General system integration question 2

[eon5]

Hi,

I have the opportunity at work to tackle a very nice system integration project. I can easily set up a very nice, user friendly database with access to integrate most or all of the current disjointed systems.
The integration project includes things like;
- issuing of job cards
- managing kanban and critical stock levels
- Quotations
- Supplier information
- Stock audits etc

My biggest problem is that the company is currently making use of the dinosaur system Omnix. Thus, besides the fact that I can’t extrapolate information in a specific format with custom queries like SAP I also can’t tap into or link to the database to pull in the live stock in my system. This problem renders the complete project to a halt because my complete project pivots around live stock.

Any suggestion on how I could/should tackle this project better.

Thanks
Eon5

 

[jsteph]

eon5,
I'm assuming you mean export or extract when you say "extrapolate". In general, if you are committed to using Access as a front end, you will need to have a live look into the backend of Omnix. I'm not familar with that, you need to see what backend db it's using.

Once you know that (and if it's not proprietary) you can get at tool such as that from Connx. I've used Connx to get live data from ancient Vax systems. They basically build an on-board sql engine that interrpets standard ODBC calls into the host database language, even if it's not SQL, as is the case with VAX.

If it's a proprietary db, then you'll never get an accurate realtime look at inventory levels, which pretty much negates and JIT that you may be looking for.

SAP, on the other hand, will typically use Oracle or SQL Server. however, most companies I know of have a BASIS team that will under no circumastances let you in live. The connection info and password are embedded within SAP and you'll have a tough time getting that, even if for read-only.
--Jim

 

[jsteph]

...I'll expand on the SAP thing...you can use BAPI and there are VB compliant wrappers for BAPI, but it's not ODBC. It will give you a live look at SAP, and you can even update inventory via bapi's.
--Jim

 

[eon5]

Thanks for the info jsteph, at the moment it’s Greek to me but I will look into it. The last company I work for used SAP and I made use of cool excel spread sheets to manage a few things. The moment I opened the excel spread sheet, excel prompted me for a password and then it dumped all current/relevant data into the sheet. I thought I could have such a dump from Omnix and then just make use of Access instead of Excel. Such an automatic link would be far greater that the current manual exports I have to do every day.
The Bapi’s that you talks about sounds like you can update/alter stock values within Omnix via Access…or do I understand it wrong?

 

[JoeAtWork]

Such an automatic link would be far greater that the current manual exports I have to do every day.

Whatever it is you do "manually" would be the starting point of finding an automated solution. You must be using some sort of program to do the "manual" stuff, so I would begin by researching if there is an API for that program, or perhaps command line arguments that you could use to create a batch file or call with a Shell command in VBA.

The Bapi's that you talks about sounds like you can update/alter stock values within Omnix via Access...

Even if that were possible, it would be very unwise for you to do updates on your legacy system. You have no idea what the business rules in that system are, so updating it's data directly would very likely mess up the system.

 

[jsteph]

The bapi's in SAP are all very strictly controlled--they don't do 'raw' updates, they go through the application tier and follow all business rules. But it's true that it's important for whatever application that uses the bapi's to be a known and accepted part of the wider business process.

I would check into Connx, they surpised me with their Vax sql engine, they might have something for whatever is behind omnix.
--Jim

 

[eon5]

Thanks for the advice

eon5