Your customer receives an order confirmation and fulfilment is unable to locate the order. Outdated instructions are issued to production and disconnected messages are investigated by support teams.
These issues arise when data is exchanged between applications where ownership and recovery are not agreed upon. There should be a close integration of customer engagement with reliable enterprise processing in SAP ERP CRM integration. But with Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) and online storefronts, new transaction boundaries are added.
For SAP architects, developers and integration engineers, connectivity has to go beyond configuring middleware. Every interface must have a specific business object, an associated contract, security, and recovery plan. This article provides insight into how CRM, manufacturing, and commerce relate to SAP ERP or SAP S/4HANA. It also looks at the selection of interfaces, duplicate prevention, monitoring and migration decisions.
SAP ERP CRM integration links to enterprise master data and sales processing to the customer engagement. MES and e-commerce links are another form that extends that architecture into the manufacturing and digital orders. Object ownership, supported interfaces, protected connectivity, and receiver-side duplicate handling are needed for reliable integration. Teams should also do reconciling when the technical delivery results in a different outcome than the business processing.
What is SAP ERP CRM Integration?
SAP ERP CRM integration is the transfer of customer, product, pricing, and sales data from CRM applications to SAP enterprise processing. It bridges the gap between customer engagement and downstream transactions, maintains agreed ownership and identifier boundaries and responsibilities across application boundaries.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) manages things like opportunities and customer interactions. Enterprise Resource Planning, or ERP, integrates transactions like buying, selling, inventory and accounting.
Integration links these responsibilities without necessitating the same records in all places. A CRM account may be present prior to the approval of the related transactional customer.
The responsibility for applying and limits of use
A manufacturing execution system (MES) handles the details of manufacturing execution. In supported SAP integration scenarios, SAP Digital Manufacturing plays that role.
SAP Commerce Cloud provides online buying experience management. SAP Integration Suite offers features to link applications and manage interfaces.
| Application | Typical responsibility | Relevant objects | Boundary to define |
| SAP Sales Cloud Version 2 | Customer engagement and configured sales processing. | Accounts, opportunities, sales documents | Replication, simulation, transfer |
| SAP ERP / SAP S/4HANA | Enterprise transaction processing | Business partners, materials, orders, financial documents. | Supported service and messaging contracts |
| SAP Digital Manufacturing | Manufacturing execution | Production orders, execution records, confirmations | Order transfer and return postings |
| SAP Commerce Cloud | Digital commerce | Catalogs, carts and online orders | Product, availability and order synchronization |
| SAP Integration Suite | Cross-application integration | Messages, mappings, application programming interfaces | Connectivity, orchestration, governance |
The defined application capability is exposed by the application programming interface (API). It should include business fields as well as technical fields in its contract.
How CRM and SAP Share Sales Transactions?
The ownership model between CRM and SAP needs to be explicitly defined in order to share the sales transactions. Identify the applications responsible for order creation and modification, the application that determines transactional pricing and the application that manages fulfillment. Next, set up the replication, simulation, or transfer scenario supported.
There are various modes of sales order in SAP Sales Cloud Version 2. These include orders which are replicated externally and scenarios for creating, simulating and transferring. The ERP-owned fulfillment model is thus a piece of architecture in the present article.
The ownership and identifier mapping process of Business Partners
For the exchange of transactions to start, consistent identifiers are necessary to integrate SAP ERP with CRM. The CRM account identifier can be different from the SAP Business Partner number.
Explicitly map those identifiers and retain customer roles as needed. Additionally specify the authority for address, payment and assignment to organizational changes.
Ownership can be on the attribute level. Engagement information may be stored within CRM and managed by master data processes, as may legal and financial information.
Don’t replicate in both directions without conflict rules. If not, the messages may be received again and again or the approved values may be overwritten by other updates.
Pricing, simulation and transfer.
Explain difference between local pricing and SAP transaction price. A cached price does not guarantee the price of the order, but it can help in browsing.
Explain sales-order simulation and transfer for SAP Sales Cloud Version 2 integration with SAP S/4HANA and in SAP documents. In the case of simulation, pricing and fulfillment information is retrieved prior to the order confirmation.
Outline what to do if the simulation does not work. Users must have the clear distinction of a pending operation or an operation failure, and not an ambiguous confirmation.
This state is part of the business contract for integrating it with SAP ERP CRM. Support teams should be aware if an order is local or already exists below.
