SAP NetWeaver/Microsoft .NET Interoperability

Heterogeneous landscapes of Microsoft and SAP components are the reality in most companies. This book provides readers with in-depth integration advice and details, covering all levels of SAP NetWeaver, and provides developers and consultants with practical examples for all components. The authors discuss basic technologies like BAPI, .NET Connector and web services, as well as end user integration topics like Desktop Office Integration, Duet and PDK for .NET. In addition, BI interfaces between SAP BW, MS Analysis Services and SQL-Server are also discussed in detail - no relevant aspect of integration is left out - including those at the process level. Learn from comprehensive configuration scenarios exactly how best to develop robust and slender web services with XI and BizTalk. A special supplementary chapter gives you highly detailed insights on identity management and single sign-on. This comprehensive reference is loaded with step-by-step instruction, including how to configure the LDAP Connector and best practices to set up the ZBV LDAP connection. By reading this book you'll quickly discover how to increase the productivity of your users and decrease the costs of your system operations.

Andreas Rohr holds a diploma in business administration with a focus on information management. Since January 2005, he has been working as a freelance consultant. In this role Andreas focuses on the areas of interoperability and interface architecture. Many of the projects he completed in the past focused on interfaces between SAP R/3 or SAP NetWeaver and Microsoft products. Andreas is also a certified Microsoft Partner. After finishing his studies and a subsequent scholarship at Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG (SNI), Andreas worked as a developer, solutions architect, and project manager at a medium-size IT service provider where he successfully supported projects for several large German enterprises. After that he worked as an IT coordinator for a subsidiary of Deutsche Post (German Postal Services). In addition to his freelance consulting work, since 2004 Andreas has been teaching information management and EAI with a focus on SAP at the Institute of Management in Berlin, Germany.

Thomas Meigen is an employee at SAP AG. After finishing his studies in business administration in Ludwigshafen, Germany, he started his professional career as an R/2 technology consultant at a large SAP consulting partner. After several years of consulting for many customers in Germany and other European countries, Thomas decided to join SAP in 1992. Within the team of SAP R/2 Basis consultants (which was still relatively small at that time), he specialized in IBM MVS mainframes and IBM DB/DC. From 1994 to 1998 he took the opportunity to work for SAP in Melbourne, Australia, where he was responsible for one of the last major R/2 projects. In 1996, Thomas switched to SAP R/3 on Windows NT, whose potentials he identified right away. After his return to Walldorf in 1998, he assumed the newly created position of a product manager for the Microsoft platforms, Windows NT and SQL Server. During that time, he drove several Microsoft-related topics such as the roll-out of new versions of Windows, SQL Server, and other Microsoft products. In 2003, Thomas became responsible for building and managing the newly created Collaboration Technology Support Center Microsoft (CTSC-MS) for SAP. The CTSC consists of equal numbers of SAP and Microsoft employees and acts as a trusted advisor for customers who use both companies’ products. The team addresses all technical and non-technical aspects of Microsoft interoperability. Among other things, Thomas regularly presents the most up-to-date roadmap of the collaboration between SAP and Microsoft at the annual SAP TechEd conferences. With the experience of almost 20 years in SAP business and more than 8 years in the partnership with Microsoft, Thomas Meigen knows the details of this partnership extremely well.

André Fischer has worked in the area of Strategic Alliance Microsoft at SAP AG since 2004. After finishing his studies of physics at RWTH Aachen University and Heidelberg University, Germany, he started his professional career in 1995 as a technology consultant for an SAP partner. From the beginning, he specialized on SAP solutions operating on Microsoft platforms as well as the authorization system in SAP R/3. During his work as a consultant, he supported many customers in building up their system landscapes and forming SAP Basis teams. From 1999 to 2000 he was responsible for setting up a data center for a newly founded joint venture outsourcing company. The successful SAP audit of the data center, which was based on the Windows/SQL Server platform, resulted in the certification of the company as an SAP Hosting Partner in 2000. From 2002 onward, André worked as a senior consultant with a focus on SAP security. In this context, his work focused primarily on identity management and single sign-on of SAP solutions in the interaction with Microsoft Active Directory. In 2004, he joined the newly created Collaboration Technology Support Center Microsoft (CTSC-MS) at SAP AG. His current work focuses on integrating SAP and Microsoft technologies in the areas of single sign-on, identity management, knowledge management, and process management. He has published numerous articles on those topics on the SAP Developer Network.