Today, SAP data flows into SAP BW and is copied again into Databricks, Snowflake, Azure, AWS or Google for everything else. The target state persists SAP data once as data products in SAP Business Data Cloud, shares it zero-copy with those platforms, federates non-SAP data through Dremio, masters it with Reltio, and puts Joule agents on top through BTP.
Switch states, choose the non-SAP platforms in your landscape, and select any component to see its role. Orange dashed lines are physical copies; teal lines are zero-copy shares or federated queries.
SAP data products are persisted once in the BDC object store and exposed through Delta Sharing and BDC Connect. Databricks, Snowflake, Google BigQuery and Microsoft Fabric read the same governed tables without a replication job.
Joule Studio builds agents from a written intent; the AI Agent Hub runs them with identity, memory, evaluation and monitoring. Agents read governed data products and the SAP Knowledge Graph, and call S/4HANA through MCP tools governed in Integration Suite.
Dremio makes BDC an Apache Iceberg lakehouse that federates 35+ sources with cached reflections and per-query compute. Reltio resolves customer, supplier, material and asset records into golden records across SAP and non-SAP systems.
BW does not have to be rebuilt on day one. It moves into BDC as a bridge, its content becomes data products, and new reporting is built natively on the target.
Move BW 7.5 or BW/4HANA to SAP BW Private Cloud Edition inside BDC. Existing queries and loads keep running while maintenance extends to 2030.
Months 0–6Expose BW providers as data products, rebuild high-value models in Datasphere, share them zero-copy to the lake, and retire unused queries and SAP-to-lake pipelines.
Months 4–18Adopt SAP-managed data products and insight apps, federate non-SAP data through Dremio, master entities in Reltio, and launch Joule agents on governed data.
Months 9–24Highlighted items change the reporting layer most directly. Roadmap reflects SAP's current state of planning from the partner session and may change at any time without notice; check SAP Road Map Explorer.
Each practice names the habit to adopt and the pattern to avoid. Filter by theme.
Start from a profile, then replace the illustrative figures with the client's own. Costs are annual USD unless marked otherwise. Results update as you type.
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line × (1 − lever × ramp)), and adds the new subscriptions (BDC, Dremio, Reltio, AI units) at full cost from year 1.The SAP Business AI Partner-Led Adoption Incentive (BAIP) pays Sierra up to €100K per customer to put agents and apps into production on BTP. That turns a Business Data Cloud deal into a BDC + BTP + Joule deal, with the delivery partly funded and a live, metered agent within about 90 days.
days left to nominate and approve accounts. The pool is first-come, strongest-project, and can close early when it runs out.
A BDC-only deal sells the data foundation and waits for someone to use it. The BAIP motion sells the foundation and the first production agents on top of it, with SAP paying part of the partner work.
BTP, Joule Studio and AI units attach to the BDC line, under a three-year minimum term for net-new BTP agreements.
Funded delivery lowers the customer's services cost, removing a common reason to delay the AI decision.
Payout requires a live agent SAP can verify through usage metering, so the reference is real, not a pilot.
Each live agent adds consumption and leads to the next one, on data products BDC already serves.
SAP pays the partner per approved package. It is not a discount or rebate to the customer; it offsets the partner work needed to reach production.
Activate one SAP-delivered Joule agent or assistant in a business domain.
First custom agent in Joule Studio or SAP Build, or a pro-code workflow app.
A custom agent plus a workflow app with a measurable business outcome.
Three or more custom agents with apps or workflows; can include an AI center of excellence.
Answer six questions about the account. The result is a qualification guide for the nomination conversation; SAP's steering group makes the final call.
Each play pairs a BDC anchor with agents Sierra can build in Joule Studio. Select one to load it into the deal builder; every figure is an illustrative starting point to edit.
Sierra runs the delivery and the paperwork; the account executive opens the door and nominates.
Flag BDC and RISE accounts with an AI use case and BTP headroom.
SAP AESierra runs a two-hour intent workshop and sizes the package tier.
SierraThe AE and Sierra submit the account; SAP's steering group approves.
SAP AE + SierraThe customer signs the BTP commitment and a scoped statement of work.
CustomerIntent → PRD → Spec → Code → Test → Deploy in Joule Studio, live within about 90 days.
SierraUsage metering confirms the payout; the next agent goes into the plan.
SAP AE + SierraThat's why the agent is scoped on BDC data products and the SAP Knowledge Graph from day one. The first agent is narrow, read-mostly and proves the data layer works.
No. SAP pays Sierra for approved adoption work, which reduces what the customer spends on services. Licence pricing is unchanged.
SAP can agree in writing to extend the timeline for complex work. Sierra scopes packages to land inside the window, and Joule Studio's spec-driven build is what makes that realistic.
Public sector and government entities are excluded from BAIP. Lead with BDC and a Sierra-funded pilot instead, and keep the agent roadmap ready for a future program.
Pick a use case and press Play. Each step lights up the components it touches, from the question in Joule down to S/4HANA and back, so you can see what BDC, Dremio, Reltio, zero-copy sharing and the Agent Hub each contribute.
Every stage is a markdown artifact a person reviews before the next one starts.
Time per lookup and per task for the cost-centre and BOM cases are from SAP's Joule Studio demonstration (October 2026). Other figures are illustrative targets to validate with the customer.
A BDC contract alone tends to sit at its committed floor. Sierra's sequence of lifting BW, publishing data products, federating and mastering non-SAP data, and putting agents into production keeps adding BDC capacity, BTP credits and AI units. The model below shows how much, by step and by year.
Faded segment: the step's first year, counted at half its run-rate while it ramps up.
Annual SAP consumption at full run-rate, in thousands of USD, for the Expected scenario. Scenarios scale these values. All figures are illustrative starting points, not SAP pricing or client data.
A big-bang ECC conversion puts every risk on one go-live date, often two years out. Sierra splits it: lift the landscape into RISE early, then clean the core, move integrations and data, and add agents in waves that each pay back. The customer is on SAP's cloud in months, not years.
Deadlines from published partner and analyst summaries of SAP's maintenance policy; confirm each date for the customer's contract with SAP.
Describe the landscape and switch accelerators on or off. The blue marker shows when the customer is running on RISE; in the traditional plan that only happens at the final go-live.
Durations are an illustrative planning model: effort scales with custom code, interfaces and data volume, and each accelerator shortens or parallelizes its track. Calibrate with a Readiness Check and Sierra's assessment before quoting dates.
Pick the route that fits the customer. Both reach RISE in phase 1; they differ in when ECC becomes S/4HANA.
The plan is phased. The message is speed: the customer is on SAP's cloud sooner, and every later wave runs on it.