In this month's SUGEN meeting we have had conversations with global executives of SAP and raised with them key strategic questions coming from our members. We will be releasing a series of updates from the executives, beginning with SAP's Integration Strategy.
Latest Developments and Current Topics Around Integration
In February 2020, SAP’s Integration Plan in the Cloud was published that outlines SAP’s integration strategy and related roadmaps for the Intelligent Enterprise along following End-to-End business processes: Recruit to Retire, Lead to Cash, Design to Operate, and Source to Pay. End-to-End business processes span across SAP’s Intelligent Suite, partner and third-party solutions. SAP introduced distinct Suite Qualities that facilitate a deep business process integration: seamless user experience, one workflow inbox, End-to-End process blueprints, aligned domain models, consistent security & identity management, coordinated lifecycle management and embedded & cross-product analytics. SAP has published an updated version of this document including latest roadmap status and timelines in July. More information on the progress of SAP’s integration roadmap can be found in the following blogs, also including information on the support of hybrid integration scenarios for the Intelligent Enterprise:
Integration Makes All the Difference: An Update to Our Integration Roadmap in the CloudProgress Report and Updates to SAP’s Integration Roadmap in the CloudHow SAP Supports Hybrid Integration Scenarios for the Intelligent Enterprise
Answers to Strategic Questions
Question 1: Integration between SAP products is always a challenge. What is the progress here? + Can SAP be more specific about plans and real deployment of solutions to solve the integration challenges rather than the broad statements we hear?
Please find below selected examples and links to further information that outline the progress along SAP’s Integration Plan in the Cloud:
End-to-end process blueprints for Lead to Cash, Source to Pay and Recruit to Retire have been published in SAP API Business Hub. Further Information.Aligned domain models for ‘Cost Center’ and ‘Workforce Person’ have been shipped including the integration of SAP SuccessFactors and SAP S/4HANA via SAP Cloud Platform Master Data Integration. Further Information.Delivered unified user experience for Lead to Cash, Source to Pay and Design to Operate processes leveraging the SAP Fiori Design Guidelines.Guided setup of integration scenarios with SAP Cloud Integration Automation Service. Further Information.SAP Cloud Platform Integration Suite is complemented by a rich set of 1,800+ pre-built integrations, available on the SAP API Business Hub, both for cloud-to-cloud as well as for hybrid integration scenarios.Publication of SAP S/4HANA APIs and Business Events on the SAP API Business Hub. Further Information.SAP Cloud Platform Integration Suite named as a leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service (EiPaaS). Further information.SAP named as leader in 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools. Further Information.For detailed information on the update of SAP’s Integration Plan in the Cloud, please feel free to check out this on-demand webinar for SAP User Groups:
Question 2: What is the current timetable for improving integration between SAP products (see 1.)?
The paper SAP’s Integration Plan in the Cloud includes the status and planned roadmaps for the outlined suite qualities and End-to-End processes. More detailed information can be found in the SAP Roadmap Explorer. Please note that the mentioned Suite Qualities will evolve over time (e.g. new Suite Qualities) and the work on integration of the Business Technology Platform will continue.
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Question 3: Do you have any concrete best practices/customer stories for fully integrated end-to-end solutions?
SAP has published End-to-End (E2E) process blueprints for Lead to Cash, Source to Pay and Recruit to Retire in SAP API Business Hub. They provide a reference architecture for business processes of the Intelligent Suite and can be used as best practices for the following customer uses cases:
Get a consistent overview on E2E processes supported by the Intelligent Suite based on a standardized methodologyExplore how E2E scenarios decompose into applications, modules, business services, technologies and integrationsMap out the roadmap to adopt the solution and transition from current solution landscape to targetIn addition, the SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology helps customers to shape their enterprise integration strategy based on a proven set of integration patterns. This helps customers to define their hybrid integration platform and related best practices. In addition, SAP plans to publish an update on its integration guides: an integration architecture guide for enterprise and integration architects as well as a management abstract (e.g. for CIOs).
