Salesforce and SAP integration serves to combine the strengths of two leading software platforms to allow businesses to benefit from both at the same time.
Salesforce, a top-tier customer relationship management (CRM) platform, offers a comprehensive pack of tools to support businesses in managing customer relations, sales workflows, marketing automation, and analytics.
SAP, in turn, is a leader in enterprise resource planning (ERP), providing enterprise-level solutions to streamline business functions such as finance, human resources, supply chain management, and more.
In this post, you’ll learn how SAP and Salesforce integration contributes to business process automation, integrity, and overall efficiency; become aware of the main integration challenges; and get a set of best practices to perform the integration quickly and seamlessly.
Salesforce is a powerful CRM, yet it may miss some important data consolidation features. This forces users to switch between several systems to get a full picture of their data. SAP, however, is all about data management. Salesforce integration with SAP allows for a unified view of crucial data, improving overall business productivity.
Here are the main benefits of SAP and Salesforce integration.
While SAP and Salesforce integration lets businesses achieve significant results in data integrity and boost productivity, the procedure comes with a set of challenges. These two systems are different in nature, and these differences make it somewhat challenging to execute a seamless integration. Yet, the challenges are not insurmountable, even if they require effort and skills to overcome them.
Here are the most common challenges that come with the SAP and Salesforce integration process:
SAP and Salesforce integration can be implemented in several ways depending on the business peculiarities and possibilities. In general, there are two main ways to do this, depending on the need to use third-party tools.
The Direct API type of SAP and Salesforce integration is conducted without any third-party tools or integration platforms. The approach works for simple use cases with no overly complicated processes or large data amounts. This option doesn’t require additional fees or extra payments, as businesses don’t need to buy additional services — everything is already in the current subscription license.
Direct API integration may be executed with the help of native solutions. The most common solutions are (all are Salesforce-native):
In some cases, businesses may choose to develop custom middleware to streamline the integration of Salesforce and SAP. Although this approach does not require paying for third-party tools and allows businesses to save on integration, you will need the special technical expertise, time, and resources of the in-house development team.
In more complicated SAP and Salesforce integration cases, businesses utilize special cloud platforms or software for data integration. These allow extracting data from one destination and transferring it to another one through APIs or built-in connectors.
IPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) solutions often include pre-built SAP adapters and save companies the trouble of building the integration environment from scratch. IPaaS platforms cover connection handling, authentication, and security features, keeping your data safe and speeding up the integration process. The most common choices of IPaaS platforms are:
Data management solutions offer a wider set of functionalities and can be used not only for integration but also for data validation, post-migration data management, etc. Traditionally, they offer a set of pre-defined connectors that allow for data connection and exchange from the necessary sources. All of this makes data management platforms the most universal choice for SAP and Salesforce integration, saving time, money, and resources.
DataLark is one such platform which offers robust connectivity options, including both internal and external interfaces for SAP business logic. It also has a specialized Plugin Builder that sets up a connection once and then allows reusing it for new projects and users across Salesforce-SAP ecosystems.
| Direct API | Custom Middleware | IPaaS (MuleSoft, SAP Integration Suite) | Data Management (ETL) | |
| System integration | Basic: simple data transition via fixed ways | Custom: depends on business needs | Extended: complex integration streams with business rules | Medium: with a focus on data transition |
| Data transformation | Limited: basic transformations | Custom: any transformation in the code | Medium: standard mapping and transformation | Extended: mass data cleansing, transformation, and enrichment |
| Process orchestration | Minimal: simple synchronous calls | Custom: depends on the deployment | Extended: visual workflows, event management | Medium: focus on the package processing |
|
Pre-built connectors |
No: manual integration needed | No: manual development needed | Numerous: pre-built connectors for hundreds of apps | Numerous: focus on data sources |
| Data management | Minimal: data transfer only | Limited: within the integration process | Limited: focus on processes, not on data | Extended: metadata, quality, and master data management |
| Scalability | Low: limited by APIs | Medium: depends on architecture | High: distributed architecture | High: optimized for big volumes of data |
| TCO |
Initial: low Long-term: high |
Initial: high Long-term: high |
Initial: moderate Long-term: moderate |
Initial: moderate Long-term: moderate |
| Implementation speed | Fast: for simple use cases | Slow: requires development | Medium: has predefined templates | Medium: for standard scenarios |
| Monitoring | Basic: API call's logs | Custom: depends on the deployment | Extended: stream visualization and alerts | Standard: focus on data more than on processes |
| Use cases | Simple directory synchronization | Unique business processes | End-to-end business processes between systems | Mass data synchronization |
SAP and Salesforce integration needs thorough planning and preparation to make sure everything goes well and that all the data is successfully integrated. Here are some Salesforce and SAP integration best practices businesses should follow to achieve efficient system functioning and seamless data flow connectivity.
SAP and Salesforce integration can bring business data operations to the next level, helping companies automate and streamline many processes. Let’s take a look at the most common and widespread use cases.
The lead-to-cash workflow automation is a perfect example of how SAP and Salesforce integration works. Part of the lead-to-cash process data (leads, opportunities, quotes, etc.) is usually stored in Salesforce, while another part (invoices, sales orders, delivery documents, etc.) is efficiently managed through SAP. The integration of the two systems allows businesses to streamline and automate the whole process, reducing manual workload and mitigating the risks of human-factor mistakes.
Benefits include the following:
Once a buyer wants to make a purchase, its availability should be checked first to prevent delays and business lags. While orders are created in Salesforce, and inventory data management is conducted within SAP, integrating these two systems will automate product and inventory availability checks, saving time and improving usability.
Benefits include:
Another use case for SAP and Salesforce integration is sales order management. Salesforce is typically used to create orders from clients, while SAP stores all the data about product availability, customer details, and order quantities. Integrating the two systems, in this case, will help automate information exchange between SAP and Salesforce, streamlining the whole process of inventory management and order fulfillment.
Benefits include the following:
Once a deal is closed, its status is changed in Salesforce. Integrating Salesforce and SAP will allow automated data synchronization with SAP’s financial data management ecosystem. Sales, revenue, and expense data are unified, which allows businesses to create detailed finance reports and make decisions based on real-time analytics.
Benefits include:
The integration of SAP and Salesforce is like a combination of two superpowers that can either bring the business glory and success (if implemented correctly) or destroy it (if implemented in a hurry, greedily rushing for money). This post considers integration challenges and how you can overcome them with a set of best practices to make SAP and Salesforce systems work smoothly for your digitalization and automation.