In this blog I want to explain why Overcast (for which I am VP of product management) is the perfect tool to integrate SAP into Salesforce.

Many companies that use or want to use cloud solutions from Salesforce in sales, marketing and service often also have an ERP system, usually SAP ERP, S/4HANA or Business One. Both systems – Salesforce and SAP - contain information that must be maintained in both systems. SAP’s ERP system is used to manage the operational, financial and HR processes of the organization and store them in a central database. With the cloud-based CRM application from salesforce.com, the sales team can transfer information about sales calls, customer visits and sales directly into the system (the same – of course – applies to service technicians who log work orders, working time and consumed products). With the Salesforce B2B and B2C solutions, customers can place orders and manage their customer accounts.

SAP Salesforce Integration with Vigience Overcast

A Salesforce/SAP Integration is the natural next steps after setting up both solutions. It is about exchanging master and transactional data between the SAP ERP system and Salesforce’s cloud-based solution - either in real-time or by replicating data - to provide its users with immediate access to all information. By integrating the two systems, processes are enabled across application boundaries and duplicate data entry and management is avoided. In order to synchronise the affected business processes and bridge the technical gap between SAP and Salesforce, a process and data integration of the cloud application with the existing SAP system landscape (either on premise or also in the cloud) is required. Particular attention is paid here to the integration with the ERP system in order to realise continuous business processes and to fully exploit the potential of the CRM system. This largely involves bidirectional synchronisations of contact data such as contact persons and addresses, as well as transaction data such as incoming orders, order status, product and price lists, quotations, orders, invoices, delivery data, etc.

Ways to integrate Salesforce and SAP

Both Salesforce and SAP offer several methods for integration (BAPIs, RFCs, Web Services, OData, etc.). We always recommend to first write a detailed specification document before starting the implementation. This specification is the basis for evaluating a suitable integration method. Depending on the use case, the Salesforce SAP integration is carried in different ways – either by replicating data to the Salesforce platform, or by accessing it in real-time.

Integrate and access SAP data in Salesforce

Employees, partners and customers have very high expectations when it comes to accessing information. However, valuable information that could, for example, enable more efficient customer service or faster business transactions is often located in back-office solutions such as ERP systems. Yet this data would be extremely helpful in customer service, marketing or sales. The Salesforce platform offers the necessary functionality to make important data from SAP and Salesforce available to users and departments for use. Integrating your existing SAP system landscape via Vigience Overcast with Salesforce Cloud gives your employees access to all the information they need at every stage of the process - regardless of the current location of the data or its movement and transactions. With the help of Overcast, you can access your company’s most important information at any time from one single user interface, provided by Salesforce. You can integrate data from SAP, databases and other systems into objects in your Salesforce application in real time, making data from your back-office systems available wherever it’s needed. Vigience Overcast, a iPaaS solution facilitates the integration of these two different systems - quickly and without development effort through direct configuration via the administration interface of the Salesforce environment.

Simple and secure Salesforce SAP data integration

Our customers use Overcast to connect SAP to Salesforce. Integration has never been as easy and secure as it is today: a wide range of predefined integrations are available that cover all specific requirements in companies. The connection of different business applications also opens up new opportunities for differentiation in competition and on the market. Companies that take advantage of these opportunities have clear competitive advantages.
By integrating data into Salesforce that was previously only available within the SAP environment, sales, marketing and service centre staff gain a much more comprehensive view of their customers. Once set up and configured, the integration is easy to maintain and monitor. Real-time synchronisation of individual data records is easy to map. Even large data volumes can be integrated without any problems. For the process flow between the two systems, the SAP interface can be completely integrated into Salesforce so that the user has the feeling of working on only one system. Instead of just exchanging data, complete processes from your SAP application can be mapped in Salesforce. Overcast does not only provide the data integration out of the box, but also predefined components, with ready to use user interfaces.

Advantages of a Salesforce/SAP Integration

Both systems communicate on the same level. The real-time synchronisation of individual and large data sets is easy to setup with zero footprint on the SAP side. The development and implementation of new integrations and components is also possible at any time.

Further advantages of Salesforce SAP Integration:

  • Increases productivity
  • Improves customer loyalty
  • Enables innovative business models
  • Unifies processes from ERP and CRM
  • Connects customer-, quotation and order management.

How is the integration between SAP and Salesforce setup?

In most cases, the collaboration between the business processes in SAP ERP and Salesforce CRM runs as follows:

  1. When the record for a new customer is to be created in Salesforce CRM, it can be automatically added to the master data in SAP - or vice versa. When updating the customer data on either side, the changes are synchronised everywhere.
  2. Changes to invoice or order history, as well as an update of credit information from SAP or other sources, can be made available in Salesforce either in real time or by replicating the data. Sales Orders and other sales documents can be created within the Salesforce user interface.
  3. Purchase orders can be created in Salesforce with automatic delivery capability checks and transferred to SAP for execution. Changes to the order status in SAP can then be synchronised again with Salesforce CRM.
  4. Product catalogues and price lists in SAP can be made available in Salesforce to have an easier and faster product configuration or a more efficient ordering system without having to switch between systems each time.

SAP/Salesforce integration and costs

Overcast is drastically reducing the cost of the integration of SAP into Salesforce, as it offers more than 100 pre-build components, that are ready to use. This is eliminating the need of writting custom code. Projects that would take months or years can now be implemented in weeks. Instead of 1000s of person days, we only talk about a handful.

We and our partners support you with our know-how in the conception and implementation of your Salesforce/SAP integration, so that your ERP application and CRM platform can communicate securely with each other. This allows you to concentrate on your core business and not have to worry about technical details. If you want to know more, go to www.vigience.com.