Interview: Technology, marketing and organization

E3: If you look at the DSAG investment survey, the appearance on the topic of AI was a little mysterious, because you can read from the survey that only three percent of members use SAP software for AI. This means that the music is playing elsewhere.

Stefan Nogly, DSAG: I don't know. I would differentiate between whether we are talking about using artificial intelligence in our ERP systems in a productive environment or whether we are talking about looking at AI within IT in operations and development. We have to learn how to deal with AI. And I would only be worried if we were talking about solutions that are in use everywhere in the production environment. And we have to admit that it's a black box and we don't know where the decisions come from. Then I would be worried.

E3: Need to do your homework?

Nogly: In the end, we are there to realistically classify and explain that the technology has certain possibilities. That is my role in the company, but also my role here at DSAG. Yes, I am pleased about the initiative and the offer from SAP. The gap must not widen in this migration task.

“I think the care or the way SAP is designing the ERP systems and now incorporating AI is the right thing to do.”

Stefan Nogly,
Chief Technology Officer,
DSAG

E3: For the outsider, the result is a heterogeneous and confusing picture of AI. I would be interested to know what DSAG's assessment of AI is.

Nogly: I understand that you have to differentiate between AI. We've talked a lot about software development, code generation and code migration. But when I look at the back office of IT, we also talk about application-to-application interfaces. There are companies that have hundreds, perhaps thousands of interfaces. These also have to be migrated manually or there are tools for this. Then we come to issues involving roles and authorizations. Do we perhaps prefer to do this manually? Isn't that perhaps a job, a craft, where we want to be sure that a very loyal employee is implementing it?

E3: Automation with AI is one thing, trust in the system is another, right?

Nogly: A migration and change like this is a lot of work. Do we want to give it to a tool? And then there's the issue of data. There is data that is less spectacular and can certainly be migrated in some way. And there is also data that is not so unspectacular. But to put a figure on the migration effort - what you can save if you take a really challenging migration route - I can't emphasize it, the world is not that simple.

E3: Is DSAG basically satisfied with SAP's course?

Nogly: Yes, we went there and said: Let's push the DSAG committee work. Let's look at opinions from different perspectives and use them to generate an opinion. And we also did this in the context of AI. The basic strategic direction is good, we can go along with it. If SAP told us: let's just do it, everything is already there, I wouldn't believe it. We want to work with our members to define what is included in the SAP data products. And we can then use these defined data sets to create AI models. I think data is the operating system of a company for an AI system. I think the care or the way SAP designs the ERP systems and is now incorporating AI is the right thing to do.

E3: Back to the DSAG investment survey. The figures for the cloud or public cloud are not that exciting, are they?

Nogly: It would be fatal to think that the cloud has been written off. And this doesn't even have anything to do with SAP; other companies that offer enterprise software are moving in the same direction.

E3: Even if the SAP community is moving towards the cloud, the dividing line between on-prem and cloud remains, doesn't it?

Nogly: It is challenging. Philipp Herzig (SAP CTO, editor's note) has accommodated us to a certain extent. And DSAG's efforts have had an effect. Now, of course, you have to differentiate. Some number of companies will remain on-prem. Of course, you have to think about that. SAP's strategy and statements are clear. Innovations will only come from the cloud. That's why we at DSAG are calling for companies to move to the cloud wherever possible.

E3: I can run SAP BTP in the cloud and can create an interface to my on-prem system.

Nogly: Of course, we are trying to build precisely this bridge and also to categorize these different types of solutions sensibly. What are possible transformation paths? And at the same time to maintain a dialog with SAP. I think that's our job, this weighing up and considering: When do we start with which topic, where do we help with white papers? There is not just one way and SAP has to accept that, of course.

E3: Thank you for the interview.