Integration migration, mobile, and Gen AI on SAP BTP
Energy and Utilities SAP BTP SAP Datasphere SAP Integration Suite Featured
Border States: 30+ integrations rebuilt on SAP BTP at 40% lower cost
Delivered 2023-2026
Mindset rebuilt 30+ legacy integrations on SAP BTP Integration Suite at 40% lower cost and 3x faster, then became Border States' go-to partner for mobile and AI on BTP.
By the numbers
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30+
Legacy integrations rebuilt on BTP
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Lower cost via hybrid delivery
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3x
Faster delivery
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Migration success rate
Before
Two integration platforms, no SAP-native path
- Apache NiFi and SAP PI/PO both running business-critical data flows.
- Two platforms for the same job, with no SAP-native way to govern them.
- Rising cost and growing technical debt, none of it part of the future-state plan.
After
One BTP platform, and a partnership that kept growing
- 30+ integrations rebuilt natively on Integration Suite, with Apache NiFi retired.
- Hybrid onshore and offshore delivery at 40% lower cost and 3x faster.
- Now Border States' go-to partner for mobile on MDK and Gen AI on BTP.
“Our new functionality in SAP has garnered some awesome comments, including 'Wow!' 'That is awesome', 'When is that ready to go' and 'That is a gamechanger. This thing will save me so much time!'”
Why this matters
This was the first time we replaced non-SAP middleware end to end, and then we kept going. Mobile apps, a Datasphere POC, and a Gen AI sales assistant that Border States co-presented with us on stage at SAP events.
The challenge
Border States is a 100% employee-owned wholesale distributor out of Fargo, North Dakota, serving construction, industrial, and utility markets across the US and Canada. Like a lot of companies that grow fast, its integration setup had piled up over the years. Apache NiFi and SAP PI/PO were both running business-critical data flows, two platforms doing the same job, with no SAP-native way to govern any of it.
The cost of keeping it all running kept climbing, and none of it fit where Border States wanted to go. Gaps between customer and vendor systems meant manual data entry, slow order processing, and inventory headaches that wore on vendor relationships. Border States wanted one strategic platform, SAP BTP Integration Suite, and a clean way to retire NiFi for good.
What we did
We ran the migration as a pattern problem, not 30 separate rebuilds. First we profiled every legacy NiFi integration and sorted them into a handful of patterns: ERP to third-party, customer-direct, data sync, and file transfer. Then we mapped each pattern to a modern Integration Suite design once, and reused it.
Delivery was a hybrid model. An onshore BTP architect owned the technical direction and quality bar, and three developers in India built in parallel across the different pattern types. Everything ran through Border States' own Azure DevOps backlog on a 22-week plan: discovery, architecture and planning, build, then test. That kept cost down and pace up, and it left Border States with patterns and a trained internal team they still use.
The relationship goes well past the migration. It started with an integration assessment and BTP advisory in 2023, then grew into a Datasphere proof of concept, a Salesforce stabilization integration, a rebuild of the truck-driver and will-call signature-capture apps on SAP's Mobile Development Kit, a Gen AI sales assistant for customer service, and ongoing BTP and Basis support. Border States now co-presents with us at SAP events, including the 2024 SAP BTP Executive Summit in Chicago, 2025 Customer Success Days in Philadelphia, and the ASUG Annual Conference.
The outcomes
The migration hit its marks. The hybrid delivery model came in 40% under an onshore-only approach, parallel development moved roughly 3x faster, and all 30+ identified integrations moved over with no business disruption, a 100% success rate.
Border States retired Apache NiFi entirely, which cut ongoing maintenance and licensing and took a real chunk of technical debt off the table. BTP Integration Suite is now the strategic platform, with standardized patterns and an internal team that knows how to run it.
The app work landed too. The new Quote Automation Tool took a 100-plus line-item order from about two hours down to about two minutes.
Recognition
- SAP Innovation Awards 2021 finalist, Integrated Order Management Cockpit on SAP BTP
If we built this today
Concept · not delivered scopeRebuild the integrations as patterns.
