Let me introduce my guest

My today’s guest has more than 15 years of experience in the SAP industry, especially in introducing business transformation and innovation. He has worked in transformation projects involving business and IT consulting, from a small SAP project to the entire company’s broadly understood transformation. He is also a book author and blogger.

About the responsibilities of a Central Finance Architect, possible ways to automate testing of S/4HANA conversions projects, and innovations in the SAP world, especially in the finance field – Nitin Gupta is interviewed by Jarosław JZ Ziółkowski.

Reading time: 5 minutes

1. You are an experienced SAP Central Finance Architect. Thus, I need to ask: what exactly is your job about?

My job is straightforward *smile*. I help customers define the right process with the balance of technology and benefit from it. Central Finance is all about the thread of systems connected and sending/receiving data to/from each other. If the data model is right and design is effective, then investment in S/4HANA Central Finance is worth advising customers. Central Finance does not reap benefits in the short term.

Unless you move finance processes in S/4HANA, there is no benefit which CFIN will give, so I always say to customers, having patience as organized and simple system architecture will give benefits. But I don’t mean only about replicating data from one system to another in the short term. And it’s a non-disruptive way to start the S/4HANA journey.

2. Since you’ve already addressed the subject of S/4HANA I need to ask you the following question: How does SAP S/4HANA differ from SAP ERP ECC in practice?

There are plenty of changes. SAP S/4HANA is still an ERP like ECC, but it has improved a lot from a technical standpoint and end-user experience.

It’s reflected, e.g. in reporting, and how a user accesses the system is changed with Fiori. The technical table structure is changed too, contributing to working and CFIN (only in S/4HANA). It means that you can replicate the date from your multiple ERP systems into one harmonized model.

3. And what about testing? Do you think there is any way to automate testing of S/4HANA conversions projects?

Testing is a broad area. In conversion projects, we have few tools available to prevent issues and analyze things before migration like custom code analyzer.

Taking an example of Central Finance, I have never seen any automated testing tool that can remove manual error-prone work and even pre-checks before testing. It generally involves multiple systems like source, middleware, target, governance, etc. However, there is no focus on automated testing. Maybe it’s on a long term SAP agenda as SAP is still busy enhancing core products, but I see automated testing as a huge value addition to the organization.

4. So, you have expertise in driving business transformation and innovation as well. I’d like to focus on the second word and ask what innovation means to you?

Using a calculator instead of using a manual calculation method can also be an innovation. Still, a true definition of innovation for a business is when your investment benefits your customers. Using automated ways to reduce errors and improve efficiency and deliver value to your customers is innovation. You implement millions to implement technology, but there is something wrong if your customers are not leveraging.

5. Okay, and what about innovation in the SAP world? In particular, in the field of Finance.

I have worked on Robotics process automation in finance, where I have created robots to do manual and repetitive tasks. Thanks to this, humans were able to focus on the tasks, which machines couldn’t do. Nowadays, we are dealing with a digital transformation, so it’s all about focusing on process & technology improvements and delivering benefits to the customers.

6. Continuing the topic, which is your specialty? In which cases would you recommend implementing S/4HANA Central Finances rather than BPC or Group Reporting functionalities?

Central finance is a very favourable deployment option when you have multiple ERP systems in the current landscape. This helps in data harmonization by implementing a Global/Universal Data model. For instance, today you have 5 different GL accounts for travel expenses, and in future, you can map all those to 1 in S/4HANA, so you have simplified the chart of accounts. Once data from ERP systems start coming in S/4HANA, you can plan to transform your finance processes. I mean such things like for example payments for vendors from multiple systems, that could be replaced by one activity from one S/4HANA by reducing your technology debt of multiple connectors and satellite systems. BPC or Group Reporting are consolidation tools. After implementing S/4HANA Central Finance, you can implement Group Reporting on S/4HANA for group consolidation and reporting.

CFIN is the best choice today by several large organizations to simplify the heterogeneous landscapes.

7. Let’s go forward to my last technical question for today, which is the following. What are the main challenges about keeping the Master Data mapping updated in Central Finance? Any tips about that maintenance?

