E3 Category: The opinion of the SAP community

For months, DSAG and SAP have been in talks about how to deal with the contentious issue of the "NetWeaver Foundation For Third Party Applications" in the future.

Companies are under immense pressure to rapidly transform their existing business into the digital age and to develop and launch new models in parallel.

There is a certain amount of catching up to do for SAP users when it comes to digitization. The new DSAG survey brought this to light. Infrastructure innovation for this - standards based on open source - is available. You just have to use them.

"Do it or don't do it. There is no try!", Yoda in the Star Wars movie "The Empire Strikes Back". When upgrading to SolMan 7.2, you also have exactly one try when activating content.

"Yes, I said, Cebit, what's up? The time is ripe for new styles," says Jan Delay. The Cebit organizers think so too, by the way.

Customers today decide spontaneously how and where to shop and do not follow predefined touchpoints. The key to successfully addressing customers lies in personalized offers via the channels that are relevant to them.

The robots are coming - at least in the form of semi-autonomous programs that further automate ERP business processes. One possible result: SAP's ERP suite S/7 and S/4 lose their luster and attractiveness.

SAP is a table-driven application. The contents of these tables are the starting point for forensic data analysis in the SAP system. In the following, some principles and tools of forensic data analysis will be presented.

The software audit is regarded as the spectre of IT: a measurement of the SAP license inventory followed by contract negotiations without reliable information about which licenses are available and how they are actually used.

Many use standard software, with systems standard components. It has always been like this: I tell the system provider what I want. If something doesn't work, I open a ticket. But can my problem also be solved quickly?

The trend towards using more and more cloud services in companies is still continuing. The advantages of "Software as a Service (SaaS)" offerings are also increasingly recognized and appreciated in the DACH region.

SAP users can actually look forward to the upcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) with peace of mind.

Almost every organization, scene and community has its own secret language. This doesn't have to mean anything bad. Often, the point of a "secret language" is the desire to communicate efficiently and quickly.

Even at the DSAG annual congress in Bremen, the issue of indirect use was not adequately resolved. Who will have to pay for licenses in the future and what do existing customers know about SAP's plans.

Autonomous cars, digital assistants or chatbots: AI is currently changing many industries and departments. So far, AI has been used most frequently in the IT department - with far-reaching consequences for SAP experts.

Without knowing it, companies have already made the start for Industry 4.0. They have valuable data at their disposal. To use it innovatively, they can learn from startups and combine the benefits with their own resources.

Attacks like WannaCry have shown that conventional protection measures are often inadequate. To increase security, greater focus should be placed on user rights management and application control.

Since the end of August, I have been firmly convinced that artificial intelligence, or machines, will very soon destroy thousands of jobs - at least to my benefit.

At Sapphire, SAP unveiled its development strategy for Demand-Driven MRP. This supports a concept that finally adapts supply chain planning to business realities. For many SAP users, this is still uncharted territory.

With the availability of Hana 2.0 and Suse Linux SLES for SAP 12 on Hana-on-Power (HoP) systems, byte order processing has been changed from Big to Little Endian. What this means.

About a year ago, Microsoft and Suse deepened their partnership at a meeting in the USA. SAP brought together two IT companies that could become support and competition for the ERP world market leader from Walldorf.

The regular, sometimes surprising license measurements are a thing of the past. With Leonardo Machine Learning, SAP makes ERP life easier for existing customers.

ERP can also be a musical chairs. When the music stops playing, you may not find a seat. SAP is still playing funny.

Seamless integration of new software into an existing program such as SAP saves time and money. Modernization and inclusion in existing systems via interfaces prevents the business from having to adapt existing software.

In the long term, artificial intelligence will change our lives extremely significantly. Many people are unclear when this future will dawn, but the fact is that it has already begun.

The other day, the license manager of a company called me and asked for support. The license measurement was just around the corner and he wanted to get a few more tricks and recommendations from me so that he would not experience any nasty surprises.

S/4 Hana Enterprise Management has been on the market since November 2015 and maps all relevant business processes of an integrated company from Release 1610 at the latest. Nevertheless, there are many unanswered questions that particularly concern companies that are still using SAP ERP ECC 6.0, 4.7 or even SAP R/3.

Often, when I ask SAP ecosystem CEOs or executives to what extent open source is used in their company, I get the answer, "WE don't use any!"

Big Data is increasingly becoming a fundamental part of the operational system landscape. Structuring the Big Data architecture and integrating it with the existing process-oriented SAP world are crucial for success.

Maintenance for SAP Solution Manager 7.1 will end at the end of 2017. IT users should now use the remaining time to make the switch promptly.

SAP Ariba cooperates with Mercateo in Europe for its Spot Buy feature and uses its B2B networking platform Unite as infrastructure. This enables a shopping-like experience for non-strategic purchasing.

A few months ago, I was sitting in a hotel bar in Amsterdam with the CEO of an SAP partner. I was talking about our fifteen-plus years of educational work in the SAP community, the ups and downs of producing a monthly magazine, writer's block, and real and imagined media crises.

In July 2015, the Act to Increase the Security of Information Technology Systems (IT Security Act) came into force. This article explains the requirements that the new IT Security Act places on website operators.

Hana 2.0 represents a whole series of further developments or changes. Also regarding the usage as well as the support matrix of Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications.

"Usually, when people hear just words, they think there must be something to think about." I think nothing when I hear SAP CEO Bill McDermott talk about "run simple".

The last will be the first. The last R/3 users who customize the promised Hana beyond 2020 will get a mature, stable version X. Everyone else is a guinea pig.

Today, corporate success depends more than ever on future-oriented HR work that uses harmonized data, processes and KPIs. This can only succeed if HR data is managed centrally in a modern cloud solution, defined KPIs exist across all locations, and the process is supported by a competent partner.

After importing the latest Support Package Stack (SPS), Hana reports to the existing customer with, "The doomed greet you!"

With the open source Drupal content management system, companies can extract data from their SAP systems and use it for interactive customer communication, such as service portals or predictive maintenance.

Faster, bigger, better. The digital age, as the last two decades are being paraphrased, puts the focus for companies on one main feature: speed. This poses new challenges for IT in particular.

Digitization and networking have already entered the minds of decision-makers for use in production and logistics, but marketing and sales still skillfully evade digitization and thus (again) measurability.

