ACOM Makes EDI for SAP Easy

September 9, 2008 Alex Woodie

Businesses that run SAP‘s enterprise software and ACOM Solutions‘s EDI software, called EZConnect, will have an easier time integrating the two products thanks to a new implementation toolkit for SAP from ACOM.

EZConnect runs on the Windows platform and provides EDI and XML translation and transformation for a variety of databases, operating systems, and ERP and accounting packages, including those running on the IBM i operating system (formerly OS/400).

EZConnect users could previously use the software with ERP software from SAP, but it wasn’t necessarily easy, according to Mark Firmin, vice president of marketing and product management for ACOM, which is based in Long Beach, California.

“In the native SAP environment, trading partner document exchanges typically are accomplished using iDocs, or Intermediate Documents,” he says. “Mapping these documents can be complex and time-consuming, requiring extensive knowledge of the German mnemonics on which the system is based as well how EDI documents are adapted to the iDoc structure, including such things as non- ANSI standard locations of document elements.”

The new SAP toolkit removes much of this complexity by providing preconfigured XML document maps for widely used SAP documents, such as purchase orders, invoices, and advanced ship notices. Developers can create other documents without too much work or technical knowledge, the company says.