Item: SAP Business Technology Platform
Rating: 6
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

In our company, we use business technology platforms to experiment with new features and advise customers. We mainly use the SAP Business Technology Platform for integrations with SAP C4C and e-document invoices. We use SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation to automate purchase order approval based on rules and criteria. We can reduce manual work, errors, and delays, and improve compliance and efficiency. We can also leverage SAP Conversational AI to create a chatbot that can handle common queries and requests from suppliers and buyers. We use SAP Integration Suite and SAP Extension Suite to connect and extend our SAP and non-SAP applications and data across different environments. A problem we often run into is the late release of some integrations like government law requirements. Often the integration is released close to the legal deadline, giving little time for the configuration phase. We use also other cloud platform integration systems like Power Automate to integrate Microsoft Suite integrations. Like SAP which fits well with SAP products, other platforms fit well with its solutions. Maybe a better non-SAP pre-build integration could be the key to using the SAP Business Technology Platform with products or companies that do not directly use SAP ERP or similar products.

Pros and Cons

Integration
Data mapping
Load balancing
Data-driven decisions
Scalability
Add products easily

Direct DB access
Service usage
Complex Pricing
AI features limited

Return on Investment

Integration across systems
Connectivity
Recent innovation
Decreases development time
Faster process automation
Data source integration

Usability

The use of SAP Business Technology Platform is simplified thanks to the pre-built content which often covers the integration and connectivity needs. If the desired integration package is not available, it is easy to modify the integration process thanks to the graphical tools or by following the documentation provided by SAP or blog channels. SAP Business Technology Platform is a cloud platform that provides a range of services and tools to help customers build, extend, integrate, and analyze their business solutions. Another example is sales order approval which is a pre-built package that automates the sales order process and reduces manual errors. From a developer side usability of SAP Business Technology Platform is quite simple. Sometimes some configurations are cumbersome but in the end, you can get the result by consulting the documentation and in the blog reading other developers' experiences.

Support Rating

SAP Business Technology Platform support can be improved. The availability of the service is excellent but sometimes it requires various ticket ping pong to get to the solution. The team is responsive and helpful but sometimes it requires time to point out the problem and not always give the solution or a correct answer. Before opening a ticket, however, there are ways to find the solution yourself via SAP Notes, blogs, or SAP documentation.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Azure

I have used but not evaluated some other products that are similar to SAP Business Technology Platform, like Microsoft Azure. The principle is the same: cloud computing platform and infrastructure for building, deploying, and managing applications and services. It offers various SaaP and SaaS services, storage, networking, analytics, AI, IoT and more. I think that some of the reasons why I selected SAP Business Technology Platform are that SAP Business Technology Platform offers tailored pricing models in order to meet any business scenario, while other cloud platforms have a pay-as-you-go model based on resource consumption. SAP Business Technology Platform has a strong integration with SAP applications and solutions and offers many pre-build integrations for SAP and non-SAP applications and systems. SAP Business Technology Platform provides a unified user experience across all the services with a single entry point and a common look and feel. Another is that the SAP Business Technology Platform has different user interfaces and navigation models for different services and configuration tools, which can be confusing and inconsistent. SAP Business Technology Platform supports different development languages and frameworks like Java, Node.js, Python, and SAPUI5.

Key Insights

Do you think SAP Business Technology Platform delivers good value for the price?

Not sure

Are you happy with SAP Business Technology Platform's feature set?

Yes

Did SAP Business Technology Platform live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of SAP Business Technology Platform go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy SAP Business Technology Platform again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Google Ads, Postman, Microsoft Power Automate, Microsoft 365

Likelihood to Recommend

A scenario where the SAP Business Technology Platform is suitable is integration with other SAP portfolio products. Also is suited when we want to extend S4 Cloud with custom logic or fields or deploy extensions. In this scenario, we can achieve this only through SAP Business Technology Platform. Integration is easy and out of the box. Instead, a scenario in which SAP Business Technology Platform is not suitable is, for example, integration with systems that reside internally in the company's local network. It needs external network settings that not always are available. Another scenario is when we want to build a simple and standalone application, SAP Business Technology Platform is a complex system not suitable for this kind of scenario.

Products Replaced

Evaluation Lessons Learned

I would compare SAP Business Technology Platform with more cloud platforms, to get a perspective of the market and the features offered by different providers. Second, I would conduct more hands-on testing and experimentation with SAP Business Technology Platform, using the free tier and the trial accounts, to get a better understanding of the performance, usability, and reliability of the platform and its services. I would seek more feedback and reviews from other users and experts who have used SAP Business Technology Platform, using online forums, blogs, and social media, to get a more realistic and unbiased view of the strengths and weaknesses of the platform and its support. I would evaluate SAP Business Technology Platform based on more criteria, such as security, compliance, scalability, and innovation, to get a more comprehensive and holistic assessment of the platform and its value proposition.

SAP Business Technology Platform Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Kept well informed Support cares about my success	Slow Resolution Escalation required Need to explain problems multiple times

Premium Support

I did not purchase premium SAP support for the SAP Business Technology Platform. I don't need the level of support and guidance that premium support offers, furthermore, the price is very high for the service and I can't afford to buy it. I use standard SAP support which includes access to the SAP support portal, SAP community, SAP Knowledge base, and SAP incident management. With these support tools and services, I can manage my issues and requests.

Bug Resolution

Yes - I've two cases: in one case the issue was resolved in another case the issue was raised by an automatic SAP Business Technology Platform patch released from SAP. The problem persisted for a labor week when I could not use an approval workflow. I've opened several incidents and tickets with no response. After a week a new patch was released and the issue is gone. But for one week, I was not able to use the approval workflow impacting my business.

Exceptional Examples of SAP Business Technology Platform Support

Sure, I can describe a time when SAP provided me with exceptional support for SAP Business Technology Platform. It was when I was working on a project that involved integrating SAP Business Technology Platform with Microsoft 365 products, such as Outlook, Teams, and SharePoint. I wanted to use the Microsoft Graph API to access the data and functionality of these products from my SAP Business Technology Platform applications. However, I encountered some issues with the authentication and authorization process, as well as the API calls and responses. I contacted the SAP support team through the SAP Support Portal and created an incident ticket. I explained my problem and provided the relevant details, such as the SAP Business Technology Platform service, the Microsoft 365 product, the Microsoft Graph endpoint, and the error message. I also attached the screenshots and logs of my application and the API requests and responses. The SAP support team responded quickly and assigned a dedicated expert to help me. The expert was very knowledgeable and friendly, and he guided me through the troubleshooting steps. He also shared some useful resources and best practices for using the Microsoft Graph API with SAP Business Technology Platform. He helped me resolve the issue and test the integration successfully. I was very impressed by the SAP support team and the expert who helped me. They were responsive, helpful, and professional. They provided me with exceptional support and made me feel valued as a customer. I appreciate their service and expertise. 😊

SAP Business Technology Platform: All Integrations That You Need

Overall Satisfaction with SAP Business Technology Platform