Workers in many industries today worry about robots taking their jobs. Paul Roehrig, Chief Strategy Officer, Cognizant, advises taking a pragmatic view of artificial intelligence.

After all, everything was supposed to be simpler and more understanding. In 2015, the motto of the Sapphire keynotes was "Run Simple" and "Make Digital Simple. In 2016 and 2017, SAP CEO Bill McDermott spoke of "Empathy" in Orlando.

An open letter: Dear Dr. Leukert, the SAP community and the E-3 editorial team have known you for many years as an innovative, technology-savvy executive. You have done and continue to do great things for SAP's existing customers. But your presentations no longer resonate. In short: We don't understand you!

A few years ago, I checked the authorization concept of a plant manufacturer with several thousand employees - and what did I find? The buyers of one plant could trigger payment runs in the other plants of the company.

Customers don't want to be inundated with stimuli, but want to be understood and inspired with emotional content that is relevant to them. Personalization is therefore no longer a trend, but a duty.

At SAP Cloud Platform, the DevOps model for application development and deployment is a fact. Linux plays just as important a role here as OpenStack and Cloud Foundry, and recently also the virtualization topic of containers.

Under the leadership of Bill McDermott, SAP is moving forward quickly. This obviously pleases Hasso Plattner. However, we existing customers are not always aware of the direction. Speed and real-time are replacing necessary directional decisions and strategies at SAP.

Requirements management with SolMan 7.2 enables the control of change management for innovations requested by the business departments in the company and thus forms an important interface between the business department and IT.

SAP is dismantling its own ecosystem because the executive board believes that partners and allies are no longer needed in a cloud-first world. The existing customer in the cloud is a source of money and no longer a friend and discussion partner.

Industry 4.0, as it is called by the Industry 4.0 platform jointly controlled by the Federal Ministry of Economics and the Federal Ministry of Research, dovetails production with state-of-the-art information and communication technology.

When Professor Hasso Plattner and former Chief Technology Officer Vishal Sikka presented the "revolutionary" Hana many years ago, the message was: no version numbers, eternal compatibility, never again release changes.

Industry 4.0 will only succeed if digital planning reflects the reality in production as accurately as possible and production control reacts quickly to deviations.

The Internet of Things, social media and the analysis of web traffic are generating ever greater volumes of data - Big Data par excellence. Solutions like Hadoop are predestined for this. How can performance be increased even further?

More and more companies are taking up the cause of machine learning, and intelligent machines are more than ever a topic of public discussion. Yet the concept of machine learning is fundamentally not new. So why the hype?

Time and again, we find that one of the main causes of overlicensing among our SAP customers is inadequate SAP user management. However, this is the basis for correct licensing because it can be used to determine the exact number of SAP users required in the landscape.

While cloud computing has gradually arrived in German SMEs, it is still not an issue for one in ten German companies. For them, Jan Leufgens has summarized the basic considerations when taking the step into the cloud.

No one can hold a candle to SAP when it comes to business software. When it comes to ERP, SAP is unmatched. Its S/7 and S/4 business processes are unbeatable. McDermott is leaving this virtuous path.

At regular intervals, we critically and constructively scrutinize our paper's line. With our numerous comments from members of the SAP scene, we are clearly number one: We are the opinion of the SAP community!

Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently a hot topic. However, opinions about it differ.

The recent decision in SAP UK v. Diageo Great Britain is just one of several software licensing disputes that major manufacturers are fighting out with their customers in court.

An idea becomes a nightmare. The Internet of Things is a good concept, but in real life it's a monster that's almost impossible to control. An internal conference of IT and production managers in our group revealed some astonishing facts.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently one of the top topics in IT. An amazing career for a term that has long been virulent, but in the past mostly led a shadowy existence in lecture halls or laboratories.

Many established companies face an innovation dilemma. They have to combine their proven business processes with innovative ideas and implement them quickly. How can they reconcile this with the old world? The solution is two-speed IT, or as Gartner calls it: bimodal IT.

Anyone following the flow of information on the current legal situation regarding the deletion and blocking of personal data will inevitably be led to the SAP ILM business function and the question of the feasibility of data protection aspects in SAP systems.

SAP has long been attuned to the networked factory and production units that communicate via the cloud. The SAP Manufacturing Suite solutions integrate the ERP landscape with production processes of the Industry 4.0 era.

With the Business Process Change Analyzer, SolMan provides a tool that sheds light on the relevant scope of testing. This paves the way towards "smart testing".

Many SAP customers operate extensive, complex SAP landscapes that have grown over the years and see Hana as an opportunity to catapult themselves into the future. But the change is also a strategic, organizational and technological break.

There are quite a number of existing SAP customers who have had little to do with open source up to now. But without knowing it, they are indirectly using Linux, OpenStack, or Cloud Foundry.

If you want, you can obtain Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) services, such as Hana in combination with Suse SLES for SAP Applications, from three public cloud industry heavyweights or cloud platforms: Amazon/AWS, Microsoft/Azure, and Google/GCP.

During his Sapphire keynote this year, Professor Hasso Plattner praised his CEO Bill McDermott for a run-simple campaign - but the praise was not convincing.

There will not be a DB "Hana" monoculture. Executives from the SAP community confirm: An AnyDB strategy is being evaluated. With diplomatic words, an SAP defeat is transfigured into a success for the community: DB freedom of choice for all!

And a summer party will not save the IT spectacle. It didn't have to come to this, but arrogance, ignorance and short-sightedness have prevented any positive development of the trade fair concept.

The English mathematician and logician Alan Turing (1912 to 1954) developed a test to evaluate whether the computer can simulate a thinking ability similar to or sufficient for humans.

Digital transformation is revolutionizing every aspect of business, from operational processes to customer engagement. Like so much else, purchasing is now digital. There is no way back.

In addition to the smart factory, smart intralogistics is considered a central building block for Industry 4.0. The development of "smart" internal logistics requires a holistic concept and competent advice.

SAP regularly expands the functional scope of its products, also with regard to security components. Staying "up to date" is essential here, as the fundamental security of SAP systems depends on it.

When it comes to IT attacks, the first question on outsiders' minds is who is to blame. People want to assign an attack to a perpetrator, at least in their minds.

