Authentication  

Currently the SAP OData connector supports Basic, Anonymous, and API key authentication. We are working on additional authentication mechanisms to enhance the connector and expect to make this available as we approach general availability for the SAP OData connector this summer.  
The SAP OData Connector supports adding API headers in the request and works well with API Management solutions like Azure API Management or SAP API Management on the SAP Business Technology Platform. If your APIs are protected with API-Keys, you can add these keys to the SAP OData Connector in your cloud flow so that a verification in the API Management solution can be performed.  
If you have the necessary SAP licenses in place, this allows you to create Single Sign-On end-to-end solutions even today to access your SAP system in a secure way.  

Leveraging the on-premises data gateway 

In a lot of cases the SAP System (and the SAP OData services) are not accessible from the internet—and in turn are not accessible from Power Automate. To allow Power Automate to connect to these SAP OData services, you need to “proxy” / route them through the corporate firewall. Thanks to the on-premises data gateway you don’t need to make any changes to the firewall but can install the on-premises data gateway (see also, On-premises data gateway – Power BI | Microsoft Learn).  
Note: Unlike with the SAP ERP Connector (SAP ERP – Connectors | Microsoft Learn), you do not need to download and install the SAP .Net Connector. Installing the on-premises data gateway is all you need (but make sure to install the latest version). 
The steps needed are outlined below: 

• Download the On-premises data gateway from Install an on-premises data gateway | Microsoft Learn (The February 2024 release is needed) 
• When installing the on-premises gateway, make sure to install and configure it in the same region as your Power Automate environment.  

Once the data gateway is installed, you should see it in your Power Automate Environment  
Note: If you don’t see Gateways on the side panel, make sure to select on … More -> Discover all and pin Gateways to the side panel. 

 
At this point you are ready to create a new flow connecting to your SAP system through the on-premises data gateway. Create a new flow (as mentioned above) with a trigger of your choice and add the SAP OData query action. 

You will be asked to setup a connection to your SAP system. To connect to a system that is only available from within the company firewall (where the on-premises data gateway is installed), select your Data Gateway from the list: 

Provide the required information (but using the OData Base URI L from your local SAP System), e.g., https://mylocal.sap.system:50000/sap/opu/odata/iwbep/GWSAMPLE_BASIC/ 
Note: You can test this URL first internally https://mylocal.sap.system:50000/sap/opu/odata/iwbep/GWSAMPLE_BASIC/ and verify (e.g., with your Mobile device) that this URL is not accessible from outside of the intranet.  

You may now use the SAP OData Connector. Select the Entity that you are interested in, e.g., ProductSet, and run the flow as outlined below.  


If you have feedback, please go to https://aka.ms/sapodatafeedback  
SAP and Power Platform is an area of continued investment for Microsoft, to learn more, see these other useful resources:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/sapodata/  

https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/run-your-enterprise-on-power-platform-with-new-enterprise-application-templates/  

SAP Procurement template for Power Platform – Power Platform | Microsoft Learn 

Connect Power Platform to SAP on Azure – Training | Microsoft Learn 

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/connectors/saperp/  

The post Introducing public preview of the SAP OData connector appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.

Coca-Cola Bottling Company United (Coca-Cola United) is one of the largest privately held Coca-Cola bottlers in the United States. Serving about 200,000 customers demands an impressive infrastructure: 5,000 trucks to deliver more than 600 product lines to a full spectrum of consumer channels, from small convenience stores and restaurants to mega-retailers.

Efficient Order processing from half a day to seconds

Coca-Cola United wanted a faster way to process on-demand shipment requests (or “forced shipments”) from customers. Previously, account reps had to submit orders and check inventories manually, which often led to shipping delays.

A solution was built in just a few weeks using Power Apps and a custom connector was used to integrate with the central SAP system. Here’s how it works:

The benefits of automation were dramatic. What used to take half a day to validate inventories and other order data can now be completed in seconds. Along with more efficient processing, the new solution has also resulted in fewer errors, faster delivery times—and higher customer satisfaction.

“The solution has helped restore customer confidence—which has driven even better sales,” says Bob Means, Director of Business Solutions at Coca-Cola Bottling Company United.

Automating a cumbersome 11-step manual process

Coca-Cola Freestyle is a strategic brand builder—a self-serve dispenser that reimagines single-serving beverage sales and offers more than 100 Coca-Cola product choices, from bottled water to Sprite, many in a variety of formulations. But more choice for consumers complicated distribution. 

The customer relationship management representatives had to go through a complex and manual 11-step process including cross-reference customer and material numbers, process the order and manually push it through the system, scanning the invoice and walking it to the Accounts Payable department.

Multistep manual invoice process carried out by the customer relationship representative

To automate this cumbersome process, the solution was built by the company’s fusion teams of citizen developers and professional developers and its partner, by using a series of integrations between SAP and Azure with Microsoft Power Platform acting as the automation agent to automate the entire process.

Power Automate RPA took mundane, tedious tasks and enabled employees to focus on more strategic initiatives. Coca-Cola United can now schedule and trigger events that increase end-to-end automation of high-volume tasks—like its suddenly expanded orders for Freestyle. It also allowed Coca-Cola United to automatically process orders received from multiple channels – beyond having to have the agent to work on each order.

As a result, Coca-Cola United could benefit from immediately freeing up one full-time employee to work on more strategic activities, and better yet could profitably scale to execute the strategic local Coca-Cola Freestyle campaign where it would have taken a maximum of ten full time employees if done manually.

Process automated by Power Automate

Since then, Coca-Cola United has gone on to automate other business processes with Microsoft Power Automate RPA capabilities.

“We are very excited about this solution that will dramatically reduce labor costs, minimize the various points of error in our current solution and will allow us to rapidly expand the Local Freestyle Campaign to better support our customers.”

– Kaylan Cannon: Customer Service Manager, Coca-Cola United

Read more about how Coca-Cola Bottling Company United dispenses streamlined order management with RPA in Microsoft Power Automate

You can also learn more about how Coca Cola United automated their process from a video presentation below:

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The post Coca-Cola United automates over 50,000 orders in complex SAP invoicing process with Microsoft Power Platform appeared first on Microsoft Power Platform Blog.