About product data sync

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Zilliant CPQ enables seamless synchronization of the product data from SAP ERP. This allows sales and configuration teams to work with consistent, accurate, and up-to-date information directly within CPQ. Product data synchronization brings key data elements, such as materials, classifications, characteristics, and sales texts, into CPQ to support quoting, configuration, and pricing workflows.

Synchronization requires initial setup in both SAP ERP and Zilliant CPQ. The process supports both full (initial) data loads and incremental (delta) updates.

What is synchronized

CPQ supports synchronization of the following product-related data from SAP ERP:

  • Units of measure

    Includes all units maintained in ERP, with labels in all supported languages.

  • Material hierarchy (product category)

    Includes ERP hierarchy nodes with multilingual labels, mapped to objectERPId.

  • Materials (products in CPQ)

    • Material ID mapped to objectERPId

    • Labels and descriptions in all languages

    • Sales text (if enabled)

    • Associated unit of measure and product category

    • Deletion flag (product status)

    • Division and sales area (sales org and distribution channel)

    • Attachments

    • Last change date

  • Classifications (knowledge bases in CPQ)

    • Class name mapped to objectName

    • Short and long text descriptions in all languages

    • Last change date

  • Characteristics (dynamic attributes in CPQ)

    • Characteristic name mapped to objectName

    • Short text labels in all languages

    • Last change date

  • Characteristic values

    Includes labels in all maintained languages, mapped to objectName.

  • Custom table views

    Not a part of the product data synchronization, but useful for syncing any custom or standard table from ERP. For more details, read Internal pricing engine.

Synchronization flow

To maintain a valid and functional product model, synchronize ERP data in the following order:

  1. Units of measurement.

  2. (Optional.) Material hierarchy.

  3. Characteristics.

  4. Classes.

  5. Materials.

  6. Material classification.

Note

To synchronize characteristics and classification data automatically with the material, enable the SettingProductSyncDownloadClassification setting. Use the SettingClassificationToLoad setting to specify the class type to sync (default: 001).

How product sync works

When Zilliant CPQ pulls product data from SAP ERP, it assigns a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) to each object. These URIs uniquely identify records across systems and maintain data consistency.

URI format:

http://<ERP_host>/<client>/<object_type>#<object_id>

Where:

  • <ERP_host>—ERP hostname derived from SAP connection settings jco.client.ashost or jco.client.mshost.

  • <client>—Client number derived from jco.client.client.

  • <object_name>—Object type, such as Product.

  • <object_id>—Object ID.

SAP BAPIs and function modules used

CPQ relies on the following standard SAP BAPIs and function modules to retrieve product data from SAP ERP:

BAPIs and function modules

Purpose

RFC_READ_TABLE

Allows remote access to read data from SAP tables.

BAPI_MATERIAL_GET_PRODUCTHIER

Retrieves material hierarchy.

BAPI_CHARACT_GETDETAIL

Retrieves material characteristics.

BAPI_CLASS_READ

Retrieves material class data.

BAPI_MATERIAL_GETALL

Retrieves master data for a specific material.

CLAF_CLASSIFICATION_OF_OBJECTS

Retrieves material classification data.

COM_CFG_READ_PRODUCT_VARIANT

Retrieves material variants.

COM_CFG_READ_ALL_PROD_VARIANTS

Retrieves all material variants.

RFC_READ_TEXT

Retrieves long texts.

Known limitations

When syncing product data from SAP ERP to CPQ, the following limitations apply:

  • Only hierarchy nodes referenced by products are fetched.

  • Only one material class (the default class type is 001) is considered for classification.

  • Product variants are processed separately.

  • Long texts aren't fetched for characteristic values.

  • Units are not fetched for characteristics.

  • Class hierarchy data is not fetched.

  • Inherited characteristics are not considered.

  • Time and date characteristics are treated as string values.

  • Only binary file attachments are synchronized.

Terminology relationship between CPQ and ERP

The following table helps you understand how SAP ERP concepts map to CPQ terms:

Zilliant CPQ term

SAP ERP term

Unit of measure

Unit of measure

Dynamic attribute

Characteristic

Knowledge base

Classification

Product category

Material hierarchy

Product

Material