IFG global Survey 2014 for SAP NetWeaver PI

As in previous years, the Global Special Interest Group for Process Integration conducts its annual survey for SAP NetWeaver PI.

Focus of the survey is to collect the latest state of the positioning, organization and use of SAP NetWeaver PI and SAP integration in companies around the globe. Target group are employees and consultants from companies using SAP NetWeaver PI or SAP NetWeaver PO as an integration platform.

The survey results serve the IFG as a strong basis for the discussion with SAP and for the active influencing of SAP's product and release strategy. In 2013 the survey set a new record with over 500 participants.

The survey contains 26 general questions and 11 questions about this year’s special topic 'BPM und Process Orchestration'. The general questions stay the same each year, so that the survey can identify changes and developmernts in the use and positioning of PI over the years. Due to the different background, focus and usage scenarios of the survey participants we have changed several questions from mandatory to optional.

The survey for 2014 can be found at the following URL:

(survey link is now closed after offical end-date)

Time Schedule

• May 5^th 2014: Official start of survey
• August 19^th 2014: End of survey
• September/October 2014: Publication of results within the SAP user groups and on SAP SCN

Recent Blogs

An extract of the results of the surveys can be found in the following blogs:

• Results of the global NetWeaver PI Survey 2011
• Results of the global NetWeaver PI Survey 2012
• Results of the global NetWeaver PI Survey 2013 (Part 1 of 2)
• Results of the global NetWeaver PI Survey 2013 (Part 2 of 2)

For more background about our interest group see our central blog International Focus Group for SAP NetWeaver Process Integration.

Update August 20^th 2014

The survey for 2014 was closed on August 19^th. Many thanks to all 362 participants! The results of the survey will be published on SCN by end of September.

Questions and feedback are welcome.

In Q4 2012 we have announced the availability of a SAP Process Orchestration trial development environment on Amazon Web Services (AWS). It allows you to set up your own hands-on experience quickly with the latest pre-installed SAP NetWeaver Developer Studioand the sample pre-configured applications. Read more in this blog:Try SAP Process Orchestration in Public Cloud!

We have now updated the image through SAP Solutions on Cloud to SP11 of "SAP Process Orchestration 7.31". It is equivalent to SP6 of SAP Process Orchestration 7.4. From now on, all new users that sign up for the trial will be accessing an instance with the SP11 version.

If you have missed them, here are the “what’s new” blogs walking through all new features and improvements:

What is new in SP8 of   SAP Process Orchestration 7.31/SP3 of SAP Process Orchestration 7.4

What is new in SP9 of SAP Process Orchestration 7.31/ SP4 of SAP Process Orchestration 7.4

What is new in SP10/SP11 of SAP Process Orchestration 7.31/ (SP5/SP6) of SAP Process Orchestration 7.4

Getting started with the process Orchestration trial on AWS:

• Step by step instructions including access link here:  SAP Process Orchestration Trial in Public Cloud - Getting Started

• Next steps are here:

Launching your instance via AWS CloudFormation

Quick FAQ:

• I am currently using the instance. Could I extend the license after the initial trial period is over?

A: Yes, you could request a new 90 days key and then a new one as long as you want to use the Process Orchestration developer environment through SAP Solutions on Cloud hosted on AWS.

• Is there any way to migrate my existing content on the SP5/SP7 image and start using the SP11 image?

A: Unfortunately you have to start over if you would like to use the SP11 image.

• If I do not have any content on the SP5/SP7 image, can I delete the old key, request a new license key and start using the SP11 image?

A: You can request a new free 90-day license key fromhereusing C73 System ID:

https://websmp130.sap-ag.de/sap(bD1lbiZjPTAwMQ==)/bc/bsp/spn/minisap/minisap.htm

To use the new key you will need to delete the old license out of the system first in order to be able to apply the new one.

Update: June 2014

The recording is now available in this document: North America (EN) SAP Product Road Map Webinars.

In April, Christian Loos announced that the new roadmap for SAP Process Orchestration is now available and it combines into one single roadmap the former individual SAP Process Integration and SAP Business Process Management product roadmaps.

We are happy to announce the global public SAP Process Orchestration roadmap webcast planned for May 27^th, 2014. See details below and register to attend in person or get the recording if you are not able to attend live.

What will cover this webcast:
SAP Process Orchestration #Process Orchestration enables you to automate, integrate and optimize your business processes – from simple workflows to integrated processes across business partners. In this webinar, Alexander Bundschuh and Christian Loos from SAP Product Management will present the product roadmap for SAP Process Orchestration – the solution today and what is planned for the future. Learn how SAP Process Orchestration customers can benefit from the SAP HANA platform to enable intelligent business operations #IBO and how it relates to other offerings such as SAP Gateway #Gateway and SAP HANA Cloud Integration #HCI. Get your questions answered so you can plan your future projects easily and effectively.

Date:
Tuesday, May 27^th

Time:
17-18 CET | 8-9am PST

Presenters:
Alexander Bundschuh and Christian Loos, SAP Process Orchestration Product Managers

Register here

For more webinars (upcoming and recordings) please check and follow North America (EN) SAP Product Road Map Webinars.

Are you ready for SAPPHIRE NOW?!

SAP Middleware experts are sure ready to meet you and show you the latest Middleware innovations.

What is SAP Middleware today? We all know that in today’s world of proliferating systems and demand for people-centric computing, businesses need to achieve agility along multiple dimensions. Whether it is becoming a real-time business, applying context to big data, or better process orchestration – SAP’s Middleware solutions can be leveraged - on-premise, in the cloud, with Big Data, Mobility and in-Memory capabilities. Today, SAP Middleware is the comprehensive portfolio of SAP technology components that provide services and flexibility (system, process and people agility) to business applications (SAP and non-SAP). The newest SAP Middleware solution called Intelligent Business Operations helps take control of big processes via its integrated process modeling, orchestration, live monitoring and analysis – all on a single platform and a standard modeling language - BPMN.

If you are in Orlando, Florida from June 3-5 you sure have used the agenda builder, however such a great number and variety of sessions may be overwhelming. Therefore we have prepared for you a snapshot of what’s hot in the Middleware area with business process management, integration and orchestration, as well as intelligent business operations with SAP.

Expert Table Middleware – meet our experts 1:1

TE314 All day, Show floor
Connect end users in new ways, manage processes with agility, and build innovative applications with a middleware platform. Offer employees and customers a consumer-grade user experience, use Big Data to help create smarter business processes, and manage a secure, integrated landscape across on-premise and cloud environments.

Demo theater session: Infuse Business Processes with Real-Time Insights Gained from Big Data
Work smarter with real-time operational insight gained from Big Data analysis, and use this insight within business processes. Take corrective actions when, or even before, issues occur. See how our software for intelligent business operations helps you get real-time visibility into end-to-end operations by using the power of the SAP HANA platform.
Option 1) Wednesday, 01:00 p.m. - 01:20 p.m. Platform and Technology Demo Theater TE305
Option 2) Thursday, 02:30 p.m. - 02:50 p.m. Platform and Technology Demo Theater TE301

Take a look at the Intelligent Business Operations powered by SAP HANA playlist on YouTube and be sure to come back as the list of demos and industry examples will be growing.

