Implementing Machine Learning with SAP S/4HANA

Siar Sarferaz, Raghu Banda

• Publisher: SAP PRESS
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781493220120
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Informatik
• Subtopic: Informatik Allgemein

1 Introduction to Predictive Intelligence

To get started with machine learning in SAP S/4HANA, first you must familiarize yourself with the foundations of predictive analytics, machine learning, and the intelligent enterprise, which we’ll discuss in this chapter.

In a digital world where the consumer is in charge, companies need to adapt faster to changes and catch-up with their customers’ needs. Value creation is the need of the hour in a smart, intelligent, and digital economy.

In this chapter, we’ll unpack the predictive intelligence concept and how it fits into our digital world and SAP. In the first section, we’ll briefly discuss the need for an intelligent enterprise and how it benefits the customer. We’ll then discuss how predictive intelligence has developed within SAP technologies, the workings of an intelligent suite, and how analytics are infused within SAP business processes.

1.1 The Intelligent Enterprise

Algorithms have changed how we interact with the world in the last 10 to 15 years. As a consumer, you are constantly looking for better ways of doing transactions or communicating and interacting with the people and systems around you. Whether you want to take a flight, buy an item, eat at a restaurant, or drive to a place, you are constantly guided by intelligent applications to do a certain set of things. The human mind is evolving to take basic guidance on mundane tasks and focus on more intelligent and productive tasks.

In the same way, enterprises are trying to understand how to increase the top-line revenues and cut the bottom-line costs. This is where enterprises are evolving to do better.

You do not want to access various different systems to perform your daily tasks at an enterprise; instead, you want to perform all the tasks in a connected enterprise. This is where the concept of intelligent enterprise evolves. SAP’s history of helping companies harness the power of technology for competitive advantage goes back more than 45 years. SAP has leveraged emerging technologies, from mainframes and client/server architectures, to the internet, cloud computing, and mobile, and now to the rise of artificial intelligence. With intelligent cloud ERP systems, SAP is helping companies of all sizes in every industry around the world manage the incredible complexity of today’s global, digital marketplace.

Figure 1.1 articulates it best. Notice how SAP’s technologies have transitioned through the journey of the intelligent enterprise.

Figure 1.1 Evolution of Intelligent Enterprise

At each stage of the technology innovation, SAP has responded to customers’ needs by developing appropriate enterprise solutions. During the mainframes and PCs era at the time of industry automation, SAP started the journey with SAP R/2 and then moved to SAP R/3 once client-server architectures to...

Table of contents

• Dear Reader
• Notes on Usage
• Table of Contents
•   Preface
• 1   Introduction to Predictive Intelligence
• 2   The Evolution of Predictive Analytics and Machine Learning at SAP
• 3   Tools, Technologies, and Services
• 4   Architecture
• 5   Technical Implementation
• 6   Business Implementation
• 7   Services on SAP Cloud Platform
• 8   The Road Ahead and Further Learning
• The Authors
• Index
• Service Pages
• Legal Notes