10+ ways to reshape your SAP landscape with SAP Business Technology Platform - Blog 3

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How Clean Core can accelerate your SAP Business Transformation

This blog is part of the “10+ ways to reshape your SAP landscape with SAP Business Technology Platform Blog Series”

Summary:
The SAP Clean Core strategy offers a straightforward way to simplify and improve the flexibility of managing SAP systems. It revolves around five key areas: Extensibility, Integrations, Data, Business Processes, and Operations. This approach lays out a clear plan for creating and keeping an IT environment that's quick to adapt and conducive to innovation. By adopting the Clean Core strategy's rules and recommendations, companies can make the most of new technologies from SAP and its partners, helping them thrive in the ever-changing business world.

In their book "Software Engineering at Google," authors Wright, Manshreck, and Winters share the idea that code should be regarded as a liability rather than an asset. They're getting at the fact that keeping code up and running isn't free—it needs constant care for maintenance, updates, and keeping it secure. As such, an abundance of complex code can significantly amplify operational costs due to the necessity for extensive maintenance.

The aspect of treating code as a liability can also be applied to your SAP landscape. Extending SAP systems is a common practice for many organizations. If it is not done in a reliable and responsible way, the systems end up in a complex state possibly carrying a lot of technical debt from the previous years. Such a state of high entropy is undesired, as it not only leaves the IT-landscape but also the complete organization in an inflexible state.

In the context of the current dynamic market landscape, it is imperative for organizations to possess the capability to swiftly adapt to evolving customer expectations, market dynamics, and industry trends. Given the pivotal role SAP systems play in implementing numerous business processes, this requires an agile approach to SAP system management, including the assimilation of recent SAP product advancements and promptly integrating the latest software releases. 

The SAP Clean Core strategy is instrumental in realizing this vision. By advocating for a streamlined IT landscape centered around SAP S/4HANA as the digital core and augmenting it with cloud solutions tailored for specific business functions, organizations can diminish complexity, enhance adaptability, and effectively leverage the latest technological advancements from SAP and its partners. This strategic approach ensures a robust, agile, and innovation-friendly IT ecosystem conductive to sustained organisational success.

The 5 Dimensions of a Clean Core strategy

The SAP Clean Core approach is based on five technical and procedural components that work together to build and maintain an adaptable SAP landscape.

1. Extensibility

SAP systems are crucial for the smooth operation of many companies, offering a wide range of software solutions to handle key business tasks. Despite the extensive functionality offered by SAP, businesses may find that the standard offerings don't fully meet their specific needs. Extending an SAP system is often required to adapt to the unique processes, requirements, and challenges of a business. The Clean Core strategy suggests such extensions should:

• be upgrade-stable following a prescribed extensibility model, as outlined in the SAP S/4HANA Extensibility Guide, using Key-User and On-Stack extensibility on SAP S/4HANA and Side-by-Side approaches on SAP Business Technology Platform.
• use released APIs and events as defined in the SAP Business Accelerator Hub.
• be actively used and have detailed documentation.
• follow high standards for coding quality and best practices, which could include mandatory approvals for classic extensions, for example.
• not repeat something that SAP or its partners already offer.

By meeting these guidelines, you reduce the risk that custom extensions disrupt updates to SAP's standard offerings.

Implementing decoupled extensions on the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) provides extra flexibility by offering an independently scalable environment. This setup supports project implementations that have their own software development lifecycle and technology stack. Moreover, development frameworks like the SAP Cloud Application Framework (CAP, for Java and JavaScript) and RESTful ABAP Programming Model (for SAP BTP ABAP environment), enhanced with GenAI-based code assistance (currently available for CAP, planned for SAP BTP ABAP environment), boost developer productivity and facilitate quick implementation cycles. To get started with creating side-by-side extensions using SAP BTP, the SAP BTP Guidance Framework is an excellent resource.

2. Integration

For smooth end-to-end business process execution, integrating various IT solution components is a technical necessity. Using a Clean Core approach, these integrations use the standard integration scenarios that SAP provides. These scenarios are designed to map comprehensive business processes using pre-configured best practice content, leveraging modern integration technologies like OData, SOAP, or events. Opting for SAP's standard integrations brings several benefits to an organization: 

• straightforward, out-of-the-box use of the integration, along with continuous updates and innovations.
• simplified system upgrades within the integrated landscape, as standard integrations ensure compatibility and maintain consistency across systems.
• reduced Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) for managing integrations.

Adopting a Clean Core strategy means organizations should base their custom integration needs on SAP's standard integration scenarios and APIs. Whether it's using SAP's standard integrations or creating custom integrations, the SAP Integration Suite Service on the SAP Business Technology Platform is the recommended tool. You can find documentation for all standard content for the SAP BTP Integration Suite in the SAP Business Accelerator Hub. If organizations need help crafting a corporate integration strategy, the SAP Integration Solution Advisory Method (ISA-M) is there to assist.

