E3 Category: The opinion of the SAP community

In the age of digitalization, the spread of home offices and new work, priorities are often set in other areas, even though the invoice processing process is essential for companies and offers enormous potential for optimization.

The global transformation of the IT industry to the cloud has also reached SAP customers. In retrospect, interestingly enough, S/4 Hana also came onto the market at almost the same time.

SolMan is getting its time in the spotlight: SAP has positioned it as the central integration engine of the Business Transformation Suite (BTS). But what exactly is BTS all about?

Artificial intelligence (AI) is supposed to support humans in their daily work routines by automating tasks. The consequences that arise are entirely up to the humans, not the AI.

SAP and the entire SAP community have been successfully using more and more open source for many years. The use of hundreds or thousands of different components by SAP customers will be the rule, not the exception, in 2022.

If you want to keep costs under control during an S/4 Hana switch, it is absolutely crucial whether you succumb to the lure of a contract conversion or switch with your entire license portfolio.

SAP systems are business critical. Data volumes are increasing, cyber threats and compliance regulations are on the rise. Optimal backup and quick recovery solutions as well as efficient data storage are becoming ever more important.

SAP has made a risky bet with Hana. Tying S/4 tightly to the Hana database platform means that ERP performance is forever tied to SAP's skill and Hana's performance.

Bringing diverse sales channels and sales models under one roof harbors potential for technological and operational conflict. Digital systems must mesh smoothly. How can this be achieved?

At the end of last year, the E-3 editorial team began a research project: Can the S/4 conversion succeed with the existing resources? There were two answers: Yes, because SAP provides good tools. No, because consultants are missing and the concepts are not designed for complex data structures.

There will be no integration in the form of an SAP "back to standard" function. The R/3 times with one database and many app servers are over. The three-tier client/server model is dead.

A spontaneous discussion arose about the contemporary nature of Hana and S/4. This is very exciting because it covers many dimensions, including the future of SAP.

Speed and security are more crucial than ever in a highly competitive environment. SAP users also face the challenge of implementing innovations and new business processes quickly.

Fast, cost-effective entry into digital manufacturing and complete traceability are business-critical for medium-sized manufacturers. A lean MES with UX design that users can configure themselves makes this possible.

What role will open source play in the future? Successful and healthy open source projects are about more than just code. A strong community is an engine that can drive bolder innovation.

Successful companies are sometimes successful because they act early on a trend or even create it. Or they come late, but make better decisions than the early movers, on whose experience they can build.

S/4 Hana and Cloud: It's not a question of location, but of architecture - and culture. This changes everything and makes DevOps a must. However, its triumphal march does not begin as a grassroots movement.

IoT, AI or machine learning: it has never been easier to obtain applications, ready-made services and the latest technologies quickly and flexibly from the cloud. But what is the right cloud strategy and how can secure data migration be achieved?

At the beginning of the new year, a discussion arose virally about the relevance of S/4 and how contemporary this ERP software from SAP still was - not so much in 2022 as at the end of the conversion in about five years.

SAP S/4 Hana is entering its darned seventh year this year. In the IT industry, such time spans are technological "generations". Many customers are wondering how much time SAP still needs to successfully complete the S/4 Hana strategy.

Almost nine out of ten companies (88 percent) that already use an ERP solution from SAP will migrate to S/4 Hana within the next three years. This is the result of a survey conducted by Camelot and the analyst firm Techconsult among 200 German companies.

At the beginning of the year, E-3 Magazine asked to what extent Hana and S/4 are still up to date. This is not a blasphemy of SAP's ERP doctrine, but a pragmatic view of the S/4 conversion.

The year started well for Christian Klein. Manager Magazin January 2022 shows a picture of Klein with the title "Codeword Attack. A short time later, the correction came online: "The defensive battle of the SAP CEO.

You can't make an omelet without breaking eggs. The presumption of innocence applies. The fact is that the SAP Executive Board has always been committed to the interests of existing customers - above all Gerd Oswald.

Open Core sounds like a good idea: open source technologies enriched with individual proprietary features. But the model gives pause for thought, because the interests of the vendors may differ from those of the community.

What do most people associate with SAP? Software is probably the most common answer, perhaps also accounting or ERP. In the age of cloud computing, another word should come to mind: learning.

Once SAP SolMan is in use, "Make a wish" begins - but possibly even before that. From a consultant's perspective, you then hear questions like, "Can Solution Manager...?" How do we deal with that?

Despite some negative reports about the pace of S/4 Hana adoption, the latest DSAG survey confirms its strategic importance for SAP users: 81 percent are already working with S/4 or planning to implement it.

The mirror became a mirror. In a report, an attempt is made to blame SAP for the misuse of software. In the process, statements are made that are false. Poorly researched and incorrectly combined.

For around half of SAP customers, it is still open which system architecture should be used for the transformation. Decision-making can be facilitated by prioritizing and weighting the parameters involved.

Business applications such as document management systems (DMS), ERP, customer relationship management (CRM), supply chain management (SCM), and human capital management (HCM) form the basis of many enterprise business processes today.

Spiegel reported on the dark side of SAP in issue 46/2021 on page 62. The authors suspect the theft of intellectual property and accuse the ERP world market leader of unfair competition.

The legendary Focus co-founder and editor-in-chief Helmut Markwort coined: Facts, facts, facts and think of the readers. For SAP CEO Christian Klein, it's facts, facts, facts, and thinking of the community.

Pulling the ERP cart out of the mud again has always required good SAP roadmaps and the initiative of existing customers.

For many SAP users, the switch to Hana is accompanied by a move to Linux. The operating system, which recently turned 30, opens up a huge ecosystem of open source solutions.

I have created a new cloud term. After public, private and hybrid cloud, there is now a home cloud in my SAP universe. It is supposed to be the best of on-prem and the functions of the hyperscalers and SAP BTP.

The use of open source supports DevOps teams in agile software development. But in the drive to produce code faster and faster, protecting confidential and privileged credentials often falls by the wayside.

