What Is SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP)?

We live in the age of data. There’s an abundance of applications and analytic technologies that allow organizations to collect extensive data on sales, customer satisfaction, efficiency, and much more. However, most businesses fail to get value from this information. Data is collected and stored in disparate mediums, leading to a disrupted flow of information. It creates data silos. 

Regardless of your industry, the type of data you collect, how you analyze it and what you do with your results has a significant impact on the success of your business. The SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is a portfolio of technologies that allows you to transform your data into value swiftly and efficiently. In this blog post, we will discuss what SAP BTP, one of the SAP solutions, is, how it can be implemented and how it can benefit your business.

What Is SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP)?

SAP Business Technology Platform is a technology platform that combines automation, application development, artificial intelligence capabilities, data and analytics, and integration in a single environment. The purpose of SAP BTP is to offer an integrated SAP technology portfolio that enables businesses to transform data into value. 

It includes SAP Cloud Platform, SAP Digital Boardroom, and SAP Leonardo. SAP BTP combines cutting-edge digital technologies with mobile and analytics capabilities, providing a unique offering that helps companies transform their business processes and respond more quickly to changing customer needs.

SAP BTP provides a variety of smart technologies to help optimize your business processes. Examples include Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and blockchain. The platform gives SAP communities and developers great freedom to develop their own applications and solutions.

What is SAP BTP used for?

SAP Business Technology Platform is designed for SAP applications hosted in the cloud. The platform helps businesses create personalized experiences for business processes, build applications and integrations faster, and create a more reliable working environment. It supports the digital transformation processes of businesses.

SAP BTP Pillars

SAP Business Technology Platform is built on five pillars.

Data and Analytics

The purpose of the data and analysis pillar is to explore data, understand trends and create plans with the data in the system. It makes processes such as data management, storage, processing, access and integration easier and more traceable by users.

SAP BTP performs data management and storage processes using databases such as SAP HANA and SAP HANA Cloud Platform. Data cleaning, management, and modeling processes are performed with SAP applications such as SAP Data Intelligence, SAP Data Quality Management, SAP Master Data Governance.

Application Development

Application development capability creates custom applications and extensions to realize specific business goals. SAP BTP provides business applications and platform services that accelerate cloud application development and update processes.

SAP BTP is a language-independent platform. In this way, developers are free to use many different programming languages such as ABAP, Python, Node.js.

Integration

SAP Business Technology Platform has a structure that focuses on meeting all integration needs of an enterprise. Thus, SAP BTP can be integrated with other SAP solutions. In addition, it is possible to integrate on-premises and cloud applications with SAP and non-SAP solutions using BTP.

SAP BTP includes integration packages, APIs, and connectors and is ready to use. Since it is a low-code platform, it is very fast and easy to create integrations.

Automation

Automation enables repetitive tasks to be done automatically without the need for manual intervention. SAP Build Process Automation helps businesses to manage decision logic, create forms, and automate workflows with a drag-and-drop interface. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) automates tasks that require human labor.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

BTP's AI capabilities help to understand data for analysis and content production. AI and machine learning can be integrated with complex business processes. Thanks to pre-built AI models, it becomes possible to create intelligent business processes.

Advantages of SAP Business Technology Platform

SAP Business Technology Platform lets you:

• Offer a unified view of all your data across a multitude of systems and platforms. Its analytics helps you gain real-time insight and make data driven decisions.
• Enable integrating SAP, non-SAP, and third-party solutions. Provides seamless data exchange between all your business processes.
• Allow customizing existing applications or developing solutions from scratch; helps tailor all your assets to fit your company needs.
• Take advantage of open standards to connect your systems securely so you can share information throughout your enterprise.
• Transform business processes with real-time analytics that help you anticipate changes in demand, manage inventory more efficiently, reduce costs and increase operational agility.
• Develop new products faster by making better use of data across your organization.

SAP Business Technology Platform Use Cases

SAP BTP is comprised of four main systems: Database and Data Management, Analytics, Application Development and Integration, and Intelligent Technologies. Each service encompasses a variety of services and features. 

Database and Data Management

Database management systems that have storing capabilities allow organizations to make decisions based on real-time data.

Use Case:

SAP Cloud Application Programming Model is an integrated framework made of various tools, languages, and libraries. This model allows you to create extension applications and exchange real-time data between your extensions and SAP S/4HANA system, without needing extensive UI resources. Users can develop and customize the UI without IT support, which makes for a self-reliant user experience and faster project completion times.

Analytics

This asset enables the evaluation of data with analytics solutions. Intelligent technologies feed from real-time data flows, so SAP can provide predictive insights.

Use Case:

SAP Analytics Cloud creates simulations and visualizations from your data sources; combined with BTP’s machine learning and graphics features, your data science expectations will be fully met (if not, exceeded). Its high-speed processing power and real-time data processing engines will ensure a strong, reliable data warehouse.

Application Development and Integration

SAP BTP allows seamless integration between cloud, on-premise, SAP, non-SAP, and third-party applications, simplifying development and quickening deployment.

Use Case:

SAP Extension Suite enables developing secure, customized cloud-based Java applications. The SAP Cloud Platform architecture minimizes the frequency and repair time of application related errors through microservice security, which improves both user experience and customer satisfaction.

Intelligent Enterprise Technologies

Intelligent technologies help optimize word processes; AI, machine learning, and IoT are just a few examples of the innovative solutions that increase productivity in the workplace.

Use Case:

Nestlé used SAP Conversational AI to develop artificial intelligence based chatbots that provide HR staff with employee data. Users can converse with the chatbot via a SAPUI5 based UX interface that works on all smart devices. This way, they obtain information in a simpler and faster way through a secure environment.