Everyone has what it takes to be a developer

Companies around the world are facing the same challenge: a shortage of skilled workers. The pandemic has highlighted this. IDC analysts predict "that the global developer shortage of 1.4 million in the year
2021 to 4.0 million in 2025." SAP is addressing this by giving companies new tools and integration capabilities, as well as embedded AI and a new learning platform. This ensures that both employees and applicants can build new skills for the cloud-first age. The new products were first unveiled at SAP TechEd 2021, SAP's global developer conference.

Anyone can develop apps

"Globally, the future for our customers and partners is in the cloud" said Jürgen Müller, CTO and member of the SAP Executive Board. "But for this journey, they need the right people and the appropriate skills and capacities - a major challenge. SAP solutions help both business and professional developers to continuously learn and develop."

SAP introduces a unified low-code/no-code experience based on the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) - enabling both professionals and non-professionals to develop new apps. Existing apps can be improved and complex tasks automated. In addition, the AppGyver solution, acquired earlier this year, offers no-code development and automation, while Business Application Studio boosts low-code development. For professional developers, SAP also offers free access to SAP BTP, which includes Hana Cloud, Integration Suite, and a preview of "Horizon," the new visual theme for the SAP Fiori design system.

Modular enterprise solutions

There were also a number of other updates at TechEd. These help customers integrate and grow their business using modular, agile solutions. The new version of the Integration Suite, the integration layer of the BTP, additionally offers preconfigured content and adapters for the integration of SAP applications as well as third-party applications via the API Business Hub. From the end of 2021, the SAP Integration Suite will also be available for the Google Cloud Platform.

SAP will also soon release new dynamic capabilities in Hana Cloud. These will help customers move workloads from their on-premises systems to the cloud in near real-time. SAP is also introducing new capabilities to facilitate migrations from on-premises SAP BW systems to the SAP data warehouse cloud solution, as well as enhanced localization options for S/4 Hana Cloud.

SAP is expanding embedded AI capabilities - enabling developers and customers to leverage the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and drive productivity. For example, new capabilities in SAP Conversational AI simplify the development and control of chatbots to automate tasks and processes. The new Personalized Recommendation solution - a neural network-based recommendation engine - delivers highly personalized suggestions for a wide range of business scenarios.

Numerous SAP products and services now leverage the power of AI to, for example, automatically match documents between companies, extract and process data from business documents, or make learning recommendations.

From the classroom to the executive floor

SAP is also launching a new SAP Learning website. The free offering is aimed at SAP developers. The simple, intuitive design enables easier, faster learning and training in key innovation areas. The website offers a comprehensive range of learning content, available in a variety of formats: from expert-led lessons to hands-on training and microlearning videos.

SAP is also introducing an AI curriculum for secondary schools and a program to provide SAP cloud solutions to universities and professors.