Blog 4: Mastering the Data Dance: The Potential of Clean Core and AI
Summary: A modern data management architecture, based on SAP’s Unified Data & Analytics solutions, empowers you to set your data and AI strategy on a solid technological foundation to generate real business value. This article is part of our new blog series where we describe how the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) can help you to make your SAP landscape future-proof.
As mentioned in the first blog, Clean Core and Artificial Intelligence (AI) become key in 2024. In my first blog within this series, I will delve into the significant role that data and its management play in both of these topics.
Clean Core:
As one of the four SAP BTP domains data management and analytics facilitates the achievement of SAP's Clean Core concept. Effective data management becomes particularly paramount as data must be complete, correct, used and relevant. They have to be carefully organized, structured, and managed focusing on critical aspects like data quality, data archiving, data cleansing, data security, data protection and data ethics. It is essential that transactional, analytical, and AI processes built on this data operate flawlessly.
Organizations that maintain a Clean Core promptly reap benefits and demonstrate leadership in business operations by effectively utilizing cloud technology. They champion sustainable operations based on consistent data through enhanced tracking, monitoring, and analysis across the value chain.
Consistent master, transactional and configuration data through a comprehensive data management thus ultimately ensures the robust performance and error-free operations of the SAP Clean Core. It contributes to a smooth and efficient system, forming the bedrock for reliable, data-driven decision-making processes. Data has to be fit for purpose, which is why you have to get and keep your data clean in your business systems of record to accelerate and de-risk downstream AI, analytics, and application deployments. Recognizing the value of data means treating it as a strategic asset from the very beginning by using a process-integrated master data management tool like SAP Master Data Governance.
Master Data Management:
Master Data Management is a cornerstone of SAP Clean Core as it reduces complexity, simplifies data management, and allows for greater scalability by eliminating redundancy and data duplication. Clean, reliable data means better targeting, personalization, and service for customers. In essence, Master Data Management is fundamental for the SAP Clean Core paradigm to ensure data accuracy, operational simplicity, regulatory compliance, and improved decision-making abilities.
SAP Master Data Governance serves as an instrumental tool, aptly designed to forge a comprehensive approach to master data management across diverse domains. Its primary function is to noticeably elevate the precision of your business data.
Data Migration:
In aiming for a clean core, you must consider all types of data, including but not limited to master data. Transactional data, for instance, also needs to be closely monitored. These data types must be handled with the utmost care and meticulously migrated to ensure the smooth operation of the Digital Core. With SAP Advanced Data Migration and Management by Syniti, your migration initiatives will run seamlessly thanks to advanced machine learning and automation processes. We focus on maintaining top-notch data quality to ensure smooth operations. In addition, you can capture data changes, policies, and other related information, acquire recommendations for next steps, preserve knowledge for future use, and improve decision-making.
Data Archiving:
Data archiving is crucial for the SAP Clean Core paradigm as it improves system performance by regularly archiving outdated, seldom-used data, aids regulatory compliance, and makes system upgrades and migrations more efficient by reducing data volume. Additionally, it leads to effective cost management by optimizing system storage and contributes to a clean data environment, thus enhancing reporting and analytics accuracy. Therefore, data archiving is a vital practice for maintaining an effective and efficient SAP Clean Core. With SAP Archiving and Document Access by OpenText you can off-load legacy data and still make it available long term, so you can confidently decommission legacy systems and speed migrations, consolidations, and upgrades.
AI:
In the realm of Business AI, data is not only the core but also the key to success - without sufficient quality and ethical handling of data, an effective and responsible use of AI is simply impossible. Data quality is the primary factor limiting adoption of generative AI.
Business Data Fabric:
A critical building block for AI is a business data fabric. To delve into what a business data fabric entails, let's begin unpacking it from the ground up. At its core, a data fabric architecture streamlines operations and facilitates digital transformation by connecting various data sources for seamless information flow, boosting accessibility and integration. It breaks down data silos, enabling real-time analytics, decision-making and AI while supporting data governance.
A business data fabric enhances the conventional data fabric approach. It not only simplifies complex data landscapes and provides valuable data to all users, but it also preserves the inherent business logic and application context of the data - essentially, it keeps the data's DNA intact. This approach eliminates the need to rebuild lost business context from data extraction and replication, thereby empowering business stakeholders and data consumers to make faster, confident decisions, knowing they have a comprehensive understanding of their data, no matter where it's stored or its original design.
SAP Datasphere’s unified approach is the foundation of a business data fabric as it simplifies data management across diverse environments and preserves critical business semantics with an industry-leading semantic layer and a knowledge graph.
SAP Datasphere creates a scalable and controlled base for generative AI use cases by integrating and harmonizing data from different sources into one central, governed layer. The Business Data Fabric is linking up with hyper-scale machine learning environments for a live data exchange, while still ensuring governance and security measures are intact to truly grasp and understand business data and analytic scenarios. Additionally, it is fully utilizing the integration with SAP Analytics Cloud Generative AI Co-Pilot to enable AI-driven analytics conversations.
SAP offers a unique business data fabric which integrates with SAP Analytics Cloud planning, providing a comprehensive technology stack necessary for translating data into insights and future actions. A Business Data Fabric serves as an ideal foundation for modern data management approaches such as Data Mesh, effectively realizing principles such as decentralization and the provision of high-quality data products. Data products promote data sharing and self-service access across applications. SAP enhances this process by improving user experience, thereby fostering widespread data sharing. It involves data products, be it SAP's own applications or third-party solutions, easily consumed in SAP Datasphere.
While a data management landscape made from best-of-breed solutions from a modern data stack may appear attractive, it can be costly. Studies show that the Total Cost of Ownership of a Business Data Fabric with SAP Datasphere is significantly lower than that of a self-assembled platform.
Intelligent Data Applications:
Intelligence is a foundational capability for consumer or business applications that are augmented with AI and various connected data from transactions and external sources. Generative AI can truly make apps more intelligent — transforming the experience of customers, users, product owners, architects, and developers. Infused with data from transactions and external sources, intelligent applications push insights within apps business users already use. AI can add predictions or recommendations, instead of more procedural features, allowing apps to be tailored to the user, improving outcomes, and advancing data-driven decision making.
SAP HANA Cloud, another critical building block, empowers customers to construct intelligent data applications, which harmoniously merge the intuitive nature of human interaction with potent machine learning and multi-modal processing abilities. The recent addition of the new vector engine enhances this synergy even more.
SAP Intelligent Data Applications take advantage of built-in algorithms for capabilities such as business functions, machine learning, graph processing, and spatial analysis. They are data-intensive by nature, requiring the ability to ingest and process data in any format from any source, in real-time as events occur, enabling process automation and ad-hoc business decision-making on both current and historical data. Intelligent Data Applications serve as side-by-side extensions to the modern ERP stack, but with their vast potential, can also be used far beyond that scope.
This concludes our current discussion on the significance of data for Clean Core and AI. In forthcoming communications in the line of this blog series, I will delve deeper into the essential role of data and analytics in facilitating a thriving transformation.
The Blog Series 10 + ways to reshape your SAP Landscape with SAP BTP will be published regularly and the latest blogs can be found here:
- Blog 1: The Central Role of Clean Core and AI
- Blog 2: The Role of BTP as Extension and Innovation Platform
- Blog 3: How SAP Clean Core Strategy can accelerate your Transformation
To get more insights, please also visit one of our BTP Innovation Days:
- Innovation Day Switzerland: Bern 14-May-24 SAP | SAP BTP Innovation Day Switzerland
- Innovation Day Germany Essen 16-May-24 SAP | SAP BTP Innovation Day
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