As organizations adopt AI and migrate to SAP S/4HANA, maintaining a clean core will only become increasingly essential to achieving the agility and scalability needed in today’s business environment. This concept encompasses the entire ERP environment: data, processes, integrations, operations, and extensibility.
For SAP, a clean core means keeping systems “up to date, documented, consistent, efficient, and cloud compliant,” according to SAP Senior Product Manager Deepti Patil, who recently presented a session on clean-core methodologies alongside Tim Steuer, Vice President of SAP Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), at SAP Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference.
A modern ERP environment should be standardized, agile, and upgrade-friendly—enabling faster innovation cycles and long-term flexibility. Patil emphasized that this approach allows organizations to keep “their core as standard and efficient as possible,” enabling them to focus on their unique differentiating factors rather than managing customizations.
Steuer placed this guidance within SAP’s broader strategy. “We want to help our customers mainly be in the mode of consuming enterprise-grade software,” he explained. The path varies depending on whether organizations are new or existing SAP customers, but the destination remains the same—moving to the public cloud to “benefit from innovation immediately.”
For existing customers with extensive customizations, SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud Edition serves as a valuable transitional step. Steuer noted that this intermediate environment helps customers learn how to deal with a clean core while gradually preparing for their journey to Public Cloud solutions.
Debunking Misconceptions and Shifting the Mindset
A common myth is that a clean core prohibits all customization. “That’s not true,” Patil said. “We know that for businesses, it’s not always possible to use the standard product as is. Every business is different. But are they really different?”
While some processes are unique, she said, the majority of them are shared across industries. Differentiating capabilities should be handled via supported extension methods.
Patil compared a bulk-goods retailer and a specialty grocer to illustrate the nuance. While both sell consumer products, one may emphasize checkout speed and automation, while the other builds on more human interaction. “We want our customers to identify what their differentiating factor is,” she said. “We’re not letting you lose that. We’ll help you with the extensions to make sure that part of your business is taken care of.”
Patil emphasized that a clean core is fundamentally “not a technology” but rather “a mindset” that includes governance and represents an ongoing journey rather than a one-time implementation. She also described a clean core as a fundamental “IT hygiene factor” that organizations must maintain across systems, processes, and teams.
Steuer reinforced this perspective: “It’s fine to have your own processes. The question is how you implement them.” Rather than modifying SAP’s code directly, organizations should leverage extension platforms like SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), SAP Build, or SAP S/4HANA extensions.
This approach ensures that customizations remain separate from SAP standards so it doesn’t break the upgrade process or slow down innovation cycles. Steuer pointed out that the ultimate goal is to “stay as close as possible” to the standard solution, enabling companies to “consume innovation from SAP as quickly as possible” while maintaining their competitive edge.
Clean Core Principles
The clean core model centers on five pillars:
1. Standardize processes. Patil stressed that organizations should begin by evaluating where standard SAP processes can be used effectively rather than replicating outdated or heavily customized workflows from past systems. She illustrated this with a common real-world scenario: “A business lead comes to me saying, ‘I want to change this process.’ Ask, ‘Can you do it in a standard way, the way SAP has provided? Will the outcome be different or the same?’”
2. Extend with purpose. SAP encourages clean extensions. “Use only the standard ways of extension implementation,” Patil said. That includes building decoupled extensions using SAP’s recommended tools, such as BTP, Build Process Automation, and Build Apps. Patil added that SAP provides readiness checks to help organizations identify and document custom code before migration.
3. Eliminate data debt. Unused, outdated data burdens systems and complicates operations. “You don’t want to keep data for decades and decades if it’s not being used anywhere,” Patil noted. Regular cleanup supports both efficiency and data integrity.
4. Favor standard integrations. Avoid burdensome custom interfaces. “Use standard APIs as much as possible. Don’t create custom integrations again; avoid them as much as possible,” Patil advised. Before customizing, teams should assess whether the desired outcomes can be achieved with SAP’s standard functionality.
5. Monitor operational performance. A clean core isn’t static; it requires real-time insight. “Keep that end-to-end focus. If something changes, if there are some anomalies happening, take care of them right away,” she said.
These pillars form the foundation of a governance model that spans project phases and technical domains.
Tools to Operationalize a Clean Core
SAP Cloud ALM serves as what Patil describes as “the orchestrator” or “connective tissue between business requirements and technical implementations.” The platform supports several critical functions:
- Project and task management with Activate methodology
- Fit-to-standard workshops to collect and assess requirements
- Test management to generate and execute cases from documented tasks
- Change control, lifecycle traceability, and regression testing
“You collect and document and assess every requirement during your fit-to-standard workshop,” Patil said. Following up, Steuer emphasized complete visibility and control over the project: “You can trace the requirements from the fit-to-standard workshop all the way to deployment in production.”
Steuer also described how SAP Signavio supports this process from the start: “The business talks about the processes in SAP Signavio, and the fit-to-standard workshops are executed there. Then, the derived requirements are followed up in SAP Cloud ALM.”
Beyond implementation, SAP Cloud ALM provides cross-system monitoring capabilities that both business and IT users can leverage to identify anomalies and process disruptions. Patil illustrated this with a practical example: when an employee record created in SAP SuccessFactors affects downstream systems, such as cost centers and travel management, SAP Cloud ALM offers visibility across the entire process flow.
This is supported by SAP’s open telemetry approach, which monitors how business processes execute, including extensions built on SAP BTP, and detects anomalies in real time.
For extensibility, SAP offers clean custom development via on-stack, side-by-side, and hybrid models. “Extensions are great,” Patil said. “But maintain that clean core while you’re adopting SAP solutions and, of course, meeting your specific business needs.” She advised customers to decouple extensions and document them thoroughly, noting that SAP Cloud ALM supports deployment and testing for these extensions.
Steuer acknowledged that “Some customers are unfamiliar with SAP BTP and just getting started. We have a roadmap that describes step by step how to adopt SAP BTP.” SAP Cloud ALM helps synchronize theadoption across technical and organizational boundaries.
What Customers Can Do Now
Both speakers highlighted that partner engagement is a critical success factor. “Talk to your partners and make a plan to get it going,” Steuer said.
With partners on board, organizations should waste no time beginning their clean core journey. “The steps are easy. Start. Or, as a famous shoe manufacturer would call it, just do it,” Steuer said.
Steuer pointed to Panasonic as a leading example: “Panasonic has significantly invested in orchestrating their SAP BTP extensions and enabling that to be covered by Cloud ALM monitoring.”
He also cited another customer who achieved success by getting their systems integrator (SI) fully on board with clean core principles. This organization “convinced their SI to fully embrace the mechanisms of developing and adjusting customization with the clean core approach using Cloud ALM,” which proved critical to their implementation.
Cloud ALM is available to all SAP customers, including RISE with SAP customers, and includes accelerators to simplify onboarding. Steuer encouraged teams to use these tools to implement governance from the start and involve partners early. “We have great onboarding sessions that are done as part of the RISE journey but are also available to all customers,” he said. Steuer noted that SAP provides dashboards to help customers track their progress.
Patil emphasized that a clean core is not a one-time configuration. “It’s going to be a journey. And we want to help our customers throughout it,” she said. It requires ongoing coordination, process discipline, and the right tools at the right time.