Like a cockpit, SAP Focused Build offers all planning and control tools specifically for large, agile projects. From takeoff to safe landing, they flank all processes. But what does an SAP project have to do with a flight?

A reorganization of development and deployment processes through DevOps must also be accompanied by an organizational realignment. But how can the development approach be anchored in the corporate culture?

The S/4 Hana transformation implies not only the technology change, but also human resources components. Users need to see sense, they need expert training and good user training.

In the discussion about digital transformation, the pandemic is often seen as an accelerator for digitization projects. Does this assumption pass the fact check?

As a driver of digital transformation, the cloud now plays a key role in corporate success. However, users are often restricted by the provider when it comes to implementation. It is important to weigh up the options wisely.

ERP is dead. The Intelligent Enterprise no longer has a future either. No AI will save this concept. The new "Connected Platform" is a real-time operating system, i.e. an enterprise operating system in real time.

The SAP community has overcome the limitations of an R/3 and in recent years excellent solutions have emerged based on ERP/ECC 6.0. SAP's volatility does not make it easy for partners to remain loyal.

Sometimes there is a gap between what users want and what providers offer. SAP also recognized this challenge and gave birth to the idea of the CCC.

The Eclipse Foundation, home to more than 400 open source projects, is organized into self-managed working groups. Why was this approach chosen? And how does collaboration between members work?

Repeatedly our DSAG has tried to communicate Rise with SAP with verified content to us members. SAP could not deliver. Now SAP CEO Christian Klein has kicked his chief strategist Anuj Kapur out the door.

With Rise with SAP, SAP creates incentives to switch to S/4 Hana in the cloud. Analogous to Digital Access, there is the option of using user licenses universally and as needed. This will appeal to many SAP customers.

The saying is well known: There's life in the old dog yet again. Readers are currently giving print a rebirth, while marketing is still hanging on to the old online braids and counting web clicks. While readers appreciate print quality, marketing is hungry for quantity.

While SAP struggles to get existing customers into the cloud, the SAP community lacks organization and licensing certainty for a cloud exit strategy that may be necessary.

The SAP transformation from R/3 to S/4 Hana has been underway for several years. Completed projects have often revealed underestimated aspects that should be recognized and, in some cases, avoided at all costs.

There is a holy book at SAP in Walldorf that enshrines the claim to omnipotence in the cloud. Full Use Equivalent is the new gospel to make SAP rich.

Digital transformation is indispensable for business success. We are observing a paradigm shift in IT in which cloud plays a central role. However, an SAP cloud migration means major challenges.

Recently, it was the 40th anniversary of the IBM PC. Now, standard software is not conceivable without standard hardware. Therefore, it makes sense to take a look at the mutual firing of both standardizations.

A time of data-driven transformation and modernization has dawned - also for SAP users. This is by no means just about SAP systems; non-SAP environments must also be part of an overall strategy.

The Suse technology blueprint consists of seven steps for high availability of S/4 Hana transformation in hybrid cloud environments.

With regard to the implementation of innovative Industry 4.0 and IoT scenarios, the factory edge concept in particular is becoming increasingly important. An SAP connection is also an essential component here.

Many companies face the challenge of replacing their ERP suite with the new S/4 Hana software generation. Cleverly used, SolMan provides support throughout the entire migration project.

In many places, product labeling in retail is done digitally: the use of electronic shelf labels is efficient, flexible, and reliable. Electronic labels are also becoming attractive in intralogistics.

An S/4 transformation is only successful if the project and subsequently also the ongoing operational management can be ensured. For this, the CCoE organizations must be aligned to these new tasks in good time.

We view SAP with goodwill. The Executive Board is well positioned, even if cooperation is not frictionless. In detail, there are construction sites, misunderstandings and errors. Consolidation is not yet complete.

Bitkom gave a mixed assessment of the federal government's digital policy to date. Apart from a few showcase examples, Germany urgently needs to catch up in international comparison.

Corona, digitalization, a lack of specialized workforce, as well as social paradigm changes are impacting our way of collaborating. In this context, the topic New Work is becoming increasingly important.

There is no such thing as one SAP licensing; everyone has different types and combinations. This quickly becomes confusing - and can also be expensive. It is therefore important to avoid major blunders. Here are the five most common mistakes.

We should talk to each other, right? Digital transformation is a nice buzzword, but behind it lie numerous challenges that have only been partially communicated - so, we should talk!

No IT company has undergone such a radical transformation as SAP. The transition from Windows to Office to Cloud at Microsoft seems like a harmless Sunday stroll in comparison.

Is the cloud real for an existing SAP customer? Yes, sometimes - but in many cases it is out of reach. Cloud computing is not the issue. More license fees are the goal.

After more than a year, the pandemic seems to have triggered an identity crisis among some customers regarding the S/4 Hana transformation. Whether justified or not, the discussions and considerations are interesting.

The Fraunhofer Institute and IBM inaugurated Europe's currently most powerful quantum computer with the participation of politicians and scientists. Will quantum computers really revolutionize the way we use IT solutions?

People often talk about digitization. There are many definitions of this term. But what is digitization? And how is digitization reflected in a store?

If there's one thing SAP is good at besides software development, it's creating catchy marketing language. It was only at the beginning of this year that Christian Klein introduced the business-transformation-as-a-service offering Rise with SAP. So in the future, users are supposed to rise with the help of the technology provider - wording that evokes self-discovery and personal development. Namaste. But in fact, it's about...

Automation is also one of the central topics in the SAP area. It is no longer just about initial deployment or migration scenarios, but above all about automation in ongoing operations.

An existential question: Rise or Fall with SAP? The brave new SAP world can only be entered with the latest release status, which is not only illogical, but also becomes counterproductive for SAP. Version changes are a messy business.

It seems that with the expansion of the cloud, the misconception is spreading that you don't have to worry about archiving your data. But if you act like this, you might as well start climbing without a safety rope.

As already announced in 2017, with the Libor rates the globally most important money market rates for most currencies will no longer be available from 2022. What does this mean for your SAP TRM and CML modules?