Demo theater session: Deliver a World-Class User Experience
Bring the power of SAP solutions to business users on cutting-edge devices. Offer a state-of-the-art experience with SAP Gateway technology. Watch a demo where SAP software, both cloud and on premise, enables a hands-free laptop repair scenario on Google Glass, using a powerful 3D laptop model with repair instructions and parts inventory levels. See details about SAP Gateway sessions in this blog.
Option 1) Tuesday, 02:30 p.m. - 02:50 p.m., Platform and Technology Demo Theater TE301
Option 2) Wednesday, 05.00 p.m. – 05.20 p.m., Platform and Technology Demo Theater TE301

Demo theater session - Apply the Best Strategies for Cloud Integration
Learn about cloud integration strategies. See how SAP HANA Cloud Platform can help you maximize the value of your new and existing technologies through the power of integration.
Option 1) Tuesday, 02:00 p.m. - 02:20 p.m., Platform and Technology Demo Theater TE302
Option 2) Thursday, 02:00 p.m. - 02:20 p.m. Platform and Technology Demo Theater TE305

Demo theater session - Establish a New Approach for Collaborative Process Design

Streamline business and IT interactions with a new, collaborative process-design approach. See how SAP Solution Manager lets you enjoy faster business innovation with an intuitive and flexible process design application using models fully aligned with our solution portfolio. Enable faster innovation with actionable information and collaboration.
Option 1) Tuesday, 01:00 p.m. - 01:20 p.m, SAP ONE Support Demo Theater OS506
Option 2) Wednesday, 08:00 a.m. - 08:20 a.m. SAP ONE Support Demo Theater OS506

This year, SAPPHIRE® NOW and the ASUG Annual Conference are co-located again from June 3-5 in Orlando, Florida.

Here is a snapshot of the ASUG education sessions and case studies covering SAP Middleware topics and below is a highlight of the should-not-miss sessions:

Experiences and Best Practices with Intelligent Business Operations and SAP Operational Process Intelligence, powered by SAP HANA
Intelligent Business Operations (IBO) represent a new market category of applications that seek to gain visibility and situational awareness into end-to-end business processes with the goal to improve process-related decisions and ensure desirable business outcomes. Join us in this panel discussion with practitioners with hands-on experience as we discuss the increasing importance of intelligent business operations to gain competitive advantage. You’ll hear about real world projects and pilots from business, IT, and project management perspectives. You will get candid recommendations as well as thoughts and ideas where industry is heading.
Wednesday, 08:30 a.m. - 09:30 a.m. S310G: S. Concourse, L3.

Lennox Experiences Using SAP HANA Cloud Integration for Integration Cloud for Sales with SAP CRM
This session shares Lennox’s experiences and recommendations for integrating SAP Cloud for Sales with SAP Customer Relationship Management (SAP CRM). This session will provide an overview of the entire implementation with a focus on the integration. Presenters will share the overview of the technical infrastructure, integration technology, blueprinting and solution design, and timelines along with what went well and what we would recommend when using SAP HANA Cloud Integration.
Thursday - 01:00 p.m. - 02:00 p.m., S310E: S. Concourse, L3.

Migration from SAP Process Integration 7.11 to 7.31 Stand-Alone Java at HD Supply
HD Supply has implemented SAP Process Integration 7.31 Advanced Adapter Engine Extended (AEX) in parallel with the existing 7.11 dual-stack environments. All new interfaces are being developed on 7.31 and they are in the process of migrating all existing interfaces. This presentation will describe why HD Supply chose to do a migration instead of a technical upgrade, what architecture they chose to implement, the process they went though, and the lessons learned on the way. In addition, presenters will discuss the benefits of their Java only PI 7.3 implementation including: Critical interface isolation, performance improvement, and central monitoring.
Tuesday - 12:30 p.m. - 01:30 p.m. S310E: S. Concourse, L3.

Migration and Upgrade Paths to SAP Process Orchestration
SAP Process Orchestration bundles the SAP Process Integration, SAP Business Process Management, and SAP Business Rules Management in one integration platform which is capable of handling both stateless and stateful integration processes. Since it resides on a single stack on pure Java, you can run your integration processes at lower total cost of ownership TCO and better performance compared to SAP Process Integration on dual-stack. This alone should be reason enough to move from Process Integration dual-stack to Process Orchestration. Moreover, SAP Process Orchestration comes with a rules engine that allows you to externalize your business rules from your processes, a new user experience in Eclipse UI, and a rich BPM functional scope. This session will explore the options of migrating from SAP Process Integration dual-stack to SAP Process Orchestration and provide guidelines about the migration process in general. It will also cover the Directory Content Migration cockpit in particular - a tool that provides migration and mass change functionality for process integration scenarios and channels helping you to reduce the maintenance effort during the migration process.
Wednesday, 12:30 p.m. - 01:30 p.m. S310G: S. Concourse, L3.

Workflow and BPM Open Forum
Attendees will have the opportunity to network with other SAP Workflow and BPM professionals. There will be several experts on hand to answer questions.
Thursday - 01:00 p.m. - 02:00 p.m., S310G: S. Concourse, L3.

This great program and content should have convinced you by now, but if you still have doubts, think again!

SAPPHIRE NOW 2014 will be one of these exciting rare performances where Jon Bon Jovi performs live with his hometown New Jersey side band The Kings of Suburbia.

We look forward to seeing you there!

If you nevertheless cannot make it to Orlando this year, you can get avail of the social media updates and live streams:

SAP MiddlewareTwitter | LinkedIn | YouTube | Facebook. We would love to see your input there as well.

sapphirenowasug2014sapmiddlewareibo

Dear All,

We are pleased to announce two SAP Process Orchestration innovation projects as part of the SAP Customer Engagement Initiative (CEI).

Registration is now open and both SAP customers and partners can now apply for participation in one or both projects until Friday, June 13th 2014. Please find detailed information below and register your interest via the project sites.

Project 1: SAP Process Orchestration for integration-centric scenarios

The goal is to give our customers early access to new functionality and help them benefit early from latest enhancements. Based on the experiences from the projects, customers will be able to influence the further development of the product to their particular needs. This CEI project addresses customers interested in running an integration project focusing on at least one of the following three topics:

1. Migration from dual-stack SAP Process Integration to single-stack SAP Process Orchestration:

In a previous CEI project we already focused on how we could support our customers to migrate from SAP Process Integration dual-stack to SAP Process Orchestration. From various customer interactions we still see the need in supporting migration projects, especially when it comes to ccBPM to BPM migration and the replacement of ABAP-related artifacts.

Scope: this project will address customers planning to migrate their scenarios in the near future.

2. New connectivity options:

SAP is currently investing in new adapters running on SAP Process Orchestration.

