Connecting TradeLens with SAP
Exchange documents between business partners in a legally compliant manner using the TradeLens blockchain. We show you how to integrate it with SAP.
Exchanging documents and information between business partners in a legally compliant manner is a prerequisite for efficient supply chain management. Only when it can be proven at any time that no data manipulation has occurred can important documents, such as Bills of Lading or insurance policies, be accepted in digital form.
With its blockchain solution, TradeLens creates the necessary foundation, ensuring legal certainty and reliability for its participants regarding transport-related documents, status updates, and order information. We have therefore developed a connector service that enables secure data exchange between ERP/WMS/TMS systems like SAP and TradeLens in a short amount of time.
SAP and TradeLens - Two Different Worlds
Most SAP ECC and S/4HANA systems exchange order or transport data with other systems via RFC and IDoc. This has been the established standard for decades. TradeLens, on the other hand, relies on REST services and JSON with a sophisticated, modified OAuth2 authentication. Every participant in TradeLens manages their own accounts independently in the IBM Cloud; this is an integral part of the TradeLens solution.
Four Steps for Connection
Consequently, four measures must be taken to connect SAP and TradeLens:
- Authentication between SAP and TradeLens, ensuring that only authorized requests are processed.
- Format conversion from IDoc to JSON and vice versa.
- Protocol conversion from RFC to REST.
- Asynchronous response processing from TradeLens to SAP.
Leveraging Blockchain Benefits
Once the order is registered in TradeLens, the carrier can enrich the order with further transport events—such as the handover to a shipping line—by providing identification markers like the CBN and container number or the BoL and container number.
Additionally:
- A transport insurer can transmit policy data to TradeLens.
- A terminal operator can report the arrival or loading of a container.
The blockchain is populated—tamper-proof and visible to authorized transport participants.
IDocs Are Translated Correctly
The translation of SAP IDocs into TradeLens datasets is performed automatically by our connector. All relevant fields are mapped correctly, and data integrity is guaranteed.
Blockchain-based document exchange is the future of logistics.
