SAP Master Data Governance (MDG) enables the effective management, consolidation, and quality improvement of business partner data. SAP MDG, cloud edition, comes with out-of-the-box integration for trusted data from CDQ, offering reference data from various trade registers and other public and commercial data sources. The result is faster processes and higher data quality for both new entries and ongoing maintenance of customer and supplier data.
I am Kai Hüner, responsible for the SAP-endorsed app CDQ First Time Right at CDQ AG. In this blog post, I will focus on how to integrate the free tiers of SAP MDG, cloud edition and CDQ in less than one hour, including a 30-minute coffee break. I will guide you through the setup and integration steps and present some data examples to highlight the advantages of using these two solutions together.
Topics covered
- What is trusted business partner data good for?
- Architecture: CDQ trusted data integration in SAP MDG, cloud edition
- Hands-on: Set up SAP MDG, cloud edition, Free Tier
- Hands-on: Set up CDQ trusted data access, Free Tier
- Hands-on: Connecting SAP MDG and CDQ
- Key takeaways
What is trusted business partner data good for?
Trusted business partner data is crucial for organizations, laying the groundwork for important operational and strategy-related decisions. The value of this data goes beyond its accuracy or timeliness; knowing its origin is also key. Understanding where the data comes from lets companies assess its dependability, making sure decisions rely on credible and authoritative sources.
When it comes to business partner data, which includes a variety of external data such as open data, paid data, shared data, and web data, the source of the data is especially important. For a full explanation of this topic, please refer to my blog post Value Creation with Trusted Business Partner Data.
Architecture: Trusted CDQ data in SAP MDG, cloud edition
Using CDQ as a data provider for business partner data in SAP MDG, cloud edition, enables access to multiple trusted data sources. The integration is facilitated through REST API endpoints available on the CDQ Cloud Platform. These features contribute to efficient central governance processes and offer integration pathways with systems like S/4HANA. For a comprehensive guide on how to set up this integration, you can refer to my blog post Trusted Business Partner Data in SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition.
Hands-on: Set up SAP MDG, cloud edition, Free Tier
The free tier of SAP MDG, cloud edition, has been detailed in several blog posts, such as those by Andreas Seifried and Christian Geiseler. For setting it up on your BTP account, the SAP Discovery Center offers an in-depth step-by-step guide.
An even more convenient method is using a Booster. With this tool, you can have an instance up and running in your BTP account through just five interactive steps. The process takes about 30 minutes in total: while your direct input is only required for about a minute, the automated service instantiation does take a while. You can simply start the process and enjoy a cup of coffee.
However, the subsequent sections will walk you through a minimal manual setup to provide a deeper understanding of the overall solution architecture.
Create a subaccount
Per the SAP Discovery Center, the free tier of MDG, cloud edition, is currently available exclusively on AWS in the Europe (Frankfurt) region. As such, I create the subaccount in the cf-eu10 region.
Add service plan to subaccount
To initiate MDG, cloud edition, within my subaccount, I must ensure that the subaccount has the appropriate entitlements. In the Entity Assignment section of my global account, I should see the free plan of the service listed for my newly created subaccount.
If the service plan is not listed, I will need to add it from the list of generally available entitlements.
Create service instance
I can now access my new subaccount and establish a service instance for SAP MDG, cloud edition. The service initialization requires about 30 minutes, the same like with the booster.
Finally, I see the newly created service instance active and operational, displaying a green Subscribed status.
Manage service access
In a production setup, role assignments should follow a well-designed authorization concept, and I would use our corporate identity provider. But for the basic setup in this evaluation scenario, I am using the SAP default identity provider and my S-User as the administrator for the SAP MDG, cloud edition, service. To assign the needed role collection:
- Go to Security and then to Users.
- Choose my user.
- Click Assign Role Collection under Additional Options in the Role Collections section of the detail panel.
- In the popup, select only the MDG_Admin role collection and assign it.
To access the SAP MDG, cloud edition, service, I click on the link found under Instances and Subscriptions within my subaccount. The first time I do this, I need to confirm the onboarding of my user in the Initial User Onboarding dialog. This process takes another few minutes.
And there it is: My first glimpse of the SAP MDG, cloud edition, Launchpad! I see two tiles to maintain employees and related logs.
Configure user roles
By the icon next to Administration, I navigate to the Identity and Access Management and proceed to the Maintain Business Roles app. Here, I create two new business roles from templates SAP_BR_BUPA_MASTER_SPEC and SAP_BR_BPC_EXPERT. In the General Role Details, I then modify the default access categories, setting the write access to Unrestricted, and save the new roles.
In the Maintain Business User app, I proceed to add the newly created business roles to my user.
Try the business partner lookup
After refreshing the browser, thanks to my new business role, I see a new launchpad space titled Business Partner Governance. Finally, I can transition to the non-administrative apps.
