report CVI_CUSTOMIZING_RESOLVE. SAP note 2891522

Conversion

• Before the technical conversion process starts, a mandatory pre-check is performed on the source release to check whether the prerequisites for the site migration to the BP approach are fulfilled. This pre-check should already have been executed during the conversion preparation phase to facilitate conversion preparation. SAP Note 2185960

If Retail sites have been created in the system, conversion is only possible to SAP S/4HANA 1610 or higher.

• XPRA Stands for eXecution of PRogram After import. During the conversion phase, XPRAs are executed to convert data from the source release to a state required in the target release on all clients. The following XPRAs are relevant for the site.

The XPRA converts existing site profiles (table TWRF2): WFIL_XPRA_S4MIG_TWRF2

The XPRA converts the tables for site transport (table SITE_DISTR_TAB): WFIL_XPRA_S4_ADJUST_DISTR_TABS

• During the conversion phase, a site migration report is executed to create BPs for C/Vs assigned to sites and for the contact persons of these C/Vs on all clients. SAP Note 2429142
  • BP Naming: determine the number of the new BP created for each site.
  • BP Role for Site: A new BP role with role category BPSITE is created by the migration report on each client.
  • Contact person: During site migration, for each contact person of a C/V, such a BP contact person is created and assigned to the new BP. SAP Note 2366114 / 2371673
  • Address Data: The migration report creates a separate address data record for the V assigned to a site. The site itself still shares the address data record with the C assigned to it on SAP S/4HANA like in SAP ERP (that is, T001W-ADRNR and KNA1-ADRNR are the same)

Preparing Operations after Conversion

• Resolving Site Conversion Issues. We recommend that you perform the following activities after conversion in order to check that BPs have been created successfully:
  • Check the migration log. Displaying the log by using report UPGBA_DISPLAY_REPORT_LOG with log ID MIGRATION_CV_BP
  • Run the check report for site migration. Report PERFORM_CHK_SMBP_FOR_S4_SIC or PERFORM_CHK_SMBP_FOR_S4
  • Analyze the reason for reported issues and fixed them, then start the conversion of sites with missing BPs again.
  • Convert the sites with missing BPs by using migration report WFIL_CSR_S4MIG_CV_BP.
  • Check the migration log again and run the check report for site migration again.
• Additional Customizing for site
  • Site Profiles
  • BP Role Groupings

Conversion of Distributed System Landscapes

• If site data is distributed within a system landscape, that is, the same sites exist on several systems or clients and the site data is kept consistent between these systems or clients via data distribution, we recommend that you ensure that BPs with same numbers are created for the same sites on the individual systems or clients.
• In order to support phased conversion of an existing system landscape to SAP S/4HANA, the distribution of site data is also supported in a mixed landscape with both SAP ERP and SAP S/4HANA systems.

Post-Conversion Operations

Once you have converted site master data to S/4HANA, there are some changes to the sites as a result of the harmonization of the data model, like customizing, site maintenance, BP maintenance, Site Distribution, and Site Archiving.

• Customizing:
  • Site Profile
  • Enable Standard Customer/Vendor as a Source for Site Update
  • Maintain Tables for Plant Transport
  • On SAP S/4HANA, departments are handled as part of the C role of the BP
  • Customizing activities for the Data Replication Framework (DRF) are required for the distribution of sites on SAP S/4HANA
  • New delivery Customizing has been introduced and the existing delivery Customizing has been adjusted with regard to the site master due to the introduction of the BP approach.

• Site Maintenance
  • The C/V buttons integrated in site maintenance are replaced by one BP button. A BP with the required C/V roles according to the site profile must be assigned to a site before the site can be saved. The BP must also have a role with role category BPSITE assigned to it.
  • Since the address data (valid for the site with BP/C/V) is maintained with the BP as leading entity on SAP S/4HANA, the Address tab in the site maintenance as available in SAP ERP is no longer available with SAP S/4HANA.
  • Departments (table WRF4) and receiving points (table WRF12) are only handled via the C role of the BP on SAP S/4HANA. Therefore, it is not possible to maintain departments and receiving points directly from the site maintenance and the corresponding buttons in the task bar have been removed. SAP Note 2374568 / 2387393
  • The maintenance of additional addresses and geolocation data (table WFIL_ADD_ADR) for a site is not supported on SAP S/4HANA. SAP Note 2391784

• BP Maintenance
  • The display and maintenance of BPs assigned to sites is possible in the BP maintenance dialog integrated in the site maintenance and in the stand-alone BP maintenance dialog (transaction BP) on SAP S/4HANA.
  • The BP allows the maintenance of multiple addresses, address usages and time-dependency for both addresses and address usages.
  • The enhancement concept for C/V available in SAP ERP is not supported with the BP maintenance on SAP S/4HANA.

• Site Distribution
  • The site distribution in SAP ERP by means of transaction WBTIMEX, which provides site transfer in push or pull mode, is replaced by the distribution of sites using the Data Replication Framework (DRF) on SAP S/4HANA, which provides push transfer only. Transactions WBTIMEX and WBTIMEX_CUST are not available with SAP S/4HANA.
  • DRF provides automatic distribution mode and manual distribution mode. Note 2472030

• Site Archiving
  • Transaction WB06 is still used to set the archiving indicator for a site.
  • Actual archiving of the BP-C/V assigned to a site is only possible after archiving of the site.
  • Sites that are marked for archiving are excluded from distribution.
  • Departments (table WRF4) and receiving points (table WRF12) are not part of site archiving on SAP S/4HANA.

From this blog, you will get a full picture about how to convert retail site master from SAP ERP to S/4HANA OP 1610 and above. You need to carry out a series of necessary operations during three phases, and it makes you more clear what you should do at each step. It also describes the impact of the business partner approach on operations that involve site master data.