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An open architecture with SAP®

Capgemini
2019-04-03

As one of the handful Chief Architects at Capgemini and part of the European SAP Center of Excellence (CoE), I have lately been studying how IT and SAP work better when SAP is part of the overall IT Supply Chain. Among different frameworks available today and with the advent of SAP S/4HANA, in this blog I want to throw some insights into how IT4IT accelerates IT, creating a unique value chain where business demand and services are addressed in the same manner regardless of whether the request is SAP related or not. The key benefits of standardizing the IT pipeline and putting SAP through that pipeline are that you will align with modern concepts like DevOps, Agile, Cloud and the intelligent enterprise. You will also have your services (SAP and non-SAP) delivered faster and with better business insight (data transparency).

I recently published a whitepaper with key messages around:

  1.    How can IT4IT help with SAP in your organization?
  • What IT4IT is and what it can bring to an SAP environment.
  • How to map the IT4IT values streams to common functions in SAP service lifecycle.
  1.    Integrating SAP into the IT Supply Chain using the IT4IT standard for the Intelligent Enterprise
  • SAP Intelligent Enterprise is evolving to address market demand. SAP’s recent direction of SAP C/4 HANA, SAP S/4 HANA or customer-facing Hybrid Cloud, is a paradigm shift from its past releases which forces current SAP customers to adopt agile and more cloud-based services.
  • SAP with Leonardo is adopting new applications/features such as Analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
  • The Open Group IT4IT standard will make it much easier to both transform SAP instances to cloud-based services in a digital enterprise and also manage the integrations to SAP better.
  1.    IT4IT Reference Architecture and Implementations to test, rollout and operate SAP based implementations better
  • The IT4IT value chain and reference architecture provide the framework for faster and collaborative working, getting rid of things unique to SAP (lifecycles and supply chains), integrate with non-SAP and internal/external IT (current problem) optimization of current IT.

This white paper is not limited towards SAP owners who are responsible for migrating SAP and unfamiliar with IT4IT. Our target audience covers:

  • C-level (CIO, COO) and other decision makers over the digital transformation and IT supply chain optimization in their organization.
  • Customer SAP Competence Centre members who plan, implement, operate SAP Applications and IT landscape.
  • IT professionals who support the SAP team with Network, Storage, Compute and Cloud services.
  • IT professionals that interface SAP to other customers internal related systems/applications or supplier and customer or external service provider e.g. PayPal, credit check, Suppliers, Reseller, HR services, Network services, archiving services, email, etc.
  • Enterprise Architects either in a company or within System Integrators who design SAP IT landscapes and architectures and who coordinate the implementation across teams.
  • Application Services provider or infrastructure provider in the SAP space or outsourcing companies.

To read the whitepaper or learn how the IT4IT value streams and the IT-Reference Architecture gives you prescriptive guidance on how to manage your SAP service life cycle, do not hesitate to write to me at anil.lakhan@capgemini.com.

Authored by: Anil Lakhan