Embracing the Agility: Rapid Application Prototyping Through SAP

In today’s fast-paced business environment, agility and efficiency are paramount for organizations striving to stay competitive. Rapid Application Prototyping (RAP) methodologies have emerged, as a response to the need for accelerated software development cycles without   compromising quality. Meanwhile, SAP systems stand as pillars in enterprise resource planning, managing critical business operations and data. Integrating RAP approaches with SAP systems presents a unique set of challenges and opportunities, necessitating a strategic approach to ensure seamless alignment and maximum benefits. This article digs into the strategies and considerations for integrating RAP methodology with SAP systems to deliver efficient and effective solutions.

 

Understanding Rapid Application Prototyping (RAP)

RAP, also known as Rapid Application Development (RAD), is a methodology focused on rapidly building prototypes or proof-of-concept applications to gather feedback, validate requirements, and accelerate the development process. RAP emphasizes iterative development, collaboration between stakeholders, and rapid iterations to deliver functional software in a short timeframe.

 

Key principles of RAP include:

  • Prototyping: RAP involves creating prototypes or mockups of the final application’s user interface and functionality, allowing stakeholders to visualize the end product early in the development process.
  • Iterative Development: RAP follows an iterative approach, where feedback from stakeholders is incorporated into successive iterations of the prototype, ensuring that the final product meets user expectations.
  • Quick Turnaround: RAP aims to shorten development cycles by rapidly building and iterating on prototypes, enabling faster time-to-market for software solutions.
  • Collaboration: RAP encourages collaboration between developers, designers, and end-users, fostering a shared understanding of project requirements and objectives.

 

When is RAP most suitable?

  • Well-understood Requirements: RAP is ideal when project requirements are stable and transparent. Its iterative nature allows for rapid development cycles aligned closely with known requirements, facilitating efficient progress without extensive rework.
  • Time-sensitive Projects: RAP suits projects with tight deadlines that demand swift development and delivery. By emphasizing rapid prototyping, iterative development, and continuous feedback loops, RAP enables teams to expedite the development process and meet aggressive timelines effectively.
  • Small to Medium-Sized Projects: RAP is well-suited for smaller initiatives characterized by a manageable scope and a controllable number of team members. Its iterative and collaborative approach fosters agility, enabling teams to navigate project complexities efficiently.
  • High User Involvement: RAP thrives in environments where ongoing input and interaction from users are essential. By engaging stakeholders throughout the development process, RAP ensures resulting solutions closely align with user needs, preferences, and expectations, ultimately enhancing user satisfaction and adoption.
  • Innovation and Creativity: RAP is particularly helpful in tasks requiring creative inquiry and innovation. Its flexibility, experimentation, and rapid iteration empower teams to explore new ideas, iterate on concepts, and innovate solutions that drive business value and differentiation.
  • Prototyping: RAP is indispensable when developing and improving prototypes is a key component of the development process. Facilitating rapid prototyping and iterative refinement, RAP enables teams to quickly validate ideas, gather feedback, and evolve prototypes into fully functional solutions.
  • Minimal Technological Complexity : RAP is well-suited for projects with relatively simple technological requirements. In situations where the technological aspects are straightforward and well-understood, RAP’s streamlined approach enables teams to concentrate on delivering value quickly without being hindered by unnecessary complexities.

 

Challenges and Considerations in Integrating RAP methodology with SAP Systems

Integration Complexity: SAP systems are complex, comprising multiple modules, layers, and databases. Integrating RAP methodology with SAP systems requires a deep understanding of SAP’s architecture, data models, and integration capabilities. Developers must leverage SAP’s APIs, connectors, and middleware to establish seamless communication between RAP applications and SAP systems.

Data Consistency and Security: Maintaining data consistency and security is critical when integrating RAP methodology with SAP systems, which often manage sensitive business data. Developers must adhere to SAP’s data models, access controls, and encryption standards to ensure data integrity and prevent unauthorized access or data breaches.

Customization and Extension: SAP systems offer extensive customization capabilities to meet specific business requirements. RAP methodologies should support the customization and extension of SAP applications, enabling organizations to tailor solutions according to their unique needs without sacrificing development speed or agility.

Scalability and Performance: SAP systems are designed to handle large volumes of data and transactions, necessitating scalable and high-performance. Developers must optimize RAP methodology for scalability, performance, and resource efficiency to ensure seamless integration with SAP systems without causing performance bottlenecks or system failures.

User Experience (UX): SAP systems are renowned for their functionality but may lack intuitive user interfaces. Integrating RAP methodology can enhance the user experience by providing intuitive, user-friendly interfaces that interact seamlessly with SAP systems, improving overall usability and productivity.

Testing and Quality Assurance (QA): Rapid development cycles should not compromise the quality of integrated solutions. Rigorous testing and QA processes are essential to ensure that SAP systems meet the required standards of reliability, functionality, and performance. Automated testing tools and continuous integration practices can streamline the testing process and accelerate delivery cycles.

 

Strategies for Successful usage of RAP Methodology

Collaborative Approach: Foster close collaboration between development teams, SAP experts, business stakeholders, and end-users throughout the integration process. Establish clear communication channels, regular meetings, and feedback loops to ensure alignment and transparency.

Modular Design: Adopt a modular design approach to facilitate integration and extensibility. Break down SAP customized applications into smaller, reusable components or micro services that can be easily use in various integrations.

API-First Development: Prioritize API-first development, designing RAP applications with well-defined APIs that adhere to SAP’s standards and best practices. Leverage SAP’s APIs, connectors, and middleware to establish robust integration points and minimize dependencies.

Continuous Integration and Delivery (CI/CD): Implement CI/CD pipelines to automate the build, test, and deployment processes. Continuous integration ensures that code changes are integrated into the main codebase frequently, while continuous delivery enables rapid and reliable deployment of new features and updates.

Monitoring and Performance Tuning: Implement robust monitoring and performance tuning mechanisms to detect and address performance issues proactively. Monitor system metrics, logs, and user feedback to identify bottlenecks and optimize the usage of RAP methodology for scalability and performance.

Training and Support: Provide comprehensive training and support to end-users and administrators to ensure smooth adoption and operation of integrated solutions. Offer documentation, tutorials, and hands-on training sessions to empower users by leveraging RAP methodology effectively within the SAP environment.

 

Tools offered by SAP , that can be used to facilitate RAP.

SAP Fiori Elements: SAP Fiori Elements is a framework that allows developers to create user interfaces for SAP applications rapidly. It provides predefined UI building blocks and templates based on SAP Fiori design principles, enabling developers to create consistent, responsive, and intuitive user interfaces with minimal coding effort.

SAP Business Application Studio: SAP Business Application Studio is an integrated development environment (IDE) that provides a set of tools and features for building, testing, and deploying applications on the SAP Cloud Platform. It supports various programming languages, including JavaScript, TypeScript, and Java, and offers built-in support for SAP Fiori development, Git version control, and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.

SAP Web IDE: SAP Web IDE is a web-based development environment that enables developers to build and customize SAP Fiori applications, SAPUI5 applications, and SAP Fiori Elements applications. It provides a rich set of features, including code editors, visual layout editors, templates, and wizards, making it easier for developers to create and modify applications quickly.

SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP): SAP CAP is a framework that simplifies the development of business applications on the SAP Cloud Platform. It provides a set of best practices, tools, and libraries for building applications using a model-driven approach. CAP supports various data models, such as Core Data Services (CDS), and offers features for data modeling, service definition, and application logic implementation.

SAP Integration Suite: SAP Integration Suite provides a comprehensive set of tools and services for integrating SAP and non-SAP systems, connecting applications, and orchestrating business processes. It includes capabilities for API management, data integration, event-driven architecture, and process automation, enabling developers to build integrated solutions rapidly.

SAP AppGyver: SAP AppGyver is a low-code/no-code development platform that allows users to create web and mobile applications without writing code. It provides a visual development environment, drag-and-drop components, and pre-built templates, empowering business users and citizen developers to build applications quickly and easily.

SAP Cloud Platform Workflow service: SAP Cloud Platform Workflow service enables developers to design, automate, and execute workflows for business processes. It provides graphical workflow editors, pre-built workflow templates, and integration with SAP and non-SAP applications, facilitating the rapid development of automated business processes.

SAP Build: SAP Build is a cloud-based prototyping tool that allows users to create interactive prototypes of SAP Fiori applications. It provides a library of UI components, templates, and design patterns, enabling designers and developers to collaborate on prototyping and gather feedback from stakeholders early in the development process.

