“Clean Core” or How to Keep Your Information System in Top Shape Over the Long Term

In recent times, we have been intensely focused on the strategy of building next-generation information systems.
This is mainly due to significant technological changes in the architecture of information systems that have occurred in the recent period. For customers, this is most evident in the announced end of support for current SAP ERP systems, which necessitates a transition to the next-generation ERP system, S/4HANA.
Technological advancement and the new architecture represent a unique opportunity for every company to build a modern solution that is ready for continuous development and innovation.

One of the key principles that will help us build a modern information system is the concept of “Clean Core.”
This concept represents a strategy for achieving a modern, flexible, and cloud-ready SAP S/4HANA ERP system.

The “Clean Core” approach enables the creation of a robust, stable, and flexible system in a modern environment that supports continuous innovation.
All innovations, extensions, or changes are implemented through the extension concept. Clean core extensibility is a methodology in which extensions are strictly separated from the application itself. These extensions interact with enterprise objects only through defined interfaces, which remain stable even during future system updates.
As a result, customer-specific extensions are managed in a “strictly separated” way from SAP’s standard functionality and must be implemented at precisely defined extension points, so as not to interfere with the system core and to remain stable through future updates.

Clean core extensibility allows for a balance between software flexibility and customer-specific customization on one side, and system stability on the other.
The concept of clean core extensibility can be defined through “best practice” procedures, which customers adopt during the actual implementation of the information system.

What are the fundamental principles of the Clean Core methodology?

When a customer chooses the Clean Core path, they gain not only security updates and increased system stability but also much faster access to new features, improvements, and innovations, such as modern generative AI functionalities.
Building next-generation applications and integrating them using modern tools and methodologies becomes easier than ever before.

That is why the new philosophy called “Clean Core” is the way to build—and maintain—a modern SAP S/4HANA information system in the best possible shape.