The Future is Now: Reflections on SAP Data Unleashed 2024

[debashree1]

The virtual curtains of SAP Data Unleashed 2024 have just closed, leaving us all energized and brimming with inspiration. We all agree that to achieve true digital transformation, enterprises must have seamless access to their business-critical data no matter where it resides across processes, applications, and value tech. After last year’s resounding success, This highly anticipated event delved into the future of data, AI, and planning, offered a glimpse into its transformative potential, and provided tangible strategies that can truly enable our businesses to thrive in an increasingly data-driven world.

As automation revolutionizes the way we live and work, data management and analytics become the defining resource of successful companies. They have quickly become the defining resources for driving innovation, improving decision-making, and enhancing customer experiences. The SAP Data Unleashed 2024 shed the spotlight on the latest innovations and partnerships aimed at empowering organizations to harness the full potential of their data. We're now truly ushering in a new era of data management, analytics, and AI governance that can enable us to derive value and enable data-driven decision-making.

Unified Data Management with SAP Datasphere

One of the most refreshing aspects of SAP Data Unleashed 2024 was the focus on practical applications rather than mere buzzwords. The event served as a platform for SAP, along with its open data partners, to unveil new data and generative AI capabilities and the latest innovations in the powerful open data ecosystem around the SAP Datasphere solutions. 

This business data fabric architecture empowers organizations to connect, unify, and manage their data seamlessly— regardless of source or environment—eliminating the burden of duplication and complexity: the result, is streamlined data processes and invaluable insights driving strategic decision-making. The keynote speaker, Juergen Mueller, CTO and Member of the Executive Board at SAP, presented concrete case studies showcasing how organizations are successfully implementing these concepts to achieve tangible results. 

Furthermore, the sessions delved into the nuances of pairing SAP Datasphere with SAP Analytics Cloud to add that extra zing to informed and data-driven decision-making. By integrating these two platforms, organizations gain the ability to perform cross-organizational planning, conduct data-driven simulations, and leverage generative AI powered by SAP HANA Cloud. This synergy empowers businesses to anticipate market trends, optimize resource allocation, and drive efficiency across their operations.

Hear more about the SAP Data Unleashed 2024 and the future of Data 2024 from John "JG" Chirapurath.

For many of us, SAP Data Unleashed 2024 served as a powerful confirmation of the direction our companies are already heading. The emphasis on actionable insights deeply resonated, as we witnessed real-world case studies showcasing how organizations are integrating AI into ERP systems and leveraging data analytics to gain a deeper understanding of customer behavior. These discussions mirrored our own ongoing efforts and aspirations at Crave InfoTech, providing valuable validation and a sense of shared purpose.

Overcoming Data Fragmentation with SAP Data Unleashed

With Gen AI moving from hype to everyday norm— the future beyond any doubt— belongs to data-driven organizations. Yet many organizations still struggle with disparate data sources, siloed systems, and fragmented insights, hindering their ability to make informed decisions. With SAP Datasphere, businesses can overcome these challenges by seamlessly integrating data from across the enterprise, enabling holistic insights that drive strategic action. Customers leveraging SAP Datasphere have reported significant improvements in decision-making agility, operational efficiency, and competitive advantage. 

A unified approach to data management, analytics, and AI governance can equip future-ready enterprises with unprecedented insights, drive innovation, and achieve sustainable growth. Crave InfoTech’s sustainability solution, Intelligent Ecological Balance Reporting leverages this approach to offer organizational carbon footprints analyzing and reporting capabilities.

Our sustainability solution, built on SAP BTP, offers Intelligent Ecological Balance Reporting and Analysis. It helps organizations set and achieve sustainable goals, assess current conditions, and monitor performance in real-time. Integrating with SAP S/4HANA, it empowers businesses for long-term sustainability with zero emissions, waste, and inequality ambitions. Leveraging SAC and SAP data analytics, the solution provides insights to make informed decisions based on environmental indicators.