If the SAP community could consolidate the license portfolio, SAP would earn several million euros less in fees. CFO Luka Mucic would have to revise his growth plans.

A few years ago, RPA revolutionized the automation industry, and since then, new features and tools have been steadily added to make employees' lives easier and capable of handling increasingly complex tasks.

Everyone should be granted a work-life balance, and the home office anyway. But there are situations where hiding behind an answering machine, webcam and kitchen table becomes counterproductive. Corona recreation should also increase visibility.

Many SAP customers transform their licenses to an S/4 contract basis. Through the back door, Digital Access is often also licensed for indirect use of the system. Those who are not careful can run major risks for the future.

What follows is a thought experiment and not animal torture. How existing SAP customers feel when they have to provide two database licenses for an ERP remains unanswered.

The German philosopher and sociologist Jürgen Habermas - it seems - read a Spiegel commentary, thought about it, and ultimately turned down the Sheikh Zayed Book Award after there had already been an acceptance. Respect!

It is no secret that master data is crucial to the success of Industry 4.0 scenarios, because it forms the basis for the networked exchange of information. Only those who ensure high data quality can sustainably digitize processes.

When IT and business departments are asked about IT projects that have been started or are planned, the topic of AI comes to the forefront. So let's look at what AI actually is and the expectations behind it.

It is well known that cloud computing is the engine of the digital transformation taking place. An important component of this - cloud-native technology - is given with SAP's Gardener.

Regularly occurring tasks are perceived by most employees as annoying compulsory tasks. As a "colleague", RPA can step in here and thus increase their motivation and consequently also customer satisfaction.

E-commerce is transforming more and more B2B into B2B2C companies. But what does this mean for the customer experience? Who owns the customer data, who responds to feedback? And who ensures satisfied customers across channels? Food for thought.

SAP applications on the one hand and other IT systems on the other have often been separate worlds from a developer's perspective. Open source-based hybrid cloud platforms overcome these parallel worlds.

SAP can't stop tricking. Christian Klein believes he knows 100 Rise customers. This hubris could yet turn out to be a nasty surprise - SurpRISE with SAP would not be the first time.

At the beginning of the year, Microsoft and SAP announced the expansion of their cooperation, the technical details of which and the implementation timetable are expected shortly. One of the plans is for Microsoft Teams to become an integral part of SAP's enterprise solutions. S/4 Hana, SuccessFactors, Sales Cloud and Analytics Cloud have been named so far. These integrations are expected to be available in mid-2021....

The days when SAP simply accepted audit results seem to be over. The software group is increasingly questioning the figures it receives. And there is another new development: The data that is being queried is a real challenge.

Hasso Plattner, Gerd Oswald and Christian Klein are good at defending themselves, but because I don't shy away from critical treatment of Editor-in-Chief Färbinger, I express my astonishment at Capital columnist Bernd Ziesemer.

Rise with SAP is intended to make S/4 transformation projects to the cloud more affordable under SAP's leadership, but customers are not yet seeing that. For SAP, the goal is to push the SAP cloud and thus increase license revenues.

In the coming years, experts estimate that 50,000 S/4 Hana migrations will have to happen in Germany alone. The switch is tied to many challenges, especially data security.

The impending migration to S/4 Hana is a challenge for most companies. However, it can also be an opportunity to optimize existing infrastructure.

Many S/4 on-premises customers use public cloud services. While procuring infrastructure services for SAP environments is rather simple, implementing and operating them necessitates specialized software.

Companies are having a hard time with the natural generational shift from baby boomers to millennials or from R/3 to S/4 Hana. How can this complexity be broken down and the change actively shaped?

In the summer of 2020, the time had come: SAP and Tricentis announced their partnership, expanding the number of SAP-certified test automation tools to three.

... control is better. You know the saying. In today's complex world, transparency and anti-counterfeiting are becoming increasingly important. That's when solutions help, where everyone gets the information that's relevant to them.

But anyone who thinks that new technologies will also bring a digital way of working to the entire corporate landscape is mistaken. A look at the reality shows: Many companies are still oversleeping the digital transformation. With the rude awakening also comes the realization that such transformations do not succeed at the push of a button. In order to equip yourself accordingly, you have to...

At the turn of the millennium, the SAP community was worried. The mySAP.com products were supposed to conceal everything with their colorful appearance, but they were a disaster. Things only got better with Hana from Professor Hasso Plattner.

"Overcoming media discontinuities" is a magic word for better linking process steps. But it doesn't go far enough: If we want to achieve truly digital work, we have to eliminate media discontinuities.

SAP supports management in the technology change to S/4 Hana with a huge machinery of information, events and tools. However, the chapter on S/4 licenses with the greatest value comes up far too short.

SAP Business Suite 7 with AnyDB, i.e. ERP/ECC 6.0, should no longer play a significant role due to SAP's plans. The opposite is the case.

Analysts at PAC/Teknowlogy, together with E-3 Magazine, survey the SAP community, the topics: Cloud Computing, Integration, Hyperscaler, Intelligent Enterprise, Hana, Analytics, Digitalization, S/4 Transformation ...

The mood is subdued as SAP CFO Luka Mucic turns to the red pen to help Christian Klein repair cloud and "integration." But repair service behavior has never been a good idea.

Kubernetes has greatly changed the world of virtual machines (VMs) and containers. Cloud Foundry (CF) is also being deformed by the gravity of Kubernetes (k8s).

Digitization has received an additional boost from Corona. One of the drivers is the sharp increase in efficiency pressure - also in finance and accounting. Routine processes are being further streamlined in this central area of the company.

Time is a rare commodity today. Therefore, the necessary information for successful planning approaches of such difficult IT projects must be offered promptly and appropriately structured via a central platform.

Things are bad for SAP's Hana database. The construct itself will continue to accompany S/4 on-prem and in the cloud - but the spirit and soul are dead.

Not true: Embrace 2.0 became Rise with SAP. To the great surprise of the SAP community (SurpRISE!), the concept remained the same, the name changed. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

The breath-taking boom in home working has transformed many areas of business life. But while everyone is eager to use video conferencing and work collaboratively, approval and signature processes are often still a laborious affair, even in the new world of work. Hardly any order or release can do without signatures, as they are required for legal transactions to be valid. In...

