- SAP Managed Tags
SAP Integrated Product Development (SAP IPD) is a cloud solution that enables you to digitally orchestrate your product development from design-to-operate, resulting in reduced time to market, higher R&D return on investment, higher margins, and reliable product launches.
In the current released version, SAP IPD business users have conversational access to the SAP Integrated Product Development documentation on the SAP Help Portal.
Joule is supported in the following SaaS applications (capabilities) for SAP Integrated Product Development.
Core capabilities Supported Scope
Use Joule in the following capabilities
- Collaboration
- Common Functions
- Configuration Management
- Engineering. Note: Joule is currently only supported by the apps for Test Management.
- Enterprise Product Structure
- Insights
- Intelligent Handover
- Product Data Integration
- Product Innovation Management
- Specification Management
- Visualization
- Formulation
Supported Languages: Joule currently supports the following languages (see image 1 below)
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Please refer to the link for the most up to date information on languages supported by Joule.
It is also important to note that SAP Integrated Product Development can be activated in the data centers that are listed here, and when integrating the product with Joule, please note to validate the data centers supported by Joule here.
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This blog post is a series for Joule Activation:
- SAP Business AI – Overview for all !!! (Includes information on Joule Supported Data Centers, Different scenarios during Joule setup, etc..)
- Joule - Unified Setup: Bridging Simplicity and Performance (Demo Video to understand the Unified Setup, Joule basics & architecture, how to set up Joule, etc...)
- SAP Digital Supply Chain
- Analytics Insights in Joule – Setup Guide
- Joule in SAP Signavio Process Transformation Suite – Setup Guide
Joule in SAP Integrated Product Development – Setup Guide - You are Here
Blogs - Work in Progress (WIP):
- SAP SuccessFactors Joule Activation (Refer to SAP Discovery Center)
- SAP Digital Supply Chain (WIP)
- SAP Asset Performance Management
- SAP Product Lifecycle Management
- SAP Digital Manufacturing
- SAP Concur
- SAP Ariba
- and more to be added towards General Availability
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Joule for SAP Integrated Product Development (you here)
This blog will uncover the steps to activate Joule in two different ways (1) create a Joule for SAP IPD as a standalone product (Fresh activation) (2) activate and add Joule for SAP IPD with an existing subaccount along with your other activated / current LoBs landscape.
Let's explore how to activate Joule for SAP IPD.
Scenario
Activate SAP's generative AI assistant, Joule, for SAP Integrated Product Development (SAP IPD) and understand the key factors that business users should consider when integrating Joule with SAP IPD.
Use Case:
Conversational search of SAP Help Portal documentation for SAP IPD: Your business users can ask Joule questions about the SAP IPD capabilities and processes, and Joule gives them an answer based on the SAP IPD documentation from the SAP Help Portal. This feature will provide quick access to user enablement content, summarizing answers from product documentation. It will save customers time by eliminating the need to browse through long search results and multiple topics.
Pre-requisites
- You have an entitlement for Joule in the same global account on SAP BTP, Cloud Foundry, as your entitlement for SAP Integrated Product Development.
- You have subscribed to the Common Functions SaaS application.
- Your identity provider uses the OpenID Connect protocol. If you currently use a SAML protocol, see this information about migrating: Migrating from SAML to OpenID Connect Protocol
- Ensure that the EPD Admin role template is assigned to the user/admin working on the setup. For more information, see Role Templates for Common Functions.
Integration Process:
If you are activating Joule for the first time in your SAP Integrated Product Development system, we refer to this as a standalone/single setup, as mentioned in “Section 1”.
In the standalone setup process,
- You may decide to use the existing IPD-Subaccount to activate Joule (check the data centers support for Joule), or
- You may plan to use a new subaccount dedicated to Joule, or
- If you would like to “add IPD” to an existing subaccount where Joule is activated, which is a unified setup as described below in “Section 2”.
What does Unified Setup mean?
