It has only been a few months into my SAP journey, the expansive realm of enterprise technology…and I have had a ball till now! Learning new stuff every day, experimenting with Generative AI models, even having a chance to be in some customer engagements, and spending great time with colleagues. The buzz about SAP TechEd had reached my ears early on, and I was really excited by prospect of being right in the midst of it all in November. Picture this…a bustling carnival of tech enthusiasts, developers, architects, customers and partners all huddled under the SAP flag, ready to unveil the mysteries of app development tools, cloud ERP, and the enigmatic realm of Generative AI.
The day came and we had a full house at the Bangalore International Exhibition Center. After an eternity-long bus ride, we got ourselves at the Keynote hall for the eagerly awaited announcements. Generative AI has emerged as the shining star in SAP’s technological constellation, captivating the spotlight with groundbreaking announcements in executive keynotes. The introduction of Joule, a Gen AI-powered copilot, SAP Generative AI Hub, and SAP HANA Cloud Vector Engine has sent ripples of excitement through the tech community. The keynote can be found here.
Announcements at TechEd
After this it was time to get cracking with my sessions. I was involved as a tutor in a highly anticipated hands-on workshop, a demo session about an application that infuses the power of Generative AI with the promise of sustainability, and a busy & insightful demo pod.
During my first session as a tutor along with colleagues, we took a group of 40 participants on a journey through various cross-platform scenarios. Imagine SAP BTP, Google, Microsoft Azure, and AWS waltzing together to create fantastic use cases. My focus was the Azure scenario where we experienced what awesomeness could be achieved by linking the SAP Generative AI Hub with Azure OpenAI services through a Cloud Application Model (CAP) application (architecture). The AWS scenario was about linking SAP BTP to AWS Simple Notification Service (SNS), while the Google one was around building a category management application with Google BigQuery, SAP S/4HANA and SAP Dataspshere.
From left: Me, Praveen, Kay, Lalit, Navya, Mahesh, Ganesh, Akash
I then shifted to a dazzling demo session with my colleague Kay. About 60 curious souls gathered to witness Generative AI transforming into a green crusader. We showcased an app that not only tracked your CO2 footprint but also suggested actionable eco-friendly suggestions. It was like having your own LLM-driven environmental conscience! The crowd couldn’t get enough, firing intriguing questions about the SAP Hana Cloud Vector Engine, the talk of the town, and the eagerly awaited SAP Generative AI Hub.
Teammates and I were involved in a Demo Pod, showcasing multi-cloud marvels built by us. From Events-to-Business action framework, Data-to-Value projects with SAP Datasphere & SAP Analytics Cloud to Generative AI applications, we presented many mouth-watering use cases. Attendees observed our ongoing projects and posed insightful questions about our approach. and technology in general.
I along with colleagues Praveen, Ajit & Swati was involved in a really interesting project with SAP partners NTT Data on our Events-to-Business (E2B) framework, wherein we wanted to leverage power of Large Language Models (LLMs) to synthesize action JSON payloads and create action chaining for the framework. Designed with an event-driven architecture, it integrates events from varied non-SAP sources into SAP business processes, enhancing process efficiency. We were able to get a coveted spot in a strategy talk on SAP Business Technology Platform by Senior Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Board Area Technology & Innovation at SAP, Anja Schneider. The demo showcased in the Partner Perspective section of the talk with Wolfgang Möller was truly something cool! You can read more about the usecase from my blog.
As tired as we were, we didn’t miss the celebration night. It kicked off with the enchanting tunes of Manasi Scott and reached a crescendo with the sensational Sunidhi Chauhan taking the stage. It was a perfect ending to the enthralling two days at SAP TechEd.
The main takeaways: learning never stops, teamwork is the key, and most importantly…have fun while at it! Huge shoutout to our leaders PVN, Anirban and Anja for their support and providing this opportunity. Kudos to all my teammates Praveen, Uma, Ajit, Shanth, Swati, Uwe, Kay, Lalit, Mahesh, Navya and Aryan for their sessions.
Tired smiles all around!