The maintenance period for Solution Manager 7.1 (SolMan 7.1) ends this year. For companies that, like life science companies, have to meet special regulatory requirements, the end of maintenance and the changeover to the new version are special challenges.

Anyone who programs dynamic analytics applications wants to be able to use open source and commercial software non-dogmatically as needed. Software manufacturers and open source communities must enter into dialog.

SAP data centers are increasingly transforming into software-defined data centers. In addition to Linux, OpenStack, and Suse Manager, Suse is now working with partners to provide the Ceph-based SDS solution Suse Enterprise Storage for Hana deployment.

From SAP's point of view, charging a license and maintenance fee for indirect use is a sensible precaution. For partners and existing customers, however, it is an obligation that threatens their very existence.

Regardless of the disasters and mistakes with Hana and S/4, SAP is determined to now build a Hana monoculture after years of R/3 pluralism - SAP is cleaning up its act. While SAP's cloud program becomes more and more chaotic: Amazon, Google, Microsoft or SAP itself?

More and more companies are now realizing how important it is to license and manage software correctly. For some time now, the focus has been on indirect use - for SAP customers, this is the biggest risk factor in licensing.

Of course - everyone is moving to the cloud. Users because they are convinced of the benefits of outsourced infrastructure and applications or because they have been convinced by resourceful providers.

With regard to the digital transformation, many German companies are acting cautiously, according to a recent Lünendonk study. However, in order to remain competitive, the development of new business models is essential.

With the new EU GDPR, data protection has become a matter for the boss. As of May 2018, violations of this regulation will no longer be punished with a maximum fine of 300,000 euros, but with up to 20 million euros or four percent of global sales, whichever is higher. This is making CFOs and CIOs sit up and take notice.

With Hana, SAP has been relying on Linux as a server operating system for years in its development and thus on the most powerful system for high-performance database applications. These must be backed up in a powerful way.

Stupidly, SAP's existing customers can't wait. Real life does not stand still. SAP and some partners prefer to discuss visions instead of offering viable roadmaps.

SAP seems to be more and more addicted to new technology instead of focusing on real life.

SolMan 7.2 provides a fully comprehensive tool for management and, above all, for the transition in the direction of S/4. However, the advantages of the tool only become apparent in combination.

Voice control, sensors, the Internet of Things, and machine learning are fundamentally changing shopping behavior and creating a paradigm shift in digitally supported commerce.

It's more than a release upgrade, and SAP knows that about digital transformation. Nevertheless, with the latest ERP version and an in-memory computing database, it is trying to convince the SAP community that Hana, Fiori, Cloud and S/4 are sufficient.

Digital transformation brings new opportunities and tools to drive organizational and technical energy efficiency.

SolMan 7.2 has the blues and S/4 is not developing homogeneously. SAP's global markets are heterogeneous, making a consolidated product development and roadmap difficult. In Europe, S/4 business is tentatively starting, in the U.S. they are stuck with R/3 and fixing with cloud services, and in Asia many systems are not under maintenance. SAP has the blues.

Suse has played a decisive role in shaping Linux penetration in IT enterprise deployment. In the SAP environment in particular. This year, open source pioneer Suse celebrates its 25th anniversary. A look back and forward.

The recent ruling in favor of SAP in the legal dispute regarding indirect use has unsettled the global SAP community. This is one of the reasons why the creation of transparency with regard to the entire SAP infrastructure has become more important.

At the turn of the year, news came from the USA that journalism schools and non-profit institutions for communication and journalism were registering an increased volume of donations - what was interesting about this news was the fact that it was predominantly very many small donations and not, as in the past, a few large donations from altruistic millionaires. In certain areas of society...

Hasso Plattner saw it in California at Apple, Google, Amazon and Salesforce: Cloud computing is the future! Now his fear is that SAP will no longer exist in a few years unless Bill McDermott and Luka Mucic also push the ERP group in the direction of the "cloud".

The topic of mobility of business applications and improved user acceptance continues to be an exciting topic with potential in the SAP universe. Not least because many companies are still working with the familiar, but not very user-friendly interfaces.

SAP stops selling licenses for NetWeaver Foundation for Third Party Applications.

I have often called for long-term, verified and strategic SAP roadmaps here. The current minimal outlooks are neither complete nor useful. Panic turns into chaos: Because SAP no longer has a strategy, the Executive Board is reacting erratically.

There seems to be no way around Ariba or S/4 Hana in SAP-based purchasing. However, there are attractive alternatives for responding to the requirements of digitization in the short term.

Industrial companies that want to remain competitive in the digital age cannot avoid addressing this topic and Smart Factory.

With the Hana database, SAP has created a new dimension with regard to the security of SAP systems.

OpenStack is ready for use in large enterprises. Gone are the days when the open cloud architecture was only allowed to show its advantages in areas considered less business-critical, such as R&D or in test environments.

SAP cloud usage is continuously increasing. On the infrastructure side, Linux, OpenStack and Cloud Foundry play key roles in the SAP cloud architecture.

Is it fear of an impending danger, does Hasso Plattner know something we don't know yet? Or is it fear of an uncertain, indefinable ERP future?

In spring: The topic of mobility of business applications and improved user acceptance continues to be an exciting topic with potential in the SAP universe. SAP's answer to this is HTML5 applications that run in modern browsers and are created using the in-house toolbox SAPUI5.

SAP CEO Bill McDermott was in Davos, before that in Barcelona at the SAP Fkom, Field Kick-off Meeting. There was little sign of flexibility and responsibility there. The Davos topic could also have come from the DSAG user association. When will SAP start listening to its existing customers?

SAP CEO Bill McDermott was in Davos, before that in Barcelona at the SAP Fkom, Field Kick-off Meeting. There was little sign of flexibility and responsibility there. The Davos topic could also have come from the DSAG user association. When will SAP start listening to its existing customers?

Hackers make no distinction between general IT systems and SAP applications. Consequently, the issue of security must also be given greater consideration with regard to SAP software.

A real challenge for every license manager: Since SAP discovered indirect usage, third-party licenses and engine measurement as lucrative sources of revenue, it is no longer sufficient to classify only one's own users correctly.

The new year has begun with disastrous measurement results. A first IoT field test with hundreds of sensors has shown that SAP's Hana Cloud Platform is not prepared for Big Data. Cobbler, stick to your last!

