SLT vs DRFOUT

[former_member335292]

Dear Retail Fraternity,

In one of my previous blogs, i wrote about various data integration mechanisms between SAP ECC/S4H and SAP CAR.

https://blogs.sap.com/2019/04/09/two-way-integration-between-sap-car-and-sap-ecc/

In this blog, I've tried to compare and differentiate both SLT and DRFOUT based on my understanding. I hope it will give a clear picture to why and how they are different, even though essentially they both are data transfer mechanisms(tools) for ERP data integration.

	SLT	DRFOUT
1.	SAP Landscape Transformation Server	Data Replication Framework for Outbound
2.	Either this can be a separate server, or it can be installed within an ERP system(ECC or S4H)	This mechanism is part of ERP system itself(Either ECC or S4H) to be integrated with CAR/PMR.
3.	Data Replication process is real time and immediate	Data replication process is normally through overnight batch jobs.
4.	Data transfer is sourced from ECC or S4H and the final target system is CAR HANA DB.	Data transfer is from Application to Application(using RFC)
5.	Data transfer includes - Insert, Update and Delete at DB level	Data transfer is based on change pointers – Initial, Change and Manual mode available
6.	Prerequisite for SAP CAR primarily for POSDTA data processing and various queries using HANA VDMs(HANA Virtual Data Model)	Prerequisite for DDF/UDF functionality and also for other consuming applications such as PMR,APR,MPR etc.
7.	SAP supports 200+ standard tables that can be replicated from ECC(or S4H) to CAR	SAP supports standard outbound implementation objects such as PMAT(Material), PMCH(Merchandise Category Hierarchy), PPLT(Plant), PMPL(Product Location)etc.
8.	Configuration is done in SLT server(depends on whether it resides within the ERP system or outside)	Configuration is done in both ECC and CAR depending on various CAR components (such as DDF/UDF, PMR etc)
9.	Typically replicated master data from ECC/S4H is stored in CAR HANA DB(in the respective ECC/S4H schema) and this can be accessed using HANA studio	Replicated master data is stored in CAR DMF Staging table. The data is stored in various /DMF/MDIF* tables or /DMF/OPIF* tables depending on the outbound implementation object(Generally data relating to PMAT,PMPL,PPLT etc. will be stored in /DMF/MDIF* tables) and promotion master data(POFF) gets stores in /DMF/OPIF* staging tables.
10.	Key transaction codes include LTRC, LTRO, LTR etc.	Key Transaction codes include DRFIMG,DRFOUT and DRFLOG
11.	Data transferred through SLT to CAR are being used for standard master data checks using MARA,MARM,MEAN etc table views in HANA DB during the processing of POS transactions in POSDTA	Master data transferred through DRFOUT are used primarily for UDF(Unified Demand Forecasting), PMR(Promotional Management for Retail) and also for APR(Assortment Planning for Retail), MPR(Merchandise planning for Retail) etc.
12.	All the fields in the master data table from ECC/S4H are replicated real time to CAR. For example if MARA table has 300 fields in ECC/S4H, then the same table is replicated to CAR with the same number of fields(300).	DMF table related fields store only a subset of fields that are required for UDF,PMR and other consuming applications. For example MARA table may have 300+ fields in ECC/S4H, however /DMF/PROD table may only contain 40 fields that are relevant for forecasting/offer planning etc.
13.	Data available in CAR HANA DB will be having the same table name as that of ECC or S4H.And this can be consumed either directly or using CDS views etc. in HANA studio.	Data available in DMF staging tables /DMF/MDIF* or /DMF/OPIF* tables can’t be consumed until the data is transferred to DMF Production tables within CAR.

 

Hope it helps.

 

Thanks,

Aram.