If you receive orders directly from customers, distributors, wholesalers, or partners, or receive incoming shipment information from suppliers for parts and products, you will probably want to be able to integrate data from custom files with SAP Business One.

We are all familiar with the benefits of non-manual integration:

• Reduced manual data entry errors

• Faster order processing

• Improved workflow

• Better relationships with customers and suppliers due to faster response times and fewer errors

• Reduced cost due to fewer resources needed to input data and less money spent on correcting errors

Alluvia’s SAP Business One integration application is a cost-effective way to automatically upload these data files in seconds, using a mapping wizard to create a template.

The problem: SAP Business One integration consulting can be expensive

Paying a consultant to add custom data files to SAP Business One can be very expensive. If you have multiple files coming in from various customers and suppliers, consulting quickly becomes unaffordable.

If files are large (purchasing orders with several hundred items per file, for example), the time spent manually entering the data into SAP Business One pulls you and your employees away from higher value-added tasks. Errors in manually keying in data tack on additional costs and tarnish your reputation.

Or you may try using SAP’s Data Transfer Workbench (DTW) tool. This does ease the pain of uploading custom data files to SAP, but there is still substantial work involved, often requiring a consultant with extensive database and SAP knowledge. Here are the steps involved:

1. You need to know what kind of data you are uploading. Is it transactional or administrative, for example?
2. The file must be structured exactly according to SAP’s requirements. Your date format must match SAP’s date format. This carries over to every column in your file – they must all match the SAP format. You or someone on your team has to manually reformat each column so it maps properly to SAP. This can take a skilled person several hours, and you may need to pay a developer or consultant to do it if you’re an amateur.
3. Run your file through the DTW tool and address any errors that come back. Errors can result from improper formatting or blank fields.
4. Fix the errors and run it through the tool again. Hopefully this time it is error-free.
5. The next time you receive a file you start all over again, re-formatting each column to match SAP.

The solution: Alluvia’s SAP Business One integration application

Now you can add custom files to SAP Business One in just a few clicks. The process is simple:

1. Upload any structured file (no special formatting required) to Alluvia. The tool will strip out the data and convert it into the SAP required format.
2. Use the intuitive drag-and-drop interface to match the file headings with the corresponding data elements in SAP Business One.
3. Name your custom template for reuse.

The next time you receive this type of file format from your customer or vendor, just upload the file, select the appropriate template, and all the data in the file will be uploaded to SAP Business One in seconds. No starting over. No developers or consultants needed. If you want 100% automation, an FTP server can be used to automate the file upload process, removing all manual intervention.

Alluvia understands the value this brings to small and medium-sized businesses. Our goal is to create an affordable solution that can benefit businesses of all sizes. A custom template can be created for a one-time setup fee, and you get up to 1,000 transactions per month for less than $100.

Integrating custom files from customers, suppliers, and partners into SAP Business One is a necessary step that can be time-consuming and costly. Businesses have often been forced to choose between devoting extra man hours and dealing with manual data entry errors or shelling out large sums of money for custom integrations. Now you can get complete automation at an extremely affordable price. And you can set it up yourself in minutes.

As the world’s largest online retailer, Amazon generated close to $136 billion in 2016 net sales, with third-party seller revenues representing the second-largest revenue segment.

This makes integrating SAP Business One (or another ERP system you’re using) with Amazon very important. While in the past this has been a difficult endeavor, new advances have made Amazon integration much easier. In this article, we discuss the most efficient and cost-effective way to achieve successful SAP Business One and Amazon integration.

Is SAP Business One and Amazon integration always complicated?

There are many stories about the difficulties of integrating SAP Business One (or any ERP, really) with Amazon. The reason being that traditionally, Amazon integration involves a rather lengthy process and a hefty bill. Here are just some of the issues that often arise when integrating Amazon and SAP Business One:

• Months of setup time – Most companies providing Amazon integration services require anywhere from one to two months (and sometimes more) to complete the integration process. This stems from consulting work that is done for each customer to create a custom integration project.
• Expensive upfront costs and recurring fees – Initial setup costs for Amazon integration can quickly add up to thousands of dollars, in addition to annual licensing and transaction fees. For small and medium-sized businesses, these costs can make integration a non-option.
• Contracts – Many integration providers have clients sign a contract. This makes it difficult to end the relationship if the vendor is too costly or not delivering to your satisfaction.

Amazon integration can be simple

Fortunately, advances in integration technology have been made. Let’s take a closer look at the improved ways Amazon integration can be achieved:

• Integration in less than a week – With a tool such as Alluvia’s, you can use an automated mapping wizard and pre-built templates, which allows you to integrate SAP Business One and Amazon in hours and minutes rather than weeks and months.
• Affordable pricing – What good is rapid integration if you cannot afford it? Fortunately, you can integrate with Amazon for just a few hundred dollars.!
• Automatic Updates – Integration requirements can change at any time. With a cloud-based solution, you will get automatic updates to retailer templates.
• Reduced costs – A cloud-based integration tool removes the costs of hardware and IT maintenance that can drain your budget.
• Everything you need for Amazon integration – Be sure your provider is capable of handling all of your Amazon integration needs so your workflow runs smoothly. Integration must cover:
  • Amazon MFN/FBM order information
  • Amazon MFN/FBM order fulfillment
  • Amazon FBA order
  • Amazon FBA shipment
  • Amazon inventory update

Is Amazon right for you?

With third-party seller-service revenue of $22.99 billion in 2016 and 50% of paid units being sold by third-party sellers, Amazon integration can surely help your ecommerce business thrive. There are over 2 million third-party sellers on the platform, enabling it to offer a vast selection to customers in terms of price, variety, and selection.

