SAP Automation Tools and You: Which One to Choose (And Why RPA Is Our Pick)

Founded in 1972, SAP Software Solutions has been around for more than 50 years. Given the stories of spectacular failures of tech giants like Atari, Commodore, or Sun Microsystems, the company’s longevity is an achievement. But SAP doesn’t just survive—it thrives. Today, 99 of the 100 largest global companies use SAP software, and there are many reasons for that.

A major one is SAP’s ability to innovate and adapt to technological trends such as automation. The most recent example is the newly announced strategic partnership between SAP and UiPath, a leader in the RPA (Robotic Process Automation) market. It sends a clear message to all organizations that use SAP: automation is the future.

This article will examine different SAP automation tools companies can choose from when optimizing their SAP functions. We’ll also explain what the partnership with UiPath means and why it makes RPA a preferred automation option for SAP.

The overarching aim of SAP is to streamline and centralize everyday business processes. Many of these repetitive workflows involve manual labor: sending emails, moving records, invoice processing, reporting, or data validation. In this context, automation is the natural solution.

SAP automation tools use various technologies to optimize processes and accomplish set business goals. All these automation methods share a similar purpose and bring three main benefits: increased efficiency, reduced error rate, and higher productivity—all through replacing slow and frustrating manual processes with automated solutions.

As a result, automation leads to many secondary benefits, such as time and cost savings, smoother digital transformation, better customer outcomes, and improved employee satisfaction. And, in the current fierce competitive climate, all these benefits help organizations get an edge.

SAP automation isn’t a single technology but several tools that can intertwine and be used together for an even better effect. What are the most common SAP automation tools? Let’s see:

• Robotic Process Automation (RPA): RPA uses software robots that mimic human actions to automate repetitive and rule-based workflows within the SAP ecosystem. RPA streamlines business processes by replacing manual tasks, enhancing efficiency, and reducing human errors. As a flexible and scalable automation solution, RPA can be used by large enterprises and SMEs from any industry.
• Business Process Management (BPM): More of a strategy than an automation method, BPM is a broad concept focused on efficient management and optimization of end-to-end business processes in SAP. BPM enables organizations to streamline workflows, allocate resources, and respond swiftly to shifting business needs. To that end, BPM involves using automation technologies.
• Scripting and custom development: Scripting and custom development in SAP involve writing and modifying code to tailor SAP systems to specific requirements. It allows organizations to extend SAP functionalities, develop custom applications, and integrate SAP with third-party systems. Common custom development tools include SAP GUI scripting and languages like ABAP.
• Integration Platforms: Middleware or enterprise service buses (ESBs) like SAP Integration Suite facilitate the seamless data exchange and communication between different systems, applications, and technologies. They provide a unified interface connecting SAP systems with external automation services, cloud platforms, databases, and APIs. Integration platforms enable enterprises to sync data in real time, orchestrate processes, and connect all critical features within a single platform.
• Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML): Rather than automating repetitive tasks, AI technologies assist companies in intelligent decision-making, data analysis, and forecasting. ML is particularly helpful here: ML algorithms analyze vast amounts of data to identify patterns, make predictions, and optimize processes. AI techniques are often used alongside other automation systems in intelligent automation. For instance, natural language processing and computer vision enable SAP systems to understand and interpret text and image content.

Ultimately, the choice of an SAP automation tool will depend on specific business requirements, the complexity of processes, and the organization’s goals.

RPA has many advantages that make it an all-around great option for SAP.

In recent years, more and more businesses have been realizing the potential of RPA. The increased demand has led to the birth of new RPA platforms. Today, many solutions are available, the market leaders being UiPath, BluePrism, Power Automate, and Automation Anywhere. Though all have pros and cons, our RPA tool of choice is UiPath. We also believe that it’s best suited specifically for SAP automation. Why?

UiPath offers dedicated integrations for seamless automation with SAP applications without the need for complex scripting or custom development. Native integrations such as SAP BAPI, RFC, and OData provide various activities specifically designed for SAP systems. UiPath is compatible with all SAP implementations, including SAP S/4HANA, SAP ECC, SAP FIORI, SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP WinGUI, SAP WebGUI, and SAP Business Client.

