Cleaner than a Spacestation Surgeon’s Scrubs – Why Clean Cores Matter So Much

[PTownsend]

Marco Pierre White, restaurateur and youngest ever chef to earn three Michelin stars, once said: “Cooking is a philosophy; it’s not a recipe.” The same can be said for RISE with SAP. Simply being part of the journey is no guarantee of success on its own – customers will only truly benefit if they start by ensuring they have a clean core right at the heart of their business. Thankfully, SAP Cloud ALM is on hand to help achieve this.

Keeping it Lean & Clean

The clean core concept is a modern approach to designing business processes and extensions in a stable, upgrade-safe, and transparent way. Perhaps best described as a mindset and philosophy (there’s that word again), it’s supported by governance and policies that lay the foundation for a flexible, future-ready Cloud ERP.

When we talk about having a clean core, we’re essentially referring to the 5 dimensions or principles of the core shown in the graphic above. Let’s take a closer look at each of them.

Keep processes flexible: Customers need to make sure they design and implement their business processes in a flexible manner that allows for adaptation and customization – flexible in a way that accommodates their changing business needs, regulations, or industry requirements.

Keep extensions clean: To minimize complexity and any potential conflicts with future updates or upgrades, customers must ensure that any custom extensions or modifications made to their ERP system are implemented in a cloud-compliant manner.

Keep data lean: To be able to get rid of as much unnecessary data as possible, customers need to implement sound strategies such as archiving or purging outdated or redundant information in order to promote data integrity, performance, and efficiency.

Keep the landscape reliable: Landscapes are often complex, substantial and challenging. Customers need to maintain a reliable and robust integration framework within their ERP system, making sure seamless communication and data exchange takes place between their different systems or modules to help minimize errors and disruptions.

Keep operations effective and efficient: Customers must also focus on effective and efficient IT operations, including system monitoring, maintenance, and support, to ensure smooth and reliable performance of their ERP system, maximizing productivity and minimizing downtime in the process.

SAP Cloud ALM for the Cleanest of Cores

Using SAP Cloud ALM as part of the overall system strategy is a vital piece of the puzzle towards achieving the cleanest of cores. It gives customers an environment in which they can manage their clean core projects along SAP Activate and the 5 dimensions mentioned above, while simultaneously providing them with analytics and traceability dashboards to track adherence to clean core criteria.

At the same time, customers get actual guidance rather than a truckload of options that may only confuse their judgment, giving them a unique opportunity to re-assess their ALM processes. By standardizing and streamlining their ALM processes, businesses can then shed unnecessary customization, leaving sufficient time and scope to leverage innovations instead – not just as a one-off event, rather month after month, year after year.

The RISE with SAP Methodology Dashboard, a critical and essential tool that helps to address the evolving needs of SAP customers, has moved from SAP for Me and now resides within SAP Cloud ALM itself. Customers now have a comprehensive system overview at their fingertips, as well as the robust SAP Cloud ALM environment enabling them to make daily deliveries and deployments of new functionalities.

When coupled with other services such as the recently launched Transformation Preparation Service for SAP Business Suite (included as an embedded services offering for all eligible and relevant customers within the RISE with SAP journey), time-to-value is improved and accelerated: presales visions are transformed into tailored transformation roadmaps that support and guide customers throughout their transformational journey better than ever before.  

Minimize Customization, Maximize Standardization

The main 3 challenges for any customer about to embark on their transformation are how best to deal with custom code, custom processes, and custom integrations. We can help customers navigate these jungles by using SAP Readiness Check, quality gates, and other features and APIs offered by SAP Cloud ALM.

For instance, SAP Readiness Check helps customers analyze and evaluate the impact of their custom code, allowing them to set up follow-up actions and discover best practices for migrating their custom code to clean core-compliant environments, ensuring smooth and efficient system performance.

Secondly, instead of creating a multitude of custom processes, focusing on standardized content and thoughtful process design can help customers consume tasks from SAP Activate and Best Practice content, ensuring consistency and enhancing efficiency. The RISE with SAP Methodology Dashboard gives clarity on any system deviations from SAP recommendations, ensuring they can address gaps and fully align with best practices, all the while tracking their clean core progress through quality gates and other useful features.

Finally, by unlocking the power of standard APIs (including OData and SOAP) and using the APIs and events available on SAP Business Accelerator Hub, customers can learn how to master the art of creating loosely coupled integrations. By leveraging the built-in integration available in SAP Cloud ALM and using expert insights gained through Integration Monitoring, they can keep things running smoothly as they move towards achieving a true clean core.

Hear more about the clean core, RISE with SAP and other SAP Cloud ALM benefits at the SAP ALM Summit EMEA 2025 in Darmstadt, Germany (Oct 21-23). Sign up today to join us and other top industry experts! Feel free to share this within your community network and, as always, thanks for reading!