SAP brings unique expertise in mission-critical, end-to-end processes and semantically rich data. Databricks brings world-class AI/ML, data science and data engineering capabilities. The joint proposition, in SAP's words: combining SAP's end-to-end processes and semantically rich data with Databricks' data engineering capabilities to create a foundation that helps organizations do more with their data.
The partnership is realized in two complementary ways:
- SAP Databricks as an embedded component of SAP Business Data Cloud: SAP Databricks is a data intelligence platform integrated within SAP Business Data Cloud. It is a fully embedded OEM component of Databricks that provides data engineering and AI/ML capabilities directly inside SAP Business Data Cloud, without requiring an external machine learning platform.
- BDC Connect for enterprise (customer-owned) Databricks: SAP Business Data Cloud offers BDC Connect for Enterprise Databricks for customers who already run an enterprise Databricks platform. This option safeguards the existing Databricks investment and enables integration of the customer's own Databricks with SAP BDC via the BDC Connect service, with a one-time provisioning step.
This enables the following capabilities with BDC Connect into Databricks:
- Zero-copy, bi-directional data sharing of data products between SAP Business Data Cloud and enterprise Databricks, using the Delta Share protocol.
- Access to SAP Business Data Cloud data products—SAP-managed data products from S/4HANA, SuccessFactors etc., and custom data products from the SAP Datasphere Object Store.
- Derived/ML-enriched data products authored in Databricks can be shared back to SAP Business Data Cloud and become discoverable in SAP Datasphere.
Here are some examples that outlines the specific business scenarios where SAP Databricks enables advanced data modeling and predictive insights.
| Supply Chain Risk Modeling | Combines supply chain, production and logistics data from SAP systems with external market and environmental inputs for unified risk modelling. SAP data products (S/4HANA Core Enterprise, Supply Chain) and third-party data products (environmental signals, supplier health, logistics) flow via Delta Sharing to SAP Databricks, which builds and trains AI/ML and GenAI models. SAP Datasphere combines the results, and SAP Analytics Cloud provides dashboards. SAP quotes a potential reduction of disruption costs of 20–30% while reducing inventory levels by 10–20%. |
| Credit Risk Assessment of Customers & Suppliers | SAP data products (liquidity and cash, AP/AR, net working capital, DSO, payments) and third-party data products (credit scores, social media, external finance reports) are combined via Delta Sharing. SAP Databricks develops a credit risk prediction model using LLMs; SAP Datasphere creates a unified analytical model; SAP Analytics Cloud builds analytics and financial planning forecasts on top. |
| Tariff Impact Analysis | Unifies procurement, logistics and financial data with external tariff schedules and commodity prices. SAP Databricks builds AI/ML and GenAI models to simulate tariff impacts and optimize sourcing; SAP Datasphere produces the global unified view; SAP Analytics Cloud delivers dashboards for tariff exposure, sourcing optimization and regulatory compliance monitoring. |
Let's Summarize What You've Learned
This lesson explains the partnership between SAP and Databricks.
- Combining SAP’s semantically rich business data with Databricks’ AI and data engineering creates a powerful ecosystem for enterprise intelligence.
- SAP Databricks serves as an integrated OEM component within SAP Business Data Cloud, providing data engineering and AI/ML capabilities without requiring external platforms.
- SAP Business Data Cloud supports diverse needs through an embedded OEM solution or by connecting existing enterprise Databricks platforms via BDC Connect.
- The use of the Delta Sharing protocol enables bi-directional, zero-copy data exchange, eliminating the need for traditional data replication.
- Databricks-authored ML models are seamlessly shared back to SAP Business Data Cloud, allowing for unified modeling and visualization in SAP Analytics Cloud.
- Optimized use cases in supply chain, credit risk, and tariff analysis demonstrate significant ROI through AI-driven predictive modeling.