The new release of SAP Batch Release Hub (SAP BRH) 2605 for Life Sciences goes live on Saturday 1st August. Introducing several enhancements focused on flexibility, scalability, and compliance, the latest version of our co-innovation with SAP arrives at a time when Life Sciences organizations continue to demand modernized batch release processes.
With improved deviation handling to more sophisticated release check separation and clinical batch release upgrades, the BRH update also reflects the growing complexity of regulated supply chains and quality processes.
In this blog, we interview Stefan Kubick, Partner at Tenthpin, who has been closely involved with SAP BRH since its earliest co-innovation phases and is our resident expert. We give our view on what this new version means for you and how your Life Science organization's batch release processes can benefit from the latest features.
1. Stefan, Tenthpin has been involved with SAP Batch Release Hub from the beginning. Can you tell us about what’s behind the solution, and the benefits for Life Sciences organizations?
Let me give you a bit of background of the development. Tenthpin worked alongside SAP during the early co-innovation phase, helping define industry best practices and ensuring the product addressed real operational challenges faced by Life Sciences companies.
At the time, many Life Sciences organizations were struggling with fragmented batch release processes across ERP, quality, and external systems. Such challenges highlighted a clear need for a centralized orchestration layer that could bring together release decisions, compliance checks, deviations, and approvals in a controlled and scalable way.
And that layer became SAP BRH. Having played a close role in its development, it’s been an incredible journey to see it become a critical tool for Life Sciences companies to ensure that the right medicines reach the right patients at the right time.
2. What stands out most in the SAP BRH 2605 release?
There are many features to pick from in the new update. What’s vital in this release is that it addresses scalability and operational complexity. One of the biggest enhancements though is the separation of Release Check data, which allows organizations to create multiple variants of the same release check type within a single release type for deviations, QC data, and change control. This is a step forward that I’m all for, and I think users will really see the benefits of this new addition.
3. Certificate handling also seems to have evolved in this release, as well as the introduction of new certificate check features. Why is that important?
With SAP BRH 2605, release decision certificates generated in S/4HANA or other systems can now be directly integrated into the Certificate Check process. This is especially relevant for batch releases, where Qualified Persons or Responsible Release Personnel need immediate access to supporting compliance documentation during release evaluation. Also, this means that such personnel can now find Certificates of Conformity (CoC) in the Certificate Check process.
These enhancements ultimately improve transparency and reduce the need to navigate between systems or manually retrieve certificates. Think of the time that’s saved. That’s why this will be a step forward.
If you’ll allow to be slightly self-promotional, introduction of certificate check features will also mean better integration with our own solution Tenthpin Intelligent Certificate Generation (T/ICG). Sorry, but I couldn’t resist!
4. The release also includes improvements for clinical batch release. How significant are those?
Well, first of all, they’re very significant for Life Sciences organizations running clinical supply operations. The new PCN Release Register application allows users to generate and export summarized lists of PCN release decisions using flexible filtering criteria.
Also, SAP enhanced integration with SAP Intelligent Clinical Supply Management, another co-innovation of ours, to support pooling scenarios.
5. SAP’s roadmap also hints at AI-enabled release processes. What is your perspective on that direction?
Well, one thing to note is that the roadmap isn’t just very ambitious but also very aligned with where the industry is heading. This is important. Moving the roadmap in a direction that doesn’t correlate with long-term goals would be futile.
By transitioning into a “Batch Release Assistant”, SAP is also clearly positioning BRH as more than a workflow tool. Such AI capabilities and more are being built on top of structured, governed release data. A strong foundation like this matters enormously in Life Sciences and other regulated environments where trust, traceability, and explainability remain essential.
We see strong potential for agentic AI to support many use cases like exception handling, release recommendations, regulatory checks, and operational efficiency. The future of BRH looks bright with AI as part of the roadmap.
6. What advice would you give to Life Sciences organizations evaluating SAP BRH 2605?
Great question, and there are a few pointers that I would give. First of all, view SAP BRH strategically rather than tactically. One thing I see is that many companies initially approach batch release digitization as a narrow compliance initiative. This is not the most efficient approach. Why? Because the organizations that do see the most value are treating SAP BRH as part of a broader digital quality and supply chain transformation.
Second, prepare carefully for extensibility and integration governance. Even some of the leading companies forget about this, and it leads to so many issues later. Such setbacks are easy to avoid. Prepare and plan for integration. Governance, after all, can be the difference between success and failure.
And finally, focus on harmonization early. This might sound obvious, but it’s not. The more organizations standardize release processes, quality models, and integration patterns upfront, the more value they can unlock from BRH long term. It’s as simple as that.
Conclusion
Thank you, Stefan, for you insights and analysis on SAP BRH 2605. I think we have covered a lot in this interview, and I'm sure we're all eager to see the next version and progress of our co-innovation with SAP. If you have any follow-up questions or want to know more, then feel free to email Stefan at stefan.kubick@tenthpin.com.
