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C4C-ERP Integration: Number Ranges Setup for Account and Contacts

skatschewitz
Participant
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Dear all,

we are in need of clarification on how number ranges actually work when integrating C4C with ERP to transfer Accounts and Contacts. Do we understand correctly that it is not possible to have the same number range within ERP when accounts are created in both C4C and ERP. That in fact one needs an internal as well as an external number range? I have prepared the following slide based on insights I got at the C4C50 training and would like to confirm.

In the training I was quick sure that I got this right but another post I found on this contradicts my understanding. Here it is explained that "a confirmation is sent for the external ID mapping". To my understanding this kind of confirmation is only possible when integration with SAP CRM. In contrast, SAP ERP is not able to to this:

http://scn.sap.com/thread/3527477

Looking foward to your replies.

Thanks and kind regards,

Stefan

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

marcus_echter
Advisor
Advisor

Hi Stefan,

we do not send a confirmation back from ECC to C4C as there is no such IDOC in place in standard. That is actually the only reason why we are drawing the ECC number already in C4C based on the configured number range. If you want to keep the C4C ID the same as the ECC customer number in direction C4C->ECC for customers created in C4C, I would recommend either of the following 2 options:

1. Implement the BeforeSave event in PDI on the customer and overwrite external ID in ID mapping with C4C ID. Background: We create the ID mapping (along with the external ID) in the AfterFinalize event on the account. As the BeforeSave in PDI is technically an AfterFinalize and runs after our standard routine you should abe able to overwrite the external ID there

2. Map the field "InternalID" of the C4C outbound msg to field "KUNNR" of the DEBMAS IDOC. Drawback: You still see the "wrong" external ID in C4C ID mapping.

When replicating ECC originated accounts to C4C, the solution is much simpler: You simply need to map IDOC field "KUNNR" to C4C field "ReceiverInternalID". By that, you handover ID mapping information along with the message.

For both directions you need to make sure your external number ranges are configured to accept all numbers in scope of the remote system.

Regards, Marcus

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Thanks, Marcus - this is super!  We should turn this into a short blog and add it to the 'tips from development' section of Sapna's what's new blog.

@Stefan - if you do Marcus' suggestion with the beforeSave event - do you think you could post a blog about how you did it and include a couple of screenshots?  

skatschewitz
Participant
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@Marcus: Thanks you for the detailed solution. However, I still think that our main issue is not addressed and most certainly never will due to the technical setup: There will still always be an internal and an external number range in ERP for accounts created in ERP and C4C respectively. One will always know where an account was created based on the ID in ERP. Since this is the main concern of the customer we will most propably not do any changes to the standard scenario.

Please let me know if I got this right!

@Ginger: As stated above, there will not be any beforeSave event implementation. Consequently and sadly, there be nothing to be posted, sorry.

Regards,

Stefan

Answers (1)

Answers (1)

chandansb
Active Contributor
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Hello Stefan,

Please refer the below documents.

Hope these will help you.

Regards,

Chandan

skatschewitz
Participant
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Hello Chandan,

thank you for your quick reply. I understand how the steps explained in your first link "SAP C4C Integration: Achieving BP Replication with Account ID equal to Customer ID in SAP ECC" are working.

However, does this still work when creating Accounts in C4C an replicating them to SAP ECC? What I got is that the scenario explained only covers the direction from ECC to C4C not the other way around. How is C4C supposed to know the status of the ECC internal numer range when one is creating a customer in C4C? To my understanding you have to use an external number range in ECC in this case.

Do you also have some insights on this?

Cheers,

Stefan

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HI Stefan

When going from C4C to ECC it is really challenging to have it be the same.  In that case the perspective is that this is a customer that just got created, so it shouldn't really matter - it's a new customer and the sales rep is probably not always using only that customer number.   In this case the sales rep can just use the customer name to find them.    We've found that this doesn't have a huge impact on the business user. There is a confirmation sent back - it does the ID mapping.

-ginger

chandansb
Active Contributor
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Stefan,

Other work around is explained by Ankur in the below discussion. This will surely help you achieve the requirement WITHOUT any custom changes to your integration configurations.

Is there a simple option to have synchronous nu... | SCN

Regards,

Chandan

skatschewitz
Participant
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Ginger,

thanks for your input. I agree, that this is not too big of a problem but still the customer asked if it would be possible in any way (in standard of course). Their main concern is the following. As depicted in the pricture included in the first post you would end up with two different number ranges in ECC depending on where the customer was created:

  1. Customers created in C4C: 3000-3999
  2. Customer created in ECC: 2000-2999

At best the customer would like to align these two if this is possible without a custom development.

Chandan,

if I got your link right hiding the standard ID field and just displaying the external ID would allow us to limit the view to the ECC ID. But still we would end up with two number ranges as explained above. This is simply something we have to exept, right?

Thanks and regards to both of you,

Stefan