SAP LeanIX – English Version

LeanIX was integrated into the SAP product portfolio in 2023. What has happened to the solution since then? What new features are there, what about integration into the SAP ecosystem, what about the AI functions? And most importantly, what strategy is SAP pursuing with the solution? The Deep Dive answers these and other questions. Immerse yourself in SAP LeanIX!

As at November 2024

One year since the acquisition:

Host of New Features in SAP LeanIX 

Last year, LeanIX was added to the SAP product portfolio – a move welcomed by DSAG member companies and experts in the working groups (link: DSAG-Einordnung: Schritt zur Business Transformation Suite). From a technological perspective, SAP LeanIX is a suitable addition to SAP Signavio, Cloud Application Lifecycle Management (SAP Cloud ALM), and Solution Manager with a strong focus on all areas of enterprise architecture management. DSAG’s Chief Technology Officer, Sebastian Westphal, outlines the key innovations and announcements. DSAG is in close contact with André Christ, Managing Director of LeanIX. 

For LeanIX, it is important to keep the focus on vendor-independent enterprise architecture management – and, as part of the SAP product portfolio, to press ahead with harmonization and integration into SAP architectures, solutions, and services. 

We also expect the acquisition of WalkMe, which was announced at Sapphire, to further strengthen the Business Transformation Management division with Signavio and LeanIX. 

LeanIX’s strategy for the near future has also been confirmed: First, the plan is to further increase the value of LeanIX for SAP customers through seamless integrations with other SAP solutions; second, a key focus remains on the further development of the company’s own Enterprise Architecture (EA) capabilities. This strategic approach aims to further consolidate its position as a market leader, not only among SAP customers, but in the EA industry as a whole. 

Integration with the SAP Ecosystem

Some initial new functions for better integration and support of SAP architectures were presented at Sapphire:  

• SAP Landscape Discovery
• Reference Business Architecture and Reference Solution Architecture 
• SAP Cloud ALM Integration for Projects 
• Reference Architectures for the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)  

In addition, LeanIX provided an upgrade to the existing suite, which supports the provision of relevant information and decision-making via more detailed reports and dashboards. 

Last but not least, the first AI functions are also making their way into LeanIX in order to optimize the use of the software and the evaluation of relevant information. However, the focus is on expanding the data models and factsheets in order to support the introduction of AI technologies as part of the enterprise architecture and to record and document them – as required by the EU AI Act, for example.

SAP Landscape Discovery

In the future, SAP Landscape Discovery will provide a deep insight into SAP landscapes and reduce the effort involved in data collection by automatically discovering and capturing application data found in the SAP landscape, thus providing a comprehensive overview of all SAP cloud and on-premise systems. By automatically capturing data, SAP Landscape Discovery aims to fundamentally improve and complete data quality and also provide companies with timely and precise insights into the current “as-is” state of the IT landscape.  

Figure 1 Automatically recognized applications in Discovery for transfer to the SAP LeanIX workspace

Here, the SAP Landscape Discovery function uses Cloud ALM for authentication and for access to the system information that is available in Cloud ALM itself and in the underlying SAP systems. Use of these functions requires the following preconditions:  

• An existing access or the setup of a Cloud ALM instance 
• Automatic discovery of services and systems via Cloud ALM 

Once the connection has been set up, the identification of SAP systems begins. These are then displayed in the SAP Landscape Discovery Inbox and linked to all systems found in the SAP landscape as well as to new and existing factsheets. 

The roadmap also provides for further development steps, which DSAG believes are essential for mapping today’s SAP landscapes: As part of the next development step for this function, LeanIX will also be able to identify SAP on-premises applications – in the medium term, this should also be possible for BTP services, interfaces, and interactions between SAP systems. It should also be possible to display user-defined SAP enhancements, such as applications based on SAP Build Process Automation, in the future. 

Reference Business Architecture and Reference Solution Architecture

Introducing new or transforming existing ERP landscapes often involves the challenge of evaluating the potential of future business functions and processes and defining a suitable target architecture. Reference architectures are regularly used to support the decision-making process and narrow down the scope of the project. 