Scope: understand how the new connectivity options are used in real customer scenarios, and collect feedback about missing functionality.

3. Regression tests

Whenever you update/ upgrade your productive Process Integration/ Process Orchestration system you need to ensure that your existing integration scenarios keep running after the update/ upgrade. Therefore you need to test your scenarios and the potential differences in behavior and changes of your mapping functions, adapters, adapter modules and routing very thoroughly.

The scope of the project is to understand where we could better support 3rd party test tools via APIs for instance so that they can easily integrate with SAP Process Integration/ Process Orchestration.

To find out more about customer and partner participation, profile, software requirements, planned activities and to register your interest, please follow the project link: SAP Process Orchestration for integration-centric scenarios.

Project 2: Unified Inbox, Mobile BPM and SAP Process Orchestration on SAP HANA

The goal is to give our customers early access to new functionality and help them benefit from latest enhancements early in their projects. Based on the experiences from the projects customers will be able to influence the further development of the product to their particular needs. We are welcoming customers attracted by one of the following two topics and ideally would like to start a project - e.g. a proof-of-concept:

1. Unified inbox & mobile BPM:

With the Task Services and the unified inbox on SAP Gateway, we have built an infrastructure which can harmonize tasks across different providers (e.g. SAP Business Workflow, SAP Business Process Management) and a modern, HTML5-based inbox for end users to manage these tasks. We plan to continuously enhance this solution, e.g. by adding substitution management or support for comments and attachments. For mobile use cases, we offer integration with the SAP Fiori Approve Request App. Using the SAPUI5 library and the BPM OData services, it is now possible to build Fiori-like task UIs for BPM scenarios.

Scope: with this project we would like to better understand different user roles and their needs, what expectations they have towards an inbox solution, and how we can help IT to offer a single, harmonized inbox to their customers.

2. SAP Process Orchestration andSAP Operational Process Intelligence on SAP HANA:

As of SAP Process Orchestration 7.40 SP04, SAP Process Orchestration runs on SAP HANA as a database. With the co-deployment option of SAP Operational Process Intelligence and SAP Process Orchestration on SAP HANA, it is now possible to close the loop between process execution and process intelligence. This enables intelligent business operations ibo– giving business users the right information to make informed decisions and acting on business situations.

Furthermore, Virtual Data Models (VDMs) and moving business logic from the application server to the SAP HANA database (“push-down”) offer a lot more potential for both optimization and new scenarios.

Scope: with this project we want to explore how SAP Process Orchestration customers can benefit from SAP HANA platform capabilities such as SAP HANA extended application services (aka as XS applications services), decision tables, predictive analytics or full-text search.

Find more details on this project and register your interest here: Unified Inbox, Mobile BPM and SAP Process Orchestration on SAP HANA.

Both innovation projects are Global, customer organizations from all industries and all sizes are welcome, as well as SAP Partners.

Please share with anyone who may be interested to join any of these CEI projects.

Should you have any questions we will be happy to help.

Hands-on workshop on Intelligent Business Operations with SAP - free for SAP customers and prospects

Upcoming dates in the UK:

Option 1: 27th June

Option 2: 25th July

Along with Tom Scaysbrook from CompriseIT, I am hosting the UK Intelligent Business Operations Technical Academy in the SAP offices in Maidenhead on June 27th and July 25th.  Tom and I have just been preparing for the day and I'm really looking forward to running it.  The idea is that each attendee will have access to 2 cloud images; one running SAP Process Orchestration, the other running the Operational Process Intelligence on HANA image.  Although we will begin the day with an overview of both Process Orchestration and Operational Process Intelligence, we're determined to give attendees as much hands-on time as possible so we will get them logged into their images and working on the 4 classroom exercises as quickly as possible.

SAP partner CompriseIT have unparalleled, real world experience of SAP Process Orchestration and SAP Operational Process Intelligence so I am really grateful to have Tom in the classroom with me.  His knowledge and expertise will make for a very informative workshop.

The exercises:

In Exercise 1 attendees will extend an exiting master data quality BPMN Model with the Developer Studio tooling, they'll add a Gateway to split the process into 2 parallel threads, they'll add interfaces to the human activities and perform the necessary mapping to redeploy the process.  Its a fairly sophisticated business process (bearing in mind the limitations imposed by accommodating the workshop in a single day) which calls a nested Integration Centric Process and waits for the external process to finish before coming to its own completion.  A good chance to get to grips with the capability of the BPM aspect of Process Orchestration.

Exercise 2 gets to grips with the ESR and Integration Flow modeling.  Attendees will be creating data types, message types, message mappings and using the Process Integration Designer to add additional receivers to an existing integration flow.

Exercise 3 imports the master data quality process into HANA studio and builds a business scenario using Operational Process Intelligence on HANA.  The important phases of the business process will be defined along with the cycle times, count and duration measures to provide insight into running process landscape.

Finally in Exercise 4 attendees will learn how to create, execute and monitor business rules with the SAP Business Rules Management and how to integrate business rules into the business process they worked on in Exercise 1.  The challenge is to create a business rule that decides if an approval for each customer record is necessary or not and integrate the rule into the business process.  At each stage attendees will be able to redeploy their changes to witness the effect.

So Process Orchestration with BPM, BRM, PI and SAP Operational Process Intelligence all in one day.  Quite a challenge some will say!  Join us and we'll prove it's straightforward and doable.

We still have spaces on each of the workshop dates (27th June, 25th July) so if you're interested please send me an email at tony.read@sap.com.  DON'T FORGET TO BRING YOUR OWN MACHINE!

Saphila is an innovation ICT conference hosted in South Africa from 9-11 June by the African SAP User Group (AFSUG) and supported by SAP.

If you have not heard of Saphila before, the organizers promise that it “will be unlike any conference” you have participated in before. Even if you have attended before, this year the event will certainly be different in the world-first, entirely outdoor ‘Saphilatown’ at Sun City.

Sounds like you should prepare for a spectacular ‘out of the box’ experience!

The agenda is very rich and along with networking opportunities and SAP-led sessions, it will include executive forum, customer and partner presentations, as well as Gartner sessions.

The reason I am writing this short blog in the Orchestration space is that you could also enjoy SAP Middleware sessions if you attend the conference.

SAP keynote:

In his keynote Darren Crowder, Vice President, SAP Platform Solutions Group will walk you through “innovation execution and insight: the virtuous circle for end-to-end process excellence”.

Middleware Tech Academies Hands-on workshops:

We are also very happy for the opportunity to invite you to the Intelligent Business Operations #IBO Tech Academies as part of the program. You will have the chance to learn more about the IBO technology bundle and try hands-on the software by completing a comprehensive exercise. Learn more about Intelligent Business Operations.

What is best, is that not one but two dates are available! You can choose from either 9 & 10 June, but hurry up and book your preferred spot because seats are limited.

Also please make sure you bring your own machine to be able to access the workshop image.

Interested? Register here.

