What is SAP BTP? Understand BTP’s Role in a Clean Core Strategy
- Mar 13
- 3 min read
Businesses are continuing to reevaluate their strategies and tools for innovation amid an evolving digital landscape, reviewing and understanding a variety of features within the SAP ecosystem. One of these tools is the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) – built specifically to enhance business applications and processes and support efficient digital transformation.
Over 33,000 customers use SAP BTP – harnessing the potential that it brings to automation, analytics, and much more. One of the most crucial factors that is supported through the use of SAP BTP is the “Clean Core” strategy. Having a clean SAP core is of utmost importance, especially for businesses in the process of upgrading their ERP to S/4HANA.
In this article, explore what SAP BTP is as well as understand the foundational role it plays in ensuring a successful clean core approach.
What is SAP BTP?
SAP BTP is a unified technology platform for application development, data management, analytics, integration, automation, and AI. All of these are contained within one cloud platform, enabling businesses to:
Efficiently integrate applications and systems
Build smart applications with SAP Business Cloud
Develop actionable insights from data and analytics
Innovate with generative AI and automation for complex workflows
Implement the latest AI models securely
BTP is not simply just a tool – it is a “Meta-Module,” a platform that is foundational for integration, extension, and AI-driven automation that connects all SAP and non-SAP applications. It is essential for modernized SAP-enabled enterprises that hope to reach their full technological potential within the SAP landscape, allowing for unification, innovation, and customization without compromising the clean core of your ERP.
If you are looking for more information or would like to inquire about professional services within the SAP ecosystem, reach out to our team who are prepared to assist you. We have over two decades of expertise with SAP where we have focused on driving client growth through the power of enterprise technology solutions.
How SAP BTP Supports a Clean Core Approach
Having a clean core strategy is an important way to ensure that the central ERP system, primarily S/4HANA, remains as close to the standard as possible. This means avoiding custom code and modifications to the ERP system to keep it agile, experience easier upgrades, and keeping maintenance costs low.
BTP plays a crucial role in supporting a clean core strategy, as it is the required platform for side-by-side extensions using the Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP). It is a separate environment from the S/4HANA system, allowing for custom building, integrating, and operating applications without compromising the clean core. With BTP, enterprises can continue to innovate and develop tailored experiences that are not disrupting the backend system.
Additional clean core support includes:
Access to the SAP AI Core and DataSphere through extensions in order to accelerate innovation and automation in an undisruptive manner
Seamless communication and integration between on-premise and cloud-based systems using standard APIs through the SAP Integration Suite
SAP Clean Core Use Case
Large enterprises are adopting the use of SAP BTP for their clean core strategies, reducing customization to increase agility and enable innovation while keeping their ERP system clean. One of these companies is McDonald’s, which implemented BTP to address a disconnected HR landscape. The company began using SAP SuccessFactors as their global HR platform, introducing McDonald’s+me as an employee-facing portal, and deploying SAP BTP as the layer responsible for integration and extension for the entire ecosystem.
More than 100 SuccessFactors integrations and 16 Ariba integrations were built using SAP Integration Suite to enable connectivity and Advanced Event Mesh to enable publish-subscribe architecture. This reduced redundancy while improving scalability, highlighting the potential for increased ERP agility and secure extensibility through clean-core strategy. With BTP, different-sized enterprises can benefit from further innovation and growth within their core business operations.
SAP BTP is a foundational factor when it comes to customization and integration between SAP and non-SAP systems, helping companies to focus on innovation and efficiency without compromising S/4HANA’s clean core. It is a smart choice for SAP-enabled businesses looking to benefit from the latest in AI and automation, and implementing ground-breaking features that will drive enterprises to their fullest potential.
“The technology you use impresses no one. The experience you create with it is everything.”
– Sean Gerety, UX Manager, The Home Depot
Comments