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Blackberry to SAP Workflow

Former Member
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Hi Friends,

Our client requires the document in workflow is approved through blackberry and the approval is updated in SAP.

Please confirm :

1.Technical feasibility to connect SAP FI workflow to Blackberry.

2.Additional H/W and S/W requirement.

3.Technology through which it is possible

Regards,

Nitisha Madan

Accepted Solutions (1)

Accepted Solutions (1)

Former Member
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Hello,

It is feasible. There are some examples here on SDN :

If your client already has a BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server) with MDS (Mobile Data System) then you won't need any additional h/w or s/w.

There are various options to develop applications for the BlackBerry. For more info, please take a look at the documents provided by RIM : http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/resources/sap.jsp

Former Member
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Hello Pierre,

Thanks for your reply.

This is possible but only for a limited scenario.

The Business scenario covered as per my earlier findings and as per the link forwarded by you are very limited and covers leave request, trip request and PO workflow.

Please guide if FI Workflow can also be integrated to Blackberry.

Thanks & regards,

Nitisha Madan

Former Member
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Hi,

I am not a functional guy but I can give you a hint on this.

If you want to connect from blackberry to FI( i think it is a part of R/3), then you need some intermediate system in between. You can chose SAP Netweaver Mobile be it either MI 7.0 or MI 7.1.

How it works is, in the backend system which I mean R/3 here, you need to write the functionality as a part of function module and in particular called as BAPI wrappers.

Now you have the BAPI wrappers available to achieve your functionality on the R/3 system.

Now you need a technology & IDE to develop the application. The client technology i would suggest is Webdynpro Java from SAP which is easier to develop and maintain. And all you need to develop this is SAP Netweaver Developer studio (7.0 or 7.1) using which you can consume the BAPI wrappers you have developed in your R/3 system directly which will give you required structures and a lot of code is also generated for persistence of data.

Now once you have developed your application, to run this, you need to deploy this application developed in the previous step on to SAP J2EE engine. Once deployed, you can access this application from anywhere using a http link be it a laptop, PDA or a blackberry.

Brief requiremnts:

Developing application: R/3 system for developing BAPI wrappers, Netweaver developer studio for developing client side Webdynpro Java application.

Running application: R/3 system, SAP J2EE sever on which application has to deployed and blackberrry to device to access the deployed application with a http link.

Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Siva.

Former Member
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Hi,

The leave request is just an example, FI workflows can be integrated as well. Here's the method I would use :

1. find (in the ES Workplace) or create the appropriate web services to process (create, read, update, validate...) a request

2. create the application for the BlackBerry using the tool provided by RIM : MDS Studio

You just have to develop the corresponding web services if you want to create the same kind of application for any kind of workflow. Then MDS Studio will analyse the web services and create the applications for you. You'll probably need to modify the user interface to suit your needs but most of the work will be done by the IDE.

You don't need to install and use MI. You just need a BlackBerry Enterprise Server with MDS.

EDIT : please give me a real example of the kind of applications you need to develop if you want more details

H/W & S/W requirements :

- server : BlackBerry Enterprise Server with MDS

- developer : MDS Studio (free download : http://na.blackberry.com/eng/developers/)

Edited by: Pierre DOMINIQUE on Jul 21, 2008 10:49 AM

Answers (1)

Answers (1)

Former Member
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Currently there is no feasible solution to your problem, technically or financially.

The amount of changes to the layers, existing components, new infrastructural changes, rehoning of the realistic business and technical scenarios, security and authorization setups, approvals, plans, procedures, accesses, administration required, politics, etc. are staggering. One single case is: who are the stakeholders and where do they factor in as the reporting structure for the workflow approvals?

I have worked on multiple such scenarios in mulitple organizations facing the same issues where the stakeholders are correctly pessimistic because the nature of these kinds of business need is way beyond the realms of technical solutions, therefore any candidate solution of this nature requires the following:

1. Minimum layers. Talks of using middleware, Netweaver. J2EE, .Net, Linux, Oracle etc will fail. The communication has to be from the BlackBerry (for example) eMail application to an ABAP program using ABAP objects calling standard SAP transactions, or the customer transactions where all config changes and BAdi changes are inherited. The preferred protocol should be queue based.

2. Reportable. All BlackBerry (for example) eMail application requests, whether successful or failed, must be reportable by instant messaging or eMail queued with high priority, time stamped, and immediately processed by the stakeholders.

3. Do not use workflow. The uses of workflow are extremely inflexible, overly complex, slow and ineffective, and very cost inefficient. Moreover, workflow has always caused more employee and partner dis-satisfaction which are damaging to the business partnerships and employee morale.

4. Internationality. BlackBerry (for example) is by nature an international device, although a very poor device in terms of internationality, but its eMail, Address Book, Calendar can be greatly enhanced to deploy the internationality of SAP ERP using ABAP to fulfill this need. Any other technologies are guaranteed to fail, I will tell you this as a fact, but nobody else including SAP will tell you the same thing.

Regards.