If you want to go, but need a little help convincing your management? Then ask them to check this infographic.

If you can't travel to this or other conferences this year, you can learn more about Intelligent Business Operations with SAP and get your questions answered live on June 12. The luve expert session will share insights on how ibo with SAP helps organizations:

• Work smarter by infusing Big Data insights into your processes
• Take corrective actions when or even before issues occur
• Anticipate what will happen using predictive analytics
• Gain real-time visibility into your end-to-end operations

Register here.

Hi All,

This document will guide you how to create background configurations between SAP PO (Single stack) and ECC system for Part A - Proxy communication, Part B - IDoc_AAE  and Part C – RFC Communication.

PART – A – Proxy Communication

ECC System –

1.       Create Logical System in ECC System for PO system using Tcode BD54

2.       Create RFC Destination in SM59 of Type G, which will point to the PO system –

Here Target host will be PO system and

Path prefix will be  “/XISOAPAdapter/MessageServlet?ximessage=true”

3.       Now go to SXMB_ADM and add configurable parameters –

Category - Add Runtime – IS_URL –

i.      Subparameter =

ii.      Value = dest://(RFC Destination which we created in above step)

4.       For Proxy generation one more RFC Destination needs to be created in SM59 system of Type G –

Here target host will be PO system

5.       Go to “SLDAPICUST” Transaction and configure entry for PO system in ECC System –

PART – B – Idoc_AAE Communication

1.       Go to SM59 and create RFC Destination of Type T –

Give here ProgramID and SAP PO server host and service. ProgramID provided here will be used in background configurations of PO system.

Note :- Go to Unicode Tab here and select radio button “UNICODE”

2.       Create Port in WE21 of type Transactional RFC and assign RFC which we created in above step

SAP PO System

1.       Go to PO NWA à Configuration à Infrastructure à Destination

Click next and give details of ECC system

Click next provide logon data and Enter connection pool settings and click Finish.

Note :- One more destination needs to be created with same settings as above for metadata XI_IDOC_DEFAULT_Destination_<SID> 

2.       Go to PO NWA à Configuration à Infrastructure à Application Resources

a.       Search for “InboundRA” of type Resource Adapter

b.      Click on Properties Tab

i.      Give value for parameter ProgramID same as we have given in step5 of ECC System

ii.      Give value for parameter "MaxReaderThreadCount" between 5 to 10

iii.      Give value for parameter “Local” as “true”

3.       Go to PO NWA à Configuration à Infrastructure à JCo RFC Provider

(JCo gives the communication between ABAP Stack and Java Stack)

a.       Create JCo for RFC Destination –

Here give RFC Destination name same as we created in step 1 of SAP PO System

PART – C – RFC Adapter Communication

1.       For using Sender RFC Adapter , we need to create RFC Destination of Type T in tcode SM59 –

The programID defined here, same programID will be used at Sender RFC Communication Channel.

2.       For receiving RFC adapter, we need to give properties of target ECC system like Application Server, System Number, Client, Logon User and password etc in communication channel.

Here Logon user should have authorization to execute function module.

Do you want to easily get started with Process Orchestration?

Check out our new video tutorials on Youtube.

There we explain topics like reliable connectivity between SAP BPM and SAP PI and show how to implement typical integration patterns.

How to use the reliable connectivity using SAP BPM and SAP PI

How to monitor messages

How to use PI mappings in a SAP BPM process

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3

How to start a process with multiple interfaces

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5
• Part 6

How to implement conditional starts

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 4
• Part 5

If you don't have a Process Orchestration system (yet) to try this out - check out our trial system in the cloud: Try SAP NetWeaver Process Orchestration in Public Cloud!

After the new SAP BPM book in German blog in March 2014 and the “we want English” feedback from many of you, I am delighted to share with you news about another SAP book which has both German AND English versions! Its author Volker Stiehl called it Process-Driven Applications with BPMN.

(This does not cancel the multiple requests for an English version of the “Business Process Management mit SAP NetWeaver BPM”)

I am sure many of you know my colleague Volker Stiehl either from TechEd and other events, or have read his publications. If you have not had the chance to meet him virtually or in person yet, Volker is a Chief Product Expert in the area of SAP Process Integration & Orchestration, SAP's reliable high performance SOA Middleware for both SAP and non-SAP system integrations.

Volker regularly presents at various conferences and is also a lecturer at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University Mosbach. You now know where to find him if you want to have a signed copy of his book!

Who is this book for?

It is designed for all Professionals & Practitioners. It will definitely be a handy useful tool for Software architects, IT managers, Software developers and Project managers, as well as students of information and business technology.

The content

"Process-Driven Applications with BPMN" presents an approach for implementing differentiating end-to-end business processes based on BPMN and an application architecture that strives to find a balance between development and maintenance costs, sustainability, scalability, and fault tolerance that as well meets flexibility requirements without becoming inordinately complex itself. This approach is used to keep the end application as abstract as possible from the system landscape in which it operates.

With the semantic enhancements of the BPMN 2.0 (Business Process Model and Notation) standard, it is now possible to not only model the business processes, but also execute process models of the applications and execute the integration processes between the systems. Volker’s approach exploits BPMN to create and run complete application architectures. He offers a detailed blueprint, the principles of which can be used to plan and implement process-driven distributed applications.

For illustrating the implementation of the proposed architecture, the book uses the SAP Process Orchestration software used by thousands of organizations in all industries worldwide. However, all recommendations are kept generic, on purpose obviously, to allow readers to reuse the architecture if they choose or are required to implement on any other comparable platform.

How can we create and optimize differentiating business processes and exploit their full potential? Here, Volker provides answers, utilizing the various options that the BPMN standard offers for planning, implementing, and monitoring processes.

Content summary at a glance

• Detailed guide for using the full functionality of BPMN 2.0 to model and execute cross-organizational processes for business differentiation
• Describes precisely how to preserve the business BPMN model during implementation
• Uses SAP Process Orchestration to illustrate the implementation of the architecture framework
• Combines academic findings, sound standards and professional experiences

Versions

The English version is planned for end of August 2014, both as an eBook and hardcover edition and some impressive numbers: 316 pages and 221 images! Learn more and order here.	The German version is out for quite some time now and is a huge success already. The 11 five-star ratings on Amazon should definitely convince you to grab your copy in your preferred language!

SAP Process Orchestration, Intelligent Business Operations, SAP Operational Process Intelligence - already heard about it? Yes, but want to know more? No, but want to know more?

Either way, these are the topics at the SAP Info Day on Intelligent Process Management at Wednesday, July 23, 2014 in Walldorf, Germany. During this day insights from Product Management as well as interesting and exciting real-life examples from several customers are on the agenda. You will get a comprehensive overview on these topics and also a deep-dive. Customers will share their experiences migrating from SAP Process Integration to SAP Process Orchestration, how they accelerated their A2A integration with SAP Process Orchestration and used SAP PowerDesigner to model and document the business processes. In addition you will be thrilled to see how to get real-time insights into your end-to-end processes, safeguard mission-critical processes and handle the BIG processes driving better business outcomes within your company with SAP Operational Process Intelligence.

