The global and independent platform for the SAP community.

Author: Peter M. Färbinger, E3-Magazin

Peter M. Färbinger, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief E3 Magazine DE, US and ES (e3mag.com), B4Bmedia.net AG, Freilassing (DE), E-Mail: pmf@b4bmedia.net and Tel. +49(0)8654/77130-21
SAP had originally planned to end mainstream maintenance for SAP Business Suite 7 (ERP/ECC 6.0) at the end of 2025. This deadline caused significant concern within the SAP community because it was considered unrealistic and potentially disastrous, especially given the severe shortage of qualified experts and consultants for the S/4 migration.
Cloud computing was a much-discussed topic for a long time, then a standard, and thanks to hyperscalers, the cloud became a huge market with huge sales. Cloud computing is currently under discussion again and oscillates back and forth between sovereign, hybrid, private and public cloud. Which ERP architecture should the existing SAP customer choose?
The maintenance of an SAP ERP system by a third-party provider, mixed maintenance by SAP and a third-party company, and partial decommissioning of SAP licenses have been controversial topics in the SAP community for years. A lot of money is at stake!
SAP is stepping up its efforts to further develop S/4 Hana into a holistic suite of composible ERP solutions. The existing S/4 patchwork will be managed by AI assistants and agents. Best-of-breed ERP will be replaced by composable ERP with Databricks.
What should be done with SAP licenses that are no longer needed and only generate maintenance fees? When company shares are sold or staff is laid off, there are often too many licenses. However, unused licenses result in high support costs and maintenance fees.
The SAP community is increasingly diverging from SAP's plans. There is a wide gap between the global ERP market leader's dreams and reality.
SAP left the path of righteousness many years ago. It began with the hybridization of its database. Added value? Unknown. Many other construction sites were added, partly out of ignorance and partly due to competitive pressure. Unfortunately, between topics such as the cloud and AI, SAP has yet to find its way again.
The topic of AI naturally also dominates the SAP community, that is well known: However, an offer analysis of the 180 SAP partners at the DSAG Annual Congress 2025 Bremen shows that AI hardly realizes any relevant added value in productive ERP systems such as Business Suite 7 or S/4 Hana.
An ERP system from SAP provides an excellent opportunity for consultants, IT experts, and competitors to earn money. It's only logical that SAP would have its own set of rules for this. What does Celonis want from SAP?
The legendary saying, "Red Bull gives you wings," is probably familiar to most people. However, things are not going well for the beverage company in soccer and Formula 1 right now. The sports press writes: "Red Bull is taking a beating."
For ten years, SAP has struggled to motivate its customers to switch to S/4 and the cloud, whether private or public. SAP Executive Board Member Thomas Saueressig presented a successful customer evolution that obviously only works on a Greenfield site.
With customs barriers, trade barriers, and wars, the world is being atomized and defragmented by autocrats. Fortunately, we have a global SAP community with a website in German, English, Spanish, and now, French.

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

FourSide Hotel Salzburg,
Trademark Collection by Wyndham
Am Messezentrum 2, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
+43-66-24355460

Event date

Wednesday, June 10, and
Thursday, June 11, 2026

Early Bird Ticket

Regular ticket

Subscribers to the E3 Magazine Ticket

reduced with promocode CCAbo26

Students*

reduced with promocode CCStud26.
Please send proof of studies by e-mail to office@b4bmedia.net.
*The first 10 tickets are free of charge for students. Try your luck! 🍀
EUR 390 excl. VAT
available until November 30, 2025
EUR 590 excl. VAT
EUR 390 excl. VAT
EUR 290 excl. VAT

Venue

Hotel Hilton Heidelberg
Kurfürstenanlage 1
D-69115 Heidelberg

Event date

Wednesday, April 22 and
Thursday, April 23, 2026

Tickets

Early Bird Ticket
Regular ticket
EUR 390 excl. VAT
available until 30.11.2025
EUR 590 excl. VAT
Subscribers to the E3 magazine
reduced with promocode STAbo26
EUR 390 excl. VAT
Students*
reduced with promocode STStud26.
Please send proof of studies by e-mail to office@b4bmedia.net.
EUR 290 excl. VAT
*The first 10 tickets are free of charge for students. Try your luck! 🍀
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 2026, 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.