E3 Category: Editor-in-Chief Blog

A typical RISE with SAP contract is an agreement to provide full disclosure to the ERP market leader. Following a RISE conversion, the SAP customer has almost only obligations and hardly any rights. Will the EU provide assistance with the implementation of the Data Service Act?

Leading SAP customers such as Hilti, Unilever, and Maersk have selected Workday as their preferred HR solution. Medium-sized SAP customers are still hesitant to make the switch because they have to weigh the benefits of brand loyalty (SAP) against the potential for innovation (Workday).

The SAP Business Technology Platform serves as the central foundation for both current and future ERP solutions. ECC customers are already leveraging this platform for consolidation and customization. It is not feasible to implement S/4 without BTP, as Abap modifications will continue to exist.

SAP's objective with RISE and GROW is to provide new and current customers with a pathway to the public cloud. The offerings present a challenge due to their complexity, and many SAP customers would prefer to remain in an on-prem environment with virtualization.

Given SAP's comprehensive range of ERP and cloud products, it seems surprising that many members of the SAP community criticize the slow pace of digitalization. There is a transformation backlog, perhaps because there is a lack of orientation.

The fundamental technology underlying SAP is still the R/3 Abap tables. However, SAP has long since stopped providing instruction in the field of ERP technology. Additionally, the company displays only a limited willingness to address SAP customers’ concerns and wishes.

Because SAP has watered down the business and organizational components of its offering, but has only achieved limited success against overpowering competitors with databases, cloud, and AI, the focus has shifted to maintaining the share price, which is a success story only in the short term.

In the cloud, SAP customers require appropriate tools to orchestrate their ERP applications. SAP's Cloud ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) could be an effective solution for this. However, it is still an unfinished product.

For 50 years, SAP sold an open ERP system based on Oracle, IBM DB2, and Microsoft SQL Server databases. With the dual stack (Abap and Java) of the SAP NetWeaver platform, the global market leader expanded even more.

The DSAG Annual Congress 2024 highlighted the necessity for an efficient SAP Basis team during and after an SAP RISE project. During a RISE conversion, numerous tasks are transferred to SAP, necessitating the presence of a controlling Basis team to oversee the process.

SAP's database platform has lost one of its attractions: the Hana House in Palo Alto, California, has closed its doors. Professor Hasso Plattner is no longer Chairman of the Supervisory Board, and his legacy is now being disposed of.

It is essential that IT platforms provide a transparent structure for users and integrate ERP applications in a comprehensive manner. Following the introduction of NetWeaver and subsequent developments such as HCP (Hana Cloud Platform), SAP has now unveiled BTP (Business Technology Platform). It represents the future of ERP.