SAP Integration super-heroe tool-set
IT-Projects in terms of integration are todays biggest challenges of companies. All of us super-heroes daily involved in these projects surely need a stack of handsome tools to master those challenges in time and budget. Everyone reading this might have a proven tool-package - but tools are changing and the demand having a guideline build up an proven methods would be crucial.
Perhaps the following lines will give an impression on how to make integration-projects more efficient.
How to start?
In projects whether time nor budget nor ressources are unlimited. Many steps invloved are done quite inefficient. So to leverage a project is not to optimize a single step but to improve the efficency via optimized methodology and tools.
Let's focus on following topics
- What technologies are to use?
- How to connect services and applications?
- How to transform data?
- The importance of test automatically?
To answers these question I would like to offer short ideas by naming services which are provided by the SAP Business Technology Platform.
What technologies of integration should we use?
When starting with an integration-project the discussions are mostly about what technologies or methods are to use. If this is done in an unreflected way projects can fail at an early stage. In order to define the appropriate technology and procedures for the upcoming integration right from the start, there is the framework provided calles SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology (ISA-M). This is used to find and define the appropriate integration patterns, blueprints and best practices step by step.
To make this methodology an integral part of the daily project routine, there is the SAP Integration Assessment tool. Here, the current status of the integration and the implementation of policies and governance can be agreed, evaluated and adjusted at any time. For a closer look at the tool please check the blog from my colleague Thorsten Düvelmeyer: Getting started with integration assessment.
Once the technologies, policies and domains are defined, the individual elements can be connected.
How to connect?
Wouldn't it be nice to have a catalogue of best practices on how to connect applications and services in a standardized way? In context of SAP solutions exists an central repository providing this catalogue - and it is still growing: SAP API Business Hub.
Based from the product-view or process-view you will find a solution answering the given question. The hub contains informations about interfaces, protocols, APIs, events, integrations, CDS views and data models of SAP solutions and services.
With the given low-code Web-UI in SAP Cloud Integration-Service you are also able to connect the given solutions via technical adapters (e.g. HTTP, AS2, AS4, OData etc.).
Maybe you need a deep-dive in the technologies use in context of SAP S/4HANA - please read the article by Martin Tieves: SAP S/4HANA: Try out new technologies and pattern for integration
How to transform data?
So now we are able to connect any-to-any the the data exchanged still differs from company to company. The IDs that identify customers can be coded differently, product numbers can be taken from different catalogues or the same fields in messages can be named differently.
Now I think you will confirm that have to map differently formatted and filled messages to each other so that all details of the respective orders, delivery notifications or price lists are exchanged correctly between companies. SAP Integration Suite offers SAP Cloud Integration for this purpose. Here we can built intergation flows where complex messages can be processed, converted and redirected as required.
This transformation / translation of data is an integral part of intergation-projects. Having grown industry-standards involved such as UN/EDIFACT, SAP IDoc or ASC X12 makes the effort to translate these enormously high and sometimes you will spend weeks to implement the data exchange correctly. With SAP Integration Advisor of the SAP Integration Suite you might have a big advantage to massively accelerate the creation of such integrations through machine learning.
How to roll out and test automatically?
Having modern software-architectures based on distributed applications and services you might come across the need of having a automated testing, processing and distribution pipeline. The need arises because you will have to do continuous adjustments to your integration flows, applications, interfaces and adapters. These changes should be processed and distributed immediatley. Here is a new service based on the SAP Business Technology Platform: SAP Continuous Integration and Delivery
This service allows us to set up powerful CI/CD pipelines that automatically carry out all the necessary steps, from creation and testing to deployment to the respective tenants.
Sum-up
Integration projects are among the most complex projects to manage in companies today. The super-heroes who manage these projects every day therefore need coordinated and good tools to manage these projects on time and on budget. The ways described have a massive impact on the speed and quality of such projects.
Discussion
Well I am quite curious if the mentioned tool-set is used by SAP Integration super-heroes. Do you use the SAP service mentioned or are you using tools given by other providers? Please feel free to name your tools so we might discuss the pro and cons of the sap tool-set.