Microsoft and SAP have joined forces to help large organizations enhance their enterprise resource planning experience in the cloud.
The plan calls for the two technology giants to provide joint technical support for customers who use SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud on Microsoft’s Azure datacenter infrastructure. The expanded partnership calls for the companies to deploy each other’s cloud solutions internally, to co-engineer new solutions and to co-market their ongoing combined effort.
The move comes as corporations move more of their critical systems to the cloud to reap more of the benefits of digital transformation, including better customer relationships, streamlined operations, new business models, and new products and services.
Both SAP and Microsoft will run SAP S/4HANA on Azure for their own internal operations. Microsoft, which already runs legacy SAP finance applications, also plans to connect SAP S/4HANA to its Azure AI and analytics services to streamline decision making and make its financial reporting more efficient. SAP plans to move more than a dozen of its most business-critical systems to Azure, including its Concur travel expense tracking software.
Several current customers who already use both S/4HANA and Azure - including Coca-Cola, Costco Wholesale, and Columbia Sportswear - applauded the closer relationship between the two technologies.
