Siar Sarferaz – författare

This book explains the functional scope, the data model, the solution architecture, the underlying engineering concepts, and the programming model of SAP S/4HANA as the most well-known enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The approach is to start with general concepts and then to proceed step-by-step to concrete implementations in SAP S/4HANA.In the first part the reader learns about the market view of ERP solutions and vendors. The second part deals with the business processes for sales, marketing, finance, supply chain, manufacturing, services, procurement, and human resources which are covered with SAP S/4HANA. In the third part the underlying concepts of SAP S/4HANA are described, for example in-memory storage, analytics and search, artificial intelligence, process and data integration, security and compliance, lifecycle management, performance and scalability, configuration and implementation. The book is concluded with a final chapter explaining how to deploy anappliance to explore SAP S/4HANA.The target audience for the book are managers and business analysts who want to understand the market situation and future ERP trends, end users and process experts who need to comprehend the business processes and the according solution capabilities provided with SAP S/4HANA, architects and developers who have to learn the technical concepts and frameworks for enhancing SAP S/4HANA functionality, and consultants and partners who require to adopt and configure SAP S/4HANA.

This book explains how to embed artificial intelligence in digitized business processes of ERP software by solving the two related substantial challenges: how can artificial intelligence be systematically integrated into ERP business processes for ease of consumption, and how can artificial intelligence be made enterprise-ready by covering ERP qualities like compliance, lifecycle management, extensibility, or scalability?As a general introduction, the first part of this book takes the reader through a historical journey towards intelligent ERP systems. In addition, reference processes and a reference architecture for ERP systems are proposed which build the foundation for the suggested subsequent solution concept, including a method for operationalizing intelligence for ERP business processes. Subsequently, in the second part detailed concepts of embedding artificial intelligence into ERP software are proposed. In this context the suggested solution architecture is depicted, and specific topics are resolved like data integration, model validation, explainability, data protection and privacy, model degradation and performance. In the last part an implementation framework is suggested which enables the previously introduced concepts and harmonizes the development and operations of artificial intelligent ERP applications. This part concludes with case studies considering artificial intelligence scenarios of SAP S/4HANA in the areas of logistics, finance and sales which apply the defined solution approach and shows its real-world feasibility.This book is written for professionals who want to implement (as developers) or exploit (as business analysts or consultants) or consider/plan the implementation/exploitation (as managers) of artificial intelligence in business information systems.

Dieses Buch erklärt, wie Künstliche Intelligenz (KI) in ERP Software integriert werden kann, um digitalisierte Geschäftsprozesse zu optimieren. Es adressiert zwei zentrale Herausforderungen: die systematische Integration von KI in ERP Prozesse und die Anpassung der KI an Unternehmensanforderungen wie Compliance, Erklärbarkeit, Erweiterbarkeit, Modellvalidierung und -degradation. Der erste Teil bietet eine Einführung in intelligente ERP Systeme, gefolgt von einer Referenzarchitektur und -prozessen für ERP Software. Der zweite Teil vertieft die technische Einbettung von KI und behandelt alle notwendigen Konzepte dazu. Im letzten Teil wird ein Implementierungsframework präsentiert, ergänzt durch Fallstudien von SAP S/4HANA in Logistik, Finanzen und Vertrieb. Das Buch richtet sich an Entwickler, Business Analysten, Berater und Manager, die KI in ERP-Systemen umsetzen oder nutzen möchten.