1.     Requirement Overview (Introduction)

Client is using Ariba Buying & Invoicing solution integrated with S4HANA ERP. Purchase Requisitions are being created in Ariba and once the Purchase Requisition (PR) is approved in Ariba, it sends the information to S4HANA to create the Purchase Order (PO).

If PO successfully created in S4HANA, Ariba receives the PO number back from S4HANA & PR/PO status changed to Ordered. If PO failed to get created in S4HANA, Ariba receives the error message details.

Currently, there is no real-time validation of the data captured on the Requisition before submission & sent for the approval. Ariba receives error messages only once the PR is fully approved and sent to S4HANA for PO creation. Client is looking for a solution where the PRs can be validated in S4HANA before the submission.

Ariba’s Real-Time Budget Check interface functionality (RTBC hereafter) is being proposed to not only validate the budget in ERP but also to check the requisitions validations in S4HANA. This will further reduces the errors which are being sent from S4HANA during the PO creation stage.

1.1.        Applicable Module(s)

The solution covered in this blog will be applicable to the following  Modules(s):

Ariba Buying & Invoicing	X
Ariba Sourcing Suite
CIG Integration	X
Ariba Commerce Automation

ERP- Backend System : SAP S4HANA On-premise

Middleware : SAP Cloud platform integration

2.     Solution/Configuration Details

Solution offers to validate the Requisitions during submission is SAP Ariba’s standard feature Real-time budget check.

When user initiates a budget check voluntarily on a Requisition or during requisition submission by the system, Ariba triggers the synchronous call and sends the message to Cloud Integration Gateway. CIG will send this message post processing to CPI, where CPI will just be a pass through to send the Budget check request message to SAP ERP (S4HANA ERP). SAP ERP validates the request message and respond back with success or failure. S4HANA will creates a corresponding Purchase Requisition and return with SAP ERP Purchase Requisition reference number.

SAP Ariba RTBC Synchronous Service Flow

2.1.        Solution Overview

Real-time budget check interface will trigger at below scenarios to validate the Ariba Purchase Requisition with budget maintain in SAP S4HANA and other Requisition validations.

Real-time budget check scenarios

2.2        Steps for Configuration

Real-time budget check functionality requires configuration in SAP Ariba, CIG, S4HANA  and CPI.

Please follow the below sections for the details

2.2.1.          Configuration in SAP Ariba

1. Below are the parameters to be enabled by raising the Service Request with customer support of SAP Ariba

#	Parameter
1	Application.Budget.StartDateToEnableRealTimeBudgetChecksInExternalSystems
2	Application.Budget.SendEarlierVersionRequisitionToExternalSystemForBudgetReversal
3	Application.Budget.EnableBudgetRevertOnDeletingRequisitionWithErrors
4	Application.Budget.RealTimeBudgetSynchronousSubmit

 

2. Web-Services to be enabled in SAP Ariba @ Ariba > Core Administration > Integration Manager > Cloud Integration Gateway

• Export Requisitions for User-Initiated External Budget Check
• Export Submitted Requisitions for External Budget Check
• Export Requisitions to External System to Revert Funds
• Export Modified Requisitions To Revert Funds
• Export Submitted Requisitions for Budget Checks Using SAP Ariba Cloud Integration Gateway

Real-time budget check web services in Ariba

2.2.2.          Configuration in CIG

 

Web-services used to integrate Requisitions as part of real-time budget check functionality are synchronous calls and there is separate iFlow in CPI to be configured. Due to this reason, a separate Project has to be created with individual connections for each of the synchronous services to be used for Real-time budget check integration.

Below are the two connection details to be maintained:

DocumentType: RequisitionBudgetCheckExportRequest/RequisitionExportRequest

#	Attribute Name	Attribute Value	Details
1	Transport Type	HTTPS	Select HTTPS from drop down
2	Environment	TEST	Select Test or Prod
3	Name	XXXX-BUDGET1	Provide appropriate name
4	System ID	XXXCLNT5XX	S4HANA backend System ID (SLD)
5	DocumentType	RequisitionBudgetCheckExportRequest/RequisitionExportRequest	Make sure to select this document type. Do not create the connection for synchronous webservice with Any documents type
6	URL	https://exxxxx-iflmap.hcisbt.eu2.hana.ondemand.com/cxf/receiveCIGSyncDocument	CPI team to share the appropriate URL for connections during implementation.
7	Authentication Type	Basic	Basic Authentication type
8	Username(CPI-UserName)	To be Shared by CPI support Team	To be Shared by CPI support Team
9	Password	To be Shared by CPI support Team	To be Shared by CPI support Team

