"We used a SAP system to record transactions on our purchases. We needed to share a lot of information with suppliers on purchase order quantities,..." Read More »

SAP Integration and Process Optimization

It is well known that SAP can be difficult to work with. While SAP has strong transactional capabilities and is good at tracking and storing data, it has relatively poor process management capabilities, forcing users to tailor their businesses to the "SAP way of doing things" rather than moulding the software processes around business requirements.

Fiorano makes it possible to mould SAP to business needs rather than the other way around.

The SAP Integration Problem

Most SAP implementations, particularly SAP R/3 implementations, suffer from the following general problems:

  • Core processes designed for "Separation of Duty"
    • Unnecessarily complex and inefficient in an environment where one person executes several steps in a business process.
  • Changes to default templates are time-consuming
    • Significant ABAP programming required.
  • Difficult to integrate with third party applications
    • SAP integration projects are expensive and time-consuming. Existing integration tools, including SAP Netweaver, do not provide the productivity required to rapidly respond to changing business requirements.

The Fiorano Solution

Fiorano makes it easy to connect to SAP and to implement flexible business processes to augment and complement existing SAP processes. While all the enterprise data remains with the core SAP system, Fiorano frees the business to customize the implementation as required based on business needs rather than based on the SAP mandate. In other words, a business does not have to always "work around SAP". Instead, a business can use the benefits of SAP's strong transactional capabilities while getting the flexibility required to rapidly change processes as and when needed, with minimal programming and IT effort.

The links below discuss how several SAP business processes are optimized, augmented and rendered more flexible by Fiorano. This is just a small sample of possible processes optimization possibilities and is not an exhaustive list. The techniques listed here apply to all business processes built around the data stored in the SAP system.

» Invoicing and Dispatch
» Lifting Plans and Bulk Orders
» Goods Received Notes: GRN
» Logistics
» Order Processing and Stock Allocation