For a long time in the SAP world we have had the paradigm of building "packable" solutions, solutions that, based on previous experiences, we manage to develop, modularize and, in the best of cases, develop a commercial strategy that allows us to get the most out of it. Take advantage of that experience combined with technical expertise that leads us to deliver in a standard way, a solution not provided by SAP to several clients. In that way, we were used to going from house to house, with our packaging under our arms, to quote the implementation of our solution together with a support so that our solution fits into the client's system and ends up working as expected with all the flats that this entails.
With the appearance of the Software as a Service format, or better known as SaaS, that vision of packaging a solution changes radically in the software world and ultimately in SAP for its cloud environment. Today there are a series of tools, methodologies, devices and platforms prepared to adopt a concept like this where Multitenant applications are involved (SAP Business Application Studio, MTA and CAP), which allow, based on concepts and development, to deliver a The same solution for different users, in a "Supplier-Consumer" format so that time and effort are saved in the dedicated installation, as well as in specific development by delivering the same standardized solution for all customers, pushing to define specific use cases and that are the common denominator of business. Similarly with the database (HANA Cloud) that must have the capabilities to segment its containers and certify a single access per consumer without jeopardizing the confidentiality of the data.
In the same way, there is an impact on the methodology of construction, development and release of versions, having as support rather a CI / CD infrastructure (CI / CD Services and Transportation Management) and synchronized and automated repositories, so that the process of adjustments, validation and release are as automatic and clean as possible.
Additionally, the platform (SAP Business Technology Platform) must be prepared to ensure correct access from the perspective of the provider as well as the consumer, without causing chaos.
Finally, a suitable commercial format should be thought about, since we are no longer talking about implementation or installation deadlines, but rather about a solution that is already ready and to which the user, once they have access, can use. and it should work on the spot, this is where the concept of fee per access, per user, per solution or a number of coherent models for this type of solution comes into play.
The profiles required for this type of proposal should be taken into account, since we no longer speak only of a tandem frontend-backend, but rather of a synchronized team where front, back, platform, repository, ci / cd are combined. , transportation, functional perspective and a touch of commercial vision to have a SaaS ready for the market.
Finally and taking into account that everything points towards that horizon, the question with which we close this blog, are we ready to go to SaaS?