An Introduction to SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP)

Part 2: Exploring SAP BTP Functionalities for Tax Functions in Multinationals

What a tax function needs to know

This is the second of a series of articles, about the SAP Business Technology Platform with a focus on an overview of relevant functionalities for a tax function of multinational groups. You may read Part 1 of the article series here .

What services are available on the SAP BTP?

In the meantime there are a huge number of services available on the SAP BTP (see here ). Some highlights are:

• SAP Analytics Cloud, embedded edition: Used for analyzing data from source systems
• SAP?Build Apps: Used for low-code/no-code application development
• SAP Business Application Studio: Used for developing applications
• SAP Cloud ALM: Used for managing implementations of cloud solutions
• SAP Conversational AI : Used for creating chatbots
• SAP Data Intelligence : Used for parsing data with AI and machine learning
• SAP Data Warehouse Cloud: Used for storing and accessing data from source systems
• SAP HANA Cloud: Used for in-memory database management and application development
• SAP Intelligent RPA : Used for automating repetitive, rule-based tasks with machine learning

As you can see there are definitely some services, respectively functionalities which are interesting from a tax function point of view in terms of data management, analytics, application development and Robotic Process Automation.

Is SAP BTP a Platform as a service (PaaS)?

The SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) is an open platform as a service (PaaS) offering that delivers – as mentioned - different kind of products and services. In case of PaaS, the SAP BTP is therefore delivered as a resource (hardware+software) to the customer.

In general, PaaS is a cloud computing model ?where a third-party provider delivers hardware and software tools to users over the internet. A PaaS provider hosts the hardware and software on its own infrastructure.

Is the SAP BTP a Software as a service (SaaS)?

In this case the SAP BTP is delivered as a cloud service to the customer, that is, an entire cloud-based application is provided that customers can access and use In general, Software as a service (or SaaS) is a way of delivering applications over the Internet—as a service. Instead of installing and maintaining software, you simply access it via the Internet, freeing yourself from complex software and hardware management.

Therefore, the SAP BTP can be used in both ways, as PaaS or as SaaS.

What is the relationship between the SAP BTP and (SAP) hyperscalers?

Due to the fact that the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) is an open platform based on a multi-cloud foundation enabling it to run on top of different hyperscalers like Microsoft Azure, Amazon WebServices (AWS), Google Cloud & Alibaba Cloud. The partnership with these hyperscalers has made it possible for SAP to scale and offer SAP BTP across various regions.

In general, SAP hyperscalers refers to public cloud providers that SAP uses as hosting partners for their cloud solutions and services.

How do the license models of the SAP BTP work?

SAP BTP offers in general two different commercial models for enterprise accounts:?

1. a) Consumption-based commercial model: Your company receives access to all current and future services that are eligible for this model.

SAP Cloud Platform Enterprise Agreement (CPEA) is SAP’s first consumption-based pricing model. It lets customers buy, consume, and pay based on their use (with an upfront commitment.) CPEA reduces complexity and costs with self-provisioning and real-time usage and recording. Customers can turn the services they need on and off, then pay for what they consume.

1. b) Pay As You Go (PayGo): Another commercial model SAP offers is Pay As You Go (PayGo). There is no up-front commitment as compared to the CPEA. Like when using a credit card, the customer is billed every month for the services they’ve consumed. There is a premium charged for the convenience of not having to commit.
2. Subscription-based commercial model: Your company subscribes only to the services that you plan to use. Especially, if it is about a specific use case with known usage of individual services the subscription-based model makes sense.

Therefore, there are different models to be considered by a tax function. Very often it makes sense to align with other stakeholders within the company to on the model.

If you have questions or if you need additional information, please feel free to contact: [email protected]

Ridvan Yigit

Founder & CEO, RTC

?+44 7833 5373 88

[email protected]