Creating Custom Code Responsibly Will Take Your SAP Security to the Next Level

SAP enterprise software is feature-rich and enables companies to add custom code. Implementing new features lets you go beyond the functionality included in the default installation. But custom code also opens the door to heightened SAP security awareness.

When developing your own applications, it’s important to keep secure coding practices in mind. These established principles help defend against the vulnerabilities facing enterprise software. Purpose-built tools also contribute to the battle for SAP security.

Your organization’s custom code complements the comprehensive features within SAP solutions. However, it can also lead to vulnerabilities. In this article, we explore how to ensure your custom coding practices are secure and uncover how you can overcome common weaknesses.

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Secure Coding Practices for SAP Custom Code

In creating custom code for the SAP architecture, you must employ safe coding practices. The core features of enterprise software such as S/4HANA or ECC undergo extensive planning and testing. As a result, they rapidly identify and deal with any bugs or vulnerabilities. However, when you develop custom applications, you forego this process.

The only way to maintain or enhance SAP security while deploying custom code is to adhere to industry best practices. When your code runs, it exposes mission-critical data to the same threats facing the SAP-provided code. So, don’t consider secure coding practices a luxury—they’re a basic requirement.

Why Is SAP Security Important?

Businesses often keep important information in their SAP database. Think intellectual property, trade secrets, customer data, and transaction data, for instance. They can’t afford to let this sensitive information fall into the hands of criminals.

Enterprise software systems are essential for business survival, so they need adequate protection. This entails tracking and controlling the use of the applications and data from development to deployment. SAP security defends your critical data against both internal and external threats.

Developers aren’t the only ones responsible for the SAP security of your custom code. All those involved in creating and managing the code must play a part. When that custom code is deployed to production environments, it must still be handled appropriately. Malicious code injection can occur even at runtime, so administration is as relevant as development to your defensive efforts.

A single unwanted event can have massive and far-reaching consequences. You don’t want to end up in the news or out of business. Malicious software activity has become one of the main economic challenges of our day. So, it’s important to proactively secure your code.

An SAP service provider like Approyo can help protect your codebase. Approyo has SAP certifications for both cloud and infrastructure operations. And as an exclusive SAP partner for more than a decade, Approyo provides global IT services to hundreds of successful enterprises. The full range of services encompasses consultation, monitoring, hosting, and support—all with SAP security at the root.

SAP Security Best Practices

SAP security covers not just the software itself but all layers as well—hardware, networking, operating systems, and custom application code. The environment must be configured correctly, and logs should be regularly made and reviewed. Such appropriate precautions prevent fraudulent activity.

The idea is to forbid access to those who aren’t properly authorized. Well-written custom code as part of a comprehensive security policy ensures data integrity while avoiding leaks.

Custom code developers may or may not already know best practices. Some useful techniques to promote SAP security include input validation, output encoding, and error handling. These methods check data before, during, and after use to prevent attacks. One should only work with a vetted partner who applies these and other techniques to secure your data.

Customers are responsible for their own use of custom code, as SAP’s standard protections don’t cover it. Any exploit could cause a data breach and serious loss of sensitive information, customers, and reputation. Systems may become unavailable, or you could even face fines and litigation. So, focus on secure coding practices.

One of the main approaches to SAP security is to use a trustworthy software development lifecycle (SDL). SAP itself uses a secure SDL for all its features, and teams developing custom code should too. As a result, you can manage custom code objects more safely and decommission them when not in use.

Throughout the lifecycle, it’s possible to track custom code objects’ version, ownership, data quality, and patterns of use. From planning to development and ongoing maintenance, each stage should have rigorous tests. Any flaws that are found should be documented and quickly fixed.

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Common Security Vulnerabilities and How To Avoid Them

While creating custom code for your enterprise system, it’s important to be aware of common vulnerabilities and take preventive measures. Software developers have accumulated decades of experience and know that certain problems are far more likely to occur. Applying the Pareto principle, around 20% of vulnerabilities result in around 80% of problems.

Among the most frequent SAP security vulnerabilities to watch out for are:

• SQL injections and operating system (OS) command injections
• Cross-site scripting (XSS) attacks
• Broken access control
• Directory traversal
• Cryptographic failures

Any of these can imperil applications, but well-written custom code adequately handles such risks to bolster security. Input from users should undergo thorough sanitization to prevent injection or other attacks. The sources of data modifications, reads, and execution must also be authenticated.

Security vulnerabilities often relate to data communications. There are numerous components within an SAP solution that have to talk to each other. Such messages may be tampered with to take over a system.

Remote function calls (RFCs) are the common means of communication among different SAP systems. They let one system conduct an operation on another system. Additional application programming interfaces (APIs) can be used when communicating between SAP and non-SAP systems. All these channels must be defended. For instance, login credentials should be encrypted.

The very complexity of SAP solutions adds to the challenges. The more moving parts there are, the more opportunities you have for something to go wrong. Reused passwords among multiple systems and misconfigured applications are just a few of the risks. Instead, aim to simplify your environment. Approyo can help you streamline SAP HANA and other solutions for maximum protection.

Integrated SAP Security

Security isn’t an afterthought. With the ubiquitous threats facing modern enterprises, one must integrate security throughout organizational processes. Security teams should supervise SAP applications—particularly custom code.

If you have a security operations center (SOC), it should also oversee SAP security, rather than having an at-risk silo. By the same token, ensure that a security information and event management (SIEM) system can access your SAP-related logs. This shouldn’t be taken for granted since some logs use proprietary formats that are inaccessible.

Another aspect of SAP security that continues to increase the prospective attack surface is the use of hybrid environments. The more locations where you install and run custom code, the more chances to exploit a vulnerability. With combined cloud and on-premise installations, it’s all the more important to eliminate security holes.

If an attacker finds a flaw in custom ABAP code, an injection can break open the entire SAP system. The attacker may manipulate input to navigate to sensitive areas that were supposed to be locked off. Let loose, the hacker can then steal or destroy your most important data. They may blackmail you or sell your details online.

Custom applications present some of the greatest risks if their developers don’t test for common vulnerabilities. It’s imperative to close security holes that could allow a hacker to use malware such as ransomware against your organization.

Causes of Common SAP Security Vulnerabilities

The sheer scale of SAP Enterprise software can make it difficult to spot security weaknesses. However, here are some of the most common causes:

Configuration Changes

A change to configurations or parameters may be made without awareness of the side effects on security. A simple configuration error can give threat actors unfettered remote access to your SAP system.

Among the most common misconfigurations are access control lists (ACLs). These determine who can do what in an environment, such as controlling the SAP Message Server or SAP Management Console.

When ACLs control access over multiple environments, there are often cracks through which attackers can break into your system. Penetration testing can identify these weaknesses so you can respond. New software versions also bring stronger default ACLs.

Too Little Control Over User Accounts

A related vulnerability is to have insufficient control over user accounts. Leaving default accounts like SAP* and SYSTEM with excessive administrator privileges is asking for trouble. You can disable powerful accounts when not in use or use strong passwords.

Enforcing strong passwords is a good idea for ordinary user accounts too. People should regularly update their passwords, and these should be complex. Other ways to increase SAP security include using single sign-on (SSO) and two-factor authentication.

Unencrypted Data

Custom code that doesn’t involve enough scans or bug hunts will increase your risks. So, developers and admins should incorporate security by design. Encrypting data both at rest and in transit will further help defend data in this time of widespread cloud use.

No Backup Plan

Given the presence of all these security vulnerabilities, it’s wise to have a crisis response plan. Indeed, a lack of backups might also be seen as a vulnerability.

