issn:1001-1749 integration between clarity and sap kernels...

Integration Between Clarity and SAP Kernels Using

SAP Process Orchestration

Pramod M R

Student, Department of CS&E

Dr.Ambedakar Institute of Technology

Bengaluru, India

[email protected]

Sundari David

Platfrom Specialist

Philips Innovation Campus

Bengaluru, India

Dr. Nandini N

Asst.Professor, Department of CS&E

Dr.Ambedakar Institute of Technology

Bengaluru, India

[email protected]

Abstract— SAP PO is an integration Platform used to

integrate between frontend and backend of the projects logically

and used to monitor the data flow between the source and

destination. Clarity PPM is a platform used to plan and analyze

projects or products in a structured manner, which enables all

the types of businesses to handle their schedules, production,

and more, and clarity PPM is a frontend, which is a source. With

the help of clarity PPM tool project report can be generated

according to the needs of the business and the progress of the

project can easily be reviewed. SAP is an RDBMS (Relational

database management system) which stores the data and acts as

a destination and kernels play an important role in SAP, which

contains executable data or file that run on the host that

establish a connection between another system and run the

programs. Clarity PPM contains different interfaces used for

different purposes of the project to achieve the goal effectively.

Project and Task are created in Clarity and the information of

project and Task transfer to SAP kernel using SAP PO for

further business process. Hours interface used to calculate the

hours spent by individual resources on a particular project.

Billing of the individual resource initiated Based on the hours

spent by each individual on a particular project.

Keywords— CA PPM (Clarity Project and Portfolio

Management), SAP PO (Systems Applications and Products

Process Orchestration), ESB (Enterprise Service Bus), OS(Operating system).

I. INTRODUCTION

SAP Process orchestration is an integration platform that enables the data synchronization between two different systems and is used to track the data flow between the different systems. It also supports synchronous and asynchronous data transmission. PO helps to design and build an integration between the SAP system and non-SAP system.CA PPM, which acts as front end and sends data to the backend (SAP) Data sent from the clarity is in the format of XML or the different format. The SAP will store or send data only in Idoc structure. SAP PO plays the role of middleware translate the data from one format of data to another format and sends the data from Clarity to SAP and vice versa. First, the project created in the CA project interface and as a subsidiary, the task created in task interface, and hours interface is used to send the times on which each resource person worked. The resources work on the different tasks available in the project, the information of hours on which task or project, resource has spent should be filled in the timesheet available in Clarity after resource fill respective timesheet data from the clarity transfer to the SAP from the project and network interface. Once the data is reached to SAP, the SAP system should send an acknowledgment back to clarity as a response in the feedback interface.

II. CLARITY PPM,SAP PROCESS ORCHESTRATION AND SAP KERNELS

A. Clarity PPM

CA PPM helps the organization to track and monitor or prioritize the business according to the requirement of the business and clients.CA allows centralized monitoring of the entire project, provides data consistency and accuracy in generating the report of the projects. Auto schedules are used to update the schedule of the project and allow view changes before publishing. The entire project's lifecycle was obtained as a project blueprinting with the help of clarity. Project blueprinting is feature partitioning that gives specific-team pages, populated with the custom fields each team requires. CA PPM provides the agile roadmap for the projects by allowing the project teams to plan and communicate the outcome of the business continuously.

B. SAP Process Orchestration

SAP PO acts as a middleware, which connects SAP and

non-SAP system. PO ensures the synchronous data flow

between the two different systems. The integration

solution gives all the components of the organization to

quickly optimize and automate the process of business

and takes the XML or different format of data available

from the clarity as an input and converts the data to Idoc

format that the SAP system able to store and vice versa.

SAP PO allows continuous monitoring of data flow from

SAP and CA and the same as CA to SAP. Different type

of communication channels available in SAP PO helps to

the efficient flow of data between different systems. A

communication channel is a place in which a particular

adapter is configured based on the data flow

C. SAP Kernels

SAP kernels are a key component of the SAP system

contains an executable file that runs on the server to

establish a connection to the system and helps to execute

the program of SAP. Physically SAP kernel is represented

as a process running on an operating system. Before

starting up of SAP system kernel is loaded as a kernel and

provides all services which are essential to application

components of SAP. Each kernel of SAP build according

to the OS version, compiler, and respective database.

