Advanced ERP Systems Integration and Analytics Training Course

Course overview

ERP programmes often stall at the point where transactional data must move reliably between finance, supply chain, CRM, warehouse, and reporting platforms. Teams face duplicate master data, brittle point-to-point interfaces, failed batch jobs, unclear ownership, and dashboards that cannot reconcile to the general ledger. This course addresses the practical work of designing and governing integrations that support dependable operational reporting, auditability, and timely decision-making across an ERP landscape.

Participants examine integration patterns for SAP S/4HANA and connected enterprise applications, including APIs, IDocs, event-driven messaging, ETL pipelines, error handling, and interface monitoring. They learn to map business processes to canonical data structures; design master-data synchronisation controls; define data-quality rules; and assess security, performance, and recovery requirements. Analytics sessions focus on building governed semantic models, reconciling operational and financial measures, and producing Power BI dashboards that expose process exceptions rather than merely display headline KPIs.

Teaching combines instructor-led architecture walkthroughs with guided configuration and design exercises using SAP Integration Suite, Azure Data Factory, and Microsoft Power BI. Participants work through an end-to-end order-to-cash case, diagnose integration failures, build a data pipeline design, and create a reconciled operations dashboard. They leave with an ERP Integration and Analytics Blueprint: a practical portfolio containing interface specifications, data mappings, monitoring controls, a target architecture, and a phased implementation plan suitable for adapting to their own organisation.

The course is suited to professionals who already work with ERP applications, integration platforms, data pipelines, or enterprise reporting and now need to lead cross-system design decisions. It is particularly valuable where organisations are modernising legacy ERP interfaces, moving to S/4HANA, consolidating reporting, or strengthening controls over business-critical data.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Design an ERP integration architecture using API-led, event-driven, batch, and file-based patterns
• Produce interface specifications covering source-to-target mappings, transformation rules, ownership, and service-level targets
• Configure SAP Integration Suite flows for secure API and IDoc-based exchange scenarios
• Build an Azure Data Factory pipeline for incremental extraction, validation, and loading of ERP data
• Define master-data governance controls for customer, supplier, material, chart-of-accounts, and organisational data
• Implement error-handling, retry, reconciliation, and alerting procedures for business-critical interfaces
• Create a Power BI semantic model and dashboard that reconciles operational metrics with ERP financial records
• Develop an ERP Integration and Analytics Blueprint with prioritised risks, controls, and implementation milestones

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• ERP Solution Architects — who must design scalable interfaces between core ERP and enterprise applications
• Integration Architects — who need to select patterns, define contracts, and govern cross-platform data flows
• ERP Functional Consultants — who translate finance, procurement, manufacturing, or order-management processes into integration requirements
• Data Engineers — who build governed pipelines and reporting datasets from ERP transaction and master data
• BI and Analytics Leads — who must reconcile dashboard measures to controlled ERP records
• IT Programme Managers — who need to manage integration risk, dependencies, and delivery priorities during ERP transformation

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience working with an ERP platform such as SAP ECC or SAP S/4HANA, Oracle ERP, or Microsoft Dynamics 365, and understand core transactional concepts including master data, purchase-to-pay, order-to-cash, inventory, and general ledger postings. Familiarity with JSON, REST APIs, SQL queries, and basic data modelling is assumed. Prior exposure to an integration platform or BI tool is helpful, particularly SAP Integration Suite, Azure Data Factory, or Power BI. Participants do not need to be ABAP developers, certified SAP consultants, cloud engineers, or advanced statisticians.

Training methodology

The instructor uses short architecture briefings followed by guided work in a realistic ERP integration case. Participants analyse order-to-cash transactions, map ERP fields to downstream systems, select API, IDoc, event, and batch patterns, and troubleshoot simulated message failures. Working groups review design trade-offs involving latency, security, ownership, and reconciliation. Hands-on labs use SAP Integration Suite concepts, Azure Data Factory pipeline patterns, and Power BI modelling techniques. The final day is an application-planning workshop in which each participant assembles a tailored Integration and Analytics Blueprint.

Course outline

Day 1: ERP integration architecture and process boundaries

• ERP landscape assessment and system context diagrams
• Order-to-cash and procure-to-pay integration touchpoints
• Synchronous APIs versus asynchronous messaging patterns
• Batch, file, API, IDoc, and event-driven integration selection
• Canonical data models and anti-corruption layers
• Interface ownership, RACI, and service-level definitions
• Integration risk assessment for business-critical transactions

Workshop: Participants create a context diagram and integration pattern selection matrix for a multi-system order-to-cash scenario.

Day 2: Interface design, SAP connectivity, and operational controls

• REST API contracts, JSON payloads, and versioning rules
• SAP IDoc structures, partner profiles, and status records
• SAP Integration Suite iFlows and adapter selection
• Authentication with OAuth 2.0, certificates, and secure credentials
• Field mapping, transformation logic, and validation rules
• Exception queues, retries, idempotency, and dead-letter handling
• Interface monitoring dashboards and incident runbooks

Workshop: Participants produce an interface specification and a monitored SAP Integration Suite iFlow design for customer-order synchronisation.

Day 3: Master data, data quality, and integration governance

• Customer, supplier, material, and business-partner master-data domains
• Golden-record ownership and system-of-record decisions
• Reference-data harmonisation and code conversion tables
• Data-quality dimensions, profiling, and business validation rules
• Change-data capture and incremental synchronisation strategies
• Data lineage, audit evidence, and retention requirements
• Integration governance boards and release-management controls

Workshop: Participants develop a master-data governance model and source-to-target mapping pack for supplier and material records.

Day 4: ERP data pipelines and governed analytics

• ERP extraction approaches for tables, APIs, and operational data stores
• Azure Data Factory linked services, datasets, and pipeline orchestration
• Incremental loads, watermarking, and late-arriving transaction handling
• Dimensional modelling for finance and supply-chain reporting
• Power BI semantic models, measures, and row-level security
• General-ledger reconciliation and control-total techniques
• Exception analytics for orders, inventory, invoices, and payment status

Workshop: Participants design an incremental ERP data pipeline and build a Power BI exception dashboard reconciled to control totals.

Day 5: Performance, security, and implementation roadmap

• Integration throughput, latency, and capacity planning
• Data privacy classification and least-privilege access design
• Segregation of duties for interface and analytics administration
• Disaster recovery, replay, and business-continuity procedures
• Integration testing strategies and test-data management
• Migration sequencing for legacy interfaces and S/4HANA programmes
• Roadmap prioritisation using value, risk, dependency, and effort criteria

Workshop: Participants complete and present an ERP Integration and Analytics Blueprint with target architecture, control plan, dashboard scope, and phased roadmap.

Tools & standards covered

SAP S/4HANA, SAP Integration Suite, Azure Data Factory, Microsoft Power BI

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions