Why choose MuleSoft for SAP integration over SAP CPI/BTP?

As SAP integration experts, we’re often asked what the best solution is for bringing SAP data into other products. While the specific answer varies, it comes down to either trying to do it natively in SAP using SAP CPI/BTP or leaning into iPaaS. But even that isn’t cut-and-dried.

At its core, SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform–formerly SAP CPI), is a middleware solution with replication at its core. An iPaaS solution like MuleSoft, combined with enosix’s certified MuleSoft Anypoint connector as the last-mile SAP integration, uses data virtualization to ensure SAP remains your single source of truth, no matter what system needs to consume SAP data.

Your Architecture Choice Matters

The architecture you use to pull data from SAP has a huge impact on the efficacy of the solution, the short-term and long-term impact on support/IT teams, and how re-usable that integration is. Your architecture choice really comes down to middleware v. data virtualization and which option will connect SAP data across your organization quickly, with minimal risk of data loss/corruption, without business downtime, and with limited and already-stretched-thin IT resources. The choice you make is critical.

Rapid Batching Isn’t Synchronous

Data is either truly synchronous or asynchronous. Even rapid batch updates are asynchronous. Without real-time synchronization of data–achieved through data virtualization–the risk of bad data is very real. And even small percentage errors require manual intervention and break trust. Customers expect 100% accurate quotes – not 99%. Internal teams expect 100% compliance to software licenses – not 98.5%

SAP BTP requires re-creation and mapping of SAP-based data, rules, and logic into front-end systems. This defeats the purpose of an iPaaS one-to-many architecture.

For MuleSoft-based enterprises, 100% data accuracy is even more critical because even a drop of bad data could spread to multiple systems in the blink of an eye. To keep your promises (and not impact margins), the SAP data used by modern front-end systems must be fully synchronized and always accurate.

Rebuilding SAP Logic in Other Systems is Untenable

Most businesses running SAP have decades of business logic embedded in all aspects of the SAP instance. Businesses that have grown by acquisition or non-organic means may have multiple SAP instances, each with disparate rules and logic. The thought of rebuilding, testing, and maintaining all these logic points is truly untenable. 

It’s why IT departments often shudder at the thought of deploying a MuleSoft iPaaS solution without a clear, proven last-mile SAP solution. enosix is a certified MuleSoft partner with proven last-mile solutions to bring SAP data into MuleSoft using data virtualization to prevent duplication, errors, and to ensure compliance to all SAP-based business rules and logic.

IT Resources Need to Focus on the Business, not the Back End

With IT resources and, specifically, SAP- or iPaaS-skilled IT resources more scarce than ever, it’s critical that IT teams focus on key business demands. Citizen integrators lack the skills to tackle the complex table-based and German-language data structures inside SAP. And SAP-trained resources and vendors are likely supporting your ECC-to-S/4HANA migration.

The needs of the business, however, cannot wait for S/4HANA migration or for SAP & iPaaS resources to become available. It’s necessary to lean into a MuleSoft + enosix solution that leverages Packaged Integration Process (PIP) of prebuilt but customizable SAP integrations that are already created and tested. 

MuleSoft + enosix: No Replication, No Errors

With SAP BTP, every piece of logic has to be replicated in front-end systems. As the number of connected applications increases, this becomes a logistical and data governance nightmare. Without SAP validation, a traditionally mapped solution could allow invalid entries–kicking the transaction into an error queue for near-constant manual intervention. 

With enosix, SAP and any MuleSoft-connected solutions see the same inputs, at the same time with validation to SAP rules, process and logic at every step. This means orders that are 100% acceptable to SAP, quotes (even for configurable products) that are 100% deliverable according to SAP ATP, and more.

Learn more about how enosix is the proven last-mile SAP integration for MuleSoft or let’s talk about your unique needs.