Implementing Business Partner in ECC before conversion to S/4HANA?

[former_member594980]

Hi all!

As probably all of you know, the Business Partner approach is mandatory in S/4HANA - and during system conversion (from ECC to S/4), one of the steps is the configuration, migration and synchronization of customer/vendor data. I'm wondering, could you do this step pre-migration as a seperate project? I mean could you convert customers/vendors to BP, and mitigate some of the migration work tasks?

The BP approach is also available in ECC is it not? So I'm curious if there are any pros/cons of doing this before going through with the S/4 conversion.

Hope to get some valuable input on this, thanks! 🙂

Best regards,

Vegard

[Ghanshyam]

Thats a good approach and business can be ready on S/4Hana journey well in advance.

[TammyPowlas · Accepted solution]

Hi - this is required - you need to convert to business partners in ECC before migrating to S/4HANA - please see SAP Note https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2265093

[former_member594980 · Accepted solution]

Hi Tammy.

Thanks for your input, and yes - I know it's required. What I'm wondering is, could you do the BP conversion well in advance of the migration project, productively? I've only converted to BP as part of migration, and not as a "stand-alone" project. Could they make use of BP productively in R/3 for a while to get familiar with the concept while migrating to S/4HANA a bit further down the road? Is this unheard of or risky to do and should be avoided? Any pros/cons?

Thanks 🙂

[TammyPowlas · Accepted solution]

I wouldn't expect it to work with ongoing operations. Just think - will you create the vendor master using XD01 and then create the corresponding business partner using BP? I think it would be painful for master data. I don't see any "pros" of doing it like that.

[former_member594980 · Accepted solution]

Ok, sure - I get that. I was just thinking if by doing a conversion to BP could trigger the use of the BP-transaction and make XD*/XK*/etc.. obsolete. But if that's not the case at all, then this scenario is not practically doable and a painful journey as you mentioned. But I thought there's customers using BP in R/3?

[TammyPowlas · Accepted solution]

Yes, we use BP's in ECC, but with the FI-CA/Utilities industry solution.

But I don't think ECC AP will recognize your business partner as a vendor

[former_member594980 · Accepted solution]

Ok, I see. Well thanks for clearing that up and for your time, Tammy!

[wnash7658 · Accepted solution]

tammy.powlas3 if the CVI is active in ECC6 with the switches then:-

1. BP could be used in ECC6 for customers and vendors in a productive environment, is this correct?

2. Against (1), then you would expect that the CVI is one way (customer --> BP)

3. After (2）and review of the data, CVI could be changed to (BP --> customer) as well and begin using BP with of ocurse the correct setup of the BP grouping and mapping to vendor/customer account groups!

We have this scenario as a possible alternative as external non-SAP MDG solution is in place to use BP, but the S/4 project is delayed.

[TammyPowlas · Accepted solution]

Hi Warren - #1 should only be used if you are planning a move to S/4HANA 2-3 weeks ahead of time.

#2 could be vendor/customer to BP

#3 I am not following; I recommend creating a new discussion with more details as this is a closed thread. Thank you