Managing Supplier Master Data in an Integrated System Landscape
Effective supplier master data management in a system landscape with multiple back-end systems is essential to the success of your organization. To keep track of all changes and to ensure that your supplier master data remains consistent throughout all systems, you can set up your system landscape and communication between systems in various ways. You can choose to use either the buy side of SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management, an SAP ERP system, or a Master Data Governance (MDG) system as the central system for managing and distributing supplier master data.
Note
Depending on the deployment option, some restrictions apply. For example, you cannot deploy SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management on top of SAP ERP and on top of MDG in the same client. For more information, see the Master Guide for SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management on the SAP Service Marketplace at http://service.sap.com/slc-inst
.
Delayed Update Mode
The delayed update mode is a mechanism that stores and merges change information in the SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management system until the data is transferred, and that ensures data consistency between systems. It is the default transfer mode if SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management is connected to a central supplier master data system, for example, a Master Data Governance (MDG) system or a leading SAP ERP system. The changed supplier master data is transferred only when the scheduled report Transfer Supplier Master Data (Delayed Update) is run. The complete supplier master data is sent, not only the change information. If the transfer is not successful, you can fall back on the change information tables.
If SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management is not connected to a central supplier master data system, only changed supplier master data is immediately distributed to the connected back-end systems. Contrary to the delayed update mode, there is a risk of data loss in case of unsuccessful transfer.
Note
You can choose to activate the delayed update mode when SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management is not connected to a central supplier master data system. You do this in Customizing for SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management under 
Buy Side
Basic Settings for SAP Supplier Lifecycle Management
Supplier Integration
Activate Delayed Update of Supplier Master Data
.
In addition, you must run report Reload Suppliers from Connected Systems
(/SRMSMC/RELOAD_SUPPLIERS
) first.