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Perspectives

SAP & Low-Code: Enabling Flexibility and Agility for Your Central System

Written By: Julie Fancher
July 21, 2020
2 min read

It’s likely your organization uses SAP to manage and store your core data.

In fact, SAP is one of the most common technologies deployed within our Quickbase customer base and enterprise organizations in general.

SAP, with roots dating back to the 1970s, is often the source of truth for core organizational data. As a centralized system, it does its job well.

So, what does SAP have to do with low-code?

SAP & Low-Code

Well, at Quickbase, we see our low-code platform as an agility layer on top of SAP.

We have seen, from our customers, that there are a few common SAP challenges. First, it’s difficult to access data when you need it most. Second, assuming you can even access the data, it’s hard to get real-time and contextual insights into that data. Finally, assuming you do get the insights, it’s hard to manage the unique downstream processes.

This time-consuming process often means that the data and insights were likely outdated by the time you’ve finished processes the data from SAP.

Time-consuming, inefficient processes don’t help when disruption happens and changes your processes or requires new insights that you never imagined you needed. When change is the only constant, your company needs flexible and agile systems.

This is where Quickbase comes in.

Low-code platforms provide real-time, contextual insights the frontlines need to move quickly. These platforms, like Quickbase, quickly automate your business’s unique processes to ensure you can maintain operations through any kind of change or disruption.

It not only provides the governance that IT expects, but it’s simple enough for those outside IT, who are closest to the work, to quickly create custom solutions.

Adding a Layer of Agility

Many of our customers integrate Quickbase with SAP to increase efficiency and create value. For example, an industrial automation manufacturer was having difficult gaining insights and managing their contract maintenance process.

The contract management process required cross-functional efforts from different departments within their organization, and with data stored in different locations, like SAP and Microsoft Dynamics, it was difficult to gain visibility into the process.

This not only slowed the contract approval process, but also negatively impacted the customers’ experience.

The team turned to Quickbase to quickly build a contracting application. To do that, they manually exported all data from SAP and Microsoft Dynamics via spreadsheets and uploaded it to Quickbase.

This made it easier for the company to assign the right individuals to the task to make sure the job was done.

By leveraging Quickbase, the company reduced bottlenecks, gained full visibility into the contract lifecycle, and improved communication with internal and external stakeholders. The company was also able to reduce the contract management process from 70 days to 30 days.

Written By: Julie Fancher
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