SAP EM Knowledge Bites 14 - SAP EM integration with SAP Business Workflow

In my previous blog I spoke about the benefits as they pertained to the Order to Cash process. Now it’s time to dive in to a little detail on how to configure certain functionality. 1st up is the integration with SAP Business Workflow…

First a couple of notes before we get started:

• SAP Business Workflow is tightly integrated with SAP Event Management
• Several scenarios come with pre-delivered content for creating workflows
• Can deliver workflows to uers in several ways:
  • SAP Business Workplace
  • Universal Work List (UWL) / Portal

How does the process look?

SAP EM detects exception –> Launch workflow – Take action – “Do work” (OR Send alert – Notification) –> Update status – For reporting

What do we get out of it?

• Visibility in SAP EM: Status available to all   <– People see an issue is in play
• Workflow: Real time notification with the right information to the right person with no wait time between issue detection and launching corrective action <– An agent is correcting the issue

E.g. Purchase Order Acknowledgement  with Qty discrepancy: Create PO –> Create PO Acknowledgement for qty < PO –> SAP EM detects the discrepancy and launches corrective action with workflow

Development Steps – SAP ECC

The development steps needed are as follows:

• STEP 1 – Create the Business Object Event in ECC (transaction SWO1)
  • BUS2012 (Purchase Order)
    • Event: ACK

• STEP 2 – Create the workflow (transaction PFTC)
  • The BO event ‘ACK’ will trigger the workflow

Configuration Steps – SAP ECC

• STEP 1 – Activate the SAP EM / workflow event linkage (transaction SWETYPV)
  • Generates the BO event that will ultimately launch the workflow

• STEP 2 – Activate the BO event linkage (transaction SWETYPV)
  • Example shown below: Object BUS2012 event ACK launches the workflow WS90000001

Configuration Steps – SAP EM

• STEP 1 – Create the Workflow Activity ID
  • Link BUS2012 (Purchase Order) and  BO Event: ACK
  • Link PO number as the Business Object Key
  • Create and Link the Ack qty as a parameter

• STEP 2 – Update the Rule Set
  • Call activity WORKFLOW_START (connected to Activity ID created in STEP 1)

Seeing it in action

• Task list below shows WORKFLOW_START activity was successfully started

• SWEL shows the event trace with 2 entries. The 1st shows START_WORKFLOW event triggered which starts the 2nd event BUS2012 –> ACK which triggered workflow WS90000001 which appears in the agents workflow inbox (transaction SBWP)
  • Clicking the object in the workflow takes you to ME23N to view the PO

Simple to do and Very, Very powerful, …