These reference architectures are now provided via the Reference Catalogs function in LeanIX – they are based on SAP’s Reference Architecture Content, which offers standardized content on business and solution architectures.  

The reference architectures provided consist of two parts:  

• SAP Reference Business Architecture (RBA) – best practices for business capabilities and business processes 
• SAP Reference Solution Architecture (RSA) – recommendations on applications and their capabilities as well as grouping of applications 

Both types of reference architectures support the alignment of business processes and IT architectures by mapping business functions with proposed SAP and non-SAP solutions.  

Figure 2 Importing business architecture elements into LeanIX

SAP Cloud ALM Integration for Projects

When it comes to planning and implementing system transformations or projects, however, it remains clear that the interaction between the individual components of the SAP Transformation Suite, i.e. Signavio, Cloud ALM, Solution Manager, and LeanIX, requires further integration.   

As a first step, it will now be possible to link projects in SAP LeanIX to SAP Cloud ALM. This integration allows you to synchronize projects created in LeanIX with SAP Cloud ALM in order to track their implementation and to seamlessly import projects as initiative factsheets from Cloud ALM to LeanIX. 

The following data attributes of projects can be synchronized first: 

• Milestones 
• Status 
• Progress 
• Phases 

This synchronization transfers project phases (milestones) and facilitates collaboration between project teams, the IT department, and other business units.

Figure 3 Synchronization of projects created in LeanIX with Cloud ALM

The development presented is an important first step toward solving the current lack of clarity as to how the “product triangle” of SAP Cloud ALM, Signavio, and LeanIX can be used to effectively manage transformations and projects.  

This is because both LeanIX and Signavio aim to support transformations in the planning and scoping phase – Cloud ALM should then take over the projects in the implementation phase: The respective data models, process hierarchies, and system information require far more intensive linking and synchronization with one another than currently exists in reality; an issue that is currently being worked on intensively between the SAP product teams and the DSAG working groups.  

Reference Architectures for the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)

(should be available in Q4/2024)

The Business Technology Platform (BTP) also provides various reference architectures, for example for API-based integrations. These reference architectures can now also be used as reference and entry points for customer architecture planning: With the new release, LeanIX provides the BTP reference architectures to ensure easy access to best practices for different scenarios as well as pre-built and customizable diagrams.  

Figure 4 BTP reference architectures as templates in LeanIX

Companies can use the available BTP reference architectures to ensure alignment with SAP best practices and accelerate diagram creation via standard templates.  

LeanIX Suite Upgrade

LeanIX is also providing further upgrades this year for the core target group of enterprise architects. These support SAP and non-SAP customers in their daily tasks and in particular include more detailed reports and dashboards. 

Documenting Architecture Decisions

(should be available in Q4/2024)

Up until now, architecture decisions have been recorded away from LeanIX (e.g. in Confluence, Sharepoint, etc.). Finding the relevant documentation or even all of the documentation in some cases can become difficult as a result. Going forward, LeanIX will therefore come with a function that enables architectural decisions and confirmed decisions to be documented, including the related context. 

Figure 5 Preview of documentation of architecture decisions in LeanIX

Presentations 

This new function allows you to create, comment on, merge, and release relevant reports and diagrams directly in LeanIX – thus replacing the parallel creation of presentation documents.  

Figure 6 The new “Presentations” function simplifies the dialog about the IT architecture 

In addition, visualizations (with the exception of the first slide) and notes can be added to supplement each report and diagram with more context and information – with the aim of supporting enterprise architects in preparing for the next Architecture Review Board, for example. 

Use Case Focus 

If complex application landscapes are set up and operated over many years, the scope of the inventory to be managed increases, as does the management of the enterprise architecture across departmental and company boundaries. With the help of the use case focus in the LeanIX Workspace, you can now filter information by user and organize it according to individual topics in order to support the specific issues of the company’s individual business operations.  

Figure 7 Specific selection of individual use cases. 

Individual use case views are created manually by the LeanIX administrators to ensure that the required factsheet types and subtypes and their relevant sections are displayed for the corresponding use cases.  

