If your company employs truly global business processes, such as managing global master data, or if you open your system to the Web, by allowing your customers to enter contact data directly via the Internet, chances are that you will need to support multiple local-language characters. Various code pages have enabled the display of national characters, but collaboration on the Web has led to a huge number of language-specific, platform-dependent code pages that must interact with each other. And this compliance is only possible through Unicode - an international standard that supports virtually all of the languages and scripts used in the world, ensuring that they function no matter what the language or platform.
SAP's Unicode Strategy
SAP commits itself fully to providing you with a Unicode-based mySAP.com e-business platform and has stepped up their efforts to meet the expressed needs of their customers, as reflected in the current availability status and planning figures. To help customers transition smoothly to future-proof technologies, future versions of SAP applications will be exclusively in 64-bit and Unicode starting in 2007.
Clearly, the benefits of Unicode-based mySAP solutions speak for themselves:
- Global business processes require IT systems to support multilingual data without any restrictions - Unicode represents the first technology capable of meeting these requirements.
- Web interfaces open the door to a global customer base, and IT systems must consequently be able to support multiple local languages simultaneously.
- With J2EE integration, the mySAP.com e-business platform fully supports web standards, and with Unicode, it now can take full advantage of XML and Java.
- Only Unicode makes it possible to seamlessly integrate inhomogeneous SAP and non-SAP system landscapes, enabling truly collaborative business.
Further Information
SAP offers a detailed Roadmap from MDMP to mySAP ERP 2005 Unicode, and designed particularly for customers on R/3 Release 4.6 or lower, a short roadmap.
SAP is a member of the Unicode Consortium, an organization founded to "develop, extend and promote use of the Unicode Standard." For more information, see www.unicode.org.
If you have further inquiries regarding the rollout of Unicode at SAP, contact SAP at globalization@sap.com
If you need more in-depth information about SAP and Unicode, including Unicode FAQ’s; please visit service.sap.com/unicode and remember to have your login details handy.
Unicode Technology
Unicode - the standard code page technology for all SAP products
Implementing the Unicode standard enables a single software product or a single web site to be accessed across multiple platforms, languages, and countries without the need for re-engineering. It allows data to be transferred across many different SAP and non-SAP systems without corruption. To meet these requirements, the SAP Unicode team continues to promote Unicode-enabled SAP systems, aid their installation, and provide tools and full technical support for the smooth conversion of existing SAP non-Unicode systems to Unicode.
As of SAP NetWeaver 2004, Unicode is the default for new installations, and Unicode conversion is also recommended for all existing systems. If customers nevertheless choose a non-Unicode installation, they must be aware that this has serious restrictions. SAP NetWeaver supports both J2EE and ABAP technologies and seamless communication between J2EE and ABAP is the key for this dual architecture. Since Java is based on Unicode, communication between J2EE and ABAP without loss of data is only possible when the ABAP stack is based on Unicode as well. Conversion of existing Single Code Page and MDMP systems to Unicode is fully supported. SAP Note 79991 lists release- and component-specific information.
Globalizing Business
International business demands that IT systems be able to present content and conduct transactions in all major world languages. In pre-Unicode times, there were hundreds of different encoding systems for representing the characters required for different languages. Unicode changed all that. Now there is one encoding system, which forms the fundamental building block for multinational business.
A Unicode SAP system
- Enables you to harness Internet technologies better.
- Allows better integration with non-SAP products and seamless integration with existing SAP systems.
- Offers a superior platform for collaborative, cross-system business applications.
- All languages and language combinations in the world!
- Allows you to install a central system for worldwide business processes, e.g. to gather and store aggregate customer data.
- Enables you to optimize your system landscape and reduce your costs.
SAP Note Number 79991
Symptom
Multiple languages in one system requiring multiple code pages
Other terms
Unicode MDMP MNLS Code-page Global-System MCOD
Solution
See following position paper:
mySAP Business Suite: Multinational Language Support using Unicode
Statement of Direction:
Unlike other standard code pages, Unicode defines a character set that includes
virtually all characters used in the world and therefore provides a consistent, global
character encoding. Unicode is defined by the Unicode consortium (see
http://www.unicode.org for more
information) consisting of world-leading companies in the IT industry.
Until now SAP has provided multiple language support using single code pages, as well as multiple code pages in a single installation with MDMP (Multi-Display-Multi-Processing), which permits the application server to dynamically switch code pages, according to the login language and language keys (see SAP note 73606). Yet even in a MDMP system, an individual user could only use characters belonging to one code page at a time. MDMP is considered to be a temporary solution only for R/3 with the restrictions mentioned in notes 747036, 745030 and 73606. All other solutions do NOT support MDMP (for CRM see note 718324).
MDMP support for the different Solutions:
- SAP ERP 2004:
With SAP ERP 2004, a new installation of MDMP is not supported anymore. This means that customers cannot switch their single code page system to MDMP. - SAP ERP 2005:
MDMP will no longer be (fully) supported from SAP ERP 2005 onwards ! (for details see http://service.sap.com/~sapidb/011000358700000651862005E ).
Also have a look at Quick link: Unicode --> Unicode Media Center -->
- "Disclaimer: MDMP with mySAP ERP 2005"
- "Roadmap: From MDMP to mySAP ERP 2005 Unicode".
For known restrictions please have a look at note 896144.
