Three teams from SAP’s New Ventures and Technologies group – SAP Ruum, SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation, and the Spotlight by SAP solution – have recently achieved the ultimate success and graduated into the larger SAP product portfolio.
“Within New Ventures and Technologies, we strive to build products that scale in commercial impact and move closer to the SAP core. Our teams in business process automation have achieved this,” Graham Ratcliffe, general manager of SAP.iO Venture Studio and interim head of New Ventures and Technologies, says. “Their graduation means that we are developing the right solutions and are ensuring that SAP and our customers are ready for the future of the Intelligent Enterprise.”
SAP Ruum and SAP Intelligent RPA Move to SAP Cloud Platform
SAP Ruum is a perfect example. Launched in 2016 by SAP employees Stefan Ritter and Florian Frey as part of SAP.iO Venture Studio, SAP Ruum was originally conceived as an all-in-one collaboration tool. However, the SAP Ruum team discovered that they had the opportunity to change the product to better match the needs of users and, ultimately, improve the way they work.
“We envisioned SAP Ruum becoming an accessible platform where anyone could build processes quickly and in an automated way without requiring coding skills,” says Frey, general manager of SAP Ruum. The SAP Ruum team therefore pivoted their solution so that they could bring their vision of no-code process building into every line of business, launching a new beta program last August.
“We can now enable more people than ever before to build digital solutions that give impact – and they can do it without depending on resources from IT,” adds Frey.
SAP Ruum isn’t the only former New Ventures and Technologies team with a focus on process automation; SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation (RPA) has also joined SAP Business Technology Platform to further drive the Intelligent Enterprise.
By integrating machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) with process automation, SAP Intelligent RPA uses bots for repetitive work to avoid human error and accelerate tasks. “RPA bots can quickly access all of your data – including data stored in Excel spreadsheets or in legacy apps – to seamlessly feed business processes and core systems,” says Sebastian Schroetel, head of the SAP Intelligent RPA team. “For instance, an RPA bot can open an Excel file received by an accountant via e-mail and parse the rows of the spreadsheet to quickly enter the data into SAP S/4HANA, without any possible error.”
The focus on low-code/no-code process development and automation made the SAP Ruum and SAP Intelligent RPA teams a great match for SAP Cloud Platform, where applications can be connected and built to match a specific user’s business needs.
“We’re excited to welcome the SAP Ruum and SAP Intelligent RPA teams into SAP Cloud Platform,” says Bhagat Nainani, senior vice president of Product Development for SAP Cloud Platform. “Their work in business process automation has been outstanding, and we know that they will continue to make a big impact as more of our customers evolve to the Intelligent Enterprise.”
The Spotlight Solution Gets Its Spotlight
While SAP Ruum and SAP Intelligent RPA focus on automating processes and data, the Spotlight by SAP solution focuses on bringing transparency into the efficiency of business processes. The Spotlight solution was originally founded in 2018 by SAP employees Andre Wenz and Gregor Berg, who first set out to build a tool that used data in SAP systems to understand what it takes to run a business process on an SAP solution.
Today, the Spotlight solution specializes in identifying and highlighting processes and activities where significant manual effort is required and could be automated instead. Automation through the Spotlight solution is the simplest first step for companies looking to digitally transform into an intelligent enterprise, Berg says.
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The Spotlight by SAP solution will now become a core element of the newly formed Business Process Intelligence unit, one of the four growth areas of the new SAP strategy – the other three are industry cloud, business networks, and sustainability. The Business Process Intelligence unit will help customers to understand and analyze their business processes, gain insights into issues and improvement potential, and allow the business user to trigger, or even execute, the appropriate action.
“SAP is evolving its vision of the Intelligent Enterprise and enhancing it with a focus on experience management and AI-driven innovation,” Rouven Morato, general manager of the Business Process Intelligence unit, says. “The unit is an integral part to this vision because it enables us to act as our customers’ partner and support them in reinventing their business processes to become intelligent enterprises.”
Proof Point for New Ventures and Technologies
While this is a new path for New Ventures and Technologies’ inaugural graduating class, the evolution of the three SAP employee-led teams is an illustration of the goals and mission set forth by the organization: to future-proof SAP and its customers and bring them into the Intelligent Enterprise.
“We aren’t just building innovative solutions that are missing within the existing SAP portfolio,” Ratcliffe says. “It’s our job to keep our eyes on the future.”