DSAG Technology Days 2025
The DSAG Technology Days 2025 are over. What's new from the SAP and ABAP world? Let's take a look at various aspects of the event.
Table of contents
This year, the DSAG Technology Days 2025 were held in Wiesbaden, the state capital of Hesse. In this article, we will take a closer look at the keynote and discuss various sessions from the past few days. With the motto "Casino Royale," the theme was also strongly inspired by poker and James Bond. "Raise, Call, or Fold," you'll find out in this article.
DSAG Keynote
We begin with a review of the various DSAG formats in the areas of artificial intelligence and business AI. Various workshops were held with interested parties, some of which were very well received and provided insights into the new topics. The topic of LeanIX was also on the agenda to provide insights into the new product and tips on how to use it.
However, there is currently no progress in the area of security dashboards, and customers prefer to rely on third-party solutions, as SAP is primarily focused on the cloud, even though the majority of customers still operate an on-premise infrastructure.
The TechXchange, as an additional format, was also a focus, as it is not only a TechEd on Tour stop, but also the DSAG's first English-language format. The next few days will also show how well the format is received by the developer community.
In the area of Business Suite, the first demands were made of SAP. Since the name was already used in the on-premise area, customers also have certain requirements for such a product. What's needed is a true business suite that provides and uses a uniform standard. Simple, cross-architecture integration should be possible, and contracts should finally show transparent costs. Reliable partners are also needed in this area, especially when it comes to certification.
The question should also be asked whether SAP RISE is suitable for every customer. The offerings are not always good and often lack transparency. SAP demands a uniform and integrated operating model, and solutions should not be made available exclusively to RISE customers if they also work technologically on an on-premise release. The topic of security and compliance should be consistently pursued, but the portfolio should also be made available in a harmonized manner. In addition to secure application operation, calls for German-language support were also loud. The question is whether the sovereign cloud could play an important role in this, as it would enable some companies to take the step toward RISE.
The BTP now contains many good services; however, the DSAG would like to see more uniform APIs for monitoring and logging, as well as standardized user and authorization concepts across the entire portfolio. A consistent pricing structure across the portfolio would certainly help, but so would smaller issues such as central certificate management.
The first demands have already been made regarding the Business Data Cloud (BDC). The solution should be available to all SAP customers, regardless of RISE and GROW. Reliable data products must be delivered by SAP in the future, and a clear migration strategy must be available. Greater flexibility in product licensing is also expected, and the added value of the Insight Apps still needs to be proven.
SAP Keynote
The keynote for SAP was given by Dr. Philipp Herzig, the new CTO at SAP, who brings extensive experience in AI. The first step was to address the launch of the Business Data Cloud and how it will improve data quality to drive the use of AI. In the Fiori area, the Horizon theme has now been rolled out in most products, enabling a consistent UI experience, regardless of the product you are using.
Then there were some key figures from SAP on various topics:
- 38% of customers are already in the cloud with RISE
- 50% of the largest customers use RISE contracts
- 34,000 customers are with Business AI
- There are currently 210 AI use cases, and 400 are planned by the end of the year
SAP has been delivering features for a consistent portfolio for data analysis and processing for several years now. In this area, the SAP Foundation Model serves as the basis for AI in services, the SAP Knowledge Graph describes the data model within SAP applications and products, and third-party SAP products can also be integrated via BDC to use the data in analysis.
Dialogue
As in last year, there was also a dialogue on stage between DSAG and SAP, where questions from various areas at SAP were raised. Here is a summary of the various topics:
- BTP
- DSAG - Uniform APIs and monitoring in the BTP area, central certificate management across all products
- SAP - Cloud ALM should serve as an entry point for customers, with much data being processed in the "SAP Managed" context. are not available, certificates should be managed via Cloud ALM
- Identity Management
- DSAG - Not yet cleanly integrated into all products, Entra ID suggested, although not all features are available there
- SAP - The SAP Cloud Identity Service is the tool of choice; all SAML 2.0 IDPs can be connected there, including Octa
- Harmonized Document Management
- DSAG - In various applications, their own document management solutions have been implemented; there is currently no harmonization
- SAP - A redefinition of the standard is currently in progress, with the focus on the Document Management Service. The first delivery is planned for August 2025, and an expansion of the BTP services is planned
- Transformation Suite
- DSAG - There are currently various tools for creating changes, but integration into the toolchain is not yet complete and the goal for the customer is not clear.
- SAP - Better integration into the toolchain (LeanIX, Cloud ALM, Signavio, Walk Me) is planned. There are currently 10,000 Cloud ALM instances in use, although 80,000 are provisioned. Many features are to be delivered by the end of the year.
