Tech Playground for your organization: SAP? BTP vs. the Cloud Titans?

Is?your company considering an investment in BTP??As the buzz around SAP? Business Technology Platform (BTP) grows louder, the big question looms: Should you join the ride or stand by the sidelines?

At SAPTopia, we're committed to keeping our Vistex? and SAP? clients ahead of the curve. That's why we've been diving headfirst into BTP since it stole the spotlight at Sapphire 2023. But here's the kicker: We've discovered that while some are soaring with BTP, others are still figuring out their game plan.

Part 1 - The Showdown: AWS, GCP, Azure vs. ServiceNow, Salesforce, BTP

Picture this: You've got three paths ahead of you. Do you stick with the cloud giants like AWS, GCP, or Azure? Or do you veer off course towards Salesforce or ServiceNow for a customized journey? Or perhaps, being on SAP? your are naturally inclined towards BTP and its ERP-centric approach.

To help you navigate this labyrinth, we've boiled it down to the basics and broken it into bite-sized chunks. Then, we will also list out elements that will impact the total cost of ownership (TCO) and which any company should evaluate before making a decision. Finally, for those of us that like real-world examples, we will provide a few.

Part 2 – Finding Your Fit

This is the fun part. So from the get-go, most cloud platforms provide a base to start from. Now, where do they start to branch so anyone could decide? We have identified 4 factors that can help you in the decision making process. As you will see, it mostly depends on what your company is trying to achieve, and its long-terms goals. These are:

1. Specialization (what was the platform made for to start off with?)

2. What Ecosystem am I entering, what resources will I be able to leverage?

3. What are the pricing models and overall cost of ownership I’m looking at?

4. Who is the typical target audience for such and such platform?

Some of the answers you can find are in this nice little table we build out of our research:

From here, you can see a trend, where generic platforms can allow you to easily do anything, Salesforce and ServiceNow will require you to break from the original design (customize out), while BTP will pretty much start from the ERP side of things. So this is going to be the first real selection criteria. Your requirements mapping to this grid can give you early indications. So, what’s next?

Part 3: Getting into the Nitty-Gritty

As you can see in the above section, platforms will start to differentiate on a general level, and that information alone may not be enough to decide just yet. However, we now turn to more specific considerations, i.e: ?

1.???? Your current landscape – you need to evaluate how well every platform integrates with existing systems, applications, and data sources within your organization;

2.???? Customization: Consider the level of customization required for your application and the ease of implementing customizations on each platform;

3.???? Support and Maintenance: Factor in ongoing support, maintenance, and training costs associated with each platform.

At this point, you may already have eliminated a few of the options we were looking into. That is going to simplify things greatly. Now, let’s look into the more exciting stuff ->

Part 4 - Following The Money

Now that we’ve isolated what is similar and what differentiates our options, what criteria will we need to consider from a cost and ROI perspective? Here, we will see that the options separate in two groups, being a) AWS, GCP and Azure, and b) ServiceNow, Salesforce and BTP.

The choice of platform depends on your organization's specific requirements, budget, and strategic objectives. Conduct a thorough analysis of each platform's features, pricing, and potential ROI to make an informed decision. Additionally, consider consulting with experts or engaging with vendors to understand the total cost of ownership and expected returns for building your application on each platform.

It is of utmost importance to determine the potential evolution of the applications or services and actual intended usages and volume as these factors will greatly influence the overall TCO.

Part 5 – Who did what?

Of course. It’d be better if you could see some use cases, right? Here are a few real-world examples of companies that went to a platform or an other, and what they have been able to accomplish individually:

In summary, while both generic full-stack cloud development platforms and SAP BTP offer cloud-based development tools and services, the choice between them depends on factors such as the organization's specific requirements, existing technology stack, budget, and long-term strategic goals.

Next Steps with SAPTopia?

With a seasoned team boasting expertise in SAP, Vistex?, BTP and over a decade of experience as a boutique firm since 2008, SAPTopia offers a comprehensive suite of services tailored to meet your needs. While we don't sell software, we empower our clients to choose the platform that best suits their objectives.

Should you find yourself exploring BTP or in need of assistance with application development, integrations, or additional support, SAPTopia stands ready to lend a hand. Our signature approach begins with a complimentary workshop, where our experts delve into your requirements to devise a personalized roadmap forward. At SAPTopia, customization isn't just a buzzword—it's our guiding principle.

We also have?application demos?to demonstrate what you can rapidly achieve with the new technology. We can show you a few simple use cases that may be eye-opening as well. In any case, we hope this article has helped you figure out where to head from here, and that you will reach out if you're looking for a reliable partner to move forward into BTP ??

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