Get a better understanding of SAP integration, take a closer look at its benefits, and discover solutions to successfully integrate your systems with SAP.
SAP is a complex, multi-component ecosystem that caters to different operational needs across various industries. It is typically used together with many third-party tools and systems to extend the existing functionality and create a unified enterprise management hub that operates as a single source of truth and relevant data. Both SAP components and third-party solutions need to be integrated into a single ecosystem to ensure uninterrupted operations and seamless data flows. This is where SAP integration plays a critical role.
In this post, we’ll delve deeper into SAP integration, so you will know how it works, understand its importance, and explore the most common SAP integration scenarios and use cases.
SAP integration allows businesses to unite different systems and platforms into a single ecosystem, providing a single source of trusted data and knowledge. This eventually helps streamline processes in many ways, covering the following aspects:
One of the primary advantages of SAP integration is the ability to establish consistent communication standards across disparate systems. In a typical enterprise, multiple applications ranging from ERP and CRM to third-party logistics and financial platforms often use different protocols and data formats. SAP integration provides a unified framework that standardizes data structures and communication protocols (e.g., REST, OData, IDoc, RFC), enabling seamless interaction across systems. This not only reduces complexity, but it also minimizes translation errors, accelerates development, and ensures all systems speak the same language.
Modern business requires both speed and flexibility. SAP integration supports real-time workflows for scenarios where immediate data processing is essential, such as inventory updates, customer transactions, or financial postings. It also enables asynchronous processing for tasks that can be scheduled or queued, like batch processing or document archiving. This dual capability allows organizations to design their processes according to business needs, like balancing performance, system load, and responsiveness, while ensuring that data consistency and integrity are preserved across all systems.
Traditionally, integrating enterprise systems has been a complex and resource-intensive endeavor. SAP integration solutions, such as SAP Integration Suite, SAP Cloud Connector, and pre-built APIs, greatly reduce this complexity. These tools offer reusable components, visual interfaces for workflow orchestration, and out-of-the-box connectors for both SAP and non-SAP applications. As a result, IT teams can implement integrations faster and more reliably, while business users can access unified data without dealing with underlying technical intricacies. Simplified integration also enables agility, helping organizations adapt quickly to new requirements, partners, or technologies.
Data security and compliance are non-negotiable in today’s digital environment. SAP integration frameworks come with enterprise-grade security features, including encrypted communication, secure user authentication (e.g., OAuth, SAML), role-based access control, and audit logging. These capabilities ensure that data transferred between systems remains protected against unauthorized access or tampering. Additionally, governance tools built into SAP’s integration solutions help organizations manage data lineage, monitor usage, and enforce compliance with regulations like GDPR, HIPAA, and SOX. This is especially critical when sharing data across departments, subsidiaries, or external partners.
Integration with SAP is critical for enabling fluid data exchange and process automation across a wide array of systems and environments. Below are the most common integration scenarios that organizations implement using SAP technologies:
A2A integration connects different applications within the same enterprise, ensuring consistent and synchronized data across internal systems like ERP, CRM, SCM, and HR. SAP connectors help streamline internal processes by automating data exchange between modules, reducing manual input, and improving system responsiveness.
B2B integration focuses on connecting SAP systems with external partners, suppliers, or customers. Through standardized protocols like EDI or APIs, SAP connectors enable secure and efficient exchange of documents, such as purchase orders, invoices, and shipment details, ensuring real-time collaboration across organizational boundaries.
Data integration ensures seamless synchronization and movement of data between SAP and non-SAP systems. Whether for reporting, analytics, or real-time processing, SAP connectors support various formats and protocols to consolidate enterprise data, improve consistency, and support data-driven decision-making.
User interface (UI) integration allows end-users to access data and processes from multiple systems through a unified interface. These connectors use technologies like SAP Fiori, SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), and OData-based services to enable a seamless user experience, minimizing the need to switch between applications.
As enterprises adopt hybrid and multi-cloud environments, cloud integration becomes essential. SAP connectors facilitate communication between on-premise SAP systems and cloud platforms such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Salesforce, or Microsoft Azure. This ensures real-time data access, scalability, and continuity across deployment models.
SAP offers various comprehensive solutions designed to simplify integration and turn a company’s set of applications and sub-systems into a unified ecosystem. These solutions allow for data integration between SAP and non-SAP systems, covering many common integration cases.
SAP Integration Suite is a comprehensive, cloud-based integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) that enables the integration of on-premise and cloud-based applications and processes.
Key Features:
SAP Integration Suite is most often used when integrating hybrid landscapes and executing cloud and multi-cloud integration.