Master Data is always a challenge. Also, it’s not just about using a tool; rather, it should complement the right process and people. It is always good to have a governance process and tool around master data to ensure mappings are doing in pace.  And if mappings are fixed, then the errors in replication will go down. Based on my CFIN projects experience, I can say that 80% of errors in data replication are about data. Fix your master data and system will be stable. As a tip, I would say that using the right application with the right process can keep the system clean.

8. When it comes to your skill-set, you have certificates – not only in the SAP area. I’m wondering which of them was the most difficult to get. Which one do you think is most useful in your daily work?

I think certificates are part of learning.  Nevertheless, the certificate is not the passport to success, so we need to talk about continuous learning. As you see with S/4HANA, every quarter there is a new release, so unless you learn yourself, you can’t advise customers or resolve the design gap that the customer might have.

9. But the most endorsed skill on your Linkedin profile is called “Business Process”. It’s a broad concept, but I’m wondering what mistakes in your customers’ business processes you encounter most often and how you try to solve them.

Agree, a business process is a comprehensive term and has no simple definition. I have been generally involved in core business processes like Record to Report, Order to Cash, Procure to Pay, and Management Reporting, which mainly touch the finance side. Among the common mistakes that I have seen is using technology to solve a business issue. People think we can do anything with technology. Of course, technology is fairly near reality in the business environment, but if a problem can be solved by adjusting the business process, why keep technology debt.  So I always advise the customers to solve business problems in business ways and optimize them. Still, technology should not be used as an option.

10. Last but not least. You are the author of the book “Mastering SAP S/4HANA 1709 – Strategies for Implementation and Migration: Transition to S/4HANA with tried and tested deployment scenarios”. I’m wondering, do you plan to publish more? Maybe it’s time for an SAP PRESS Book?

I thought about it once I completed the first book. Basically, I had a plan to upgrade the book as the S/4HANa release got an upgrade. However, currently, I am spending time writing blogs and videos on S/4HANA topics to give back something to the learning community. For sure SAP PRESS Book may be on the radar in the future sometime.

Read also:

1. Low hanging fruit a company can get from…

2. Test the components that are crucial to your business

The post Technology should not be used as an option appeared first on INT4.

Let me introduce my guests

My today’s interlocutors committed their ideas to paper on “Interface Monitoring and Error Handling with SAP AIF”. Wojciech Eichertan SAP Integration Consultant, Krzysztof Łuka SAP Integration Architect and Mateusz Nowak SAP Integration Consultant are Int4’s IFTT, PI/PO, CPI and ABAP experts. As we are colleagues, I will be more personal here and describe the three of them as great, humble, professional, very likeable integration experts.

Erasing all the sweetness from the previous sentence 😉  this piece talks about the main benefits of unification of interface monitoring and error handling, distinction between SAP AIF and SAP PO or CPI, biggest challenge in the SAP AIF, AIF flexibility and relation between business and AIF – Wojciech Eichert, Krzysztof Łuka, Mateusz Nowak are interviewed by Jarosław JZ Ziółkowski.

Reading time: 6 minutes

1. Even though I wanted to start with a less standard question, I cannot help myself asking about the intentions. Why, oh why 🙂 … What made you Krzysztof decide to tackle the “Interface Monitoring and Error Handling with SAP AIF” area?

Krzysztof: When companies decide to implement SAP AIF, the Monitoring and Error Handling is usually the first thing they look at. This is the quick win, the low hanging fruit, that they can get from SAP AIF. With low effort they can benefit from unification of interface monitoring and error handling, and gain more visibility of their interfaces.

So we decided to pick this topic as we thought it would be helpful to have those parts described in one place.

2. Companies decide to implement … Let’s elaborate a little bit more on that. What effect has SAP AIF exactly made on the companies?

Krzysztof: It makes you rethink how your interfaces are designed. There should be a clear distinction between SAP AIF and SAP PO or CPI, and the roles that they play in your integration setup. SAP AIF gives you ability to put all of the business related logic of your interfaces there, and focus on other parts, like connectivity, structural conversions or routing in the middleware. That makes the design of interfaces more structured and easier to handle in the future. In addition, SAP AIF also unifies the way you do monitoring and error handling of interfaces in SAP application systems. Because only then you have one tool to cover all the interfaces that are coming in and out of your SAP application, instead of needing to monitor each interface in a different monitor, depending on the technology.