Since the newly created SAP MDG, cloud edition, instance is not linked to any backend system, my initial search for CDQ in Switzerland (CH), yields no results. Then, the Look Up and Create button catches my eye. It sounds intriguing! However, when I attempt to use it, I encounter an error message indicating an issue with my data provider setup. Understandably, I have not set it up yet, but I will address that soon!
Hands-on: Set up CDQ trusted data access, Free Tier
The free tier of CDQ First Time Right functions as a trial account for its lookup capability, offering a snapshot of how real-world data sources can be seamlessly integrated into SAP MDG. Due to legal requirements associated with various data sources, even open ones, we must obtain your explicit consent to our terms of use before granting real data access. For those interested in a deeper dive, we provide extended trial options.
However, even the free tier provides some tangible data, albeit synthesized from a test data source, devoid of provenance information and links to genuine data sources. If you are not yet a CDQ customer with access to our suite of APIs, you can easily use our social login feature with LinkedIn to set up a free tier account. Let me guide you through this straightforward procedure.
Create a free tier account
To explain how you can get a CDQ free tier account without having yet any commercial relationship with CDQ, I go to https://apps.cdq.com/sign-in-with-linkedin and use the social login option Sign in with LinkedIn. This way, a completely new account is created on the CDQ Cloud Platform, using my email and name how it is managed on LinkedIn.
In the upcoming screen, if I have not already logged in from prior use of the LinkedIn website, I will need to enter my LinkedIn credentials.
In the next screen, I will be prompted to authorize the use of my email, name, and photo by CDQ for the purpose of creating a new user on the CDQ Cloud Platform. While the request for my photo is a default setting from LinkedIn's predefined scopes, CDQ neither stores nor processes this photo in any manner.
I click the Allow button and gain access to my new CDQ account on the CDQ Apps platform. An API key is automatically generated in the background. A dialog box appears, showing both the Client ID and Client Secret. I copy these credentials, confirm, and then close the dialog box.
Now I view the CDQ Apps launchpad. It shows three apps that are relevant for using the free tier evaluation.
- Business Partner Lookup: This is a demo app that allows me to test the lookup feature without needing to integrate with SAP MDG. You can enter CDQ or SAP in the Name field to try it out.
- API Key Management: This app is designed for managing API keys. If you generate a new key, the same dialog box with credentials will appear. You can use this feature in case you lose your automatically generated API key.
- Content Pack Manager: This app lets you download metadata that can be uploaded into your SAP MDG as Business Configuration. More details on this are provided in the next section.
Download content pack
CDQ offers a content pack that is compatible with the SAP One Domain Model (ODM) for easier integration with SAP MDG. This content pack adds more identification numbers, tax numbers, and legal forms than what SAP MDG provides by default. Using this pack, you can avoid manual setup and start using trusted business partner data more efficiently.
However, discussing the details and customization options of this content pack is beyond the scope of this blog post. So, in my CDQ account, I just navigate to the Content Pack Management app, generate, and download a fresh content pack to my local system.
In my CDQ account, I go to the Content Pack Management app, where I generate and download the content pack to my local system. If you want to know more about this content pack and its file structure, you can check the Download content pack section in my blog post Trusted Business Partner Data in SAP Master Data Governance, cloud edition.
Hands-on: Connecting SAP MDG and CDQ
Connecting the free tiers of CDQ and SAP MDG is quite like setting up a production environment. For detailed steps on how to establish a communication system and scenario, as well as how to upload the content pack files for business configurations, please refer to my instructions on Connecting SAP MDG and CDQ in the previously mentioned post.
After completing these setup steps, I test the connection. I go to the Manage Business Partners app and search for CDQ in Switzerland (CH). A matching result appears from the CDQ free tier data source, labeled as CDQ.TEST.
Hurray, the evaluation setup is up and running now! Let's have a look at some highlights of the solution in the following section.
This is just the starting point for various use cases of trusted business partner data from CDQ in SAP MDG. See my blog post First Time Right with Trusted Business Partner Data in SAP Master Data Governance for more detailed examples.
Key takeaways
As the key takeaways, I want to emphasize the practical benefits of integrating CDQ's trusted business partner data and SAP MDG. The free tier options for both services make it easy to test the systems without financial risk. Automated mapping of identifiers, like tax numbers, eliminates manual work and potential for error. This is a direct advantage for any company that needs accurate and efficient data management.
The ability to standardize legal forms across different jurisdictions is another strong point. With CDQ's predefined legal form categories and SAP MDG's robust data management features, you get a unified view of your business partners' legal statuses. This aids in better risk management on a global scale.
The core strength of this integration lies in its deep linking of diverse data formats from multiple trusted sources. CDQ does the job of simplifying the data, and SAP MDG integrates this simplified data into your systems. This allows for enhanced features like new business partner creation workflows and data quality assurance.
Setting up an evaluation of CDQ and SAP MDG is a straightforward process. Within minutes, you can start experiencing these operational efficiencies and data accuracies for yourself. This integrated solution is a powerful tool for elevating your business partner data management.
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