Learn more about how an industry leader in the construction supply sector has optimized and digitized its internal sales processes through a combination of EDI and API.
Learn more about how an industry leader in the construction supply sector has optimized and digitized its internal sales processes through a combination of EDI and API.
As with many companies, the product range encompasses a wide spectrum of shelving items, ranging from standard products to custom-designed and finished variants. Customer orders are placed through a wide variety of channels, ranging from telephone and fax to email and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). Until now, the construction supplier had been using SAP PI (SAP Process Integration) to process EDI orders. The manual follow-up work and telephone clarifications that have been necessary up to now result in a very high workload for the sales department and a lack of transparency for customers. The error-prone, time-consuming, and costly order processing workflow was optimized to speed up the delivery of order confirmations to customers, and the previous middleware solution was replaced.
The experts at CAS AG first analyzed the existing structures and processes, which had evolved over many years and presented particular challenges. Based on these findings, the processes were optimized and redesigned using Lobster_data, the software for system-independent data integration—specifically designed as an efficient EDI solution — so that different data structures and types, as well as message formats, can be processed via a uniform profile chain.
Any customer-specific deviations from the defined standard that may be necessary can be adjusted through configuration so that the information is successfully processed in the target SAP system without manual intervention by the internal sales team. At the same time, the groundwork was laid for the implementation of API management with standardized guidelines for API design, API lifecycle, and API governance. This allows the construction supplier’s individual departments to use Microsoft Azure for API development. The first APIs on the Microsoft Azure platform are already being used for the EDI ordering process, thereby improving the data quality of incoming orders. Given the wide variety of product variants in particular, this supports sales and simplifies the ordering process.
New APIs were also developed and integrated to provide customers with downstream documents, which now ensure easy processing and, as a result, greater acceptance on the part of customers. As part of the middleware migration, the content of the electronic documents was also expanded. Now, new, modern reporting formats and the additional connection to the company’s central data archive are providing the desired transparency and improving the overall process. In addition, the implemented fallback scenarios assist IT support, speed up reprocessing in the event of connection issues—such as those that can occur in the cloud—and improve the overall availability of the entire platform.
The processes for order processing via EDI and subsequent processing in the SAP system were revised and optimized as part of the redesign of the EDI platform in collaboration with Lobster_data. Orders are now validated before they are processed. Similarly, customer-specific attributes for variant items are translated into the required system language via APIs on the Microsoft Azure Platform, enabling automated processing.
To protect the API endpoints, users log in using OAuth 2.0; the permissions for the endpoints are stored in Keycloak, the identity provider used. In addition, Lobster_data provides additional API interfaces—including ones for the construction supplier’s customer portal—to enable self-onboarding via EDI and the testing of EDI messages. Self-onboarding involves setting up communication connections and creating the message types ORDERS (order), ORDRSP (Order Confirmation), DESADV (Delivery Note), and INVOIC (Invoice) in various message formats such as XML, OpenTRANS, EDIFACT, or ZUGFeRD. In addition, customers can check the processing status of EDI messages themselves and, if necessary, request that the construction supplier resend EDI documents.
As with many companies, the product range encompasses a wide spectrum of shelving items, ranging from standard products to custom-designed and finished variants. Customer orders are placed through a wide variety of channels, ranging from telephone and fax to email and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). Until now, the construction supplier had been using SAP PI (SAP Process Integration) to process EDI orders. The manual follow-up work and telephone clarifications that have been necessary up to now result in a very high workload for the sales department and a lack of transparency for customers. The error-prone, time-consuming, and costly order processing workflow was optimized to speed up the delivery of order confirmations to customers, and the previous middleware solution was replaced.
The experts at CAS AG first analyzed the existing structures and processes, which had evolved over many years and presented particular challenges. Based on these findings, the processes were optimized and redesigned using Lobster_data, the software for system-independent data integration—specifically designed as an efficient EDI solution — so that different data structures and types, as well as message formats, can be processed via a uniform profile chain.
Any customer-specific deviations from the defined standard that may be necessary can be adjusted through configuration so that the information is successfully processed in the target SAP system without manual intervention by the internal sales team. At the same time, the groundwork was laid for the implementation of API management with standardized guidelines for API design, API lifecycle, and API governance. This allows the construction supplier’s individual departments to use Microsoft Azure for API development. The first APIs on the Microsoft Azure platform are already being used for the EDI ordering process, thereby improving the data quality of incoming orders. Given the wide variety of product variants in particular, this supports sales and simplifies the ordering process.
