June 2021 Request Standard Edition Admin Summary
Initial Post
Release Note Summaries
Authentication
**Ongoing** Deprecation of HMAC and Migration to SAML v2 and the SSO Self-Service ToolThese changes are part of the SAP Concur continued commitment to maintaining secure authentication.
SAP Concur support for Hash-Based Message Authentication Code (HMAC) is being deprecated. Travel Management Companies (TMCs) and SAP Concur personnel are currently assisting customers who use HMAC to migrate to SAP Concur SAML v2 SSO (SAML v2).
SAP Concur provides a Single Sign-On self-service option that enables client admins to setup their SAML v2 connections without involving an SAP Concur support representative.
For more information about the Single Sign-On self-service option, refer to the Shared: Single Sign-On Overview (English Only) and the Shared: Single Sign-On Setup Guide (English Only).
The HMAC deprecation includes two phases:
PHASE I:
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Clients must have an identity provider (IdP) or a custom SAML 2.0 compliant solution.
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Clients begin testing authentication using SAML v2.
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TMCs prepare to onboard new SAP Concur clients to SAML v2.
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Customers will be notified via release notes about the official deprecation date of HMAC. As of the official deprecation date, no new clients can be onboarded using HMAC; new clients must be onboarded to SAML v2.
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Existing clients using HMAC must migrate to SAML v2.
PHASE II:
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TMCs have migrated all existing SAP Concur clients from the HMAC service to SAML v2.
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The HMAC service is deprecated. Phase II is targeted to end mid-year in 2021.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change provides better security and improved support for users logging in to SAP Concur products and services.
File Transfer Updates
**Ongoing** Mandatory SFTP with SSH Key AuthenticationThis release note is intended for technical staff responsible for file transmissions with SAP Concur products. For SAP Concur customers and vendors participating in data exchange through various secure file transfer protocols, SAP is making changes that provide greater security for those file transfers.
As of April 10, 2021, non-SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol) protocols and SFTP password authentication are not allowed to connect to SAP Concur for file transfers:
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Non-SFTP file transfer accounts must switch to SFTP with SSH Key Authentication.
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SFTP file transfer accounts that use password authentication must switch to SSH key authentication.
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SFTP password reset requests require the client to provide an SSH key for authentication.
On April 12, 2021, SAP started disabling non-compliant file transfer connections. The process of disabling non-compliant accounts will continue throughout 2021. If you have multiple file transfer connections configured, this change applies to all of your file transfer connections.
This announcement pertains to the following file transfer DNS endpoints:
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st.concursolutions.com
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st-eu.concursolutions.com
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vs.concursolutions.com
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vs.concurcdc.cn
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These changes provide greater security for file transfers.
**Ongoing** SAP Concur Legacy File Move MigrationThis release note is intended for the technical staff responsible for file transmissions with SAP Concur. For our customers and vendors participating in data exchange, SAP Concur is maintaining our file transfer subsystem to provide greater security for those file transfers.
SAP Concur is in the process of migrating entities that currently use a legacy process for moving files to a more efficient and secure file routing process that relies on APIs.
Clients whose entities are currently configured to use the legacy process will be migrated to the more efficient process sometime between now and July 31, 2021. After they are migrated to the more efficient process, clients will see the following improvement:
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With the legacy process, clients had to wait for the file move schedule to run at a specified time. With the more efficient and secure API-based process, extracts and other outbound files from SAP Concur will be available within the existing overnight processing period shortly after the files are created.
This announcement pertains to the following file transfer DNS endpoints:
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st.concursolutions.com
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These changes provide greater security and efficiency for file transfers.
Rotating PGP Key Available for File TransfersFiles transferred to SAP Concur products must be encrypted with the SAP Concur public PGP key, concursolutionsrotate.asc.
concursolutionsrotate.asc
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Key file is available in client’s root folder
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Key ID 40AC5D35
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RSA 4096-bit signing and encryption subkey
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Key expires every 2 years
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Client is responsible for replacing the key before it expires
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Next expiry date: September 4, 2022
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SAP Concur plans to replace the current rotating public PGP key in the client’s root folder 90 days before the expiration date
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The SAP Concur legacy PGP key (key ID D4D727C0) remains supported for existing clients but will be deprecated in the future.