On top of that, UiPath has over 300 native integrations with other applications, allowing you to weave together and automate all tools with SAP.

Together, all these features ensure stable and secure communication between UiPath and SAP. This streamlines the SAP automation process, reduces implementation time, and allows you to harness the full potential of UiPath’s RPA capabilities within your SAP system.

UiPath RPA platform stands out for its user-friendly features, making automation accessible to users with varying technical backgrounds. Once UiPath is set up, Its visual interface enables the creation of automation workflows through a drag-and-drop approach, eliminating the need for complex coding.

The platform also offers a rich library of ready-made automation components and activities that employees can use to build automation sequences quickly.

To further simplify and expedite the automation process, UiPath Studio gives you the ability to record specific tasks. This feature captures on-screen user activities within a workflow and translates the recording into automation sequences.

Additionally, UiPath goes a long way to ensure that users can easily learn and master the platform by themselves. Extensive documentation, online training materials, a proprietary automation training platform, and active community support foster a user-friendly experience for RPA development and deployment.

Organizations can efficiently scale their SAP automation initiatives with UiPath’s Orchestrator, a centralized RPA management platform. Orchestrator provides a secure and scalable infrastructure to deploy, monitor, and manage many RPA robots that can be used across multiple of your SAP systems. It empowers enterprises to add new bots easily as the demand grows.

All workflows built in UiPath can be easily reused in multiple processes. UiPath encourages sharing automated processes across all teams, where they can be adjusted to fit specific purposes.

This scalability ensures that automation can keep up with growing business demands so that organizations can seamlessly handle increased volumes of SAP processes. UiPath’s robust architecture and flexible deployment options allow enterprises to expand their SAP automation initiatives while maintaining high performance, reliability, and compliance.

UiPath has won the following of a large and active community that provides significant benefits for SAP automation. UiPath has its knowledge-sharing platform, allowing professionals to discuss, ask questions, and exchange insights, best practices, and solutions for SAP-specific challenges. Collaboration opportunities enable users to work together on SAP automation projects, fostering efficient development and problem-solving.

The community also offers pre-built automation components tailored for SAP systems, reducing development time. UiPath Marketplace enables RPA developers to share their projects beyond their organizations. That gives other members of the UiPath community access to reusable SAP automation components and accelerators for specific SAP activities.

Moreover, troubleshooting and support are readily available, with experienced community members and UiPath experts offering assistance. Overall, UiPath’s active community is a huge asset for SAP automation, enhancing the work of each employee or developer and accelerating projects.

As mentioned earlier, UiPath has established a strategic partnership with SAP by becoming an SAP Endorsed App. To acquire this designation, a solution must comply with SAP’s security and performance standards. By implementing an SAP Endorsed App such as UiPath alongside SAP, organizations are sure to work with safe and highest-quality solutions.

From the user’s perspective, this partnership also ensures compatibility and alignment with SAP technologies, enhancing the effectiveness of SAP automation with UiPath. With that, SAP users can take full advantage of all the benefits of UiPath SAP automation.

UiPath Partner Network is a group of the best-performing RPA leaders who have proven their automation expertise. Simply put, when you hire a certified UiPath developer, you can be sure that your automation initiative is in good hands.

Here at Flobotics, we’re proud to hold the title of a UiPath-certified RPA agency. With dozens of successful implementations under our belt, we have experience automating processes for companies from any industry, including healthcare, finance, and real estate.

Choosing the SAP automation tool that will fit your company’s needs is no mean feat. Each has its strengths and weaknesses, but they all have a place in your SAP automation stack.

In our view, UiPath RPA is the best stepping stone for your SAP automation initiative, and there’s no better proof of that than the strategic partnership between the two companies.

Keen to find out more about optimizing your SAP systems with UiPath RPA? You’re on the right track — give us a call, and let’s talk.