An Example Demonstrating how Requests are Entered End to End
Let's walk through a practical example illustrating how a request is entered end to end.
Step 1: Create Business Solution Request
Once the appropriate master data for the Integration Assessment tool has been maintained, then users can then start to enter requests for business solutions and interfaces. The master data is utilized in the creation and execution of requests. A variety of roles can perform this step. Potentially LOB owners, integration designers & developers and even in appropriate cases architects themselves. Let's look at the end to end process of entering requests using an example. After creating a new business partner in an SAP S/4HANA system (on premise), this business partner is to be synchronized with Salesforce. Instead of using an event-based architecture, the business process checks every 10 minutes whether a new business partner has been created.
Step 2: Fill Out the General Information
Using this example as context the first step would be for someone to enter a "Business Solution Request".
A wizard is started. After filling in the basic data, the interface request is created. For example, assume the following data is entered:
Data for Sample
| Field | Value |
|---|
| Solution Overview | Business Partner Data |
| To which business process... | My Own Process |
| Go-live date | June 7, 2024 |
| Business criticality | Medium |
Step 3: Create an Interface Request
The Interface Request is now created. When creating the interface request, the source and target application instances (SAP S/4HANA and Salesforce respectively in this example) are entered and the style is chosen. This way when the Integration Assessment tool executes, it can reference integration domains, styles use cases and patterns along with the actual application and technology instances deployed by the organization.
It should also be noted that the wizard offers the possibility to attach documents to better document the business request.
Step 4: Create Requirement Analysis
After the initial creation of the interface request (step 3) it can be further defined by utilizing the "Requirements Analysis" functionality.
Step 5: Define the Use Case Patterns
In this example, the relevant pattern is A2A integration.
Step 6: Define the Transformation
In this step three things are necessary:
- Whether a mapping is required (simple or advanced)
- Whether SAP predefined integration content will be used (if any exists)
- Whether SAP Integration Suite Integration Advisor will be utilized
For example, a simple transformation along with an predefined iFlow is selected. Integration Advisor functionality is not needed.
Step 7: Select the Predefined Content
In this step we see how a predefined iFlow aligned with the scenario is available and is thus selected. This content is retrieved from SAP Business Accelerator Hub.
Step 8: Define the Connectivity
In the next step three additional questions are answered:
- Whether technology or application (or both) connectors are used
- Whether protocol conversions are necessary (i.e., the source system uses iDoc format but the receiving system requires SOAP protocol)
- Whether B2B/EDI scenarios are relevant for the request
Step 9: Specify the Monitoring and Operations
In the final step before running the analysis it is specified whether the interface requires end user monitoring and whether the receiver should get notified of certain errors if they occur during message processing. Answering yes to the first question implies that SAP AIF will be needed. Answering yes to the second question limits the results of the analysis to adapters that support that functionality.
Step 10: Evaluating the Results of the Analysis
Once all questions in the wizard have been answered the analysis begins and an output result in the form of a report is shown. Base on our example it is noticed that both SAP AIF and SAP Integration Suite, Cloud integration cover the various requirements (i.e., Transformations, Monitoring and Operations) of the request 100% ( 3 out of 4 via Cloud Integration and 1 out of 4 via AIF).
Step 11: Assigning Deployed Technology Instances
As previously mentioned the analysis takes into account actual deployed products and their capabilities. Since this is the case selecting them from the relevant drop downs should be a straightforward and simple process.
Step 12: The Final Result: Interface Requests
Here we see a completed Business Solution Request/Interface Request. At any time in the future due to a change in circumstances the request can be reopened and the analysis performed again.