A reliable disaster plan should be tested and include a chain of command. Custom code can be part of your emergency backup plan by intelligently creating copies of enterprise data and facilitating recovery.

Insufficient Monitoring

Finally, logging and auditing round out ways to avoid or resolve SAP security vulnerabilities. The base enterprise system includes facilities for these purposes. Custom code can ameliorate your monitoring to provide greater visibility.

Early detection of suspicious changes anywhere in your applications and database may trigger proactive defense. It also provides useful information for forensic work after a compromise.

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Tools To Ensure Secure Coding and Testing

While SAP security may sound difficult, there are many tools that help. Software products support your efforts in avoiding security pitfalls and implementing solid code.

It takes a lot of time and effort to find SAP security problems by manually reviewing thousands of lines of custom code. This process is also prone to human error—it’s easy to omit bugs or find a false positive. For all these reasons, using automated security tools is practically a must.

Code Vulnerability Analyzer and Associated Tools

The SAP Code Vulnerability Analyzer (CVA) automatically goes through custom software. It processes code in the ABAP programming language and searches for common vulnerabilities. This tool is provided by SAP itself, and the vendor also uses it to verify over half a billion lines of code.

The Code Vulnerability Analyzer investigates custom code for more than a hundred vulnerabilities. By conducting both static and dynamic code analysis, it identifies unsecured paths through which bad actors could inject hacks. Additional vulnerabilities detected include object references and errors that can be hijacked to gain unauthorized access to your resources.

Organizations can employ the CVA throughout the software development lifecycle. During development and maintenance activities, you can test both new and already-running code. On your live SAP system, this tool regularly evaluates custom code to reveal any threatening modifications.

How Security Tools Work

The Code Vulnerability Analyzer tests various aspects of your system, such as authorizations and function modules and transactions. It also assesses potentially unsecured configurations for communications protocols like FTP and RTC.

In conjunction with another tool—SAP’s Transport Management System (TMS)—the CVA blocks dangerous communication requests. What’s more, the Code Vulnerability Analyzer enhances SAP security while using developer tools like Eclipse.

These security tools log their results, including findings with the vulnerabilities, risk severity, and methods to fix. The ABAP Code Inspector is an additional tool that investigates objects for security and other areas like performance.

Developers should employ SAP security technology as a key element of responsible engineering practices. This will bring your custom code to the highest standards of enterprise software and protect your investment.

Advance Your SAP Security With Approyo

Enterprise software serves key needs but exposes companies to online risks. And while custom code adds functionality, it also brings dangers and opportunities. As you create varied new applications, remember to address common vulnerabilities. SAP security must be top-of-mind when writing and using custom code.

The right tools and expertise go a long way toward improving your security posture. Approyo is the leading full SAP service provider and delivers functional support. This covers myriad capabilities, from project management and quality control to human resources and logistics.

In addition to security coverage, Approyo helps you configure your module and stabilize its functionality. The system will be fine-tuned to squeeze out the most possible performance. And you’ll have experts on hand to supply user training and support.

Contact Approyo now to enhance your digital defenses.

SAP HANA Architecture: Building a Complex Network from the Ground Up

Data has become a core business asset for which modern enterprises need a suitable digital solution. Enter SAP HANA, with its fast, feature-rich software capable of powering everything from logistics and production to customer relationships and human resources. But how does the underlying SAP HANA architecture work?

On top of SAP HANA’s core database architecture, businesses can develop further applications not available on the base system. This includes custom applications written in programming languages like Java and R. Collectively, the solution lets organizations build the entire functionality necessary to run a thriving enterprise.

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Advantages of the SAP HANA Architecture

SAP HANA is built to deliver unparalleled business intelligence. The system processes organization-relevant information into actionable insights, which are key to making smarter decisions. Unlike other, slower enterprise software, SAP HANA runs “in memory.” This means that it's much faster hardware components enable ahead-of-the-curve performance.

A huge advantage of running SAP HANA is being able to consolidate your enterprise systems within a single solution. The fast database and sophisticated architecture allow you to run the entire organization. Gone are the problems of impractical data silos and outdated software.

The SAP HANA architecture lets companies process more data than ever before, delivering the performance necessary for today’s competitive business landscape. In addition to taking full advantage of the cloud and mobile devices, the software supplies incisive analytics that drives growth.

Whether you want to optimize an existing system or start afresh, the SAP HANA architecture handles all types of business needs. One of its chief design advantages is how it accelerates workloads by tapping into a wide range of functionalities built for demonstrated industry use cases.

For data-driven businesses, it makes sense to have a reliable technology partner specializing in enterprise software. This is where Approyo can make the difference, with certified and cost-effective end-to-end support for SAP solutions—including HANA. You’ll increase speed and agility, immediately scaling systems up or down in response to dynamic requirements. Further, you can deploy HANA in any combination of cloud and on-premise environments.

SAP HANA Database Architecture

The SAP HANA architecture consists of a database with several separate elements, such as an index server and name server, which work together to store and process business information. The name server contains information about the structure of the system as a whole and runs only in the system database. For example, it stores the list of tenant databases. Meanwhile, every tenant database knows the location of the relevant data tables.

The index server runs in each of the tenant databases, but not in the system database. It’s an important component that holds the data itself as well as the various engines that work on the data. In addition to these servers, there are a range of core and optional servers to process data effectively.

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The Driving Forces Behind SAP HANA Architecture

Enterprise software performs more activities now than ever. As such, it’s had to adapt, and SAP HANA is the most efficient response. The HANA database executes critical duties, with its architecture protecting valuable data against the harshest challenges. The system can handle thousands of users working on the same complex dataset. Moreover, it’s fast—orders of magnitude faster than traditional databases.

SAP HANA architecture is engineered specifically for modern enterprise applications. It incorporates developments focused on business intelligence, text processing, and other technologies. Additionally, the system undertakes standard database tasks—such as authorization and logging—and connects with external applications.

This database system manages two different workload types, known as transactional and analytical processing. Transactional processing takes place, for example, when you record a sale. By contrast, analytical processing occurs in situations like measuring inventory as well as production and delivery times against demand forecasts.

SAP HANA architecture has a column-based engine, unlike conventional row-based databases. The multi-core processors and computer memory help it to power through data, tackling both transactional and analytical processing seamlessly.

In-memory processing is another difference between SAP HANA architecture and older technologies, which traditionally used slower storage. HANA combines techniques such as parallelization and extensions for enterprise applications to achieve unprecedented performance.

Engines for Speed

SAP HANA architecture enables databases to run conventional applications using the plain SQL language—just much faster than before. It also supports more advanced functionality for interactive applications. At all levels, from logical threads to complex arrangements of servers, the system is built to conduct multiple activities in parallel.

The core of SAP HANA architecture is a grouping of engines that process data in the server’s memory. Tables of relational data are normally column-oriented but can be switched back and forth with row orientation in the combined engine.

Other engines process text and graph data. Beyond these, you can extend the SAP HANA architecture to implement additional engines if needed. Data structures are designed to work efficiently in cache, as processing generally occurs in memory for performance.

Because server memory can be limited, a backup is necessary. For this purpose, the database system can move out-of-use data onto slower long-term storage. Then, if the data becomes relevant again, it’s moved back into fast memory for further processing.

How the Database Architecture Works

Added to the standard structured query language (SQL), you have access to several other interfaces. These include the languages MDX and SQLScript.

To manage data, a plan generator converts your SQL query into an “execution plan.” The execution engine then streamlines and runs the code. If your query isn’t in plain SQL, the calculation engine processes it into a flexible data flow model beforehand. The same execution engine takes input from any of the available processing engines.

