The premise of any digital transformation is the ability to swiftly adapt to the ever-evolving business dynamics and address complexities associated with operational and technical debt. And any enterprise undertaking digital transformation or modernizing their technologies recognizes the value of keeping system flexibility, ease of updates, scalability. But how can organizations achieve this? SAP recommends a “clean core strategy” that avoids heavy customization, instead enabling configurable workflows that keep core processes and data clean and simplify upgrades and innovation while keeping lower cost of ownership. Essentially, keeping the core clean means reducing customization and updates to the core ERP system, such as SAP S/4HANA, so that the core system prioritizes crucial business processes and data integrity, while non-core functions are managed through integrations with SAP BTP that provide additional extensions and functionalities. For example, for organizations planning to transition to SAP/S4HANA with a landscape transformation or system conversion whether using RISE with SAP or GROW with SAP, building a clean core foundation is crucial. But “clean core” is not just a concept – clean core extends to elements like extensibility, software version, data, integrations, processes, and operations. This means that organizations undertaking any digital transformation initiative with SAP systems as the backbone need to ensure that the core is up-to-date, cloud compliant, and with optimized data that ensures any new system conversion or transformation aligns with clean core standards. Central to a clean core transformation using RISE or GROW with SAP is having a strategy for utilizing SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) which enables organizations to reduce complexity, enhance agility, and accelerate transformation. Through SAP BTP and SAP Build, organizations can create clean core-compliant enhancements allowing them to enhance, extend, digitize, and innovate in a secure and efficient manner without affecting the core business processes. SAP BTP enables organizations to use its extensibility tools and capabilities to allow scalability, easier upgrades, streamlined maintenance and performance of SAP systems. Here are the ways in which SAP BTP tools help organizations to achieve a clean core. Reducing complexities while building a connected enterprise: SAP Integration Suite, a part of SAP BTP, allows organizations to automate and integrate on-premises and cloud applications and processes, services, applications, events, and data. This allows organizations to minimize or eliminate customization to the core system and upgrade their ERP system through extensions, applications, and integrations that are supported with upgrade-stable interfaces, proper monitoring and error resolution capabilities, and actively used and well-documented connectors. Accelerated development and automation: SAP Build, a low code development tool in SAP BTP, allows organizations to build apps optimized for web and mobile in addition to SAP Build Process Automation that empowers users to automate processes and tasks with visual drag-and-drop tools​, using pre-built process content packages, RPA bots, and connectors for SAP and non-SAP systems. These not only extend the core system’s functionalities, but it also drives innovation without affecting the core. Case in point is Pif Paf Alimentos, a food company that used SAP Build Apps to build and deploy a working mobile app solution for addressing the challenges faced by its technicians. SAP Build Apps enabled Pif Paf Alimentos with operational agility, saving time, paper, and costs including faster response times to business needs. Pif Paf was able to integrate its on-premise SAP system with SAP Build Apps using low code to manage preventative maintenance orders, achieving digital data accuracy without any coding. Comprehensive data insights and analytics: With SAP Datasphere and its open data ecosystem, organizations can build a business data fabric externally, build custom data models and functions in a separate layer, reducing the need to keep data within the core. Similarly, with SAP Analytics Cloud, organizations can offload analytics, reporting, and forecasting to an external layer, which reduces the need for complex customizations to the core SAP systems. SAP SAC allows users to run complex analysis, custom planning logic, and visualizations on the transactional data on a separate layer, which keeps core ERP system free of any integrations or custom codes. With SAP BTP’s cloud native best practices, low-code solutions, organizations can extend and innovate at a speed that is aligned to dynamic demands of the business ecosystem. The agility provided by SAP BTP enables businesses to develop, deploy, and scale new applications or processes without affecting the performance or disrupting their core systems. By using these tools, companies can stay ahead of industry changes, accelerate digital transformation, and continuously adapt to evolving business needs, all while maintaining operational efficiency. Discover more about how SAP BTP helps to support RISE and GROW transformations by keeping a clean core here.