Integrating with SAP using Kony MobileFabric
The challenge of mobilizing SAP Business Suite Unfortunately, there is no magic wand when it comes to mobilizing intricate SAP Business Suite processes. It is true that it is relatively easy to communicate with SAP systems, and there are a variety of ways to do this. Some areas of functionality are covered by standard BAPI (Business API) function calls, but when it comes down to the more complex areas, things get very hard very quickly. Good SAP functional and ABAP programmers who know how to navigate through the maze of tables, functions, system exits, transactions, and custom developments are critical to success. A mobile business process abstraction layer inside SAP is also a logical approach. Another major issue is scalability. As you roll out more mobile users, demand on the back-end SAP systems increases significantly, with the risk of severely impacting other areas of the business. An example of this are mobile transaction storms where key events happen at certain times of the day; for example, 2,000 field service workers and CRM sales reps connect at 8AM to retrieve their activities for the day. The load put on the backend system at these peak times is immense and needs proper management processes to avoid excessive delays and, even worse, system failure. Many external middleware solutions have this issue, where they are duplicating large volumes of data and generating excessive transaction requests, without any understanding of what is actually going on inside SAP Business Suite in terms of load, prioritization, dependency management, and error processing. This scenario effectively equates to two transaction management systems and two system of record trying to do the same thing. The answer here is not to add more hardware and people, but to eliminate the middleman and fully utilize the excellent SAP client/server architecture that has been honed to perfection for over twenty years. In addition to juggling complexity and scalability, companies today must also deploy and manage rich functional mobile applications over a diverse range of devices. The whole concept of enterpriseowned BYOD programs and the increasing demand for rich user interfaces presents a major challenge. Typically, businesses end up using a variety of development tools and writing platformspecific code, such as Objective C for IOS, Java for Android, and C# for Windows. A better solution is a single, unified platform that enables true multi-channel development in the tooling of choice for native, web, and hybrid applications, and supports the complete lifecycle of application management. Finally, it s critical to keep data, devices, and users safe. The issue of mobile security falls into three main categories: the authentication to download and use applications, access to the system, and the transmission and storage of data. In a world where devices can be jail broken and man-in-the-middle and hacking attacks are very real, enterprise applications require an extraordinary level of security controls. These must cover certificates, identity management, network and database encryption, 2
SAP Business Suite SSO, session checking, role-based provisioning, code exposures, and more. As a general rule, the more disparate and disjointed the mobile infrastructure, the higher the inherent security risk is. As more applications are deployed outside of the four walls of the company, corporate security should be the top priority. If a device is stolen, it will be by someone who knows what he or she is doing and that s a problem. The Kony solution for mobilizing SAP Business Suite Kony solves all of these problems by providing a unified mobility platform that supports the complete lifecycle of mobile applications from design to management. It includes: Kony MobileFabric Enterprise-grade back-end services, including identity and authentication, messaging, service orchestration, and integration, including comprehensive Inside SAP interface management. Kony Management Enterprise mobility management (EMM) supporting device, application, and content management across both your mobile fleet and external clients. Kony Studio - Integrated development environment for multi-edge native, web, and hybrid apps with support for SAP Gateway and JCO adaptors. Within the Kony Mobility Platform, businesses have multiple options for mobilizing SAP: Kony MobileFabric Integration for SAP Business Suite for comprehensive support, and SAP standard Gateway and JCO adapter options for more lightweight requirements. 3
The Kony MobileFabric Integration for SAP Business Suite This is a SAP-certified technology that enables enterprise applications to be easily developed, deployed, and managed. It was designed from the ground up to seamlessly integrate into the lifecycle of mobile applications development, which cannot be said of many of the other mobile vendors who have disparate, often separately acquired, technologies that are haphazardly bundled together. MobileFabric for SAP Business Suite provides the flexibility to support true multi-edge native, web, and hybrid applications while allowing the business to use their development tooling of choice for targeted channels. It supports both online and offline functionality with complete security, high availability, scalability, and interface management. It also fully supports a powerful HTTP RESTful interface to easily synchronize data with SAP with built-in integration management and a unique inside SAP integration approach that makes it the best platform with which to mobilize your business processes. Benefit Rich, multichannel UX with built-in