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JesseSukhbayar
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
Hello community members 👋

In February 2023, SAP Build Process Automation is celebrating its first anniversary: One year of empowering users to automate workflow processes and tasks without code. Its low-code features allow non-technical users to create automations easily, and thanks to its embedded AI capabilities, innovations like hyper-automation becomes a reality. Additionally, the enterprise-grade and centralized governance, testing, and monitoring features ensure the security and reliability of business processes.

Join us as we walk you through the top 5 updates we introduced in 2022 in detail! Check out the video below to see quick demos in action, too.

  • Actions

  • API Triggers

  • Extended Conditions and Parallel Branches

  • Google Workspace Integration

  • Microsoft 365 Integration




#1 Actions

Actions are simplified APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) that IT admins can preconfigure. This feature allows you to integrate your processes quickly with external systems or SAP applications like SAP S/4HANA, SAP Ariba, SAP SuccessFactors, etc. Using the central lobby; you can design processes that involve creating, updating, or retrieving data from the backend system based on the outcomes of the process. For example, you could post an invoice to SAP S/4HANA after getting approval from the finance department or to get employee details from SAP SuccessFactors as part of the employee off-boarding process. Thanks to actions, business experts can browse the integration they need in the Build library – no need to understand the complexity underneath. By reducing the complexity of integration, actions are vital in making SAP Build Process Automation a suitable tool for business experts while allowing IT to control system access and ensure IT security.


 

#2 API Triggers

API Triggers allow you to automatically trigger the execution of a process when a specific event occurs in an external system. This function can be beneficial for starting processes in real time or in response to changes in data. To use it, you need to set up a connection to the external system where the triggering event will occur.

For instance, you want to automate a daily task of invoice processing. Here you can combine SAP Build Process Automation and SAP Build Apps to digitize and automate the process quickly. It starts with the requestor scanning or uploading the invoice with an App built in SAP Build Apps. This triggers an SAP Build Process Automation workflow, where all relevant data is extracted from the uploaded invoice. Based on that data, the responsible approver is determined and notified to give their approval. Finally, the requestor is notified whether their invoice is approved or rejected. If you need more details, please watch the full demo here.


 

#3 Extended Conditions and Parallel Branches

The conditions editor allows you to specify conditions under which specific actions should be taken within a process. For example, you might use it to determine that if a particular field in a form is filled out, a specific task should be assigned to a particular individual. Our recent updates now include the ability to insert groups of conditions to branches and preview definitions, allowing for different workflow based on pre-defined rules. An example is the approval of purchasing orders under $10,000 from Germany or India, while orders over $10,000 or not from those countries require manual approval.


Additionally, parallel branches can now be added for concurrent task execution, useful for approvals from multiple organizations or ensuring stakeholders recognize information before moving forward - like ordering a new mobile phone and providing confirmation from your manager and the finance department or, in this example: to validate enriched customer material information, which is done in parallel using the same form, one time by the finance manager and once by the sales manager, before the process can move on.

#4 Google Workspace Integration

To further scale our process automation capabilities, SAP has recently introduced integrations with Google Cloud Document AI and Google Workspace for SAP Build Process Automation customers. For example, let’s say your company leverages Google Workspace applications daily. You can now easily extract, organize, and automate your processes within Google Workspace applications such as Google Sheets, Google Drive, and Gmail. This works by extracting data contained in Gmail attachments, downloading it into Google Drive, and extracting fields using pre-trained AI models. SAP Build Process Automation can enter the consolidated order information from Google Sheets directly into SAP S/4HANA.


 

#5 Microsoft 365 Integration

Finally, SAP Build Process Automation now has integration with Microsoft 365. Suppose you are a user of Microsoft 365. In that case, you can use SAP Build Process Automation to automate certain tasks, such as searching for a specific Excel file on your Microsoft SharePoint or OneDrive and extracting business data from that file. The tool can send an e-mail with the Excel file as an attachment to another user to quickly process orders for your company. This integration can help you save time and streamline specific workflows that run on Microsoft 365 applications.


What new updates have you found most interesting or helpful? Let us know in the comments!

For more information on SAP Build Process Automation, check out these sources:
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