3. We have covered the business side with Krzysztof and it just automatically goes in my head to the other side and check what effect SAP AIF has made on the integration consultants. Mateusz, could you take this one, please? (laughter)

Mateusz: The biggest effect that SAP AIF makes on the integration consultants is the unified way of working with different integration technologies. For instance, if you are working with IDocs and Proxies, monitoring and error handling has to be done in separate transactions, the way of working with those transactions and UI is totally different. Once you have SAP AIF in place, everything can be monitored from one, single transaction, regardless of the technology. Moreover, the way interfaces are developed is also simplified, because most of the technologies follow exactly the same rules and patterns, so once you learn how to work with SAP AIF once – you can leverage it for most supported technologies. Last, but not least, for most of the cases it’s almost immediately known whether the issue is business or technical oriented and by the same the ping-pong between different departments is reduced to minimum.

4. Oh, it all sounds as if that was a piece of cake. Is it? Really? There must be some challenge involved  when it comes to the SAP AIF implementation?

Mateusz: At the very beginning when SAP AIF is implemented it’s important to describe its architecture very well. It should be understood not only by technical consultants, but also by business consultants. If it’s not done properly it may lead to misunderstandings. Good example of above is the fact that when you use AIF runtime you can get rid of most of the user exits before the final action is done (e.g. before the sales order gets posted with the standard process function module in SAP AIF action). Let’s stick to the example of sales orders. Thanks to moving logic from user-exit (e.g. customer determination based on some tables and logic before sales order is posted) in SAP AIF you can see the original value and the one after mapping. So the challenge here is to make sure that the logic that can be done in SAP AIF – should be done there. Otherwise, there’s no clear picture where exactly the issue occurs – AIF or user exit logic and it slows the error handling process.

5. I would like to create a twist in the plot with this one a bit. (laughter) Wojciech, what kind of question would you like to hear yourself an answer to, in the AIF field, of course?

Wojciech: That would be definitely about the future of AIF, how it is going to fit into the evolving integration landscape. Most importantly, what new features we may see coming to already take them into consideration in ongoing design processes.

6. Even if I wanted, (laughter) I am not able to feed your curiosity on that one, sorry ;). Moving on, do you remember a specific experience of where you wished that you and the customer had done something differently? If you were to do it over, what would you change?

Wojciech: No specific example comes to my mind. However, AIF is very flexible and you may say it’s a blessing and a curse as you get to make design decisions and have to deal with their consequences. It allows you to address challenges in various ways depending if your aim is for example best performance, scalability or ease of maintenance. Then when the time passes you may realize choosing a different approach might have been more beneficial after all.

7. A follow-up to the previous question: By way of comparison, do you remember something you’ve done or something you wish everyone was doing, and why?

Wojciech: It would be a pretty general advice applicable to all projects, planning in advance is the key here. Sometimes customers want to give AIF a try with a small set of interfaces and keep the rest of their interfaces out of the scope (or at least hold information on those other interfaces back). As I mentioned earlier, AIF is all about design decisions, so the more information is available at the planning level the better the design will be.

8. Wojciech, having written the book (together with Mateusz and Krzysztof) you must have come across a number of questions from the readers. Is there any that you are most tired of hearing on this subject, and what would you like to say about it so you never have to answer it again?

Wojciech: And that would be – (laughter) – “If we have AIF, do we still need SAP PI?”. The answer is not that simple and I would need to say “yes and no”. SAP PI is a different tool that serves different purposes. AIF’s goal is not to replace SAP PI but take over the tasks PI is not so good at. On the other hand SAP PI is better suited for other tasks like handling connectivity and traffic routing. So you don’t need both, but having both will give you best results.

9. You have brought the future to my attention and somehow I need to come back to it and ask you about the most critical changes that we must make to face the future effectively.

Wojciech: I think that it would be the mindset of the business support teams. If there is a chance that they do not recognize that AIF is a step in their direction we would need to make them aware of it, that AIF allows them to be more in control of business logic of the interfaces and rely less on technical teams in that regard.

