Why Getting Closer to Innovation Matters
SAP has changed, and so have its clients. Now, the fastest-moving companies want consultants and internal experts who know how systems run, but also need people who can help determine what’s next for their IT systems as they scale and innovate.
Fulfilling this need means working on the parts of the system and the kinds of projects where SAP is investing most of its resources. That includes cloud-based products, embedded AI features, intelligent automation and ways of working that break from the on-premise model.
If you’re an SAP professional, getting involved with where SAP is changing fastest opens up better projects, better rates, and better long-term prospects.
This article from IgniteSAP walks through the current innovation landscape, the types of roles that pull you toward the center of this activity, and the deliberate steps you can take to move your career in that direction.
The Current SAP Innovation Landscape
Over the last few years, SAP has expanded into areas like cloud-native applications, AI, machine learning, predictive analytics, and low-code development. These are now shaping SAP’s main product lines and service offerings. Here are a few examples:
SAP’s Business Technology Platform (BTP) now acts as the core layer for integration, extension development, and AI-related functionality.
SAP AI Core and SAP AI Launchpad are tools for developing and deploying AI models directly into business processes.
SAP Analytics Cloud supports data visualization and planning, and is slowly becoming the front end for many kinds of business reporting.
Automation is now embedded into tools like SAP Build Process Automation, which lets non-developers design process flows that interact with SAP systems.
Cloud ERP, and especially the public edition of SAP S/4HANA Cloud, are based on new ideas about how systems should be deployed, maintained, and extended. Projects using this model tend to adopt fit-to-standard methods, build extensions using BTP, and apply regular updates.
Roles That Revolve Around SAP Innovation
Some roles in SAP pull you into the kinds of projects where clients are trying exciting new ideas, trialing new platforms, and building with new tools.
If your work today is primarily based on support, long-term maintenance, or module-specific configuration in older SAP systems, you’re probably not seeing much of what’s happening at the edge, but you don’t have to stay where you started.
Working as a developer on SAP BTP brings you into contact with new architecture decisions and modern tooling. The same goes for roles where AI models are being deployed: for example, predictive invoice matching or forecasting in S/4HANA environments. Business users don’t usually set these things up on their own, but rely on consultants or internal teams to make those services work in practice.
Another role that’s becoming more common is the SAP process automation specialist: using newer tools like SAP Build and others to create automations that interact with cloud ERP processes, pulling in data, and triggering actions across multiple systems. This often involves collaboration with functional experts and non-technical users, making it a very different kind of engagement with lots of client interaction.
People working on embedded analytics or with SAP Analytics Cloud also find themselves closer to the center of innovation. They’re helping organizations connect business questions to data sources and creating models that facilitate planning or forecasting decisions. They have to understand the data, but also how to present it and explain its implications, so businesses can make informed decisions on operations as they stand at any one point in time.
One other category to keep an eye on is roles that help clients think through their transformation goals. These might be called solution architects or innovation advisors, and they often work during the early stages of a cloud ERP journey or AI exploration.
If your current work doesn’t overlap with any of this, that’s not a problem. Moving closer to these roles requires expanding your current skills, adding in new tools and new responsibilities that bring you into more strategic and valuable conversations.
Career Strategies to Shift Toward Innovation
Aligning your career with innovation means treating your career development like a transition project: something with a strategy, a timeline, and a few careful experiments along the way.
One way to begin is by identifying which parts of your current work involve newer tools, and what new features or solutions could complement them.
If you’re doing custom development, you can start looking into RAP (Restful ABAP Programming Model) or CAP (Cloud Application Programming) used on BTP.
If you’re working on reporting, you might begin moving from static reports to dynamic dashboards in SAC.
If your current work is mostly business process design or optimization, you might ask how those same processes could be mapped in SAP Signavio and later automated using SAP Build.
Changing your choice of project or employer is another potential move. Joining a consulting partner that specializes in greenfield S/4HANA Cloud implementations or piloting AI features gives you exposure to those technologies right away. Freelancers have even more control here. By choosing projects or employment where clients are exploring RISE with SAP or looking to build out automation, you improve your skills and your portfolio.
You can also look to developing specialism in industries and regions where SAP innovation projects tend to be accelerated.
High-tech, life sciences, and logistics companies are usually more open to transformation, and certain markets, like Scandinavia, Singapore, and parts of the Middle East, have been quicker to adopt S/4HANA Cloud and embedded AI.
Also, consider how you present your story to the market. The terms you use in your CV, LinkedIn profile, and project summaries define how you are perceived by clients and employers.
Instead of describing your experience with a particular SAP module, describe your involvement with transformation projects, cloud tools, or automation strategies.
If you’ve recently taken part in learning journeys through SAP Learning, these details help show that you’re already moving in the direction of innovation.
Training and Certifications That Mark the Shift
If you want to work closely with SAP’s newest technologies, training becomes a means of developing a new way of thinking about SAP projects and their purpose, as well as appealing to the right type of employers.
