Tutorial: Microsoft Entra integration with SAP Business ByDesign

Article
10/23/2023

In this tutorial, you'll learn how to integrate SAP Business ByDesign with Microsoft Entra ID. When you integrate SAP Business ByDesign with Microsoft Entra ID, you can:

Control in Microsoft Entra ID who has access to SAP Business ByDesign.
Enable your users to be automatically signed-in to SAP Business ByDesign with their Microsoft Entra accounts.
Manage your accounts in one central location.

Prerequisites

To get started, you need the following items:

A Microsoft Entra subscription. If you don't have a subscription, you can get a free account.
SAP Business ByDesign single sign-on (SSO) enabled subscription.

Scenario description

In this tutorial, you configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO in a test environment.

SAP Business ByDesign supports SP initiated SSO

Add SAP Business ByDesign from the gallery

To configure the integration of SAP Business ByDesign into Microsoft Entra ID, you need to add SAP Business ByDesign from the gallery to your list of managed SaaS apps.

Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > New application.
In the Add from the gallery section, type SAP Business ByDesign in the search box.
Select SAP Business ByDesign from results panel and then add the app. Wait a few seconds while the app is added to your tenant.

Alternatively, you can also use the Enterprise App Configuration Wizard. In this wizard, you can add an application to your tenant, add users/groups to the app, assign roles, as well as walk through the SSO configuration as well. Learn more about Microsoft 365 wizards.

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO

Configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with SAP Business ByDesign using a test user called B.Simon. For SSO to work, you need to establish a link relationship between a Microsoft Entra user and the related user in SAP Business ByDesign.

To configure and test Microsoft Entra SSO with SAP Business ByDesign, perform the following steps:

Configure Microsoft Entra SSO - to enable your users to use this feature.
1. Create a Microsoft Entra test user - to test Microsoft Entra single sign-on with B.Simon.
2. Assign the Microsoft Entra test user - to enable B.Simon to use Microsoft Entra single sign-on.
Configure SAP Business ByDesign SSO - to configure the Single Sign-On settings on application side.
1. Create SAP Business ByDesign test user - to have a counterpart of Britta Simon in SAP Business ByDesign that is linked to the Microsoft Entra representation of user.
Test SSO - to verify whether the configuration works.

Configure Microsoft Entra SSO

Follow these steps to enable Microsoft Entra SSO.

Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > SAP Business ByDesign > Single sign-on.
On the Select a single sign-on method page, select SAML.
On the Set up single sign-on with SAML page, click the pencil icon for Basic SAML Configuration to edit the settings.
On the Basic SAML Configuration section, perform the following steps:

a. In the Sign on URL text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<servername>.sapbydesign.com

b. In the Identifier (Entity ID) text box, type a URL using the following pattern: https://<servername>.sapbydesign.com

Note

These values are not real. Update these values with the actual Sign on URL and Identifier. Contact SAP Business ByDesign Client support team to get these values. You can also refer to the patterns shown in the Basic SAML Configuration section.
SAP Business ByDesign application expects the SAML assertions in a specific format. Configure the following claims for this application. You can manage the values of these attributes from the User Attributes section on application integration page. On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, click Edit button to open User Attributes dialog.
Click on the Edit icon to edit the Name identifier value.
On the Manage user claims section, perform the following steps:

a. Select Transformation as a Source.

b. In the Transformation dropdown list, select ExtractMailPrefix().

Note

Per default ByD uses the NameID format unspecified for user mapping. ByD maps the NameID of SAML-assertions on the ByD User Alias. Additionally ByD support the name ID format emailAddress. In this case ByD maps the NameID of the SAM-assertion on the ByD user e-mail address of the ByD employee contact data. For more details, you may refer this SAP blog.
On the Set up Single Sign-On with SAML page, in the SAML Signing Certificate section, click Download to download the Federation Metadata XML from the given options as per your requirement and save it on your computer.
On the Set up SAP Business ByDesign section, copy the appropriate URL(s) as per your requirement.

Create a Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you'll create a test user called B.Simon.

Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a User Administrator.
Browse to Identity > Users > All users.
Select New user > Create new user, at the top of the screen.
In the User properties, follow these steps:
1. In the Display name field, enter B.Simon.
2. In the User principal name field, enter the username@companydomain.extension. For example, B.Simon@contoso.com.
3. Select the Show password check box, and then write down the value that's displayed in the Password box.
4. Select Review + create.
Select Create.

Assign the Microsoft Entra test user

In this section, you'll enable B.Simon to use single sign-on by granting access to SAP Business ByDesign.

Sign in to the Microsoft Entra admin center as at least a Cloud Application Administrator.
Browse to Identity > Applications > Enterprise applications > SAP Business ByDesign.
In the app's overview page, find the Manage section and select Users and groups.
Select Add user, then select Users and groups in the Add Assignment dialog.
In the Users and groups dialog, select B.Simon from the Users list, then click the Select button at the bottom of the screen.
If you are expecting a role to be assigned to the users, you can select it from the Select a role dropdown. If no role has been set up for this app, you see "Default Access" role selected.
In the Add Assignment dialog, click the Assign button.

Configure SAP Business ByDesign SSO

Sign on to your SAP Business ByDesign portal with administrator rights.
Navigate to Application and User Management Common Task and click the Identity Provider tab.
Click New Identity Provider and select the metadata XML file that you have downloaded. By importing the metadata, the system automatically uploads the required signature certificate and encryption certificate.
To include the Assertion Consumer Service URL into the SAML request, select Include Assertion Consumer Service URL.
Click Activate Single Sign-On.
Save your changes.
Click the My System tab.
In the Microsoft Entra ID Sign On URL textbox, paste Login URL value, which you copied previously.
Specify whether the employee can manually choose between logging on with user ID and password or SSO by selecting Manual Identity Provider Selection.
In the SSO URL section, specify the URL that should be used by the employee to signon to the system. In the URL Sent to Employee dropdown list, you can choose between the following options:

Non-SSO URL

The system sends only the normal system URL to the employee. The employee cannot signon using SSO, and must use password or certificate instead.

SSO URL

The system sends only the SSO URL to the employee. The employee can signon using SSO. Authentication request is redirected through the IdP.

Automatic Selection

If SSO is not active, the system sends the normal system URL to the employee. If SSO is active, the system checks whether the employee has a password. If a password is available, both SSO URL and Non-SSO URL are sent to the employee. However, if the employee has no password, only the SSO URL is sent to the employee.
Save your changes.

Create SAP Business ByDesign test user

In this section, you create a user called Britta Simon in SAP Business ByDesign. Please work with SAP Business ByDesign Client support team to add the users in the SAP Business ByDesign platform.

Note

Please make sure that NameID value should match with the username field in the SAP Business ByDesign platform.

Test SSO

In this section, you test your Microsoft Entra single sign-on configuration with following options.

Click on Test this application, this will redirect to SAP Business ByDesign Sign-on URL where you can initiate the login flow.
Go to SAP Business ByDesign Sign-on URL directly and initiate the login flow from there.
You can use Microsoft My Apps. When you click the SAP Business ByDesign tile in the My Apps, this will redirect to SAP Business ByDesign Sign-on URL. For more information about the My Apps, see Introduction to the My Apps.

Next steps

Once you configure the SAP Business ByDesign you can enforce session controls, which protects exfiltration and infiltration of your organization’s sensitive data in real time. Session controls extends from Conditional Access. Learn how to enforce session control with Microsoft Defender for Cloud Apps.