As a consequence, in case of an MDMP R/3 Enterprise or MDMP mySAP ERP 2004 system, you MUST convert your system to Unicode before an Upgrade to mySAP ERP 2005 is possible!
SAP Customer Relationship Management (CRM):
- MDMP is not supported for existing single code page customers (See note 718324).
- SAP CRM 5.0 - Existing Customers with MDMP:
MDMP will no longer be supported from SAP CRM 5.0 onwards ! Customers will need to convert their MDMP CRM 4.0 System to Unicode BEFORE an upgrade to CRM 5.0 is supported. Exception: Z/OS customers with MDMP CRM need to send a request to globalization@sap.com.
Also note that a Blended Code Page or MDSP is NOT an alternative - all statements for MDMP are also valid (even with further restrictions, see note 73606) for Blended Code Pages or MDSP.
To further enhance language support for SAP software, SAP considers Unicode the appropriate development direction and strategy, because Unicode offers a single, consistent, and standard character set encoding for virtually all languages in the world.
Generally single code page systems (Non-MDMP / Non-blended code pages) are still supported up to and including ERP 2005 (with restrictions mentioned e.g. in SAP notes 858869 and 838402). However SAP strongly recommends Unicode especially in case of new installations (see SAP note 838402). New releases of SAP NetWeaver and SAP applications based on SAP NetWeaver, which are released in 2007 or later, will no longer support new installations of Non-Unicode systems. For further information please have a look at the attached PDF document.
The following chapters describe the Unicode status of different mySAP - components and reflect the internal planning of SAP, therefore slight divergences from the planned release timeframe may occur depending on each component. Details will be published on the SAP Service Marketplace.
Some Unicode installations are currently planned only with written permission of SAP carried out as customer projects together with SAP (see details below), while for R/3 Enterprise Extension Set 2.0 at the end of the Ramp-Up mass shipment started with the following exceptions where the pilot phase will still be extended:
- Minimum-Downtime Conversion of large systems (> approx. 1TB)
- Please contact globalization@sap.com for details.
SAP Web Application Server
Unicode-based mySAP components deploy the SAP Web Application Server 6.20 (or newer), which supports the Unicode Standard and provides essential new functionality, syntax improvements and extended semantics. Only one source code exists for Unicode-based and non-Unicode-based systems, so that e.g. new developments can be smoothly exchanged between both systems. In addition, all improvements can be used with or without Unicode.
The interfaces (e.g. RFC) have been extended, so that communication between other Unicode-based systems or non-Unicode-based systems is possible. Furthermore, SAP provides standard tools for the installation of (and conversion to) Unicode-based systems that can also be used for checking and Unicode-enabling of customer developments.
SAP Note 379940 provides a list of currently supported platforms.
mySAP Customer Relationship Management (CRM):
The Unicode version of mySAP CRM 4.0 SP 7 is available within "unrestricted shipment".
Conversions (with or without MDMP) of existing CRM installations and connections to non-Unicode MDMP-systems are supported as customer project (see note 548016).
mySAP Supply Chain Management (SCM):
The Unicode version of mySAP SCM 4.X is available within "unrestricted shipment".
Conversions of existing SCM installations and connections to non-Unicode MDMP-systems are supported as customer project (see note 548016).
mySAP Supplier Relationship Management (SRM):
The Unicode version of mySAP SRM 4.0 is available within "unrestricted shipment".
Conversions (with or without MDMP) of existing SRM installations and connections to non-Unicode MDMP -systems are supported as customer project (see note 548016).
mySAP Business Intelligence (BW):
The Unicode version of mySAP BW 3.5 is fully available with SAP Netweaver within "unrestricted shipment", for the conversion of existing BW installations please have a look at note 543715.
SAP note 643813 has a collection of all relevant SAP notes concerning Unicode-based SAP BW installations.
mySAP Strategic Enterprise Management (SEM):
The Unicode version of SEM 3.5 is not available for Unicode- based installations, but SEM 4.0 is Unicode-enabled.
SAP R/3 Enterprise Ext. Set 2.00 :
For R/3 Enterprise Extension Set 2.0 mass shipment started with the following exceptions where the pilot phase will still be extended:
- Minimum-Downtime Conversion of large systems (> approx. 1TB)
- Please contact globalization@sap.com for details.
- For conversion of R/3 Enterprise 1.1 please see note 548016.
Successor Releases:
Please note that once a Solution is released for Unicode, all successor releases will be available in Unicode.
Multiple Components in One Database (MCOD):
The installation option MCOD is released for Unicode installations. A prerequisite is that the MCOD system contains Unicode instances only. Mixed solutions are not supported.
SAP Solution Manager
The SAP Solution Manager can be used in a Unicode environment. The Unicode version of the Solution Manager is in unrestricted shipment as of version 3.1.
SAP Services for Unicode Systems
Monitoring Services (Early Watch, Go Live, Service Monitoring, etc)
Please note that some recommendations and system parameters for Unicode based systems might not yet always be adjusted to an Unicode environment. In some rare cases those recommendations and parameters can still lead to wrong or misleading error messages or warnings. This will be corrected in near future. See also SAP Note 790099.
Usage of Arabic
Please have a look at restriction note 587150.
Summary
Unicode contains all characters needed to support most of the languages of the world. It is SAP's intention to prepare future editions of mySAP Business Suite for Unicode.