Your SAP data has business context built into it over years - finance models, cost hierarchies, planning logic. The problem is getting that intelligence into AI without losing it in transit.
This session shows you exactly how SAP Business Data Cloud solves that - and what a realistic path forward looks like whether you're running BW on-prem today or already exploring cloud-native analytics.
Presented by two practitioners with 20+ years each in the SAP analytics space, this isn't a product overview. It's a working session - with a live demo, real architecture patterns, and honest answers to the questions your team is probably already asking.
When data moves physically from SAP into an AI platform, the business context - the semantics that make the data meaningful - doesn't always travel with it. You end up rebuilding logic in Databricks or Azure that already existed in your SAP layer. BDC's zero-copy delta sharing closes that gap. The data stays where it is; the meaning goes with it.
One license. One platform. SAP Datasphere, SAP Analytics Cloud, BW Private Cloud Edition, and your choice of SAP Databricks or SAP Snowflake - all running on a shared HANA Data Lake object store. The session explains why SAP made this move and what it means for how your team buys, provisions, and uses the stack.
SAP now ships pre-packaged, semantically rich datasets directly from S/4HANA into BDC. No custom extractors. No manual data persisting. The session shows these live inside the BDC Cockpit - including a walkthrough of the Working Capital Insights intelligent application, which activates 35 data products and a fully built SAC dashboard in a single step.
BW 7.x support ends in 2027. BW4/HANA in 2030. A BDC license includes BW Private Cloud Edition - which lets you lift your on-prem BW system into SAP-managed infrastructure and extend those timelines to 2030 and 2040 respectively. Nothing changes for your users. The session covers exactly what version you need to be on and what the move involves.
This is the centrepiece of the session - a real use case Applexus built for a customer. You'll see data modelling inside Datasphere, the Unity Catalog inside SAP Databricks, and the full cycle: S/4HANA actuals shared to Databricks via zero-copy, ML model trained, forecast result shared back to BDC, actuals vs forecast compared in SAC. No slides. Running system.
Move BW to PCE to protect your investment. Activate managed data products and wire up your first AI use cases. Gradually decommission BW dataflows as SAP-managed equivalents take over. The session walks through this three-phase approach - including how it plays out when you're mid-S/4 rollout with some countries live and others still on ECC.
Audience questions answered live, covering the decisions your team will face when this lands on your desk.
Applexus offers a complimentary two-week BW Modernisation Assessment - using proprietary accelerators that have reduced implementation time by 30-40% on live projects - and delivers a clear readout to your leadership team on your path to SAP Business Data Cloud.