Cyber criminals are increasingly using the darknet to conduct their criminal business in secret - often at the expense of established brands.

The digital structural change is leading to profound changes in industrial purchasing. The days of operational purchasing as an organizational unit are numbered. Procurement processes are largely automated - also via Ariba and S/4.

Unfortunately, I have to cite a terrible example today where poor data led to a disastrous outcome.

Looking back over the past year, one term comes to the forefront in the security environment: crypto-ransomware.

As part of the SolMan upgrade strategy, solution documentation is one of the biggest issues. Although the effort of a conversion is considerable, it is a good investment in the future.

OpenStack is different. That's illustrated by the example of how developers from four continents delivered an OpenStack capability for a trillion-dollar industry.

With SLES for SAP Applications 12, Suse opens another chapter in SAP Linux usage. New features optimize mission-critical SAP deployment.

A tragic loss for the SAP community, the E-3 team and especially for Brigitte Enzinger and me. We worked successfully with Robert Platzgummer (1975 to 2016) for fifteen years. All our sympathy goes to his mother and sister.

Artificial intelligence, neural networks and machine learning are being talked about everywhere - including at SAP in Walldorf and in mid-November at the SAP Executive Forum Select 2016 in Berlin. Now SAP is also jumping on the moving AI bandwagon and once again missing the future.

In recent weeks, the U.S. elections have been at the center of media attention. One of the much-discussed topics was the extent to which computer-generated posts had an influence on the election results. The parties campaigning for the election accused each other of doing just that.

Access to the Internet, information and entertainment, and constant exchange with friends wherever you are - this characterizes the generation of mobile natives who are growing up or have grown up with smartphones and tablets.

Don't let an upcoming license audit set or change your agenda. Follow the principles from lean management. Underlying Lean Management is the philosophy of adding value without waste. This is a fundamental idea that must be reflected in your company's licensing.

When the buzzword "game changer" was far from invented, the five SAP founders revolutionized the business IT world - that was definitely game-changing: completely without hardware, software and middleware! Today, a technical evolution is already a game changer - you do Hana a great injustice.

If you had asked the proverbial Aunt Emma in her store how she accompanies the customer journey of her customers, she would probably have shaken her head in amazement.

Our society is facing a radical upheaval and a change in work processes. Are artificial intelligence and robots on the rise?

Do you know this too? You stumble upon a topic, think it's science fiction - and one day realize that the future has long since become reality...

SAP has been increasingly opening up to the open source world lately. As the number of open source projects in development continues to grow, it is becoming more and more interesting for the SAP community to know how open source talent is doing.

4,000 customers and 500 SAP partners are already using the Hana Cloud Platform (HCP). The basis here is Linux, OpenStack (IaaS) and Cloud Foundry (PaaS). Suse underpins the HCP strategy with the OpenStack cloud solution in the new version 7.

Data transmission can take place in various ways. In the course of human history, countless variants have been tried out. In most cases, the new transmission techniques were better than the previous ones. SAP takes the opposite approach.

Do you know this too? You stumble upon a topic, think it's science fiction - and one day realize that the future has long since become reality...

As part of the maintenance strategy, I am repeatedly asked how companies should design and plan the changeover to Solution Manager 7.2.

There are two sides to the SAP dilemma: The Sapphire and DSAG keynotes state that Ariba, SuccessFactors and Hybris are now Hana-based. In IT practice, the data transfer from ERP/ECC to Ariba is done by CSV file via NetWeaver PI.

Misspelling a person's name is undoubtedly a bad habit. At least one person will notice this act of disrespect. But what about company and product names? SAP's in-memory computing database Hana is a good example and topic of conversation in almost every issue of E-3 Magazine.

Today, no one can avoid digital transformation. SAP itself wants to make companies fit for the change by using the Hana platform. Analogously, however, a transition or change has also been taking place at another level for many years.

In the past, SAP surveys consisted of rather arbitrary distributions of license inventories to the best of our knowledge. Detailed classifications according to authorizations or actual usage behavior were never required.

Those familiar with the Hana scene know what is meant by this: a scandal and political failure on the part of SAP. While Suse Linux is storming ahead, Red Hat remains in agony. The losers are primarily SAP's existing customers outside Europe.

The need to use many channels in retail is not new. However, driven by technological innovations, the urgency and thus speed of the development of new sales channels is breathtaking.

The upheaval caused by digitization is triggering a transformation in technology and, above all, in all areas of life. Are we, the service providers, geared up for this?

Whether touted as the "Holy Grail," the "Egg-Laying Wooly Pig" or the "Silver Bullet: Every year, new technologies are presented at IT security trade fairs that supposedly solve all security problems better and more cost-effectively than anything before.

The majority of German companies have open source technologies on their agenda, especially when it comes to cloud infrastructures. Crisp Research surveyed corporate decision-makers on cloud, OpenStack and open source.

The Hana Cloud Platform (HCP) is moving more and more into the spotlight. Linux, OpenStack (IaaS), Cloud Foundry (PaaS) and also Hadoop play a weighty role in the HCP. SAP and Suse ensure the connectivity of PaaS and IaaS.

Some will still remember: Sometimes there were music stars in the Bravo magazines to collect and cut out. The result was a life-size poster with his idol.

If SAP has its way, it will be part of international AI research and development. SAP sponsors AI conferences and gives keynotes. But it confuses AI with intelligent systems. Complex mathematical and statistical formulas from Hana PAL are not AI.

What is indirect use? Which licenses should one buy? With the change of the description for SAP NetWeaver Foundation for Third Party Applications in the Price and Conditions List (PKL) 2016/2, the confusion has increased.

SAP is more innovative than ever, but this fact hardly makes life easier for SAP's existing customers. Following SAP's ideas, visions and roadmaps is difficult or even impossible. Bimodal thus takes on a new meaning: SAP storms ahead, the existing customer is left behind in amazement.

With Hybris Marketing Cloud, SAP supports marketing automation to respond individually and in real time to customer interactions.

SMEs are still lagging behind when it comes to digitization. Are the specifications for decision-makers not precisely described in order to make decisions?

Hardly any security technology has accompanied us as long as the password. Over the decades, there have always been optimizations, but the basic principle has remained the same.

