Can SAP also do CRM?

SAP's core competencies are ERP and numerous directly related topics. CRM is not one of them. Even e-commerce, which is logically and technically related to ERP, is only on the scene as a result of an acquisition.

While retail is dying, the e-commerce business is multiplying, but you hardly hear anything about SAP E-Commerce Hybris: Success stories? No such news! Qualtrics is outsourced. Hybris falls into a deep sleep. C/4 dies, the new CRM with which ex-SAP CEO Bill McDermott wanted to conquer the world or at least outsmart Salesforce.

Now SAP CEO Christian Klein is trying with another acquisition: Emarsys, born twenty years ago in Vienna as a newsletter tool, is supposed to save SAP's specialization in customer management after the lost CRM claim. This attempt will also fail! Why? Not because Emarsys is a bad IT tool, but because SAP still does not have the structures in place to sustainably integrate third-party software. The Abap culture does not accept disruptive fire from the sidelines.

The SAP Cloud Platform is not an open system with a low-code/no-code option (Mendix aside, but that actually belongs to Siemens). SAP can buy in, but SAP cannot do CRM or e-commerce. Emarsys as good software will only make the situation worse.