In this episode of Let’s Talk Data, host Jose Chicas sits down with Leona Hasani, Product Manager for SAP Business Data Cloud and former data scientist, to explore how modern data platforms are transforming the data science workflow. The conversation dives into the real-world challenges data scientists face—from fragmented data access and lack of business context to time-consuming data preparation and trust issues with datasets.

Leona outlines the end-to-end data science lifecycle, emphasizing that up to 70% of a data scientist’s time is spent on data cleaning and preparation rather than modeling. She explains how SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC), combined with SAP Databricks, streamlines this process by providing ready-to-use, governed data products enriched with business context, definitions, and hierarchies.

A key highlight is the concept of zero-copy data sharing, enabling real-time access to unified SAP and non-SAP data without duplication. This reduces latency, lowers costs, and ensures data consistency across teams. The discussion also explores how integrated tools like MLflow enhance model tracking, governance, and auditability—critical for enterprise and regulated environments.

Through a practical use case—predicting purchase order delays—Leona demonstrates how BDC accelerates time-to-value by eliminating manual data extraction and enabling seamless model deployment back into business systems.

Whether you’re a data scientist, engineer, or analytics leader, this episode offers valuable insights into building scalable, efficient, and business-aligned data workflows in today’s AI-driven landscape.

Key Topics of Discussion:

• SAP Business Data Cloud for Data Scientists Explores how SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) empowers data scientists with governed, ready-to-use data products that include business context, improving efficiency and accelerating insights.

• Data Science Workflow Optimization & Automation Covers how modern tools reduce manual tasks like data access, cleaning, and preparation—allowing data scientists to focus more on modeling, analysis, and delivering business value.

• SAP Databricks Integration & Machine Learning at Scale Highlights the native integration of SAP Databricks within BDC, enabling scalable machine learning, AI workflows, and seamless access to enterprise SAP and non-SAP data.

• Zero-Copy Data Sharing in Enterprise Data Architecture Explains how zero-copy data sharing allows real-time access to data across systems without duplication, reducing costs, improving performance, and ensuring consistency.

• Data Governance, Data Trust, and Business Context in Analytics Focuses on the importance of trusted, well-defined data with embedded business semantics, enabling accurate analysis, better decision-making, and compliance in enterprise environments.

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Additional Resources:

• To learn more about SAP Data and Analytics solutions, please check out SAP Business Data Cloud athttps://www.sap.com/products/data-cloud.html • And to engage further, please join our Data Professionals Community on https://community.sap.com/t5/data-professionals/gh-p/data-professionals • To see what's new and upcoming with all SAP solutions, please look at our roadmap explorer on https://pages.community.sap.com/topics/road-map-explorer

What does a day in the life of a data steward really look like? This podcast pulls back the curtain on the people who keep enterprise data trustworthy, usable, and compliant. We will discuss how these data steward navigate through the rhythms of their day—triaging data incidents, curating metadata, negotiating business definitions, enforcing access controls, and coordinating fixes across engineering, analytics, and business teams. We explore both process realities and the best practices in place to ensure trust.

Listeners will hear examples of the types of data sources stewards wrestle with and learn how stewards set and enforce quality rules, measure trust, and assign clear ownership to ensure accountability. From root-cause investigations and remediation workflows to balancing speed with governance, the podcast surfaces recurring pain points and pragmatic solutions, with real-world stories, lessons learned, and actionable tips for improving processes, tooling, and cross-team collaboration.

Key Topics of Discussion:

• The evolving role of data stewards How data stewards act as “data guardians,” ensuring data is accurate, consistent, and usable across the business, and how the role is becoming more strategic over time.

• Cross-functional collaboration and breaking silos The importance of working across finance, IT, and other business units to treat data as a shared enterprise asset rather than something owned by one team.

• Data governance, prioritization, and business value How teams decide which data issues or projects to tackle first based on impact, business value, and dependencies across processes.

• Challenges: stakeholder management, education, and pushback The need to educate others about data, handle difficult conversations, and push back on requests that could harm data quality or long-term outcomes.

• Technology and tooling enabling data stewardship The role of tools like data catalogs, lineage tracking, master data governance (MDG), and unified data platforms in supporting transparency, quality, and scalability.

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Connect With Corrie Birkeness

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Connect With Ralitsa Dakova

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Connect With Grigor Kartev

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Connect With Tina Rosario

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Additional Resources:

To learn more about SAP Data and Analytics solutions, please check out SAP Business Data Cloud at https://www.sap.com/products/data-cloud.html And to engage further, please join our Data Professionals Community on https://community.sap.com/t5/data-professionals/gh-p/data-professionals

This episode of Let’s Talk Cloud ERP features Jennifer Frank McGrory in conversation with Lindsay Callaghan, Director of Business Systems at Rytec Corporation, a North American leader in high-speed, high-performance doors. The discussion explores how Rytec's ERP transformation journey has evolved within a long-standing SAP environment and how new business realities are shaping its future.

Rytec has operated in a stable SAP system for over a decade, supported by a lean team and strengthened by a recent smart factory manufacturing transformation. As the company began planning its move toward SAP S/4HANA, it was acquired by Nucor in 2024—an event that increased the urgency for process visibility and strategic alignment.

A major turning point was the use of SAP Signavio. Within 24 hours, Lindsay’s team gained clear, data-driven insight into real business processes, data gaps, and system flows. This shifted conversations away from opinion-based workshops and toward visual, fact-based discussions. As a result, meetings became more focused, resistance rooted in past ERP project fatigue decreased, and the organization could better determine which legacy processes should be improved or retired.

Looking ahead, 2026 is set to be a pivotal year, with Rytec evaluating RISE with SAP and preparing for S/4HANA—emphasizing continuous improvement, strong partnerships, and process intelligence as keys to long-term success.

Key Topics of Discussion:

• Fact-based transformation beats assumptions – Real process data from SAP Signavio replaced guesswork and opinion-driven workshops.

• A stable ERP foundation enables smarter modernization – Rytec’s long-running SAP system allowed for strategic planning toward S/4HANA rather than reactive change.

• Process visibility reduces resistance to change – Visual insights help business users understand impacts, shortening meetings and easing “ERP fatigue.”

• Transformation is a chance to eliminate legacy baggage – Data helps identify which processes add value and which are just being carried forward out of habit.

• Strong partners plus modern tools accelerate success – Combining SAP best practices, experienced partners, and process intelligence supports better decisions and continuous improvement.

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Don’t stop here – discover more:

Experience SAP Like Never Before: Cloud ERP Simulation Challenge:

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