As we are approaching 2025, the deadline for ERP support, we have started witnessing the sudden increase in S/4HANA conversion projects across all domains. And with conversion we have an Elephant “CVI integration or Business Partner (BP) transformation” to talk about and eliminate before we migrate successfully to the target.
So, in this blog, I have tried to list down the key activities and checks to performed to successfully transform C/V to BP and then to convert the system to S/4HANA.
The BP transformation process requires below steps
Out of the 4 four phases mentioned above, Initial two phases are performed in ECC and the next two in S/4HANA system and in the mentioned sequence. Let’s talk about the steps little bit more detail.
Below are the main preparation tasks for BP conversion:
• Run pre-check report R_S4_PRE_TRANSITION_CHECKS to identify the CVI issues (refer to note 2182725)
• Customers/Vendors marked for deletion should be archived before transfer. If not archived, must be transferred.
• Activate business functions CA_BP_SOA. This insures transfer of contact information for suppliers. In case this BF doesn’t exist in system yet, you need to create custom BF using switches VENDOR_SFWS_SC1 and VENDOR_SWFS_SC2
• Check for Customer/Vendor Enhancements to the CVI integration to have customer specific field in BP and using CVI synchronization to update the same in customer or vendor.
In SAP Business Suite (ERP 600 and Enhancement Packages), customer master data and vendor master data transactions such as FD01, FD02, FD03, XD01, XD02, XD03, FK01, FK02, FK03, XK01, XK02 and XK03 have been enhanced by customers with additional fields using the Business Add-In (BAdI) technology. In the customer and vendor master dialog transactions, these fields were integrated by adding additional sub-screens to the existing screens.
Moving to a SAP S4HANA release, traditional customer/vendor master transactions are made obsolete and replaced by the business partner transaction BP. Because of this, all extension-specific fields have to be integrated into the business partner
Enhancements to the SAP Business Partner can be made by using the frameworks / tools mentioned below:
Check notes 2309153& 1623809 for the complete details on how to do that.
• Check Customizing setting for Business Partner conversion as per note 2265093.
• Preform data consistency checks and remove inconsistent data make necessary changes e.g. create missing BP role category
The checks are mainly based on the BP customizing- A few important checks are listed below
• Check for the number range issues and assign BP number ranges per the simplification list chapter “Introduce Business Partner Approach (CVI)”.
The number range issue, mentioned above, is very common and critical to be resolved before the BP conversion. So let’s discuss what all possible cases we might encounter with number ranges and the sap recommendation for the same.
In this phase Synchronization cockpit (data load) is run to convert customers and suppliers to Business partners in ERP or ECC. Any error due to data inconsistency or customization error can be monitored in the synchronization cockpit.
• Execute the CVI_UPGRADE_CHECK_RESOLVE report to perform the necessary checks per client, to find out missing customizing entries, and solution to create/correct these entries for each client. For information about this report, see SAP Note 2344034
• Go to CVI Synchronization=> Synchronization Cockpit.
The synchronization cockpit runs the transaction MDS_LOAD_COCKPIT. The un-synchronized customer/supplier data automatically get downloaded to your temp folder. You can use the Read File button in MDS_LOAD_COCKPIT to upload the data for synchronization.
There is default BAdI implementation (CVI_CUSTOM_MAPPER) called up in the direction Customer/Supplier to Business partner, to bypass the following checks:
See 2336018 and 2345087 for more information on these checks.
• Run Business Partner Pre-Check PRECHECK_UPGRADATION_REPORT to verify the results according to the note 2211312.
Till this phase is completed customer and vendors are updated using their respective transactions and are not updated using BP transaction.
In this phase Pre-Conversion check programs are executed to identify any errors and the SUM tool is triggered to covert the system to S/4HANA as per the S/4 conversion guide.
In this last phase, system is set up to update using BP transaction and customers and vendors are updated IN KNA1 and LFA1 internally. Now Business Partners can be updated using BP transaction and old transactions for customer/vendor will not work and will be routed to BP transaction.
For more details on the activities please refer to the inline SAP notes.
Reference - S4H100.
Regards
Vijay
So, in this blog, I have tried to list down the key activities and checks to performed to successfully transform C/V to BP and then to convert the system to S/4HANA.
The BP transformation process requires below steps
Out of the 4 four phases mentioned above, Initial two phases are performed in ECC and the next two in S/4HANA system and in the mentioned sequence. Let’s talk about the steps little bit more detail.
Preparation Phase:
Below are the main preparation tasks for BP conversion:
• Run pre-check report R_S4_PRE_TRANSITION_CHECKS to identify the CVI issues (refer to note 2182725)
• Customers/Vendors marked for deletion should be archived before transfer. If not archived, must be transferred.
• Activate business functions CA_BP_SOA. This insures transfer of contact information for suppliers. In case this BF doesn’t exist in system yet, you need to create custom BF using switches VENDOR_SFWS_SC1 and VENDOR_SWFS_SC2
• Check for Customer/Vendor Enhancements to the CVI integration to have customer specific field in BP and using CVI synchronization to update the same in customer or vendor.
In SAP Business Suite (ERP 600 and Enhancement Packages), customer master data and vendor master data transactions such as FD01, FD02, FD03, XD01, XD02, XD03, FK01, FK02, FK03, XK01, XK02 and XK03 have been enhanced by customers with additional fields using the Business Add-In (BAdI) technology. In the customer and vendor master dialog transactions, these fields were integrated by adding additional sub-screens to the existing screens.
