This past year has shown us how important it is to be ready for the unexpected. We spent a lot of time talking with customers, and it was rewarding to hear their stories of using technology to respond quickly to changing business needs. This was especially true for those who were well down the path of digital transformation. For example, Coats was an early mover to the cloud and was able to adapt quickly to the increased demand for thread to make the world’s personal protective equipment (PPE). In April, Carhartt shifted US production to manufacture medical gowns and masks, and with the help of Microsoft Teams, was able to continue its work to migrate mission-critical business applications to SAP S/4HANA on Microsoft Azure.
Another great example is Walgreens Boots Alliance. They had planned to start a migration of their massive 100 TB SAP HANA database in March, just as the pandemic began. Thanks to the use of Microsoft Teams and the well-defined reference architectures and programs we’ve built with SAP as part of the Embrace initiative, the migration was completed successfully in less than 20 hours. Walgreens Boots Alliance is now the largest SAP S/4HANA scale-out deployment on Azure. They have been able to adapt quickly to give customers the options they need for mobile shopping, curbside pickup, and new pharmacy services. For so many collaboration projects like these SAP migrations, Microsoft Teams has proven essential.
These mission-critical SAP applications are the lifeblood of many organizations, and customers are increasingly moving them to the cloud to gain agility and resilience, and to transform with a cloud platform that supports greater data insights and future innovation. Today we are announcing an extensive expansion of our endorsed cloud partnership with SAP to deliver new integration of Microsoft Azure and Teams across SAP business solutions.
New Azure integrations to automate migration, strengthen security, and modernize applications
SAP customers broadly favor Azure to move on-premises SAP S/4HANA to the cloud. To help them further in accomplishing their goal of running SAP ERP and S/4HANA on Microsoft Azure, SAP and Microsoft are making new joint engineering investments that go beyond simplifying migration to drive operational efficiency, improve security and resilience, and drive transformation in the cloud. With these new investments, customers can:
- Accelerate migration through additional guidance and automation from SAP and Microsoft on the initial setup and architecture design of SAP S/4HANA on Microsoft Azure, including guidance on data migration tool usage.
- Increase operational efficiencies to support a modern DevOps approach with automated turnkey operations of SAP S/4HANA in Azure that cover the entire application lifecycle.
- Strengthen security by combining SAP and Azure signals and integrating technologies such as enhanced network security, end-to-end authentication, and threat protection.
- Empower developers with an innovation-ready cloud platform that supports integration with Business Technology Platform to deliver event integration, simplified administration and provisioning of users, and faster and simpler landscape creation.
Teams integration across SAP solutions to improve productivity
Our two companies combine the market-leading business applications with the market-leading business collaboration platform. Together, we will drive joint innovation to integrate Microsoft Teams with SAP’s business software applications. By doing so, we aim to simplify processes, enable collaboration without switching applications, and guide users of the solutions intuitively. Ultimately, the integration scenarios can help to achieve enhanced workplace productivity by offering our customers significant value to work better together with their employees, customers, and partners—anywhere and anytime. With these investments, customers can:
- Improve collaboration with business partners: Respond more quickly to changing demands by bringing critical data and tools from SAP S/4HANA into Microsoft Teams, so users don’t have to switch applications. For example: seamlessly share critical line of business information, like supplier details from SAP S/4HANA with your colleagues and customers as you chat, meet, and manage within Teams.
- Simplify and modernize remote selling: Empower sellers to connect better with customers through the integration of SAP Sales Cloud with Microsoft Teams. For example, without switching applications, customer calls can be initiated directly from the customer relationship management (CRM) application, ensuring transparency and consistency within CRM and saving time through user-friendly workflows.
- Foster collaboration for employees: By integrating Microsoft Teams across SAP products including SAP S/4HANA and SAP SuccessFactors, you can give employees simple, intuitive, and engaging ways to stay connected and stay informed.
The SAP and Microsoft teams are already working together on bringing many of these enhancements to our customers soon. The announcement today deepens our 25-year partnership in helping our joint customers succeed. We look forward to hearing how our customers use these unique Azure and Teams integrations with SAP solutions to evolve and transform their businesses to achieve critical business goals.
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