At KPMG, we understand this only too well. As part of our internal transformation, we migrated from SAP’s ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) to SAP S/4HANA. This was a major step in itself that is on many organisations’ agendas given the window of time available before support for SAP ECC is withdrawn. But we didn’t confine ourselves to that, we recognised it as an opportunity to integrate the leading data lakehouse platform, Databricks, into our SAP system, in order to enhance our management of data, and ensure it is structured well. Embracing the collaboration between SAP and Databricks was key to addressing our challenges with a unified data foundation.
In today’s data-driven economy, organisations face a growing challenge: vital data scattered across disconnected systems. The pressure to unlock AI use cases only heightens this complexity - because if there’s one thing we know, AI is only as powerful as the data that fuels it.
In response, many companies rush to collect vast amounts of data - structured, unstructured, or somewhere in between - without a unified strategy. This often leads to the creation of even more silos, compounding existing inefficiencies. The impact?
The first step to overcoming these challenges is adopting a unified data management approach, one that embraces both structured and unstructured data. This foundation not only maximises existing technology investments but also positions businesses for scalable digital and AI transformation.
A resilient data strategy needs to start from the top, with a senior leader who is passionate about the value of data, driving and advocating it through the business. This helps establish a culture of caring about data, which is foundational to ensuring its quality. Investing in data literacy and training, and creating clear data governance guidelines and processes, are also key.
A Practical Example: KPMG’s Internal Transformation
By unifying our data, we’ve made it easier for teams to access the information they need, wherever it resides, in order to deliver better outcomes for our people and our clients. The collaboration between SAP and Databricks has made this possible, and as a result, we have been able to:
What this means in practice is that we can understand and serve our clients better, organise ourselves better internally, and support our teams with the data and information they need:
Key considerations
Achieving our transformation was a complex technical undertaking – but two clear principles were fundamental. Firstly, you need the ability to integrate the data in your main operating system (in our case, SAP) with the rest of your enterprise data for advanced analytics and AI use cases, including agent systems. Secondly, you need to be able to bi-directionally share data between your chosen solution and the rest of your enterprise environment while ensuring that data retains all of its semantics (tags, etc).
The SAP Databricks solution that we have implemented enables both of these things, and provides a trusted, governed, and secure data foundation – simplifying the landscape, reducing total cost of ownership, and enabling intelligent applications with seamless access to high-quality, reliable data.
This journey wasn’t without its challenges. Connecting SAP S/4HANA with Databricks was uncharted territory, not just for us, but for our partners as well.
The ability to securely integrate SAP data with non-SAP data has been incredibly beneficial - saving cost, improving performance and eliminating silos. The outcome speaks volumes: a more agile, data-driven KPMG, and a team equipped with deep expertise in integrated data architectures.
Our experience positions us to help other organisations do the same. Breaking down silos, creating value, and making data a true strategic asset.
Don’t hesitate to get in touch if turning data into powerful information is high on your priority list!
