Digitization: 1610 for 2017

Quite high is the pressure for change to which companies are exposed by the Digitization are exposed to. On the other hand, practically all companies in the IT sector are trying to exploit this fact to their advantage in order to position themselves as a preferred partner for business transformation or to present themselves in a particularly innovative light.

The company enjoys considerable support and a good deal of trust when it comes to digitization. SAP in its traditional customer base, although the latter is also looking at other possible partners, as a survey on the subject by the German-speaking SAP User Group (DSAG) among members in February 2016.

"I am particularly pleased that the DSAG-survey confirmed that 82 percent of the respondents of the SAP or high importance in terms of digitization, as a valued partner on the road to the future. digital Transformation to be"

Bernd Leukert, member of the SAP-and responsible for Products & Innovation, with a visibly satisfied expression at the beginning of his Keynote within the framework of this year's DSAG-Annual Congress in Nuremberg in September.

In what way the Walldorf Of course, it remains to be seen whether the software company will be able to meet the high expectations of its own community.

No easy balancing act

Which product enhancements and new product developments SAP into the digitization race or here SAP–Customers Leukert brought the nearly four-and-a-half thousand people who DSAG-As always, he did so in a friendly and unobtrusive manner, with a dash of marketing or sales intent, but not in a way that fits into the "glorification of one's own cause" category.

As he explained, there is a central challenge: the balancing act between today's often complex and inflexible system landscape on the one hand and the demand for agility, speed and innovation on the other.

This balancing act is not always easy to accomplish, and:

Bernd Leukert, member of the SAP-Board of Directors:

"Your system landscape - now independent of on-premise, Cloud or as a hybrid - must therefore consist of two areas: on the one hand, a basis with which you can digital Core processes for the digital Prepare economy.

I call this the digital Core.

And on the other hand, an agile, flexible environment in which you transform your know-how, your IP, into individual software. This is where differentiation happens - and very important: without a vendor lock-in.

That's the only way you're going to be able to support the necessary different things at necessary innovation speeds that the market demands."

Already many times highlighted by SAPthat it is the digital Core around S/4 Hana. And in the differentiation named by Leukert by means of an agile, flexible environment around the Hana Cloud Platform, HCP for short.

On both for SAP The main focus of his remarks was on the important pillars within the overall product strategy.

To S/4 noted the SAP-Technical Director at that

"It fills us with pride that today, after just 18 months, we have more than 3,700 S/4Hana–Customers have, over 1,300 of which are either in projects about to go live or are already in live production mode."

Whereby according to SAP Interestingly, many of these are new customers. The share (of the 3,700): around 40 percent.

The big hope, especially for 2017, is certainly the new S/4-This is a major release, which simply has the abbreviation 1610 and follows 1511.

In this context, the new version can definitely be seen as an important milestone in the development of S/4 see. Because for the first time now in S/4 all Transactions throughout, i.e. also complex Transactions, Fiori-like support, which was not the case with 1511.

And or also: With the version 1610 represents SAP more logistics functionality; for example, functionality that can be used in new ways SCM-(Supply Chain Management-)Processes supported. Like aATP, which stands for advanced Available to Promise.

Leukert gave at the event of the DSAG announced that in the future regular information in matters S/4-roadmap - both for the Cloud- as well as for the on-premise versions - and thus to "meet a wish of the DSAG complies".

Information on Hana (platform, database) itself were not on the Keynote-Agenda of the SAP-Associate Director.

SAP wants to provide more roadmap info

You don't have to be a prophet: For 1610, there will be a certain, probably also considerable, increase in 2017. S/4-giving the company a tailwind and thus S/4-Expand the circle of users, regardless of the topic Digitization - comparable perhaps with the circumstance at the time when the Walldorf Software Group R/3 had presented in the version 2.0.

As a reminder: Here were with R/3 also for the first time far-reaching Logistics-functions such as PP, MM or SD and had developed the later successful product R/3 virtually to fly.

However, actual market penetration depends on several factors.

Finally, for existing customers, there are a number of challenges in the Changeover from the Business Suite in the direction of S/4 brown-field or green-field approach to switching, licensing issues and support selection (standard or enterprise support), choosing the right implementation and support model. Hana-infrastructure partner, changes in the Infrastructure general, knowledgeware construction for S/4 and Hana and other more.