3. Data

In today's digital world, data stands as a crucial asset for companies, driving decision-making, strategic planning, and enhancing operational effectiveness. The value of data hinges on its quality, relevance, and semantic description in form of metadata. Here, the Clean Core strategy becomes vital, emphasizing Data Quality and Data Volume/ Data Relevance, which are key to smooth daily operations within the SAP system landscape. The aim of the Clean Core strategy is to ensure that all business and system-related data is consistently accurate, complete, relevant, and accessible. Tools like SAP Master Data Governance can aid in creating a unified master data management approach across various domains to enhance data accuracy. Additionally, SAP Datasphere plays a role in simplifying the data landscape, facilitating access to data across hybrid and cloud environments and utilizing existing SAP BW models. SAP Datasphere keeps the semantic and associations of SAP data intact, which shows the data in its business context. This is important because it makes sure the data is reliable and precise, which helps with making decisions and planning strategies. Integrated with SAP Analytics Cloud, this approach enables informed business decisions based on operational SAP data.

4. Business Processes

Organizations depend on structured business processes for their daily operations, management, and strategic planning. These processes can intersect with various IT systems and sometimes require manual intervention. Streamlining these processes and boosting automation can help organizations reduce unnecessary steps and save resources, leading to improved efficiency and quality. The Clean Core approach focuses on maximizing the use of standard SAP functionalities to maintain consistency and simplicity. It sets out a number of principles for developing clean and effective process designs, such as:

• Utilize SAP's standard solutions, Industry Cloud, and certified SAP Partner solutions to align closely with established standards.
• Extend SAP's standard solutions for unique, differentiating processes to gain a competitive edge, using tools like SAP Build Process Automation or SAP BTP side-by-side extensibility projects
• Continuously evaluate the efficiency of business processes through Process Performance Indicators (PPIs), with tools like SAP Signavio for enhanced analysis which integrates with SAP Build Process Automation.
• Automate manual process tasks and improve paper- or email-based, loosely organized processes using SAP Build Process Automation.

In addition to these principles, adopting an Enterprise Architecture (EA) methodology is crucial for ensuring business processes align with an organization's goals and strategy. EA methodologies provide a systematic way to analyze and design business processes and their technology interactions, leading to improved operational efficiency by pinpointing and eliminating redundancies and better allocating resources. Tools such as SAP LeanIX and SAP Reference Business Architecture content, including Solution Value Flow Diagrams and Solution Component Diagrams available in the SAP Business Accelerator Hub, are instrumental in this endeavor, offering valuable guidance for streamlined process design and implementation.

5. Operations

In the context of Clean Core dimensions, operational management can be categorized into two primary objectives: "cleaning the core" and "maintaining the core’s cleanliness." When dealing with a brownfield implementation, "cleaning the core" entails a thorough review of custom code to decide whether it should be phased out, reworked, or updated. This initiative also includes revamping development guidelines and embracing industry-standard practices. Meanwhile, "maintaining the core’s cleanliness" in the aftermath of a successful migration, or when initiating a greenfield project, calls for embedding monitoring and alert systems into the daily operations framework to safeguard the integrity of the core. To accomplish this, a detailed understanding of all the critical performance indicators (KPIs) that influence the Clean Core is necessary, focusing on four key areas: Integration, Extensibility, Processes, and Data. For effective operational management, SAP Cloud ALM serves as an ideal platform. It offers integrated monitoring and alerting capabilities, aligning with SAP’s recommended best practices for operations management.

Summary

SAP Clean Core Strategy is not a one-size-fits-all solution, but a tailored approach that depends on your specific business needs, challenges, and opportunities. The exact path to a Clean Core will vary depending on whether you're starting fresh (Greenfield) or upgrading existing systems (Brownfield), as well as whether you're aiming for a Private Cloud, Public Cloud, or a hybrid setup. However, there are some shared steps to consider for a smooth implementation: 

1. Evaluate your current IT environment to pinpoint challenges and deficiencies: It's essential to gain a clear understanding of your existing IT framework, encompassing systems, processes, data, and integration points. Recognize the issues and deficiencies that are obstacles to your business's transformation, such as complexity, inefficiency, inconsistency, fragmentation, and outdated technology.
2. Set out your business transformation goals and determine what takes precedence: Clarify your vision for business transformation, including the objectives and desired outcomes, which should reflect your overall business strategy and customer expectations. Determine which initiatives should be tackled first, considering their potential business impact and urgency, and make sure your stakeholders and sponsors agree with your transformation plan.
3. Craft your desired IT architecture and plan, focusing on SAP S/4HANA and cloud-based solutions: Design a future IT architecture with SAP S/4HANA as the digital core, supplemented by cloud solutions for specific business functionalities. Develop a roadmap that transitions from your current to your desired IT architecture, detailing the project's scope, schedule, and required resources. For this, the SAP Enterprise Support Value Maps can help.
4. Carry out your transformation project with support from SAP and its partners, utilizing the best practices and methodologies they provide. Manage the change and associated risks carefully, ensuring the quality and security of your IT solutions throughout the process.
5. Keep track of your transformation's results and benefits: Monitor the outcomes and benefits of your transformation, using the key performance indicators and metrics established in your objectives. Continuously review and refine your IT solutions based on feedback and the insights gained, striving for ongoing enhancement of business efficiency and customer satisfaction.

Previous Blogs:

• Blog 1: The Central Role of Clean Core and AI
• Blog 2: The Role of BTP as Extention and Innovation Platform

Additional Videos:

• Unleash your Digital Transformation with Clean Core : https://youtu.be/i7Ms4WciM9Y
• Clean Core in Detail: https://youtu.be/JaSQbFypIkQ