The unified setup of Joule with multiple SAP products allows business users to ask any question irrespective of the Joule client they are in. This approach helps avoid toggling between multiple applications, improves user efficiency, and delivers a more consistent, connected experience across all LoBs.
Check your setup plan:
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We hope you've selected one of the setup plans by now. Before we begin activating Joule for SAP IPD, let’s understand how it works.
The image below explains how Joule works with your landscape integration:
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Note: In the current release of Joule for IPD, we do not use the SAP Build Work Zone and Cloud Foundry services. This is planned for the next releases.
Now, since you have a clear understanding of IPD and how Joule works now it is time for us to start the integration process:
Let us have a look at the steps involved for the integration:
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Integrating Joule
- Step 1: Setup Plan:
- Section 1: Fresh Setup – no existing Joule setup exists
- Section 2: You have an existing Joule subaccount, and you want to enable Joule for IPD
- Step 2: Post-integration checks
- Step 3: Joule / AI scenarios for IPD 2025 Roadmap
- Step 4: Joule test scenarios
“Note: Always refer to the SAP Help Page for SAP Integrated Product Development to refer to the most up to date information.
Step 1: Setup Plan
Section 1: Fresh Setup – no existing setup exists
If you already have some experience with SAP BTP (Business Technology Platform), we request that you follow the steps in this blog - Joule Setup – End-to-End Setup Guide (for all Line of Business) Unified Approach in this blog, and please check Section 2 to check your SAP BTP Account for Joule Entitlements.
If this is your first time using the SAP BTP platform and you're unsure how to proceed with the activation, don’t worry - we’ve got you covered. Just follow the steps below to activate Joule for SAP IPD easily.
- Create the Subaccount
- Set up Trust Configuration with SAP Cloud Identity Service
- Add Entitlements
- Run the Joule Booster and see Joule in Action
Step (1): Create the Subaccount
- Check this blog and follow step No. – 5 (refer to image below) and ensure you validate the Joule supported data centers.
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If you are looking at multiple LoB integrations with Joule in the future
- Check this blog and follow step No. – 4 (refer to image-5 below)
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Step (2): Set up Trust Configuration with SAP Cloud Identity Service
The complete setup process is documented in this blog. Step No. 7 explains the process. For simplification, we have the reference images below.
This setup is done at your new subaccount. Navigate to Security -> click on Trust Configuration -> click on Establish Trust and follow the images below.
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(Image-7)
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Step (3): Add Entitlements
The complete setup process is documented in this blog. Step No. 8 explains the process. For simplification, we have the reference images below.
(Image-9)
This completes the prerequisite setup at the SAP BTP Subaccount.
Step (4): Run the Joule Booster and see Joule in Action
The complete setup process is documented in this blog. Step No. 10 explains the process. For simplification, we have the simplified steps and images below.
- Click on Global Account -> Select Booster -> Search for Joule -> Run the Booster
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The system will validate the entitlements required. Once it’s green, you can click on Next
- Select the SAP BTP Subaccount and click on Next
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- Select Integrations, you will be able to see the options for SAP IPD, select it, and click on Next
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Once you select the IPD System, you can click on Next, review the selections, and click on Finish. The booster will take 5-9 minutes to activate Joule and set up the integrations with your IPD system.
Joule will now return the success message after the integrations are completed. You can validate this setup by navigating to Systems and Formation, searching for the Joule formation that will be created for your setup, as shown below.
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Now, we have completed the activation process. You can go to your IPD system and check for the Joule icon as shown below.
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Congratulations on successfully setting up the SAP IPD Standalone system!
Now, let’s walk through how to add SAP IPD to your existing subaccount alongside your other active Lines of Business (LoBs).
Step 1: Setup Plan
Section 2: You have an existing Joule subaccount, and you want to enable Joule for IPD. In this option, we will show you how to activate IPD in the context of an existing Joule formation. Within your SAP BTP Global Account, navigate to System Landscapes, click on Formations
Search for the Joule formation you have already set up. In my case, “I am using one of the existing formations, which has multiple SAP products connected to one Joule instance, as shown below”. You can click on Include Systems.
