Organizations face rising pressure to deliver measurable results from technology investments. Yet, despite expanding their software portfolios, many struggle to realize their full value. Fragmented systems, siloed data, and isolated AI efforts often stall transformation. The real opportunity lies in uniting these investments into a connected ecosystem that powers daily operations while unlocking new levels of agility, resilience, and growth.
SAP helps companies derive business value with SAP Business Suite, our integrated offering of SAP business applications, data, and AI, all powered by the underlying SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). The combined power of integrated applications, harmonized data, and AI provides customers with a transformation engine that creates a cycle of innovation and improvement. It enables access to real-time data insights, streamlined and integrated workflows, consistency across processes, collaboration, and enhanced market responsiveness.
SAP
Transforming technology spend to business outcomes
In July 2025, IDC published a whitepaper to understand and report the business value that current SAP customers get from their use of SAP BTP in conjunction with key SAP business applications, specifically SAP Cloud ERP, SAP SuccessFactors, and SAP Intelligent Spend including SAP Ariba. IDC interviewed 15 SAP customers who use SAP BTP in conjunction with SAP S/4HANA, SuccessFactors, or Ariba.
The findings revealed that organizations using SAP BTP benefit from significant improvements in operational quality and efficiency, developer productivity, data-driven decision-making, and business agility. In fact, on average, interviewed organizations reported achieving annual benefits worth $13.88 million per organization ($259,400 per 1,000 employees) in the following areas.
Application development and automation benefits
Interviewed organizations using SAP BTP reported a 164% increase in SAP application extensions, delivered 41% faster. On average, SAP Build, SAP BTP’s unified application development and process automation solution, enabled development teams to achieve 46% higher productivity. With integration across SAP and third-party systems, customers can rapidly develop custom applications and automate core business processes such as onboarding, compliance tracking, and spend management. IDC reported customers saying:
SAP
Foundation for impactful new customer-facing solutions (SAP S/4HANA):
“Our smart metering wouldn’t have been possible without SAP BTP. We even use AI integrated with S/4HANA Customer Service to classify and route customer inquiries based on metadata and sentiment, which would not have been feasible without SAP BTP.”
Flexibility of low-code environment for specific functionalities (SAP Ariba):
“SAP BTP helps with integrations to some of our other systems, ensuring master data consistency. Also, SAP BTP’s low-code environment empowers different departments to build micro-apps that help manage spending more effectively than before.”
Integration benefits
SAP BTP’s single, scalable AI assisted integration solution, SAP Integration Suite, unifies fragmented data and applications, enabling real-time connectivity across SAP and third-party systems. Study participants reported a 29% efficiency gain for teams managing business processes and a 43% faster resolution of process errors, as integration and automation reduced manual effort. With a unified integration layer, organizations gain real-time analytics, improved collaboration, and faster decision-making—turning complexity into operational efficiency and innovation. IDC reported customers saying:
Ease of integrating SAP Ariba to broader SAP ecosystem (SAP Ariba):
“One of the most valuable aspects of SAP BTP has been its ability to integrate Ariba with S/4HANA … without SAP BTP, the integration would have taken significantly longer and required more resources.”
Compliance benefits from automation (SAP SuccessFactors):
SAP
“We’ve automated the management of high-risk licenses with SAP BTP, simplifying the process of tracking qualifications and training for our transient workforce. This saves time and ensures compliance.”
Platform benefits
IDC’s research shows that SAP BTP delivers platform-wide benefits that strengthen performance, resilience, and business impact across SAP environments. Improved integration, monitoring, and automation reduced unplanned downtime by 90% on average. In fact, study participants completed 187% more innovative projects, delivered 44% faster. These gains—spanning reliability, innovation, and agility—enabled faster decision-making, improved customer experiences, and new revenue opportunities, while driving cross-functional value for both IT and business teams. IDC reported customers saying:
Foundation for positive interactions with customers (SAP S/4HANA):
“We use SAP BTP integrated with S4/HANA customer service to classify and give metadata on customer questions and emails. We even have information about customer mood—are they mad?—then that gets more urgency. None of this would be possible without SAP BTP.”
SAP
Foundation for real-time decision-making (SAP Ariba):
“Before SAP BTP, our data modeling process took so long that we relied on more static, snapshot-style analysis rather than a continuous stream of data. Now, with SAP BTP providing real-time data updates and forecasts, users can make decisions with more information at their fingertips.”
SAP
SAP application optimization benefits
Study participants reported significant application-specific benefits from using SAP BTP across SAP Cloud ERP, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Intelligent Spend, and SAP Ariba. On average, IDC calculated customers will realize three-year benefits worth $32.68 million per organization ($610,500 per 1,000 employees), with total three-year investment costs of $5.31 million per organization ($99,200 per 1,000 employees) based on a net-present value financial calculation. These benefits and costs would yield an average three-year ROI of 516%, with payback happening on average, after eight months, demonstrating the significant value they are realizing by using SAP BTP. IDC reported customers saying:
Cost savings through better understanding of spending:
“SAP BTP with SAP Ariba helps us manage our vendor relationships and monitor how much money we’re spending, ensuring we’re not duplicating capabilities with vendor spend. Additionally, it allows us to take advantage of early pay discounts and other cost-saving opportunities.”
SAP
Get started today
Customers who unite their investments into a connected ecosystem of applications, data, and AI unlock new levels of agility, resilience, and growth. SAP BTP achieves this for SAP Business Suite and is intentionally engineered to integrate, automate, extend, and build AI-powered business applications and processes across the enterprise. Read dozens of customer examples, across all sizes and industries, who are using SAP BTP to unlock innovation together with their SAP Business Suite applications.
And if you’re inspired to learn more, get started today with the following resources:
Read More from This Article: New IDC research: SAP BTP Boosts Business Suite Value
Source: News