There are a few things which can make the integration between SAP Sourcing and SAP ERP more stable, most of them will also be valid for the integration between SAP Sourcing and SAP SRM (planned to be released with SAP Sourcing Wave 9 in 2012). That the master data between the two systems should be synchronized might be obviously, but… Initially some master data could not be extracted from ERP and it was manual work. Please also read my blog Extracting ERP Master data for SAP Sourcinga as it provides an update about new extraction of master data like unit of measure, Incoterms etc.
Workbook
The workbook which gets imported during the installation has many master data like currencies and unit of measure; in case you have an ERP system I would reduce the data of the workbook and use the ERP extraction reports.
Unit of measure (UOM)
I recommend using the report BBP_ES_CUSTOMIZINGDATA_EXT_CSV to extract the unit categories (called dimensions in SAP ERP) and the related text for unit categories. SAP Sourcing does not have a XML importer for this master data object, but as unit categories are not visible for end users just import it in a single language (just to avoid issues the easiest might be do it in English). There might be still an issue that with the unit category ‘no dimension’, I will update this blog when an OSS note is available to fix it. For the ISO codes for unit of measure and UOM itself please use the standard report BBP_ES_CUSTOMIZINGDATA_EXTRACT and extract it in all languages you plan to use in SAP Sourcing.
In case you do a new installation of SAP Sourcing: how many different unit of measure will you really need? An ERP system often has much more than 200 UOM and it might be difficult to judge which of them are required, but the user will for free text items have a long dropdown list with them that it would improve the usability for all users to reduce it. Import all ISO codes, but (manually) remove the unit of measure from the XML before importing it into SAP Sourcing. This might work easier if not many UOM via the workbook have been imported.
Currency
Similar like for unit of measure it might be worth to check which currencies are required. ISO codes for currency and currency itself can be extracted for multiple languages using the standard report BBP_ES_CUSTOMIZINGDATA_EXTRACT, just edit the XML before importing it into SAP Sourcing in case you would like to reduce the number of available currencies in SAP Sourcing.
Materials and suppliers
You plan to start standalone with SAP Sourcing or SAP CLM, but use the integration features in a later phase? Or there is only limited knowledge about PI that you postpone the installation and configuration of PI? But what about materials and/or suppliers, create them manually? You can use the report BBP_ES_MASTERDATA_EXTRACT in ERP to do an initial extraction of materials and as well suppliers. Same like other master data the XML files can be imported into SAP Sourcing without using PI.
SAP Sourcing RFx and BOM
SAP Sourcing provides a feature called BOM – Bill of Materials – for RFx events, but not in agreements or auctions. A BOM in ERP is different as well. A BOM can contain furthers BOMs and materials, when creating a follow-on document like a master agreement or an outline agreement in ERP the BOM gets replaced with the materials which could be confusing and might not always works. If BOMs are available is controlled by the security profile of a rule, e.g. navigate to the purchaser role, tab Access Rights and set all events for Bill of Materials to Not Set. Afterwards (you might need to log off and on again) you will not be able to add a BOM to a RFx nor have it at the Enterprise Sourcing menu.
BOM Security profile
Enterprise Sourcing menu with Bill of Materials (BOM)
Synchronize the document number of your master agreements with your ERP outline agreements
In ERP you configure an internal and external number range (which contains only numbers). In short ERP will use the internal number range if no number is passed and try to use the external number range whenever a number is passed. But what does it mean – “it will try”? ERP will check if that number fits into the external number range, if yes it creates the document, otherwise it will do nothing (=not create the document).
SAP CLM should always transfer the Master Agreement ID always to your ERP system, but as this ID often contains characters it would fail. A recently correction in ERP will do a quick check if the number from SAP CLM fits into the external number range. If successful it will either pass this number or not that ERP will take the internal number range.
Analyze the data which arrives in ERP
SAP Sourcing is working standalone and you followed all steps of the configuration guide “Integration of SAP ERP and SAP Sourcing”, but the contract or Purchase Order gets not created in ERP – does this sound familiar to you? Or a document gets created, but some data is incomplete? Or you added some custom fields and would like to know if all data arrives correctly in SAP ERP? If this sounds familiar I hope you are aware of the transaction BBP_ES_Analyze in your SAP ERP system. For example you can check via transaction SE91 if it exists in your system.
ERP transaction BBP_ES_Analyze
When you start the transaction you have to search for some data which was transferred from SAP Sourcing / SAP CLM to your SAP ERP system, e.g. search by date. Enter data which should be part of the field Memory ID, in case a Purchase Order should be created it will start with PO, for an outline agreement with OA etc.
ERP transaction BBP_ES_Analyze – search for RFC data
When you found the right record just click the Execute icon or press F8. The next screen will look similar like the screenshot below; at the header you should find your data, by clicking at the different tables (under Table parameters) you can check the data which arrived in ERP.
In case you find your data here you can be sure that the integration itself is alright, e.g. PI is configured correctly! If you cannot find it you need to logon to your SAP PI system and execute for example transaction SMBX_MONI and search there for your data.
Not always the messages which you see in SAP CLM e.g. when publishing a Master Agreement to ERP are self-explaining, thus getting all messages might give you a much better understanding what is going on, e.g. is the data correct or are you simply using the wrong company codeor similar. The nice thing with the transaction BBP_ES_Analyze is that you do not have to be a developer to get some useful information. You can check which data arrived and when you execute it you will get all information, warning and as well error messages which occurred when the data was initially sent to your ERP system.
ERP transaction BBP_ES_Analyze – result details
Further related blogs:
How to configure Price Conditions in SAP Sourcing
How to configure Price Conditions in SAP Sourcing (Part II)
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