5.2 KiB
5.2 KiB
| title | slug | summary | client | industry | timeline | role | image | tags | featured | order | date | seo_title | seo_description | seo_keywords | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAP Healthcare Integration System | sap-integration-healthcare | Bidirectional integration processing 100k+ transactions/day with 99.9% uptime | Confidential - Healthcare Multinational | Healthcare | 6 months | Integration Architect |
|
true | 1 | 2023-06-15 | Case Study: SAP Healthcare Integration - 100k Transactions/Day | How we architected SAP integration system processing 100k+ daily transactions with 99.9% uptime for healthcare company. | SAP integration, C#, .NET, SAP Connector, enterprise integration, healthcare |
Overview
Client: Healthcare Multinational (confidential) Size: 100,000+ employees Project: Benefits integration Timeline: 6 months My Role: Integration Architect
Challenge
Client had internal benefits management system that needed to sync with SAP ECC to process payroll.
Main pain points:
- Manual process prone to errors
- 3-5 day delay between systems
- 100k employees waiting for processing
- Load spikes (month-end)
Constraints:
- Limited budget (no SAP BTP)
- Small internal SAP team (2 developers)
- Tight deadline (6-month go-live)
- Legacy .NET Framework 4.5 system
Solution
Bidirectional integration architecture:
[Internal System] ←→ [Queue] ←→ [SAP Connector] ←→ [SAP ECC]
↓ ↓
[MongoDB Logs] [ABAP Z_BENEFITS]
Components:
- .NET Service with SAP Connector (NCo 3.0)
- Custom ABAP transaction (Z_BENEFITS)
- Queue system (RabbitMQ) for retry logic
- MongoDB for audit and troubleshooting
- Scheduler (Hangfire) for batch processing
Flow:
- System generates changes (new hires, modifications)
- Service processes batch (500 records/batch)
- SAP Connector calls Z_BENEFITS via RFC
- SAP returns status (success/error)
- Automatic retry if failure (max 3x)
- MongoDB logs for troubleshooting
Results
Metrics:
- 100k+ transactions/day processed
- 99.9% uptime
- Reduced 5 days → 4 hours (delay)
- 80% reduction in processing time
- Zero manual errors (vs 2-3% before)
Benefits:
- Employees receive benefits on-time
- HR team saves 40h/month (manual work)
- Complete audit (compliance)
- Scalable (30% year-over-year growth without refactor)
Tech Stack
C# .NET Framework 4.5 SAP NCo 3.0 RabbitMQ MongoDB Hangfire Docker SAP ECC ABAP RFC
Decisions & Motivation
Decision 1: SAP Connector vs SAP BTP
Options evaluated:
- SAP BTP (events, modern APIs, cloud)
- SAP Connector (direct RFC, on-premise)
We chose: SAP Connector
Motivation:
- Client had on-premise SAP ECC (not S/4)
- Budget didn't allow BTP license
- SAP team comfortable with ABAP/RFC
- Needs met with RFC (didn't need real-time event-driven)
Accepted trade-off:
- Less "modern" than BTP, but 100% functional
- $0 additional cost vs $30k+/year BTP
- 2 months faster delivery (no BTP learning curve)
Decision 2: Queue System vs Direct Calls
Options evaluated:
- Direct synchronous calls (simpler)
- Queue with retry (more complex)
We chose: Queue + Retry
Motivation:
- SAP occasionally unavailable (maintenance)
- Load spikes (month-end = 200k requests)
- Ensure zero data loss
- Resilience > simplicity (critical environment)
Implementation:
- RabbitMQ with dead-letter queue
- Exponential retry (1min, 5min, 15min)
- Alerts if 3 consecutive failures
Result:
- Zero data loss in 2 years production
- HR team doesn't need to "keep watch"
Decision 3: Custom ABAP vs Standard
Options evaluated:
- Standard SAP BAPIs (zero ABAP code)
- Custom transaction (Z_BENEFITS)
We chose: Custom transaction
Motivation:
- Standard BAPIs didn't have business-specific validations
- Client wanted logic centralized in SAP (single source of truth)
- Allowed complex validations (eligibility, dependents, limits)
Trade-off:
- Requires ABAP maintenance (internal SAP team)
- But: Client preferred vs duplicate logic (risk of desync)
Alternatives NOT Chosen
Webhook/Callback (Event-Driven):
- Client had no infrastructure to expose APIs
- Internal system behind firewall
- Batch polling works well for the case
Kubernetes Microservices:
- Overkill for single integration
- Team had no K8s expertise
- Simple Docker sufficient
Real-time Sync (<1min):
- Business doesn't need (daily batch ok)
- Infrastructure cost would increase 3x
- 4h delay acceptable for payroll
Learnings
What worked very well:
- Involve SAP team from day 1 (buy-in)
- MongoDB for logs (10x faster troubleshooting)
- Retry logic saved countless times
What I would do differently:
- Add health check endpoint earlier
- Monitoring dashboard from start (added later)
Lessons for next projects:
- Client "limited budget" ≠ "limited solution" - creativity solves
- Document ALL architectural decisions (team turnover)
- Simplicity beats complexity when both work (KISS)
Need Something Similar?
Complex SAP integrations, legacy systems, or high-availability architecture?