SAP

As you may know from reading about Clear, we believe nothing in enterprise software should be complicated or expensive. Complex processes can always be distilled down into elegant solutions, with the right set of tools. One of the most common processes we see at our customers is integrating their enterprise software systems with 3rd party eCommerce sites such as Graybar, Grainger, Office Depot, or Staples. We provide a very simple integration called ClearPO that elegantly streamlines this process: The Problem However, for those of you familiar with purchasing in large organizations, you know that this process it a lot more [...]

In my May post, I mentioned that a large number of SAP customers are struggling to implement a consumer grade user experience for their SAP systems, whether it be through SAP's Personas and Fiori platforms or through completely custom development in Java or .NET. Today I want to discuss a specific example - SAP Accounts Receivable with Order-to-Cash integration.  This is perhaps the most common business process across all organizations running SAP, and also the most cumbersome in terms of user experience.  Everyone needs a 360 degree view of a customer, with the ability to see all master data and [...]

The Clear Software team just got back from SAPPHIRE 2015 in Orlando and we had a great time meeting colleagues both new and old.  The event was very successful for us again this year as we had some pretty heavy traffic to our booth.   However, one of the alarming messages we received again and again from our visitors is that you are really struggling to make SAP easier to use with the Personas and Fiori user experience (UX) platforms. While we certainly have a conflict of interest (we provide ClearUI® for SAP customers), the purpose of this article to highlight [...]

As of January 28, 2013, the United States Postal Service requires use of the Intelligent Mail bar code to qualify for automation prices on mailed documents.  This has impacted many SAP customers who mail large volumes of invoices, checks, etc.  In order to integrate the IMB bar code into your existing SAP forms, follow these steps: Download the appropriate IMB encoder for your server’s platform from the USPS website along with the fonts for the bar code.  The fonts need to be installed on any printer where you will output your forms. Extract the contents to a directory on your [...]

A common issue I see at every SAP Insurance implementation is that the customer, and sometimes the consultants, are not aware of the plethora of options available for real-time integration into FS-CD.  So the next time you hear “that’s not possible,” consider the following: SAP provides several connectors that allow Java, .NET, and C/C++ applications to directly call remote-enabled function modules.  Read more at http://service.sap.com/connectors. Nearly every major integration layer platform provides connectivity to SAP remote-enabled function modules, including IBM’s Websphere suite, TIBCO, and many others. SAP provides remote-enabled function modules for nearly everything in SAP.  There are over 34,000 [...]

Insurance companies using business partner master data in SAP often need to default tax jurisdiction code on the business partner master record in order to be able to create a contract account.  Many choose to default this data in an interface or simply manually key in the data.  However, there is a simple and elegant way to automatically derive for the correct tax jurisdiction code based on configuration.  Follow these steps: In SPRO, navigate to Cross-Application Components > SAP Business Partner > Business Partner > Basic Settings > Tax Jurisdictions > Using SAP Software > Assign Tax Jurisdictions to Regions [...]

Enterprises running SAP frequently need to update bank routing numbers in FI-BL to ensure their customers and vendors are using valid bank accounts.  Traditionally, this could be done in transaction BAUP if the file were formatted as a Thompson Electronic Payment File.  However, many SAP clients receive periodic routing number files directly from the Federal Reserve or a licensed vendor.  The file format from the Federal Reserve is quite different.  Rather than creating a custom program, you can still use transaction BAUP by following these steps: Ensure that you have read and understand the latest file layout from the Federal [...]