How to get user information from SAP HR in an MS SharePoint Workflow?

Question

Okay so basically I am creating a Workflow BPMS in SharePoint and I want to get a user's information like his/her department, supervisor etc. into the workflow.

The workflow goes like this: If an employee wishes to order some stationary, he/she enters the workflow by filling up a form, which is sent to their supervisor (whose information comes from SAP HR module) and when approved goes to the general administration department.

Since SAP stores the roles of the users and their organizations, I want to have all this information connected with my workflow.

How can I achieve this integration?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You could write your own SharePoint Workflow Activity (not trivial). Maybe there are some 3th party tools that already offer this functionality for SharePoint.

Maybe you can use the BCS (or BDC in moss) to get the data from SAP in a SharePoint list and use that in a workflow (untested, i'm not sure if this method can work)

Writing Custom WorkFlow Activities:

• http://www.codeproject.com/KB/sharepoint/CustomActivity.aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc627284(v=office.12).aspx