CONTENTS. Nintex Revitalizes the SAP User Experience

Transcription

1 r e s U e h t s e z i l a s t i n v o e i t R u l x Ninte ce for SAP So n e i r e p x E This white paper provides information about the benefits of using Nintex and SAP as a workflow solution for your organization. It also contains practical examples for some business processes that show how you can revitalize the use of SAP with Nintex. nintex.com

2 CONTENTS NINTEX REVITALIZES THE USER EXPERIENCE FOR SAP BUSINESS SUITE BENEFITS OF NINTEX WITH SAP BUSINESS SUITE Business Executives Business Functional Users Business Analysts Benefits to IT SharePoint / Nintex Developers and Workflow Specialists SharePoint / Nintex Administrators SAP Admin and Security Teams BUSINESS AREAS OF OPPORTUNITY HR Self-Service Travel Request Example Quote to Cash Procure to Pay Invoice Approval Example Operations and Manufacturing Projects System Master Data Material Master Example Vendor Master Customer Master NINTEX WITH SAP BUSINESS SUITE INTEGRATION KEY ELEMENTS Data Workflow Security Document Management NINTEX WITH SAP BUSINESS SUITE INTEGRATION PARTNERS Nintex Technology Partners Theobald Software Innowera Gimmal ABOUT NINTEX Nintex Revitalizes the SAP User Experience

3 NINTEX REVITALIZES THE USER EXPERIENCE FOR SAP BUSINESS SUITE Today s business users demand an effortless user experience with corporate systems that drives efficiency and re-invents business processes. In this new Age of the Customer, high expectations lead IT to adopt tools that can be used to easily create new, personalized front-end solutions on top of existing legacy and line of business systems. Nintex can extend the value of these systems by extending its market-leading Nintex Forms and Nintex Workflow applications for use with SAP Business Suite. The result? Amazing possibilities for business innovation. This white paper discusses key areas of business opportunity and the potential value that companies can quickly realize by integrating Nintex with SAP Business Suite. KEY REQUIREMENTS Through interviews and feedback with Nintex partners and customers, we identified several key requirements that organizations demand of solutions that improve the user experience with legacy systems: The one-size-fits-all approach no longer works. Solutions need to be personalized to best serve the uniqueness of each business organization, down to the individual user. Solutions must be available on any device, both mobile and PC, with consumer grade performance and rock solid security, no matter where they are used. Non-developers who don t have SAP software programming skills need the ability to easily create these solutions. Solutions must be affordable, offer a quick return on investment, and leverage existing IT assets, driving new value out of existing system platforms. Two platforms in use extensively by midmarket and enterprise organizations include Microsoft and SAP. Microsoft is the market leader in user productivity software, with most business users working in Office, Outlook and Internet Explorer every day. SAP is the dominant solution for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), which runs virtually all business transactions within a company. The user experience for SAP solutions is often described as complex, and consequently a challenge for business users to adopt. The potential to deliver custom-tailored, Microsoft-centric front-end solutions on top of existing SAP back-end transactions is a tremendous business improvement opportunity. Nintex Forms and Nintex Workflow provide the platform to make that vision a reality. As thousands of users know, Nintex s powerful integration with Microsoft SharePoint enables people to tailor forms that make it easy for business users to view and enter data. Nintex Workflow gives people a way to create custom workflows that keep that data moving along for optimized work group processing. Solutions by Nintex integration partners who also have expertise with SAP Business Suite provide great tools for connecting these two worlds. 3 Nintex Revitalizes the SAP User Experience

