From fragmented sales processes to a unified lead-to-order flow with SAP Sales Cloud

After implementing SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, the customer, a global distributor, advanced its transformation by building a modern, integrated sales environment. Partnering with ACBaltica, the company quickly adopted SAP Sales Cloud, demonstrating a commitment to innovation.

The goal of the project was simple – to bring all sales activities into one system, eliminate manual work, and gain full visibility into the sales pipeline. SAP Sales Cloud became the natural extension of their freshly implemented cloud ERP (SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud).

Customer

The customer is a global distributor operating across multiple regions, with a head office in the US, and a strong focus on fast-moving, high-volume sales and close integration between sales and operations.

Following their ERP transformation, the company aimed to unify sales processes within a single ecosystem and eliminate the disconnect between their CRM and ERP systems.

Challenge

Previously, the customer ran Microsoft Dynamics CRM, which was integrated with their MS Dynamics ERP. But when the company moved to SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, it was a natural next step to bring their CRM in line with the new environment. They needed a solution, fully integrated with SAP S/4HANA, that could support their evolving sales operations – specifically, one that could:

• Connect presales and sales into one continuous process, from lead to quote
• Provide clear visibility into the sales pipeline and performance
• Deliver a unified customer profile across all channels, including e-commerce
• Seamlessly link sales and order processing with the ERP
• Handle mass lead creation efficiently and without duplication

In short, the company needed a system that would cover the full journey – from the first customer interaction to order creation – all within a single, integrated SAP ecosystem.

Solution

SAP Sales Cloud (V2) was implemented as the next step after SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud, creating a single, connected sales ecosystem.

Key objectives:

• Integrate CRM and ERP into one end-to-end process
• Build a seamless lead-to-quote process
• Automate lead handling and reduce manual input
• Create a unified customer profile with all related interactions
• Eliminate duplicate data and improve data quality
• Ensure a convenient reporting system with enhanced data visibility 

Project timeline

The project start was intentionally aligned with the completion of the SAP S/4HANA rollout to ensure a stable foundation.

• April 2025 – Initial workshops
• July 2025 – Implementation start (Explore phase)
• January 2026 – Go-live
• January–February 2026 – Hypercare

Key challenges

Integration complexity

A major focus was to provide smooth data exchange between Sales Cloud and S/4HANA:

• Avoid duplicate data
• Ensure consistent product, pricing, and customer information
• Enable real-time order creation from CRM

Working with a new product

The project was one of the early implementations of SAP Sales Cloud V2, which introduced a few  challenges:

• Some expected features were not yet available or delayed
• Standard functionality did not always behave as expected
• Documentation for certain features was limited

For example:

• Lead deduplication and account merge capabilities were not fully available
• The Quote API release was postponed, requiring a change in approach to integration between SAP Sales Cloud and S/4HANA
• Availability checks in quotes required deep technical investigation and custom configuration

Implementation scope

Home page:

(* Due to security and compliance reasons, all screenshots are taken from the test system)

Core sales processes

• Lead management
• Opportunities
• Quotes
• Sales analytics

Leads report:

Won quote:

Guided selling process

Data and objects

• Customers and contacts
• Products and pricing
• Sales pipeline reporting

Integration with SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud 

From Sales Cloud to S/4HANA:

• Customer and contact data
• Sales order creation
• Quote simulation (pricing and availability)

From S/4HANA to Sales Cloud:

• Products and pricing
• Order status updates
• Customer master data

Custom development

Since SAP Sales Cloud V2 is a relatively new product, some critical out-of-the-box features required enhancements.

Lead data processing

• Automated lead import from Excel (marketing campaigns, events, webinars)
• Matching leads with existing customers
• Duplicate detection during lead import

Customer deduplication

• Customer tax number input and validation
• Custom logic based on tax number (key customer identifier)
• Real-time duplicate checks during customer creation and updates

Reporting 

• Sales Funnel report
• Quotes report

Sales funnel dashboard based on Embedded SAC  (SAP Analytics Cloud):

Quotes reports: based on Embedded SAC  (SAP Analytics Cloud):

Product and availability management

Additional fields to the Products section referring to the Quote: 

• Plant
• Storage
• Location
• Dropship

These fields allowed users to:

• Define the source location from the Quote for availability (ATP) checks 
• Control logistics scenarios (e.g., dropshipping)

Teams

ACBaltica:

• Project Manager
• 3 SAP Sales Cloud consultants
• Integration Suite consultant
• 2 BTP developers
• SAP S/4HANA (SD) consultant
• SAP Analytics Cloud consultant

Customer:

• C-level stakeholders (sales and marketing)
• Sales managers and marketing specialists

Results and business impact

With SAP Sales Cloud fully integrated into their SAP ecosystem, the company now operates with a unified, transparent, and scalable sales process. The new SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud environment called for closer alignment between sales and finance data than before. Today, an integrated, data-driven system delivers that visibility, supporting faster decisions, better customer management, and continued growth. The transformation delivered immediate improvements:

Full sales visibility

• Clear, structured sales pipeline
• Real-time reporting on top deals, products, and opportunities
• Better prioritization of high-value quotes

Faster sales cycle

• Customer creation and quote preparation time significantly reduced 
• Less manual work and fewer dependencies between teams

End-to-end process integration

• The sales process is now fully managed in CRM
• Orders automatically transferred to SAP S/4HANA
• No duplicate data entry across systems

Improved data quality

• Significant reduction in duplicate customers
• Clean, reliable customer data based on key identifiers

Higher efficiency

• Less time spent on administrative tasks
• More time focused on actual sales

Why ACBaltica

The customer selected ACBaltica for the combination of:

• Strong expertise in SAP S/4HANA and Sales Cloud
• Experience with complex integrations and SAP BTP extensions
• Ability to adapt to evolving product capabilities
• Hands-on approach to solving real business challenges

As part of the project, the team also contributed improvement ideas through SAP’s influence program – some of which are now available as standard features for other customers.