Business Partners
Key concept ............................................................................................................................................... 2
Applies to: .................................................................................................................................................. 2
Business Case/Executive summary: ........................................................................................................ 2
Target Audience: ....................................................................................................................................... 2
Important terminology and abbreviations: ................................................................................................ 2
Contents: ................................................................................................................................................... 2
Why BP approach and CVI on S/4 HANA? .............................................................................................. 2
BP approach .......................................................................................................................................... 3
BP Configuration steps .......................................................................................................................... 3
Customer Configuration step................................................................................................................. 4
Customer Vendor Integration ................................................................................................................ 6
FIORI APPS in BP ............................................................................................................................... 10
Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................................
References ..................................................................................................................................................
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1
Key concept
This document is written with the intent of making OTC Consultants aware of the changes in customer
master data functionality within the S/4 HANA system and also explains the Customer Vendor
Integration. The document is written based on my interpretation of the concepts acquired through
internal trainings, mock implementation experience & the various references that were immensely
useful to enhance my knowledge on CVI on HANA referred at the end of the document.
2
Applies to:
This document can be leveraged for projects that are deployed on S/4 HANA, POC’s & in general
making OTC consultants aware of the changes in customer master data in the S/4 HANA system.
3
Business Case/Executive summary:
Customer master data maintenance and creation in traditional ECC would require creation of vendor
and customer separately with use of multiple T-Codes. There was a lot of redundancy in the data due to
this approach as the same general data would be saved multiple times during creation of customer and
vendor for the same real time entity.
All these issues have been resolved with Business partner approach and Customer Vendor Integration
in S/4 HANA.
4
Target Audience:
OTC consultants
5
Important terminology and abbreviations:
Abbreviations
SAP
ECC
DB
ABAP
BP
CVI
6
Descriptions
Systems Application Products in Data
processing
Enterprise Core Competency
Data Base
Advance Business Application Programming
Business Partner
Customer Vendor Integration
Contents:
BP approach and CVI in HANA has greatly simplified the process of creation of customer and vendor.
The document describes in a simple way the allied processes around BP and CVI that have evolved
how customer master data creation in HANA is different from traditional ECC & a brief touch point on
the FIORI Apps connected to Business partner approach. However, the description of the migration
steps, its prerequisites & Activation of CVI HANA functionality within traditional ECC 6 is not discussed
here & would entail a separate document. Also Vendor related configurations have not been discussed
in this document.
7
Why BP approach and CVI on S/4 HANA?
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Business Partners
Customer master data maintenance and creation in traditional ECC would require creation of vendor
and customer separately with use of multiple T-Codes. There was a lot of redundancy in the data due to
this approach as the same general data would be saved multiple times during creation of customer and
vendor for the same real time entity. Also there was no relationship between a vendor and a customer
created for a single real time entity.
All these issues have been resolved with Business partner approach and Customer Vendor Integration
in S/4 HANA. Currently BP is the central point of entry for creating/editing/deleting of customer and
vendor. All the changes can be done in a single transaction code which is BP. Business partner
approach is role based and will allow users to associate multiple roles to a single BP. Thus general data
remains same for all the roles associated to a BP. The specific data pertaining to a role can be entered
on selection of the roles during BP creation.
7.1 BP approach
The following table shows transactions that will be no longer available in for creation of customer
master data
Transaction code
XD01/XD02/XD03/VD01/VD02/VD03/XK01/XK02/XK03
Reason for Removal
No longer available as it is not
relevant. BP is the role based
and multiple roles can be
assigned to one BP.
7.2 BP Configuration steps
The number ranges and account group needs to be configured for Business Partner.
Step 1: Number range configuration
SPRO PATH: Cross-Application Components–> SAP Business Partner–>Business Partner–>
Basic Settings –> Number Ranges and Groupings–> Define Number Ranges
Figure 1
Step 2: Defining Account group and assigning the number range to the account
group.
SPRO PATH: Cross-Application Components–> SAP Business Partner–>Business Partner–>
Basic Settings –> Number Ranges and Groupings–> Define Groupings and Assign Number
Ranges
In this step we can create a new account grouping by clicking on “New Entries” as in Figure 2 .
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Business Partners
Figure 2
Enter the new grouping and select the number range from the F4 help. These number ranges
will be the ones which were configured in step 1.
Figure 3
This account group will be available during BP creation. The Business Partner ID created
will be assigned based on the account group selected.
7.3 Customer Configuration step
The number ranges and account group needs to be configured for customer.
Step 1: Defining Account group
SPRO PATH: Logistics - General–> Business Partner–> Customers–> Control –> Define
Account Groups and Field Selection for Customers
In this step we can create a new account grouping for customer by clicking on “New Entries”
as in Figure 4.
