Keep your SAP core clean with Control-M Process Integration and enterprise job and workflow orchestration

⇨ The SAP Clean Core Concept emphasizes maintaining a standard, uncustomized SAP core to facilitate smoother upgrades and reduce technical debt, which is critical for leveraging modern cloud capabilities.

⇨ Control-M enhances the clean core approach by automating standard processes and managing integrations without customization, ensuring efficient data flow and minimizing the need for custom code within the SAP system.

⇨ Effective monitoring, compliance, and maintenance practices supported by Control-M simplify the management of SAP systems, aligning with the clean core principle and enabling organizations to adapt more quickly to changing business needs.

SAP integration focuses on connecting SAP systems with other enterprise applications to streamline processes, enhance data accuracy, and improve overall efficiency. A “clean core” approach in SAP refers to maintaining a standard, uncustomized core SAP system, allowing for easier upgrades and reduced process orchestration complexity.

The SAP Clean Core Concept is a strategy aimed at maintaining the SAP system’s core as standard and uncustomized as much as possible. It is driven by the need to ensure smooth upgrades, reduce technical debt, and leverage modern cloud capabilities without being burdened by complex, custom-coded modifications in the core system. This concept is particularly important with SAP S/4HANA, as SAP is pushing for cloud-ready architectures that support agility, faster innovation, and future-proofing.

Maintaining a clean core while effectively integrating SAP systems with other enterprise applications is crucial for modern businesses. It ensures a scalable, secure, and efficient IT landscape, enabling organizations to respond swiftly to changing business needs and technological advancements.

Benefits of Control-M in achieving a clean core

Control-M is a workload automation tool that can help streamline and manage various IT processes, including those related to SAP systems. By leveraging Control-M, organizations can support the SAP clean core concept in the following ways:

1. Automating Processes Without Customization

Automate Standard Processes:

• Use Control-M to automate standard SAP processes (e.g., batch jobs, data transfers, and report generation) without altering the core SAP system. This approach avoids unnecessary customizations.

Scheduling and Orchestration:

• Control-M can schedule and orchestrate SAP jobs and processes, ensuring they run at the optimal times and in the correct sequence. This reduces the need for custom scripts and manual interventions in the core system.

2. Integration Without Customization

Centralized Integration Management:

• Use Control-M as a centralized platform to manage integrations between SAP and other enterprise systems. This ensures that data flows smoothly without requiring custom integrations within the SAP core.

Pre-built Adapters:

• Control-M offers pre-built adapters for SAP, allowing seamless integration without the need for custom code. These adapters support various SAP modules and functionalities, helping to maintain a clean core.

3. Enhancing Monitoring and Compliance

Monitoring and Alerts:

• Control-M provides comprehensive monitoring and alerting capabilities, allowing IT teams to proactively manage SAP workloads. This ensures that issues are detected and resolved without the need for core system modifications.

Audit and Compliance:

• Use Control-M’s auditing and compliance features to track and document all automated processes. This helps maintain compliance with regulatory requirements and internal policies without custom developments in SAP.

4. Simplifying Upgrades and Maintenance

Upgrade Management:

• Control-M can manage and automate the steps involved in SAP system upgrades, ensuring that standard processes are followed and customizations are minimized. This aligns with the clean core principle by reducing the risk of custom code issues during upgrades.

Maintenance Windows:

• Schedule and manage maintenance windows for SAP systems using Control-M. This helps ensure that maintenance tasks are performed efficiently and do not require core system changes.

5. Side-by-Side Extensions

External Process Automation:

• For processes that require customization, use Control-M to automate them externally from the SAP core system. This approach supports the clean core concept by keeping custom logic and extensions separate from the main SAP environment.

Cloud Integration:

• Leverage Control-M’s capabilities to integrate SAP with cloud-based services and applications. This enables the use of SAP Cloud Platform for custom extensions without modifying the core SAP system.

Control-M supports the SAP clean core concept by automating and managing processes in a way that minimizes customizations within the SAP system. By using Control-M for scheduling, integration, monitoring, and compliance, organizations can maintain a standard SAP core, simplify upgrades, and enhance overall efficiency. This approach ensures a robust and scalable IT landscape, aligning with best practices for SAP system management.