SAP Process Integration (PI) and Process Orchestration (PO) are integral components of SAP's middleware architecture that enable seamless integration between disparate systems. With growing business complexity, organizations are increasingly leveraging standardized modeling approaches to streamline process integration. One such standard is BPMN 2.0 (Business Process Model and Notation), which SAP supports in its Process Orchestration suite.
This article explores how BPMN 2.0 is utilized within SAP PI/PO Process Orchestration, its advantages, and best practices for implementing BPM-based integration scenarios.
BPMN 2.0 is a standardized graphical notation for defining business processes in a Business Process Diagram (BPD). It provides a common language that bridges the gap between technical developers and business analysts. SAP adopted BPMN 2.0 in SAP NetWeaver Process Orchestration, replacing older notations like ccBPM (Cross-Component BPM).
SAP PI/PO combines several components:
Within this stack, BPMN 2.0 is the core modeling language used in SAP BPM for designing and executing integration-centric processes. It enables the orchestration of A2A (Application-to-Application) and B2B (Business-to-Business) scenarios with high flexibility.
Using BPMN 2.0 ensures consistency and clarity across the organization, aligning business and IT stakeholders.
Processes are defined visually, allowing easier understanding, validation, and maintenance. Technical and business users can collaborate more effectively.
BPMN processes can integrate with various services and adapters, support parallelism, conditional flows, and exception handling.
SAP BPM with BPMN 2.0 supports both automated and human-centric workflows, providing UIs for user tasks and approval steps.
Reusable process components can be modeled and embedded across different scenarios, facilitating scalable architecture.
SAP Process Orchestration maps these BPMN elements to its runtime engine, enabling reliable execution and monitoring.
Order-to-Cash Process
Integrating SAP ERP, CRM, and third-party systems to manage order approvals, invoicing, and delivery coordination.
Exception Handling in Integration Flows
BPMN allows defining alternative flows when an exception occurs during a PI message exchange.
Approval Workflows
Human workflows for purchase approvals, change requests, or master data governance with embedded UI tasks.
Dynamic Routing Based on Business Rules
Leverage BRM with BPMN for rule-based routing of messages and decisions.
SAP NetWeaver Developer Studio (NWDS) is the primary tool for developing BPMN 2.0 processes in SAP PO. It supports modeling, deployment, and debugging.
BPMN processes can interact with:
BPMN 2.0 in SAP PI/PO Process Orchestration empowers organizations to design, orchestrate, and manage complex integration and business workflows in a standardized and agile manner. By combining the power of BPMN with SAP’s integration capabilities, businesses can enhance their process transparency, adaptability, and efficiency across the enterprise.