SAP has done a disservice to our DSAG. The HR department in Walldorf has poached the DSAG Board Member for Technology. Personal congratulations to Steffen Pietsch, who seems ideally suited for the new task. For the SAP community, it's Armageddon.

In the SAP Help Portal, it was already officially announced last February that special attention will be paid to digital access documents in surveying from 2020: Hypercare audits start now!

In the first half of March, one of the largest European cloud data centers burned. The French IT provider OVHcloud reported the de facto total loss of its data center in Strasbourg. A lot of data seems to be irretrievably lost.

Cybercriminals are finding new ways to obtain sensitive data from their victims - undetected by means of fileless malware. CERT-Bund and numerous security researchers warn against these attacks.

Suse now offers an Endorsed App for SAP software: Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications. What this premium certification is all about.

People like to put off things that are annoying, complex, time-consuming and unpleasant from the outset. But beware: when it comes to SAP license management, procrastination can be really expensive!

Completely unnecessarily and surprisingly, SAP CEO Christian Klein presented another tool to take the step towards S/4. A round of golf would make more sense.

It's more than a lockdown. In Walldorf, they are trying to square the circle and SAP will fail. The transition from the McDermott system to the Klein system should have been planned more conscientiously.

The migration to S/4 Hana in the area of operational logistics poses major challenges for companies - both practically and in terms of time. However, the change from LE-WM and LE-TRA to EWM and TM is not a true migration, but rather a new implementation. The changeover also opens up the opportunity for reorientation: It is worth...

In times of digital transformation and S/4 conversion, this is a legitimate question. But how disappointed would you be as an existing SAP customer if only half of the available consultants responded to this question and your lucrative offer - namely exclusively the male ones!

SAP CEO Christian Klein fails to turn things around. He has cleaned up, sorted and consolidated behind Léo Apotheker, Jim Snabe and Bill McDermott. But that's not enough for analysts. We existing customers can just about live with that.

Many SAP customers ask themselves when the right implementation time for SAP S/4 is. The answer leads via the company's IT strategy and the planned implementation period in coordination with the product maturity of the SAP solution.

Industry 4.0 is an absolutely strategic topic that hardly any company can ignore. Despite this, or perhaps because of it, there is uncertainty about how to approach it. About a sales meeting that shouldn't be one.

The experiences of customers and employees with a company are proven to be of great importance for its success. However, many companies still find it difficult to implement experience management.

Especially in times of pandemic, the advantages of digitization become apparent. Anyone who still wanted to produce the way it was modern 50 years ago would have to close their manufacturing company.

The Berlin Regional Court has ruled in favor of the screenwriter of "Keinohrhasen," Anika Decker, in her copyright lawsuit against Til Schweiger's production company. The ruling could have a signal effect, also for the SAP community.

The acquisition of Kubernetes container management specialist Rancher Labs creates new opportunities for Suse customers to drive digitization based on Kubernetes.

You can look at the clouds, but you eat at home. SAP's own data center still seems to be the favorite place of SAP's existing customers.

Machine learning (ML) is one of the most promising approaches to using artificial intelligence in the enterprise. But so far, almost nine out of ten projects fail before go-live. With DevOps and ML-Ops, this trend can be reversed.

It is not often that an app, which is also free of charge for users, is the subject of such public discussion. We're talking about the infamous Corona app, which SAP developed together with T-Systems on behalf of the German government.

Many companies are about to switch from SAP ERP to S/4 Hana. At the same time, it is worthwhile to update the electronic data interchange (EDI). Whether greenfield, brownfield or a hybrid approach, an EDI migration project can be surprisingly easy to implement (but also surprisingly frustrating if done incorrectly) and brings some benefits to the application. Historically...

To be or not to be is not the question here. The question is whether you should use a lowercase letter for proper names, company names, or product names that begin with a lowercase letter.

In May 2019, SAP launched the Embrace partner project. This is an initiative to transform existing SAP customers more quickly and easily to S/4 Hana and a suitable cloud.

The similarities between an S/4 project and the Covid pandemic: On the one hand, they coincide in time, on the other hand, new solution approaches must be found for their management and accompanied by convincing communication.

The question at the beginning of the year: Can the three SAP musketeers save the company? The paradox of the integration discourse: All paths offered by SAP can be used for ERP consolidation, but also for alternatives.

The first editorial in the new year is intended to be enlightening. If you immediately think of Plato's Allegory of the Cave, you're not entirely wrong. But our hero remains Christian Klein.

The optimization potential on the store floor can be best exploited if machine data is analyzed and visualized in real time. The prerequisite for this is an analytics tool with functions for predictive analytics, AI and ML.

SAP’s most recent announcements indicate that its entire solution portfolio will move towards cloud computing. S/4 Hana seems predestined for hybrid cloud environments.

How free OS ticketing systems help organizations in crisis make their processes secure, efficient and traceable, and enable teams to collaborate productively regardless of location.

A question of perspective. In the past, the balance sheet figures and the share price knew only one target: growth. Today, SAP CEO Christian Klein takes a more nuanced view of the situation.

The title is borrowed from the new trend of low-code/no-code platforms. The topic has a double meaning for us SAP customers - even if Christian Klein is doing a lot right at the moment, SAP is not out of the woods yet.

Repetitive tasks can be time-consuming and sometimes error-prone. Robotic Process Automation (RPA) can provide a remedy.

Life punishes those who are late. But what happens if the delay is at the expense of others? SAP CEO Christian Klein is doing everything right, but 2021 will still be a challenge.

What to do with the new ERP generation S/4? Even the user association DSAG warns against a quick fix, because the change is a tour de force. And 8100 productive S/4 systems after five years is not encouraging.

Current developments are changing society, the economy and legislation. The protection of the employee is increasingly taking center stage—also when it comes to the topic of working hours. Digital workforce management enables flexible working time arrangements in the interests of the company and its employees.Society, the economy, and legislation are all changing due to current circumstances. Employee health and safety is increasingly taking center stage—also when it comes to working hours. Digital workforce management enables flexible working time arrangements in the best interest of both companies and employees.

