Intelligent and automated integration platforms seamlessly connect data and applications across SAP and other solutions and thus provide the foundation for ERP modernization and innovation. Deepa Salem, Vice President and Research Director, SAPInsider ERP modernization is a vital topic for every CIO and every IT leader today. With today's burning business demand for ERP updates and modern cloud applications that connect to SAP, ERP modernization is no longer optional. Yet, ERP modernization is fraught with risk. A major challenge in such projects is one of integration across today’s hyper-connected IT landscapes. SAPInsider research shows that complex integrations with SAP and non-SAP applications are the biggest challenge for more than half of our community (58%). SAP customers are also connecting an increasing number of solutions. In SAPinsider’s 2021 research on Integration, we found that an average of 11 solutions were being integrated with SAP, with 90% of respondents needing to integrate non-SAP to SAP data. SAP customers on this modernization journey have several key decisions to make and several best practices and technologies to deploy to overcome this integration challenge.

Key Drivers for ERP Modernization

SAPInsider discussed the challenge of integration and some solutions in the context of ERP modernization with Ed Macosky, Senior Vice President and Head of Products at Boomi, a leading Integration Platform as a Service (IPaaS) provider. Macosky has been leading the efforts at Boomi to create a platform for data integration since 2003 and has worked with hundreds of clients with a diverse set of SAP and non-SAP systems. Macosky explains the importance of ERP modernization: “ERP modernization is not just an IT project. The biggest trend now is that it is being driven by the business stakeholders to optimize and transform the entire organization.” We can generally identify five main drivers for ERP modernization initiatives across companies:

1. Need to adopt a cloud strategy and migrate to the cloud. Almost 100% of SAP customers are cloud focused with most moving substantial workloads from on-premise to the cloud.
2. Need to increase use of artificial intelligence (AI) and analytics. ERP modernization is no longer just about standard ways of running your business; it is also about how to use AI, machine learning (ML), and analytics to streamline operations and customer experience.
3. Need to control content and data compliance. With the explosion of data across the enterprise, companies are in peril if they cannot figure out how to manage compliance and how to leverage their data for business performance and growth.
4. Need to lower costs and total cost of ownership (TCO). Apart from the cloud factor that impacts operating costs and TCO, companies are also looking at either partial or complete replacement of legacy ERP.
5. Need to improve agility with a composable ERP architecture. Companies look to decompose legacy ERP and adopt a composable architecture to promote agility that can drive productivity and efficiency, while also enable the business to evolve and pivot to meet market needs.

In a nutshell, for SAP customers, the critical issue is how they can monetize their past SAP investments while deploying AI, ML, analytics, and other applications for their future — with minimum business risk and at a lower TCO. This is, by no means, an easy goal.

The Power of Flexible Integration

What is needed for such a mammoth challenge is an intelligent way to connect applications and data seamlessly and automate business workflows to drive a composable approach to ERP. Boomi offers a cloud-native and a cloud-first iPaaS called AtomSphere, which provides multiple services and features that can help SAP customers modernize their ERP. On the data side, Boomi offers a large data catalog and preparation tools that help users explore data not only in SAP but in other applications and data sources to create a more composable ERP environment. Another key feature of data management is the Boomi Master Data Hub, which connects all the data silos including any existing master data management (MDM) platform. On the process side, Boomi supports service-oriented architecture, application programming interface (API)-first approaches, and event-type integrations. Boomi covers the full lifecycle API management capabilities that help to modernize and automate workflows across applications. Extending process integration even further, Boomi’s platform also provides business-to-business (B2B) and electronic data interchange (EDI) capabilities as well, so that companies can connect to business partners and vendors using either traditional X12 or EDIFACT standards. This flexibility is important during ERP modernization as Macosky elaborates, “When a company moves to a cloud-based, modern SAP environment, it may still need to hold onto a traditional set of B2B or EDI integrations for the sake of partners who may not be willing to change. At the same time, they can use EDI API based connectivity with partners who are ready to modernize. While on the journey to modernize, they can continue to maintain connections in a hybrid way”. Overall, the value proposition for Boomi AtomSphere spans key areas in ERP modernization:

1. Accelerated cloud migration. Ensures successful migration of key processes and data to the cloud with intelligent connectivity and automation
2. Successful AI/analytics capabilities. Ensures discovery, capture, cataloging, and normalization of data while ensuring integration of processes that consume this data with intelligent connectivity and automation
3. Smooth data migration during ERP migration. Ensures no data is lost or compromised with intelligent data capture and integration
4. Reduced costs. Adopts a new approach to manage ERP processes, applications, and data in the cloud through intelligent connectivity and automation-based migration
5. Composable architecture. Enables the benefits of a composable architecture by shortening delivery of ERP components while offering performance visibility for all components.

