ECM and SAP: The Bridge to Future-Proof Digital Transformation

According to the Deutschsprachige SAP-Anwendergruppe e.V. (DSAG), "COVID-19 has highlighted the current shortcomings of digitalization, which was initially seen as a catalyst and wake-up call for digital transformation. However, many companies have not yet understood how they can move from traditional processes to intelligent solutions." 

What SAP promises

The Rise with SAP bundle is designed to help SAP customers with Process Intelligence move their data to the cloud during the digital transformation. It is intended to support them in redesigning business processes, providing tools and services for a technical migration to the cloud and using platforms and solutions for digital transformation with the Business Technology Platform and S/4 Hana Cloud.

Where the shoe pinches

However, this is easier said than done, as a heterogeneous, historically evolved SAP landscape often makes it difficult to implement intelligent process automation and a cloud strategy. Cloud computing is often only possible with the current SAP release and requires a migration.

The automation, artificial intelligence (AI) and "move to the cloud" approach promised by Rise with SAP are also difficult to implement due to the large number of SAP applications and other systems. As SAP focuses on data-driven processes, there is also a lack of solutions for managing documents and enabling a holistic view of processes. 

So what do companies do with the documents that arise in business processes, are located outside the SAP world and can no longer get into the SAP system without the previous ArchiveLink interface? How do you map processes digitally across applications? You need a bridge that connects the previously separate worlds. Intelligent Enterprise Content Management (ECM) forms the bridge between the world of SAP data and the world of documents.

SAP and ECM in intelligent interaction

Only when this separation is removed will a 360-degree view of all information and end-to-end automation of processes be possible - and therefore also innovative solutions with automated processes. For all of this to work in practice, it is not enough to simply introduce an AI tool.

It is advisable not just to take a selective approach and get bogged down in individual departmental solutions, i.e. not simply to expand SAP in the HR department, for example, but to include the entire company in the information strategy and implement an end-to-end solution. SAP customers achieve this by combining SAP and ECM. 

In the purchase-to-pay process, for example, SAP handles the order and ECM automatically checks the order confirmation. Incoming invoices can be easily posted in SAP and ECM covers the checking and approval of invoices fully automatically. Customer, supplier and HR data can be managed very well in SAP.

In contract management, for example, the ECM then ensures that the data on contractual partners is transferred from SAP to the contracts quickly and without errors, that the creation of contract files and the storage of contracts in them is automated as soon as a new contractual partner is created in SAP, and that the correct follow-up processes such as orders are triggered once the contract has been concluded. 

An ECM platform such as Doxis4 is easy to integrate and also comes with a lot of standard functionality that would have to be implemented in SAP at great expense (such as review and approval processes, dynamic files, deadline management, retention rules, audit-proof archiving, GDPR compliance and much more).

In this way, companies also create the prerequisites for an information governance strategy that protects information across all systems and prevents compliance risks.

Building bridges for the future 

Even when switching to new SAP versions or to the SAP Cloud Platform with ECM, documents remain available without restrictions - even though the SAP ArchiveLink interface is passé in the cloud world. It has been replaced by a corresponding connector such as Doxis4 SmartBridge for SAP, which is now used to transfer documents from the ECM to the SAP system. This also applies vice versa, as it allows data from SAP to reach the ECM, so that non-SAP users can also access it. 

With the combination of SAP and ECM, companies are equipped for the digital future: they bridge the gap between the world of documents and the world of data and create the conditions for intelligent information and process management - the basis for surviving on the market not only in the New Normal, but also in the Next Normal.