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IoT and SAP Integration Explained: Benefits, Challenges, and Application Areas
\nWith data-driven approaches to literally every aspect of a business taking over the world, integrating your ERP with IoT technology is just a matter of time. Integrating IoT with SAP allows enterprises to effectively transform field data into actionable insights, benefiting the business’s agility, competitiveness, efficiency, and profitability.
\n\nIn this article, we’ll dig deeper into the benefits of integrating IoT and SAP, cover the main challenges one can face during integration, list the major areas of application (spoiler: they are useful for every business), and review available IoT integration solutions.
\nIoT and SAP Integration Benefits
\nLet’s take a look at the core benefits of IoT and SAP integration for businesses. All of them allow companies to outperform their competitors and keep up with the ever-evolving business landscape.
\nEnhanced decision-making
\nData retrieved from IoT allows businesses to enhance their decision-making process and introduce a proactive approach to operations. For example, this can be clearly seen in the manufacturing area, where the integration of SAP and IoT allows companies to perform predictive maintenance by using machine learning (ML) capabilities. This helps to maintain the equipment before the actual failure occurs, greatly reducing operational downtime and cutting costs associated with standstills and equipment repairs.
\nProcess automation
\nIoT with SAP integration enables the automation of processes with the help of real-time triggers, which enhances the overall efficiency of a business. For example, logistics companies can easily adjust routings on the go based on real-time information about traffic situations, eliminating potential extra fuel costs and improving delivery times.
\nHyper-personalized customer experience
\nSAP and IoT integration enables businesses to track user behavior and offer unique, personalized customer experiences, which boosts user retention, loyalty, and average revenue per user. One of the examples here is IoT sensors installed on store shelves; these sensors send signals to SAP inventory management systems, identifying what goods need to be replenished to fulfill demand.
\nSmarter supply chains
\nSAP supply chain management systems integrated with IoT enable real-time analytics, predictive supply management, and route optimization, empowering companies to successfully adjust to changes like seasonal shifts or global trends. For instance, embedding SAP-connected IoT sensors into warehouses and trucks ensures logistics agility and increases overall efficiency.
\nIoT With SAP Integration Use Cases
\nIntegration of SAP and IoT can strengthen and improve many aspects of business operations. Here are the most prominent examples:
\n![\"blog-iot-2\"](\"https://39975897.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/39975897/blog-iot-2.webp\")
Predictive maintenance
\nIoT sensors located on machines continuously send data to SAP EAM (Enterprise Asset Management). SAP EAM then processes the retrieved data using its predictive analytics capabilities and detects anomalies (too hot, slow, etc.) to anticipate equipment failure and schedule maintenance before the machine is out of order. This enables the reduction of downtime, lowers maintenance costs, and increases overall manufacturing efficiency.
\nAsset performance management
\nIoT devices continuously scan asset conditions and usage patterns to further send real-time data to SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration (BNAC) and SAP Asset Performance Management (APM). SAP systems then consolidate the acquired data, making it easy for employees in charge to evaluate asset utilization, optimize asset lifecycle costs, and track overall asset efficiency. IoT and SAP integration results in optimized asset usage, better visibility of asset condition and performance, and reduced maintenance costs.
\nSmart manufacturing
\nIoT sensors integrated directly into the manufacturing process collect real-time operational data (production rate, quality parameters, environmental conditions, etc.), sending these insights directly to SAP Digital Manufacturing (DMC) and SAP Cloud ERP. This enables SAP solutions to automatically shift production schedules, optimize resource allocation, and improve quality control. As a result, enterprises benefit from enhanced productivity, improved agility, and better product quality.
\nDigital twins
\nIoT sensors continuously capture operational data details from equipment, sending it to SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform) to create a digital twin of physical assets. In SAP BTP, these digital twins empower simulations and testing, which allows businesses to use the insights into asset behavior for proactive, data-driven decision-making. Doing so enables proactive risk management and ongoing system innovation.
\nReal-time inventory tracking
\nIoT-powered tracking devices like GPS sensors and smart shelves monitor inventory and continuously report on consumption rates and replenishment needs into SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) and SAP IBP (Integrated Business Planning). With these real-time insights, you can automate inventory records updates and adjust delivery plans accordingly in your SAP system. Additionally, you can benefit from improved customer experiences due to fulfilled demands, reduction in stockouts, and better responsiveness to shifting market trends.
\nSAP and IoT Integration Challenges
\nIoT and SAP integration is a challenging process that requires careful planning and preparation. Let’s take a look at the main challenges that often happen during the process and learn how to overcome them.
\nHigh data volumes with low data relevance
\nA common practice for IoT devices is producing large amounts of data, while only a small part can actually bring insights and value. Keeping this raw data unsupervised can easily overload SAP systems, making decision-making processes complicated, wasting computing resources on useless background noise, reducing analytical efficiency, and increasing operational costs.
\nComprehensive data validation and cleansing provided by DataLark help mitigate this issue, so that only meaningful and relevant data gets into your SAP system.
\nUnfiltered and too high-frequency telemetry for SAP systems
\nSAP solutions do their best when operating with well-structured, transactional data and batch processing, while endless streams of unfiltered, high-frequency IoT telemetry data may overwhelm the system. Leaving this problem unresolved may downgrade the performance of the SAP system, slowing real-time responsiveness and increasing risks of system instability.
\nIntermediary IoT platforms or edge computing solutions help prepare and accumulate data for the SAP ecosystem by reducing data frequency and ensuring better compatibility.
\nLatency, queueing, and processing constraints
\nReal-time data from IoT sensors usually requires immediate processing. Yet, SAP systems may have inherent latency, queueing mechanisms, as well as batch-processing constraints that don’t align with the demands of real-time IoT scenarios. As a result, a business may face delayed and irrelevant insights and slower response times, which can be a dealbreaker for time-sensitive processes.
\nRobust message queuing solutions, event-driven architectures, and edge computing techniques handle latency-sensitive processes outside SAP, providing the system with processed and timely insights.
\nData compatibility issues
\nIoT sensors may generate raw data in various formats. This approach may cause compatibility issues, as the raw data format may not align with the SAP APIs and data requirements. This causes integration complexity, increased integration costs, high probability of data loss and corruption, and imposes overheads in data compatibility maintenance.
\nSophisticated integration platforms enable businesses to automate data formatting, normalization, and mapping, to ensure data compatibility with SAP native formats and simplify the overall integration workflow.
\nExisting SAP and IoT Solutions
\nSAP offers solutions specifically designed for IoT and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), catering to enterprises that heavily rely on IoT-retrieved data in their operations.
\nSAP Integration Suite, a comprehensive cloud-based platform, is designed to connect and integrate applications, processes, data, and devices across diverse environments. SAP Integration Suite helps leverage IoT data to enhance decision-making, automate processes, and innovate operational workflows. The platform provides the infrastructure and tools required to connect and configure IoT devices and sensor networks, manage massive data streams, and apply real-time analytics and insights directly into core business processes. Besides, SAP Integration Suite allows seamless data connection from IoT devices to core SAP Cloud ERP solutions, S/4HANA and SAP Datasphere
\nSAP Business Network Asset Collaboration (BNAC) serves to facilitate collaboration among asset manufacturers, operators, service providers, and related entities. SAP BNAC creates a centralized platform for storing and sharing asset data, enables collaborative maintenance and real-time monitoring, supports operational information safety, and allows for digital twin creation for enhanced management and forecasting.
\nSAP and IoT integration solutions from Hyperscalers
\nIn addition to SAP-native IoT integration options, businesses can choose solutions from Hyperscalers, such as AWS IoT Core and Microsoft Azure IoT Hub.
\nAWS IoT Core allows for an easy and safe connection between IoT devices and SAP Cloud ERP, enabling continuous data streams, streamlined management, and efficient processing of the data retrieved from IoT devices. AWS IoT Core supports robust device connectivity, message routing, and integrates seamlessly with SAP solutions, letting SAP systems analyze data in real-time and make relevant, timely decisions.
\nMicrosoft Azure IoT Hub is a scalable cloud-hosted solution for secure management of IoT device connectivity, data ingestion, and real-time monitoring. Azure IoT Hub provides strong IoT device management capabilities, supports bidirectional communication, and easily integrates with SAP solutions for enhanced analytics, AI empowerment, and precise data processing services.
\nLimitations of existing SAP and IoT solutions
\nBoth SAP Integration Suite and SAP BNAC help businesses:
\n- \n
- Enhance operational efficiency \n
- Introduce data-driven decision-making \n
- Enable predictive maintenance \n
- Cut costs associated with downtime and equipment failure \n
- Prolong asset lifecycle through real-time monitoring, agility, and process transparency \n
Yet, they are not perfect, and businesses that use or plan to use them should be aware of their limitations in order to plan IoT and SAP integration strategies more carefully.
\nHigh cost and complexity
\nSAP solutions for IoT are expensive, usually requiring tangible upfront investments in infrastructure, licenses, and qualified specialists. This often imposes high entry barriers that stop smaller businesses from using IoT’s benefits, prolong implementation timelines, and increase TCO (total cost of ownership).
\nSecurity & privacy vulnerabilities
\nLike all IoT ecosystems, SAP solutions for IoT are exposed to risks from insecure endpoint devices. Compromised sensors can be used to attack the SAP backend, making robust encryption, authentication, and secure device management critical.
\nExtensive configuration is needed for every device type
\nEach type of IoT device (heat sensors, GPS, smart shelves, etc.) requires profound, extensive configuration to integrate with SAP seamlessly. Various device protocols, data formats, and communication models dramatically increase integration complexity, which results in slow deployment, higher risks of integration errors or data format inconsistency, and imposes more maintenance expenses.
\nHow DataLark Simplifies IoT and SAP Integration
\nDataLark, an SAP-centric data management platform, is designed specifically to streamline data integration and management in cases where standard solutions cannot cope. IoT and SAP integration is exactly that case, and disparate data formats, heavy volumes of data streams, and compatibility issues all prove this.
\nDataLark’s data quality management functionality helps standardize and unify IoT data before it reaches SAP, decreasing the processing burden and allowing users to get the full benefits of SAP’s predictive analytics capabilities.
\nDataLark performs data cleansing and validation, wiping out unnecessary or duplicate data. This ensures that irrelevant data will not fog the final result, leading to sharper forecasting and faster data processing within SAP systems.
\n![\"blog-iot-1\"](\"https://39975897.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/39975897/blog-iot-1.webp\")
Being a smart and secure SAP connector, DataLark can connect data from various IoT sources to SAP S/4HANA (batch production records, E-commerce and manufacturing warehouses, enterprise asset data, etc.) and facilitate data mapping with its intuitive, no-code interface. These features help provide seamless, easy IoT and SAP integration, avoiding costly IT overheads, prolonged process timelines, or data issues resolution post-integration.
\nConclusion
\nIoT with SAP integration is a challenging yet rewarding journey that opens new opportunities for businesses’ digital transformation, market growth, and revenue generation by offering applicable data “seasoned” with real-time analytics and predictive AI capabilities.
\nWe hope that this piece will help you decide about IoT and SAP integration if you are contemplating it, or find a solution to your integration challenges if you have already started the process.
","post_summary":"Learn the benefits and opportunities of IoT and SAP integration for your business, navigate existing solutions, and see the pitfalls to avoid.
\n","blog_post_schedule_task_uid":null,"blog_publish_to_social_media_task":"DONE_NOT_SENT","blog_publish_instant_email_task_uid":null,"blog_publish_instant_email_campaign_id":null,"blog_publish_instant_email_retry_count":0,"rss_body":"Learn the benefits and opportunities of IoT and SAP integration for your business, navigate existing solutions, and see the pitfalls to avoid.
\n\nIoT and SAP Integration Explained: Benefits, Challenges, and Application Areas
\nWith data-driven approaches to literally every aspect of a business taking over the world, integrating your ERP with IoT technology is just a matter of time. Integrating IoT with SAP allows enterprises to effectively transform field data into actionable insights, benefiting the business’s agility, competitiveness, efficiency, and profitability.
\n\nIn this article, we’ll dig deeper into the benefits of integrating IoT and SAP, cover the main challenges one can face during integration, list the major areas of application (spoiler: they are useful for every business), and review available IoT integration solutions.
\nIoT and SAP Integration Benefits
\nLet’s take a look at the core benefits of IoT and SAP integration for businesses. All of them allow companies to outperform their competitors and keep up with the ever-evolving business landscape.
\nEnhanced decision-making
\nData retrieved from IoT allows businesses to enhance their decision-making process and introduce a proactive approach to operations. For example, this can be clearly seen in the manufacturing area, where the integration of SAP and IoT allows companies to perform predictive maintenance by using machine learning (ML) capabilities. This helps to maintain the equipment before the actual failure occurs, greatly reducing operational downtime and cutting costs associated with standstills and equipment repairs.
\nProcess automation
\nIoT with SAP integration enables the automation of processes with the help of real-time triggers, which enhances the overall efficiency of a business. For example, logistics companies can easily adjust routings on the go based on real-time information about traffic situations, eliminating potential extra fuel costs and improving delivery times.
