"C/4HANA" without head

SAP has a good database platform with Hana and has bought several software companies with a lot of money in the past. Now the time for consolidation seems to be approaching: The new CRM should get a structure, a strategy and a head!

The world's best ERP programmers work for SAP. From a technical perspective, SAP is beyond reproach. But constructing a new CRM program from numerous legacy assets and just as many acquisitions is another dimension.

First, the SAP technicians have to analyze the legacy and understand the purchased algorithms. It is a well-known Sisyphean task to understand foreign algorithms.

Many attempts to revive old software have already failed - in the end, it was all too often decided to reprogram! SAP CEO Bill McDermott and CFO Luka Mucic emphasized the excellent process compatibility of all purchased software components.

And really: A lot was already possible via interfaces based on NetWeaver PI (Process Integration) and the Hana Cloud Platform (HCP) - but SAP's new CRM "C/4 Hana" is to become a consistent end-to-end process without media discontinuity.

dThe effort for SAP will be enormous, and there is a great danger that the end result will be a CRM construct without clear lines and without a head.

Do SAP's existing customers need this kind of egg-cellent CRM? E2E, at the beginning C/4, at the end S/4, may fascinate. The technical, organizational, and business effort could become unmanageable.

Maybe not all employees in this E2E process want to work with SAP software? A consolidated database with the SAP Data Hub certainly makes a lot of sense, but why not start with an online store from Adobe/Magento, then a CRM from Salesforce, some predictive analytics from Hana PAL, and configure-price-quote software from an SAP partner like Schaarschmidt, etc.?

Existing customers want either best-of-breed with the SAP Data Hub or a CRM with hand, foot, and head. The technical, organizational, and business consolidation from Hybris to Gigya to Callidus - the SAP acquisitions of recent years - appears to be a mammoth task:

Compare SAP's efforts to synchronize its acquired Hybris software with ERP/ECC 6.0 - a project that still preoccupies many existing SAP customers today.