In a previous blog post, Nakisa Chief Technology Officer, Faraz Ahmed, introduced the ways Nakisa Lease Administration’s cloud-native solution can turn a years-long ERP integration into a straightforward process that can be completed in months, if not weeks. Here, he elaborates on exactly how that can be done, even in the most complex scenarios.

Don’t miss parts one and three of this interview.

Some ERP integration scenarios can be very complex. Can you give us an example of how Nakisa Lease Administration handles that kind of situation?

In the enterprise domain, processes are complex. In order to cater to those needs, we have to make sure the application is flexible enough to adapt to different customer scenarios. Some of our customers have up to 45 ERP systems scattered across the globe, mostly because they continue to acquire companies that have their own ERP systems. Consolidating them becomes a tedious job. There are lengthy processes in place address that, but customers cannot wait for full-scale consolidation before they start their accounting.

These are not only SAP systems, either; multiple vendors are getting combined. With the power of properly-designed APIs and a good integration strategy, we are able to make sure that each ERP receives the amount of data and information that is relevant to it. It becomes more challenging when we talk about security and data segregation. These require careful, well thought-out engineering on the software side to make sure that when all of this goes into practice and production, it works.

In the software industry, ideas can look quite charming and compelling on paper, but things change when those ideas meet reality. One of the key aspects of Nakisa Lease Administration involves our production systems that can handle up to 45 different ERP systems integrated with one consolidated application origin. What that translates to is a single Nakisa Lease Administration instance—not 45 different ones. This single instance can dispatch and coordinate communication between multiple ERPs without the need for middleware.

This allows for a very powerful toolset. Customers enjoy the consolidated disclosure and financial reporting that Nakisa Lease Administration offers even when their ERP systems are located in different geographical areas and are not consolidated yet.

It’s really amazing that they have so many different ERP systems which we have to integrate. With that in mind, how often do our customers actually require that kind of integration with multiple ERP systems? What challenges are posed by a combination of on-premises and cloud hosting?

That’s a good question. Not many companies with on-premises ERPs have begun migrating them to the cloud. There are attempts being made, but these are large projects that take time and careful consideration. When we talk about how many customers actually need that ERP integration, if we look at the problem itself, it’s that assets are going to show up in financial statements as assets and corresponding liabilities. This requires any software tasked with handling lease accounting to eventually make the final numbers available in the ERP. That is the only way companies can make use of that software and make it comply with new compliance standards. So how many don’t want it? Right now, the sole purpose of the software is to make sure that you’re compliant, and to generate financial reports so that the leased equipment and real estate shows up as a certain liability appropriately.

100 percent of customers expect us to be integrated with their ERP systems. This is where another challenge comes. Whenever we talk about integration of cloud software with an on-premises system, this normally turns into a very complex middleware integration orchestration project that involves very lengthy consulting engagements. It can become quite expensive for customers, especially when we are talking about not one but many ERP systems.

But this is where state-of-the-art software built on the best engineering practices can reduce that cost considerably. Instead of spending a year working on integration, planning, blueprinting, consulting, and finally installing middleware to centralize all communications, Nakisa Lease Administration comes with a very robust, state-of-the-art cloud connector that customers can deploy. That can take care of all integration between the cloud system and on-premises ERPs. This secure cloud connector is built with industry best practices in mind, including message queues using Kafka and Kubernetes on the server, so it reliably transmits all messages to on-premises systems. It is extremely fault-tolerant and highly reliable, guaranteeing business continuity

We are very proud of that connector because it is straightforward to connect and deploy. We do assist our customers by helping with deployment. For instance, we go through a security and performance audit to ensure their information is secure and safe. Many times, customers don’t even ask for it, but we insist to make sure that everything is in order and connections between the ERP and the cloud are sustained over time.

Don’t miss parts one and three of this interview.

Get in touch to learn more about how Nakisa Lease Administration can easily integrate and turbocharge your ERP.