\nHyper-personalized customer experience
\nSAP and IoT integration enables businesses to track user behavior and offer unique, personalized customer experiences, which boosts user retention, loyalty, and average revenue per user. One of the examples here is IoT sensors installed on store shelves; these sensors send signals to SAP inventory management systems, identifying what goods need to be replenished to fulfill demand.
\nSmarter supply chains
\nSAP supply chain management systems integrated with IoT enable real-time analytics, predictive supply management, and route optimization, empowering companies to successfully adjust to changes like seasonal shifts or global trends. For instance, embedding SAP-connected IoT sensors into warehouses and trucks ensures logistics agility and increases overall efficiency.
\nIoT With SAP Integration Use Cases
\nIntegration of SAP and IoT can strengthen and improve many aspects of business operations. Here are the most prominent examples:
\n
Predictive maintenance
\nIoT sensors located on machines continuously send data to SAP EAM (Enterprise Asset Management). SAP EAM then processes the retrieved data using its predictive analytics capabilities and detects anomalies (too hot, slow, etc.) to anticipate equipment failure and schedule maintenance before the machine is out of order. This enables the reduction of downtime, lowers maintenance costs, and increases overall manufacturing efficiency.
\nAsset performance management
\nIoT devices continuously scan asset conditions and usage patterns to further send real-time data to SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration (BNAC) and SAP Asset Performance Management (APM). SAP systems then consolidate the acquired data, making it easy for employees in charge to evaluate asset utilization, optimize asset lifecycle costs, and track overall asset efficiency. IoT and SAP integration results in optimized asset usage, better visibility of asset condition and performance, and reduced maintenance costs.
\nSmart manufacturing
\nIoT sensors integrated directly into the manufacturing process collect real-time operational data (production rate, quality parameters, environmental conditions, etc.), sending these insights directly to SAP Digital Manufacturing (DMC) and SAP Cloud ERP. This enables SAP solutions to automatically shift production schedules, optimize resource allocation, and improve quality control. As a result, enterprises benefit from enhanced productivity, improved agility, and better product quality.
\nDigital twins
\nIoT sensors continuously capture operational data details from equipment, sending it to SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform) to create a digital twin of physical assets. In SAP BTP, these digital twins empower simulations and testing, which allows businesses to use the insights into asset behavior for proactive, data-driven decision-making. Doing so enables proactive risk management and ongoing system innovation.
\nReal-time inventory tracking
\nIoT-powered tracking devices like GPS sensors and smart shelves monitor inventory and continuously report on consumption rates and replenishment needs into SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) and SAP IBP (Integrated Business Planning). With these real-time insights, you can automate inventory records updates and adjust delivery plans accordingly in your SAP system. Additionally, you can benefit from improved customer experiences due to fulfilled demands, reduction in stockouts, and better responsiveness to shifting market trends.
\nSAP and IoT Integration Challenges
\nIoT and SAP integration is a challenging process that requires careful planning and preparation. Let’s take a look at the main challenges that often happen during the process and learn how to overcome them.
\nHigh data volumes with low data relevance
\nA common practice for IoT devices is producing large amounts of data, while only a small part can actually bring insights and value. Keeping this raw data unsupervised can easily overload SAP systems, making decision-making processes complicated, wasting computing resources on useless background noise, reducing analytical efficiency, and increasing operational costs.
\nComprehensive data validation and cleansing provided by DataLark help mitigate this issue, so that only meaningful and relevant data gets into your SAP system.
\nUnfiltered and too high-frequency telemetry for SAP systems
\nSAP solutions do their best when operating with well-structured, transactional data and batch processing, while endless streams of unfiltered, high-frequency IoT telemetry data may overwhelm the system. Leaving this problem unresolved may downgrade the performance of the SAP system, slowing real-time responsiveness and increasing risks of system instability.
\nIntermediary IoT platforms or edge computing solutions help prepare and accumulate data for the SAP ecosystem by reducing data frequency and ensuring better compatibility.
\nLatency, queueing, and processing constraints
\nReal-time data from IoT sensors usually requires immediate processing. Yet, SAP systems may have inherent latency, queueing mechanisms, as well as batch-processing constraints that don’t align with the demands of real-time IoT scenarios. As a result, a business may face delayed and irrelevant insights and slower response times, which can be a dealbreaker for time-sensitive processes.
\nRobust message queuing solutions, event-driven architectures, and edge computing techniques handle latency-sensitive processes outside SAP, providing the system with processed and timely insights.
\nData compatibility issues
\nIoT sensors may generate raw data in various formats. This approach may cause compatibility issues, as the raw data format may not align with the SAP APIs and data requirements. This causes integration complexity, increased integration costs, high probability of data loss and corruption, and imposes overheads in data compatibility maintenance.
\nSophisticated integration platforms enable businesses to automate data formatting, normalization, and mapping, to ensure data compatibility with SAP native formats and simplify the overall integration workflow.
\nExisting SAP and IoT Solutions
\nSAP offers solutions specifically designed for IoT and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), catering to enterprises that heavily rely on IoT-retrieved data in their operations.
\nSAP Integration Suite, a comprehensive cloud-based platform, is designed to connect and integrate applications, processes, data, and devices across diverse environments. SAP Integration Suite helps leverage IoT data to enhance decision-making, automate processes, and innovate operational workflows. The platform provides the infrastructure and tools required to connect and configure IoT devices and sensor networks, manage massive data streams, and apply real-time analytics and insights directly into core business processes. Besides, SAP Integration Suite allows seamless data connection from IoT devices to core SAP Cloud ERP solutions, S/4HANA and SAP Datasphere
\nSAP Business Network Asset Collaboration (BNAC) serves to facilitate collaboration among asset manufacturers, operators, service providers, and related entities. SAP BNAC creates a centralized platform for storing and sharing asset data, enables collaborative maintenance and real-time monitoring, supports operational information safety, and allows for digital twin creation for enhanced management and forecasting.
\nSAP and IoT integration solutions from Hyperscalers
\nIn addition to SAP-native IoT integration options, businesses can choose solutions from Hyperscalers, such as AWS IoT Core and Microsoft Azure IoT Hub.
\nAWS IoT Core allows for an easy and safe connection between IoT devices and SAP Cloud ERP, enabling continuous data streams, streamlined management, and efficient processing of the data retrieved from IoT devices. AWS IoT Core supports robust device connectivity, message routing, and integrates seamlessly with SAP solutions, letting SAP systems analyze data in real-time and make relevant, timely decisions.
\nMicrosoft Azure IoT Hub is a scalable cloud-hosted solution for secure management of IoT device connectivity, data ingestion, and real-time monitoring. Azure IoT Hub provides strong IoT device management capabilities, supports bidirectional communication, and easily integrates with SAP solutions for enhanced analytics, AI empowerment, and precise data processing services.
\nLimitations of existing SAP and IoT solutions
\nBoth SAP Integration Suite and SAP BNAC help businesses:
\n- \n
- Enhance operational efficiency \n
- Introduce data-driven decision-making \n
- Enable predictive maintenance \n
- Cut costs associated with downtime and equipment failure \n
- Prolong asset lifecycle through real-time monitoring, agility, and process transparency \n
Yet, they are not perfect, and businesses that use or plan to use them should be aware of their limitations in order to plan IoT and SAP integration strategies more carefully.
\nHigh cost and complexity
\nSAP solutions for IoT are expensive, usually requiring tangible upfront investments in infrastructure, licenses, and qualified specialists. This often imposes high entry barriers that stop smaller businesses from using IoT’s benefits, prolong implementation timelines, and increase TCO (total cost of ownership).
\nSecurity & privacy vulnerabilities
\nLike all IoT ecosystems, SAP solutions for IoT are exposed to risks from insecure endpoint devices. Compromised sensors can be used to attack the SAP backend, making robust encryption, authentication, and secure device management critical.
\nExtensive configuration is needed for every device type
\nEach type of IoT device (heat sensors, GPS, smart shelves, etc.) requires profound, extensive configuration to integrate with SAP seamlessly. Various device protocols, data formats, and communication models dramatically increase integration complexity, which results in slow deployment, higher risks of integration errors or data format inconsistency, and imposes more maintenance expenses.
\nHow DataLark Simplifies IoT and SAP Integration
\nDataLark, an SAP-centric data management platform, is designed specifically to streamline data integration and management in cases where standard solutions cannot cope. IoT and SAP integration is exactly that case, and disparate data formats, heavy volumes of data streams, and compatibility issues all prove this.
\nDataLark’s data quality management functionality helps standardize and unify IoT data before it reaches SAP, decreasing the processing burden and allowing users to get the full benefits of SAP’s predictive analytics capabilities.
\nDataLark performs data cleansing and validation, wiping out unnecessary or duplicate data. This ensures that irrelevant data will not fog the final result, leading to sharper forecasting and faster data processing within SAP systems.
\n
Being a smart and secure SAP connector, DataLark can connect data from various IoT sources to SAP S/4HANA (batch production records, E-commerce and manufacturing warehouses, enterprise asset data, etc.) and facilitate data mapping with its intuitive, no-code interface. These features help provide seamless, easy IoT and SAP integration, avoiding costly IT overheads, prolonged process timelines, or data issues resolution post-integration.
\nConclusion
\nIoT with SAP integration is a challenging yet rewarding journey that opens new opportunities for businesses’ digital transformation, market growth, and revenue generation by offering applicable data “seasoned” with real-time analytics and predictive AI capabilities.
\nWe hope that this piece will help you decide about IoT and SAP integration if you are contemplating it, or find a solution to your integration challenges if you have already started the process.
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the benefits and opportunities of IoT and SAP integration for your business, navigate existing solutions, and see the pitfalls to avoid.
\n\nIoT and SAP Integration Explained: Benefits, Challenges, and Application Areas
\nWith data-driven approaches to literally every aspect of a business taking over the world, integrating your ERP with IoT technology is just a matter of time. Integrating IoT with SAP allows enterprises to effectively transform field data into actionable insights, benefiting the business’s agility, competitiveness, efficiency, and profitability.
\n\nIn this article, we’ll dig deeper into the benefits of integrating IoT and SAP, cover the main challenges one can face during integration, list the major areas of application (spoiler: they are useful for every business), and review available IoT integration solutions.
\nIoT and SAP Integration Benefits
\nLet’s take a look at the core benefits of IoT and SAP integration for businesses. All of them allow companies to outperform their competitors and keep up with the ever-evolving business landscape.
\nEnhanced decision-making
\nData retrieved from IoT allows businesses to enhance their decision-making process and introduce a proactive approach to operations. For example, this can be clearly seen in the manufacturing area, where the integration of SAP and IoT allows companies to perform predictive maintenance by using machine learning (ML) capabilities. This helps to maintain the equipment before the actual failure occurs, greatly reducing operational downtime and cutting costs associated with standstills and equipment repairs.
\nProcess automation
\nIoT with SAP integration enables the automation of processes with the help of real-time triggers, which enhances the overall efficiency of a business. For example, logistics companies can easily adjust routings on the go based on real-time information about traffic situations, eliminating potential extra fuel costs and improving delivery times.
\nHyper-personalized customer experience
\nSAP and IoT integration enables businesses to track user behavior and offer unique, personalized customer experiences, which boosts user retention, loyalty, and average revenue per user. One of the examples here is IoT sensors installed on store shelves; these sensors send signals to SAP inventory management systems, identifying what goods need to be replenished to fulfill demand.
\nSmarter supply chains
\nSAP supply chain management systems integrated with IoT enable real-time analytics, predictive supply management, and route optimization, empowering companies to successfully adjust to changes like seasonal shifts or global trends. For instance, embedding SAP-connected IoT sensors into warehouses and trucks ensures logistics agility and increases overall efficiency.
\nIoT With SAP Integration Use Cases
\nIntegration of SAP and IoT can strengthen and improve many aspects of business operations. Here are the most prominent examples:
\n
Predictive maintenance
\nIoT sensors located on machines continuously send data to SAP EAM (Enterprise Asset Management). SAP EAM then processes the retrieved data using its predictive analytics capabilities and detects anomalies (too hot, slow, etc.) to anticipate equipment failure and schedule maintenance before the machine is out of order. This enables the reduction of downtime, lowers maintenance costs, and increases overall manufacturing efficiency.
\nAsset performance management
\nIoT devices continuously scan asset conditions and usage patterns to further send real-time data to SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration (BNAC) and SAP Asset Performance Management (APM). SAP systems then consolidate the acquired data, making it easy for employees in charge to evaluate asset utilization, optimize asset lifecycle costs, and track overall asset efficiency. IoT and SAP integration results in optimized asset usage, better visibility of asset condition and performance, and reduced maintenance costs.
\nSmart manufacturing
\nIoT sensors integrated directly into the manufacturing process collect real-time operational data (production rate, quality parameters, environmental conditions, etc.), sending these insights directly to SAP Digital Manufacturing (DMC) and SAP Cloud ERP. This enables SAP solutions to automatically shift production schedules, optimize resource allocation, and improve quality control. As a result, enterprises benefit from enhanced productivity, improved agility, and better product quality.
