Core Strengths
IT technology versus business administration
Computer science, with its various manifestations from digital technology to quantum computing, is the basis of a unique technical revolution. However, the added value lies not in current technology, but rather in the content. The added value is found in the business management processes. Naturally, one also requires the other. A company balance sheet can only be retrieved weekly, monthly, and quarterly at the push of a button because of the available computer power.
However, while computer science is still a young science, the origins of accounting can be traced back to the inventions of the Venetian monk Luca Pacioli, among others, from 1494. Today's predominant system of double-entry accounting, or Doppik, was developed in Italy in the Middle Ages and has been in use largely unchanged since then.
Booster in computer science
Whereas in past centuries balance sheet preparation was a laborious task, computer technology is changing almost everything. Balance sheets can now be prepared at almost any time, and this naturally changes the way business is managed. Information technology is thus very much an accelerator of business management processes, and under no circumstances should the advances in technology be neglected. Should SAP therefore become a technology group? Or must cloud computing be left to the hyperscalers?
Hybrid ERP
SAP CEO Christian Klein relies heavily on information technology and is trying to establish cloud computing as the ultimate answer. But he is also well aware of SAP's shortcomings and is initiating numerous technology partnerships with Google, IBM, Microsoft, as well as startups, among others.
From the perspective of SAP's customers, a focus on business aspects would be beneficial because this is still SAP's core strength. Cloud computing, AI, machine learning, blockchain, IoT, and in-memory computing database can easily be bought elsewhere for most users. No one needs the ERP world market leader for these things, so Christian Klein's push for the cloud seems to be largely a contradiction to SAP's history.