Production Order Across ERP–MES Boundary
The SAP ERP MES integration ties production planning to the results of production. But when you transfer an order, you don’t always transfer ownership of all of the manufacturing information.
ERP can have the ownership of the enterprise production order. MES may hold execution records, activities of operators and detailed manufacturing progress.
Order release, master data dependencies
The receiving application requires the material, bill of material and execution definitions. Bill of materials, or BOM is used to specify the components to be produced.
Test those dependencies before sending orders to run. If these are unavailable, or if they are incompatible with the units or definitions are outdated, then manufacturing execution can be prevented.
For supported process order scenarios, SAP documents the release-driven transfer via the Data Replication Framework (DRF). The transfer is made by using the intermediate document type LOIPRO05. Structured SAP business data is conveyed using an intermediate document (IDoc).
Note that not all order updates are transferred according to the same rules. Verify release prerequisites, filters, integration artifacts and supported changes for the selected scenario.
Confirmations & return postings
The manufacturing result can contain quantities, scrap, completion data and other postings. Every return response must have a specific business impact.
Partial confirmation is not complete. Similarly, it is necessary to have a supported way of doing things if one wishes to retract a confirmation.
Record the operation that each gets as a result and what the receiver reports when it is successful. Not all businesses posting should be considered to be technically accepted.
The SAP Digital Manufacturing technical integration documentation provides information on relevant paths of connectivity. Test the chosen path with the actual ERP deployment.
For details on what is required for an SAP implementation project, see SAP ERP implementation dependencies.
Where is the e-commerce in the transaction?
Ecommerce comes into play at the product discovery stage, availability check, checkout, and order submission. The customer-facing activities need to be integrated with enterprise processing in SAP ERP eCommerce. Identify the response that indicates receipt, the response that indicates creation of order, and the response that indicates acceptance of order completed.
An order can be placed before ERP processing is completed. Thus, the “customer-facing” state must reflect this distinction.
Product Availability and Presentation
Rich Descriptions, Images, and Merchandising Data can be managed in SAP Commerce Cloud. ERP will be able to keep transactional product identifiers and organizational attributes.
Keep mappings of identifiers without both applications having to use the same internal key. The purpose of product presentation is not the same as enterprise material governance.
Displayed stock is not the same as transactional availability. Availability may be based upon reservations, locations, supply dates, and programmed business rules.
A cached quantity, for instance, could be stale when it is checked out concurrently. Describe what is meant by a fresh check by checkout, and how shortages affect acceptance.
Checkout and Payments
Before submitting a commerce order, give it a static external identifier. Keep that identifier in the order life cycle.
Order authorisation, ERP order creation, delivery and billing may be finished at different times. Thus, take recovery with the next step, if it works, and the previous if not.
Don’t confuse payment authorization with SAP accepting the sales order. The same applies to an ERP order number, which is not a guarantee of shipment and/or billing completion.
For small businesses, the choice of SAP deployment is a critical decision that can influence their overall business operations.
Choosing Interfaces Across SAP Boundaries
Identify interfaces based on supported business operations, deployment requirements and timing requirements. A modern protocol doesn’t create an appropriate contract.
In SAP S/4HANA Business Partner documentation, you can find the following Open Data Protocol (OData) Service, IDoc, and SOAP services. The operations and replication capabilities that they support must be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
Requests and responses, messages, and events
Request-response interfaces are appropriate for interactions where a response is required. Some examples are pricing simulation and transactional validation.
Asynchronous messages are appropriate for work that can be done in the future. They need robust processing, status visibility and recovery when processing is interrupted.
Events are used to alert consumers to business changes. Consumers might still require a separate interface to get full details on the objects, though.
A Business Application Programming Interface (BAPI) provides access to SAP business operations. The communication mechanism that is used by the relevant SAP interfaces is called Remote Function Call (RFC).
It may be appropriate to use existing BAPI, RFC, or IDoc integrations. Evaluate support and behavior before substituting.