Unique to Amazon is its FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) service, which many sellers are using. The FBA service makes sellers’ products eligible for Amazon Prime and Super Saver Shipping, allows sellers to receive a higher percentage of sales when competing against non-FBA sellers, and Amazon handles the fulfillment side of the order. The seller supplies the item and leverages the lower cost of Amazon’s network for customer service, shipping, and even returns. This is a big draw and is one of the reasons Amazon continues to dominate the marketplace.  

But there are considerations to keep in mind, such as the costs associated with Amazon integration. Most ecommerce and marketplace sites will charge fees, including a final value fee, a closing fee, and even a listing fee. Amazon is no exception. These additional costs can eat into your profit margin, so companies should always compare fees up front to determine which platforms offer the best opportunities for them.

In recent news, Amazon began discounting products from some third-party sellers in an effort to compete with low-priced retailers such as Walmart. While Amazon still pays the sellers the full asking price, some sellers are concerned this move devalues their products. These types of issues must be weighed against the sheer popularity of Amazon among buyers when deciding whether integration is right for your business.

If you decide to integrate SAP Business One with Amazon, know that Alluvia is committed to providing you with the resources you need for a successful Amazon integration. Learning about common roadblocks upfront can save you time, money, and aggravation as you move forward with integration.

The holiday season is a huge opportunity for online retailers to close out the year with a bang, and 2017 was no exception. In fact, holiday retail sales had the highest growth rate since 2011, fueled by an 18.1% increase in online sales.

Ecommerce hit another milestone during Cyber Week of 2017, with Thanksgiving day delivering the highest year-over-year increase in gross merchandise volume (GMV). But you can’t take advantage of these sales without ecommerce integration, making now the time to craft an ecommerce integration plan so you can generate more revenue this year. Fortunately, there is a new data integration solution available to ensure you capitalize on not only the end-of-year holiday retail blitz, but also on other busy times for ecommerce throughout the year.

Ecommerce integration involves connecting your ERP system with any of a number of ecommerce or marketplace platforms. One ERP system that  is gaining popularity is SAP Business One, and traditionally, integration can have its share of challenges. Advances in integration technology have been made, however, revolutionizing the process. New data integration solutions now make it easier and more affordable to accomplish SAP Business One integration with Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and any of the other ecommerce and marketplace platforms available today.

To fully understand the difference between the traditional approach to ecommerce integration and revolutionary integration, let’s take a closer look at the steps associated with each. As you become educated on the new data integration solutions available, you can develop a plan to optimize the ecommerce explosion – regardless of the season.

Traditional SAP Business One integration

Whether your goal is SAP Business One integration with WooCommerce, Magento, Shopify, or another platform, the traditional approach to integration is basically the same. While there may be some slight variations in the timeline, cost, or terminology used, the scenario often goes like this:

• The customer reaches out to one or more vendors for a quote.
• Vendors submit proposals outlining the services to be provided.
• Proposals are reviewed, and once selected, a traditional vendor will have you sign a contract with them for the data integration services to be provided.
• Upon contract signing, a kick-off meeting is held to outline the full details of the SAP Business One integration and a start date is scheduled.
• Custom consulting work, performed by a small team of 2-5 professionals, is performed to complete SAP Business One integration with your custom files. This typically spans anywhere from 4 – 8 weeks (and oftentimes longer than that), with consulting rates averaging $150 per hour.
• Total costs typically include a large one-time fee that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Annual licensing renewal fees are also part of the traditional cost model.
• Any additional consulting work required beyond install – updates required based on marketplace platform changes for example – are charged at the agreed-upon hourly consulting rate.
• Revolutionary SAP Business One integration
• A new data integration solution can achieve SAP Business One integration in a more timely and straightforward manner. With revolutionary integration, the scenario is as follows:
• The customer hears about a new approach to data integration, and reaches out to Alluvia for more information.
• No contract is required, and with the setup cost under $100, you decide to give it a try.
• A small utility is installed on your local server, while core functionality and business logic are processed by a cloud-computing engine.
• Using an intuitive mapping wizard in a drag-and-drop interface, you (not a consultant) match data elements in real-time, setting up ecommerce and marketplace integration in less than a day.

Benefits of this ground-breaking approach:

• Automatic updates to platform requirements, ensuring your system is always running smoothly
• All documents required – whether it be for SAP Business One integration with Magento, Shopify, or other platform – are included. Your integration is complete for the entire order and inventory process.
• Employees can make changes to user-defined fields without the intervention of an outside consultant, keeping your costs down and your business flexible.
• Minimal maintenance is required with a cloud system, freeing up time and resources for more business-oriented tasks.
• Expanding to additional platforms as your business grows is just as simple and cost-effective, widening the possibilities for growing your business.

Be prepared for this year

If you are looking to expand your online retail sales into new ecommerce and marketplace platforms, set your sights on the 2018 holiday season now. It is never too early to start planning for the holiday season (and other retail-rich events at other times of the year), and while most retailers get deep into planning sales promotions for the holidays in the fall, your integration needs to be up and running first, making this your highest priority.

You can expect your holiday sales to kick off strong over Thanksgiving weekend and on Cyber Monday. A small lull in early to mid-December is to be expected, with another strong surge right before the holiday itself. With ecommerce sales up an estimated 16% from November to December this year, this is a sales opportunity you cannot afford to miss next year. A new, revolutionary approach to data integration makes integration possible on not only one ecommerce platform, but now makes integration on multiple platforms a real possibility.