Making a virtue out of necessity!

SAP also likes to claim that the founders of Qualtrics invented experience management - a very interesting approach that would probably have to be discussed with Adobe.

A year ago, I spoke with then-SAP COO and now CEO Christian Klein about Qualtrics. Shortly before that, Klein was in the U.S., among other places, at Qualtrics' headquarters in the state of Utah. His impression was ambivalent: He said that the software was quite exceptional in terms of functionality. However, he also emphasized that the algorithms and the system architecture would be very special and probably not compatible with SAP. An integration into a SAP ERP/CRM would be a huge challenge.

The fact is that many cloud acquisitions have now found their way onto the SAP Hana database: SuccessFactors, Ariba, etc. However, no one in the SAP universe is discussing the topic of Qualtrics and Hana. Although this combination would certainly have its appeal: The perfect algorithms of Qualtrics paired with the speed of Hana!

So now make a virtue out of necessity and let Qualtrics live on independently as well as go public: "The acquisition of Qualtrics by SAP is a great success, it has exceeded all expectations in 2019. This demonstrates the outstanding performance capability of the current setup. We have jointly concluded that an IPO offers the best opportunities for Qualtrics. SAP will remain Qualtrics' largest and most important go-to-market and development partner after an IPO. At the same time, Qualtrics will gain greater independence to build its own ecosystem for experience management through partnerships," now explains Christian Klein, CEO of SAP.

The IPO is also an open admission of the failure of any integration efforts. Finding something good in the bad, even if it's just the big money from an IPO, seems to be the motto at SAP at the moment. But this also means that Christian Klein is breaking his promise to the SAP community to integrate all cloud acquisitions. Those who bet on Qualtrics in the past in the hope of getting a harmonized ERP/CRM, and thus turned down the perhaps better experience management from Adobe, will now not be too pleased with the young SAP CEO.