Springer, the world's leading scientific publisher of books, journals and online media, uses a non-SAP portal for the online distribution of its books. Booksellers can log in here and search for the desired products, order them and view orders that have already been placed. The crux of the matter: there was previously no direct connection between the portal and the SAP ERP system, only a file-based interface. This proved to be prone to errors and not very efficient or user-friendly: orders were sometimes not transferred correctly to the ERP system, corrections and price entries had to be made manually and portal users did not receive precise information on the availability of the desired products. However, a complete replacement of the existing portal was out of the question for Springer. The effort involved in transferring the numerous additional functions that had grown over the years to SAP e-commerce would have been too great for the company. Springer therefore opted for a lean solution: linking the portal and the SAP ERP system using SAP e-commerce and integrating the web store functions into the ERP system. Orders can thus be entered directly into the SAP ERP system in real time and read out from there. Price and availability data is also taken from the SAP system and is always up-to-date.

The challenges

  • Creating a connection between the existing portal and the ERP system using SAP e-commerce
  • Integration of the web store functions into the SAP ERP system
    • Supporting publisher-specific, customer-specific ERP functions such as print-on-demand (production of print products immediately after ordering)
    • Performance optimization of existing store functions (e.g. process search)
    • Complex pricing with display of customer-specific price conditions

Benefits

  • Retention of the familiar user interface
  • Increased efficiency and user-friendliness of the portal, reduced maintenance effort, elimination of error-proneness:
    • Orders are automatically written to and read from the SAP ERP system in real time.
    • Price and availability data is taken directly from the SAP system.
    • Customers therefore have access to the latest information on order status, availability and prices.
    • For Springer, the effort required to maintain and service the interface and for manual maintenance measures is reduced to a minimum.

Success factors

  • In-depth know-how and many years of experience in the field of e-business
  • Creation of an innovative solution approach for cost- and benefit-optimized results
  • The rapid and successful implementation of a solution prototype in the run-up to the project facilitated and accelerated the decision-making process at Springer
Jennifer Bertsche

What can you take away from Springer's experience with SAP & SYBIT?

Do you, like Springer, want to optimize your e-commerce processes with SAP and make them future-proof? Thanks to our many years of experience with SAP e-commerce, we can help you to make your processes more efficient and sustainably increase your e-commerce performance. Do you have any questions or would you like a personal consultation? Our experts are on hand to help you turn your vision into reality.

Contact us for an individual consultation:

Mail: sales@sybit.de
Tel.: +49 7732 9508-2000

Jennifer Bertsche, Business Development