At Nintex xchange 2018, I was pleased to present with my co-worker Christoph Schuler where we discussed SAP integration with Nintex Workflow Cloud. Specifically, we reviewed the architecture and capabilities of Nintex Workflow Cloud’s SAP Connector (that Theobald built) and walked attendees through a business use case where customer account information is synchronized between Salesforce and SAP.
Here’s a recap of the session:
The Hot Topic of the Moment
Nintex Workflow Cloud is a cloud-first platform that easily connects content repositories, systems of record, and people to help enterprise organizations quickly automate and optimize business processes.
Theobald Software has a long technical partnership with Nintex. Initially, we focused on SAP integration with Nintex Workflow in SharePoint on-premises. However, over the years, both Theobald Software and Nintex have expanded the scope of our product portfolios and our companies now provide solutions for many different environments.
With the SAP Connector from Theobald Software (available as part of Nintex Xtensions®), it makes it quick and easy for users to connect with SAP, including on-premises installations of SAP, as part of a workflow using the Nintex Workflow Cloud.
The Problem: No Integration Across Platforms
When it comes to enterprise resource planning (ERP), SAP is the product of choice for many companies around the world. The solution lets enterprise organizations carry out a wide range of crucial business functions such as:
- Financial management
- Warehouse management
- Logistics
- Human resources
- Health and safety
- Product lifecycle management
- Customer administration
The problem is: as data is created and stored across a variety of different platforms, it can be difficult to synchronize the most important information.
For instance, many businesses will use SAP for customer administration while using Salesforce as their Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system. Therefore, a lot of customer information is stored or created directly in Salesforce, when it’s also needed in SAP. The last thing businesses want is inconsistent information about their customers, but this is a real danger. Not only can inaccurate data lead to poor customer service, but it can also result in a failure to comply with data regulations such as the EU’s incoming GDPR.
On top of this:
- It takes time to manually replicate data
- It is easy to forget to replicate important information
- Data can be recorded incorrectly
- Information silos are created
Businesses need a solution where they can maintain customer data on one platform. The SAP Connector for Nintex Workflow Cloud makes maintaining consistent data across platforms easier than ever.
The Solution: SAP Integration
Let’s say that your organization has just won a new customer. Your first step is to create a customer account for the new customer in Salesforce and log all the relevant information. The SAP Connector for Nintex Workflow Cloud will help alleviate the problems listed above.
In Salesforce, if you change the customer account from a prospect to an actual customer then this triggers a workflow in Nintex Workflow Cloud. The SAP connector then looks into the SAP system to see whether the customer already exists and, if not, creates a new customer account using the information stored in Salesforce. If the customer account is successfully created in the SAP system, it then sends the new SAP customer account number back to the Salesforce account.
Effectively, this creates a datahub between the two platforms, where you can remove information silos and bring customer information together. It’s as simple as that.
Although we have focused here on maintaining customer data, this framework can, in principle, be used for all sorts of different business scenarios. An increasing set of pre-defined business content is provided for customers covering common processes from different SAP areas like accounting, finance or human resources.
You can learn more about the SAP integration we built with Nintex Workflow Cloud and Theobald Software here.