Missing the market is also missing the point: We no longer invest in print media? It is a well-known fact that the circulation of daily, weekly and monthly publications has been falling for many years. To conclude from this that there are fewer readers would be a very big mistake!

At the same time as this year's DSAG annual congress, a new chairman was also appointed for the association. Reason enough for me to say a heartfelt thank you to the outgoing DSAG chairman and to register a few wishes.

In many banks, SAP Loans Management for Banking is used to process structured financing. The processes involved are often inefficient. S/4 Hana Banking for Complex Loans can be a solution.

Companies suddenly in remote mode and the defense line on short time: Is this the land of milk and honey for cyber criminals? In fact, the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) is recording a high increase in cyber attacks.

Some SAP HCM customers are skeptical about SuccessFactors. Combined with SAP Cloud Platform, however, the cloud solution becomes a fully comprehensive HXM suite.

Store operators need reliable and secure IT solutions. The combination of SAP Commerce and open source business hosting meets this requirement and also offers added cost-effectiveness.

The use of Hana continues to progress briskly. And with it, for many SAP user companies, the use of Linux as an operating system platform. The use of system management software plays a central role in this.

Consulting and project work in the SAP logistics industry has undergone a tremendous transformation due to the continuous change and adaptation of processes on the customer side:

Predictive analytics is an important Big Data trend. But the possibilities of AI go far beyond that. Digital assistants open up new ways of controlling core business processes in SAP systems.

In my penultimate column, I described how the medium-sized company Pakic is driving its digital transformation. What are the factors that make such a project successful?

Embrace celebrated its one-year anniversary in October 2020. Renowned customers worldwide have chosen SAP and Microsoft with Embrace, and together the technological integration of the products has been massively expanded.

Only a freely expandable IT architecture can help manufacturing companies find their way back to profitability. The point is to focus on value creation in all projects.

After "Run Simple" comes the "Intelligent Enterprise. It is to be feared that SAP will continue the roadmap of buzzwords. But then there was the DSAG keynote by Christian Klein.

I asked SAP CEO Christian Klein whether Suite 7 was not too perfect to make way for S/4. He said that it's not about better or worse, but about acting quickly and thinking ahead.

Many companies are hesitant to move their entire IT landscapes to the cloud not because they don’t want to, but because they can’t - which is why SAP’s key to cloud computing success isn’t in the cloud.

The transformation from ERP/ECC to S/4 Hana is still the main topic in the SAP community. However, it is worth taking a look at the midmarket solution SAP Business One on Hana.

At first glance, the proprietary world of SAP ERP systems seems incompatible with open source solutions. That this is not the case is proven above all by SAP itself.

Despite the pressure to digitize, many companies are delaying the move toward Industry 4.0. Now, of all things, the current crisis could provide new impetus and momentum.

November 27, 2020 is approaching: the deadline when all invoices for public contracts in Germany must be issued and sent electronically. The standard format for data exchange is XInvoice.

Friends ask me why SAP is obviously doing very well, but I have more negative than positive things to report in my column. The saying may be true: He who grumbles, buys. There are many perspectives and language games.

Society perceives itself and the world through history and stories - from mythology to fact-based storytelling. Self-reflection and world perception are defined by narratives.

This is not a success story, but a defeat and an admission of failure. The SAP community remembers Hana 2. Because the database could not be reformed, a new version had to be invented. Now there will be Embrace 2.0.

In the past, only the SAP system landscape was often outsourced, right up to the upper midmarket.

In IT, there should be a roadmap for everything and everyone. The map for Embrace appears flawed: SAP, Microsoft, AWS, and Google are hopelessly lost.

The switch to S/4 Hana is an important factor for SAP customers to drive the digital transformation. Now it's almost half-time: introduced five years ago and without an announced maintenance extension, ECC and R/3 would be over in five years.

Industry 4.0 digitization projects place high demands on data quality. These can be met in three consistent, successive steps. In the process, more efficient tools should complement the ERP system.

In times of sustainability and green IT, things are looking bad for data messes and security freaks. Anyone who indiscriminately stores everything in the cloud not only runs the risk of losing track of everything, but also of being labeled an environmental offender.

Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications version 15 SP2 has arrived and features numerous innovations for both on-premises and cloud use as a fresh Linux way brand.

In an interview for Handelsblatt Online (August 19, 2020), André Bechtold, Head of Strategic and Corporate Services at SAP and "right-hand man" to CEO Christian Klein, says he is responsible for creating the content strategy for the various stakeholders within the company.

At the risk of my friends at SAP calling me crazy, I stand by my opinion: cloud computing and ERP don't mix. The first signs: SAP is selling Qualtrics and Oracle wants to move into our data center.

Cost pressure is currently increasing for many companies as a result of the crisis. Efficiency enhancement measures may be indispensable. It is worth taking a look at the business processes in the finance areas.

SAP CEO Thomas Saueressig sees Fiori as integration for end-to-end processes. Ultimately, however, it remains a sugar coating over what is incompatible and cannot be integrated.

SAP systems and therefore SAP data security solutions are indispensable! Data availability ensures business continuity—in times of global crisis and beyond.

What does SAP CEO Christian Klein want to hear from his customers that he doesn't already know in his deepest heart? It's a rhetorical trick when Klein says, now we're listening to our existing customers.

SAP has been charging some customers for indirect use for more than five years. Defined rules were not officially published until 2018 - they are not yet really feasible.

While cloud has now arrived in companies, the use of other digital technologies such as artificial intelligence is lagging behind in SMEs. Yet AI in particular is crucial for future competitiveness.

Digital transformation is something great and challenging! This is not only said by the relevant consultants and vendors, but also by most users who have embraced the digitization of their processes.

Why make it easy when you can make it hard? That seems to be the motto of some e-commerce concepts. Companies should get rid of structures that turn standard processes into time wasters - more flexibility is needed.

