The global and independent platform for the SAP community.
Cover story April 2024

SAP Basis with Cloud ALM, on-prem
and licenses.

Salzburg 2024: Hana and S/4 also need a robust SAP basis. The Customer Competence Center of SAP R/3 and Business Suite 7 is transforming itself with ALM, process mining and enterprise architects. The SAP Competence Center Summit in Salzburg is dedicated to this transformation process.

TO THE COVER STORY
Cover story May 2026

 Agentic AI Platform for SAP

Anyone who believes they can successfully implement an S/4 migration with the lift-and-shift concepts brownfield or greenfield is mistaken. Pure code conversion - even in SAP Clean Core - leads to strategic failure. Emma Qian, Prof. Alexander Zeier and Sam Yang from Nova Intelligence rely on analysis instead of translation: Cleanfield and Composable ERP for sustainable transformation.

TO THE COVER STORY

AI starts with ERP and engineering data

April 23, 2026
E3 Magazine
The success of AI in industry depends on the quality of the database. „Fit for AI“ from simus systems offers data services that significantly facilitate AI projects in product development, ERP processes, automation, predictive maintenance, quality assurance and customer service.
In recent years, the AI debate has been heavily influenced by the various AI models; parameter sizes, data volumes and benchmarks have taken center stage. Today, however, a different picture is emerging in practice.
After the S/4 implementation, the next modernization phase begins for SAP users and with it new security risks. Innovation can only succeed with strong software supply chain security and a zero-trust approach for AI agents.
Companies invest heavily in cyber security, but their most valuable data often remains unprotected. SAP systems, the heart of critical business processes, are often overlooked in penetration tests - a fatal omission that opens the door to attackers.

What a data platform should do

April 21, 2026
Daniel Jorde, All for One Group
When talking to companies about data platforms, the discussion often quickly turns to technologies, manufacturers or feature lists - and surprisingly rarely to the central question: What business benefits do we want to achieve with our data?

Software Is Eating the World

April 20, 2026
no-name
Good and old program development is based on a waterfall model. Modern algorithms are created in dialog with AI. SAP overslept the Internet a long time ago, but currently does not understand AI either.
SAP CEO Christian Klein propagates the dawning age of Agentic AI, in which autonomous AI agents as digital „super workers“ no longer just passively answer questions, but independently analyze, orchestrate and execute complex end-to-end processes in Composable ERP.

All-in on Abap

April 16, 2026
In the new Abap Cloud world, unlimited direct access to database tables, the local file system or the kernel of the application server is strictly prohibited. For existing SAP customers, this development doctrine results in a painful and expensive refactoring process.
Investors fear that expensive cloud software subscriptions will be radically devalued as sophisticated AI agents perform the tasks of office workers largely autonomously, drastically reducing the need for thousands and thousands of individual licenses.

E3 Roundtable on ERP Platforms, Data Streams, and E2E Workflows

Successful ERP, supply chain management, and CRM architectures are built on IT platforms. Data streaming and collaboration are essential to the orchestration of ERP systems. IT platforms are the new operating system for cloud computing. The E3 Roundtable will highlight the importance and strategy of platforms for a holistic IT infrastructure and ERP architecture. SAP customers will implement platform technologies for digital transformation. The E3 Roundtable will discuss the ERP architecture principle of platforms using Boomi's offering as an example.

Comments

After the S/4 implementation, the next modernization phase begins for SAP users and with it new security risks. Innovation can only succeed with strong software supply chain security and a zero-trust approach for AI agents.
Good and old program development is based on a waterfall model. Modern algorithms are created in dialog with AI. SAP overslept the Internet a long time ago, but currently does not understand AI either.
SAP's clean-core strategy and exponentially growing AI capabilities are accelerating the pace of digital transformation. Some basic thoughts on how the accelerated change can succeed.
The former pioneer of standard business software seems to have lost its innovative compass. Hana, cloud, AI, qubits - what adds value to ERP?

SAP News

DSAG's Technology Days 2026 in Hamburg in March focused on AI, data and security. The user association is calling for more clarity from SAP. At the same time, companies themselves are required to consistently align their IT strategies and actively drive forward transformation.
March 25, 2026

Small but fine AI

RPT-1 is SAP's technical attempt to transfer Transformer technology from language processing to SAP's core competence - relational business data - in order to eliminate the weaknesses of conventional LLMs.
SAP has opened a Defense Innovation Hub in Munich to reaffirm its long-term commitment to strengthening digital readiness as a central component of modern defense capabilities.
The discontinuation of SAP IS-H presents hospitals with a key strategic decision: How can patient billing be secured in the long term - on time, economically and without dependencies on SAP Basis technology?

Business Management

The wave of certificate shortening is rolling. The main aim is to increase the security of web communication. Certificate lifecycle management software with automation functions is the order of the day. An interview with Empirius CTO Marcus Bogenstätter.
Manuel Sedlak, Head of SAP Public Cloud Services at Nagarro, explains in an interview with E3 magazine how the transformation to an „Intelligent Sustainable Enterprise“ can succeed with the SAP Business Suite.
Electronic invoicing has gone from a nice-to-have to a must-have for companies. New laws around the world - including those aimed at combating tax fraud - are driving change and accelerating the transition from paper to digital invoices and archiving.
Clean Core and Agentic AI are interrelated: SAP Clean Core and clean data are the prerequisite for AI agents to work in a scalable manner, while AI agents are the tool to efficiently create the Clean Core.

