09SAP R&D AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
R&D and Artificial Intelligence
With SAP Joule, Claude, n8n and MCP we design enterprise AI scenarios that understand business context and work within the limits of security, human approval and traceability.
OUTCOMES FIRST
Business outcomes
- 01
AI with business context
Controlled help grounded in SAP process, data and role context instead of generic answers.
- 02
Governed automation
Permissions, approval, logging, error limits and rollback designed into agent actions.
- 03
Fast experiments, safe scale
We prove business value with small PoCs and build production controls step by step.
OVERVIEW
Scope and approach
An enterprise AI application has to understand SAP data and process context, act with the right permissions, explain what it does and wait for human approval when needed.
SAP plans, together with Anthropic, to bring Claude into the SAP Business AI Platform and the Joule ecosystem, and has a collaboration that positions n8n inside Joule Studio for visual workflow orchestration. We turn both into scenarios our customers can put to work. SAP is the party to these collaborations; they do not imply a partnership between Negzel and these companies.
We design MCP-based tool access, n8n workflows and SAP Joule interactions around identity, permissions, data minimisation, logging and human approval. Value and risk are first proven in a limited PoC; the production standard is built after that.
FOCUS
What do we solve?
Stuck between PoC and production
We put the value measure, data access, ownership and production controls into the first design.
Uncontrolled tool access
We set least privilege, approved tools and clear approval limits for MCP servers and n8n flows.
Decisions no one can explain
We tie input, context, tool calls, results and human approval into an auditable chain of records.
WHAT WE OFFER
Capabilities and scope
SAP Joule scenarios
Help, summaries, suggestions and controlled actions in the context of role and process.
Reasoning with Claude
Handling complex business tasks with rule-based tool use and security limits.
n8n orchestration
Visual, traceable agent and automation flows between SAP and surrounding systems.
MCP integration
Discovering, calling and authorising tools through standard contracts.
Agent security
Identity, least privilege, data protection, human approval and rollback patterns.
AI governance
Usage policy, risk class, quality evaluation and lifecycle tracking.
EXAMPLES IN SAP PROCESSES
Where does SAP Business AI work in your processes?
SAP Business AI has three parts: Joule and Joule agents, AI embedded inside the applications, and the AI Foundation on SAP BTP underneath them. Each example below is a capability that exists in SAP’s own products today; our job is to pick the ones that make sense with your data, your licences and your approval flow.
Most of these capabilities need a separate licence or AI units and depend on the product release: job description generation in SuccessFactors is switched on with an AI units licence. Creating purchase requisitions with Joule comes ready in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition (new name: SAP Cloud ERP). In SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition (new name: SAP Cloud ERP Private) it is supported from release 2021. Before a PoC we check together whether the scenario is covered by your current contract and system.
Examples by area
| Area | Example | On the SAP side |
|---|---|---|
| Finance | Matching incoming bank payments to open receivables, with a machine learning proposal for items the rules cannot clear | SAP Cash Application |
| Planning | Demand forecasts that use external factors such as price and weather alongside sales history | SAP IBP, gradient boosting algorithm |
| Procurement | Creating a purchase requisition by typing to Joule; items missing from the system are entered as free text | Joule; SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public and Private Edition |
| Human resources | Generating a job description from the requisition fields and improving an existing one | SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting |
| Customer service | Summarising a case history, drafting an email reply and assigning the case to a category | SAP Service Cloud Version 2 |
Examples are taken from SAP product documentation; scope and licensing depend on the product release.
- Joule: a natural-language assistant embedded in many SAP cloud applications that knows the user’s role and permissions; it answers questions, summarises and starts transactions.
- Joule agents: agents that carry out work spanning several steps and systems; SAP announced the first agents in October 2024.
- Embedded scenarios: suggestions that run inside the application without the user writing a prompt, such as payment matching and case classification.
- SAP Document AI (formerly Document Information Extraction): an SAP BTP service that reads data from invoices, purchase orders, payment advices and delivery notes; results are validated before they feed critical work.
- Generative AI Hub: governed access, in one place on SAP AI Core, to large language models from different providers; the basis for company-specific scenarios.
METHOD
How we work
- 01
Choose the scenario
We pick work with high repetition, clear data, a measurable result and manageable risk.
- 02
Design the limits
We define data, tools, roles, approvals, logging and failure conditions before production.
- 03
Prove it with a PoC
With realistic data and users we measure benefit, accuracy, security and operational load.
- 04
Take it to production
We scale in a controlled way with monitoring, evaluation, versioning, cost and incident management.
COMMON QUESTIONS
Frequently asked questions
Is Negzel a partner of Anthropic or n8n for SAP?
These are collaborations SAP has publicly announced with Anthropic and n8n; they do not imply a partnership between Negzel and these companies. Negzel designs suitable customer scenarios with these technologies.
Does MCP give direct, unlimited access to SAP systems?
No. MCP only standardises the tool contract. Real access has to be limited by identity, role, permitted functions, data scope, approval and logging controls.
How is the first AI scenario chosen?
Pick a process that repeats often, whose result can be checked, whose data is accessible and whose errors have a manageable impact. The PoC's business value and security criteria are defined at the start.
THE COMPLETE JOURNEY
Other areas of expertise
- 01ENTERPRISE CORESAP S/4HANA Consulting
- 02DATA FLOWIntegration Consulting and Architecture
- 03CONTINUITYSAP AMS Support
- 04LOCALIZATIONRollout Project Consulting
- 05FULL CONTROLProject Management Services
- 06DIGITALIZATIONNegzel n-Solutions
- 07CLOUDRISE with SAP
- 08EXPERIENCEOur Expertise
- 09You are hereR&D and Artificial Intelligence
- 10SAP MODULESSAP Consulting