The Integration Layer: How DCKAP Bridges The Gaps
Evaluating DCKAP as an Integration Platform After Billtrust
As distributors evaluate next steps following Billtrust’s move to a maintenance and support phase, one question tends to come up early in the planning process: how will the new e-commerce environment talk to our ERP?
Billtrust offered a tightly coupled stack, so for many distributors the ERP connection was something that just worked in the background. As that environment changes, integration becomes its own decision — and one that deserves the same attention as the platform choice itself.
One of the integration platforms DDS customers are evaluating is DCKAP.
Why Integration Is Its Own Decision
It’s tempting to fold integration into the platform or implementation partner decision. In practice, distributors get better long-term outcomes when they treat it as a distinct layer:
- The e-commerce platform is where customers transact
- The product data layer feeds clean, enriched content into that storefront
- The integration layer moves orders, customers, inventory, and pricing between the storefront and your ERP
- Your ERP remains the system of record
What Is DCKAP?
DCKAP is an ERP-first integration platform built specifically for mid-market distributors. Its core product, DCKAP Integrator, connects ERP systems with e-commerce, CRM, EDI, accounting, logistics, and marketplace applications — automating the data flow between them.
For distributors, that typically means:
- Deep integration expertise for the ERPs distributors actually use — Epicor Prophet 21, Eclipse, Kinetic, Infor, SAP, NetSuite, Sage, Dynamics 365, Distribution One, DDI, and others
- Connectors for major e-commerce platforms including BigCommerce, Adobe Commerce (Magento), Shopify, and EvolutionX, along with EDI management features
- Real-time and scheduled bi-directional sync for orders, inventory, pricing, customers, and more
- Ability to make mass data updates, including checking inventory across a whole catalog of products, and applying pricing rules for customer contracts
- Experienced integration engineers that handle implementation, customizations, and ongoing maintenance and upgrades.
- A flexible, customizable low-code platform with dashboards, advanced mapping and modifier features, exception handling, and error notifications.
DCKAP is purpose-built for distribution, and that shows up in both its robust features, how the platform handles distributor-specific workflows.
How DDS and DCKAP Work Together
DDS and DCKAP solve different problems, and they complement each other cleanly.
In this model:
- DDS delivers clean, enriched, continuously updated product content into your storefront
- DCKAP handles the operational data flow between your storefront, ERP, and supporting systems — orders, inventory, pricing, customers
- Your ERP remains the system of record for transactional data
Product content (DDS) and transactional data (DCKAP) are different kinds of data with different update cycles, sources, and governance needs. Keeping them in separate, purpose-built layers is typically more reliable and more flexible than trying to move everything through a single pipeline.
Where DCKAP Tends to Be a Fit
Distributors evaluating DCKAP typically share a few common priorities:
- They run a distribution-focused ERP like Prophet 21, Eclipse, Infor, or Distribution One and want pre-built connectors rather than custom integration work
- They need real-time or near-real-time sync for inventory, pricing, and orders across systems
- They want their operations team to be able to monitor and manage integrations without relying on engineering support
- They’re looking for an integration approach that can be customized to their current needs and evolve as platforms and business requirements change
When those are the priorities, a dedicated iPaaS layer tends to reduce implementation risk and shorten time to a stable, production-ready environment.
Keeping Your Stack Modular, Portable and Scalable
One of the risks during a platform change is ending up with integrations that are tightly bound to a single vendor or custom-built by whoever happens to be doing the implementation. When that happens, every future change a new ERP version, a new e-commerce platform, a new acquisition becomes an integration project.
A dedicated integration layer like DCKAP is designed to prevent that. When DDS handles product data and DCKAP handles operational data, the broader stack stays modular:
- The storefront can change without rebuilding ERP connections
- The ERP can be upgraded or swapped without rebuilding the storefront
- Product content and transactional data each stay in the system designed to manage them
This is what makes the DDS + DCKAP model work: every layer is replaceable on its own timeline, without forcing a rebuild of the others.
Start With a Practical Conversation
If you’re working through how your new platform will connect back to your ERP or thinking about how product content and operational data should fit together the best next step is usually a short working conversation.
DDS customers can reach out to:
- Review your current environment, ERP, and timeline
- Discuss how DCKAP fits alongside your platform and implementation direction
- Understand how DDS and DCKAP divide responsibilities across product data and operational data
Reply to one of our emails or contact the DDS team, and we’ll coordinate next steps.