These tools provided by SAP empower developers, designers, and business users to collaborate effectively, iterate quickly, and deliver innovative solutions that meet the evolving needs of businesses and end-users. By leveraging these RAD tools, organizations can accelerate their digital transformation journey and drive business growth.

Integrating Rapid Application Development with SAP systems can enhance agility, efficiency, and innovation. Further, understanding the challenges and strategies involved in applying the RAP, allows businesses to develop scalable, high-performance applications that integrate seamlessly with SAP systems. At Intellect, our experts are ready to support you in leveraging the RAP methodology and relevant SAP tools for your digital transformation journey.

 

Overcoming SAP Challenges: Embrace the Future with Generative AI Solutions

Generative AI, or artificial intelligence focused on creating content, spans a wide array of applications. It can automatically generate written text for articles or chatbot responses, produce human-like voices through text-to-speech systems, and create artistic images or videos. In coding, it assists by automatically generating code and translating natural language into executable instructions. The technology extends to training environments and simulations, aiding in drug discovery by generating molecular structures, predicting weather based on historical data, facilitating language translation, and even assisting in medical diagnostics through the creation of 3D reconstructions from medical imaging data. The versatility of generative AI finds application across diverse industries and domains.

Generative AI is crucial for businesses because it brings about significant improvements in various areas, making operations more efficient and decision-making more effective.

  • Automation for Efficiency: Generative AI allows businesses to automate repetitive tasks, freeing up human resources for more strategic activities, leading to increased productivity.
  • Data Analysis and Insights: It helps businesses analyze large datasets quickly and accurately, offering valuable insights for better decision-making and strategic planning.
  • Personalization and Customer Experience: Generative AI enables businesses to create personalized customer experiences by predicting and meeting customer preferences, enhancing satisfaction, and fostering loyalty.
  • Innovation in Product Development: It contributes to innovation by assisting in the creation of new products and services, optimizing designs, and accelerating the product development lifecycle.
  • Natural Language Processing for Communication: Incorporating NLP in business applications improves communication, with chatbots and virtual assistants offering real-time assistance and streamlining customer support.
  • Supply Chain Optimization: It helps optimize supply chains by forecasting demand, managing inventory efficiently, and improving logistics for cost savings and increased resilience.

SAP and Generative AI

SAP specializes in business AI, specifically generative AI. This type of AI is important for businesses because it is integrated into your applications and processes right from the start. It’s reliable because we customize and adapt it based on your business data and context. Additionally, it is designed with responsibility in mind, adhering to SAP’s strict ethics, privacy, and security practices.

SAP is introducing generative AI-powered features directly into its cloud business software. A notable addition is Joule, revolutionizing how individuals interact with their processes and data. SAP is further enhancing the Business Technology Platform with new capabilities, including a vector database engine in SAP HANA and a generative AI hub. These advancements empower customers and partners, providing them with the capability to effortlessly create generative AI-powered extensions and applications

Let’s dig deep into the core functionalities of these top three apps.

Joule

Joule transforms the user experience with SAP business systems and data. Users can effortlessly navigate SAP applications, locate information, perform transactions, collaborate with colleagues, and receive proactive recommendations. Instead of engaging in time-consuming manual searches, Joule users can significantly cut down their average search and query time, up to 80%, by asking natural language questions and receiving intelligent answers based on the wealth of business data and insights within the SAP portfolio.

Business Technology Platform

The AI Foundation on SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is our commitment to integrating business AI capabilities directly into applications and extensions. It serves as a comprehensive resource for developers, offering ready-to-use AI services and tools. This facilitates the rapid development of generative AI-infused applications in a secure and trusted manner.

The SAP Build Code

The SAP Build Code application development solution harnesses the capabilities of Joule to seamlessly generate data models, application logic, and test scripts. By leveraging the power of Joule, SAP Build Code ensures an efficient and simplified developer experience. This approach not only enhances productivity but also facilitates fusion development, enabling collaboration between professional developers and citizen developers.

SAP is dedicated to advancing generative AI use cases, focusing on educating its employees and providing internal AI tools to accelerate product development embedded with generative AI. Us at intellect also committed to empowering developers at all levels by offering comprehensive education programs, internal AI tools, and initiatives that foster a developer-friendly environment. These efforts aim to make AI development accessible to everyone, contributing to innovation and progress across SAP’s product landscape.

Why do you need our expertise in the Gen AI Journey ?

Implementing Generative AI in SAP-related business applications comes with specific challenges that require careful consideration:

  • Integration with SAP Ecosystem: Merging Generative AI seamlessly into existing SAP systems is complex and requires a deep understanding of the SAP ecosystem, ensuring compatibility with different modules and versions.
  • Data Quality and SAP Data Structure: Ensuring high-quality and compatible data for training Generative AI models within SAP, considering its structured and specialized data formats, is a challenge.
  • Customization for Industry-Specific Use Cases: Tailoring Generative AI models to meet specific industry needs within SAP applications demands domain expertise and customization.
  • Security and Compliance in SAP Environments: Given that SAP systems handle sensitive business data, deploying Generative AI within this environment requires strict adherence to security protocols and compliance standards. Ensuring AI-generated outputs comply with industry regulations is crucial.
  • User Adoption and Training: SAP users may require training to understand and trust the outputs generated by AI models. Facilitating a smooth user adoption process and providing adequate training and documentation are essential.
  • Continuous Monitoring and Maintenance: Generative AI models need ongoing monitoring for performance, data drift, and potential biases. Maintaining and updating the models within the SAP environment requires continuous effort and resources.
  • Performance Optimization: Optimizing Generative AI models for speed and efficiency to meet the performance expectations of SAP-related business applications is a key challenge.
  • Cross-Module Compatibility: Ensuring that Generative AI implementations are compatible and effective across various SAP modules in large SAP implementations is complex.
  • Scalability and Resource Allocation: Making sure that Generative AI implementations can scale effectively and optimizing resource allocation for different SAP instances is crucial.
  • Leveraging SAP Fiori for User Interfaces: Adapting Generative AI outputs to be presented through SAP Fiori, the user experience design approach for SAP applications, is important for maintaining a consistent and intuitive user interface.

Addressing these challenges in the context of SAP-related business applications requires collaboration between SAP experts, AI specialists, and domain-specific knowledge to ensure a successful integration of Generative AI technologies.

Rest assured, our company is well-prepared to help you overcome these challenges and successfully implement Generative AI in your SAP-related business applications. With our deep expertise in both SAP ecosystems and advanced AI technologies, we are committed to providing customized solutions that meet the specific needs of your business.

Our team understands the intricacies of integrating with SAP and excels in tailoring Generative AI models for industry-specific requirements. We prioritize data quality and security, ensuring our solutions comply with regulations and align with SAP’s robust security protocols.

Comprehensive user training and support ensure a smooth adoption process. Continuous monitoring and maintenance are integral aspects of the service, ensuring optimal performance and alignment with evolving industry standards.

Commitment to scalability and resource optimization ensures solutions adapt to your business growth, ensuring efficiency across different SAP modules and instances.

Moreover, our expertise in leveraging SAP Fiori ensures seamless integration of Generative AI outputs into a user-friendly interface, enhancing the overall user experience.

By choosing our services at Intellect, you gain a trusted partner dedicated to navigating the challenges of Generative AI implementation in SAP environments. We’re here to empower your business, drive innovation, and ensure a successful integration of Generative AI technologies into your SAP-related applications.

Optimizing Processes: The Role of SAP BPI in Modern Enterprises

What is BPM?

As per the Association of Business process management professionals (ABPMP), Business Process Management (BPM) is a disciplined approach to identify, design, execute, document, measure, monitor, and control both automated and non-automated business processes to achieve consistent, targeted results aligned with an organization’s strategic goals.

BPM tools or BPMS (Business process management software) were developed over years with capabilities such as process modeling, user behavior/process mining, workflows, and RPAs. BPM tools are mostly developed by multiple software vendors.

However, most of the enterprise software vendors lack the capability of combining BPM tools with their ERP software. This will be a challenge in digital transformation since most of the companies have complex business processes with scattered systems and no way of getting insights and recommendations for the decision-making process.

SAP Business Process Intelligence (BPI)

SAP Business process intelligence (SAP BPI) is the BPM solution provided by SAP, which is a key component of Rise with SAP S/4 Hana Cloud Business Transformation as a Service offering. SAP BPI is a combined solution with SAP S/4 Hana with capabilities of process analysis and improvement in a single package. BPI facilitates the analysis of business performance through benchmarking against industry best practices and provides tailored recommendations for improvements.