Don't miss this opportunity to gain so much knowledge and hear directly from SAP customers within one day - for free. Hope to see you there.

Please register here (German only):

Detailed agenda:

Sometimes we need to implement scenario like this:

Source System -> (some channel) -> Iflow -> Iflow -> (some channel) -> Target System.

We had in practice this requirement when

1. We want to map message first and then throw runtime error,  that depends on mapping result. And we want to see all source message and result of mapping.
2. We don’t want to use BPM
3. Or we want to change dynamically URL in SOAP Sender Channel (add some GET parameters), and client want unchangeable URL without any dynamic.

I will show configuration without mappings and async.

So, step-by-step:

We will have 3 systems.

1. BC_SENDER_SYSTEM
2. BC_TEMP_SYSTEM
3. BC_RECEIVER_SYSTEM.

Step1. At first create second Iflow

Source:

Business System: BC_TEMP_SYSTEM

Service Interface: SI_data_OA (outbound, async)

Channel: CC_SOAP_HTTP (sender, soap, http)

Target:

Business System: BC_RECEIVER_SYSTEM

Service Interface: SI_data_to_receiver_IA (inbound, async)

Channel: your receiver channel to target system

Step2. Activate second Iflow and deploy it.

Step3. Open corresponding ICO and get endpoint URL:
it should look like this

http://<host>/XISOAPAdapter/MessageServlet?senderParty=&senderService= BC_TEMP_SYSTEM&receiverParty=&receiverService=&interface= SI_data_OA&interfaceNamespace=<namespace>

Step4. Now create first Iflow

Source:

Business System: BC_SENDER_SYSTEM

Service Interface: SI_data_from_sender_OA (outbound, async)

Channel: your sender channel from source system

Target:

Business System: BC_TEMP_SYSTEM

Service Interface: SI_data_IA (inbound, async)

Channel: CC_SOAP_HTTP_R (receiver, soap, http)

In this channel we add URL from step 3. And user credentials of PIAPPLUSER (Java system user).

Step5. Activate and deploy first Iflow.

Run.

Have fun

In previous SAP XI or PI releases, it was really hard to search on a specific value within a message payload. I once extended the XI monitor on an ABAP stack to accomplish this. It worked, but took some time and was not a standard solution.

Now, in our SAP PO 7.4 system, it is really easy to accomplish this and it is standard available.

This is just a small blog to walk you through the different steps.

Create a filter

Go to Monitoring Home (http://<host>:<port>/pimon) -> Configuration and Administration tab -> Adapter Engine -> User-Defined Message Search Configuration, and create a new filter.

You can choose freely for which interfaces you want to create a filter. Just make sure to set the filter to active.

Define search criteria

Create a new search criteria using an XPath expression. Provide a name and a description.

Use an XPath expression or choose header fields. In case you choose for an XPath expression, do not forget to indicate possible namespace prefixes.

Just to be sure, check how a specific message enters the system and see if namespace prefixes are involved.

Indexing options

In case you want to use the filter for older messages, make sure you create an index.

If the index is not set, only messages being processed after the filter creation are taken into account.

Restrictions

Currently, the search term is case-sensitive.  I still need to investigate if this is a bug or a configuration problem.

Usage

Go to the Message Monitor screen -> Database tab -> Advanced (on the right-hand side).

If you are just on the database tab, looking at all messages, and you click on a message having a search attribute, an extra tab appears on the bottom of the screen:

Already three months have passed since ourlast updates on SAP Process Orchestration and you can be ensured we have used this time wisely to provide some exiting new stuff.

This blog describes all the new features and enhancements in SAP Process Orchestration 7.31 SP12/ 7.4 SP07. After reading this blog you for sure want to upgrade to this latest SPs to leverage all new enhancements.

General Information

Besides the feature enhancements, we want to focus at the beginning on some further stuff we have produced in the course of the last weeks to support you working with SAP Process Orchestration.

Process Orchestration Sizing Guidelines

Ever asked yourself how to do correct sizing for your SAP Process Orchestration implementation? Now we have the right answer for you, summarized in the first official sizing guide highlighting combined sizing for integration-centric (message-based) and human-centric (task based) scenarios including influencing factors, database sizing and also sizing for SAP HANA. Get the guidelines here.

Process Orchestration Video Tutorials on YouTube

Not only guides will make your work with SAP Process Orchestration much easier, we also have put together a series of video tutorials. Showing how to deal with integration patterns, reliable connectivity, conditional starts and much more. Lightweight to consume but with powerful content, check this out on YouTube.

Process Integration Features

Now it’s time for the technical features, where we traditionally start with the Process Integration part.

Customer Connect Requirements

Listening to the requirements of you, our customers, is absolutely essential for us. We have listened carefully and constantly worked on the connect requirements. Let’ take a look at two of them and the enhancements we have done.

Export of Mapping Documentation

One of the requirements has been to store mapping logic for documentation purposes. Now in the NWDS (ESR perspective) you have the possibility to export message mappings into an MS Excel spreadsheet, including all the details, e.g. field mappings, user defined functions, function libraries or parameters.

Configuration of scenario specific archiving retention periods

Introducing some rules to define scenario-specific retention period for message archiving, the system can now keep messages shorter or longer in the message store than the global default time. Release Note

Message Flow Monitor in SAP Solution Manager

With SAP Solution Manager 7.1 SP10 and the latest SAP Process Orchestration release we have introduced the handling of events from BPM processes. Furthermore, the automatic discovery of message flows has been enhanced to support so called generic receiver determinations, e.g., receiver determinations that use wildcards.

Send Test Message on Adapter Engine

To verify whether the scenario runs correctly there is a new UI available to send test message on Adapter Engine, also supporting the Integration Engine. The header fields will even be filled automatically based on the sender agreement or the integrated configuration. For sure the created/ used templates can also be saved while having a context-sensitive navigation to the message monitor. All in all this is a helpful renewal improving developers’ productivity. Release Note

Support logging of audit log of synchronous messages

Before the audit log of synchronous messages have just been in the cache – now you can store the audit log of successful synchronous messages in the database. Release Note

Consuming Web Services secured by Security Token Service (STS)

First increment has been shipped in SP10 and now we take the next iteration with a new UI to configure Process Integration as STS client, where you define the destination of STS, choose the token type, do a proof of possession and get predefined and ready-to-use configuration content to handle the AGIV security protocol. For configuration details, please also see the SAP note: 1980095

Release Note

IDoc Adapter packaging and re-packaging

Now also the re-packaging on the sender side is supported to split incoming IDoc document list in one XI message containing the specified numbers of IDocs. So far on the receiver side only global packaging configuration parameters have been supported, but now the scenario-specific packaging parameters in the receiver channel can be defined (package size, timeout, memory size). Release Note

Process Integration Connectivity Add-On

For the SuccessFactors adapter we support now the related OData API with operations like query, read, create, update, merge & delete. Also adhoc queries where you specify the maximum time the adapter should wait for the query results are possible.

