Sap

Real-time Data Quality
for SAP
Dietrich O. Banschbach
Manager, R&D EMEA
SAS International
Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.
Agenda
Overview
dfConnector for SAP
Scenarios
Technology
Additional Information
Overview: Companies
Companies involved:
SAP AG - worlds largest Enterprise Resource

Planning (ERP) software company
DataFlux Corporation (a SAS company)

a leading provider of data management
solutions consisting of data quality, data profiling,
data integration, data augmentation and data
monitoring
Overview: SAP partnership

SAS is an SAP Software Partner with several
SAP certified interfaces
DataFlux, an SAP Software Partner in its own
right, has attained SAP interface certification

for its DataFlux dfConnector for SAP product
dfConnector for SAP

DataFlux dfConnector for SAP enhances data
quality in SAP systems in real-time
Facilitates communication between SAP
applications and DataFlux dfIntelliServer
Offers transparent access from SAP applications

to DataFlux dfIntelliServer services for data
validation, standardization, deduplication, errortolerant search, etc.
dfConnector for SAP

Provides a remote function call (RFC) server that
channels function calls from within SAP systems to

dfIntelliServer and returns results to SAP
Framework consisting of a set of DataFlux supplied

ABAP functions that map to dfIntelliServer
functions. These can be called by any SAP
application.
Functions can be used to build new or extend

existing data quality solutions in SAP using
DataFlux methods
dfConnector for SAP: Architecture
BADI
SAP Web
Application
Server
Business
Add-In
(ABAP)
API
RFC server, based on
SAP Java Connector
dfIntelliServer
(data quality
algorithms,
reference database)
JDBC
Search Index
SAS Oracle MySQL DB/2 MS SQL
dfConnector for SAP: Framework

Function modules written in ABAP use a
standard call function destination to invoke a

method that is not part of the current SAP system
The call function destination invokes
dfConnector listening at the specified destination
dfConnector gathers all parameters and initiates

the appropriate call into dfIntelliServer using its
Java client API
dfConnector for SAP: Postal Address Validation

ABAP programmers can use the framework
functions in any SAP application
As an example application that uses this
framework, dfConnector for SAP supports postal

address validation as defined in SAPs BC-BASPV certification scenario.
Enhances SAPs Business Address Services

(formerly Central Address Management)
dfConnector is Certified for SAP NetWeaver.

Formally tested with R/3 Enterprise (4.7)
dfConnector for SAP: Postal Address Validation

Customer, vendor and other addresses in SAP
are checked in real-time for correct city names,

street names, house numbers and zip codes
Missing information is auto completed from a

reference database
Quarterly adjustment process keeps addresses

up to date via a batch-run
Reports which addresses are correct and which ones

could not be validated (stating the reason)
Process can be used to do initial validation of all
addresses in SAP
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dfConnector for SAP: Deduplication

In addition to postal address validation, a
duplicate check is carried out before a new entry

can be saved in SAP
Avoids multiple entries of the same customer or

vendor name with slight differences in spelling
Offers error tolerant (fuzzy) search
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Scenarios: Postal Address Validation

This scenario enhances data quality within SAP in
real-time as address data is entered interactively
Addresses are checked for correct:

city names
street names
house numbers
zip codes
Input is standardized according to postal authority

requirements (e.g. USPS rules)
Missing information can be auto completed

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Scenario 1: Create new customer

Create new customer in SAPGUI using standard
SAP transaction XD01
Fill in data:
Company name
City
Country
(No street)
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14
Required
entry
15

Missing
information
field is colored
and cursor is
positoned in
that field
Error
message
in status
line
16
Click on
Check
button
when all
data has
been
entered
Street name
entered
incorrectly
(Street
instead of
Drive)
Region
required
to resolve
the
address
17

