Cleo has extended its Accelerator portfolio by introducing three new solutions for Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, and SAP-powered enterprises. Cleo Accelerators aim to provide CIC Studio Projects based on best practices that provide the tools required to integrate between either two different applications of an application and an EDI platform.
In this case, the accelerators provide the prebuilt Schemas, Rulesets, Business Processes and other resources. These connect ERP applications across various use cases to applications that the Cleo Integration Cloud already supports.
The integrations for NetSuite and Microsoft Dynamics 365 SCM customers include Amazon marketplaces, eCommerce platforms, retailers, XPO carriers and Freight brokers. For SAP S/4HANA, supported integrations include the categories above but extend beyond that to at least 55 different applications.
The accelerators enable customers to complete integrations without code by following best practices for integrations between commonly used applications.
Cleo President and CEO Mahesh Rajasekharan said, “Cleo is the only integration solution provider taking an innovative leap to automate and consolidate business processes that facilitate supply chain convergence. Our newest set of Accelerators embeds years of ecosystem integration knowledge, best practices, and expertise into out-of-the-box supply chain integrations that enable organizations to automate end-to-end business processes quickly – without any coding. The idea is simply revolutionary.”
Why are accelerators important?
Cleo believes that this announcement is timely. There is a growing focus on automation across businesses and IT leaders. In the recent Cleo 2023 Global Supply Chain Executive Report by Dimensional Research, 46% of respondents said they would invest in new supply chain technology, including automation, to prepare for the predicted economic downturn. 33% are investing in integration solutions.
The accelerators help decrease the time to value and potentially enhance the return on investment by using best practices rather than harder-to-maintain bespoke integrations. They will enable firms to automate their Order-to-Cash and Procure-to-Pay business processes, including:
- End-to-end business process orchestration
- Prebuilt integration logic for each of the process flows
- Real-time visibility for instant operational insights
- Contextually linked, end-to-end business process visibility
- Alert notifications to speed up issue resolution time
Cleo hopes that organisations using these solutions will consider the new accelerators. As they look to connect their hybrid software architecture to create a best-of-breed combination. Gartner sees IpaaS solutions as a key component for transformation. In a recent report, “Top Trends in Strategic Supply Chain Technology” (Gated content), Gartner authors noted, “Business process automation and continuous investment in technologies can help accelerate the integration of multiple applications and mitigate IT complexities in the supply chain ecosystem.
“This is due to their ability to offer packaged integrated processes, embedded low-code development platforms and flexibility to support different communication standards between legacy and new-age SaaS applications.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean?
Cleo is packaging up what used to be separate elements into focused ERP-centric integration packages that will enable organisations to accelerate automation. No longer will firms need to sift through multiple packages, as Cleo has brought them together in a single solution.
However, what isn’t clear from the press release is how these solutions are packaged. Nor how one can determine whether the applications in place at an organisation already have the connectors existing in the solution. Once deployed, the customer can use integration flow charts to confirm how business processes map between the applications. The mapping templates include the specifications for the implementation.
Customers must also already be using CIC Studio, version 5.1.16 or later. They also require a specialized server license, inferring an additional cost. Customers can contact their customer account manager for further details.
