CASE STUDY/GLOBAL PLYWOOD MANUFACTURER

>50% faster SAP reporting through autonomous AI

Autonomous AI refactored a DB-heavy SAP report into HANA-aligned execution, cutting runtime in half while preserving 100% functional accuracy.

Performance

~52%faster

Manual ABAP Intervention

Zero

Delivery Velocity

1 dayvs 7 days

Functional Parity

100%

THE CHALLENGE

Outdated ABAP Creating Performance and Migration Risk

As part of its S/4HANA migration initiative, the organization uncovered a growing risk inside its SAP ECC landscape: years of custom ABAP code written for legacy databases, not HANA.

Business-critical reports were running significantly slower than acceptable, impacting finance and operational teams. Many programs relied on outdated coding patterns that degraded performance as data volumes grew.

Traditional remediation estimates ranged from 1-2 weeks per program, making large-scale optimization impractical. The approach depended heavily on specialized ABAP expertise, increasing both delivery risk and cost.

With migration timelines under pressure, the organization needed a faster, safer alternative-without expanding teams or delaying transformation.

THE APPROACH

AI-Driven ABAP Optimization for S/4HANA Readiness

Sookti AI deployed autonomous agents to analyze and optimize the client’s custom SAP programs end-to-end.

The workflow included:

Static code scan: The agent performs deep static analysis to identify anti-patterns, spotting SELECT * queries, SQL calls inside loops, unnecessary nested loops, linear table scans where binary search was possible, missing parallel cursor techniques, legacy syntax incompatible with HANA optimization, and other performance killers. This scan pinpoints exactly where legacy code would violate HANA best practices or slow down execution.

Automated code transformation: Sookti's transformation engine rewrites the ABAP to use modern, efficient constructs. It replaces inefficient logic with CDS views and set-based SQL, moving data processing to HANA where possible. The transformed code is also injected with clear, business-aligned comments for readability.

Regression testing harness: The agent automatically replays historical test data through the new code, guaranteeing 100% functional parity before and after transformation. Every unit test passed on the first run, confirming the converted programs behaved exactly like the originals, just faster.

Intelligent performance optimization: The agent introduces sorted indexes and parallel cursor techniques to eliminate nested loop slowdowns, replaces linear searches with binary search, leverages hashed tables for quick lookups, and consolidates multiple selects into single queries, aligning with HANA’s in-memory strengths.

Upgrade-proof output: Sookti AI's agents introduce SAP Standard CDS Views, Functions, and Classes into custom programs, making them ready for any future SAP upgrades without rework.

Self-documenting output: The agent produces clean, maintainable ABAP code annotated with the rationale for each change. It references relevant SAP Notes and labels where HANA clean-core principles are applied, making it a future-proof asset for the client’s IT team.

Each program was transformed in days instead of weeks, producing optimized, fully documented code ready for S/4HANA, with no human intervention required.

THE RESULTS

Data-driven improvements measured on live enterprise workloads. Results below represent a subset of optimized programs from a broader SAP performance initiative.

PROGRAM / REPORT

BEFORE (LEGACY)

AFTER (SOOKTI AI)

ZDSALEMIS_GST Report Runtime

~8.63sec

~4.16sec

DB Time Share

~80.8%

~52.9%

Outcome

DB-boundexecution

HANA-alignedscalable execution

Processing Balance

ABAP waitingon database

App-layerefficiency optimized

Scalability

Fragileunder scale

Predictableunder load

PROGRAM / REPORT

ZDSALEMIS_GST Report Runtime

BEFORE (LEGACY)

~8.63sec

AFTER (SOOKTI AI)

~4.16sec

PROGRAM / REPORT

DB Time Share

BEFORE (LEGACY)

~80.8%

AFTER (SOOKTI AI)

~52.9%

PROGRAM / REPORT

Outcome

BEFORE (LEGACY)

DB-boundexecution

AFTER (SOOKTI AI)

HANA-alignedscalable execution

PROGRAM / REPORT

Processing Balance

BEFORE (LEGACY)

ABAP waitingon database

AFTER (SOOKTI AI)

App-layerefficiency optimized

PROGRAM / REPORT

Scalability

BEFORE (LEGACY)

Fragileunder scale

AFTER (SOOKTI AI)

Predictableunder load

Before vs. After — SAP Runtime Analysis (ZDSALEMIS_GST, live production) Runtime: 8.63s → 4.16s | DB time share: 80.81% → 52.90%

Execution shifted from DB-bound behavior to balanced, HANA-optimized processing through structural code refactoring.

Code refactored

4,889lines

STABILITY

ZEROregressions

OPERATIONAL RISK

100%eliminated

DOCUMENTATION

Automatic

WHAT CHANGED

Pro-Level Parallel Cursor Logic

For massive nested datasets, agents implement parallel cursors to scan two sorted tables simultaneously, avoiding repeated lookups.

