Adaptable and responsible leadership

Why adaptive and responsible leadership?

From Bill McDermott's point of view, the business is running smoothly and simply - there is no way around Hana, S/4 and cloud computing?

Digital transformation in general and Big Data, IoT, Industry 4.0, Cloud and AI in particular are the growth drivers.

At Sapphire next May in Orlando, SAP will also jump on the artificial intelligence (AI) megatrend with the topic of Machine/Deep Learning (see also neural networks of the Hana Predictive Analysis Library, PAL).

Existing customers, on the other hand, need different answers: the community is in danger of breaking apart.

"The past year has shown that political leaders must adapt to the demands of the people who have entrusted them with leadership, while at the same time charting a vision and a way forward so that people can imagine a better future"

World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab is quoted in the press.

DSAG CEO Marco Lenck could also say this sentence in the same sense, except that it was not the case last year, but already since the presentation of the in-memory computing database Hana: Under the leadership of Professor Hasso Plattner, it was correctly recognized at the HPI (Hasso Plattner Institute of the University of Potsdam) that traditional ERP software has system-immanent weaknesses.

Hana solves some of them. So Plattner has acted logically, adaptively and responsibly, and has provided a vision that shows a possible way forward. But why throw the baby out with the bathwater?

Flexibility and responsibility look different: Why doesn't SAP respect the decades of investment in IBM DB2, Oracle and Microsoft SQL Server?

Hana is right and good - but there are other truths as well.

When the DSAG user association repeatedly demands that the annual software maintenance fee be used not only for expensive new developments, but also for the continuous further development of existing ERP investments, one is reminded of the Davos motto "Responsive and Responsible Leadership".

What responsibility does Bill McDermott still feel towards his existing customers today?

According to a press release from Davos, he wants to create 10,000 new jobs in the U.S., joining the list of business leaders who are genuflecting to the new U.S. president.

Will this go down well in Europe, where the heart of SAP still beats?

Responsible leadership is based on transparency and conviction. At the moment, you won't find either at SAP: The S/4 roadmap with Hana and Hana 2 is completely disruptive and erratic.

At Fkom in Barcelona, IDC market researchers commissioned by SAP predicted a majority of cloud subscriptions over on-premise licenses in the near future.

If every user is counted who has a Concur, Streamworks and SuccessFactors account in the cloud, then the goal is very easily achievable.

However, this counting method says nothing about the economic and technical success of cloud computing. SAP has still not disclosed verified S/4 scenarios for complex ERP, SCM and HCM applications in the cloud.

Success with SuccessFactors may be possible. However, sophisticated and comprehensive HR solutions cannot be mapped with this type of cloud computing.

Pushing and shoving existing customers into a SuccessFactors cloud is therefore completely irresponsible.

What did Bill McDermott learn in Davos?

Naturally, SAP is in a difficult situation, because adaptive and responsible leadership is expected not only by existing customers, but also by employees, partners and owners.

SAP is part of a global and highly successful ecosystem. SAP is a publicly traded company. SAP is old economy that has to defend itself against young start-ups.

If international trade flows and production facilities are largely based on SAP software, then this is not only a recognizable success for SAP, but also a huge responsibility for the ERP world market leader.

Because the world is and will remain heterogeneous, not every existing SAP customer can or wants to move to the "cloud", cannot or will not use Hana as a singular database - for BI perhaps yes, for ERP perhaps less so.

SAP must show more responsibility towards existing customers in its product development.

SAP must show more adaptability to social, business and technical developments.

Big Data, IoT, analytics, AI may soon become necessities for existing customers, where a singular focus on S/4, Hana and cloud is only counterproductive.

SAP will need to find an adaptive and responsible course this year to achieve its 2020 and 2025 targets.

Thus, Bill McDermott's side trip to Davos was perhaps a good idea.

Peter M. Färbinger,
Editor in Chief E-3 Magazine