Custom integration exposure under RISE.

In the typical enterprise that has run SAP for a decade or more, custom integrations are the largest source of indirect access exposure inside a RISE with SAP deployment, and they are also the integrations that the SAP supplied sizing rarely covers. The custom integration estate spans bespoke applications, legacy middleware, shadow IT systems that connect to SAP outside the formal architecture catalogue, and decade old interfaces that nobody on the current team remembers building. Each one of these integrations may generate documents inside the SAP system, and each document counts against the digital access entitlement. This piece walks the inventory work, the scoring framework, and the integration rewrites that contain the cost.

The inventory is rarely complete on day one

The first task in the custom integration review is to build a complete inventory of the integrations that touch the SAP system. The inventory is built from four sources in parallel because no single source captures the full picture. The first source is the architecture catalogue maintained inside the enterprise architecture team, which captures the integrations that have been formally documented through the change control process. The second source is the technical interface table inside the SAP system itself, which captures the inbound and outbound RFC, IDoc, web service, and OData endpoints that are actually configured.

The third source is the network traffic analysis against the SAP application servers, which captures the connections that are running in production regardless of whether they appear in the formal architecture documentation. The fourth source is the structured interview programme with the business unit IT teams, which captures the shadow integrations that local teams have built around the formal architecture. Across the firm engagement base, the inventory built from all four sources is consistently between forty and seventy percent larger than the inventory captured by the architecture catalogue alone. The gap is where the digital access exposure surfaces.

The scoring framework prioritises the digital access risk

Once the inventory is complete, each integration is scored against a digital access exposure framework. The framework has four dimensions. The document volume the integration produces, measured against the historical traffic. The document category the integration generates, mapped against the eight document categories that the DAAP counts. The integration pattern, distinguishing between integrations that create documents directly and integrations that read SAP data without creating documents. The contractual classification, distinguishing between integrations that fall inside an existing SAP licence and integrations that are exposed to the digital access count.

The scoring produces a ranked list of integrations against the digital access exposure. The ranking is essential because the rewriting work cannot address every integration in the estate. The work targets the top ten to fifteen integrations that drive eighty percent of the document volume, with the longer tail addressed through batch optimisation patterns. The scoring framework also captures the exclusion claims that each integration can support, with the documentation that the post signature true up cycle has to produce.

The customer portal is the first integration to review

The customer portal that allows external users to interact with the SAP order to cash process is, in most consumer goods, retail, and B2B organisations, the largest single source of digital access document volume. Each order placed through the portal creates a sales document inside SAP. Each invoice generated against the order creates an invoice document. Each return processed through the portal creates a return document. The cumulative document volume from a high transaction portal can run into the millions of documents per year, and the digital access exposure scales with the portal volume rather than with the number of internal users.

The buyer side review of the customer portal has two components. The document volume is measured against the production telemetry, with attention to the documents that are created through corrections, reversals, or system retries that should not count against the entitlement. The integration pattern is reviewed against the optimisation opportunities, with attention to batched order creation patterns that reduce the document count without affecting the customer experience. The review consistently surfaces between fifteen and thirty percent of document volume reduction across the firm engagement base, with the reduction recognised against the digital access entitlement.

The supplier portal carries similar exposure

The supplier portal that supports the procure to pay process generates documents through the same mechanism. Each purchase order generates a purchase document. Each supplier invoice processed through the portal generates an invoice document. Each service entry confirmed against the supplier order generates a service entry document. The cumulative volume is consequential for organisations with deep supplier networks, and the digital access exposure scales with the supplier transaction volume.

The optimisation patterns for the supplier portal are similar to those for the customer portal. The document volume is measured against the production telemetry, with attention to corrections and reversals. The integration pattern is reviewed for batching opportunities, particularly for the high volume invoice processing flows where the document count can be reduced through aggregation patterns that align with the supplier contract terms. The exclusion claims are documented for the system to system traffic that does not represent a true business event.

The EDI estate is consistently understated

The EDI estate that connects the SAP system to trading partner networks is one of the most understated sources of digital access exposure across the firm engagement base. The EDI integrations are often older than the rest of the integration estate, with documentation that has not been maintained across multiple system upgrades. The EDI traffic typically generates a high volume of inbound and outbound documents, each of which counts against the digital access entitlement.

The review of the EDI estate has to capture the trading partner list, the document categories that flow through each partner, the volume against each partner, and the historical growth pattern. The optimisation work focuses on the partners that drive the highest volume, with attention to the aggregation and batching patterns that the trading partner contracts allow. The review also captures the EDI documents that are exchanged through a third party network rather than directly between systems, with the documentation for the exclusion claim that the through traffic does not represent a direct SAP integration use case.

The mobile and field service applications add exposure

Mobile applications that connect employees and partners to the SAP system through native apps create documents inside SAP whenever they generate transactions. Field service applications that allow technicians to log service activity create service entry documents. Mobile sales applications that allow account managers to create orders generate sales documents. Mobile inventory applications that support warehouse operations create material documents. Each of these mobile flows contributes to the digital access count.

The exposure from mobile applications is rarely captured in the SAP supplied sizing because the mobile flows are often delivered through bespoke applications rather than through SAP native mobile products. The buyer side review captures the mobile application portfolio, measures the document volume each application produces, and includes the volume inside the digital access entitlement calculation. The optimisation work focuses on the offline batch synchronisation patterns that can reduce the document count without affecting the field operations.

The contractual rewrite secures the value the integration work produces

The integration inventory, scoring, and optimisation work produces a documented digital access baseline that is materially below the SAP supplied estimate in most engagements. The work has to be secured inside the contract through three components. The bundled digital access allocation is sized against the documented baseline rather than against the SAP estimate, with the saving recognised at signature. The counting methodology is documented inside the contract, with the exclusion claims for the corrections, reversals, system to system traffic, and through partner traffic codified as contract terms. The overage rate is capped at the in contract rate with a defined annual uplift across the term.

With these three components in place, the value the integration work produces is bound inside the contract and survives the true up cycles across the term. Without them, the value erodes at year one when the SAP supplied sizing reasserts itself through the overage calculation. The integration work is the analytical foundation. The contractual rewrite is the mechanism that secures the analytical work as commercial value across the seven year term. The pair of disciplines is what turns the custom integration estate from an unbounded exposure into a managed cost line, and the buyer side leads that walk both disciplines close a RISE deal where the integration economics hold.