Figure 4
All the groupings will be displayed as in figure 5
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Business Partners
Figure 5
Step 2: Defining number ranges and assigning the number range to the account
group.
SPRO PATH: Logistics - General–> Business Partner–> Customers–> Control –> Define and
Assign Customer Number Ranges-> Define Number Ranges for Customer Master
Configure the number range as in below figure:
Figure 6
Assign the number range configured to the new grouping created in Step 1 of section 7.3. For
performing this, follow the SPRO path as below:
SPRO PATH: Logistics - General–> Business Partner–> Customers–> Control –> Define and
Assign Customer Number Ranges-> Assign Number Ranges to Account Groups
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Business Partners
Figure 7
This account group will be available during creation of customer when a BP is created.
The Customer ID created will be assigned based on the account group associated with
the Business partner account group. This will be explained in detail in 9.4 section.
7.4 Customer Vendor Integration
Post creation of account groups and number ranges for Business Partner and customer,
the process to assign these account groups to each other needs to be done. As whenever
a BP is created, a customer will be created. Hence the numbers that needs to be
assigned to each of these during creation should be specified in SPRO.
Step 1: Check if Synchronization Objects have been maintained
SPRO PATH: Cross-Application Components–> Master Data Synchronization–>
Synchronization Control –> Synchronization Control–> Synchronization Objects
The highlighted entries should be maintained as in figure 8:
Figure 8
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Business Partners
Step 2: Check for the Active Synchronization Objects
SPRO PATH: Cross-Application Components–> Master Data Synchronization–>
Synchronization Control –> Synchronization Control–> Activate Synchronization Options
The checkboxes checked means that the synchronization settings from BP to Customer and
vice versa are active and similar is the case for BP to Vendor.
Figure 9
Step 3: Role settings for BP
SPRO PATH: Cross-Application Components–> Master Data Synchronization–>
Customer/Vendor Integration–> Business Partner Settings–> Settings for Customer
Integration-> Set BP Role Category for Direction BP to Customer
In this step new roles can also be created which can be assigned to the BP during BP
creation process. The entries maintained here will be displayed in the transaction BP.
Figure 10
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Business Partners
Step 4: Settings for Customer Integration with BP
SPRO PATH: Cross-Application Components–> Master Data Synchronization–>
Customer/Vendor Integration–> Business Partner Settings–> Settings for Customer
Integration-> Field Assignment for Customer Integration-> Assign Keys -> Define Number
Assignment for Direction BP to Customer
As mentioned earlier the account groups created for Customer in section 9.3 is assigned to an
account group created for BP in section 9.2 as in below figure.
Figure 11
When the “Same No” checkbox is checked, the number with which BP is created; the same
will be assigned to the customer which will be created post creation of BP. Else the BP ID and
Customer ID will have different.
It’s recommended but not mandatory that BP ID and Customer ID should be same.
Example 1:
As in the figure 11 if the grouping 0001 is selected while creation of BP, BP ID and Customer
ID will be different as the “Same No” checkbox is not checked.
Figure 12
Customer ID: 700134
BP ID: 7000134
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Figure 13
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Example 2:
Similarly if the grouping ZZZZ is selected while creation of BP, BP ID and Customer ID will be different as the “Same No”
checkbox is not checked.
Figure 14
Customer ID: 300040
BP ID: 300040
Figure 15
7.5 FIORI APPS in BP
FIORI 2.0 is a user interface to easily access SAP transactions on various platforms such as mobile,
tablets & on a computer system. They can be accessed anytime & anywhere & are user friendly. There
are following three types of APPs,
1. Transactional APP – These are the apps that are used to execute transactions. For example
Schedule MRP Run, Create Planned Order etc.
2. Fact Sheets – These are the apps that display key information such as displaying an order & its
elements.
3. Analytical Apps – These apps provide real-time information of the business KPIs which helps to
take decisions.
BP mostly utilizes the transactional apps. In this document we shall discuss briefly the key App for BP
creation.
Step 1: The app group used is “Central Master Data – Business Partner” as below:
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Figure 16
Step 2: Click on “Maintain Business Partner” below screen will be displayed where in selection of BP as
“Person/Organization/Group” is possible:
Figure 17
Step 3: Click on “Organization”, select the BP Role from the drop down:
Figure 18
Step 4: Select the Grouping from the drop down:
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Business Partners
Figure 19
Step 5: Enter all the necessary information in “General Data” section. For SD related information click
on “Sales and Distribution” tab:
Figure 20
Figure 21
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Business Partners
Figure 22
Step 6: After all the information is entered, click on save. BP and Customer are created.
Figure 23
Step 7: Post creation, click on “Customer: General Data” tab under General Data section to check the
Customer ID created:
Figure 24
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