Multiple Backends

[Former Member]

Hi all, has anyone experienced any problems using R/3 4.6 and R/3 5.7 as the multiple backends? I know it is possible, but just thinking about BAPIs function modules etc... are there any specific problem using two SAP backends of different versions?

I would appreciate any information you can provide. I have read the backend integration information and see no specific problems with it but if anyone has done it I would appreciate a heads up of potential problems.

Thanks

[Former Member]

Hi Tracey

I have recently finished a project where we connected to more than 10 different SAP backend system 4.6C and up.

Most off the issues we had were more to do with Customising and Master data differences.

We used Extended Classic Scenario.

Areas to check are:

Units of Measure - we ended up switching over to using ISO UoM when communicating with the backend systems.

Currencies - just check them.

Payment Terms - especially when using contracts in EBP.

Vendors & Plants - just make sure the correct backend references are coming through. Also for vendors you need to make sure that only vendors that exist in the backend system that the follow-on documents will be created in are visable to the user.

Users - hopefully users don't do any cross backend system activities, e.g. switch to shop.

Products - If the same material code can appear in both backend systems, life can start to get interesting. We had items from catalogue with product IDs in, however we didn't pass back the logical system from catalogue. The result was that we always got an express error message if a material code existed in more than one backend system. The end result was that we were forced to modify the system!

From a communications point of view just make sure you set the backend versions correctly then the BAPIs will look after the rest.

Be careful if you end-up having to write your own RFC calls or BAPIs, you should make sure you build in handling for different backend versions.

Otherwise have fun.

//Paddy

[Former Member]

Hi Paddy,

Have you ever gone from unicode to non unicode system? Eg: EBP in Unicode and R/3 backend unicode? Any issues there?

[Former Member]

Hi Tracy,

I have only gone from a non-unicode EBP system to a mixture of unicode and non-unicode backend systems. We didn't have any problems with this.

You should only worry if you use multiple languages. This is because if one system has multiple code pages, if the unicode system passes data to it, it will not specify the code page resulting in problems in the transmission.

//Paddy

[Former Member]

Thanks

[Former Member]

Hi Paddy,

Could you please make the products part of your post more clear?We have the same problem and we are trying to understand how it is possible to manage identical product code coming from different back-end also What dou mean exactly with modifying system.Could you please share with me detaild.

[Former Member]

That should read R/3 4.7 sorry!

[yann_bouillut]

Hi Tracey,

There is absolutely no issue to connect 2 different R/3 releases with SAP SRM.

For each logical system defined in SRM, you will have to define the release version.

Kind regards,

Yann