Configuring the replication of Cost Centers from SAP S/4 HANA Cloud to SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central using the SAP Cloud Platform Master Data Integration Service – Part1

Hello SAP community,

In this blog post I will explain the configuration steps required in SAP S/4 HANA Cloud for setting up the replication of cost centers from SAP S/4 HANA Cloud to SAP SuccessFactors using SAP Cloud platform Master Data Integration Service.

You can learn more details on SAP Master Data Integration by reading the blog post SAP Master Data Integration – sharing and synchronizing master data in the integrated Intelligent Suite.

When a cost center business object is created or changed in SAP S/4 HANA Cloud system, it asynchronously sends a change request to MDI. The change request contains a description of how the source system wants to change the properties of the cost center master data object. MDI provides a Change API for source systems to send change requests to it.

MDI processes the change request into a change event by applying the requested changes to the current state of cost center master data object. Every time cost center master data object changes, the MDI service captures the new values for all properties of that object as a change event with a unique version identifier.

SAP SuccessFactors system asynchronously receive these change events from MDI and it react to change events by updating the cost center master object instance in their local persistence. MDI provides Log API for systems to receive change events.

There are two levels involved in setting up the integration.

• Technical Integration
• Business Integration

Technical Integration

For the technical integration, you activate a communication scenario in SAP S/4HANA Cloud . This communication scenario allows cost center data to pass securely between SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP SuccessFactors via the SAP Cloud Platform Master Data Integration service.

Business Integration

For the business integration, you create, update or delete cost center master data in SAP S/4HANA Cloud and the cost center master data are fetched and updated in SAP SuccessFactors by using the SAP Cloud Platform Master Data Integration service. This ensures that the cost center master data is available and consistent in both systems.

You will be using Manage Cost Centers app to create cost center. To create a cost center, you need to have minimum authorizations that are delivered with the role SAP_BR_OVERHEAD_ACCOUNTANT template.

After you set up the integration scenario for cost center replication with SAP Cloud Platform Master Data Integration and have performed all the steps for setting up the cost center replication and when you then create, change or delete cost centers, the Data Replication Framework (DRF) is started and the changed cost center data is automatically replicated from SAP S/4HANA Cloud to SAP SuccessFactors via the SAP Cloud Platform Master Data Integration service.

How the integration works

After the technical and business integration are complete, cost center changes in SAP S/4HANA Cloud are continuously and automatically (by scheduled batch jobs in both systems) replicated into SAP SuccessFactors.

The following graphic shows how the data flows:

SAP Master Data Integration Service Key

On the SAP Cloud Platform, you have assigned the Master Data Integration service for cost center integration (Master Data Integration) to the global account and, also created an entitlement.

On the SAP Cloud Platform, you have created a sub-account for the SAP Cloud Platform Master Data Integration service for cost center integration

In that sub-account on the SAP Cloud Platform you create an instance of the SAP Cloud Platform Master Data Integration service for cost center integration and a service key.

The following table shows the mapping between the communication settings and the location in the service key JSON

Note: A service instance must be created per system in the landscape. Here, system refers to a client that interacts with the master data integration service. For example, In this integration scenario, you have to create two service instances, one to represent SAP S/4HANA Cloud and one to represent SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central which will be used while defining cost center business scenarios.

Communication System

You will perform these steps in SAP S/4HANA Cloud to create a communication system to connect to the SAP Cloud Platform for the replication of cost centers from SAP S/4HANA Cloud via the SAP Cloud Platform Master Data service

• Log on to the SAP Fiori launchpad in the SAP S/4HANA Cloud system.
• Under the Communication Management section, select the Communication Systems
• Choose New to create a new system.

Note: You can find the information for Host Name, the Auth. Endpoint, Token Endpoint in the above section.

General Data

System ID:  E.g. COM_559
System Name: E.g. Cost Center Integration

Technical Data

Host Name: E.g. *******************.hana.ondemand.com

OAuth 2.0 Settings

Auth. Endpoint: E.g.  *******************.hana.ondemand.com
Token Endpoint: E.g. *******************.hana.ondemand.com/OAuth/token

User for outbound Communication

Click + icon in user for outbound communication and maintain below details.
Authentication method: OAuth 2.0
OAuth 2.0 Client ID: <Client ID>
Client Secret: <Client Secret>

Note: Client ID and Client Secret has to be referred from service instance which is created for SAP S/4 HANA Cloud system.

Communication Arrangement

You perform these steps in SAP S/4HANA Cloud to create a communication arrangement for the cost center replication.

• Under the Communication Management section, choose the Maintain Communication Arrangements app.
• Choose New. On the New Communication Arrangement screen, choose the communication scenario SAP_COM_0559and enter the arrangement name, such as SAP_COM_0559. Choose Create.
• On the Communication Arrangements screen under Common Data in the Communication System field, choose the communication system you want your system to connect to. This is the communication system you created in previous section.
• If the selected communication system already has a communication user for outbound communication, the user and required authentication type will be displayed in the Username field under Outbound Communication.
• Save the arrangement

Please be aware that scheduling a job means that the back-end system will do the activation. This means that after scheduling it can take some time until an active job status is shown.

Only if the job status in the communication scenario is active, you should start with changing/replicating cost centers.

In the coming blogs, we shall dive into the details of SAP SuccessFactors Business Scenario setup and Cost Center execution from SAP S/4 HANA Cloud to SAP SuccessFactors.

Conclusion

Using the instructions of this blog posting, you will be able to set up the SAP S/4 HANA Cloud system to replicate the cost center master data business object to SAP Cloud Platform Master Data Integration.

Hope you had a good read.

If you wish to know more, or have any queries on this blog, then please feel free to drop a comment.