The Challenge
One Source of Truth Across SAP Business One and Specialist Apps
ECN needed data from multiple custom and industry‑specific systems to flow into SAP Business One, so the business could rely on a single, consistent record. SAP B1I presented hurdles for the team, and the scale and variety of systems made direct integration difficult to deliver and maintain.
One source of truth
Multiple specialist systems had to feed SAP Business One reliably; SAP B1i hurdles made direct integration hard to deliver and maintain.
Integration Developer explains
“In the two years we have been using Flowgear, we have found it to be a powerful and flexible platform for integration. For some specific integration requirements, we were able to quickly develop additional scripts, and when we hit snags we found that Flowgear support was responsive and helpful. The Flowgear DropPoint system works well and latency is good.”
The Solution
Flowgear SAP Connector, DropPoint, and Expert Support
What made the difference:
- The Flowgear SAP connector exposed SAP APIs quickly and cleanly.
- DropPoint enabled secure connectivity for on‑premise systems with good latency
- ECN’s in‑house team could build and extend integrations without heavy custom code.
Quentin Huggett, Integration Developer, said: “Flowgear solved the integration issues we had with SAP B1I, and the Flowgear SAP connector enabled us to expose the SAP APIs quickly and easily.”
“With our in-house technical expertise we were able to get up and running with Flowgear in a short time. The cost of Flowgear was also much more competitive than using SAP’s own integration solution.”
During delivery and beyond, the team was able to add scripts for edge cases and rely on responsive assistance when needed.
The Results
Unified Data and Faster Delivery
ECN achieved the goal of integrating its specialist systems with SAP Business One, which improved data consistency and sped up delivery of new integrations.
Highlights:
- Exposed SAP APIs and replaced SAP B1I pain points.
- Faster time to live for integrations, using ECN’s internal team.
- Lower integration cost compared with SAP’s native option.
- Secure connections to on‑premise systems with solid performance.
As Viljoen added, “We run a lean organization, so we wanted to automate as much of the customer transaction as we could.”
Unified data, faster delivery
“Flowgear solved the integration issues we had with SAP B1i… we exposed SAP APIs quickly and easily,” said Quentin Huggett. Internal teams shipped integrations faster at lower cost.
Stable layer for a changing stack
ECN will connect new or replacement telco apps into the Flowgear layer and push data into SAP Business One using the same patterns.
Looking Ahead
Stable Integration Layer for a Changing Stack
Telecommunications applications change frequently. ECN’s goal is an integration layer that new or replacement systems can connect to with minimal disruption. With Flowgear in place, the team can interface new applications to the layer, then move data into SAP Business One using established patterns.
Flowgear, Africa’s cloud-based integration platform provider, has helped telecommunications network provider ECN solve an integration challenge with SAP Business One.
As the fastest growing alternative telecommunications network provider in South Africa, Electronic Communications Network (ECN), formerly Nashua ECN, required a solution to integrate its various line-of-business applications to the SAP Business One business management software.
ECN operates a converged next-generation network over a number of mediums including copper, fibre and microwave, and offers a unique “one network many services” approach. While it uses SAP Business One as a management system, it also has a number of customized industry-specific applications that enable it to operate its networks, provide customer service, and manage aspects of the business. The information from these systems needed to be integrated with SAP Business One so that the company could have ‘a single source of the truth’ for the information. However, integrating these systems with SAP was not an easy task, so ECN turned to Flowgear’s integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) solution.
“Flowgear solved the integration issues we had with SAP B1I, and the Flowgear SAP connector enabled us to expose the SAP APIs quickly and easily,” comments Quentin Huggett, Integration Developer. “With our in-house technical expertise we were able to get up and running with Flowgear in a short time. The cost of Flowgear was also much more competitive than using SAP’s own integration solution.”
Because of ongoing transformation in the telecommunications industry, one of ECN’s IT goals is to provide an integration layer so that as business applications change all they will need to do is interface the new application to that layer. A further improvement will be to integrate their MetaStorm business process management software with Flowgear to automate and streamline the data integration flows between various applications.
“In the two years we have been using Flowgear, we have found it to be a powerful and flexible platform for integration,” says Huggett. “For some specific integration requirements, we were able to quickly develop additional scripts, and when we hit snags we found that Flowgear support was responsive and helpful.”
The fact that Flowgear is public cloud platform wasn’t a problem according to Huggett, “The Flowgear DropPoint system works well and latency is good.”
