SAP said it will acquire LeanIX GmbH, an enterprise architecture management software company, in a move that will optimize processes connected to system migrations.
The acquisition of LeanIX will give SAP another process optimization piece to combine with SAP Signavio. In addition, LeanIX will give SAP a path to more easily migrate SAP customers to S4/HANA and cloud operations.
Use cases for the LeanIX platform include application rationalization, portfolio assessment, migration and modernization and ERP transformation.
Indeed, SAP noted that "many CIOs rely on LeanIX's offerings as part of their digital transformation with the RISE with SAP solution." SAP has a lot riding on migrating customers smoothly and the company can use Signavio to continuously improve processes based on the output of LeanIX.
Constellation Research analyst Holger Mueller said:
"A key challenge for SAP customer to upgrade to S/4HANA utilizing the vendor's Grow and Rise initiatives, is to understand their system landscape. LeanIX can help here, and with that help SAP customer assess, plan and access their SAP upgrades better. How well this will work in practice needs to be seen, as the details to be considered and the degree of automation expected as an SAP company are significantly higher than as an independent vendor. Time will tell."
- SAP's AI ambitions depend on migrating customers to cloud, S/4HANA
- SAP user group DSAG rips S/4HANA innovation plans, maintenance increases
- SAP aims to infuse generative AI throughout its applications: Here's everything from SAP Sapphire 2023
SAP said the acquisition is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.
It's also notable that Celonis and UiPath also offer system transformation using process mining. Many of those migrations involve SAP systems.
- Business process automation platform debate about to heat up
- Microsoft officially enters process mining, automation ring with Power Automate Process Mining
During UiPath's second quarter earnings call, co-CEO Rob Enslin said:
"We are also making great progress with SAP, engaging with customers and building a joint pipeline. During the quarter, a German agricultural company challenged by their S/4 migration, selected UiPath in a competitive win based on our holistic integrated platform. They are in the process of implementing test suite for regression testing on their S/4 migration and testing of all SAP modules. They also plan to automate processes in their finance department and incorporate process mining and AI into their automation program."
SAP said that LeanIX complements SAP Signavio and gives customers "unique clarity on IT landscapes that they need to reap the full benefit of business transformation."
SAP CEO Christian Klein said systems and processes go together and "we'll embed generative AI to offer self-optimizing applications and processes that can help businesses achieve key goals such as maximizing cash flow while minimizing their environmental impact."
LeanIX has about 1,000 customers for its IT visualization software. LeanIX also recently launched an AI assistant for enterprise architecture management.
According to SAP, LeanIX will be combined with SAP Signavio Process Transformation Suite, RISE with SAP, and SAP Business Technology Platform. The company did note that LeanIX will continue to serve non-SAP architectures. SAP also has Demosphere, which aims to optimize and automate processes for multiple systems beyond SAP.