Jindal School of Management, The University of Texas at Dallas , Richardson, Texas , United States
Researchers have begun coupling SAP invoicing engines with blockchain smart contracts to automate document flows and provide an audit trail that cannot be tampered with. Still, a nagging obstacle is the mismatch between the timestamps SAP assigns to events and the moments when those same events are registered on a blockchain. In an effort to quantify that problem, the authors built a simulation that models how a single SAP invoice ripples through a network of blockchain nodes. The testbed pushes synthetic invoices through the link while deliberately mixing latencies, clock drifts, and inter-trigger gaps. Once enough invoices stream in, the run logs whether downstream ledgers see duplicate triggers, leak missed calls, or spit out entries in the wrong order. Results show that even a modest gap in clock ticks can distort the sequence of actions taken on paper. A second batch of runs varies the consensus scheme, toggling between PoA, PBFT, and Raft in otherwise identical topologies. Configurations that rely on deterministic agreements like PBFT produce a final view that settles quickly, while their asynchronous cousins drag through longer recovery windows. Taken together, the numbers point to design choices that keep SAP-blockchain links from unraveling the minute invoices peak.
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