"Besides S/4 Hana as the future business suite and especially for business transformation, you also need an agile and flexible platform - an environment where you can create your differentiating solutions"

gave SAP-Technical Director Leukert the DSAG-The company's annual congress attendees were emphatic about this.

Furthermore, he said, "A standardized plug-and-play solution to enable the envisioned and targeted changes (in the area of Digitization) will not be implemented.

The basis is still standard applications and best practices for best practice.Processes, and these would have to be expanded on a company-specific basis, he ondit.

The linchpin here: the Hana Cloud Platform.

"The HCP is more than just an ordinary development environment, as it is Amazon, Google, Microsoft And Provide Others."

It is based on a standard platform that can give speed and that also provides standard services in both the technical and business areas, he conceded.

Accordingly, the HCP is a digital Enterprise platform that enables users to access their current Processes and in particular to the Data their Processes have

Access is via the so-called API Business Hub, which provides a catalog in the form of micro services. Standardized interfaces are exposed,

"but not only exposed for you and your partners, but also exposed for our own developers. In the future, we will also deliver innovations very quickly on the HCP, and we see there the Hana–Cloud-platform perhaps also as an extension platform for our existing portfolio."

says Leukert.

In the future, anyone who does not want to rely on integrated end-to-endProcesses Hana is the ideal solution for those who want to do without a Cloud Integration the mandatory integration technology and methodology to ensure both SAP-products as well as existing legacy products with each other.

Be it from "Cloud at Cloud" or from "Cloud to on-premise." And in the process, the integrationContent between the SAP-products from SAP delivered.

If there were partner products, partners would also use this platform for their integrationContent provide.

But that's not all. SAP According to Bernd Leukert, all the Processes, which is based on the Hana Cloud Platform run on OpenStack and Cloud Foundry make available.

This means, continues the head of technology, that SAP an abstraction layer into its Cloud which will allow for a flexible and Migration a Infrastructure from SAP to (for example) Amazon, or to any other infrastructure provider will be available.

The prerequisite is the availability of Cloud Foundry and OpenStack. Via HCP, it will also be possible to "implement a multitenantHadoop-file system installation from the SAP Cloud not only to operate, but to consume".

One basis for this: the SAP-acquisition of the Altiscale company, which immediately preceded the DSAG-Annual Congress became known.

On top of that, Leukert reported in terms of HCP that there are already more than 4,000 Customers and over 500 SAP partners, with triple-digit growth rates every quarter.

By the way, HCP usage for users of the classic Business Suite (with Any-DB) should be possible.

BW/4 Hana cleverly woven in

Skillfully let the SAP-responsible for Products & Innovation announced on September 7. BW/4 Hana in its DSAG–Keynote flow into it: In addition to the pure management of Data (mentioned by Leukert in connection with the value-creating Hadoop-use) in the end-to-end processes, there will still be a need for a business information warehouse.

To wit,

"around refined Data ultimately translate into decisions through value-added insights."

According to the company, it is based on three design guidelines: a fundamentally simplified data model, a new user experience and it is designed for high-performance.

So the new BW as Cloud- (via the SAP Hana Enterprise CloudHEC) as an on-premise solution. There is also a cooperation agreement with Amazon AWS - so the option, BW/4 to run on AWS.

Back to the Digitization. Here, the Internet of Things (IoT) plays an important role for the SAP quite a weighty role, especially against the background of

"the differentiation of the existing Processes through new Business models"

as Leukert put it, adding:

"The Internet of Things is a strategic area in which we are investing heavily."

As a result, areas such as Extended Supply Chain with IoT solutions, the Manufacturing division with Industry 4.0, the complete Logistics, asset management or even new Business models such as Product as a Service, Connected Cars, Smart Cities, Digital Farming.

All areas, according to Leukert, which SAP and where we can work together in cooperation with the SAP–Customers design new solutions.

For this purpose, they have created IoT application services on the HCP, "which are generically available and they (meaning the SAP–Customers) support to build just such differentiating applications."