SAP Cloud Platform Integration in Practice Test
Dentsu Aegis Network and Pikon are now linked by a partnership of more than 13 years. As a consulting company, Pikon has created solutions in the areas of ERP and custom development for Dentsu Aegis Network.
Bidirectional interfaces between the various IT systems and SAP ERP were always implemented on the basis of a file system. In the past, we often implemented cross-company and cross-system business processes on the basis of the integration platform SAP Process Orchestration (PO) or its predecessor SAP Exchange Infrastructure (XI). This was a good way to ensure secure, high-performance and controlled data exchange.
Files were created in third-party systems and stored on paths that were accessible to the SAP ERP system. The negative aspects of this approach are obvious.
On the one hand, the instability due to different technologies and partly time-controlled background applications. On top of that, there is the asynchronous file processing, which does not allow any feedback for efficient monitoring.
This means that end-to-end monitoring is hardly possible in this process. When thinking about a solution to this problem, the SAP product SAP Process Orchestration comes directly into focus.
Very good connection possibilities to SAP and non-SAP systems, standard functions for data mapping and, of course, the possibility of synchronous processing in the backend systems would be among others. Furthermore, it is a proven and mature product.
SAP Process Orchestration would also have been a viable option: Purchase servers and licenses, administer the system, integrate it into the network, and you're ready to start developing applications.
You will have already figured out the crux of the matter: All of this is time-consuming and very cost-intensive. It is difficult to present a coherent business case - especially when it comes to individual projects. These aspects have already been showstoppers for a number of our customers, including Dentsu Aegis Network.
SAP Cloud
In recent years and months, SAP has been pushing very hard to develop an alternative product, SAP Cloud Platform with its integration module, SAP Cloud Platform Integration for short.
With this rapid development, the barriers to entry for the use of an integration platform were significantly lowered at a stroke due to the elimination of server and administration costs and a manageable licensing model.
Furthermore, integration scenarios are an ideal-typical cloud application for which the software-as-a-service (SaaS) principle is tailor-made. On the one hand, no own (redundant) data storage is required outside of monitoring, and on the other hand, the SAP Cloud Connector enables secure integration into the company network.
In addition, there is the added benefit of further SAP Cloud Platform services, such as the use of Fiori applications. Under these convincing conditions, we were able to start our first SAP Cloud Platform integration project together with Dentsu Aegis Network.
Implementation phase
In this project, a business-critical interface was to be implemented directly. This involves the import of incoming and outgoing invoices from an upstream core system into the SAP ERP system.
The interface is characterized by a very high document volume as well as error-proneness of the previous solution due to weak monitoring, lack of automation options as well as the generally known weaknesses of a batch input process.
The initial system is used by Dentsu Aegis Network to map the entire media planning and media billing processes and therefore serves as the basis for the invoice receipt process and for billing customers.
Since the accounting processes run in the SAP ERP system, a connection between these systems is essential. Until now, this was achieved by saving data from the third-party system to an FTP server, copying it from there to the SAP ERP server by means of a job, and converting it into FI documents there by means of batch input.
As mentioned, this process ran with all the hooks and loopholes of a batch input process. Monitoring in particular was therefore very time-consuming. One of the main goals was therefore also to automate the monitoring process, especially with regard to the requirements of the auditors. In addition to the usual requirements under German law, Dentsu Aegis Network must also meet the requirements of J-SOX.
In addition, the build-up of know-how and the associated flexibility on the part of Dentsu Aegis Network was a further requirement for the success of the project. From a purely technical point of view, the plan was quickly drawn up: Read data via JDBC adapter (JDBC: Java Database Connectivity) from the third-party system database, since there was no direct access to system functions via Web Service or RFC (Remote Function Call).
This meant that the data was already in the SAP Cloud Platform and we were able to take full advantage of the strengths of this platform: Data mapping from a freely defined XML format into an IDOC (SAP Intermediate Document) and sending an IDOC to the SAP ERP system.
This was further secured by the SAP Cloud Connector and the plan was ready. In addition, Dentsu Aegis Network employees were trained in the new technology and involved from the first concept and implementation workshops. Basically, we can say that the project plan was implemented exactly as planned.
It became clear relatively quickly that the JDBC adapter was unfortunately not yet available through SAP, and this was not to change until the planned end of the project. So we could not guarantee the direct connection of the external database in this way.
A workaround was needed to complete the project within the planned timeframe. This was quickly found: an SFTP server (Secure File Transfer Protocol) as an interim solution, which will be shelved in a second step and replaced by the originally planned solution with the JDBC adapter. The RFC adapter was also not yet available from SAP at the start of the project, so we had to send the IDOCs here to the SAP ERP system via https.
It becomes apparent here that one or the other functionality is not yet available. However, SAP's roadmap at the DSAG annual congress impressively showed that this problem has been recognized and is being addressed with the regular updates on a monthly basis.
The project also revealed the advantages of a cloud solution. Thanks to the monthly (!) update of the software by SAP, without the customer's IT having to worry about importing new releases, new functionalities are quickly available, improved or expanded.
And all of this at a speed not known in the SAP environment. For example, the RFC adapter was available during the project and could be used, the keystore concept for secure management of system access was expanded and was thus much easier to use.
Another advantage we were able to take advantage of was the extension of the development environment on the web, so that Eclipse did not necessarily have to be used in addition, which enabled parallel processing. The web-based development environment provided by Cloud Platform served as the basis for implementation from then on.
This meant that the remaining tasks could be finalized very quickly and implemented step by step by the customer itself: The data mapping was completely possible in the graphical editor, the connection via Cloud Connector to the on-premise SAP ERP was quickly established and the first IDOCs could be checked and processed in the SAP ERP system.
The required data volumes can now also be easily processed in real time with SAP Cloud Platform Integration without any delays or errors in processing. Previous problems in data processing could also be solved by using BAPIs instead of batch input.
Hindsight
Pikon always looks at projects on the levels of people, IT and business administration. This is how we also want to carry out the post-event review in these dimensions. As a conclusion, we have to say: We have generated added value on all these levels.
Man: Through the coaching approach in the project, we managed to realize this project together with our customer Dentsu Aegis Network and additionally enable them to solve similar requirements themselves in the future.
The security provided by the strong monitoring and alerting of the SAP Cloud Platform in conjunction with the wide-ranging tools in the IDOC environment was a positive factor, as was the prospect of the resulting significant reduction in workload. Strong self-motivation in learning new technologies and working with them was a good basis for project success.
IT: In the IT environment, we managed to stabilize the interface, ensure significantly improved monitoring, and thus lay a stable foundation for many other interfaces based on SAP Cloud Platform Integration.
A central point for the implementation of future interfaces of any kind. This effectively supports Dentsu Aegis Network's vision to work agile, flexible, fast and secure in this area.
BWL: In addition to stabilization, the project can also demonstrate a significant increase in efficiency in the area of application support. Fewer errors, fewer error corrections lead to more efficiency in daily business. This frees up time for more important things.
Conclusion
If we now compare SAP Cloud Platform Integration with SAP PI/PO, there are of course advantages and disadvantages. We were convinced by the advantages of the SAP Cloud Platform. The somewhat older SAP PI/PO naturally still has a significantly larger scope of functions and content.
However, this will change. SAP Cloud Platform Integration is already a very good alternative to SAP PO and, unlike SAP's internal competitor SAP PI/PO, is being further developed and expanded with high priority.