4 BENEFITS OF NINTEX WITH SAP BUSINESS SUITE Ultimately, the demand driver for remodeling on top of the SAP data foundation is to create business value. That value comes from innovating new methods to improve business performance, drive new ways to sell and interact with customers and partners, and effectively engage employees. These improvements offer different dynamics for the various stakeholders within the organization. BUSINESS EXECUTIVES Business executives focus is on improving stockholder value through continuous efforts to analyze, improve and differentiate the business. Business Improvement Better, faster business decisions Bottom line results Mobile access Value Optimized forms provide better, more timely contextual information needed to make informed decisions and act directly on workflow tasks. Incremental business improvements made possible through Nintex remodeling of existing SAP screens and processes drive reduced costs. Nintex with SAP Business Suite integration can deliver SAP data direct to executives mobile devices. BUSINESS FUNCTIONAL USERS Nintex workflow and forms tools, integrated with SAP Business Suite data, dynamically improve processes to drive operational efficiency throughout the organization. Business Function Operations Purchasing Human Resources Sales Supply Chain Managers Value Simplified, specific forms for field and operations personnel enable them to access SAP data specific to their tasks, increasing efficiency and improving adoption. Optimizing the many forms and workflows for the different steps in the Procure to Pay process simplifies screens and streamlines the user experience. Tailored user forms and streamlined workflows give users self-service access to their Employee Master. They can create new workflows to optimize processes such as employee onboarding and benefits enrollment. Tailored solutions for the sales organization combine data from SAP and CRM systems such as Dynamics CRM and Salesforce, streamlining the sales quote and order entry processes. Extending Nintex Forms that include SAP data to supply chain partners to gain partners participation in managing data across the extended process. Streamlined workflow approval tasks provide detailed, contextual information to managers on the same form where they approve a process. Innovative Nintex forms tailored to the specific needs of business users can revolutionize the SAP user experience with instant adoption. With Nintex Mobile capabilities, these solutions can be executed on any device from anywhere. 4 Nintex Revitalizes the SAP User Experience

5 BUSINESS ANALYSTS Currently, when a business work group is unable to use SAP the way it needs, members create manual workarounds to get their jobs done. Business analysts within the group typically manipulate SAP data in Excel, route it via to various people for additional input and approvals, and manually key the changes back into SAP. Nintex integrated with SAP Business Suite gives analysts the ability to create solutions with real-time connection, and to view and act on SAP data, eliminating the manual steps and inherent process latencies. Capability Rapid prototyping and development Empowered without IT Support Improvement Quickly prototype, experiment with, deploy and continually improve new ideas and concepts for quick ROI, and boosted business user efficiency. Create solutions for unique business processes. Freedom to create solutions without waiting for support delivers quick value BENEFITS TO IT Nintex with SAP Business Suite integration delivers tools that are proven, approved and consistent with the existing SAP and SharePoint infrastructure, security and system support procedures. Nintex with SAP Business Suite integration can be deployed fully on-premises or can be established in a hybrid cloud with Office 365, SharePoint and Azure through direct, secure channels to the existing SAP data center. SharePoint / Nintex Developers and Workflow Specialists SharePoint developers and workflow specialists can use their existing skills to create new Nintex solutions that can augment SAP solutions. A great valueadd to these solutions is in other elements of the full SharePoint stack, including BI, Excel Services, Search, Document Management, Yammer, Skype for Business and other powerful composite capabilities. SharePoint / Nintex Administrators Nintex solutions can be fully supported by existing SharePoint admin and support resources as a standard component of their existing SharePoint processes. Security is managed on the SharePoint side through Active Directory with single sign-on authentication and SSL through-put. SAP Admin and Security Teams The organization s SAP BASIS security and support teams have the assurance that integration with Nintex is consistent with SAP security standards. People can t access the data unless they re approved SAP users, and users can only view and act on data that they have the rights to as established by SAP role security. 5 Nintex Revitalizes the SAP User Experience

6 BUSINESS AREAS OF OPPORTUNITY The range of business scenarios that can be enhanced when Nintex is integrated with SAP Business Suite is broad, opening up dynamic opportunities for improvement initiatives across the organization. Deliver high impact business value through an improved user experience with features such as: Capability Improvement Value Screen Simplification Intuitive Navigation Streamlined Workflow Composite Content Mobile Access Native SAP screens are notoriously complicated. A single tailored Nintex form can take the place of a dozen SAP screens and tabs. Nintex brings the familiarity that users have with their daily use of Microsoft products to SAP. Nintex workflows can be created to manage the process workflow directly by users. As a SharePoint solution, Nintex can integrate data from SAP solutions with other data sources and systems, as well as extended cloud services. Nintex solutions can provide users with access from their mobile devices that s not available with native SAP solutions. Improved user efficiency Increased adoption User satisfaction Improved user efficiency Reduced learning curve User satisfaction Process Innovations Improved workflow management Improved speed and quality of workflow decision tasks Improved user efficiency BI integration Social integration Document management integration Improved user efficiency Accelerated workflow approvals HR SELF-SERVICE The SAP Human Capital Management (HCM) module covers traditional Human Resources functionality. Because it is heavily used by non-power users, HR self-service can greatly benefit from an improved user experience. Key activities around HCM include: recruiting, employee onboarding, leave requests, benefits enrollment and employee master self-service changes. Travel Request Example Employees complete travel requests to get manager budget approval for future business trips so they can control employee expenses, even before they re incurred. This example uses SAP data from HCM and routes the completed form for workflow approval using Nintex Workflow. The transaction is recorded in SAP to be matched against the expense report. User opens the Nintex Travel Request Approval Workflow User enters the details of the trip with fields validated directly with SAP User opens the Nintex Travel Request Entry Forms Request Form is routed for approval using Nintex Workflow On Approval, Travel Request is submitted into SAP 6 Nintex Revitalizes the SAP User Experience

