AI is setting the pace of innovation. Keep up.

Change is constant. But with the advent of AI, the pressure for organizations to modernize has never been higher.

New models, tools, and automation patterns are resetting expectations for speed, cost, and user experience—often within shrinking delivery cycles. To keep digital capabilities aligned with business priorities, leaders must treat modernization as a top priority.

When modernization lags, technical debt accumulates, delivery slows, and companies lose the ability to adopt new capabilities or respond to evolving needs.

The business value of SAP Build for SAP Cloud ERP customers

For this Business Value Solution Brief, sponsored by SAP, IDC conducted in-depth interviews with organizations using SAP Build with SAP Cloud ERP to assess business impact. The study collected both quantitative and qualitative data on costs, benefits, and operational results.

Business and operational benefits

The participants reported that SAP Build helped improve business outcomes by accelerating processes, increasing productivity, and enabling teams to respond more quickly to demand.

Faster delivery of extensions and automated workflows reduced delays in customer onboarding, order processing, financial close, and pricing decisions. Improved data quality and automation also reduced errors, allowing teams to shift focus toward higher‑value work.

According to this study, the participants reported $131.31 million higher revenue per organization per year. Moreover, the study found that, “in addition to revenue gains, interviewed organizations also linked their use of SAP Build for their SAP Cloud ERP environments to line-of-business user productivity gains.”

Improved extensibility capabilities

SAP Build simplifies extension development for SAP Cloud ERP without modifying the ERP core. Instead of relying on fragmented custom code and siloed integrations, participants used SAP Build as a unified extensibility layer based on templates, standard workflows, and real-time validation.

This approach reduces development complexity, lowers risk, and shortens delivery timelines, helping teams adapt more quickly as business needs change. The study found that “on average, interviewed SAP customers reported creating and delivering extensions needed by their businesses 58% faster with SAP Build for their SAP Cloud ERP environments.”

Development benefits

According to the research, “Study participants explained that SAP Build has improved their development capabilities for SAP Cloud ERP by simplifying and accelerating how they design, build, and deliver applications, workflows, and integrations.” Prebuilt templates, both low‑code and pro-code tools, built‑in logic, and real-time validation shortened project timelines and reduced risk. Participants also reported improved collaboration, more predictable outcomes, and reduced integration maintenance.

Prebuilt templates, both low‑code and pro-code tools, built‑in logic, and real-time validation shortened project timelines and reduced risk. Participants also reported improved collaboration, more predictable outcomes, and reduced integration maintenance.

According to the IDC Business Value Solution Brief, these organizations used SAP Build to achieve:

• 44% higher development team productivity.
• Increase in the volume of innovative projects completed by more than two times (110%).
• 38% average reduction in delivery time for those projects.

Examples of high‑impact initiatives built with SAP Build include:

• AI‑driven credit analysis and decision workflows.
• Automated end‑to‑end customer and supplier onboarding.
• Real‑time, AI‑enabled customer service routing and engagement.

Business process efficiencies

The IDC Business Value Solution Brief found that “participants have used SAP Build to make business processes more efficient, seamless, and higher quality by replacing manual, fragmented, and email-driven workflows with integrated, automated processes tightly connected to SAP Cloud ERP.”

“They commonly describe automating approvals, master data creation, document processing, and transactional workflows, which significantly reduces cycle times and removes handoffs that previously caused delays and errors.”

According to the study:

• Business process errors were reduced by 71%.
• Process execution teams are 32% more efficient.

The benefits of clean core extensibility

Modernization is most effective as a continuous process rather than a one-time project tied to a migration or major upgrade.

Instead of large, occasional transformation efforts that lag the market and disrupt daily operations, businesses benefit from frequent, lower-risk improvements. This approach makes it easier to adopt emerging technologies—like AI—without major rework.

This modernization approach establishes a strong foundation for sustained scalable innovation instead of isolated initiatives that fail to grow. For ERP environments, where systems must evolve with business processes, this is particularly valuable.

Traditionally, development teams modified the core of their SAP Cloud ERP systems directly. Over time, this led to cumbersome custom code, undocumented changes, and complex integrations that slowed upgrades and increased the total cost of ownership.

To address these challenges, SAP Cloud ERP customers are adopting clean core extensibility with SAP Build. By shifting customizations and automations outside the ERP core, development teams can maintain a clean and stable foundation while still innovating rapidly.

By embracing a clean core approach, customers can:

• Accelerate innovation cycles.
• Add business-specific capabilities with minimal disruption.
• Reduce technical debt.
• Simplify system maintenance and upgrades.

Bridging SAP and third-party systems with SAP Build

Modern business processes span CRM tools, supply chain systems, HR platforms, industry apps, and external APIs. Without seamless integration across SAP and non‑SAP systems, modernization becomes fragmented, expensive, and difficult to sustain.

SAP Build addresses this challenge by providing a unified environment to orchestrate end‑to‑end workflows across diverse systems, helping organizations maintain consistency across complex process landscapes.

Implementing AI in a scalable way

Many companies can launch AI initiatives, but few can scale them successfully. AI tools are often introduced as add‑ons that operate outside established governance, security, and lifecycle management frameworks.

To scale AI successfully, SAP Cloud ERP customers need a development platform where AI is built in—not layered on. When AI operates within the same governance, lifecycle, and operational frameworks as core business processes, it becomes a powerful driver of productivity and continuous modernization rather than a source of fragmentation.

Conclusion

This IDC Business Value Solution Brief shows that SAP Build delivers meaningful business value for SAP Cloud ERP customers by enabling continuous modernization while preserving system stability.

By supporting clean core extensibility, accelerating development, increasing process efficiency, and embedding AI within a governed platform, SAP Build helps organizations move faster with less risk and disruption.

As the pace of change continues to accelerate, SAP Build provides SAP Cloud ERP customers with a practical, future‑proof foundation to sustain modernization, support innovation at scale, and align technology investments with evolving business priorities.

For additional details on extending SAP Cloud ERP following clean core best practices with SAP Build watch this video or visit the SAP Build webpage.