The switch to Hana is becoming increasingly important. IT managers should think carefully about where to start with their project.

Linux turns 25, Suse congratulates. For 24 years, the chameleon has been driving Linux forward; 16 years ago, Suse was the first to carry Linux into the corporate world. A look back at Linux labs and the first time in the mainstream.

IT managers cannot avoid using cluster management software to secure Hana High Availability (HA). The automation provided increases SLAs, and also simplifies cluster usage in general.

SAP promises a golden age for everyone. Naturally, everyone is dazzled and, as in "The Love of Danae," Professor Hasso Plattner initially had a good chance.

The success and knowledge of the German-speaking SAP community is undisputed and logical. In a typically European, holistic approach, SAP's ERP was born.

Industry 4.0 and the digital transformation make it possible. The rapid development of digital corporate processes and new business models is sparking a discussion about the new world of work.

And yet another E-3 market companion has passed away. The name doesn't matter because it's in a long line. More important than the "who?" is the "why?". Why do media die?

The implementation of business intelligence solutions at SAP user companies has kept me busy for over ten years now. In the last year in particular, there has been a massive interest among these companies for comprehensive Microsoft business intelligence solutions. I have observed this kind of "looking beyond the SAP plate" in this group of users a few times in the past.

Users of the SuccessFactors HCM platform would have been happy to have a secondary provider in the first half of the year. The SuccessFactors Cloud was unavailable at times. What is a standard for hardware and services in our Group could soon also apply to software.

For the company's organization, the implementation of Industrie 4.0 means realigning and reshaping a large number of different fields of action.

When developing an online store, operators often face a kind of chicken-and-egg problem: What should come first? The infrastructure or the content?

Of course, the hype topic "Big Data" does not stop at IT security. Insiders are also surprised at the number of start-ups that have appeared on the market in the past three years with solutions for "Big Data-based Threat Detection".

The cluster option of Change Request Management offers many advantages - IT managers should nevertheless know what they are getting into.

The hype around the open source solution OpenStack continues unabated. This July, OpenStack celebrated its sixth birthday.

Is it possible that the entire IT system comes to a standstill when security patches are applied and that important business-critical applications cannot be used for a while? A plea for the use of new patching concepts.

There are always two sides. When two argue, there are sometimes three opinions. So is SAP Business Suite 7 a legacy, a mature product, or a wealth of experience?

There is always room for improvement, and working with SAP software is always subject to a learning curve. Were the many modifications really necessary?

The fear of security breaches and data leaks is causing more and more IT managers sleepless nights. Sensitive company data must be protected by means of sophisticated authorization concepts.

Let's forget all the marketing and the fine words of the Sapphire keynotes: S/4 Finance and S/4 Logistics are add-ons - similar to the well-known Enhancement Packages (EhP) - for SAP Business Suite 7 on Hana (SoH). You can get started quickly with them, but you can't live with them sustainably.

We still make a print magazine - for over fifteen years. Because our success proves us right, it is our core competence, and the SAP community waits monthly for our information and education work.

The new EU data protection regulations are due to come into force in spring 2018. Companies of all sizes that store and process data now have just one and a half years to implement the data security requirements and the extensive accountability obligations.

The figures speak for themselves: in Germany and worldwide, less software was used unlicensed last year than ever before.

Cloud computing may be simple, stringent and straightforward when it comes to e-mail or storage. It becomes more complex in the Hana Enterprise Cloud when SAP wants to take over the licenses of the existing customer and offers an all-round carefree package in return. Without a cloud exit strategy, nothing works anymore!

SAP keeps causing confusion in the Hybris community with new terms. What is the reason for this and what is the strategy behind it?

Does Industry 4.0 destroy jobs or do the new challenges present new perspectives for companies and employees?

Do you know this too? Your predictions come true and you still can't be happy? In this specific case, it's about smart TVs.

Cybercrime is booming. The current attacks, in which data is encrypted using the encryption Trojans "Locky," "Jigsaw" or "Petya" and only released again for a ransom, have reached a new level.

A DSAG study has revealed that digital transformation is an absolute top priority for the majority of SAP customers. For good reasons, open source solutions - and Linux in particular - play an important role in digitization projects.

That can't have been it! Idea, vision, concept - excellent, but the execution and implementation is poor. S/4 is a viable vision, but not an operationally usable ERP.

In the past, many IT managers were concerned with managing their changes. The next stage is the topic of cost and activity allocation.

The OpenStack initiatives clearly show: SAP is specifically focusing on open source and thus accelerating its own innovation speed. SAP customers should now take a closer look at OpenStack.

Who knows exactly which add-on or supplementary solutions for Hana deployment are available from whom and what they offer? Suse Connect can help.

SAP is a monster. Not only does it want to be fed with new licenses, it also takes users' data hostage. Indirect use" hides the data GAU for SAP's existing customers - but Theseus has slain the Minotaur.

Who can do it better and faster? The big eat the small. The fast overtake the slow. That's the Old Economy, in which SAP is still stuck - and so are other European corporations. For the New Economy - as exemplified by Google - there is no definition yet, yet the success is obvious.

The SAP community is being shaken by disruptive innovations. The quake is called digital transformation. Hardly anyone knows in which direction it is heading, yet everyone wants to be the first.

The company is taking giant steps and moving very purposefully in the direction of Hana and S/4. This impression was confirmed once again at Sapphire, which took place in Orlando in mid-May 2016. Hasso Plattner personally emphasized that SAP Business Suite will of course be further developed.

SAP license management does not start with the signing of the contract with SAP, but already with the planning of the contract content and the design.

Purchased software is an ugly word - "on premise" and "licenses" sound much more intellectual. In the end, however, only "purchased software" will save us from ruin. And some fellow humans are also stocking up on gold again.

Industry 4.0 is one of the most important topics in the German economy. CIOs can benefit greatly from the conversion of industrial production to completely digitized and interconnected manufacturing processes.

By acquiring the B2B online network Ariba, SAP has opened a door between the digital networking of sales and procurement processes.

Are we really facing a massive upheaval? Will digitization help us to remain competitive? Do integrated production and logistics processes increase our flexibility and do we still remain individual?

With the summer, the summer flu season is also just around the corner and with it the vaccination discussion. We are also seeing a similar development in the IT sector.