7 QUOTE TO CASH For every business, making money boils down to the sale and creating better ways to interact with the customer. With Nintex, companies can create forms and workflows tailored to the following business needs: CRM integration and Quoting Contracts and Pricing Management Sales Orders Inventory Visibility Demand Forecasting Order Fulfillment Cash Application Accounts Receivable PROCURE TO PAY The procurement process is a key business process that you can dramatically improve with tailored Nintex forms and workflows. Key activities in this area include: purchase requisitions, purchase orders, service entry sheets, goods receipts, invoice approvals, contracts and accounts payable. Invoice Approval Example A critical activity for any business is invoice approval. See an integrated scenario below: Invoice is received via , electronic exchange or postal mail User enters any additional information for coding the invoice for payment User opens the Nintex Invoice Approval Workflow Invoice document image is attached to Invoice User Enters PO Number into the Nintex Invoice Form Submit into SAP as System of Record and park until approved Invoice Form is Populated with details pulled directly from the SAP PO data On Approval, Invoice is released in SAP through workflow integration to Accounts Payable Nintex with SAP Business Suite integration can reduce to a single screen the information that would previously require as many as a dozen SAP screens and tabs to access. In addition, a Nintex solution provides a streamlined Nintex Workflow process integrated with SAP Business Suite workflow tasks. 7 Nintex Revitalizes the SAP User Experience

8 OPERATIONS AND MANUFACTURING The manufacturing and operations activities within an organization also present an opportunity to improve user experience forms and optimize micro-process workflows in areas such as: Inventory and Fulfillment Warehouse Management Manufacturing Operations Plant Maintenance Field Service Master Scheduling PROJECTS SYSTEM The SAP Project Systems module provides the functionality to plan and track financially relevant activities and costs against a project Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) plan and schedule. Construction and custom manufacturers frequently use it to manage their projects. It s an area with tremendous demand for simplified, tailored user forms and workflows specific to each customer a great opportunity for Nintex with SAP Business Suite integration. These opportunities include: Integration to Microsoft Project Server and third party partner products to manage the schedule SAP software integration for the financial control side of the process 8 Nintex Revitalizes the SAP User Experience

9 MASTER DATA Master data is maintained in SAP solutions for many key entities that support different business processes, including materials, vendors and customers. Material Master Example Setting up an item in the system often requires the attention of multiple people. These people must enter the details, images and associated documents required before the item is formally available to buy, assemble or sell. The example below is a real-world scenario for creating a new item to sell at a grocery store: Initial user opens the Nintex Master Item Creation Workflow Workflow passed to external user to enter dietary info in Nintex Form Workflow passed to user to enter basic item attributes in Nintex Item Master Form Workflow passed to manage collecting and attaching vendor contracts Workflow passed to user validate item data and submit to SAP to create item Workflow passed to user to enter procurement info in Nintex Form Workflow passed to user to attach graphic images of item using Nintex Form Workflow passed to user to enter pricing and discount info in Nintex Form Workflow passed to marketing to enter program details into Nintex Form Nintex can be used to establish the workflow that manages the collection of all of this data. Forms integrated with SAP Business Suite can dramatically simplify the input of that data by process stakeholders. VENDOR MASTER Establishing and managing vendors within the SAP system is another process that often requires multiple touch points. This process is critical to the business in obtaining new products, materials and services, and serves as the key integration point to the procure-to-pay process leading to accounts payable. CUSTOMER MASTER Customer master management ensures that customers are properly set up and approved for sales orders and tax compliance. Stakeholders in this process include sales, marketing, credit and demand forecasting. 9 Nintex Revitalizes the SAP User Experience

