Integration with R/3

[Former Member]

Hi everyone,

I have a question regarding the integration between SAP R/3 (where data resides) and SAP Netweaver (where R/3 data should be pulled into):

1) Should I use MDM or will PI be sufficient? If MDM, what exactly is the added value?

2) Are ABAP Webservices sufficient to do the work or is it not recommended?

Regards,

Wesley.

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Wesley,

It totally depends on your requirements and the landscape in which you are working.

For your ECC source system you may require to use MDM to manage your master data.

If the business requires, to have a frontend approach you can go ahead and use EP as a front end.

For EP MDM Integation you do not require PI.

But yes PI is required for tight integration between ECC and MDM.

Refer

Hope it helps.

Thanks,

Minaz

Edited by: Minaz Kathawala on Feb 24, 2009 4:54 AM

[Former Member]

Hi guys,

Thx for all your helpful replies. As it might have been unclear, let me clarify the situation:

MM data (mainly materials and orders) is managed within R/3. Now we are going to build an application on top of Netweaver (Webdynpro/JSF/Java webservices). That application will need the MM-data residing on R/3.

I am actually looking for the best integration technology. And we need to be 100% sure that MM-data fetched from R/3 is constantly up-to-date. Whether that data is going to be managed and synchronized on Netweaver is not yet determined.

Thx

[Former Member]

Hi Wesley,

Understanding your requirement better,you want to fetch Material master data from R/3 through the SAP NW application and the condition is that data must always be up to date.

In this case you can work directl with R/3 master data being called on SAPNW using Webdynpros developed using Java or even Java webservices.All you will have to do is directly connect to backend system R/3 and then call this data in your webdynpro screen using any of the many method.

If the data in the R/3 system is always up to date then your NW application will also fetch up to ate information.

MDM can fit in here, if you want to work on your material master data before calling it in your NW application.

Like for example you want the maintain your material master data befor using it,You want to deduplicate the data,valaidte it provide governance on it standardize it etc.

In this case you need to bring MDM betweeb R/3 and teh NW application so that master data from R/3 is pushe din to MDM to perform the above said task and tehn SAP NW application will connect to MDM as the backend system and fetch the consistent good quality master data from MDM instead of R/3 using your dynpros/webservices etc.

The only issue will be that you will ahve to amke sure that everytime the data is changed in R/3 it is pushed in MDM so that MDM has the up to date data all the time.

Hope It Helped

Thanks & Regards

Simona Pinto

[Former Member]

Hi Wesley,

I have a question regarding the integration between SAP R/3 (where data resides) and SAP Netweaver (where R/3 data should be pulled into):

- What is your destination SAP Netweaver system is the answer to the question.If it is BI then R/3 data can be directly fetched by the BI system for reporting.If its Enterprise portal you can use the R/3 system as the backend to read the data on portal.etc.The Added use of MDM is when you are dealing with Master data of any system and you want to manage thsi master data efficiently through MDM.

Should I use MDM or will PI be sufficient? If MDM, what exactly is the added value?

- PI is an integration tool and is only used for data transfer and monitoring.But for this to use you need 2 systems in place between whom the data transfer will happen.If you are using MDM and R/3 as the two system then you will need PI as MDM does not understand Idocs.

Are ABAP Webservices sufficient to do the work or is it not recommended?

- ABAP webservices will be required if you want to call your ABAP operations through the browser.But in MDM integration with R/3 there are no much ABAP work happening except for data extraction and loading.so i do not think there is any real use of ABAP webservices.You can instead use ABAP API for better performance.

Hope It Helped

Thanks & Regards

Simona Pinto

[former_member208981]

Hi Wesley,

1. PI is used as a file exchange mechanism between R/3 and other system. It has many advantages too, like monitoring the messages. If the other system does not understand R/3, PI comes into picture converting the data format.

MDM directly does not understand R/3. So, after PI gets the data in Idoc, it will provide the data to MDM, say in XML. Only after this, we can work on the data in MDM. According to the requirement we can cleanse or enrich the master data in MDM.

Please refer the below for more clarification:

/people/balas.gorla/blog/2006/09/27/mdm-xi-r3-integration (MDM-XI-R3 integration)

/people/balas.gorla/blog/2006/09/27/mdm-xi-r3-integration (XI-MDM integration)

/people/balas.gorla/blog/2007/02/05/r3-xi-mdm-outbound-scenario ((MDM-XI-R3 integration outbound scenario)

2. ABAP Web Services: It is not mandatory for MDM-R/3 integration. It again depends on what functionality you want in your Scenario.

Hope it helped.

Thanks,

Priti.

[former_member182007]

Hi Wesley,

1) Should I use MDM or will PI be sufficient? If MDM, what exactly is the added value?

2) Are ABAP Webservices sufficient to do the work or is it not recommended?

1. PI is just for making the connection between two Systems. it is a separate Componenant in itself which Contains the relavance and gves you Interface between two different system so It is also Important to Connect with PI.

As far as MDM is concern in your case If you want to go for Data Enrichment and Data Quality you can go for it. The Aspects related with data will also cover and Along Integration with ECC it will give you a unified view of data.

2. ABAP webservices also can be used but they are also with some limitations like version and Other Compactibilties.So It depends on the requirment that you want to use it or not.

Hope it helps.

Rgds

Deepak

[Former Member]

MDM should be used for data management, PI for systems integration. If all you need is to get ECC data available in an application you're building on top of the NetWeaver platform you don't need either of these -- you can directly call transactions in ECC using Java or ABAP WebDynpro.