What is Clean Core and what is it for?

All software is customisable!

Customers often want to make adjustments and changes to the standard functionalities of the systems to help serve specific use cases. Software is changed including customised developments as part of the process of improving systems, even though all software vendors claim to have created "ultra flexible" platforms.

When in a pandemic (or other major disruption), companies have to make changes. In order to sustain and ensure that they have stable foundations for the future, it is essential to keep a "clean core" (#cleancore) implementation running from the start.

But what is clean core?

To define the term, a clean core software implementation is one that promotes standardisation (standard functionalities) and minimises customisation practices and bespoke developments. As this can result in software systems that are difficult to maintain, update and migrate, a clean core approach is said to reduce the risk of incorrect configuration and of generating incompatibilities, which can affect future performance and jeopardise the security of systems.

SAP emphasises this clean core approach, which it claims is now more easily achievable with the SAP S/4HANA suite of tools for Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), despite the fact that its huge software stack derives from a variety of internal developments, acquisitions and partnerships.

"Since the term 'clean core' began to be discussed, the importance of this concept for companies has grown - the topic is discussed at four out of five customer meetings. In fact, many customers are migrating their ERP to the cloud and demand greater ease and speed in creating and implementing cloud-compatible extensions and customisations. With regular updates and powerful development tools, customers achieve new levels of IT efficiency and mitigate business risks with greater flexibility," says Sebastian Schroetel, vice president and head of technology products at SAP.

Despite the clarifications provided so far, it seems clear that there is still a lot of confusion about what a clean core is. It is often thought that a clean core is a system devoid of customisation and nothing more. If the clean core provides us with anything, it is the ability to remain cloud-compatible throughout an organisation's growth path and expansion journey - as well as a concrete means of managing master data and business processes. With all this, when the time comes to upgrade a system, changes can be implemented without requiring significant manual effort to test and adapt existing structures.

A clean core has six components. When discussing the IT core of an organisation, there are several components to consider:

• Extensibility
• Integration (which covers communications between extensions and a standard solution)
• Information/data (which addresses concerns about how information is handled)
• Processes (or the series of actions or steps taken in a system)
• Software version - in a clean core, the software should be close to the latest standard version
• Security

SAP's software application development professionals and data scientists suggest that the concept of a clean core is "intrinsically linked" to the concept of extensibility, which is the functionality added to standard software that extends it to meet organisational needs that are not met elsewhere. Extensibility is obviously an important feature because it allows users to differentiate their business processes and create extension applications from existing standard functionality.

As business processes differ from one organisation to another, customers need ERP systems that respond to their specific and unique requirements. Previously, this was done through customisation or traditional extensibility. This extensibility allowed consultants/programmers to modify the core of the ERP. This was no longer a viable option as companies migrate their ERP systems to the cloud.

A clean core strategy implies keeping the ERP system as close to standard as possible, decoupling customisations, using extensibility methods and being aware of the "footprint" of customisation. SAP has a plan (which can be changed in the future if necessary - it's all about flexibility, right?) that it uses to advise companies considering the clean core approach:

1. Remove any obsolete software code that is no longer in use.
2. Whenever possible, use standardised processes.
3. To ensure long-term extensibility, use public application programming interfaces (APIs).
4. Document the technical debt (in case a clean core extension is not possible in the future).
5. Where possible, use customised code migration tools.

Clean core is a concept for ensuring up-to-date, flexible and cloud-compatible software systems that was initially discussed in the context of ERP systems, but is arguably equally applicable to Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Asset Management (EAM), Field Service Maintenance (FSM) and all the other three-letter acronyms that populate the spiral of the software galaxy.

"Modern technology and the availability of capacity in the cloud allow business value to be activated with a modern approach that offers an opportunity to extend functionality in a way that is compatible with the cloud, as well as a separate platform to innovate for additional differentiation. This allows organisations to develop and consume innovation faster, upgrade more cost-effectively and reduce risk through execution", concluded SAP's Schroetel.

It is argued that a clean core improves IT system operations (and, by extension, workplace operations) now - and lays the foundations for future operations. At a time when we are all concerned about sustainability, food waste and the health of our planet, a clean core can also help us to better utilise the resources we have.