Steering the New Reality of Cloud Output with LRS Output Management and SAP
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Key Takeaways
The traditional SAP spool method for managing output is becoming obsolete as organizations shift to cloud-based platforms like SAP Cloud ERP and SAP BTP, creating a need for new strategies for document printing.
LRS Output Management serves as a vital solution in bridging the gap between modern cloud applications and existing printer infrastructures, ensuring reliable document delivery in critical functions such as manufacturing and payroll.
SAPinsiders must develop a dedicated output strategy when moving to the cloud, including inventorying paper-based processes, validating interface support for cloud operations, and consolidating management layers to streamline help desk troubleshooting.
The SAP Spool is familiar to the veteran SAP Basis consultant. This centralized hub has helped to manage output for decades. For those that are familiar with third party output management in SAP, using the SAP BC-XOM interface adds to both the reliability and user confidence in paper-based processes. However, this comfort zone is disappearing as organizations migrate to SAP Cloud ERP, SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), and Digital Manufacturing (DM).
This is because the move to the cloud is a fundamental re-architecting of how documents move from a digital process to a physical printer. Thus, if an organization’s team is still looking for the classic spool in these new environments, they are looking for a ghost.
The Technical Pivot to S4HC-ES-PRINT-OMS
Unlike classic on-premise applications, SAP’s modern cloud stacks, such as SAP BTP, SAP DM, and SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll (ECP), do not use the traditional SAP spooling infrastructure for printing. Consequently, the standard access method interfaces are off the table. Cloud-based processes simply have no network line-of-sight to print devices in a corporate private network.
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Instead, these applications rely on SAP Java stacks and a new interface called S4HC-ES-PRINT-OMS. This requires a sophisticated handle on Communication Scenarios 0466 and 0467. It is here that the IT team’s cloud-first dream often hits a wall. Without a way to bridge these new scenarios to the existing printer fleet, an organization risks black hole printing, where a document has no way to get to a printer.
LRS Output Management fills this gap by supporting both the 0466 and 0467 scenarios natively. By utilizing an LRS-developed plugin and SAP APIs, the system can retrieve print data directly from the SAP BTP-PRINT service, ensuring that even as the underlying architecture changes, the user experience remains seamless.
Use Cases for Manufacturing and Payroll
The human element of this technical shift is most visible in two critical areas: the shop floor and the payroll office.
- SAP Digital Manufacturing (DM): As SAP DM replaces the outgoing SAP Manufacturing Execution (ME) module, the speed of production is tied directly to the speed of documentation. If an SAP BTP-based manufacturing app can’t trigger a label or a traveler document because of a Java-stack handshake error, the assembly line stops. LRS Output Management’s solutions act as the reliable handshake, ensuring manufacturing uptime.
- SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central Payroll (ECP): Payroll is perhaps the most document-intensive and sensitive function in any enterprise. SAP ECP is a mix of ABAP and non-ABAP components. While printing from onsite services is straightforward, the Cloud-based side often leaves help desks drowning in tickets. By serving as a unified target printer for all of SAP ECP, LRS Output Management ensures that, whether it’s a check or a report, delivery is assured and audited.
Finally, in the cloud era, the most successful SAP teams are those that realize the last mile is just as important as the first, and with paper-based processes, the last mile is often simply ignored until a go-live fails.
What This Means for SAPinsiders
For SAPinsiders, the business implication of this move is a matter of operational continuity. Migrating to SAP Cloud ERP or SAP BTP without a dedicated output strategy is like building a high-speed rail line without the stations. An organization may get the speed, but there is no way for the data to reach its final destination. Therefore, while moving the print operations to the cloud, SAPinsiders must:
- Inventory the paper-based processes. Identify which parts of the organization’s landscape (SAP DM, SAP ECP, SAP BTP) have moved away from traditional onsite printing. These are the highest-risk areas for output failure.
- Validate interface support. Ensure the IT team’s output partner isn’t just cloud-ready in name, but also, like LRS Output Management, specifically supports the S4HC-ES-PRINT-OMS interface and communication scenarios 0466/0467.
- Simplify the help desk. Organizations should consolidate their onsite and Cloud-based output into a single management layer. It is only when this step is completed that the support staff will be able to troubleshoot a payroll print job and a warehouse label from the same screen.