SAP Concur strongly recommends that clients use the more secure rotating public PGP key for file transfers. To facilitate the use of the more secure rotating public PGP key for file transfers, SAP Concur added the key to existing client’s home folders on Friday, January 15, 2021.
This announcement pertains to the following file transfer DNS endpoints:
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st.concursolutions.com
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mft-us.concursolutions.com
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vs.concursolutions.com
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st-eu.concursolutions.com
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mft-eu.concursolutions.com
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The rotating public PGP key provides greater security for file transfers.
Localization
Translations for Cash Advance TermWith the June release, SAP Concur is changing the following terms in the Brazilian Portuguese version of the SAP Concur user interface to bring consistency in translation of the term “Cash Advance”:
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English Term |
Current BR Portuguese Term |
Updated BR Portuguese Term |
|---|---|---|
|
Cash Advances |
Adiantamentos de viagem |
Adiantamentos |
|
Cash Advance |
Adiantamento em espécie |
Adiantamento |
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: These revisions provide a more accurate translation and improved user experience in Brazilian Portuguese.
Miscellaneous
Updated Naming Convention for Sub-URLsAs part of our overall cloud platform strategy, SAP is implementing a more consistent naming convention for the URLs used to connect to SAP Concur solutions, based on data center. Users will continue to be able to access www.concursolutions.com and will be routed automatically to the correct URL or single sign-on (SSO) as part of their sign-in process.
For more information about our overall cloud platform strategy, refer to the SAP Concur Cloud Platform Strategy FAQ (English Only).
No customer data is planned to leave the North America or EMEA regional data center to which it is assigned at any time before, during or after this change.
TARGETED FOR MID-JUNE 2021
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SAP will deploy us.concursolutions.com. It is functionally identical to the existing www.concursolutions.com.
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SAP will deploy eu.concursolutions.com. It is functionally identical to the existing eu1.concursolutions.com.
TARGETED FOR MID-JUNE 2021
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SAP will deploy us2.concursolutions.com and eu2.concursolutions.com and plans to use these URLs for future customer migration to the AWS cloud platform.
For more information, refer to the SAP Concur Cloud Platform Strategy FAQ(English Only).
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SAP will update www.concursolutions.com to automatically redirect users to the appropriate URL or SSO. Users will be directed to their established home data center (for example, eu.concursolutions.com, eu2.concursolutions.com, us.concursolutions.com, or us2.concursolutions.com). No customer data is planned to leave the North America or EMEA regional data center to which it is assigned at any time before, during or after this change.
RESTRICTED ACCESS / ALLOW LISTS
In rare cases, clients who restrict or filter access from their corporate network to specific URLs, might need to update their configuration to enable users to connect to the new URLs. For example, clients who have an allow list configured, might need to add the new URLs to their list. The information in this release note should be provided to your technical resource so that they can take appropriate action to allow access to these new URLs.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: This change supports future URL consistency across all global regions, and a central URL that redirects users to the appropriate data center.
NextGen UI for Concur Request
**Ongoing** Updated User Interface (UI) for Concur Request End UsersThe continued evolution of the Concur Request solution user interface experience is the result of thoughtful design and research that provides a modern, intuitive, and streamlined experience for the request process.
Concur Request customers will have the ability to preview and then opt in to the NextGen UI before the mandatory move.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The result is the next generation of the Concur Request user interface designed to provide a modern, consistent, and streamlined user experience. This technology not only provides an enhanced user interface, but also allows us to react more quickly to customer requests to meet changing needs as they happen.