When we talk about e-commerce, we almost inevitably think of the established B2C platforms of Amazon, Kaufhof or Otto. With SAP Hybris and Sana Commerce, online commerce is reaching its next evolutionary stage.

For the company's organization, the implementation of Industrie 4.0 means realigning and reshaping a large number of different fields of action.

Two security vulnerabilities in Apple's QuickTime for Windows were published in mid-April. They were discovered already at the end of 2015, but because they were not announced, Apple had time to react. What was called "announce" here has consequences...

With version 7.2, ChaRM release management has been comprehensively expanded and renovated. But with new techniques, the challenges also lie in the organization.

Trust in open source software (OSS) has increased significantly. In the past, the low range of functions and license uncertainties spoke against its use, but today open source meets proprietary systems on an equal footing.

One question always comes up during discussions: What concrete support is offered for Hana deployment in terms of simplified operations? The answer: plenty from the Linux side.

What analysts predict for the IT scene is tradition for the SAP community. Schizophrenic thinking is an ERP survival strategy for the existing SAP customer.

In recent years, users and administrators of database systems have been repeatedly confronted with a new technology called "in-memory".

SAP licensing presents those responsible with a variety of challenges. Compliance aspects are just as relevant as economic efficiency.

You could also call it Mega Data, which is coming with IoT and Industry 4.0. Unfortunately, SAP only has Hana and S/4 in mind - the Hadoop interface Vora falls short. We existing customers need more open and comprehensive solutions - or a new IoT partner.

By its very nature, SAP is a European company. Most of the procedures, rules and algorithms of SAP's finance and controlling up to S/4 Finance were invented and developed in Europe.

It's been a nearly three-year discourse on whether Hana is a disruptive innovation. Probably not. What is certain is that SAP's current business model makes shareholders happy, but that SAP's actions are causing lasting damage to the community.

The topic is old and known as both AI (artificial intelligence) and AI (artificial intelligence). The terms are as familiar to computer scientists as they are incorrect.

In the SAP community, at least in the critical section, it is almost good manners to rant about S/4 Hana and the company's product and communication policy. We don't want to go down the same road here - despite all the criticism, which is certainly justified - but some developments do give pause for thought.

SAP has always left it up to customers to allocate SAP user licenses manually in accordance with the agreement (contract). Vague descriptions of what an SAP user may and may not do with a license type do not make the allocation any easier.

Two unequal opponents? Are apples and oranges being compared here? No! Numerous conversations in and around Walldorf have shown me how fierce the battle for the IT stack below the ERP layer is. Open source, hyperconvergent technology and cloud bring disruption.

Inefficient processes prevent a consistent brand message in omnichannel management. The remedy is automation by means of digital asset management.

Organizational challenge in the product development process - or how do I keep the life cycle of a product sustainable for the company.

They have dominated the headlines in recent weeks: Attacks with malware actually forced hospitals in Germany to partially shut down operations in some departments. So far, so bad. But what really happened?

There are still many IT departments that manage their SAP transports manually. A ChaRM implementation makes more than sense here, but should also be planned and coordinated.

The upheavals in the storage market are strongly driven by open source. Users can benefit if they know the rules of the game.

In order to make the use of Hana worthwhile, it is evident that a constantly high performance is provided. Those who rely on Suse receive performance-enhancing features free of charge.

After assisted living, there is now assisted driving - see the new Mercedes E-Class - and soon there will be assisted ERP from Walldorf. Then SAP can finally patronize or rationalize away the annoying and recalcitrant existing customers.

For many years, SAP was an honest partner and friend to existing customers. The well-known, global SAP community was born. Perhaps it was too good to be true. Now SAP has a new strategy: exclusion, autocracy and profit maximization.

I rarely make anagrams. Here it fits: Open source software - OSS - and the Linux of cloud computing - OpenStack, OST - are developing into a successful future - and are highly significant for SAP.

At 9,000 euros, the existing SAP customer is on board when the time comes to start the S/4 release change. What awaits users, however, is unfortunately completely uncertain. Because S/4 Hana is not an R/3 successor!

The first sentence in Spiegel's house memo No. 7/2016 reads: "Journalists are used to being criticized for their work." The previous Spiegel issue was titled "The Hate Preachers," and by its own account, there has rarely been so much anger and distrust from readers. People set out to understand the rejection.

Energy supply companies (EVU) can already migrate their IS-U to Hana. This brings added value and, above all, they are well prepared for SAP's next steps. But why is this hardly known?

Indirect use is the current bugbear of all existing SAP customers. Is there a threat of huge re-licensing? Naturally not, because nothing is as hot as it seems. Proof is lacking - according to the DSAG user association.

What was considered impossible for a long time is now commonplace. The maintenance fee can be reduced through negotiations with SAP. The Axel Susen trick is applied, this time with the Rimini Street lever. Or one does without maintenance - then there are also no problems with indirect use.

Together, e-commerce and SAP make the opportunities of digitization usable. Close integration of e-commerce, ERP, and CRM reveals correlations in customer behavior and enables systematic evaluation of mass data.

The digital revolution is bringing about a paradigm shift and changing the processes of future production, thus also determining buyer behavior.

In Germany, we pride ourselves on our caution; disparagingly also called "German Angst". Take cloud computing, for example: some companies see the "private cloud" in their own data center as the only way forward - despite possible economies of scale.

SAP is currently promoting version 7.2 with the slogan "the best Solution Manager". Much has changed and the scope has certainly become more consistent and more integrated. However, this is precisely what is likely to cause problems for various IT managers.

With Hana, two questions are at the top of the agenda for IT infrastructure and operations managers: How can downtimes be minimized and how can optimal high-availability and disaster recovery scenarios be mapped in Hana deployments?

What is S/4? What is Hana? SAP says: a revolutionary ERP combination. The SAP customer knows: S/4 only runs with the Hana database. SAP marketing claims: anything is possible!

A year ago at the SAP Fkom in Barcelona (Field Kick-off Meeting), they tried to save what can be saved, because S/4 and HEC are pipe creapers in Europe.

A large proportion of German companies see digitization as an opportunity. A dynamic data center is the key to success: With a Software Defined Data Center and DevOps, IT becomes the driver of innovation.

