SAP’s Business Connector (SAP BC) is a business integration tool to allow SAP Customers the ability to communicate with other SAP customers or SAP marketplaces. The Business Connector allows integration with R/3 via open and non-proprietary technology. This middleware component uses the Internet as communication platform and XML/HTML as data format thus seamlessly integrating different IT architectures with R/3.

Business processes are increasingly characterized by structures operating between companies. Companies no longer act in isolation: instead, they are integrated into geographically distributed production networks, pursuing the production process in cooperation with other firms. This means that exchanging data quickly and securely between applications and systems is an increasingly important requirement.

The companies involved need to pass relevant data and information along the individual process chains but different data formats and structures are an obstacle to the continuous flow of data. Even within their internal process chains, companies often maintain data duplicated in separate systems that cannot communicate with one another.

But Extensible Markup Language (XML) can now change all this. XML has gradually emerged as the preferred data exchange across different computer platforms and systems as well as a standard for the development and delivery of Internet content.

XML acts as a uniform standard for exchanging business data, through which heterogeneous applications can communicate with one another over uniform interfaces and in a language, which everyone involved, can understand. With XML, simple and complex structures can be presented at any data level and for any category of data.

Leading ERP system suppliers have also recognized the potential of XML. The increasing need to support XML standard has led SAP to integrate such a framework in its applications. This framework allows interface integration between SAP and Non-SAP systems.

Non-SAP applications can now be used by SAP customers owing to XML compliance. For example, using a company’s services in the cyber marketspace allows the customer data to be received and directly stored on vendor system as both are using data formatted in XML. These third-party systems using the XML standard data format are increasing rapidly. A customer using SAP can use a range of add-on products and services to their existing applications.

XML integration is also easier than using proprietary communication formats like SAP's BAPIs and RFCs. This has found widespread customer acceptance as it reduces integration and maintenance cost of interface integration during the implementation of non-SAP systems. Furthermore, customers can now exchange data with XML standard by using the Internet infrastructure through a much-more user-friendly Web Browser.

An XML environment of data exchange over the Internet via security protocols such as HTTP, HTTPS and FTP fully supports collaborative business scenarios, increasingly common in an integrated world. XML formatting and message handling with the help of the SAP Business Connector allows customers to use an industry-wide accepted format for data exchange between the SAP system and partner systems including historically grown proprietary systems.

The ability to integrate and analyze business data across applications, structured and unstructured information, and heterogeneous systems extends the traditional business environment and provides users with a complete view of the business.

Various XML standards are supported by SAP. It presents data according to an SAP specification either in IDoc-XML or BAPI-XML, the SAP XML extensions for IDocs and BAPIs. It uses preprepared representations of the SAP interfaces to XML Commerce Business Language (xCBL) messages to facilitate communication with the MarketSet marketplaces.

Messages are stored in a generic envelope. This envelope contains metadata that controls, among other things, the routing of the messages. SAP supports two different standards for these envelopes - Microsoft BizTalk and a format similar to Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP). Packaging SAP BAPIs in a standard envelope offers several advantages, including direct processing of messages by external applications and a uniform system of error handling.