This partner insight was authored by Sven Arndt, Chief Technology Officer at sovanta America Inc., in collaboration with ASUG.
As SAP customers pursue clean core strategies, many are realizing that implementation alone isn’t enough. What’s often missing is a partner focused on speed, innovation, and end-user impact. Enterprises modernizing their ERP environments and adopting the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) face a familiar challenge: how to innovate at pace without reintroducing the complexity that clean core principles are designed to avoid.
BTP offers the flexibility to extend and adapt SAP systems, but translating that flexibility into consistent business value requires more than technical proficiency. Organizations need ways to align innovation with business and user needs, deliver quickly, and build on that progress over time.
As companies work to implement their SAP strategies, many are finding value in specialized partners with focused expertise. sovanta falls into this category, positioning itself not as a comprehensive S/4HANA implementation partner but as a specialist in BTP, AI, and clean core implementations. This specialized focus enables sovanta to complement broader transformation efforts with targeted expertise.
How sovanta became an SAP BTP Expert
Founded in 2009 by a former SAP Executive Board member, sovanta was created to close the growing gap between SAP’s back-end sophistication and enterprise usability expectations. The company began by improving user experience at a time when enterprise mobility was just emerging and modern UX was largely missing from core SAP systems.
Over time, that focus evolved into a broader mission: helping customers build adaptable, intuitive, business-ready solutions on top of SAP’s foundation.
Proximity to SAP’s headquarters in Walldorf and deep collaboration with its product teams have kept sovanta closely aligned with SAP’s evolving architecture. sovanta was named Partner of the Year 2025 within the SAP Diamond Initiative and we are an early member of the SAP AppHaus Network - this highlights our strong relationship with SAP and the company’s capacity to understand SAP’s strategic direction and shifting customer needs.
That proximity is also reflected in sovanta’s expansion into North America. As one of the company’s first employees and a leader in the development team, I recently transitioned from sovanta’s Heidelberg headquarters to its U.S. office near SAP America headquarters in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania. This enables the company to make its expertise available to American customers.
Innovate to Differentiate – with SAP BTP, enabled by SAP BDC
Instead of managing S/4HANA implementations, sovanta enables innovation around them. The company’s expertise spans BTP extensibility, AI use cases, and operational readiness, which are designed to work alongside core integration work.
sovanta is helping SAP customers implement artificial intelligence within BTP environments, such as the sovanta GenAI DocumentChat tool. In BTP projects, companies incorporate AI capabilities that enhance workflows and improve user experiences, aligning with a philosophy of making business software simpler and more intelligent. Which allow them to gain a business advantage in the end.
With the conception of SAP Business Data Cloud, SAP is offering preconfigured, cross-compatible analytics solutions for the first time. The BDC is the ideal place to meet individual AI requirements and to integrate them securely and sustainably into the respective company IT. sovanta enables companies to generate real business value through the effective use of BTP, combined with customer’s unified data in the BDC.
The Basis: SAP BTP Center of Excellence
While many companies launch BTP projects, effectively embedding innovation into business practices can be challenging. Creating an SAP BTP Center of Excellence (CoE) is the solution. It defines the strategic framework that enables rapid and effortless innovation on SAP BTP. But there are several common misconceptions about Centers of Excellence that complicate implementation. Many organizations incorrectly assume a CoE requires a dedicated team or rigid structure, while others mistakenly view it as merely a technical function owned by IT. These misunderstandings can significantly hinder the development of effective BTP strategies.
sovanta takes a more agile approach. A CoE can start small, sometimes with a single product owner or architect, as long as it’s cross-functional and aligned with how the business operates. Instead of separating innovation from operations, sovanta integrates them, ensuring each initiative drives both technical and business outcomes.
There isn’t a fixed formula, but there is a methodology. A CoE should reflect how an organization makes decisions, allocates resources, and governs change. sovanta works with customers to build models that are aligned with those realities, structured enough to scale but flexible enough to adapt. The aim is to simplify governance and unlock lasting momentum, not just add another layer of process.
Designing a repeatable model is only part of the equation. Applying it within real-world teams, project timelines, and delivery settings often proves significantly more difficult.
Roadmap to CoE
The engagement starts with a focused workshop to evaluate the client’s SAP environment, organizational model, and IT setup in order to clarify the current state and outline a concrete path forward. sovanta then provides a twelve-week CoE Starter program that guides clients through implementing this roadmap. Throughout this engagement, the sovanta team works alongside internal staff, providing the hands-on support needed to establish an effective BTP Center of Excellence.
Every organization brings its own unique circumstances to BTP implementation. Some have existing technical teams, established cloud strategies, or business units with technical aptitude. sovanta’s approach focuses on building upon these existing strengths while addressing capability gaps through established methodologies and practical tools, adapting to each client’s specific starting point.
Introducing the sovanta Innovation Factory for SAP BTP
This same philosophy powers sovanta’s Innovation Factory, the company’s delivery engine for accelerating outcomes across BTP. Believed to be the first BTP accelerator of its kind, the Innovation Factory codifies best practices, design standards, and architectural templates into a repeatable system. Built around a six-phase model, it enables teams to design, test, deploy, and scale enhancements without restarting from zero.
Each engagement begins with design thinking sessions with end-users in mind, to better validate needs and prototype solutions. Solution architects assess feasibility and define implementation scope. Cross-functional teams, including front-end, back-end, and workflow developers, manage delivery using a curated set of reusable components developed over time.
After go-live, sovanta supports rollout with training, change management, and performance monitoring. The aim is to ensure long-term adoption through training and user engagement beyond successful deployment.
Get cloud solutions on BTP up and running fast – with User Adoption
Working within this framework, sovanta delivers a range of targeted services. Some clients come to sovanta needing speed—a way to get cloud solutions on BTP up and running fast. Others are looking to tackle more specific challenges, like building out AI-driven features that reflect how their business actually operates.
From process automation to interface design, sovanta draws on a broad command of the SAP ecosystem to make enterprise software easier to use and more efficient. Rather than rely on one-size-fits-all delivery, the company adapts each project to the problem at hand—without compromising the speed and structure that defines its Innovation Factory model.
While clean core approaches provide a technical foundation for SAP systems, sovanta’s philosophy emphasizes the importance of ongoing innovation alongside stable systems. The company’s materials highlight how BTP serves as the designated space for innovation that complements the SAP Core.
The company develops systems that follow human-centered design principles while maintaining alignment with SAP’s product direction. sovanta’s approach prioritizes ease of use through streamlined interfaces and incorporates AI to create simple, efficient processes.
Let’s talk
For organizations trying to make innovation routine, who they partner with becomes critical. Stability doesn’t have to come at the cost of progress. The right approach gives companies room to adapt without disrupting what already works.
Sven Arndt is Chief Technology Officer at sovanta America Inc.