SAP Platform as a Service (PaaS) usage based on HCP (Hana Cloud Platform) is growing vehemently. As members of the Cloud Foundry Foundation, SAP and Suse are jointly pushing the coupling of PaaS and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service).

Things went very badly for SAP in 2015, and Supervisory Board Chairman Professor Hasso Plattner still had to justify his S/4 and Hana in the last days of the old year.

Digitization is taking hold. Seven years ago, there was no Apple App Store. Today, there are more than 1.4 million iOS apps that have been downloaded more than a hundred billion times. Ten years ago, today's popular e-readers were just an idea and bookstores feared the worst. Today, in seconds, we can find the...

Uncertain economic and political developments as well as constantly changing framework conditions make the work of strategy departments increasingly complex.

SAP has by far the largest installed base in the mechanical and plant engineering sector. The new SAP S/4 Hana poses considerable challenges for both users and medium-sized system houses.

Only if you can prove your point of view with objective information vis-à-vis automated system measurement, the annual SAP license audit will not be a case for risk management, but a real opportunity.

The succession of Gerd Oswald by Michael Kleinemeier holds and is thus solved in the best possible way. The start of the year is about more painful things. The SAP document Simplification List for S/4 states unequivocally that new license fees are due. S/4 is not a successor to ERP/ECC 6.0.

The digital factory - people - processes - workflows. Simulations and automation of manufacturing processes and workflows minimize business risk in medium-sized companies and make a lasting contribution to efficient management.

"IS has its own encrypted WhatsApp" - that's how headlines read recently. After events like those in Paris, politicians are always quick to brand encryption as the devil's stuff and to want to provide it with "backdoors".

A small step for SAP, perhaps a major disaster for existing customers. Those who modified their SAP system currently face three challenges: Security, NetWeaver Foundation for Third Party and CDS with Abap-managed Database Procedures.

It is in line with the spirit of the times that classic journalism is confronted with Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Put simply: on the one hand, there are personal conversations, meetings, travel, congresses, discussions; on the other, it's all about clicks, page impressions, big data, digital lead generation.

At the moment, society and business are particularly preoccupied with the topic of migration and refugees. And there's no question about it: It's a challenge. But it can be overcome if everyone does their part - including companies.

SAP license audits not only entail additional costs for the company, but also legal infringements and risks for the company's own data and IT systems. SAP licensees should therefore be aware of their rights and exercise them in a targeted manner.

Our planning and budget discussions are complete. Time to prepare for 2016. It's time to take stock and classify the digital transformation process, because we are threatened by the DEC virus. The dying of the dinosaurs is starting again - also due to OpenStack and Cloud Foundry.

Will digitization make people superfluous? New occupational fields will emerge, and developments will not stop at taboo subjects such as standard working hours, home office and shift models.

Colloquially, the Solution Manager is also known as the Swiss Army Knife. Even if there is much that can be argued about, it has long been clear to IT managers that the pocket knife is not a money-saving expense, but a really thick one. The sensible use of the disciplines should be well-considered.

SAP has created facts about Linux internally. The company relies on the Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) operating system platform for the provision of server workloads in its data centers. Hana Enterprise Cloud Service included.

Since the moment SAP tried to position the Hana database in the IT market, the term "data mining" has taken on a new meaning - Walldorf has a mission: fast data solution seeks complex data problem.

No crystal ball is needed in the SAP community. The 2025 deadline will not be met, as all existing customers know by now. Hana and S/4 or SoH are not a technical release change. Z-functions have to be sorted out and employees trained. That takes time!

What was forbidden in school should not be tried again in professional life. SAP prohibits any kind of copying and reading of other people's data. The issue is indirect use.

Even though ITIL is long past its hype, there are still many companies that either do not yet have a service desk in place or whose service desk is outdated and no longer used. The Service Desk in Solution Manager is a valid and powerful alternative.

The new SAP generation is here. Simplicity and Hana seem to be turning the IT market upside down, even though the new dimension has just started with S/4 Hana Finance. This is how G.I.B developers are preparing for S/4 Hana Logistics.

Hana on IBM Power8-based servers together with the Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP Applications platform can now be used by SAP customers - which not only means greater Hana infrastructure freedom of choice.

It is a complex relationship and offers plenty of material for rumors, misunderstandings and errors. Those involved: SAP, the community including DSAG e. V. and E-3 Magazine.

If you want to get from A to B in IT, you have to be careful not to be swept away by the "digital tsunami". The challenge of digital transformation is lurking everywhere. Gaps and fractures have appeared in the organizational structure and processes. The CIO is supposed to put things right. But digital transformation processes are more about DP/Org than IT.

Hana has many parents. Numerous database engines come together to form a respectable overall concept. This conglomerate of good ideas, own and purchased software was and is not always easy to master.

Anyone can print or generate other output - or so you think. Printing from the SAP system is also possible without an external output management system (OMS). So why go to the extra effort of running SAP output through an external OMS?

Once a decision has been made on the basic design of an SAP IT infrastructure landscape, changes are in fact only made on a small scale. In the "design and setup" of Hana, IT managers are now in a position to use various options.

I am often asked in consulting that Change Request Management in SolMan should initially be used as standard. When IT managers consider the consequences for their IT processes, a wish list of customer-specific enhancements quickly emerges.

Everything is better with Hana. But what happens to the previous applications? What about the add-ons? The Z programs? Will everything have to be reprogrammed? "No," says Florian Lenz, Head of Departement Forecast at G.I.B.

Poor data quality jeopardizes the smooth running of business processes. It leads to delayed or lost sales, high direct and indirect costs, and damages the company's image - in plain language: poor data quality reduces the company's success.

There is a lot of legal dynamite in the SAP license terms - we not only hear this from our clients, but have experienced it in practice for years. Many topics are not flash in the pan, but constantly develop new facets over the years.

This is not a new chemical formula from Walldorf, but an abbreviation I created for Suite on Hana (SoH) and Hana on Power (HoP). Naturally, there is no such thing officially. But our interns got it up and running this summer. But it's not just Intel that's getting squeezed, VMware is also under pressure.

Faster-than-light spaceships and fighting elves, preferably in surround sound - plus chips and a cold beer. The evening is saved. There's nothing wrong with that. It becomes problematic when the line between fiction and reality blurs.