There are different kinds of Kernels available in SAP with

different naming conventions. Kernels should be updated

according to the latest version to ensure the efficient flow

of data between SAP and non-SAP system. The update of

the individual kernel is taken care of by the respective

SAP basis team..

Wutan Huatan Jisuan Jishu

Volume XVI, Issue X, OCT/2020

ISSN:1001-1749

Page No:379

III. METHODOLOGY

The methodology involves the method involved in the project to achieve the final goal. The goal of the SAP PO is to integrate data between the SAP kernels and clarity PPM. To integrate data of the different interfaces available in clarity or SAP, PO uses SAP NetWeaver as a tool. The XML data of the project, network, and feedback sent by the clarity (source) is converted to the Idoc format with the help of the SAP PO and the converted data is sent to SAP kernels (Target) and data of the respective interface is store in SAP. Z-tables are created according to the interface and the data in the Idoc is stored in z-table accordingly.

A. Overall Architecture

SAP Process orchestration is a connecting Tool used to

interface data between the Clarity PPM and SAP kernels.

QlikView is the end reporting too, it gives the overall analysis

of data shown in Figure 1. The details required to create a

project is sent from planisware to clarity. After the project is

created in clarity the corresponding task and resources are

allocated to the task which comes under the project. The

resource details are provided to clarity through the workday

and PDS (Public Distribution System). The project, task, and

feedback are integrated from clarity to SAP kernel with help

of SOAP adapter available in the PO and vice versa. The data

from the Clarity is received from SAP PO, converts the data

into the Idoc file format, and sent to SAP kernels.

Figure 1: Overall Architecture (Source: SharePoint Philips)

The project, task, and feedback are created at the SAP system,

the SAP system calculates the cost and sends back to Clarity

through the cost interface.

B. Introduction to Interface

There are namely three interfaces used to project, task, and

feedback. The project interface is the parent interface under

which other interfaces are created such as tasks, hours, cost,

and feedback interface. Once the project is created in clarity

then the task and feedback interface is created. Clarity is a

source and SAP kernels are the destination and vice versa.

Integration between clarity (Source) and SAP (Destination)

is done as shown in figure 2. The data transfer is done

between the source and destination done by the

communication channel available in the SAP PO and SAP PO

contains the capability of transferring the data from Non SAP

format to SAP format. For the project and task interface,

Clarity is a source and SAP is the destination. For the

feedback interface, SAP is a source clarity is a destination.

Figure 2: Interface Between Clarity and SAP (Source: SharePoint Philips)

The SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) communication

channel available in the SAP PO used to transform the data

between Clarity and SAP. OnePO picks up the project and

task file from Clarity, converts the data into Idoc, and sends

the file to SAP kernels. In a feedback interface, if the Idoc is

received successfully in the SAP system, the SAP system

sends an Idoc delivered to date and time as acknowledgment

back to Clarity in the feedback interface through the SAP PO.

C. Dataflow of Project, Network and Feedback Interface

The flow in the project starts from clarity once the project is

created in clarity the details such as Project ID, Name,

Manager, etc., of the project should be stored in the SAP is

as shown in figure 3. To send data from clarity to the SAP

system there is a certain requirement such as the project

should be open for time entry, Company code of the

corresponding project must be loaded in the SAP kernels.

Figure 3: Dataflow of Project Interfaced from clarity to SAP Kernels

The data flows from clarity to SAP system through SAP PO

as a middleware the project data is sent to SAP PO in the

XML or WSDL data format. PO receives the data from

clarity, converts data into Idoc format, and sends the file to

SAP to store data in the SAP. The resource is the core element

of the project. Once the project is created, the task, which is

under the project, is also created under the respective project

after the creation of a project in clarity resources allocated

under those projects. Work done or time spent by each

resource allocated to the project is tracked by using the

timesheet. The data of all this information of the project flow

to SAP from clarity through the SAP PO and the

communication available in the SAP PO and the adapters

used to integrate between Clarity and SAP.



