Engineering in the Cloud – Why SAP is the Best Choice

Product Development on the Way to the Cloud – Trends and Opportunities with SAP PLM

Many of our customers are already using cloud-based solutions or have started their journey to the cloud. ‘RISE with SAP’ is a significant driver for this transformation.

Engineering departments have also started to follow the cloud trend and recognize the advantages and benefits. They may be “late-followers” in comparison to other departments, however, we as SAP are more than ready to bring our customers in engineering most efficiently to the Cloud – simply RISE with SAP PLM!

Architecture of our SAP Cloud PLM Solution Portfolio

Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is usually an incremental part of a company’s strategy which we support with several and scalable options, meeting customers different needs. The SAP PLM Portfolio can be divided into three pillars:

1. Fundamental PLM solution components based on SAP S/4HANA, private cloud edition (or SAP ERP private cloud edition)
2. Best in Class PLM capabilities available as standalone SAP private cloud editions
3. Public cloud solutions as a complementary suite of PLM capabilities

Picture: Three Pillars of the SAP Cloud PLM Solution Portfolio

SAP Solutions within the Three Pillars

Within the first pillar we offer solutions that are tied to the S/4HANA backbone meaning those that can only be sold if S/4HANA is in place (or is part of the offer). Examples are variant configuration (AVC), portfolio & project management (EPPM), our direct CAD integration solution Engineering Control Center (ECTR) and integrations of external PDM/PLM solutions, such as Teamcenter, Windchill and 3DEXPERIENCE.

The second pillar consists of our two private cloud standalone options, that can be offered regardless of the existing or planned ERP system. However, we have some excellent reasons to combine it with a S/4HANA offering or extend an existing S/4HANA (or SAP ERP) installation. These solutions are SAP Teamcenter by Siemens, a dedicated engineering platform to meet any (also advanced) engineering needs, and SAP Product Lifecycle Costing (PLC), our expert solution for cost engineers.

In the third pillar we have our strong public cloud solutions that naturally extend our engineering capabilities offered via the S/4HANA backbone or with the previously mentioned private cloud standalone solutions. These are SAP Enterprise Product Development (EPD), SAP Responsible Design and Production (RDP) and SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Projects (C4P). As an example, SAP EPD consists of functionalities for collaboration, requirements management, visualization and connect to virtual and real products. These capabilities significantly extend the use of engineering data and knowledge across the company and supply chain, as well as to other product lifecycle phases than product engineering, such as operation and services – in short, EPD builds digital bridges and goes beyond engineering.

Picture: SAP PLM solutions assigned to the three pillars

Summary

SAP has included its complete PLM portfolio, including SAP Teamcenter by Siemens, in its cloud portfolio and offers its customers both, onPrem and Cloud versions for use. This is a huge added value for our customers and enables them to move to the cloud whenever it is beneficial for them.

Our motto is and will remain: RISE with SAP including PLM

About the Author

Stefan Ziegler is Regional Business Development Manager for Product Lifecycle Management at SAP. He has more than 25 years of experience in supporting companies in various industries digitizing and optimizing their Product Development Processes.

The Post was a joint effort with Andreas Madlencnik, SAP Center-of-Excellence Digital Supply Chain.