\nDigital twins
\nIoT sensors continuously capture operational data details from equipment, sending it to SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform) to create a digital twin of physical assets. In SAP BTP, these digital twins empower simulations and testing, which allows businesses to use the insights into asset behavior for proactive, data-driven decision-making. Doing so enables proactive risk management and ongoing system innovation.
\nReal-time inventory tracking
\nIoT-powered tracking devices like GPS sensors and smart shelves monitor inventory and continuously report on consumption rates and replenishment needs into SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) and SAP IBP (Integrated Business Planning). With these real-time insights, you can automate inventory records updates and adjust delivery plans accordingly in your SAP system. Additionally, you can benefit from improved customer experiences due to fulfilled demands, reduction in stockouts, and better responsiveness to shifting market trends.
\nSAP and IoT Integration Challenges
\nIoT and SAP integration is a challenging process that requires careful planning and preparation. Let’s take a look at the main challenges that often happen during the process and learn how to overcome them.
\nHigh data volumes with low data relevance
\nA common practice for IoT devices is producing large amounts of data, while only a small part can actually bring insights and value. Keeping this raw data unsupervised can easily overload SAP systems, making decision-making processes complicated, wasting computing resources on useless background noise, reducing analytical efficiency, and increasing operational costs.
\nComprehensive data validation and cleansing provided by DataLark help mitigate this issue, so that only meaningful and relevant data gets into your SAP system.
\nUnfiltered and too high-frequency telemetry for SAP systems
\nSAP solutions do their best when operating with well-structured, transactional data and batch processing, while endless streams of unfiltered, high-frequency IoT telemetry data may overwhelm the system. Leaving this problem unresolved may downgrade the performance of the SAP system, slowing real-time responsiveness and increasing risks of system instability.
\nIntermediary IoT platforms or edge computing solutions help prepare and accumulate data for the SAP ecosystem by reducing data frequency and ensuring better compatibility.
\nLatency, queueing, and processing constraints
\nReal-time data from IoT sensors usually requires immediate processing. Yet, SAP systems may have inherent latency, queueing mechanisms, as well as batch-processing constraints that don’t align with the demands of real-time IoT scenarios. As a result, a business may face delayed and irrelevant insights and slower response times, which can be a dealbreaker for time-sensitive processes.
\nRobust message queuing solutions, event-driven architectures, and edge computing techniques handle latency-sensitive processes outside SAP, providing the system with processed and timely insights.
\nData compatibility issues
\nIoT sensors may generate raw data in various formats. This approach may cause compatibility issues, as the raw data format may not align with the SAP APIs and data requirements. This causes integration complexity, increased integration costs, high probability of data loss and corruption, and imposes overheads in data compatibility maintenance.
\nSophisticated integration platforms enable businesses to automate data formatting, normalization, and mapping, to ensure data compatibility with SAP native formats and simplify the overall integration workflow.
\nExisting SAP and IoT Solutions
\nSAP offers solutions specifically designed for IoT and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), catering to enterprises that heavily rely on IoT-retrieved data in their operations.
\nSAP Integration Suite, a comprehensive cloud-based platform, is designed to connect and integrate applications, processes, data, and devices across diverse environments. SAP Integration Suite helps leverage IoT data to enhance decision-making, automate processes, and innovate operational workflows. The platform provides the infrastructure and tools required to connect and configure IoT devices and sensor networks, manage massive data streams, and apply real-time analytics and insights directly into core business processes. Besides, SAP Integration Suite allows seamless data connection from IoT devices to core SAP Cloud ERP solutions, S/4HANA and SAP Datasphere
\nSAP Business Network Asset Collaboration (BNAC) serves to facilitate collaboration among asset manufacturers, operators, service providers, and related entities. SAP BNAC creates a centralized platform for storing and sharing asset data, enables collaborative maintenance and real-time monitoring, supports operational information safety, and allows for digital twin creation for enhanced management and forecasting.
\nSAP and IoT integration solutions from Hyperscalers
\nIn addition to SAP-native IoT integration options, businesses can choose solutions from Hyperscalers, such as AWS IoT Core and Microsoft Azure IoT Hub.
\nAWS IoT Core allows for an easy and safe connection between IoT devices and SAP Cloud ERP, enabling continuous data streams, streamlined management, and efficient processing of the data retrieved from IoT devices. AWS IoT Core supports robust device connectivity, message routing, and integrates seamlessly with SAP solutions, letting SAP systems analyze data in real-time and make relevant, timely decisions.
\nMicrosoft Azure IoT Hub is a scalable cloud-hosted solution for secure management of IoT device connectivity, data ingestion, and real-time monitoring. Azure IoT Hub provides strong IoT device management capabilities, supports bidirectional communication, and easily integrates with SAP solutions for enhanced analytics, AI empowerment, and precise data processing services.
\nLimitations of existing SAP and IoT solutions
\nBoth SAP Integration Suite and SAP BNAC help businesses:
\n- \n
- Enhance operational efficiency \n
- Introduce data-driven decision-making \n
- Enable predictive maintenance \n
- Cut costs associated with downtime and equipment failure \n
- Prolong asset lifecycle through real-time monitoring, agility, and process transparency \n
Yet, they are not perfect, and businesses that use or plan to use them should be aware of their limitations in order to plan IoT and SAP integration strategies more carefully.
\nHigh cost and complexity
\nSAP solutions for IoT are expensive, usually requiring tangible upfront investments in infrastructure, licenses, and qualified specialists. This often imposes high entry barriers that stop smaller businesses from using IoT’s benefits, prolong implementation timelines, and increase TCO (total cost of ownership).
\nSecurity & privacy vulnerabilities
\nLike all IoT ecosystems, SAP solutions for IoT are exposed to risks from insecure endpoint devices. Compromised sensors can be used to attack the SAP backend, making robust encryption, authentication, and secure device management critical.
\nExtensive configuration is needed for every device type
\nEach type of IoT device (heat sensors, GPS, smart shelves, etc.) requires profound, extensive configuration to integrate with SAP seamlessly. Various device protocols, data formats, and communication models dramatically increase integration complexity, which results in slow deployment, higher risks of integration errors or data format inconsistency, and imposes more maintenance expenses.
\nHow DataLark Simplifies IoT and SAP Integration
\nDataLark, an SAP-centric data management platform, is designed specifically to streamline data integration and management in cases where standard solutions cannot cope. IoT and SAP integration is exactly that case, and disparate data formats, heavy volumes of data streams, and compatibility issues all prove this.
\nDataLark’s data quality management functionality helps standardize and unify IoT data before it reaches SAP, decreasing the processing burden and allowing users to get the full benefits of SAP’s predictive analytics capabilities.
\nDataLark performs data cleansing and validation, wiping out unnecessary or duplicate data. This ensures that irrelevant data will not fog the final result, leading to sharper forecasting and faster data processing within SAP systems.
\n
Being a smart and secure SAP connector, DataLark can connect data from various IoT sources to SAP S/4HANA (batch production records, E-commerce and manufacturing warehouses, enterprise asset data, etc.) and facilitate data mapping with its intuitive, no-code interface. These features help provide seamless, easy IoT and SAP integration, avoiding costly IT overheads, prolonged process timelines, or data issues resolution post-integration.
\nConclusion
\nIoT with SAP integration is a challenging yet rewarding journey that opens new opportunities for businesses’ digital transformation, market growth, and revenue generation by offering applicable data “seasoned” with real-time analytics and predictive AI capabilities.
\nWe hope that this piece will help you decide about IoT and SAP integration if you are contemplating it, or find a solution to your integration challenges if you have already started the process.
","postBodyRss":"Learn the benefits and opportunities of IoT and SAP integration for your business, navigate existing solutions, and see the pitfalls to avoid.
\n\nIoT and SAP Integration Explained: Benefits, Challenges, and Application Areas
\nWith data-driven approaches to literally every aspect of a business taking over the world, integrating your ERP with IoT technology is just a matter of time. Integrating IoT with SAP allows enterprises to effectively transform field data into actionable insights, benefiting the business’s agility, competitiveness, efficiency, and profitability.
\n\nIn this article, we’ll dig deeper into the benefits of integrating IoT and SAP, cover the main challenges one can face during integration, list the major areas of application (spoiler: they are useful for every business), and review available IoT integration solutions.
\nIoT and SAP Integration Benefits
\nLet’s take a look at the core benefits of IoT and SAP integration for businesses. All of them allow companies to outperform their competitors and keep up with the ever-evolving business landscape.
\nEnhanced decision-making
\nData retrieved from IoT allows businesses to enhance their decision-making process and introduce a proactive approach to operations. For example, this can be clearly seen in the manufacturing area, where the integration of SAP and IoT allows companies to perform predictive maintenance by using machine learning (ML) capabilities. This helps to maintain the equipment before the actual failure occurs, greatly reducing operational downtime and cutting costs associated with standstills and equipment repairs.
\nProcess automation
\nIoT with SAP integration enables the automation of processes with the help of real-time triggers, which enhances the overall efficiency of a business. For example, logistics companies can easily adjust routings on the go based on real-time information about traffic situations, eliminating potential extra fuel costs and improving delivery times.
\nHyper-personalized customer experience
\nSAP and IoT integration enables businesses to track user behavior and offer unique, personalized customer experiences, which boosts user retention, loyalty, and average revenue per user. One of the examples here is IoT sensors installed on store shelves; these sensors send signals to SAP inventory management systems, identifying what goods need to be replenished to fulfill demand.
\nSmarter supply chains
\nSAP supply chain management systems integrated with IoT enable real-time analytics, predictive supply management, and route optimization, empowering companies to successfully adjust to changes like seasonal shifts or global trends. For instance, embedding SAP-connected IoT sensors into warehouses and trucks ensures logistics agility and increases overall efficiency.
\nIoT With SAP Integration Use Cases
\nIntegration of SAP and IoT can strengthen and improve many aspects of business operations. Here are the most prominent examples:
\n
Predictive maintenance
\nIoT sensors located on machines continuously send data to SAP EAM (Enterprise Asset Management). SAP EAM then processes the retrieved data using its predictive analytics capabilities and detects anomalies (too hot, slow, etc.) to anticipate equipment failure and schedule maintenance before the machine is out of order. This enables the reduction of downtime, lowers maintenance costs, and increases overall manufacturing efficiency.
\nAsset performance management
\nIoT devices continuously scan asset conditions and usage patterns to further send real-time data to SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration (BNAC) and SAP Asset Performance Management (APM). SAP systems then consolidate the acquired data, making it easy for employees in charge to evaluate asset utilization, optimize asset lifecycle costs, and track overall asset efficiency. IoT and SAP integration results in optimized asset usage, better visibility of asset condition and performance, and reduced maintenance costs.
\nSmart manufacturing
\nIoT sensors integrated directly into the manufacturing process collect real-time operational data (production rate, quality parameters, environmental conditions, etc.), sending these insights directly to SAP Digital Manufacturing (DMC) and SAP Cloud ERP. This enables SAP solutions to automatically shift production schedules, optimize resource allocation, and improve quality control. As a result, enterprises benefit from enhanced productivity, improved agility, and better product quality.
\nDigital twins
\nIoT sensors continuously capture operational data details from equipment, sending it to SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform) to create a digital twin of physical assets. In SAP BTP, these digital twins empower simulations and testing, which allows businesses to use the insights into asset behavior for proactive, data-driven decision-making. Doing so enables proactive risk management and ongoing system innovation.
\nReal-time inventory tracking
\nIoT-powered tracking devices like GPS sensors and smart shelves monitor inventory and continuously report on consumption rates and replenishment needs into SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) and SAP IBP (Integrated Business Planning). With these real-time insights, you can automate inventory records updates and adjust delivery plans accordingly in your SAP system. Additionally, you can benefit from improved customer experiences due to fulfilled demands, reduction in stockouts, and better responsiveness to shifting market trends.
\nSAP and IoT Integration Challenges
\nIoT and SAP integration is a challenging process that requires careful planning and preparation. Let’s take a look at the main challenges that often happen during the process and learn how to overcome them.
\nHigh data volumes with low data relevance
\nA common practice for IoT devices is producing large amounts of data, while only a small part can actually bring insights and value. Keeping this raw data unsupervised can easily overload SAP systems, making decision-making processes complicated, wasting computing resources on useless background noise, reducing analytical efficiency, and increasing operational costs.
\nComprehensive data validation and cleansing provided by DataLark help mitigate this issue, so that only meaningful and relevant data gets into your SAP system.
\nUnfiltered and too high-frequency telemetry for SAP systems
\nSAP solutions do their best when operating with well-structured, transactional data and batch processing, while endless streams of unfiltered, high-frequency IoT telemetry data may overwhelm the system. Leaving this problem unresolved may downgrade the performance of the SAP system, slowing real-time responsiveness and increasing risks of system instability.
\nIntermediary IoT platforms or edge computing solutions help prepare and accumulate data for the SAP ecosystem by reducing data frequency and ensuring better compatibility.
