Process Observer Discussion

[JChristophNolte]

This thread is dedicated to questions and discussions around the Process Observer component that is part of Business Suite.

Process Observer is used in different scenarios, including and prominently with Operational Process Intelligence.

For details on what Process observer is see here.

[markus_greutter]

Hi Experts,

we try to monitor a cross-system process between SAP CRM and SAP ERP. The following steps should be tracked:

- Creation of a Lead in CRM

- Creation of an Opportunity in CRM based on the Lead

- Creation of an ERP Quotation based on the Opportunity

and afterwards also the order but we are already struggling with the Quotations.

We implemented the cross-system federation as described in the in-depth workshop-document (page 138ff). But we are not able to link the quotation to the process.

When trying to map the BOR Object (BUS2031 - ERP Quotation) to the Activity the problem is that this Object does not exist in the CRM system which is the Process Registry.

Is there a BAdI that has to be implemented for the cross-system federation? I didn't find it in the document.

Best regards,

Markus

[JChristophNolte]

Hallo Markus,

let's see: First of all, the federation will only work out of the box with certain types of integration, preferably through RFC (or RFC-based) or generally synchronous integration. Otherwise things may be difficult.

Secondly, I'm not sure I understand what you are trying to do. When looking at the workshop (and the workshop is tough stuff) I think you want to configure remote federation (slide 143). This means that you need to configure one process chain and two processes: one in CRM (Lead - Opportunity) and one (the second) in ERP (Quotation - Order). So the BOR object for the quotation is not required in CRM. You only need it in CRM. Please explain! - There are other ways to handle cross-system scenarios, primarily setting up POB in one system and sending over the events into the other, but that depends much on volume, system set-up, what you want to achieve and if and how you have access to the events.

Going one step further (based on assumptions that may be wrong), let me have a look at the problem of federation. POB assumes that the transaction ID of the "outgoing" activity (not necessarily the last in the process) and the transaction ID of the "incoming" activity (this must be the first activity of the second process) are the same. This happens, as said, for RFC and some other integrations. When testing, you may wish to check that: It is a bit tedious and all I can offer is SE16, but you should be able to find the task of the outgoing activity (in CRM) and incoming (in ERP) in the task log (POC_D_BA_LOG) and compare the transaction IDs. If these are equal, federation will occur (the definition must be set up correctly, i.e. both must have the same chain ID, integration points must be defined etc.).

If everything works, you should see the end-to-end process in POC_MONITOR.

Let me know if I got anything wrong.

Best regards,

Christoph

[markus_greutter]

Hello Christoph,

thank you for your quick response!

The integration between CRM and ERP is realized with the Lean Order Interface (LORD) so it is RFC-based.

Here is a more detailed description of what we implemented:

The scenario up to now contains the following steps:

• Create Lead ( CRM )
• Create Opportunity ( CRM )
• Create Quotation ( ERP )

All needed BAdIs for previous_bor and everything else are implemented and working. The steps in the CRM system are logged. The log level is set to "Standard logging”.

CRM is set as Process-Registry. In both systems the RFC-destinations for federation are set.

In the CRM system we create the process definition of the scenario for the creation of lead and opportunity:

As after the creation of the Opportunity the Quotation in ERP is created an Integration Point is assigned to Activity 20CREAOP:

The Realized Process Chain is maintained:

In the ERP system we have a Process Definition with the same ID and he same Version and set up there the step for the creation of the Quotation:

This step has the Inbound Integration Point assigned:

The realized Process Chain is maintained with the same name:

After the processing of the scenario we got the entries in poc_monitor in CRM system

and in poc_monitor in ERP system

As you can see in the CRM system the ERP step “Create Quotation” is missing.

Best regards,

Markus

[JChristophNolte]

Hallo Markus,

if federation was working, you'd see the complete process in either system, so technically it is missing in both. That doesn't help much...

The problem can either be the set-up (Define logical systems for Federation and Set up Process Registry), the process definition (which looks good from what I see; unfortunately POC_MODEL_CHECK does not check any federation... maybe we need to look into that) or the runtime. Since runtime is the worst thing to fix, let's start there.

As described above, I think you need to check the transaction IDs. Using SE16, in table POC_D_BA_LOG try to find the task for activity 20... in CRM and note down the Transaction ID. In ERP do the same for activity 30... If the transaction IDs are different... it is a runtime issue: The event associated with Activity 20... is different from the action that does the actual RFC... for some reason. - If the IDs are the same, it is an issue with the set-up (which is much better, since this will be easier to resolve: Check the set-up, i.e. the logical systems and make sure the RFCs are working).

Best regards,

Christoph

Message was edited by: J.-Christoph Nolte (added table name)

[markus_greutter]

Hallo Christoph,

right, I forgot to mention the transaction IDs and in fact they are different. So let's focus on the runtime.

Jens-Christoph Nolte wrote:
...

If the transaction IDs are different... it is a runtime issue: The event associated with Activity 20... is different from the action that does the actual RFC... for some reason.
 ...

I'm not sure whether I understand correctly what to check. But let's try.

First the CRM side:

Based on the event trace we found out that the creation of the Opportunity refers to BOR-Object BUS2000111, event CREATED:

This BOR event is Mapped to the task:

And the same task is assigned to activity 20...:

On ERP side:

Do you have an idea?

Thanks a lot for your patience!

Best regards,

Markus