integration Packaged integration modules Seamless integration Scalability Complete security Description Kony is the only mobile vendor that can truly develop rich, multi-edge native and web applications. Components are totally integrated with SAP Business Suite, allowing you to easily explore and integrate data objects directly into mobile applications. The MobileFabric inside SAP approach enables you to easily define and manage all of your SAP interfacing from a single point. No other mobile vendor has this capability. Kony provides standard SAP Business Suite application integration modules for CRM, EAM, HCM, workflow, supply chain, and manufacturing. These modules are easily imported into the SAP Business Suite environment, providing deep customizable functionality that is pre-integrated with standard SAP. These provide instant plug-and-play functionality as well as a solid foundation for additional customization. In many cases, there is no need for any interface development in SAP. The unique inside SAP architecture fully complements and utilizes the powerful and scalable SAP NetWeaver infrastructure, avoiding duplication of data and processing. Additional benefits of this approach include: Total reuse of your existing functional, ABAP, and Basis skill sets No additional administration and management processes Complete access to SAP Business Suite functionality and mechanisms Because MobileFabric fully utilizes the SAP NetWeaver architecture, it is as scalable as the SAP system itself. In addition, it provides sophisticated interface management controls that effectively load balance transactions and protect against transaction storms. MobileFabric has many proven implementations supporting high volumes of mobile users and data. It also provides a built-in load testing tool that can be used to effectively simulate high volumes of devices and transactions to highlight potential bottlenecks and optimize tuning. MobileFabric for SAP Business Suite has been successfully audited by two of the big four audit companies for its ability to secure mobile data against malicious device and network attacks. This included comprehensive code reviews, data encryption algorithm and key protection, certificate handling, device/ user identity management, session management, and profiling controls. Unlike many other vendors, MobileFabric provides deep levels of data encryption, identity, and session management to protect against the copying or exposure of sensitive data. MobileFabric is also fully integrated with SAP NetWeaver security and single sign-on (SSO) infrastructure. 4
Benefit Robustness and high availability Total system management Description MobileFabric for SAP Business Suite supports mission-critical enterprise mobile applications that require a high level of availability. It is a proven, robust platform that supports offline capability when the network is not available, automatic switchover for disaster recovery situations, and complete end-to-end data and transaction management to ensure integrity. Because there is no need for external data storage, there is significantly less complexity and far fewer points of failure. A complete suite of systems management tools is provided to manage the complete lifecycle of a mobile application and its users. These are used to effectively administer and manage all mobile provisioning, device connections, data synchronization, interfaces, performance tuning, and diagnostics. One of the key areas for an SAP Business Suite mobile implementation is effective interface management. MobileFabric provides a comprehensive interface management component inside SAP that is used to control all end-to-end mobile transactions and data synchronizations. This interface management is used to protect the backend system from mobile transaction storms and effectively load balance transactions and more efficiently utilize SAP internal resources. Architecture The following diagram outlines the MobileFabric Integration for SAP architecture and components. It is simple to install and can be made ready for use in a matter of hours. There are three main components, which combine to provide seamless integration between SAP and the mobile device. The fourth component provides pre-configured plug in application integration modules for all the major functional areas of SAP. The fourth component provides pre-configured plug in application integration modules for all the major functional areas of SAP. The Kony advantage 5
Component Native/HTML5 and Kony applications on device HTTP RESTful interface SkyMobile access gateway SkyMobile Certified SAP add-in Business Connectors Description Applications developed using 3rd party SDKS or the Kony IDE, which are deployed to the device. The Sky Data Object Explorer is used to include and automatically integrate SAP data object definitions that are used to synchronize all data between SAP and the device. The SkySync multi-threaded secure container is automatically embedded into the application as part of the build process. A powerful, fully functional HTTP RESTful interface is exposed that enables all maner of external applications to easily access and transact with SAP. You define integration objects inside SAP that can map to data objects, SQL function calls, custom code, etc. The access gateway provides a single point of access into the central network. It provides identity management, high speed data encryption and compression, and SAP connectivity controls. It is very lightweight and can be implemented on either a UNIX or Windows server, usually in the DMZ behind a proxy server. It supports clustering, load