BCFAQ.docx

1、BCFAQSAP Business Connector (SAP BC) Frequently Asked Questions Questions General 1. What is SAP Business Connector (SAP BC)? 2. What is XML? 3. Why is XML important to my company? 4. Where does SAP BC fit in the larger picture of SAP Internet Technologies? 5. Does SAP BC replace the SAP ITS? 6. Wha

2、t is the positioning of SAP BC vs. the SAP Exchange Infrastructure? 7. What would be a typical real-life example for deploying SAP BC? 8. What is the support strategy for SAP BC? SAP BC Technical Benefits 9. What are the key technical benefits of SAP BC? 10. How does SAP BC integrate with RFCs? 11.

3、How is SAP BC different from SAP .NET Connector? 12. How does SAP BC interface with IDocs? 13. How is it possible to establish integration or outbound services quickly to an SAP System? 14. How are services developed for SAP BC? 15. Is SAP BC secure? 16. What platforms does SAP BC support? 17. Do my

4、 trading partners need to have SAP BC to achieve integration? 18. How is the ladder approach applicable? HTML - XML - SAP BC Server? 19. What is needed to be able to process an XML Document sent from an non-SAP System in an SAP System? 20. What is needed to send an XML Document to a non-SAP System,

5、so it can be processesd immediately? 21. What are the differences / resemblances between SAP-XML and XML itself? 22. Are there any aditional efforts required in SAP BC to process / pass on extended IDocs in XML? 23. In SAP BC is it possible to perform a validation on values of attributes in an XML D

6、ocument, like it happens in an EDI Subsystem, e.g. for the EDIFACT messages? SAP BC Integration and System Administration 24. What are the system requirements? 25. What is the upgrade path and strategy for the SAP BC? How will upgrades to the SAP BC affect those services that are currently deployed

7、to customers? Will the SAP BC append either the SAP BC and / or the SAP Version Number to the XML message? 26. What databases does SAP BC support? 27. What is the duration of the deployment process of SAP BC? 28. How long does the initial install and configuration take? What are the tasks that a Bas

8、is Person must perform to provide on-going support for SAP BC? 29. What skill sets are necessary to utilize and support SAP BC? For example, do we need to know HTML, XML, Java, C+, SAP RFC and tRFC, IDocs, ALE, etc? 30. What monitoring and alerting functions are included with SAP BC? How do we monit

9、or and analyze traffic passing through SAP BC? 31. Are there any components or add-ons that must be installed on the SAP Systems in order to work with SAP BC? 32. How much load can a single SAP BC Server handle? Do you have any sizing tools to help us do capacity planning for SAP BC? 33. How can I s

10、pread overload? 34. How complex are the system administration (startup / shutdown, backup, performance tuning, upgrading etc.) activities for SAP BC? 35. Is it possible to replicate and publish services with SAP BC? SAP BC Availability 36. We have a customer A (SAP System and APO) who would want to

11、connect with one of their customers B (an SAP R/3 3.1 I customer). Is SAP BC free to both companies? 37. What are the licensing terms for using SAP BC? 38. Can every SAP Customer (US or non-US), having an Installation Number and a S User ID to access the SAP Service Marketplace, download and install

12、 SAP BC free of cost? Are there any pricing, distribution, or usage restrictions whatsoever? 39. Does SAP BC has a licensing limit on the number of users (named vs. concurrent) or the number of SAP connections? 40. What type of support is provided to the developers and system integrators building so

13、lutions using SAP BC? Do SAP Customers need to purchase a support contract? 41. What is the SAP BC Developer and when would I use it? 42. If SAP Customers also get the SAP BC Developer Environment with SAP BC, do the installation requirements change? 43. Where can the SAP BC be downloaded? Answers G

14、eneral 1. What is SAP Business Connector (SAP BC)? The SAP Business Connector (SAP BC) allows the integration of different applications and technologies with SAP Systems via open and non proprietary standards. The SAP BC uses the Internet as communication platform and allows you to highly automate y

15、our business processes. Thus the SAP BC seamlessly integrates different IT architectures with SAP Systems. Back to Top 2. What is XML? XML is a universal method for describing and formatting messages. By placing information in context with markup tags, similar to HTML tags, XML enables users to acce

