A slate of new SAP tools, services, and capabilities for developers was announced at the recently concluded SAP TechEd 2021. This includes an expansion of the free-tier access for the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and the low-code/no-code platform SAP AppGyver, among others.
As the German enterprise software giant’s annual global developer conference, SAP TechEd delivers information on new products and services — in addition to learning content and presentations — for SAP professionals to expand their skills in the cloud-first era. During the event held this week, SAP revealed a roster of new tools and integrations that provide professional developers more power, while at the same time, democratising technology for citizen developers.
Furthermore, the company has expanded its SAP BTP free-tier offering, adding new ways of integration that allow customers to create solutions specifically tailored to their needs, as well as showcasing a new theme for the SAP Fiori design system, and introducing a new learning experience. Juergen Mueller, Chief Technology Officer and Member of the Executive Board at SAP, said:
“For our customers and partners all over the world, the future is in the cloud. Accessing the right talent, skills, and capabilities for this journey can be a challenge. SAP’s announcements not only empower citizen developers but also support professional developers in their continuous learning efforts so customers can innovate today and continue building the foundation for success tomorrow.”
SAP TechEd 2021 Showcases New SAP Tools, Products, and Services
Key announcements during SAP TechEd include:
- A unified, low-code experience for SAP AppGyver and SAP Business Application Studio, enabling open access to citizen developers so customers can automate processes and build new applications.
- Sneak peek at SAP’s new “Horizon” visual theme for the SAP Fiori design system, which features a new look and colour scheme, improved information hierarchy, typographic enhancements, more contrast, and simplified aesthetics.
- Updates to SAP Integration Suite, SAP BTP’s integration layer, that includes more pre-packaged integration content and adapters for connecting SAP and non-SAP applications, which are now available on SAP API Business Hub. The solution is planned for availability on the Google Cloud Platform by the end of 2021.
- New capabilities added in SAP Conversational AI intend to make it easier to build and monitor chatbots that automate workflows and tasks.
- The launch of SAP Recommendation service, which is a neural network-based engine that gives personalised recommendations in various business scenarios by leveraging historical user behavior and metadata.
- A revamp of the SAP Learning site to provide developers with free access to a comprehensive array of learning content.
The latest developments unveiled at this year’s conference also underscore SAP BTP’s significance as part of the tech giant’s technology portfolio and go-to-market initiatives with partners. As a set of around 90 SAP tools and services with capabilities that incorporate the internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and blockchain, SAP BTP provides a unified, open platform for the whole SAP ecosystem that aims to offer a holistic experience across several applications involving integration, data value creation, and process extensibility in 25 core industries.
In July, SAP announced a free-tier business model for several BTP services, allowing users to try them out for a year at no cost. Since then, the company has been increasing the number of BTP services included in the licensing model, and in August, opened up the option to SAP Partners.
During conference presentations and interviews with CRN, company executives stated that the services enable partners to collaborate and work more closely with customers to build applications and application extensions that aim to tackle some of the challenges businesses experience today. In an online session at the SAP TechEd conference, Mueller said:
“The importance of our partner ecosystem is even more intrinsically linked in the cloud and in the platform world than it has been in the past. I see partners being most successful when they are involved in the whole value chain and lifecycle of our customers. We are very, very focused on empowering partners to use BTP.”
