SAP Integration

Which SAP versions Horizon connects to

• SAP S/4HANA (Cloud and Private/On-Premise) — primary integration path using OData APIs and CDS views. Tested on releases 1909 through 2023.
• SAP ECC 6.0 with EHP 7+ — RFC and BAPI-based integration plus IDoc inbound/outbound for transactional data. Most legacy SAP customers are on this path.
• SAP Business One — service layer integration for smaller manufacturers and subsidiaries.
• SAP IBP coexistence — for customers running SAP IBP for some functions and Horizon for others (typical in companies replacing legacy ECC planning while keeping IBP for executive S&OP), Horizon coexists rather than competes.

SAP-specific data objects Horizon reads

The integration speaks SAP's data model rather than translating it:

• Material master (MARA, MARC, MARD) with MRP views 1-4, including lot size, safety stock, MRP type, planning strategy, scheduling margin key, and procurement type
• Plant and storage location structure from T001W and T001L, with material-plant linkages
• Bills of material (STKO, STPO) at the engineering and production BOM level, including alternative BOMs
• Routings (PLKO, PLPO) with operations, work centers, standard values, and reference operation sets
• Work centers and capacities (CRHD, KAKO) including formulas, capacity categories, and shift sequences
• Info records and source lists for procurement lead times and supplier-material relationships
• Stock balances from MARD (storage location stock) and MCHB (batch stock) for batch-managed materials
• Demand history from VBAK/VBAP (sales orders) and LIPS (deliveries), filterable by sales organization, distribution channel, division
• Open orders — purchase orders (EKKO/EKPO), production orders (AUFK/AFKO), planned orders (PLAF)

SAP-specific data objects Horizon writes

• Planned independent requirements (PIRs) for material consumption against the forecast — written to PBED through BAPI_REQUIREMENTS_CREATE or similar
• Planned orders created through standard MRP planned order BAPIs, with conversion to production or purchase orders happening in SAP
• MRP parameter updates — safety stock, reorder point, lot size — written back to MARC for SAP's own MRP runs
• Production order schedule updates — for customers using Horizon for finite capacity scheduling, the optimized schedule writes back as start/end date updates on production orders

Authentication and connection

• S/4HANA Cloud: OAuth 2.0 against the API Hub, with named communication user. Standard SAP-recommended approach.
• S/4HANA Private Cloud / On-Premise: Communication user with assigned roles, accessed through SAP Gateway or SAP Cloud Connector for hybrid scenarios.
• ECC 6.0: RFC user with SAP_BC_RFC_REMOTE_DESTINATION authorization, plus tcode-level access for the specific BAPIs Horizon calls.
• IDoc-based (ECC): Outbound IDocs (MATMAS, INVCON, ORDERS) delivered to Horizon's SFTP endpoint or middleware layer.

The realistic project pattern

For a mid-market manufacturer running S/4HANA with ~2,000 SKUs across 2 plants:

• Week 1-2: SAP Basis team provisions the communication user with required authorizations. SAP team validates the OData services Horizon needs are activated (some are off by default).
• Week 2-3: Horizon connector configured. Master data load and validation. This is where SAP-specific customization surfaces — custom fields in MARC, customer-specific material types, plant-specific MRP areas.
• Week 3-4: Transactional data load — 18-24 months of historical orders and shipments. Validation that history reconciles with SAP's own reporting.
• Week 4-6: Forecast generation, parallel run alongside existing SAP forecast (MD61, MD63). Write-back configuration tested.
• Week 6-8: Cutover. First operational cycle with Horizon publishing PIRs back to SAP.

Common SAP-specific gotchas we plan for

• MRP areas vs storage locations — SAP customers often use MRP areas inconsistently. The Horizon load explicitly maps which storage locations roll up to which planning level. Misalignment here causes inventory double-counting that's hard to find later.
• Sales BOMs vs production BOMs — for customers using both, Horizon needs the production BOM for planning; pulling the sales BOM produces forecast that doesn't reflect actual material consumption.
• Special procurement keys — SAP's stock transfer logic (special procurement key 40, 30) affects how multi-plant flows are interpreted. Horizon respects these rather than treating each plant independently.
• Custom MRP types (Z-types) — most SAP customers have custom MRP types created over the years. Horizon's mapping handles them explicitly; we don't assume standard SAP MRP type codes.
• Batch management and shelf life — for food, pharma, and chemicals, batch-managed materials need MCHB-level inventory visibility, not just MARD totals. Horizon pulls both.

A representative reference

A $400M industrial products manufacturer running S/4HANA 2021 across three plants migrated from spreadsheet-based demand planning to Horizon in 9 weeks. The SAP integration went live in week 6 of the project. The customer's SAP Basis team spent roughly 40 hours total on the integration — primarily on user provisioning and OData service activation, not on connector development. First operational planning cycle ran in week 7. Working capital reduction of 18% measurable by month 4 post-go-live.

SAP IBP and Horizon together

Some customers run SAP IBP for executive-level S&OP and want a more focused operational planning layer for daily and weekly cycles. Horizon supports this coexistence — IBP holds the strategic plan, Horizon executes operational demand, inventory, and supply planning, with the two reconciled through scheduled data exchange.