SAP teams have been chasing the “clean core” utopia for decades. Yet, they have not only missed reaching it, but often have also made the scenario worse. SAP customers have often invested heavily in customization, and this has resulted in massive custom code, often with clunky interfaces and limited documentation. Yet, there is significant risk involved in decommissioning these customizations.

Challenges in Achieving Clean Core

In a recent SAPinsider research report Application Strategies and Development for SAP S/4HANA and Cloud discovered goals and challenges around the achievement of a “clean core”: 44% of respondents in the afore-mentioned report said that a lack of a “clean core” – technical debt - was a major challenge with their application development plans. 37% of respondents were in the process of retiring custom code to maintain clean core. As Steve Ross, Head of Business Applications, C J Clarks says, “Any company that has 15 + years of customization is going to face challenges if they want to try and unpick all that code. It would be better to review the business processes and reengineer them to support future business direction and understand if ABAP migration is required”. For example, if 20,000 business or technical modifications have been created by an SAP customer, it’s possibly that only 50% of them are used. Yet, this portion is very critical for executing the core processes. It becomes risky to get rid of the custom code. Often, companies try to bring an essential 20% to be brought to cloud using SAP Business Technology Platform’s solutions such as remote APIs, for example. Many scenarios are available and need to be assessed on a case-by-case basis. For many integrated extensions with lot of performance considerations and SAP dependencies, it is very hard to migrate. Calling these extensions from cloud can slow down performance and become expensive.

Approaches for Achieving Clean Core

SAP and other vendors provides tools to facilitate conversion of code to the cloud. For example, ABAP Test cockpit allows scanning of ABAP code for cloud readiness using factors such as excessive file or screen processing of GUI screens. There are assessments that can estimate effort as well so that companies can validate the return on investment. Some vendors even offer low-code platforms that can transform code for the cloud. New process mining tools can help with the mapping out workflows and processes. Going forward, SAP customers can also avoid or reduce custom core and ensure cleaner core by delivering functionality through APIs instead of customizations and extensions.

What Does This Mean for SAPinsiders?

For SAPinsiders reassessing their application roadmaps on their migration journey to SAP S/4HANA, the following can help move dramatically towards a clean core:

• Develop an enterprise-wide application strategy that can balance time-to-market with costs, while also considering long-term goals such as “clean core” and agile strategies.
• Evaluate technologies by assessing against achievement of a clean core and reduction of technical debt as a metric so they do not impede the company in its innovation.
• Minimize customizations and instead, evaluate applications with technologies that rely on APIs and open interfaces.