ERP to signed eCoC: how eCoC EU² connects with stage 1 and stage 2 vehicle manufacturers
The eCoC data is already there. The hand-off is the hard part.
By the moment a vehicle leaves your line, every field an eCoC requires has already been created and signed off somewhere in your stack:
- Type approval references and variant/version codes live in your homologation master data — whether the approval came from the VCA for the UK market or from an EU type approval authority for EU-bound vehicles.
- VIN, build options, masses, axle loads and dimensions emerge from the production order or the configurator.
- Engine, transmission, emissions class and fuel type are tied to the variant.
- Conformity of Production (CoP) records are recorded by your quality system.
The trouble isn't a shortage of data. It's that today it's scattered across the ERP, the MES and the homologation database — and then extracted by hand to populate an IVI XML template, checked by hand, signed by hand, and uploaded by hand to the destination national access point. Fine for a handful of vehicles; unworkable for hundreds or thousands a year.
How eCoC EU² connects
eCoC EU² software is designed to feed off the data you already hold. We rely on three integration patterns, chosen according to how mature your IT stack is:
1. Direct API integration
With modern ERPs and MES platforms, the production system sends the vehicle record to eCoC EU² over a REST or message-bus API the moment quality signs off the build. A mapper built for each customer translates that payload into the IVI 2.0 schema.
2. File drop (CSV / XML / EDI)
Where the ERP is locked down or change windows drag, eCoC EU² collects a scheduled export from a watched folder, SFTP path or S3 bucket. Same mapper, same result. Plenty of customers begin here and move up to API integration once the benefit is clear.
3. Configurator-driven mode
If your vehicle configurator already captures how options shift masses, dimensions and emissions, eCoC EU² can consume its output directly. This is the tidiest approach for stage 2 builds, where each body variant alters payload and approval references.
A typical inbound payload: production order ID, VIN, base type approval, variant + version, build options, measured masses and completed-vehicle CoP flags.
The ERP and MES systems eCoC EU² supports
We have already delivered or scoped integrations for the systems that UK vehicle body builders and stage 1 / stage 2 manufacturers genuinely use:
| Layer | Systems we work with |
|---|---|
| Tier-1 / OEM ERP | SAP S/4HANA, Oracle Fusion Cloud ERP |
| Mid-market automotive ERP | Infor CloudSuite Automotive, Plex (Rockwell), DELMIAworks (Dassault Systèmes), Microsoft Dynamics 365 F&O, IFS Cloud, Epicor Kinetic |
| UK / European body-builder ERP | Sage X3, Sage 200, SAP Business One, abas ERP, proAlpha |
| Production execution / MES | Siemens Opcenter, Rockwell Plex MES, Dassault Apriso, AVEVA System Platform, Tulip |
| PLM / type-approval data | Siemens Teamcenter, Dassault ENOVIA, Aras Innovator, in-house homologation databases |
Don't see your system here? The integration approach doesn't change — we still build a mapper against your data contract. The tricky part is always your business rules, not the connector itself.
The full data flow, end to end
The diagram above traces the whole journey. Starting from the production system, eCoC EU² runs the customer-specific mapper, builds a schema-checked IVI 2.0 XML, applies a XAdES signature from a Qualified Trust Service Provider on the EU Trusted List, and submits it to the destination national access point (NAP) — drawing on EUCARIS retrieval wherever the destination Member State accepts a submission made through a foreign NAP.
For UK manufacturers selling into the EU post-Brexit, the workable route is submission via an EU NAP — most often the RDW in the Netherlands — with the destination Member State pulling the eCoC through EUCARIS. eCoC EU² takes care of the routing logic, so your team never has to keep tabs on which Member State accepts what.
The receipt, along with any rejection reasons, is written back to the originating record in your ERP or MES — meaning the production system displays each vehicle's eCoC status right beside it, not in some separate spreadsheet.
Stage 1 versus stage 2: the multi-stage hand-off
How the integration looks depends on whether you produce the base vehicle or finish it off.
Stage 1 — base-vehicle manufacturer
Usually chassis and chassis-cabs. Here the eCoC EU² integration hangs off the production-order completion event. The eCoC you submit describes the incomplete vehicle and carries the base type approval reference that the following stage will rely on.
Stage 2 — body builder / converter
Your eCoC must point back to the upstream eCoC issued at stage 1. eCoC EU² manages this either by pulling the base eCoC XML through EUCARIS retrieval (the preferred way) or by taking the base type approval reference from the chassis manufacturer's data sheet. Your stage 2 eCoC then adds completed-vehicle masses, body type and axle configuration before re-signing.
The hand-off headache we remove
Mass and dimension drift between what stage 1 declared and what stage 2 actually measures. eCoC EU² highlights the discrepancy and requests sign-off before the eCoC goes out — sparing you a NAP rejection caused by completed mass overshooting the technically permissible mass.
What an integration project involves
For a typical vehicle body builder running on Sage X3 or proAlpha:
- Week 1 — data-mapping workshop. We work through the IVI 2.0 schema against your fields alongside your homologation lead and ERP admin. The output is a one-page data contract.
- Weeks 2–4 — we build the connector and aim it at your test environment, generating test eCoCs from sample vehicles and submitting them to the NAP test endpoint.
- Weeks 5–6 — parallel run. eCoC EU² produces eCoCs alongside your current process, and the two outputs are compared field by field.
- Week 7 onwards — production cutover, with manual eCoC generation retired.
With stage 1 manufacturers on SAP S/4HANA, discovery and the security review run longer, yet the technical build moves faster because the source data is cleaner to begin with.
When the integration earns its keep
Realistically, the upper limit for manual eCoC generation sits at fewer than 50 eCoCs a year. IVI 2.0 XML was never meant for human eyes — it's dense, heavily nested, and packed with code-list values that look interchangeable but aren't. Keying it by hand at any real volume is certain to throw up errors, and each error means a NAP rejection followed by another signing cycle. Past that point, ERP/MES integration stops being a cost saving and becomes the only workflow that survives.
Teams also tend to underrate this: the integration isn't purely about churning out eCoCs faster. Because one source of truth drives both production and homologation, you wipe out a whole category of mismatches between your build records and the documents lodged with the authority — precisely the area where Conformity of Production audits turn fraught.
eCoC EU² for UK stage 1 and stage 2 manufacturers
- IVI 2.0 XML built from your ERP, MES or configurator
- Per-customer mappers, kept up to date as schemas evolve
- Schema checks ahead of submission, with signed XAdES output from a QTSP certificate
- Direct submission to every EU NAP, with EUCARIS retrieval for pairing base and completed vehicles across borders
- Status written back to the originating ERP or MES record
- A complete audit trail for Conformity of Production
If you build vehicles in stages for the EU market, the real obstacle to the 5 July 2026 deadline isn't the regulation — it's the hand-off between your production system and the destination registration authority. We can stand that hand-off up in a matter of weeks.
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