In our age of digitalisation, businesses have to integrate SAP systems with third-party applications used to manage business processes efficiently. At this point, the SAP Interface acts as a bridge that provides data flow between one or two SAP systems or between SAP and Non-SAP systems. These interfaces integrate different systems and transform data into meaningful information. Thus, it greatly increases business efficiency. In this blog post, we will discuss interfaces and the best SAP integration methods.
What is an Interface?
An interface is the point of interaction and connection between various systems, applications or external elements. These interfaces enable data flow between internal systems and different external systems, enabling seamless integration and harmonised operation across the entire technical infrastructure.
SAP interfaces enable the integration of business processes between multiple SAP systems or between SAP and external systems. In this way, businesses automate data flow, minimise errors in the data transfer process and ensure data consistency. Thus, employees spend more time on value-added tasks of strategic importance and increase operational efficiency.
Tools and Technologies Offered by SAP in Interface Management
SAP provides many tools and technologies for the development and management of interfaces. Some of these technologies are as follows:
- SAP PI / PO (Process Integration / Process Orchestration):
SAP PI (Process Integration) and PO (Process Orchestration) enable data integration between different systems. These tools automate and harmonise processes. Thus, data exchange between different applications takes place seamlessly.
- SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI):
SAP CPI supports the integration of cloud-based applications. This platform integrates data and business processes between cloud and local systems.
- Application Programming Interfaces (APIs):
APIs enable different software applications to communicate seamlessly with each other. These interfaces standardise and accelerate data exchange between systems.
What is SAP Application Interface Framework?
SAP Application Interface Framework (AIF) is an SAP add-on that enables businesses using SAP to design, manage and monitor all system and application interfaces in a central location. It greatly facilitates users to manage and store their data and process messages. SAP AIF can be used for both cloud and on-premises systems. In this way, businesses can implement interfaces in any technical environment.
What are SAP Integration and Interface Methods?
Businesses aim for all their systems to work in harmony with each other for a more efficient and agile business process management. The standard interfaces offered by SAP make it possible to create integration between different SAP systems or between SAP and third-party applications.
The most common integration methods used for SAP integration are as follows:
RFC (Remote Function Call)
The use of RFC (Remote Function Call) is one of the best methods for a flexible and real-time SAP integration. This method activates certain functions, such as sales order creation, with a remote call. It makes it possible to exchange data between the SAP system and third-party applications and enables business processes to be validated via SAP.
IDoc
IDoc (Intermediate Document) is used as SAP file format and enables to transfer transaction data. It is another way to exchange data between SAP and non-SAP applications. IDOC, a standard SAP document format, is a structured format for data flow. It enables both synchronous and asynchronous communication.
SAP HANA
HANA Smart Data Integration, as a component of the SAP HANA platform, enables real-time data integration and transformation processes. It enables data from different sources to be moved to the SAP HANA database.
ODATA
OData is a standard for the development and use of RESTful APIs. By using this protocol, SAP facilitates data access and utilisation from SAP systems, as well as seamless integration with other applications.
ALE
ALE supports real-time communication and data flow between SAP and different software or systems.
REST (Representational State Transfer)
REST is a web service method that acts as a resource to communicate quickly and easily between two systems.
Web Services
SAP supports web service protocols such as SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) and REST (Representational State Transfer) in communication between systems and external applications. These protocols increase compatibility with different platforms and make integration processes smoother.
JDBC (Java Database Connectivity)
SAP offers driver technologies such as JDBC, ODBC, and ODBO to establish connections between SAP systems and other databases.