16、ss and exchange data from different applications. With XML as the foundation for business data transformation, companies are given an open standard for information exchange. This eliminated the political and technical barriers that traditional data interchange approaches such as EDI (Electronic Data

17、 Interchange) have faced. Consequently, SAP BC can be implemented in weeks as opposed to months or years. Back to Top 3. Why is XML important to my company? A major stumbling block on the road towards a more generalized adoption of e-business solutions has been the fact that usually a relative absen

18、ce of common standards for exchanging information which businesses could use. Before the rise of the Internet, many businesses tried to solve this basic problem by agreeing upon a data format for information exchange, the EDI Format. But EDI Systems have not been trivial to implement. Only the large

19、st companies have had the resources needed to fully adopt EDI. Companies looking to adopt e-business solutions have sought a common format for businesses exchange information over the Internet. The adoption of XML by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was the first step in that direction. Back to T

20、op 4. Where does SAP BC fit in the larger picture of SAP Internet Technologies? SAP BC provides an interface that converts XML Documents into a format readable to the SAP Server. Businesses today need technologies that will enable them to leverage their ERP Investments and integrate that with electr

21、onic commerce, supply-chain management, front office and data warehousing systems. This is significant because the 20,000-customer SAP Implementation base and the accumulated business process knowledge make SAP the most important ERP Solution Provider in the world today. With SAP BC, SAP offers a ke

22、y technology enabling businesses to deploy heterogeneous system-to-system integration solutions. This is an important step in the realization of the potential of XML Technology to tighten the links between partners in the supply chain. SAP BC can be used to connect different SAP Systems (with differ

23、ent release versions) over the Internet. In fact the SAP proprietary RFC Format is converted to XML or HTML so that no SAP Software is needed on the other end of the communication line, and developing applications does not require SAP System Knowledge. RFC is the communications protocol we use to ta

24、lk to SAP Systems. Back to Top 5. Does SAP BC replace the SAP ITS? No. SAP ITS is essentially an SAP-to-Web Application Server Solution for deploying robust Internet Applications using HTML / HTTP (dialog oriented man-machine interface). SAP BC is an XML based integration solution for system-to-syst

25、em and enterprise-to-enterprise communication (machine-to-machine interface). Back to Top 6. What is the positioning of SAP BC vs. the SAP Exchange Infrastructure? Please see SAP Note 507813 which describes the positioning of SAP BC vs. the SAP Exchange Infrastructure. Back to Top 7. What would be a

26、 typical real-life example for deploying SAP BC? Suppose you are operating a plant for manufacturing auto parts, and you supply parts to auto makers throughout the world. Auto manufacturers rely on receiving your parts to make their final products. With a combination of SAP System and SAP BC, you ca

27、n seamlessly integrate your logistics system with your shipping vendors and your customers. Your company will be able to significantly reduce inventory costs by electronically passing orders to various suppliers, automatically receiving delivery status reports and constantly viewing real-time invent

28、ory status on all warehouse stock. SAP BC allows your ERP System to securely communicate with your suppliers? planning systems over the Internet without understanding XML or how to interface with the suppliers systems. Businesses can deploy SAP BC to integrate a number of business processes at many

29、points along the supply chain, from supplier catalogs and e-commerce ordering systems to procurement and other ERP Systems. Back to Top 8. What is the support strategy for SAP BC? Please see SAP Note 619102 which describes what versions of SAP BC are supported. Back to Top SAP BC Technical Benefits

30、9. What are the key technical benefits of SAP BC? SAP BC Server Extensions map the SAP Business Application Programming Interfaces (BAPIs) to and from XML Document Formats. All SAP Functionality accessible via BAPIs can be made available to business partners over the Internet as secure XML based ser

31、vice, eliminating the need to define process pairs in advance. All required communications and security infrastructure to connect to partner applications and web sites are included. SAP BC allows native calls into and out of SAP Systems without having to write BAPI Code. It also supports all RFC ena

32、bled function modules. Back to Top 10. How does SAP BC integrate with RFCs? In order to simplify communication with SAP Applications, SAP BC uses existing standards. SAP BC offers full integration with open published SAP System Interfaces. SAP BC contains extensions mapping SAP BAPIs and SAP Intermediate Documents (IDocs) to and from XML Document Structures. This way SAP Functionality accessible via BAPIs and IDocs can be made available to business partners over the Internet as secure XM