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SAP and Google Cloud Deliver Next-Gen Supply Chain Solutions

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As digitalization continues to reshape global supply chains, tech giants SAP and Google Cloud are leading the way. This dynamic duo offers cutting-edge tools to streamline operations, enhance efficiency, and foster innovation in an increasingly data-driven world.

SAP is renowned for its enterprise software solutions catering to multinational corporations. Its flagship ERP suite, SAP S/4HANA, is a powerful tool for managing large-scale business operations. From finance and logistics to supply chain management and other planning activities, S/4HANA also serves as the backbone of many successful enterprises.

On the other hand, Google Cloud, a product of Alphabet Inc., offers a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services. Users can harness Google Cloud for computing power, data storage, data analytics, machine learning, and more. Its diverse offerings and robust infrastructure have also catapulted Google Cloud to the forefront of the cloud services arena.

Reinventing Supply Chains with SAP and Google Cloud

SAP and Google Cloud have a longstanding partnership. Google Cloud provides SAP-certified infrastructure for customers’ SAP systems, including S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Ariba, and SAP Business Technology Platform. Additionally, these advanced tools facilitate everything from enterprise resource planning (ERP) to spend management and innovative tech collaboration.

At the SAP Sapphire event in 2023, Alphabet divulged that it utilizes SAP S/4HANA systems on Google Cloud to manage Alphabet’s crucial business operations. This includes finance, supply chain, logistics, planning, and allocations. The adoption of these systems further enables Alphabet to consolidate over 50 billion transactions and process multiple terabytes of data each month, enhancing its global operations’ efficiency.

To scale business operations, Alphabet uses Google Cloud products and services using an SDK (Software Development Kit) developed by Google Cloud’s SAP Engineering team. This SDK also serves as the bridge between SAP and Alphabet’s internal systems, powering AI and machine learning (ML) solutions that drive decisions and enable business process automation.

Moreover, Google Cloud customers have long requested easy integration of their SAP systems with Google Cloud services. Now, Google Cloud is offering its special SDK, initially used internally to power Alphabet’s business operations since 2019, for free to its customers. This move demonstrates Google’s commitment to helping organizations leverage data and AI to develop smarter logistics operations and supply chains.

Real-world Impact of the Tech Collaboration

The integration between SAP and Google Cloud has powered a multitude of production use cases. These range from streamlining supply chain planning and procurement processes to automating finance document translations and integrating AI/ML models for better decision-making.

For instance, Alphabet has utilized the SDK to interact with Google Translate, ensuring that finance documents comply with company and legal requirements. In another use case, Alphabet’s engineering team developed a BigQuery Machine Learning model to predict order routes based on historical manual decisions, leveraging the SDK to read the predictions in real time.

Companies can offload attachments from expensive HANA Storage to more affordable, secure Cloud Storage buckets using the SDK. This not only streamlines the management of attachments across SAP applications but also reduces the cost of storage.

The success of the SDK within Alphabet’s operations is a testament to its potential. Responding to customer demand, Google Cloud has made this powerful tool available for all its customers. The SDK is free to download and easy to onboard, bringing the power of Google Cloud’s integration with SAP to businesses worldwide.

As businesses continue to navigate the challenges and opportunities of digital transformation, the partnership between SAP and Google Cloud offers a beacon of innovation. By leveraging their combined strengths, they enable businesses to develop smarter, more efficient, and more automated supply chains, effectively forging the future of supply chain management.

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