Technology Radar Report and Software Bill of Materials

The Technology Radar Report in SAP LeanIX can be used to centrally track and assess an organization’s deployed technology stack and support standards specifications to guide technical teams.  

Figure 8 Visualization of technology standards with the Technology Radar Report 

The Software Bill of Materials also helps companies to record the software components they use and identify any resulting dependencies on (third-party) software providers. This is a function that has become increasingly important in times of increased vendor log-ins and capital market-oriented cloud strategies. The new functionality is based on the SBOM format Cyclone DX.  

Dashboard Upgrade 

In the future, LeanIX users will be able to display information on the LeanIX dashboards for specific target groups so that they can access business-critical information and insights. In addition, further pre-configured key performance indicators (KPIs) will be provided for enterprise architects, such as:  

• Factsheet degree of completeness 
• Percentage of outdated applications 
• Number of affected user groups 
• Number of uniquely active users 
• Number of applications per provider 

Figure 9 Preview – customizable KPI dashboards 

AI Functions in LeanIX

Even LeanIX cannot escape the hype surrounding generative AI and is also part of SAP’s Business AI strategy. The first solutions are now being delivered and will initially focus on improving the user experience through the use of LLM models.  

These developments will be based on specially designed OpenAI models hosted on Microsoft Azure. Further details that ensure the protection and confidentiality of companies‘ enterprise architecture data will be published separately. 

At the same time, LeanIX is taking into account the increased requirements among businesses to establish AI governance in order to support IT architects and introduce the first AI technologies quickly and extensively in companies. 

AI-Based Text Generation

In the future, language models will be used within SAP LeanIX to support text generation in a wide range of application scenarios. This includes, for example, the automated, context-sensitive population of text fields for factsheets or report descriptions – the generated texts can then be edited by users. 

Integration of SAP Joule

(should be available in Q4/2024)

The AI assistant Joule provided by SAP will also be available in LeanIX in the future to make it easier to find relevant information based on context – the query results include diagrams, factsheets, and individual reports in addition to the report views requested by the user. 

Figure 10 Preview – Joule in LeanIX

Meta Model Extension for AI Introduction and Governance 

The AI Governance extension to the meta model in LeanIX enables enterprise architects to effectively track, manage, and categorize the implementation and use of AI models and services, as well as the associated risks, as part of the enterprise architecture.  

Specifically, the existing LeanIX meta model will be extended as follows: 

1. The Governance section will be added to the Application Factsheets along with the sub-section for AI Governance and Introduction and it will include individually selectable attributes relevant to AI usage, type, risk, and potential.  
2. The Business Capability Factsheet will be extended to include the AI Potential Assessment sub-section in order to maintain potentials for the use of AI in specific use cases. 
3. The LLM subtype will allow you to create your own factsheets for LLMs as part of the IT Component Factsheets. 
4. The Technology Assessment sub-section and an AI Radar Classification will be added to the IT Component Factsheet in orderto support a uniform AI governance and simplify the display of the AI classification within the IT landscape. 

Figure 11 Extensions to the LeanIX Meta Model

AI Inventory Builder and AI Recommendation for Practical Use Cases

(should be available in Q4/2024)

The LeanIX AI Inventory Builder aims to support the collection of architecture data in order to create and maintain the enterprise architecture inventory in LeanIX by automatically converting architecture diagrams or texts into the intended factsheets.  

In addition, optimization recommendations are to be generated going forward on the basis of the LeanIX Architecture Knowledge Base. The aim is to provide specific implementation recommendations for the functional or technical optimization of the application landscape. 

In summary, it is fair to say that a lot has been happening at LeanIX since the acquisition, some things are already in place with others already in the pipeline for use this year. Promising reference architectures and AI functions are just the beginning. Further information can be found in the SAP LeanIX Roadmap as a decision-making aid for further planning.  

For further details and specific questions on application scenarios, we recommend active participation in the Business Process Management and Enterprise Architecture working groups. Further information on the corresponding activities of the committees can also be found there.