10. To the three of you, What is the best resource for people who want to dive in deeper into the topic of SAP AIF?

Mateusz: I will take this one :), We can definitely recommend visiting our blog, as there are tons of materials regarding SAP AIF. Not to mention that there are two more books related to SAP AIF that we can recommend: Serializing Interfaces in SAP AIF and Mapping with BRFplus Decision Tables and SAP AIF. And it is not boasting off 🙂

11. Is there a question you have expected me to ask you, and I have not?

Mateusz: Yes, yes, yes (laughter) I counted on: What is your favourite part of the book?

12. Apologies 🙂 So, What is your favourite part of the book?

Mateusz: It’s definitely the part where Kris (Krzysztof) has explained how to set alerts based on some key fields. To be honest, I come back to this part every single time I have such a requirement from my customer.

Read also:

1. Test the components that are crucial to your business

2. Is every new project like returning to university?

The post Low hanging fruit a company can get from… appeared first on INT4.

Let me introduce my guests

My today’s interlocutors are Pontus Borgstrom an SAP Lead Integration Architect, Michał Krawczyk SAP Mentor/Int4’s board member and Korneliusz Kordus Int4’s Managing Director who are co authors of “Testing SAP APIs: Strategy and Execution“.

In my previous interview “Silence. No phones, no mails, no music.”, Michał Rohnka pointed to “Testing SAP APIs: Strategy and Execution” as his favorite SAP Press Book. I wouldn’t be myself if I did not reach out to the source to check what is hidden behind Michał Rohnka’s top piece of writing. About the main benefits of testing SAP API, the difference between automatic CPI and PI integration – Pontus Borgstrom, Michał Krawczyk and Korneliusz Kordus are interviewed by Jarosław JZ Ziółkowski.

Reading time: 6 minutes

1. Pontus, Michał and Kornel, the three of you are authors of “Testing SAP APIs: Strategy and Execution”. Some people say that Testing SAP APIs is one of the hottest topics these days; and I do not only mean Michał Rohnka from my previous “Silence. No phones, no mails, no music.” interview. So, why is API testing such a crucial matter?

Michał: Most modern companies rely very heavily on SAP Application Interfaces to support their core business processes. Let’s take Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) as an example. EDI is used to send and receive sales orders and without it the companies cannot buy nor sell their products. Would it make more sense to test it than somehow?

Pontus: Yes, I couldn’t agree more with Michał and would only add that today we are faced with a lot of different new demands as a part of the increased digitalization. This increases the complexity and the ability to have a stable landscape at the same time we make rapid changes in flows and connections. In order to maintain stability and also allow for faster deliveries in an DevOps world the testing is the core factor.

2. Reading the book, one can understand, for instance, what interface components to test and why such a move is important when it comes to testing in the broad sense. Is there one component that you can name that is most important from your perspective?

Pontus: To me, the most critical to test, is the component that is most critical for your business. From my perspective my main objective for testing is to ensure that the transformation/mapping executes as expected for the critical flows and from there it is possible to extend the scope into the backend system.

Michał: I would argue here a bit (laughter). To me, there are no components which are more important as both the transport layer and functional testing need to be done at the same time. The difficulty with SAP projects is when both of those layers are being split and not treated as a single software component which leads to many issues during later stages of the project.

3. So, who is this book addressed to? Have you written it for technical people, those responsible for business processes, or maybe for both groups I have mentioned?

Michał: There are a few groups who can benefit from it: Project managers can have a look at the Why and What chapters to understand why it is good to test SAP API and what can be tested. SAP Test teams can benefit from What and When and How Chapters where they can learn exactly in which phases it’s worth doing SAP API testing and how to do it. Developers can clearly benefit from the How chapter to find out exactly what the tools are and how to use them if they need to perform the SAP API testing.

Pontus: Indeed, the book is intended for both groups, but also valuable to managers up to C-level, since it deals with the overalls and then the examples for more deep dives.

4. Tell me, subjectively, in 3 sentences, what are the main benefits of testing SAP API?

Pontus: First would be more insight on the health of integrations. Second, faster development cycles. And third, less errors in the last part of the development cycle.

Michał: And I can do it in on – (laughter) – learn that SAP API testing is possible, fast and easy to set up in contrast to SAP UI testing.

5. Sound beneficial, I guess. One may say it is a simple question that I am going to ask you; however, out of curiosity (laughter), I need to ask it: Kornel, let’s start with you: What inspired you to start writing and share your expertise with the whole SAP community?