The new generic OData adapter includes the integration with OData service providers (i.e. consumption of OData services) and supports operations like query, read, create, update, merge & delete.

Impressed? Let’s take a look at the new BPM features.

Business Process Management Features

BPM-to-BPM Monitoring

Enhancing the NWA for BPM Monitoring is one of the first topics we want to take a look at. Now you can see the related processes for a selected process instance and monitor these interconnected processes (one process calling another one via an automated activity). So imagine you have process A calling process B and this one calling process C. If you now show the related processes for B you will get process A and C (selecting all), process C (selecting receiver) or process A (selecting sender). Release Note

Enhancements in Process Visualization

Though there is already a lot of information provided to the end user via the process visualization, it’s still not enough. Therefore we have added the possibility to navigate from sub-processes to the parent process, in case of errors a link to the error log of the process, name of potential owners of a task (what about security here!? - don’t be scared, needs specific enablement beforehand) and showing the Reporting Data Source (RDS) content (see screenshot). Nice J Okay, as this also security relevant you also need to enable this via the UME action SAP_BPM_RDS_Query… Release Note

Enhancements in Manage Processes

Wouldn’t it be cool to identify the process instance based on the context data? Absolutely, that’s why it is already available and has been enhanced now. So you can configure the maximum number of results, specify field name for RDS search or just search by the latest RDS entry only. Release Note

Enhancements in BPM Inbox

Also the very elegant BPM inbox (based on UI5 library) provides some enhancements. Based on your feedback we have changed the default behavior while opening a task: the tasks are now opened in a new window instead of overlay (can of course be changed). Also to make the list more readable at a glance, the end user can show or hide all task details (e.g. comments, attachments, custom attributes …). Release Note& Release Note

Unified Inbox in Gateway 2.0 SP09

The unified inbox in Gateway (shipped with 2.0 SP09) contains an enormous list of improvements, take a breath and take a look:

• Performance improvements (tasks details are being loaded asynchronously)
• View, download,  add and delete task attachments
• View and add comments to a task
• View HTML task descriptions for SAP Business Workflow tasks
• Create and manage substitution rules
• Support for substitution profiles (SAP Business Workflow only)
• Forward one more tasks to another user
• Add comment while performing custom actions
• Support for task UI configuration for BWF tasks (SWFVISU)
• Support for user photos (requires custom BADI)
• Configuration of Unified Inbox
  • Theme
  • Header visibility
  • Task Execution UI Navigation (new window or in-place)

You are done? Okay, let’s move on as we have some more stuff.

Mobile BPM Inbox

Mobile inbox is here! With all the features you would expect on your mobile device, e.g. responsive design. Therefore we use the SAPUI5 mobile library (Fiori-like). Currently only for the local BPM inbox, so for federation/ multi-provider scenarios (on Gateway), please use the Fiori Approve Request app. Release Note

Copy & Paste Process Models

Coming now to the enhancements in the design time environment. Creating a process variant from a template process or creating a new version (copy) of a process due to incompatible interface changes is possible now. Within the context menu in the project explorer you will find the functionality to copy & paste the process model and this not only within one development component (DC) but also across DCs. Be aware that only the process model is copied, but the used elements (task, service reference, rules) are just referenced (called “shallow copy” – for the next release we plan to provide a “deep copy” including the elements). The DC dependency to the original DC is automatically added. Release Note

BPM OData Services

With SP12 there is a new service to enable custom inboxes, before we already shipped Task Execution UI and lately the application to start a process. Release Note

An example of a custom inbox (details view) you will see below; by completing this task immediately the next task will be opened.

The custom task list includes access to a filtered and ordered collection of tasks, access to metadata and custom attributes as well as supporting release, forward and custom actions. In a later version support for substitutions and filters based on substitutions is planned.

Hope you have enjoyed the information of these new features – so upgrade, make use of them and gain the benefits right now.

Additional information

More about Process Orchestration and an archive of “What is new” overview blogs can be found in this library:

Introduction to SAP NetWeaver Process Orchestration

For a complete overview and further information of the enhancements with SP12, please see these release notes.

About the Survey

Focus of the survey is to collect the latest state of the positioning, use and organization of SAP NetWeaver PI and SAP integration in companies all around the globe. Target group are employees from companies using SAP NetWeaver PI as an integration platform.

The survey contains 23 general questions and 9 questions about this year’s special topic 'BPM und Process Orchestration'. Apart from minor adjustments, the general questions stay the same each year, so that the survey can also show changes in the use and positioning of PI over the years. Based on the feedback from last year more questions and sections are optional, as not all topics may be relevant for or known by each participant.

can be found in the following SCN blog:

Global Survey for SAP NetWeaver Process Integration 2014

Final Spurt

Till August 7th 320 people have participated in the survey. The responses from Germany, Switzerland and Austria have almost reached last year's numbers and Russia has already set a new record. Compared to 2013 North America, South Africa and India are still behind.

Current results for PI release in production:

Current results in regards to plan for migration to SAP NetWeaver Process Orchestration:

Participation and Feedback

As the survey helps SAP and IFG for PI to get a much better insight about the use and the main requirements in regards to SAP NetWeaver PI and PO your participation is crucial. The results of the 2014 survey will be published September/October. Feedback about the survey, areas of improvement and ideas for the next special topic in 2015 is of course always welcome.

Intro.

As usual, this post is a replacement for one of my long, rambling answers to someone's discussion.  It started as a few lines of me berating the changing world we work in and grew a bit.

Hasan Sidra asked about integrating ARIS with SAP PO.  Its the first time I've heard this sort of integration mentioned for a few years now and it got me thinking about how fickle our industry can be, and how so much can change in such a short space of time.  I was spending almost 100% of my time working on BPM projects around the time of the SAP eSOA assault and expected great things in this area, especially after scratching the surface of what integration with ARIS tooling could offer.

My Story.

Some time ago, the great promise from SAP (as part of their eSOA revolution) was that ARIS, BPM, PI, ERP, etc. would all become an integrated landscape.  BPXers would use tools like ARIS (integrated with SolMan and therefore the rest of their SAP landscape) to model the real business processes in an organisation.  These high level models would update SolMan and add another layer on top of the configuration tracking and documentation creation already available.

These high level models would be built in the industry standard BPMN 2.0 format and would be interchangeable across multiple platforms (SAP, IBM, TibCo, etc.)  Business people, functional consultants & developers could all work from the same process, with a slightly different perspective depending on their use case.  Documentation and configuration, as well as standard processes, services and business objects could all be inter mingled with custom built objects in a more logical and process driven approach than we had ever seen before.