Further components of SAP HANA architecture include a session manager to maintain links between databases and applications. Then, there’s an authorization manager that controls user privileges, while a transaction manager adds more security by isolating different processes. Finally, the metadata manager stores information about the database itself.

These components can run effectively on a single database site or—if you spread the database out—over a multitude of sites. Although the database runs in memory for optimal speed, it simultaneously keeps a record that lets you reboot or carry out additional tasks without losing any data.

SAP HANA System Architecture

SAP HANA architecture contains a system database as well as tenant databases. The system database is established during installation and administers the central system configuration. It also retains data on the deployment and on tenant databases.

By contrast, the tenant databases hold regular tables useful for projects. All the databases use a common underlying infrastructure. However, each tenant database also has its own users, procedures, tables, backups, and logs. The tenant databases are isolated from each other, so you can safely run any number of applications in the same environment.

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The Logic of SAP HANA Architecture

The SAP HANA system has an architecture for processing logic within the kernel of the database. You describe your business calculations in a language such as SQLScript. The system’s calculation engine then compiles your reasoning into usable plans. Regardless of which language you use, the results are efficiently generated from the model.

Mathematically, we can see the SAP HANA architecture as processing your logic into a graph, where the nodes (or points) are the individual operations and the edges (or lines) are your data. There’s also a category of nodes for common database operations like “select” and “join,” in addition to other operations available for specific use cases.

Logical operations are made even faster, thanks to the column-oriented SAP HANA architecture, which has been optimized to process business data more effectively than conventional tools. The calculation engine includes support for many different types of logic processing.

To illustrate, organizations using detailed statistical models can incorporate algorithms in the R language. A connected runtime environment handles analyses, linear and non-linear models, and techniques like clustering and classification. Meanwhile, the kernel contributes standard database operations before and after the statistical work.

Planning operations include arranging elaborate hierarchies. Within the database, the data flows of the calculation engine represent the planning logic. There are general-purpose operators as well as more specific ones for algorithms, including disaggregation. You can also use your own custom formulas.

Furthermore, SAP HANA architecture supports calculations for complex tasks that would be challenging to write in plain SQL—such as converting currencies or convoluted data relations involving multiple employee records. After creating a calculation model, it exists as a standalone object, somewhat akin to a database view. The model yields a data flow path of the logic; the execution plan processes this into your query results.

Strengths of SAP HANA Architecture

The columnar database is ideal for analytical processing. Parallelization and other design features speed up data reads even further. The database tracks modifications in a “delta storage” that efficiently organizes new data for writing. Every aspect of the architecture, down to where and when each sub-component of a database table is processed, contributes to maximizing speed.

Although this architecture is more suitable for analytical processing, it’s also adept at transactional processing. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software adapts to this design particularly well. The highly variable data structures store more compactly in columns, improving storage requirements and processing speeds.

Another relevant factor is that in practical, industry-type situations, transactional processing generally involves more reads than in theoretical benchmarks—and more reads than writes. This is why the columnar approach works better.

Several other technical elements aid performance. For instance, how data is added and the number of indices used. These features result in a much simpler database architecture that uses less memory and runs queries faster.

SAP HANA Application Development

An important aspect of ERP software is its ability to develop custom applications. These run on top of the central database, extending functionality and performing duties unique to your organization.

SAP solutions deliver functionality useful for the industry. The main modules included with the ERP system cover common use cases. For instance, there are modules that deal with financial data management, customer and product data, as well as manufacturing process flows. For needs outside the principal areas, businesses can create their own apps.

There are many ways to develop apps on SAP HANA architecture. Your team can code an application themselves, or you can work with an experienced consultant. In addition to customization support, Approyo offers module and sub-module configuration, upgrades and migrations, and performance tuning.

Application development leverages a broad range of programming languages and frameworks. You can use JavaScript, Java, Python, or Go to script applications connecting to the SAP HANA database. Then, there’s support for R and SQLScript to implement business logic. And, of course, you can conduct database queries in SQL.

Apps you develop for the SAP HANA architecture will function consistently over cloud and on-premise deployments. Likewise, web and native apps can run equivalently. Developers may even collaborate to create extremely fast and powerful products.

An integrated development environment simplifies coding. Furthermore, developers can choose among environments, including a web-based IDE, the standard SAP ABAP, or the widely used Eclipse. The easiest tools help less technical users produce graphical apps with templates and assistants.

Development Tools

SAP HANA architecture for application development aims to minimize complications so you can focus on solving business problems. The tools incorporate industry best practices and embrace multiple technologies. Common tasks have ready-made solutions available.

Some examples of reusable libraries include the application function library of efficient query procedures and the application function modeler to visualize data with drag-and-drop. The latter works with the predictive analytics library for data mining and the business function library for typical tasks like sales forecasts.

Another feature of this architecture is the application lifecycle management tool. This completes the sequence from planning to production, addressing areas such as product structure and delivery units, testing, and building applications for predictable deployments.

Optimize Your SAP HANA Architecture With Approyo

SAP HANA offers businesses many benefits, from extremely fast processing to intelligent analysis. It helps organizations build enterprise applications that streamline performance and boost profits. The entire SAP HANA architecture is designed to fulfill 21st-century needs.

However, not all companies know about these advantages—or have the resources to make good use of the software. That’s why it’s critical to collaborate with a reliable SAP service provider like Approyo, which is SAP-certified and has hundreds of deployments under management.

Contact Approyo now to secure the full benefits of SAP HANA.

What Are Professionals Saying About Rimini Street’s Performance?

Partnering with an excellent enterprise resource planning (ERP) support provider offers numerous benefits. You’ll have a team of experts on hand to build, maintain, and upgrade all aspects of your mission-critical system. But which ERP support providers are truly excellent? And how does integrated IT services provider, Rimini Street, measure up?

In addition to SAP support, Rimini Street handles installations from Oracle, Salesforce, and other software providers—some of the main ERP offerings on the market. Because all these systems are notoriously complex, it’s common to work with a support partner.

To clarify, third-party SAP support comes from a provider other than the original software vendor. When competently delivered, such support can improve your return on investment and foster innovation. A dedicated SAP service provider both extends the life of your software and maintains it for your organization’s unique needs.

That efficiency translates into low-cost services. In contrast to a software vendor, an independent service provider also gives you more technical and business control, catering to your stipulations. But not all third-party providers are created equal, so it’s important to choose wisely.

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What Makes an Excellent ERP Support Provider?

A highly qualified ERP support provider listens to and understands your basic needs. Beyond that, they have competent technical staff with years of experience in your preferred enterprise resource planning system, such as SAP’s software.

SAP solutions elevate your enterprise software’s functionality. A knowledgeable service provider understands all the core modules and how to extract the most value from them. Regardless of which business vertical you’re in, enterprise software has features that, when used effectively, deliver a competitive edge.

An ERP support provider should have a solid grasp of both the technical and business aspects of the solution. For instance, it’s crucial to understand the data architecture supporting human resources tools, but also to know how to make that data serve your company’s HR management optimally.

In coordinating the technology with your business processes, the support provider employs industry best practices. They’ll excel at configuring and programming the software, while pulling off upgrades and cloud migrations without a hitch.

During operations, any issues that arise are quickly found and fixed, and the consultant works to deliver ongoing improvements to speed and stability. Added to this, they’ll guide your employees in using the system effectively with user-friendly training and customization.

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Why Look for an Exceptional ERP Support Provider?

An enterprise resource planning system is a significant investment, and its complexity and expense make excellent support even more essential. The right support provider brings clarity and experience—plus the ability to suggest the most suitable products and services.