Microsoft and SAP have been working closely together for decades. But without the triad of Microsoft, SAP and system integrator, the journey to S/4 Hana or the cloud will not work.

Two buzzwords are cropping up more and more often in social discourse. Resilience and the obligation to justify would be anchor points for SAP CEO Christian Klein. We need resilience and verified roadmaps.

Where is the AI revolution? I also think of technological progress as a contribution to environmental protection. Now it seems that Deutsche Post has invested in new equipment for letter processing - the result is disastrous.

Sapphire Now Converge and Susecon Digital 2020 were held virtually on the net as customer events due to corona. Current Linux topics were not neglected.

Whether employees are working from home or in field service: Because they do not need complex infrastructures, cloud applications are an essential building block of future digital transformation initiatives.

Cyber attacks range from manual hacking and phishing activities to the use of ransomware and malware to CEO fraud. However, remedies for many attacks have been available for a long time.

For those who look ahead, the lasting change brought about by Covid-19 is a jolt. Those, on the other hand, who continue to implement digitization only hesitantly will feel even greater pressure.

Artificial intelligence is an integral and useful part of our everyday lives - and best of all, it's not witchcraft. Artificial intelligence supports us on the way to the goal we all strive for, the goal of Process Excellence.

The prices for licensing indirect use have changed significantly over the past five years. In addition to price adjustments, the change in the licensing model has had a significant influence on this.

Companies recognize the importance of data for their business development and have high demands on its use. At the same time, data quality is inadequate and trust in the data is lacking. Effective data management is needed.

Social media can be fun. Visionary decisions are a satisfying challenge. A keynote can also make you satisfied. But all of it is worth nothing without serious and conscientious groundwork.

SAP CEO Christian Klein gave a very vivid and enthusiastic account of the transformation of car sales in his address to the virtual Sapphire 2020.

Today's shoppers are faced with an immense choice; not only in terms of "what" - one supermarket alone has around 25,000 products in its assortment - but also in terms of "how" they are spoiled for choice.

Many companies are facing major challenges. Digital transformation and innovation are essential. How can Embrace help companies meet these challenges?

It is often external influences that force an organization to adopt new technologies and innovate. Covid-19 may be one such influence. If such a game-changing event doesn't drive us to change, what will?

With Cloud Platform Integration (SAP CPI), SAP provides middleware for integrating business applications on a common platform. This makes sense, but is not suitable for every SAP customer.

SAP has a lean structure. Analysts believe that the Executive Board is too small for the challenges ahead. The concentration of power on Christian Klein's shoulders reminds me of Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary.

In mid-May, Spiegel Online published a remarkable article about the disadvantages of home offices and video conferencing. Almost the entire world is grateful for the communication tools on the Web. At SAP, 95 percent of employees work from home offices - without any significant loss of efficiency, as SAP CEO Christian Klein has repeatedly emphasized.

There are augurs who are critical of an implementation and operation of Hana Linux clusters. Much depends on a provided advantageous "know how".

Tidying up, creating order, backing up old data sets - How can you cleverly approach the topic of data archiving and data backup in SAP Solution Manager?

The need for learning management systems is increasing. The reasons are numerous: compliance with quality standards among employees despite different locations and countries of deployment, increasing regulatory requirements for certification credentials (for example, customer advisors at banks), growing awareness of seeing employees as a core resource of an organization and wanting to invest in them - to name just a few examples.

It is likely that once the Covid 19 pandemic ends, the supply of IT jobs will increase again. Fittingly, a study by Futurelearn, which has published a "2020 Best Cities for Jobs Index".

The Coronavirus has caused considerable economic dislocation. The hope that the spook will end soon is understandable, but there could be more software audits on the part of the manufacturers in the period thereafter.

This teaching of controlling and regulating is often unknown. However, cybernetics in combination with technology, the teaching of technology for planning and production, would be a good guide for SAP CEO Christian Klein.

Christian Klein promotes the Intelligent Enterprise - a new ERP that doesn't stutter along dully, but is designed to make the user's work easier in an agile manner.

Many companies are facing major challenges. Digital transformation and innovation are essential. How can Embrace help companies meet these challenges?

What are the benefits of a One Linux platform deployment? The benefits are many and range all the way to cost savings, as a number of companies can attest.

The key to the intelligent enterprise lies in simplification - and in automated information management. The cloud as a synonym for simplicity only plays second fiddle.

Cloud Foundry Foundation has evolved hand-in-hand with its cloudnative ecosystem since its inception in 2015. This year, it will take a new approach to working with the open source community.

Due to the increasing number of cyberattacks, business-critical applications like SAP need more protection than ever. It doesn't start with the applications, but with the design of the infrastructure.

Many companies reach their end customers only through their sales partners. This has advantages - but can also entail many disadvantages if not all parties are always on the same page.

You could accuse me of naivety in calling for security, planning reliability and dependability in the current situation. But I think planning security is more important now than ever, don't you? SAP owes answers.

The SAP community is a community of values in which discourse has always been a key driver of development. Whereas in the IT scene it is often technical innovations that open up new paths, in the SAP community it is the joint finding of business, organizational, technical and licensing law answers and solutions.

The extension of support for SAP's "old" ERP world is intended to reduce the pressure on companies to switch. The Walldorf-based software manufacturer also promises a simplified licensing structure for its product landscape.

A message in a bottle is the ultimate in anachronism in our information and communication society. It is neither "realtime" like Hana nor interactive like Fiori.

The Covid 19 pandemic and its containment are the biggest challenge of this century so far. How much the economy will shrink will only be seen later. Let us also see this situation as an opportunity.

Suite 7's lifetime has been extended, but what about AnyDB? One hears contradictory comments. The silver bullet would be Hana for all - i.e. public domain.

At least 85 percent of all large companies will be using robotic process automation (RPA) by the end of 2022, according to estimates by IT analysts at Gartner. Although RPA primarily has nothing to do with process optimization, the use of software robots in SAP solutions still makes sense.

Whereas dashboards used to be a bit of a red rag in SolMan, today Focused Insights offers a really usable set of pre-built dashboards that take advantage of SolMan's entire data set.

