The digital transformation has stuttered for a variety of reasons. But the economy needs more efficiency, resilience and agility. The ERP areas of human resources, i.e. HR and HCM, and financial management with the area of controlling are a key driver of digital transformation. Both areas, HCM and finance, are the domain of cloud provider Workday.

The classic R/3 modules FI, CO and AM are the heart and core competence of SAP. However, as part of the digital transformation, the needs and tasks relating to finance and controlling have changed. New providers with cloud-native concepts have entered the ERP market and cloud provider Workday claims to have a better solution for company-wide planning, implementation and analysis.

The round table discussion will provide every existing SAP customer with the necessary orientation and valuable transformation tips. The entire SAP community is facing the challenge of S/4 conversion. The direction has been set. The goal is also known to many existing SAP customers. However, the path is difficult and in some cases still unknown.

With the upcoming SAP release change to Hana and S/4, the data management of existing SAP customers is coming into focus. Whether greenfield or brownfield, decisions must always be made as to which data should be archived, how large the Hana database should be and how future operations can be controlled and monitored. The SAP partner PCG, Public Cloud Group, and NetApp have developed concepts for this together with AWS. The orchestration for S/4 conversion and data management will be carried out jointly. Participants: Thomas Herrmann, Senior Business Development Manager - SAP and Philipp RichterBusiness Unit Director, from PCG Tobias Brandl, SAP Solutions Architect, and Elmar Neumann, SAP Solutions Architect, from NetApp.

There are numerous challenges at SAP Basis that require special consideration: Of course, the right choice of licenses for a possible cloud operation comes first. How many FUEs, Full Use Equivalents, does the existing SAP customer need? With S/4 Hana, the SAP community is facing the biggest revolution of the past 50 years, but not in the organizational, business or technical area, but in license management: with the conversion from a purchase model to a rental model. Participants: Myria SchumacherSenior Product Manager for Dynamic License Control at HONICO, Tilmann Richl, Head of AI at ososoft, Guido Schneider, Managing Director of Software License Compliance 365 (SLC365) and Heiko Walter BernhartALM Consultant and Team Lead at itesys.

Regardless of the operating model - on-prem or cloud - there are fixed parameters that must be fulfilled by SAP Basis. In this E3 roundtable, we will discuss the topics of security, automation, maintenance and, of course, the possible architectures and platforms for successful SAP operation as an on-prem, cloud or hybrid system. All participants will be available for further discussions in person at the SAP Competence Center Summit 2024 in Salzburg on June 5 and 6. Participants: Hans Haselbeck, Managing Director of EMPIRIUS, Albrecht MunzBusiness Development Manager at Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Nikoa Mitic, Lead Security Architect at itesys.

Steampunk, the code word for Abap on the SAP Business Technology Platform, and the BTP itself are at the center of a disruptive framework available for selection by existing SAP customers. An adapted programming model and an ERP platform are intended to open up new paths for existing SAP customers and partners and consolidate legacy systems. The functions and applications on the BTP range from security and authorization management to automation and business apps.

Many successful R/3 systems are also based on extensive Abap modifications. The question of total cost of ownership (TCO) in Abap coding rarely arose. With the advent of NetWeaver and new possibilities for system customization, also in the Z namespace, considerations regarding programming costs became more relevant.

The many aspects of new S/4 licenses based on existing SAP systems are a topic for specialists and a challenge for SAP Basis. Knowledge about the appropriate SAP license transformation and conversion is relevant for all basis managers. The S/4 conversion poses major challenges for license management in every respect.

The lack of adequate IT staff will continue to preoccupy the SAP community for some time to come. Many successful SAP partners are currently addressing the issue of automation, monitoring and observability. At the SAP Competence Center Summit on June 1 and 2 in Salzburg, numerous companies will present their solutions for SAP Basis automation.

SAP SolMan has reached its end-of-life. ALM and Cloud ALM is to be the successor. A major challenge for SAP Basis, because Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) has not yet mastered all the tricks of the legendary SolMan.

When "cloud" is thought of fundamentally, hyperscaler and subscription fade into the background. Now it is no longer the location or the licensing model that is important, but only functions that are intended to benefit the user.

Manufacturing for Planning and Scheduling, more precisely Production Planning and Detailed Scheduling (SAP PP/DS) is known to many existing SAP customers from the APO environment (SAP Advanced Planner and Optimizer of the R/3 era). The latest evolution is IBP, Integrated Business Planning.

New work in the cloud, in the home office, on the road needs a new people management as a success factor. HR must reinvent itself: In the past, HR was an administrative task of salary payments and vacation entitlements. Modern HR can not only do more, but must also do more in the spirit of New Work.

Every existing R/3 customer knows the CCC: a win-win situation from the on-prem era between existing customers and SAP. It was and is a success story. But what's next? In a live discussion, DSAG board members Thomas Henzler and Walter Schinnerer will present the challenges and future of the CCoE, Customer Center of Expertise.

More than 80 percent of all processes are almost identical at every company. Good standard software efficiently covers these commodity processes, but many companies overdo it with individual adjustments during implementation and use in the years afterwards.

Many companies have heterogeneous system landscapes. This often leads to silo architectures and consequently to fragmented supply chains. In addition, the life cycle of common tools in supply chain management is expected to end in 2025.

The release upgrade to S/4, the Hana database conversion and a possible path to the cloud pose many challenges for existing SAP customers, not only organizationally and technically, but also in terms of licensing law.

End-to-end processes determine the field of activity in IT departments. The SAP world must be connected with the non-SAP world. Only business processes that are free of media discontinuities deliver the necessary added value.

SAP partner Empirius has developed a very lean SAP system management tool in recent months. The offering is called EPOS, which stands for Empirius Planning and Operations Suite. This suite is primarily intended for SAP Basis.