May 2017: SolMan & Sapphire at last!

It took a long time for SPS 5 to see the light of day in the SAP community - too late for many!

SAP has once again shown that great programmers are at work, but management is oblivious to the needs, roadmaps, and scale of its existing customers: How is an SAP landscape with 50 or more servers supposed to be converted to SolMan 7.2 within seven months?

December 31 this year is the end of the fun. And many existing customers will not be able to meet this deadline. SAP repeatedly underestimates the complexity, size and effort of version changes and updates.

SAP's deadlines are far too tight: just as SolMan 7.2 SPS 5 should have been available as early as summer 2016, the 2025 deadline for Hana and S/4 is completely arbitrary, egotistical and out of touch with reality.

For the board members Michael Kleinemeier and Bernd Leukert, it would be an honorable task to listen to existing customers and study their concerns, schedules and roadmaps. DSAG and IA4SP should call for moderation, because in an overheated pace there is also an incalculable risk.

Nevertheless, at Sapphire next May, Hasso Plattner, Bill McDermott and Bernd Leukert will again present simplistic answers designed to make us believe that a version change - SolMan, Hana or S/4 - is a casual affair for the CIO.