SAP SRM and SAP NetWeaver 7.41 role placement in landscape

SAP SRM and SAP NetWeaver 7.41 role placement in landscape-achieve next level of technical suite

SRM 7 and backend integration

The major plus point SRM provides is the multiple backend connectivity. The tight integration can be done with SAP ECC. The document can be exchanged via multiple adapter channels. As the SRM does not have the financial setup, the financial/accounting postings are done in the ERP system.

The complex setup would include the optical archiving solution, content server for attachments/ document exchange, supplier registration (Supplier Life Cycle management tool), PLM software integration, credit card / payment gateway integration.

# SAP SRM - Looking back at the history

SAP = Systems, Applications and Products in Data Processing
B2B = Business to Business Procurement (internet/web era)
EBP= Enterprise Buyer Professional
SRM = Supplier Relationship Management

I could remember the days when the Purchase order was typed and manually stamped/signed and mailed to a supplier. Then the orders were punch carded to a supplier (earlier EDI days). The communications evolved. The mass production and increased supply demand invented many of the innovations.

In the internet era of early 1999 SAP introduced the very first SRM application. SAP called it as SAP B2B 1.0. Then the re-branding and the SAP suite offering followed.

Note-
For a few releases SAP followed year nomenclature which was a trend for while in IT industry and went back to numeric one.
**SRM 2005 = SRM 5.0
SRM 2007 = SRM 6.0 (limited)


It has been the interesting journey so far!

# SAP SRM 7 with EHP 3 and SAP ECC with EHP 7 what to expect

SAP SRM 7 with EHP 3 and SAP ECC with EHP 7 what to expect (and what not to expect!)

# SAP SRM 7 - Upgrade or fresh implementation

SRM 5 to SRM 7 upgrades, earlier version of the SRM upgrades

Most of organisation might be using the SRM 5 or the earlier versions and would be looking for the upgrade or the fresh implementation.

SAP SRM has the specific upgrade path and supports as one step upgrade from SRM 4.  Some customers would like to change the technical scenario to leverage the functionality; some may want to implement the new scenarios. Based on the requirements and the evaluation the decision to upgrade or implement could be derived.

The existing customers with SRM version lower than SRM 4 would benefit from the fresh implementation rather than the two step upgrade. Though the considerable efforts required the migration of the documents could be considered.

The new customers should install SAP SRM 7.02 (or the latest release).

SRM and Vendor master data

Since SRM 5.0 the vendor data is detached from organization structure and now sits in transaction PPOSV_BBP.

Still the principle is valid- only the vendors having purchasing view are replicated in the SRM. ERP is always the leading system (aka source of truth). The initial replication should be carried out by using BBPGETVD. For further update the synchronization report BBP_VENDOR_SYNC. If you wish to bring in your custom fields then you should use BADI.

Vendor master can be modified in SRM and transfer to ECC, allowing business to use SRM as leading system.

A more complex and wide scope requirement can be fitted along with Supplier Lifecycle Management (aka SAP SLC) integration. This integration maps the end-to-end onboarding of the supplier. Also offers the option to maintain the master data in SAP SRM and then distribute to SAP ECC.

# Team purchasing

World is collaborative, hence the business and purchasing !

New feature of SRM7, help team to complete the purchasing activity in collaborative way.


Team can take over the carts once you nominate the substitute. This is controlled if employee or admin user can assign the team carts. The set of users can be contrlled with the configuration.


Please be informed that this feature is available for the Process Controlled Workflow (PCW) .
SRM 7 customers who are using Application Controlled Workflow this feature is not available.