Of course, our high level of data protection is a great achievement and sensitive data does not belong in e-mails without encryption. But that is no reason to dispense with digitization altogether.

Within Embrace, customers and partners are transforming: becoming bolder, taking on new roles, and focusing on agility and innovation. This is essential, especially in these times.

Creating new possibilities in the development of Abap code by using open source tools not only sounds good, but can really convince in practice.

The SAP maintenance extension was a big step, but one that experienced SAP watchers expected. What does it mean for those companies that have not yet taken the plunge?

With the acquisition of the XM platform Qualtrics last year, SAP has added a new cloud solution to its portfolio and has thus taken up the cause of experience management. What's behind it?

Data loss prevention, the protection against the leakage of confidential data, is a combination of technical aspects and employee-related measures.

End customers expect merchandise to be available throughout the omnichannel. What options does the SAP product range provide retailers for this challenge and how mature are they?

Working from home is not enough. Home office is a mega trend in the current situation. Everyone should stay within their own four walls to protect themselves and others. But we need to think home office further.

Sometimes it takes brutal food for thought to not only question, but completely eliminate, established patterns of behavior. After the Mobile World Congress Barcelona 2020, the Geneva Motor Show was also canceled, followed by many other events: Leipzig Book Fair, Hanover Industrial Fair, etc.

A look at a special partnership that has succeeded in delivering the same reliability with Hana on Linux as in the traditional database environment.

Professor Hasso Plattner is at the levers and defines the members of the SAP Executive Board. Despite customer dissatisfaction, little changes and many cooks spoil the broth - Qualtrics provides little insight into this.

Now it is here, the state of emergency, the catastrophe, and accompanying deep cuts in the way we usually buy, produce and resell. An infectious, organic structure has shaken up our world.

The maintenance extension for Business Suite 7 means good news for SAP customers who are still in the early stages of their S/4 Hana migration efforts. Likewise, the cost risk for third-party databases increases.

The SAP App Center - SAP's digital B2B marketplace - has been around for just under two and a half years. Almost 1,000 different partners and developers now offer more than 1,800 apps, extensions, plug-ins, and microservices there. Time to take stock: What does the SAP App Store have to offer?

The car is becoming a networked device on wheels, delivering a wealth of new services in addition to driving performance. Ease of use and safety are a must to ensure a good customer experience.

We live with limitations. Things that are taken for granted become impossible. Business trips and congresses are taboo. Professional life goes on when information and communication are available.

Embrace: Everyone has probably heard this term when it comes to SAP and Microsoft. But who is actually embracing whom and why? The partnership between Microsoft and SAP has been in place for 25 years. What is different now than before?

There are new developments in the IT industry every day. This makes it hard to decide what you should really focus on, what you should invest in to make your business a data-driven one.

The term DevOps first made the rounds in 2009 and triggered a rethink in software development at many companies. To what extent has DevOps arrived in the SAP world? And more importantly, can DevOps be "sexy" in SAP?

One prerequisite for digital transformation is Big Data. This term is often translated as "mass data. However, that does not go far enough. The possibilities that arise with the processing of big data are manifold.

With SAP Hana XSA, different deployments are possible within a single Hana database. Various security criteria must be observed so that application development can be authorized according to requirements.

Answer: No, you don't. Demand and answer in the form of an imaginary tweet can be found on the cover of the business magazine "brand eins" from February of this year. There could be no better way to express the SAP disaster "We have to listen to our customers.

For banks that work with SAP systems and plan to do so in the future, the question inevitably arises as to when and how the conversion to SAP S/4 Hana should take place. When is the bank ready for this and what homework needs to be done?

With SAP Data Intelligence, the Walldorf-based software group enriches the SAP Data Hub solution in a beneficial and sustainable way. Kubernetes is in place - and Linux is also in use.

There were rumors. But a conversation with Andreas Oczko last fall brought certainty: no matter what the cost, SAP has had to postpone the 2025 end date. The domino effect is neither controllable nor calculable.

In recent years, SAP has thrown many new terms into the opaque fog of licensing. Both in the cloud and in the on-prem area. Why are many customers getting up on the barricades and where is this fog clearing?

The SAP bosses were the source of mistrust and dissatisfaction. Those innocent of mistrust are now to be measured by customer satisfaction. SAP is becoming grassroots democratic.

The pot is big. So are the stakes. Not only customer behavior and the requirements for individual product and price models, but also legal framework conditions make action inevitable.

Up-to-the-minute data, fully automated processes, well-networked customer-supplier relationships - for many buyers in medium-sized companies, this is not everyday life. But digitization in purchasing needs one thing above all: decision-makers.

AI is not just one of these fast trends, but a technology that will endure. However, only companies that properly exploit its impressive potential will benefit.

SAP's CFOs have always known how to increase revenue and maximize profits. Once again, SAP CEO Luka Mucic has presented excellent figures for 2019.

Cloud computing is already a reality for many companies today. Cloud-based applications (software as a service) are also becoming more and more widespread. But what about ERP systems in the cloud?

Master Data Governance (MDG) opens up many possibilities for the maintenance, validation and distribution of master data - an important prerequisite for Industrie 4.0 projects.

In mid-January, Der Spiegel reported online on a study by the HR consultancy Heidrick and Struggles analyzing typical and successful careers of CEOs. The simple question of a complex process is: What do I have to do to become CEO?

Consumability of data today means: distributed data infrastructures are needed, for which the open source database Apache Cassandra is particularly suitable.

Containerization with Kubernetes is making its way into the SAP environment. After the success of SAP Data Hub, it is now Hana's turn. Linux and thus also Suse are right at the forefront.

Digital transformation and new technology trends are leading to changes in SAP systems. Why do many companies find it so difficult to keep up with innovations?

Security concerns about cloud-based HR software are still widespread. But there are many arguments in favor of hosting enterprise software.

The concept of a paperless factory not only saves ZF Friedrichshafen paper, but also increases efficiency on the shop floor through optimized collaboration on a digital IoT platform.