New APIs were also developed and integrated to provide customers with downstream documents, which now ensure easy processing and, as a result, greater acceptance on the part of customers. As part of the middleware migration, the content of the electronic documents was also expanded. Now, new, modern reporting formats and the additional connection to the company’s central data archive are providing the desired transparency and improving the overall process. In addition, the implemented fallback scenarios assist IT support, speed up reprocessing in the event of connection issues—such as those that can occur in the cloud—and improve the overall availability of the entire platform.
The processes for order processing via EDI and subsequent processing in the SAP system were revised and optimized as part of the redesign of the EDI platform in collaboration with Lobster_data. Orders are now validated before they are processed. Similarly, customer-specific attributes for variant items are translated into the required system language via APIs on the Microsoft Azure Platform, enabling automated processing.
To protect the API endpoints, users log in using OAuth 2.0; the permissions for the endpoints are stored in Keycloak, the identity provider used. In addition, Lobster_data provides additional API interfaces—including ones for the construction supplier’s customer portal—to enable self-onboarding via EDI and the testing of EDI messages. Self-onboarding involves setting up communication connections and creating the message types ORDERS (order), ORDRSP (Order Confirmation), DESADV (Delivery Note), and INVOIC (Invoice) in various message formats such as XML, OpenTRANS, EDIFACT, or ZUGFeRD. In addition, customers can check the processing status of EDI messages themselves and, if necessary, request that the construction supplier resend EDI documents.
As with many companies, the product range encompasses a wide spectrum of shelving items, ranging from standard products to custom-designed and finished variants. Customer orders are placed through a wide variety of channels, ranging from telephone and fax to email and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange). Until now, the construction supplier had been using SAP PI (SAP Process Integration) to process EDI orders. The manual follow-up work and telephone clarifications that have been necessary up to now result in a very high workload for the sales department and a lack of transparency for customers. The error-prone, time-consuming, and costly order processing workflow was optimized to speed up the delivery of order confirmations to customers, and the previous middleware solution was replaced.
The experts at CAS AG first analyzed the existing structures and processes, which had evolved over many years and presented particular challenges. Based on these findings, the processes were optimized and redesigned using Lobster_data, the software for system-independent data integration—specifically designed as an efficient EDI solution — so that different data structures and types, as well as message formats, can be processed via a uniform profile chain.
Any customer-specific deviations from the defined standard that may be necessary can be adjusted through configuration so that the information is successfully processed in the target SAP system without manual intervention by the internal sales team. At the same time, the groundwork was laid for the implementation of API management with standardized guidelines for API design, API lifecycle, and API governance. This allows the construction supplier’s individual departments to use Microsoft Azure for API development. The first APIs on the Microsoft Azure platform are already being used for the EDI ordering process, thereby improving the data quality of incoming orders. Given the wide variety of product variants in particular, this supports sales and simplifies the ordering process.
New APIs were also developed and integrated to provide customers with downstream documents, which now ensure easy processing and, as a result, greater acceptance on the part of customers. As part of the middleware migration, the content of the electronic documents was also expanded. Now, new, modern reporting formats and the additional connection to the company’s central data archive are providing the desired transparency and improving the overall process. In addition, the implemented fallback scenarios assist IT support, speed up reprocessing in the event of connection issues—such as those that can occur in the cloud—and improve the overall availability of the entire platform.
The processes for order processing via EDI and subsequent processing in the SAP system were revised and optimized as part of the redesign of the EDI platform in collaboration with Lobster_data. Orders are now validated before they are processed. Similarly, customer-specific attributes for variant items are translated into the required system language via APIs on the Microsoft Azure Platform, enabling automated processing.
To protect the API endpoints, users log in using OAuth 2.0; the permissions for the endpoints are stored in Keycloak, the identity provider used. In addition, Lobster_data provides additional API interfaces—including ones for the construction supplier’s customer portal—to enable self-onboarding via EDI and the testing of EDI messages. Self-onboarding involves setting up communication connections and creating the message types ORDERS (order), ORDRSP (Order Confirmation), DESADV (Delivery Note), and INVOIC (Invoice) in various message formats such as XML, OpenTRANS, EDIFACT, or ZUGFeRD. In addition, customers can check the processing status of EDI messages themselves and, if necessary, request that the construction supplier resend EDI documents.
