Loading data quickly and efficiently to and from SAP is a challenge for most businesses. Whether you are an IT manager, a business user, or an SAP expert, getting data into SAP can often be a time-consuming task standing in the way of more strategic projects. Hours are devoted to entering, correcting, and managing data uploads. There are a few ways to speed up the process and streamline data management, but there’s one that will empower your internal teams while saving time and money right away.
SAP Data Entry Automation: Save Time and Reduce Errors
SAP is a powerful tool for managing critical business processes like finance, supply chain, and HR, but when it comes to SAP data entry, the process can be slow, tedious, and error-prone.
Even today, many businesses are relying on outdated methods or manual uploads. These inefficiencies not only delay operations but also limit business agility. On average, SAP users spend 30 hours per week processing data without automation—time that could be reclaimed with the right tools.
The solution? SAP automation. By leveraging an automation tool like Process Runner, users can upload and manage SAP data using Excel—without coding, extensive training, or waiting on IT support.
If your company is still relying on slow, manual processes, it’s time to rethink how you handle SAP data entry. Keep reading to discover how SAP automation can save your team thousands of hours per year while improving accuracy, security, and overall productivity.
What is SAP Data Entry? And Why Does it Take So Long?
Short for Systems, Applications, and Products in Data Processing, SAP is a powerful software used by businesses to manage key operations like finance, supply chain, and HR. It centralizes data, streamlines workflows, and automates tasks, making it easier for teams to work efficiently and make informed decisions.
Yet, loading data quickly and efficiently to and from SAP is a challenge for most businesses. Whether you are an IT manager, a business user, or an SAP expert, getting data into SAP can often be a time-consuming task standing in the way of more strategic projects. Hours are devoted to entering, correcting, and managing data uploads.
SAP Data Entry Challenges:
- Tedious, manual uploads: Your company suffers when it is unable to react to changes in the market or organizational processes quickly because the uploading of data is incredibly manual, time-consuming, and error-prone.
- Poor data security standards and organization: IT departments and those handling SAP data are often dealing with organizational processes and workflows that don’t meet their data standards, resulting in errors and an overwhelming workload.
Why does SAP data entry take so long?
SAP is a complex tool, but one that is vital for most businesses, storing important order information, supply chain details, financial history and more. Users who understand SAP and know how to upload data into it usually have a significant amount of training and programming knowledge to make it all work efficiently. This leaves other business users – those without certifications and training – relying on information technology departments to create bespoke tools that allow them to upload the data and execute SAP processes.
In SAP, the tool that helps streamline data uploads is known as a Legacy System Migration Workbench (or LSMW for short), which allows the one-time transfer of data from a legacy business system. For most enterprises, there is often an internal wait time for business users to get a homegrown SAP workbench from their IT team. It takes time to create them, and these tools are not reusable across business users and business processes.
Even once a business user receives an internal SAP workbench from their IT team, the tool is usually very technical and without direct integration to common programs like Excel, requiring developer assistance. Tools like LSMWs usually do not support variable line items for things like purchase orders and invoices and cannot support 999+ lines (the limit for SAP) without advanced programming.
This is all just a way of saying that trying to automate SAP with internal workarounds or LSMWs takes a lot of time and training, ultimately leaving businesses to fall back on SAP-trained staff or hire consultants to get the job done instead of enabling more of the organization’s workforce. The amount of time these trained individuals spend on SAP data management can vary greatly between each organization, but on average an SAP user spends 30 hours per week processing data without automation. Hours that could be spent more wisely.
But your company needs to move faster in today’s supply markets, and it is time to stop relying on IT. The good news is there is software that can automate your SAP process, streamline data entry, and empower internal teams, saving time and money right away.
The Power of SAP Process Automation
Wondering what SAP automation is? Defined simply, it’s the process of using tools and technologies to automate data-related tasks within SAP systems. For organizations, SAP automation means reducing dependency on IT departments by providing users with tools that are easy to use, allowing them to manage data processes independently. But those aren’t the only advantages…
SAP Automation: 4 Key Benefits
- Faster Data Processing: Automation accelerates data entry and retrieval, enabling real-time insights and quicker response times.
- Reduced Manual Effort: Automated workflows eliminate repetitive tasks, freeing up employees to focus on strategic activities.
- Improved Accuracy: Automation minimizes the risk of human errors, ensuring data integrity and reliability.
- Reduced Dependencies: SAP automation reduces dependency on IT departments by providing business users with tools that are easy to use
How to Automate SAP Processes and Quickly See Savings
Even with these benefits and so more, many companies keep using these slow legacy processes for SAP data entry because they believe they can’t afford automation software to make it easier on employees. And for firms that have already heavily invested in SAP and hired people experienced in the software, setting up automation can seem daunting and expensive.
However, creating quicker upload times with a SAP automation tool like Process Runner allows companies to see savings almost immediately. So while, yes, there is a modest cost to adopting a powerful SAP automation tool like Process Runner, the time savings will quickly allow the tool to pay for itself.
Take Power Equipment Co., for example: the leader of their IT department said Process Runner paid for itself within just six months, and they saw immediate time savings in their first data uploads.
Process Runner allows the average business user to use Microsoft Excel to manage and automate SAP data without coding, advanced training, or waiting for an LSMW. Process Runner is easy to implement without any back-end SAP configurations, costly setup fees, or complex integrations.
Click here for more information or to schedule a SAP automation demo.
Accelerate Business Decisions with Process Runner
“There” is the state of getting the most from your data without sacrificing the time and resources that your company needs on the supply chain front lines. Process Runner makes SAP automation fast and easy with advanced capabilities for all SAP modules in a user-friendly Excel interface.
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Besides being easy to implement, how does an Excel-based SAP automation tool empower organizations?
- Once up and running, Process Runner can reduce the average processing time up to 90% for most SAP transactions.
- For SAP users spending on average 30 hours per week processing data, this is 27 hours they can spend on other more important tasks.
- For companies, the time savings and better utilization of an SAP-trained employee’s salary equates to roughly $3,000 per week, based on a salary of $156,000.
Along with the immediate time savings of automating SAP data processing, Process Runner enables employees to deliver higher productivity and increase the speed at which they manage data in the following ways:
- Effortless Excel Integration: Automate SAP data uploads and management using familiar Excel tools, reducing IT dependency.
- Fast Implementation & High ROI: Quick setup and 1,900+ pre-built templates eliminate manual data entry, boosting efficiency.
- Error-Free Data Processing: Built-in validation catches mistakes before upload, improving accuracy and compliance.
- Comprehensive SAP Automation: Run T-codes, BAPIs, GUI scripting, and data extraction—all in one tool.
- Secure & Scalable: Maintain governance with SAP security profiles while streamlining enterprise-wide automation.
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