End of Support for SAP ITK: FAQ
As of December 31, 2023, SAP will no longer support SAP Ariba's Integration Toolkit. What your organization will need to do to replace it depends upon what technologies you're using now.
Editor's note: For more details on your options for moving from ITK to BTP, including timelines, costs, and complexities, see our updated post Navigating your ITK Transition: FAQ.
What is the Deadline for End of Support?
There are several important SAP deadlines to be aware of these days. One that seems to be flying under the radar is the end of support for SAP Ariba’s Integration Toolkit (ITK).
According to SAP “end of support” means that ITK will not be supported by SAP support or consulting teams after December 31, 2023.
Specifically:
Before December 31, 2023
- Only critical security issues will be addressed between now and December 31, 2023.
- ITK has been removed from SAP official download sites with no exceptions.
- There are no planned releases or updates for SAP Ariba Integration Toolkit (ITK).
After December 31, 2023
- There will be no new features or bug fixes provided, and there will be no enhancements for security or compliance to the latest standards.
- There will be no innovation releases.
What is ITK?
Ariba’s Integration Toolkit (ITK) allows buyers to integrate Ariba with any ERP system to exchange master and transactional data via CSV file upload and download. It’s made up of two tools, the SAP Ariba data transfer tool and the DB Connector.
The SAP Ariba data transfer tool is a command-line utility. It facilitates CSV file transfer in batch mode between an SAP Ariba system and the back-end system, manually-maintained data, or some other system.
The DB Connector is a command-line utility that allows the extraction of master data and transactional data from JDBC-based back-end system database tables. It can then be saved to CSV files or the data can be uploaded to the ERP system.
What is Replacing ITK?
That depends.
If you are a SAP ERP customer, you will move to SAP’s Ariba Cloud Integration Gateway (CIG) to integrate ERP with Ariba solutions. (Ed. note: Effective March 17, 2023, SAP is changing the name of the Cloud Integration Gateway to SAP Integration Suite, managed gateway for spend management and SAP Business Network.)
If you use a non-SAP ERP or ad-hoc integrations with SAP Ariba or Intelligent Spend and Business Network solutions, SAP offers three options:
- SAP Integration Suite on BTP.
- Integration toolkit on BTP for SAP Ariba applications.
- Any other 3rd party tool for File transfer between ERP and SAP Ariba applications.
What does this mean for my organization?
If you’re a SAP ERP customer, then moving to CIG is pretty straightforward. It’s around the issue of moving to the Business Technology Platform (BTP) where there are still a lot of unknowns for non SAP customers.
First of all, BTP isn’t just a single thing in the way that CIG is. Rather, it’s a suite of SAP solutions products and services that live under the Business Technology Platform umbrella.
The starting point for your company should be a careful examination of your current system. It’s important to determine if moving to BTP is the right choice for your organization and exactly what you need from the Business Technology Platform as a non SAP customer.
In other words, you don’t want to end up paying for technologies you don’t need.
What we have seen on this particular topic so far is highly technical. We recommend that you consult with your SAP Ariba Account Manager to narrow down what you need and to get specific pricing. If you have a SAP or Ariba consulting partner you work with, getting their input into how to make this change is also a wise move.
We will update this article as more information becomes available.
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