Simple, fast and inexpensive

A few years ago, Gartner had already reported on the enormous shortage of application developers, and many companies had noticed in their own companies that the necessary developers were missing or that the waiting time for the development of a new application was extremely long.

For me, this has become tangible in the past few months with two customers: First of all, there is an employee in the customer office of an international company who consolidates all questions in an Excel spreadsheet after every company meeting. She then creates a Word document with the Frequently Asked Questions, turns it into a PDF file and makes this file available on the intranet - after every company meeting.

The solution: The employee takes Power Apps, uses it to build a form into which the questions can be entered directly before and during the meeting, answers the questions there, and enters the answers so that they are always immediately available to all colleagues. No Excel, Word, PDF. Easy to use, appropriate permissions for employees and editors, always up-to-date and with significantly less maintenance.

IT resources and workarounds

The second example involves employees from purchasing: The requirements for a new app that is to record incoming goods are there. But IT has indicated that the necessary resources for development will not be available for at least six months.

It is simply no longer possible to keep up. So, out of necessity, error-prone workarounds are built and the data is then transferred to the SAP system "by hand". The available resources then usually bypass security, quality management and the actual processes. In some cases, this entails major risks, including the loss of data. No one is happy with the situation - "but there's nothing you can do". 

This is probably one of the reasons why many companies have established a "business-critical Excel", with which companies (have to) work in parallel to their SAP environment. 

Thanks to OData, it is now relatively easy to keep the data synchronized with the "single source of truth" SAP system and also to map more complex processes with numerous Excel macros - but that was never really the purpose of these programs.

Thanks to SAP Ruum, SAP Intelligent RPA, SAP Conversational AI or the new AppGyver, SAP users have now been given various tools that are intended to empower them to develop new user interfaces and automate process flows themselves. The SAP Store for iRPA, for example, offers an excellent starting point here and shows how SAP processes can now be automated more easily.

In addition to these new tools from SAP, there are numerous other providers who have been active on the LCNC market for much longer. Microsoft, for example, offers a comprehensive low-code/no-code environment with its Po-wer Platform, which was even recently awarded a top rating in the Leader quadrant for low-code platforms by Forrester.

Unlike the tools mentioned above, the Microsoft Power Platform does not appeal to hardcore SAP users who are used to the SAP GUI and can quickly get to grips with Ruum, iRPA and CAI, but rather addresses users who come from the office world and need data from the SAP system quickly and want to write it back.

Ruum versus Power Automate

This starts, for example, with the so-called flows from Power Automate. These can be created and triggered directly from Excel. For example, a user can trigger changes in an Excel file directly either automatically or via a manual trigger in Excel and thus write information to the SAP system or read data.

Other popular examples come from the Outlook area: Here, Power Automate Desktop can be used to automate simple steps with just a few clicks or even more complex processes. These can be processes that are triggered when an e-mail arrives from the boss or a message from an important partner or supplier.

This can even go so far that an order from the attached PDF file is automatically evaluated from there using the available AI Builder and a workflow is started in the SAP system.

If it is not yet clear which processes can be optimized, the built-in Process Advisor helps to identify those steps that take a lot of time in the company and can be streamlined and automated.

With Power Apps, as described in the first example, it is quite easy to build new applications without the need for programming skills. Almost like under Power Point - with some knowledge like from the Excel macro world - users can for example display data and make it searchable or write input masks with little effort. 

Even if there is little or no knowledge of macros, instructions can also be described as normal text and incorporated via artificial intelligence into the
corresponding commands are "translated". A "Show me the customers from Germany whose subscription has expired" then becomes a filter(Customers, 'Address 1: Country/Region' = "DE" and 'Subscription' = "Expired"). Business users can really focus on the application, not the technology.

The Power Virtual Agent helps to create bots. Whether providing chats in the support and service area or as a help tool for employees to retrieve the last pay slip or vacation request or simply to find out what is available in the canteen today: A short chat can provide quick answers here, and not only in a browser or via WhatsApp, but of course also in Microsoft Teams.

Speaking of which: In order to address not (only) the hardcore SAP user, all Teams users can call up the Power Platform directly from Teams. This allows us to bring new technology to an existing user group - without further training.

Automate, Apps and Agents

The compelling thing about Power Automate, Power Apps and Power Virtual Agent is that all three products are built on the same framework. The connectors that are available for Power Automate can also be used in Power Apps or Vir-tual Agent.

This results in synergy effects extremely quickly. Once the connection to the SAP system, SharePoint or the database has been established, completely new applications can be created with just a few clicks.

Often the LCNC approach is ridiculed by "real" developers. However, the Power Platform unites both worlds by emphasizing the strengths of each group. The business expert can implement his simple but necessary requirements tool-supported and with all aspects in quality management, while the developer is relieved and can take care of the more complex technical requirements.

