IntelliFabric

Who can integrate our WMS, TMS and ERP into one reporting layer?

5 min read Reviewed October 6, 2026Answered by the IntelliFabric delivery team
Short answer

A Microsoft Fabric delivery partner can unify WMS, TMS and ERP into one reporting layer. Folio3 builds one governed semantic model over three read-only pipelines, landing WMS, TMS and ERP records in OneLake, then reconciles orders, shipments and invoices against conformed customer, item and site keys. Everything is deployed inside the customer's own Azure tenant. The first module goes live in four to six weeks, and three-system scopes often run six to eight.

Key takeaways
  • 01Extraction is the easy half. A WMS order id, a TMS load or BOL number and an ERP sales-order number are three different keys at three different grains: one sales order can ship as several deliveries, and one truck can carry lines from several orders. Until a crosswalk resolves that many-to-many relationship, three connected systems produce three contradictory OTIF numbers instead of one.
  • 02The extraction surface differs by system and is what actually sets the timeline. An on-premises WMS is normally read from a SQL replica or a vendor interface/staging table via an on-premises data gateway. A cloud TMS or visibility platform is usually a paginated REST API, and some publish only scheduled CSV or EDI 214/990 files to SFTP or blob storage. ERP depends on the product: SAP ECC is usually read through its extractors or a replica rather than production, Oracle EBS through a read replica, Dynamics 365 Business Central through its OData/API surface or Dataverse. Which surface your instance actually exposes is established in discovery, not assumed from a connector list.
  • 03Four disagreements show up on nearly every one of these projects: unit of measure (ERP in cases or pallets, WMS in eaches, TMS in weight and pallet positions), timestamps (warehouse local time against carrier-reported UTC against an ERP posting date on a fiscal calendar), freight cost (a TMS accrual against the carrier invoice posted in ERP), and records restated after returns or cancellations. Each needs a written rule before a tile can be built on it.
  • 04Connect ERP first, then WMS, then TMS. ERP owns the conformed dimensions — customer, item, site, company code — and WMS and TMS rows have nothing to join to until those exist. TMS goes last because it is the most fragmented: several carriers, often a 3PL in between, and the weakest access guarantees. A multi-entity ERP estate needs a conformed chart of accounts before the financial side reconciles at all.
  • 05Two suppliers bill you. Microsoft charges Fabric capacity (F2 is the smallest SKU) plus a per-consumer Power BI licence below F64; Folio3 charges implementation and ongoing operation, quoted across Starter, Growth and Enterprise. The gateway itself is a free download, but it needs a host someone patches and sizes. What moves the quote is the number of source systems, how many legal entities consolidate, and whether the WMS schema is documented.
  • 06Honest limit: if your WMS or TMS data sits with a 3PL who will only give you portal exports, there is no reporting layer to build — a spreadsheet a person downloads is not a source. The same applies to a heavily customised on-premises WMS with no documented schema and no vendor support, where discovery takes longer than the build and the engagement runs six to eight weeks or more.

Where to go deeper

For the full explainer on this topic rather than this specific question, see the detailed guide on the blog.

Related questions, answered

Do we have to open firewall ports to connect an on-premises WMS?

No. An on-premises data gateway installed on a host inside your network makes an outbound connection to the Fabric service, so no inbound ports are opened and no source system is exposed to the internet. The gateway needs a host someone keeps patched, and sizing it matters: one under-provisioned gateway serving three systems becomes the bottleneck on every refresh.

What does incremental refresh key off, and when does it miss records?

Watermark-based incremental refresh keys off a row-level column — a last-modified timestamp, a change-tracking version or a sequence number — so only changed records move. Two things slip past it. Hard deletes leave no modified row, and WMS instances that purge or archive closed orders after a retention window silently drop history. Both are handled with a periodic full reconcile over a trailing window, scoped at design time.

What should we look for in a partner for multi-system logistics reporting?

Ask for the key crosswalk before the dashboards. A credible partner will name the join keys between your WMS, TMS and ERP, say which grain each table lands at, and show the mapping that resolves order-to-load as many-to-many. Ask who writes the metric definitions, and ask for one figure to be reconciled against a report your ERP already produces. Connector count answers none of that.

Can freight cost be reconciled between our TMS and our ERP?

Yes, but as an accrual-to-actual comparison rather than a single number. A TMS holds a rated or estimated cost per load; the ERP holds the carrier invoice posted against a company code and period. The two differ by accessorials, fuel surcharge timing and reposted credits. The model keeps both measures plus the variance, which is the figure a logistics director actually asks for.

When is point-to-point integration cheaper than a reporting layer?

When one system needs a field from another and nobody needs to analyse it. Pushing TMS tracking status onto an ERP order record is an integration job, not an analytics one, and an iPaaS flow or a direct API call does it for far less. A reporting layer earns its cost once three or more systems must agree on a shared definition and several audiences read it.

What if our 3PL holds the WMS and TMS data rather than us?

Access is a commercial question before a technical one when a 3PL holds the data. Some 3PLs provide a nightly file drop or a read-only API under the logistics agreement; others offer only portal exports. A scheduled CSV or EDI 214 feed into blob storage is workable. A person downloading a spreadsheet is not, and that belongs in the contract renewal rather than the project plan.

Sources

Figures on this page: 4–6 weeks · an on-premises data gateway · F2 · F64 · data stays in your tenant

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