A reason to celebrate

In October 2019, the joint Embrace initiative between SAP and Microsoft was publicly announced. The core elements of this exclusive joint initiative were to simplify and accelerate the transition from ECC to S/4 Hana in the Azure cloud and to drive integration and innovation. And we did this together with system integrators and our customers.

The name of the Embrace initiative is therefore also to be understood symbolically, as together with partners and customers, the integration and innovation potentials in particular are defined and realized through the strongly integrated SAP and Microsoft product portfolios and technology stacks. What is also unique so far is that and how SAP and Microsoft have jointly supported partners in establishing their companies as "Embrace Practice".

If in the past system integrators as SAP or as Microsoft partners supported customers in migrating from ECC to S/4 or in migrating to the Azure cloud, customers' expectations of partners and the added value of migrating from ECC to S/4 on Azure have increased.

In addition to cost savings in operations, innovation and support for digital transformation are also expected. The continuously more tightly integrated product worlds of SAP and Microsoft meet these expectations and new requirements, whether through the possibility of defining new products and services or through the support provided by digital integrated processes or new business models and digital transformation.

The starting point and the path of digital transformation to the Intelligent Enterprise in the Intelligent Cloud must be defined specifically for each company and is different. There is no Embrace standard solution out of the box that fulfills this, but there are numerous reference architectures that describe how SAP and Microsoft products and technologies are integrated.

For this reason, it is essential for customers to either build up the expertise of technologies themselves or to involve SAP and Microsoft partners who have the necessary expertise and can help and guide customers through the digital transformation.

Over the past twelve months, numerous SAP and Microsoft partners have established virtual Embrace Practices, rounding out their expertise and products through acquisitions to meet key requirements such as management consulting, industry and process expertise, product and technology expertise across SAP (Intelligent Enterprise Suite, SCP) and Microsoft (Azure, Modern Workplace).

In recent months, partners and customers have developed many new ideas and scenarios for integrated Embrace use cases. Both the business and cloud solution architects from SAP and Microsoft have assisted in taking these use cases from idea to implementation.

It became clear again and again how important it is to bring together different competencies and, for example, to connect Azure AI, Azure IoT and Modern Workplace (Office365, Teams, etc.) with SAP products (ECC, S/4, SuccessFactors, Ariba, ...) via the SAP Cloud Platform on Azure and to realize completely new use cases.

If you are a partner or customer with an exciting and innovative scenario in mind and would like to discuss it with SAP and Microsoft, please feel free to send an email to RunSAPonAzure@microsoft.com with the keyword "Embrace Use Case" and a short description of your use case.

SAP Connect will take place in November, again with Microsoft as a Gold Sponsor and exciting contributions. Even though the event will take place virtually, SAP partners will again have the opportunity to exchange ideas with Microsoft experts and learn why and how they can become a Microsoft partner, build an Embrace Practice and benefit from customer interest in SAP on Azure. True to the motto: Driving Innovation Together - the Intelligent Enterprise and the Intelligent Cloud.