Address is validated by dfIntelliServer
City name converted to uppercase

Postal code (ZiP) added
Street name uppercased and standardized (DR=Drive)
District added automatically
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Scenario 2:
Creating a customer with minimal data entry
Data entered in SAP:
Part of a street name with a spelling mistake
Postal code
Country (required by SAP)
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Scenario 2: Creating a customer with minimal data

entry
Partial
street
name with
spelling
mistake
Basic
postal
code
No region
specified
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Scenario 2:
Creating a new customer with minimal data entry
Address is validated by dfIntelliServer
City name uppercased
Postal code added (zip plus 4)
Street name uppercased and standardized (PKWY=Parkway)
Spelling mistake corrected
District added automatically
Region added automatically
21
Scenario 3: Inconsistent or unresolvable addresses

Neither post code nor city are specified
User insists on saving a record even though the
entry could not be validated
To ensure high availability of the SAP system,
address data can still be entered and saved if

dfConnector and/or dfIntelliServer are
temporarily unavailable. Entries are marked as
not having been checked against official address
reference data. Those addresses can be
corrected in the dfConnector Quarterly Address
Adjustment process which checks and updates in
batch mode
22
Error message:
No zip code
and/or city
specified
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Scenario 4: Duplicate search

The following scenario shows the duplicate
search and elimination capabilities of DataFlux

dfConnector for SAP
The scenario first shows how easy it is (caused
by a small typo) to create a duplicate customer

record in the SAP database without dfConnector
In comparison, the same process is performed

using dfConnector for SAP to identify potential
duplicates and resolve the situation
25

Using the standard SAP search, the user first checks in
SAP if the customer he would like to create does not

currently exist. But accidentally he has a small typo in the
street name (Wesston instead of Weston)
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The search returns no hits and the user proceeds
under the assumption he can now create a
unique customer
He creates and saves a new customer entry,

thus creating a duplicate
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After that the duplicate search capabilities of
dfConnector are triggered. Based on

matchcodes created by dfIntelliServer, potential
duplicates are detected
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32

Transaction flow
Address data is entered in SAPGUI. Postal address
validation executes
The /DATAFLUX/ADDR_SEARCH implementation of the

BAdI ADDRESS_SEARCH is invoked
Function module /DATAFLUX/DUPLICATE_CHECK

searches for duplicates
/DATAFLUX/DUPLICATE_CHECK calls dfConnector which

gathers the entered SAP data.
Matchcodes are generated dynamically and a JDBC call is

made to retrieve results from the external RDBMS. The
results of the search are returned to dfConnector which
passes them to SAP to display a list of potential duplicates
33
Scenario 5: Quarterly adjustment process

Quarterly Adjustment is a batch process that
ensures address data stays up to date
If new address data are available e.g. from
USPS, this can be activated in the system in

three steps by running:
SAP report to get all addresses
DataFlux provided report to check, standardize
and auto complete addresses
SAP report to write the updated addresses
back to the SAP database
34

RSADRQU1 report scans all addresses for a certain
country and inserts them into an index table
/DATAFLUX/RSADRQU2 reads all SAP addresses from
index table and validates each address. Addresses are

checked, auto completed and standardized.
If an address cannot be validated it is flagged for later
reporting purposes. Indicates the level of address quality,
i.e. how many addresses are correct and how many are
incorrect
RSADRQU3 writes back validated and corrected
addresses to the operational SAP database. Alternatively

reports reason for not being able to write them back
35
36

Checked
addresses:
+ = ok
- = failed
Summary
37
38
Technology
Java 1.4.x/1.5 to interface SAP with the Dataflux
dfIntelliServer 6 using SAP Java Connector 2.1.3
ABAP programming to hook into the predefined

interfaces (SAP Business Add-In) for address
validation and deduplication
SAP Add-on Assembly Kit (AAK) to allow for SAP

certification (e.g. Name spaces, installation,
deployment, upgrade etc.)
Search index creation in SAS data sets or in any

