SAP's Suite as a Service
The recently concluded SAP Sapphire conference confirmed SAP’s cloud first strategy centered on the SAP S/4 Suite. The Suite as a Service approach encompasses:
- Packaged implementation methodologies RISE, for existing customers, and GROW for new customers.
- SAP’s Business Data Cloud (BDC) is the unifying data repository for all SAP applications.
- SAP’s Business Transformation Platform is the toolkit for harmonizing and integrating SAP and external data.
- SAP’s Joule as the copilot and agentic agent creator for bringing artificial intelligence to the enterprise.
SAP's Cultural Shift
SAP, historically known for its large-scale, on-premise ERP solutions. SAP has undergone a significant transformation toward a cloud-based, subscription-driven model. This shift can be traced back 15 years to its $5.8 billion acquisition of Sybase. With Sybase came the SAP HANA in memory computing platform which has become the core of all its ERP products. Additional strategic acquisitions have included:
- SuccessFactors (2011) – A cloud human capital management platform acquired for $3.4 billion to enhance SAP’s HR offerings.
- Ariba (2012) – A supplier network platform acquired for $4.3 billion to strengthen SAP’s cloud procurement and supply chain capabilities.
- Qualtrics (2018) – A customer experience management platofrm acquired for $8 billion to enhance SAP’s analytics and feedback solutions.
- Signavio (2021) – A business process management solution that enhances workflow optimization.
- AppGyver (2021) – A low-code, no-code development platform enabling businesses to build applications without extensive coding experience.
These acquisitions have played a crucial role in SAP’s transition to the cloud. Furthermore, these solutions all drive greater agility, continuous innovation, and cost efficiency, for SAP customers.
Subscription with Continuous Improvement
SAP’s move to the cloud is not just about hosting ERP software remotely, it’s about continuous improvement. Today’s business customer demands greater agility than afforded by legacy systems. Upgrading legacy ERP systems is expensive and disruptive. This is especially true when the core code is customized.
Cloud subscription models allow for continuous innovation at a lower total cost of operations for dynamic businesses.
- Legal compliance updates,
- Regular and automatic feature updates,
- Continuous security enhancement, and now
- AI-driven solutions.
SAP has supported this go-to-market shift with:
- Comprehensive migration and deployment tools to ease cloud transition.
- Embedded analytics which provide feedback on utilization of cloud platforms.
- Cloud Engagement Executive training for partners.
These tools ensure SAP and its partners provide ever increasing value from its systems for their customers. For example, SAP continuously improves the Cloud Control Center (CCC) for SAP Business One. The CCC provides automation and secure multi-tenancy for B1 Cloud Service Providers. Recent enhancements to the CCC pave the way for integration with Azure AI and other leading technology platforms.
Artificial Intelligence Front and Center
The SAP Suite approach embraces artificial intelligence. Working with large complex organizations, the SAP Suite approach is designed to be flexible, adaptable and AI Large Language Model (LLM) agnostic.
The core of the SAP Suite is the SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC). BDC is a fully managed solution that unifies and governs all SAP data and connects with third-party data. On top of the solution is SAP Joule. SAP Joule is a generative AI Copilot leveraging natural language processing and AI agents.
Continuous innovation at the speed of AI requires a fully integrated approach like the SAP Suite.
Implications for the Mid Market
The SAP Suite is designed for large enterprise. The Joule Agents currently developed by SAP are for S/4 and not SAP Business One (B1). However, history has shown how SAP innovations for large enterprise filter to the Small to Midsize Business (SMB) market. Both SAP and their partners learn from the experience of the Fortune 500 and “right size” them for SMB companies. The SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) includes B1 connectors and has proven both powerful and affordable in the mid market.
The Business One open architecture allows SAP partners and customers to develop solutions using a variety of tools. Business One’s service layer, Integration Framework and SDK provide the ultimate flexibility for digital transformation. This flexibility enables interoperability with mid-market platforms at a much lower total cost of ownership than large enterprise tools.
SAP has embraced and open architecture in all of its products. More importantly, the cost for use of the tools are transaction based and in others are minimal. For example:
- SAP Document AI is an end-to-end document processing solution for structured and unstructured data. Document AI works with a wide range of business documents to streamline data handling and automate business processes. SAP currently has a half dozen “free” active “business accelerators” for SAP B1 which automate processes including:
- Supplier Invoice Upload for Intelligent Invoice Scanning.
- Sales Order Creation from Purchase Order
- Return Request Process Automation
- Proof of Delivery document upload
- Master Data Enrichment.
- Activity Creation for Business Partner Leads
- Partners like MyWave and ERPure have AI powered workflows. Solutions like these only require an “indirect access” license to incorporate their RPA and Agentic AI solutions in SAP.
Considerations for Your Business
he “old” SAP had a reputation for being expensive and inflexible. Whenever you have to meet the needs of extremely large organizations with global business, flexibility and complexity go hand in hand. How can you perform a task “26 ways to Sunday” and be simple? The SAP Suite approach with the SAP Data Cloud and powerful AI tools is a modern approach to bringing order to chaos.
- If you are a global large enterprise with complex business requirements RISE for S/4 HANA Cloud is one of the few platforms to consider. SAP has a proven track record of being capable of meeting your needs.
- Companies new to SAP who have aspirations of reaching $500 million in sales or more should consider GROW for S/4 HANA Cloud. This templated approach to implement the powerful S/4 platform at a more affordable cost.
- Small and Mid-Sized Business should consider SAP Business One. With over 80,000 customers in 170 countries with over 1.2 million users B1 is the global leader for the SMB.
SAP may not be for every business. However, their products should be included in most every System Selection project.