ERP Integration Proof of Concept

Prove the ERP-to-Shop-Floor Loop Before Full Integration

One ERP, one test environment, one complete business transaction loop — work order down, confirmation, material consumption and goods receipt back — with the field mapping approved, the exceptions catalogued and the numbers reconciled. Production data is never touched.

Design my ERP integration PoC Talk to a manufacturing engineer

Typical duration4–8 weeks

Pilot scopeOne ERP test environment, one work-order flow

Primary buyerManufacturing IT

Decision at the endApproved mapping, exception catalogue and cutover plan

Is this the problem you need to solve?

The same work order is typed into two systems, and the two never quite agree.
Production confirmations reach the ERP the next day, by spreadsheet.
Nobody can say with confidence which system holds the truth for material consumption.
A previous integration attempt produced duplicates that took months to unwind.

Primary buyer: Manufacturing IT · ERP Manager · Digital Transformation Manager · Plant Manager · Operations Director

What this PoC will prove

Can one complete transaction loop run end to end between your ERP and MSF, with every field mapped?

What is the real synchronisation latency, and is it good enough for the shop floor?

Are duplicates prevented under retry, timeout and reconnection conditions?

Do the quantities reconcile exactly between the two systems after the loop?

When something fails, is it visible with enough detail for support to act on it?

Recommended pilot scope

One ERP, one test or sandbox environment — never production.
Selected master-data objects: items, BOMs, routings, work centres as required.
One work-order flow: release, confirmation, material consumption and finished-goods receipt where applicable.
An agreed set of test orders covering the normal case and the awkward ones.
Documented interface method, authentication and the security approvals to use it.

What will be live during the PoC

Work orders flowing from the ERP test environment into MSF with the agreed fields.

Production confirmations, consumption and receipts flowing back and posting correctly.

Exception visibility: what failed, at which step, with what payload identifier.

A reconciliation view comparing both systems for the same test period.

How this PoC runs

Week 1

Discovery and decision definitionAgree the transaction loop, the objects in scope, the test order set and the definition of a successfully closed loop.Exit gate: Scope, test orders and success definition agreed with your ERP owner.

Week 1–3

Site, process and data readinessObtain interface documentation, a test endpoint, the authentication method and sample payloads; complete the security and network approvals needed to reach it.Exit gate: Test access is live and the security approval is on record.

Week 2–5

Data mapping and integrationBuild and review the field mapping object by object, then run the loop for the agreed test orders including retries, timeouts and deliberate failures.Exit gate: Mapping signed off; the loop closes for every test order.

Week 5–7

Validation and acceptanceReconcile quantities and statuses between both systems, exercise the exception catalogue and confirm duplicate prevention under repeated and interrupted sends.Exit gate: Reconciliation is exact and every exception is reproducible.

Week 7–8

Rollout decision and business casePresent the approved mapping, security and data-flow diagram, the exception catalogue, the rollout backlog and the cutover recommendation.Exit gate: Go, adjust or stop.

Durations are typical, not guaranteed. What extends a schedule: missing or incomplete data, security and network approvals, hardware lead times, sample collection, installation access, the production schedule, ERP test access, and the time your team needs to review results.

No unplanned shutdown is expected. Any installation window or controlled interruption is agreed with you in advance and scheduled around production.

How success will be measured

How success will be measured
Metric	How it is defined	Where the number comes from	Type
Field completeness	Share of agreed fields transferred correctly and completely in both directions.	Your ERP or existing system	Technical
Transaction success rate	Share of test transactions completing without manual intervention, across the full test order set.	MSF platform data	Technical
Synchronisation latency	Time from an event in one system to it being visible in the other, at the 95th percentile.	MSF platform data	Technical
Duplicate prevention	Duplicates created under repeated sends, timeouts and reconnections — the target is zero and it is tested deliberately.	Your ERP or existing system	Technical
Reconciliation accuracy	Difference in quantities and statuses between the two systems after the test period.	Your ERP or existing system	Technical
Exception visibility	Share of failures that surface with enough detail — step, object, identifier — for support to act without a developer.	MSF platform data	Operational
Manual entry removed	Transactions per week that no longer need to be typed into a second system.	Observation and user interview	Financial

Before implementation, MSF and your team agree how each metric is calculated, where the baseline comes from, what data is excluded, and what result supports a rollout decision. This page lists what gets measured; the actual targets belong in the written PoC scope, not in a marketing claim.