IT Management

Companies invest heavily in cyber security, but their most valuable data often remains unprotected. SAP systems, the heart of critical business processes, are often overlooked in penetration tests - a fatal omission that opens the door to attackers.
When talking to companies about data platforms, the discussion often quickly turns to technologies, manufacturers or feature lists - and surprisingly rarely to the central question: What business benefits do we want to achieve with our data?
Companies are faced with the challenge of combining stable SAP core systems with the speed of modern development. Hybrid architectures, low-code platforms and AI agents create new scope for action.
March 31, 2026

Switching ERP to SAP

The migration to SAP offers many advantages, but is complex. The impetus often comes from IT: consistent processes, scalability and updates ensure a future-proof architecture. In production, this means rethinking processes, migrating data and adapting workflows.

Economy

The use of artificial intelligence is increasing the need for external support for data and analytics initiatives in many companies. This is shown by a recent study by BARC (Business Application Research Center) based on 972 participants.
Edge computing is becoming increasingly important worldwide. According to IDC, spending is set to rise to around 450 billion US dollars by 2029. Edge AI and real-time applications in particular are driving significant investment in hardware, infrastructure and services across all industries.
March 11, 2026

USA dominates AI race

Europe and Germany are clearly lagging behind the USA and China in terms of rapid AI scaling despite good prerequisites. KPMG study sees opportunity for Europe to strengthen technological sovereignty and reduce dependencies without abandoning responsible standards.
Companies are under increasing pressure in reporting due to stricter regulation, shorter decision-making cycles and volatile markets. While operational processes are digitized, corporate consolidation often remains stuck in fragmented, grown system landscapes.

People Management

E3 book tip

Getting started with SAP S/4HANA

Get to know SAP S/4HANA using practical examples! In this book, Christian Drumm, Bernd Scheuermann and Stefan Weidner introduce you to the most important modules and business processes of SAP S/4HANA. You will get an overview of the applications for sales, purchasing, production, warehouse management, accounting and controlling. Many exercises, case studies and practical cases enable you to implement what you have learned directly in the system. Currently for the example company Global Bike 4.3.
The prerequisite for using the exercises, case studies and practical cases is access to an SAP system with Global Bike Client version 4.3. SAP UCC Magdeburg.

Order here

Working on the SAP basis is crucial for successful S/4 conversion. 

This gives the Competence Center strategic importance for existing SAP customers. Regardless of the S/4 Hana operating model, topics such as Automation, Monitoring, Security, Application Lifecycle Management and Data Management the basis for S/4 operations.

For the fourth time, E3 magazine is organizing a summit for the SAP community in Salzburg to provide comprehensive information on all aspects of S/4 Hana groundwork.

Venue

FourSide Hotel Salzburg,
Trademark Collection by Wyndham
Am Messezentrum 2, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
+43-662-4355460

Event date

Wednesday, June 10, and
Thursday, June 11, 2026

AI experience workshop only on June 11, 2026 (limited places)
Bonus: Access to all lectures on June 11, 2026

Regular ticket

Lectures, evening event and, depending on availability, the AI workshop on June 11, 2026
Places at the AI experience workshop are limited and registration is required.

Subscribers to the E3 Magazine Ticket

reduced with promocode CCAbo26

Students*

reduced with promocode CCStud26.
Please send proof of studies by e-mail to office@b4bmedia.net.
*The first 10 tickets are free of charge for students. Try your luck! 🍀
EUR 305 excl. VAT.
EUR 590 excl. VAT
EUR 390 excl. VAT
EUR 290 excl. VAT

Venue

Hotel Hilton Heidelberg
Kurfürstenanlage 1
D-69115 Heidelberg

Event date

Wednesday, April 22 and
Thursday, April 23, 2026

Tickets

AI onlyExperience workshop on April 23, 2026 
Bonus: Access to all lectures on April 23, 2026
Regular ticket
April 22, 2026: Lectures and evening event
April 23, 2026: Lectures and AI workshop
EUR 305 excl. VAT
EUR 590 excl. VAT
Subscribers to the E3 magazine
reduced with promocode STAbo26
EUR 390 excl. VAT
Students*
reduced with promocode STStud26.
Please send proof of studies by e-mail to office@b4bmedia.net.
EUR 290 excl. VAT
*The first 10 tickets are free of charge for students. Try your luck! 🍀
The event is organized by the E3 magazine of the publishing house B4Bmedia.net AG. The presentations will be accompanied by an exhibition of selected SAP partners. The ticket price includes attendance at all presentations of the Steampunk and BTP Summit 2026, a visit to the exhibition area, participation in the evening event and catering during the official program. The lecture program and the list of exhibitors and sponsors (SAP partners) will be published on this website in due course.