By – Suyash Loyare
(SAP Functional Analyst | Digitate)
I can relate to this quote by George Bernard Shaw so much with respect to the daily IDoc errors that SAP systems face and its resultant poor ERP communications. Before getting into the technicalities, let me begin with an everyday life scenario.
Alex has ordered an expensive, hi-tech, state-of-the-art laptop from an international e-commerce portal. This portal sells niche technology products, is dependent on logistics vendors for its deliveries. Alex is provided with a tracking ID to track his order. After a few days, Alex has not received any notification of his order, he promptly connects with the customer care. They informed that they had not received the ‘Shipment Notification’. Oops! The promised delivery date has already passed.
Many of us have faced situations like this in our personal and business lives. Organizations and their ERP systems connect with each other for various business transactions. For organizations, ERP is the backbone for their operations. Hence smooth and effective communication is important. Usually the quantum of data transmission is huge and critical, which in-turn is prone to errors and hiccups. In short, there is a high risk of poor communication in the critical ERP transactions. This is where ignioTM AI.ERPOps IDoc Management can help.
We begin with understanding IDoc. IDoc stands for Intermediate Document. IDocs serve as the vehicle for data transfer among two SAP systems as well as from non-SAP to SAP systems. In Alex’s case, shipment IDoc targeting the logistics provider’s SAP system must have had some issue.
To understand IDoc errors further, let’s take an example of two organizations XYZ Beverages and ABC Motors, assuming both have IDoc setup. XYZ Beverages has placed a purchase order of 100 trucks with ABC Motors for its logistics division. This purchase order placed in XYZ Beverages’ system will be transferred through IDoc and displayed as a sales order in ABC Motors’ system. Generally 5,000 to 10,000 IDocs are processed each day in an SAP system, considering various business processes.
Consider this image to understand better.
Many a times, not all IDocs are processed successfully. IDoc can get an error state because of ‘n’ number of reasons – functional, technical or data issues. IDoc errors can be troublesome and consume a lot of time and effort of business owners and support consultants to identify the root cause and its resolution. Simultaneously, to eliminate business disruption it is important to resolve the errors efficiently within the minimum time possible. To handle a substantial amount of errors, analyzing and resolving them manually is a challenge. Businesses and Application Support Teams have to contend with the following challenges:
- 24×7 monitoring
- Manual Intervention
- Effort Intensive
- Time Consuming
Here’s where ignio’s IDoc capabilities can rescue your consultants from the burden of resolving monotonous IDoc errors. ignio can not only provide ready root cause analysis, but also resolve typical errors, if configured. This allows your team to focus on strategically important tasks and give them some breathing space. Moreover, this ensures smooth data flow and help ERPs to communicate flawlessly, resulting in positive and enhanced business outcomes.
Here is a pictorial representation of ignio’s IDoc Management.
IDoc Management consists of six different executive dashboards. These help in monitoring IDocs across six different parameters such as error code wise reports and partner wise reports, among others. ignio can prioritize IDocs based on their financial impact or business criticality. It also takes corrective self-heal action on regularly recurring IDoc errors with appropriate approvals. Reprocessing is another functionality; IDocs can be reprocessed as per the selection criteria defined in ignio’s knowledge repository.
IDoc Management is a one stop solution for organizations’ ERP communication issues. Here is how your organization can benefit:
- Easy to understand graphical representation of the systems’ IDoc health check for the specified time period.
- Easy decision making with prioritization features.
- Reprocessing and self-heal helps make the system error free.
- Reduction of human dependency, resulting in elimination of manual errors.
- Frees up employees from monotonous tasks, ultimately adding agility to the business and enhances user experience.
Watch this space to know more.
https://digitate.com/ignio-ai-erpops/