Business users can export the created code and the "real" developer can further edit the project in VSCode. Integration in GitHub is also possible and allows scalable projects to be run. Thus, the "Fusion of Teams", the merging of different competencies, is a central theme of the Power Platform.

The fear of shadow IT or the concern about data loss is addressed via a center of excellence. The Power Platform provides appropriate mechanisms so that it can also be used in highly critical areas of the company.

As mentioned at the beginning, the entry point is often Office. However, the data does not only come from SharePoint, Office or Azure. Hundreds of connectors allow access to numerous systems outside the Microsoft platform as well.

These third-party connectors play to the strengths of the Power Platform, allowing data to be merged, analyzed, and used not just from one system, but from different worlds.

SAP connectors

One of the most important connectors is the connection to the SAP world. Since the interfaces to SAP are still quite complex, despite SAP Graph or SAP API Business Hub, we often see with customers that there is an SAP expert who provides appropriate connectors for individual SAP functions.

From this point on, users no longer have to worry about how to access data from the SAP system. Now it's just a matter of getting the information about orders, invoices, products or HR information.

Of course, authentication is important here - not only for authorization or auditing reasons, but also under licensing aspects. The Power Platform enables true single sign-on, which means that the user logged on to the Power Platform (via Azure Active Directory) also corresponds 1:1 to a user in the SAP system.

This clarifies the licensing issue in many cases, since the difference between whether this user displays the SAP data via an SAP Fiori, SAP GUI or SAP Portal is often the same as access via the Power Platform. Of course, there may still be customer-specific differences here, but SSO can significantly simplify the licensing situation.

The way over the desktop

What are the connections to the SAP world? The easiest way to automate existing SAP applications and integrate them into the Power Platform is Power Automate Desktop. This can be used to simulate "normal" clicks and entries on the keyboard. It doesn't matter whether this starts Excel, another program under Windows, a browser or the SAP GUI.

Of course, SAP scripts can also be started and processes automated. Complex SAP transactions can thus be completed and executed automatically. Best of all, using Power Automate Desktop is even free for Windows 10 users. Analogous to iRPA, the path via BAPIs/RFCs is still one of the most popular options.

Faster: BAPIs and RFCs

As nice and simple as desktop automation is, it is not really performant and scalable. Access via APIs is much better here. As has been the case for decades, the path via BAPIs/RFCs is familiar to most SAP users.

With the certified SAP ERP Connector, the SAP-savvy user is given access to BAPIs and RFCs - directly via the Power Platform. The user is offered various aids (RFCs can be searched, the structures are loaded -automatically, etc.), but it still requires a certain SAP understanding to access the RFCs. 

The new and preferred way is certainly via the OData interface. Thanks to SAP Fiori, there are now thousands of standardized OData services. Many of them are documented in the SAP API Business Hub - and if any are missing, they can be generated via the SAP Gateway or via CDS Views.

Better: SAP and OData

The Power Platform has long since outgrown its infancy and is used productively by numerous companies - also and above all - in the SAP environment. Companies such as ZF Group, T-Mobile, SBB, PayPal, Ikea Sweden or Coca-Cola use all components of the Power Platform and benefit from ever new added value for their investments. As a result, special SAP and Power Platform departments have often been formed.

These experts work on the necessary OData services, BAPis, RFCs and so on, and create connectors for the Power Platform. From that point on, users can access these connectors. From there on, it's all about orders, products, employees - and no longer about technical integrations into the SAP world.

The feedback is quite clear: All of a sudden, the SAP IT department is relieved. The answers are no longer: In six months we will have developers free to work on the new applications, but the SAP IT department has "outsourced" the development of these applications to the business. This is a real win-win.

The SAP IT department is happy because it no longer has to worry about app development. At the same time, it has full control over who accesses the SAP system, when and how often. The business employees are happy because they can finally access SAP data immediately and build their own app: when and how they want!

API Management

Fortunately, this is exactly what I saw with the frustrated customer from my introduction: After we introduced SAP API management there with the SAP department and showed the responsible people how they can now release access to their SAP system and protect it at the same time, a colleague was assigned there for the Power Platform. This employee now takes care of the provision of OData services.

Business employees can use API Management to access and browse the available services and then start writing new applications completely independently. If access to certain SAP data is not yet available, a corresponding request can be made via an app. Best of all, this app was also created by the business users themselves in just a few days through a Power App.

Rise with Power Platform

Many partners have recognized the opportunities and built Power Platform Practices. Some partners have already implemented extensive projects and show how the Power Platform can be connected with SAP systems at the customer's site.

Particularly in the context of Rise with SAP and S/4, the focus is increasingly on extending SAP's standard processes outside the core (keep the core lean) and implementing added value quickly and easily. This is where the strengths of a combination of SAP and the Power Platform become apparent.