balancing, and automatic switch-over. There is no intermediary storage of data. The SkyMobile access gateway also provides seamless SSO integration with SAP Portal. You can also expose HTTP ports for RESTful calls using XML or JSON payloads. This is the heart of the MobileFabric Integration for SAP Business Suite, which is implemented into the SAP NetWeaver ABAP stack as a standard SAP-certified add-in. It has its own /SKY/ namespace to avoid any conflicts and is imported as a standard ABAP transport. The SAP add-in provides all data synchronization, interface management and systems management services. Because it is inside SAP, SkyMobile is tightly integrated with all the SAP sub-systems and thus can perform sophisticated interface management and integration. In addition, all existing SAP security, administration, and infrastructure are utilized. These add-in modules are imported into the SAP environment as a standard transport to provide comprehensive integration objects for a particular area of functionality, such as CRM, EAM, HCM, workflow, supply chain, and manufacturing. They all use the /SKYTECH/ registered SAP namespace to avoid any conflicts and are imported as standard ABAP transports. Standards are used throughout to ensure SAP compliance and compatibility. In this way, customers can easily mobilize deep and rich SAP functionality with minimum effort and maximum flexibility. Application development and management With MobileFabric for SAP Business Suite, you can develop and manage rich, multi-edge native and web applications. An IDE is also provided inside SAP to design, develop, and deploy data object definitions, integration objects, and HTTP RESTful services. The basic development process is as follows: Define the data and integration objects inside SAP Expose the HTTP RESTful services Explore and incorporate the services into the mobile application using MobileFabric Integrate with 3rd party development tooling Build the application for the channels you require (e.g. iphone, Android, BlackBerry, etc.) SAP Business Suite SkyMobile Add-on 6
Process Define data and integration objects inside SAP Explore and incorporate data objects into the mobile application Build the application for each channel Deploy the application to the mobile device Systems management Description Data objects are a collection of interrelated tables and binaries that represent a complete business transaction or master data definition. They also define how the data is to be profiled and synchronized and the associated SAP integration objects that are used to extract and update SAP data. The data objects can be easily exposed to the mobile application using HTTP RESTful services. Data objects and integration objects are configured inside SAP using a special SkyMobile IDE that is fully integrated with all the SAP sub-systems (e.g. Data Dictionary, ABAP workbench, Security, etc.) This is also convenient and efficient for the SAP functional and ABAP resources who normally work in the SAP system. The Kony Studio development environment is used to define multi-channel mobile applications. From here, you can explore the SkyMobile data object definitions in SAP and easily incorporate them directly into the application logic. All the standard methods to select, create, change, and delete data are automatically generated, making development and mapping easy. Once the application is complete, it is then built for each of the required channels. This process automatically imbeds the integration components into the binary to handle all the offline storage and synchronization services. Once the application binary is built, it is deployed to the enterprise app store and then out to the device using the Kony enterprise mobile management (EMM) functionality. Kony EMM provides comprehensive mobile device (MDM), application (MAM), and content (MCM) services. Third party vendors may also be used. MobileFabric provides a suite of management tools that can be used to effectively operate and support the mobile applications available from a central console inside SAP and through the MobileFabric Console. HTTP RESTful services A key capability of MobileFabric integration is its ability to easily define and expose fully functional HTTP RESTful services that support complex objects incorporating both business and binary data. This helps to make access to Fortress SAP much easier and more cost effective. It also enables more open integration with a whole range of development tools. The capabilities of this option are far more sophisticated than the more simple SAP Gateway odata adapter that can not handle complex composite objects and does not provide comprehensive interface management. All of the packaged business connector options like CRM, EAM, HCM, and supply chain also incorporate standard HTTP RESTful services, which are then accessible through the Kony Studio components as well as other 3rd party development tools. 7
