SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) Magento 2 Integration

We’ve recently described the Magento 2 SAP integration as well as posted articles related to more specific cases (Magento 2 SAP Business One Integration and Magento 2 SAP S/4HANA Integration). As for the following guide, it is dedicated to SAP ECC – an enterprise resource planning software developed by the famous German company. SAP ERP Central Component is an on-premises ERP system that is commonly referred to as simply “SAP ERP.” To avoid possible confusion, we need to declare that Magento 2 SAP ERP or Magento 2 SAP ECC integration are the same things in the context of this article. Below, we review the most popular ways of connecting Magento to the popular enterprise resource planning system as well as shed light on the core nuances of SAP ERP.

It doesn’t matter whether market forces prevent your company from moving faster or you just want to improve your daily routine and get additional free time, SAP ERP provides greater agility enhancing the immunity to new threats and difficulties. You get in-depth insights into how processes run within the enterprise, achieving and maintaining a competitive edge. With the understanding of future trends, SAP ERP also teaches you how to exploit them most efficiently, making the Magento 2 SAP ERP integration a reliable investment. Boosting profits, growing faster, entering new markets are among the core platform’s goals.

Smart ERP Components

Before describing any benefits of SAP ERP Magento 2 integration, we’d like to draw your attention to the core components of the platform. This chapter is dedicated to  Business Processes included in SAP ERP. And you can freely synchronize all of them with your e-commerce website leveraging the top-notch functionality of the platform. So, SAP ERP lets you streamline the following tools:

• Operations. This block includes such modules as Sales & Distribution, Materials Management, Production Planning, Logistics Execution, and Quality Management. As you can see, all operations of an average enterprise are covered.   
• Financials. SAP ERP lets you streamline all financial operations of your Magento 2 website with the following modules: Financial Accounting, Management Accounting, Financial Supply Chain Management, etc.
• Human Capital Management. Find, hire, train, and manage your employees with Training, Payroll, and e-Recruiting modules.  
• Corporate Services. Make the life of your workers better with SAP ERP Corporate Services. The platform lets you control various aspects of your employees’ experience with the help of such modules as Travel Management, Environment, Health and Safety, and Real-Estate Management.

Since you cannot manage all these areas in Magento 2 (or the corresponding features are limited), it is necessary to connect your e-commerce website to SAP ERP. But before exploring this process, let’s take a look at other platform’s aspects.

SAP ERP Nature

SAP ERP is designed to drive efficiency and growth to your enterprise. The company offers numerous cloud ERP solutions based on intelligent technologies so that you can streamline them to grow, innovate, and optimize time and resources. Perhaps, one of the best things about SAP is that it doesn’t matter what the size of your business is. Everyone from the smallest merchant to the largest market giant can run an intelligent enterprise with next-generation ERP. Today’s world is fast-paced and technology-driven, so you cannot ignore the latest software solution since they are a key to compete and win. The evolution of your e-commerce enterprise always happens from within and starts with ERP. Let’s take a look at the core benefits of the Magento 2 SAP ERP integration:

• Adaptability. Leveraging the intelligent ERP solution lets you rely on built-in machine learning, predictive analytics, and optimized processes. Thus, you can keep the latest innovations at your fingertips with SAP ERP. And don’t forget about automatic updates that provide your business with top-notch instruments!
• Affordability. If you are afraid that SAP ERP is not affordable, we have to appease you: SAP ERP is available for a relatively low monthly cost. Furthermore, it is also accessible in terms of its orientation towards end users. SAP ERP is designed for merchants and marketers – not for a team of developers. You can easily give it a go!
• Security. Of course, an ERP system works with information generated within your enterprise. As a Magento 2 merchant, you would like to make both data transfers and storage as much secure as possible, and SAP ERP fully copes with this requirement storing information on world-class servers with global teams dedicated to safety.
• Reliability. Another important aspect of SAP ERP is its reliability. You always get access to the system and can control everything.
• Scalability. As we’ve mentioned above, no matter how big your company is – SAP ERP offers solutions for businesses of all sizes. Furthermore, the selected tools can grow with your business!

SAP ERP For All Sizes

The following solutions represent a comprehensive portfolio of SAP ERP products for large, midsize, and small business:

• SAP S/4HANA is a cloud ERP suite for large enterprises and their subsidiaries that provides future-looking functionality and lets companies run integrated and intelligent businesses in real-time.
• SAP Business ByDesign is a cloud ERP for midsize businesses developed to connect every function across an enterprise.
• SAP Business One is a cloud ERP for small to lower midsize businesses that helps them to move beyond spreadsheets managing every aspect of a growing company in a more user-friendly manner.