Ownership and decision matrix
This is one architecture that is illustrated below in the ownership model. It needs to be adapted to actual processes and governance in projects.
| Business object | Proposed owner | Integration decision | Recovery evidence |
| Customer engagement | CRM | Replicate approved transactional attributes | Account-to-partner mapping |
| Enterprise customer data | Master-data application governed by SAP or similar application | Differentiate between attribute ownership and approval ownership | Warns in case of result or validation error |
| Sales order | SAP ERP / SAP S/4HANA | Choose simulation and creation contracts | External reference / SAP order number |
| Production order | SAP ERP / SAP S/4HANA | Ensure prerequisites for release and transfer are met | Transfer status and execution reference |
| Execution confirmation | MES | Explain what posting and ‘reversing’ behaviour means | Confirmation and posting results |
| Commerce order | SAP Commerce Cloud | Reconcile ERP receipts with acceptance | Checkout ID and downstream status |
Note these down before you start mapping fields with SAP ERP CRM. Conflicting ownership cannot be solved through a field mapping. Explore how the SAP ERP demo and interface works through everyday business tasks and system navigation.
What if SAP is able to order something, but the response doesn’t work?
When SAP has already created the order and a response is lost, the sender isn’t sure what happened. For recovery, the business outcome must be defined prior to a repeat of the creation. Utilize business keys, receiver-side duplicate controls, and reconciliation to separate completed transactions from requests for safe replay.
Think about a commerce request that times out upon order creation. If the request is reiterated without thinking it through, another order may be made.
Business keys and Idempotency
Idempotent: If a business impact occurs, it should not change when processed again. That’s not what a correlation identifier does.
Specify the duplicate key, its range and duration. The key may include the external order ID of the source application.
Ensure that the selected receiver interface is capable of handling duplicates in a suitable manner. Otherwise, create a controlled processing record and enforce it with concurrency controls.
No two concurrent retries should be able to pass a separate existence check. Also assume that a failure can occur between the time the ERP document is created and the time it is recorded.
SAP ERP CRM integration requires the same level of security for sales requests that traverse application boundaries. Keep original business key on retries.
Retry, Reconcile and Replay
Effort to overcome temporary failures with controlled timings and limits. If there are any route validation failures, correct the route instead of resending the data over and over again.
Replay a failed transaction with the original identifiers. Duplicate controls can be overcome by creating a new business key.
Reconciliation is the process of matching up source requests with downstream business results. It should identify unacknowledged documents, duplicate documents and transactions that haven’t been corrected.
All concurrent submissions, receiver outages and lost responses shall be covered in recovery tests. Add successful creation and then failed acknowledgement. Explore the evolution of SAP ERP versions and their key milestones from R/3 to ERP 6.0.
Bringing security and monitoring to the Integration.
To ensure security, both connection authentication and business authorisation are needed. No credential should allow anyone access to enterprise transactions without restriction.
Select an authentication method that is documented for each interface. Finally, limit technical identity to the operations it needs.
Credentials and protected connectivity
If you have an API that requires OAuth client credentials, then only provide the necessary scope. Secure confidentiality and establish responsibility for renewals prior to production.
There must be expiration monitoring and rotation procedures for certificate-based connections. Renew or retest in advance of expiration of the original certificate.
You can use SAP Cloud Connector to enable relevant controlled connectivity to on-premises resources. Set up permitted resources – don’t provide wide open access to the backend.
SAP Digital Manufacturing provides for various communication arrangements such as the supported Direct Communication Set Up. Ensure security design for the chosen integration route.
Business-aware monitoring
Monitoring should be tied to business objects in technical messages. Record source reference, recipient document number, processing status and failure reason.
Log sensitive information as such. Support engineers would like to have the diagnostic evidence without any unnecessary customer or payment data.
Message processing can be supported in the overall integration architecture using SAP Cloud Integration. Idempotent process call documentation is also provided, which elaborates on an integration level duplicate-handling mechanism.
Middleware controls still need to be examined with regards to receiver behaviour. They can’t prove, on their own, that a downstream business transaction occurred exactly one time.
Verify unclosed business transactions as well as technical issues when integrating SAP ERP CRM. Create ownership and escalation for each category of exception.
What is different when migrating ECC to SAP S/4HANA?
When transitioning from SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) to SAP S/4HANA, it is important to rethink business contracts and dependencies. Target behaviour should be validated to ensure that existing interfaces can be used. Review data models, operations supported, custom logic, access controls, and deployment-specific limitations prior to migration.
One of the aspects that needs special attention is the Business Partner model. Identifiers, roles and mapping must be compatible for existing customer and vendor integrations.
Interface inventory and regression coverage
An inventory interface is based on business object and operational dependency. Capture custom mappings, extension fields, authentication, sequencing and recovery behavior.