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In the new window, filter for SAP IPD and click on Next step.
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Select the option “Enable Capability Deployment” and “Enable the Joule Icon in Integrated System” and click on Review.
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Validate the selections and click on Include.
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The process may take 5 to 8 minutes to complete, and you should be able to see the synchronizing option, as shown in the image below.
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Once the status(synchronizing) turns green and Ready, we are good to use Joule with IPD capabilities.
Congratulations on successfully setting up SAP IPD with the Unified Approach!
Appendix:
What is Planned ahead
Keep an eye on some of the exciting AI scenarios that we have planned for the rest of the year.
2509 (Q3’25)
AI-assisted 2D hot spot creation
- Feature would be released as GA (2509). Tagging master data to a visual model in IPD is a manual cumbersome and time-consuming process. AI assisted hotspot creation will automatically tag the relevant business data to the 2D visual models, thereby improving efficiency and helping realize a true visual digital thread.
AI-assisted document summary
- Feature currently available as “Cloud Feature Beta”, will be released as Embedded AI (without Joule in Q3’25). Subsequently, we plan to embed Joule to this scenario.
- Scenario will allow users to summarize complex engineering documents and provide a concise summary by using the power of LLM. This will provide benefits by saving time in manual reviews and data interpretation.
AI-powered text generation for Innovation Management:
- Feature will be released as Embedded AI (without Joule in Q3’25). Subsequently, we plan to embed Joule to this scenario. This scenario will allow campaign managers and idea submitters to leverage AI-based generation of new ideas based on campaign details, thereby helping to sharpen the campaigns and generate ideas using tailored prompts thereby helping in faster flow of ideas and faster time to market for launching new products.
AI-powered text generation for Requirements Management:
- Feature will be released as Embedded AI (without Joule in Q3’25). Subsequently, we plan to embed Joule to this scenario. This scenario will allow requirements engineers to leverage power of LLM thereby helping to improve the clarity, structure, and consistency of requirement specifications. It provides real-time grammar and language suggestions tailored to engineering content. This ensures that requirements are easier to write, review, and understand across technical and non-technical teams
Features planned for 2512 (Q4’25)
AI-assisted Product Specification Search (GA 2512)
- LLM powered specification search will take inputs in the natural language form and provide contextual results using the customer database (that may contain 100000-500000 specifications on an average). The system recognizes the content and builds filters based on the query and is also useful for people who may not even be familiar with the property itself that they want to search for. The functionality will help save information retrieval time by finding specific details about a product by searching in natural language, rather than navigating through complex databases or documentation. Additionally, by enabling quick access to relevant information, developers can spend more time on actual product development and less time searching for data, leading to faster project timelines.
AI-assisted Product Recipe Search (GA 2512)
- Similar to Specification search, this use case would leverage the power of LLM and Joule to search for IPD Formulation customers searching for recipes in their database based on natural language prompts.
AI-based natural language processing (NLP) to search for documents
- Feature would be released as Cloud Feature Beta AI-driven NLP system for document searches, enabling users to quickly find information using natural language queries Interpretation and processing of user queries to provide relevant search results
Now, let’s explore the Joule test scenarios outlined below.
- 4. Joule test scenarios Link: https://help.sap.com/docs/JOULE/82a14f108cfa4d4788244d81371e072b/2ff600db0ce74e3e9dda6d8d0d81d761.ht...
In a similar approach, you may use Joule with a unified experience in other SAP products that you have integrated in the same subaccount.
If you have any questions about the setup, you can reach us at SAP_AI_RIG@sap.com
Thank you for staying connected with our blog and successfully activating Joule for SAP IPD!
We hope you’ve had an exciting experience exploring the power of Joule, your intelligent business companion. From insightful decisions to streamlined processes, we trust you’re already seeing the incredible value Joule brings to your day-to-day work.
Here are smarter, faster, and more impactful outcomes powered by Joule! 🚀
