SAP Commerce Cloud Backend-Integration

SAP Commerce Cloud as a B2B portal – backend integration using an example

The SAP Commerce Cloud is often viewed as a pure e-commerce platform. However, the scope of services and potential extend well into the area of ​​a B2B portal. At most, SAP Commerce shows its strengths in the area of ​​SAP backend integration, especially S/4HANA. We would like to use an example to explain the added value that the SAP Commerce Cloud offers as a B2B portal:

Among other things, our fictitious B2B portal should display order information. For example, items purchased, as well as additional instructions for use, data sheets and specifications. This information should only be accessible to customers who have also purchased these items. In addition, customers should be able to place an order in the portal for items that they previously placed in the shopping cart.

A B2B portal usually represents an orchestration of information from various sources, such as:

  • Customer data

  • Assignments

  • Prices: price lists, conditions

  • Material and availability

  • Additional information: safety data sheets, specifications, instructions for use, repair instructions

  • Customer documents: order confirmation, delivery information, invoices

Some of this data must be stored in the portal itself. The question now arises: how do customer data, prices, items, etc. get into the portal?

Integration packages for interaction with the participating SAP systems enable cost-efficient and stable solution implementation

For the interaction of SAP solutions, such as ERP or S/4HANA, the SAP Commerce Cloud offers standard paths for integration.

So-called integration packages can be found via the SAP API Business Hub, for example ERP integration or S/4HANA integration.

These are deployed and configured on the SAP Cloud Integration interface. Technically, this means that the source platform sends, for example, customer documents in the form of IDocs or SOAP requests to the cloud integration, where the corresponding integration package was installed. This data is processed by an iFlow of the integration package and transformed into a format compatible with the target platform. In this case, the SAP Commerce Cloud. The Commerce Cloud provides integration web services to which this data can be sent to.

The advantage of this is that numerous iFlows already exist and you just can configure them. You can also expand existing iFlows as SAP Cloud Integration provides a sophisticated integration layer with security. (controlling access to participating systems, e.g. certificate authentication) Moreover SAP enables monitoring for analyzing data flows. Typically, you can configure iFlows at project level, if necessary expand them, or implement new iFlows for additional requirements.

PIM and MAM functions, Cloud Hot Folder

Let’s continue with our example. The digital assets, i.e. the item or customer-related documents, are not located in the ERP or S/4HANA, but in another source, for example on a file server. These documents expand on the product information described in the previous section. The information must therefore be brought together. This is usually done by a product information system – the PIM. The SAP Commerce Cloud comes with its own PIM system as standard.

Data transfer

For the transfer, the so-called Cloud Hot Folders offer an effective and very standard alternative to implementation using new iFlows. The principle is quite simple. The source system or the integration layer stores a zip file with the documents that belong to products in a hotfolder in the SAP Commerce Cloud on the Azure Cloud Storage. These are processed automatically, imported into the SAP Commerce Cloud and the product data is thus expanded.

MAM

Media Asset Management (MAM) comes into play when it comes to storing these documents. SAP Commerce Cloud includes a simple and expandable MAM system. Basic functions such as storing and sorting media in catalogs are supported. As are configurable access authorizations (authorization model). In this context, the requirement from our example can also be mapped. Specifications and data sheets are only displayed if the customer has already purchased this item.

Furthermore, this approach could also be applied to a configurable document inbox for e.g. order confirmation, delivery information or repair instructions by linking the documents to customers or orders.

PIM

It should be noted here that there are systems on the market that meet these requirements. As independent solutions and with a broader scope, i.e. pure PIM solutions such as Akeneo or pure digital asset management solutions. However, the systems supplied with the SAP Commerce Cloud and included in the license scope are sufficient in many cases.

Let’s come to the last point. In some cases, live queries to external systems are essential. For example, the calculation of shopping carts with complex price conditions that cannot be represented by the SAP Commerce Cloud price data model, the determination of availability information or the tracking of orders.

Connection to external systems: live queries

In this case, the SAP Commerce Cloud is certainly not very different from other systems: call up the web service, display or further process data and you’re done.

In the case of communication with SAP S/4HANA, the SAP Commerce Cloud already contains the “SAP Sales Order Simulation Integration Module”, which includes live price queries, availability queries and order simulation, so that the exact order price is displayed in the portal frontend.

Summary: SAP Commerce Cloud as a B2B portal

By returning to the question posed at the beginning about what added value the SAP Commerce Cloud offers in the context of an integrated portal solution for B2B, we summarize the following points:

  • Through SAP Cloud integration, a large part of the asynchronous data transfer, e.g. customers, materials, prices, inventory, etc., can be mapped as standard between an ERP or S/4HANA and the SAP Commerce Cloud
  • As a B2B portal, the SAP Commerce Cloud offers, among other things, a basic product information and media asset management system with which product information can be aggregated and basic document management is possible
  • Cloud hot folders are an effective interface for transferring digital assets
  • SAP S/4HANA native functions are provided via standard modules of the SAP Commerce Cloud, such as synchronous price and availability queries or shopping cart simulation

Such implementations are daily routine for our codeitlabs team. Please feel free to contact us if you require further information.

written by David Scheffel