Alloy software by IBM and SAP

TM

by IBM
R

and SAP
R

Technical white paper


Table of contents
2 Introduction to Alloy software
by IBM and SAP
3 How Alloy works
9 Deployment options in
enterprise environments
11 Single sign-on and user mapping
12 Brief technical overview of
the solution
13 Advanced customization
15 Conclusion
15 Find out more
Enhancing productivity, decision making and compliance
Introduction to Alloy software by IBM and SAP
AlloyTM software by IBM and SAP is a solution that presents information and data
from SAP applications in the context of what millions of business users are familiar
with – the IBM Lotus® Notes® collaboration software user interface.
Business users need easy, consistent access to people, processes and information
to improve their productivity. With Alloy, they can easily access SAP software and
information from within the Lotus Notes environment, both online and offline. Since
these users work in the familiar Lotus Notes environment, training is minimized, which
helps speed adoption. As a result, organizations can make business users more pro-
ductive, improve decision making and increase compliance with corporate policies.
Alloy 1.0.1 software provides access to selected business process functions and data
from SAP applications through Lotus Notes:
• Reports management – Users can personalize, schedule and access reports from
SAP Business Suite applications via Lotus Notes while maintaining data security.
Reports can be shared with coworkers without violating security rules, and can be
viewed both online and offline.
• Leave and travel management – Enables users to approve and submit leave and
travel requests from the familiar Lotus Notes environment. Users can also view­
contextual information to make approval decisions. Leave and travel requests
are processed according to approval guidelines in SAP ERP, ensuring optimum
cost-effectiveness and compliance with corporate policies.
• Workflow decision management – In addition to out-of-the-box Leave and Travel
Management, Alloy software allows an organization to bring decision steps from
other SAP business processes into Lotus Notes. For example, an organization
can expose decision steps in processes such as recruitment, hiring, purchases,
etc., in the Lotus Notes client.
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Alloy is also customizable. To make process decisions, business users need access to
contextual information to improve decision making. For example, to approve a travel
request, a manager needs to know the current travel policy and how much money is
left in the travel budget. Alloy software allows organizations to display the customized
contextual information from SAP applications in Lotus Notes.

Customization can be done using standard tools like Lotus Domino® Designer,
LotusScript ® and the workbench for the SAP ABAPTM programming language.
The contextual information can be displayed in the Lotus Notes sidebar as any
HTML element such as a graph, table, text or link.

Alloy takes advantage of the offline capabilities inherent in Lotus Notes and Domino.
Many tasks can be performed without being connected to the network, such as viewing
downloaded reports, scheduling future reports, and approving requests. The next time
the user connects to the network, the pending work done while offline is automatically
entered into the SAP Business Suite.

With version 1.0.1 (also known as Service Pack 1), Alloy provides enhanced features
like Data Consistency Checker capabilities and Clustering support, as well as support
for Lotus Notes and Domino 8.5 and 8.5.1. From an end-user perspective, additional
usability features such as extended F4 Help support are also available.

How Alloy works

Alloy establishes a gateway service between SAP software (e.g., SAP Business Suite
or SAP NetWeaver BW) and an IBM Lotus Domino server. The service is enabled by
two add-ons: the SAP Alloy Add-On and the IBM Lotus Domino Alloy Add-On. Also,
a small set of plug-ins is provisioned to the Lotus Notes client – these plug-ins handle
some Alloy metadata for performance improve­ments as well as a central Alloy sidebar
component. Any message from the SAP systems to Lotus Notes travels through the
gateway using Web services and XML.

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Unlike previous integration approaches, Alloy is driven through metadata. This enables
better performance and flexibility. SAP configurations are auto­matically reflected from
the SAP Business Suite in Lotus Notes. For example, when a report definition on the
SAP side is changed, the business user gets the latest report parameters on the Lotus
Notes side.

IBM Lotus SAP

Notes client Alloy software by IBM and SAP NetWeaver
Business
Warehouse

IBM Lotus SAP Alloy

Domino add-on add-on

IBM Lotus
Domino
mail servers SAP
IBM Lotus SAP NetWeaver ® Business
Domino server Application Suite
Server (J2EE)

Fig. 1: Alloy architectural diagram

A practical example
Figure 2 is an example of an approval for a leave request. In this case, the SAP work-
flow reaches an approval step where a manager has to make a decision. This work
item triggers an event for the SAP Alloy Add-On software that con­verts the object and
sends it via a Web services call to the IBM Lotus Domino Alloy Add-On. The object gets
converted to a Lotus Notes document by the IBM Lotus Domino Alloy Add-On and is
sent via e-mail to the user’s inbox.

The Lotus Notes document appears as a form that incorporates data from the SAP
Business Suite needed by the manager to make a decision. In addition, there is a
Lotus Notes sidebar panel that can be customized to display fur­ther contextual
information from SAP applications and other sources that the manager might need.

