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 Travel Management, Third-Party Travel Planning 2

 

Technical Data

Technical Name of Business Function

FIN_TRAVEL_PLANNING_EXTERNAL_2

Type of Business Function

Enterprise business function

Available As Of

SAP enhancement package 5 for SAP ERP 6.0

Technical Usage

Human Capital Management

Application Component

Travel Management (FI-TV)

Prerequisite Business Function

Travel Management, Third-Party Travel Planning(FIN_TRAVEL_PLANNING_EXTERNAL)

You can use this business function to use the below-mentioned new functions for travel planning in third-party online booking systems.

This business function provides the following business advantages:

  • Optimization of the travel management process

  • Reduction of manual interfaces

Constraints

The new features are available only with the Web Dynpro ABAP-based user interface of SAP Travel Management.

Integration

Integration with GetThere

You can use this business function to use the following functions for integrating the GetThere online booking system by Sabre:

  • Additional example implementations of the Business Add-In BAdI: Define Exit for Third-Party Travel Planning

  • Program for synchronizing booking data with the GetThere database

  • Integration in the approval workflow

Integration with Amadeus e-Travel Management

You can use this business function to use the following functions for integrating the Amadeus e-Travel Management online booking system:

  • An example implementation of the Business Add-In BAdI: Define Exit for Third-Party Travel Planning

  • Program for synchronizing booking data with the Amadeus e-Travel Management database

  • Integration in the approval workflow

  • Travel assistants can create third-party travel plans for employees

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 605 and SAP_HRGxx 604

    Portal content

    Business Package for Employee Self-Service 1.41 SP 04

    If you use SAP NetWeaver Portal.

  • 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.

  • You have activated this Travel Management, Third-Party Travel Planning 2 (FIN_TRAVEL_PLANNING_EXTERNAL_2) business function in your back-end system.

Features

This business function contains the following new and enhanced features:

Integration in Approval Workflow

You can use SAP Business Workflow WS77900173 to set up an approval workflow for third-party travel plans. This workflow is not activated in the standard system.

The third-party online booking system must meet the following prerequisites:

  • For new or changed bookings, the third-party booking system first sets the status to Waiting for Approval and then awaits approval or rejection from the SAP system before proceeding with the actual booking.

  • In Amadeus e-Travel Management, the users to which the status Waiting for Approval is to apply must be assigned to a relevant Amadeus e-Travel Management Community.

  • In GetThere, the users to which the status Waiting for Approval is to apply must be assigned to a relevant GetThere Site.

For the approval process, you can use the Business Workplace or, in SAP NetWeaver Portal, the universal worklist (UWL) of Manager Self-Service (MSS) with SAP Business Workflow.

When a user has created or changed a third-party booking, the system does not trigger a workflow until the booking data between the third-party online booking system and the SAP system has been synchronized. The booking data can be synchronized as follows:

  • The user refreshes his or her personal object worklist (POWL) or the travel plan query in the POWL.

  • The SAP system executes a program for synchronizing the booking data with the database of the third-party online booking system (see the "Synchronizing the Booking Data" section).

If, upon synchronizing the booking data, the system finds a third-party booking with the status Waiting for Approval, it triggers the workflow for this booking. The workflow first sends a message to the approving manager.

Once the approving manager has rejected or approved the third-party booking, the SAP system notifies the third-party online booking system (the SAP system calls the relevant Web service of the third-party online booking system).

  • If the booking is rejected, the third-party online booking system sets the booking status to Rejected, cancels the booking, and notifies the user.

  • If the booking is approved, the third-party online booking system sets the booking status to Purchase (Amadeus e-Travel Management) or Purchase PNR (GetThere), makes the actual booking, and notifies the user.

Synchronizing the Booking Data

You can use the following programs to import new and changed data from third-party online booking systems GetThere and Amadeus e-Travel Management into SAP Travel Planning:

  • Program GET_GETTHERE_PNR for synchronizing booking data with the GetThere database

    Booking data must be synchronized because the GetThere Web service (that you use to import new and changed PNR data records) only returns those PNR data records that have been changed within the last hour.

    You can continue to use program GET_SABRE_PNR to synchronize booking data with the Sabre database.

  • Program GET_ETRAVEL_PNR for synchronizing booking data with the Amadeus e-Travel Management database

Recommendation Recommendation

We recommend that you execute the program for synchronizing booking data once an hour.

End of the recommendation.
Travel Assistants Can Create Third-Party Travel Plans for Employees

Users with the Travel Assistant role can create third-party travel plans for employees in their employee list. The prerequisite for this is that you have set up the third-party online booking system for the travel assistants in the Office Find (TRVOF) feature.

When a travel assistant calls the third-party online booking system for an employee, the system logs the relevant employee on to the third-party online booking system. The travel assistant works in the third-party online booking system using the identity of the employee.

If the travel assistant makes changes for an employee in the third-party online booking system, the SAP Travel Planning form displays the name of this travel assistant as the person who last changed the data.

This function is currently available for Amadeus e-Travel Management only.

Role for SAP NetWeaver Business Client

The new role Traveler (SAP_FI_TV_WEB_TRAVELER_EXT_TP) enables users to use third-party travel planning in SAP NetWeaver Business Client. The role has all authorizations of the role Traveler (SAP_FI_TV_WEB_TRAVELER), with the following exception: When a user with this role in SAP NetWeaver Business Client starts Travel Planning, SAP NetWeaver Business Client executes a third-party travel planning solution, such as GetThere or Amadeus e-Travel Management, instead of executing SAP Travel Planning.

Additional Example Implementations

With this business function, the following example implementations of the business add-in BAdI: Define Exit for Third-Party Travel Planning (PTRM_EXTERNAL_TP_BADI_DEF) are available in the enhancement spot PTRM_EXTERNAL_TP_ENHSPOT:

  • Example implementation for the third-party online booking system GetThere

    Example implementation PTRM_EXTTP_ENHSPOT_GETTHERE_V2 uses newer Web services from GetThere to import the list of new and changed PNR data records from the GetThere database, and to read individual PNR data records from the GetThere database.

  • Example implementation for the third-party online booking system Amadeus e-Travel Management

    Example implementation PTRM_EXT_TP_E_TRAVEL illustrates how you can integrate the third-party online booking system Amadeus e-Travel Management.

You can copy the example implementations and adapt them to meet your requirements.

More Information

Third-Party Travel Planning