SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) offers various functionalities for the technical implementation of business-relevant requirements, such as the extensibility of business processes, end-to-end process integration, and the processing and analysis of different data.
In addition to extensibility, you can also create your own applications and use them to implement new business processes. This functionality extends the platform’s application areas to the implementation of new competencies in the company. An example of this is the development of additional services for an existing product portfolio with SAP BTP to expand the existing business model with digital offerings. As markets and industry conditions change, new requirements arise that necessitate such enhancements or additions to company-specific processes. Companies can meet these requirements by enhancing standard SAP business processes or by developing complete, domain-specific applications to complement standard functionality.
In general, it’s possible to implement company-specific requirements for business processes provided by standard SAP solutions such as SAP S/4HANA by modifying the standard solution. In contrast to enhancements, modifications are changes to the source code or metadata of the standard SAP solution. Modifications have an impact on the lifecycle of the application and entail additional effort when installing updates and a new version. However, modifications can’t be made if the standard SAP solution is deployed in the public cloud. The extension of business processes is possible with SAP BTP without destabilizing or modifying standard SAP processes. The extensions developed on the platform are additions to the scope of standard SAP solutions with a stable lifecycle.
Decoupling standard SAP solutions from company-specific enhancements is a prerequisite for enabling rapid innovation cycles without allowing for side effects on the use of the latest version of the standard solution. In addition, the decoupling of the enhancements from the standard functionality of the SAP solution is a technical prerequisite for the cloud deployment model because fast innovation cycles are the goal here, and there must be no dependencies between the enhancement and the standard solution.
The specialist departments requirements for extensions to the standard processes can be divided into different categories:
Customizing the UI of a business process usually serves to improve the UX. For example, a department may express the need to change the input template for data entry within a business process. The optimization of processes for mobile devices is also common. In some use cases, it’s necessary to make data available offline and synchronize it when reconnected, for example, for service employees who are outside a wireless network.
Requirements for adapting a standard process can also concern the process logic. This may require implementing new user interactions, checking additional conditions in the process flow, or introducing automatic validations of data or conditions. One example is the extension of the standard process for creating and changing company data with an option that allows companies to confirm changed data. Here, the changed data can be checked by an internally developed SAP BTP application and written back to the SAP S/4HANA system by the specialist department.
Furthermore, entirely new business processes can be requested by specialist departments, which then have to be implemented. One example is printing shipping labels in a company’s logistics department. When goods are picked at the storage location and packed for shipping, such an application based on SAP BTP can retrieve the corresponding delivery information from the SAP S/4HANA system.
In addition, requirements from the business department can lead to a data model extension used to implement advanced analyses that control the process flow. An extension of the data model is often accompanied by an extension of the process logic to control process flows automatically with the help of additional data.
When customizing a business process, it’s often unclear where the line is between an enhancement and creating a new application. At what point a process extension becomes an application depends on how complex it is and how much the UI, process logic, and data management need to be changed. In contrast to the extension of an existing process, a new application aims at implementing additional functionality through new processes. A new application usually affects all three levels: the UI, logic, and data management. If the UI of the new application follows the concept of UIs of an existing process, it can be seamlessly integrated into the existing business process.
SAP BTP is the underlying technology for the implementation of intelligent processes and is responsible for both the integration of the corresponding subprocesses executed by different IT applications and the integration of the associated data from SAP, partners, and third-party providers. The platform enables end-to-end integration of business processes across different companies and organizations as well as departments within a company. To efficiently integrate SAP applications to implement end-to-end business processes, SAP BTP provides predefined iFlows in SAP Integration Suite. Transformations and mappings based on the data exchanged between processes are required for the integration of process data. SAP Business Accelerator Hub serves as a central catalog that provides access to all available iFlows and preconfigured content that can be used via SAP BTP. The integration of processes and their IT applications is technically achieved by exchanging messages in real time with the predefined iFlow containing a processing logic of the exchanged messages.
With the SAP BTP free tier, SAP offers a free trial version of SAP BTP. You can start trying out SAP BTP for free here. More information about the free service plans can also be found here.
SAP increasingly positions SAP BTP as part of an integrated transformation toolchain. Together with SAP Signavio, SAP LeanIX, SAP Cloud ALM, and WalkMe, SAP BTP supports the full transformation lifecycle—from analysis and design through implementation, operation, and user adoption.
In summary, the task of SAP BTP is to fulfill the technical requirements necessary for the implementation of intelligent enterprise modules. For this purpose, the platform provides scalable services in the application areas of enhancement, integration, and value creation from data. The services are used to functionally extend and optimize existing business processes, to integrate them consistently into complete end-to-end processes, and to use the data in optimizing the processes. Complete IT applications for specialist departments are also provided via the platform or can be developed independently to implement new business processes and incorporate them as an additional competence within the company.
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Editor’s note: This post has been adapted from a section of the book Migrating to SAP S/4HANA: Operating Models, Migration Scenarios, Tools, and Implementation by Frank Densborn, Frank Finkbohner, Martina Höft, Petra Klöß, Kim Mathäß, and Boris Rubarth. Frank Densborn has been an expert in data migration at SAP since 2004 and is the author of numerous SAP PRESS titles in German and English. Frank Finkbohner worked for SAP since 1999, including 13 years in SAP consulting, where he supported customers in numerous projects, including data migration and the development and extension of ABAP applications. Martina works in product management for SAP S/4HANA in the area of data migration and data transformation with a focus on the SAP S/4HANA migration cockpit. Dr. Klöß is a senior director in SAP Central Business Configuration, managing customer success for SAP Central Business Configuration for the Americas and greater China. Kim has worked at SAP since 2006 and is currently senior development manager in SAP S/4HANA Globalization. Dr. Rubarth worked at SAP from 1999 until the end of 2024, most recently as product manager in the Software Logistics division.