This is a forward-looking concept, not the scope we delivered on this engagement. It is the build we would reach for now, grounded in SAP that ships today.
This account had 30-plus legacy NiFi and PI/PO integrations that had grown into expensive technical debt, and the modern version treats that as one pattern problem an agent can profile and draft against, not 30 separate hand rebuilds.
The data product
Governed integration data product on SAP Business Data Cloud
A governed data product that grounds the agent in the real shape of every integration: source and target systems, message patterns, error rates, and run history. With that semantic context the agent maps old flows to new ones instead of guessing.
Data product on SAP Business Data Cloud
The Joule agent
Integration Suite Flow Builder
Reads the existing landscape of legacy iFlows and middleware endpoints, recognizes the recurring integration patterns like ERP-to-third-party and data sync, and drafts standardized SAP Integration Suite iFlows mapped from each old NiFi or PI/PO flow. A human architect reviews and approves each pattern before it ships.
SAP Integration Suite, SAP BTP, SAP Process Integration (PI/PO), SAP S/4HANA · PROPOSE · Integration migration cost and delivery time per flow
The Fiori app
SAP Integration Suite (BTP, not a Fiori app)
This work lives in SAP BTP through Integration Suite and its Flow Builder, not in an S/4HANA Fiori app. Joule reaches it as an orchestrator over the platform rather than through a launchpad tile, so we stay honest that the home here is BTP.
Lives in SAP BTP, not the Fiori launchpad
We'd still mine the real message flows in SAP Signavio first, map the source and target landscape in SAP LeanIX, and let MIND accelerators carry the old patterns across to the new BTP architecture.
What we built
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30+ integrations migrated, 100% success, 0 business disruption
NiFi to Integration Suite migration
Pattern-based rebuild of 30+ legacy NiFi integrations natively on SAP BTP Integration Suite, with a reusable pattern library and a hybrid onshore-architect, offshore-build team.
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40% lower cost, 3x faster, 22-week plan
Hybrid delivery model
Onshore BTP architect for direction and quality, three developers building in parallel across pattern types, tracked in Border States' Azure DevOps.
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Apache NiFi fully retired
NiFi decommissioning
Retired the Apache NiFi platform once integrations were live, removing ongoing maintenance and licensing and reducing technical debt.
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100+ line-item order: ~2 hours to ~2 minutes
Quote Automation Tool
A Fiori app that automates large multi-line quotes for customer service reps, built on the new BTP foundation.
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Real-time, SAP-aware answers for CSRs
AI Sales Assistant on BTP
A SAP-aware Gen AI assistant for customer service reps, built on SAP Build Work Zone, CAP on Cloud Foundry, and SAP AI Core with Azure OpenAI and Google Vertex AI. Co-presented at the ASUG Annual Conference.
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Modern mobile apps for delivery and pickup workflows
MDK mobile rebuild
Rebuilt the truck-driver and will-call signature-capture apps on SAP's Mobile Development Kit, moving from the older SMP SDK and Neo to Cloud Foundry on Azure, including Topaz device integration.
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Validated analytics path from S/4HANA to BTP
Datasphere proof of concept
A Datasphere POC connecting S/4HANA on-premise to BTP and Azure Storage for analytics, using replication flows and SAP HANA Cloud.
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Steadier customer data across systems
Salesforce stabilization integration
Stabilized and integrated the Salesforce data flow into the SAP estate as part of the broader integration strategy.
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Set the future-state integration strategy
Integration assessment and BTP advisory
The 2023 starting point: an integration assessment plus BTP and Fiori advisory that set the future-state architecture and kicked off the partnership.
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Continuous BTP platform support
BTP and Basis managed support
Ongoing platform support and an enterprise integration strategy that keeps the BTP estate healthy as it grows.
A look at the work
Presented publicly
We took this work to the SAP stage.
Shared with the SAP community, often alongside the customer. Here are the decks.
