OPTIMIZE YOUR GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINIntegrate Your Labeling with SAP®

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Executive Summary In the past decade, business has seen a surge in globalization and customization,

new emerging markets and advancing technologies. These dramatic changes, to-

gether with an increase in consumer and B2B customer expectations, require com-

panies to respond faster and with more tailored messaging in this highly competitive

market. To meet growing demands, today’s supply chains must adapt quickly to

remain agile in order to optimize responsiveness and maximize efficiencies.

To manage these dynamics, and stay ahead of the competition, many leading

companies have turned to SAP to support their supply chain strategies and,

ultimately, achieve healthier top and bottom lines. Forward-thinking organizations

also recognize the role labeling plays in achieving better results throughout their

supply chain. This is because it’s critical for enterprise companies to keep moving

goods to the right place, at the right time – with the right label.

No matter which SAP foundation or supply chain execution solution you leverage

to support your business – whether you are on S/4HANA, ME, MII or EWM or

still planning your move - integrating your business applications with a certified,

comprehensive Enterprise Labeling Solution to manage labeling on a global scale

reaps measurable benefits. Though manually printing labels may be required in

certain situations, labeling integrated with enterprise solutions allows companies

to leverage existing business processes and vital data sources, while also max-

imizing existing investments and eliminating the need to retrain users. Drawing

data from sources of truth, either manually triggered “on-demand” or generated

directly from business processes within SAP, allows companies to respond quickly

and efficiently to customer and regulatory labeling requirements. Companies

achieve these goals while dramatically cutting costs, simplifying maintenance and

improving time-to-market.

This paper will review modern supply chain pressures and explain how Enterprise

Labeling can seamlessly integrate with your SAP solution to bring your company’s

labeling to the next level, making a measurable difference for your business.

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Best Run Global Supply Chains Turn to SAPLeading companies that recognize labeling plays a critical role in the manufacture

and distribution of their products want to also leverage investments in their SAP

systems. Barcode labeling solutions, which, today entail much more than just the

printing of barcodes, can be fully integrated with key SAP processes to access

the source of truth both through manual interaction and trigger labeling directly

from SAP. This integration allows companies to effectively and efficiently man-

age labeling across their supply chain and enables them to meet customer and

regulatory requirements, scale globally, enable traceability, improve time-to-market

and enhance supply chain efficiencies.

There are numerous trends that have had a profound and direct impact on today’s

global supply chains:

Supply Chain CollaborationAn extended supply chain network requires seamless (or efficient) movement of

materials and product across partners, contract manufacturing organizations

(CMOs), Third-Party Logistics (3PLs) to name a few. This requires enhanced visi-

bility and means that partners, CMOs, and 3PLs, need controlled, secure access to

systems and sources of data.

GlobalizationRevenue growth in emerging markets requires new regional distribution strategies

to ensure timely delivery. With this, companies must adhere to regional require-

ments and regulations and contend with language barriers.

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Customer ResponsivenessSupply chain agility is critical to gaining market share and to stay competitive, and

companies must be able to adapt quickly. Companies demand that their suppliers

and partners meet specific labeling requirements at the corporate and/or plant

level to help them become more efficient.

E-CommerceIncreased e-commerce volumes are placing unprecedented demand on supply

chains across many industries. Supply chain operations including fulfillment and

distribution must adapt to these new B2B or B2C channels.

TraceabilityIncreasing in importance across a wide range of industries (not just life sciences

and food and beverage), traceability across the global supply chain has become

critical for brand protection, product recall and consumer safety.

In this dynamic marketplace, companies need comprehensive access to accu-

rate, real-time data; those who rely on SAP to power their supply chain opera-

tions should also take a proactive, strategic approach to labeling. As SAP builds

a foundation for extended supply chain visibility and supports more agile supply

chain strategies with S/4HANA, labeling must also keep pace.

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Enterprise Labeling Integrated with SAP Equals Best-of-BreedAs the business environment becomes more global and new business models

emerge, companies should rethink their entire labeling operations to make sure it

meets the demands of multi-faceted, dynamic supply chains. Labeling solutions

must offer the opportunity to integrate with existing business processes, provide

standardization and consistency, as well as enable the ability to scale. A compre-

hensive Enterprise Labeling Solution, which offers a dynamic, data-driven ap-

proach, provides the speed and flexibility necessary to compete in today’s modern

supply chain. An enterprise approach to labeling offers companies the foundation

to deal with the nuances of complex labeling requirements and regulations, the

agility to support high levels of variability in labeling, and the speed and scalability

to support fast moving global supply chains.

