Connection of External Systems 

Use

The Account Management system is currently being technically prepared to connect additional systems so that the following data can be managed externally:

·        Accounts

·        Business partner

The aim is to be able to connect other systems remotely to the Account Management system in future.  You will be able to use both SAP components such as the SAP Business Partner for Financial Services and other comparable applications (external systems) as remote systems.

Technology

External systems are connected by way of a corresponding proxy that contains a series of  Business Add-Ins (BAdIs). The implementations of this BAdI supplied by SAP enable the usual use of existing systems as standard.

·        If you do not want to use an external system, do not change the BAdIs.

·        If you want to use a different system, you must create your own implementations for the BAdIs. Within these implementations, you can then implement communication between Account Management and the external system.

We recommend you leave the standard implementations unchanged. See also the Constraints section.

Usage Examples

External Business Partner System

For performance reasons you use two account managing systems: one system with Account Management (AM system) only for accounts based on the product GIRO (checking) and a second AM system only for accounts based on the product SPAR (savings). So that you do not have to keep on duplicating the business partner data from the first AM system into the second AM system, you can connect a business partner system externally that both AM systems can access in parallel.

External Account Managing System

You want to manage contracts and their participants in multiple systems, for example in two AM systems or in one AM system and a comparable application (external system).

Linked Accounts (Planned)

If you use the Linked Accounts (BLCA) contract element, you can implement an interface between the first account-managing system (Account Management) in which the card contract is managed and a second account-managing system (another AM system or a comparable component) in which the participant accounts are managed.

Constraints

External Business Partner System

It is already technically possible to connect a business partner system externally.

For performance reasons, we recommend you manage the SAP Business Partner for Financial Services (BP-FS) and Account Management jointly in one system

External Account Managing System

It will not be possible to connect third-party external systems to Account Management until a later release. The same applies to managing contracts and their participants in multiple AM systems.

Effects on Customizing

External Business Partner System

You (potentially) connect an external business partner-managing system to Account Management by means of the business partner proxy that consists of a series of Business Add-Ins (BAdIs). The implementations of these BAdIs supplied SAP currently allow you to use the SAP Business Partner for Financial Services (BP-FS) in the usual way as standard.

The following IMG activities are available in the Customizing for Account Management  under Basic Settings ®  Business Partner Connection ®  Business Add-Ins (BAdIs) ® General BAdIs ®  Business Partner Proxy:

·        BAdI: Create Aliases

·        BAdI: Goto Business Partner Display

·        BAdI: Import Customizing for Business Partner Roles

·        BAdI: Mapping Service

·        BAdI: Business Partner Search Help

·        BAdI: Read Business Partner Data

·        BAdI: Check Restrictability of Business Partner Roles

External Account-Managing System

You (potentially) connect an external account-managing system to Account Management by means of the account proxy that consists of a series of Business Add-Ins (BAdIs). The default implementations of these BAdIs supplied by SAP currently enable the usual use of existing systems as standard.

To ensure communication between the account-managing systems, the Contract Category (BCA_DTE_MEMB_OBJECT_CATEGORY) and Contract Type (BCA_DTE_MEMB_OBJECT_TYPE) fields have already been introduced. You use them to map data in the AM system with that of the remote system.

The following IMG activities are available in the Customizing for Account Management under Contract Management ® Card ® Linked Accounts:

·        Define Contract Types

·        Assign Contract Types to Keys

·        Define Account Identification for Messages

The following IMG activity is relevant under Product Management ®  Product Definition ® Account Products:

·        Assign Contract Types to Account Products

Note:

If you create a new client, you must define contract types and then assign a at least one contract key to each new contract type in IMG activity Assign Contract Types to Keys. This also applies if you only use one AM system to manage accounts.

We recommend that you copy the sample Customizing supplied by SAP.

See also

·        For more information about the proxies, see the documentation for the BAdIs in the Implementation Guide of the respective component.

·        For more information about the new fields, see the documentation for these fields.

·        For more information about connecting external systems, see the Technical Documentation for Account Management (FS-AM)under Concepts and Guidelines  ®  Connection of External Systems.