The integration of SAP with Google Workspace allows enterprises to improve the efficiency for any type of collaborative task or process within one shared and secure environment.

Google Workspace is used by more than three billion users, including companies with the strictest security and availability requirements. Enterprises choose Workspace to stay connected, share ideas, get more done together, and safely work from wherever they are. Now, with the integration of Google Workspace and SAP S/4HANA ERP — the world’s most well-known ERP system — enterprise collaboration has moved to a new level, and it’s only the beginning.SAP is a pioneering technology company with 50 years of experience in the enterprise software market. Today it has 460,000 customers across 140 countries and generates 87% of total global commerce. For SAP S/4HANA customers, the Google Workspace partnership provides seamless integration between timely and truthful enterprise data and the everyday productivity applications they use to get work done. They can access Google Workspace applications from within the secured SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP: no more collecting files from emails and drives, downloading them, working on them, and then entering the information in the ERP. Likewise, data from the ERP system can be easily shared and edited using Google Sheets, Docs, Slides, and other Workspace applications, all within the secured clouds.This groundbreaking level of collaboration is an example of how Google is continuing to expand enterprise integration and capabilities to allow our customers to get more out of both Google Workspace and the long-standing systems that have supported their organizations for years.

New ways to work more efficiently

Because of the flexibility of Google Workspace, the beneficial use cases for this integration are virtually limitless. Efficiency improves for any type of collaborative task or process that collects or uses enterprise data because all of the steps happen in one shared and secure environment. Users can now comment on and edit documents directly from SAP, eliminating the risk and confusion that come from having to check files in and out to modify them.

These same collaboration benefits of shared Google files are also relevant to how entire SAP S/4HANA teams work together. For instance, think about how people have traditionally performed reconciliations. A spreadsheet file populated with data from the ERP is emailed to a group of people who then have to download the file, add their comments and corrections, and then send the files back. With the integration of Google Workspace, the person in charge of reconciliations can now seamlessly export the data to a Google Sheet, where other people can directly review and comment on their pertinent data. This can happen simultaneously without anyone using email or downloading any software. All of their work is tracked in one collaborative and secure space using verified data. To learn more about how we bring these secure by design collaboration benefits to large organizations with complex needs, click here.

These workflows are reflective of the tangible benefits Google Workspace provides to business at large. One Forrester report on the economic impact of Google Workspace reveals that its data control capabilities yield a 95% reduction to the data breach risk that businesses face. The same report estimates that Google Workspace saves companies 171 working hours per employee per year. That’s nearly an entire month of additional productivity, and contributes to a revenue growth of 1.5% year-over-year.

Capabilities rolling out in phases

Three powerful capabilities are being rolled out, and additional releases are planned for 2023. As described in the above examples, the first capabilities are the ability to:

Export data from SAP S/4HANA into the Google Workspace applications, such as Google Sheets
Import data into SAP S/4HANA from Google Workspace applications, such as through Google Sheets
Collaborate live and simultaneously with others through editing, commenting, and adding content to Google files seamlessly and securely, making it available for import into SAP S/4HANA environment (direct editing in SAP S/4HANA planned for 2023)

We’ll share these developments as they happen, and look forward to continuing to help you get the most from your SAP data.Read more about how SAP collaborates with Google Cloud and Workspace here.

By: Michael Harding (Partner Manager, SAP Strategy and Architecture, Google Cloud) and Jim Giles (Vice President, Engineering, Google Workspace)
Source: Google Cloud Blog