SAP Signavio

SAP BPI is made possible by SAP Signavio, a cloud-based business process management tool that was created by SAP following the acquisition of the industry-leading business process management solution provider “Signavio” in 2021. The goal of SAP Signavio was to enhance SAP BPI capabilities, as these were essential to the Rise with SAP offering that was revealed in the same year.

SAP Signavio allows the customer to understand, improve and transform business processes with RISE with SAP S/4 Hana business transformation as a service offering. It also provides a single source of truth for continual process transformation and improvement even after transformation to SAP S/4 Hana.

Signavio enables `business to rethink their existing business processes, priorities standardizations harmonization based on best practices and reference models, leveraging S/4 Hana innovations.

 

Figure 01  : End-to-end Business process Transformation Methodology

 

SAP Signavio has multiple solutions which answer the following questions the customers face when transforming to SAP S/4 Hana cloud.

1.How to ensure that the transformation adds value to the business?

2.How to expedite the transformation?

3.How to ensure that the change is manageable?

 

Figure 02  : SAP Signavio Overview

 

How does SAP BPI work with the SAP Activate approach of the end-to-end transformation to SAP S/4 Hana to generate the value during the transition and beyond?

To Answer this, let’s discuss the SAP Signavio tools with reference to the SAP Activate methodology in RISE with SAP offering for customers to aid transformation into SAP S/4 Hana cloud.

Discover phase

Discover the current status of the business processes and identify the areas of improvements. SAP signavio process insights assist to get tailored recommendations based on real time insights on how business processes are performing. SAP Signavio business process intelligence mines the As Is processes that can be analyzed to improve.

Prepare phase

Process improvement initiatives are prepared with SAP Signavio process collaboration hub to create the transformation journey with defined scope, timelines and milestones with collaboration and brainstorming with relevant stakeholders.

Design phase

Modeling the future state of the business processes and simulating their impact with SAP Signavio process manager and SAP Signavio journey modeler. Businesses actively design their processes with innovative recommendations based on industry best practices, using collaborative process modeling, documentation, reporting, and simulations

Realize and deploy phases

Implement the business process improvements with SAP Signavio capability of directly integrating with SAP Solution manager. SAP Signavio business process intelligence can trigger automated actions using process insights. Automated action types includes, Notifications, Workflow and RPA bots (AP Intelligent Robotic process automation (iRPA)).

With SAP Signavio Process automation and SAP Signavio process governance, automation can be done with no code/low code and visually with drag and drop and AI capabilities.

Run phase

Monitor and measure process post S/4 Hana implementation and continuous improvement of the business processes using SAP Signavio process insights and SAP Signavio process intelligence.

KPIs and process deviations are examined to determine if the improvement potential has been achieved.

SAP signavio process collaboration hub and SAP signavio process explorer gives single source of truth for end users on SAP signavio solutions, process models, best practices and innovations.

In summary, SAP BPI with Signavio actively contribute to the digital transformation of businesses into intelligent enterprises with RICE with SAP S/4 Hana by providing single source of process truth with real time insights into areas of improvement and data driven decisions making for optimizations.

Through innovation and strategic alignment, Intellect Consulting empowers organizations to achieve operational excellence and resilience in a dynamic business environment. With a focus on assisting clients across diverse industries, we strive to unlock the power of SAP BPI, enabling businesses to thrive in today’s dynamic market landscape.

BTP Empowering Data Analytics and Intelligence: A Strategic Overview

SAP BTP Analytics Services is a tool that helps businesses understand their data better. It uses SAP’s cloud-based platform, SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). The goal is to assist businesses in making decisions based on their data. The service provides various tools like data preparation, data modeling, machine learning, and predictive analytics.

SAP BTP Analytics Services uses advanced technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence to help businesses get valuable insights from their data. It’s designed to be easy for users, with interfaces and tools that can be adjusted to meet the specific needs of each business.

Apart from its main analytics services, SAP BTP Analytics Services can also connect with other SAP products and services, like SAP HANA, SAP Analytics Cloud, and SAP Data Warehouse Cloud. This allows businesses to use a range of SAP tools to create complete analytics solutions that fit their unique requirements.

It works with different types of businesses, such as retail, healthcare, finance, and manufacturing. The aim is to help these businesses improve their operations, save money, and grow by using data-driven decision making.

In summary, SAP BTP Analytics Services is a robust tool for businesses wanting to make sense of their data. With its advanced analytics features and integration with other SAP products and services, it provides businesses with a thorough and adaptable solution for making decisions based on data.

Digging deeper into the subject , Lets look in to the main services provided by the BTP Analytics Tool.

Data Visualization: Data visualization is crucial for understanding complex data and making informed decisions. BTP Analytics Services provides data visualization services to help clients present data in an easy-to-understand format. It offers various tools like charts, graphs, and dashboards, enabling businesses to create interactive visualizations that highlight trends and patterns.

Data Preparation: In BTP Analytics Services, the data preparation phase encompasses the essential tasks of cleaning, transforming, and structuring raw data for analysis. This pivotal step plays a crucial role as the quality of insights is directly influenced by the quality of the data. The data preparation will include the steps of cleansing, transformation and sampling ensuring the accuracy of data.

Data Modeling: Data modeling in BTP Analytics Services is about creating a structure for organizing and analyzing data. It entails designing a data schema or database structure to represent relationships between different data entities. Key steps include identifying data entities, defining relationships, choosing a data model, creating the data schema, validating the data model, implementing it, and maintaining it. BTP Analytic service provides data modeling tools for creating predictive analytics and machine learning models, allowing businesses to identify patterns and make predictions based on historical data.

Machine Learning: BTP Analytics Services includes tools for machine learning, enabling businesses to create predictive models that learn from data. These models automate decision-making processes and enhance operational efficiency.

Main services provided by the BTP Tool is as follows:

  • Data Preparation and Feature Engineering
    • Preparing and cleaning their data before applying machine learning algorithms.
    • Feature engineering techniques are employed to extract relevant features from the data, enhancing the accuracy of machine learning models.
  • Supervised Learning
    • Supervised learning algorithms to construct predictive models capable of making accurate predictions based on historical data.
    • This involves training a machine learning model on labeled data, where the outcome variable is known, to predict outcomes for new, unseen data.
  • Unsupervised Learning
    • Unsupervised learning algorithms are utilized to uncover hidden patterns and relationships in data.
    • This process involves training a machine learning model on unlabeled data, where the outcome variable is unknown, to identify similarities and differences in the data
  • Deep Learning:
    • Deep learning algorithms are employed for analyzing large volumes of complex data, such as images, video, and audio.
    • Deep neural networks are trained to grasp complex features and patterns in data, making it valuable in applications like computer vision, natural language processing, and speech recognition.
  • Model Selection and Evaluation
    • Evaluation of model performance is conducted using metrics like accuracy, precision, and recall In summary, machine learning services empower clients to utilize their data effectively, gaining insights and making informed decisions through tailored predictive models.

Additionally, SAP BTP Analytics Services provides tools for Predictive Analytics:

These tools enable businesses to forecast future trends and make informed decisions in various applications like customer retention, inventory management, and demand forecasting.

Text Analytics: SAP BTP Analytics Services provides tools for text analytics, allowing businesses to analyze unstructured data like social media posts, customer reviews, and emails. These tools help gain insights into customer sentiment and areas for improvement.

Here are key steps in text analytics with BTP Analytics Services:

Text Preprocessing:

Initial step involves preprocessing the text data by removing stop words, stemming or lemmatizing words, and converting text to lowercase. This standardizes the text for analysis.

Sentiment Analysis:

Technique used to determine sentiment or opinion expressed in text, useful for understanding customer feedback, social media posts, or other unstructured data.

Entity Recognition:

Identifies named entities like people, places, and organizations in text, aiding in understanding relationships between entities and identifying key trends.

Topic Modeling:

Identifies topics or themes in a corpus of text data, useful for understanding content of customer feedback, social media posts, or other unstructured data.

Text Classification:

Categorizes text data into predefined categories, useful for organizing customer feedback, identifying trends, or automating customer support.

Information Extraction:

Extracts structured information from unstructured text data, useful for pulling key data points from customer feedback, social media posts, or other unstructured data.

Data Visualization:

After analyzing text data, insights and trends can be visualized using charts, graphs, or other techniques, aiding in communicating findings to stakeholders and informing business decisions.

