The important two and the Fab Four!

In this blog, I state my opinion on the two important reasons any SAP client needs to adopt a clean core and the fabulous 4 things you need to have in place to make sure it is achieved.

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I recently spoke at a very well attended session at Sapphire Orlando with a client who had completed a really good example of a clean core implementation, the company turned over nearly €100bn and had gone live with less than 100 lines of ABAP, this is not just a great example of a clean core but also demonstrates that in a complex high volume retail environment with 1000’s of suppliers etc. it was possible. (I they can do it anyone can I suggest)

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So why do I think a clean core is so important, well… I see two main reasons:

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1.??????If you have a clean core, your SAP system is more agile, easier to change and costs less to implement, and the implementation is faster to value. In the case of the project mentioned above, the first major go live was achieved in 7 months, and our client I believe it would have taken at least 12 with a heavily bespoke core due all the testing cycles etc, also due to the API based event driven architecture you did not need to test every interface etc., only the API

2.??????If you have a clean core, you are future proof, whatever SAP does you will be able to accept it easily and if new functions become available, you be able to take advantage. Also, it’s pretty clear that SAP is moving more to the pure multi-tenant cloud, and when this does happen either as a hybrid or a complete migration with a clean core, this will be a relatively trivial for someone with a hugely bespoke core, they will need to probably reimplement or go on a clean-up journey

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And then what are the fabulous four things you need in place to make the clean core work, I will rank them in order of difficulty, the easiest first…

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1.??????The correct technical architecture and solution components, my co-speaker used?CDS?extensions for reporting, in app extensions, API’s and UI to get this to work. All provided by SAP, and they all worked at very high volumes with 1000s of payments etc. being processed daily

2.??????The correct method, Capgemini’s Large Transformation approach drives a clean core by focusing on business components and enterprise architecture and getting this right before writing functional specifications etc. We also use a demonstration of a clean core solution early to show how it would work. And as I have said before TOSL (technical objects not RICEFS)

3.??????The right governance, all non-clean core ideas and moves away from the standard must be challenged by the solution team and then by the program board. Project team members can set objectives based on keeping it clean

4.??????And finally, and hardest to achieve is getting the correct attitude, if you do want to really fight for a clean core, often team members, client and partner or contractors will fall back into old ways and suggest they need do the ABAP as they did on their last project, I know this sounds a little harsh but if they continue to do this, they should be taken off the team

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So, if you believe in the important two and use the advice from the Fab Four a clear core is possible.

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PS: I recently received and tender from a client to help write over 200 ABAPs on a new S4 project (they were overwhelmed with work it seems) maybe the best thing to do is to refuse to respond and suggest they should use a clean core approach as they are actually building a new legacy system!