Morning Brief — February 04, 2026

Good morning, SAP practitioners. I’m Giulia Ferrari, AI Research Director and Enterprise Technology Specialist at SAPExpert.AI. As we kick off February, the momentum around clean-core ERP, AI integration via SAP BTP, and the 2026 S/4HANA modernization deadline demands immediate action. This brief distills today’s critical updates into practitioner-focused insights, emphasizing what you should do today to enhance agility, security, and AI readiness in your SAP landscapes.

Platform Updates

SAP continues to fortify its platform for clean-core strategies, with recent enhancements in SAP BTP extensibility and SAP Signature Management by DocuSign. Enterprises like Wieland are leveraging SAP Signature Management to streamline agreement workflows, reducing cycle times by up to 70% through embedded e-signatures in S/4HANA and SAP Build Process Automation. This integrates seamlessly with SAP BTP’s low-code/no-code tools for side-by-side extensions.

Action Items:

• Audit custom code today: Use the SAP Readiness Check 2.0 tool in SAP for Me to identify customization debt; target migration to SAP BTP extensions by Q2 2026. SAP Readiness Check.
• Pilot SAP Signature Management: In your dev tenant, deploy the DocuSign integration via SAP Build Apps—configure API keys and test agreement flows for procurement processes. Expect 40-50% faster approvals.
• Enable BTP AI Core: Provision Joule models in SAP BTP AI Core (version 2026.01) for document intelligence; start with a proof-of-concept on 10 high-volume workflows to cut manual processing.

These updates position your ERP for AI scalability—global enterprises are already using SAP BTP to cut customization debt and prepare ERP for AI.

Security & Patches

Hyperscaler DNS outages before October 2025 exposed cloud ERP vulnerabilities, impacting availability and data privacy for over 2,000 organizations. SAP systems on AWS, Azure, and GCP saw cascading failures in HANA XS Advanced and CAP services, highlighting risks in multi-tenant environments.

Immediate Actions:

• Patch SAP BTP services now: Apply the January 2026 security patches for Cloud Foundry (CF 2026.01.0) via SAP BTP Cockpit—focus on CVE-2025-XXXX DNS resolver flaws. Verify via SAP Security Notes.
• Implement multi-DNS resilience: Configure SAP Cloud ALM with secondary DNS providers (e.g., Cloudflare) and enable auto-failover in your S/4HANA Cloud edition; test disruption scenarios today using Chaos Engineering tools like Gremlin.
• Audit privacy controls: Run SAP Data Privacy Governance reports in S/4HANA 2026 FPS00 to flag upstream integrations like Brex API; enforce JWT token rotation every 24 hours.

Prioritize these to avoid downtime—register for the SAPInsider webinar on protecting SAP ERP availability & data privacy.

Community Alerts

Discussions at recent forums underscore that digital transformation succeeds when tied to business KPIs, not tech hype. Dynatrace Perform 2026 emphasized practical AI governance over speculative futures, while Qualtrics CEO Jason Maynard highlighted ‘experience context’ for agentic AI—critical to prevent frustration in sectors like healthcare. Diversity challenges persist, with Black women in tech sharing survival strategies amid male-dominated teams.

Key Takeaways & Actions:

• Align AI pilots to outcomes: Map your Joule copilot deployments to specific KPIs (e.g., 20% reduction in invoice processing time); review governance frameworks using SAP Signavio Process Intelligence.
• Incorporate experience context: For agentic AI in SAP Build, embed Qualtrics XM data via APIs—prototype a healthcare testbed scenario today, querying patient context before actions. Qualtrics CEO on experience context- Foster inclusive teams: Schedule weekly diversity check-ins; leverage SAP SuccessFactors Learning for targeted modules on inclusive leadership.

These insights from SAP Community discussions reinforce collaboration as the linchpin.

Development & Tools

SAP BTP extensibility is accelerating clean-core adoption, with new RAP (RESTful ABAP Programming) models in ABAP Cloud 2026 supporting event-driven architectures. McDonald’s exemplifies agility gains via BTP for AI-prepared operations.

Implementation Steps:

• Migrate to RAP-based extensions: Convert legacy BAdIs to RAP behaviors in your S/4HANA 2025 FPS02 dev system; use SAP Business Application Studio (BAS 2026.01) templates—deploy first extension by EOW.
• Integrate AI Core with HANA: Embed ML scenarios from SAP HANA Cloud (2.0 SPS07) into BTP apps; script a data pipeline with CAP CDS views for real-time anomaly detection in finance.
• Toolchain setup: Clone the SAP-samples/btp-cap repo, adapt for your namespace, and run cds watch for local testing—target production promotion in 2 weeks.

Detailed guidance in SAP BTP Extensibility blogs.

Market Context

Cloud ERP growth surges, with Microsoft’s $81.3B Q2 FY2026 revenue signaling massive AI/cloud capex. Competitors like IFS report 23% ARR growth via industrial AI, while SAP’s Southeast Asia leadership drives regional cloud adoption. S/4HANA 2026 readiness is non-negotiable, amid upstream finance shifts via Brex-like APIs.

Strategic Implications & Actions:

• Benchmark against peers: Analyze your RISE with SAP contract for BTP credits; accelerate to S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2026 to match McDonald’s agility—run brownfield assessment via SAP Pathfinder.
• Counter IFS/Microsoft: Prioritize industrial AI with SAP Digital Manufacturing; integrate Azure OpenAI via BTP Destination for hybrid workloads.
• Regional execution: If in Southeast Asia, engage new SAP leaders for tailored cloud migrations—aim for 30% capex shift to opex by mid-2026.

Urgent modernization mitigates ECC end-of-support risks by 2027 (effective 2026 for many contracts).

Looking Ahead

Dynatrace Perform 2026 (March) spotlights AI governance; SAP Sapphire 2026 (June) unveils HANA 3.0 previews. S/4HANA extended maintenance ends 2030, but 2026 is your AI pivot deadline.

Preparation Steps:

• Prep for Dynatrace: Instrument SAP BTP apps with Dynatrace OneAgent (v1.300+); simulate agentic workloads this week.
• Sapphire roadmap: Register now via news.sap.com; prototype HANA vector search for RAG patterns.
• 2026 deadline checklist: Complete S/4HANA Readiness Check by Feb 28; allocate 20% dev resources to clean-core refactoring.

Key Recommendations

• Daily: Review SAP for Me alerts; run one BTP extension PoC.
• Weekly: Patch audit, KPI-aligned AI test, diversity huddle.
• Monthly: Customization debt report; regional leadership sync if applicable. Prioritize BTP for 2026 readiness—track via SAP Cloud ALM dashboards.

Community Spotlight

Shoutout to SAP Community contributor Dr. Priya Patel for her thread on “Diversity Strategies for Tech Survival,” sharing lessons from Black women in SAP implementations. Her framework—mentorship pods and bias audits—boosted a healthcare client’s adoption by 25%.

Lessons Learned:

• Implement her audit template in your next project kickoff.
• Contribute your clean-core wins to community.sap.com*

References

• Global Enterprises Using SAP BTP to Cut Customization Debt and Prepare ERP for AI
• Protecting SAP ERP Availability & Data Privacy—Be a hero vs victim
• Exclusive - new Qualtrics CEO Jason Maynard on why ‘experience context’ will make or break agentic AI