SAP BTP Analytics Services offers a complete suite of data analytics services to help businesses gain insights, make data-driven decisions, and enhance operational efficiency.

Industrial use of BTP analytics.

Industries across various sectors have embraced SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) Analytics Services for diverse applications:

Healthcare: Use cases involve managing clinical trials data, monitoring patient safety, optimizing manufacturing processes, and analyzing sales and marketing data.

Retail: Retail companies utilize SAP BTP Analytics Services for customer data analysis, inventory management, and optimization of supply chain operations.

Manufacturing: Manufacturing companies leverage SAP BTP Analytics Services to analyze real-time production data, optimize manufacturing processes, and monitor supply chain operations.

Finance: Financial institutions employ SAP BTP Analytics Services for customer data analysis, fraud detection, and enhancement of risk management processes.

Telecommunications: Telecommunications companies utilize SAP BTP Analytics Services for customer data analysis, network operations management, and optimization of service delivery processes.

Transportation: Transportation companies apply SAP BTP Analytics Services to monitor logistics operations, optimize supply chain processes, and enhance fleet management.

Education: Educational institutions use SAP BTP Analytics Services to analyze student data, improve learning outcomes, and manage administrative processes.

Media and Entertainment: Media and entertainment companies leverage SAP BTP Analytics Services for audience data analysis, content personalization, and optimization of advertising and marketing campaigns.

In summary, SAP BTP Analytics Services has gained widespread adoption in diverse industries, contributing to process improvement, cost reduction, and enhanced customer experiences.

The future direction of SAP BTP Analytics Services is centered around empowering organizations to harness the latest technologies for extracting insights from data and making more informed business decisions. As businesses continue to evolve in the digital landscape, SAP BTP Analytics Services stands as a pivotal tool, poised to shape the next generation of data-driven success stories.

Intellect Consulting, a prominent SAP consulting firm, stands as your dedicated partner for the exploration and implementation of SAP BTP Analytics Services. Our team of experts is committed to unlocking the power of SAP BTP’s user-friendly development tools for transformative business insights and growth, assisting clients across diverse industries.

Enhancing Business Efficiency with LCNC and Hyper Automation

In 2021, about 60% of the world’s population was using the internet, and many organizations had an online presence. This means that most companies, especially medium and large ones, had a lot of data. This data wasn’t just from the internet but also included paper-based information from forms, spreadsheets, and other documents. Sometimes, even electronic data was printed on paper.

One solution is to use technology to manage this data. Advanced software tools like process mining, workflow management, robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) are already available to transform this data into valuable assets for a company. However, historically, implementing these solutions required skilled IT professionals and a substantial budget.

Here’s the second major problem companies are facing today: a global shortage of skilled IT professionals. There are many software and web-based solutions that can benefit companies, but often, these solutions need to be installed and customized by IT experts. The shortage of these experts is getting worse and is expected to continue in the short term.

How significant is the worldwide shortage of IT professionals?

In 2021, there was a shortage of around 40 million technically skilled workers worldwide. In the United States alone, 69% of employers had trouble finding tech talent in 2020, and this situation isn’t expected to improve. Economists predict that the global talent shortage will grow to over 85 million workers by 2030.While many are familiar with traditional software development, where skilled developers write code to create digital tools.

What exactly is LCNC development?

Think of it as a range of complexity. On one side, there’s software you can make using drag-and-drop features, known as “What You See Is What You Get” (WYSIWYG) functionality. You can build this software without writing any code, and we call it no-code development. This is an exciting way to create software. On the other side of the spectrum is the most complex work, traditional software development. It requires high-level programming knowledge and professional development experience to build such software.

How does this align with the broader concept of Hyperautomation?

Hyperautomation is a relatively new concept, emerging in late 2019. It’s a systematic approach that businesses use to quickly pinpoint and automate as many processes as they can. To do this, they leverage various technologies, tools, and platforms, including familiar ones like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotic process automation (RPA), and business process management software.

Regular automation, without the “hyper,” focuses on automating specific tasks or workflows a business identifies using software.

Hyperautomation takes a broader approach, aiming to automate and coordinate as much as possible, even involving AI and machine learning capabilities in the process. With LCNC technology, developers can apply hyperautomation to their work, utilizing these advanced technologies that were once exclusive to professional developers.

You’re probably here because you or your company’s decision-makers have recognized that a great solution to handle the increasing amount of data and the shortage of professional developers is to empower employees as ” Citizen developers.”

Two key points to consider:

  • Using a visual no-code interface doesn’t demand programming skills. It’s user-friendly.
  • While some programming knowledge is needed, creating no-code apps is getting quicker and simpler for professional developers thanks to the low-code tools often included in hyperautomation toolkits.

Employee roles that can participate in the LCNC approach.

The main role that will be benefited is the citizen developers. There are essentially two kinds of citizen developers, and they align with a spectrum of skills:

  • Business Users: These are individuals who excel in their specific business domains, departments, or industries. They possess a deep understanding of the business processes that require improvement. Their tasks might include simple analytics, data extraction, user interface customization, and similar activities. They typically lack extensive technical knowledge and have little to no coding experience. We refer to them as no-code users.
  • Power Users: These citizen developers engage in low-code development to construct more intricate workflows that span across various lines of business. They’re often known as power users because of their familiarity with systems like SAP. Some of them may have received training in data analysis and coding.

What’s common to both is that they don’t work with advanced programming languages, formal development processes like testing or product lifecycle versioning, and they aren’t responsible for governance and IT security.

Additionally, there are two other roles:

  • Professional Developers: : LCNC development has two advantages for professional developers. First, low-code programming can speed up the improvement of software applications. Second, it helps refine no-code tools for citizen developers to automate their tasks and enhance their software tools. When non-technical users can create and deploy items on their own, it reduces backlogs for professional developers, allowing them to focus on more complex, value-added work.
  • IT Administrators: They assist in establishing and enforcing company policies concerning software applications, access, product lifecycles, and related matters. LCNC and citizen development can help prevent “shadow IT.” Shadow IT occurs when employees resort to technical workarounds or unsanctioned software to solve problems. This often happens when professional developers have long backlogs. By empowering non-technical users, you reduce the need for shadow IT, which can lead to compatibility issues and security risks.

Who stands to gain from this along the way?

  • Non-Technical Business Personnel: If you’re a non-technical businessperson, you likely deal with tasks like data extraction and input, which can be time-consuming. The main benefit of using LCNC tools to automate your work is that once you set up automation, you no longer have to deal with paperwork, data, and spreadsheets for those tasks. This frees up your time to work more creatively, connect with colleagues and customers, and enjoy greater work satisfaction
  • Departments and Lines of Business: LCNC development can automate tasks across various departments and lines of business. For example, it can speed up the hiring process by automating job application data extraction. Almost every department has tasks that can be automated, such as invoicing, purchase order management, approval processes, reminders, and more. Any task involving data input, extraction, or collation can be automated, freeing up people for more engaging work.
  • Organizations and Companies: When LCNC and hyperautomation are used to build business processes and applications, organizations and companies can benefit in several ways:
    • Maximizing the value of existing applications, saving money.
    • Increasing customer satisfaction.
    • Freeing up time spent on routine tasks for more valuable and creative work.
    • Increasing employee satisfaction by reducing tedious tasks.

Common Challenges in Implementing Hyperautomation and LCNC Development:

No Overarching Strategy or Roadmap:

The lack of a clear strategy for hyperautomation implementation can complicate things. A well-defined strategy is essential to outline why and how hyperautomation will be used. A clear vision and strategy should establish specific, achievable goals that act as a roadmap for all employees. Without this clarity, employees may not work effectively together.

Lack of Transparency About Software in Use:

It’s not just about where you’re going; you need to know where you are now. Many software tools are likely already in use within your organization, possibly without proper coordination or IT approval. Understanding the current software landscape, including integration potential, is crucial before investing in new tools. Knowing the adoption levels and required skills for these tools is equally important.

Inadequate Training Opportunities: Training is essential for successful citizen development. Without time and resources for training, it’s challenging to initiate and maintain citizen development practices. Both citizen developers and professional developers, as well as IT administrators, require proper training. Without it, inadequately trained citizen developers may cause errors that consume valuable time in correction. Investing in training upfront can result in significant time and cost savings in the long run.

Intellect Consulting, a leading SAP consulting firm, is your dedicated partner for discovering and implementing SAP BTP’s extensive low-code and no-code solutions. With our team of experts, we’re committed to helping clients from various industries leverage SAP BTP’s user-friendly development tools.

