Question:
Hello all,
In my project, about 100 various interfaces are expected to be used, most of them from/to an external system (IQship) to/from the SAP, the others from/to 3-4 other systems.
Currently the customer uses Mercator as an interface tool for EDI to the legacy systems.
I will appreciate any assitance/tips with regard to the use of Mercator with SAP.
Thanks,
Dani
Answer:
Hi,
Hundred...wish you a good luck.
By the way, the maintenance of code conversion will be a matter in a long run. (e.g. external customer code v.s. SAP customer code)
I would prefer having all the conversion tables in SAP by creating addon tables, so that you can use SAP's transfer requests to maintain conversions.
No, I haven't actually did it in productive environment, though I'm sure Mercator can access SAP tables to acquire conversions.
But it would be slow in speed...
T.Yamagiwa
Answer:
Hallo,
if you have 100 interfaces, you may consider using SAP XI (Exchange Infrastructure), as the integration knowledge for SAP systems is already available in XI Repository (like IDoc and BAPI structures) In this case it may be a real time saver... Some studies from Gartner etc talk about a 50% reduced development time for SAP integration.
If you need any more information on XI, don't hesitate to contact me and also consider looking at the SAP service marketplace http://service.sap.com/xi
Best Regards
Jane
Answer:
Personally I would not use Mercator... It was recently acquired by ascential - it's strength was never SAP integration but more on the finacial data transformation (FIX, SWIFT, etc)
Take a look at some adapter vendors out there:
http://www.librados.com
http://www.inservo.com
are two examples that provide BAPI/RFC/ALE/iDoc/XML interfaces into SAP without the heavy lifting needed with Mercator.
Answer:
For so many interfaces, you may consider using something designed specifically to manage interfaces within SAP. If you need another tool, take a look at http://www.amprofessionals.com/keyareas/interfacemngmnt.html. This is an SAP-centric tool certified by SAP for interface management. It can handle any standard interface type and this is not middleware like other solutions.