Workload Automation is SAP S/4 HANA certified!

HCL Workload Automation (HWA) is a complete solution for batch and real-time IT and applications workload management. It increases your productivity with powerful plan- and event-driven scheduling and runs and monitors your workloads at any location. HWA offers a single point of control to application developers, IT administrators and operators, providing them both autonomy and precise governance.

HCL Workload Automation is one of the most powerful orchestrators with an effective and efficient, certified SAP integration. This article is intended to explain, in the clearest and most straightforward possible way, the reasons.  

It can schedule and control all jobs into your SAP landscape. Additionally, you can modify or create Standard R/3 Jobs based on your need without use SAP legacy tool. 

The question is: what's behind the scene? ​

The answer is simple. WA use SAP official job scheduling API certified for S/4HANA. SAP has defined an open generic interface. This is called XBP, which stands for eXternal interface for job Background Processing. XBP is one of a range of open interfaces which SAP intends to make available in the future for system management tasks. The SAP system’s internal CCMS (Computing Center Management System), with this range of interfaces, offers support to software manufacturers by allowing integration with existing system administration tools. 
 
External interfaces allow you to integrate the AS ABAP system simply and seamlessly into both local administrative tools and business-wide system management infrastructures. The integration provides customers with a homogenous information infrastructure, while the interface facilitates the flow of information between AS ABAP and external tools.  In summing up, we could say that external tools provide additional flexibility to complement the existing basic functionality of CCMS. 

SAP S/HANA AS ABAP is, above all, an interactive system. In other words, quite all tasks are carried out in dialog with the user. But there are also good reasons for the inclusion of a background processing system in S/4 HANA. 
 
What does it mean to be certified? 
To work in the S/4 HANA system, HCL Workload Automation must be able to carry out the following activities within the SAP system:  

• Create jobs  

• Modify jobs  
• Delete jobs  
• Start jobs (start immediately)  
• Terminate active jobs  
• Access information about jobs (status, log, and so on)  

• Access information about resources in the AS ABAP job scheduling system (number and status of background work processes) 
  ​

The certification is important because it proves a technical alignment with SAP solutions. 
HCL Workload Automation for SAP integration has been designed and developedstrictly following SAP guidelines and, at the end, passing a severe set of test cases guided by a SAP engineer. 

---

Certification SAP process overview 
Certification for the Background Processing, Job Scheduling (S/4HANA) integration scenario is valid for three years. 
 
What about SAP BW on HANA? 
HCL Workload Automation, in the same way, is also certified for SAP BW on HANA, SAP’s next generation data warehouse solution. It is a new product built entirely on the in-memory platform SAP HANA. As with SAP BW, Workload Automation can be integrated with SAP BW on HANA via certain interfaces. 

Workload Automation can: 

• access SAP BW on HANA Process Chains to handle and manage them externally  
• invoke and track Info Packages  
  
  

During the developing and design, HCL Workload Automation has been tested for the implementation of involved API calls for the execution of the required criteria for the certification. 

How do I recognize that HCL Workload Automation has been SAP certified? 
HCL Workload Automation is now listed in the Online Directory for SAP Application Center certified products. 
 
“Start your SAP workload automation transformation journey with us!” 

Suggested Blog articles:  

• Widen Your SAP Landscape With HCL workload Automation  
• Enable Your Workload Automation On Cloud Agent To Run SAP R/3 Jobs 
• Workload Automation And Hana Database A Perfect Integration 
• The Glue For Your SAP Inventory Management Process 
• Controlling SAP Jobs Scheduled By End User 

 ​
Videos: 

• HCL Workload Automation and SAP integration
• HCL Workload Automation playlist 
• HCL Products & Platform channel 

Please stay tuned for the next article on SAP topics.  If you need additional information, please get in touch with: Lorenzo Amorosa lorenzo.amorosa@hcl.com or Marco Borgianni marco.borgianni@hcl.com.

Lorenzo Amorosa
Scrum Master, Senior Test Specialist/Test Automation Leader

Lorenzo is a Workload Automation Scrum Master, Senior Test Specialist and Test Automation Leader. He has been working with the Workload Scheduler team since 2003, following the evolution of the product throughout the years, and is an expert in the area of Workload Scheduler Integration with SAP. He has gained extensive experience in Agile Scrum, as well as delivering onsite support to resolve client issues and exceed customer expectations.

He is based in the HCL Product & Platforms Rome software development laboratory and has completed his degree in Computer Engineering at the University of Rome "La Sapienza".

When not at work, he loves playing football and travelling to listen to his favorite bands in concert. He enjoys playing the piano and, as a Masunaga Shiatsu operator, is passionate about holistic techniques to spiritual healing.

Marco Borgianni  
​Senior Technical Specialist Engineer

Marco Borgianni is currently a Senior Technical Specialist Engineer and is working as a services for Workload Automation, an IBM + HCL product. Marco has been working in the Workload Automation team since 2000 as a developer, Level 3 Service Specialist, finally services acquiring a deep knowledge of customers' needs in that area. He is interested in everything that is strongly related to supporting customers in their technological challenges.

​He has a background in computer science technologies, in the design and development of integrations with ERP and Business Analytic tools.