Author: Peter M. Färbinger, E3-Magazin

In der neuen Abap-Cloud-Welt ist der grenzenlose Direktzugriff auf Datenbanktabellen, das lokale Dateisystem oder den Kernel des Anwendungsservers rigoros verboten. Für die SAP-Bestandskunden ergibt sich aus dieser Entwicklungsdoktrin ein schmerzhafter und teurer Refactoring-Prozess.

The former pioneer of standard business software seems to have lost its innovative compass. Hana, cloud, AI, qubits - what adds value to ERP?

Investors fear that expensive cloud software subscriptions will be radically devalued as sophisticated AI agents perform the tasks of office workers largely autonomously, drastically reducing the need for thousands and thousands of individual licenses.

The term „narrative economics“ was coined by Robert J. Shiller, winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, and describes an approach to explaining how narratives drive significant economic events.

E3 editor-in-chief Peter Färbinger spoke to Stefan Nogly, Chief Technology Officer at the German-speaking SAP User Group (DSAG), at the Technology Days 2026 in Hamburg. Stefan Nogly tries to keep an eye on and orchestrate all aspects of the members.

While SAP CEO Christian Klein uses artificial intelligence primarily as a sales vehicle for his cloud strategy and invests huge sums in hyperscaler partnerships, Siemens CEO Roland Busch has a much sharper and more independent vision.

A unique selling proposition some fifty years ago has been transformed into an ERP group with no history and just any old thing. Where is the SAP added value?

AI and Agentic AI do not add value to ERP. AI will eventually replace, marginalize and eliminate traditional ERP. S/4 will be around for many years to come, but the future lies elsewhere.

Under the strict dictates of the SAP Clean Core strategy, the future of Abap is defined by cloud compliance, AI, strict governance and absolute upgrade stability. Users are forced to rethink their historically grown and individualized ERP architectures.

The year 2026 marks a historic and critical turning point for the SAP community, where the glossy visions of the Walldorf-based software group SAP meet the pragmatic reality of existing customers with full force. The deadline for the end of maintenance of the old ERP system in 2027 is approaching, increasing the pressure on S/4 migrations and having a noticeable and lasting impact on the service provider market.

The Business Technology Platform, SAP BTP, is already causing real problems for many existing customers when it comes to licensing. According to a presentation by Michael Bloch, Head of Licenses, Contracts and Support at the German-speaking SAP User Group (DSAG), there now appear to be even more problems with the SAP Business Data Cloud.

Clean Core and Agentic AI are interrelated: SAP Clean Core and clean data are the prerequisite for AI agents to work in a scalable manner, while AI agents are the tool to efficiently create the Clean Core.