E3 Category: Editor-in-Chief Blog

For data management, SAP not only has an SQL database in Hana, but also a platform for graph theory and data vectors. Both methods are often better suited to displaying information than SQL tables. In the past, SAP made little fuss about these IT innovations.

A dashboard for the CCoE manager, Customer Center of Expertise, is a perfect answer to the Composable ERP. Hana, S/4, BTP and BDC create an almost unmanageable ERP architecture. LeanIX can help out to some extent, but SAP for Me is the better answer.

It makes a big difference whether an existing SAP customer is presented with extensive and diverse IT tools for their challenges, or whether SAP and partners offer clear answers to defined problems. SAP can do everything, but at the expense of its existing customers.

Existing SAP ECC and S/4 customers who want to participate in the latest IT innovations such as AI, LLMs, databases, cloud and edge computing should customize the Business Technology Platform. SAP BTP offers all the degrees of freedom that S/4 denies.

The SAP community is still interested in innovation, AI and digital transformation, but SAP is less and less the "preferred vendor". The DSAG Innovation Report 2025 shows a lasting skepticism towards the global ERP market leader.

The U.S. stock markets are tumbling. Investors are attempting to sell and flee to Europe with their capital, and yet SAP cannot benefit from this. The magic of cloud, Datasphere, and AI has evaporated. The true value of SAP is being revealed.

Deals" are currently the order of the day and SAP's clean-core requirement is a deal with its own existing customers and partners. SAP demands a lot from its own community in return for planning security.

In many cases, SAP's licensing policy seems counterproductive. Innovation comes from experimentation, learning, and experience. For proof-of-concepts, SAP customers need a test environment that runs without a license.

In recent years, the SAP universe has been atomized. The consistent R/3 black box has become a heterogeneous conglomerate of ERP modules and cloud applications. From blockchain to IoT: SAP seemed to have to follow every IT trend. Today, AI chaos rules the SAP world.

With a complex ERP initiative for a hidden maintenance extension and an alternative cloud roadmap, RISE with SAP should have been given a second chance at survival earlier this year. The announcement of the Business Data Cloud in addition to the Business Technology Platform has finally put S/4 out of business.

SAP recognized the value and importance of data early on, but failed to develop a stable solution across multiple ERP generations. From NetWeaver to Datasphere, there have been ambitious attempts, but no data orchestration in the ERP space.

In an interview with Handelsblatt editor Christof Kerkmann at the WEF 2025 in Davos, SAP Executive Board member Thomas Saueressig modified the popular saying “You’ve made your bed, now lie in it.” Saueressig said: "You shape your own future.”