10 NINTEX WITH SAP BUSINESS SUITE INTEGRATION KEY ELEMENTS There are four key integration factors for SAP solutions, and all can be addressed by Nintex: WORKFLOW DATA As the financial system of record, SAP ERP must be the source of truth for all transactional data, and the controlling repository for business rules that must be respected and enforced. Nintex solutions ensure that all interactions are accepted by clients SAP security teams and auditors and that they are in line with the appropriate security standards. DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT Most transactions include documents required to be tracked and managed as part of the financial record, or as key supporting information for operations and engineering processes. Nintex integration partner solutions can ensure that those documents are processed and available both from SharePoint, as well as from SAP solutions. SAP software has an integrated business workflow engine in place in many organizations, but the scope is limited to SAP tasks. Nintex Workflow integrated to SAP Business Suite allows workflows to be developed that include tasks outside of SAP, but then integrate back, completing the transaction in SAP. SECURITY Because all SAP transactions feed the client s financial system, security controls are paramount and are routinely audited and under strict Sarbanes Oxley (SOX) standards. Any external access to the system must comply with those security standards and protocols. This is to ensure that the system is safe from external threats, and inappropriate access and actions from users within the organization. Nintex with SAP Business Suite integration complies with all SAP role-based security roles and access security protocols. 10 Nintex Revitalizes the SAP User Experience

11 NINTEX WITH SAP BUSINESS SUITE INTEGRATION PARTNERS The Nintex with SAP Business Suite integration points are built into the Nintex framework to allow forms and workflow to communicate directly to SAP solutions through an out-of-the-box Web Services layer. Nintex technology partners have extended this capability to provide robust solutions that can assist Nintex developers with their SAP Business Suite integration. You can call SAP Web Services (like any other web service) using our Call Web Service action. You can insert code into the properties of the action in the design canvas and store the resulting response received from SAP software for later use in the business process. In fact, Call Web Service action has a SOAP builder option where the code is constructed for you automatically and you re only prompted for the parameters that are expected by the SAP Web Services at the other end. Once you ve built your integration to SAP software with one or more drag-and-drop actions, these can be packaged up into a single User Defined action with simple inputs and outputs. As a result, workflow designers don t need to see the code and complexity behind the process they simply drag on the action that s been provided for the job and complete the fields. So the most complex part of your workflow becomes easy to reuse, even for employees without expert technical knowledge. NINTEX TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS Nintex with SAP Business Suite integration can be achieved through a choice of key partner technologies depending on clients business requirements. Parttner Forms SAP Data Interoperability Workflow Integration Document Management Theobald Software Using the custom actions Call SAP Function and Read SAP Table, which are delivered with ERPConnect services, the Nintex workflow can directly interact with SAP Business Suite ERPConnect Services to access SAP data in workflow scenarios Gimmal ERP-Link BPS allows external.net and Web Services to directly communicate with the SAP RFC/CCMS layer WorkFlow. Link is a prepackaged module incorporating all the functions needed to set up interoperable workflows between SAP and Nintex ERP-Link allows SAP content to be managed in SharePoint as the single ECM repository Innowera Similar to InfoPath Innowera platform with Process Runner between SharePoint and SAP SharePoint and Nintex 11 Nintex Revitalizes the SAP User Experience

12 THEOBALD SOFTWARE NINTEX TECHNOLOGY PARTNER Theobald Software s ERPConnect Services simplifies the integration of SAP data into your SharePoint environment. Customers that use Nintex Workflow in their SharePoint environment can utilize ERPConnect Services to access SAP data in their workflow scenarios. Certified as SAP Certified Integration with SAP NetWeaver, the ERPConnect foundation library is a lean.net assembly that enables direct integration with SAP Business Suite without requiring a complex infrastructure or additional middleware. ERPConnect Services is fully integrated into the SharePoint architecture and offers three different SAP integration options for your Nintex Workflow and Nintex Forms solutions. In the first option, the Nintex workflow utilizes one of the custom actions (Call SAP Function and Read SAP Table) that are delivered with ERPConnect Services and enable direct read/ write access to SAP solutions. Using the custom actions provides an easy to configure, nocode approach to connect your workflow directly with SAP Business Suite. In the second option, the Nintex workflow interacts with a web service that can be created with the Web Service Designer in ERPConnect Services and that exposes SAP data or a SAP process as a service. Finally, in the third option, the Nintex workflow interacts with an external list in SharePoint. The external list is based on a SAP content type that can be created with the BCS Connector in ERPConnect Services without any coding effort. ERPConnect Services is available for SharePoint 2010 and SharePoint 2013, and works with both Nintex Workflow and Nintex Forms. 12 Nintex Revitalizes the SAP User Experience