Certifications (available through the SAP Learning platform) for SAP BTP developers, AI application builders, SAP workflow automation specialists, and SAC specialists have started to stand out in job postings and project requirements.
The real value in these isn’t the badge itself, it’s the work you’re required to do to qualify.
If you’ve completed a Learning Journey that includes hands-on labs and small projects, you’ll be better equipped to talk about these tools with confidence in interviews and with potential clients. They want someone who’s already tried, tested, and thought about what these technologies mean in practice.
There’s also a growing expectation that innovation-focused professionals can show examples of their work. This could be a small project in the BTP free tier, a public SAC dashboard (that’s been anonymized), or a process flow built using SAP Build. These help people see what you’ve done and why you succeeded (not just what you’ve studied) so they add to your credibility.
Building Experience Without Waiting for Permission
One of the biggest changes in the SAP ecosystem is that accumulating hands-on experience no longer requires being assigned to a project, though being able to point to a high-level innovative project for a well-known client is the best proof of your skills.
You don’t have to wait for your employer to give you access to a system. The BTP free tier allows individual users to experiment with development models, automation tools, AI integrations, and analytics services.
Setting aside some time and creating your own environment means you can follow tutorials, build prototypes, and make mistakes without project deadlines hanging over you. Over time, you start to recognize what works, where the limits are, and how to explain those limits to someone who’s less familiar with the toolset.
Also, trial or demo environments of S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Analytics Cloud, and even SAP AI Core are available to test.
Combining these tools in small ways, such as a dashboard that visualizes data from a mock process, an automation that triggers from an event log, can help turn abstract knowledge into actual skill. When clients or employers ask if you’ve used these tools, you’ll be able to describe what you’ve built, and what you’d do differently next time.
SAP’s Discovery Center also offers missions that walk through innovation-related scenarios.
These methods of free access are designed to simulate the kinds of challenges consultants and internal teams face during transformation projects. Completing these gives you vocabulary, structure, and practical references you can bring into conversations with peers or clients.
Becoming a Guide
As SAP rolls out more AI-based and cloud-centric functionality, clients will need professionals to make it easier to get the value out of these tools. They want to know whether it makes sense for them to move now, how it will affect their operations, and what kind of preparation they’ll need on the data or change management side.
To be credible, you need to be able to explain how those tools fit into a broader business objective. That means talking about process fit, integration scenarios, and the trade-offs of different deployment models.
Some of the tools that can help in these conversations are meant for early-stage discovery.
SAP Signavio helps teams map their current processes and compare them with standard ones. SAP Joule, which serves as a conversational assistant across many of SAP’s products, is another.
If you’ve never advised on SAP innovation before, you don’t have to start with clients. Start with colleagues or stakeholders inside your own projects. Offer to lead a short session walking through a new tool or feature. Use that as a chance to practice framing benefits, discussing trade-offs, and offering next steps.
Planning Beyond the Next Project
SAP is reshaping its ecosystem with every product cycle. What remains consistent is the value of those who stay in step with where SAP is putting its development energy.
If you’re planning to stay in SAP for another five or ten years, now is the time to lay the groundwork.
That might mean adding data modeling to your skill set, exploring how DevOps works in a BTP environment, or learning how embedded sustainability metrics are being built into SAP’s ESG reporting.
Working near innovation doesn’t mean chasing the newest thing, but being around where new things are used, tested, and made sense of. Your career won’t follow a straight line. But it will move in a general direction, based on what you choose to learn, where you choose to work, and who you choose to collaborate with.
Designing a Career Around Innovation
More and more SAP professionals are starting to define their work around patterns of change, in how companies adapt, how systems evolve, and how decisions are made under new conditions. If you think of your career less like a resume and more like a personal roadmap, you can make better decisions about what to take on next.
Along with mapping your own career, make it a habit to write your own summary of what matters as the industry develops.
That could be a blog, a project reflection, a LinkedIn post, or a write-up for your team. The point isn’t to become a content creator. It’s to develop your thinking out loud and let others see how you’re making sense of what’s changing.
As you do that, you’ll start to attract new types of opportunities: like invitations, to lead internal working groups, to pilot tools, to talk to customers about their options.
Cultivate curiosity, discipline, and choose projects that stretch you into less familiar areas. Remember, the longer you wait to make the shift, the more likely you are to be surrounded by tools and expectations you didn’t grow with, and that’s harder to catch up on.
But it’s not hard to begin. Pick one area. Explore it. Build something. Write about it. Talk about it.
Over time, you’ll find yourself in a different kind of SAP career, that stays relevant as the industry progresses.
If you are an SAP professional looking for a new role in the SAP ecosystem our team of dedicated recruitment consultants can match you with your ideal employer and negotiate a competitive compensation package for your extremely valuable skills, so join our exclusive community at IgniteSAP.
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