Beyond managing the intricacies of your ERP, a service partner also helps you cut costs. Because consulting companies already have specialized staff, there’s no need to stress about the challenges and expenses of hiring and training in-house personnel. Therefore, a relevant question for ERP providers—such as Rimini Street and Approyo—is how their cost-benefit ratios stack up.

Extensive understanding of ERP products is a must. If you’re using SAP solutions, then your support provider should know the ins and outs of SAP products. To illustrate, Approyo has hundreds of SAP environments under management and helps international organizations with production landscapes of all shapes and sizes.

Each module serves specific purposes. If you’re using, say, SAP’s Materials Management (MM) module, then you should work with a consultant who knows this module well. Cross-module knowledge expands the provider’s value further. Another useful area of expertise is the set of programming languages used for your system, such as Advanced Business Application Programming (ABAP) for SAP technology.

It takes longer and costs more to work through procedures without the requisite product insight. By contrast, decades of experience teach experts how to perform tasks more efficiently. As such, their guidance is worth its weight in gold.

Skills of an Effective ERP Consultant

When it comes to ERP consulting, striking a balance is vital. On the one hand, there’s technical consulting, which looks at understanding the code and data. On the other hand, there are functional consultants who specialize in business processes. An excellent ERP fulfills both requirements, thanks to their all-around competence.

Further to their accumulated knowledge, a good provider should have top-notch business skills. Because every organization has different needs and resources, figuring out how the ERP fits the customer’s specific use case is key. A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t stand up to a solution that’s tailored to your organization.

An often overlooked but significant skill for ERP consultants is documentation. Your support provider shouldn’t just do the work then leave it up to you to figure out the system. Detailed, easy-to-understand, and well-maintained guides are a must for enhancing your efficiency.

Documentation covers topics like design, business blueprints, specifications, and master data templates. These are important points of reference for measuring the performance and success of your software.

Tying in with documentation efforts are the soft skills that facilitate communication. Enterprise resource planning is a complicated endeavor requiring the collaboration of many individuals. Interaction between your team members and the support provider depends on straightforward and timely exchanges, as well as joint efforts. Lack of interpersonal coordination could put the entire project at risk.

What Do Professionals Think About Rimini Street?

Rimini Street is known for its support of enterprise software such as SAP and Oracle solutions. However, their focus is largely on cost saving rather than security or quality. Professionals associate Rimini Street with secondary support outside of the vendor’s own recommendations.

For example, if a company wanted to save money while using older SAP software after SAP itself no longer offers support, they could turn to Rimini Street. This has the potential to delay the upgrade to SAP S/4HANA, with some rather opting to run the older ECC system as long as it is feasible. That said, Rimini Street’s customers can also use SAP S/4HANA if they prefer.

Working with Rimini Street is good for businesses looking to trim their expenses when times are lean. However, although this approach offers basic SAP support, customers won’t have access to the same level of support provided by a global leader such as Approyo.

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Services Offered by Rimini Street

Rimini Street supports several products from major enterprise software vendors. In the case of SAP, these include the enterprise resource planning systems ECC/Business Suite and S/4HANA. Rimini also works with the databases ASE (Sybase) and HANA, plus the business intelligence service called BusinessObjects.

For all supported products, Rimini Street offers coverage up to at least 15 years. The idea is to keep systems on life support while drawing out any remaining use. Although some professionals might see this as a bargain basement solution, it can be useful for organizations not ready to leave behind ECC.

Rimini Street also performs IT service management for clients, which helps simplify business operations and fulfills the need for skilled personnel. Moreover, it gives companies some degree of confidence that they can rapidly prevent and fix problems to keep their infrastructure ticking over.

Customer support times are relatively fast. For instance, critical issues should elicit a response within a couple of minutes—10 at most. This degree of responsiveness is appreciated by users who may have experienced frustration with direct vendor support.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Rimini Street

Rimini Street only keeps a system running, not offering innovation or updates. This puts them at a marked disadvantage compared to more effective service providers like Approyo. Since Rimini Street does not upgrade systems, customers are forced to download patches and run the system until it dies.

There are areas where Rimini Street, or another consultant like Approyo, exceeds SAP. For example, by supplying an individual point of contact or monitoring software and hardware from multiple vendors.

Unlike direct vendor support, Rimini Street’s support includes custom code as in ABAP programs. They can further assist customers with software integrations, performance tuning, and other areas outside the base SAP system.

Mainly, however, professionals think of Rimini Street in relation to the cost savings that they offer. Rather than having the trustworthy security and innovation such as Approyo delivers, Rimini Street customers aim to pinch a few pennies.

There’s an element of risk at play. Organizations need to weigh the uncertainty of Rimini Street’s support reliability against the potential difficulties of upgrading to S/4HANA on SAP’s schedule.

A company using Rimini Street can decide when they think it’s best to migrate or upgrade their ERP. The consultant aids in the production of a technology roadmap, then different software releases are compared to maximize benefits for the client.

As far as SAP S/4HANA support goes, Rimini Street provides strategic services for planning and interoperability. The S/4HANA enterprise resource planning system is supported on-prem or in the cloud—and for hybrid deployments as well. Furthermore, the firm adheres to ISO standards, meaning they’ll do a basic job of managing installations.

Should You Trust Rimini Street?

Some critics argue that despite the purported lower costs, Rimini Street may come out more expensive than the alternatives. When you look at the total cost of the solution, a discount service like Rimini Street could actually be a pricier option—especially if you’re migrating to the cloud or making other sizable changes.

Moreover, there are potential security issues to consider. A case in point is that Rimini Street has been accused (and sued) for failing to use appropriate security practices. By contrast, the vendor itself—or a reputable and certified SAP provider like Approyo—can affordably handle cloud migrations and security.

A lot rests on your enterprise software. Therefore, it’s essential that you trust your ERP support provider. After all, they’re responsible for your data and IT infrastructure, and any harm there could impact both your customers and your reputation.

Rimini Street itself claims it can cut up to 90% of support costs. They aim to streamline your business operations and boost financial results. Professionals differ on Rimini Street’s return on investment but generally concede that the company responds fairly fast. In addition, their billing schedule is regular, so customers know what to expect.

Professionals who are satisfied with their older ERP systems are the ones more likely to favor Rimini Street. They think the legacy solution is sufficiently established to justify its continued use. Instead of spending possibly millions of dollars on upgrades to retain vendor support, they choose to hire long-term maintenance. By contrast, organizations that place more credence in vendor support and the latest official ERP versions are liable to distrust Rimini Street.

How to Handle ERP Customizations

Where the official vendor support generally only applies to core features of enterprise software, it’s quite common in the industry to rely on customizations. These pieces of code are added separately from the main installation and may be written by several parties. It’s not really an option to leave custom code unsupported, as it runs business-critical tasks.

There are several alternatives available to address customizations. Some organizations devote their own staff to maintenance. This can work, but it takes scarce resources away from more pressing tasks. Other organizations hire a third-party consultant. Rimini Street includes support for customizations with its regular offering.

More broadly, companies can reallocate staff, funds, and other resources that went into costly vendor support to more productive avenues. That’s the main draw with economy partners such as Rimini Street.

There are countless ways in which third-party service providers save time and money. They’ll perform duties like researching and resolving problems so that you don’t have to. However, there are drawbacks to Rimini Street’s cheap services—all of which can be addressed with the type of reliable support that’s synonymous with Approyo.

