Synchronization of Master Data

By using the Order-Based Planning: Master Data Synchronization application job, you can keep the data that you use for order-based planning consistent with the data that you integrate into SAP Integrated Business Planning.

If you enable the Remove Orphan Master Data parameter in the Order-Based Planning: Master Data Synchronization application job, the synchronization job checks the business meanings that you have assigned to your configured master data types. It identifies business meaning assignments that you have removed from your model and deletes all related orphaned master data records that are stored in the OBP Master Data Store.

An overview of Improved Master Data Processing is shown in Figure below.

Depending on what type of master data integration you execute, you can expect different master data synchronization tasks:

If you update OBP-relevant master data in SAP IBP using Real-Time Integration (RTI), the Excel add-in, or the Manage Master Data app, your changes – if valid – are synchronized automatically with the OBP Master Data Store. Running jobs for synchronization is not necessary.

You should typically run the synchronization job in the following cases:

• Master data entries available in SAP IBP are missing from the OBP Master Data Store.
• The OBP Master Data Store contains master data entries that are missing from the SAP IBP data set.

The synchronization job compares the data sets, identifies the mismatches, and tries to resolve them by making amendments to the master data stored in the OBP Master Data Store. The amendments are validated and only accepted if they comply with OBP requirements.

Invalid changes are not synchronized; they generate application log messages that can be then used to make potential adjustments in the SAP IBP master data.

The synchronization job does never modify SAP IBP master data. If data needs to be modified in SAP IBP, you can do it using master data integration or applying direct changes in the Manage Master Data app or the SAP Integrated Business Planning, an add-in for Microsoft Excel.

As a general rule, the master data store that you store in OBP must be always synchronized with what you store in your master data types, which are configured in SAP IBP. OBP-relevant changes can be applied in any planning area version that stores master data, provided that the changes are valid for order-based planning. The validation of the data for OBP is part of a synchronization process between SAP IBP and the OBP Master Data Store.

To have data deleted from the OBP Master Data Store, you must delete your data first in SAP IBP.

The deletion of flexible master data works according to the following guiding principles:

• The master data entries referred to by orders cannot be deleted.
• Discrepancies must be avoided between your master data in SAP IBP and the OBP Master Data Store. Therefore, master data integration and maintenance methods that include OBP-specific validation checks prevent the deletion of master data in SAP IBP if the change is invalid for OBP.
• Since SAP IBP must conform to the principles of cascading deletion, you can only delete master data records in SAP IBP if all items that have dependencies with these records can also be deleted. In other words, the deletion of dependent records must also be validated for OBP.