On-prem instead of SAP Concur

On the one hand, SAP offers the travel planning and expense reporting solution SAP Concur for travel management and accounting of business trips. In addition to switching to Concur, customers can continue to use the on-premises solution Travel Management in the context of S/4 Hana until the end of 2025 as part of the compatibility package. Otherwise, the solution can be used within the Business Suite (SAP ECC) until 2027 or 2030.

For those who need more time to move to the cloud, SAP has now created a new offering. On-premises travel management, for example, is expected to be made available as part of S/4 Hana from 2022.

"From a user perspective, we very much welcome this decision. It gives our members more time to prepare for the future and think hard about the path to the cloud." says Hermann-Josef Haag, DSAG Board Member for Human Resources and Public Sector.

The product announced by SAP to continue the on-premises solution in S/4 will not receive any functional innovations and will only leverage the technical advantages of the underlying Hana platform. However, SAP plans to provide migration tools and services to enable migration.

"Commercial details are still pending, but SAP has assured that customers' investments will be protected." explains Hermann-Josef Haag. This investment security is a particular concern for DSAG - especially for user companies that have made special adaptations that cannot easily be taken into the cloud.

The DSAG members had expressed their wish for the on-premises solution to continue beyond 2025, especially in areas of the public sector for travel expense management, during the DSAG Annual Congress 2019 in Nuremberg.

"While DSAG accepts SAP's strategic direction towards Concur. But especially for public administration, the new solution is currently not yet a real option." Hermann-Josef Haag explained at the time.

The reasons for this are manifold. On the one hand, there is a lack of certain specifications of the state travel expense laws, but also of the separation allowance ordinances.

"Second, many customers question the delivery of the software - the deployment." knows Hermann-Josef Haag.

Especially for HR processes in the civil service sector, the DSAG members of the public administration assess a public cloud deployment as not yet feasible under the points of compliance, data protection and security. When switching to Concur, it must be ensured both that investments made to date remain protected and that the business case is profitable. This is especially true in cases where a data center already exists and is to be retained.