Show TOC

Function documentationUploading Products to SAP ERP

 

The upload function allows you to upload SAP CRM product data to SAP ERP. This may be necessary because the data is required in SAP ERP for a number of logistical processes such as procurement, inventory management, billing, financial accounting, controlling.

Prerequisites

You have specified for each product type whether products of this type can be transferred to SAP ERP in Customizing for Customer Relationship Management, by choosing Start of the navigation path Master Data Next navigation step Products Next navigation step Settings for Product Type Next navigation step Allow Upload for a Product Type End of the navigation path.

You can also enter a base unit of measure in case a base unit of measure was not specified in the product data. If financing products are to be uploaded, you must enter a base unit of measure, as a base unit of measure cannot be specified in the product data for financing products.

Features

You start the upload of product data to SAP ERP manually from the Product page by clicking Send to ERP.

Data Relevant for the Upload

The data relevant for the upload is derived from the following set types, according to the product type:

  • Set types for materials

    Product header data (COMM_PRODUCT) Basic data on materials (COMM_PR_MAT) Descriptions (COMM_PR_SHTEXT) Long texts (COMM_PR_LGTEXT) Units of measure (COMM_PR_UNIT) Tax data (CRMM_PR_TAX) Purchasing data (BBPM_PR_GENERAL) Sales data – order (CRMM_PR_SALESA) Sales data – pricing (CRMM_PR_SALESG)

  • Set types for services

    Product header data (COMM_PRODUCT) Descriptions (COMM_PR_SHTEXT) Long texts (COMM_PR_LGTEXT) Units of measure (COMM_PR_UNIT) Tax data (CRMM_PR_TAX) Purchasing data (BBPM_PR_GENERAL) Business transaction parameters (CRMM_PR_BTR) Sales data – order (CRMM_PR_SALESA) Sales data – pricing (CRMM_PR_SALESG)

Creation of Product as Material/Article in SAP ERP

When a product is uploaded to SAP ERP, it can be created as a material or article, depending on whether the SAP ERP component is being used as a retail system. One material or article can be created for a product for each logical system.

Not all data required to create materials or articles in SAP ERP is available in SAP CRM. This means that the missing data needs to be entered in the upload dialog box. For more information, see Settings for Product Upload.

Once all the necessary data has been entered, the product data is transferred to the specified system using synchronous RFC (Remote Function Call). In SAP ERP, the data is processed using the ALE interface available (materials using the message type MATMAS, articles using the message type ARTMAS). No physical IDocs are generated in the IDoc database, but the product data is made available in IDoc format and passed directly to the ALE inbound module.

If the upload was performed successfully, this is recorded in SAP CRM in a mapping table. This mapping table contains the following information:

  • Which product was transferred to SAP ERP

  • To which ERP system the product was transferred

  • Under which material/article number the product was created in SAP ERP

  • The material type, industry sector, and material group with which the material was created in SAP ERP

  • The material type, material group, and material category with which the article was created in SAP ERP

  • Flag indicating whether another upload is necessary

Checks Performed Before the Upload

Before the upload can take place, the system uses the RFC destination to check whether the product involved has already been transferred to the system concerned, or whether a material/article number derived from the product ID is already being used in SAP ERP:

  1. A material/article is created in SAP ERP without internal number assignment

    If the material/article number is not assigned internally, the product ID is used as the material/article number.

    1. The mapping table does not contain an entry for the product and the selected ERP system, and in the ERP system there is no material/article whose material/article number corresponds to the product ID. This is the usual case when materials/articles are created. The material/article can be created in SAP ERP without any difficulty, and the product ID is used as the material/article number.

    2. The mapping table does not contain an entry for the product and the selected ERP system, but in the ERP system there is already a material/article with a material/article number corresponding to the product ID. If this is the case, you are informed about the situation in a dialog box. You can decide whether the data of the material/article in SAP ERP should be overridden by the product data, or whether a new material/article should be created in SAP ERP using internal number assignment.

  2. A material/article is created in SAP ERP with internal number assignment

    If the material/article number is assigned internally, the product ID is ignored as a potential material/article number.

    1. The mapping table does not contain an entry for the product and the selected ERP system, and in the ERP system there is no material/article with a material/article number corresponding to the product ID.

      If you decide not to use the product ID as the material/article number, the material/article is created in SAP ERP with a material/article number assigned internally. You will not be able to derive the product ID used in SAP CRM from the material/article number generated in SAP ERP.

