Deutsche Börse and SAP set new standards with cloud usage in compliance with regulatory requirements for the financial industry

With their strategic partnership, Deutsche Börse and SAP are setting new standards for the digitisation of processes within the financial industry. The framework for cloud infrastructure and services developed jointly by the two partners can serve companies throughout the industry as a reference to use cloud technology in a strictly regulated environment in compliance with regulatory requirements. The allows for quicker rollout and drives innovation within the cloud.  

Deutsche Börse is the first company in the financial services sector to consistently implement SAP's Intelligent-Enterprise approach across the board, transferring its core business processes to the latest cloud-based generation of SAP business software. This includes customer relationship management, analysis tools, and solutions for human resources, procurement, temporary employment and business travel management.

In effect, this means a complete modernisation and harmonisation of the corporate IT landscape and existing processes, driving Deutsche Börse’s transformation to digitisation. Step by step, SAP processes are fully migrated via the offered SAP cloud services and standardized where possible. To this extent, this achievement is a milestone for future cloud use within a highly regulated industry.
The use of integrated corporate services and adoption of cloud technology plays an essential part in implementing the digitisation of processes on a large scale. Within Deutsche Börse’s business areas, as in many other companies in the financial industry, consistency and real-time data availability are key when it comes to process integration. The main challenge is to implement the services in a highly regulated environment with tight technical requirements for material services especially in security, data protection, stability, and exit strategies. The solutions are therefore closely coordinated with the regulatory and supervisory authorities.

“The advantages of a successful collaborative development with SAP are evident on many levels: as a company, we make our systems viable for the future, both technically and in terms of processes, and we benefit from increased process efficiency and ongoing innovation. This increases our flexibility when reacting to changes within the market and allows us to focus our internal competencies on business areas such as trade and post-trade,” says Christoph Böhm, Member of the Executive Board of Deutsche Börse AG. “By creating this new reference, we are enabling companies from the entire financial sector to use cloud technology in compliance with regulatory requirements.” 

“Deutsche Börse and SAP are contributing their industry-specific expertise to this project in partnership, thus paving the way for digitalization," said Luka Mucic, CFO of SAP SE. "Powerful yet flexible IT is the key to meeting the growing demands of the highly regulated financial industry now and, above all, in the future.”

The first SAP applications for optimising business processes in the area of customer care have already seen successful realisation, and further core processes such as HR, Procurement and Travel are currently being implemented. The SAP Cloud Platform provides the technical foundation for this. At the same time, Deutsche Börse is replacing its old SAP core system with the ERP solution SAP S/4HANA and will in future use the data warehouse solution SAP BW/4HANA for reporting.
 
As part of Deutsche Börse’s strategic focus on new technologies, the new SAP infrastructure and the consistent further use of cloud services will enable on-top value adding services like Big Data analytics and machine learning capabilities. The conversion of more complex processes and systems will be conducted step by step over the coming years. 

Last year, Deutsche Börse, in cooperation with Microsoft and Google, already set new standards in the financial services sector, and its long-standing partnership with SAP is now being further intensified. Deutsche Börse’s multi-cloud strategy allows for the targeted application of individual partners’ strengths while minimizing dependencies. Within this digital transformation, a so-called hybrid approach ensures a secure transition through the balanced use of the cloud and classic data centres.