Business outcome
Use this capability when the framework reveals a broken handoff between people, systems, records, partners, or decisions that prevents the supply chain from keeping the customer promise.
Services
Integration Engineering · ERP Integration Architecture
ERP Integration Architecture
Your employees should not be the integration layer.
When manufacturing teams copy orders, inventory, production, customer, and financial information between systems, routine work becomes slow and unreliable. We connect the ERP already in use to approved systems, data, reporting, portals, workflows, and AI, with responsibilities scoped to that environment.
A strong fit when
- Point-to-point integrations that nobody documented and only one person understands
- Batch file transfers running on overnight schedules when the business needs real-time data
- EDI and file exchanges fail without visible acknowledgment, reconciliation, or an accountable exception owner
- Interfaces lack consistent validation, retry, monitoring, and recovery procedures, so failures surface downstream
Why this service exists
Connect the technology decision to the work the manufacturing business must control.
System responsibility
Integration engineering connects the ERP, applications, partners, records, events, and workflows that must operate as one system under clear source ownership and data contracts.
Ownership and control
The manufacturer must understand each interface, record authority, validation rule, security boundary, monitoring signal, recovery path, and support owner instead of depending on undocumented vendor knowledge.
01
The Business Problem
Disconnected systems turn employees into middleware.
Integration problems begin when systems exchange fields without agreement about the operating record, timing, ownership, validation, recovery, and exception response.
What leaders see
People reconcile the same records repeatedly.
Orders, inventory, production, quality, and shipment status move through exports, re-entry, calls, and side files.
What is actually happening
The handoff has no governed contract.
Identifiers, source ownership, timing, validation, monitoring, and recovery differ across systems and organizations.
What gets worse
More connections create more uncertainty.
Point-to-point fixes multiply while failures become harder to detect, explain, assign, and recover.
02
What changes
Make the operating responsibility visible and governable.
When manufacturing teams copy orders, inventory, production, customer, and financial information between systems, routine work becomes slow and unreliable. We connect the ERP already in.
01
Operating outcome
Your employees should not be the integration layer.
02
Records and handoffs to connect
orders, inventory and materials, production status
03
Decision and exception path
Which records must move, which system owns them, how current they must be, and what happens when exchange fails.
04
Ownership and continuity
Each interface needs an accountable source, defined identifiers, validation, recovery, monitoring, and ownership before teams can trust the exchange.
03
Architecture
Build the service around the business record and decision.
Which records must move, which system owns them, how current they must be, and what happens when exchange fails.
01Source record
02Governed connection
03Validation
04Business system
05Accountable owner
Records and handoffs to connect
ordersinventory and materialsproduction statusquality recordsshipments and exceptions
04
Engineering scope
What Metrotechs engineers for ERP Integration Architecture.
The exact scope follows the approved business objective, source records, dependencies, controls, and delivery sequence.
01
Integration Landscape Mapping
Document every system that touches your ERP — inbound and outbound data flows, frequency, format, and business criticality. You cannot govern what you have not mapped.
02
API & Middleware Architecture
Design the integration layer — direct API, middleware platform, or hybrid — based on volume, latency requirements, and system capabilities. Choose the right pattern for each connection.
03
Data Contract Definition
Define the data contract for every integration: field mapping, validation rules, error handling, retry logic, and SLA. Both systems agree on the contract before development starts.
04
EDI Implementation
Implement EDI/AS2 connections for customer and supplier transactions — 810, 850, 855, 856, 997. Compliance testing, trading partner onboarding, and error monitoring included.
05
Real-Time vs. Batch Optimization
Set exchange timing from the business decision, source-system limits, transaction volume, tolerance for stale data, and recovery requirement instead of defaulting every connection to real time.
06
Monitoring & Alerting
Monitor acknowledgments, latency, validation failures, retries, reconciliations, and unresolved exceptions so the accountable owner can respond before downstream work depends on a missing record.
05
Delivery sequence
From operating reality to a solution the business can own.
Integration Discovery
Inventory all current and required integrations. Document data flows, volumes, frequencies, and business owners. Identify gaps and fragile connections.
Architecture Design
Design the target integration architecture — middleware selection, API strategy, data contracts, and error handling patterns. Document everything before build starts.
Build & Test
Develop integrations in priority order with unit testing and integration testing at each milestone. EDI compliance testing with trading partners included.
End-to-End Validation
Test the full data flow from source to ERP to downstream systems with real transaction data. Validate round-trip accuracy and timing under production-like volume.
Production & Monitoring
Deploy with monitoring dashboards, alerting rules, and runbook documentation. Handoff to your team with training on troubleshooting and common failure patterns.
Related services and systems
Continue through the connected operating environment.
Use these connected services and references to understand the records, workflows, and systems surrounding this work.
Systems explained
ERPUnderstand the operating records, workflows, and system-of-record boundaries an ERP should own.MiddlewareUnderstand how integration services move and govern records across application boundaries.EDIUnderstand how structured partner documents, acknowledgements, validation, monitoring, and recovery cross company boundaries.
06
FAQ
Questions to answer before implementation begins.
Clear answers for manufacturing leaders evaluating the work, operating responsibility, and delivery path.
We choose the pattern from the business requirement: record ownership, volume, timing, recoverability, auditability, security, and the number of systems involved. Direct APIs, middleware, events, and scheduled exchange are options; none is the default for every connection.