Rimini Street Supports SAP, but Approyo Provides Certified High-Quality SAP Support

It’s important to work with an excellent service provider to manage complex enterprise resource planning software. Yet, there are substantial differences among service providers. What, then, do professionals think about Rimini Street’s performance?

It turns out there are more compelling partners to choose from—such as Approyo. While Rimini Street may be a workable low-cost alternative to SAP support, it has its limitations, security flaws being just one example. A smarter investment is to work with the certified SAP experts at Approyo, the trusted consultant.

Contact Approyo now to enjoy support from the leading full SAP service provider.

Rimini vs. Approyo: Let’s Compare and Rank These 2 SAP Tech Giants

SAP produces some of the leading technology solutions for enterprises globally. This software fulfills many needs, but its complexity means it’s important to have reliable support. Third-party SAP support providers such as Approyo and Rimini Street address this need with expert help. However, there are differences in the quality and types of support that each provider offers.

When deciding on an SAP provider, consider factors like their responsiveness to your needs, their certifications, and their understanding of infrastructure. Additional areas of importance are security and compliance, the ability to manage custom solutions, and their costs. Approyo delivers a well-rounded mix of these advantages compared to Rimini Street.

Third-party SAP support contributes to all aspects of successfully running enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. While support is technically available from the vendor too, it’s usually quite limited and bureaucratic. By contrast, a firm specializing in support delivers fast and full-featured assistance that leaves clients satisfied.

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Features of a Third-Party SAP Service Provider

A third-party service provider offers cost-effective support for SAP application management, custom code, migration, and many other important areas. You also have more control over the direction and technology than if working with the vendor. Independent support is a valuable way to enhance your performance now and for the long haul.

While supporting your SAP software, a service provider can also manage your infrastructure. That adds security while saving you time to focus on core business activities. Another benefit of working with a firm like Approyo or Rimini Street is that they can extend your legacy enterprise systems beyond the vendor-support date.

What’s more, an independent service provider can supplement your team with adaptable IT capacity for the many challenges outside of ordinary vendor support. They give you 24/7/365 response with emergency detection and prevention. In this age of growing digital threats, you need a trustworthy partner.

Third-party SAP support is the fast lane to innovation. Whether you’re taking on a digital transformation or streamlining operations, it’s smart to work with an industry leader. Approyo and Rimini Street both offer support for enterprise software from SAP. Let’s explore how they compare so you can make an informed choice.

Rimini Street: Software Support With a Rich History

One of the better-known service providers for SAP and other enterprise software is Rimini Street. The company focuses on cost-cutting measures for enterprise software from SAP, Oracle, Salesforce, and others.

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Key Services Offered by Rimini Street

Among the main services for Rimini Street clients are SAP support for products including S/4HANA, ECC/Business Suite, and Cloud Products. These technologies cover the basic functionality of an enterprise, such as human capital management and logistics.

S/4HANA is the latest enterprise resource planning software from SAP. While Rimini Street discourages companies from upgrading to this from older ERP systems, it does offer support to those who want it. Its service covers both new migrations from ECC and existing installations of S/4HANA.

Additional Rimini Street services include:

• Custom code coverage
• Mandatory software updates to stay legally compliant
• Rapid support for technical issues
• “Root cause analysis” to understand and resolve problems

These services provide adjustable levels of IT staffing—companies can add technicians in response to growth. The client pays regularly recurring bills and can create tickets to receive support services as necessary. The low cost and fast responses are Rimini Street’s two main selling points, over depth of knowledge or service excellence.

Customers can contact Rimini Street at any time of day. Its support applies to cloud and on-premise deployments, as well as hybrid environments, and services target both the strategic and operational levels. These support areas encompass applications, databases, and professional services. The company also attempts to provide security services.

Pros and Cons of Rimini Street

Rimini Street advertises steep price discounts and faster customer response times compared to vendor support from SAP. And unlike direct vendor support, Rimini Street will cover your custom applications.

It also boasts of supporting older SAP products for 15 years after official support for a product has ended. That’s relevant for organizations that want to keep using ECC after its impending cut-off from SAP support. Instead of being forced into a complex upgrade path, you can plan your roadmap around longer-term goals.

There are several other areas where Rimini Street differs from SAP vendor support. For instance, Rimini Street’s support extends to system performance and interoperability with other systems, unlike SAP support. The third-party provider also has advisory services for cloud, security, and licensing considerations.

Is Rimini Street Really Low-Cost?

Even though Rimini Street presents itself as the low-cost option, the total cost of ownership (TCO) may, in some cases, add up to more than the alternatives. Part of the company’s cost-cutting comes from a reduced quality of service.

Security is another concern as Rimini Street has been sued by the makers of enterprise resource software. In fact, a recent United States District Court ruling hit Rimini Street’s business hard, piling onto previous legal woes the company has experienced over the years. The ruling states that this service provider engaged in security practices deemed lacking and dishonest according to industry standards.

For instance, Rimini Street relies mainly on firewalls, which alone do not provide a comprehensive defense. With critical elements of business depending on data security, this is no time to take unwarranted risks.

In short, Rimini Street’s IT service management is a somewhat comparable model to Approyo’s but without the dedicated focus on your SAP needs. While the pros and cons of Rimini Street make it suitable for companies in need of a sharp discount, most organizations would do better with the market leader Approyo.

Approyo: Comprehensive SAP Services for Competitive Advantage

Approyo is known as the industry leader in providing SAP services. It delivers comprehensive support that’s unmatched in its breadth and quality. With years in business and more than 500 SAP environments under management, Approyo is the standard-bearer for this segment.

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Comprehensive SAP Services by Approyo

Approyo offers a range of SAP solutions, including functional support. For each business function, the company provides configuration and associated services. For instance, Quality Management modules institute quality controls from your supply chain to sales. It also supports other core SAP modules like Project Systems and Functional Help Desk.

Whichever structure your organization has, Approyo will find optimal ways to apply SAP software to solve the relevant business problems. This is what the service provider does—it delivers full SAP support. It also addresses your system upgrades and migrations, including to S/4HANA. Other services include software acceleration and stabilization and user education.

What’s more, Approyo support for SAP HANA produces unequaled business intelligence. This in-memory column-oriented database differs from conventional databases, so it’s important to work with a service provider who understands the HANA way of doing things. They’ll help you get the most out of big data by making it faster and easier to digest.

With end-to-end support for SAP HANA, you can run all aspects of the enterprise on this streamlined platform. Approyo can even structure your database to attain real-time information-processing. The company’s services turn a customer into an agile and cost-effective digital organization.

SAP HANA Support

Approyo’s comprehensive SAP services handle both mobile and cloud applications. Customers also receive assistance with analytics, drawing actionable insights from business data. As a result, processes become more efficient and boost profitability.

Companies that want to migrate to SAP HANA for these benefits can trust Approyo and its simple process:

• The procedure starts with an evaluation of which specific solutions can bring the greatest advantages.
• Then, the client assesses the choices with an Approyo demonstration system.
• Next, the service provider performs the migration according to industry best practices.
• Continuing support keeps the system running smoothly for years. You can also customize SAP HANA further as your organizational needs evolve.

As with Rimini Street, you can apply Approyo support on-premise, in the cloud, or in hybrid situations. Multi-cloud installations are also supported. The service provider determines which precise configuration would optimize your solution, considering both your use cases and your budget.

The entire process results in a fast and affordable deployment. Because the Approyo-backed SAP HANA solution runs so efficiently, clients can cut their expenses for now-unnecessary storage and IT staffing. Reliability also goes up, with consistent monitoring for security and performance.

