In today's fast-paced digital environment, companies demand agility and efficiency from their technological solutions. Companies that rely on SAP S/4HANA and use Adobe Commerce for e-commerce face a key challenge: the seamless integration of these two powerful systems. In general, the development of such interfaces is a time-consuming and resource-intensive endeavor that is also associated with increased risks.
At the end of 2024, we were invited to Barcelona by Adobe to develop an Adobe Commerce Basis connector for SAP S4 HANA together with Adobe developers as part of a sprint. The connector has since been tested by Adobe, as part of the Assurance Program program and is now available in the Adobe Marketplace is now available. In this blog post, we try to give you some insights.
The challenge: connecting two complex systems
SAP S/4HANA and Adobe Commerce are robust platforms that each offer unique functions for managing business processes. While SAP S/4HANA excels at managing enterprise resources, Adobe Commerce provides powerful tools for online stores. However, integrating these systems to share important data such as product catalogs, customer profiles and order details can often take weeks, if not months.
Without a reliable and fast integration solution, companies face the following challenges:
- Manual data entry errors.
- Delayed order processing and fulfillment.
- Inconsistent customer experiences across different touchpoints.
These problems lead to lost sales, inefficiencies and a weakened brand reputation.
The game changer: Adobe Commerce Integration Starter Kit
The Adobe Commerce Integration Starter Kit has revolutionized our approach to connector development. It includes reference integrations for commonly used e-commerce data such as orders, products and customers. Leveraging existing onboarding scripts and a standardized architecture lowers the cost of integrating with external systems while following best practices. The starter kit provides a solid foundation for integrating any external system with Adobe Commerce. This allowed us to focus on customizing and implementing the "last mile" aspects of the integration rather than developing everything from scratch.
Key features of the Integration Starter Kit:
- Pre-implemented integrations for product, customer and order data as well as inventory synchronization.
- Onboarding scripts that enable fast and automatic configuration and integration with Adobe Commerce.
- Last-mile implementation to minimize development effort by validating, transforming and precalculating data between the two systems.
Further advantages of Adobe App Builder:
- Serverless architecture: develop features without infrastructure management thanks to serverless deployment.
- Accelerated development: Use of an SDK and the Adobe Cloud CLI tools for rapid development without having to worry about CI/CD, as it is already included.
- Extensive customization options: Develop customized solutions to meet individual business needs by extending Adobe applications.
- Scalability: Efficiently handle growing user demands with a cloud-native and scalable platform.
Our approach: An integration sprint together with Adobe in Barcelona
Adobe invited us to their Barcelona office where we developed the connector in collaboration with a dedicated team. Strengthened by good Spanish food, sea and sun, we had a lot of fun building the connector together and exchanging knowledge and experiences.
Step 1: Planning and configuration
We started the project with a clear understanding of the business requirements and system architecture. With the help of the Integration Starter Kit:
- We mapped the SAP S/4HANA and Adobe Commerce data models.
- Configured authentication protocols to ensure secure data exchange
- Set up SAP sandbox environments, including SAP BTP Event Mesh.
Step 2: Development and testing
Our team focused on developing the last-mile customizations:
- Leveraging existing APIs from Adobe Commerce and SAP to create accurate data mapping between both systems.
- Developing middleware scripts to transfer data and ensure compatibility between the systems.
- Adding stability features such as avoiding endless loops.
Step 3: Integration and validation
In the final step, we deployed the connector and tested its functionality in a live environment:
- Synchronizing part of the product and customer data to ensure accurate mapping.
- Processing test orders to validate end-to-end functionality.
- Fine-tuning performance metrics and ensuring real-time synchronization.
By the end of our joint sprint, the systems were fully integrated and we were able to provide a seamless data flow between SAP S/4HANA and Adobe Commerce.
A look behind the scenes - interview with the responsible software architect
Synchronization highlights for SAP S/4HANA
Customers:
- New customers in Adobe Commerce are synchronized with SAP
- Customer changes (including address) are synchronized with SAP
- New customers in SAP are synchronized with Adobe Commerce
- Customer changes in SAP are synchronized with Adobe Commerce
Products:
- New products in SAP are synchronized with Adobe Commerce
- Product changes in SAP are synchronized with Adobe Commerce
Orders:
- New orders in Adobe Commerce are synchronized with SAP
- Order status changes in SAP are synchronized with Adobe Commerce
Webhooks:
- Webhooks: A webhook provides the order history of a customer from SAP so that the data can be used in a headless frontend (including pagination).
Architectural overview of the new SAP interface for S/4HANA
The Adobe App Builder provides a microservice architecture that integrates with Adobe Commerce extension points. Data is sent via events or queried via webhooks from Adobe Commerce. The Integration Starter Kit validates, transforms and transfers the data to a third-party system. It works the other way around: SAP S/4HANA sends events via SAP BTP Event Mesh, which are consumed and processed by the Integration Starter Kit to transfer the data to Adobe Commerce.
Configuration
API integration access and events must be configured in Adobe Commerce. All of this is done by the onboarding scripts and can be followed using the documentation. During the onboarding process, you can define which events you want to use and what kind of data they should deliver.
On the SAP side, an SAP BTP must be available to create the BTP event mesh. Within the event mesh, a number of queues and webhooks must be registered so that the data is forwarded to the Integration Starter Kit Ingestion Webhook.
After successful implementation, everything is up and running and we can see the first orders arriving in SAP:
The advantages: Speed and scalability
This project illustrates the strengths of pre-built integration frameworks such as the Adobe Commerce Integration Starter Kit. By minimizing development time and effort, we delivered:
- Speed to market: integration in just three days, allowing the business to focus on growth initiatives.
- Cost efficiency: reduced development and testing costs.
- Future scalability: A modular connector that can be adapted to future business needs.
Adobe Commerce App Assurance Program
The connector has been tested and awarded as part of the Adobe Commerce App Assurance Program. This program is a new way for manufacturers/merchants and developers to get the most out of the Commerce Marketplace.
The App Assurance program evaluates the quality of apps and extensions to ensure they meet Adobe's high standards. Resellers can now easily access a curated collection of offerings that meet a higher standard and are designed with scalability and performance in mind.
Conclusion
The successful integration of SAP S/4HANA with Adobe Commerce in just three days demonstrates the power of modern integration tools. By using the Adobe Commerce Integration Starter Kit and focusing on last-mile customizations, companies can achieve seamless system connectivity at unprecedented speed.
This approach not only saves time and resources, but also ensures a more agile and responsive digital ecosystem.
The current connector is available in the Adobe Exchange and in the Adobe Marketplace available. Many thanks to Adobe Barcelona for this great opportunity and joint effort!
Are you ready to accelerate your digital transformation? Get in touch with usto learn how we can help your organization achieve a seamless integration of SAP S/4HANA and Adobe Commerce and beyond.