Bosch Digital: Empowering 1,500 developers to drive and scale innovation with help from ABAP Cloud and generative AI capabilities
Equipping 1,500 developers with digital tools
Bosch Digital is an IT and digital solutions provider for Bosch, serving as a core IT and digital partner for all its business divisions. Bosch Digital adopted the ABAP Cloud development model and generative AI capabilities, including the SAP AI Core infrastructure, to modernize its development landscape, enabling cloud-native extensibility, automation, and innovation at scale.
| Industry | Region | Company Size |
| High tech | Gerlingen, Germany | >400,000 employees |
increase in developer productivity with SAP Joule for Developers.
faster creation of unit test cases.
Head, Center of Excellence ERP Product Excellence, Bosch Digital
Simplifying legacy landscapes for future-ready IT
Bosch Digital is recognized as a digital pioneer within Bosch, combining consulting and implementation skills to deliver IT and digital projects in close cooperation with customers. Bosch Digital comprises internal experts who provide wide-ranging IT services and digital solutions to the whole organization. Far more than a support function, the division is a key enabler of innovation and efficiency across Bosch’s business areas. It manages the network infrastructure, develops custom software applications, offers cybersecurity protection, and supplies cloud-based solutions.
Bosch Digital executes the multinational’s digital transformation through robust technology and services, such as code testing, quality checks, and developer training. Gamze Öztürk, head of the center of excellence for ERP product excellence at Bosch Digital, explains, “Our commitment to digital transformation is not just about technology; it’s about empowering our employees and enhancing their work-life balance. By providing flexible working conditions and fostering an inclusive culture, we ensure that our team members feel valued and supported in their professional and personal journeys.”
The digital division delivers fast, smart, scalable, secure, and intelligent solutions across 12 business divisions to help drive innovation and operational excellence.
Following almost three decades of software development and multiple acquisitions, Bosch was using more than 50 ERP systems and 80 subsystems across more than 300 legal entities in over 100 countries. The business wanted to merge these complex legacy systems and modernize its IT landscape as well as reduce its technical debt and enable more-agile development by adopting a standardized system. It also sought to train more than 200,000 ERP users and retrain more than 1,000 IT experts.
Chief Architect, Center of Excellence ERP Product Excellence, Bosch Digital
Using a clean core approach, a cloud environment, and AI capabilities to drive development
Bosch Digital’s “cloud-smart” strategy focuses on using SAP Build solutions on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) as well as SAP Cloud ERP Private solutions to gradually transform its business processes and enable both on-stack and side-by-side extensibility. SAP Build solutions enable the company to drive pro-code development, and it’s currently using built-in integrations and APIs along with the workflow automation tool in five use cases. Part of SAP Build, the ABAP Cloud development model allows Bosch Digital to deliver comprehensive solutions—from user interfaces to back-end logic—enabling rapid prototyping and deployment in a decoupled scenario. The business is using both ABAP Cloud on the SAP BTP ABAP environment for side-by-side extensibility and ABAP Cloud on an SAP Cloud ERP Private solution for on-stack extensibility. Ajay Kulkarni, chief architect of Bosch Digital’s center of excellence for ERP product excellence, notes, “While we already had SAP BTP in place for some time, its adoption exploded when we introduced ABAP Cloud. It democratized development and cloud access to our 1,500-plus pro-code developers.”
As a core pillar of its transformation, Bosch Digital is using the latest generative AI capabilities from SAP—such as the SAP Joule for Developers add-on and the SAP AI Core infrastructure—to drive automation, productivity, and innovation across the enterprise. The company is using the agent builder capability in Joule Studio to perform rapid prototyping of the SAP Fiori user experience, allowing teams to quickly iterate and deliver intuitive interfaces. It’s employing ABAP AI capabilities in SAP Joule for Developers to automate the creation of unit test cases and develop applications on ABAP Cloud. And it’s providing access to generative AI capabilities and large language models with SAP AI Core, leading to the wide adoption of new, innovative solutions and capabilities that wasn’t previously possible. Bosch Digital is also deploying the SAP Joule for Consultants solution to assist its consultants and IT teams in implementing SAP applications by providing AI-driven recommendations and best practices.