I was pretty excited.  Within Atos (where I was working at the time) myself and a colleague Gary Kilby were tasked with investigating this brave new world and understanding what we (as an SAP Partner consultancy) needed to understand, be familiar with and ultimately know inside out, to enable our customers to dive into the new SOA world (yes, I know SOA wasn't actually new but this was actually eSOA, SAP's version and so it must be new )  Gary knew the integration side of things with PI and I knew BPM - we were both senior development architects and thought this would be a nice sideline to our ongoing customer engagements.  A number of us in the SAP Practice attended a few of the SAP eSOA training sessions as we moved forward with our initiative.  I've just found this post by Gary from around that time.  The number of views versus number of answers tells a story...

Things Changed

I remember being at a TechEd when HANA was first publicly demo'd.  I noticed lots of people carrying iPhones and constantly meddling with them.  I couldn't really walk around the show-floor without tripping over someones shiney new iPad.  Uh-oh.  There was a mobile revolution going on, meaning everyone at that TechEd could tweet all sorts of cool and interesting stuff about HANA - "You can get your dunning run down from 8 hours to 8 minutes #HANA #GameChanger #KittenJustDied" etc, etc.  Suddenly eSOA had faded to background noise.

I'm not saying SOA is the answer to everything, however I do believe there is room for some sort of architecture that allows for basic building blocks of componentised models, views & controllers which follow some sort of structure and enable business people, functional people and technical people to collaborate in the way ARIS & BPM could have.

Fortunately/Unfortunately, depending on your perspective, HANA and Mobile pushed SOA out of the SAP world.  We now have a bigger focus on a RESTful design approach to "services" and indeed, the wider industry seems to be currently obsessed with micro-services, which I'd argue is the beginning of the convergence of SOA and RESTful practices.

Room for Improvement?

I think SAP have got it so wrong in almost forgetting about BPM/PI/PO and the SOA revolution thanks to HANA and Mobile (I'll not even mention Cloud in this article - oops!)  We have a landscape of SAP tools and platforms plus UI technology in the shape of UI5 that could deliver on the promise of proper BPM re-engineering, with superfast data crunching from HANA all served up via a mobile platform.  As usual though, the varying arms of SAP tech are apparently pulling in different directions and definitely not heading in the same direction.

I think it is a massive shame on a personal level.  I'm (naively?) hoping someone at SAP sees the opportunities being missed and that sometime in the near future we'll see HANA, PO, RESTful practices and UI5 come together properly.  Maybe then we won't even need ARIS?

SAP continues licensing simplification of its Process Orchestration portfolio: B2B Add-On now included.

It has been some time since my last blog on SAP Process Orchestration and this time I wanted to share some good news as to our efforts to further simplify the licensing of our SAP Process Orchestration portfolio.

Most of you may be aware by now that SAP Process Orchestration is SAP’s middleware integration suite aggregating SAP Process Integration (aka: PI), SAP Business Process Management (aka: BPM) and SAP Business Rules Management (aka: BRM). SAP started this simplification journey in 2010 (when SAP Process Orchestration was initially introduced to the market). Instead of licensing all these components individually SAP Process Orchestration allows customers to share hardware core allocation among PI, BPM, and BRM with a single Process Orchestration license.

What’s more, this was not only about licensing, but also about providing one single development experience in SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio (based on Eclipse) as well as the ability to run all these components (PI, BPM and BRM) co-deployed on the SAP NetWeaver Java Application Server (aka: Single Stack). This approach provides a lot of tangible benefits to customers such as reduced development and operations cost, improved performance and easier monitoring.

So what’s new? SAP has extended the usage rights of SAP Process Orchestration to now also include the B2B Add-On for SAP Process Orchestration functionality. This means, there is a single license covering the end to end spectrum of integration scenarios. This not only further simplifies SAP middleware offering from a licensing perspective, but also drives improved synergies to use a single integration solution fully owned by a vendor. This single pricing strategy is unique in the market and different from the approach of other software vendors in the integration space who have a more fragmented solution offering resulting in a more complex pricing. Let alone the benefits of using a single container to run A2A, B2B, BPM and Rule scenarios (less hardware) and administer all of the above in a central place (lower TCO for administration and ownership).

SAP Process Orchestration can be deployed on a traditional on premise model and it has been recently certified to run on the SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud (HEC)
providing more options to our existing and future customer base.

This new extended scope for SAP Process Orchestration is more relevant than ever to our traditional SAP Process Integration community. In addition to continue to
run A2A scenarios, it is possible to piggyback EDI transactions via the newly added B2B Add-On functionality all through a single integration solution. If this is something that you may want to pursue, check with your SAP Account Executive for ways to convert your existing SAP Process Integration licenses to SAP Process Orchestration.

Overview

What is an IDoc?

IDoc or Intermediate Document is an SAP document format for business transaction data transfers. 
This blog describes the detailed steps to be followed for setting up and sending an IDoc from an SAP R3 system to SAP BPM via SAP PI  in a Process Orchestration setup.

An IDoc cannot be directly imported into SAP BPM.  The WSDL generated from an imported IDoc in ESR is not WS-I compliant – hence you may face runtime issues when BPM tries to consume the service interface created of IDoc type.

Let us see how we can overcome this constraint and have the scenario run successfully.

Creation of Design objects

Creation of wsdls

The IDoc we import from an SAP R/3 system will be used on the sender side but we cannot use this on the receiver side (BPM) because it is not WS-I compliant as mentioned earlier in the "Problem Statement".  We need to modify certain tags before using it on the receiver side. (Note:1414292)

1. Import the IDoc from corresponding R/3 system in ESR.
   1. Open ESR,  right click on Imported objects, provide R3 system details and import IDoc (A)
      This will be used in the sender interface – let us denote this as 'A'.
2. After the import is successful, open the IDoc, switch to the WSDL tab and Export the WSDL into a file
3. Make a copy of the WSDL and edit it to reflect the following changes:
   1. Set the targetNamespace attribute to "urn:sap-com:document:sap:idoc:messages" and xmlns attribute to "urn:sap-com:document:sap:idoc:messages" for the xsd:schema
   2. Set the xmlns attribute to "urn:sap-com:document:sap:idoc:messages" for the <WSDL:definition> element
      Refer to the image below for an example.
   3. Import the modified WSDL as an external definition. (B)
      This will be used in the receiver interface – let us denote this as 'B'.
   4. Save and Activate all the changes.

Note : To set a relevant type for a data object in BPM for an element, there needs to be a name associated with the complex type.

For example.. Below is the structure of the exported idoc in ESR

<xsd:element name="HRCC1UPTEVEN01"><xsd:complexType><xsd:sequence><xsd:element name="IDOC" type="HRCC1UPTEVEN.HRCC1UPTEVEN01"/></xsd:sequence></xsd:complexType>

We need to have an associated name to the complex type as shown below.

