Integrating Generative AI will help ERP technical debt

The rapid normalisation of Generative AI (GenAI) technology, and its integration into ERP platforms through systems such as SAP’s Business Technology Platform and Joule AI assistant (Chatbot), has created an opportunity to proactively address technical debt, modernise business processes and move them to the cloud.

Marketed as an ‘AI copilot’, Joule the evolving platform, a Large Language Model (LLM) that is trained on the deep and wide base of data contained within a company’s SAP ERP system, is  amongst a new wave of business assistants that are set to make business data easier to access and analyse.

Paired with a solution such as the SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition, a ready-to-run cloud ERP platform that assures rapid delivery and time to value for businesses of any size, Joule’s design as a cloud-hosted application means it will be easily accessible to customers no matter how simple or complex their system implementation and business requirements.

The ability to have Joule integrated with customers’ SAP and other software environments guarantees new opportunities to revisit and optimise business systems that have traditionally relied on a complex conglomeration of back-end functions, API-based integrations, third-party applications, and bespoke data cleansing tools.

“We are on the cusp of one of the most transformative environments in IT that we’ve ever seen outside of the deployment of the internet,” notes Derek Excell, DXC’s Head of S/4HANA Cloud, Public Edition for ANZ. His team is already fielding enquiries from customers eager to build LLMs to improve their analytics and decision-making.

The deployment of GenAI into a cloud-based ERP platform promises opportunities such as enhanced business functions, Excell said, by “taking many of the complexities out of the ERP platform and into the associated SAP software ecosystem, keeping the ERP core clean.”

“However, the transition to a native-cloud ERP platform and the deployment of GenAI are two very separate activities,” he explained.

“Regarding GenAI, data that’s being held in separate application databases, such as Microsoft’s SharePoint or Teams, may now be potentially accessed and actualised in amazing ways with a cloud-based ERP platform by utilising GenAI via proposed integrations of Microsoft Copilot for Microsoft 365 and Joule (SAP) LLM.”

Today, Excell said, the data controls and the sophisticated data analytics that are generated real-time to the organisation means businesses can make better decisions faster.

Companies who transition to a cloud-native ERP platform need to be open to change and what’s called a ‘cloud mindset’.

“SAP has great applications that will support this transition,” he added, by mapping the business process, focusing on a standardisation such as SAP Signavio and deploying SAP’s best-practice package solutions, where possible.”

Many SAP S/4HANA environments have deployed enhanced functions that may be run by partners or third-party vendors, but by integrating robust AI capabilities in the platform, businesses can access many of the same functions whilst remaining within the bounds of the SAP ecosystem.

Pivoting away from a legacy of tech debt

The ” as businesses continue to invest in new technologies, according to John-David Lovelock, distinguished VP analyst at Gartner, who predicted that 2024 “will be the year when organisations actually invest in planning for how to use GenAI.”

“Enterprises continue to find more uses for technology,” Lovelock said, noting that IT “has moved out of the back office, through the front office and is now revenue producing.”

“Until there is a plateau for how and where technology can be used in an enterprise, there cannot be a plateau in enterprise spending.”

Indeed, Gartner has projected that 80 percent of large enterprise finance teams will be using internal AI platforms by 2026, highlighting just how quickly the integration of AI into business systems is going to help companies modernise their approach to data analysis and business operations.

For companies that are making the move to integrated cloud business systems for the first time, the promise of native GenAI capabilities adds to a value proposition that has traditionally been built on the ability to quickly access scalable, flexible and cost-effective business systems.

For those that depend on years or decades of legacy systems, however, the ability to transition to a cloud-based environment with native, business-focused AI offers the game-changing promise of helping even the most complex businesses benefit from the agility of newly developed GenAI tools.

That means enabling businesses to eliminate technical debt by overhauling legacy apps for areas such as self-service, ticket management and knowledge base engines. Instead, they can use the contemporary AI capabilities of platforms like SAP Service Cloud to improve the productivity of service teams while providing customers with personalised service, sales, marketing and other business capabilities.

Partners like DXC Technology and their dedicated DXC Practice for SAP have established playbooks and implementation methodologies to smooth the transition to integrated cloud ERP. Excell says these guidelines, which embody years of implementation experience and help companies avoid difficulties if they abandon legacy technology too quickly, are being steadily updated to include the new possibilities offered by AI.

The adoption of AI-driven business processes will be as transformative as the shift to ‘big data’ paradigms a decade ago, Excell said, noting that for many organisations GenAI vows to help them turn bloated data holdings into actionable business information once and for all.

“Many organisations have legacy applications with different data sets and are unsure about how to best optimise or even prepare their data for their cloud digitalisation journey,” he said. “And that’s really where AI can be deployed to help them with some of this complex heavy lifting.”

Read the Cloud Covered Report

Cloud Covered is an editorial report exploring the ever-evolving cloud landscape and mix of benefits, challenges, trends and key market movements that CIOs should consider when considering the adoption of cloud services.