The global and independent platform for the SAP community.

Keeping the promise of integration!

While SAP is on a buying spree, integration is falling by the wayside. But it is more important than ever if the vendor wants to continue to recommend itself as a strategic supplier of business software.
Frank Niemann, Teknowlogy PAC
February 27, 2020
Analysis column
avatar
This text has been automatically translated from German to English.

Integration has always been a promise from SAP to its customers. In fact, a key reason for the success of R/3 and all subsequent products is their ability to closely link core modules to support integrated standard processes.

Companies still choose an ERP system from SAP for this reason as well.

However, the situation has changed in the meantime. Although ERP software plays a central role in corporate IT today and will continue to do so in the future, a number of other topics are coming into focus.

Companies are investing in additional solutions for modern personnel management in order to attract, retain and develop talent. Furthermore, investments are flowing into software for managing the customer experience (Customer Experience Management).

Today, no digitization project is without methods and tools for data analysis, and they are being joined by more and more artificial intelligence methods such as machine learning.

Furthermore, SAP users are interested in platforms that enable them to create applications that integrate networked devices, machines and vehicles in the sense of the Internet of Things.

It is well known that SAP is now involved in all these solution segments. On the one hand, to meet customer demand, and on the other, so as not to leave the business to the competition alone.

Much purchased, too little integrated

Through acquisitions, the vendor has acquired a large number of different systems, including Ariba, SuccessFactors, Hybris and CallidusCloud, among others.

And with Qualtrics, SAP bought a whole new category of solutions for managing customer feedback. Like many analysts, we expect that this is not the end of the story and that further acquisitions will follow.

Without question, the solutions purchased from SAP have their justification and also find their buyer. Both customers and SAP itself must take into account a dynamic market, customer demand, competition, and technical innovations.

However, each of the systems acquired from SAP has its own data model, technological structure, management functions and user interface.

This requires good integration. So far, however, SAP has paid a lot of attention to acquisitions and comparatively little to harmonizing the different products.

But connecting the many systems as seamlessly as possible is critical, both for the long-term success of SAP and its partners, and of course for customers.

The reason: SAP's portfolio offers real advantages over competing products only through integration that allows end-to-end process control from the back end to the function-specific workflows in sales, marketing, and service.

Compared to the competition's offerings, SAP's own applications for customer experience management and human capital management do not always perform better.

If the integration effort for the SAP product is not much lower than for a competitor's product, SAP cannot really deliver on its promise of being able to offer everything from a single source.

SAP has vowed to do better. Using five core processes, such as "source to pay" and "lead to cash," the software company wants to demonstrate that it understands how to interconnect its own and acquired systems to support end-to-end processes.

Integration includes synchronizing master data, enabling data exchange between programs, connecting application functions, and harmonizing user interfaces.

However, it has taken a while and required criticism from many customers before SAP is now setting out to deliver on the promise of integration. Now it will come down to details.

avatar
Frank Niemann, Teknowlogy PAC

Frank Niemann, Vice President, Enterprise Applications and Related Services at Teknowlogy | PAC.


Write a comment

Working on the SAP basis is crucial for successful S/4 conversion. 

This gives the Competence Center strategic importance for existing SAP customers. Regardless of the S/4 Hana operating model, topics such as Automation, Monitoring, Security, Application Lifecycle Management and Data Management the basis for S/4 operations.

For the second time, E3 magazine is organizing a summit for the SAP community in Salzburg to provide comprehensive information on all aspects of S/4 Hana groundwork.

Venue

More information will follow shortly.

Event date

Wednesday, May 21, and
Thursday, May 22, 2025

Early Bird Ticket

Available until Friday, January 24, 2025
EUR 390 excl. VAT

Regular ticket

EUR 590 excl. VAT

Venue

Hotel Hilton Heidelberg
Kurfürstenanlage 1
D-69115 Heidelberg

Event date

Wednesday, March 5, and
Thursday, March 6, 2025

Tickets

Regular ticket
EUR 590 excl. VAT
Early Bird Ticket

Available until December 20, 2024

EUR 390 excl. VAT
The event is organized by the E3 magazine of the publishing house B4Bmedia.net AG. The presentations will be accompanied by an exhibition of selected SAP partners. The ticket price includes attendance at all presentations of the Steampunk and BTP Summit 2025, a visit to the exhibition area, participation in the evening event and catering during the official program. The lecture program and the list of exhibitors and sponsors (SAP partners) will be published on this website in due course.