Juergen Mueller, chief technology officer and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, kicked off SAP TechEd in 2021 with a hard-hitting strategic view of the major challenges business face and how leaders and developers are partnering with SAP to reinvent the global economy.
As companies and consumers struggle with the pandemic’s ongoing health and economic crises, supply chain disruptions remain the norm, and accelerated digital transformation demands cloud-based innovation. These challenges are taking place against the backdrop of increasing climate change and calls for equality.
Mueller discussed how we can reinvent the global economy to meet climate change targets, rethinking how we deliver and consume products and services, how we manage waste, and how we use technology. Pointing out that inequality was causing social unrest worldwide, Mueller said that organizations needed to help everyone develop the right skills, which would open opportunities for people to work where they fit best.
After going big with his global change vision, Mueller and his special guests went deep into SAP’s commitment to supporting its ecosystem of cloud-based innovators, spotlighting the latest solution announcements, real-world customer examples, demonstrations of new developer tools, and free access to learning resources.
SAP Helps Developers Innovate at Scale in the Cloud
Mueller explained how RISE with SAP provides customers with a transition path to the cloud, while SAP continues to offer developers low-code/no-code and other tools to extend innovation on SAP S/4HANA Cloud built on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). In a preview of his developer keynote, SAP developer advocate Rich Heilman shared how the just-announced SAP S/4HANA Cloud, ABAP environment, equipped developers to build custom ABAP extensions for the public cloud offering SAP S/4HANA Cloud.
Mueller said the objective was to make the ABAP environment for SAP S/4HANA Cloud the environment to build tightly coupled extensions for all cloud editions of SAP S/4HANA based on the public cloud APIs. This will help developers build upgrade-safe extensions and move toward a clean core. Equally important, it closes the last extension gap in SAP S/4HANA Cloud to ease the transition from on premise to the cloud.
Making It Easy to Innovate on SAP BTP
As an example of how SAP continues responding to ecosystem innovation imperatives, Mueller announced the roll-out of the free tier model for SAP BTP to individual developers, including SAP Integration Suite and SAP HANA Cloud. He was joined by Steffen Pietsch, head of Product Management for SAP BTP, who shared how developers can find available SAP BTP services, as well as use case examples to help build proofs of concept, on SAP Discovery Center.
Pietsch explained how a free tier makes it much easier to gain experience and start to innovate with SAP BTP. Developers can now build their proofs of concept on SAP BTP without any commitment; if they decide to move their applications toward productive usage, they can do so by changing from the free to the productive service plan without rebuilding the entire application in a different account.
Low-Code/No-Code Speeds Up Development on SAP BTP
Acknowledging the tech talent gap and the growing importance of citizen developers, Mueller said that SAP has doubled down on investments in low-code/no-code tools, announcing the launch of a unified low-code/no-code development experience on SAP BTP. He said that SAP was introducing SAP AppGyver for no-code development, and making the SAP Business Application Studio available for low-code development. He also previewed SAP Process Automation, a no-code automation solution, showing the audience how non-technical business people, along with designers and experienced developers, can extend SAP Service Cloud with machine learning to quickly resolve customer service issues and speed up order approvals.
Mueller said that low-code/no-code means both citizen and professional developers can increase productivity and innovate at scale, reflecting how business and IT work together. He saw this unlocking a new order of magnitude of value creation for individuals and society at-large.
Gain SAP-Specific Knowledge Free of Charge
Reinforcing SAP’s commitment to developer learning, Mueller outlined the company’s newly-launched learning experience, SAP Learning now available for free. The centerpiece consisted of seven SAP BTP-specific learning journeys, with more to come.
He said that the new learner experience was designed for all developer skill levels, including pro-code developers, IT professionals, academic students, and technology thought leaders. Noting that becoming a trusted SAP expert with certified skills has never been easier, Mueller saw all “makers” learning comprehensive skills by taking free-of-charge learning journeys to qualify for SAP certifications.
SAP BTP: Foundation of the Intelligent Enterprise
Mueller capped his keynote off with an example from Porsche, which uses SAP Business Warehouse on SAP HANA and SAP Analytics Cloud for accurate finance and investment planning across approximately 70 subsidiaries worldwide. Mueller held up Porsche as an example of the many companies worldwide using SAP solutions to simplify business processes and reporting with connected data. He announced the new SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, SAP BW bridge, allowing organizations to innovate faster by moving data from their existing SAP BW application to the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud solution.
Mueller concluded with a heartfelt message to developers that as demand for SAP grows, the company’s ecosystem is an exciting place to be, nothing less than a true movement. Emphasizing that SAP BTP is the foundation of the intelligent enterprise, he encouraged developers to join in, using SAP’s tools for their success in supporting their companies and customers throughout their digital transformation journey.
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