Session 1 Recap & Highlights– Data Inspired – Successful concepts for data-driven organizations

[Gaurish-Dessai]

Our first speaker Helmut Grimm talked about the concept of Flywheel that was introduced as part of Christian Klein’s keynote at SAP Sapphire 2025. Grimm introduced SAP's transformative flywheel concept, positioning data as the critical center of organizational innovation. He emphasized that in the age of AI, the interplay between applications, data, and artificial intelligence has become more crucial than ever. The flywheel metaphor illustrates how data acts as the fundamental engine driving business acceleration, requiring a seamless integration of technological components.

 Helmut emphasized that today,  Data sits at the center of organizational innovation and best of suite approach enables seamless interplay between apps, data, and AI that is extremely critical. Helmut also introduced the newly launched SAP Architecture Center as a strategic resource for data integration and must visit for every EA.

Our next speaker, Dr. Sebastian Wernicke laid the vision of going from Data-Driven to Data-Inspired. Sebastian challenged traditional data utilization approaches, introducing the revolutionary concept of being "data-inspired" rather than merely "data-driven". He argued that most organizations struggle not with data collection, but with transforming data insights into meaningful organizational change.

These challenges include Persistent skills gaps in driving value from data, Unclear business cases for data initiatives, insufficient management attention to data strategies, difficulty in breaking down organizational silos and Limited ability to transform data insights into actionable change within and outside the organization.

While there are data challenges in every org, it is an great opportunity for Data Architects and Enterprise Architects to change things by driving – holistic organizational learning and through continuous conversation with senior executives about their data initiatives.

Sebastian also talk about how Enterprise Architects can drive towards being Data Inspired through these 4 element that are usually in their sphere of influence:

1. Radical Data Integrity -  The foundational approach to building trustworthy data ecosystems. Enterprise architects must develop robust governance frameworks that ensure data quality, create transparent lineage, and implement metadata management strategies. This involves not just technological solutions, but also developing organizational cultures that prioritize data accuracy and reliability.
2. Connected Data Ecosystems bringing a holistic approach to breaking down traditional organizational silos. Enterprise architects must design integrated platforms that facilitate seamless data sharing across different functional areas. This involves creating technical infrastructures and collaborative mechanisms that encourage cross-functional communication and insight generation.
3. Strategic Incentive Structures i.e. reimagining of organizational reward systems. By aligning incentives with data-sharing and insight generation, enterprise architects can create cultural mechanisms that inherently value data-driven decision-making. This goes beyond traditional performance metrics, embedding a data-inspired mindset into the core of organizational behavior.
4. Decision Architecture Design as a critical capability for modern enterprise architects. This involves developing flexible frameworks that integrate data insights directly into strategic decision-making processes. The goal is to create organizational systems that support continuous learning, adaptability, and strategic responsiveness.

 The inaugural webinar of the series was a huge success with the participants as the speakers presented a compelling narrative that goes far beyond traditional data management, positioning data as a strategic asset capable of driving fundamental organizational change. As SAP customers start their Business Data Cloud journey, the speakers acknowledged that it is not about accumulating more data or implementing sophisticated technologies, but about fundamentally reimagining how organizations perceive, utilize, and derive value from their data ecosystems. Enterprise architects stand at the forefront of this transformation, serving as critical architects of not just technological infrastructure, but of organizational change and adaptability.

You can check out Sebastian's book here: https://www.amazon.com/Data-inspired-author/dp/3800671298

Note: Slides from the session and the recording would be only available to the registered attendees. So if you have not registered, please register now using the link below: https://go4.events.sap.com/shift-eaa-bdc-webinar/en_us/home.html

Important links:

1. Architecture Center: https://architecture.learning.sap.com/
2. Enterprise Architect Learning Journey: https://learning.sap.com/learning-journeys/discovering-sap-enterprise-architecture
3. SAP Business Data Cloud Learning Journey: https://learning.sap.com/courses/introducing-sap-business-data-cloud

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