- Joule for Developers
- DSAG - Joule can support the transformation from legacy systems to ABAP Cloud and is primarily needed on-premises.
- SAP - Joule focuses on ABAP Cloud and key user extensibility. Perhaps individual selected features will be available for on-premises; current focus is on public cloud and RISE
- ABAP Addons
- DSAG - Clear statements are needed regarding the further certification of partner add-ons for on-premise
- SAP - Clean Core certification will be adjusted again in the rules; there is an extended transition period of one year for the conversion of the add-ons
- Adobe Document Service
- DSAG - A successor has been announced, but nothing has happened yet
- SAP - SAP's strategic goal is the BTP service. Special high-frequency scenarios should be possible on-premise and a first delivery should come in Q1 2027, but the use of the S/4 Java environment is also planned until 2030 as a transition possible
Guest talk
This year's guest article was written by Silke Müller, who spoke about the topic "Generation Tiktok." She addressed various topics that affect today's youth in Germany: the consumption of social media and the associated problems, such as the sexualization of children, the use of technology and the media, and the dilapidated German school system. The topic was presented to the audience in a humorous, yet serious, tone, and was intended to make us think.
Presentations
There were again numerous presentations from customers, partners, and SAP; in this section, you'll get impressions from various events we attended.
ABAP Cloud and Joule
After several years, the topic of ABAP Cloud is still relevant to many people. Accordingly, the crowd in the room was large when the topic was presented again, along with the discussion of how Joule's integration works. The presentation also included some interesting background information on the ABAP environment, which runs on Kubernetes and uses its own HANA cloud instance, which also runs and is managed by SAP. The 3-TIER model was discussed again and how it should be handled during an S/4 conversion. Finally, Joule for Developers was presented again and how the various capabilities, such as Accelerate, Empower, and Transform, can support us as developers. Joule is currently available free of charge to customers on the ABAP environment until September 2025.
Word Generator
KRONES AG presented the migration of its Word Generator to BTP. The plan was to integrate an existing .NET component into BTP and update the service accordingly. SAP calls the service in the BTP and generates the document there. The solution was implemented using the Document Management Service for document management, a small CAP application for control, and services such as the logging service and jobs to create a flexible application.
E-Document
Softway presented its solution for e-documents, focusing primarily on the advantages of using a central solution for documents. An interesting part was therefore the complete development of the solution on the SAP BTP ABAP environment, thus creating a zero footprint on the connected S/4HANA system. This utilizes the Clean Core concept, and we, as users, purchase the solution centrally. During provisioning, you and your company would receive your own tenant and always work with the latest software.
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM)
E.ON presented its strategy for handling authorization management in BTP. The first step was to address the challenges surrounding this topic and which services are currently used in BTP (Process Automation, Responsibility Management, Integration Suite, etc.). The biggest challenge is the various systems that provide roles, authorizations, and apps. For the Work Zone, for example, applications come from the on-premise Launchpad, as do the user authorizations. Applications built in CAP receive their own authorizations and are grouped into role collections.
RFC without ABAP
There was a community post on the topic of using RFC function modules from CAP and Java development. In Camunda, the JCo adapter is used to enable access to function modules from the runtime. This presents various challenges, such as finding the right documentation, integrating the library into the build process, and loading the correct dependencies. Integration in CAP is somewhat easier and more reliable with the new libraries, but there are also challenges and workarounds that must first be found. Fortunately, the integration already generates some artifacts with the description (JSON) of the function module and the use in the services as an action (CDS).
Bluefield to Clean Core
The migration to Brownfield or Bluefield is complete, and now what? The Festo presentation provided insights into the steps you can take to establish a governance framework within your company to address the topic of Clean Core. Clean Core doesn't necessarily have to happen as Greenfield, but you can ensure that your new developments are already ABAP Cloud compliant. You should consider the topic of change management within the company; developers and business departments should be involved. Another helpful point was bringing the company's biggest critics along. Festo uses various methods, such as internal and targeted workshops on upskilling, the development of genuine communities in various areas, initial flagship projects and projects, and a very detailed wiki where best practices and experiences are shared with everyone.
Community
An important part of the Technology Days is also the SAP community, which we met on-site and with whom we engaged in exchange. There you will meet SAP developers, former colleagues, people with the same problems and challenges, many SAP mentors from German-speaking countries, SAP colleagues, and partners at their booths. The exchange with the community is definitely worthwhile, but you should expect that not everything will work out over the two days if you have another chance encounter in the hallway or outside a meeting room.
Conclusion
The Technology Days are over, and there was once again plenty to exchange ideas with other companies and within the developer community. Today, Friday, the DSAG TechXchange continues, this year in a new format entirely in English and full of hands-on sessions. So far, it has been worth it once again.
