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. Subscribe to The Let’s Talk Data Podcast Apple Podcasts Spotify YouTube Connect With Leona Hasani Linkedin Connect With Jose Chicas LinkedIn 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
