SAP Joule is SAP’s next-generation generative AI assistant designed to transform how users interact with SAP systems. Integrated across the SAP ecosystem, Joule enables natural language conversations that help users navigate applications, retrieve business insights, and perform transactions without traditional menus or manual steps. By understanding real business context, Joule guides users to the right Fiori apps, executes tasks such as displaying purchase orders or creating sales documents, and provides intelligent insights drawn from S/4HANA and other SAP solutions. This elevates user productivity, reduces training effort, and delivers a more intuitive, conversational SAP experience.
This guide walks through the setup of Joule for an SAP S/4HANA Cloud PCE system. It is based on hands-on implementation experience and is written to help consultants and administrators perform the setup efficiently.
Capabilities of Joule
SAP Joule offers three major capability categories that help users interact with SAP systems through natural language:
Transactional Capabilities
Joule can perform business transactions on behalf of the user by invoking S/4HANA APIs and Fiori applications.
Navigational Capabilities
Joule can navigate users to the correct SAP Fiori apps based on their request.
Informational Capabilities
Joule provides conversational insights and general information from SAP documentation and system context.
Architecture Diagram
SAP Joule is available for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition starting from version 2021 and above.
How to Get Access to SAP Joule
New RISE contracts → auto entitled. Existing RISE customers → request entitlement from Account Executive.
Prerequisites
SAP BTP with Joule, work zone, cloud identity service, cloud foundry services SAP Cloud Connector SAP Cloud identity services SAP S/4HANA private cloud system
Let’s get started with the configuration.
We will divide the configuration steps into four main parts..
1. SAP BTP configuration
1.1 Validate S/4HANA private cloud system is included in the landscape.
1.2 Make sure the entitlements for Joule, Work zone, and Cloud identity services are available
1.3 Create a subaccount for Joule and include the above-mentioned services in the subaccount.
Tip: Subaccount should be created in a region where the Cloud identity service is located if we are using only one subaccount for all services. If we are using a separate subaccount for cloud identity services, then we must choose a region which is same or near to S/4HANA system for the Joule subaccount.
1.4 Establish trust with cloud identity services
1.5 Run Joule Booster
Select S/4HANA cloud private edition as the capability and include work zone and cloud identity services in the integration setup and complete the booster run
1.6 Activate work zone and cloud identity services
1.7 Create work zone key and enable cloud foundry
1.8 Create destinations
Create the below destinations in BTP
1.8.1 Create a design time destination with basic authentication. This is the destination which sends the content from S/4HANA system to work zone. Also, give the client property in the destination.
1.8.2 Create runtime destination with proxy type internet and no authentication. This is the destination which is used to retrieve the data from S/4 system in runtime.
1.8.3 Create private cloud destinations with principal propagation. This is the destination used to retrieve nominations through the SAP cloud connector.
1.8.4 Create single sign on destination with principal propagation
1.8.5 Create Navigation destination with details of work zone
1.8.6Create RFC destination with basic authentication for identity provisioning
1.9 Create content Provider
A content provider is simply a system or source that supplies data or content to another application. The receiving system uses this provided content to show data, answer questions, or perform actions.
1.10 Add S/4HANA private cloud domain to trusted domain names in both BTP and IAS
2. Cloud connector
In the cloud connector we need to create a subaccount for Joule by providing the BTP subaccount details such as region, subaccount id, Display name email and password.
Create one HTTPS connection and an RFC connection to the backend S/4HANA system and make sure the HTTPS connection is set with principal propagation and connection is working to the backend.
Tip: Principal propagation configuration is a mandatory step for Joule to work with S/4HANA private cloud and make sure this configuration is completed and working.
3. Cloud identity services
Configure cloud identity services to create source and destination systems.
We need to add source and target systems to the cloud identity services to process the user roles and groups in the SAP work zone.
Source system and target systems creating Json script are available on the below page
Once the systems are created, the next step is to run the read/sync job which will create the users and corresponding roles and groups in the work zone to support Joule functionality.
