Build Out Loud

How We Automated Procurement to Dispatch Across Multiple Locations Using Workato 🚀 One supply chain. Multiple locations. Disconnected systems. One integration orchestration layer — Workato! In a distributed manufacturing and retail environment, procurement, order management, manufacturing, and logistics often operate across different applications and geographical locations. The challenge wasn't just connecting applications. It was ensuring that every business event triggered the right action in the right system, at the right location, without manual intervention. Here's a step-by-step breakdown of our hybrid integration approach using Workato. 🔹 Step 1: Connect the Enterprise Landscape We established hybrid connectivity between cloud and on-premise systems using Workato connectors, APIs, and the On-Prem Agent where required. Integration landscape: * ERP — Procurement and inventory * OMS — Order management and fulfillment * Manufacturing systems — Production scheduling and status * Logistics — Dispatch and shipment tracking Goal: Establish reliable, bidirectional communication without replacing existing applications. 🔹 Step 2: Automate Procurement Events Configured event-driven Workato recipes to initiate procurement workflows. * Capture purchase order creation and updates from ERP. * Validate supplier, SKU, quantity, and delivery location. * Route procurement details to the appropriate systems. * Synchronize supplier acknowledgments and procurement status. Outcome: Reduced manual handoffs and improved procurement visibility. 🔹 Step 3: Orchestrate Order Management Once the required procurement or inventory conditions were satisfied, Workato orchestrated the downstream order workflow. * Validate orders against inventory and fulfillment rules. * Synchronize order details with OMS. * Identify the appropriate fulfillment or manufacturing location. * Update order statuses across connected applications. Outcome: A consistent order lifecycle across systems and locations. 🔹 Step 4: Trigger Manufacturing Notifications This was a critical part of the integration. Workato enabled automated communication between order management and manufacturing teams. * Detect manufacturing-ready orders. * Trigger production notifications for the assigned facility. * Share order quantities, SKUs, priority, and required dates. * Capture production acknowledgments and milestone updates. * Synchronize manufacturing status back to OMS and ERP. Outcome: Better coordination between business operations and manufacturing facilities. 🔹 Step 5: Automate Dispatch Readiness Once manufacturing completion was confirmed: * Validate production completion and fulfillment conditions. * Update order readiness in OMS. * Trigger logistics and dispatch workflows. * Synchronize shipment references and dispatch confirmations. * Notify relevant stakeholders of status changes. Outcome: Faster coordination between manufacturing completion and dispatch. 🔹 Step 6: Build Exception Handling and Recovery Automation without resilience only shifts operational problems from one system to another. We focused on: * Centralized error handling and notifications. * Retry mechanisms for transient failures. * Duplicate-event prevention and idempotency. * Correlation IDs for end-to-end transaction tracing. * Exception escalation when manual intervention was required. Outcome: More reliable processing with improved operational control. 🔹 Step 7: Establish End-to-End Monitoring Used Workato job monitoring and integration-level tracking to improve operational visibility. Tracked key stages including: ✅ Purchase order processing ✅ Order synchronization ✅ Manufacturing acknowledgment ✅ Production completion ✅ Dispatch confirmation ✅ Integration failures and recovery Outcome: Better visibility into the entire procurement-to-dispatch lifecycle. Build Out Loud

WIP: SAP PO Assistant, a Workato Genie on live SAP data We've connected Workato to an SAP S/4HANA sandbox and put a Genie on top so anyone can ask about purchase orders in plain English. The connection - Workato HTTP connector → SAP S/4HANA OData APIs - API key auth against the SAP sandbox - 3 PO skills: purchase orders, PO lines, goods receipts The outcome so far The *SAP PO Assistant* Genie answers questions like: - "What's the status of this PO?" - "Has this order been received?" - "Does this invoice match its PO?" It pulls the answer straight from SAP. No SAP GUI, no transaction codes, no waiting on someone to run a report. What we've learned - Test the OData URL on its own first ($filter, $expand), then build the recipe step around it - Keep the matching logic in a Python step; it's much easier to read and change than chained formulas - Save a few real SAP documents as a regression set and re-run them after every change Next: moving from sandbox to a real S/4 connection (OAuth 2.0, read-only user). Looking for feedback on: has anyone moved a Genie from an SAP sandbox to production S/4? Did you stay on the HTTP connector or switch to the SAP OData connector?

Hi All! I wanted to share this amazing video from our very own Shubham K.: Build Workato Recipes with Codex + Workato CLI | Full Tutorial. • A tutorial like this isn't technically "building out loud" since it's a demo designed to teach, but I think it captures exactly what this channel is about: sharing how you build so others can learn from your process and apply it to their own journey. • There's also something different about learning from content shared by someone who's actually here in the community. Having a person behind the work creates more trust and a more meaningful connection, especially when you can engage directly with the person who created it. • Hope we continue to see more people sharing what they're building, creating, and learning as the Build Out Loud channel grows! Thank you Sukumar P. and evan.yates for your posts!

We have built an order management flow which helped the company bring down the tat from 96–120 hours to just 4–8 hours Previously, an order could take 4–5 days from placement to dispatch, largely because of manual handoffs, batch processing, validations, and updates across multiple systems. With Workato, we automated the journey step by step: 1. 🛒 Order Placed — New orders are captured automatically from the sales/eCommerce channel. 2. 🔍 Validation — Customer, product, pricing, inventory, and mandatory order details are validated in real time. 3. 🔄 Order Creation — Valid orders are automatically pushed into the Order Management/ERP system. 4. 📦 Inventory & Fulfilment — Stock availability and fulfilment information are synchronised across systems. 5. ⚡ Exception Handling — Failed or incomplete orders are identified immediately and routed for action instead of waiting for manual reconciliation. 6. 🚚 Warehouse Dispatch — Fulfilment instructions reach the warehouse automatically and dispatch status flows back to the relevant systems. 7. 📊 End-to-End Visibility— Every order can be monitored through automated logging, alerts, and status updates. The impact: Order-to-dispatch turnaround reduced from 96–120 hours to 4–8 hours.

I have built an Accounts Payable Invoice importing workflow. It monitors an email Inbox to see when suppliers send us invoices, usually as attached PDFs or URL links to PDFS from their systems. Its downloads/open each invoice PDF and uses Workato IDP to extract all the relevant details, no matter where they are on the invoice itself and does a whole bunch of integrity checks

This workflow has enabled us to not need to replace a staff member who left our company to travel the world, and the remaining staff say it has made their jobs so much easier in that all they do is investigate the anomalies. All the routine data-entry drudgery has gone. Next challenge is that we are changing finance systems and we'll need to figure out what needs modification to allow it to keep working. 😁

As the channel is kicking off, I wanted to share what I'm working on with Otto (getotto.ai): • Monitoring a live event's Slack channel around the clock and jumping in to answer attendee questions in thread, so nothing sits unanswered while I'm heads down elsewhere. • Cross referencing a sprawling tracker spreadsheet against dozens of email threads to catch and fix stale data, then running a full prioritization pass across hundreds of candidates to surface the best fit ones with context ready to go. • Keeping a running daily digest of meeting notes pulled straight from my calendar and inbox, so nothing has to be logged by hand. Avoiding manual tasks there is bringing me great joy.

checking here if anyone has posted what they are building?

Talking about building the Community in the Community... I'm currently working on getting the Community ready for go-live on Web to compliment this Slack space. Our platform provider (Tightknit) just updated their sizes for header images on the web Community, so I asked their MCP server to update the designs I had already submitted. SO MUCH FASTER than rebuilding manually.