Packaged business connectors Kony provides packaged business connectors that are designed to mobilize all the major functional areas. These significantly reduce the amount of integration work required and provide complete interface management and scalability controls. Stringent standards are used throughout to guarantee compatibility, reliability, and performance. Protecting the SAP Business Suite system and data The biggest risk to any mobile implementation is the ability of the backend system to scale to meet the high volume of mobile transactions and the end-to-end security of the data. MobileFabric Integration for SAP Business Suite effectively addresses these risks by providing an SAP-certified add-in component that is installed into the SAP system to act as an effective mediator between the mobile application and the backend system. In this way, mobile transactions can be effectively throttled and managed and a high level of data security can be maintained all the way from the device to the backend system. Transaction peaks can be controlled using priority queue management, and system resources can be optimized using standard SAP NetWeaver load balancing, parallel processing, and scheduling. Because the interface management and integration services reside inside the SAP NetWeaver environment, fast HANA in-memory processing may also be utilized. In contrast, the main reason why most external middleware servers fail to scale is because they duplicate transactions and data, thereby generating significant processing overhead and exposing additional points of failure and data security. They typically have no insight into what is happening in the backend environment and no control over the volume and priority of transactions. As one customer put it, I would much rather have a policeman inside my SAP system keeping the peace and directing traffic than someone outside lobbing grenades into it. In addition to sophisticated identity management, certificate controls, SSO, and industry-strength data encryption, MobileFabric for SAP also implements strict session token management and other anti-hacking mechanisms to prevent sophisticated spoofing, man-in-the-middle attacks, and the unauthorized copying of data. All the code has been scanned and tested by third party specialist security services for vulnerabilities on all of the major mobile platforms. This also includes the testing of low-level hacking procedures comprising of spoofing, man-in-the-middle, and jail breaking and code disassembly. 8
The SAP Gateway and JCO Integration Options In addition to the MobileFabric Integration for SAP Business Suite, Kony also supports integration using the SAP Gateway and JCO adapter options. These allow you to explore definitions in SAP and incorporate them into mobile applications using the Kony IDE, and are typically used for lightweight, real-time transactions, dashboards, and mashup-style applications. Both these options are productivity tools, and are not a mobile platform. If you are looking to deploy more complex, secure, offline applications, you should consider using the MobileFabric Integration for SAP Business Suite. The good news is that you have multiple choices, supported through a single integrated platform. Architecture The following diagram outlines the SAP Gateway and JCO components: Component Security Feature Native/HTML5 and Kony applications on device Kony MobileFabric Services SAP Gateway SAP/Custom function modules Description ActiveSync This is the multi-channel binary that is built using the Kony IDE, which is deployed to the device. Calls are made from the Kony or web application to a Kony server which then handles the data mapping and adapter calls. Kony MobileFabric Services communicates with the application on the device, providing data transformation services and handling the backend SAP Gateway and JCO connections. MobileFabric can be accessed from the cloud or installed in or on-prem behind the DMZ. The SAP Gateway component exposes REST-based services that are created and maintained using the SAP Gateway workbench. The Gateway can reside either outside of the SAP environment on its own NetWeaver instance, or installed directly into an existing SAP environment. The SAP Gateway is called via a REST service with an odata payload and then performs RFC calls to invoke function modules in SAP to extract data or post transactions. These are any BAPI- or RFC-enabled function modules that may be called either directly via JCO or incorporated into a SAP Gateway REST service. Usually, customers create their own custom wrapper function modules to compensate for the lack of BAPI capabilities, or to abstract away complex data structures. Application development and management The SAP Gateway and JCO adapters are integrated into the powerful Kony Studio, enabling you to develop rich applications from a single code base. You will note that the application development process and tools are the same as those using SkyMobile Data Objects, as all options are supported through the same integrated platform. Define the Gateway odata REST services and/or JCO function modules inside SAP (if required) Explore and incorporate the definitions into the mobile application using the Kony Studio Build the application for the channels you require (e.g. iphone, Android, Windows) Deploy the application out to the field using Kony enterprise mobile management (EMM) tools 9
Process Security Feature Explore and integrate SAP Gateway and JCO definitions Build the application for each channel Deploy the application to the mobile device SAP/custom function Modules Description ActiveSync Kony Studio is used to define multi-edge mobile applications. From here, you can explore the REST services in the SAP Gateway and/or RFC function modules in SAP and easily incorporate them directly into the application client and server side logic. Once the application is complete, it is then built for each of the required channels. This process automatically embeds the Kony Sync Services library into the binary to handle the synchronization calls and any offline storage in an SQLite database. In a web application scenario, there is no sync library and calls are made directly to the Kony server. Once the application binary is built, it is deployed to the enterprise app store and then out to the device