Why does MDM require BPM

[Former Member]

Hi,

Could someone please let me know why do we require MDM to integrate with BPM?

I mean what business situations demand data tobe interfaced from Legecy system -> BPM (CE !) -> MDM

Also what benifits does MDM get if the data is interfaced via BPM to MDM?

Could someone please help me in answering these!!!

Kind Regards

Eva

[Former Member · Accepted solution]

Hello Eva,

1. Complex workflows can be designed using BPM with multilevel approvals, which is not feasible in MDM.

2. Data governance can be carried out with BPM.

3. BPM is more user friendly and its very flexible, can be modified as per the Business requirement.

4. BRM is used for Tasking and routing rules.

Below links might help.

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/e0024885-d4f1-2e10-8482-ba7386503...

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-14799

Rgds,

Prasad.

[Former Member]

hii eva

1) first thing is governance to improve your data quality via dedicated workflows.

2) you can perform data quality operation like validations also other operation like creating, modifying data through portal or mobile application without touching any mdm clients.

3) you can apply rules at each step which is not possible by mdm alone

4) even with bpm you can use business object data services like address validations to data before storing it to mdm, which is not possible in mdm.

5) bpm can syndicate or import data between ecc and mdm, and whole process is automatic.

Regards

Nitish Sharma

[Former Member]

Hi All,

Thanks for the responses.

1) Why should we use BPM for approvals when the MDM Workflow has the approve step in it??

2) Can BPM (CE) pick the files from a ftp location? and consume them in to its workflows!!!

3) Does anyone have a real time scenario for customer/material/vendor where adding BPM is Only the solution?

Please help me in understanding this, I can see many documents on MDM and BPM but before i go through them i need to understand the above.

Kind Regards

Eva

[Former Member]

Hi Eva

BPM is a tool for managing complex and configurable workflows. Also if requirement is to cross link multiple applications like MDM, ECC. These and many more are the MDM workflow limitations. To know more you can go through Best Practices Workflow for Master Data Management

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-16289

to reply to your questions-

1)Refer to link above.

2) Not a good design I can say. We need to have a staging area for storing the version of records before they are approved.

3) We have different solutions available. But with CAF GP obsolete now the focus is more on BPM. Also MDM workflow have host of limitations and dont offer cross linkage between platforms.

Thanks-Ravi

[Former Member]

Hi,

Thanks for the Replies.

1) Is CE a system like R/3 (client-server).

2) Does CE Consists of Only BPM in it or in other words it is ONLY used to create WF/BPM?

3) Does CE have the capability of extraction of data from legacy systems / Legacy locations (ftp)?

Or how does the BPM gets the data into its WF??

Kind Regards

Eva

[Former Member]

Hi eva

1) yes its like client-server, CE consist of nwds, nwdi, ce server. CE server fulfill functionality requires by nwds.

2) CE consist of many functionality like bpm, brm, webdynpro(visual composer) etc which basically integrated to nwds.

3) BPM by itself can search the data, or can trigger bods for extraction.

Regards

Nitish Sharma

[Former Member]

Hi Nitesh,

Thanks for the Response.

3) BPM by itself can search the data, or can trigger bods for extraction.

So can i say that..

> BPM can Extract files from a ftp location.

> BPM can connect to a 3rd party applications directly and fetch the data.

> BPM can connect connec directly to any Database and fetch the reequired data.

Kind Regards

Eva

[Former Member]

Hii Eva

No bpm can only trigger third party application, it cant fetch the data.

Regards

Nitish Sharma

[Former Member]

Hi Eva

Give some points if you find my answers suitable and close the thread.

Regards

Nitish Sharma

[junwu]

BPM CAN NONE of THESE.

all these has to be done by your customized code

BPM is a framework for work follow, somehow your customized code can be embedded and executed as a step in the workflow

[Former Member]

Hi Jun ,

When you say that BPM is a Framework for work flow than please comment of my below questions .

1) Do we need BPM in our architecture if we have a EP up and running ( As it is mentioned that BPM can also as a front end ) ?

2) We can custom build ABAP workflows and display a UWL on the portal for the approval of the workflows ?

Regards,

Vignesh

[junwu]

1.bpm is not a  front end

2. no problem

but sap provide some utility for mdm ui construction in CE environment, which host the bpm function, you just configure what fields from mdm you want to display. if you go with abap, you have to build the UI from scratch, that may take a lot of time.

[Former Member]

Hi Jun ,

When you mean UI , its only the UWL and nothing else i beleive (Correct me if i'm wrong)

Regards,

Vignesh

[junwu]

not uwl,

let's say you are building supplier master data,

you have to build  UI for requester to fill the supplier info, for data manager, you have to build UI to display the supplier for approval. if the supplier has dozens of fields, it will take  lot of time to build the UI.

you also may have to add or delete some fields... all those change consume time.

for all these, they can be easily done by the sap mdm ui framework. it is just configuration, you can choose the fields to be displayed,  you can easily add or delete fields, it also takes care of the validation....

[Former Member]

Hi Jun ,

Lets assume a scenario where i already have a EP -> MDM -> ECC scenario ,

Now does it really make sense to get in BPM in between EP and MDM or can we just custom build the worrflows in the ECC system and use them ??

Regards,

Vignesh

[junwu]

1. BPM is not coming between EP and MDM.

2. bpm is just a workflow engine, of course you can go with ecc workflow.

[Former Member]

Hi Vignesh

Comparison between bpm workflows and ecc workflows would be wrong, ecc workflows only work for ecc scenario but bpm workflow can be used for other scenarios also for eg water regulatory approval system.

Regards

Nitish Sharma

[junwu]

i don't think so.

ecc workflow can be used to do any business flow where nw bpm can be used......

they both are workflow engine.

[Former Member]

See both are developed for specific purpose, these components are not in competition.

BPM can be triggered through mobile but ecc workflow can't be triggered.

BPM can trigger transfer data to mdm(we can apply trigger mdm validation also) than to ecc, which i think ecc workflow can't do.

Both product has its own features and quality and made for different purpose , so comparison is wrong here.

[junwu]

YOUR NW BPM CAN DO THAT?

they are just workflow engine.they can only route you to different step or call ws/rfc.

you have to do the real job(coding)

if you expose the rfc as ws, i think ecc workflow can also be triggered through mobile

[andreas_staudenecker]

Hi Eva,

let's do a short example:

If you have want to do some masterdata for customers in MDM. To do so you need also the governance process for this. This process is often a multilevel approval workflow and therefore you need the BPM.

In the end you will have following landscape

MDM where the data is stored
CE with Webdynpro Java in order to get access to the data and approximate the business logic
BPM with human tasks and automatic tasks to route the process

Hope this helps

Andy