Streamlining Manufacturing with SAP S/4HANA: Expert Tips

SAP Production Planning stands as a cornerstone module within the SAP ecosystem. It includes many important functions that help organizations run smoothly and improve the efficiency of the manufacturing process. This module manages essential processes including material planning, capacity planning, production scheduling, goods movement etc. It plays a pivotal role in aligning a company’s production capacity with market demand, enabling organizations to effectively meet their production goals. Furthermore, it seamlessly integrates with other key SAP modules, including SAP Material Management, Quality Management, Financial Accounting and Controlling (FICO), and Plant Maintenance, fostering a unified and efficient management system for enterprises

Here are the benefits of having a proper ERP system for a manufacturing organization.

  • Better internal controlling and regulatory compliance to the manufacturing environment through production process monitoring, cost monitoring, quality monitoring and control.
  • Reliable and efficient processes with accurate financial reporting by integrating cross functional modules such as sales and marketing with manufacturing.
  • Improved efficiency through automation such as material requirement planning, remove redundancies in tasks, manual paperwork etc.

With the above considerations in mind, let’s explore key factors to consider when implementing SAP S/4 HANA in your manufacturing environment. This excludes considerations related to change management and project

Manufacturing industry can be classified into either discrete or process based on manufacturing process and the products. A manufacturing organization can have either process, discrete or combination of both based on the finished and semi-finished products they manufacture.

Discrete manufacturing involves the production of a product through the assembly of components that can be disassembled. You can further assemble the product, enabling the inclusion of multiple subassemblies in the final product. In this industry, the production of materials is continually adjusted in accordance with the order, and their costs are calculated accordingly. Industry example involves Automotive, Electronics, Machineries, Apparel and footwear, etc.

Process manufacturing involves manufacturing of a product by combining or ingredients or raw materials using a specific formula or recipe under specific condition such as heat and pressure. Industry example includes, food and beverage, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, steel etc.

SAP S/4HANA features manufacturing with production orders tailored for discrete industries and manufacturing with process orders customized for process industries, each designed with industry-specific built-in features. Organizations can customize their implementation to meet the requirements when their products encompass both process and discrete features, incorporating both processes and discrete features as needed.

In addition to that SAP S/4 Hana comes with industry specific solutions such as SAP S/4 Hana for Fashion and Vertical business which aims specific requirements of the fashion industry.

Figure 1: Production Planning and Control
Organizational Structure

Organizational structure represents organizational units in a hierarchy. In SAP S/4 Hana organization structure contains, manufacturing plants and locations as far as the manufacturing is concerned.

For a manufacturing organization there can be multiple manufacturing locations which are the plants. Plants then can be divided into multiple locations.

There will be several factors including deciding manufacturing facilities as separate plants or virtual plants based on the location proximity and due to financial reasons, such as different inventory valuation requirements, different legal account procedures with each plants having different legal entities etc.

After deciding on the plants, you can determine storage locations, including those for raw materials, production shop floor issuing locations, and finished goods warehouses. In some cases, virtual locations may be necessary to track specific materials or to run material requirement plans separately.

Figure 2: Organization  Structure
Master Data

Organization should consider the following master data aspects to eliminate master data redundancies, ensure production planning, execution and costing to be accurate and efficient.

  • List of finished and semifinished products manufactured along with their primary and secondary units of measures.
  • Bill of material (BOM) structures, which can be multilevel.
  • Routing/Recipe structures which represents products manufactured and phases/operations which the production goes through, which involves machines/ labor work centers /resources.
  • Bottleneck work centers/resources where capacity is limited.
Production Planning

Organizations should look into below production planning aspects, as implementing real-time monitoring of production processes allows organizations to quickly respond to any disruptions or deviations from the plan, ensuring production stays on track and costs are controlled.

  • Production strategy which represents how businesses do production and planning. Which can be ‘make to order’, ‘make to stock’ or combination of both.
  • Material requirement planning aspects such as reorder point planning, lot sizes safety stocks etc.
  • Capacity planning requirement with bottleneck work center/resources.
  • Integration requirements with 3rd party planning tools
  • Determine the extent to which the planning tools cover material and capacity requirement planning.

Figure 3: MRP Procedures
Production Processes

Production processes in a manufacturing business could be in the form of Inhouse manufacturing, sub-contracting, external processing, or contract manufacturing. SAP offers best practices with pre-configured process for each production process forms.

 Production Execution

In the SAP Production Planning (PP) module, Production Execution refers to the phase in which planned production orders are transformed into actual production activities on the shop floor.It involves the hands-on activities of producing goods, including tasks such as machine operations, material handling, and quality control. Key aspects of production execution in SAP PP include

  • Recordings on the production floor capture details about how the manufactured products are received, when and where quality inspections occur throughout various production stages, as well as processes related to reworking and scrapping
  • Stock monitoring and traceability requirements. For an example, determining whether batch management or serialization is necessary.
  • Integration requirements with 3rd party manufacturing execution systems (MES) or IOT tools to record production floor recordings.
  • Challenges arise in data entry on the production floor, especially when mobility is necessary. SAP S/4 Hana Fiori apps offer a solution to overcome this challenge.
  • How the packaging is done, for an example, boxes, pallets, crates, containers etc. and if stock monitoring or traceability is required at the packaging level. In addition to this is there any barcodes/QR generated for each packaging stages. There can be scenarios where single finished products can go to multiple packaging stages.

Intellect Consulting, a leading SAP consulting company. Which offers a team of seasoned consultants committed to facilitating a seamless transition to SAP S/4HANA for manufacturing organizations. With our expertise, your business can harness the power of cutting-edge technologies. We help you streamline operations, and inject intelligence into every facet of your processes.

By partnering with Intellect Consulting, you embark on a transformative journey with SAP S/4HANA, positioning your organization to soar to new heights. Join us on this path to innovation, efficiency, and a brighter future for your manufacturing endeavors.

Explore the Power of SAP Integration Suite

What is SAP Integration suite or SAP Cloud Integration?

SAP Integration Suite serves as an Integration Platform as a Service (IPaaS). This comprehensive solution facilitates the seamless connection of SAP applications with third-party software, whether they operate on-premises or across various cloud environments. It allows for the utilization of diverse integration methods to address specific use cases, enabling the execution of integrations on major public cloud platforms, providing enhanced flexibility.

Robust Functionality for Mission-Critical Processes

The robust functionality inherent in SAP Integration Suite instills confidence in integrating and managing mission-critical processes across complex and distributed landscapes, spanning SAP and third-party applications. It boasts enterprise-grade capabilities, including a 99.95% uptime guarantee, multizone availability, failover prevention, and elastic scaling to ensure high performance and throughput.

Enabling Innovation with Modular Functionalities

Innovation is made more accessible through SAP Integration Suite, offering features for modular functionalities, real-time event management, and API management. Moreover, it provides a centralized hub for access to a vast repository of over 3,600 APIs from SAP and its partner network, facilitating faster innovation.

Accelerating Connectivity with Prebuilt Integrations

SAP Integration Suite extends its reach with an extensive library of over 3,000 prebuilt integrations and connectors designed for both SAP and third-party solutions. These preconfigured integrations, developed and maintained by SAP and its partner ecosystem, expedite connectivity and deliver superior time-to-value.

Leveraging the Integration Assessment capability, aligned with the SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology, further expedites integration projects. It enables collaboration between integration architects, practitioners, and business users, offering trusted best practices for more efficient integration management and deployment, increasing the likelihood of successful integrations.

Streamlining Complex Integration Challenges with SAP Integration Suite

Real-world challenges often span multiple lines of business, services, and APIs, posing difficulties for even the most experienced developers in understanding their relationships. With SAP Integration Suite, the advantage of data semantics is harnessed through the SAP One Domain Model, which defines business objects like product, customer, or order information, along with their contextual usage within the business. Additionally, SAP Integration Suite incorporates features such as Graph and SAP Business Accelerator Hub, enabling the swift exploration, testing, and documentation of APIs to access SAP-managed data, regardless of its location.

 

 

Is this the same as CPI?

SAP Integration Suite was previously known as SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI). SAP CPI was the first solution offered by SAP as part of cloud integration. SAP has developed this solution over time, making it a comprehensive integration platform. The name of the solution was changed to SAP Integration Suite accordingly. The solution is positioned under the roof of the SAP Business Technology Platform today.

Let’s look into the capabilities of the Integration suite.