\nLatency, queueing, and processing constraints
\nReal-time data from IoT sensors usually requires immediate processing. Yet, SAP systems may have inherent latency, queueing mechanisms, as well as batch-processing constraints that don’t align with the demands of real-time IoT scenarios. As a result, a business may face delayed and irrelevant insights and slower response times, which can be a dealbreaker for time-sensitive processes.
\nRobust message queuing solutions, event-driven architectures, and edge computing techniques handle latency-sensitive processes outside SAP, providing the system with processed and timely insights.
\nData compatibility issues
\nIoT sensors may generate raw data in various formats. This approach may cause compatibility issues, as the raw data format may not align with the SAP APIs and data requirements. This causes integration complexity, increased integration costs, high probability of data loss and corruption, and imposes overheads in data compatibility maintenance.
\nSophisticated integration platforms enable businesses to automate data formatting, normalization, and mapping, to ensure data compatibility with SAP native formats and simplify the overall integration workflow.
\nExisting SAP and IoT Solutions
\nSAP offers solutions specifically designed for IoT and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), catering to enterprises that heavily rely on IoT-retrieved data in their operations.
\nSAP Integration Suite, a comprehensive cloud-based platform, is designed to connect and integrate applications, processes, data, and devices across diverse environments. SAP Integration Suite helps leverage IoT data to enhance decision-making, automate processes, and innovate operational workflows. The platform provides the infrastructure and tools required to connect and configure IoT devices and sensor networks, manage massive data streams, and apply real-time analytics and insights directly into core business processes. Besides, SAP Integration Suite allows seamless data connection from IoT devices to core SAP Cloud ERP solutions, S/4HANA and SAP Datasphere
\nSAP Business Network Asset Collaboration (BNAC) serves to facilitate collaboration among asset manufacturers, operators, service providers, and related entities. SAP BNAC creates a centralized platform for storing and sharing asset data, enables collaborative maintenance and real-time monitoring, supports operational information safety, and allows for digital twin creation for enhanced management and forecasting.
\nSAP and IoT integration solutions from Hyperscalers
\nIn addition to SAP-native IoT integration options, businesses can choose solutions from Hyperscalers, such as AWS IoT Core and Microsoft Azure IoT Hub.
\nAWS IoT Core allows for an easy and safe connection between IoT devices and SAP Cloud ERP, enabling continuous data streams, streamlined management, and efficient processing of the data retrieved from IoT devices. AWS IoT Core supports robust device connectivity, message routing, and integrates seamlessly with SAP solutions, letting SAP systems analyze data in real-time and make relevant, timely decisions.
\nMicrosoft Azure IoT Hub is a scalable cloud-hosted solution for secure management of IoT device connectivity, data ingestion, and real-time monitoring. Azure IoT Hub provides strong IoT device management capabilities, supports bidirectional communication, and easily integrates with SAP solutions for enhanced analytics, AI empowerment, and precise data processing services.
\nLimitations of existing SAP and IoT solutions
\nBoth SAP Integration Suite and SAP BNAC help businesses:
\n- \n
- Enhance operational efficiency \n
- Introduce data-driven decision-making \n
- Enable predictive maintenance \n
- Cut costs associated with downtime and equipment failure \n
- Prolong asset lifecycle through real-time monitoring, agility, and process transparency \n
Yet, they are not perfect, and businesses that use or plan to use them should be aware of their limitations in order to plan IoT and SAP integration strategies more carefully.
\nHigh cost and complexity
\nSAP solutions for IoT are expensive, usually requiring tangible upfront investments in infrastructure, licenses, and qualified specialists. This often imposes high entry barriers that stop smaller businesses from using IoT’s benefits, prolong implementation timelines, and increase TCO (total cost of ownership).
\nSecurity & privacy vulnerabilities
\nLike all IoT ecosystems, SAP solutions for IoT are exposed to risks from insecure endpoint devices. Compromised sensors can be used to attack the SAP backend, making robust encryption, authentication, and secure device management critical.
\nExtensive configuration is needed for every device type
\nEach type of IoT device (heat sensors, GPS, smart shelves, etc.) requires profound, extensive configuration to integrate with SAP seamlessly. Various device protocols, data formats, and communication models dramatically increase integration complexity, which results in slow deployment, higher risks of integration errors or data format inconsistency, and imposes more maintenance expenses.
\nHow DataLark Simplifies IoT and SAP Integration
\nDataLark, an SAP-centric data management platform, is designed specifically to streamline data integration and management in cases where standard solutions cannot cope. IoT and SAP integration is exactly that case, and disparate data formats, heavy volumes of data streams, and compatibility issues all prove this.
\nDataLark’s data quality management functionality helps standardize and unify IoT data before it reaches SAP, decreasing the processing burden and allowing users to get the full benefits of SAP’s predictive analytics capabilities.
\nDataLark performs data cleansing and validation, wiping out unnecessary or duplicate data. This ensures that irrelevant data will not fog the final result, leading to sharper forecasting and faster data processing within SAP systems.
\n
Being a smart and secure SAP connector, DataLark can connect data from various IoT sources to SAP S/4HANA (batch production records, E-commerce and manufacturing warehouses, enterprise asset data, etc.) and facilitate data mapping with its intuitive, no-code interface. These features help provide seamless, easy IoT and SAP integration, avoiding costly IT overheads, prolonged process timelines, or data issues resolution post-integration.
\nConclusion
\nIoT with SAP integration is a challenging yet rewarding journey that opens new opportunities for businesses’ digital transformation, market growth, and revenue generation by offering applicable data “seasoned” with real-time analytics and predictive AI capabilities.
\nWe hope that this piece will help you decide about IoT and SAP integration if you are contemplating it, or find a solution to your integration challenges if you have already started the process.
","postEmailContent":"Learn the benefits and opportunities of IoT and SAP integration for your business, navigate existing solutions, and see the pitfalls to avoid.
\n","postFeaturedImageIfEnabled":"","postListContent":"Learn the benefits and opportunities of IoT and SAP integration for your business, navigate existing solutions, and see the pitfalls to avoid.
\n","postListSummaryFeaturedImage":"","postRssContent":"Learn the benefits and opportunities of IoT and SAP integration for your business, navigate existing solutions, and see the pitfalls to avoid.
\n\nIoT and SAP Integration Explained: Benefits, Challenges, and Application Areas
\nWith data-driven approaches to literally every aspect of a business taking over the world, integrating your ERP with IoT technology is just a matter of time. Integrating IoT with SAP allows enterprises to effectively transform field data into actionable insights, benefiting the business’s agility, competitiveness, efficiency, and profitability.
\n\nIn this article, we’ll dig deeper into the benefits of integrating IoT and SAP, cover the main challenges one can face during integration, list the major areas of application (spoiler: they are useful for every business), and review available IoT integration solutions.
\nIoT and SAP Integration Benefits
\nLet’s take a look at the core benefits of IoT and SAP integration for businesses. All of them allow companies to outperform their competitors and keep up with the ever-evolving business landscape.
\nEnhanced decision-making
\nData retrieved from IoT allows businesses to enhance their decision-making process and introduce a proactive approach to operations. For example, this can be clearly seen in the manufacturing area, where the integration of SAP and IoT allows companies to perform predictive maintenance by using machine learning (ML) capabilities. This helps to maintain the equipment before the actual failure occurs, greatly reducing operational downtime and cutting costs associated with standstills and equipment repairs.
\nProcess automation
\nIoT with SAP integration enables the automation of processes with the help of real-time triggers, which enhances the overall efficiency of a business. For example, logistics companies can easily adjust routings on the go based on real-time information about traffic situations, eliminating potential extra fuel costs and improving delivery times.
\nHyper-personalized customer experience
\nSAP and IoT integration enables businesses to track user behavior and offer unique, personalized customer experiences, which boosts user retention, loyalty, and average revenue per user. One of the examples here is IoT sensors installed on store shelves; these sensors send signals to SAP inventory management systems, identifying what goods need to be replenished to fulfill demand.
\nSmarter supply chains
\nSAP supply chain management systems integrated with IoT enable real-time analytics, predictive supply management, and route optimization, empowering companies to successfully adjust to changes like seasonal shifts or global trends. For instance, embedding SAP-connected IoT sensors into warehouses and trucks ensures logistics agility and increases overall efficiency.
\nIoT With SAP Integration Use Cases
\nIntegration of SAP and IoT can strengthen and improve many aspects of business operations. Here are the most prominent examples:
\n
Predictive maintenance
\nIoT sensors located on machines continuously send data to SAP EAM (Enterprise Asset Management). SAP EAM then processes the retrieved data using its predictive analytics capabilities and detects anomalies (too hot, slow, etc.) to anticipate equipment failure and schedule maintenance before the machine is out of order. This enables the reduction of downtime, lowers maintenance costs, and increases overall manufacturing efficiency.
\nAsset performance management
\nIoT devices continuously scan asset conditions and usage patterns to further send real-time data to SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration (BNAC) and SAP Asset Performance Management (APM). SAP systems then consolidate the acquired data, making it easy for employees in charge to evaluate asset utilization, optimize asset lifecycle costs, and track overall asset efficiency. IoT and SAP integration results in optimized asset usage, better visibility of asset condition and performance, and reduced maintenance costs.
\nSmart manufacturing
\nIoT sensors integrated directly into the manufacturing process collect real-time operational data (production rate, quality parameters, environmental conditions, etc.), sending these insights directly to SAP Digital Manufacturing (DMC) and SAP Cloud ERP. This enables SAP solutions to automatically shift production schedules, optimize resource allocation, and improve quality control. As a result, enterprises benefit from enhanced productivity, improved agility, and better product quality.
\nDigital twins
\nIoT sensors continuously capture operational data details from equipment, sending it to SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform) to create a digital twin of physical assets. In SAP BTP, these digital twins empower simulations and testing, which allows businesses to use the insights into asset behavior for proactive, data-driven decision-making. Doing so enables proactive risk management and ongoing system innovation.
\nReal-time inventory tracking
\nIoT-powered tracking devices like GPS sensors and smart shelves monitor inventory and continuously report on consumption rates and replenishment needs into SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) and SAP IBP (Integrated Business Planning). With these real-time insights, you can automate inventory records updates and adjust delivery plans accordingly in your SAP system. Additionally, you can benefit from improved customer experiences due to fulfilled demands, reduction in stockouts, and better responsiveness to shifting market trends.
\nSAP and IoT Integration Challenges
\nIoT and SAP integration is a challenging process that requires careful planning and preparation. Let’s take a look at the main challenges that often happen during the process and learn how to overcome them.
\nHigh data volumes with low data relevance
\nA common practice for IoT devices is producing large amounts of data, while only a small part can actually bring insights and value. Keeping this raw data unsupervised can easily overload SAP systems, making decision-making processes complicated, wasting computing resources on useless background noise, reducing analytical efficiency, and increasing operational costs.
\nComprehensive data validation and cleansing provided by DataLark help mitigate this issue, so that only meaningful and relevant data gets into your SAP system.
\nUnfiltered and too high-frequency telemetry for SAP systems
\nSAP solutions do their best when operating with well-structured, transactional data and batch processing, while endless streams of unfiltered, high-frequency IoT telemetry data may overwhelm the system. Leaving this problem unresolved may downgrade the performance of the SAP system, slowing real-time responsiveness and increasing risks of system instability.
\nIntermediary IoT platforms or edge computing solutions help prepare and accumulate data for the SAP ecosystem by reducing data frequency and ensuring better compatibility.
\nLatency, queueing, and processing constraints
\nReal-time data from IoT sensors usually requires immediate processing. Yet, SAP systems may have inherent latency, queueing mechanisms, as well as batch-processing constraints that don’t align with the demands of real-time IoT scenarios. As a result, a business may face delayed and irrelevant insights and slower response times, which can be a dealbreaker for time-sensitive processes.
\nRobust message queuing solutions, event-driven architectures, and edge computing techniques handle latency-sensitive processes outside SAP, providing the system with processed and timely insights.
\nData compatibility issues
\nIoT sensors may generate raw data in various formats. This approach may cause compatibility issues, as the raw data format may not align with the SAP APIs and data requirements. This causes integration complexity, increased integration costs, high probability of data loss and corruption, and imposes overheads in data compatibility maintenance.
\nSophisticated integration platforms enable businesses to automate data formatting, normalization, and mapping, to ensure data compatibility with SAP native formats and simplify the overall integration workflow.
\nExisting SAP and IoT Solutions
\nSAP offers solutions specifically designed for IoT and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), catering to enterprises that heavily rely on IoT-retrieved data in their operations.
\nSAP Integration Suite, a comprehensive cloud-based platform, is designed to connect and integrate applications, processes, data, and devices across diverse environments. SAP Integration Suite helps leverage IoT data to enhance decision-making, automate processes, and innovate operational workflows. The platform provides the infrastructure and tools required to connect and configure IoT devices and sensor networks, manage massive data streams, and apply real-time analytics and insights directly into core business processes. Besides, SAP Integration Suite allows seamless data connection from IoT devices to core SAP Cloud ERP solutions, S/4HANA and SAP Datasphere
\nSAP Business Network Asset Collaboration (BNAC) serves to facilitate collaboration among asset manufacturers, operators, service providers, and related entities. SAP BNAC creates a centralized platform for storing and sharing asset data, enables collaborative maintenance and real-time monitoring, supports operational information safety, and allows for digital twin creation for enhanced management and forecasting.
