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SAP Joule & Microsoft Copilot

| Diana Patch | Christoph Ruehle |

Joule Copilot AI

YouTube

Anchor

Spotify

Apple

Episode #251

Introduction

In episode 251 of our SAP on Azure video podcast we talk about something that I have been working on together with a great team at SAP and Microsoft: the SAP Joule and Microsoft Copilot integration. Back in May at Sapphire Orlando Christoph Ruehle and I had an amazing crowd for our presentation about this, so today I am really glad to have not only him, but also Diana Patch from SAP with us to talk about the integration, what customers can use today and what is on our roadmap.

Links: Integrating Joule with Microsoft 365 Copilot: https://help.sap.com/docs/joule/integrating-joule-with-sap/integrating-joule-with-microsoft-365-copilot

Find all the links mentioned here: https://www.saponazurepodcast.de/episode251

Reach out to us for any feedback / questions:

#Microsoft #SAP #Azure #SAPonAzure #SAPJoule #Joule #Copilot #M365Copilot

Summary created by AI

  • Introduction to SAP Joule and Microsoft Copilot Integration:
  • Holger introduced the SAP Joule and Microsoft Copilot integration, highlighting its presentation at Sapphire Orlando and the collaboration between SAP and Microsoft. Diana and Christoph provided their introductions and roles in the project.
    • Holger’s Introduction: Holger introduced the SAP Joule and Microsoft Copilot integration, mentioning its presentation at Sapphire Orlando and the collaboration between SAP and Microsoft. He expressed excitement about the project and welcomed Diana and Christoph to discuss the integration further.
    • Diana’s Role: Diana Patch introduced herself as the product owner for the Joule and Copilot integration, highlighting the fun and learning experiences involved in the project.
    • Christoph’s Role: Christoph Ruller introduced himself as the responsible product manager for Joule, describing it as a generative AI-powered assistant within SAP that provides access to all SAP data via natural language.
  • Background and Evolution of SAP Joule:
  • Christoph explained the evolution of SAP Joule from SAP Copilot, emphasizing its development before the large language model hype and its integration with Microsoft 365 to leverage data across both platforms.
    • Early Vision: Christoph described the early vision of SAP Joule, which started before the hype around agentic collaboration and large language models. The initial concept was based on conversational AI and SAP Copilot.
    • Evolution: Christoph explained the evolution of SAP Joule from SAP Copilot, highlighting the challenges faced with natural language processing and the transition to leveraging large language models.
    • Integration: Christoph discussed the integration of SAP Joule with Microsoft 365, emphasizing the seamless access to data across both platforms and the collaboration between SAP and Microsoft.
  • Integration Vision and Customer Overlap:
  • Christoph and Holger discussed the vision behind integrating SAP Joule and Microsoft Copilot, highlighting the significant overlap in customer bases and the potential for seamless data access and collaboration across both platforms.
    • Customer Overlap: Christoph highlighted the significant overlap in customer bases between SAP and Microsoft, with SAP having around 480,000 companies worldwide using its solutions and Microsoft having about 2 million Microsoft 365 customers.
    • Integration Vision: Holger and Christoph discussed the vision behind integrating SAP Joule and Microsoft Copilot, aiming to enable seamless data access and collaboration across both platforms, enhancing user experience.
    • Collaboration: Christoph mentioned the collaboration between SAP and Microsoft teams, including workshops and discussions to find the sweet spot for integration and set up the bidirectional integration of Joule and Copilot.
  • Joule and Copilot Capabilities:
  • Christoph and Holger compared the capabilities of SAP Joule and Microsoft Copilot, noting their similarities in providing AI assistance, agent collaboration, and extensibility through Joule Studio and Copilot Studio.
    • Joule Capabilities: Christoph described the capabilities of SAP Joule, including informational, navigational, transactional, and analytical capabilities, as well as the development of specific agents for various business processes.
    • Copilot Capabilities: Holger compared the capabilities of Microsoft Copilot, highlighting its integration with various Microsoft 365 applications and access to data via the Microsoft Graph, similar to Joule’s capabilities.
    • Extensibility: Christoph and Holger discussed the extensibility of both platforms through Joule Studio and Copilot Studio, allowing customers to build their own tools, skills, and agents.
  • Bidirectional Integration Concept:
  • Christoph explained the bidirectional integration concept, where users can interact with Joule via Microsoft 365 Copilot and vice versa, ensuring seamless user experience and leveraging both platforms’ capabilities.
    • Bidirectional Integration: Christoph explained the bidirectional integration concept, allowing users to interact with Joule via Microsoft 365 Copilot and vice versa, ensuring seamless user experience and leveraging both platforms’ capabilities.
    • User Experience: Christoph emphasized the importance of providing a transparent user experience, where users are always aware of where a response is coming from and can interact with both assistants in natural language.
    • Technical Setup: Christoph described the technical setup for bidirectional integration, including identity propagation and ensuring secure communication between Joule and Copilot.
  • Technical Setup and Security:
  • Diana detailed the technical setup and security measures for the integration, including the prerequisites, identity propagation, and ensuring user permissions are respected during data retrieval.
    • Prerequisites: Diana outlined the prerequisites for the integration, including having Microsoft 365 and Joule tenants in place and establishing trust between Microsoft Intra tenant and SAP Cloud Identity Services tenant.
    • Identity Propagation: Diana explained the identity propagation process, ensuring that user permissions are respected during data retrieval and that users only access information they are authorized to.
    • Security Measures: Diana emphasized the importance of security measures, including token exchange and ensuring that data remains secure within the respective systems during processing.
  • Documentation and Support:
  • Diana provided an overview of the documentation available for setting up the integration, emphasizing the importance of following the steps and reaching out for support if needed.
    • Documentation: Diana provided an overview of the documentation available for setting up the integration, including step-by-step guides and prerequisites for configuring SAP Cloud Identity Services and Microsoft Entra ID.
    • Support: Diana emphasized the importance of reaching out for support if needed, mentioning the comment section in the documentation for feedback and clarifications.
  • Demo of Joule in Microsoft Teams:
  • Diana demonstrated the integration in action, showing how users can interact with Joule in Microsoft Teams to retrieve and update information from SAP systems, including purchase orders and HR data.
    • Purchase Orders: Diana demonstrated how users can interact with Joule in Microsoft Teams to retrieve purchase orders from SAP systems, showing a summary and providing a deep link to the specific purchase order in the S4HANA system.
    • HR Data: Diana showed how users can update HR data, such as changing a phone number, through Joule in Microsoft Teams, highlighting the confirmation step before finalizing changes.
    • Legal Name Change: Diana demonstrated the process of changing a legal name through Joule, emphasizing the approval step required for such changes and the seamless interaction within Microsoft Teams.
  • Roadmap for Integration:
  • Christoph outlined the roadmap for the integration, mentioning the current availability of Joule in Copilot and the upcoming early adopter program for Copilot in Joule by Q3 2025.
    • Current Availability: Christoph mentioned the current availability of Joule in Microsoft 365 Copilot, allowing users to leverage Joule within Microsoft Teams and other applications.
    • Early Adopter Program: Christoph outlined the upcoming early adopter program for Copilot in Joule, planned for release by Q3 2025, aiming to further enhance the integration and collaboration between the two platforms.

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