    2. The mapping table does not contain an entry for the product and the selected ERP system, but in the ERP system there is already a material/article with a material/article number corresponding to the product ID.

      If this is the case, you are informed about the situation in a dialog box. You can decide whether you do want to use the product ID as the material/article number, instead of internal number assignment, and overwrite the existing material/article in SAP ERP.

  3. A material/article is changed in SAP ERP

    1. The mapping table contains an entry for the product and the selected ERP system, and the data contained in the mapping table (material type, material group, industry sector, material category) corresponds to the data of the material/article in SAP ERP.

      This is the usual case when a product is changed. The material/article can be changed in SAP ERP without any difficulty.

    2. The mapping table contains an entry for the product and the selected ERP system, but the data contained in the mapping table no longer corresponds to the data of the material/article in SAP ERP. For example, the material type or material group has been changed.

      You are informed about this situation in a dialog box. The material/article data is changed in SAP ERP on the basis of this product data. In addition, the data in the mapping table in SAP CRM is updated on the basis of the current material/article data.

    3. The mapping table contains an entry for the product and the selected ERP system, but there is no longer a material/article in the ERP system with the material/article number contained in the mapping table.

      If the material/article was reorganized in SAP ERP, for example, and therefore deleted from the system, the entry still exists in the mapping table. You are informed about the situation in a dialog box and have the option of creating the material/article again in SAP ERP.

Delta Uploads and Downloads

Any materials or articles created or changed in SAP ERP are downloaded directly to SAP CRM if the delta download is activated or an initial download takes place subsequently. So that this data is not imported into CRM Middleware or SAP CRM, the data is discarded in CRM inbound processing if the mapping table indicates that this material already exists as a product in SAP CRM and was uploaded to the specified ERP system. The downloaded material/article data is not passed to the flow logic or mobile clients.

A material/article created by an upload may be changed in SAP ERP. As SAP CRM is the main system for creating CRM-specific data, the CRM product data must not be affected by any changes to the material/article data in SAP ERP. However, it may be necessary to modify or extend a material/article in SAP ERP so that processes such as procurement and inventory management can take place.

If a product is changed in SAP CRM after the initial upload, the changed product data is automatically transferred to all ERP systems to which the product was uploaded manually. The mapping table containing all the material/article numbers created for the products is used to trigger the upload. This means that the data in SAP ERP does not have to be adjusted by a manual upload.

If an automatic upload needs to be performed due to data having been changed, the mapping table is used to derive the data required for the upload dialog box, meaning that this screen does not have to be processed.

If a particular product could not be uploaded automatically to SAP ERP without errors occurring, the indicator UPLOAD_NECESSARY is set in the mapping table. Once the errors have been corrected, the upload should be repeated for all the upload processes that failed. To do this, either schedule the report COM_PRODUCT_UPLOAD_BATCH periodically in the background or start it manually, when necessary. You can also perform a manual upload at any time, if you prefer.

If product data is changed using the API interface, an automatic upload is not performed. The indicator UPLOAD_NECESSARY is merely set in the mapping table and the upload can be performed later using the report COM_PRODUCT_UPLOAD_BATCH.

The messages issued in SAP ERP during the upload processing are stored in the application log in SAP ERP. A status message in SAP CRM indicates which application log number contains the relevant message data in SAP ERP.

Constraints

  • Only the product data itself is transferred to SAP ERP. Additional data, such as classifications, relationships, conditions, is not uploaded. The sales statuses are also not uploaded (for more information, see Note 495764).

  • If a product is changed in SAP CRM after the initial upload, individual changes to data segments containing more than one data record are not automatically uploaded to SAP ERP. These data segments include set types such as units of measure, and texts such as sales texts.

  • The upload can be performed for all product types currently available. However, in the case of service and financing products, you should note that they are created as service materials/articles in SAP ERP and not in the form of service or financing master data. For service and financing products therefore, only the material type DIEN and material types derived from this are allowed when new material/article master data is created.

  • The upload only applies to products which were created in SAP CRM. This means the original system must be the SAP CRM system. Provided the SAP CRM system was defined as the original system during a catalog import, products imported into SAP CRM using the catalog interface can also be transferred to SAP ERP.

  • This function cannot be used to transfer several products at once to SAP ERP. If products were created in SAP CRM as the result of a mass import, using the catalog interface for example, these products can only be uploaded individually to SAP ERP.