4. S/4HANA system
4.1 Create a technical user with the roles SAP_BC_JSF_COMMUNICATION_RO Profiles and profile SAP_ALL. This user is used for communication of joule with S/4 HANA system wherever basic authentication is used.
4.2 Create Technical and Business Catalog in S/4HANA system. First, create the technical catalog with the details below and add this technical catalog to the business catalog.
Field
Value
Application Type
SAP UI5 Fiori App
Semantic Object
Shell
Action
plugin
SAPUI5 Component ID
sap.das.webclientplugin.s4
ICF Path
URL with Joule application’s hostname, and with /resources/public/webclient/s4 appended
Suppress Tile
Checked
Application Component ID
CA-FLP-ABA
Target Application Title
Joule
Information
Optional: Enter a description of your plug-in.
Device Types
Select the device or devices that are supported by your plug-in, e.g. desktop or phone. The plug-in will only be shown on these selected devices.
Parameters
Define parameters that you want to pass to the plug-in component by entering a name and a default value for each parameter.
4.3 Create a role in the system and add this business catalog to the role.
This role is required for all the users who are using joule to see the joule icon in the Fiori Launchpad. Assign this role to the Joule users.
4.4 Activate OData services. Identify the list of OData services which are required to be activated in the system based on the joule capabilities and make sure the respective ICF services are also activated.
4.5 Expose roles from CDM3. List all the roles based on the joule capabilities that are being used and expose all those roles to BTP.
Once the roles are exposed, we can see these roles in the content manager of BTP work zone after updating the channel manager.
Assign the roles to the users. Make sure the roles based on Joule capabilities are assigned to the users who are using Joule.
This summarizes the complete end-to-end configuration required to activate SAP Joule for S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition.
Joule Icon will be available as below in the Fiori launchpad and we can login with the IAS credentials.
SAP Joule is SAP’s next-generation generative AI assistant designed to transform how users interact with SAP systems. Integrated across the SAP ecosystem, Joule enables natural language conversations that help users navigate applications, retrieve business insights, and perform transactions without traditional menus or manual steps. By understanding real business context, Joule guides users to the right Fiori apps, executes tasks such as displaying purchase orders or creating sales documents, and provides intelligent insights drawn from S/4HANA and other SAP solutions. This elevates user productivity, reduces training effort, and delivers a more intuitive, conversational SAP experience. This guide walks through the setup of Joule for an SAP S/4HANA Cloud PCE system. It is based on hands-on implementation experience and is written to help consultants and administrators perform the setup efficiently. Capabilities of Joule SAP Joule offers three major capability categories that help users interact with SAP systems through natural language: Transactional Capabilities Joule can perform business transactions on behalf of the user by invoking S/4HANA APIs and Fiori applications. Navigational Capabilities Joule can navigate users to the correct SAP Fiori apps based on their request. Informational Capabilities Joule provides conversational insights and general information from SAP documentation and system context. Architecture Diagram SAP Joule is available for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition starting from version 2021 and above. How to Get Access to SAP Joule New RISE contracts → auto entitled. Existing RISE customers → request entitlement from Account Executive. Prerequisites SAP BTP with Joule, work zone, cloud identity service, cloud foundry services SAP Cloud Connector SAP Cloud identity services SAP S/4HANA private cloud system Let’s get started with the configuration. We will divide the configuration steps into four main parts.. 1. SAP BTP configuration 1.1 Validate S/4HANA private cloud system is included in the landscape. 1.2 Make sure the entitlements for Joule, Work zone, and Cloud identity services are available 1.3 Create a subaccount for Joule and include the above-mentioned services in the subaccount. Tip: Subaccount should be created in a region where the Cloud identity service is located if we are using only one subaccount for all services. If we are using a separate subaccount for cloud identity services, then we must choose a region which is same or near to S/4HANA system for the Joule subaccount. 