Kornel: From the business operations perspective, the most important driver is a practical application of the idea of SAP API testing. It’s relatively easy to talk about high level concepts or ideas. But at the end of the day, if you are acting as a Project Manager, CIO or you are somehow related to big IT initiatives, you would have to answer very basic, practical questions: Where do I start? How can I make sure that a given idea is going to be implemented? What  could I have done better? How do others do that? If our book will help people to get their job done in a better way, then I will perceive it as a success. I like to think of the three of us as experts that can provide value to the community, and most of all that others can benefit from it.

Pontus: Me for instance, I am very active in the Swedish SAP Usergroup, SAPSA, and leading the Integration Focus Group. I have for a long time talked and shared knowledge within the integration area. One of those things was testing as a part of governance, development, etc. So when I was asked it was definitely already something I had been doing for quite some time :).

Michał: (laughter) … and I would only add that beside what Pontus and Kornel mentioned, I was inspired mostly by the lack of knowledge around the topic. SAP API testing is very often misunderstood by many project team members and very little people know how easy and quick it is to set it up. We wanted to change this perception.

6. Once your book was in the market; I assume that you have had a chance to talk to the readers about your book. I am wondering, what do they say? Which part of the book have they found most useful?

Pontus: It was the whole part of bringing it all together in an easy understandable way that I got the most comments about. There seemed to be a great interest in this area and this is the first book from an SAP perspective to bring it together.

Kornel: The feedback that I have received is that our readers find it extremely useful. The topics that we covered are not some academic discussions. They come out from our experience and seem to be more common than we initially thought. These are very practical aspects of our daily activities that most people working in that business must have faced sooner or later. I treat our book as a piece of discussion that can eventually get back to us and move the whole subject forward. I’m sure it will get back to us, that it may open new areas for further discussion and eventually we will benefit from it. Maybe this would lead us to a new version of the book or a sequel. Who knows…

7. Coming back to 1st November and celebration of the National Book Author’s Day, I am curious of what was your favorite part, and your least favorite part, of your publishing journey?

Pontus: Favorite thing always is when you get to share your passion and then do it with other passionate and skilled persons then its really fun. Well for the least favorite part it is the time it takes… so I don’t really care about new functions in an Apple Watch or Samsung Smartphone… I want the “thinkers hat”… Put it on and it transforms your thoughts into written text :).

Michał: Gathering the team is always my favorite part – this time I’ve managed to get Korneliusz Kordus a very experienced SAP Program Manager and Pontus Borgstrom who is a leading SAP integration architect in the Scandinavian countries leading the Swedish SAP User Group (SAPSA).

8. Okay, let’s segue to the technical topics. What platforms should be the focus for API testing in the coming quarters?

Kornel: Pontus, this question is yours (laughter).

Pontus: Well, SAP PI/PO will stay for another 10 years so there will still be a huge base. But the most accelerating part is on API Management and to be able to capture a call from API Management platform down via SAP CPI or PI to the backend. This is where the whole complexity grows.

9. At the beginning of our conversation, I asked you why API testing is so crucial. Let’s dive into the matter and explain why it turns the balance right now?

Pontus: I will take this one as well… (laughter). With an accelerating introduction of DevOps it helps to overcome the biggest hurdle… testing… Regardless of unit test, continuous testing or UAT, automated testing is the key.

10. Last but not least. What is the main difference between automatic CPI and PI integration? Are there any differences at all in this area?

Pontus: Well… PI is a fixed pipeline and that is that you send the message in and it always gives the expected output, regardless of scenario.

In CPI we have the sk. Flexible pipeline and then one ICO can be like a PI scenario and another can “bounce” around and depending on the logic and content present completely different end results. This means that in PI you can do bulk testing, but in SAP CPI that might not be possible in all scenarios.

Michał: well put, nothing to add :).

Read also:

1. Is every new project like returning to university?

2. Silence. No phones, no mails, no music.

The post Test the components that are crucial to your business appeared first on INT4.

Let me introduce my guest

My today’s interlocutor is an SAP NetWeaver consultant and solution designer with an overall more than 10 years’ experience as SAP ABAP Consultant (BRFPlus, AIF, ABAP for HANA). Experienced in SAP integration techniques (SAP PI/SAP BC, AIF, ALE and EDI related ERP configuration, SAP CPI) and advanced ABAP programming.