With deep expertise in data management, analytics, and gen AI, Crave InfoTech is uniquely positioned to address today's businesses' complex challenges. Our Crave Cloud ALM Intelligent Insights & Automation Suite (CALM) solution offers advanced capabilities for enhanced application lifecycle management, seamlessly integrating with SAP S/4HANA, SAP Datasphere, and SAP Analytics Cloud. This aligns with our commitment to innovation and delivering value to customers embarking on their data-driven journey.

Looking Forward, Together

SAP Data Unleashed 2024 was the forum for organizations seeking a glimpse into the future of data, AI, and planning. It gave us a great opportunity to gain fresh perspectives, discover actionable strategies, and connect with a forward-thinking community. 

The future is here, and SAP Data Unleashed 2024 has equipped us with the knowledge and connections to navigate it with confidence and purpose. At Crave Infotech, our commitment to innovation, coupled with our proven track record of delivering value to customers, makes us the trusted partner for organizations embarking on their data-driven journey. We encourage other organizations to embrace similar opportunities for continuous learning and collaboration in this exciting era.

Together, we can shape a future where data is not just a commodity, but a catalyst for transformative change. Let's unlock the power of data together.

[XaviPolo]

I hope that the use of AI will make people understand that the fundamental pillar of all this is data, and that this will lead to more work on making it easier to load data into DSP.
Integrated loading processes, variable passing, control functions, flow control, ... something that already exists for example in SAP Data Services.

Because without data, AI is useless.

[MKreitlein]

Hello Debashree,

thanks for your summary.

I watched the session, too ... and asked myself if the new features, including AI ... is this really what my customers (small and medium-sized) companies need?

If you talk to them, they would prefer to have and use things, they have been used to for years.

Examples:

- The SAC new model cannot and will never be consumed in Analysis Office 😞 

- The SAC Addin does not offer any VBA functionality 😞

- You still cannot plan data directly into Datasphere 😞

- We are still missing many features on BW Live, which import models provide 😞

- We cannot schedule stories based on Datasphere models 😞

With all that KI discussion nowadays, many people forget what they really distinguish from others, or from machines ... we really learned our job the hard way!

Honestly, I don't know how kids are learning in school today... but if I reflect, I had no google translate, when learning Latin ... I had to gather information in a library 🙂

Just my 2 cents

BR, Martin

[Rupak]

Excellent Summary.

I tried to enable Joule in SAC but could not get it to work. I find an article on how to enable it in SF but nothing that sort of in SAC. Tried the same approach of how the document says to do it in SuccessFactor but not getting those option in SAC.

Any one tried this?

Rupak

[albertosimeoni]

I find that the Kano model, from management engineering lessons, can fit exactly to summarize the situation:

Excitement Factors: (gives huge satisfaction if met and low dissatisfaction if not met) 

Example: Gen AI, automatic planning (basically what we saw in the presentation)

=> they are not available yet (so this do not satisfy me as I can not judge it now).

Performance Factors: (linear performance of satisfaction / accuracy plane)

Example: half of year 2023 we had problems and not predictable performances with HEX engine (the new hana cloud engine) that fallbacks to other old engines randomly.

=> I am not satisfied as I invest my time in platform issues that were out of my control as the platform is self managed by the application.

Basic Factors: (if met they do not increase the satisfaction, but if not met they increase a lot the dissatisfaction)

Examples

- we still can not aggregate string type columns, I can not apply a basic MAX() function to a string in graphical editors => the missing of a basic factor lead to huge dissatisfaction.

- last update "you can add the connections as a dependancies to packages" => in reality what I experience was "you must add the connections => your packages are all broken => you can not change and deploy any object ultill you fix the dependancies => you can not add the connections as they are not visible objects you must add a remote table so connections will be added as dependancies => you must be aware not to import the connections in PRD otherwise you possibly broke the existing connections". (2 hours of taking notice of this and 4 to repair manually dependancies in every system).

- Replication Flows: after a year I can not understand how to configure S/4HANA to make it work as source. In addition the difficulty of configuration we had this beautiful note that say: "probably the data you extracted so far in delta mode is corrupted".

https://me.sap.com/notes/3431218

=> Im satisfied not to use replication flow in this case.

Best Regards and good weekend,