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SAP and iScala: the best of both worlds
You don't need to yield when it comes to choosing between SAP or iScala. Now, you can get the
best of both worlds. Choose SAP and iScala and have both systems working as one collaborative ERP
system together in different locations: SAP for your headquarters and large operations (Tier 1)
and iScala for your smaller and mid size subsidiaries (Tier 2).
Why SAP and iScala?
Scala and SAP can be integrated to deliver a seamless, enterprise wide solution. There can be many
business drivers for deploying SAP and iScala within the same organization, one of the most common
is to match the supported business functionality and technical support costs against the local
business needs. Highly complex Tier 1 ERP solutions such as SAP can deliver very substantial
business benefits in a complex environment where many users doing substantially the same tasks.
However in less complex business environments, environments where business activities can change
rapidly or in sites with less staff a solution that is quicker to deploy may be a better option.
Solutions such as iScala can be installed and maintained with locally available skills and will
often meet all the business needs at a significantly lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
Throughout this web page reference is made to connection to SAP. Substantially the same concepts
apply when connecting iScala to any other ERP system.
How does it work?
Scala, like most ERP systems has a well-defined interface to send and receive business documents.
This is the iScala Data Exchange Server (DES), a piece of technology now built in to the platform
of the iScala 2.3 product. DES can be thought of as a powerful XML based sorting engine and message
gateway. Any business document that is received is inspected to identify what it is (e.g. a Sales
Order or an Invoice) and then passed to the correct piece of business logic (called an iScala
Manager) to process that document. Similarly, when iScala needs to send a message to another system
the appropriate iScala Manager creates the business document in XML format and then passes it to
DES for onward delivery. XML is a very widely used standard for labeling the data within a document,
there are many different labeling standards (known as schemas) currently in existence. iScala
supports one of the most widely used schema sets, the Open Application Group Integration
Specification (OAGIS).
SAP also has a very well defined interface. However, the most widely used SAP interface does not
use XML, instead it uses a more traditional flat file format that is based on an SAP proprietary
standard called iDoc. iDocs are very information rich and can support every type of external
communication from SAP, so long as the iDoc format is adhered to. iScala has already released
support for the 50 most common business documents (including orders, delivery documents, invoices
etc) and is regularly releasing more. Any business document from any Connectivity Solution can be
connected to SAP via middleware.
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