external JDBC-compliant RDBMS
39
Technology: dfConnector Framework Functions
/DATAFLUX/AREA_CODE
/DATAFLUX/DETERMINE_GENDER
/DATAFLUX/DETERMINE_LOCALE
/DATAFLUX/DETERMINE_ENTITY
/DATAFLUX/DIRECTORY_SEARCH
/DATAFLUX/DUPLICATE_CHECK
/DATAFLUX/GENERATE_MATCHCODE
/DATAFLUX/GEN_MATCHCODE_PARSED
/DATAFLUX/GEOCODE
/DATAFLUX/LOOKUP_COUNTY
/DATAFLUX/LOOKUP_PHONE
/DATAFLUX/PARSE
/DATAFLUX/QUERY_SERVER
/DATAFLUX/STANDARDIZE
/DATAFLUX/STANDARDIZE_PARSED
/DATAFLUX/STANDARDIZE_SCHEME
/DATAFLUX/DELETE_INDEX_ENTRY
/DATAFLUX/VERIFY_ADDRESS
/DATAFLUX/MAINTAIN_INDEX_ENTRY
40
Technology: /DATAFLUX/VERIFY_ADDRESS
Input data
Results
41
Technology: /DATAFLUX/VERIFY_ADDRESS
42
Technology: External Search Index

The external search index can be stored in an
arbitrary RDBMS that supports the JDBC
interface
Examples:
SAS data sets
MySQL
Microsoft SQL Server
MaxDB (formerly known as SAP DB)
Oracle
...
43
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Technology: External search index

Example: Stored in SAS
47
Technology: RFC server platforms

SAP supported Java Connector JCo platforms
(used by RFC server component of dfConnector):

Windows NT SP4 or later, Win 2000, XP, Win 2003 Server
Sun Solaris/SPARC 8 or later
IBM AIX 4.3 or later
HP-UX 11.0 or later (PA_RISC processors, only)
OS/400 V5R1 or later (not for SAP JCo 2.0.5)
COMPAQ Tru64 5.0 or later (not for SAP JCo 2.1.x)
Z/Linux on S/390 (Linux / Z-series GLIBC 2.2.4 or later)
Linux Kernel 2.2.14 or later (Intel compatible processors)
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Additional Information
SUGI Birds-of-a-Feather (BoF) session
Enhancing SAP with SAS, room 107, Tuesday

at 6 p.m.
www.dataflux.com
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Real-time Data Quality

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

SAP AG - worlds largest Enterprise Resource

DataFlux Corporation (a SAS company)

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Overview: SAP partnership

DataFlux, an SAP Software Partner in its own

right, has attained SAP interface certification

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

dfConnector for SAP

Facilitates communication between SAP

applications and DataFlux dfIntelliServer

Offers transparent access from SAP applications

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

dfConnector for SAP

channels function calls from within SAP systems to

Framework consisting of a set of DataFlux supplied

Functions can be used to build new or extend

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

dfConnector for SAP: Architecture

dfConnector for SAP: Framework

standard call function destination to invoke a

The call function destination invokes

dfConnector listening at the specified destination

dfConnector gathers all parameters and initiates

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

dfConnector for SAP: Postal Address Validation

As an example application that uses this

framework, dfConnector for SAP supports postal

Enhances SAPs Business Address Services

dfConnector is Certified for SAP NetWeaver.

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

dfConnector for SAP: Postal Address Validation

are checked in real-time for correct city names,

Missing information is auto completed from a

Quarterly adjustment process keeps addresses

Reports which addresses are correct and which ones

dfConnector for SAP: Deduplication

duplicate check is carried out before a new entry

Avoids multiple entries of the same customer or

Offers error tolerant (fuzzy) search

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Scenarios: Postal Address Validation

Addresses are checked for correct:

Input is standardized according to postal authority

Missing information can be auto completed

Scenario 1: Create new customer

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Scenario 1: Create new customer

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Scenario 1: Create new customer

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Scenario 1: Create new customer

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Scenario 1: Create new customer

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Scenario 1: Create new customer

City name converted to uppercase

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Scenario 2: Creating a customer with minimal data

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Copyright 2005, SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

Scenario 3: Inconsistent or unresolvable addresses