The process is initiated in SAP ERP with the execution of an ABAP program. This reads the customising to generate a query which is sent by the middleware to request data from Employee Central.

The middleware then calls an inbound web service to pass the data it has received which triggers the inbound processing in SAP ERP.

Employee data is maintained using the Decoupled Infotype Framework whereas Organisational Assignment data is written to staging tables which is processed later with a background job.
A message is returned to Employee Central to notify success or failure.

The steps involved are briefly described below.

Preparing SAP ERP

1. Accessing Customising (PA_SE_IN Add-On)

2. Importing Metadata from Employee Central

In order to perform all of the required mappings between the systems, the first step is to import all of the Employee Central (EC) field information into SAP.

Otherwise known as metadata, this consists of field names and descriptions as well as other useful information such as: -

• Required – indicates mandatory information for EC
• Standard – has a SAP standard mapping that cannot be changed
• Data Type / Length
• Picklist – if field has a picklist in EC
• Upsertable – only upsertable fields can be transferred from SAP to EC

The metadata information is retrieved from EC in the form of an XML file. This is then loaded into SAP with a SAP standard report (ECPAO_ECTMPL_METADATA_WRITER).

3. Define Value Mappings

The picklist information from Employee Central also needs to be imported for mapping purposes.
The values are obtained from Employee Central using Import and Export transaction.

Once the information is imported, Value Mapping Entities may be created: -

For each entity the Value Mapping Details must be configured, the following example is for Address Type: -

4. Define Templates to Map Employee Data Fields

5. Define Field Mapping

For each template the fields must be configured, the following example is for Address Type: -

There is the possibility for secondary mapping, in our example we define that STATE should be used for USA: -

Logging and Monitoring

In SAP ERP

Is done via the Application Log (transaction SLG1), Web Service Logging and Tracing (transaction SRTUTIL)
or Integration Engine Monitoring (transaction SXMB_MONI)

In Middleware

SAP Cloud Platform Integration provides a web-based monitoring UI that allows you to check the status of
messages and integration content artifacts for a tenant cluster.

Use the log ID that this gives you to find the log of a specific process that didn't run successfully and to filter
for detailed information.

In SuccessFactors

Using the Employee Central Data Replication Monitor. Employee Central provides this admin tool for monitoring
data replication to the SAP ERP HCM system.

The integration processes update the status in the Employee Central Data Replication Monitor by sending
notifications and confirmations. We use these to check the replication status, view alerts, and analyse error
messages related to data replication from Employee Central to SAP ERP HCM.

Using the SFAPI Audit Log it is possible to monitor API calls to Employee Central.

The Employee Central Compound Employee API (CE API) used by this integration is an employee-specific version of the SOAP-based SAP SuccessFactors API (SFAPI). It is provided specifically for extracting employee data (including organizational assignments) out of Employee Central.