SAP applications store business-critical data and are therefore often the heart of a company’s system landscape. Two often neglected yet highly important topics in IT security are backup and recovery.

At the turn of the year, I was skiing with my wife in Austria, at Nassfeld in Carinthia. One evening I watched the Austrian TV slapstick "Wir sind Kaiser" again. But our SAP is in no way inferior to the funny Austrians!

Discovering conceptual gaps early on helps to reduce project costs, develop faster and achieve a rollout with high acceptance. User Experience Design supports this by providing a user-centered perspective on the new solution.

SAP does not come off well in terms of communication about its licensing strategy. Many decision-makers rate SAP's information policy as rather poor.

While SAP is on a buying spree, integration is falling by the wayside. But it is more important than ever if the vendor wants to continue to recommend itself as a strategic supplier of business software.

The internet opens up new business opportunities for retail like B2B2C. However, companies need to be aware of possible chances as well as risks.

With SolMan with Focused Build and Focused Insights, Cloud ALM and Focused Run, SAP currently offers the best ALM product portfolio for a wide range of needs.

The countdown is on because SAP has terminated the contracts with the database providers. The S/4 transformation is the same as a new ERP implementation, one of many reasons why DSAG e. V. is promoting an alternative release concept. Who still wants S/4 Hana?

After Bill McDermott's cloud reign of terror, co-CEOs Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein are trying to follow SAP users into digital transformation.

If the SAP infrastructure or components of it do not function properly or no longer function at all, processes supported with SAP are also at risk. A practical Linux package also includes high-availability functionality.

Open source software (OSS) is becoming increasingly important in the SAP ecosystem. Even at companies that think they do not use OSS themselves, dozens or hundreds of OSS components are often found during audits or scans.

One of the most important tasks for quality assurance in finance is establishing consistent and reliable processes, especially when switching to new systems such as S/4 Hana.

IT security is to maintain control over complex networks and immense amounts of data. AI is making enormous progress due to technical development. Can AI solve the challenges of IT security?

I had a nice week with my wife in Berlin while SAP celebrated its "SAP Select" event at "Invitation Only" - the select audience is of course debatable.

Press and PR are the two ends of a long communication channel. Inseparably, PR and the press are linked, and yet there is also great skepticism and disdain. Does this fateful bond still apply today? Who will still need PR tomorrow and who will do it? Many questions and almost all the answers in the book "Erfolgsfaktor PR" by Christof Ehrhart.

Do you actually know about SAP's whirlpool clause? Or do you know why one company has to pay for Business Suite maintenance, but another doesn't - even though the usage is comparable?

SAP is turning all the screws and controls to really please everyone. The efforts of Mucic, Morgan and Klein are admirable.

Robotic Process Automation and artificial intelligence are moving closer together. CIOs can easily turn the promise of workload reduction, seamless integration and focus on the essentials into reality.

In a data warehouse, the data is stored in a relational database. This is expensive and accordingly there are products from the Big Data world that start here. Parquet, Hive, SAP Vora and Exasol are the best-known representatives in the SAP environment.

New challenges such as digital transformation require different perspectives and tools. The form of support from the manufacturers of the solutions such as SAP and the role of the implementation partners are changing.

Existing SAP customers are looking for a new home for SoH and S/4. They don't want to ruin their own data center with Hana, so cloud computing would be a good alternative - also for AI, IoT and CRM. That's where the MS-SAP partnership with Azure manifests itself.

From the end of 2025, SAP ERP will no longer be maintained. Anyone who has not yet made the switch to S/4 by then will have a problem. So the motivation to finally take on the migration is growing every day.

There is only one constant that remains the same regardless of the IT device used and the access location: the identity of the user. This makes it all the more important to verify this identity and to quickly and transparently control the accesses made in its name.

The Internet of Things is the key to digitization success. As a technology, IoT is already fully available today and at an acceptable cost - and delivers what we expect from it.

Discussions about whether Linux-only is the right way to go with SAP Hana deployment are more or less over. Regardless of which Any DB Hana move it is. Customers benefit from a Linux bonus pack.

Yes, brilliantly off target is also off target, which this time is called "Big Data". In our canteen, I sat with a few grassroots people and they made fun of the Data Hub. After TechEd in October, the amusement was perfect.

Is this the hundredth article on AI implementation strategies and data protection? No, this is about something much more important: it's about people.

A disruptive change of personnel on the SAP Executive Board is always a source of misunderstanding. After a long series of surprising departures, Professor Hasso Plattner's statement is all the more irritating: "Everything as planned!

Automation solutions provide transparency and create the basis for a modern financial statement. How real-time data and analytics are revolutionizing finance.

2025 - the deadline for S/4 Hana migrations hangs over CIOs like a sword of Damocles. And how can they cope with the complexity? The answer: automation. The right strategy reduces costs and promotes innovation.

Many companies are due to switch to SAP S/4 by 2025. There is a simple way to integrate customer and supplier master data that saves time and money.

SAP is facing increasing headwind from both critics who fault SAP's slow digital transformation and customers who feel they are not receiving enough support in their digital transformation efforts.

Officially, SAP has a new dual leadership. Officially, the departure of former CEO Bill McDermott had been planned for a long time. Officially, SAP has no problems, so the dual leadership will continue on its path. But Jennifer Morgan, Christian Klein and Luka Mucic have their work cut out for them.

What exactly is meant by the term Big Data? Does Big Data simply mean mass data, i.e. "lots of data" in the data warehouse? Or is Big Data a replacement for the data warehouse?

As normal and ubiquitous as the cloud is today: SaaS solutions do not have only supporters. In purely technical and qualitative terms, the cloud is not an argument for software operation.

High automation rates in document capture are still not the norm. A new method based on Deep Learning takes another step into the future.

SAP made a declaration of love at the beginning of this year. With the "Embrace" program, it wants to embrace hyperscalers. Obviously also share the revenue, right?

Service often does not have an easy job: customers usually turn to it when they have a concern. And it's usually urgent. In the better case, it's about answering unanswered questions.