Cfolder questions

[Former Member]

Hi Experts,

I have couple of question related to CFolder which a test system configured and running on a SAP sandbox WAS.

1) Can CF be extended to outside suppliers without  a need of an sap UI and password? If yes, do they just need any special  type of windows authentication? We have a mix of suppliers, some has access to SAP and some prohibited, but requires access to some limited SAP information.

2) Out of the box cfolder solution allows to work with SAP objects like Material, MPN, Documents, BOM etc....can you import SCORE CARD and SCAR objects from SAP. Or do you need SRM integration with CFOLDER?

3) Can you integrate BOBJ for publishing monthly (Excel, graphs etc)  reports to the supplier area of the cfolder?

4) What are the pros and cons of running a cfolder system on the SAP ECC server itself. Does it need to be installed on its own server hardware?

Thanks,

Pradeep

[ulf_petzel]

Hi,

in addtion to Ravi's comments, here is my guidance:

1. For external collaboration, cFolders should typically NOT be installed on top of your backend ERP system. Please also refere to the cFolders Master Guide for this.

2. For other SAP ERP objects of which you want to expose information via cFolders, you can use custom so called generic objects (defined similar to e.g. the MPNs through XML) and remote control those through the cFolders APIs.

Configuration Documentation in Solution Manager for business process Design Collaboration and Engineering Change Collaboration gives you detailed insights on how to configure cFolders for different purposes.

Regards, Ulf.

[ravi_ekambaram]

Hi Pradeep,

Answering to your questions..

1) Can CF be extended to outside suppliers without  a need of an sap UI and password? If yes, do they just need any special  type of windows authentication? We have a mix of suppliers, some has access to SAP and some prohibited, but requires access to some limited SAP information.

Yes, cFolders is mainly available  for collaborating documents, materials, BOM's etc. with business partners like suppliers, customers. No need of access to SAP GUI for using cFolders, since cFolders is web based application(BSP application) which can be accessed using backend SAP user id's with relevant authorisations.If few suppliers has already access to SAP system, then those user ids can be used to access cFolders, Check with your accounts manager of SAP for licensing details.

 2) Out of the box cfolder solution allows to work with SAP objects like Material, MPN, Documents, BOM etc....can you import SCORE CARD and SCAR objects from SAP. Or do you need SRM integration with CFOLDER?

cFolders can be easily integrated with SAP ECC system for accessing documents from DMS, materials, BOM's.  And as far as Score card & SCAR, i have no idea but SRM can be integrated with cFolders.

3) Can you integrate BOBJ for publishing monthly (Excel, graphs etc)  reports to the supplier area of the cfolder?

Business objects integration..not much idea about it but the outputs from BOBJ like excels, flash files can be uploaded to cFolders very easily and can be shared with suppliers.

4) What are the pros and cons of running a cfolder system on the SAP ECC server itself. Does it need to be installed on its own server hardware?

cFolders is part of component CPRXRPM and this component is a ERP addon, so it can be installed on the same server of ECC. This can be installed separately also, but I would recommend to install on same server since the integration becomes easier. If you take reference of business suite IDES, the above component is installed in the same instance and you can have a look at this.

Hope these answers clarify your queries..

Regards,

Ravi