Out of This World: Neptune Software to Take Complexity out of Mission Innovation
Key Takeaways
⇨ It is necessary to integrate your SAP landscape with third-party systems to achieve the highest level of productivity and efficiency.
⇨ A common hiccup along the way for many businesses is that their SAP-centric estate doesn't always play well with third-party systems.
⇨ Rapid Application Development (RAD) platform from Neptune Software connects all your systems via API integration, whether they’re SAP assets or otherwise.
Navigating the SAP space can bring many benefits to businesses and help them reach their goals. However, often it is necessary to integrate your SAP landscape with third-party systems to achieve the highest level of productivity and efficiency and develop that extra slice of functionality. Doing this is not an easy process, and SAP users know how much ‘the data question’ comes into play, with data fragmentation and technical debt becoming the most common issues faced.
This doesn’t even consider the pace of change that is expected – as explained nicely by Neptune Software’s MD, Christoph Garms: “If one word sums up the last decade, it would be ‘faster’. Businesses are obsessed with accelerating processes and innovation.”
This is why it is important to opt for solutions and approaches that are more likely to make integration that bit less of a burden.
Brittle SAP Integrations
A common hiccup along the way for many businesses is that their SAP-centric estate doesn’t always play well with third-party systems. Rapidly deploying easy-to-use, high functionality applications can often conflict with the desire to minimize integration issues.
SAP’s unique language and processes can lead to a time-consuming, and often siloed, approach to integration. With every extra external system layer adding extra complexity along the way, the result can be too many interfaces and a confusing, difficult path to the innovation businesses are seeking.
Teams can end up spending precious resources, especially time and money, on maintaining the fragile links between SAP and third-party systems to, as Garms describes it “keep the lights on”, and constantly rebuild system bridges.
Days are then spent on maintenance and projects that don‘t create value, but are about maintaining the status quo. Meanwhile, existing software suppliers offer less ideal answers in the form of costly upgrades, complex system consolidation projects, or introducing extensive middleware and big data tooling.
Out of This Complex World – Enter Neptune
So, what can you do to streamline that experience? Hearing from Garms, Neptune Software say a better solution lies in their offering: the Rapid Application Development (RAD) platform.
In an industry where every vendor offers the world from their software, Neptune is looking to plug the spacious voids in the middle, and Garms promises, “It’s all possible with the right approach”.
Able to deploy in containers, on-premise, or on any of the popular cloud platforms, Neptune’s RAD Platform uses a strict API-first architecture, that creates a turnkey integration for any SAP NetWeaver ABAP system.
Moreover, with single-sign-on via LDAP, users of software like Microsoft Azure AD can log-on via their well-acclimatized Office 365 tools. The same applies for SAP users with the likes of Salesforce and Oracle software too.
For Garms, it’s all about the ability to “operate with an open mind”. He states: “With the RAD Platform it’s never a case of either/or. You can create a catalogue of architectural blueprints and reusable components with a RAD platform that uses building blocks of pre-existing functionality or choose collaborative microservices that can flex as you need. Or do both.”
“The RAD platform connects all your systems via API integration, whether they’re SAP assets or otherwise. A ‘SAP + Rapid Application Development (RAD) platform’ approach can deliver the data-rich, intuitive experiences you need to drive fast, business-critical results. A single hub allows data to flow freely in real-time, so your team can build the SAP Fiori apps that will drive your business forward”.
The goal is a unified data flow, allowing teams to work on value-added projects instead. With existing in-house IT teams utilizing rapid and simple app development tools, they are freed up to make changes to innovate operations impactfully. The hope? Businesses can then drive custom development AND keep their core systems clean. Mission innovation complete.