SAP ERP Advantages

SAP ERP has multiple advantages, so let’s explore the core ones.

• Solutions For Everyone. With the three key products, every merchant can streamline SAP ERP. Furthermore, it is possible to switch between different solutions as your business grows within the same ecosystem. Yes, you still have to do some additional work connecting to a new system, but you spend much less time on integration, exploration, and maintenance due to the similar nature of all SAP products.
• Industry Leading Technology. SAP has tremendous experience in the field of enterprise resource planning. For over than 40 years the company sets standards for all ERP systems and platforms remaining the number one player in the market. It uses the latest technologies to build future-proof Cloud ERP solutions, and you can easily leverage them.
• Advanced Flexibility. With easy-to-use, adaptable Cloud ERP apps SAP has no competitors. The company offers one of the most user-friendly and flexible solutions oriented towards the most advanced customizations. As a Magento 2 merchant, you can leverage either the public or private cloud. Furthermore, superior flexibility is also represented by the ability to pay only for what you need.
• Top-Notch Security. Due to one of the most advanced infrastructures in the world and multiple teams of experts dedicated to protecting your data, SAP ERP always keeps your business safe.
• Global Integration. SAP ERP has no barriers when it comes to different currencies, languages, and cultures providing the best possible way to global integration.
• Smart Updates. To implement company-wide updates, it is enough to run the corresponding process only one time.
• Real-Time Data. With SAP ERP, you get access to real-time stats regarding the life of your enterprise. Thus, the platform dramatically reduces the possibility of redundancy errors.
• Enhanced Efficiency. The goal of every ERP is to help businesses create a more efficient work environment for employees. SAP even offers a user interface that is completely customizable allowing your teams to dictate the operational structure of the product.

SAP ERP Disadvantages

The list of SAP ERP disadvantages also exists, but it is much smaller:

• RoI. Return on Investment may take too long to be profitable, but everything depends on the size of your company and the chosen SAP product. In most cases, RoI takes too long because of the wrong business decisions made by an entrepreneur or provider.
• Complexity. Some products of SAP are extraordinarily complex. You need a lot of time to integrate them with your Magento 2 website, master all the necessary features, and start leveraging the technology. But the spent time is worth it! And note that the SAP complexity is reduced with each new update:
  
  
• Inflexibility. You may also face some SAP aspects characterized by inflexibility. Even the most flexible system has parts that cannot be configured and changed, The more complex the solution is, the higher the probability of facing its inflexibility is.
• Risks. Implementations have a chance of project failure. The bigger your project is, the higher the risks are. But running an enterprise is always associated with various threats. If you want to improve your daily routine increasing the efficiency of your business, get ready to face new risks. These are conditions that you cannot escape from.

Magento 2 SAP ERP Integration Capabilities

Below, we shed light on the four key groups of features important to your business’s success represented in SAP ERP:

• Decision-Making
• Finance
• IT
• Business Leadsmagento 2 SAP ERP integration.

You will easily streamline them in your e-commerce business with the Magento 2 SAP ERP integration.

Decision-Making

SAP ERP lets you successfully develop strategic plans leading your company towards new business dimensions. Grow revenue, boost operating margins, and expand your business making it more efficient with the Magento 2 SAP ERP integration and the corresponding strategic planning capabilities.

You can also gain insight into metrics that tell the full story of your company. Improve decision-making based on accurate, real-time information. Collaborate across the entire enterprise communicating with colleagues within your business units and across the organization to make better decisions.

Finance

Maximize the value of your investment and gain faster time to value with the Magento 2 SAP ERP integration.  Leverage sustained benefits based on the enterprise systems rapid implementation, quick user uptakes, and frequent business-differentiating capabilities.

Keep your finances up to date. Leverage financial planning, consolidation, order to cash and procure to pay processes, as well as profitability analysis to push your business to completely new dimensions. Reach new milestones as fast as possible with advanced financial instruments introduced in SAP ERP.

Accelerate performance by gaining real-time processes and analytics that describe personalized, self-service KPIs. Enhance procurement efficiency by replacing manual tasks with intelligent automation. Streamline predictive analytics to improve renegotiation and compliance regarding contract consumption.