using the Kony enterprise mobile management (EMM) functionality. Kony EMM provides comprehensive mobile device (MDM), application (MAM) and content (MCM) services. Third party vendors may also be used. The advantage of using Kony EMM is that it is totally integrated with the MobileFabric Integration for SAP Business Suite, thus supporting the full lifecycle of the mobile application. It is also integrated with SAP to automatically manage all the backend user device provisioning, data profiling, and security (something other vendors cannot do). These are any BAPI- or RFC-enabled function modules that may be called either directly via JCO or incorporated into a SAP Gateway REST service. Usually, customers create their own custom wrapper function modules to compensate for the lack of BAPI capabilities, or to abstract away complex data structures. The Kony Studio integrated development environment MobileFabric supports native, web, and hybrid 3rd party development tooling as well as Kony Studio. The development environment IDE is fully integrated with SAP Business Suite, allowing you to easily explore and incorporate data objects, RESTful services, and RFC function modules, as well as numerous other non-sap adapters and web services. For the SAP-specific data object, interface, and provisioning definitions, IDE components are available inside SAP that are accessed via the standard SAPGUI. This makes more sense than alternate approaches, since they need to be fully integrated with the SAP dictionary, ABAP workbench, and security sub-systems, and this is where the SAP functional and ABAP developers work. You may also easily expose fully functional HTTP RESTful services that can be consumed by both Kony and other 3rd party development tools. This means you can develop rich native, web, or hybrid applications that are fully integrated with SAP business functionality from a central IDE. In most cases, the application is generated using configuration, but where coding is required, this is done in JavaScript. Powerful FFI (foreign function interfaces) are available to provide low-level device and third party integration. Using Kony MobileFabric, you can easily integrate HTTP RESTful service objects into integration data objects. 10
When to use what? The right integration option depends on the use case, as detailed in the diagram above. The more complexity, security, management, and scalability you require, the more you need a complete MBaaS solution such as MobileFabric over a productivity tool such as SAP Gateway or a simple API library such as JCO. The SAP Gateway and JCO options do not include data object and integration management, which are both critical for enterprise scalability and security. The following table lists the suitability and capability of each option against typical functionality: Functionality Security Feature MobileFabric Integration ActiveSync Offline data management Complete Limited Limited Security High Medium Medium Channel support HTTP RESTful services All + Web IOS, Android & BlackBerryComplete REST object level interface supporting both XML and JSON with inbuilt CRUD security SAP Gateway Connector All + WeboData REST interface with limited object capabilities Data complexity & volumes High Medium Low Scalability High Low to medium Low Interface management Complete None None SAP cross system services Complete None None High availability & DRP Complete Limited None JCO Adapter Additional Server None Kony Server Kony Server infrastructure Identity management Complete Limited None 11
Conclusion Kony offers multiple solutions for mobilizing SAP Business Suite, each of which provides unique and powerful functionality. From the complete Kony MobileFabric Integration for SAP Business Suite to the more lightweight SAP Gateway and JCO Adapters, we help you deploy and manage your apps and data to improve availability and efficiency across your business processes. Kony is the fastest-growing, cloud-based enterprise mobility solutions company and an industry leader among mobile application development platform (MADP) providers. Kony empowers today s leading organizations to compete in mobile time by rapidly delivering multi-edge mobile apps across the broadest array of devices and systems, today and in the future. Kony offers ready-to-run business mobile apps to help organizations better engage with customers and partners, as well as increase employee productivity through mobile device access to company systems and information. Powered by Kony s industry-leading Mobility Platform, enterprises can design, build, configure, and manage mobile apps across the entire software development lifecycle, and get to market faster with a lower total cost of ownership. For two years in a row (2013 and 2014), Gartner has named Kony a Leader in its Magic Quadrant for Mobile Application Development Platforms. Gartner also gave Kony the highest scores in 3 of 4 enterprise mobility use cases in their latest Mobile Application Development Platform Critical Capabilities Report, released December 2014. In additional to these recognitions, Kony was also honored in the Mobile Star Awards for achievements in enterprise application development; named the first place winner in CTIA s MobITs Awards in the Mobile Applications, Development & Platforms category, and included on the Inc. 500 5000 list of fastest growing private companies in America. For more information, please visit www.kony.com. Connect with Kony on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. 7380 West Sand Lake Road #390 Orlando, FL 32819 1.888.323.9630 info@kony.com www.kony.com 2015 Kony, Inc. All rights reserved. 12