Reddit: I don't like SAP

On the well-known social media portal Reddit can be read "I don't like SAP". For many, the emotional saying may not be surprising or unfamiliar, yet it's worth taking a closer look. First the facts: For years, there was no dedicated, responsible person for marketing and communications on the SAP Executive Board.

Earlier this year, SAP's Supervisory Board appointed Microsoft executive Julia White to the Executive Board as chief marketing and solutions officer. A few weeks later, the long-time head of corporate communications was replaced by a former Microsoft employee, see https://news.sap.com/2021/06/sap-names-oliver-roll-chief-communications-officer/

Analysis: SAP is an incomparable IT company whose strength comes from a deep understanding of business and organizational processes, not from IT. Or, to paraphrase the Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard: SAP begins precisely where thinking ends. (Kierkegaard: Faith begins precisely where thinking ends).

SAP is a religion. The high license prices, the complex architecture, the limited infrastructure choices defy any analytical and intellectual evaluation. People don't decide in favor of SAP; men and women jump in. Those who are forced to jump in say: I don't like SAP. There were and are no comforting stories from SAP communications.

SAP is solely responsible for this religious state of affairs, which has been decoupled from the IT world. For many years, "storytelling" was forgotten. In its own echo chamber, SAP perceived only itself. SAP's headquarters are not in Silicon Valley, California, but in Walldorf.

Anyone who crosses the street there ends up back at SAP. Now two ex-Microsoft employees could save SAP's storytelling. They will probably approach their tasks very analytically, which already carries the seeds of failure, see Kierkegaard: SAP begins precisely where thinking ends.