SAP Notes integration

[Martin Maguth]

hi craig:
 
a little while ago, i was working with a customer here in the us who had
somewhat similar questions.
 
(1) using notes as the inbox instead of sapoffice is first of all depended
on the release of sap you are on; i think it work as of release 3.1H or so;
contrary to ms outlook, the notes integration requires some additional work
besides just activating the MAPI service provider on a user's desktop; from
a business view, the use of the lotus notes inbox is recommended for mainly
one scenario; this is to integrate users into the workflow who ONLY RARELY
access sap and who will not process a high volume of workitems during the
workflow; the notes access to sap slows down performance and is not
efficient if the user is a high volume or even a regular workflow
participant; we usually say that if a user has more than one workitem per
day, the sapoffice inbox should be used.
 
(2) integrating the notes and the sap workflow engine can be done using the
LSX (lotus script extension); although i have not implemented it myself, i
believe it works something like this: the workflow is started in notes and
processing continues there until the switch to sap is to be made, at that
point all necessary data that has to be exchanged is written to custom
notes tables, a batchjob in sap periodically reads those tables via RFC and
triggers the necessary evets to start the corresponding workflows in sap.
when it is time to switch back to sap, the exchange data is written to
custom sap tables where a notes agent picks it up periodically for further
processing in lotus notes. there is way to do the whole thing in real time
using the lsx, but i don't know how, sorry
 
(3) i don't know if you have an imaging system for document management;
some of those imaging system have build-in workflow engines that would
allow you to create simple document approval scenarios; if you want to
approve sap transactions, such as parked invoices or purchase requisitions,
outside of sap, you will run into sap authorization and licensing issues at
one point or another.
 
there are a few companies out there that specialize in the notes
integration into sap. i know that lotus development itself has done
significant work in that area..,.
 
i hope this helps ...
 
- martin
 
-------------------------------------------------------------
Martin Maguth
Consultant
IBM Global Services
 
 
Craig Dennis <CRAIG at tac.toyota.co.za>@MITVMA.MIT.EDU> on 04/04/2001
05:16:37 AM
 
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:
Subject:  SAP Notes integration
 
 
 
Does anyone know of a good source for information on how to and what
benefits can gained from integrating SAP and Lotus Notes. Items of specific
interest are:-
 
* using Notes as the users SAP mail box
* creating work flows which start from a Notes work flow and are then
passed to SAP
* authorizing documents using work flow but outside of SAP
 
Thank you in anticipation.
 
Craig Dennis
Toyota SA