There’s work that advances a business, and then there’s paper pushing. With SAP EDI integration, small to medium-sized businesses can significantly reduce paperwork and instead focus on the activities that actually drive sales, build brands, and differentiate companies.
Paperwork is a necessary part of business, it just isn’t high-value. There is a need to log sales, enter customer data, order inventory, update product offerings for online marketplaces, and perform routine supply chain tasks such as managing supplier info or placing reorders. These are the details that help make businesses run.
The problem is that these routine tasks are not particularly high-value. The time it takes for data entry and many of the manual processes that undergird a business could instead be spent on activities that create market differentiation and fuel growth.
The good news is that many of these tasks can be automated today instead of consuming staff time and introducing data entry errors in the process. With a cloud-based enterprise resource planning solution (ERP) as the foundation for a business, processes that act on data within and outside a company can automatically handle many of these routine tasks derisively known as paperwork.
Streamlining Data Sharing with SAP EDI integration
Getting beyond paperwork starts with having a unified, digital backend that brings together all of a company’s data both for visibility and automation potential. This is where ERP comes in.
But even when a business uses an ERP solution as its nerve center for automation, process control, and data centrality, there’s the issue of connecting with systems outside of the ERP solution. A centralized system such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition or SAP Business ByDesign helps, but only if it connects with all the places where data lives and is created.
This is where SAP EDI integration comes in.
EDI stands for electronic data interchange. It is a technology that allows businesses to electronically share data such as purchase orders, invoices, shipping statuses, and other data between systems electronically. It is an industry-standard way for two backend systems to talk with each other and is widely used for integrating systems that are not actually connected.
With SAP EDI integration, a business can connect its SAP ERP solution to big box retailers, online marketplaces, supply chain partners, and cloud services for automatic data flows, real-time visibility, and tighter collaboration with external partners.
From this integration, a business then can interact with these third-party systems and establish automation within its ERP that removes the routine paperwork that was a necessary but low-value activity before.
Where EDI Integration Differs from a Pre-Build Integration
Because there’s a tremendous value in having systems that talk with each other, especially in the age of cloud computing, there are several ways that businesses can connect their ERP solution to third-party systems.
One of the most common methods is pre-build integrations developed by a software vendor. Most cloud services and software solutions have at least a handful of these integrations that can be turned on to connect with major cloud solutions, and that’s no different for ERP solutions offered by SAP and other providers.
The problem is that ERP must connect with everything for deeper levels of automation and data centrality, and it isn’t possible for there to be pre-build integrations for everything. There isn’t a pre-built integration for connecting with a retailer inventory system such as Target, for instance. SAP EDI integration, and EDI in general, is meant for these more niche integration situations.
SAP EDI Integration Made Easy with the Business Technology Platform
The point of EDI is to make integration with suppliers and third-party systems easier. Still, businesses must configure and set up an EDI connection, and that’s not always a straightforward and painless process.
SAP EDI integration significantly streamlines EDI setup through the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), however.
The BTP is a relatively new online platform for companies that want to extend their SAP ERP solution without hiring a dev team for custom development. It is both a marketplace for plug-in functionality that extends SAP ERP solutions, and crucially it provides a visual integration environment where businesses can create EDI connections to their SAP ERP solution with a visual, drag-and-drop editor.
Whereas previously a business would need to code an EDI connection to a supplier or third-party system, companies now can use the BTP to quickly roll out or update an EDI connection. Integrating third-party systems and cloud services to a company’s ERP system or record has never been easier with SAP EDI integration via the BTP.
Paperwork and manual, low-value business processes are a thing of the past. Today’s businesses use integration and automation so they can boost efficiency and focus on what truly drives the business. EDI is part of that.
For more on SAP EDI integration or automation that can improve the competitiveness of your business, contact one of our experienced ERP consultants at (801) 642-0123 or by writing us at info@nbs-us.com.
For automation related to external systems, technology such as SAP EDI integration can help.
