SAP Ecosystem

I looked it up on Wikipedia: „In an economic sense, an ecosystem describes a network of companies that are aligned toward creating shared value through an orchestrator.“ Yes, that’s how I envision the SAP community: existing customers and SAP partners thrive under the orchestration of our SAP. Unfortunately, this community is functioning less and less effectively as a cybernetic and business management system. This predicament can be observed in two extremes from Heidelberg: SAP partner SNP appears to be enjoying unstoppable success (also with sustained support from SAP); SAP partner cbs is struggling with difficult market conditions, much like All-for-one. Here, bright light; there, anxious darkness.

The overall situation is challenging: SAP is heading in the right direction, though not always in a straight line, and SAP CEO Christian Klein is moving very quickly. What was the state of affairs just yesterday (North Star Architecture) is already outdated today. What was still the epicenter of data management yesterday (Datasphere) is now just a small part of a new universe (Business Data Cloud, Snowflake, Databricks, and Dremio). The result: At my association, DSAG, SAP BDC is now simply called “Business Data Complexity.” This neologism was received with great satisfaction by my regulars at the get-together!

In the field of AI, the direction is clear, but SAP’s path remains a mystery. The goal is an Autonomous Enterprise, which could ultimately become a Composable Enterprise. The ecosystem appears to be flexible here. In addition to the legacy graph engine from the HANA platform—SAP Knowledge Graph—Agentic AI and an adapted LLM will naturally enable SAP’s Autonomous Enterprise. But how SAP is building the future ecosystem for an AI-based ERP remains a mystery to me as an existing customer: Why only a few million euros for Alexander Zeier’s startup Nova Intelligence, but hundreds of millions for Prior Labs? Is this behavior strategy or jealousy? Alexander Zeier built the HANA database with Hasso Plattner at the University of Potsdam. Zeier was never meant to become a member of SAP’s Executive Board. After a very successful stint at Accenture, Alexander Zeier is now a young entrepreneur with Nova. We also had a presentation at our company aimed at resolving the dilemma surrounding SAP Clean Core. The cleanfield approach using Nova’s Agentic AI platform convinced me, and I see a significant risk here for many SAP partners who rely on simple ABAP code conversion: AI is dividing the SAP partner community—brownfield, greenfield, bluefield, or cleanfield?

SAP is leading the way. SAP is acquiring other companies. SAP is partnering with AI companies. SAP is reinventing itself—see the Autonomous Enterprise. But SAP isn’t orchestrating anything! Some SAP partners, such as SNP, are forging their own path (Bluefield), while others are being swept away in the maelstrom of innovation. The situation in the ecosystem is confusing because SAP partners like cbs lack the resources for communication and knowledge sharing, as Editor-in-Chief Färbinger told me.

Is SAP free to do whatever it wants, or does the company also have a responsibility to the community? Is the community an ecosystem that should be orchestrated by SAP? My regulars at the pub don’t have a clear opinion on this—which is very rare. Of course, where SAP invests should be entirely the responsibility of the Executive Board and Supervisory Board. However, there is a desire for more transparency: Why only a few million euros in venture capital for Nova’s SAP Clean Core concept, but up to one billion euros for a potential new LLM from Prior? Trusting in SAP, I believe there is a plan and an orchestration strategy in place: But even as Group CIO, I need to finalize my ten-year plan, and for that, I could really use more information from SAP. What does our journey look like leading up to the tentative ECC deadline in 2035? Yes, it’s been extended yet again—from 2027 to 2030, then to 2033, and now to 2035! Who is orchestrating the SAP community and, ultimately, the SAP ecosystem so that we can all survive?

noname@e3mag.com