1.4 Establish trust with cloud identity services 1.5 Run Joule Booster Select S/4HANA cloud private edition as the capability and include work zone and cloud identity services in the integration setup and complete the booster run 1.6 Activate work zone and cloud identity services 1.7 Create work zone key and enable cloud foundry 1.8 Create destinations Create the below destinations in BTP 1.8.1 Create a design time destination with basic authentication. This is the destination which sends the content from S/4HANA system to work zone. Also, give the client property in the destination. 1.8.2 Create runtime destination with proxy type internet and no authentication. This is the destination which is used to retrieve the data from S/4 system in runtime. 1.8.3 Create private cloud destinations with principal propagation. This is the destination used to retrieve nominations through the SAP cloud connector. 1.8.4 Create single sign on destination with principal propagation 1.8.5 Create Navigation destination with details of work zone 1.8.6Create RFC destination with basic authentication for identity provisioning 1.9 Create content Provider A content provider is simply a system or source that supplies data or content to another application. The receiving system uses this provided content to show data, answer questions, or perform actions. 1.10 Add S/4HANA private cloud domain to trusted domain names in both BTP and IAS 2. Cloud connector In the cloud connector we need to create a subaccount for Joule by providing the BTP subaccount details such as region, subaccount id, Display name email and password. Create one HTTPS connection and an RFC connection to the backend S/4HANA system and make sure the HTTPS connection is set with principal propagation and connection is working to the backend. Tip: Principal propagation configuration is a mandatory step for Joule to work with S/4HANA private cloud and make sure this configuration is completed and working. 3. Cloud identity services Configure cloud identity services to create source and destination systems. We need to add source and target systems to the cloud identity services to process the user roles and groups in the SAP work zone. Source system and target systems creating Json script are available on the below page https://help.sap.com/docs/joule/integrating-joule-with-sap/configure-identity-provisioning-service-a6cf317ecede4fa78c57be07219cee1a Once the systems are created, the next step is to run the read/sync job which will create the users and corresponding roles and groups in the work zone to support Joule functionality. 4. S/4HANA system 4.1 Create a technical user with the roles SAP_BC_JSF_COMMUNICATION_RO Profiles and profile SAP_ALL. This user is used for communication of joule with S/4 HANA system wherever basic authentication is used. 4.2 Create Technical and Business Catalog in S/4HANA system. First, create the technical catalog with the details below and add this technical catalog to the business catalog. Field Value Application Type SAP UI5 Fiori App Semantic Object Shell Action plugin SAPUI5 Component ID sap.das.webclientplugin.s4 ICF Path URL with Joule application’s hostname, and with /resources/public/webclient/s4 appended Suppress Tile Checked Application Component ID CA-FLP-ABA Target Application Title Joule Information Optional: Enter a description of your plug-in. Device Types Select the device or devices that are supported by your plug-in, e.g. desktop or phone. The plug-in will only be shown on these selected devices. Parameters Define parameters that you want to pass to the plug-in component by entering a name and a default value for each parameter. 4.3 Create a role in the system and add this business catalog to the role. This role is required for all the users who are using joule to see the joule icon in the Fiori Launchpad. Assign this role to the Joule users. 4.4 Activate OData services. Identify the list of OData services which are required to be activated in the system based on the joule capabilities and make sure the respective ICF services are also activated. 4.5 Expose roles from CDM3. List all the roles based on the joule capabilities that are being used and expose all those roles to BTP. Once the roles are exposed, we can see these roles in the content manager of BTP work zone after updating the channel manager. Assign the roles to the users. Make sure the roles based on Joule capabilities are assigned to the users who are using Joule. This summarizes the complete end-to-end configuration required to activate SAP Joule for S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. Joule Icon will be available as below in the Fiori launchpad and we can login with the IAS credentials. Read More Technology Blog Posts by Members articles
#SAP
#SAPTechnologyblog
