Offline Workflow Approval in ECC R/3 without SAP Logon

[ajeet_choudhary]

Hi,

I wanted to know if there is any way in which we can enable offline approvals of work items in ECC 6.0.where offline means user need not login into sap system for approval.

An ideal scenario would be that a user recieves an email with Approve/Reject option, and on clicking any of these options, the necessary updates are registered by the SAP system. So is it possible to implement the above by making use of WebServices or something else?

I have searched on forum and could see blog for offline approval through outlook but our requirement is - user want to approve workflow through webmail/phone .

Any help or guidance will be very helpful and rewarded

Thanks,

Ajit

[former_member193382 · Accepted solution]

Hi Ajeet,

I'm not sure how it works in SAP SRM.

The answer to your question is 'YES'.
There are several ways you can achieve. One way is sending offline mails as mentioned in link given by Hardik where you can generate HTML links for each action and then capture the actions to process the workitem in the background using SAP_WAPI* function modules accordingly.

This could be the easiest way of achieving this.

The drawbacks of using these approach is,

1. If the user edits subject/body (depends on how you have designed the mail), then you'll not be able to process the workitem.

2. Also, even after the workitem is processed, the mail will remain in his/her inbox.

3. Tracking inbound and outbound mails could be hectic in case of any issues (for organizations using this solution for a wide range of application processing like ours. ).

Alternate options would be using UI5 based solutions alongwith BPM workflows.

Also, SAP is building a tool called BPM inbox (not sure if it is already in the market). This gives the same control that you have in your SAP Business Workplace and can be accessed over various devices.

Thanks,

Raj

[ajeet_choudhary · Accepted solution]

Hi Raj,

thanks for your response , could you please also tell whether we can handle attachment or comment in body of email and bind it back to workflow. is this a good way or we should go for custom report instead to display all the attachment.

Regards,

Ajit

[former_member193382 · Accepted solution]

Hi Ajeet,

Handling comments through offline mails is possible.

But few points to be considered. You'll make things for complex for you handle at the backend because of following reasons.

1. You need to write the mail body in such a way that user comments start at specific line (specific index of internal table when you read at the backend).

2. If user edits the mail body or the mail formatting changes(from HTML to plain text or anything else) while replying, everything will go for a toss.

To handle this conditions, you need design your mail body very carefully with specific encoded values that will give you the begin of comment line.

Also you need to train your users about how the solution works.

And yes, you can handle attachments in this.

Regards,

Raj

[former_member589189]

Hi,

I think the forum blog will also work for your requirements. It can be accessed through webmail or handheld devices as well. Go through below link.

http://saptechnical.com/Tutorials/Workflow/offline/Index.htm

[ajeet_choudhary]

Hi ,

Thanks for your response,i was aware of above mentioned blog. my intention of putting this question is - Whether sap has provided some way for getting approval completly offline in ECC as they have provided in SRM system and to know if this approach (approving completly offline) is recommendable one ? . what are the drawback of using this approach.

If you could throw some light on above question, it would be great. Any help or guidance will be very helpful.

Regards, 

Ajit