The Automation Blueprint to Simplify ERP Customizations

The traditional approach to ERP customization is a well-known story for many SAP professionals. A business unit needs a specific function that standard SAP doesn’t offer out of the box. This results in custom code development directly within the ERP’s core. While it solves the immediate problem, it creates many long-term issues:

• Every line of custom code adds to the maintenance burden, complicating patches and routine upkeep.
• The fear of breaking heavily customized processes leads organizations to delay or avoid critical system upgrades, leaving them on outdated, less secure software.
• Over time, a mix of on-stack customizations and various side-by-side extensions creates a fragmented, difficult-to-govern technology landscape.
• The system accumulates immense technical debt, hindering modernization efforts.

This cycle prevents organizations from realizing the full value of their SAP investment, preventing them from gaining data-driven insights and rapid innovation.

SAP and UiPath have created a unified blueprint for enterprise automation through UiPath’s automation platform as an SAP Solution Extension (SolEx) that lets an organization escape the customization trap and build a future-ready enterprise.

Automation-First, Side-by-Side Extensions

The SolEx partnership champions a decoupled, clean core strategy. Instead of altering the standard SAP system, organizations extend their capabilities through automation, using the combined power of UiPath and SAP Build on the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).

This approach offers a tailored strategy. Organizations planning a move to SAP S/4HANA can begin building future-ready extensions with automation. By moving functionality outside the core system, they systematically reduce customization complexity within ECC. This minimizes the technical debt and code remediation required for smoother, faster migration.

On the other hand, companies already using SAP S/4HANA can focus on preserving that clean core while adapting to specialized business needs. They can add required functionality through automation without compromising the ability to perform future upgrades seamlessly.

This strategy replaces rigid, high-maintenance custom code with flexible, easy-to-maintain automation blueprints that insulate your critical business processes from underlying technology changes.

The Customer Zero Story

Before its own digital transformation, UiPath faced mounting operational challenges. The company was battling fragmented systems, arduous manual billing cycles, delayed revenue recognition, and complex multi-GAAP reporting processes, all of which limited its speed and scalability.

However, instead of a standard lift and shift migration, UiPath used its own automation-led strategy. A critical part of the success was retrofitting and adapting the automation solutions the company had already built for its prior landscape. This move not only avoided the need to detangle custom code in the former ERP, but also dramatically accelerated change management, as the finance team didn’t need to re-learn brand new processes from scratch.

The results of this automation-led ERP transformation are remarkable:

• A 93% clean core was achieved, far exceeding the industry benchmark of 80% and minimizing technical debt to enable agile upgrades.
• Over 85% of critical finance workflows, including billing, revenue recognition, and account reconciliation, are now executed by unattended robots, transforming them from manual chores into automated processes.
• Period-end close time was reduced by over 80%, a massive acceleration for the finance department.
• Project delivery was accelerated by 10%, demonstrating real-world efficiency gains from using automation in testing, validation, and integration.
• Over 200 automations were delivered across core processes by the UiPath Center of Excellence (CoE), showcasing the breadth of the platform’s impact.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

Stop choosing between customization and modernization. The core value of the UiPath SAP SolEx partnership is to end the trade-off between tailoring SAP to business needs and maintaining a clean core. The ability to retrofit automations from one ERP to another proves that an organization’s investment in process improvement is durable and platform-agnostic, insulating it from underlying technology shifts.

Market urgency for automation is high, but a strategic platform is essential. The pressure to modernize SAP environments is immense. While the market is flooded with AI and automation tools, point solutions often fail to address complex, end-to-end processes that span SAP and non-SAP systems. The trend is moving away from isolated task automation and toward integrated platforms, which provide the enterprise-grade governance and cross-system capabilities necessary to drive true transformation.

A strategic tool for business and IT leaders. The ideal customer for UiPath is a coalition of enterprise leaders. The key profiles include IT Decision Makers responsible for application strategy and a clean core. It also directly empowers Line-of-Business owners in Finance and Procurement, as well as Global Process Owners who oversee entire workflows. Enterprise automation is a team sport, requiring a platform that meets the technical demands of IT while delivering tangible results for the business.