Before

O(n²) Nested Loops

LOOP AT it_final1 ASSIGNING <gv>.
  " Legacy: Nested loop causes O(n*m) complexity
  LOOP AT it1_final ASSIGNING<gv1> 
    WHERE delv_no = <gv>-delv_no 
      AND length = <gv>-length.
    < gv > -bundle = <gv>-bundle + <gv1>-bundle.
        ENDLOOP.
        ENDLOOP.

After

Parallel Cursor (O(n+m))

" Sort once for Parallel Cursor logic
SORT it1_final BY delv_no length.
        DATA(lv_curr_idx) = 1.

LOOP AT it_final1 ASSIGNING <gv>.
  " Parallel Cursor: Linear traversal (O(n+m))
  LOOP AT it1_final ASSIGNING < gv1 > FROM lv_curr_idx.
        IF < gv1 > -delv_no < <gv>-delv_no.
          CONTINUE. " Skip to start of match
    ELSEIF < gv1 > -delv_no > <gv>-delv_no.
        EXIT. " Early exit: No more matches possible
    ELSE.
        lv_curr_idx = sy - tabix. " Update starting point
        < gv > -bundle += <gv1>-bundle.
          ENDIF.
          ENDLOOP.
          ENDLOOP.

SOOKTI AI'S VALUE

ASPECT

BEFORE (MANUAL)

NOW WITH SOOKTI AI

Code Transformation Time/ Time to Go-Live

1 week per report (7 man-days per 5,000+ lines)

Minutes per report, no manual intervention

Performance

Bottlenecks from outdated patterns (SELECT * , loop-in-loop)

50–90%faster execution with HANA-specific techniques

Code Optimization

Manual identification and patching of inefficient code

Automatic identification and correction; rewritten for HANA (CDS views, parallel cursors)

Quality Assurance

Manual testing; high dependency on key developers

100%functional parity validated with automated regression testing

Risk Management

High dependency on key developers; risk of human error

No “hero-developer” dependency; consistent, repeatable, auditable process with self-documenting output

SAP Clean-Core & Future/Upgrade-Proof

Customizations break with SAP upgrades, manual checking to ensure HANA-compliant code

Built-in clean-core compliance; SAP Standard CDS, Functions and Classes

Long-Term Maintainability

Difficult to maintain; lack of documentation and poor readability

Annotated ABAP with rationale per change; easy to maintain

ASPECT

Code Transformation Time/ Time to Go-Live

BEFORE (MANUAL)

1 week per report (7 man-days per 5,000+ lines)

NOW WITH SOOKTI AI

Minutes per report, no manual intervention

ASPECT

Performance

BEFORE (MANUAL)

Bottlenecks from outdated patterns (SELECT * , loop-in-loop)

NOW WITH SOOKTI AI

50–90%faster execution with HANA-specific techniques

ASPECT

Code Optimization

BEFORE (MANUAL)

Manual identification and patching of inefficient code

NOW WITH SOOKTI AI

Automatic identification and correction; rewritten for HANA (CDS views, parallel cursors)

ASPECT

Quality Assurance

BEFORE (MANUAL)

Manual testing; high dependency on key developers

NOW WITH SOOKTI AI

100%functional parity validated with automated regression testing

ASPECT

Risk Management

BEFORE (MANUAL)

High dependency on key developers; risk of human error

NOW WITH SOOKTI AI

No “hero-developer” dependency; consistent, repeatable, auditable process with self-documenting output

ASPECT

SAP Clean-Core & Future/Upgrade-Proof

BEFORE (MANUAL)

Customizations break with SAP upgrades, manual checking to ensure HANA-compliant code

NOW WITH SOOKTI AI

Built-in clean-core compliance; SAP Standard CDS, Functions and Classes

ASPECT

Long-Term Maintainability

BEFORE (MANUAL)

Difficult to maintain; lack of documentation and poor readability

NOW WITH SOOKTI AI

Annotated ABAP with rationale per change; easy to maintain

TESTIMONIALS

“We'd been living with this report's performance issues for years. Sookti AI fixed in a day what we'd been putting off for months, and the code it produced was cleaner than anything we'd have written ourselves.”

- Technical Lead, Plywood Manufacturer

ENGAGEMENT DETAILS

Engagement Details

Industry

Manufacturing (Plywood)

Landscape

SAP ECC → S/4HANA (Brownfield)

Scope

Custom Code Optimization

Environment

Live Enterprise Production Workloads

Ready to Unlock Similar Performance Gains?

Run a controlled pilot on your most critical SAP workloads and validate measurable results before scaling enterprise-wide.

Book a call with us or write to: aditya@sookti.ai | tanushree@sookti.ai