SAP ECC and Anaplan integration

What moves between them

The main flow runs from SAP ECC into Anaplan. ml-connector reads vendor master data (BAPI_VENDOR_GETLIST), cost centers (BAPI_COSTCENTER_GETLIST), employees (BAPI_EMPLOYEE_GETDATA), and GL account lists (BAPI_GL_ACC_GETDETAIL, RFC_READ_TABLE) from SAP ECC on a recurring schedule. These records are formatted as CSV and imported into pre-created Anaplan lists and dimensions via the Import API. The flow runs on demand or on a schedule tied to your financial close cycle, so planning models refresh weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly depending on your needs.

How ml-connector handles it

ml-connector bridges SAP ECC's on-premises connectivity model with Anaplan's cloud APIs. For SAP ECC, it manages the on-premises integration agent connection, executes RFC/BAPI calls directly or reads tables via RFC_READ_TABLE, and handles the HTTP Basic Auth handshake for each session. For Anaplan, it presents Basic Auth or OAuth2 credentials, starts Import actions with pre-formatted CSV payloads, polls the task status endpoint (GET /workspaces/{workspaceId}/models/{modelId}/actions/{actionId}/tasks/{taskId}) until completion, and handles Anaplan's 600-request-per-minute rate limit with exponential backoff. Because SAP ECC has a 512-character row width limit on RFC_READ_TABLE for wide tables, ml-connector splits wide master data into multiple exports and concatenates them in Anaplan. Anaplan's Import API requires pre-created named Actions in the target model, so the integration references those by name and shape the CSV to match the target list structure.

A real-world example

A mid-market manufacturing company runs SAP ECC across three plants and uses Anaplan for supply chain and workforce planning. Before integration, the planning team manually exported vendor lists, cost center hierarchies, and employee counts from SAP ECC every month, cleaned the data in Excel, and loaded it into Anaplan dimension lists. The manual process took two days, often fell out of sync with actual ERP changes, and created rework when a new cost center was opened or a major vendor was added. With SAP ECC and Anaplan connected, vendor and cost center updates flow automatically into Anaplan each Sunday, and the planning team starts each week with dimensions that match the ERP exactly. The weekly dimension refresh reduced month-end close prep time by one day and eliminated discrepancies between planned and actual cost allocations.

What you can do

• •Read vendor master records (names, numbers, account groups) from SAP ECC and import them into Anaplan lists so procurement planning sees current supplier data.
• •Sync cost center hierarchies and attributes from SAP ECC to Anaplan dimensions, keeping budget allocation structures aligned with actual organization changes.
• •Import employee records and headcount from SAP ECC into Anaplan workforce planning models, ensuring staffing plans reflect current payroll data.
• •Read GL account lists and hierarchies from SAP ECC and import them into Anaplan so financial plans map to the correct chart of accounts.
• •Poll SAP ECC on a schedule you define, handle rate limits and connection timeouts, and maintain an audit trail of every import into Anaplan.

Questions

Does ml-connector require an on-premises agent to reach SAP ECC?

Yes. SAP ECC is on-premises only and RFC/BAPI calls cannot originate directly from the cloud. ml-connector requires an on-premises integration agent running SAP .NET Connector or Java Connector with network access to the SAP ECC instance. Alternatively, if your SAP Basis team has activated OData services via TCODE SICF, ml-connector can use the SAP Gateway REST endpoint instead, which still runs on premises but uses HTTP Basic Auth instead of RFC sessions.

How does ml-connector handle SAP ECC's 512-character row width limit for RFC_READ_TABLE?

For wide master data tables (such as vendor detail with many fields), ml-connector splits the export into multiple RFC_READ_TABLE calls, each requesting a subset of columns, then reconstructs the full record in Anaplan by merging the partial results. This allows syncing of complete vendor or GL account records without losing fields due to the row width limit.

What happens when ml-connector hits Anaplan's 600-request-per-minute rate limit?

ml-connector detects HTTP 429 responses from Anaplan, backs off exponentially, and retries the request. It also spaces out Import action submissions so concurrent integrations do not exceed the tenant-wide limit. If the limit is still exceeded, ml-connector surfaces the delay in the audit log and can be configured to pause further pulls from SAP ECC until Anaplan rate limit budget recovers.