Explaining the SAP Integration Strategy in the Context of the Intelligent Enterprise

According to a study of the ASUG (the world’s largest SAP user group) in 2020, more than 75% of respondents stated that their companies consider integration to be strategically important. Now, three years later, companies that currently use the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) consider integration as the most important technology within SAP BTP, underscoring the continued relevance of integration efforts in companies and of the SAP BTP as an integration platform. To access the study, see the following link: ASUG study.

At the same time, one major need in this area is the acceleration of implementing the integration efforts, which show that time is a critical factor when it comes to executing and implementing integration strategies. More than 60% of SAP customers require one to six months to implement integration solutions. Thus, the question is, how do you shorten integration implementation cycles? Research identifies the following three key areas:

1. Educated IT staff about integration solutions.
2. Standardized and/or preconfigured solutions and APIs.
3. Organized data for mapping and migrations.

For more information on this research, see the following link: ASUG Integration Infographic

This means that SAP customers need to possess more advanced internal knowledge of solutions and capabilities.

It includes the Integration Assessment capability which automates key parts of the SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology: This is the go-to resource for defining and executing an enterprise Integration strategy

But before diving deeper into these specific tools, let’s look at the bigger picture and why it is even necessary in today’s world to foster integration strategies.

The application and technology landscapes are evolving rapidly every day. Companies are faced with a hybrid mix of many different technologies and applications. As a result, companies are using applications and technologies from multiple vendors, each with their individual integration requirements, which leads to significant integration challenges. The question is: How can companies overcome these challenges to further drive innovation? The answer is that companies need to develop, design, and define a future integration architecture.

However, a future integration architecture is not a stand-alone demand but must be accompanied by a number of different approaches, such as a hybrid integration platform that is able to work with and unify existing and emerging requirements. It is also critical to define this transformation not only from a technical perspective, but also from an organizational perspective. Therefore, enterprises need to ensure that enterprise architects and/or integration developers are enabled by an agile environment and are encouraged to further strengthen their integration skills. This is where integration governance comes in, as the adoption and implementation of a new integration strategy in an enterprise is also a major challenge.

SAP’s integration strategy helps you build one experience across SAP, partner, and third-party solutions to future-proof your business.

So, how can you manage these increasing complexities and build a strong and assertive integration strategy within your company?

SAP’s integration strategy in the context of the Intelligent Enterprise aims to answer these questions. The overarching goal is to deliver integrated end-to-end business processes, which covers SAP and non-SAP solutions, a future integration architecture that meets both todays and future integration requirements.

The technology for this is the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), in particular, the SAP Integration Suite. This is where the SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology comes into play. The SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology is the foundation of the Integration Assessment capability, the go-to resource for defining and executing an enterprise integration strategy within the SAP Integration Suite.