As for ever-changing financial reporting standards and regulations, SAP ERP always follow them providing frequent updates. And it is possible to reduce financial risk by implementing more efficient management for your assets, capital investments, and liabilities. With real-time analytics and emerging technologies, you can get total control over the financial life of your enterprise.

IT

With the Magento 2 SAP ERP integration, you get a perfect opportunity to invest in innovation, not to maintain legacy systems. Leverage the scalability of the platform switching your focus to innovative digital initiatives and new business processes. Deploy market-leading technologies to augment operations and enhance their impact on the efficiency of your business. Extend SAP ERP capabilities into a large ecosystem linked to your Magento 2 website avoiding technology dead-ends.

The image below illustrates the efficiency of cloud updates and the increasing business value that can be gained with the Magento SAP ERP integration:

Business Leads

As for business leads, the Magento 2 SAP ERP integration lets you discover new ways to monetize. It means that you can freely extend core business models into various new segments and markets monetizing assets with greater insights.

Revamp customers’ engagement by to streamlining omnichannel opportunities with personalized, predictive, and dynamic experiences. Thus, you will be able to monitor customer value at every touch point

Speed up decision-making by relying on capabilities to analyze, report, simulate and predict in real time. Note that nothing similar is available in Magento 2. Some modules provide similar opportunities, but only the Magento 2 SAP ERP integration offers the full spectrum of related features.

Automate core business processes to increase their efficiency. Thus, your teams will get the complete information they need to do everything faster and more effectively. In such conditions, specialists can focus on value using machine learning, personalized KPI dashboards, and other features to liberate time for the most critical tasks.

And don’t forget that the Magento 2 SAP ERP integration delivers a superior user experience so that you dramatically improve employee satisfaction and final results of your specialists. With an intuitive, engaging, and compelling user experience, your company will move to a new level much faster.

How To Connect Magento 2 to SAP ERP

Now, when you are familiar with all core aspects of SAP ERP, we’d like to draw your attention to the most popular ways of synchronizing the system with Magento 2.

Improved Import & Export Magento 2 Extension

Here at Firebear, we’ve been looking for a robust import/export solution for ages. Since the Magento ecosystem didn’t have any tool suitable for our requirements, we’ve decided to create a brand new solution. First of all, it was just an import tool responsible for transferring a few more formats and entities than the default one available in Magento. But we’ve been adding multiple new features to satisfy our ever-growing demands. As a result, the Improved Import & Export Magento 2 extension became the number one solution in its segment for the whole ecosystem. The module can be utilized to connect your e-commerce store to any external system including SAP ERP. Let’s take a look at how it copes with the Magento 2 SAP ERP integration.

Firstly, our module offers multiple new ways of connecting your e-commerce store to external systems. You can use the Improved Import & Export extension to transfer data via files, intermediary services, or API.

As for files, our plugin supports data transfer on the basis of CSV, XML, JSON, ODS, and Excel files. You can transfer them using a local or remote server, Dropbox account (Box, OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud, and Amazon Drive are also supported), or direct URL. Also, note that the Improved Import & Export Magento 2 module can unpack compressed data automatically. Thus, files of the supported standards can be imported right in archives.

As for intermediary services, our extension provides the ability to transfer data using Google Sheets, Office 365 Excel, and Zoho Sheet. Supported API connections include REST, SOAP, or GraphQL.

To automate data transfers between Magento 2 and SAP ERP, our module provides the ability to create cron-based schedules. You can either specify custom intervals or select predefined ones. At the same time, event-based triggers are supported. Read this article for further information: How to Run Magento 2 Import or Export After Specific System Event or Process.

And you can reduce all conflicts related to different attribute standards. The Improved Import & Export Magento 2 extension offers several handy mapping and attribute-related features. Thus, you can apply mapping presets to match external attributes to ones used internally in a few clicks. Just take a look at how simple this procedure is:

At the same time, attributes can be matched manually in the Magento 2 admin in the following way:

Similar functionality is available for attribute values. Besides, you can edit them in bulk using various rules. And if an import file lacks some attributes, our module lets you create them on the fly. You can discover more information about the feature in this article: Product attributes import.