 

Document Type : RequisitionRevertExportRequest

#	Attribute Name	Attribute Value	Details
1	Transport Type	HTTPS	Select HTTPS from drop down
2	Environment	TEST	Select Test or Prod
3	Name	CLIENT-REVERTBUDGET-XX	Provide appropriate name
4	System ID	XXCLNT5XX	S4HANA backend System ID (SLD)
5	DocumentType	RequisitionRevertExportRequest	Make sure to select this document type. Do not create the connection for synchronous webservice with Any documents type
6	URL	https://exxxxx-iflmap.hcisbt.eu2.hana.ondemand.com/cxf/receiveCIGSyncDocument	CPI team to share the appropriate URL for connections during implementation.
7	Authentication Type	Basic	Basic Authentication type
8	Username(CPI-UserName)	To be Shared by CPI support	To be Shared by CPI support Team
9	Password	To be Shared by CPI support	To be Shared by CPI support Team

Note : Please repeat the same parameters for production connections.

CIG Project Details

Connections maintained above is being used in a project created specifically for synchronous services.

Note: RTBC services are synchronous webservice unlike other Ariba Buying & Invoicing asynchronous webservices. For mediated connectivity with CPI, separate project for RTBC synchronous webservices is required.

Please refer cloud integration gateway guide to know more about CIG project creations.

Project Name: Client_P2P_RTB

Cross-Reference – Parameters Maintained as below. We are using a separate doc type of SAP S4HANA for creation of requisitions from Ariba, which needs to be maintained as below in CIG.

CIG Project Cross Reference Values

Note : Please add the connections created for production RTBC webservices in this project only following the same above process.

CIG Custom Mapping

If required, custom mappings to be done at below mentioned cXML Document Type. As being the synchronous calls, payloads of this transaction are not visible in CIG and cannot be downloaded through transaction tracker in CIG.

CIG custom mapping objects for RTBC

2.2.3.          Configuration in Middleware (CPI)

Deploy the standard I-flow as below in CPI instance

Package Name-

SAP ERP and SAP S/4HANA Integration with SAP Ariba Solutions

https://lxxxxxx-txx.hci.eu2.hana.ondemand.com/itspaces/shell/design

I-flow Name-

SOAP Synchronous Pass Through Content for Ariba Procurement

Validate the value mapping table bi-directional values.

2.2.4.          Configuration in ERP

2.2.4.1.           MM Configurations

Details of new doc type for Ariba PR  –  We have created new document type ZEX for Ariba Purchase Requisition.

Note: As being synchronous webservice, message payloads are currently not visible in CIG. For troubleshooting in your test environment, payload trace can be enabled in SAP S4HANA using srt_util t-code.

SRT_UTIL Payload Traces for Synchronous Webservices

 

For any integration issues, please debug ARBCIG_PREQ & ARBCIG_PREQ_Delete FM.

2.2.4.2.           SOAMANAGER Configurations

Please ensure the appropriate Web Service configuration in SOAMANAGER, as shown below.

BuyerPurchaseRequisition_Sync_

BuyerPurchaseRequisitionDelete_Sync_In

SOAMANAGER Configuration changes for RTBC web service

3.     Benefits

• Real-time check of the budgets available in the back-end ERP
• Reservation of budget in ERP for the Requisitions created in SAP Ariba
• Validation check of the Ariba requisition data, resulting lesser failures at Purchase Order creation interface.
• Lower End to End cycle time by automating validations and budget check with backend ERP.
• Better user-experience by using budget check button.

Sample screens with ERP PR Number

4.     Conclusion

As a technical architect/consultant, one can able to understand how the Ariba RTBC synchronous webservice is configured in a mediated connectivity environment using CIG and CPI as middleware. This article will help the Architect to plan the additional work required on RTBC interface than the other asynchronous webservice interfaces in advance.

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5.     References

Prerequisites – SAP Help Portal

SAP Ariba Cloud Integration Gateway overview guide – SAP Help Portal

How to set up the private tenant to connect with the SAP Ariba solutions – SAP Help Portal

Prerequisites for integrating real-time budget check – SAP Help Portal