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 Enhancing productivity, decision making and compliance

Fig. 2: Leave Request example

For example, the sidebar can display the team calendar so that the manager can know
who else is on leave and if there are important projects coming due during the time the
employee has requested leave.

When the manager makes an approval decision, a message is sent back to the IBM
Lotus Domino Alloy Add-On, which then converts the message to a Web services call to
the SAP Alloy Add-On software. The SAP Alloy Add-On, in turn, transfers the changes
to the SAP Business Suite and advances the workflow.

Customization example
As mentioned in the section above, one of the key benefits of Alloy is the ability to
expose a decision step from any SAP module based on the SAP Web Application
Server 7 into Lotus Notes. A frequently requested example is a Purchase Order
Approval. The following figure shows an example of how this Approval might look in
the Lotus Notes environment.

To create this example, a Purchase Approval process was configured to work with
Alloy, which sends the item over to the end user in the Lotus Notes client. To render
the request in Lotus Notes, a Lotus Notes form was designed displaying the proper
information from the SAP backend.

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Fig. 3: Purchase Order approval

The Lotus Notes Sidebar was also extended to display available budget information. In
this simple example, the budget information is sent to the Lotus Notes client included
in the document. The Sidebar accesses this data, which creates a chart via the Google
Charts API. However, because the Sidebar is composed of various HTML fragments,
virtually any charting engine can be integrated, providing a nice level of contextual
information for the Alloy user in the decision-making process.

Requirements for deployment

This section focuses on prerequisites for deploying Alloy in your environment. It lists
the required software versions on both the SAP and IBM side, an overview of the skill
set for running Alloy and an example project plan.

The following tables describe the planned requirements. Since these are subject to
change, please verify through the standard channels such as the SAP Service Market-
place before making commitments.

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Software Version
IBM Lotus Notes Client • Release 8.02, 8.5 or 8.5.1
IBM Domino Server • Release 8.02, 8.5 or 8.5.1
SAP ERP • SAP ERP 6.0 SPS 14 running on NetWeaver 7.0 – SPS 17 with the
• Enterprise Service Architecture (ESA) Add-On: ECC-SE 602 or higher
SAP BW (optional) • SAP NetWeaver BW (Business Warehouse) 3.5 – SP 23 or
• SAP NetWeaver BW (Business Warehouse) 7.0 – SPS 17
Alloy Server Software • SAP Alloy Add-On 1.0 running on NetWeaver 7.0 – SPS 17 JavaTM
• IBM Lotus Domino Alloy Add-On 1.0 running on an 8.02, 8.5
or 8.5.1 Domino Server

Software
The operating systems of the SAP Business Suite software and the IBM Domino Mail Servers are not
restricted, but the Alloy software requires the following:
Software Version
IBM Lotus Notes Client • Microsoft ® Windows® XP (Professional editions) or
• Microsoft Windows Vista (Business, Enterprise editions)
IBM Lotus Domino • Microsoft Windows 2003 Server (32 bit) Alloy Add-On
(Standard, Enterprise) with Domino Server installed
SAP Alloy Add-On All NetWeaver 7.0 Java stack platform constellations. For example:
• AIX® with MaxDB or
• IBM zLinux with IBM DB2® or
• MS Windows X86_64 with MS SQL or
• MS Windows X86_64 with MaxDB or
• AIX with Oracle 9.2

Skill set
This table is a rough guide to requisite skills required to deploy Alloy.
Skill Description
SAP ERP Administration To perform regular administration tasks like role assignments.
SAP J2EE Administration The SAP Alloy Add-On runs on a Web AS 7 server, which requires
the typical administration tasks as well as installation of the Add-On.
SAP Reporting Alloy allows reports to be requested from Lotus Notes therefore,
Customization some customization and administration tasks are required to expose a
(optional) report as a report template to business users using Lotus Notes.
SAP Workflow The generic workflow pattern of Alloy is able to handle any SAP decision
Customization workflow in Lotus Notes. To expose a workflow in Lotus Notes, a set of
(optional) configuration and optional customization steps are required.

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Example project plan

This plan provides a high-level outline of a typical Alloy deployment project and should
be treated as a guideline only. Depending on the deployment scenario in an enterprise
environment, additional steps will be required.