SAP Integration Suite Components

The SAP Integration Suite is composed of several key components, each serving distinct functions within the integration platform:

  • SAP Cloud Integration: This central component of the SAP Integration Suite is a cloud-based middleware platform. SAP has focused its functional development efforts on SAP Cloud Integration in recent years, making it the primary middleware platform in their product portfolio, while other platforms have seen reduced development focus.
  • SAP API Management: Included in the SAP Integration Suite, SAP API Management allows centralized planning, development, and management of interfaces for applications. It is particularly useful when implementing comprehensive security measures, monitoring data traffic, handling errors, or monetizing calls to application interfaces.
  • Integration Advisor: This component facilitates the rapid development of integration content. Currently, it includes functionality for creating Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) mappings. The Integration Advisor leverages knowledge from previously created mappings to generate many mappings automatically, which can then be exported for use in SAP Cloud Integration or SAP Process Orchestration.
  • SAP Event Mesh: SAP Event Mesh is designed for handling event-driven communication. In this approach, applications send small messages to an event broker when specific events occur. The event broker makes these events available for other applications, which can then determine their relevance.
  • Open Connectors: SAP provides Open Connectors as a component to simplify the integration of various cloud-based applications. These applications typically have different APIs defined by their providers, with varying authentication methods and supported technologies. Open Connectors offers a uniform way to make APIs from different cloud-based applications accessible throughout your organization.
  • SAP Process Orchestration: While SAP Process Orchestration is part of SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), it is not part of the SAP Integration Suite. It is an on-premise middleware platform that has been offered since 2004, but SAP’s focus for further development is on SAP Cloud Integration. Maintenance of SAP Process Orchestration will conclude in 2030, with no further versions planned.

Additional Integration Tools

Alongside the mentioned process integration tools covered by the SAP Integration Suite license bundle, SAP provides a range of additional tools for data integration as part of the SAP Business Technology Platform.

  • SAP Data Intelligence: Focusing on data integration and orchestration, SAP Data Intelligence has been available as a service on SAP Business Technology Platform since 2019. It represents an evolution of SAP Data Hub and incorporates machine learning capabilities for enhanced data science and machine learning operationalization.
  • Data Integration Tools: SAP also provides on-premise applications designed to support data-level integration. These tools are particularly useful when dealing with large volumes of data in integration scenarios.
  • Cloud Connector: In hybrid landscapes, connecting on-premise and cloud environments can be challenging. SAP offers the Cloud Connector as part of the SAP Connectivity service, which is a small on-premise software component that establishes secure connections between SAP Business Technology Platform and on-premise landscapes.
  • SAP API Business Hub: As part of SAP’s hybrid integration platform, SAP API Business Hub serves as a central repository for APIs, integration resources, events, and Core Data Services (CDS) views. It provides an overview of standard interfaces available within the SAP ecosystem.

 

The licensing processes

SAP Integration Suite offers flexible licensing options to accommodate diverse organizational requirements and financial considerations. These licensing options are available through the SAP Store:

  • SAP Free Tier: This is a good way to get started with SAP BTP. This provides Instant access to BTP production environment with some limitations.
  • Subscription and Pay-as-You-Go: The SAP Integration Suite can be licensed using subscription and pay-as-you-go models, providing organizations with choices tailored to their specific needs and budgetary constraints.

In addition to the above options, SAP Integration Suite can also be licensed through the SAP Cloud Platform Enterprise Agreement (CPEA) or by directly contacting SAP for a customized quotation. Here’s a breakdown of these licensing approaches:

  • SAP Cloud Platform Enterprise Agreement (CPEA): This licensing method involves entering into an agreement between the customer and SAP. The CPEA allows customers to acquire a bundle of SAP software products and services for a predetermined duration. During this period, customers can install and utilize the licensed products and services as per the terms of the agreement. The CPEA also offers supplementary benefits such as software updates and technical support. This licensing option is particularly suitable for organizations seeking a comprehensive and long-term approach to meet their integration requirements.

These flexible licensing alternatives enable organizations to align their integration strategy with their unique operational and financial preferences.

Intellect Consulting, a leading SAP consulting company, stands as a dedicated partner ready to empower businesses in their transformative journey through future enable SAP Integration suite. With our expert guidance and team, we are committed to assisting customers across diverse industries in harnessing the full potential of SAP Integration Suite for a seamless and successful Integrations.

Why Sri Lanka Excels as the Premier IT Offshore Destination

Sri Lanka known for its natural beauty which carries rich historical and cultural significance also well known for its friendly people and for their diversity. In past few years the country has consistently ranks among the top countries with the expertise to meet the outsourcing needs, particularly in the field of IT. Companies seek profitable advantages when they consider offshore operations and establish their business activities in foreign countries. It could be labor cost, technical capabilities, geographical factors, relaxed regulations and many more. Providing a multitude of advantages, Sri Lanka emerges as an exceedingly appealing choice for organizations in search of IT consultant services.

Many well-reputed multinational companies like Microsoft, Virtusa, Accenture, Intel, RR Donnelley, HSBC, Pearson, Axiata, London Stock Exchange, operate offshore centers or have a significant presence in various countries, including island nations. These centers are often established to take advantage of cost-effective labor markets, access to skilled talent, and strategic geographical locations.

Click here  to read the ‘Analysis of Sri Lanka as an Offshore Services Location’ done by Gartner.

Why you should choose Sri Lanka as your Offshore Destination

  • Highly Educated Workforce

A significant asset of Sri Lanka lies in its highly skilled workforce. Sri Lanka stands out as one of the nations that provide free education, resulting in an impressive literacy rate of 91%, with adult literacy reaching 92.3%. Country has strong education system where it focuses on computer science and technology. The talent pool in Sri Lanka widely recognizes for its technical and innovative capabilities.

  • Favorable Business Climate

The nation has made substantial investments in enhancing its infrastructure, positioning it as the favored choice for enterprises seeking a dependable and safe outsourcing collaborator. Sri Lanka ranking among top emerging countries for new world tech, including Web3.0, Data analytics, robotics, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.

  • Competitive Labor cost

Compared to other nations, Sri Lanka is renowned for its cost-effective workforce. Hiring an IT consultant and developers are relatively low when comparing with United States or Western European nations.  This can be added an advantage for companies resulting significant saving with out compromising quality of work delivered. As most of the companies uphold rigorous quality standards and certifications, ensuring the delivery of reliable and high-quality solutions.

  • Strategic Location

Sri Lanka’s advantageous time zone frequently proves beneficial for outsourcing collaborations, particularly with clients situated in Western countries such as the USA, UK, or Australia. The time difference facilitates effective communication and cooperation, enabling real-time interactions between teams and reducing project progress delays

  • Creativity and Commitment

Offshoring IT operations to Sri Lanka offers a unique advantage in terms of creativity and commitment. Sri Lankan IT professionals are renowned for their exceptional creativity, bringing fresh perspectives and innovative solutions to the table. Their ability to think outside the box is a valuable asset in today’s rapidly evolving tech landscape.

  • Lower Attrition rate

Moreover, Sri Lanka boasts a workforce known for its unwavering commitment to delivering high-quality results. IT professionals in Sri Lanka take pride in their work, often going the extra mile to meet and exceed client expectations. This dedication translates into a strong work ethic, ensuring projects are completed efficiently and with a high degree of excellence, making Sri Lanka a compelling choice for offshoring IT services

These are just a handful of reasons out of numerous factors that make Sri Lanka an ideal choice for outsourcing IT consulting services. However, it is important to note that choosing the best country for the outsourcing of IT services can be depend on relevant project requirements and organizational preferences.

While numerous software development companies in Sri Lanka deliver outstanding services, it’s crucial to acknowledge that the country’s capabilities extend beyond these entities. Sri Lanka boasts a thriving ecosystem of both startups and established businesses, all of which provide top-notch software development services of high quality

At Intellect Consulting we are dedicated to leveraging these strengths to empower your business with exceptional IT solutions and services, ensuring that your outsourcing journey in Sri Lanka is a strategic choice that elevates your success on a global scale

Expert Insights on SAP S/4HANA Cloud

What is S/4 HANA cloud?

With the concept of cloud computing emerged in early 2010 s, many software businesses began to focus more on cloud-based solutions where the customers can benefit from IT resources on demand with greater cost effectiveness and lower time to value. This article offers guidance for navigating your journey through cloud transformation with SAP S/4HANA.

SAP already has many cloud solutions such as S/4 HANA cloud, SAP Analytics cloud, SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass, SAP Integrated business planning, SAP Digital manufacturing cloud, and many more.