Moving to a SAP S4HANA release, traditional customer/vendor master transactions are made obsolete and replaced by the business partner transaction BP. Because of this, all extension-specific fields have to be integrated into the business partner
Enhancements to the SAP Business Partner can be made by using the frameworks / tools mentioned below:
| BDT (Business Data Tool Set) | Enhance dialog screens in transaction BP |
| XO Framework (Extensible Objects) | Validate data and store them in memory |
| CVI Synchronization | Map the data from BP to customer/vendor master and save them to the database |
Check notes 2309153& 1623809 for the complete details on how to do that.
• Check Customizing setting for Business Partner conversion as per note 2265093.
• Preform data consistency checks and remove inconsistent data make necessary changes e.g. create missing BP role category
The checks are mainly based on the BP customizing- A few important checks are listed below
o Central Data Checks
Check on BP Roles/Grouping
Customizing: Cross Application Components => SAP Business Partner => Business Partner => Basic Settings => Define BP Roles/ Role Grouping
Check on Number Ranges
Customizing: Cross Application Components => SAP Business Partner => Business Partner => Basic Settings => Define Number Ranges/Groupings and Assign Number Ranges
Check of partner id e.g.! #, * not allowed
o Address Checks
Check on Address data e.g. title Forms of Address (Tables TSAD3)
Customizing: Cross Application Components => SAP Business Partner => Business Partner => Forms of Address => Maintain Forms of address – E-mail must contain @
Bank details Checks – Check on bank data e.g. bank key must be available
o Organization Checks
Industry must exist (SAP Table TB038)
Customizing: Cross Application Components => SAP Business Partner => Business Partner => Organizations=> Maintain Industry Systems and Industries
Legal Forms must exist (SAP Table TB019)
Customizing: Cross Application Components => SAP Business Partner => Business Partner => Organizations=> Maintain Industry Systems and Industries
Legal Entity must exist (SAP Table TB032)
Customizing: Cross Application Components => SAP Business Partner => Business Partner => Organizations=> Maintain Industry Systems and Industries
o Tax number checks
Tax Type must exist in the Tax Number Categories (SAP Table TFKTAXNUMTYPE)
Customizing: Cross Application Components => SAP Business Partner => Business Partner => Basic Settings=>Tax Numbers=>Maintain Tax Number Categories
• Check for the number range issues and assign BP number ranges per the simplification list chapter “Introduce Business Partner Approach (CVI)”.
| Note: The mandatory filed check for BP during synchronization run can be ignored – see note 2336018. |
The number range issue, mentioned above, is very common and critical to be resolved before the BP conversion. So let’s discuss what all possible cases we might encounter with number ranges and the sap recommendation for the same.
| Number Range Scenario | Recommendation |
| Customer & Vendor number ranges are different/disjoint | Business Partner number range should be defined as mirror image of Customer/Vendor number range |
| Customer & Vendor number ranges are not different/disjoint | Maintain the BP number range in a way that most numbers from customer and vendors can be reused |
| Customer and vendor numeric numbers to be taken over to Business Partner | To allow customer/vendor numeric numbers to be taken over to Business partner the numeric intervals of the BP number ranges must be set to external. After the data synchronization, the numeric intervals of BP must be changed back to internal. Additionally, the customer and vendor numeric number ranges must be set to external to allow identical numbers for customer, vendor and BP. |
Synchronization Phase:
In this phase Synchronization cockpit (data load) is run to convert customers and suppliers to Business partners in ERP or ECC. Any error due to data inconsistency or customization error can be monitored in the synchronization cockpit.
• Execute the CVI_UPGRADE_CHECK_RESOLVE report to perform the necessary checks per client, to find out missing customizing entries, and solution to create/correct these entries for each client. For information about this report, see SAP Note 2344034
• Go to CVI Synchronization=> Synchronization Cockpit.
The synchronization cockpit runs the transaction MDS_LOAD_COCKPIT. The un-synchronized customer/supplier data automatically get downloaded to your temp folder. You can use the Read File button in MDS_LOAD_COCKPIT to upload the data for synchronization.
There is default BAdI implementation (CVI_CUSTOM_MAPPER) called up in the direction Customer/Supplier to Business partner, to bypass the following checks:
Postal Code check
Address Regional check
Tax Jurisdiction Code check
Mandatory field checks
Country- specific checks
Geo-code Suppression checks
See 2336018 and 2345087 for more information on these checks.
• Run Business Partner Pre-Check PRECHECK_UPGRADATION_REPORT to verify the results according to the note 2211312.
Till this phase is completed customer and vendors are updated using their respective transactions and are not updated using BP transaction.
Conversion Phase:
In this phase Pre-Conversion check programs are executed to identify any errors and the SUM tool is triggered to covert the system to S/4HANA as per the S/4 conversion guide.
Post Processing/Test Phase:
In this last phase, system is set up to update using BP transaction and customers and vendors are updated IN KNA1 and LFA1 internally. Now Business Partners can be updated using BP transaction and old transactions for customer/vendor will not work and will be routed to BP transaction.
| Note: All 4 phases are required for Conversion or Brownfield projects. In case of Greenfield only last phase of Past processing will be required apart from initial load of Business Partner using Migration Cockpit or Data Services etc. |
For more details on the activities please refer to the inline SAP notes.
Reference - S4H100.
Regards
Vijay
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