\nSAP and IoT integration solutions from Hyperscalers
\nIn addition to SAP-native IoT integration options, businesses can choose solutions from Hyperscalers, such as AWS IoT Core and Microsoft Azure IoT Hub.
\nAWS IoT Core allows for an easy and safe connection between IoT devices and SAP Cloud ERP, enabling continuous data streams, streamlined management, and efficient processing of the data retrieved from IoT devices. AWS IoT Core supports robust device connectivity, message routing, and integrates seamlessly with SAP solutions, letting SAP systems analyze data in real-time and make relevant, timely decisions.
\nMicrosoft Azure IoT Hub is a scalable cloud-hosted solution for secure management of IoT device connectivity, data ingestion, and real-time monitoring. Azure IoT Hub provides strong IoT device management capabilities, supports bidirectional communication, and easily integrates with SAP solutions for enhanced analytics, AI empowerment, and precise data processing services.
\nLimitations of existing SAP and IoT solutions
\nBoth SAP Integration Suite and SAP BNAC help businesses:
\n- \n
- Enhance operational efficiency \n
- Introduce data-driven decision-making \n
- Enable predictive maintenance \n
- Cut costs associated with downtime and equipment failure \n
- Prolong asset lifecycle through real-time monitoring, agility, and process transparency \n
Yet, they are not perfect, and businesses that use or plan to use them should be aware of their limitations in order to plan IoT and SAP integration strategies more carefully.
\nHigh cost and complexity
\nSAP solutions for IoT are expensive, usually requiring tangible upfront investments in infrastructure, licenses, and qualified specialists. This often imposes high entry barriers that stop smaller businesses from using IoT’s benefits, prolong implementation timelines, and increase TCO (total cost of ownership).
\nSecurity & privacy vulnerabilities
\nLike all IoT ecosystems, SAP solutions for IoT are exposed to risks from insecure endpoint devices. Compromised sensors can be used to attack the SAP backend, making robust encryption, authentication, and secure device management critical.
\nExtensive configuration is needed for every device type
\nEach type of IoT device (heat sensors, GPS, smart shelves, etc.) requires profound, extensive configuration to integrate with SAP seamlessly. Various device protocols, data formats, and communication models dramatically increase integration complexity, which results in slow deployment, higher risks of integration errors or data format inconsistency, and imposes more maintenance expenses.
\nHow DataLark Simplifies IoT and SAP Integration
\nDataLark, an SAP-centric data management platform, is designed specifically to streamline data integration and management in cases where standard solutions cannot cope. IoT and SAP integration is exactly that case, and disparate data formats, heavy volumes of data streams, and compatibility issues all prove this.
\nDataLark’s data quality management functionality helps standardize and unify IoT data before it reaches SAP, decreasing the processing burden and allowing users to get the full benefits of SAP’s predictive analytics capabilities.
\nDataLark performs data cleansing and validation, wiping out unnecessary or duplicate data. This ensures that irrelevant data will not fog the final result, leading to sharper forecasting and faster data processing within SAP systems.
\n
Being a smart and secure SAP connector, DataLark can connect data from various IoT sources to SAP S/4HANA (batch production records, E-commerce and manufacturing warehouses, enterprise asset data, etc.) and facilitate data mapping with its intuitive, no-code interface. These features help provide seamless, easy IoT and SAP integration, avoiding costly IT overheads, prolonged process timelines, or data issues resolution post-integration.
\nConclusion
\nIoT with SAP integration is a challenging yet rewarding journey that opens new opportunities for businesses’ digital transformation, market growth, and revenue generation by offering applicable data “seasoned” with real-time analytics and predictive AI capabilities.
\nWe hope that this piece will help you decide about IoT and SAP integration if you are contemplating it, or find a solution to your integration challenges if you have already started the process.
","postRssSummaryFeaturedImage":"","postSummary":"Learn the benefits and opportunities of IoT and SAP integration for your business, navigate existing solutions, and see the pitfalls to avoid.
\n","postSummaryRss":"Learn the benefits and opportunities of IoT and SAP integration for your business, navigate existing solutions, and see the pitfalls to avoid.
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\n\nIoT and SAP Integration Explained: Benefits, Challenges, and Application Areas
\nWith data-driven approaches to literally every aspect of a business taking over the world, integrating your ERP with IoT technology is just a matter of time. Integrating IoT with SAP allows enterprises to effectively transform field data into actionable insights, benefiting the business’s agility, competitiveness, efficiency, and profitability.
\n\nIn this article, we’ll dig deeper into the benefits of integrating IoT and SAP, cover the main challenges one can face during integration, list the major areas of application (spoiler: they are useful for every business), and review available IoT integration solutions.
\nIoT and SAP Integration Benefits
\nLet’s take a look at the core benefits of IoT and SAP integration for businesses. All of them allow companies to outperform their competitors and keep up with the ever-evolving business landscape.
\nEnhanced decision-making
\nData retrieved from IoT allows businesses to enhance their decision-making process and introduce a proactive approach to operations. For example, this can be clearly seen in the manufacturing area, where the integration of SAP and IoT allows companies to perform predictive maintenance by using machine learning (ML) capabilities. This helps to maintain the equipment before the actual failure occurs, greatly reducing operational downtime and cutting costs associated with standstills and equipment repairs.
\nProcess automation
\nIoT with SAP integration enables the automation of processes with the help of real-time triggers, which enhances the overall efficiency of a business. For example, logistics companies can easily adjust routings on the go based on real-time information about traffic situations, eliminating potential extra fuel costs and improving delivery times.
\nHyper-personalized customer experience
\nSAP and IoT integration enables businesses to track user behavior and offer unique, personalized customer experiences, which boosts user retention, loyalty, and average revenue per user. One of the examples here is IoT sensors installed on store shelves; these sensors send signals to SAP inventory management systems, identifying what goods need to be replenished to fulfill demand.
\nSmarter supply chains
\nSAP supply chain management systems integrated with IoT enable real-time analytics, predictive supply management, and route optimization, empowering companies to successfully adjust to changes like seasonal shifts or global trends. For instance, embedding SAP-connected IoT sensors into warehouses and trucks ensures logistics agility and increases overall efficiency.
\nIoT With SAP Integration Use Cases
\nIntegration of SAP and IoT can strengthen and improve many aspects of business operations. Here are the most prominent examples:
\n
Predictive maintenance
\nIoT sensors located on machines continuously send data to SAP EAM (Enterprise Asset Management). SAP EAM then processes the retrieved data using its predictive analytics capabilities and detects anomalies (too hot, slow, etc.) to anticipate equipment failure and schedule maintenance before the machine is out of order. This enables the reduction of downtime, lowers maintenance costs, and increases overall manufacturing efficiency.
\nAsset performance management
\nIoT devices continuously scan asset conditions and usage patterns to further send real-time data to SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration (BNAC) and SAP Asset Performance Management (APM). SAP systems then consolidate the acquired data, making it easy for employees in charge to evaluate asset utilization, optimize asset lifecycle costs, and track overall asset efficiency. IoT and SAP integration results in optimized asset usage, better visibility of asset condition and performance, and reduced maintenance costs.
\nSmart manufacturing
\nIoT sensors integrated directly into the manufacturing process collect real-time operational data (production rate, quality parameters, environmental conditions, etc.), sending these insights directly to SAP Digital Manufacturing (DMC) and SAP Cloud ERP. This enables SAP solutions to automatically shift production schedules, optimize resource allocation, and improve quality control. As a result, enterprises benefit from enhanced productivity, improved agility, and better product quality.
\nDigital twins
\nIoT sensors continuously capture operational data details from equipment, sending it to SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform) to create a digital twin of physical assets. In SAP BTP, these digital twins empower simulations and testing, which allows businesses to use the insights into asset behavior for proactive, data-driven decision-making. Doing so enables proactive risk management and ongoing system innovation.
\nReal-time inventory tracking
\nIoT-powered tracking devices like GPS sensors and smart shelves monitor inventory and continuously report on consumption rates and replenishment needs into SAP EWM (Extended Warehouse Management) and SAP IBP (Integrated Business Planning). With these real-time insights, you can automate inventory records updates and adjust delivery plans accordingly in your SAP system. Additionally, you can benefit from improved customer experiences due to fulfilled demands, reduction in stockouts, and better responsiveness to shifting market trends.
\nSAP and IoT Integration Challenges
\nIoT and SAP integration is a challenging process that requires careful planning and preparation. Let’s take a look at the main challenges that often happen during the process and learn how to overcome them.
\nHigh data volumes with low data relevance
\nA common practice for IoT devices is producing large amounts of data, while only a small part can actually bring insights and value. Keeping this raw data unsupervised can easily overload SAP systems, making decision-making processes complicated, wasting computing resources on useless background noise, reducing analytical efficiency, and increasing operational costs.
\nComprehensive data validation and cleansing provided by DataLark help mitigate this issue, so that only meaningful and relevant data gets into your SAP system.
\nUnfiltered and too high-frequency telemetry for SAP systems
\nSAP solutions do their best when operating with well-structured, transactional data and batch processing, while endless streams of unfiltered, high-frequency IoT telemetry data may overwhelm the system. Leaving this problem unresolved may downgrade the performance of the SAP system, slowing real-time responsiveness and increasing risks of system instability.
\nIntermediary IoT platforms or edge computing solutions help prepare and accumulate data for the SAP ecosystem by reducing data frequency and ensuring better compatibility.
\nLatency, queueing, and processing constraints
\nReal-time data from IoT sensors usually requires immediate processing. Yet, SAP systems may have inherent latency, queueing mechanisms, as well as batch-processing constraints that don’t align with the demands of real-time IoT scenarios. As a result, a business may face delayed and irrelevant insights and slower response times, which can be a dealbreaker for time-sensitive processes.
\nRobust message queuing solutions, event-driven architectures, and edge computing techniques handle latency-sensitive processes outside SAP, providing the system with processed and timely insights.
\nData compatibility issues
\nIoT sensors may generate raw data in various formats. This approach may cause compatibility issues, as the raw data format may not align with the SAP APIs and data requirements. This causes integration complexity, increased integration costs, high probability of data loss and corruption, and imposes overheads in data compatibility maintenance.
\nSophisticated integration platforms enable businesses to automate data formatting, normalization, and mapping, to ensure data compatibility with SAP native formats and simplify the overall integration workflow.
\nExisting SAP and IoT Solutions
\nSAP offers solutions specifically designed for IoT and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things), catering to enterprises that heavily rely on IoT-retrieved data in their operations.
\nSAP Integration Suite, a comprehensive cloud-based platform, is designed to connect and integrate applications, processes, data, and devices across diverse environments. SAP Integration Suite helps leverage IoT data to enhance decision-making, automate processes, and innovate operational workflows. The platform provides the infrastructure and tools required to connect and configure IoT devices and sensor networks, manage massive data streams, and apply real-time analytics and insights directly into core business processes. Besides, SAP Integration Suite allows seamless data connection from IoT devices to core SAP Cloud ERP solutions, S/4HANA and SAP Datasphere
\nSAP Business Network Asset Collaboration (BNAC) serves to facilitate collaboration among asset manufacturers, operators, service providers, and related entities. SAP BNAC creates a centralized platform for storing and sharing asset data, enables collaborative maintenance and real-time monitoring, supports operational information safety, and allows for digital twin creation for enhanced management and forecasting.
\nSAP and IoT integration solutions from Hyperscalers
\nIn addition to SAP-native IoT integration options, businesses can choose solutions from Hyperscalers, such as AWS IoT Core and Microsoft Azure IoT Hub.
\nAWS IoT Core allows for an easy and safe connection between IoT devices and SAP Cloud ERP, enabling continuous data streams, streamlined management, and efficient processing of the data retrieved from IoT devices. AWS IoT Core supports robust device connectivity, message routing, and integrates seamlessly with SAP solutions, letting SAP systems analyze data in real-time and make relevant, timely decisions.
\nMicrosoft Azure IoT Hub is a scalable cloud-hosted solution for secure management of IoT device connectivity, data ingestion, and real-time monitoring. Azure IoT Hub provides strong IoT device management capabilities, supports bidirectional communication, and easily integrates with SAP solutions for enhanced analytics, AI empowerment, and precise data processing services.
\nLimitations of existing SAP and IoT solutions
\nBoth SAP Integration Suite and SAP BNAC help businesses:
\n- \n
- Enhance operational efficiency \n
- Introduce data-driven decision-making \n
- Enable predictive maintenance \n
- Cut costs associated with downtime and equipment failure \n
- Prolong asset lifecycle through real-time monitoring, agility, and process transparency \n
Yet, they are not perfect, and businesses that use or plan to use them should be aware of their limitations in order to plan IoT and SAP integration strategies more carefully.
