Converting a standard Plant into an SAP Retail Site Master is a niche topic. But it’s also a window through which to view the differences between these two business objects.
What’s more, SAP S/4HANA’s Industry to Core and the trend of Manufacturers with Retail operations combine to make the topic of Plants versus Retail Sites increasingly relevant.
We use the words Reference Sites imprecisely. It’s a problem because there are many kinds of Reference Sites. Two, in particular, are often conflated and thus misunderstood.
Archiving is a tedious task! And so infrequently done, who can remember the steps? I’ve carefully documented it here so that you and I never forget again!
The steps for archiving Site Business Partner also apply to plain old Business Partners and dependent objects. So now you’ve got that in your bag of tricks too!.
Archiving is a seldom-executed process in the course of implementing SAP Retail. And archiving of Site Master is even less likely to occur, unless as a necessary corrective for mistakenly created data. That’s a less-than-ideal occasion for dusting off old or never-practiced archiving skills.
Worry not! You’ll be prepared for success with this detailed guide to archiving Retail Site, Business Partner, and dependent objects.
The SAP lexicon is fun. Similar or same words commonly describe different things, and different words describe the same or similar thing. As such, speaking precisely requires effort, if not blind faith.
This is particularly true in SAP Retail, where a so-called “Retail Text” was historically applied to rename business objects. Materials became Articles, Plants became Sites, and more.
With S/4HANA, Retail Text is no more. The standard labels Material and Plant appear on screens, not Article and Site. But not consistently.
SAP Retail Site Master Distribution prompts questions from many teams: Basis, Security, Network / Infrastructure, and Controls / Compliance. Oh, and the Master Data team is very interested too.
SAP Retail Site Master Distribution is a monster of complexity. But in about 15 minutes, you’re going to be prepared to tame the monster.
This isn’t just a demonstration. In this short video, you’re going to learn the functional details of how this process works. With that foundation, you’ll be prepared to diagnose process failures.
The Essence of SAP Retail Master Data — my recent blog post — was all about massively creating product data, location data, and product data that’s location specific. This video goes to the next level.
After you’ve brilliantly orchestrated master data to create master data — perhaps billion of rows — how do you maintain this over time … with least effort?
For that, you need to understand a concept called Reference Handling.
The essence of SAP Retail Master Data is manifested at the intersection of Products and Locations. We also call them Articles and Sites, or Materials and Plants. Take your pick; the SAP lexicon is forever morphing for your enjoyment 🙂
Whatever you call them, the number of Products times the number of Locations is a big number in SAP Retail. It quantifies the Retail Master Data challenge, and billions is the typical unit of measure.
You’ve got to massively create and maintain product data, location data, and product data that’s location specific. Yes, please, and with least effort.
A central concept permeates SAP Retail Master Data to enable master data creation: using master data to create master data. If you get your head around this idea — even at a high level — then you’ll begin to grasp the elegance and uniqueness of SAP Retail Master Data.
My first experience with Extended Computer Aided Test Tool (eCATT) wasn’t much fun. In fact, I still cringe when I hear or say “eCATT.”
It would be fair to say that I still dislike eCATT. But the best SAP Functional folks are the best, in part, because they’re aware of every tool in their kit. And sometimes eCATT is the right tool for the job. In rare cases, it’s the only tool for the job.
You should know a bit about eCATT, even if you plan to avoid it, as I do.
Creating master data (and customizing, without customizing requests!) is a serious matter. Your data migration process better be executed properly and accurately. For one thing, it’s a tedious mess to clean up (archive) if things goes awry. Of course, as a Master Data Aficionado reading this article, you now have a plan for success.
Let’s begin by recognizing that your Site Master business process design dictates where and when you’ll be executing Site Master data migration.
Site Master Distribution is Best Practice in S/4HANA. If you’ve adopted that architecture then plan to execute Site Master data migration only in your Development Customizing Golden client. Then use Site Master Distribution to distribute those Site Masters to downstream systems-clients that require Site Masters.