Advantages of OPC Router for SAP Partners and Consultants

It is indisputable that the SAP ERP is one of the most implemented, if not the most. Its benefits and power are widely known and, in addition, it has a large ecosystem of engineering companies and integrators trained to work with it throughout the territory.

However, in the continuous digitization process that we are experiencing, SAP projects are also changing. An ERP is no longer only needed and expected to manage the company’s operations and plan and distribute its resources, but it must also have a constant exchange of information with all the other systems that make up the company. And not only that, with the systematic deployment of AI initiatives, if not today it will be tomorrow, part of the ERP information must also be integrated with Big Data tools or IoT platforms.

In the industrial, infrastructure or facility management sector, this takes on special relevance since part of this communication comes from completely heterogeneous sources, must be constant and even in real time, so using intermediate tables with queries every hour or more is not an option.

Today this is a problem. The connectors to other applications that SAP has are very focused on a specific type of tool, such as relational databases or applications such as Microsoft’s Power BI. However, if you want to interconnect SAP with another type of system, it is not easy or cheap to implement.

This lack of flexibility implies that any company that develops integration projects with SAP must dedicate a very valuable time to solving the connectivity of this with other systems. Paradoxically, this great time invested by the SAP partner or consultant adds little value to the project itself.

OPC Router is presented as an ideal tool to solve these cases for those engineering companies that implement projects where SAP connectivity limitations are a problem. In this article we summarize the most interesting points:

1. More efficient integration in resources

As mentioned, this part of the project has a great complexity, which must be solved by the highest level engineers, taking into account that it does not provide a great differential value. With OPC Router, the difficulty of establishing communication from SAP with other systems drops sharply, so less valuable resources can also do it. While understanding and being able to develop a connector for SAP is a matter of months or years, if you already have SAP knowledge, setting up a connection with OPC Router is a matter of less than a morning.

In this way, the most valuable resources (and therefore the most expensive) can get involved where they make a big difference to the success of the project implementation.

2. Repetitive and reusable solution

In line with the above, unlike a custom development, a productized solution such as OPC Router allows you to reuse the project as many times as you want and in as many different clients as you need. Simply changing the indicated configuration parameters, you will have the connection set up.

Unlike a custom development, where you depend on who programmed it and the documentation they generated during the process, understanding an OPC Router project is a matter of minutes.

3. Opens the door to new projects or to unlock current ones

As mentioned, due to the rapid learning curve of OPC Router, implementing new types of projects where the entry barrier was the connection of the other system with SAP may be possible.

In this way, the company’s project portfolio increases, expanding the value for its current customer base and at the same time enabling the search for new ones.

In addition to all this, OPC Router works for an increasing type of project. A large number of companies are currently implementing digitization projects where a flow of data between different applications is constantly required.

4. No learning cost

Not only does OPC Router have little complexity as a tool, but there are multiple videos, tutorials, examples and guides on how to make any type of connection. But mainly, its great advantage is that without a license the product is fully functional for 2 hours of Runtime, this time being reset as many times as desired.

In summary, OPC Router is a more than useful tool for any company that carries out projects with SAP, both from the point of view of technical advantages, as well as product management and at a business level.

If you want to know a little more about how OPC Router works, learn about it here