SAP and the cloud: There's more to come

You have to hand it to SAP for leaving no stone unturned to persuade its customers not only to migrate to S/4 Hana, but also to run their ERP installation in the cloud. Rise with SAP is the latest initiative (which has since been discontinued) to push the switch, and it is still too early to judge whether it will be a lasting success.

Nevertheless: Beyond SAP, the fundamental willingness of German users to open up to the cloud operating model has improved considerably in recent years. While initially there was a demand for infrastructure-related services such as storage and computing resources, there has been an increasing demand for SaaS solutions in the office, CRM and CX environments - only SAP has found it difficult to switch large sections of its customers from a public cloud to a public cloud.
based ERP solution. A cloud trend can also be observed among SAP users: According to the joint survey by PAC and E-3 Magazine, a cumulative 37 percent have already opted for a cloud-based S/4 solution or will migrate to one.

However, only 15 percent of these prefer the public cloud model; 22 percent prefer to choose the private cloud variant. 13 percent of participants said they were considering a solution other than S/4. While the result by no means means that the participants are actually turning their backs on SAP, it does at least indicate a certain dissatisfaction with SAP and its S/4 plans. This dissatisfaction may also stem from the fact that, with the announced end of Business Suite 7 maintenance, SAP has imposed a timeline for application modernization on many companies that does not necessarily align with the needs of SAP users. But this is speculative.

On the other hand, it is clear that many participants definitely appreciate the advantages of switching to a cloud-based SAP environment. Almost every fourth participant hopes for more agility (24 percent) or continuous optimization and better implementation of future business models (23 percent) - two benefits that SAP also promises its customers through cloud migration. A further 20 percent expect cost savings (presumably in the long term), as cloud deployment typically delivers cost savings in terms of operational efficiency.

However, one-third of respondents also question the business value of SAP services from the cloud, which is quite a high proportion and should therefore be of interest to SAP. After all, a cloud-based S/4 environment is also promoted by SAP as a central element for digital transformation because it offers companies direct access to innovative functions such as AI, machine learning and improved analytics, as well as creating the basis for integrating business processes and rapidly introducing new business models.

Overall, the study shows that German companies are loyal but critical SAP customers. Cloudfication of SAP-based ERP environments is progressing, but lags behind cloud penetration in other segments, such as CRM, Productivity and Services.