CompuTec adds MCP Server capability for SAP Business One to its CompuTec AppEngine Platform

In its continual strategy to offer SAP Business One Partners and Customers with innovative applications, CompuTec has now included an MCP Server for the CompuTec AppEngine platform, with the following capabilities:

• Accesses all SAP Business One data objects
• Works seamlessly with all solutions built using the CompuTec AppEngine platform, for example, CompuTec ProcessForce
• Allows you to connect directly from your Claude Desktop application, as well as other tools such as Cursor or GitHub Copilot
• Lets you create your own tools and prompts specifically for a customer or an industry vertical using the AppEngine extensibility framework to extend functionality even further

This three-minute read explains why an MCP server is a foundational building block for a generative and agentic AI strategy and outlines the benefits.

What is an MCP Server, and why do you need one?

In the rapidly evolving world of AI, you’ve probably heard about generative AI and something called “agentic AI.” While these terms might sound technical, the underlying concepts are quite simple and are made possible by a crucial, but often unseen, technology: the Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.

Think of a large language model (LLM) like a brilliant, but isolated, brain. It knows a vast amount of information from its training, but it can’t interact with the real world—it can’t check today’s weather, search a company database, or send an email. This is where an MCP server comes in.

An MCP server acts as a smart translator or a universal adapter for AI. It’s a piece of software that creates a standardized, secure connection between the AI “brain” (the LLM) and the outside world. Instead of building a complex, one-off integration for every single tool or database, an MCP server provides a single, simple way for the AI to access external information and take action.

This concept is similar to a USB-C port on a laptop. That one port allows you to connect a monitor, a hard drive, a keyboard, or a charger—all through a single, universal standard. The MCP server does the same for AI, allowing it to “plug into” various tools and data sources with ease.

MCP servers can expose three main types of capabilities to an AI agent:

• Resources: File-like data that the AI can read, such as the contents of a document, an API response, or a database record.
• Tools: Functions or actions that the AI can execute, like searching a database, sending an email, or performing a web search.
• Prompts: Pre-written templates that help the AI accomplish specific tasks.

---

The Benefits: From Generative to Agentic AI

Powering Generative AI

Generative AI, like tools that write emails or summarize documents, needs accurate, real-time information to be truly useful. An MCP server helps here by:

• Providing Fresh Data: The server can connect the AI to up-to-the-minute data from your company’s systems, like a customer relationship management (CRM) database or an internal knowledge base. This prevents the AI from giving outdated or “hallucinated” responses.
• Enhancing Security: Instead of allowing an AI to have direct, risky access to sensitive data, the MCP server acts as a secure gateway. It can filter and control exactly what information the AI can see, ensuring compliance and protecting private data.

Enabling Agentic AI

While generative AI creates content, agentic AI goes a step further. An AI agent is an autonomous program that can reason, plan, and execute multi-step tasks to achieve a goal. Think of it as a personal assistant that doesn’t just answer questions, but also gets things done.

An MCP server is the foundation for this capability because it provides the AI agent with the “hands” to take action. Without an MCP server, an agent would be unable to:

• Search a Database: An AI agent could analyze a user’s request to “find the top 10 sales figures from last quarter,” but it needs an MCP server to actually connect to the sales database and retrieve that information.
• Automate Workflows: Imagine an AI agent that can plan an event. It can check your calendar, book a venue through an external booking tool, send invitations via an email service, and update a budget spreadsheet—all by communicating with these different systems through a single MCP server.
• Perform Multi-Step Tasks: The AI agent can use a “chain of thought” process, where it figures out a problem step-by-step. The MCP server allows it to execute each of these steps in the real world, from calling an external API to writing a file.

In short, an MCP server is the critical link that transforms AI from a powerful but passive tool into an active, intelligent partner. It’s the essential building block that allows AI to move beyond simply generating content and into the world of truly autonomous, action-oriented assistants.

If you want to know more or to be part of our ramp-up program, please do not hesitate to contact us.