Standard shortens ERP integration by 50%

Without enterprise resource planning (ERP) and product lifecycle management (PLM), nothing would be possible in modern companies. ERP/PLM is an essential part of corporate management and administration. Furthermore, it can be used to overcome a wide range of logistical challenges, and also to promote product and process innovations. The larger the company and the more complex the products, the more complex the tasks and processes are in ERP. In addition to well-known systems such as SAP, Windchill or Teamcenter, there are a number of other systems, each equipped with numerous tools for various application areas. Such systems require experienced experts.

Engineering also has its various specialists who know how to handle their systems. To ensure optimal business efficiency, process reliability, and data consistency, ERP and engineering must work seamlessly together. Regardless of whether material master, BOM, document, or project management: both areas are always involved and must be able to rely on up-to-date data. However, duplicate data storage and manual transmissions are far too time-consuming and error-prone, and expertise is often required with respect to a system outside one's field of activity.

To efficiently address all these challenges, AUCOTEC has developed a new, standardized interface for its cooperative platform Engineering Base (EB), which is very easy to integrate and does not require any special ERP/PLM expertise with respect to its use. Not only can the ERP/PLM EB Integration (EPEI) be "docked" to any company's own middleware, but it also offers all-round standardized integration in cooperation with the ERP experts from it-motive and their data hub imap. From material master to project management, it ensures the self-configurable, regular and primarily bidirectional data exchange in an absolutely consistent manner. It does all this without multiple data entries, duplicate data storage and update effort!

The integration platform works in a service-oriented manner. This means that all communication between the systems can be done in the background via web services, i.e. without having to start EB at the workstation. Time-based automatic processes can be defined, and ERP/PLM as well as engineering have the latest data at all times. The interface, which always remains the same on the EB side regardless of which ERP system is connected, enables a significantly reduced integration and maintenance effort. From the setup via implementation to configuration, it saves around half of the usual time for specific ERP integration projects and remains flexible in the choice of ERP system. Whoever chooses the cooperation solution with it-motive and imap will never again need to waste time on updates and interface adjustments.

Any data exchange via EPEI can also be controlled with EB's Workflow Assistant. The departments involved can be guided in a targeted manner through their individual workflow. Thus, nothing is forgotten or overlooked. The Assistant takes into account various permission levels as well as freely definable release procedures.