10.5    Functional Conversion

Business partner conversion activities for vendors and customers vendors and customers must be converted to business partners in the precheck phase. SUM tool execution can’t be performed until all the suppliers and customers are migrated to business partners. Figure 10.7 shows the business partner conversion steps involved in the precheck phase.

Figure 10.7    Business Partner Conversion Steps

Now that you’ve learned the steps involved in business partner conversion in the precheck phase, let’s discuss the detailed activities to be completed in each step.

10.5.1    Preparation

In this section, we discuss the preparation activities to start the business partner conversion. The following activities need to be completed in the sequence proposed in SAP Notes 2210486 and 2216176.

You’ll execute the following initial business partner precheck activities:

• SAP Note 2210486 – Conversion Report
  This SAP note must be implemented to perform the business partner precheck. This report performs system configuration with the check IDs listed in Table 10.5 and highlights the Customizing issues.

Check ID	Description
CHK_BP_ROLE	Checks business partner role assignments to customer and vendor account groups
CHK_BP_AC	Checks business partner grouping to customer and vendor account groups
CVI_LINK	Checks synchronization option configured under Activate Synchronization Options in Transaction SPRO
CVI_MAPPING	Checks vendors and customers in CVI_VEND_LINK and CVI_CUST_LINK
CHK_POST_CON_ASSIGNM	Checks configuration of business partner under Cross-Application Components • SAP Business Partner • Business Partner Relationships • Contact Person
CHK_CONT_MAP	Checks configuration related to contact persons

Table 10.5    Business Partners Precheck Conversion Report per SAP Note 2210486

• SAP Note 2216176 – Precheck Report
  This SAP note provides the graphical summary of vendors/customers having Customizing issues.

You must also perform the following business partner/customer vendor integration (CVI) configurations:

• Set business partner number range as external
  Setting the business partner as an external number range helps you to create business partners with the same vendor and customer number range. (Assign the same number range of the customer/vendor account group to the business partner).
• CVI
  SAP has delivered reports CVI_FS_CHECK_CUSTOMIZING and PRECHECK_UPGRADATION_REPORT to check CVI Customizing. You can execute these precheck reports and resolve the errors displayed in the output by performing required configurations in Customizing. This is an iterative process.

10.5.2    Synchronization

Transaction MDS_LOAD_COCKPIT helps to migrate vendors and customers into the business partner framework. The system creates a business partner GUID in table CVI_VEND_LINK for vendors and table CVI_CUST_LINK for customers after completion of Transaction MDS_LOAD_COCKPIT execution. Transaction MDS_PPO2 helps to fix the data and Customizing errors.

10.5.3    Post Activities

After synchronization, set the business partner number range as internal. This will help you to create business partners with internal number ranges.