The opening keynote of ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ TechEd in 2024 clearly brought to life ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄βs vision to make customersβ lives easier, showing the ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ portfolio come together to deliver a suite-like experience with highly configurable software and meaningful AI. As Muhammad Alam, member of the Executive Board of ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ SE, ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ Product Engineering, put it: βOur innovations donβt exist in isolation; they are deeply embedded within our product portfolio. Weβre making sure the technology isnβt just advanced, but itβs accessible and impactful.β
The keynote featured demos of new cross-portfolio solutions and innovations, showing how they can work together to tackle challenges like scaling and expanding into new markets, managing complexity, and delivering personalized experiences. βInnovation is only as powerful as the product experience it delivers,β Alam said. βItβs one thing to have cutting-edge tools at your disposal, but itβs another thing to integrate those technologies into the products you rely on every day to solve real-world challenges.β
Faster, Better, Automated
Since last yearβs ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ TechEd, has delivered more than 1,000 road map items, has a year-to-date overall availability again above 99.99%, and has grown an adoption rate over 60% year over year. The 27,000 customers and 2,800 partners are a testament to the huge demand we are seeing for ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ BTP.
This is why the platformβs availability is being expanded to eight ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄-managed data centers across the globe, in addition to running on infrastructure provided by our partners AWS, Microsoft, and Google. With that, we are bringing ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ BTP closer to customers.
Along with the expanded coverage comes more learnings, guidance frameworks, integration flows, and use cases. ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ Business Accelerator Hub and ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ Discovery Center will be bolstered with more assets and use case-specific guidance, especially around AI and business process transformation.
To further the developer experience, the next release of solutions will include ABAP Cloud, making ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ Build the go-to for building extensions. Along with the new ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ Build extensibility wizard, which helps to create extensions in ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ S/4HANA, ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ is making it easier for customers to build extensions while keeping a clean core. This is critical to ensure that customersβ systems remain consistent, maintainable, and upgradeable.
ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄βs AI copilot will also be integrated into ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ Build, so developers can be more productive and take advantage of the efficiencies and automation AI can provide. With Joule studio, the copilot will even be able to draw on structured data stored in third-party systems, better enabling developers to design custom skills for Joule in a low-code environment.
And to help developers ground large language models (LLMs) in the ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ semantical model and build business apps, the new ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ Knowledge Graph solution provides the connection between natural language and ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄βs metadata. The solution provides a deeper level of understanding across ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄βs data landscape, enabling more informed, data-based decision-making. Together with ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ HANA Cloud knowledge graph engine and ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ HANA Cloud vector engine, developers can build generative AI models rooted in ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄-specific business semantics, helping to build a more reliable, enterprise-ready AI experience accurately and effectively.
A New Level of Productivity
Not only are ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ Build solutions enabled with Joule, but ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ is continuing to integrate AI across its entire portfolio, including ERP, customer experience, human capital management, localization, spend management, sustainability, supply chain management, and more. As announced at ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ Sapphire in 2024, 80% of ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄βs most-used workflows will be covered by Joule by the end of this year.
Joule is going agentic, meaning it can use AI agents powered by LLMs to help solve complex business problems on its own through planning, self-reflection, logical reasoning, and collaboration. For example, Joule can help resolve a customer dispute about an overdue bill by calling on AI agents specialized in contracts, invoices, and payment history. With each AI agent doing what they do best, they can work together to solve more complex business problems across functions and break down silos.
AI is best when it can be used in the flow of work and when it is meaningfully embedded as part of a unified user experience across the portfolio. Sometimes this is on a desktop, but often we look to use AI on our mobile devices. To make AI accessible anytime and anywhere, ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ is introducing Joule into its mobile applications via ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ Mobile Start β while still maintaining enterprise-level security and privacy and staying true to the companyβs values of relevant, responsible, and reliable AI.
Clear and Customer-Centric, Not Complex
Ultimately, all the innovations announced at ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ TechEd in 2024 and demoed in the opening keynote have one main goal: to make the lives of customers easier β whether it be through leveraging generative AI to accelerate development projects, making more informed business decisions with intelligent data applications, mitigating project management struggles with AI, confidently and compliantly localizing business operations, or enabling sales reps with intelligent selling tools to win deals.
βTechnology should simplify, not complicate. It should bring clarity, not complexity,β Alam said. βThis is why weβre constantly pushing the boundaries of whatβs possible while keeping your business goals front and center.β
To learn more about all the solutions and innovations announced at ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄ TechEd in 2024, , , or explore more event news and coverage.
Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at ΒιΆΉΤ΄΄.
