Three flexible starting points.

Clear paths to digital maturity.

There’s a Corevist edition for every S/4HANA eCommerce scenario. Begin
with the functionality you need today, then expand when you’re ready.

Benefits of B2B eCommerce for S/4HANA:

✔ Capitalize on our deep S/4HANA integration

Don’t duplicate systems & data. Corevist includes 53 prebuilt ecommerce integration points to S/4HANA.

✔ Expedite your order-to-cash process

Get paid faster while empowering your customers to manage their accounts & keep placing e-commerce orders.

✔ Leverage the power of e-commerce analytics

Get real-time visibility into your demand chain through Google Analytics (included with the Corevist Platform).

Understanding S/4HANA Ecommerce:

At a high level, there are 3 options for e-commerce architecture in an S/4HANA scenario (click to jump):

1. Standalone e-commerce platform, no integration to S/4HANA

2. E-commerce platform synced to S/4HANA via middleware (no real-time integration)

3. E-commerce platform built on direct, real-time S/4HANA integration (the Corevist model)

Here are the drawbacks and benefits of each model:

1. Standalone e-commerce platform, no integration to S/4HANA

A disconnected e-commerce platform does make sense in some scenarios. For organizations with no e-commerce experience, a standalone solution allows you to demonstrate the viability of e-commerce to internal stakeholders and executives. Sometimes, people need to see a live e-commerce solution with the company’s products to visualize what a web channel could do for the organization.

However, it’s important to realize that the disconnected proof-of-concept is just that–a proof of the concept of e-commerce. Without S/4HANA integration, your standalone store will become too difficult (and expensive) to maintain from an IT perspective. For many organizations, the integration to S/4HANA is prohibitively complex (which is why Corevist offers pre-built S/4HANA e-commerce integration, including 49 integration points and 426 ABAP objects, as part of the Corevist Platform package).

While the standalone e-commerce solution may demonstrate the viability of digital commerce, it doesn’t serve well as a permanent solution. For that, you’ll need some kind of integration between S/4HANA and your e-commerce platform.

Which leads us to…

2. E-commerce platform synced to S/4HANA via middleware

Many organizations choose this architecture as a permanent solution. Because leading e-commerce platforms weren’t built with S/4HANA integration in mind, this architecture requires a middleware solution–a system that syncs S/4HANA and e-commerce via timed batch updates.

For datasets with a low refresh rate, like product descriptions, images, and SKU substitutions, batch sync works just fine. You’ll rarely encounter a situation in which non-synced product information causes a problem with user experience (or creates an order error).

However, certain data points should never be served via batch sync. In particular, any S/4HANA interaction governing the transaction itself should be integrated with S/4HANA in real time. Here’s a small sample of data and logic that needs this kind of treatment.

• Real-time inventory availability, including any personalized ATP (available to promise) rules
• Dynamic contract pricing, including any quantity scaling or bundled pricing
• Real-time credit status
• Real-time order status, history, and tracking
• Real-time invoice status and history

This S/4HANA data is crucial to the e-commerce experience. If the architecture depends on batch synchronization, this data will almost always be out of date. What’s more, keeping all 3 systems playing nicely together is an expensive proposition. Whether you outsource your architecture or manage it in-house, you’ll need a team running each system—which will necessitate constant communication to keep duplicate business rules aligned in all 3 systems.

The cost of maintaining 3 systems—e-commerce, middleware, and S/4HANA—adds up quickly.

This is why we don’t recommend middleware/batch sync to integrate S/4HANA and e-commerce. It’s too cumbersome, expensive, and risky for organizations that want to leverage the power of S/4HANA in a self-ervice customer portal.

Luckily, there is an alternative to the middleware model.

3. E-commerce platform built on direct, real-time S/4HANA integration

If you’re a manufacturer selling to dealers, distributors, or other channel partners, then your business rules are essential to your transactions. Each partner has their own personalized business logic governing every purchase they make from you.

If your business rules in S/4HANA are essential to e-commerce transactions, then it stands to reason that you should look for an e-commerce solution with real-time integration. That way, your channel partners get all the same personalized, 100% accurate information in e-commerce which they would get if they called or emailed customer service.

This is the Corevist model. Our solution, the Corevist Platform for S/4HANA, is built on a real-time integration to S/4HANA. There’s no need to invest in custom integration (or carry the heavy cost of maintaining that integration yourself). Our solution ensures that every e-commerce transaction conforms to your S/4HANA business rules, and it allows your customers to manage their accounts with real-time electronic payments and order tracking, all interacting directly with S/4HANA.

No middleware required, no extra work for IT. Just e-commerce integrated to S/4HANA in real time.