Lotus Notes integration with SAP Workflow

[Kjetil Kilhavn]

Although you did not ask about the solution as such I will offer my comments :-)
As far as I know the Outlook and Notes integration offered from SAP still both
rely on passwords being stored in Outlook or Notes (so the process is
"transparent" to the user). The solution for Notes integration (offered by
Lotus, not by SAP, but I believe it is the same solution we are talking about)
was evaluated by Statoil approximately a year ago. The breach of security was
considered to be too serious to use the solution, so we made our own integration
with Notes. The user is presented with a dialog box to enter the password (and
may also change the SAP user name in case of shared mailboxes in Notes), and
then the workitem is started in the SAP GUI.
 
Our solution takes care of everything from SAP to Notes and back. A program in
SAP creates a message with an attachment with work item information. The message
is routed from a mail-in database to the correct Notes user, matching user name
in SAP to Lotus Notes shortname (we use SAP version 3.1 and 4.5, and in 3.1
there is no e-mail address information on the SAP user). A form in Notes handles
the connection to SAP, and checks the validity of other workitems in your
mailbox on the same SAP system while you are logged on. Our solution only
forwards the messages to those agents who are users, but with SAP's API
functions to retrieve the list of messages for a user you could use a more
"standard" approach to workflow agents in SAP. Our solution uses the LSX for RFC
to SAP R/3 which is available from Lotus.
 
The users are quite happy with the situation, and most of them never look in the
SAP inbox (I'm not sure if they even know there is one).
All additional features of the business workplace (preview, show object, display
etc) will of course be lost, but users can of course still use the business
workplace if they wish to. Most of our employees don't receive many workitems,
so for them the value of only having to worry about one inbox outweighs the lost
features.
--
KjetilK, OS/2 user at home, Windows slave at work
 
 
 
 
From:  Jian Liu <liujian88 at hotmail.com>@MITVMA.MIT.EDU> on 28.11.2000 06:40
 
Please respond to "SAP Workflow Users' Group" <SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
 
Sent by:  SAP Workflow <Owner-SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
 
 
To:    SAP-WUG at MITVMA.MIT.EDU
cc:     (bcc: Kjetil Kilhavn)
Subject:  Lotus Notes integration with SAP Workflow
 
Hello,
 
There was detailed discussion on Outlook and SAP integration few days back
in this mailing list. Can anybody share the experience on Lotus Notes
integration with SAP Workflow?
 
There is a solution which SAP provides as of Release 4.5A. It approximately
corresponds to the functions of the Outlook integration by using MAPI. Can
anybody advice where the information on the installation and configuration
of this solution can be found?
 
We are on 4.6C. Thanks.
 
Rgds, Jian
IBM Singapore