S/4 HANA cloud is a software as a service (SAAS), or private cloud offered by SAP for SAP S/4 HANA as a next-generation intelligent ERP which enables companies to achieve digital transformation. The technologies that bring “intelligence” into S/4 HANA includes machine learning, virtual and augmented reality and blockchain.

S/4 HANA cloud runs on SAP HANA in memory database, which means faster data access in real time with accelerated processes.

What is the difference between SAP S/4 HANA on premise and S/4 HANA Cloud?

The first release of SAP S4 HANA On Premise is SAP S4 HANA 1511 in year 2015. Thereafter SAP released SAP S4 HANA 1610, SAP S4 HANA 1709, SAP S4 HANA 1809, SAP S4 HANA 1909 , SAP S4 HANA 2020, SAP S4 HANA 2021 and SAP S4 HANA 2022 in following years.

Customers host and maintain SAP S/4 HANA on-premise edition on their servers using internal IT staff. Customer servers can be on premise or customer can choose to go for IAAS (Infrastructure as a service) to host their servers on a cloud (eg: Amazon, Azure, Google, Huawei etc) with SAP S/4 HANA on premise edition.

Customer should implement and test annual SAP upgrades. It is customers’ full responsibility in the infrastructure and the maintenance including security and disaster risk.

On premise offers higher flexibility in terms of the business requirements and the customizations. The customer is using a traditional licensing model where they purchase the product, resulting in a CAPEX expenditure.

In 2021, S/4 HANA cloud edition was released with public and private cloud deployment options. For the S/4 HANA cloud edition, the infrastructure and maintenance are under control by SAP. Customers do not need to invest in internal IT staff due to the lack of infrastructure support requirement for the ERP. latest innovation upgrades happen without customers’ participation.

Cloud mostly offers predefined best practices configuration with limited customization and the deployment is typically faster than on premise. Subscription licensing method is being used, which means that customer is buying a service which is an OPEX expenditure. The total cost of ownership (TCO) is lower in S/4 HANA cloud edition than the on-premise edition.

Deployment options for SAP S/4 HANA cloud

A S/4 HANA cloud deployment model defines how a cloud service is made available to customers. There are 2 options namely public cloud and the private cloud.

1. S/4 HANA Public cloud

S/4 HANA Cloud Public edition is a preconfigured solution based on industry best practices which can be configured based on the business requirement following fit to standard analysis. This means faster guided implementation while being open and flexible to new requirements and extensible with ready to go APIs supporting integration with customers’ partners.

SAP ensures semi-annual automatic continual updates in a predefined schedule, security compliance and scalability without the need for customer’s IT resources.

Continuous innovation adds latest technology with the help of in-built artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), robotic process automation (RPA), and analytics.

The business needs to follow a transformational approach to move into S/4 HANA public cloud since the existing processes need to be changed to match with the industry best practices adopt by SAP S/4. Therefore this is more suited for green field approach of implementation.

S/4 HANA public cloud offers efficiency and affordability and often multi-tenant, which means it is SAAS in a shared environment. With the S/4 HANA public cloud, services are delivered to a customer over a network that is open for public usage. RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud is offered as S/4 HANA public cloud solution.

S/4 HANA Public cloud is more suited for organizations driven by standardization and cost reduction, often small and mid-size enterprises. Customers with financial led ERP scenarios with limited complexity in logistical processes will opt for S/4 HANA public cloud.

SAP S4 Hana Public cloud is the Ready-to-run cloud ERP that delivers the latest industry best practices and continuous innovation. 

This fits best for Net New Names, Greenfield Customers, and Two Tier Scenarios (installed base)

2. S/4 HANA Private Cloud

In the S/4 HANA Private Cloud the businesses can decide on the cloud infrastructure, which can be SAP data centers, SAP partners such as Microsoft (Azure), Amazon (AWS), Google and Alibaba, or customer’s own data centers. Same as the S/4 HANA public cloud SAP will take care of the software and the hardware.

With the S/4 HANA private cloud, the services are maintained on a private network protected by a firewall. Private cloud is a single tenant environment where the provider runs our services in a dedicated environment.

RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud private edition and SAP S/4HANA Cloud extended edition is offered as private cloud solutions. Extended editions provide more configurations and extension capabilities for the customers with specific requirements in a dedicated cloud environment. Customers who have defined specific requirements which require more customizations while retaining innovation and cloud value will opt for S/4 HANA private edition.

With the S/4 HANA private cloud, customers will have the ability to do customizations and integrations including changes to SAP source code and have full access to configuration. Unlike S/4 HANA Public cloud, the access to SAP GUI is possible as S/4 HANA on premise edition.

SAP releases annual upgrades with latest innovation while allowing customers to mange the pace of change on their own timeline.

New clients with well-established business requirements that demand greater customization freedom will choose S/4 HANA Private Cloud.Current SAP customers who do not want a full process design and who wish to retain their current investment in their SAP ERP system will choose S/4 HANA Private Cloud. If customers already using S/4 HANA, switching to S/4 HANA private edition requires just a lift and shift.

S/4 HANA Private cloud supports Brown field, selective data transition and green field approach in implementation. Total cost of implementation of SAP S4 HANA private cloud is higher than the public cloud.

SAP S4 HANA Cloud Private Edition is the tailored fit cloud ERP that adapts to your organization’s unique transformation. This fits best for complex installed base.

Comparison in Summary

SAP S4 Hana Cloud- Differences

  • Licensing Model

SAP offers two licensing models: perpetual and subscription. On-premise deployments typically use perpetual licenses. Initial fees depend on the selected products and authorized user count. Annual fees, covering maintenance and support, remain unchanged unless software or user numbers change.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud uses a subscription license model, requiring customers to pay an annual fee for access. The duration usually ranges from one to three years, with fees based on various business metrics like user count, document processing, or storage/bandwidth volume. Customers can choose the number of users and subscription term, with the option to renew annually.

  • S/4 HANA Cloud solution relieves the burden of maintaining IT infrastructure and security aspects. This allows customers to focus more on core business rather than managing the back end. Cloud customers can benefit from lower time to value than on premise approach. S/4 HANA Cloud solution comes with low cost with lower initial solution and deployment fees. S/4 HANA Cloud solution is scalable without the customer having to insure high investment cost. Also, no maintenance and upgrade cost involved.
  • On premise customers have more flexibility for doing customizations. The main challenge of a cloud solution is that it limits the amount of customization the customers can do to the software. This can be more challenging to customers who require a high level of flexibility that only On-premises solution can provide.
  • One challenge for SAP S4 HANA Cloud customers is that customers need transformational change to adapt to best practices which can be costly. Also, with the software updates which come on fixed basis, the customers need to adapt to changes.

Reasons to move to the SAP S4 Hana Cloud

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of remote work. Businesses need to incorporate robust business applications to enable secure remote access. Cloud-based solutions offer cost-effective models, enhanced access, and improved security. Their flexibility and scalability make them essential for modern businesses, particularly SMEs and startups.

Conversely, SAP announced latest innovations and capabilities of SAP will only be delivered in SAP public cloud and SAP private cloud, with RISE with SAP as the enabler. New innovations (AI innovations, sustainability and carbon accountings solutions etc.)  will not be available for on-premise or hosted on-premise ERP customers on hyperscalers. You can seamlessly integrate emerging technologies like machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) into the cloud-based solution. Embracing a cloud transformation journey is imperative to maintain competitiveness in the evolving landscape of the future.

How we can help ?

When crafting a strategic plan for your business transformation, the crucial first step is to carefully choose the right path for transformation. Every choice you make should be in harmony with your company’s objectives and should cater to its specific needs and demands. As a result, it becomes imperative to conduct a comprehensive assessment of every available option and their potential outcomes before settling on the most suitable course of action for your organization.

At Intellect Consulting, we work closely with your organization to assess your current processes and infrastructure. Our goal is to help you develop a strategic plan, architecture, and roadmap for the seamless adoption or migration of SAP solutions to the cloud. With our specialized knowledge, we ensure a customized approach that perfectly aligns with your unique business requirements. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with us today for more details and valuable insights.

SAP BTP: Foundation of the Intelligent Sustainable Enterprise

SAP Cloud Platform has been rebranded as SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), which is a PaaS cloud computing service offered by SAP. As a result of SAP’s decision to package multiple services and products into a single platform that the business could use to make business decisions, SAP BTP is first introduced in the year 2021. SAP’s intention was to offer different parts to an intelligent enterprise through a single vendor instead of integrating disparate systems from multiple vendors into the core. Throughout SAP’s journey in SAP BTP, SAP has reinforced SAP BTP with different acquisitions. In July 2022, SAP announced the acquisition of Askdata. With the acquisition of Askdata, SAP strengthened its ability to help organizations take better-informed decisions by leveraging AI-driven natural language searches.