In the largest-ever software replacement at the company, Bosch Digital migrated to SAP Cloud ERP Private solutions from SAP R/3 software using a clean core approach. This allowed it to evaluate its technical debt; install an API layer between decoupled, classic applications and cloud-ready applications; and achieve faster upgrades. Öztürk notes that more than 200,000 users will be impacted by the ERP modernization.
Head, Center of Excellence ERP Product Excellence, Bosch Digital
Improving developer efficiency and reducing development time with modern tools
Combining pro-code capabilities in SAP Build, cloud-native functionality of ABAP Cloud, and AI-driven tools contributes to faster development cycles, reduced operational costs, improved code quality, and better system reliability. Most of Bosch’s major business divisions are in various stages of implementing ABAP Cloud in their instances of SAP BTP. Although it’s in the early stages of replacing its legacy coding with future-proof applications, Bosch Digital expects to decrease development time and costs, increase process automation, and enhance the user experience over time. In a short time period, it has empowered more than 1,500 developers to create between 5,000 and 10,000 objects—a 20% productivity increase. Given the size of Bosch, this is a significant starting point.
With ABAP AI capabilities, Bosch Digital’s developers can automate routine coding tasks, optimize code, and focus on innovation. All levels of developers, from junior to senior, have noted higher satisfaction and a tangible gain in productivity. Öztürk highlights, “We used to budget about 15% to 20% of a developer’s time to do unit tests. Generating unit tests with ABAP Cloud has helped save time and effort. It has also freed up our senior experts and development leads to work on critical objects while leaving semicritical objects to our junior developers. We see this as an added benefit in the long run.” More than 1,000 consultants have been trained in building and deploying AI agents.
The migration to SAP Cloud ERP Private solutions and the integration of AI-driven tools have enabled real-time analytics, improved supply chain performance, and fostered a culture of continuous innovation. The solutions have enhanced decision-making and compliance while lowering manual workload through automated workflows and standardized processes. Developers are benefiting from intuitive tools and a consistent user experience as well as reduced complexity, with faster response times and better service quality. And the clean core approach has simplified software upgrades and boosted business agility.
The dual focus on SAP Build and ABAP Cloud means that Bosch Digital can accelerate its clean core strategy, streamline integration, and maximize the value of its SAP software investments. Öztürk outlines, “Our clean core approach and activities focus on extensibility development outside the core. Core extensions are aimed at minimizing technical debt, and using the SAP BTP ABAP environment for our new developments enforces the use of released APIs and extensions points. This approach allows us to develop customizations using side-by-side extensibility while following best practices for a clean core and meeting our business needs. And it helps ensure maximum reusability of developer skills across all environments and business units. With ABAP AI capabilities, Bosch will be able to actively and continuously manage technical debt to create a healthier and more agile IT landscape.”
Chief Architect, Center of Excellence ERP Product Excellence, Bosch Digital
Advancing development capabilities with AI and technological know-how
ABAP Cloud is ranked as having zero technical debt and is preferred for new developments because it’s the first to get AI support. By centering its digital strategy on SAP Build solutions, including ABAP Cloud and AI, Bosch Digital can use the latest best practices recommended by SAP to develop scalable, future-ready solutions. The company sees SAP Build and ABAP Cloud as a foundation for its software development and deployment, integrating cloud and local development, low-code and pro-code, and AI-driven innovation. Armed with tools and technological know-how, developers need only think about their business use case. Öztürk concludes, “We’d like to empower our IT teams to not simply add a fresh feature to a new development package but, rather, refactor the entire package to bring it up to current standards and then continue its development.” Bosch Digital has also introduced a proof of concept for building a digital workspace with SAP Build Work Zone to centralize access to business information. And it’s exploring AI capabilities for process automation in SAP Build solutions and ABAP Cloud to automate repetitive tasks and drive smarter decision-making.
The integration of AI developer capabilities in Joule copilot is expected to further improve productivity and reduce time to market. As such, by using SAP Joule for Developers, developers of ABAP AI capabilities can generate, test, and optimize code. The company is also interested in a new feature that uses AI to extend applications in the public cloud. Further, Bosch Digital is participating in a proof of concept for humanoid robotics and physical AI, demonstrating its leadership in adopting new technologies.
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