The Interface between a Content Management System and SAP 

The COSIMA go! connection at Aerzener Maschinenfabrik GmbH

More variants and languages mean more effort

Creating project-specific documents on a daily basis, based on a master document with a stored variant filter is really quite effective, as compared with compiling content manually – a really quite effective solution at Aerzener Maschin­enf­abrik GmbH. But, if just under 20 language variants are added (and the trend is increasing), then even setting the appropriate variant filters and adding order-specific data on the cover page is an effort that shouldn't be under­est­im­ated.

Overview

How the challenge was solved

Specify the SAP-COSIMA interface

Requir­em­ents from tech writing team, SAP IT and software development aligned until a common spec­if­ic­ation was in place.

Implem­ent­ation in sprints with close coll­ab­or­ation

Realisation of the interface in small development iterations and with regular coord­in­ation between development and editorial teams.

Automated creation for standard products

Fully automated generation of project-specific documents including variant filter and order data based on SAP conf­ig­ur­ation and COSIMA master document.

Delib­er­ately route custom-made products into the manual process

Instruct­ions that cannot be fully automated are filed on a job-by-job basis for follow-up processing, allowing scope for special cases.

Close-up of trainers at a starting line on a running track, with the legs of other runners blurred in the background.
Initial situation

High effort despite an authoring system

Together with the Technical Editors at Aerzener Maschin­enf­abrik we considered how we could reduce these cons­id­er­able efforts.

We actually had everything we needed: a project-specific product conf­ig­ur­ation including order data in SAP and a complete master document for standard products in the Content Management System. What we were missing was comm­un­ic­ation between the two systems.

Several runners in motion; in the foreground, legs and blue running shoes; the background is blurred.
Approach

From a shared concept to the interface between SAP and COSIMA go!

The biggest challenge was to first properly specify the interface. Through numerous workshops, online meetings and calls, we first gathered the ideas and proposals of the technical writing team, the IT department at Aerzener Maschin­enf­abrik responsible for SAP, and kothes software development team in order to develop a shared spec­if­ic­ation. From there, implem­ent­ation proceeded in short sprints, with regular coord­in­ation between the software development and technical writing teams at Aerzener Maschin­enf­abrik and kothes.

Red finish line tape with the words "FINISH" written on it above a running track; the finish line is blurred in the background.
Benefits

Handling custom-made items – and more time for important editorial tasks.

In addition to standard products, as with most machine and plant manuf­act­urers, there are also customer-specific and custom-fabricated products. These manuals cannot be created completely autom­at­ic­ally. Guided by the order type in SAP, these manuals are stored in a specific folder within the CMS for manual processing, after their automatic creation.
This allows the Technical Writing staff to concentrate on handling these special cases and finally have more time to take care of the really important areas specific to their department. 

Aerzen logo in white on a transparent background.

“kothes stands out for its timely translations with accurate content. Regular on-site meetings to exchange experiences and a dedicated account manager round off the excellent collaboration."

Angela Pedack

Standards & Editor Office | T-SE

Aerzener Maschinenfabrik GmbH

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