Travel Management, Third-Party Travel Planning

Technical Data
Technical Name of Business Function	FIN_TRAVEL_PLANNING_EXTERNAL
Type of Business Function	Enterprise business function
Available As Of	SAP enhancement package 4 SP04 for SAP ERP 6.0
Technical Usage	Human Capital Management
Application Component	Travel Management (FI-TV)
Directly Dependent Business Function Requiring Activation in Addition	Travel Management (FIN_TRAVEL_1)

This business function enables you to use third-party online booking systems for booking travel services instead of using SAP Travel Planning.

This business function improves and simplifies the travel management process for customers who use SAP ERP 6.0 in their back-end system.

If, in addition to the SAP system, you have used a third-party online booking system up to now for your travel planning, the implementation of this business function offers the following benefits:

Optimization of the travel management process
Savings of direct and indirect costs
Reduction of manual interfaces
Reduced costs for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance, which is provided by SAP Expense Reports

Constraints

The new features are available only with the Web Dynpro ABAP-based user interface of SAP Travel Management, which was introduced with the Travel Management business function (FIN_TRAVEL_1).

Integration

You can execute the Web Dynpro ABAP-based user interface in the following environments:

SAP NetWeaver Portal
SAP NetWeaver Business Client
Web browsers

You can send the general data from an SAP travel request to a third-party online booking system and transfer booking data from a third-party online booking system to an SAP expense report. You also can make calling a third-party online booking system dependent on the status of the travel request.

GetThere Integration

This business function provides the following features for integrating the GetThere online booking system by Sabre:

An example implementation of the Business Add-In BAdI: Define Exit for Third-Party Travel Planning, which illustrates how the GetThere online booking system is integrated
You can copy the example implementation and adapt it to meet your requirements.
An example implementation of the Business Add-In BAdI: Mapping for TravelPlanningArrangementEmployeeNotification, which extends the mapping of master data to meet the requirements of GetThere

You can copy the example implementation and adapt it to meet your requirements.

The integration of GetThere requires that the user names in GetThere are the same as those in SAP NetWeaver Portal.

Prerequisites

You have installed the following components as of the specified version (or higher):

Type of Component	Component	Only Needed for the Following Functions
Software component	EA-HRGxx 604 and SAP_HRGxx 604
Portal content	Business Package for Employee Self-Service 1.41 SP 04

For you to be able to use the business function, the following criteria must be met:

You have activated the Travel Management Extension (EA-TRV) enterprise extension in your back-end system.
You have configured the Travel Management (FI-TV) application component.
You have activated the Travel Management (FIN_TRAVEL_1) business function in your back-end system.
You have activated the Travel Management, Third-Party Travel Planning (FIN_TRAVEL_PLANNING_EXTERNAL) business function in your back-end system.
If you use SAP NetWeaver Portal, you need to have installed the Business Package for Enterprise Self-Service 1.41 SP 04.

Features

This business function contains the following new and enhanced features:

Redirection of navigation in the Web Dynpro ABAP-based user interface

Before you can integrate a third-party online booking system into SAP Travel Management, you need to implement the new Business Add-In BAdI: Define Exit for Third-Party Travel Planning. The main purpose of this BAdI is to redirect all navigation links that point to SAP Travel Planning to a third-party online booking system. The BAdI constructs the URL for accessing the third-party online booking system. The BAdI uses URL parameters to send the data for identifying the user and the SAP system. When applicable, the BAdI also uses URL parameters to send the trip number and the data of an underlying travel request.

The example implementation PTRM_EXT_TP_GETTHERE shows the integration of the GetThere online booking system. You can copy the example implementation and adapt it to meet your requirements.

For more information, see Customizing for Travel Management under Start of the navigation path Travel Planning Next navigation step Master Data Technical Control Parameters for Travel Planning Access to External Reservation Systems Access Parameters for External Reservation Systems BAdI: Define Exit for Third-Party Travel Planning End of the navigation path .

Replication of SAP Travel Management master data in a third-party online booking system

You can use the enterprise service Travel Planning Arrangement Out with service operation TravelPlanningArrangementEmployeeNotification_Out to provide master data from SAP Travel Management to third-party online booking systems. You can use the Business Add-In BAdI: Mapping for TravelPlanningArrangementEmployeeNotification to control the mapping of the outbound interface.

This business function includes the example implementation PTRM_SE_TPAEE_GETTHERE, which adapts the mapping of master data to meet the requirements of GetThere. You can copy the example implementation and adapt it to meet your requirements.

For more information about this enterprise service, see SAP Library on SAP Help Portal at help.sap.com Start of the navigation path SOA Next navigation step Enterprise Services for SAP ERP Enhancement Package 2 for SAP ERP 6.0 Travel Management Travel Planning Arrangement Out End of the navigation path .

New content for SAP NetWeaver Portal

SAP NetWeaver Portal contains a new page and a new iView, which enables the system to launch an online booking system. The Employee Self-Service role has been enhanced accordingly.

Note Note

For technical reasons, the portal content for third-party travel planning resides in the content administration of SAP NetWeaver Portal under Start of the navigation path Portal Content Next navigation step Content Provided by SAP End User Content Employee Self-Service ERP 2005 EhP2 End of the navigation path .

End of the note.

Support for Single Sign-On in SAP NetWeaver Portal

Single Sign-On (SSO) is a mechanism that spares a user the trouble of entering a password for every system he or she logs on to. With SSO, a user identifies him- or herself only once and afterwards can log on to all systems that are part of the SSO environment.

In SAP NetWeaver Portal, the system can use SSO to log on the users of SAP Travel Management automatically to a third-party online booking system.

Before you can use Single Sign-On, you need to provide the public certificate (SAPLogonTicketKeypair-cert.pse) of your SAP NetWeaver Portal for the third-party travel planning system.

For more information, see Single Sign-On to Non-SAP Systems and Applications.