\nHigh cost and complexity
\nSAP solutions for IoT are expensive, usually requiring tangible upfront investments in infrastructure, licenses, and qualified specialists. This often imposes high entry barriers that stop smaller businesses from using IoT’s benefits, prolong implementation timelines, and increase TCO (total cost of ownership).
\nSecurity & privacy vulnerabilities
\nLike all IoT ecosystems, SAP solutions for IoT are exposed to risks from insecure endpoint devices. Compromised sensors can be used to attack the SAP backend, making robust encryption, authentication, and secure device management critical.
\nExtensive configuration is needed for every device type
\nEach type of IoT device (heat sensors, GPS, smart shelves, etc.) requires profound, extensive configuration to integrate with SAP seamlessly. Various device protocols, data formats, and communication models dramatically increase integration complexity, which results in slow deployment, higher risks of integration errors or data format inconsistency, and imposes more maintenance expenses.
\nHow DataLark Simplifies IoT and SAP Integration
\nDataLark, an SAP-centric data management platform, is designed specifically to streamline data integration and management in cases where standard solutions cannot cope. IoT and SAP integration is exactly that case, and disparate data formats, heavy volumes of data streams, and compatibility issues all prove this.
\nDataLark’s data quality management functionality helps standardize and unify IoT data before it reaches SAP, decreasing the processing burden and allowing users to get the full benefits of SAP’s predictive analytics capabilities.
\nDataLark performs data cleansing and validation, wiping out unnecessary or duplicate data. This ensures that irrelevant data will not fog the final result, leading to sharper forecasting and faster data processing within SAP systems.
\n
Being a smart and secure SAP connector, DataLark can connect data from various IoT sources to SAP S/4HANA (batch production records, E-commerce and manufacturing warehouses, enterprise asset data, etc.) and facilitate data mapping with its intuitive, no-code interface. These features help provide seamless, easy IoT and SAP integration, avoiding costly IT overheads, prolonged process timelines, or data issues resolution post-integration.
\nConclusion
\nIoT with SAP integration is a challenging yet rewarding journey that opens new opportunities for businesses’ digital transformation, market growth, and revenue generation by offering applicable data “seasoned” with real-time analytics and predictive AI capabilities.
\nWe hope that this piece will help you decide about IoT and SAP integration if you are contemplating it, or find a solution to your integration challenges if you have already started the process.
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10 min read
Learn the benefits and opportunities of IoT and SAP integration for your business, navigate existing solutions, and see the pitfalls to avoid.
Understanding SAP Integration: Benefits, Scenarios, and Solutions
\nSAP 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.
\n\n\n
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.
\nWhy Does Your Business Need SAP Integration?
\n![\"img1_11zon](\"https://39975897.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/39975897/img1_11zon%20(1).webp\")
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:
\nStandardized communication
\nOne 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.
\nReal-time and asynchronous workflows
\nModern 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.
\nSimplified system integration
\nTraditionally, 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.
\nSecurity, governance, and compliance
\nData 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.
\nSAP Integration Scenarios
\nIntegration 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:
\nApplication-to-application (A2A)
\nA2A 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.
\nBusiness-to-business (B2B)
\nB2B 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.
\nData integration
\nData 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.
\nUser interface integration
\nUser 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.
\nCloud integration
\nAs 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.
\nSAP Integration Solutions
\nSAP 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.
\nSAP Integration Suite (on SAP BTP)
\nSAP 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.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Pre-built integration content and APIs \n
- Supports A2A, B2B, B2G, and event-driven integrations \n
- Tools for API management, process integration, and data flow orchestration \n
- Open connectors for non-SAP apps (e.g., Salesforce, Microsoft 365) \n
SAP Integration Suite is most often used when integrating hybrid landscapes and executing cloud and multi-cloud integration.
\nSAP Process Orchestration (SAP PO)
\nSAP PO is a legacy on-premise middleware suite combining SAP Process Integration (PI), SAP Business Process Management (BPM), and SAP Business Rules Management (BRM).
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Message routing and transformation \n
- B2B and A2A scenarios \n
- Support for XML, IDoc, SOAP, and more \n
SAP PO is best suited for existing on-premise or regulated environments. SAP recommends considering migration to SAP Integration Suite for new projects.
\nSAP Cloud Connector
\nSAP Cloud Connector is a lightweight agent that provides secure connectivity between on-premise systems and the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Secure VPN-like tunnel to SAP BTP \n
- Easy configuration and management \n
- No public exposure of on-premise systems \n
It is widely used in hybrid cloud integrations and secure backend access for cloud apps.
\nSAP API Management (part of Integration Suite)
\nIncluded in SAP Integration Suite, SAP API Management manages the full lifecycle of APIs – design, publishing, monitoring, and security.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- API design and policy enforcement \n
- Analytics and usage tracking \n
- Developer portal for publishing APIs \n
It enables external applications and microservices architectures to leverage SAP APIs securely and efficiently.
\nSAP Datasphere (formerly SAP Data Intelligence)
\nSAP Datasphere is SAP's modern solution for unified data integration and orchestration across heterogeneous data environments.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Data pipeline design and automation \n
- AI/ML integration \n
- Governance and metadata management \n
Datasphere is ideal for organizations managing complex data landscapes with analytics or migration requirements.
\nThe comparison table below will help you better understand the differences between the SAP integration solutions and decide which suits your business the most.
\n| Solution | \nDeployment | \nBest For | \n
| SAP Integration Suite | \nCloud | \nModern hybrid and multi-cloud landscapes | \n
| SAP Process Orchestration | \nOn-prem | \nComplex legacy or regulated environments | \n
| SAP Cloud Connector | \nHybrid | \nSecure on-premise to cloud connectivity | \n
| SAP API Management | \nCloud | \nAPI-first and microservices integration | \n
| SAP Datasphere | \nCloud | \nUnified data integration and orchestration | \n
DataLark – Secure and Smart Solution for SAP Integration
\nWhen 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.
\n![\"img2_11zon](\"https://39975897.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/39975897/img2_11zon%20(1).webp\")
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.
\nThe 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.
\nIn 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.
\nDataLark supports both on-premise and cloud-based models, which makes the solution a great choice for a wide variety of enterprises.
\nSAP Integration Use Cases
\nNow 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.
\nE-commerce
\nIn 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.
\nIntegration scope may look like this:
\n- \n
- Real-time inventory updates from SAP to the storefront \n
- Automatic order creation in SAP upon online purchase \n
- Synchronization of customer and product data \n
As a result of successful integration, a company may achieve:
\n- \n
- Reduction in order processing time due to the elimination of manual entries \n
- Real-time stock visibility across all sales channels \n
- Significant drop in out-of-stock incidents, which improves customer satisfaction \n
Manufacturing
\nManufacturing 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.
\nIntegration scope in this scenario might be the following:
\n- \n
- Synchronizing materials, routings, operations, and component assignments \n
- Embedding inspection and quality control characteristics \n
Integration of SAP and 3DX PLM results in:
\n- \n
- Reduction in manual routing data entry \n
- Increase in data accuracy across engineering and production systems \n
- Faster production planning cycles due to real-time data availability \n
Finance
\nGlobal 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.
\nTo achieve the desired result, the scope of the project may look like this:
\n- \n
- Automated financial data aggregation for monthly close \n
- Real-time currency conversion and compliance validation \n
- Standardized chart of accounts mapping across regions \n
Integrating SAP with local financial systems helps enterprises get:
\n- \n
- Faster financial close cycle \n
- Improved regulatory compliance through centralized audit trails \n
- Consistent financial reporting across global entitiesy \n
Healthcare
\nHealthcare 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.
\nThe integration scope in this case is usually like this:
\n- \n
- Triggering supply requisitions from EMR treatment plans \n
- Real-time updates of inventory and usage logs \n
- Linking billing and insurance data to material movements \n
Successful SAP integration improves hospitals’ supply chain management with:
\n- \n
- Reduction in supply overstock \n
- Faster turnaround for critical inventory replenishment \n
- Streamlined billing accuracy, reducing patient disputes \n
Utilities
\nUtility 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.
\nThe integration scope of connecting SCADA to SAP PM may look like this:
\n- \n
- Automated work order generation based on SCADA alerts \n
- Real-time asset status updates in SAP \n
- Integration of maintenance logs with historical performance data \n
As a result of such integration, companies may get:
\n- \n
- A decrease in unplanned outages due to predictive maintenance \n
- Increased asset uptime and reliability \n
- More efficient field technician scheduling, which improves SLA compliance \n
Conclusion
\nSAP 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.
\nHere’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.
","post_summary":"Get a better understanding of SAP integration, take a closer look at its benefits, and discover solutions to successfully integrate your systems with SAP.
\n","blog_post_schedule_task_uid":null,"blog_publish_to_social_media_task":"DONE_NOT_SENT","blog_publish_instant_email_task_uid":null,"blog_publish_instant_email_campaign_id":null,"blog_publish_instant_email_retry_count":0,"rss_body":"Get a better understanding of SAP integration, take a closer look at its benefits, and discover solutions to successfully integrate your systems with SAP.
\n\nUnderstanding SAP Integration: Benefits, Scenarios, and Solutions
\nSAP 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.
\n\n\n
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.
\nWhy Does Your Business Need SAP Integration?
\n
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:
\nStandardized communication
\nOne 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.
\nReal-time and asynchronous workflows
\nModern 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.
\nSimplified system integration
\nTraditionally, 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.
\nSecurity, governance, and compliance
\nData 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.
\nSAP Integration Scenarios
\nIntegration 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:
\nApplication-to-application (A2A)
\nA2A 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.
\nBusiness-to-business (B2B)
\nB2B 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.
\nData integration
\nData 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.
\nUser interface integration
\nUser 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.
\nCloud integration
\nAs 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.
\nSAP Integration Solutions
\nSAP 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.
\nSAP Integration Suite (on SAP BTP)
\nSAP 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.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Pre-built integration content and APIs \n
- Supports A2A, B2B, B2G, and event-driven integrations \n
- Tools for API management, process integration, and data flow orchestration \n
- Open connectors for non-SAP apps (e.g., Salesforce, Microsoft 365) \n
SAP Integration Suite is most often used when integrating hybrid landscapes and executing cloud and multi-cloud integration.
\nSAP Process Orchestration (SAP PO)
\nSAP PO is a legacy on-premise middleware suite combining SAP Process Integration (PI), SAP Business Process Management (BPM), and SAP Business Rules Management (BRM).
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Message routing and transformation \n
- B2B and A2A scenarios \n
- Support for XML, IDoc, SOAP, and more \n
SAP PO is best suited for existing on-premise or regulated environments. SAP recommends considering migration to SAP Integration Suite for new projects.
\nSAP Cloud Connector
\nSAP Cloud Connector is a lightweight agent that provides secure connectivity between on-premise systems and the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Secure VPN-like tunnel to SAP BTP \n
- Easy configuration and management \n
- No public exposure of on-premise systems \n
It is widely used in hybrid cloud integrations and secure backend access for cloud apps.
\nSAP API Management (part of Integration Suite)
\nIncluded in SAP Integration Suite, SAP API Management manages the full lifecycle of APIs – design, publishing, monitoring, and security.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- API design and policy enforcement \n
- Analytics and usage tracking \n
- Developer portal for publishing APIs \n
It enables external applications and microservices architectures to leverage SAP APIs securely and efficiently.
\nSAP Datasphere (formerly SAP Data Intelligence)
\nSAP Datasphere is SAP's modern solution for unified data integration and orchestration across heterogeneous data environments.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Data pipeline design and automation \n
- AI/ML integration \n
- Governance and metadata management \n
Datasphere is ideal for organizations managing complex data landscapes with analytics or migration requirements.
\nThe comparison table below will help you better understand the differences between the SAP integration solutions and decide which suits your business the most.
\n| Solution | \nDeployment | \nBest For | \n
| SAP Integration Suite | \nCloud | \nModern hybrid and multi-cloud landscapes | \n
| SAP Process Orchestration | \nOn-prem | \nComplex legacy or regulated environments | \n
| SAP Cloud Connector | \nHybrid | \nSecure on-premise to cloud connectivity | \n
| SAP API Management | \nCloud | \nAPI-first and microservices integration | \n
| SAP Datasphere | \nCloud | \nUnified data integration and orchestration | \n
DataLark – Secure and Smart Solution for SAP Integration
\nWhen 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.
\n
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.
\nThe 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.
\nIn 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.
\nDataLark supports both on-premise and cloud-based models, which makes the solution a great choice for a wide variety of enterprises.
\nSAP Integration Use Cases
\nNow 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.
\nE-commerce
\nIn 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.
\nIntegration scope may look like this:
\n- \n
- Real-time inventory updates from SAP to the storefront \n
- Automatic order creation in SAP upon online purchase \n
- Synchronization of customer and product data \n
As a result of successful integration, a company may achieve:
\n- \n
- Reduction in order processing time due to the elimination of manual entries \n
- Real-time stock visibility across all sales channels \n
- Significant drop in out-of-stock incidents, which improves customer satisfaction \n
Manufacturing
\nManufacturing 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.