Next, compare each requirement to the supported interface for the target release. A replacement API might provide a different set of fields or the semantics of processing.
Measure business results, not connections. Accepted messages can yield incomplete data or an unexpected downstream effect. The cost of an SAP integration project will depend on these factors and the level of integration required.
Use the appropriate core and extension placement
Clean-core decisions are decisions about what extensions to support and whether upgrades will be compatible. They don’t need all the custom components to run separately from SAP.
Implement transactional logic within supported transactional context. Get cross-application orchestration and transformation in its own place.
Relevant integration and extension are possible on SAP Business Technology Platform. But moving logic there doesn’t solve ownership or consistency just automatically.
Clearly defined contracts should be maintained even after upgrades to SAP ERP CRM integration. Check interface modifications, integration information and recovery tests whenever connected applications alter.
Conclusion
SAP ERP CRM integration is a link between customers and smooth enterprise transactions. MES and e-commerce continue that architecture to production execution and electronic orders. The key ones are who owns the object, which interfaces are supported, what its transactional state is, and its failure recovery. Clear contracts assist the teams to identify issues and maintain uniform processing between applications.
These principles are still applicable for organization migration from ECC to SAP S/4HANA or to update connected cloud applications. But the technical connectivity is not enough to prove business correct. Order creation, Manufacturing posting, Authorization, Duplication and reconciliation are to be tested collectively as one of the team. Write one full transaction from the beginning to the end that includes the owner, external identifier, supported interface, evidence of success and recovery route.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are some of the ways in which SAP ERP connects with CRM?
SAP ERP is connected to CRM through a set of services and messages that are supported and share customer, product, pricing and sales data. It is important to determine object and attribute ownership prior to the beginning of replication of the SAP ERP CRM. Depending on the selected scenario, CRM will show external orders, simulate orders or pass on requests to ERP for fulfilment.
What is the connection between SAP ERP and MES?
Production data is made available to SAP ERP via supported integration scenarios and execution results are returned to the ERP system via SAP ERP. The following is required for the SAP ERP MES integration: Compatible master data, order transfer rules, and return-posting contracts. Partial confirmations, reversals, duplicate handling and reconciliation of manufacturing results should also be delineated.
What are the integration benefits of SAP ERP with e-commerce?
SAP ERP communicates with e-commerce through product data, customer, pricing, availability, order and fulfillment status interfaces. The integration with SAP ERP in eCommerce should differentiate between receipts generated on the storefront and receipts created within the SAP ERP. The stable external order identifiers and controlled recovery ensure that no duplicate documents are created if communication downstream fails but a document checkout is successful.
What does SAP Integration Suite do?
SAP Integration Suite offers features for connecting applications, processing integration flows, handling APIs and enables event-driven communication. Relevant message processing and orchestration are managed by SAP Cloud Integration. Even with middleware configuration, teams still have business ownership, receiver authorization, transaction recovery and operational procedures to deal with since there is no guarantee of business processing without these factors.
Should SAP be the owner of all integrated business objects?
The business architecture needs to be responsible for assigning the objects and attributes to SAP. CRM may have opportunities and MES may have execution records. Enterprise orders and financial documents are owned by SAP S/4HANA. With an explicit ownership matrix, there are no competing updates and clear integration responsibilities between connected applications.
Is SAP ERP able to connect with third-party applications?
If a supported interface and/or connectivity arrangement with third-party applications are available, SAP ERP can be integrated with such applications. SAP Integration Suite can be engaged in SAP and non-SAP integration. It is important for teams to validate interface operations, authentication, message semantics, and deployment prerequisites, and not presume that connectors are available to support all of the needed business processes.
Do you need to replace all interfaces to move to SAP S/4HANA?
Not all interfaces need to be replaced when migrating to SAP S/4HANA. Evaluate each IDoc, BAPI, RFC or API based on the targets for support and business. Migration testing should include data mappings, custom dependencies, authorization, downstream results, etc., including changes in Business Partner which impact customer and supplier integration.
What measures do teams take to avoid duplicate orders for SAP?
Teams also avoid duplicate SAP orders with the use of stable business keys, receiver-side enforcement, controlled retries, and reconciliation. Correlation ID is for traceability, not necessarily for idempotence. Recovery will have to find out if the document is already created by SAP and concurrency controls will stop the simultaneous retries from creating more business transactions.