Enterprise Labeling enables organizations to view the labeling process globally,

and to consider the full breadth of the labeling landscape. It replaces multiple,

disparate, locally controlled data sources with centralized data from trusted

sources such as SAP. Most importantly, this approach offers the ability to respond

quickly to evolving customer and regulatory demands. Accurate and consistent

labeling reduces the need for time-consuming and costly relabeling and results

in improved traceability, the elimination of mislabeling, fewer delays encountered

through customs, and improved customer and regulatory compliance.

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Certified Integration with SAP for Peace of Mind A robust Enterprise Labeling Solution offers tested and certified integration with

SAP across its wide portfolio of solutions, including S/4HANA or EWM. It should

leverage your investment in Smart Forms and Adobe Interactive Forms to drive

labeling directly, ensuring that audit tracking includes all information of what

you have printed, and taking advantage of powerful printing and print queue

management capabilities. Your Enterprise Labeling Solution should integrate

directly to SAP’s output management and provide certified integration via Adobe

Interactive Forms, Smart Forms, Remote Function Call (RFC) and RDI. Additionally,

it should support integrating labeling with multiple SAP solutions at the same

time while providing seamless visibility into labeling operations with bi-directional

communication. Whether you are implementing S/4HANA, or developing your

roadmaps, you need to be sure that your chosen Enterprise Labeling Solution has

a proven, successful track record integrating with both simple and complex SAP

landscapes.

Draw Data from the Source of Truth Integrating labeling with SAP and other business applications allows companies

to leverage existing business processes and vital data sources, while eliminating

the need to retrain users. To achieve accuracy and consistency, integrating to the

sources of truth for label data is far more efficient than having multiple, possibly

duplicate, sources of data. Whether your master or transactional data is from one

or multiple SAP solutions, a best-in-breed Enterprise Labeling Solution does not

replicate label content data, regardless of how labeling is triggered.

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Standardize to Simplify Standardizing on an Enterprise Labeling Solution provides label accuracy and

consistency. It also simplifies system maintenance and deployment, which lowers

overall IT costs without sacrificing reliability or performance. Standardizing doesn’t

mean one size fits all, however; systems can be deployed in a centralized, distrib-

uted or hybrid model for complete flexibility. Multi-site capabilities available with

an Enterprise Labeling Solution enable SAP customers to maintain continuous op-

erations, leveraging a single deployment across multiple geographies and remote

facilities that synchronize with a central location as needed. Multi-site capabilities

also allow business users at remote sites, which include manufacturing plants,

warehouses and distribution centers, to manage labeling independently when

desired and synchronize labeling information such as templates and transac-

tional data at scheduled intervals. Even when deploying solutions in a distributed

fashion, the goal is to continue to leverage common data sources, templates and

configurations across sites. This offers a significant advantage over operating

multiple solutions, which increase the risk of labeling errors and limit the

company’s ability to stay agile.

Scale Globally in the CloudAs businesses expand globally, their supply chain solutions must scale to support

operations in multiple locations. To manage their global footprint efficiently and

cost-effectively, many SAP companies turn to the cloud to run their enterprise

applications such as SAP S4/HANA to improve data quality, increase productivity

and reduce costs, while expanding access to enterprise solutions worldwide.

Com-panies may choose to operate in the cloud using a Software as a Service

(SaaS) model, a private cloud, or a hybrid model. Integrating SAP with a robust

Enterprise Labeling Solution that supports cloud-based deployment options and

can easily

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scale as an organization’s needs grow further improves the efficiencies and

capabilities of the digital supply chain, ensuring the ability to respond to changes

in customer demand quickly worldwide. An integrated Enterprise Labeling Solution

must also offer robust reliability and high performance across a heterogeneous

global printer landscape to protect an organization from business interruption.

Controlled Agility It is critical that a labeling solution provides controls over user access and man-

ages change control and versioning across a global enterprise to ensure that the

correct label is printed. An Enterprise Labeling Solution integrated with SAP offers

companies the ability to meet customer and regulatory requirements without

sacrificing the appropriate change control required. Many companies want to

configure workflows and approvals within their labeling solution, while those in

highly-regulated industries require eSignatures, a comprehensive audit trail and

21CFR Part 11 compliance. An Enterprise Labeling Solution integrated with SAP

provides companies a range of options to control label changes to efficiently

comply with corporate standards, customer and global requirements.

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Dramatically Cut Costs and Stream-line Maintenance An Enterprise Labeling Solution provides SAP customers with the ultimate label-

ing flexibility by offering a powerful and configurable business rules engine. An

organization can dramatically reduce the number of label templates required by

leveraging business logic, rather than writing code or having to develop a separate

template for each label. Configurable business rules enable the dynamic popu-

lation of a template with the correct label content, such as required languages,

images, plant addresses or barcodes, based on SAP data such as customer,

material, country of origin, or ship-to address. Business users can easily update

these rules, enhancing timeliness and offloading from IT.

