Server-Based Groupware Integration

Using server-based groupware integration, you can exchange business partner (contact) data and
activities (appointments and tasks) between the SAP CRM server and a groupware server.
Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino are supported as groupware servers. CRM
middleware provides a groupware adapter that facilitates seamless communication between
servers. The groupware adapter transforms data to the Internet standards for groupware objects:
vCard for contacts and iCalendar for tasks and appointments.
Integrated Objects

Activities
Bidirectional transfer of activities (appointments and tasks) between SAP CRM and
groupware, including transfer of attachments. Opportunities created as a follow-on to
activities are transferred as attachments (in an HTML file).

Business partners
Business partners can be exchanged using the following scenarios:
o Bidirectional exchange of contacts between the SAP CRM and the groupware
public contact directory.
o Transfer of contact and business partner data from SAP CRM to the private
contact directory of

Technical Components

Groupware integration is facilitated by the following components:

Groupware adapter
The groupware adapter resides on the SAP CRM server and supports the conversion of
BDoc messages to the Internet-standard groupware formats iCalendar and vCard. The
conversion uses a mapping framework comprising the MapBox and the payload interface
(a SOAP-based messaging interface for the exchange of data between the SAP CRM
server and the groupware connector). Predefined mappings are delivered.

SAP Groupware Connector (referred to hereafter as groupware connector)

The groupware connector and one (or more) groupware connector proxies are connected
with the SAP CRM server by means of the groupware adapter. The connection between
the groupware connector and the groupware adapter is established using XML and
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) over HTTP.
The groupware connector executes message synchronization between SAP CRM and the
groupware server. SAP provides the following groupware connectors:
o

Connector for Microsoft Exchange Server

Connects using Microsoft Collaboration Data Objects (CDO).

Connector for Lotus Domino Server

Connects using Lotus Domino toolkit for Java/CORBA .

The groupware connector is created as a Windows NT service and runs under a Windows
NT user account.
Communication with the groupware adapter, groupware connector, and other components of
groupware integration is depicted in the following figure:

Data Flow

On the CRM server, the Groupware Adapter manages incoming and outgoing messages. The
MapBox framework performs the required transformations and enrichments or reductions of
data.
The format of the messages exchanged between the servers is based on the vCard and iCalendar
standards.
A server-specific SAP Groupware Connector acts as a bridge between the Groupware Adapter
and the Groupware Server. It provides the mapping of the standard exchange formats to the
proprietary Groupware Server formats and vice versa.