How to navigate and overcome the challenges in the transition to SAP BTP

Any change introduced into a business, no matter how small, will require an adaptation period: routines that need to be replaced, learning a new way of doing things and experimenting with small adjustments until finding the strategy that fits best. If the change is significant, it might even seem at first that it wasn’t a good idea and that things were better before. However, by fully navigating the learning curve and persevering through initial challenges, the promises that motivated our transition will begin to materialize.

This is, in a very exaggerated sense, what can happen to companies that decide to adopt SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), a solution that offers a wide range of services and tools to drive the modernization and digitalization of processes, data, and business models through extension, integration, development, and innovation scenarios. The potential is enormous and can initially feel overwhelming, which is why it’s a good idea to be aware of the challenges we might encounter during this transition period. Being more prepared to face them will help us stay focused on the learning process without letting those inevitable hurdles divert us.

CEPSA has already gone through this entire process and has emerged victorious on the other side. These are the challenges they encountered.

The level of expertise

Transitioning to SAP BTP from another development platform represents a significant change. The years of experience accumulated with the solution now being replaced provided a speed and confidence in operations that must now be relearned. However, as Raúl Alonso García, Head of Architecture and Platform at CEPSA, points out, “this is almost the least of the challenges.” It’s simply a matter of adapting to something new and gaining experience. Expertise, speed, and confidence will eventually come.

The cultural shift in development

A platform change also entails a cultural transformation: learning to perform tasks differently, which will first be noticeable in the company’s Architecture team. At CEPSA, in particular, this department aims to promote the concept of Clean Core from a platform engineering perspective. To achieve this, they enable other teams to develop according to the best practices established by the Architecture team and adopt their ways of working.

For this reason, the transformation will also be experienced by the development teams of collaborating companies. These teams, even if they already have some expertise in BTP, will need to adapt to the best practices set by, in this case, CEPSA. “They have to learn to work the way we want; just knowing a bit about BTP isn’t enough,” says Raúl Alonso García.

It needs to be balanced with other projects that take up time

The regular work and ongoing projects of the Architecture department do not disappear, nor can they be put on hold to focus entirely on defining the new platform from scratch. “Many strategic decisions need to be made, a process that takes a lot of time away from platform evolution,” says the Head of Architecture and Platform at CEPSA. Some of the projects the company is working on and cannot pause, as the business doesn’t wait, include the evolution of human resources or the implementation of SAP BRIM.

As the Architecture department, they must continue to support the entire business: providing support, maintenance, and operation within the platform.

How to overcome the challenges of the transition to SAP BTP

In an ideal world, companies could pause and focus all their efforts on calmly learning the intricacies of the new platform and patiently adapting to new ways and a new work culture. However, as was made clear in the previous section, business doesn’t wait. The entire process of design, governance definition, implementation, and learning must be carried out with the goal of minimizing the impact on the company’s day-to-day operations.

To achieve this and to ensure that no mistakes are made or missteps taken that could cause delays or even losses, it’s advisable to have the support of a partner with expertise in SAP BTP (and, generally, in the SAP ecosystem) that the transitioning company may lack. At NTT DATA, this is precisely what we handle.

Our experience with the platform, combined with the deep knowledge we’ve accumulated over years of helping companies through this transition, allows us to be that partner who guides, advises, and ensures that resources are not wasted. We provide informational sessions, examples of strategies and best practices, and demonstrate all the possibilities that SAP BTP offers and how each specific business could benefit from them. Our task list when helping a company migrate its business processes to SAP BTP is long and thorough, aimed at preventing the issues that could otherwise arise from a lack of platform experience, the time needed to adapt to the new culture, and the necessity of managing the company’s day-to-day operations.

Ultimately, this results in a smoother transition, allowing companies to realize the full potential of SAP BTP more quickly.