While scrolling through the SAP Press Books Hall of Fame you will come across 11 positions written by Int4 Team. One of the authors is Michał Rohnka (SAP Integration Architect) who has had his own contribution into the SAP community by sharing his knowledge with the readers. To celebrate the National Book Author’s day, I am asking Michał not only a bit about his book but about what it is like to write a book as well. Michał Rohnka is interviewed by Jarosław JZ Ziółkowski.

Reading time: 5 minutes

1. You are the author of “Mapping with BRFplus Decision Tables and SAP AIF” that SAP Press Books published in 2020. Let’s start with explaining what BRFplus, SAP AIF are and who they are for.

BRFplus is a framework that is used to define business rules. Business rule in this context is for example a decision which mapping table should be used for a given company and message type. Usage of the mapping table itself is a rule, too. You decide what value should be mapped to what value. These can of course be more complex, then one table one value.

AIF is also a framework but it’s designed to help with interface implementation and monitoring.

What I like most about these two is that they are both trying to bring technical guys (like myself) closer to business users and vice versa increase business users engagement in the technical part of the processes they are part of. What’s more they are working together really well when you have an interface that requires business rules.

2. Writing a book is not something that we do on a daily basis and it can be seen by many as a trip to the moon. When did you first realize you wanted to write a book?

To be honest, Michal Krawczyk (SAP Mentor and Int4 Board Member) encouraged me to do this. He, as my mentor, encourages knowledge sharing a lot, being an amazing example at the same time. So, I would say he sowed it in me and it grew over time. I would describe it as more of a process thing then a sudden overnight revelation.

3. As we have celebrated a National Author’s Day on the 1st of November, could you share with the readers what is your writing process like?

Writing a technical book, while being a person like I am, is all about being sure that what you are writing is really the truth and it will work. So, I’ve done all the examples, tests and prepared all kinds of variations before I’ve even started. You can say I’ve done a project for myself; and it must have been a successful one (laughter). After that, I’ve described in detail, step by step, what I’ve done. Working with SAP Press editor was also really helpful, especially for me writing for the first time.

4. Right, it was your first piece of writing. Out of curiosity, what part of the book did you have the hardest time writing?

Introduction and first chapter describing most basic parts were quite challenging. I’m a very technically oriented person and I always want to jump to the “hard part” which means the most exciting part for me.

5. I assume that by hard part you mean complex analysis, interface and simple solutions, right. Well, how would you describe your book’s ideal reader then?

It’s for all the people that would like to learn something about building business rules and find out that those could be more complex than simple value mapping.

Someone who tries to do the complex interface that will be a real engine with all flexibility you can get in such a situation could also benefit much from reading it.

6. You have mentioned that you had done all the examples, tests and prepared all kinds of variations first before you even started writing the book. Going deeper into this, did you need to do any research for your book?

It was much more experience than research for me. I had most of the knowledge when I started writing and needed only a couple of detailed investigations. I believe that awareness of the fact that I had all that I needed to write the book was the green light for me to do this.

7. A more personal question, if I may ask about your routines and habits while writing. What do you need in your writing space to help you stay focused?

Silence. No phones, no mails, no music.

8. Sounds like a challenge itself these days (laughter). Any advice that you would give to a writer working on their first book?

Be patient, describe everything in detail and think about the readers. You are not writing for yourself. Prepare yourself for a ton of correction requests from the editor, there is no way around it. They know their job and they will make your book much better.

9. We are talking about the book that you wrote, however, my last question would be about your favourite book that you would highly recommend for the Business.

It will be Testing SAP APIs: Strategy and Execution written by three great guys Pontus Borgstroem, Michał Krawczyk and Korneliusz Kordus. It’s showing us how we should approach our integration projects, that it’s really important to think about all test phases and support models right from the start, not when all is set and done. It’s definitely a really good piece of writing and well of knowledge for everybody involved in integration from developers, through architects to project managers.

Read also:

1. Is every new project like returning to university?

2. You should get your hands dirty with ABAP code before you start creating IT solutions

The post Silence. No phones, no mails, no music. appeared first on INT4.