Ease of Integration with Smooth Onboarding and Citizen-led Integration

With prebuilt workflows using over 150 connectors, onboarding is easy. Macosky explains: “Our integration projects are done in hours, days, or maybe weeks for large projects versus months and years. That’s a huge value proposition for companies with a wide variety of business initiatives to address.” Many large SAP customers have lots of applications. However, they typically start with connecting a critical few. They may connect a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution to another SaaS, or they may connect a SaaS to data sources on traditional mainframes, servers, or desktops. Companies may also move data into data warehouses or analytics systems separately to help with AI and ML use cases. While it is valuable to have the power and flexibility of Boomi’s integration platform, another major benefit is freeing up IT bandwidth with low code integration — an approach that Boomi calls “citizen integration.” Boomi offers aXis for SAP, which is a low-code way of connecting SAP to other applications. With this low-code tool, business users can quickly connect and manage connections across workflows, data, and applications.

Use Cases for Integration Are Varied

There are many business-critical use cases where rapid, secure, and seamless integration brings significant benefits. A straightforward integration use case is in financial planning and forecasting, where inputs from different databases or application sources hosted on a variety of systems need to be aggregated in a secure and compliant manner. Other use cases involve creating a composable ERP. For example, improving onboarding experience can have a big impact on employee loyalty. Instead of a new employee logging into multiple systems, such as benefits, insurance, payroll, and business card orders, a company can create one seamless onboarding workflow that integrates to other internal and partner applications. A composable ERP with smooth workflows created on the Boomi platform makes this possible. The low-code interfaces that enable citizen integration can bring value to many business users. Such citizen integrators can enable workflows or access data across disparate systems, including partner, vendor, and customer systems, through pre-built EDI and B2B integrations. For example, a sales executive can construct email workflows for sales leads with relevant information for which they have rights. This increases business effectiveness and saves time while ensuring access control. In addition, this saves IT bandwidth that can be directed to more complex development tasks. Macosky is clear on the value proposition: “At the end of the day, our customers need this business agility, speed, and quick time to value. Any organization which is looking to accelerate business outcomes from ERP modernizations is an ideal customer of the Boomi platform.” Any customer can sign up to Boomi and immediately start integrating its SAP system to other applications within minutes.

Integrations That Automatically Stay Up to Date

One of the major factors that makes integration so complex is that applications constantly get updated and upgraded, creating the risk of process breakdowns. As Macosky points out: “In focusing on time to value, people forget that maintenance is 99% of the lifecycle of the APIs. Once they implement the APIs, they have to make sure the APIs are running as planned — at a low TCO.” Boomi’s platform implements all the patches and updates, so customers do not have to worry about compatibility issues. In fact, Boomi has a library of over 180,000 connectors, all of which get updated so that the APIs stay current. Not having to maintain the updates and patches is a huge relief for SAP customers. “Automating workflows and adding intelligence to the workflows means that we are not wasting employees’ time on repetitive tasks. Maximizing human potential is our north star,” Macosky concludes. Intelligent and automated integration is indeed the crux of ERP modernization. A move to SAP S/4HANA while monetizing legacy investments and deploying new applications becomes vastly easier with intelligent integration platforms like Boomi’s.

What Does This Mean for SAPinsiders?

With the increasing business demand for ERP modernization and cloud migration and the rapid deployment of AI, ML, and analytics solutions, integration is bound to get more complex. How can companies ensure integration is not a hurdle to their modernization programs? How can IT departments ensure a smooth flow of processes and data across multiple applications, data sources, and deployment venues?

• Deploy an intelligent and automated integration platform so that integration does not pose a huge hurdle to ERP modernization. Since integration will continue to be a critical need for almost all application projects, deploying integration platforms is vital to establish seamless workflows and data flows. Working with an integration expert like Boomi can establish a strong integration foundation for current performance and future growth.
• Educate and enable pragmatic use cases for low-code integration. Enabling business cases to handle simple integration scenarios can lead to business impact while freeing up IT bandwidth. However, identifying and enabling pragmatic use cases based on impact and ease is important for adoption and success.
• Explore the role of composable architecture to maximize the power of ERP. ERP modernization, especially during the move to SAP S/4HANA, is an opportunity to create composable ERP environments for high-frequency, high-impact workflows. Decomposing, retiring, or replacing legacy applications can be done with low business risks and costs using an integration platform such as Boomi’s AtomSphere iPaaS.

  About Boomi Boomi instantly connects everyone to everything with its cloud-native, unified, open, and intelligent platform. Boomi's integration platform as a service (iPaaS) is trusted by more than 18,000 customers globally for its speed, ease-of-use, and lower total cost of ownership. As the pioneer at fueling intelligent use of data, Boomi's vision is to make it quick and easy for customers and partners to discover, manage, and orchestrate data, while connecting applications, processes, and people for better, faster outcomes.