ERP Integration: Web Services vs. Database Queries
A recurring discussion in the Ignition Cross Industry Collective calls is about the best ways to integrate an ERP System. The discussion essentially boils down a question of using web services, or going directly to the database.
As always, the answer depends on the situation!
The Differences Between Web Services & Database Queries
Simply put, web services will allow us to interact with the ERP system through a web service. This will allow other software can “talk” to the ERP system in a way that’s similar to how a web browser retrieves websites. But, instead of loading a website, the ERP system sends over relevant data, or will work with the data that we send the ERP system. This data could include work orders, shipping/receiving records, schedules, recipes, or any number of other options.
The other common option is directly interacting with the database by updating tables, pulling records, and managing data with queries in our software.
How Web Services and Database Query Strategies are Similar
Both approaches involve data in the database—which is then available to another software package, or updated in the ERP system. The end result is the same.
Why Should You Use Web Services?
A major reason to choose Web Services is overall security. Since you aren’t directly managing individual accounts or access to the database, its often easier to track who is accessing the system and what they are doing.
More reasons to consider choosing Web Services:
Web Services can cache data it retrieves from the database for faster performance than querying it directly.
With load balancing, web services can manage its connections to the database and distribute the load across its own servers without having to open a connection to the database every time you need to access the database.
Web services can manage primary and redundant connections to the databases, keeping things running with high availability even if there are network issues.
Web services is scalable since it can spread requests between several parallel data sources without requiring the software requesting the data to manage the connections.
It’s portable since you can change the underlying DB implementation without impacting anyone who needs data from the ERP.
Many software platforms have integrated web service tools—but without direct database query tools. Web Services provides a standard way of interacting with the ERP regardless of what other software is accessing it.
When Should You Use Direct Database Access?
In many cases, Web Services will be the preferred method of interacting with an ERP system. But, it will usually require someone to build the web service endpoints. In most manufacturing facilities this is handled by the IT department. Some companies may not have the resources to manage this. Or, they are starting out with a proof of concept and want to set up direct access to the database.
Depending on your licensing arrangement, web services might not be enabled—and it could be cost prohibitive, which would also make direct database access a feasible alternative.
If you’re doing a relatively simple integration—pulling data from the ERP and feeding it into a SCADA system for Work Orders or recipes—you may not need all of the overhead involved in building web services. This is especially true if you already have a well defined system in place, or are simply upgrading your software platform and already have the calls in place.
Choosing the Best Architecture for Your Project
When you begin a project, look to understand the overall goal. If this is phase one of a long term, transformative integration, that will generally lean towards choosing web services. If the project goal is simply to help make your operators’ lives easier by reducing overall data entry requirements on a machine by pulling in work order data automatically, then a quick database integration will probably be appropriate.
If you are new to ERP systems in general, it is also wise to understand the capabilities of each option in terms of how other software will communicate with the ERP system. This is another important decision making point in the process.
Corso Systems has worked with just about every ERP system on the market, with Web Services, custom database queries, and anything else you can dream up. Please contact us if you have any questions about the best path forward for your ERP Integration!