Customer Evolution

If you make the effort and have the time and resources, SAP offers a wide range of services and IT services for a safe and successful roadmap to Hana and S/4. The latest figures from the Investment Report 2025 of the German-speaking SAP User Group (DSAG) certainly show an increase in S/4 Hana acceptance. However, the ERP world market leader has yet to achieve any major successes. Will S/4, despite RISE and GROW, become SAP's Waterloo ten years after its first presentation in New York, USA?

The Battle of Waterloo, fought on June 18, 1815, was Napoleon Bonaparte's last battle. It took place about fifteen kilometers south of Brussels near the village of Waterloo. The defeat of the French led by Napoleon against the allied troops under British General Wellington and Prussian Field Marshal Blücher ended Napoleon's reign of the Hundred Days and led to the end of the French Empire with his final abdication. SAP CEO Christian Klein's reign is currently not up for discussion. The R/3 and ECC legacy of Dietmar Hopp, Hasso Plattner, and Henning Kagermann is far too strong. SAP has a solid foundation—even if the S/4 Hana superstructure is not very convincing. Why is that?

SAP CEO Christian Klein is focusing on cloud computing, AI, and platforms such as BTP (SAP Business Technology Platform) and BDC (SAP Business Data Cloud). Financial analysts are responding well to this message. Over the past 24 months, the SAP share price has performed extremely well, to the great satisfaction of all investors. The only uncertainty is the old target price of 300 EUR per share set by Deutsche Bank financial analysts. However, U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff escapades have damaged the SAP share price and taken a heavy toll.

As a next-generation ERP program, S/4 contributes little to the euphoria - and this is only partly SAP's fault. Topics such as cloud, AI, and IT platforms can be communicated more clearly and directly. Convincing and visual examples can be found quickly. Explaining a comprehensive and far-reaching ERP system is time-consuming, complex, and not very entertaining. SAP has not taken the laborious path of education and clarification. SAP has established sufficiently good services such as Customer Evolution, CCoE (Customer Center of Expertise) or SAP for Me, but has communicated little that is enlightening about their applications, goals and visions. SAP failed to explain the "why only". There was no clarification: Plato's arduous journey from the cave to the light never took place under Christian Klein!

The path—Customer Evolution—out of the R/3 cave into the light is painful at first, because the light is blinding. But then the view widens, and in the illuminated environment the ERP user sees the true shape of things—at least that's how enlightenment happens in Plato's cave allegory. And with SAP?

There are aids to climbing out of the R/3 and ECC cave in the form of CCoE, SAP for Me, and many other programs and services, but their existence has not been communicated in the SAP community. Christian Klein and his SAP reject the simple solution of doing good deeds and spreading the word about them.

Experienced SAP customers of course see further stumbling blocks on the way to the ERP light: licenses! SAP has not succeeded in developing a transparent and well-orchestrated licensing system for its technically valuable products. The business, organizational and technical S/4 roadmap is still littered with licensing pitfalls and uncertainties. Customer Evolution seems to have been created on the premise of "whatever the cost", a path that many SAP customers cannot afford at this time.

The shortcomings are only slightly noticeable at the moment, but they will become more apparent by 2030 and then become a burden. This was stated quite openly and directly by the user association DSAG at the Technology Days 2025 in Wiesbaden, Germany, a few weeks ago. There is always an exit strategy for all well-intentioned and sensible SAP offerings, services, and IT services. "Many roads lead to Rome, as the saying goes. If Christian Klein fails to spread the word, customer evolution could turn into an SAP ERP exit.”