Alloy example project plan

Planning • Prepare scoping document and define Alloy implementation scenarios
• Task assignment, team setup and availability time line
• Project kick-off meeting for business and IT
• Validation of system landscape readiness
• Define planned Alloy system landscape
Project • Configure SAML on WebAS and set up name mapping on Domino
preparation and • Final validation of Alloy system landscape readiness
blueprinting • Final validation of test end-user client readiness
• Document landscape and any information required for installation
Realization • Installation of Alloy server components (Domino)
• Configuration of authentication for use in Alloy
• Set-up of Alloy components
• Configuration of Alloy scenarios in the SAP software
• Execution of landscape validation checks
• Roll-out of Alloy client components
Final preparation • Scenario testing
• Post-project review
Customization and • Definition of new processes and requirement blueprint
creation of • Implementation of new processes
new scenarios • Testing of new functionality
• Production of new functionality

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Deployment options in enterprise environments

This section focuses on two common deployment models: a single deployment in a
proof-of-concept (POC) environment and an enterprisewide deployment in a large-
enterprise IT landscape with distributed Domino servers and various SAP systems.

Proof-of-concept deployments
In the case of a POC deployment, the requirements, as outlined in the table below,
are relatively simple and provide an initial test environment that is easy to install
and maintain.

Server OS Software
SAP ERP 6.0 Any supported • SAP ERP 6.0 with appropriate service pack level
(see the Requirements for deployment section
on page 6)
• SAP WebAS 7.0 with SAP Alloy Add-On
IBM Lotus Windows • IBM Lotus Domino 8.5 or 8.5.1 with
Domino 8.02, IBM Lotus Domino Alloy Add-On
8.5 or 8.5.1

Enterprise deployments
Real-life deployment in an enterprise environment is more structured, to enable
enterprise-standard change management. Alloy has to interact with existing servers
in both the SAP and Domino environments.

The deployment in this case should be similar to the POC scenario above, with the
major exception being that the Domino mail server is not on the same machine as the
Domino server hosting Alloy. The server hosting the IBM Lotus Domino Alloy Add-On
should be registered in the Domino environment and be able to route mail to the
existing Lotus Notes domains in the IT envi­ronment. It is also a good idea to consider
replication of the Lotus Notes metadata application to several servers if the environ-
ment is widely spread.

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In general, it is a good idea to put the Domino server with the Alloy Add-On next to
the SAP J2EE server that hosts the SAP Alloy Add-On, which should be located in the
same network as the SAP Business Suite. For high-security deployments where SAP
systems are protected by a special firewall and many security restrictions apply, a
WebAS and Domino server can be installed inside the firewall and the SAP work items
sent via encrypted Lotus Notes channels to a Domino server outside the firewall.

For production deployments, consider installing the following two pieces of the Alloy
solution on two separate machines for better performance.

Server OS Software
SAP WebAS (Java) Windows • SAP WebAS 7 with SAP Alloy Add-On
Alloy Domino Windows • Lotus Domino 8.02, 8.5 or 8.5.1 server
hosting a set of mail server users and the
IBM Lotus Domino Alloy Add-On

The SAP business software that is connected to Lotus Notes via the Alloy solution
needs to be on the appropriate service pack level as well.

Scalability
Scalability of the project is an important consideration. From an architectural
perspective, scalability is supported through existing technologies. The sys­tems are
built so that using standard server technologies, like an HTTP load balancer, can
distribute the load between the systems to either several Domino servers or to WebAS
servers. This provides a basic architecture that can grow with an expanding deploy-
ment of Alloy in the enterprise.

Clearly, there is not a one-to-one relationship between an Alloy server and a SAP
backend system. One Alloy server (on the SAP side) can connect to multiple backend
systems. Routing is performed based on the integrated scenario, which means
that a Leave Request can be driven from a different backend than a Purchase
Order approval.

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Single sign-on and user mapping

One of the basic capabilities of Alloy is single sign-on (SSO) between Lotus Notes and
SAP software. The solution is based on an open standard called Security Assertion
Markup Language (SAML), which allows systems to interact and exchange credentials.

When the user issues a request to SAP, the work item travels as an e-mail signed
by the user. The IBM Lotus Domino Alloy Add-On server validates the signature and
requests a SAP logon ticket on behalf of the user with a SAML request. The SAP
WebAS server receives this request and calls back to the IBM Lotus Domino Alloy
Add-On server to validate the request. On a positive response the SAP WebAS server
returns an SAP logon ticket to the Domino server, which is then used to authenticate
the user who initiated the call to the SAP system.

This mechanism requires mapping user names between the two systems. Since the
system is standards-based, a variety of solutions can be used to do the mapping.
The suggested way is to maintain the SAP user name in the person document in the
Domino directory. The field that is used for this purpose is configurable. The default is
an entry in the Fullname Field of the form “sapid= C12345.”

The synchronization between the SAP directory and the Domino directory can be
readily performed by IBM Tivoli® Directory Integrator, which is included with the IBM
Domino server software.

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Brief technical overview of the solution

Within Alloy, the information flow is mostly asynchronous. This means that if a user
requests a report or a leave, the item is sent and there is no immedi­ate response from
the system. Technically, SAP schedules a job that runs the request and sends the
response back as soon as it is available.

