The global and independent platform for the SAP community.
Cover story April 2024

SAP Basis with Cloud ALM, on-prem
and licenses.

Salzburg 2024: Hana and S/4 also need a robust SAP basis. The Customer Competence Center of SAP R/3 and Business Suite 7 is transforming itself with ALM, process mining and enterprise architects. The SAP Competence Center Summit in Salzburg is dedicated to this transformation process.

TO THE COVER STORY
Cover story April 2026

Trends and investment 2026

The year 2026 is a critical turning point for the SAP community: SAP's visions meet the reality of existing customers. As the end of maintenance for the old ERP system approaches in 2027, the pressure for S/4 migrations will increase massively and shape the market for service providers.

TO THE COVER STORY

Healthcare: Moving into the SAP Cloud at the right pace

January 26, 2026
Claudia Kirchner, Snap Consulting
Technological upheaval, new regulations and the demands of patients and staff pose challenges for the healthcare sector with stagnating budgets - especially for hospitals with modern diagnostics and care.

Companies Still Wary of SAP Joule

January 23, 2026
E3 Magazine
SAP's AI assistant Joule is designed to drive automation, but its potential has so far mainly been exploited by early birds. Six out of ten companies still have their hands full with the S/4 conversion. The management consultancy Horváth recommends targeted use in standardized processes.

Please Report!

January 22, 2026
Peter M. Färbinger, E3 Magazine
This number has been disconnected—this is a phenomenon that my colleague Andrea Schramm from Marketing and Sales and I are confronted with more and more often: Is there no longer a culture of conversation?

Europe and AI Sovereignty

January 21, 2026
E3 Magazine
Companies are increasingly asking for their own AI infrastructure. In Germany, three quarters are planning to increase their investments in sovereignty and control over cloud, AI, data, and security.

Companies expect AI returns to double

January 20, 2026
E3 Magazine
SAP has presented a new study that shows that German companies are already achieving measurable business success with artificial intelligence.

Who Actually Controls AI Agents?

January 19, 2026
Markus Müller
Why is seamless governance in the use of AI agents now essential for companies, to ensure security, compliance, transparency and sustainable value creation?

SAP Cloud First

July 17, 2025
Legacy systems are not uncommon in the fast-paced world of IT. Many computer users are currently experiencing the pain of being forced to switch from the familiar Microsoft Windows 10 to the barely improved—albeit more secure—version 11. For SAP customers, it means saying goodbye to ERP/ECC 6.0 and AnyDB.
The “Innovator's Dilemma”, as defined by Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen, is evident in the SAP community every day. While SAP and its partners are cautious, their competitors are rushing ahead with innovations.
Artificial intelligence requires a radical new approach in many areas of IT. How should SAP guide its well-established and highly successful ERP system through the AI revolution? It's an AI dilemma.

E3 Roundtable on ERP Platforms, Data Streams, and E2E Workflows

Successful ERP, supply chain management, and CRM architectures are built on IT platforms. Data streaming and collaboration are essential to the orchestration of ERP systems. IT platforms are the new operating system for cloud computing. The E3 Roundtable will highlight the importance and strategy of platforms for a holistic IT infrastructure and ERP architecture. SAP customers will implement platform technologies for digital transformation. The E3 Roundtable will discuss the ERP architecture principle of platforms using Boomi's offering as an example.

Comments

September 26, 2025

Users Are Different

The SAP community is increasingly diverging from SAP's plans. There is a wide gap between the global ERP market leader's dreams and reality.
Ten years ago, SAP presented S/4 as a new beginning for the digital backbone of the economy. Real-time, simplified data models, cloud focus. Much was achieved. In the meantime, it is less a question of "if" and more a question of "how".
An ERP system from SAP provides an excellent opportunity for consultants, IT experts, and competitors to earn money. It's only logical that SAP would have its own set of rules for this. What does Celonis want from SAP?
September 22, 2025

SAP Takes a Beating

The legendary saying, "Red Bull gives you wings," is probably familiar to most people. However, things are not going well for the beverage company in soccer and Formula 1 right now. The sports press writes: "Red Bull is taking a beating."

SAP News

The Mercedes-AMG-Petronas F1 team will rely on SAP solutions in future. The focus: the 2026 season.
Lack of trust and talent shortages are the main obstacles to the adoption of AI in companies in Spain, according to a new study on the Artificial Intelligence Job Market in Spain, published by Snowflake, the AI Data Cloud company.
Jupiter, the fastest and most energy-efficient supercomputer in Europe, has gone into operation at Forschungszentrum Jülich. The system is the first in Europe to be designed and equipped in such a way that it will reach the mark of one trillion computing operations per second (1 ExaFLOP/s).
Excerpt from “ServiceNow’s Intelligent IT Service Management: a Comprehensive Guide to Implementing the Platform’s AI Capabilities for IT Managers.”

Business Management

The migration of SAP systems is often complicated by custom code that has grown over time and is insufficiently documented. Fujitsu Easy Custom Code Adaption (ECCA) minimizes risks, reduces costs and accelerates the migration process with an innovative solution.
In order to remain competitive, automotive supplier Harman relies on digital solutions and efficient processes. An SAP-based tolerance line check enables precise demand planning, automated checks of delivery call-offs and fast reactions to tolerance violations.
More than two thirds of companies are seeing measurable added value from AI applications.
Pasta manufacturer Bürger is modernizing its logistics with S/4 Hana and SAP EWM. Together with Prismat, the company is replacing 25-year-old software with a future-proof solution designed to create transparency, efficiency and growth potential.