\nIntegration scope in this scenario might be the following:
\n- \n
- Synchronizing materials, routings, operations, and component assignments \n
- Embedding inspection and quality control characteristics \n
Integration of SAP and 3DX PLM results in:
\n- \n
- Reduction in manual routing data entry \n
- Increase in data accuracy across engineering and production systems \n
- Faster production planning cycles due to real-time data availability \n
Finance
\nGlobal 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.
\nTo achieve the desired result, the scope of the project may look like this:
\n- \n
- Automated financial data aggregation for monthly close \n
- Real-time currency conversion and compliance validation \n
- Standardized chart of accounts mapping across regions \n
Integrating SAP with local financial systems helps enterprises get:
\n- \n
- Faster financial close cycle \n
- Improved regulatory compliance through centralized audit trails \n
- Consistent financial reporting across global entitiesy \n
Healthcare
\nHealthcare 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.
\nThe integration scope in this case is usually like this:
\n- \n
- Triggering supply requisitions from EMR treatment plans \n
- Real-time updates of inventory and usage logs \n
- Linking billing and insurance data to material movements \n
Successful SAP integration improves hospitals’ supply chain management with:
\n- \n
- Reduction in supply overstock \n
- Faster turnaround for critical inventory replenishment \n
- Streamlined billing accuracy, reducing patient disputes \n
Utilities
\nUtility 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.
\nThe integration scope of connecting SCADA to SAP PM may look like this:
\n- \n
- Automated work order generation based on SCADA alerts \n
- Real-time asset status updates in SAP \n
- Integration of maintenance logs with historical performance data \n
As a result of such integration, companies may get:
\n- \n
- A decrease in unplanned outages due to predictive maintenance \n
- Increased asset uptime and reliability \n
- More efficient field technician scheduling, which improves SLA compliance \n
Conclusion
\nSAP 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.
\nHere’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.
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a better understanding of SAP integration, take a closer look at its benefits, and discover solutions to successfully integrate your systems with SAP.
\n\nUnderstanding SAP Integration: Benefits, Scenarios, and Solutions
\nSAP 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.
\n\n\n
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.
\nWhy Does Your Business Need SAP Integration?
\n
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:
\nStandardized communication
\nOne 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.
\nReal-time and asynchronous workflows
\nModern 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.
\nSimplified system integration
\nTraditionally, 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.
\nSecurity, governance, and compliance
\nData 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.
\nSAP Integration Scenarios
\nIntegration 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:
\nApplication-to-application (A2A)
\nA2A 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.
\nBusiness-to-business (B2B)
\nB2B 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.
\nData integration
\nData 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.
\nUser interface integration
\nUser 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.
\nCloud integration
\nAs 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.
\nSAP Integration Solutions
\nSAP 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.
\nSAP Integration Suite (on SAP BTP)
\nSAP 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.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Pre-built integration content and APIs \n
- Supports A2A, B2B, B2G, and event-driven integrations \n
- Tools for API management, process integration, and data flow orchestration \n
- Open connectors for non-SAP apps (e.g., Salesforce, Microsoft 365) \n
SAP Integration Suite is most often used when integrating hybrid landscapes and executing cloud and multi-cloud integration.
\nSAP Process Orchestration (SAP PO)
\nSAP PO is a legacy on-premise middleware suite combining SAP Process Integration (PI), SAP Business Process Management (BPM), and SAP Business Rules Management (BRM).
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Message routing and transformation \n
- B2B and A2A scenarios \n
- Support for XML, IDoc, SOAP, and more \n
SAP PO is best suited for existing on-premise or regulated environments. SAP recommends considering migration to SAP Integration Suite for new projects.
\nSAP Cloud Connector
\nSAP Cloud Connector is a lightweight agent that provides secure connectivity between on-premise systems and the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Secure VPN-like tunnel to SAP BTP \n
- Easy configuration and management \n
- No public exposure of on-premise systems \n
It is widely used in hybrid cloud integrations and secure backend access for cloud apps.
\nSAP API Management (part of Integration Suite)
\nIncluded in SAP Integration Suite, SAP API Management manages the full lifecycle of APIs – design, publishing, monitoring, and security.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- API design and policy enforcement \n
- Analytics and usage tracking \n
- Developer portal for publishing APIs \n
It enables external applications and microservices architectures to leverage SAP APIs securely and efficiently.
\nSAP Datasphere (formerly SAP Data Intelligence)
\nSAP Datasphere is SAP's modern solution for unified data integration and orchestration across heterogeneous data environments.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Data pipeline design and automation \n
- AI/ML integration \n
- Governance and metadata management \n
Datasphere is ideal for organizations managing complex data landscapes with analytics or migration requirements.
\nThe comparison table below will help you better understand the differences between the SAP integration solutions and decide which suits your business the most.
\n| Solution | \nDeployment | \nBest For | \n
| SAP Integration Suite | \nCloud | \nModern hybrid and multi-cloud landscapes | \n
| SAP Process Orchestration | \nOn-prem | \nComplex legacy or regulated environments | \n
| SAP Cloud Connector | \nHybrid | \nSecure on-premise to cloud connectivity | \n
| SAP API Management | \nCloud | \nAPI-first and microservices integration | \n
| SAP Datasphere | \nCloud | \nUnified data integration and orchestration | \n
DataLark – Secure and Smart Solution for SAP Integration
\nWhen 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.
\n
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.
\nThe 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.
\nIn 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.
\nDataLark supports both on-premise and cloud-based models, which makes the solution a great choice for a wide variety of enterprises.
\nSAP Integration Use Cases
\nNow 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.
\nE-commerce
\nIn 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.
\nIntegration scope may look like this:
\n- \n
- Real-time inventory updates from SAP to the storefront \n
- Automatic order creation in SAP upon online purchase \n
- Synchronization of customer and product data \n
As a result of successful integration, a company may achieve:
\n- \n
- Reduction in order processing time due to the elimination of manual entries \n
- Real-time stock visibility across all sales channels \n
- Significant drop in out-of-stock incidents, which improves customer satisfaction \n
Manufacturing
\nManufacturing 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.
\nIntegration scope in this scenario might be the following:
\n- \n
- Synchronizing materials, routings, operations, and component assignments \n
- Embedding inspection and quality control characteristics \n
Integration of SAP and 3DX PLM results in:
\n- \n
- Reduction in manual routing data entry \n
- Increase in data accuracy across engineering and production systems \n
- Faster production planning cycles due to real-time data availability \n
Finance
\nGlobal 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.
\nTo achieve the desired result, the scope of the project may look like this:
\n- \n
- Automated financial data aggregation for monthly close \n
- Real-time currency conversion and compliance validation \n
- Standardized chart of accounts mapping across regions \n
Integrating SAP with local financial systems helps enterprises get:
\n- \n
- Faster financial close cycle \n
- Improved regulatory compliance through centralized audit trails \n
- Consistent financial reporting across global entitiesy \n
Healthcare
\nHealthcare 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.
\nThe integration scope in this case is usually like this:
\n- \n
- Triggering supply requisitions from EMR treatment plans \n
- Real-time updates of inventory and usage logs \n
- Linking billing and insurance data to material movements \n
Successful SAP integration improves hospitals’ supply chain management with:
\n- \n
- Reduction in supply overstock \n
- Faster turnaround for critical inventory replenishment \n
- Streamlined billing accuracy, reducing patient disputes \n
Utilities
\nUtility 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.
\nThe integration scope of connecting SCADA to SAP PM may look like this:
\n- \n
- Automated work order generation based on SCADA alerts \n
- Real-time asset status updates in SAP \n
- Integration of maintenance logs with historical performance data \n
As a result of such integration, companies may get:
\n- \n
- A decrease in unplanned outages due to predictive maintenance \n
- Increased asset uptime and reliability \n
- More efficient field technician scheduling, which improves SLA compliance \n
Conclusion
\nSAP 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.
\nHere’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.
","postBodyRss":"Get a better understanding of SAP integration, take a closer look at its benefits, and discover solutions to successfully integrate your systems with SAP.
\n\nUnderstanding SAP Integration: Benefits, Scenarios, and Solutions
\nSAP 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.
\n\n\n
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.
\nWhy Does Your Business Need SAP Integration?
\n
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:
\nStandardized communication
\nOne 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.
\nReal-time and asynchronous workflows
\nModern 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.
\nSimplified system integration
\nTraditionally, 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.
\nSecurity, governance, and compliance
\nData 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.
\nSAP Integration Scenarios
\nIntegration 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:
\nApplication-to-application (A2A)
\nA2A 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.
\nBusiness-to-business (B2B)
\nB2B 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.
\nData integration
\nData 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.
\nUser interface integration
\nUser 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.
\nCloud integration
\nAs 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.
\nSAP Integration Solutions
\nSAP 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.
\nSAP Integration Suite (on SAP BTP)
\nSAP 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.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Pre-built integration content and APIs \n
- Supports A2A, B2B, B2G, and event-driven integrations \n
- Tools for API management, process integration, and data flow orchestration \n
- Open connectors for non-SAP apps (e.g., Salesforce, Microsoft 365) \n
SAP Integration Suite is most often used when integrating hybrid landscapes and executing cloud and multi-cloud integration.
\nSAP Process Orchestration (SAP PO)
\nSAP PO is a legacy on-premise middleware suite combining SAP Process Integration (PI), SAP Business Process Management (BPM), and SAP Business Rules Management (BRM).
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Message routing and transformation \n
- B2B and A2A scenarios \n
- Support for XML, IDoc, SOAP, and more \n
SAP PO is best suited for existing on-premise or regulated environments. SAP recommends considering migration to SAP Integration Suite for new projects.
\nSAP Cloud Connector
\nSAP Cloud Connector is a lightweight agent that provides secure connectivity between on-premise systems and the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Secure VPN-like tunnel to SAP BTP \n
- Easy configuration and management \n
- No public exposure of on-premise systems \n
It is widely used in hybrid cloud integrations and secure backend access for cloud apps.
\nSAP API Management (part of Integration Suite)
\nIncluded in SAP Integration Suite, SAP API Management manages the full lifecycle of APIs – design, publishing, monitoring, and security.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- API design and policy enforcement \n
- Analytics and usage tracking \n
- Developer portal for publishing APIs \n
It enables external applications and microservices architectures to leverage SAP APIs securely and efficiently.
\nSAP Datasphere (formerly SAP Data Intelligence)
\nSAP Datasphere is SAP's modern solution for unified data integration and orchestration across heterogeneous data environments.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Data pipeline design and automation \n
- AI/ML integration \n
- Governance and metadata management \n
Datasphere is ideal for organizations managing complex data landscapes with analytics or migration requirements.
\nThe comparison table below will help you better understand the differences between the SAP integration solutions and decide which suits your business the most.
\n| Solution | \nDeployment | \nBest For | \n
| SAP Integration Suite | \nCloud | \nModern hybrid and multi-cloud landscapes | \n
| SAP Process Orchestration | \nOn-prem | \nComplex legacy or regulated environments | \n
| SAP Cloud Connector | \nHybrid | \nSecure on-premise to cloud connectivity | \n
| SAP API Management | \nCloud | \nAPI-first and microservices integration | \n
| SAP Datasphere | \nCloud | \nUnified data integration and orchestration | \n
DataLark – Secure and Smart Solution for SAP Integration
\nWhen 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.
\n
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.
\nThe 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.
\nIn 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.
\nDataLark supports both on-premise and cloud-based models, which makes the solution a great choice for a wide variety of enterprises.
\nSAP Integration Use Cases
\nNow 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.
\nE-commerce
\nIn 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.
\nIntegration scope may look like this:
\n- \n
- Real-time inventory updates from SAP to the storefront \n
- Automatic order creation in SAP upon online purchase \n
- Synchronization of customer and product data \n
As a result of successful integration, a company may achieve:
\n- \n
- Reduction in order processing time due to the elimination of manual entries \n
- Real-time stock visibility across all sales channels \n
- Significant drop in out-of-stock incidents, which improves customer satisfaction \n
Manufacturing
\nManufacturing 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.
\nIntegration scope in this scenario might be the following:
\n- \n
- Synchronizing materials, routings, operations, and component assignments \n
- Embedding inspection and quality control characteristics \n
Integration of SAP and 3DX PLM results in:
\n- \n
- Reduction in manual routing data entry \n
- Increase in data accuracy across engineering and production systems \n
- Faster production planning cycles due to real-time data availability \n
Finance
\nGlobal 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.
\nTo achieve the desired result, the scope of the project may look like this:
\n- \n
- Automated financial data aggregation for monthly close \n
- Real-time currency conversion and compliance validation \n
- Standardized chart of accounts mapping across regions \n
Integrating SAP with local financial systems helps enterprises get:
\n- \n
- Faster financial close cycle \n
- Improved regulatory compliance through centralized audit trails \n
- Consistent financial reporting across global entitiesy \n
Healthcare
\nHealthcare 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.