What about the Magento 2 SAP ERP integration, you will ask? It can be based on several import and export profiles. Create new import and export jobs to provide the platform with the data it requires and import the corresponding output back. You can create a bridge between Magento 2 and SAP ERP using several API connections. All data transfers can be automated using crone schedules. As for different attributes and values, the mapping functionality of Improved Import & Export is enough to solve this problem. For further information about the Magento 2SAP ERP integration, follow the link below and contact our support:

Get Improved Import & Export Magento 2 Extension

Youwe Magento SAP Connector

Meet an off-the-shelf standard SAP e-commerce connector for Magento. While our module is a universal solution designed not only for SAP ERP but for transferring data between Magento 2 and ANY platforms, Magento SAP Connector is dedicated exclusively to SAP. It provides the ability to leverage more than 22 interfaces to synchronize the two systems.

With Magento SAP Connector includes continual updates for both Magento and SAP, transfers 22 data feeds, connects Magento with R3/ECC/S/4HANA and ensures the data is 100% accurately processed. It is also necessary to mention that the company behind the tool is Magento Enterprise Solution Partner and can be proud of the SAP-certified ABAP stack.

Besides, Magento SAP Connector offers quick implementation which lasts between 5-10 days, but everything depends on the size of your project. Another significant benefit of this tool is its top-notch speed. Magento SAP Connector allows managing up to 7 million products, and an average page loading time is 1.2 seconds.

Furthermore, various additional connections are also possible. Thus, the Magento 2 SAP ERP integration can be enhanced with the help of PIM, Marketing Automation tools, etc. And don’t forget about customizations. If your business case has unique requirements, they will be satisfied. For further information, follow the link below:

Get Youwe Magento SAP Connector

APPSeCONNECT

Being a smart iPaaS, APPSeCONNECT can seamlessly connect SAP ERP and Magento. It offers real-time business process integration, full workflow-based process orchestration, and quick implementation that depends on your business needs. Pre-packed template support is another benefit of APPSeCONNECT.

Besides, the platform offers Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) and top-notch security. Complete data tracking and error handling are among strong points of the platform. And if you are wondering whether APPSeCONNECT supports SDK, it offers its full support for partners.

With APPSeCONNECT, you can freely transfer customers, items and inventory, orders and shipments, as well as invoices. Besides, the platform offers several additional B2B features. And it supports more SAP versions than the previous tool:

• ERP Business Suite 7
• ECC
• All-in-One
• R/3
• HANA
• S/4 HANA
• Business One
• Business ByDesign

For further information, follow the link below:

Get APPSeCONNECT Magento 2 SAP ERP Connector

Corevist Commerce

Corevist Commerce also offers an opportunity to synchronize Magento 2 and SAP ERP. The platform enables SAP integrated browsing in Magento, providing users with rich content, intelligent search, and other features in a customizable and mobile-friendly environment.

Besides, you get a cart with real-time SAP integration. This feature is provided with an eCart module designed to extend your Magento SAP integration even more. The plugin offers a crystal-clear window into your SAP ordering rules, allowing you to monitor real-time pricing and minimum quantities, manage quotes and orders, control real-time availability of products, as well as save carts for frequent orders. In the case of complex orders, the Corevist Commerce Magento 2 SAP ERP connector enables bulk uploads via CSV files. Self-service product configuration can be implemented with a dedicated web store product configurator.

All payments are synchronized with SAP in real time. The corresponding module allows users to pay via credit card, ACH transfer, or invoice. And with real-time data on account standing, your buyers get way better user experience related to invoicing.

It is also necessary to mention that Corevist Commerce offers the eTrack module – an SAP-integrated dashboard that offers 24×7 order status visibility, self-service order tracking, open orders monitoring, purchasing history, invoices and account balances, as well as access to order related documents.

Note that the supported SAP versions are ECC, R/3, All-in-one, and S/4HANA.

For further information, follow the link below:

Get Corevist Commerce Magento 2 SAP ERP Connector

Veon Consulting

If you don’t want to deal with any configurations, you can ask Veon Consulting to do all the work for you. The company provides a broad spectrum of integrations on the basis of APPSeCONNECT. For further information, follow this link:

Magento 2 SAP ERP Integration With Veon Consulting

Final Words

It’s not a secret that SAP offers the most comprehensive set of ERP solutions oriented towards businesses of all sizes. As a Magento 2 merchant, you can also leverage the latest technology achievements by connecting your store to SAP ERP. And there are multiple ways to do that. Use the Improved Import & Export Magento 2 extension if you want to get a universal connector suitable for all possible integrations or leverage one of the more specific tools. At the same time, you can rely on agencies that can implement the integration for you – the most expensive and at the same time easiest way of connecting Magento 2 to SAP ECC or other company’s products.