Posted by:
Rosina O'Brien
Publish Date:
15 Dec, 2025
The journey to SAP S/4HANA Cloud is far more than an upgrade. For most organisations, it’s a chance to simplify, modernise, and future-proof their digital foundations. However, no matter how compelling the business case, success hinges on one critical piece of the architecture: SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP).
At Invenio, we see BTP as the silent engine of transformation; the platform that makes clean-core ERP possible, accelerates innovation, and ensures organisations can move to S/4HANA from a place of confidence; not with an expectation of compromise.
Why BTP Matters Now More Than Ever
Legacy landscapes carry years of custom code, complex integrations and deeply embedded workarounds. As landscapes grow more complex, they carry an increasing technical burden forward, putting stability, agility and speed at risk. This cumbersome landscape means that, for most, a direct lift-and-shift to S/4HANA simply isn’t feasible.
BTP gives organisations the space and tools to modernise before they even touch the core. By moving customisation, integration and innovation out of the ERP and into a scalable, upgrade-safe platform, organisations can transform to a clean, cloud-ready architecture. One that aligns with SAP’s clean-core strategy while still supporting organisation-specific needs.
Invenio’s 4 Steps to Accelerating S/4HANA Readiness with BTP
When it comes to transitioning to a clean core business, Invenio experts use BTP for four critical steps that level-up ERP transformation and enable businesses to build with confidence, on strong foundations.
1. Creating a Clean Core… Without Losing Capability
Organisations running legacy ERP solutions often face significant levels of customisation; Enterprise Portal applications, bespoke ABAP enhancements, and complex workflows. Migrating these into S/4HANA adds complexity and risks retaining technical debt. SAP BTP provides a strategic path to decouple this legacy complexity while enabling innovation.
By building extensions and enhancements on BTP; using RAP, CAP, SAP Build, or UI5 businesses can deliver required functionality without embedding custom code in the S/4HANA core. This side-by-side approach preserves agility and upgradeability, allowing critical processes to evolve independently of ERP upgrades.
For ECC customers, this means essential functionality can be retained without compromising the clean core principle. Whether replacing custom Z-programs, modernising workflows, or re-imagining Enterprise Portal apps, BTP ensures innovation continues at pace while supporting Public or Private Cloud adoption with confidence.
Transitioning to this model introduces architectural complexity and potential business risk. To mitigate this, Invenio adopts a phased approach backed by strong governance frameworks and effective organisational change management. With disciplined execution, the clean core strategy becomes a controlled evolution rather than a disruptive leap.
2. Making Integration the Backbone of Transformation
Most UK businesses operate in a hybrid reality. Some processes are run on-premise, some in the cloud, with many relying on custom and third-party systems. This fragmented landscape creates complexity and fragility, especially during an S/4HANA transformation.
BTP’s Integration Suite is the glue that holds everything together seamlessly. It provides a standardised, API-led integration layer that reduces point-to-point dependencies and simplifies connectivity with over 200 standard adapters and connectors, all in a resilient cloud platform.
Invenio replaces brittle custom interfaces with governed, reusable integration patterns, creating an upgrade-safe foundation that customers can continue to rely on long after go-live.
3. Getting Data Fit for the Future
Data quality remains one of the most significant risks in any S/4HANA programme. Poorly harmonised or inconsistent data can derail timelines, inflate costs, and compromise business outcomes.
We help organisations harmonise, clean, and modernise data, ahead of migration by positioning BDC as the business-facing data and analytics layer, reducing migration risk and accelerating AI and analytics without data duplication. BTP data services are leveraged as the technical backbone for data storage, orchestration, and governance. These are particularly valuable when dealing with complex ECC landscapes and staged migrations.
Enhanced data that is more reliable and more accessible offers a wide range of benefits to the organisation: better reporting, consistent analytics and an enterprise-wide view; all of which are, today, critical for organisations in media, government, tax, education and other data-rich environments.
4. Bringing Automation and AI Into Daily Operations
BTP is not only home to extensions, integration and data; it is also where intelligence is applied. Automation and AI capabilities reduce manual effort, improve decision-making and stabilise day-to-day operations, making them a practical lever in any S/4HANA transformation.
For many organisations, automation delivers tangible value well before the S/4HANA programme begins. By removing process noise and automating repetitive tasks, BTP helps create a more predictable and controlled environment that is ready to move to the cloud.
Capabilities such as SAP Build Process Automation replace manual workflows with digital processes, reducing errors and accelerating readiness. SAP AI Core and AI Foundation enable predictive insights and machine learning without introducing additional complexity into the ERP core—whether forecasting demand, optimising maintenance schedules or identifying anomalies. Intelligent bots and conversational interfaces, delivered through SAP Build, further enhance user experience while reducing operational overhead.
This intelligence layer does more than reduce cost and effort—it transforms the migration from a technical upgrade into a business reinvention. By embedding automation and AI outside the ERP core, organisations preserve upgradeability while unlocking agility and innovation early and keeping it long after go-live.
What Makes Invenio’s Approach Different?
In such a competitive industry, an organisation that has continued to serve its customers for more than 20 years clearly offers something more than most SAP providers and resellers. Of course, now we have extensive experience, but that’s not all we do differently:
Deep technical capability
We use our 800+ SAP specialists and their decades of experience across S/4HANA, BTP, integration and custom development to apply BTP pragmatically. For us, BTP isn’t an add-on; it’s a strategic enabler.
Innovation that serves real business needs
We focus on outcomes; not technology for technology’s sake. Every use case is grounded in cost reduction, simplification or accelerated readiness.
Accelerators that reduce risk and speed up delivery
From ready-made RAP/UI5 templates to integration frameworks and data governance models, Invenio customers benefit from a library of proven assets.
Alignment with SAP’s clean-core vision
SAP is moving decisively toward cloud extensibility. Our approach ensures every customer is positioned for long-term stability and future innovation.
End-to-end lifecycle support
We stay with customers beyond go-live. We partner businesses through AMS, optimisation, and ongoing improvements to ensure BTP continues to deliver value year after year.
The Bottom Line
SAP BTP turns S/4HANA from a technical upgrade into a strategic transformation. While BTP provides the innovation, Invenio provides the expertise. Together, they create a landscape that is modular, intelligent and ready for the future.
For any organisation planning a move to S/4HANA, BTP is increasingly non-negotiable. It’s the foundation that ensures success.