Using the SAPscript Raw Data Interface (RDI), you can connect external text management systems to master individual requests, for example, optimizing postage expense. The interface contains all data of the R/3 forms, but no layout information such as font or page size. The external system alone is responsible for layout and administration of the document data.

The RDI is of special importance for automatic addressing and postaging: The external system sorts the data from the interface and forwards the documents accordingly.

The Raw Data Interface is a certified interface and allows easy connection of external systems. However, this extra functionality demands its price: You loose the tight integration within the R/3 System. For example, there is no way to find out from within an R/3 application whether the external system successfully printed and sent the documents. In addition, each adaptation of standard forms causes extra expenses, since the system has to adapt an internal as well as an external form. And the external tool is no intergral part of the ABAP Workbench, so that field information from the ABAP Dictionary (field type, output length, and so on) is not available.