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Saison Technology Co., Ltd. announced on August 22nd that it will collaborate with three domestic SaaS vendors to jointly promote ERP modernization for SAP users.
Standard support for SAP ERP 6.0 (ECC 6.0) will end in 2027, and user companies are in the midst of a transition period to its successor, SAP S/4HANA. This transition involves offloading the functional customizations required by companies to various SaaS services, rather than using add-ons to the ERP itself. This will be achieved through loosely coupled data integration using Saison Technology’s “HULFT Square,” an iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service: cloud-based data integration platform). Three companies announced their participation: WingArc1st Inc. (electronic document solutions, etc.), Atread Inc. (workflow systems), and Cybozu Inc. (kintone, a no-code business application creation tool). The company plans to continue expanding participation among SaaS services compatible with HULFT Square. A dedicated SAP data integration connector will be developed in collaboration with Cresco e-Solutions Inc. and will be available as a new feature of “HULFT Square” starting in fall 2025.
Utilizing ERP by Minimizing and Offloading Add-ons At a press conference held on the same day, Seiji Ishida (Director, Managing Executive Officer, and Head of Sales) of Saison Technology explained the underlying challenges. “It is said that there are still few successful examples of ERP, even in North America,” he said, pointing out that customization to suit individual companies through add-ons and other means remains an issue. “We want to minimize add-ons, offload them as much as possible, and leverage the strengths of ERP through loose coupling between systems.” In Japan, in particular, there is a need to add unique features due to business practices, such as familiar input screens, a culture of stamping, external character conversion, and output on specialized forms. This alliance aims to address these issues through collaboration with domestic SaaS vendors. By minimizing add-on customizations around the core ERP and offloading functions to achieve loose coupling, Ishida explained, implementation and upgrade times and costs will be reduced. As mentioned above, Saison Technology will release an OData connector connecting SAP and HULFT Square in the fall of 2025. Connection templates will be used between each vendor to connect with SAP through a loose coupling, not an add-on. “I hope that SIers will adopt this and focus on true ERP migration, which is their core,” Ishida added. Next, Satoshi Goto (CEO) of Cresco E-Solutions, Inc., spoke about the current challenges facing SAP users, citing the need for migration due to the large number of users still using SAP ECC. He also pointed out that, in the past, companies have tried to do everything with large ERP systems, resulting in excessive add-ons and high maintenance costs. Meanwhile, he noted that the current trend in ERP is toward composability, with product combinations becoming the norm. Therefore, this alliance will use HULFT Square as a common integration platform to integrate each system.
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Linking the three companies’ reports, workflows, and on-site tool SaaS with ERP The three companies also appeared at the briefing. Atsunori Kuga (Executive Officer and CMO) of WingArc1st, Inc., introduced the report services “SVF” and “invoiceAgent” from the BD (Business Document) business, and the data analysis platforms “Dr.Sum” and “MotionBoard” from the DE (Data Empowerment) business. Kuga explained that this HULFT Square initiative has made it easier for the company to connect its reports and data analysis with SAP, as well as with other SaaS services. “We will be able to further leverage the power of SAP with optimal solutions that meet various user requirements.” Yasuhiro Okamoto (President and CEO) of Atred Inc. introduced the company’s workflow products, “X-point” for small and medium-sized businesses and “Agile Works” for medium-sized and large companies. Okamoto explained that workflow is the hub of business operations, as requests and approvals are the starting point for work. He then presented two use cases for integrating ERP and workflow. The first is the use of workflows to request and approve registration and revision of master data such as item master data and customer master data. The second is exception handling, such as approvals and cancellations in purchase orders, where approvals are made through workflows and data is written back.
Kazutoshi Kiyota (Executive Officer and Head of Sales) of Cybozu, Inc., introduced kintone as a tool that allows non-IT professionals to create apps for data entry and other tasks using drag-and-drop, no-code methods. Regarding the integration of ERP and kintone, he explained that companies often struggle to cover areas of their business that require paper documentation, and that kintone addresses these challenges. He went on to explain that connecting the two systems enables data integration, which transfers data assets to the field as a tool, and master integration, which keeps master data up-to-date and prevents duplicate management. Examples of use cases presented included using kintone to manage pre-order information in sales operations, eliminate personalization in purchasing operations through email attachments, and maintain master data.
SOURCE: Yahoo
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