For example, for an approval work item, once the item reaches the SAP WebAS server,
it is converted into XML data, which is sent via the SOAP protocol to the Domino server.
On the Lotus Notes side, regular mail routing functionality transfers the work item to
the end-user’s mailbox.

When the user opens the SAP work item in his/her mailbox, an event is sent to the
Lotus Notes sidebar which triggers the lookup of the appropriate sidebar fragment for
the SAP type. Also, the sidebar element is currently the only case where a synchronous
call back to the SAP system might happen as it can initiate data lookup requests or
a request to render data as a chart. In this case, the suggested behavior (configured
through customization; see next page) is to have the sidebar call a component on
either the Domino server or another Web server via HTTP that interacts with the SAP
Business Suite and returns the data as HTML, so the client can render it directly. One
example of this kind of interaction is a Google Chart component.

At the point when the user takes an action on the SAP work item, a mail message is
generated and sent back to the Domino server via standard mail routing capabilities.
Once it reaches the mail-in application on the Domino server, an agent reads the
content from the mail and transforms it into a Web services call to the appropriate
WS endpoint on the WebAS server. The Alloy server processes the XML information
and sends the response to the SAP software.

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Advanced customization
Alloy leverages existing technologies where applicable and meaningful, which makes
the most of existing skill sets.

System Main development pattern (all optional)

Domino server Inbound/outbound applications
• LotusScript
• Java agents
Lotus Notes Lotus Notes applications
• Lotus Notes design elements (such as forms, views and agents)
Sidebar
• HTML

Customization can be done almost completely with existing tools from

SAP and IBM or public domain tools such as HTML editors.

Customization of the full solution can be done on various levels of the

SAP and IBM software.

Customization
SAP SAP Business Workflow
• New generic decision workflows/exposure of existing decision step
• More information included in work item container
• Data-enrichment interfaces for certain information, such as travel budgets
IBM • Handling of additional SAP Items (BoundItemType)
• Rendering of Workflow Container (exposed as Lotus Notes fields/XML data)
in custom Lotus Notes form
Client components • Additional fields in Lotus Notes forms
• Customized sidebar
• Additional links in the sidebar
• Integration with additional IT systems via links

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Customization scenario example

A typical customization example – such as the one described above – is the exposure
of an existing SAP Business Workflow from SAP to a Lotus Notes client through
Alloy – in this case the approval of Material Master in SAP. This description outlines
the process, at a high level, and represents only a small sample of the extensibility
possible with Alloy.

Step 1: Connect workflow to the SAP Alloy Add-On

To enable the workflow item to be routed through the Alloy infrastructure, the work-
flow needs to be configured to use a specific set of capabilities that are available in
the system after Alloy is set up. With this very simple configuration step, an event is
sent to the SAP Alloy Add-On once a work item for an Alloy user requires a decision.
This event triggers a Web services call from the SAP system to the Domino server that
creates the work item on the IBM side. The required configuration is the addition of
a BoundItemType to the decision step of the workflow.

Step 2: Customize handling on the Domino server

The inbound proxy of Alloy on the Domino server receives the work item and trans-
fers the item into a Lotus Notes document. Through a configuration step stored in the
Alloy configuration database, the SAP BoundItemType included in the Lotus Notes
document is used to assign a specific Lotus Notes form to this document. Because
the workflow pattern on the IBM side is built as generically as possible there should
be no need to make any changes on the IBM side. But if specific handling of the item
is necessary – for example, enrichment of the document or customized user-interface
design – a Domino developer can create LotusScript code to allow the item’s use in
a special Lotus Notes view or form. This code can also change the address the item
will be sent to (for example, a central application) or associate the item with a newly
created Lotus Notes form that allows better handling of the work item.

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Step 3: Create sidebar for workflow

As each work item is associated with a specific sidebar fragment, the process requires
a new sidebar design, which is basically a small HTML file. A developer creates this
new HTML fragment either from scratch or by using an existing one as a starting point.
Because the Lotus Notes client has the means to replace HTML strings while rendering
the content, a very flexible sidebar can be built that references both static and dynamic
data fragments – even from a server – to show real-time information to the user.

Conclusion
Alloy is a highly effective and flexible means of improving worker productivity at
enterprises where SAP software is deployed, by providing SAP functionality directly to
Lotus Notes users – thus enabling them to integrate SAP workflows into their normal
routines simply and easily. By leveraging existing, familiar user software, adoption by
workers is dramatically simplified. The Alloy messaging architecture is straightforward
and efficient, providing ease of deployment, transparent integration and scalability,
with no impact on the performance of either SAP or Lotus Notes.

Find out more

If you would like to learn more about Alloy and its potential benefits, contact your
local IBM or SAP representative or please visit:

• ibm.com/software/lotus/alloy
• sap.com/alloy

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© Copyright IBM Corporation 2009
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December 2009
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