FTP option for Contract Document/Attachment Importer

Hello

We are on SAP Sourcing 7 (on premise) SP02, Patch level 1.

Client has contracts (MA metadata and contract documents) in a third party application currently and would be migrating them to SAP Sourcing.

The MA metadata can be migrated using the csv template. For the contract documents and attachments u2013 we found that the options to import them to SAP Sourcing is to either import them from the desktop or from a FTP folder/server.

For client the option of using the desktop for importing contract attachments and documents is not preferred since these are confidential documents and also the size limit per import is only 50 GB at a time(when importing from desktop).

So we feel the way forward is to use the FTP option for importing attachments/contract documents.

With this context - we have few questions on the functionality and related configuration.

Questions

1.In Sourcing 5.1 we had used a custom jar file to import contract attachments from a folder in the E-Sourcing directory. From what we understand now- in Sourcing 7, the standard functionality allows us to import attachments/contract documents from only the desktop or the FTP location. When we tried to give the reference of the E-Sourcing root directory as the FTP path u2013 we got an error that the format was incorrect. The system was expecting the format to start with ftp://. Can you please confirm our understanding that we would not be able to import documents from the Sourcing root directory, but only by using a FTP server (or the desktop option).

2.Is there any prerequisite configuration like system properties or others required to be completed before using the FTP option for contract/attachment import?

3.The FTP server/folder can be either within Client network(if they use their own FTP server) or outside (if they rent it from a FTP hosting service). Is there any difference or restriction in that case from Sourcing side for accessing the FTP folder. We were also concerned if there would be performance implications if we use a FTP folder outside of client network/firewall.

4.Is there any recommendation or inputs for us when using the option of FTP folders for contract/attachment import?

Appreciate any help in this.

Regards,

Srivatsan