Enabling Customer ResponsivenessCompanies today are faced with complexities and variations in labeling that didn’t

exist in the past. As a result, SAP companies – and their supply chain partners --

seek immediate action to respond to these requirements. Being able to respond to

customer labeling demands quickly can give an organization a competitive edge.

An Enterprise Labeling Solution integrated with SAP offers the agility and speed

needed to meet this growing demand. Changes in label design do not require tech-

nical resources. In fact, IT can empower business users with controlled access,

enabling users to update the most complex labels in minutes instead of weeks or

months to ensure customer compliance and satisfaction.

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Address Regulatory Challenges and Comply with Industry StandardsThe effect of evolving regulations and emerging standards can have a significant

impact on today’s supply chain and often labeling is affected. Mislabeling is a

frequent cause of regulatory compliance issues - even for companies using SAP.

With new regulations emerging continually, a local organization may lack the abil-

ity and compliance expertise to keep on top of all the changes required to provide

accurate labeling. An Enterprise Labeling Solution enables efficient, accurate and

consistent label data supporting existing customer and regulatory requirements.

Adhering to these regulations, which define how products are developed, mar-

keted, shipped, and disposed of, is essential for all corporate facilities, including

remote locations, and aids companies to avoid supply chain interruption, potential

fines and enter new markets more efficiently.

Improve Time-to-MarketMany SAP organizations are retooling with advanced technologies – the Internet

of Things (IoT), RFID, advanced analytics, robotics to name a few – combined

with Intelligent Cloud ERP, such as SAP S/4HANA, to enable them to run an agile

real-time supply chain. As competitive pressures drive manufacturers to improve

efficiency, quality and time-to-market, labeling must keep up. An Enterprise

Labeling Solution integrated with SAP business processes can provide organiza-

tions with the ability to rapidly and dynamically manage labeling and support the

extensive variability brought on by the global complexity of products, new technol-

ogies, geographies, languages and standards.

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Integrate, Automate and Optimize your Labeling with SAP Today, enterprises are attempting to streamline the flow of products and informa-

tion across channel, network, and organizational boundaries to create flexible and

demand-driven supply chains—while also meeting their profitability objectives.

However, it’s a challenge to stay agile and adapt to expanding supply chain col-

laborations, globalization pressures and e-commerce competitors. There also is

an increased focus on traceability and increasing customer demands. To achieve

these goals, companies must be able to meet the rigors of evolving regulations

and customers’ global requirements. To do so, they must be able to manage

labeling variability across multiple regions, including variability in languages, data,

images, and formats.

Integrating labeling with an SAP certified solution offers best-of-breed capabilities

for meeting these labeling challenges. Implementing an Enterprise Labeling Solu-

tion specifically designed to integrate with SAP and other business applications

can proactively and quickly accommodate the widest range of customer require-

ments by offering automated, integrated, optimized, data-driven labeling. Ultimately

this makes it easier to update labels, avoid costly mistakes that lead to relabeling

and returns, and meet customer and regulatory requirements in a timely fashion.

Loftware Spectrum® is an SAP certified Enterprise Labeling Solution that is spe-

cifically designed to work with S/4HANA, SAP Business Suite on HANA and SAP

ECC. Spectrum supports global deployment, offering great efficiencies across the

extended supply chain, enabling companies to dramatically reduce costs, stream-

line maintenance and improve time-to-market. When accessing data from key

sources of truth such as SAP, whether done manually for on demand label printing

or through triggering labeling directly from business processes - organizations can

achieve an unprecedented level of speed, flexibility and power to create, manage,

and print mission-critical barcode labels across today’s complex global supply

chain.

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US • GERMANY • UK • SINGAPORE • WWW.LOFTWARE.COM

Loftware is the global market leader in Enterprise Labeling and Artwork Management

solutions with more than 5,000 customers in over 100 countries. Offering the industry’s

most comprehensive digital platform, with SaaS cloud-based and on-premise solutions,

Loftware redefines how enterprises create, manage and print complex labeling and

packaging artwork and scale across their operations. Loftware solutions integrate with

SAP®, Oracle® and other enterprise applications to produce mission-critical barcode

labels, documents, RFID smart tags and packaging artwork. Our combined platform –

whether for labeling, artwork management or both – enables customers to uniquely

meet regulatory mandates, mitigate risk, reduce complexity, ensure traceability, improve

time to market and optimize costs as they meet customer-specific, brand, regional and

regulatory requirements with unprecedented speed and agility.