When we think of the Internet of Things, many people think of hip objects such as smartwatches, fitness trackers or cars with WLAN. Basically, however, it can mean any device with which you can communicate electronically. This also includes weapons.

I am committed to tradition, so after clearing out the basement and attic - as ordered by my wife every year - the reward was the legendary CIO barbecue in our backyard, which this time became a real Empire of the Geeks!

Cybernetics: The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. SAP seems to have recognized this wisdom for its own licensing model. Accordingly, it will be expensive. The "Professional User" is the goal.

From well-informed and very reliable sources, E-3 Magazine has obtained a recording of an appearance by SAP CEO Bill McDermott. The guest was Edmund Stoiber from Bavaria, who was delighted.

In many companies that have opted for SAP, redundant or unused licenses accumulate over the years. How can transparency be created here, even though SAP does not provide suitable tools?

The digital transformation must be mastered in order not to miss the global connection. Faster data transmission would only be a short-term solution. More important is the fundamental expansion of telecommunications networks.

I forgot, what was I going to write here? Something about SAP. Well, the right to be forgotten has been demanded on the web and Google is trying to abide by it - others are shamelessly exploiting it. Was it SAP?

The German government has declared Industry 4.0 a top priority. In close cooperation with industry, it is pursuing the noble goal of combining the art of engineering "Made in Germany" with IT expertise in order to remain a strong economic nation.

The topic of security is firmly anchored within Hana Datacenter Readiness. As an OS supplier, Suse provides sophisticated protection against attacks and threats during Hana deployment.

We have too! We even have several Chief Digital Officers (CDO) around the world, but they worry about digital use and business cases, not whether one of our suppliers or customers gets billed with a credit card transaction. At SAP, once again, everything is different.

Time and again, I see IT managers associate Solution Manager exclusively with technology when it comes to monitoring. It goes without saying that SolMan has the edge over other tools in this area. It can shine in this domain and relieve SAP Basis departments in particular with automatic monitoring.

How can license measurement be handled cleanly and prepared professionally without bending license conditions? How high can the toll on the gray zone be? How do you pay only for what is used?

With the Fiori design concept, SAP is trying to bridge the gap between private Internet use, for example online shopping, and business IT.

The Internet of Things will not only promote the automatic control of connected machines. New occupational fields, such as that of cyber security officer, require new qualifications. This also requires the support of state and private institutions for education and training.

A Chief Digital Officer should have better things to do than to promote CRM licenses from the cloud for a few dollars - that's what happened at SAP's in-house trade fair Sapphire in Orlando this year. To sum up: SAP is once again producing spectacular software, but hasn't understood much about real life.

Paid Media is the well-known and successful form of paid advertising. This form of advertising is not only successful, but also transparent and fair. There is a clear line between independent reporting and informative advertising by companies for their products and services.

Does honest really last longest? As a child, this question was still easy to answer, but even as a teenager, some people sometimes resorted to white lies. Even at work, the definition of "right" can fluctuate: According to a study, one in five IT security managers has already experienced situations in which the companies affected by data leaks covered up the incident.

Administration, management and control of IT landscapes and individual components have always been part of system or enterprise management. Mounting or administration is firmly anchored in the Hana Data Center Readiness topic stack. A focus on this from the OS infrastructure perspective.

Object-oriented programming is modern and there is no alternative for the growing demand for mobility. Now the experienced Abap trainer Alexander Maetzing has spoken on the subject of Abap Objects, about future viability, advantages and how to learn the new language easily and effectively.

Object-oriented programming is modern and there is no alternative for the growing demand for mobility. Now the experienced Abap trainer Alexander Maetzing has spoken on the subject of Abap Objects, about future viability, advantages and how to learn the new language easily and effectively.

The digital transformation will permanently change industrial manufacturing and the associated processes in logistics and intralogistics - Industry 4.0.

How do German SMEs manage their IT licenses? What opportunities does professional license management offer? And which trend should companies not miss?

The advantage of an R/3 is, among other things, the freedom to choose the server, operating system and database. Anyone who has mastered combinatorics knows immediately that this results in countless system variants. No easy problem for the support team in Walldorf.

Industry 4.0 is slowly finding its place in the internal discussions of companies. What should the solutions look like and how can they be integrated into existing systems? The advantage currently lies with those who can act more quickly and purposefully without the ballast of grown IT architectures.

What would the world be without inventions? Innovations such as a revolutionary payment app or a toilet with smartphone control are supposed to make our lives easier. In the digital silent toilet, however, control was via Bluetooth protocol with a stored fixed PIN - an easy game for hackers! What if it was an insulin pump worn on the body?

Anyone who tests is a coward, I heard again from a customer just last week. In this context, we wanted to define a test concept for a major requirement of a department. Normally, IT departments are only concerned with the topic of test management during SAP release changes or, in particular, enhancement package upgrades.

Naturally, disaster was programmed: Sapviertel (S/4Hana) is a disruptive technology that hides behind a barrier called Compatibility View. For the users, appearances are to be kept.

From the SAP community for the SAP community. Orientation for us! From the monolithic R/3, a successful ERP landscape has emerged that encompasses everything from on-premise to cloud computing to on-demand and from social media to e-commerce to Business Suite.a

Digitization is changing our world. The Internet and modern technologies are shaping private life and, above all, the business world.

The end of the year should end on a conciliatory note. Time to tidy up the desk. Perhaps also to take stock of the year. We held a workshop with analysts from Gartner to review our SAP licenses. Looking back, amazing things happened in the community.

Life is change. Of course, double-entry bookkeeping was invented in Italy. Standard business software was first developed in Germany by SAP and Nixdorf. But the USA has more Nobel Prize winners in economics.

The recently released SLES 11 SP 3 for SAP Applications provides users with a number of innovations - including Hana-centric features. The following is an overview of the most important new Linux operating system platform features.

When looking for a personal application scenario or business case for the use of big data, there is a danger that companies will hastily shelve the topic for themselves. This is because social media is usually cited as the first source of data for big data analyses, and many do not see any added value in this data source. But there are numerous other...

Enterprise computing without open source is like a fish without water. In SAP deployment, Linux has established itself as the operating system platform. And as a cloud platform, Openstack is considered mainstream. But what is Openstack all about? Why is Suse pushing the spread of Openstack for enterprise computing? And: How does Openstack relate to SAP?