The growing competition in the data marketplace has increased the need for ongoing innovation. SAP offers a number of tools that foster innovation, including Business Networks, Business Process Intelligence, BTP, and the S/4HANA cloud platform. However, these items were isolated before the launch of RISE with SAP. Therefore, to ensure seamless operations, businesses implementing cloud computing had to sign numerous contracts with various partners. There were also other flaws, like lengthy decision-making procedures, expensive maintenance, intricate data transport and storage systems, and limited time for improvements. This led to the introduction of RISE with SAP, a unified solution that brings all these products together.

What is RISE with SAP?

RISE with SAP is a complete solution made to assist companies in moving to the cloud and changing their operations. Introduced in January 2021, it offers a variety of services, tools, and support to accelerate digital transformation. Businesses can easily transition to a cloud-based ERP solution with the help of the RISE with SAP ERP service. The cloud services offered to the company include SAP S/4HANA, Concur, Success Factors, SAP Ariba, and other services, together with the required infrastructure and services. SAP controls and enhances RISE with SAP, a cloud ERP solution driven by AI. It provides services and solutions built on the clean core concept to enable seamless migration of old on-premise systems to the cloud.

A Holistic, Business-Centric Approach

RISE with SAP offers a complete toolbox to support your business development. Utilize SAP Signavio to manage, evaluate, and optimize business processes, enhancing agility for a successful transformation. Use SAP LeanIX to make sure your architecture design supports your transformation objectives. Use SAP Test Automation by Tricentis to expedite testing with the least amount of disturbance to business operations. WalkMe and SAP Enable Now's integrated learning and contextual advice can assist your teams in navigating technological changes and adopting new procedures. It also makes it easier for agile applications to be seamlessly integrated with SAP Build and SAP BTP.

RISE with SAP Methodology

RISE with SAP follows a structured transformation journey. In the Discover and Evaluate phase, organizations assess readiness and define goals, focusing on clean core principles and cloud readiness. During Prepare and Plan, they create a detailed project roadmap with clear scope, milestones, and roles, aligning business and technical strategies. Move and Deploy emphasizes agility and a clean core as businesses transition to SAP S/4HANA Cloud with technologies like SAP Cloud ALM. Finally, in the Run and Innovate phase, they enhance operations through SAP BTP innovations, AI-driven insights, and automatic updates for continuous improvement and competitive advantage. This approach offers structure while permitting adaptability to various sectors, geographical areas, and organizational sizes.

Why it’s a Game-Changer

RISE with SAP accelerates cloud migration by integrating cloud solutions, infrastructure, and security to ensure a smooth and efficient transition to SAP S/4HANA, eliminating the need for business users to manage multiple SLAs, contracts, or issue resolution processes. It also optimizes business processes through automation, reducing human error and increasing productivity, while its robust analytics capabilities enable continuous improvement through data-driven insights. Designed to drive digital transformation, RISE with SAP facilitates faster innovation by leveraging technologies like robotic process automation and artificial intelligence via SAP BTP.

Enhanced support is another key benefit, as SAP takes greater ownership of client processes, offering consistent guidance across technical services, infrastructure, and applications. This leads to improved uptime, reduced governance effort, and stronger SAP partnerships. RISE with SAP has been adopted by multinational corporations such as Siemens Energy, Microsoft, and Carrefour in order to expedite their cloud migrations. Additionally, RISE with SAP helps control costs and boost profitability by streamlining operations in areas such as intelligent manufacturing and supply chain management, and by enhancing supplier relationships through tools like the Ariba Network.

The Road Ahead…

SAP continues to enhance RISE with SAP by integrating generative AI (Joule), expanding sustainability capabilities (SAP Green Ledger), and deepening process automation. The roadmap shows a clear focus on agility, user experience, and proactive innovation. For companies still relying on legacy ERP systems or struggling with fragmented IT landscapes, the time to act is now. RISE with SAP isn’t just redefining cloud transformation—it’s redefining enterprise evolution.

From Legacy Limitations to Cloud Agility

Businesses looking to expand and undergo digital transformation may find RISE with SAP to be an appealing prospect. Reviewing the organization's current data footprint and determining what should be moved to S/4HANA and what may be left behind is another great opportunity provided by RISE with SAP. While historical data must be retained for commercial and legal reasons, hosting large volumes of it in the cloud can become prohibitively expensive. It will then be highly advised to decommission the legacy system to maintain the accessibility of legacy data at all times.