Money and ERP Knowledge

S/4 licenses remain volatile

The adaptation of the S/4 license model was already reported in E3 June 2023 and at the SAP Competence Center Summit in Salzburg: Those who did not book the S/4 flat rate around €9000 in time would lose certain subscription rights in the future. A completely surprising announcement for the SAP community, see also our articles about Product Conversion and S/4.

In 2031, the crediting of old SAP licenses will come to an end. According to a new plan from SAP, the reimbursement of old SAP licenses will continuously decrease until 2031 when switching to S/4. Currently, the crediting factor is 80 percent under certain circumstances. By 2031, this amount will be reduced to 0 percent. If you're late, SAP will punish you!

There is a lack of knowledge

Many experts and market observers speculate about the hesitant adaptation of Hana and S/4. One reason may be the aforementioned uncertainty when it comes to obtaining licenses, which is hardly possible without legal counsel, legal help and expert opinion. A current study by SAP partner Natuvion has brought another reason to light: There is a lack of knowledge and experience in many places for a well-founded success of digitization.

Natuvion surveyed well over 500 IT and ERP users on what is a success parameter for a successful digital transformation. Most of the answers were about the often missing educational work and the lack of knowledge. It is surprising how unanimous the SAP community is that successful digitization and S/4 conversion can only succeed with sufficient knowledge and experience.

Run simple

SAP alone cannot be blamed for a lack of knowledge. Ultimately, SAP partners and existing customers also bear a large part of the responsibility when it comes to training their own employees. S/4 is not just another ERP, but in many parts a new construct for the business structure and process organization.

Resist the beginnings! To be fair, it should be mentioned here that SAP greatly simplified and marginalized the challenge from the very beginning: Run Simple! Ex-SAP CEO Bill McDermott used to say this over and over again. This very well gave the impression that the transition from ECC 6.0 to S/4 Hana was a simple walk in the park. Many existing SAP customers are now experiencing the opposite of "run simple." SAP CEO Christian Klein unfortunately never corrected or adapted this false perspective. More honesty, clear communication and real transparency from Christian Klein would have been a great help to his existing customers - even if this is by no means intended to release users from their own responsibility.