Potemkin Wall Village

SAP wants to revolutionize the ERP world, but doesn't dare.

Professor Hasso Plattner has created a piece of disruptive technology with the in-memory computing database Hana, but wants to promise SAP's existing customers a non-disruptive transformation process.

The version change from Business Suite 7 to Sapviertel (Suite 4) only works with deception and camouflage. SAP is working on the Potemkin Walldorf.

For the first time in IT history, there is a downgrade from Suite 7 to Suite 4, which is being sold to existing SAP customers as an innovation: Less is more!

And SAP is right!

Sapviertel has fewer tables, no indexes and database aggregates. Sapviertel is slim and desirable, like the top models of this world.

But Sapviertel is a disruptive technology. No amount of praying and hoping will help here - it won't work without revolution.

The transition from Business Suite 7 to Sapviertel (S/4Hana) is painful. Most existing SAP customers need new hardware (Intel x86 servers), a new operating system (Linux from Suse or Red Hat), the in-memory computing database Hana, and Suite 4.

After this architecture tsunami, it's down to the nitty-gritty: all modifications, Abap programs and ERP adaptations have to be adapted, adapted and tested for Sapviertel.

A homework assignment that costs millions and will probably take years: Who has that kind of money, who is going to pay for it?

But SAP has a heart for existing customers: To avoid culture shock - some experts are already talking about the Sapviertel trap - there is a compatibility firewall.

Behind it hides Sapviertel and pretends to be harmless and compatible to all existing SAP add-ons and Abap programs.

SAP itself calls this view "to the beautiful view of Walldorf". The technicians speak of Compatibility View. And what is meant by this is a screen behind which Sapviertel hides and pretends to the front that all Abap tables, aggregates and ERP elements are still present.

Sapviertel is therefore a Potemkin IT system: the user is led to believe that his ERP world still exists and functions as usual.

It's the familiar deception and camouflage. In the background, no stone is left unturned - the IT revolution is underway.

On the outside, however, everything is supposed to remain peaceful and quiet. SAP's existing customers are to continue buying licenses and paying maintenance fees while the ERP world revolution takes place behind the scenes.

Professor Plattner and his loyal companions McDermott, Oswald and Leukert have set out to storm the data centers of existing customers.

A Potemkin wall village serves as their camouflage.