13 INNOWERA NINTEX TECHNOLOGY PARTNER Innowera applications are well known for integrating Microsoft Excel and other popular systems such as ios, Android, databases, s with SAP systems without needing any additional installation or making changes to customer s SAP system. It is estimated that Process Runner LITE is the fastest growing and most widely used SAP Excel software in the world today with thousands of downloads. Providing web forms (or InfoPathfillable forms) that can interact directly with SAP solutions from SharePoint is built into Innowera. For example, you can implement a material master creation process or let employees request an absence via a form in SharePoint, and corresponding objects will be updated directly in SAP. Innowera allows forms (InfoPath, Visual Studio etc.) to natively consume thousands of SAP transactions, Business APIs (BAPIs), RFCs or query or extract and display data from SAP tables and table joins. You can also use any customization (such as Z/Y programs, screens, tables, user exists) to your SAP system. Allows all create, update, read and delete operations as per user s authorization in SAP. These forms can be workflow-controlled if desired. All standard SharePoint workflow features like approvals, notification and monitoring, delegation, reminders and mobile integration are available. You can further empower data owners to design and run forms and workflow directly from SharePoint by extending it with industryleading technology for SharePoint such as Nintex. 13 Nintex Revitalizes the SAP User Experience

14 GIMMAL NINTEX TECHNOLOGY PARTNER Gimmal provides SAP certified tools for using SharePoint as the enterprise document repository for SAP Business Suite and building SharePoint process extensions to content enabled SAP business processes. The ERP-Link Suite for Microsoft SharePoint and SAP eliminates barriers between SAP and Microsoft environments, enabling users inside and outside of SAP to collaborate and work on the same SAP documentcentric business processes. Gimmal Structure allows Microsoft SharePoint (on-premises) or Office 365/Azure, to be the primary content repository for SAP, while also extending SharePoint with fully governed information management, data and records archival functionality in support of native SAP business processes. Gimmal s ERP-Link DM for SAP Archivelink allows SAP content to be stored, real-time accessed and managed against a complete content lifecycle in SharePoint. 100% SharePoint, ERP- Link negates the need for companies to purchase and implement additional ECM systems. ERP-Link automatically connects incoming and outgoing documents to SAP business objects/processes, storing the documents directly in SharePoint. The utilization of SharePoint is transparent to SAP users and processes. ERP-Link increases productivity; enabling expanded process automations by allowing SharePoint users to be real-time connected to SAP users and SAP processes. ERP-Link BPS (Business Process Service) runs parallel to ERP-Link DM. BPS allows external.net and Web Services applications to directly communicate with SAP RFC s/netweaver for interoperable transactional/workflow connectivity; handling translations of SAP proprietary data structures and actions into.net/web Service understandable objects with the needed marshalling of runtime services, transactional two-phase commits, load balancing for thousands of concurrent users, access control and SSO services. WorkFlow.Link incorporates all functions needed for configuration based set-up of interoperable workflows; relieving SharePoint developers from having to learn SAP technology or custom coding their own functions. Process Automations in SharePoint can: Initiate and create an initial SAP workflow container from a SharePoint task/event View a SAP In-Box in a SharePoint Web Part as a unified SharePoint WF Inbox Use SAP events to trigger the activation of SharePoint actions/events Move from a workflow step in SharePoint to a workflow step in SAP and vice versa Simultaneously link SharePoint documents to SAP objects with workflow actions/steps Gimmal has released packaged Nintex integration actions for SAP, starting with Gimmal Nintex Actions Packs for Sales Contracts, HR Records and A/P Invoices. The ready-to-use Action Packs for SAP allow Nintex customers and partners with little or no SAP knowledge to deploy integrated workflows for automating content-driven processes. ERP-Link DM, BPS and WorkFlow.Link enabled this snap-in operability for Nintex and SAP. 14 Nintex Revitalizes the SAP User Experience

15 ABOUT NINTEX Nintex, the global standard for workflow automation, enables enterprise IT to more quickly and easily create and manage simple to sophisticated business processes from the back to front-office. More than 5,000 customers in 90 countries, through the company s global network of more than 1,100 partners, turn to Nintex s Workflow Automation platform to drive productivity and accelerate business results. In 2015, Nintex was named Microsoft Office & SharePoint Application Development Partner of the Year and acquired Drawloop, one of the Top 10 paid apps in the Salesforce AppExchange. From automating workflows and forms, to document generation, the Nintex platform works in the cloud, on mobile devices, and across hybrid and on-premises environments. Learn more at We welcome the opportunity to discuss your business needs and demonstrate our unique approach to workflow automation. We are happy to offer the following services: A business requirements discussion with one of our process automation experts and our partners Solution demos and proof of concepts tailored to your requirements A comprehensive response to your RFI/RFP Customer testimonials SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. 15 Nintex Revitalizes the SAP User Experience