SAP Concur Platform
**Ongoing** Retirement and Decommission of Existing Concur Request APIs (v1.0, v3.0, v3.1) (June 1, 2021)As of May 31, 2021, the existing Concur Request APIs (v1.0, v3.0 and v3.1) are deprecated. On June 1, 2021, SAP began retiring these APIs in accordance with the SAP Concur API Lifecycle & Deprecation Policy. These APIs are replaced by the Concur Request v4 APIs. SAP will no longer support these APIs after retirement.
Decommissioning of the v1.0, v3.0, and v3.1 APIs will start three months after retiring the APIs. The specific dates for decommissioning are dependent on the individual client's API migration.
API Timeline for v1.0, v3.0, v3.1:
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Deprecation – March 1, 2020 – May 31, 2021
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Retirement – June 1, 2021 – November 30, 2021
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Decommission – starts after 3 months of inactivity at the retired state
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: The Concur Request APIs v1.0, v3.0 and v3.1 only support the previous authentication method, which is not best security practice and does not meet the Oauth2 standards. In addition, the previous versions of the Concur Request APIs provided limited possibilities for moving a Request through the approval workflow, as well as managing custom simple & connected list fields. These issues are resolved with the new Concur Request v4 APIs.
In addition, SAP has run a backward compatibility project between the current Concur Request APIs and the new Concur Request v4 APIs (not iso-compatibility) in order to have the vast majority of use cases managed in the previous versions also be managed in the Concur Request v4 APIs.
Security
**Ongoing** Changes to Some Email SubdomainsSAP is adopting the Domain-based Message Authentication (DMARC) email security protocol for all email sent from SAP. As a result, the email addresses for some email sent from SAP Concur organizations will no longer be sent from the @sap.com root domain, but will instead be sent from a subdomain of sap.com, such as @example.sap.com where “example” is the subdomain.
If your organization maintains an allow list for email addresses, you can update your allow list to include email from the following domains to ensure that you receive emails sent from the sap.com root domain and subdomains of the sap.com root domain:
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@info.sap.com
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@mail.sap.com
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@*sap.com
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If your internal configuration allows it, adding @*sap.com can minimize the need for future updates by allowing all emails from the sap.com domain and from subdomains of the sap.com domain. For example, if your allow list includes @*sap.com you do not need to add @info.sap.com or @mail.sap.com because @*sap.com encompasses those subdomains.
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The following types of email communications from SAP Concur solutions are not impacted by this change:
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1:1 e-mail communication that you have with your SAP Concur account team or other SAP representatives. These e-mails will continue to come from @sap.com.
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System e-mails (for example expense report approvals and travel bookings) that come from concursolutions.com, tripit.com, or other SAP Concur products and solutions
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SAP Concur support updates (such as case notifications)
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: DMARC compliance provides better security for emails sent from SAP to its customers.
Web Services Administration
**Ongoing** Application Connector Username and Password Length Requirements UpdatedBeginning on August 31, 2021, the length of the username and password associated with an application connector must be at least 10 characters long and not more than 50 characters long. To avoid disruption of callouts through application connections, usernames and passwords that do not meet these requirements must be updated before August 31, 2021.
Application connection usernames and passwords can be updated by an administrator with the Company Admin or Web Services Admin role.
Business Purpose / Client Benefit: Enforcing password and username length restrictions improves the security standards for callouts made through the application connector.
Planned Change Summaries
The items in this section are summaries of the changes targeted for future releases. SAP reserves the right to postpone implementation of – or completely remove – any enhancement/change mentioned here.
There are no planned changes this month.
Client Notifications
Accessibility Updates
SAP implements changes to better meet current Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Information about accessibility-related changes made to SAP Concur solutions is published on a quarterly basis. You can review the quarterly updates on the Accessibility Updates (English Only) page.
SAP Concur Non-Affiliated Subprocessors
The list of non-affiliated subprocessors is available here: SAP Concur list of Subprocessors (English Only)
Monthly Browser Certifications
Monthly browser certifications, both current and planned, are available with the other SAP Concur monthly release notes, accessible from What's New - Standard Edition
