SAP Cloud Platform Integration: Common Challenges

Developing SaaS technology is providing functional business leaders with more control over selecting the business application software they want to use to manage their area of the business. For example, finance, sales, and HR, to name, but we now have a host of SaaS applications to choose from.

It is very common to see businesses implementing SAP integration for their core operations together with a variety of SaaS applications such as Salesforce, Concur, Coupa, SuccessFactors, and Microsoft Dynamics. 

While niche software insurance delivers real business benefits in their specialist area, they leave IT to integrate applications and data to streamline the whole business.

A strong integration platform is required for:

• Fully realizing the benefits of cloud-based applications.
• Synchronizing data across multiple sources.
• Automating and optimizing business processes.
• Delivering on the promise of agility and flexibility for meeting user demands.

Additionally, there are time pressures on IT for delivering that integration. Several latest SaaS applications arrive with rapid rollout plans. As a result, there could be a sense of frustration while business departments will wait for IT to carry out integration work before going live.

Our SAP Consulting Services leverage industry expertise and cutting-edge technology to optimize your business processes, enhance efficiency, and drive sustainable growth.

Most Common SAP Cloud Platform Integration Challenges

Below are the SAP cloud platform integration challenges:

1. Meeting Strategic Business Goals

It isn’t uncommon for SaaS departments to quickly deploy an application such as Salesforce. Nevertheless, the methods sales go through for meeting their strategic goals for increasing revenue might involve access to data from the core SAP system. 

While Salesforce standalone could drive some benefits to the sales team, it integrates the course SAP system that influences their ability to achieve their business goals. Any delay or complexity in the delivery of the integration will impact the ability to use that SaaS software to meet strategic business goals.

2. Managing Complex Business Processes and Data

In some business process scenarios, SAP may require data to be obtained in real-time from two distinct applications from two distinct vendors. In others words, SAP would be the recipient of data from those many systems. For example, customer data could be held in the marketing automation system, a CRM solution, and SAP.

The contact record could have been sourced via marketing automation, passed to CRM, and ended up in SAP cloud platform integration as a customer. Nevertheless, when the business wants to carry out a customer-based marketing campaign, the data should be obtained from a master record. 

Thorough preparation is required for determining which of these solutions should provide the master data. How you should keep all data in sync and how data will flow from one system to another.

3. Maintaining Flexibility

For businesses to implement SaaS solutions, it is essential that the underlying integration architecture rapidly support deployment and easily support any subsequent changes. 

The integration architecture should not limit the ability of the business to take advantage of new functionalities when it becomes available within their SaaS solutions. A flexible integration architecture will enable the business to drive the benefits of new functionality quickly.

4. Scalability

An integration infrastructure should scale the scope and growing volumes of data and mainly necessitate providing real-time data access for dashboards and reporting cross data from multiple applications.

5. Technical Skills

Building connectivity into SAP integration and introducing new applications from different vendors need a range of abilities and knowledge about the architecture of every application.

6. Ongoing Maintenance and Upgrade Costs

Integration middleware and the essential support should be able to cope with upgrades and significant changes to functionality at both SAP and SaaS. The value of this should be factored into the outgoing maintenance costs for any SAP-SaaS integration.

7. Migration

It has always been a mission to execute migrations since the beginning of the computing era. They make sure that their clients have the most up-to-date applications, can reach a lower TCO for their integration, and have funding for their tools. 

The SAP Integration portfolio, which is also subject to transition, is no exception. Since 7.11, 7.3, 7.31, and 7.4 are no longer funded after 2020, all consumers must upgrade to SAP PI/PO 7.5 by the end of 2021. 

Customers who have not been able to upgrade since then will agree that their system is no longer supported. So they can switch the interfaces to a newer device if anything goes wrong.

8. CPI for SAP Cloud Platform Integration

SAP CPI has long been the go-to platform for developing modern cloud-based integrations. As opposed to FI MM integration in SAP, it is the perfect tool for consumers who use cloud services. 

Since anything can be handled in a single inflow and modularity, it makes creating integrations even simpler. The amount of redelivered material is increasing, making it much easier to make changes to it. As a result, you’ll be able to develop unique methods that you can reuse elsewhere.

9. Automate the Delivery Process for SAP Integration

In the last 10-15 years, the way FI MM integration in SAP has been transported and optimized has remained unchanged. It’s the same thing that’s going on. You’ll need to build several CTS+ means of transport, and users may have to manually customize stuff after they’ve been added to target structures. Manual testing was also carried out.

It is somewhat different from how the rest of the world is now dreaming about delivering tech. Where concepts such as DevOps have become the current standard in most fast growth programs. Since the operations can be streamlined, it helps developers to release code even quicker. 

There are a few advantages that automation has. First, it’s better to find other people to run the code, which ensures you won’t be too dependent on the same creators because they’ll switch jobs without impacting you.

10. S/4 HANA Migration and Integration Projects

Many SAP cloud platform integration customers debate whether and how to move to S4/HANA. Few have already been updated, but the majority still have a long way to go. However, others are debating whether or not to do so. 

Let’s see what happens with the funding. If you “only” update, you can also use much of the existing integrations. You’ll have to try it to see how it works. Any tables have been rearranged, and some systems may be updated.

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