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MDM and synchronization of configuration data needed for master data

thorsten_staby
Explorer
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Hi there,

As we all know, successful master data distribution requires configuration that is the same in all systems. For example, I cannot distribute company code or plant related master data, if the company codes and plants are not configured in the recipient system.

I have several question regarding this:

1. How to identify exactly which configuration is required. For example: Business partners need Countries, regions, address versions etc. Material needs Material types, material groups etc. Does MDM provide this list per master data object ?

2. How to align the configuration across the system landscape. I know that Solution Manager provides some functionality, but not all. For example, Solution Manager cannot synchronize Plant addresses (yet). Also, is MDM integrated with Solution Manager ?

3. How to update non-SAP system with this configuration. Sometimes non-SAP systems need to receive master data, which can be achieved by using XI. But, how do we make sure that these non-SAP systems also receive the required configuration ?

Looking forward to anyone's reply to this !

regards,

Thorsten.

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Answers (1)

Answers (1)

Mark63
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
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Hi Thorsten,

Please be informed as follows:

1. The configuration and validation needed on MDM depends on the object a customer implements. Only once the scope of the data segments and attributes on MDM has been defined, you can tell what configuration is needed exactly. Therefore, there is no predefined list of configuration objects delivered by SAP.

2. Part of MDM delivery are ~250 synchronization objects which enable a MDM customer to use the Solution Manager for synchronizing data from an SAR R/3 with MDM.

3. Please note, that SAP MDM does not act as a master system for configuration. SAP MDM handles master data and as such needs the complete configuration information like any client system (SAP or non-SAP). But it is within the not scope of an MDM project to centralize the maintenance of configuration in MDM - this has to be handled by the SAP Solution Manager.

thorsten_staby
Explorer
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Thanks Markus for your answer, much appreciated.

I have one follow-on question. We are using Solution Manager for configuration synchronization, but are having a difficult time to identify exactly which configuration we need to synchronize. I agree that this depends on which objects the customer is implementing, but once this is determined, i.e. I know that I want to use Business partners and only make specific fields global, for example country code, how do I know that it is actually tables T005 and T005S that I need to synchronize ?

I know that I can look at the Foreign keys/Search helps etc, but does SAP provide some kind of list of configuration objects that need to be synchronized for each field in a master data object ? Otherwise a lot of work needs to be done for something that should be provided by SAP ?

markus_breiter
Explorer
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Hello Thorsten,

first of all - in our point of view plant data are customizing in R/3 but not in CRM or MDM, so we don't provide plant data synchronisation with Solution Manager. There have to be other mechanisms to do that.

But - here the answer to your concerns. I knew that questions like these will occur, so I decided to deliver synchronisation groups that are semantically hierarchically structured and include the synchronisation objects we deliver with MDM. These synchronisation groups are delivered with the Solution Manager Content ST-ICO. Please install the latest version of ST-ICO (which is probably version 110 at the moment)

Then you will be able to find sync groups called CRM_MDM_xxx, MDM_CRM_xxx, SAPL_MDM_xxx and so on.

You have to upload the MDM sync objects from an MDS in your solution manager system to comlete the sync groups.

From that time you are able to use Customizing Scout for comparison or customizing synchronisation.

The delivered groups are a porposal we deliver, but you may define your own synchronisation groups where you combine the objects you want to synchronise. I tried to name the synchronisation groups semantically so the group name should show for what purpose the sync group is to be used.

Please find informations about delivered sync groups in the MDM documentation - like the MDM configuration guide.

Hope this helps a little bit to solve your issues.

Best regards

Markus Breiter

thorsten_staby
Explorer
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Thanks Markus for the answer, yes this is a step in the right direction.

regards,

Thorsten.