In the role of SAP /Microsoft interoperability Solution Architect, you are typically also the middleman between the SAP and Microsoft counterparts. You work with the Microsoft architect and developers, also with the SAP solution architect, SAP Business Suite business analyst and ABAP developers, as well in the combination. In my experience it is necessary to have a deep enough insight in the architecture and technology of both landscapes, for the optimal and valuable SAP / Microsoft advice in a given customer context. So although not required to program ABAP and/or C# yourself, you need to understand their role and positioning. And that of BizTalk, SAP PI, Microsoft WCF, Enterprise Services Repository (ESR), ABAP Workbench, SharePoint Designer, to name a few.
Personally I also prefer an own workspace in which I can analyse, inspect and work on both sides of the SAP and Microsoft interoperability stacks. My SAP/MS toolbox therefore contains a.o. the following items:
SAP side
- SAP GUI (and thus the whole ABAP development + configuration stack)
- SAP authorizations for backend; inspect BOR, RFC, workflow, application and error logs
- SAP authorizations for Gateway; analyse Logs, SIMGH, …
- S-userid
- (SAP developer key)
Microsoft / SharePoint
- SharePoint UI operated in browser
- SharePoint Designer
- Visual Studio >= 2008
- InfoPath
- SiteAdministrator role on the SharePoint site collection
- Authorizations on the SharePoint farm for BCS, Secure Store
- ULS Log Viewer
SAP / Microsoft interoperability; knowledge of…
- Duet Enterprise
- .NET Connector (NCo)
- Sitrion
- Winshuttle
- BizTalk WCF LOB Adapter
- ES Explorer
Useful others...
- Fiddler
- IE Developer tools
- FireFox + FireBug
- Wireshark
- .NET Reflector
- soapUI
- HttpWatch
- WinDiff
Typical content of my daily workplace; blended SAP and Microsoft tools – Visual Studio, SharePoint Designer, SharePoint UI opened in browser, SAP GUI, ULS LogViewer, ...
Hi William,
ReplyDeleteGreat overview!
But you should also take a look to the tools from Theobald Software. There is a Beta Version of some SharePoint-Based-Tools called ERPConnect Services. I like most the BCS Connector.
Best Regards,
Andreas
Hi Andreas,
ReplyDeleteI heard of ERPConnect, but have no experience with it yet. But does it add anything between the free .NET Connector and the full Duet Enterprise propositions to connect SAP into SharePoint? Also curious whether it can utilize SAP NetWeaver Gateway.
William.