Vendor Master Fields to be considered for Centralization in SAP MDM

[Former Member]

Hello Experts,

In my present assignment, we have 3 different ECC systems each for three different businesses. Now the objective is to consolidate, Harmonize and centralize the Vendor Master for all these standalone ECC systems in SAP MDM.

So multiple discussions are going on the which Vendor Master fields to be kept as Global fields and which ones as local in Central Vendor Repository in SAP MDM. The debate is whether should we keep "Vendor Account group" as Global field or as Local field in MDM.

The debate is each inidividual business unit has defined different account groups for the same vendor in their respective systems.

The question is : What is the best practice-- Should we keep Vendor account group as main table field and define Vendors with one unique account groups OR we maintain the account group in qualified table each pointing to different business unit.

Your inputs are highly appreciated

BR

PTM

[Former Member]

Hi Manoj

The debate is each inidividual business unit has defined different account groups for the same vendor in their respective systems.

The question is : What is the best practice-- Should we keep Vendor account group as main table field and define Vendors with one unique account groups OR we maintain the account group in qualified table each pointing to different business unit.

In my opinion this is going to be very complex solution. Ideally we need to define all the Harmonization rules before syndicating data to different target systems.

Is this possibel that the same vendor record which is existing as vendor of different account groups in different systems have same set of attributes. If yes then enabling the remote key for Account group Lookup field is one option and defining a unique Account group 'AG" (which is mapped to say AG1 from remote system1, AG2 from remote system2 and so on..)..

Managing this via Qualified table will be very complex and not advisabel. As Rajesh also mentioned Account Group in MDM should be considered as Global attribute and all such harmonization rules should be defined in your project. AG1=AG2=AG in above exmaple.

Hope this clarifies.

Thanks-Ravi

[Former Member]

i believe its better to have the Vendor account group as a QLUT. (provided all other data for the vendors remain the same)

else if u have as a field in the main table - then apart from this field there will be redundant data - which itself is against basics of MDM.

and on the local and global - in anycase if u have all the fields in MDM - what diff does it make ?? plz explain !

thanks

-Adrivit

[Former Member]

Hello All ,

First, if we maintain Vendor Account group as Qualified Look up table then how do we map it KTOK field in CREMDM Idoc. As in CREMDM the KTOK is a non repeatable node and we cannot map the qualified field in source table to main table field in CREMDM.

Secondly, during centralization if Vendor is created globally in MDM and as acount group 0001 in one system and I want to create the same vendor as Goods supplier also. Then how does the Idoc would know whether it has to create a new vendor or update an existing vendor.

BR

Manoj

[rajesh_chavan]

Vendor Account group should be inluded in MDM as global data. This is a one of the key field in ECC which determines how Vendor master should be created in ECC. Well diffrent system have diffrent Account group Values..Key mapping functionality is made for that.

Q - Secondly, during centralization if Vendor is created globally in MDM and as acount group 0001 in one system and I want to create the same vendor as Goods supplier also. Then how does the Idoc would know whether it has to create a new vendor or update an existing vendor.

Ans - I didnot got your Q completely. Just for your info. Vendor Update happens based on the Vendor Numbers assigned. FM in IDOC check if the assigned number is present in system then update vendor info else Create.

Where are you going to generate Number Range for Vendor??

Cheers,

Rc

[Former Member]

Hello PTM,

One option would be to turn on key mappings for the Account Group lookup table. You can then load the lookup table from each system with the appropriate keys from each system. Then when syndicating back to a system, you map the key mappings for that specific system. For example you may need to map 0001 for System A and Z001 for System B.

[Former Member]

Hello PTM

if you want to get consolidated reports make sense to approve common Vendor's accounts group for all your Business Units.

But thit is management task not MDM

Regards

Kanstantsin Chernichenka