Not listening, but acting

I don't think any of SAP's existing customers whispered in CEO Christian Klein's ear, take Qualtrics public to get some damage control. Qualtrics is a disaster for SAP, the partners, and most of all the existing customers who have to finance the total loss with the high cloud and on-premises license fees.

It was probably the calculating prudence and foresight of CFO Luka Mucic. He already has an Excel spreadsheet that offsets the stock market profit and contribution margin against the vastly inflated purchase price. For many years, Mucic has been SAP's rock in the IT surf with his money-making sense. Hana may be sexy and S/4 innovative, but SAP's CFO is solid, far-thinking and has a very deft hand with money.

In a recent SAP community call, CEO Thomas Saueressig described the functions of Qualtrics software as an important part of his application development. In the future, Saueressig believes this purchased cloud software will continue to complement the other components of the SAP universe, making it an integrated part of end-to-end processes. Independently of this, the plan is to position Qualtrics as an independent and listed company in the USA.

Experts speak of damage minimization: Original estimates gave Qualtrics a market value of four to five billion U.S. dollars in a possible IPO. SAP bought Qualtrics for about eight billion U.S. dollars. From SAP's point of view, it is understandable that after the failed integration and thwarted consolidation into the SAP one-domain model, the financial situation must at least be improved. An apparent IPO of Qualtrics could bring SAP a few billion US dollars in compensation.

In the community call, SAP CEO Thomas Saueressig was also asked whether there was still a chance to bring Qualtrics onto the Hana database and thus achieve integration and consolidation on this platform. Despite being repeated by the moderator, Saueressig passed over this question, which was obviously embarrassing for SAP.

Background: Most other cloud acquisitions have now found their way onto the Hana platform after many years of uncertainty. SAP CEO Christian Klein suspected a year ago that Qualtrics could not be brought onto Hana - and he was right. Thomas Saueressig emphasized this several times in the SAP Community Call: "Qualtrics is part of the SAP family."

Trickery is allowed, but please do it intelligently! Leaning back comfortably in the executive chair and waiting for shouts from the SAP community is ultimately too cheap. It is pathetic when the SAP CEO and his colleagues on the Executive Board have to listen to existing customers and partners to find out where the bits and bytes are in disarray, where integration is failing and which areas are better sold on, see also SDI (SAP Digital Interconnect, a former Sybase division that SAP bought up in 2010).

Christian Klein, Thomas Saueressig and Jürgen Müller have gathered numerous experts and top executives around them who should tell them at any time and very precisely where the construction sites are. In an act of feigned generosity, taking SAP's existing customers hostage and demanding that they define the strategy is perfidious! Don't sit back and passively listen to what individual existing customers and partners have to say, but actively repair, maintain and explore what the IT market and the SAP community need. The SAP Executive Board must come out of its passive lethargy into an active willingness.