<xsd:element name="HRCC1UPTEVEN01" type=”named_example_complex_type”><xsd:complexType name=”named_example_complex_type”><xsd:sequence><xsd:element name="IDOC" type="HRCC1UPTEVEN.HRCC1UPTEVEN01"/></xsd:sequence></xsd:complexType>

Creation of Service Interfaces

1. Create these Interfaces with the listed attributes.

  2. Save and Activate all the changes.

Creation of Mappings

1. Create a Message Mapping with source as IDoc (A) and target as External Definition (B)
   Note : This is required as the sender and receiver do not use the same schema.
2. Perform the mapping with the corresponding field
3. Create an Operation Mapping with source as Sender Interface (SI_A) and Target as Receiver Inteface (SI_B)
4. Assign the message mapping to this operation mapping
   Save and Activate all the changes

Creation of Integration Flows

1. Create an Iflow with following attributes

   Field	Sender	Receiver
   Interface	SI_A	SI_B
   Adapter	Idoc_AAE	SOAP, XI 3.0, JPR URL

2. Assign the operation Mapping created to this integration Flow.
3. Save , Activate and deploy all the changes

Modelling BPM Process

1. Create a new Process Composer Development Project
2. Import the SI_B from ESR under service Interfaces tab.
3. The data types should be created under a namespace "urn:sap-com:document:sap:idoc:messages"
4. Assign this to the SE of the BPM Process
5. Create a data object and map in Output Mapping
6. Build and Deploy the processes

Note : The WSDL might have errors  as "s4s-att-invalid-value: Invalid attribute value for 'maxOccurs' in element 'element'.
Recorded reason: cvc-datatype-valid.1.2.1: '9999999999' is not a valid value for 'nonNegativeInteger'."
This can be ignored.

Sending IDoc from R/3 System

1. Trigger the IDoc from the R/3 system.
2. Monitor the messages using the Message Monitor page in NWA. Verify that they have been delivered.
3. The BPM Process should be started and the context data should be updated in the corresponding sent fields. This can be monitored in Manage Processes Page in NWA.

Process Archiving in SAP Process Orchestration

SAP Process Orchestration is a single, integrated solution for building and running end-to-end business processes across both SAP and non-SAP environments.

In SAP Business Process Management, Process Instances that have been completed and not required by businesses for any audit purposes should be deleted from time to time.

The frequency of this archiving procedure varies from business to business based on a few factors.

1. The number of process instances and task instances started per day
2. The typical duration of a process instance
3. The number of users assigned to a task role.
   (if using a UME group or role, then the number of users assigned)

Effects of archiving

What can you expect when process instances are archived?

The process instances marked for archiving will be removed from the BPM database and archived to a location as configured by the administrator.  Corresponding entries will be created in the DAS tables for the archived instances.

As expected, Process Archiving improves the overall performance of the system. It keeps the database compact with fewer process instances.

SAP Process Orchestration uses the SAP NetWeaver XML DAS framework for archiving.  Additional information can be found here.

Archiving guidelines

SAP recommends that you follow these guidelines to facilitate the maintenance of the archives over a period of time.

• Create a new collection before each upgrade of the solution
  • Logon to NetWeaver Administrator and navigate to Operations Data and Databases Java Archiving Cockpit Hierarchy
  • Choose the bpm_proc Archiving set from the Show Archiving Set dropdown.
  • Click the Create Collection button on the toolbar and provide an appropriate name.
• You may also want to create a new collection at the beginning of every calendar/fiscal year as appropriate.
• If the number of process instances grow exponentially in your organization, it is recommended to create a new collection every quarter.

By following the above guidelines, it is extremely simple to perform housekeeping activities on the archives.

Deleting archived instances

The deletion of the archived instances can be accomplished easily via the Java Archiving Cockpit.

If you want to delete the archived instances from a particular fiscal year for example, you could follow these simple steps:

• Logon to SAP NetWeaver Administrator
• Launch the Java Archiving Cockpit application by choosing Operations Data and Databases Java Archiving Cockpit
• Navigate to the  Hierarchy tab
• Expand the bpm_proc node and select the appropriate collection (The same as the one that you created for that fiscal year)
• Click the ‘Delete collection’ button on the toolbar of the Java Archiving Cockpit

This keeps the archives from growing to a few gigabytes.  Businesses might prefer to store a couple of years’ worth of archived content for audit purposes.  You may also want to adhere the audit guidelines of your business accordingly.  Other archived content can be deleted in this manner, provided you organized the collections in an orderly manner before starting the archiving process.

References / Related content

[1] Process Archiving in SAP Business Process Management

[2] SAP Help documentation for archiving Process Data

[3] SAP Help documentation for the Java Archiving Cockpit

[4] Administration of XML Data archiving

Did you know that SAP provides a huge set of pre-packaged content for the convenience of Process Orchestration customers? In the last few years, SAP has identified different integration needs of their customers and has shared a huge set of pre-packaged content to meet them. Each of the pre-packaged content  has been made available by SAP to address different integration scenarios in the customer landscape.

For example, consider a simple use case in a logistics industry.  Assume your organization has a strong logistics unit and makes use of the SAP Transportation Management system. And that you are responsible for arranging inbound transportation from the port of loading to your final destination plant.

Some of the steps you may have to handle during this process of inbound transportation are:

• Integration and automation of purchase-order-based planning and booking processes – changes to orders will need to be propagated automatically to SAP ERP system
• Manage incompatibilities based on dangerous goods classification using SAP Environment, Health & Safety system;
• Increase visibility of shipments at all times for different roles by utilizing the SAP Event Manager;
• Assign planning responsibility to people with regional expertise (stage level planning) using the SAP ERP and SAP Event Manager;
• Design an automated process flow based on signals such as booking confirmations, advanced shipping notifications (ASNs), and transportation execution events are taken care using the SAP Event Manager

It would make your work easy if all these systems were integrated with one another: SAP Transportation Management (TM) with  SAP Enterprise Resource Management (ERP), SAP Environment, Health and Safety (EH&S), and SAP Event Management.

SAP has identified this need and  has provided a set of service interfaces, message mappings, business processes, and other design objects to support this and many such integration scenarios across industries and lines of business. These design objects have been packaged as XI content and have been made available to all existing SAP Process Orchestration customers. Any licensed customer can explore and download these pre-packaged content from SAP at the SAP Service Markeplace .

While the XI content has been made available for use by every licensed SAP customer, discovery of the pre-packaged content and related documentation has been identified to be one of the major hurdles faced by every integration developer today.  To make the step to discovering content much more easy and simple, we have decided to expand our Integration Content Hub to include pre-packaged integration content delivered for our Process Orchestration customers along with HANA Cloud Integration pre-packaged content. You can also find the above mentioned Transportation Management related content here.

You can check out the first set of packages shared for Process Orchestration at the Integration Content Hub. You can use the filter options provided here to find the integration content to suit your industry or Line of Business needs. Also provided are filter options to search content to suit your integration platform needs.

As an SAP Community Network member you can access this application and explore both HANA Cloud Integration as well as SAP Process Integration content. If you have the required license in the SAP Marketplace you will also be supported in downloading the XI content of your choice from the Integration Content Hub.

Do explore - https://cloudintegration.hana.ondemand.com - and send in your feedback.