On Tuesday, September 26, 2023, we at INNOV8iON attended the VNSG Developers Day. This was an excellent opportunity for our team to expand our knowledge and stay up to date on the latest developments within SAP. In addition, we had the opportunity to share our expertise from INNOV8iON on the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on SAP and its implications for our work as developers. Read more in this blog about our experiences and the topics that came up during the day.
A Look to the Future During the Various Parallel Sessions
The event began with a reception at the Postillion Hotel in Bunnik, followed by opening remarks by Jan-Willem Kaagman on behalf of the VNSG Focus Groups on Custom Development, BTP4Integration, and User Experience. This was followed by a keynote presentation from SAP on the Business Technology Platform (BTP). During this keynote, the focus was on app development, automation, and integration, which—along with data analysis and AI—are the key components of the BTP.
After a coffee break, the first parallel sessions were held, during which participants could choose from one of the following sessions: “Fiori in Practice (Setting Up Authorizations and Preventing Problems),” “ABAP Cloud Strategy,” “The Future of SAP Integration at PVH,” or “Hands-on Inspiration with the SAP Build Technical Academy.” I (Anouk van den Engel) attended the session on integration, during which it was explained how the ISA-M model can be used to develop integration guidelines within an organization.
In the second round of parallel sessions, participants could choose from the following topics: “Time Tracking with Fiori Elements at Nikon,” “SAP Build Apps in Practice,” “SAP Cloud Custom Development,” and “Automated Side-by-Side Extension Setup on SAP BTP, Including CI/CD.” During the session on SAP Build Apps, an in-depth demo was given on how you can easily build a simple app in a short amount of time that can retrieve information and store data in your SAP back-end system.
The session on SAP and AI, presented by our colleagues Iemke Kooijman and Olaf Kampers, took place during the third round of parallel sessions. During this session, we briefly discussed the technology behind Large Language Models (LLM) such as ChatGPT. The central question during this session, however, was what challenges and opportunities AI presents for our work. Conclusion: Although we don’t need to worry that our jobs will soon become obsolete, AI will certainly change the way we work. It is therefore essential to stay informed about these developments. The other sessions during this round were: “Fiori App Geo Map (Creating Extensions with the Fiori Elements Flexible Programming Model),” “Simplify SAP App Development with Low-Code,” and “SAP Extensibility Framework.”
More robust and reliable code.
During the final round, I attended the session on building SAPUI5 apps in TypeScript. Until recently, I wasn’t familiar with this topic, so this was a great opportunity to learn more about it. In addition to explaining exactly what TypeScript is, the presentation focused particularly on the advantages of this programming language compared to JavaScript. Because variables in TypeScript are strictly defined, it is easier to detect errors through a syntax check rather than at runtime. This results in more robust and reliable code.
The other sessions available during this round covered: “ABAP Cloud in an S/4HANA public cloud environment,” “Federating Your On-Premise SAP Data Through SAP HANA Cloud and SAP BTP,” and “Booking Advanced Integration Framework (BAIF).” Finally, Capgemini delivered a plenary keynote on the latest SAP technologies, such as Cloud and AI, followed by closing remarks by Frank Wammes.
Between sessions, a lavish lunch was served, and afterward there was an opportunity to enjoy drinks, providing plenty of time to catch up with colleagues from across the country. A key focus of the day was the shift from on-premises to the cloud, but the most important conclusion of the day was that AI will have a significant impact on a large portion of SAP products, if not all of them.
Diving in?
Did any of these topics pique your interest? We always enjoy exchanging ideas with colleagues in the field. So please feel free to contact us.
