To BDC or Not to BDC

Let’s face it: the SAP acronyms change every year.  2-3 years is just about the maximum shelf life for an SAP 3-letter acronym to hang around. Just when you finally got your head wrapped around BW/4HANA or Datasphere or SAC, someone on a stage at Sapphire dropped “SAP Business Data Cloud” (BDC) like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Cue the nervous laughter within your team, the “We’ll circle back on that,” talk, and the silent Google tab you opened under the table to figure out what this thing is all about.

Well, let’s quickly go ahead and circle back.

At Mindset, we’ve been watching SAP’s evolving data strategy like hawks (friendly, well-informed hawks of course). SAP Business Data Cloud represents more than just a rebrand or a new licensing model—it signals that SAP is getting serious about modern, interoperable, AI-ready enterprise data.  FINALLY.  If you’re still running SAP BW, SAC-only dashboards, or even BOBJ/BEX/Analysis for Office (you know who you are), it’s time to take a hard look at what BDC offers and how to get there.

Wait… what is SAP BDC?

SAP Business Data Cloud is SAP’s next-generation data platform that merges SAP Datasphere, SAP HANA Cloud, SAP Analytics Cloud, and a slew of AI and planning capabilities into a single, governed, enterprise-grade service. It’s the digital nervous system that lets you integrate, harmonize, model, and analyze data across SAP and non-SAP systems all in real-time if you’d like.

Think of it as if SAP BW finally was what we all thought it could/should be 10 years ago. 

A look into your new Analytics cockpit. This is where you will see everything available to you as generated data products, applications, and intelligent applications in your landscape. This is the brand new component introduced with BDC. SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud are still a large portion of the package here!

Why customers should care

Here’s the reality: SAP isn’t investing further into BW. While BW/4HANA will be supported into the next decade, it’s not the future of analytics. SAP BDC is.

Customers still running legacy BW systems (or juggling multiple reporting tools duct-taped together) are sitting on:

  • Data silos that don’t play well together
  • Rigid data models that require a ticket just to add a new field
  • BI tools that work great—if it’s 2011

BDC offers:

  • Federated data access (so your data can live where it wants)
  • Open integration with tools like SAC and Power BI
  • AI and planning capabilities embedded directly into your data landscape and via DataBricks integration
  • Semantic modeling that actually makes sense to your business users
  • Intelligent Applications built in that can be turned on out of the box or developed on top of BDC with AI insights infused.

And the best part? You don’t have to rip and replace everything at once. BDC supports a progressive migration strategy, letting you evolve at your own pace from SAP BW to BDC with SAP BW PCE and BDC generated Data Products.

 

Built in intelligence waiting to be turned on. Activating standard content and standard intelligent applications connecting to SAP S/4HANA data.

So… To BDC or not to BDC?

Spoiler alert: to BDC.

But that doesn’t mean it’s a flip-the-switch scenario. Moving from BW (or any other platform) to BDC takes strategic planning. You’ve got to answer questions like:

  • What’s my current architecture—and what should my future state look like?
  • How do I handle custom BW logic and transformations?
  • What about licensing and cost implications?
  • Can I make this a business-led initiative instead of another IT project?

That’s where we come in.

How Mindset helps

At Mindset, we help customers make smart, realistic, and future-ready transitions to SAP BDC.  The key here is making sure we have the architectures in place and the data strategies that give us the power to activate real step change AI capabilities across the enterprise landscape that provide real value to real problems that need immediate decisions.  This includes specific offerings focused on:

Data & platform assessments – Where are you today and what will it take to get to BDC?
Migration roadmaps – Phased plans that reduce risk, preserve value, and don’t kill your team’s morale
Architecture design – Because your data deserves more than another Frankenstein diagram
Use case acceleration – We help build compelling dashboards, KPIs, and AI-infused data products.
Ongoing strategy & enablement – Because this isn’t a one-and-done move—it’s a mindset shift

TL;DR

SAP BDC is the future of data and analytics in the SAP ecosystem. If you’re still on BW, still hacking together your reporting stack, or just feeling overwhelmed by the ever-growing list of “next-gen” options, it’s time to pause and look at the roadmap ahead.

This blog is part of a 6 part series on SAP BDC written by Jonathan Bragg.
See
– part 1 HERE
– part 2 HERE
– part 3 HERE
– part 4 HERE
– part 5 HERE
– part 6 HERE

Jonathan Bragg, SAP consultant at Mindset Consulting, professional headshot

As VP of Products at Mindset Consulting, Jon focuses on how organizations can quickly and easily maximize their SAP investments for improved results and happier employee, customer, and user experiences. A known industry thoughtleader, he is a highly sought-after industry speaker and resource.

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