Finally, SAP HANA is a valuable platform for developing custom applications. Companies can create apps that do tasks not already included in the core functionality. Approyo helps clients integrate their own applications and other related SAP tools such as Analytics Cloud. The cost structure is built on a subscription model where you only pay for what you use.

SAP S/4HANA Support

The SAP S/4HANA enterprise resource planning system is designed exclusively for the SAP HANA database, and Approyo supports both the ERP and the database. The revolutionary S/4HANA enhances performance while adding functionality for effective business planning. It also handles regular transactions to function as the workhorse of your IT strategy.

Here are some key benefits of Approyo support for S/4HANA:

• Companies can determine the most efficient route to revenue generation. This technology uses machine learning on both internal and external data sources. As a result, it improves outcomes better than alternatives like ECC.
• It’s the complete solution for adding digital intelligence and automation to your enterprise. Innovative features such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and business infrastructure unlock opportunities to excel in the market.
• An analysis reveals how to make the necessary data available for processing as you take ideas into production. The service provider can also integrate SAP S/4HANA with any of your existing applications and operating systems.

What’s more, a roadmap workshop outlines the ideal method to implement SAP systems for your needs. Data migration ensures you have all the structure and content to move to the future seamlessly. Finally, the deployment itself instantly empowers clients to use the hottest new features in S/4HANA.

SAP solutions such as HANA and S/4HANA can run in the public cloud or in other environments. The large public cloud offerings deliver practically unlimited scalability. Approyo works with leading providers to deliver SAP on Azure and SAP on AWS Cloud. These rank among the most popular and highest-performing cloud architectures on the internet.

Advantages of Working With Approyo

Working with Approyo gives you access to the most trusted SAP service provider. On top of the benefits you get from other service providers, Approyo identifies and resolves vulnerabilities. It also uses established frameworks for migrations.

Two of the main advantages of working with Approyo relate to guidance. As a highly experienced service provider, it finds ways for you to maximize your return on investment (ROI). In addition, this firm will identify ways to boost the overall efficiency of your business processes using SAP software.

Approyo also supports your customizations and performs functional problem-solving to find and fix any issues in your tech stack. Instead of having to maintain outdated legacy systems, you can bring all your data into one super-fast solution: SAP HANA.

What’s more, Approyo offers anytime monitoring, help desk functionality, and reliable data backups. It can adjust your system or respond to challenges whenever needed. Essentially, the provider’s comprehensive services ensure that your SAP solution works without you having to worry about it.

Unlike Rimini Street, Approyo focuses exclusively on SAP. Plus, Approyo is SAP-certified in HANA operations, meaning your SAP system will reach new levels. The company also understands how to improve performance, security, and governance specifically for your needs. Generic alternatives simply can’t match Approyo’s depth of knowledge and experience.

Get the Best SAP Service With Approyo

A third-party service provider will improve your operations significantly, from security and performance to cloud migrations. But the differences from one provider to another make it important to select the best there is. Two of the main competitors in this space are Approyo and Rimini Street, and Approyo is the clear winner.

Approyo offers more comprehensive solutions than Rimini Street and has multiple SAP certifications. There’s too much riding on your enterprise data to risk going with anything less than the proven expert.

Entrust your mission-critical systems to Approyo, which has a demonstrated ability to deliver rock-solid performance and stability. Organizations around the globe rely on Approyo’s complete range of services to create and maintain SAP systems. The company will even lift your tech environment to record performance.

The best part? You can enjoy these advantages at an affordable cost. Contact Approyo now to make the most of your enterprise software.

AI Automation: The Implementation Process Is Easier Than You Think

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been in development for several decades. But recent advances in machine learning and neural networks led to AI automation models that can learn from experience and adapt to new situations.

One of the most advanced AI tools available today is ChatGPT, an advanced language model developed to understand and generate human-like text. But can its functionality go beyond answering generic queries?

In this article, we’ll explore how ChatGPT can be combined with SAP to manage business operations, customer relationships, supply chains, finances, and human resources.

Let’s look at how an AI-powered chatbot can transform your business.

How SAP Can Automate Your Business Processes

SAP is one of the largest providers of enterprise application software in the world. It integrates multiple parts of your business into an intelligent digital suite.

Some of the latest SAP HANA trends are AI and machine learning (ML). The machine learning functionality is native to HANA, which makes it easier to integrate AI with different applications.

Let’s look at some ways SAP can automate your business processes with its latest AI automation capabilities:

Excellence in Customer Service

SAP Integration Suite is the backbone of process automation. It enables seamless connectivity between different applications and data sources. This simplifies data flow and facilitates a real-time information exchange. When combined with AI, SAP can be used to enhance customer service.

For instance, businesses can integrate AI chatbots into customer service workflows to provide 24/7 support. Chatbots improve response time without the need for human intervention. They can answer FAQs, recommend products, and even help process orders.

Fraud Detection With Machine Learning

SAP Business AI can be trained to recognize anomalies in transaction data. With the help of machine learning, the software can establish a baseline of typical transaction behavior and identify deviations from the norm.

It can also analyze large datasets to uncover fraud. The software monitors system activities in real-time. This lets you respond immediately when suspicious activity is detected.

What’s more, you can use the SAP Cockpit to connect with external data sources, such as public records or third-party blacklists. This enables you to cross-reference and identify high-risk activities.

Improved Data Accuracy

AI automation eliminates the risk of human error and improves data accuracy. This can have a range of benefits, such as:

• Better Forecasting: AI automation can help you predict future trends and demands and plan inventory levels with greater accuracy.
• Better Decision-Making: Accurate data can help you refine strategy and resource allocation.
• Operational Efficiency: Precise data can streamline operations and reduce bottlenecks.
• Cost Reduction: Automatic data processing can eliminate costly errors, such as shipping mistakes and billing discrepancies.

How ChatGPT Can Automate Your Business Processes

ChatGPT is a powerful AI tool that uses natural language processing (NLP) to understand and respond to human language. You can integrate ChatGPT with SAP Build Process Automation (BPA) to automate business processes in several ways:

• Improve Customer Service: You can train ChatGPT to interact with customers, answer their questions, and resolve their issues using FAQs. The tool is also multi-lingual, so it can provide support to a diverse customer base. When integrated with your customer relationship management (CRM) system, it can use customer data to provide personalized recommendations and support.
• Automate Simple Tasks: Customers can interact with the chatbot to request, reschedule, or cancel appointments. ChatGPT can also send automated reminders for appointments, meetings, or important deadlines.
• Automate Content Creation: With AI automation, you can generate consistent, quality content for everything from product descriptions to training manuals.

Benefits and Challenges of Using ChatGPT for Business AI Automation

Using ChatGPT for business automation offers many benefits, but it also presents some challenges.

For instance, it can provide round-the-clock customer support to ensure that your business is always accessible to customers. You can even train it to provide personalized responses which are based on a customer's purchase history. ChatGPT can also create real-time insights using customer interactions, which helps you identify trends and improve your operation.

In terms of challenges, setting up, training, and integrating ChatGPT with existing systems can be both time-consuming and costly. You may need to collaborate with an external SAP consultant to ensure that the integration is executed correctly and efficiently.

ChatGPT also has limited contextual understanding. Its responses are based on patterns and data that it’s been trained on. It needs accurate, high-quality data to give effective responses to customer inquiries. So, you’ll need to invest in data management tools and processes to maintain data quality.

Best Practices in Using ChatGPT and SAP AI for Business Automation

Don’t just jump into AI automation. These best practices can help ensure you make a wise investment that works for your business.