Brief history of SAP BTP

SAP BTP in a Nutshell

SAP BTP can also be defined as a unified technology platform that brings together data and analytics, artificial intelligence, application development and integration optimized to on-premises and cloud SAP Applications.

SAP has been helping business with technology driven business innovations for over the last 15 years. Every business is now looking to a new business model in order to differentiate themselves from the competition and the world being disrupted by others. SAP BTP helps organizations to leverage the best practices and investments made over the years on the existing systems while moving to a modern cloud architecture. SAP BTP is the centerpiece of SAP’s overall technology strategy. SAP BTP provides core capabilities to support on-premises, hybrid, and cloud scenarios.

Understanding SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)

SAP BTP brings together all critical areas of technology which you need to accelerate innovations, in a simple unified environment and optimized to SAP applications and landscapes.

Overview of the Four Key Components of SAP BTP
  1. Database and Data Management: It’s like having a superpower to handle massive amounts of data, both structured and unstructured.
  2. Analytics: Get real-time insights into your business operations, like having a crystal ball.
  3. Application Development and Integration: Create custom applications that fit your business needs perfectly, and seamlessly integrate them with your existing systems.
  4. Intelligent Technologies: Harness the power of AI-based technologies, like machine learning, to automate tasks and make smarter decisions.

 

SAP BTP isn’t simply a universal solution; it’s an adaptive technology that can be tailored to different industries, providing custom solutions for unique requirements. It’s like a chameleon that adapts to different industries, offering customization options to meet specific needs.

Integrating Operational Systems with Machine Learning Technologies

BTP is a revolutionary solution to bridge the gap between operational systems and machine learning technologies. Its Analytics Cloud component lets you mix operational systems with machine learning, making data valuable and giving you a seamless user experience.

Benefits of integrating operational systems with machine learning

Integrating machine learning brings benefits. First off, it can utilize past information to anticipate future patterns, enabling you to take wise choices and remain ahead of the competition.

Secondly, it automates repetitive tasks, saving time and reducing human error. Lastly, combining big data with AI gives you deeper insights into customer behavior, leading to personalized experiences.

Creating a unified user experience through integrated technology

A unified user experience is key for efficiency and productivity. With SAP BTP’s Analytics Cloud, all your data is in one place, so you can access information easily without switching platforms.

This seamless integration means less time searching and more time analyzing – resulting in quicker decision-making and improved performance. The platform connects various apps and data sources instantly, creating an environment where innovation thrives efficiently.

Addressing Business Challenges with SAP BTP

In today’s fast-paced business world, challenges are as common as coffee breaks. But SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is here to save the day, armed with super functionalities that can tackle these hurdles with ease.

Enhancing Customer Engagement through Automation

Boosting customer engagement is key, and SAP BTP knows it. With its automation powers, businesses can bid farewell to tedious tasks like accounts payable processing or financial close procedures. Employees can dedicate more of their time to activities they excel at, resulting in better operations and customers who are content with the service.

Ensuring Regulatory Compliance with SAP BTP’s Automated Features

Staying compliant with ever-changing regulations can be a real headache. But SAP BTP’s automated features take care of data collection and report generation, making compliance a breeze. No more sleepless nights worrying about legal requirements.

By leveraging the power of automation offered by SAP BTP, businesses can conquer their challenges and stay align in the face of market changes. So, why wait? Embrace the future with SAP BTP.

Streamlining Processes Across Departments Using SAP BTP

The SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is a game-changer for improving business process efficiencies. With SAP BTP, you can gain a comprehensive understanding of your financial operations in real time. It’s like having x-ray vision for your finances.

Simplifying Finance Department Operations with Real-Time Insights

SAP BTP is bundled with a comprehensive suite of tools and services that enable businesses to streamline their financial process, enhance decision making, and drive growth.

In today’s fast-paced world, you need real-time insights to make smart decisions. With SAP BTP, the organizations are reinforced with unified view across the organization. With real-time insights, the finance department can monitor cash flows, track financial performance, and ensure compliance with regulatory standards. Further, BTP’s Integration capabilities enable seamless data exchange and holistic financial management. No more waiting around for reports – it’s like having a financial crystal ball.

Benefits Extended Towards Supply Chain Management & Manufacturing Sectors

SAP BTP isn’t just for finance – it’s a superhero for supply chain management and manufacturing too. Gain instantaneous knowledge of your stock availability with SAP BTP.

And if you’re in manufacturing, SAP’s supply chain solutions have predictive analytics capabilities. You can predict demand fluctuations and optimize your production schedules. Moreover, with sales predictions, warehouse product placement can be optimized to reduce travel distance.

Embracing Digital Transformation with SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)

Digital transformation is an ongoing journey that involves people, processes, and technology. It’s a shift towards leveraging digital technologies to create or modify business processes, culture, and customer experiences. SAP BTP is a key enabler in this journey.

The Impact of Real-Time Reporting and Key Performance Indicators

Real-time reporting and KPIs are crucial for successful digital transformation. SAP BTP’s advanced analytics provide real-time insights, helping you make data-driven decisions quickly. This improves operational efficiency and identifies potential issues before they escalate.

  • Real-Time Reporting: With SAP BTP’s analytics cloud, access up-to-the-minute reports on sales performance, inventory levels, and more.
  • KPI Tracking: Easily track KPIs across departments, ensuring alignment with company objectives.
Improving Efficiency Without Compromising Service Levels

Companies worldwide seek to improve efficiency without compromising service levels. SAP BTP offers solutions like intelligent robotic process automation and streamlined workflows, saving time while maintaining high-quality standards. Workflow management solutions in the SAP extension suite reduce errors and improve compliance, enhancing overall productivity.

Advantages of Building New Applications on Existing Premises or Hyper Scaler Hosted Platforms

In the digital era, businesses are always looking for ways to optimize and impress. Building new apps on existing premises or hyper scaler hosted platforms like Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) seems like a good idea. But hold on, there’s a better approach.

Instant Personalization

Why start from scratch when you can connect the dots? With SAP Business Technology Platform, you can create personalized experiences in a snap. No need to waste time stitching together different pieces of tech. It’s all there, ready to go.

Boosted Agility

No one is keen to take on the task of mastering a whole new suite of instruments. Not developers. With SAP’s low-code environment, they can easily adapt and thrive. Building apps becomes a breeze, without the headache of mastering new technologies.

Cloud Innovation

Want to experiment and innovate without disrupting your core activities? Look no further than the cloud. SAP Business Technology Platform lets you test new ideas, iterate based on feedback, and keep your day-to-day operations running smoothly.

How BTP Supports on New Application Development
  1. Providing the necessary hardware to host, run, and manage applications.
  2. Enabling scaling of the resources on the cloud.
  3. Managing the database requirements.
  4. Managing integration requirements to SAP Applications and other third-party applications through connections.
  5. Managing routing of applications – How an application can be accessed.
  6. Managing security and authorizations.
  7. Providing runtime for the applications. Ex: ABAP, Node JS, JS, etc.
  8. Providing tools like Business Application Studio (BAS) to start off development.
  9. Enabling to consume readily available services in BTP.
  10. Option to enhance exiting application without interrupting the running application.

Getting into the SAP BTP

SAP has offered multiple ways to get started with SAP BTP.

  1. SAP BTP Free Tier

This is a good way to get started with SAP BTP. This provides Instant access to BTP production environment with limited number of services are available.

  1. Pay-As-You-Go Model

Using this option helps users by not having to commit a lot of money up front or meet minimum usage requirements.

  1. Cloud Platform Enterprise Agreement.

Provides users with cloud credits option that can be used to utilize on any service available in SAP BTP.  SAP will charge against the pre-purchased cloud credits monthly for actual usage of services. This is ideal for organizations who are willing to use many services from BTP but not at the same time.

  1. Subscription

This provides the option to utilize specific services at a fixed cost over an agreed time duration. This is ideal for organizations who are targeting a specific use case and a specific budget in mind.

Intellect Consulting, a leading SAP consulting company, stands as a dedicated partner ready to empower businesses in their transformative journey through SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). With our expert guidance and team, we are committed to assisting customers across diverse industries in harnessing the full potential of SAP BTP for a seamless and successful digital transformation.

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