A clean core approach offers a way to simplify enterprise system architecture, reduce technical debt, and prepare for future innovation – without sacrificing business flexibility.
At On Device Solutions, we’ve long advocated for simplification in SAP landscapes – not for the sake of minimalism, but because unnecessary complexity carries cost. It slows transformation, hinders mobile enablement, and blocks access to the latest innovations.
That’s where the concept of a clean core comes into play – a principle that’s quickly moving from theory to practice in enterprise architecture conversations.
What Is a Clean Core – and Why Does It Matter?
The idea of a clean core is simple: keep your ERP system as close to standard as possible, and ensure any extensions are built in a sustainable, value-driven, and governed manner.
It’s not about banning enhancements. It’s about choosing the right ones – the ones that drive genuine differentiation, comply with upgrade best practices, and don’t create a technical debt pile for future IT teams to sort through.
For organisations operating in industries like utilities, infrastructure, manufacturing or logistics – where enterprise mobility is a must – a clean core becomes even more critical. Your mobile strategy is only as good as the process foundation it sits on. If your SAP backend is overloaded with bespoke logic and ungoverned variants, mobile applications will break, performance will suffer, and innovation will stall.
From Principle to Practice: Four Pillars of Clean ERP
The shift to a cleaner, more controlled SAP environment involves more than tidying up old code. It requires process discipline, architectural governance and an end-to-end view of how business capabilities align to enterprise systems. The journey typically involves four pillars:
- Integrated Tooling
Enterprise architecture, business process modelling, and application lifecycle management must be connected. Without a clear view of what’s running, what’s customised, and how change is managed, technical debt quietly accumulates.
- Business Capability Mapping
Knowing which parts of your operation truly differentiate your business is essential. Not every process needs to be customised. In fact, most shouldn’t be. Mapping capabilities helps prioritise where to extend and where to adopt standard functionality.
- Fit-to-Standard by Default
Start every project assuming the standard will suffice. Only deviate with clear justification – whether for legal compliance, process uniqueness or customer value. This mindset supports easier upgrades and ensures compatibility with future innovations.
- Change Governance
You can’t protect your clean core without a control mechanism. Governance boards, architectural reviews, and clear documentation around customisations ensure long-term sustainability – particularly important in environments with high turnover or multiple delivery partners.
From Assessment to Action
Many businesses struggle not with the concept of clean core, but with implementation. Where to begin? What to measure? How to prove progress?
That’s where structured maturity assessments and key performance indicators come into play. By assessing where you stand today – across architecture governance, ALM discipline, deviation control and more – you can baseline your environment and set measurable targets.
Some typical indicators include:
- Percentage of processes using standard SAP functionality
- Number of custom developments with no active usage
- Justification ratio of deviations from standard
- Presence of unsupported or deprecated features
The objective isn’t to hit a perfect score across the board, but to reduce the gap between current state and desired state – with action plans tied to value.
Why It Matters for Mobility and Field Operations
At On Device Solutions, we specialise in extending SAP processes to the field – safely, securely, and with minimal overhead. But mobility efforts often falter when they encounter bloated, customised backends that lack consistency or transparency.
If every deployment requires new interface logic, custom data structures or workaround processes, you don’t just slow your rollout – you risk undermining the business case for mobile working altogether.
By aligning your enterprise mobility initiatives with a clean core strategy, you improve rollout speed, reduce rework, and increase resilience. Whether you’re using our myJobCard solution or building custom SAP mobile apps, the cleaner the backend, the smoother the deployment.
Our Approach
With our Architecture-as-a-Service (AaaS) offering, On Device Solutions helps enterprise clients:
- Assess current SAP and BTP landscapes for clean core readiness
- Build capability maps linked to enterprise priorities
- Establish governance frameworks around extensibility
- Plan for scalable, mobile-first architectures
- Ensure mobile solutions are extensible – without compromising core integrity
We hold the Enterprise Architecture Specialisation under the SAP Business Transformation Management competency. Recently, we’ve enhanced this capability further with three certified LeanIX consultants, enabling us to deliver even greater value through architecture-led transformation in SAP-centric environments.
The move towards a clean core is not a trend. It’s a necessity. SAP landscapes are becoming increasingly connected, intelligent and mobile-enabled, hence the risks of unmanaged complexity continue to grow. However, with the right frameworks, governance, and support in place, businesses can simplify intelligently – keeping what matters, cutting what doesn’t, and building platforms that are ready for tomorrow.
Adopting a clean core strategy isn’t simply a matter of reducing custom code. Without the right architectural oversight, businesses risk breaking essential processes, creating compliance gaps, or limiting future extensibility. Clean core principles touch everything from integration and data models to mobile enablement and change governance – which is why attempting the journey without experienced guidance can lead to costly setbacks.
At On Device Solutions, we combine deep SAP mobility expertise with enterprise architecture specialisation to help you make clean core a reality – safely, strategically, and without business disruption. As a trusted SAP partner, we’re well equipped to guide your team through every stage of the journey – from capability mapping and architecture alignment to mobile solution rollout.
If you are ready to simplify your SAP landscape, contact our SAP experts here for a no-obligation consultation.
Alternatively, explore how a clean core strategy unlocks agility in our related article.
