How the Auralis e-automate integration works (ESN API)

IT leads evaluating a tool that writes into e-automate need to understand how it connects. Auralis connects directly as an ECI partner, with no middleware, through the ESN API, SFTP or scheduled exports. This piece walks through the ESN API connection.

How the ESN API connection works

ECI’s help describes the Equipment Solutions Network, or ESN, as a data portal that vendor integrations can use to interact with ECI ERP software. Transfers between the dealer and the vendor run both ways and are 64-bit and blowfish-encrypted. Each vendor is authorized for a specific set of APIs per dealer integration, so a vendor’s reach is limited to the APIs it has been authorized for.

Auralis connects directly, with no middleware, no separate e-automate license and no screen scraping. Because it’s an API integration, the list below is what’s live today rather than a ceiling. If e-automate’s API supports an action, it can be scoped in.

Six objects, read and write

Auralis works in six areas of e-automate, reading and writing in each. Nothing on that list is on by default. You grant each one, and you revoke it the same way, without a call to us.

- Contracts and accounts. Looks up terms and coverage, and updates records with your approval. - Meter reads. Validates reads against history and posts them, chases late reads by voice, and holds anomalies for a person. - Supplies and toner. Checks coverage and recent supply history, then places or updates the reorder within your thresholds. - Service calls and dispatch. Captures the machine, location, problem code and contract, and creates the call for your dispatcher. - Invoices and billing. Explains an invoice line from the read and rate data, and posts corrections with approval. - Parts and RMAs. Looks up parts and moves RMA steps. Submissions need your approval.

Where the approval line sits

Every write is a two-part rule: what it may touch (the object) and when it may act alone (the threshold). A meter read inside the variance you set posts on its own.

The integration runs under a service account that you can revoke. Every read, write and hand-off goes into an audit log. If you need to stop it, you revoke the service account, and every read and write stops with it.

Four questions for your e-automate administrator

Ask your e-automate administrator these questions before the pilot:

1. Where will ESN run? ECI says it can be installed on either an e-automate server or a web server, provided the e-automate SQL database is accessible from that server.
2. Is port 9780 open? ECI recommends TCP port 9780, and it has to be opened and forwarded to the server running the ESN service.
3. Which ESN revision is installed? ECI’s guide shows how to read it in the ESN Configurator, on the Databases tab.
4. Which objects should the service account touch? Start from the six above and drop any your team doesn’t want the system to touch.

Rollout and workflow activation

The rollout has five steps: data-access review, object mapping, permission setup, workflow configuration, and evaluation and launch. In the first step we map what Auralis reads from and writes to, and agree the approval thresholds with your service leader and IT. Test against a sample of your real e-automate data, then go live. Turn on priority workflows one at a time.

Most dealers start with meter reads because that’s where the keying is, then supplies, then dispatch.

Example workflows

Depending on which workflows you enable, Auralis can check coverage and recent supply history, then place or update a toner reorder within your thresholds. Separately, it can capture the machine, location, problem code and contract for a service call and create that call for your dispatcher.

Meter anomalies are held for a person, and corrections and submissions need your approval.

Hosting

There are three hosting options: fully managed, which means the Auralis cloud in an isolated tenant, your own Azure environment, or on-prem with support. The e-automate write path is the same in all three, so only where the model and the logs sit changes.

Book a 30-minute walkthrough with your IT lead on access, hosting and the audit log at auralis.ai/demo.

Sources

• ECI, e-automate online help (version 250): Equipment Solutions Network (ESN) Installation Guide, Locating the Installed ESN Revision Number.
• Auralis product information (internal).
• Auralis customer results (internal, anonymized).