We have good number of articles in SCN listing the benefits of an On Demand solution
or a Cloud based solution. This article outlines the integration approach while integrating
with EDI Trading partners through SBN/Crossgate using PI.
Canonical Integration pattern is the underlying EAI pattern used while integrating
with Crossgate or SAP Information Interchange (SAP II) On Demand Solution.
There is a SAP II message format for each of the business transactions like Purchase Orders
(EDI 850) or Purchase Order changes (EDI 860) or Invoices (EDI 810). This SAP II message
format would be the intermediary structure or the canonical message format.
For outbound interfaces, in PI we will map the IDOC structure to the corresponding SAP II XML
message format and send it over to SBN over HTTPs. In SBN, the SAP II message format will be
transformed into EDI message (like EDI 850) and sent over the trading partner’s mode of
communication (like AS2/VAN etc.) based on trading partner profile maintained at SBN.
Since SAP II XML message is the canonical format, we only need to map from IDOC to SAP II XML
message format per EDI transaction, the customer specific mappings would be taken care at SBN
depending on the EDI Guidelines document of trading partner shared with SBN. So, it is all the more
important to share the latest or updated EDI Guidelines document of trading partner with SBN.
For inbound interfaces, in PI we will map the SAP II XML message format received over HTTPs in PI
to the IDOC structure and post the IDOCs into ECC.We can also have a reconciliation of the EDI
messages sent out by receiving the EDI 997 (Functional Acknowledgement) from trading partners
through SBN. SBN also provides a web based monitoring solution called Satellite
for monitoring the EDI traffic and reconciliation.
While this is one of the integration approaches while working with an On Demand Solution like SBN,
the contractual agreements with SBN spell out the actual segregation of work like what functionality SBN
will provide and what Customer/SI needs to do. There could be other ways of integrating with SBN and
depending upon the integration approach, the contractual agreements with SBN may also vary.