SAP SE is one of the largest vendors of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and related enterprise applications.

There are elements in the SAP GUI that, just like in Citrix environments, are considered one block. That means it’s impossible to use a simple recording or automation tool with them. UiPath is well adapted and very capable of creating a SAP automation. The combined techniques of recording, manually inserting and configuring activities will result in easy SAP automation.

Task that can be automated using SAP Automation:

  • Starting or closing a case

  • Filling a form on screen

  • Copying and pasting data between SAP and other applications

  • Comparing data fields on screen

  • Identifying an exception to a process and flagging it for review

  • Updating status field in a system

  • Content migration

  • Data mining

  • Keying or screen scraping data on screen

Use Case 1: Robotic Process Automation PDF invoice processing and data import to SAP Business One

Robot will perform the actions described in the flowchart. If the credentials are fetched correctly the robot will read the new emails and save their attachments. The PDF attachments are read and stored by the robot into a list for future use.

The robot will collect the SAP Business One credentials, launch the application and type the Username and Password in the required fields. Each of the PDF files read earlier will be opened by the robot. Using OCR, the robot will extract and store data from the PDF: the Name, the Vendor Ref. No., the services and their amounts.

The data will then be inserted in the corresponding fields from SAP Business One. While mimicking the actions of a human operator, the robot will perform the actions faster and without error.

How the process works: the robot logs in to SAP Business One, PDF invoice is opened and the required data is scraped from it. Robot creates a new A/P Invoice. The scraped data is inserted in the coresponding fields. After the first invoice is handled, the robot will process the following documents in its queue. When all the invoices are processed, the PDF files will be moved to a separate folder. Notifications can be configured in order to inform the user once the process is complete.

Use Case 2: Processing of incoming cash from curiers

What is the current way of working?

Company with online store and payment of cash products at delivery. Customer invoices are received by the courier at the time of delivery, it pays the collected money and sends a border (often an Excel file) to the receipts of a certain period, region, etc. In the next step, one or more users have to manually enter the receipts in the ERP system, after identifying each customer and the details of the payment. In peak times (holidays, BlackFriday, discount campaigns etc.) the workload is very high.

Disadvantages: locked human resources, high costs, frequent errors, duration, scalability.

What changes do we bring by switching to RPA?

 The software robot will act similarly to a human user, from logging in to the end of the task. Basically, it opens the Banking module in SAP Business, scrolls through each Excel field, searches each client in the database, and inserts the receipts or orthotics of the desired or required information. It will repeat the operation for all entries in the list without a break regardless of the size of the source file. In the end, it will close the application, the excel file and optionally can send notifications with the completion of the task. The tests carried out showed that for such an operation, about 25 clicks for an entry are required. As time, this means about 2 minutes with human operator and 20 seconds with a software robot implemented by System Innovation Romania on UiPath technology. The robot is six times faster and the risk of error is zero.

To better understand this process, you can watch the video below.