The Customer:

An oil and gas downstream company based in Texas was facing significant challenges in their digital transformation journey. The company needed to modernize its SAP landscape, reduce technical debt, and streamline the development and deployment processes. They were specifically looking to transition from their legacy ECC core to S/4HANA while ensuring minimal business disruption and optimal resource utilization.

The customer also had a strategic imperative to adopt a clean core approach across maximum business operations over a 5-year period. This involved the consolidation of custom objects, the elimination of redundant processes, and the optimization of core functionalities to align with SAP's proposed clean core principles. The objective was to enhance system efficiency, reduce maintenance efforts, and ensure scalability and agility to support future business growth. This overarching goal guided their selection of KTern.AI's solutions and shaped their digital transformation strategy.

How Did KTern.AI Help?

KTern.AI provided a suite of tools tailored to address the company's needs:

• Digital Clean Core - Code Generation & Automation Bot for RAP Model
• Digital Maps - Clean Core Business Case Generation
• Digital Mines - Optimized & Clean Operations Intelligence
  
  

Digital Clean Core - Code Generation & Automation Bot for RAP Model

• Utilized to generate ABAP RAP code based on the Functional Requirement Specification document.
• Provided a wizard approach, prompting developers with relevant questions and generating desirable code based on their responses.
• Integrated seamlessly with the company's internal CI/CD pipeline, facilitating the smooth deployment of ABAP RAP code on SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
• Generated ABAP-RAP code for 28 BTP applications through guided assistance for RAP developers, significantly reducing development efforts.
  
  

Digital Maps - Clean Core Business Case Generation

• Conducted an assessment of custom objects in the ECC core.
• Offered insights on which custom objects could remain in the core and which should be moved out.
• Over 40,000 custom objects were identified, with 627 WRICEF objects in core. Among them, 190 apps were recommended for SAP BTP, upon removal from the S/4HANA core, with suggestions to transition to a 'fit-to-standard' approach.
• Categorized apps for deployment into three tiers:
  • Tier 1: Side-by-side extensibility (190 extensions)
  • Tier 2: In-app extensibility (147 extensions)
  • Tier 3: Classical extensibility within the core like BADIs, User exits, etc. (211 extensions)
• Enabled the company to formulate a business case for their clean core adoption strategy across 4 waves in transformation program
  
  

  Digital Mines - Optimized & Clean Operations Intelligence

  • Facilitated change impact analysis to ensure risk-free go-lives (6 hr avg rapid release mining)
  • Provided data-driven insights on change impact and release impact analytics (15+ DevOps KPIs)
  • Delivered insights to identify redundant or obsolete components within the SAP landscape, enabling prioritized clean-up efforts for a leaner and more streamlined core system (reduced business incidents upto 70%)
  • Offered test fits and gaps analysis to optimize SAP testing, ensuring continuous and efficient testing processes (8000+ fits and gaps generated)
  • Through comprehensive assessments, Digital Mines helped identify and mitigate risks associated with customizations, ensuring adherence to SAP best practices and guidelines while minimizing disruptions during system upgrades (140+ SAP practice team productivity improved)
    
    

KTern.AI-Driven Benefits:

• Effort Reduction: Achieved up to 30% effort reduction in BTP implementations through automation.
• Technical Debt Reduction: Reduced technical debt in the S/4HANA core by 65%.
• Accelerated Upgrades: Enabled SAP upgrade cycles to be 7x faster.
• Cost Savings: Realized 35% cost savings in SAP landscape maintenance.
• Change Impact Analysis: Ensured risk-free go-lives with autonomous enterprise release impact and data-driven change impact analysis.
• Test Optimization: Reduced time and effort on regression testing through insights on test fits and gaps.
• AI-Driven Budgeting: Provided an approximate budget for BTP via an AI-based approach, facilitating financial planning and decision-making.
  
  

Values Delivered:

• Automated ABAP RAP code generation
• Seamless integration with CI/CD pipelines
• Enhanced developer experience
• Clean core adoption strategy
• Effort and cost reduction
• Accelerated SAP upgrade cycles
• Reduced technical debt
• Change impact analysis
  
  

Outcomes

Through the integration of KTern.AI's innovative solutions, the oil and gas downstream company in Texas successfully modernized its SAP landscape, reduced operational costs, and enhanced overall efficiency. This transformation enabled the company to focus on strategic initiatives and maintain a competitive edge in the industry.