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The question every supply chain leader asks first: will this work with our ERP? Most ERP integrations fail because vendors promise vague capability and then surprise customers with scope creep. Horizon takes the opposite approach: specific data objects, specific methods, specific timelines, before any commercial discussion.

The honest answer to your first question

If you're evaluating a supply chain planning platform, your first question is almost certainly whether it can integrate with the ERP you already run. It's the right question. Bad integration is what turns 6-month deployments into 18-month deployments, and it's what makes planning teams give up and go back to Excel.

Horizon has pre-built connectors for SAP S/4HANA and ECC, Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 (both F&O and Business Central), and Infor CloudSuite. For these four, integration is configuration, not custom development. For the rest of the ERP landscape, we use a defined methodology that has connected Horizon to environments ranging from JD Edwards EnterpriseOne to legacy AS/400-based systems running 25-year-old code.

What Horizon needs to read from your ERP

The minimum viable integration covers seven data objects. Without these, planning math can't run; with these, Horizon can produce a useful forecast and replenishment plan even before deeper integration is added.

Material/item master — SKU codes, descriptions, units of measure, planning attributes (lead time, lot size, MOQ), product hierarchy
Location master — plants, warehouses, distribution centers, with their hierarchy and stocking flags
BOMs and routings — required for production planning and finite capacity scheduling; not needed for pure demand or distribution planning
Inventory balances — current on-hand by location, with allocation and in-transit visibility if available
Demand history — 18-24 months of shipments or sales orders at SKU-customer-date granularity
Open orders — open sales orders (consume forecast), open purchase orders (supply confirmation), open production orders (capacity commitment)
Vendor master and supplier lead times — for supply planning and procurement integration

What Horizon writes back to your ERP

Planned purchase orders — quantity, supplier, date, with policy reference
Planned production orders — quantity, plant, suggested date, with capacity validation
Transfer orders — between locations, for deployment
Updated planning parameters — reorder points, safety stock, target stock — for ERPs that consume these (SAP, NetSuite, D365 all do)
Demand forecast — for ERPs with planning modules that consume forecast (PIR in SAP, demand plans in D365)

The write-back is configurable per customer. Some teams want Horizon to write planned orders directly into ERP for execution. Others prefer planners review Horizon's recommendations and release them manually through Horizon's UI to ERP. Both patterns are supported.

Four integration methods

Pre-built API connector

For SAP S/4HANA, Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft D365, and Infor CloudSuite, Horizon has pre-built connectors that handle authentication, data object mapping, and incremental refresh. Configuration covers customer-specific master data fields, custom attributes, and refresh cadence. No custom development. Typical setup: 4-6 weeks.

Data warehouse or lakehouse layer

Many enterprises have already replicated ERP data into Snowflake, Databricks, BigQuery, or Microsoft Fabric. Horizon connects to these layers directly. Often the fastest path when these layers are already populated, because permissions and schemas are already established. Horizon has production deployments using Microsoft Fabric. Typical setup: 6-10 weeks.

Scheduled file exchange (SFTP)

For environments where API or warehouse-layer access isn't preferred — older ERP versions, on-prem deployments with restricted external network access, or regulatory environments — Horizon supports scheduled SFTP delivery of flat-file extracts (CSV, XML) produced on a defined cadence by the customer's ERP. Well-tested across decades of enterprise integration. Typical setup: 6-12 weeks.

Direct database view access

For legacy ERPs where neither modern APIs nor middleware exists, Horizon can read directly from database views the customer's DBA team exposes. The path used most often for older JD Edwards, Sage X3, and AS/400-based systems. Requires the customer's team to maintain the views. Typical setup: 8-14 weeks.

What integration actually costs and takes

Honest ranges for a mid-market manufacturer (500-5,000 SKUs, 1-3 plants, single ERP):

Pre-built connector ERPs (SAP, NetSuite, D365, Infor): 4-6 weeks integration work as part of the larger 8-12 week first-module deployment
Methodology-based ERPs (everything else): 6-12 weeks integration work, depending on data access method and master data quality
Cost: Integration is included in the standard implementation, not billed separately. Custom connector development for truly unique ERPs adds 2-6 weeks.

The biggest delay risk is rarely the connector — it's master data quality. ERP data that hasn't been cleaned in years (duplicate SKUs, dead products still active, routings that don't match what the shop floor actually does) typically requires 2-4 weeks of cleanup that wasn't in the original estimate.

Multi-ERP environments

Many manufacturers run multiple ERPs — a result of acquisitions, plant-specific legacy systems, or division-level decisions. Horizon handles this natively. The platform maintains a unified planning data model and pulls from each ERP with the appropriate method. One customer runs SAP S/4HANA at three plants, NetSuite at two acquired entities, and a legacy AS/400 system at one plant — all feeding the same Horizon instance.