Innovation versus secrecy

Naturally, SAP also has a research budget and bright minds who are thinking about the future of ERP. However, the company remains silent about what is happening in SAP's IT labs. A doubly disastrous development: without news about future products, the global ERP market leader is losing its fascination and visibility. But because SAP does not reveal any secrets, there is also a lack of discourse about future ERP trends. To put it simply: the SAP community and SAP itself are keeping quiet and treading water.

Malicious or knowledgeable voices in the SAP community believe that SAP has many development departments but no research department. There are therefore many applications for product adaptations and improvements, but no department for crazy experiments and open-ended trials. The further development of existing products is consistently planned at SAP: There is a defined workflow for members of the German-speaking SAP User Group (DSAG e. V.) to submit defects and new functions to and for existing products. As a rule, these development requests are first discussed and reviewed in the DSAG committees and then passed on to SAP. This process is well established between DSAG and SAP.

Outside the DSAG SAP world, it is difficult to influence ERP product development. Many existing customers and partners are trying their hand at in-house developments based on SAP Abap. CAP (SAP Cloud Application Programming), RAP (RESTful Application Programming) and Steampunk (including Embedded Abap) will open up new possibilities in the coming years. The E3 magazine is organizing the Steampunk and BTP Summit on March 5 and 6, 2025 in Heidelberg. A new ecosystem for ERP modifications could emerge around the Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), allowing users to take ERP innovation into their own hands.

SAP does not want to give up ERP add-ons and ERP modifications. An extensive partner program is to become a platform for modifications and enhancements in the future, which could be both a sales area and a control instrument. It is still uncertain to what extent SAP partners are prepared to share their findings with SAP when it comes to their own innovations. Because SAP itself is not very communicative, a stalemate could soon arise.

A look outside the box shows that other industries are more open and communicative when it comes to innovation and new developments. Lotus, for example, recently presented a car study and at the same time announced that this sports car will definitely never exist in this configuration. It is intended as a think tank, an object for demonstration and an aid to discourse on possible forms of mobility. In the SAP community, there is no known ERP model beyond S/4 that partners and existing customers could discuss. The platform for an ERP discourse on the future is missing.

The example of the Lotus sports car clearly shows how important a broad discourse with the public can be. Secrecy seems counterproductive, as many suggestions and further ideas from a community are lost.