\nThe integration scope in this case is usually like this:
\n- \n
- Triggering supply requisitions from EMR treatment plans \n
- Real-time updates of inventory and usage logs \n
- Linking billing and insurance data to material movements \n
Successful SAP integration improves hospitals’ supply chain management with:
\n- \n
- Reduction in supply overstock \n
- Faster turnaround for critical inventory replenishment \n
- Streamlined billing accuracy, reducing patient disputes \n
Utilities
\nUtility 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.
\nThe integration scope of connecting SCADA to SAP PM may look like this:
\n- \n
- Automated work order generation based on SCADA alerts \n
- Real-time asset status updates in SAP \n
- Integration of maintenance logs with historical performance data \n
As a result of such integration, companies may get:
\n- \n
- A decrease in unplanned outages due to predictive maintenance \n
- Increased asset uptime and reliability \n
- More efficient field technician scheduling, which improves SLA compliance \n
Conclusion
\nSAP 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.
\nHere’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.
","postEmailContent":"Get a better understanding of SAP integration, take a closer look at its benefits, and discover solutions to successfully integrate your systems with SAP.
\n","postFeaturedImageIfEnabled":"","postListContent":"Get a better understanding of SAP integration, take a closer look at its benefits, and discover solutions to successfully integrate your systems with SAP.
\n","postListSummaryFeaturedImage":"","postRssContent":"Get a better understanding of SAP integration, take a closer look at its benefits, and discover solutions to successfully integrate your systems with SAP.
\n\nUnderstanding SAP Integration: Benefits, Scenarios, and Solutions
\nSAP 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.
\n\n\n
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.
\nWhy Does Your Business Need SAP Integration?
\n
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:
\nStandardized communication
\nOne 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.
\nReal-time and asynchronous workflows
\nModern 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.
\nSimplified system integration
\nTraditionally, 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.
\nSecurity, governance, and compliance
\nData 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.
\nSAP Integration Scenarios
\nIntegration 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:
\nApplication-to-application (A2A)
\nA2A 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.
\nBusiness-to-business (B2B)
\nB2B 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.
\nData integration
\nData 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.
\nUser interface integration
\nUser 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.
\nCloud integration
\nAs 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.
\nSAP Integration Solutions
\nSAP 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.
\nSAP Integration Suite (on SAP BTP)
\nSAP 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.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Pre-built integration content and APIs \n
- Supports A2A, B2B, B2G, and event-driven integrations \n
- Tools for API management, process integration, and data flow orchestration \n
- Open connectors for non-SAP apps (e.g., Salesforce, Microsoft 365) \n
SAP Integration Suite is most often used when integrating hybrid landscapes and executing cloud and multi-cloud integration.
\nSAP Process Orchestration (SAP PO)
\nSAP PO is a legacy on-premise middleware suite combining SAP Process Integration (PI), SAP Business Process Management (BPM), and SAP Business Rules Management (BRM).
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Message routing and transformation \n
- B2B and A2A scenarios \n
- Support for XML, IDoc, SOAP, and more \n
SAP PO is best suited for existing on-premise or regulated environments. SAP recommends considering migration to SAP Integration Suite for new projects.
\nSAP Cloud Connector
\nSAP Cloud Connector is a lightweight agent that provides secure connectivity between on-premise systems and the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Secure VPN-like tunnel to SAP BTP \n
- Easy configuration and management \n
- No public exposure of on-premise systems \n
It is widely used in hybrid cloud integrations and secure backend access for cloud apps.
\nSAP API Management (part of Integration Suite)
\nIncluded in SAP Integration Suite, SAP API Management manages the full lifecycle of APIs – design, publishing, monitoring, and security.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- API design and policy enforcement \n
- Analytics and usage tracking \n
- Developer portal for publishing APIs \n
It enables external applications and microservices architectures to leverage SAP APIs securely and efficiently.
\nSAP Datasphere (formerly SAP Data Intelligence)
\nSAP Datasphere is SAP's modern solution for unified data integration and orchestration across heterogeneous data environments.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Data pipeline design and automation \n
- AI/ML integration \n
- Governance and metadata management \n
Datasphere is ideal for organizations managing complex data landscapes with analytics or migration requirements.
\nThe comparison table below will help you better understand the differences between the SAP integration solutions and decide which suits your business the most.
\n| Solution | \nDeployment | \nBest For | \n
| SAP Integration Suite | \nCloud | \nModern hybrid and multi-cloud landscapes | \n
| SAP Process Orchestration | \nOn-prem | \nComplex legacy or regulated environments | \n
| SAP Cloud Connector | \nHybrid | \nSecure on-premise to cloud connectivity | \n
| SAP API Management | \nCloud | \nAPI-first and microservices integration | \n
| SAP Datasphere | \nCloud | \nUnified data integration and orchestration | \n
DataLark – Secure and Smart Solution for SAP Integration
\nWhen 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.
\n
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.
\nThe 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.
\nIn 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.
\nDataLark supports both on-premise and cloud-based models, which makes the solution a great choice for a wide variety of enterprises.
\nSAP Integration Use Cases
\nNow 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.
\nE-commerce
\nIn 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.
\nIntegration scope may look like this:
\n- \n
- Real-time inventory updates from SAP to the storefront \n
- Automatic order creation in SAP upon online purchase \n
- Synchronization of customer and product data \n
As a result of successful integration, a company may achieve:
\n- \n
- Reduction in order processing time due to the elimination of manual entries \n
- Real-time stock visibility across all sales channels \n
- Significant drop in out-of-stock incidents, which improves customer satisfaction \n
Manufacturing
\nManufacturing 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.
\nIntegration scope in this scenario might be the following:
\n- \n
- Synchronizing materials, routings, operations, and component assignments \n
- Embedding inspection and quality control characteristics \n
Integration of SAP and 3DX PLM results in:
\n- \n
- Reduction in manual routing data entry \n
- Increase in data accuracy across engineering and production systems \n
- Faster production planning cycles due to real-time data availability \n
Finance
\nGlobal 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.
\nTo achieve the desired result, the scope of the project may look like this:
\n- \n
- Automated financial data aggregation for monthly close \n
- Real-time currency conversion and compliance validation \n
- Standardized chart of accounts mapping across regions \n
Integrating SAP with local financial systems helps enterprises get:
\n- \n
- Faster financial close cycle \n
- Improved regulatory compliance through centralized audit trails \n
- Consistent financial reporting across global entitiesy \n
Healthcare
\nHealthcare 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.
\nThe integration scope in this case is usually like this:
\n- \n
- Triggering supply requisitions from EMR treatment plans \n
- Real-time updates of inventory and usage logs \n
- Linking billing and insurance data to material movements \n
Successful SAP integration improves hospitals’ supply chain management with:
\n- \n
- Reduction in supply overstock \n
- Faster turnaround for critical inventory replenishment \n
- Streamlined billing accuracy, reducing patient disputes \n
Utilities
\nUtility 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.
\nThe integration scope of connecting SCADA to SAP PM may look like this:
\n- \n
- Automated work order generation based on SCADA alerts \n
- Real-time asset status updates in SAP \n
- Integration of maintenance logs with historical performance data \n
As a result of such integration, companies may get:
\n- \n
- A decrease in unplanned outages due to predictive maintenance \n
- Increased asset uptime and reliability \n
- More efficient field technician scheduling, which improves SLA compliance \n
Conclusion
\nSAP 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.
\nHere’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.
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\n\nUnderstanding SAP Integration: Benefits, Scenarios, and Solutions
\nSAP 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.
\n\n\n
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.
\nWhy Does Your Business Need SAP Integration?
\n
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:
\nStandardized communication
\nOne 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.
\nReal-time and asynchronous workflows
\nModern 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.
\nSimplified system integration
\nTraditionally, 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.
\nSecurity, governance, and compliance
\nData 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.
\nSAP Integration Scenarios
\nIntegration 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:
\nApplication-to-application (A2A)
\nA2A 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.
\nBusiness-to-business (B2B)
\nB2B 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.
\nData integration
\nData 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.
\nUser interface integration
\nUser 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.
\nCloud integration
\nAs 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.
\nSAP Integration Solutions
\nSAP 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.
\nSAP Integration Suite (on SAP BTP)
\nSAP 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.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Pre-built integration content and APIs \n
- Supports A2A, B2B, B2G, and event-driven integrations \n
- Tools for API management, process integration, and data flow orchestration \n
- Open connectors for non-SAP apps (e.g., Salesforce, Microsoft 365) \n
SAP Integration Suite is most often used when integrating hybrid landscapes and executing cloud and multi-cloud integration.
\nSAP Process Orchestration (SAP PO)
\nSAP PO is a legacy on-premise middleware suite combining SAP Process Integration (PI), SAP Business Process Management (BPM), and SAP Business Rules Management (BRM).
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Message routing and transformation \n
- B2B and A2A scenarios \n
- Support for XML, IDoc, SOAP, and more \n
SAP PO is best suited for existing on-premise or regulated environments. SAP recommends considering migration to SAP Integration Suite for new projects.
\nSAP Cloud Connector
\nSAP Cloud Connector is a lightweight agent that provides secure connectivity between on-premise systems and the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Secure VPN-like tunnel to SAP BTP \n
- Easy configuration and management \n
- No public exposure of on-premise systems \n
It is widely used in hybrid cloud integrations and secure backend access for cloud apps.
\nSAP API Management (part of Integration Suite)
\nIncluded in SAP Integration Suite, SAP API Management manages the full lifecycle of APIs – design, publishing, monitoring, and security.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- API design and policy enforcement \n
- Analytics and usage tracking \n
- Developer portal for publishing APIs \n
It enables external applications and microservices architectures to leverage SAP APIs securely and efficiently.
\nSAP Datasphere (formerly SAP Data Intelligence)
\nSAP Datasphere is SAP's modern solution for unified data integration and orchestration across heterogeneous data environments.
\nKey Features:
\n- \n
- Data pipeline design and automation \n
- AI/ML integration \n
- Governance and metadata management \n
Datasphere is ideal for organizations managing complex data landscapes with analytics or migration requirements.
\nThe comparison table below will help you better understand the differences between the SAP integration solutions and decide which suits your business the most.
\n| Solution | \nDeployment | \nBest For | \n
| SAP Integration Suite | \nCloud | \nModern hybrid and multi-cloud landscapes | \n
| SAP Process Orchestration | \nOn-prem | \nComplex legacy or regulated environments | \n
| SAP Cloud Connector | \nHybrid | \nSecure on-premise to cloud connectivity | \n
| SAP API Management | \nCloud | \nAPI-first and microservices integration | \n
| SAP Datasphere | \nCloud | \nUnified data integration and orchestration | \n
DataLark – Secure and Smart Solution for SAP Integration
\nWhen 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.
\n
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.
\nThe 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.
\nIn 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.
\nDataLark supports both on-premise and cloud-based models, which makes the solution a great choice for a wide variety of enterprises.
\nSAP Integration Use Cases
\nNow 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.
\nE-commerce
\nIn 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.
\nIntegration scope may look like this:
\n- \n
- Real-time inventory updates from SAP to the storefront \n
- Automatic order creation in SAP upon online purchase \n
- Synchronization of customer and product data \n
As a result of successful integration, a company may achieve:
\n- \n
- Reduction in order processing time due to the elimination of manual entries \n
- Real-time stock visibility across all sales channels \n
- Significant drop in out-of-stock incidents, which improves customer satisfaction \n
Manufacturing
\nManufacturing 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.
\nIntegration scope in this scenario might be the following:
\n- \n
- Synchronizing materials, routings, operations, and component assignments \n
- Embedding inspection and quality control characteristics \n
Integration of SAP and 3DX PLM results in:
\n- \n
- Reduction in manual routing data entry \n
- Increase in data accuracy across engineering and production systems \n
- Faster production planning cycles due to real-time data availability \n
Finance
\nGlobal 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.
\nTo achieve the desired result, the scope of the project may look like this:
\n- \n
- Automated financial data aggregation for monthly close \n
- Real-time currency conversion and compliance validation \n
- Standardized chart of accounts mapping across regions \n
Integrating SAP with local financial systems helps enterprises get:
\n- \n
- Faster financial close cycle \n
- Improved regulatory compliance through centralized audit trails \n
- Consistent financial reporting across global entitiesy \n
Healthcare
\nHealthcare 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.
\nThe integration scope in this case is usually like this:
\n- \n
- Triggering supply requisitions from EMR treatment plans \n
- Real-time updates of inventory and usage logs \n
- Linking billing and insurance data to material movements \n
Successful SAP integration improves hospitals’ supply chain management with:
\n- \n
- Reduction in supply overstock \n
- Faster turnaround for critical inventory replenishment \n
- Streamlined billing accuracy, reducing patient disputes \n
Utilities
\nUtility 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.
\nThe integration scope of connecting SCADA to SAP PM may look like this:
\n- \n
- Automated work order generation based on SCADA alerts \n
- Real-time asset status updates in SAP \n
- Integration of maintenance logs with historical performance data \n
As a result of such integration, companies may get:
\n- \n
- A decrease in unplanned outages due to predictive maintenance \n
- Increased asset uptime and reliability \n
- More efficient field technician scheduling, which improves SLA compliance \n
Conclusion
\nSAP 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.
\nHere’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.
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