ISSN:1001-1749

Page No:380

Figure 4: Dataflow in Network /Task Interface from Clarity to SAP kernels

After the project is created in clarity, the task which comes

under the respective project, is also created in clarity.

Resources are assigned based on the task available in the

project and as shown in figure 4. Data flow in the task

interface is done as same as the project interface. After the

task is created, the data of the task must be sent to SAP to

store data of the task. Each resource is monitored and tracked

based on the timesheet filled by the individual resource. To

fil, the timesheet the task should be open for entries. The time

or hours entries of each resource are recorded at the task level

based on the duration of time spent by the resource on the

respective task of the project.

Figure 5: Dataflow in a feedback interface from the SAP system to clarity

The data of Idoc delivered to date and time is flows through

the feedback interface. Feedback data flows from the SAP

system to Clarity. After the Idoc received in SAP from clarity,

the SAP system sends Idoc received to date and time as an

acknowledgment back to clarity in the feedback interface.

Data from SAP to Non SAP system is integrated through the

adapters available in SAP PO. The SAP PO receives the data

from SAP, converts the data into clarity format, and sends

data back to clarity as an acknowledgment in the feedback

interface.

IV. RESULTS

A. Project Interface

The project interface is developed in the SAP PO after the

project is created in clarity. Development of project interface

or any of the required interface is developed in the Enterprise

service repository (ESR) available in the SAP NetWeaver

tool of SAP PO. The project, task data flows from the Clarity

to SAP. The Mapping development between the clarity to

SAP kernels to ensure the correct flow of data, different fields

created in the mapping of SAP PO helps the proper flow of

data to the corresponding fields of SAP kernels. After the

integration between the clarity to the SAP kernel data flow is

monitored by the configuration and monitoring of the SAP

NetWeaver tool. As shown in figure 6 Successful data flow

payload of the project and network interface is populated

under the successful column, error, and scheduled payloads

are populated under the error and scheduled columns. The

integration is successful only when the data reached to SAP

system from clarity without any errors.

Figure6: Project, Network Interface Successful Messages

Figure7: Successful Payload of Project Interface

Figure 7 shows the successfully delivered payload from

clarity to SAP kernels which contains the basic details such

as project ID, project name, business owner, manager,

company code, and cost center of the project. The delivered

payloads are found based on the date and time on which the

data triggered it also shows the delivered date and time. To

store data from the Clarity the SAP system uses the ABAP

development to build the z-table. To avoid the conflict-

naming standard for each table in the SAP system is

maintained the same as in the clarity and separate tables are

created for the individual interfaces z-table contains the fields

corresponding to the data of Idoc received from SAP PO.

Once the data is stored in the z-tables of SAP, the data can

easily be fetched in the SAP system with the available z-table.



ISSN:1001-1749

Page No:381

B. Task Interface

Task interface is also called a network interface after the

project is created there should be a task under the project

which are required to complete the project created. The task

is created in clarity only if the respective project is created or

exists in the clarity. There are two different types of tasks

exist labor and non-labor task and allocation of the resource

are made based on the category of a task for which the

resource belongs to and successful data delivery to Clarity to

SAP or SAP to clarity is as shown in figure 6.

Figure 8: Successful Payload of Network Interface

Once the resource is assigned to any particular task under the

project, the resource should fill the timesheet based on the

task for which they have assigned the amount of time spent

on the task per each day to accomplish the task of the

respective project. The cost is calculated for the individual

resource is done based on the approved task timesheet filled

by the resource.

C. Feedback Interface

The feedback interface carries the Idoc received date and time

from the SAP and data in the feedback interface flows from

SAP kernels to clarity. After the project and task are created

in the clarity, data of the project, the task is flows to SAP after

the data reached successfully to SAP the SAP system should

send a response back to clarity. For any flow of data between

the SAP and Non SAP system, the interface should be

developed in the SAP PO middleware. So the same way the

feedback interface is developed in the PO for the flow of

feedback data. As shown in figure 9. The data is transferred

from SAP format to Non-SAP format with the help of SAP

PO and reached clarity.

