Final expansion 2020
Desperation makes itself felt in the SAP-community is broad: Tasks from the areas of digital transformation and IoT need to be solved and implemented - but there are no standardized answers.
For every problem conjures SAP a new reference customer out of the hat. These examples are technologically highly remarkable - but they are not sustainable! Their singularity prevents broad adaptation.
At SAP is surprised that business with Hana and S/4 as well as Cloud (HEC and HCP) is not picking up due to the numerous references, use cases, business cases and PoCs (proofs of concept).
Among existing customers, one is surprised that from SAP no sustainable answers, instructions for action and generally applicable tips and tricks come.
Accordingly, "enabling" the digital transformation is not as easy as inventing spectacular reference stories.
What is missing from the digital transformation with its current manifestations such as IoT and Industry 4.0 is the scientific underpinning.
There is a lack of a resilient foundation, a theoretical, generic model on which to base practical solutions.
In R&D (Research and Development), research was criminally neglected, and instead new, singular use cases and business cases were developed - and another cloud, and another cloud, and so on.
Who knows all SAP-own clouds and the clouds created in cooperation with partners such as Siemens, Bosch etc. have arisen? The number of cloud construction sites must be enormous - in any case for a SAP-The number of existing customers is unmanageable.
Pure chaos
But also away from the SAPThere is a great deal of chaos in cloud computing. The numerous acquisitions are far from being digested.
The HR/HCM solution SuccessFactors is being sold with great aggressiveness, resulting in moderate success, but by no means implying technical stability of the HR/HCM cloud.
The first half of the year was characterized by significant outages and disruptions.
Who ERP and Hybris will find sufficient technical interfaces, but hardly any robust business cases:
- New customers are created where?
- Is hubris or ERP/ECC 6.0 the leading system?
- How, when and where does a Data reconciliation?
The existing customer has to solve all these business and organizational issues for himself again and again.
The well-known manufacturer of a business management, holistic standard solution from Walldorf (see R/2, R/3 and ERP/ECC 6.0) currently has no answers to this.
Exemplary for the numerous open questions and construction sites in the SAP-World Empire is the interface between ERP/ECC 6.0 and Ariba.
From ERP to the global trading platform in the cloud is only possible by means of CSV-file. In order for this data transfer to be GRC-compatible, it must be executed as specified by SAP via NetWeaver PI (Process Integration) can be handled.
When using a CSV-file gets the word "integration" for the SAP-The new concept has taken on a whole new meaning for existing customers.
At the beginning of this year, Ariba CEO Alexander Atzberger was said by the German Manager Magazin to have a real chance and great ambitions to become a major player in the SAP-Board of Management.
At the moment, things look quite different: At this year's Ariba in-house exhibition in Las Vegas, USA, Alexander Atzberger tried to showcase his on-premise and SaaS-yes, there is an on-premise interface between SAP and Ariba, but it is not being developed; yes, they are trying to design a cloud interface similar to the one between SAP and SuccessFactors.
Software developer from Germanywho made desperate approaches to Ariba were told that an "intelligent" interface is planned, but is still an extremely low priority at the moment.
It would be interesting to see how SAP Ariba President Atzberger would describe this construction site before the SAP-board of directors justifies.
One piece of the puzzle after the other
But Alexander Atzberger of Ariba won't have much to worry about, because even at SAP himself, Chief Technology Officer Bernd Leukert with S/4 a permanent construction site that is expected to exist until 2020.
Moments become in small steps S/4 Finance and S/4 Logistics, supplemented by necessary infrastructure packages such as S4Core.
One of this year's participants of the DSAG-He said it reminded him of his youth, when he used to collect Bravo silhouettes and it took an eternity until the finished poster finally hung on the wall.
The SAP-Existing customers will have to familiarize themselves with the new ERP S/4 not only be patient, but in between time and again crashes due to the instability of S/4 and Hana - there was also an opportunity to discuss this in Nuremberg at the DSAG a harrowing talk from a Swiss S/4 Finance user.
The community agrees that SAP currently has many and good ideas, that the direction is roughly right, but obviously the ERP-The Group is overstretched when it comes to doing its homework.
A removal of all construction sites and a S/4-final expansion are currently promised for 2020, but for many SAP-Waiting is not an option for existing Option.