SAP PO is a legacy on-premise middleware suite combining SAP Process Integration (PI), SAP Business Process Management (BPM), and SAP Business Rules Management (BRM).
Key Features:
SAP PO is best suited for existing on-premise or regulated environments. SAP recommends considering migration to SAP Integration Suite for new projects.
SAP Cloud Connector is a lightweight agent that provides secure connectivity between on-premise systems and the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
Key Features:
It is widely used in hybrid cloud integrations and secure backend access for cloud apps.
Included in SAP Integration Suite, SAP API Management manages the full lifecycle of APIs – design, publishing, monitoring, and security.
Key Features:
It enables external applications and microservices architectures to leverage SAP APIs securely and efficiently.
SAP Datasphere is SAP's modern solution for unified data integration and orchestration across heterogeneous data environments.
Key Features:
Datasphere is ideal for organizations managing complex data landscapes with analytics or migration requirements.
The comparison table below will help you better understand the differences between the SAP integration solutions and decide which suits your business the most.
| Solution | Deployment | Best For |
| SAP Integration Suite | Cloud | Modern hybrid and multi-cloud landscapes |
| SAP Process Orchestration | On-prem | Complex legacy or regulated environments |
| SAP Cloud Connector | Hybrid | Secure on-premise to cloud connectivity |
| SAP API Management | Cloud | API-first and microservices integration |
| SAP Datasphere | Cloud | Unified data integration and orchestration |
When you need to integrate complex landscapes with large amounts of disparate data, one native SAP solution may not be enough. That’s where DataLark – a data management platform with robust architecture and feature set designed specifically for high-complexity environments – can help.
DataLark supports both batch and real-time data processing. This is critical for scenarios where some data (e.g., financial transactions) require immediate consistency, while others (e.g., reporting data) can be handled periodically. Event-driven triggers (API calls, webhooks, or change data capture) and scheduled jobs make the solution adaptable to a wide range of SAP integration needs.
The platform's modular, plugin-based connector framework supports a broad variety of systems out of the box, including SAP (S/4HANA, ECC), non-SAP ERPs, SQL/NoSQL databases, REST/SOAP APIs, and file-based sources. This reduces the need for custom development and enables faster deployment of data flows.
In addition to SAP integration, DataLark can be utilized to ensure your system’s ongoing reliability with real-time monitoring, execution logs, and alerting functionality. This is especially useful in complex workflows where latency, volume, and transformation depth can introduce failure points. Logs can be used for audit trails, and the system provides visibility into individual transaction states.
DataLark supports both on-premise and cloud-based models, which makes the solution a great choice for a wide variety of enterprises.
Now let’s take a look at some use cases where SAP integration can help businesses improve process management, efficiency, and overall performance by streamlining data flows, improving communication, and reducing costly mistakes in data interpretation. As you can see below, SAP integration is beneficial for different industries.
In the E-commerce area, a common occurrence is the need to integrate an E-commerce platform (Shopify, Magento (now Adobe), Joomla!, or another) and SAP S/4HANA to manage inventory, pricing, and order fulfillment efficiently with real-time synchronization.
Integration scope may look like this:
As a result of successful integration, a company may achieve:
Manufacturing businesses often struggle to optimize production routings. Integrating 3DX PLM to SAP S/4HANA is one of the most reliable ways to automate routing and BOM synchronization.
Integration scope in this scenario might be the following:
Integration of SAP and 3DX PLM results in:
Global enterprises may need to integrate external finance systems (QuickBooks, NetSuite) for local transactions with SAP S/4HANA, which is used for core accounting to consolidate reporting.
To achieve the desired result, the scope of the project may look like this:
Integrating SAP with local financial systems helps enterprises get:
Healthcare institutions like hospitals may need to integrate their Electronic Medical Records (EMR) systems with SAP MM and SD modules to automate medical supply procurement and tracking.
The integration scope in this case is usually like this:
Successful SAP integration improves hospitals’ supply chain management with:
Utility companies, especially those managing electricity infrastructure, may need real-time integration between their SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) systems and SAP PM to improve asset maintenance scheduling.
The integration scope of connecting SCADA to SAP PM may look like this:
As a result of such integration, companies may get:
SAP integration is a complex yet rewarding process that allows your business to greatly improve data quality, streamline data flows, adjust communication, boost productivity and scalability, enhance customer experience, and drive innovation. And businesses need professional data integration solutions to handle everything properly.
Here’s where DataLark comes in – and this solution goes beyond the integration process itself. With DataLark, you can speed up the process and ensure everything goes error-free while monitoring and managing your data to ensure uninterrupted processes and flawless operations. Contact us today to future-proof your enterprise with a dedicated solution for data integration and management.