Figure 9: Feedback Interface Successful Messages

Feedback data plays the role of acknowledgment for the

proper flow of data and to ensure the integration between the

SAP system to clarity system.

Figure 10: Successful Payload of Feedback Interface

The feedback is received at clarity to ensure the integration

between clarity and SAP, after ensuring the integration

between clarity to SAP kernel the data flow is automated.

D. Timesheet

Figure 11 shows the timesheet data flows from clarity. After

the resource is assigned to task under the project, the resource

who is responsible for the respective task should fill the

timesheet, which contains the details of the hours spent by the

resource on the task or project within a week. Single

resources are assigned many tasks of the project then in the

timesheet, the resource has to fill the timesheet for all the

assigned tasks the sum of the total time spent by the resource

within a day for all the tasks assigned should 8 hours..

Figure 11: Timesheet of the resource assigned to more than one Task

The resource has to fill the timesheet for each week of the

month. After the timesheet is filled the respective manager of

the project or resource should approve the timesheet. Once

the timesheet got approved the cost is calculated for the

resource based on the approved timesheet. The entire data

flow in clarity should be synchronous with the SAP storage.

TABLE I. INTERFACE DETAILS

Interfaces Source System Middleware Destination

System

Project Clarity SAP PO SAP Kernel

Task Clarity SAP PO SAP Kernel

Feedback SAP Kernel SAP PO Clarity

V. CONCLUSIONS

Integration between the clarity PPM and SAP kernels is

successful with the help of SAP PO as middleware and SAP

NetWeaver as a PO integration tool. Based on successful

integration in the PO data transmission is done from clarity

to SAP kernels based on the project, task, and feedback data

transmission is done based on Idoc received and data flows



ISSN:1001-1749

Page No:382

from SAP kernel to Clarity. Once the integration is completed

the flow of data between SAP kernels and clarity is

automated.

References

[1] Sriram Nandiraju “A Case Report of the Interface between Ca-Ppm and Sap via Web-Services” International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology, January-2018.

[2] T. Merrill, and T. Kang, "Cloud computing: is your company weighing both benefits & risk " Ace Group, 2014.

[3] S. Tweneboah-Koduah, B. Endicott-Popovsky, and A. Tsetse, "Barriers to government cloud adoption" International Journal of Managing Information Technology 6, no. 3, pp. 1-16, 2014.

[4] Xi Chen, Yue Zhao, Brian Peck and Daji Qiao “SAP: Smart Access Point with Seamless Load Balancing Multiple Interfaces” IEEE-2012.

[5] A.Selmeci, T. Orosz“SAP Remote Communications” IEEE International Symposium on Applied (omputational lntelligence and Informatics. May 24-26, 2012.

[6] P. Glowalla and A. Sunyaev, “A Process Management Perspective onFuture ERP System Development in the Financial Sector” AIS Transaction on Enterprise Systems, Vol. 3, University of Cologne, 2012.

[7] István Orosz, Túri Balázs , Tamás Orosz “Inherited SAP Development Concepts using genuine IT programming tools” IEEE International Symposium on Computational Intelligence and Informatics 21–22 November, 2011.

[8] Selmeci, A., Orosz, I., Orosz, T., "SAP BAPI as a break-throughand future communication enabler", 2011. Dec. AIS2011.

[9] Al-Hossan and S. A. Al-Mudimigh. “Change management strategiesfor effective ERP systems”, International Journal of Computer Applications, Vol. 17 No. 2, pp. 14-19, 2011.

[10] A. D. Cristea, O. Prostean, T. Muschalik and O. Tirian ”The advantages of using SAP NetWeaver platform to implement a multidisciplinary project” IEEE-2010.



ISSN:1001-1749

Page No:383

issn:1001-1749 integration between clarity and sap kernels...

Documents