• Set Clear Objectives: Establish clear and measurable objectives. Define what you aim to achieve, whether it’s improved customer service or streamlined processes. A well-defined goal will guide your AI automation strategy.
• Use High-Quality Data: The accuracy and quality of data in your SAP systems are important for the best output. So, ensure your data is clean, consistent, and up-to-date.
• Plan the Integration: Careful planning will ensure data flows without disruption. Evaluate your IT infrastructure to see if it can support ChatGPT integration. What’s more, tools like SAP Signavio can help you visualize and refine the integration process.
• Prioritize Data Security: ChatGPT can process a large amount of data, including personal information and sensitive business data. You’ll need a robust security infrastructure such as encryption, access controls, and authentication protocols to safeguard this data.
• Test and Monitor Regularly: Continuously test and monitor your automation system to identify areas for improvement and catch anomalies.

Implementing Business Process Automation With ChatGPT and SAP AI

One big advantage of ChatGPT is that it can be used across different industries. For instance, let’s say a global manufacturing company with multiple locations around the world can’t handle the high volume of inquiries. It has to spend a considerable amount on human resources to answer routine inquiries, such as procurement, inventory management, and order processing.

Integrating ChatGPT with SAP can automate these tasks. When you train ChatGPT to understand and respond to business process inquiries, you’ll reduce the cost of providing support and improve your bottom line.

AI is already making big waves in retail. But with ChatGPT integration, retailers can do a lot more to automate processes. For instance, ChatGPT can help manage inventory by analyzing sales data and predicting future demand. The AI automation tool can also provide 24/7 customer support, answering customer questions and assisting in the purchasing process.

In the healthcare industry, processing and analyzing vast amounts of patient data can be a big challenge. That’s where ChatGPT can help. It can analyze patient records and recommend customized treatment plans.

Hire an Expert to Seamlessly Integrate ChatGPT With SAP

AI automation can give your business a competitive edge. To learn more about how tools like ChatGPT for SAP can bring efficiency to your businesses, download this comprehensive guide.

Of course, integrating ChatGPT can present some challenges, which is why you’ll need a reliable partner. Approyo is an expert in SAP and AI integration, and our team of experts are ready to guide you through the process to successful implementation.

Connect with Approyo today to unlock the full potential of ChatGPT with SAP.

SAP Analytics Made Easy With ChatGPT: How to Get Started

Predictive analytics is a powerful business tool. Backed by the SAP platform—a standalone enterprise resource planning (ERP) system enabled by AI-SAP integrations—SAP analytics can deliver just about anything. This ranges from modeling consumer behaviors and generating insights into cash flow and staffing levels to assessing risk and managing supply chain logistics.

An emerging set of best practices is helping companies extract maximum value from AI- and SAP-powered predictive analytics.

In late 2022, the Silicon Valley-based tech developer OpenAI publicly released its landmark ChatGPT tool, to global acclaim. By taking generative AI to the next level, ChatGPT quickly drew attention because of its potential to revolutionize the technological side of business management. Organizations have since sought to integrate ChatGPT and similar AI tools with SAP analytics.

Here, we’ll examine potential challenges—and possible solutions—in the realm of predictive analytics, as well as the competitive edge that this technology brings.

The Power of Predictive Analytics and its Challenges

Predictive analytics draws on large volumes of historical data to make projections about potential future outcomes. Here, specific business applications include:

• Demand forecasting. By analyzing historical data, AI-powered predictive analytics tools can anticipate consumer behaviors. This enables businesses to accurately forecast demand for their products or services, boosting efficiency across multiple operational areas.
• Business development. Predictive analytics uncovers growth opportunities for businesses seeking to better serve their markets. As a result, AI-enabled SAP analytics tools can help companies identify gaps in their product or service offerings.
• Risk mitigation. Most businesses face a significant set of operational and economic risks. Companies functioning in regulated industries must also consider risks associated with compliance. AI tools can perform deep analyses, helping businesses better manage these and other risks.
• Consumer behavior. Deep analytics has the power to analyze common features across your customer base and generate insights into their purchasing behaviors. This, in turn, produces targeted marketing strategies that connect more strongly with customers and their values.

To extract maximum value from these applications, businesses also need to anticipate some challenges associated with integrating AI with SAP analytics. Key examples include:

• Quality of data. ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms require large quantities of up-to-date, high-quality data to optimize their analytics outputs.
• Employee capabilities. The employees who use AI-enabled SAP analytics tools for predictive purposes require proper training and support.
• Privacy and security. Some predictive analytics applications involve proprietary or sensitive data. Businesses must, therefore, implement the right safeguards and access controls.
• Complexity. Integrating AI with SAP analytics requires advanced technical infrastructure and a sound, expert-led plan to ensure that integration runs successfully.

Finally, keep in mind that predictive analytics algorithms are both highly specific and complex. As such, you need to choose the right algorithms for your intended application to generate optimal results.

The Role of ChatGPT and SAP in Predictive Analytics

ChatGPT and other generative AI tools rely on a technique known as natural language processing (NLP). NLP equips computerized tools with the ability to understand the details, nuances, and complexities of language and its context.

Human users can train AI on specific data, improving its ability to extract and refine targeted analytical insights. NLP has strong synergy with SAP analytics, given the dynamic robustness of the SAP platform and its application development potential. The two technologies complement each other. To illustrate, carefully trained AI harnesses a deep set of powerful and customized insights from SAP analytics data. Furthermore, it can also automate simple communication tasks, improving customer service and allowing businesses to make more productive use of their human resources.

Additional benefits of integrating AI with SAP analytics include:

Real-Time Data Insights

With AI integration, SAP analytics can deliver actionable, data-driven insights in real time. ChatGPT’s advanced NLP features support the immediate generation and refinement of customized visualizations and reports. These capabilities can particularly help businesses with deep reliance on supply chains—as well as those dealing with shifting consumer needs and demand patterns.

AI has the ability to streamline data entry and reporting tasks, thus reducing the need for human labor and its associated costs.

Proactive Decision-Making

Businesses often integrate AI with SAP analytics to assist proactive decision-making processes. It’s an area where AI can dramatically enhance the efficiency, accuracy, and depth of business forecasting, generated by intelligence-focused analytics.

A case study performed by the Eindhoven University of Technology on data from UWV, a major Dutch employee insurance agency, highlights the potential of AI-powered real-time analytics. The study logged usage patterns among various customer contact channels and analyzed the channels most often used by customers in specific situations—such as registering concerns or complaints.

This analysis aimed to identify ways in which businesses could address incoming customer queries without forcing them to switch to different channels. It involved heavy, detailed analyses of channel transition, including behavioral and demographic data, among other variables.

With the help of ChatGPT in analyzing data, the study identified ways to:

• Reduce complaint case backlogs by up to 40%
• Lower the typical complaint resolution time by 25%–35%
• Cut the need for repeated customer contact by 15%–20%
• Increase complaint resolution on first contact by 10%

The results indicate the powerful potential of combining AI with SAP analytics to dramatically improve both operational efficiency and the customer experience.

Cost Efficiency and Improved Accuracy

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT can provide data and recommendations that enhance the accuracy of insights harvested from master data. For example, AI can quickly classify and organize data based on its defining attributes, enabling precise and targeted application of adjunct SAP analytics tools.

In addition, AI can extract data from documents almost instantaneously. This optimizes the routing and management of customer service tickets, reduces manual labor needs across multiple accounting processes, and minimizes processing errors. These features also improve the cost efficiency profile of AI-powered approaches to SAP analytics.

Getting Started with SAP Analytics and ChatGPT

Organizations across a broad cross-section of industries already use the SAP HANA multi-model relational database tool to store, organize, and retrieve data. The next step is to integrate ChatGPT or other AI tools with SAP HANA.