What you need to provide

Interface documentation, a test endpoint and the authentication method to use it.
Sample payloads, the field mapping you already have, and the master data behind it.
Test orders and the transaction rules that govern them.
Security and network approvals, plus the ERP expert who can answer questions the same week.

Who does what

Meta Smart Factory provides

Discovery workshop and scope facilitation
Solution configuration for the agreed scope
Integration and connection work inside that scope
MSF hardware listed in the proposal
Training for the pilot users
The KPI definitions and validation method
Issue tracking and support during the pilot
The final result report and rollout design
The mapping, the connector configuration and the exception catalogue, all documented rather than tribal.
A security and data-flow diagram your IT organisation can review before anything touches production.

You provide

A named business owner and a named technical owner
Timely access to users, the line, machines and approved systems
An accurate explanation of the process and the master data
Network, power, mounting and safety access
ERP, PLC and vendor documentation, plus the experts who know them
Representative samples or historical data
Validation that the baseline is fair
Feedback and the acceptance decision
A usable ERP test environment — this PoC does not run against production.
An ERP expert with enough authority to confirm a field mapping.

Defined in the written proposal

Panel PCs, tablets, servers and GPU servers
Cameras, lenses, lighting and enclosures
Scanners, printers, RFID readers, meters and sensors
Travel, installation, freight, import duty and local electrical work
Whether hardware is rented or purchased
Whether any PoC fee is credited against a rollout

Commercial terms, hardware ownership, travel, integration scope and any rollout credit are defined in the written PoC proposal. They are not the same for every product, and this page does not promise them.

What you receive at the end

Approved field mapping for every object in scope.
A working test loop, reproducible from documentation.
Exception catalogue with the handling for each case.
Security and data-flow diagram for IT review.
Reconciliation report for the test period.
Rollout backlog and a cutover recommendation.

Dependencies, exclusions and limits

This PoC depends on

A reachable ERP test environment with credentials your own IT issues and controls.
Security and network approval being granted early — it is the most common cause of delay.

Not included in this PoC

Any connection to your production ERP during the PoC.
ERP-side customisation, upgrades and licence procurement.

What this PoC does not claim

This page and its form never ask for credentials, tokens, database exports or confidential ERP payloads. Access is arranged directly with your IT organisation, through their own channel, after the scope is agreed.

Go, adjust or stop — the decision gate

GoGo: the loop closes and reconciles — proceed to the rollout backlog and a planned cutover.

AdjustAdjust: the interface works but master data or an ERP-side rule needs to change first.

StopStop: the required interface is not available on your ERP version, and the alternative path is documented instead.

Frequently asked questions

Which ERP systems can you integrate with?

The approach is interface-led rather than vendor-led: whatever documented API, web service, IDoc, database view or file interface your ERP exposes and your IT approves. The readiness step confirms the specific method for your version before any build work starts.

Will you connect to our production ERP?

No. The PoC runs against a test or sandbox environment by design. Production connection belongs to the rollout, after the mapping is approved and the cutover plan exists.

What do you need from our IT team?

Interface documentation, a test endpoint, the authentication method, and an expert available for questions during the mapping phase. The single biggest schedule risk is not technical — it is waiting for a security approval nobody started early enough.

Why test duplicates deliberately?

Because duplicates are what actually go wrong in production integrations, usually months later, after a timeout during a network hiccup. Sending the same transaction repeatedly and interrupting it mid-flight is the only way to prove the loop is safe.

Request this Proof of Concept

Tell us the scope you have in mind and we will come back with a written PoC plan: what gets connected, what you provide, how success is measured and what the decision at the end looks like.