SA Premix: Fast‑Tracking E‑commerce Integration with SYSPRO

SA Premix, part of the AECI group, develops and manufactures nutritional additives for the agricultural and veterinary market. To support customers better, it launched an online e‑commerce portal but needed a way to connect orders directly into its SYSPRO ERP system.

The Challenge

Automating Complex, High‑Volume Job Creation

Once orders were captured online, they had to be converted into production jobs in SYSPRO’s Work In Progress (WIP) module. Many orders are highly specific, involving custom formulations that would be impractical to key in manually.

George Hayter, IT Manager at SA Premix, faced a choice:

  • Build a hand‑coded integration from scratch, or
  • Adopt an integration platform recommended by a SYSPRO consultant

As Hayter recalls, “We would never be able to add the jobs into WIP manually.” A reliable, scalable integration was essential to deliver the customer service standards SA Premix is known for.

Complex WIP job creation

E‑commerce orders with custom formulations had to become SYSPRO WIP jobs at volume; manual capture was not viable.

SYSPRO WIP automation in 3 months

Flowgear converted portal orders and formulations into structured SYSPRO WIP jobs, with over 100 tested workflows running automatically.

The Solution

Flowgear iPaaS Implemented in Just Three Months

SA Premix trialled Flowgear in January 2016 and moved to full go‑live by April – just three months later. During that period, the IT team built and tested more than 100 workflows covering varied integration needs and scenarios.

How it works:

  • Orders captured on the e‑commerce portal include formulation requirements
  • Flowgear converts them into structured jobs inside SYSPRO WIP
  • Workflows run automatically and error‑free, removing the need for manual entry

The Results

Thousands of Jobs Created, Zero Errors

Within the first two months after go‑live, the workflows had generated more than 2,500 jobs in SYSPRO WIP.

Key benefits:

  • No manual capture, avoiding both bottlenecks and costly errors
  • Ability to handle complex formulations without slowing down operations
  • Faster order‑to‑production cycle, improving customer service
1000s of jobs, zero errors

George Hayter, IT Manager at SA Premix, summed up the impact: “Being able to do that without errors is important for the customer service we aim to deliver.

From orders to factory data

Next step is capturing PLC data on the plant floor through the same integration layer.

Looking Ahead

Extending Integration Beyond Orders

The SA Premix IT team continues refining and optimizing existing flows, and is preparing to apply Flowgear to new areas. Future plans include capturing data from PLCs (programmable logic controllers) on the factory floor to monitor and control machinery directly through the integration layer.

Flowgear, the agile integration platform allows SA Premix to integrate orders from its e-commerce portal with its ERP system in order to automate the creation of production jobs. SA Premix, a developer and manufacturer of nutritional additives for the agricultural and veterinary market, and part of the AECI group, developed an online e-commerce portal where orders could be entered, but needed to integrate that system with its SYSPRO ERP software so that sales orders could be generated in SYSPRO and opened as production jobs in Work In Progress (WIP). In selecting an integration strategy, George Hayter, IT Manager at SA Premix, had the option of developing a hand-coded integration or going for an integration platform. A SYSPRO consultant suggested he evaluate the Flowgear integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) . “We started trialing Flowgear in January 2016, and went live with the integration three months later in April,” said Hayter. “During that time we built over 100 workflows ourselves as we tested different integration requirements and scenarios.” Due to the nature of its business, many of the orders that SA Premix receives are unique and involve complex formulations. The e-commerce portal enables the formulation requirements to be captured, but then they have to be converted into jobs in SYSPRO WIP. “We would never be able to add the jobs into WIP manually,” commented Hayter. “In the first two months after we went live, our integration workflows created over 2500 jobs in SYSPRO. Being able to do that without errors is important for the customer service we aim to deliver.” Hayter says SA Premix has further plans for Flowgear. “We want to see how we can optimize our current integration workflows, but after that we need to use Flowgear to capture data from PLCs (programmable logic controllers) in the factory so we can monitor and control machinery on the factory floor.”
Play Video
Flowgear excels against Magic Quadrant leaders
See what Gartner, G2 Crowd, SourceForge and Slashdot have to say.

The iPaaS market is growing exponentially as businesses seek ways to connect disparate systems and optimize workflows. Flowgear iPaaS enables businesses of all sizes to shed the workload & complexity of Data and App-to-App integration, quickly & affordably.

Flowgear was recently featured as a key player in the iPaaS industry in an insightful article by Fortune Business Insights.

iPaaS market valued at USD 10.70 billion in 2023. Projected to grow from USD 12.87 billion in 2024 to USD 78.28 billion by 2032, exhibiting a CAGR of 25.3%

GPI logo
|

“The Flowgear platform is easy to understand and easy to learn. It is very use full to build IPAAS integrations.”