Very, Very Basic ? From a Newbie

[Former Member]

Please be nice - I am very new to SAP - like 1-2 days in a demo. I have searched all over but can't find a finite answer to this question. I have been placed on a strategic project to see if MDM would be beneficial to implement as an standard catalog.

Can MDM data be directly accessed from SAP applications (like building a sales order)? So if I build a catalog in MDM can SAP ERP use it or does that data have to be imported in into another table within the ERP system? It says data can be mapped to objects in the ERP - but everything is an object in SAP...

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hi Sophie,

Basically MDM is all about Data Cleansing,deduplication and mapping.you take data from legacy systems or R3 and in MDM you clean it,remove duplicates and then store data back to the systems which can be anything say R3 again or seabel etc.So MDM is about managing data.Generally in MDM access to data by End User is done through portals for which you need Enterprise Portals.Portals helps u to view data and modify it after needed authorization checks.

Also MDM after mapping the DATA sends it to the other system by XI or any other Interfaces .

Plese mark helpful Answers

regards

Vinay

[Former Member]

OK one more question, if you don't mind.

Is this scenario possible? I have a sales order process in SAP ERP that is already using something like MM. I want sometimes (magic here) to use the catalog in MDM. So can the application send the item # to MDM (through XI) and then have all the required fields be returned (back through XI)to fill in the fields of the item attributes on the sales order in the SAP ERP system?

I hope this makes sense. You are very nice for taking the time to answer my questions.

[Former Member]

I forgot to add - this should happen real time just like it would if it was all being done within the ERP since these are people entering orders - they can't wait, or have to send it there and then press another button to get it back from MDM.

Thanks!

[Former Member]

Hi,

I have not tried this..But i guess this should work..

You can build an IDOC on request for master data values and send it to XI.

XI reads the IDOC. You can use java program with MDM API and read data from MDM repository and build the XML form of data.

This XML file is posted in folder where again XI picks it up and convert the data in to IDOC and send it to the system.

You can use the incoming IDOC for populating the result.

I am not very sure of this scenario.

I suggest you to wait till August where u shall have ABAP api so that u can access the info from MDM directly...

Regards,

Tanveer.

<b>Please mark helpful answers</b>

[Former Member]

Hi,

You will find the link, http://www.w3schools.com/xsl/ very useful along with the above one.

Thanks,

Hemal

[Former Member]

Thank you for all the replies... Where can I find information on how SAP XI works? This seems to be the missing link I need.

Thanks!

[Former Member]

Hi Sophie

Kindly go thru the following link to get overview about SAP XI.

<a href="http://help.sap.com/saphelp_nw2004s/helpdata/en/84/e8763c997fda50e10000000a11405a/frameset.htm">SAP XI Overview</a>

let me know your personal mail id, so that I can fwd some useful docs.

Cheers

Alexander.

Note:Please reward the points, if found useful.

[Former Member]

Hi Sophie,

Welcome to SDN!

Do you want to interact with the MDM from the R/3.

In SP03, thats not possible directly.

Here you can use XI as the middleware to access the data from the MDM.

Also, you have JAVA API's provided for accessing the data from the MDM DB.

However, the gud news is that in SP04, SAP will be providing ABAP API's so that you can access data from MDM DB directly.

Can MDM data be directly accessed from SAP applications (like building a sales order)? So if I build a catalog in MDM can SAP ERP use it or does that data have to be imported in into another table within the ERP system?

In MDM harmonisation scenario, the data in the R/3 will be containing the rich data imported from the MDM server.

You can use the data from the R/3 itself.

If you intend to access the data directly from MDM DB, wait till August, till SP04 is reelesed.

Regards,

Tanveer.

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[Former Member]

Hi Sophie

The following link talks about MDM Topology and system requirement, this might help you in ur next level of MDM exploriong...

<a href="http://help.sap.com/saphelp_mdmgds55/helpdata/en/42/fac545cf2c1aa2e10000000a422035/frameset.htm">MDM Topology and System Requirements</a>

Cheers

Alexander

P.S: Incase the like doesn't point directly follow the menu path Appendices>Preparing the MDM Environment>MDm Topology and System Requirments.

[Former Member]

Hello Sophie

MDM can't interact with any system by it's own. As part of the NetWeaver Stack (and business scenarios) it needs SAP XI.

Using SAP XI for system interaction, yes, virtually any system can take data from SAP MDM and use it. For instance, SAP ERP would call data from MDM and import it into itself (actually SAP XI would call MDM and ERP data) and then it can be used.

MDM provides predefined content such as Vendors, Materials and employees, as well as XI content, so you can integrate ERP -> SAP XI -> SAP MDM easily and using SAP objects architecture

I hope that helps, please don't hesitate to ask

Kind Regards

Alejandro