This week, I started what could probably be one of my toughest challenges to date as a SharePoint Business Analyst. SharePoint (MOSS) 2007 and SAP Integration.
Now effectively, this should not be too much of an issue. I’ve read every white paper and blog there is to read on this subject (and trust me there are quite a few!)and in the main it seems pretty simple.
- Install Lightning Tools BDC Metaman (Nick you can have that one for free!)
- Find a way of connecting SAP and SharePoint (hardware or software)
- Configure the SharePoint BDC and also SAP
Easy as that! Or so the research would lead you to believe! The fact remains that there are not thousands of success stories of SAP and SharePoint integration out there. So why is that?
This could be for a number of reasons.
The main problem is that all of the solutions I have looked at, from 3rd party vendors through to creating your own, require someone with a very good technical knowledge of both SAP and SharePoint.
The other challenge I have had was actually testing /evaluating this solution. One vendor even asked if we could take a box down to Microsoft with SAP installed so we could test it! The reason for this was their solution was hardware not software so we needed to plug this in! Can you imagine sitting on the tube with a box full of confidential data under your arm on a server??
The other factor I am guessing is that it probably needs a company with deep pockets to even test the different solutions. I am guessing that it would require roughly 20 total days of effort to even to a proof of concept. If you know what a good SAP Developer / SharePoint Developer costs these days, you know that will not be cheap, just to test if something works or not!
I may be way off the mark here, but I need to do some more digging and talking people of both sides of the SharePoint and SAP fence! Surely there has got to be an easier way and a guide to planning this type of project?
I would love to hear from anyone reading this who has some good tips regarding this matter.
Meanwhile, I will keep everyone updated with my progress and pass on any tips along the way! I’ll maybe even do a Top 10 if I have time!
Part of the problem is the way teams are structured in most large organisations. There are little or no collaboration between SAP and Microsoft practices and often there are even strong resistance to change that.
Drop me a line. I’d be keen to share experiences with you.
Intersting topic, acually inspired me to learn more about SAP
With MOSS 2007, there are a few ways of doing this. Easiest and simplest way is for the SAP ABAP Developer to create a web service for each service type required. SharePoint is great at connecting to web services as we know. The web service will also be able to trunk data via internet, acrosss firewalls and also locally within its own network. Depending on sensitivity of data, you can use web services for 2 way data transmission. Although best practice would be to use SharePoint as the presentation layer and leave the transactional duties with SAP. The other method is the BDC feature in MOSS 2007. Requires a little bit more configuration skill, but really is no rocket science once you get to grips with it. I have not done this myself but have seen intermediate developers tackle similar tasks in MOSS 2007 and SP 2010. WIth SP2010 its a little easier with the BCS, the Wizard makes data from desperate sources discoverable, allowing you to re-use alot of SharePoint’s own templates, layouts, reporting and presentation layers for the data you have discovered. However, be very weary of trying to manipulate workflows in proprietary systems like SAP, Oracle, etc. as most of these system workflows do not conform to the same standards as SharePoint and this may be asking for trouble. You can also use SQL Reporting services to query and data dump. Data dumping is duplicating the same data in SQL to enable more functionality in SharePoint that would not have been possible with direct integration. In any event, whether its MOSS 2007 BDC, SP2010 BCS or SQL Reporting Services, the underlying database is always SQL for all 3. SQL is the data store for SharePoint across the board so with SQL Reporting Services you can achieve alot more. We used the SQL Reporting Service Option combined with Web Services at a client recently in order to authenticate SAP Business Partners (this is the term SAP uses for its clients) so that we could display accounts. The main challenges are infrastructure and environment configuration. These had to changed to accommodate the solution but more and more people do not realise this until they get started. Microsoft suggests IPD (Infrastructure Planning & Design) but too few customers are prepared to change environment config in order to accommodate solution. They end up changing it anyways. There are no work-arounds. Environment must be configured according to best practice. The actual solution becomes easier to deploy then
Hi Lee- I would be interested in hearing more about your progress and the reactions/lessons learned from this project. I am beginning the investigation stage of a similar endeavor to integrate SAP and SharePoint 2010, and to determine where the business can gain value from our investment in SharePoint.
Feel free to send me a message if you would be interested in sharing your experience.