IT Management

As part of an S/4 migration, the agricultural company U.S. Sugar was looking for a solution to check segregation of duties conflicts for its approximately 2,500 employees. It chose Pathlock, a global market leader in access governance and application security.
The cloud blurs the differences between applications from different providers. Functions are developed, replicated, and provided more quickly. Switching to the cloud is difficult, but offers enormous opportunities.
Governance, risk management and compliance (GRC) are closely linked, essential areas of a company. A mix of on-premises and cloud is now increasingly being used for business applications. This increases the number of networked applications, but also the security risks.
October 6, 2024

Data Integrity Trends

A study on data integrity—carried out out by Precisely and Drexel University's LeBow College of Business—reveals widespread issues with trust in data and the impact on data and AI initiatives that trust or lack thereof has.

Economy

New addition to cbs An innovation partner with a manufacturing and IoT focus becomes a subsidiary of cbs Corporate Business Solutions. Trebing + Himstedt has trusted renowned manufacturing companies with their digital transformation for 30 years. The focus is particularly on innovation and implementation consulting in the areas of manufacturing and the development of digital, IoT-based services. The strengths of cbs in global...
Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) from LeanIX is available as an SAP Endorsed App in the SAP Store. The solution is designed to help companies relate their business processes to their enterprise architecture and their SaaS and non-SAP microservices landscape, giving them improved visibility and control over their processes.
Logistical planning The owner-managed SAP consultancy ITeanova has been part of the msg group since February 2022. The Heidelberg-based company has been working closely with SAP since its foundation in 2005 and enjoys an excellent reputation as a specialist for solutions in the field of complex and multi-level logistics planning scenarios. ITeanova brings a wealth of experience in the context of SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), in particular...
Due to the turbulence of the past few years, companies not only had to ensure an efficient IT infrastructure, but also increasingly had to consider the economic aspects.

People Management

E3 book tip

Getting started with SAP S/4HANA

Get to know SAP S/4HANA using practical examples! In this book, Christian Drumm, Bernd Scheuermann and Stefan Weidner introduce you to the most important modules and business processes of SAP S/4HANA. You will get an overview of the applications for sales, purchasing, production, warehouse management, accounting and controlling. Many exercises, case studies and practical cases enable you to implement what you have learned directly in the system. Currently for the example company Global Bike 4.3.
The prerequisite for using the exercises, case studies and practical cases is access to an SAP system with Global Bike Client version 4.3. SAP UCC Magdeburg.

Order here

Working on the SAP basis is crucial for successful S/4 conversion. 

This gives the Competence Center strategic importance for existing SAP customers. Regardless of the S/4 Hana operating model, topics such as Automation, Monitoring, Security, Application Lifecycle Management and Data Management the basis for S/4 operations.

For the fourth time, E3 magazine is organizing a summit for the SAP community in Salzburg to provide comprehensive information on all aspects of S/4 Hana groundwork.

Venue

FourSide Hotel Salzburg,
Trademark Collection by Wyndham
Am Messezentrum 2, 5020 Salzburg, Austria
+43-662-4355460

Event date

Wednesday, June 10, and
Thursday, June 11, 2026

AI experience workshop only on June 11, 2026 (limited places)
Bonus: Access to all lectures on June 11, 2026

Regular ticket

Lectures, evening event and, depending on availability, the AI workshop on June 11, 2026
Places at the AI experience workshop are limited and registration is required.

Subscribers to the E3 Magazine Ticket

reduced with promocode CCAbo26

Students*

reduced with promocode CCStud26.
Please send proof of studies by e-mail to office@b4bmedia.net.
*The first 10 tickets are free of charge for students. Try your luck! 🍀
EUR 305 excl. VAT.
EUR 590 excl. VAT
EUR 390 excl. VAT
EUR 290 excl. VAT

Venue

Hotel Hilton Heidelberg
Kurfürstenanlage 1
D-69115 Heidelberg

Event date

Wednesday, April 22 and
Thursday, April 23, 2026

Tickets

AI onlyExperience workshop on April 23, 2026 
Bonus: Access to all lectures on April 23, 2026
Regular ticket
April 22, 2026: Lectures and evening event
April 23, 2026: Lectures and AI workshop
EUR 305 excl. VAT
EUR 590 excl. VAT
Subscribers to the E3 magazine
reduced with promocode STAbo26
EUR 390 excl. VAT
Students*
reduced with promocode STStud26.
Please send proof of studies by e-mail to office@b4bmedia.net.
EUR 290 excl. VAT
*The first 10 tickets are free of charge for students. Try your luck! 🍀
The event is organized by the E3 magazine of the publishing house B4Bmedia.net AG. The presentations will be accompanied by an exhibition of selected SAP partners. The ticket price includes attendance at all presentations of the Steampunk and BTP Summit 2026, a visit to the exhibition area, participation in the evening event and catering during the official program. The lecture program and the list of exhibitors and sponsors (SAP partners) will be published on this website in due course.