C/4 is dead, long live Qualtrics

Even Professor Hasso Plattner was enthusiastic about this "integrated" idea and the name "C/4" at the time. Everyone agreed that the ERP world needed a CRM suite - and SAP had the building blocks: a successful CRM program itself, logistics and SRM modules plus an e-commerce system from Hybris and a pricing and sales cloud from Callidus, plus the best possible data platform with Hana and the SAP Data Hub.

Almost all the important ingredients for a successful and holistic CRM suite were in place - then SAP bought the US company Qualtrics for 7 billion euros. With this "customer experience management software" the suite was perfect!

Now all that was left was to consolidate all the silos, apps and modules on the Hana platform and the goal of C/4 would be achieved. At this year's Sapphire, the SAP community waited eagerly for the finished, comprehensive and unique C/4 - nothing happened.

C/4 is dead!

A week after Sapphire, at SAP's annual general meeting in Mannheim, Germany, Bill McDermott said Qualtrics will continue as an independent sales unit with its own management.

Not a word about integration and C/4. Qualtrics, on the other hand, says that business is excellent. SAP has given them many valuable contacts: Qualtrics a success story - but the C/4 idea of a CRM suite is dead. Or is it?