Faster Updates and Innovation

25.06.2025

SAP Clean Core: Two Use Cases Show the Way.

Q: What Are the Benefits of SAP Clean Core for Companies?

Reduced Complexity: Minimizing customizations results in a more streamlined and manageable IT landscape. Faster Updates: Companies can take advantage of new features and security updates more quickly, with fewer required modifications. Cost Efficiency: Fewer customizations mean lower maintenance costs and more efficient use of resources. Future Readiness: With a clean core system, companies are better prepared for future developments and innovations.

“Keep the Core Clean” is the name of a relatively new concept from SAP that is gaining traction as part of the SAP cloud strategy. The goal is to keep SAP core applications as clean and standardized as possible in order to improve their maintainability and updatability. Selected use cases demonstrate the role the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) can play in this.

SAP is strongly promoting the Clean Core approach – and the growing trend toward cloud is further accelerating its adoption. That’s because using SAP cloud applications makes it very difficult, if not impossible, to implement customer-specific modifications and extensions directly in the core system. Moreover, custom developments in the SAP core are increasingly considered outdated, costly, and likely to decrease system stability and increase maintenance demands.
The Clean Core concept therefore aims to minimize modifications to SAP applications. This enables companies to adopt updates and new features more quickly, without needing extensive adjustments.

What Are the Benefits of SAP Clean Core for Companies?

Reduced Complexity: Minimizing customizations results in a more streamlined and manageable IT landscape.

Faster Updates: Companies can take advantage of new features and security updates more quickly, with fewer required modifications.

Cost Efficiency: Fewer customizations mean lower maintenance costs and more efficient use of resources.

Future Readiness: With a clean core system, companies are better prepared for future developments and innovations.

How-to: These use cases demonstrate the diverse implementation possibilities of SAP Clean Core.

Has XEPTUM Already Implemented Concrete SAP Clean Core Use Cases?

One example of implementing the Clean Core approach involves the SAP Cloud Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solution in the context of IT service management (ITSM). Unlike its on-premise predecessor SAP Solution Manager, SAP Cloud ALM currently does not offer ITSM functionalities – and will not in the future either. That’s because many third-party providers already offer robust ITSM capabilities, including ServiceNow and Jira, depending on the use case.
Given these strong alternatives, SAP has opted not to develop its own ITSM functions.

Instead, it makes more sense to integrate third-party tools with SAP Cloud ALM.
To implement the necessary interfaces, side-by-side extensions on the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) are recommended – for example, to view tickets from external systems within SAP Cloud ALM. SAP Cloud ALM serves as a central command hub for IT, where information from diverse systems converges and is made available in one comprehensive overview.
Further information on the benefits of SAP Cloud ALM for this IT architecture approach is available in another XEPTUM news article: “Best of Breed”.

What Are Other Use Cases for the SAP Clean Core Concept?

A second Clean Core implementation example by XEPTUM involves the legal obligation to issue digital receipts in Greece. Companies operating in Greece are required – both in B2B (business-to-business) and, in some cases, B2G (business-to-government) – to transmit generated receipts to the Greek tax authority.
In an on-premise system, this would have posed a challenge, but it would have been possible to program a corresponding interface to transmit the data. However, such an interface would have negatively impacted the maintainability of the ERP system, requiring additional testing and potential adjustments during updates.

In this case, the customer is using SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud. This means direct modifications or custom programming within the system are no longer permitted – the core must remain clean.
To meet the customer’s needs, XEPTUM implemented an interface between the SAP Integration Suite (available on SAP BTP) and the S/4HANA Cloud ERP system. The Integration Suite was then connected – via a “middleman” – to the Greek tax authority.
As a result, the ERP system remained untouched by extensions or custom code. The ERP system provides the data, and the SAP Integration Suite handles the actual data exchange “myDATA SAP Public Cloud”.

How Can XEPTUM Support Your SAP Clean Core Implementation?

As the two use cases show, SAP BTP is a key enabler for implementing SAP’s Clean Core concept. With XEPTUM, you gain a consulting partner with decades of SAP project experience and deep expertise, always up to date with the latest technical and architectural developments.
We are equipped to develop tailored Clean Core strategies that meet your specific business needs and implement required extensions outside the SAP ERP core.

Interested in learning more? Contact us today! We’ll show you how to keep your SAP core clean – and ensure flexibility, agility, and fast access to innovation for your organization.

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