Accessing IPC from seperate Java Instance

[arvind_pande]

Hi,

In our project we have a requirement where-in we need to create Quotations using non CRM Web UI. The UI in picture is a HTML5 (SAPUI5) based user interface. The Quotations would be created using SAP CRM as backend. So basically we woud be using RFCs to created Quotation from the HTML5 based UI

We also need to use IPC 7.0 to determine the pricing while creating the Quotation.

As per the architecture in place the HTML5 based UI would be deployed on a separate Java Instance/Server and not on SAP CRM instance.

I understand that, IPC is nicely integrated with SAP CRM and we need not worry about how the pricing is triggered from CRM.

However, since our requirement is to access the IPC features from a non SAP CRM instance (Java Instance), are there any risks involved in this scenario ? By risks I mean, are there any integration challenges that we would need to address while accessing the IPC features.

I am aware that, SAP CRM provides standard RFCs to access the IPC features, but apart from this is there anything else that needs to addressed or thought about in this kind of a scenario.

Please advice.

Thanks,

Arvind

[kakshat · Accepted solution]

Hi Arvind,

(First of all, I think you forgot to attach a picture of your UI.)

Can you please clarify one thing. You say:

I understand that, IPC is nicely integrated with SAP CRM and we need not worry about how the pricing is triggered from CRM. 
However, since our requirement is to access the IPC features from a non SAP CRM instance (Java Instance), are there any risks involved in this scenario ? By risks I mean, are there any integration challenges that we would need to address while accessing the IPC features.

In the first paragraph quoted above, you mention (correctly) that IPC is nicely integrated with SAP CRM and that you need not worry about how the pricing is triggered from CRM. Then, in the next paragraph, you mention that your requirement is to access the IPC features form a non-SAP CRM instance. So, it's not clear if you want to directly trigger the IPC features from your HTML 5 UI or would you only be triggering the CRM RFCs (BAPIs is probably what you mean) and leaving it up to CRM to trigger IPC.

If you don't need to trigger IPC directly from your UI, I think you should be fine provided you are calling the CRM RFCs correctly.

By the way, I hope you are not dealing with with configurable products. If you are and would like to use the configuration engine (in addition the pricing engine) of IPC as well, things would become trickier. That's because in an interactive configuration session (i.e. one in which the user is configuring the product in real-time), there would be real time communication between the UI and IPC which in the case of a non-CRM UI would involve special integration effort.

[arvind_pande · Accepted solution]

Hi Akshat,

Thanks for replying. That was helpful.

Actually our idea is to trigger the IPC features using the standard BAPI's only, and letting CRM take care of pricing.

However, what I am not sure is that whether calling the BAPI's is all that we need to do (for a non configurable product). Will calling the BAP FMI takes care of everything from a Pricing (IPC) stand point ?

Also, we have configurable products.

Since you mentioned that it would take "special integration effort" for this. Can you please throw some more light into it as to what that effort would involve ?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,

Arvind

[kakshat · Accepted solution]

For a non-configurable product, using the standard BAPIs to create a sales document in CRM should take care of pricing in my opinion. However, it makes perfect sense to test it and then believe it.

So you have configurable products. But, would you be configuring them in an interactive mode on your HTML5 UI? If yes, do you want to use IPC's configuration engine for doing so? If yes again, you will need to do the integration between your UI and IPC.

You mentioned that you know that standard provides RFCs to access IPC features. Honestly, I am not very sure which RFCs these are. I know about configuration related CFG_API* RFCs but I am not sure if they can be used in your context. So, the point is that you must investigate and establish which RFCs you can use for your purposes.

Plus, when we talk of interactive configuration using IPC, there's something called interactive pricing. This feature allows you to see the changes in the price of the product as you change its configuration. (This is something like what you see when you buy a laptop on Lenovo's website. There, as you select or deselect components, the total price keeps on changing.) So, if you need this feature as well, you will have to investigate if there are separate RFCs for this.

I hope that helps.

[baris_yalcin]

Hi Arvind,

SAP CRM offers a stateless remote Pricing API for price determination and price calculation.
This API allows you to call the IPC Pricing Engine of SAP CRM from an external application (e.g. 3rd party web shop). The complete documentation of this new Stateless Pricing API, including a full source code example, is available in the SAP note 1849765. Maybe this information is helpful for you.

Best regards,
Baris Yalcin