Once businesses have identified a precise and carefully defined use case, they can then select an appropriate algorithm for the intended application. A case in point is regression algorithms, which excel at projecting continuous numeric values. There are also classification algorithms, which group data into pre-selected categories, and time-series algorithms that analyze historical data to forecast future values. Depending on your intended use case, one or more of these algorithm types may figure into your plans.

From there, you can refine your models to improve their depth and accuracy. This may require:

• Adding more data
• Using multiple algorithms to perform analytical tasks
• Fine-tuning your algorithm’s focus
• Deploying ensemble methods to combine multiple results into a single analytical output

Expert Guidance Makes It Easier for Businesses to Integrate AI with SAP Analytics

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT can yield powerful performance-boosting results when integrated with SAP analytics. This is where expert guidance can help you extract maximum value from your efforts and investment.

Approyo offers deep support to businesses seeking to integrate generative AI with SAP analytics to build competitive advantages. Clients can purchase an expertly authored ebook to learn more about the integration process, or contact Approyo to arrange a personalized consultation.

7 Huge Benefits of ChatGPT and SAP You Should Consider

OpenAI publicly released its next-generation ChatGPT AI tool in late 2022. For the early-adopters, the benefits of ChatGPT quickly became apparent—from conducting analytics to improving organizational efficiency.

Businesses have since integrated AI tools like ChatGPT with SAP, a popular enterprise resource planning (ERP) software suite. Application programming interfaces (APIs) power these integrations, allowing ChatGPT and SAP to share data dynamically and in real time.

When integrated with SAP, ChatGPT can upgrade the business environment across multiple areas. Examples include process streamlining and automation, improved customer service, cost savings and resource optimization, and enhanced data-driven decision-making.

Businesses can thus realize major competitive advantages and efficiency improvements by harnessing the synergies of generative AI and SAP platforms. Let’s explore these advantages in greater depth.

Advantage #1: Automating Routine Tasks

The ability to automate labor-intensive but routine tasks ranks among the most important benefits of ChatGPT. Common tasks that AI can automate include:

• Data entry
• Appointment scheduling and reminders
• Order processing
• Generating customized reports and visualizations

By integrating AI with SAP tools, organizations can use ChatGPT to multitask and carry out disparate operations smoothly and accurately. To illustrate, AI is able to simultaneously conduct inventory inquiries, send purchase orders, and manage customer data—all without toggling between multiple windows.

Increased automation and streamlining also impacts a company’s human resource commitments, freeing up personnel to focus on more productive tasks. As such, it saves money as well as improving organizational efficiency and reducing errors.

Advantage #2: Personalized Assistance and Support

Businesses that integrate AI with SAP enjoy instant, real-time access to personalized assistance, an enhanced user experience, and superior support. Users then introduce historical data, specify preferences, and connect AI-powered SAP tools to their own unique profiles. This allows ChatGPT to synergize with SAP to generate personalized insights, actionable suggestions, and custom recommendations.

Furthermore, ChatGPT has the ability to handle large query volumes simultaneously and distribute near-instantaneous results. Your team members will therefore receive timely and accurate answers to questions—reducing their workloads and improving their efficiency.

Advantage #3: Cost Reduction and Resource Optimization

By streamlining and automating tasks, businesses dramatically reduce their operating costs and make the most of available human, IT, and financial resources. Here are some specific examples of how AI-powered SAP tools can cut spending and optimize efficiency:

• Automating basic but laborious and time-intensive data entry and similar tasks
• Optimizing procurement, inventory management, and supply chain management with real-time and predictive data analytics
• Improving product shipping routes to minimize delivery costs
• Generating deep, data-driven insights to pinpoint previously unidentified areas for cost reduction and process improvements

In addition, ChatGPT can check over work performed by your human teams for accuracy. This reduces errors, boosts efficiency, and further reduces expenses.

Advantage #4: Enhanced Customer Satisfaction

The benefits of ChatGPT and SAP integrations extend to the customer service arena. Some AI-driven advantages include better first-contact query resolution rates while rationalizing the use of multiple contact channels. With higher levels of efficiency, you’ll see improved customer satisfaction and loyalty—increasing your likelihood of earning repeat business. As these customer support services are scalable, organizations can handle large volumes of incoming queries without needing to hire more employees.

AI tools also perform real-time social media analyses that tap into current customer sentiment trends. This helps businesses immediately identify and act on areas that need improvement—or take advantage of competitor shortcomings. Companies can therefore rake in additional business, all while providing customers with a superior experience.

ChatGPT also gives customers a dynamic, intelligent way to ask questions and find detailed information about your products and services. This makes for more efficient interactions as well as heightening customer engagement. The end result is a positive impression on existing as well as prospective customers.

Advantage #5: Data Security and Compliance

Cybersecurity and data privacy are critical issues for any organization. One of the most appealing benefits of integrating ChatGPT and SAP is the robust set of security measures they share. Developers and end users can combine these features with safe usage best practices to optimize both data security and regulatory compliance.

First, ensure that the AI models you are integrating with SAP adhere to established regulatory standards, such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines. This establishes an effective baseline upon which to build more advanced and complete security and privacy protocols.

Next, consider the following cybersecurity and data privacy best practices:

• Use encryption tools to protect sensitive, private, or proprietary information
• Limit the number of people able to edit or modify data
• Interact with ChatGPT via API access rather than the internet to reduce the amount of data sent over the web
• Consider using firewalls, intrusion detection software, and trustworthy third-party data privacy tools to further limit and control data access
• Use ethical hacking, penetration testing, and regular security audits to assess safety, identify vulnerabilities, and remediate shortcomings

Advantage #6: Improved Decision-Making

Predictive analytics arguably represent the most powerful of the many business benefits of ChatGPT and SAP integration. Drawing on large quantities of historical data, AI-powered predictive analytics allows businesses to accurately model a comprehensive set of potential future scenarios.

A partial list of the operational areas that predictive analytics can improve includes:

• Projecting staffing needs
• Procurement and inventory management
• Cash flow management
• Risk management
• Supply chain, shipping, and delivery logistics

Predictive analytics have the power to generate detailed sales forecasts, predict churn rates, and generate customized insights into practically any aspect of business operations. Here, AI-driven SAP tools also allow managers to generate and refine highly detailed custom reports and data visualizations in order to realize precision insights.

Advantage #7: Scalability and Flexibility

Another key benefit of ChatGPT and SAP integrations is their adaptability. Generative AI tools make ERP software suites more readily adaptable to changing business dynamics and needs. That’s because users can customize functions with new datasets, additional context, and software updates. This, in turn, makes AI-powered SAP integrations more flexible, while enhancing their long-term usability.

ChatGPT and SAP are both readily scalable. As such, they can maintain their performance as query volumes and user demands increase and become more complex, and as new use cases emerge. Integrated AI and SAP technologies are therefore ideal for businesses with plans to expand their operations and product or service offerings in the future.

Approyo Helps Businesses Realize the Benefits of ChatGPT and SAP Integration

To maximize the benefits of ChatGPT, companies must execute SAP integrations in targeted, strategic ways. Expert guidance can dramatically improve outcomes for businesses with limited resources, knowledge, or experience in integrating generative AI with SAP or other ERP platforms.

Approyo provides extensive resources and personalized support. You can learn more about ChatGPT and SAP integrations from our user-friendly ebook, Mastering SAP: The Power of AI in Business: How to Use ChatGPT with SAP. In addition, enterprise clients are welcome to contact Approyo for a personalized consultation about AI, SAP integrations, and other tools to optimize their business.