SAP S/4HANA - Customer Vendor Integration (CVI) - Business Partner approach

SAP CVI

Simplification List Item Description

• There are redundant object models in the traditional ERP system. Here the vendor master and customer master is used. The (mandatory) target approach in SAP S/4HANA is the Business Partner approach (Customer-Vendor Integration [CVI]).
• Business Partner is now capable of centrally managing master data for business partners, customers, and vendors. With current development, BP is the single point of entry to create, edit, and display master data for business partners, customers, and vendors.
• The specific tables for customer data (KNA1) and vendor data (LFA1) remain available and are not impacted.

Business Impact

• Only SAP Business Suite customer with C/V integration in place can move to SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 (Conversion approach).
• It´s recommended but not mandatory that BuPa ID and Customer-ID / Vendor ID are the same.
  Note: In case of overlapping number ranges for Customer and Vendor in Business Suite start system additional number range alignment is required!
• The user interface for SAP S/4HANA, on-premise edition 1511 is transaction BP. The specific transaction codes to maintain  customer/vendor separately like known from SAP Business Suite, are not available within SAP S/4HANA.

Business Partner Motivation

A business partner, such as the SAP Strategic Object Model, is a single point of entry for master data for business partners, customers, and vendors. Business partners are used in applications such as the following: ·         SAP Collections Management (FSCM-COL) ·         SAP Credit Management (FSCM-CR) ·         SAP Treasury and Risk Management (TRM) ·         Loans Management (FS-CML) ·         Customer Relation Management (CRM) ·         Supply Chain management (SCM) ·         Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)           ·         This is one of the most complex and elaborate subprojects of migration. ·         Transformation time depends on the complexity of number ranges, consistency of, for example, field attributes, partner data consistency, customer/vendor enhancements extensions), and data volume. ·         It can be done (customizing, synchronization, and so on) as a separate subproject before migration or as part of the migration project. However, it must be done before the conversion process starts ·         As a prerequisite of the SAP S/4HANA conversion project, all customers, vendors, and their contacts must be converted to business partners. Only  SAP Business Suite customers with CVI in place can move to SAP S/4HANA. ·         CVI ensures that customer and vendor master data tables are updated automatically after a BP is created or changed.  Required and Recommended Action(s) Execute the related conversion pre-checks. Adaption required in dependency to the pre-check results Necessary CVI Business Partner transformation customizing settings and checks must be performed Remove and avoid inconsistent customizing and inconsistent customer data (for example: Missing customizing tax types or inconsistent customer data like e-mail addresses without @-sign)