Explaining the Intelligent Enterprise

Objectives

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

  • Describe the Intelligent Enterprise

The Intelligent Enterprise

What is an Intelligent Enterprise?

An Intelligent Enterprise ...

  • Uses data assets to achieve desired outcomes faster and with less risk.
  • Empowers employees through process automation.
  • Anticipates and proactively responds to customer needs.
  • Invents new business models and revenue streams.

The Intelligent Enterprise is based on three key areas:

Intelligent Suite

  • Manage supply chains, networks, employees and core processes.
  • Manufacturing and Supply chain are key areas that enable an intelligent enterprise.
  • Leverage predictive processes, smart automation, and have total visibility across your network.   

Intelligent Technologies

  • SAP IoT and Edge (formerly: SAP Leonardo IoT) - a guided approach to digital transformation that combines intelligent technologies and services.
  • Technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, Big Data, IoT, analytics, and blockchain across the Suite to drive ongoing innovation.

Digital Platform

  • Manages data from any source in any format.
  • Uses an open cloud platform to build or extend applications.
  • Uses in-memory database to power applications, data warehousing, and analytics and provides orchestration and meta data management across heterogeneous sources.

SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP)

SAP BTP implements the Digital Platform and is an enterprise platform-as-a-service that provides comprehensive application development services and capabilities, which lets you build, extend, and integrate business applications in the cloud.

It is supported by multiple cloud infrastructure providers and enables innovative technologies such as the Internet of Things, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and big data,

Key aspects of SAP BTP are f.ex. User Experience (SAP Fiori), SAP Cloud Identity Services, Domain Models and Master Data Integration, SAP Analytics Cloud, Environments (Cloud Foundry, ABAP, Kyma) and Security.

SAP BTP is available in many regions around the globe. You can choose between data centers hosted by SAP and those run by our partner Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers (so-called Hyperscalers):

Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, Alibaba Cloud, and Google Cloud Platform.

SAP S/4HANA

SAP S/4HANA is an acronym for SAP Business Suite 4 the HANA Database and is part of the Intelligent Suite within the Intelligent Enterprise.

With SAP S/4HANA, SAP delivers a new product, which is completely based on the in-memory platform SAP HANA. SAP S/4HANA is not an upgrade of the existing Business Suite; it is a new product for which the components have been reprogrammed successively. A radically simplified data model, as well as a new UI technology (SAPUI5 / SAP Fiori) are the most prominent characteristics of SAP S/4HANA.

SAP S/4HANA consists of a variety of areas such as Enterprise Management, R&D and Engineering, Asset Management, Service etc.

What is SAP HANA?

SAP HANA is a database, an appliance, and a platform.

First of all, SAP HANA is a hybrid in-memory database, which combines row-based, column-based, and object-based database technology. SAP HANA can use the parallel processing functions of modern multi-core CPU architectures. SAP applications can use the advantages of current hardware technology, by using this architecture.

Furthermore, SAP HANA is a flexible, data-source-agnostic appliance (an appliance is a combination of hardware and software), which provides the possibility for customers to analyze large amounts of data of SAP and non-SAP systems in real time. The requirement to materialize transformations is therefore no longer necessary. SAP HANA appliance software is a combination of hardware and software, which integrates a number of SAP components, including the SAP HANA database and various data replication systems.

SAP HANA is also an application framework, and a development environment — with the possibility to develop native SAP HANA applications. SAP HANA is the platform for all cloud-based SAP applications, and for the latest SAP product S/4HANA.

The functionality of SAP HANA is as follows:

  • Optimized data storage for column-based storage.
  • Optimized data compression is, therefore, possible.
  • Partitioning and distribution on various processor cores.Shifting of data-intensive calculations, from application to database.
  • Processing of geo-specific data/geo-specific data types are supported.

  • Text analysis and full text search is supported.

Highlights for SAP S/4HANA

  • Successively renewed coding of all SAP applications based on SAP HANA
  • Radically simplified data model (redundant tables and indices removed)
  • SAP Fiori as new User Experience
  • Substantially reduced data footprint

SAP S/4HANA is delivered in two different deployment models:

  • Cloud
  • On Premise

UI Clients

SAP S/4HANA supports different UI client types:

  • SAP Fiori Launchpad
  • SAP GUI for Windows (On Premise only)
  • SAP GUI for HTML
  • SAP Business Client (for Desktop / for HTML)

SAP Fiori Launchpad

SAP Fiori Launchpad is a role-based, personalized UI client which can be deployed on different device types and platforms. It is browser-based and consists of Tile Groups which can be flexibly put together based on Tile Catalogs. Which tile catalogs are available for which user is determined via the role assignment on the Frontend Server (FES).

However, it is also possible to integrate the frontend server into the backend server. In this case you have the Embedded model.

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