Business Partner Conversion
SAP ECC System
Implementation highlights
- Business Partner Conversion 'in time' and 'in budget'
- Error-free conversion and smooth system operation after conversion
- Creation of a basis for EWM and TM implementation under ECC
- Significant improvement in readiness for the upcoming S/4 project
Together with CONSILIO, we implemented the Business Partner Conversion 'in time' and 'in budget'. Through the elaborated setup of the Business Partner, we were not only able to contribute to the ongoing logistics project, but at the same time increase the readiness for the upcoming S/4HANA conversion.
Initial Situation
An important part of the S/4HANA conversion is the changeover to the SAP Business Partner, also called Business Partner or BP. In order to simplify an S/4 brownfield project at this point and reduce complexity, this conversion must take place in advance in the ECC system.
In addition, the Business Partner can already play a role under ECC, for example in the introduction of Extended Warehouse Management (EWM) and / or Transportation Management (TM).
The implementation of these two systems, which is already underway, as well as the importance for the S/4HANA project, led Uvex to introduce the SAP Business Partner and to have CONSILIO support them, starting with the conceptual design, through the technical implementation, and all the way to going live.
Why already in the „old“ ECC system? Although the SAP Business Partner is not a mandatory requirement until S/4HANA, the conversion can and must already take place in ECC.
Otherwise, a technical upgrade to S/4HANA is not possible. Vendors, customers and contact persons will continue to be created via the familiar transactions in ECC. The changeover has no impact on an end user, as the business partner is only created and updated in the background. If, for example, the master record of a customer is changed, the business partner is also changed accordingly. This happens technically in the background and does not mean any change to the system externally
Challenge
As part of the SAP EWM and TM implementation project already underway, it was decided to replicate the business partner from ECC to the new logistics systems so that the same BP number can be used across systems. Replication of suppliers and customers is not sufficient here, as EWM only knows the object of the business partner.
Due to this, it was decided in mid-2021 together with CONSILIO to convert the business partner within a first sandbox. This conversion was carried out „quick & dirty“, without prior master data cleansing, in order to estimate the general effects on ECC, EWM and TM.
Subsequently, a business partner concept was developed, which on the one hand met the requirements of the current system landscape and already all requirements of the future S/4HANA system.
The most important goal was to ensure that both the current customer and supplier numbers were reflected in the new business partner number. In order to keep the project duration as short as possible, on the one hand the necessary master data cleansing was carried out on the productive system, which is relevant for a BP conversion. This is an important topic in which the specialist departments must also be involved.
Secondly, another sandbox was converted in parallel, followed by the development and test system. The productive conversion was then carried out for 750,000 master records within a runtime of 24 hours. During this time, only no vendor or customer master records could be created or changed. Further effects on the running operation do not occur during such a conversion.
Project goals
- Introduction of the Business Partner to set the course for EWM and TM implementation
- Business Partner setup under ECC that is also valid and functional under S/4HANA
- Error-free conversion and smooth system operation after the conversion
Function and advantage of the solution
After the completed Customer Vendor Integration (CVI), Uvex benefi ts from an improved readiness for the subsequent S/4 project. The term Customer Vendor Integration is used synonymously with Business Partner Conversion and describes the permanent update between business partners and classic ERP vendor and customer.
As soon as S/4HANA is implemented, the business partners as well as corresponding vendors and customers are created in the background via the CVI with the new transaction „BP“ – thus vice versa as under ECC.
Basically, vendor and customer master records are kept in the old tables in addition to the new business partner data, but maintained via the central transaction BP for management and standardization.
CONSILIO supported Uvex throughout all project steps. Starting with a basic introduction to the topic of business partners, the creation of the concept and the conversion of all systems, all the way to explaining the causes of errors in master records. The master records were cleaned up by Uvex. Thanks to the smooth cooperation of both parties, the conversion went smoothly and without any problems
uvex Winter Holding GmbH & Co. KG
- Industry sector: Protective Clothing and Equipment
- Business sector: Production and distribution of protection and safety products for work, sport and leisure
- Web: www.uvex.de
- Solution: Business Partner Conversion in SAP ERP
- Consulting partner: CONSILIO GmbH
