Power Platform | SAP + Teams in action

A couple of weeks ago, I was publishing an article around Power Platform | Team-up with SAP ecosystem. I did use a simplified visual that outlined how nicely parts can be glued together. Well, the world continued to evolve and due to the recent news around SAP and Microsoft expanding their partnership which you can read about here from Microsoft side and here from SAP side, time for a review. Ready for it?

Based on above visual I tried to outline how puzzle-pieces can be glued together, sending an impulse on the art-of-possible. With the latest announcement this story simply expanded via Microsoft Teams becoming a centralized hub experience, why you see previous visual slidely modified today. I received question around what to expect, what the solution will look like, etc. Before diving into this, let´s take a look at what Christian Klein CEO of SAP SE is saying around the Microsoft Teams integration.

Now, let´s add to this what Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft outlined as the case for digital transformation has never been more urgent…to quickly adapt and innovate going forward.

Now you might be even more excited and start asking yourself, of what´s in it for me? What´s upcoming? What to expect from both SAP and Microsoft here? To my rescue, computerworld recently published an article around the new expanded partnership that cought my attention. The interesting part inside is the quote from Lary Cannell, a research director at Gartner.

“What I would like to see from this partnership is [for] business data and application functions to be accessible from within Teams’ channels,” said Cannell. Such integrations would allow workgroups to do more than send messages and co-author documents — important capabilities in themselves — and would make channels more purposeful and relevant, he said. … “Channels can provide a collaborative interface for transactional applications, many of which were never designed to be collaborative. This enables workgroups to interact with the applications together; they can discuss, respond and learn from each other within a group context (the channel).

Computerworld, JAN 25, 2021 8:37 AM PT

Larry´s „wishlist“ together with both quotes from Christian Klein and Satya Nadella reminded me of an „there´s more…“ spirit. And indeed, if you take a look at SAP´s blog article that was published shortly after the announcement was given, you´re allowed to take a sneak peak in what is planned from SAP side following the section Bringing Together Microsoft Teams and SAP Solutions.

Walked through this? Excited? Not? Not yet? Well, it is early days, so this is not a judgement from my side around Microsoft Teams and SAP solutions playing together as it was outlined in the SAP blog article. Instead, you should see following as a guidance regarding Larry´s „wishlist“, cause I can see a „there´s even more…“. Combining Power Platform with SAP solutions + Microsoft Teams. Of course SAP customers would need to assess to use SAP LC/NC or SAP Automation tools as being part of the new Rise with SAP offering, but why not both? Think about the possibilities compared full-power to semi-full-power.

Call me biased, but the Power Platform offer combined with SAP solutions plus Microsoft Teams will generate a hub experience client that has more to offer than avoiding a switch between applications or devices, such as Larry was challenging.

Interested in bringing Larry´s wishlist alive and see Power Platform + Microsoft Teams + SAP in action:

• workgroups to do more than send messages and co-author documents
• enable workgroups to interact with the applications together
• workgroups to discuss, respond and learn from each other within a group context (the channel)
• RPA scenarios with those applications that currently doesn´t offer an API
• mobile applications that run outside the „boundaries“ of Microsoft Teams
• Artificial Intelligence to help analyse your data, find patterns and offer recommendations + best next actions

Ready for it? You can immediatly start by a following this link. Until then,…