B2Bi 2.6 SAP Connector has been certified for SAP R/3 and SAP S/4 HANA

With the release of B2Bi 2.6, Axway has also renewed the SAP certification of our SAP Connector in B2Bi. Besides just renewing the certification for connection to SAP R/3 as we have done many times before, we have extended the validation and certification successfully to SAP S/4 HANA.

B2Bi 2.6

This extension of the certification should help us when working with customers and prospects that are already using SAP S/4 HANA or planning to upgrade. In this case, rest assured, that “our” connector to SAP will continue to work as-is without any change. Read more about experiencing the AMPLIFY™ B2Bi platform.

Technically, the SAP certification is for the ALE connectivity, and thus the exchange of native SAP IDocs with SAP. SAP is calling this certification “CA-ALE.”

As we’re officially certified, we’re also listed as such in SAP’s Certified Solution Directory. The details about Axway B2Bi 2.6 can be found on the SAP Certified Solutions Directory.

As a side story, but pretty interesting…

Historically SAP has been pushing its customers to use SAP’s integration layer XI/PI/PO (different names over time) as the first line of integration in front of all SAP systems. SAP XI/PI/PO is using the ALE layer and native IDocs for the integration with SAP itself, but to the outside world, it integrates with XML-formatted messages and other standard communication protocols like HTTP or JMS. As a customer, if you use a separate, dedicated solution for B2B/EDI processing, you had to use two layers of integration. It can be quite complex, hard to maintain and monitor.

In the US, we do now have a customer case where the XML-based data integration with SAP R/3 via SAP XI/PI/PO (and a third-party EDI system), is being replaced with “native” IDoc integration between SAP R/3 and Axway AMPLIFY B2Bi.

Primarily that project is about replacing (ripping out) that third-party EDI solution, as B2Bi is already used for the external B2B communication. Additionally, it’s great to see that SAP customers are also starting to be interested in skipping that SAP XI/PI/PO layer and thus reducing the complexity of their end-to-end EDI flows.