Book excerpt: This book describes the next generation of business applications in the innovative new SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA (SAP S/4HANA), exploiting the revolutionary capabilities of the SAP HANA in-memory database. Numerous real-world examples are presented illustrating the disruptive potential of this technology and the quantum leap it has facilitated in terms of simplicity, flexibility, and speed for new applications. The intuitive structure of this book offers a straightforward business perspective grounded in technology in order to enable valuable business insights drawn from the wealth of real-world experience of the book’s two authors, both prominent figures in the field of business application systems: Hasso Plattner and Bernd Leukert. Hasso Plattner is the co-founder of SAP and the founder of the Hasso Plattner Institute, affiliated with the University of Potsdam, Germany. Bernd Leukert is a member of the SAP Executive Board and the Global Managing Board of SAP.