Before purchasing and deploying Joule, organizations should consider a few key prerequisites. Joule builds on capabilities within the broader SAP cloud ecosystem and may require additional solutions or services to fully enable its functionality.
As part of the planning process, it is important to review the licenses and solutions already in place and identify whether any additional components are required. This helps ensure that the necessary foundation is available to successfully adopt Joule.
The Four Foundational Pillars
Before you can realize the full value of Joule, review the SAP solutions and licenses already available in your landscape and determine whether additional services may be required.
SAP Business Technology Platform serves as the brain that hosts Joule and manages orchestration across services. Joule is an SAP BTP-based application that relies on BTP services for its core operation. You must have an enterprise global account on SAP BTP, and if you already have a global account, Joule entitlements can be added to the same account.
SAP Build Work Zone, standard edition acts as the map that provides semantic navigation and content discovery. Joule uses SAP Build Work Zone for navigational scenarios, allowing it to resolve intent-based navigation targets and configure additional content providers. This integration enables Joule to understand the applications and business content available to each user.
SAP Cloud Identity Services functions as the security guard that establishes trust and identity synchronization. This includes both Identity Authentication and Identity Provisioning services. Joule leverages your SAP product’s Identity Authentication setup for user login and uses Identity Provisioning to handle user assignment and access control.
A license for an SAP product that supports Joule integration that provides the data engine delivering business context and live data access. Your SAP product license must be provisioned in one of the supported data centers. Supported products include SAP SuccessFactors, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, SAP Start, and other SAP applications.
These four pillars create a chain of trust that follows users across the landscape, ensuring Joule maintains current context and enterprise-grade security throughout every interaction.
Review the Prerequisites in the Joule Onboarding Guide on the SAP Help Portal.
Licensing and Entitlement Requirements
Before onboarding Joule, you must verify that specific entitlements exist in your SAP BTP global account.
For the Joule application itself, you need the foundation plan with one required quota. The technical name for this entitlement is "das-application."
For SAP Build Work Zone, standard edition, you need either the foundation or standard plan with one required quota. All SAP BTP global accounts already include entitlements for the foundation plan of SAP Build Work Zone. If you already have a license for the standard plan, you can continue using it for Joule, but you must choose the same plan for both the application and service.
You also need entitlements for Cloud Identity Services, specifically Identity Authentication and Identity Provisioning. These services are essential for user login and access control.
A critical planning consideration is that one Joule subscription can integrate with only one tenant of an SAP product. This means you need to plan your sub-account structure accordingly if you have multiple SAP product tenants.
Identify and Trust Configuration Requirements
Joule requires a modern login system that supports single sign-on with SAP applications. This setup relies on a unified identity system for consistent user recognition across both platforms. A background service keeps user access and permissions updated, ensuring appropriate app and information access. Only specific trusted website addresses are permitted in the identity system to maintain secure and uninterrupted connections.
Additional Technical Considerations
Your SAP product license must be in a supported data center that aligns with Joule’s data center mapping. Physical distance between data centers has minimal impact on user experience, but the alignment is required for proper integration.
The subscription of Joule must be created in the same sub-account where the subscription and service instance of SAP Build Work Zone exist. Destinations for SAP Build Work Zone integration must also be in the same sub-account as Joule.
Joule has specific operational constraints to be aware of. Currently, Joule supports English conversations only. Custom domains are not supported for the Joule interface. There is a rate limit of 3,000 requests per minute per user.
Summary
- Joule requires four integrated pillars: SAP BTP, SAP Build Work Zone, Cloud Identity Services, and supported SAP business applications
- Verify entitlements for Joule foundation plan and SAP Build Work Zone in your BTP global account before proceeding
- OpenID Connect trust configuration is required; SAML is not supported
- Identity Authentication domains must match between your SAP product and BTP sub-account
- One Joule subscription integrates with only one SAP product tenant
- Joule and SAP Build Work Zone must reside in the same sub-account