SAP can do everything

One AI question and 300 SAP answers

SAP CTO Philipp Herzig praised himself and SAP at the DSAG Technology Days 2025 in Wiesbaden for its efforts and solutions in the field of artificial intelligence. In total, SAP has provided almost 300 AI apps in recent months. Philipp Herzig interpreted this as SAP's new innovative strength.

However, the SAP community is wondering how users will be able to maintain an overview of the plethora of answers, apps, engines and IT tools. On the fringes of the DSAG event in Wiesbaden, some existing SAP customers said that an AI will be needed in the future in order to select the right AI. However, it was not possible to find out whether SAP is working on a meta-AI.

SAP ERP is not an end in itself

Never before has SAP had so many apps, engines and IT tools in its portfolio. In Wiesbaden, DSAG Chief Technology Officer Sebastian Westphal therefore discussed what and which apps should be used to solve specific ERP challenges. An ERP system is not a self-sufficient construct. For SAP, it seems completely illogical that existing customers do not operate their ERP system as an end in itself, but pursue other tasks such as production, trade and administration.

With the announcement of the SAP BDC, Business Data Cloud, at the Business Unleashed event in New York, USA, in February, SAP is focusing on the elements of processes, data and AI with the aim of providing efficient process chains. In addition, more and more diverse end-to-end business processes are also being offered in the cloud by combining the most diverse and heterogeneous IT stacks and cloud services on the basis of BTP. "Even though SAP is undoubtedly working on harmonizing and integrating its solution portfolio, a consistent architecture is the key to success for the envisaged Business Suite. To achieve this, SAP must continue to harmonize the product landscape and consistently implement uniform standards, e.g. for data models and identity and security services. By definition, a suite requires the seamless integration of the SAP solutions it contains, uniform operating models and clear migration and implementation strategies along the way," says DSAG Technology Director Sebastian Westphal.

SAP exit strategy: getting out of the ERP game?

The Technology Days 2025 of the German-speaking SAP User Group (DSAG e. V.) were held under the motto: Strategy Royale: Call, Raise or Fold? A good strategy and well-considered decisions form the basis for investments in IT solutions and SAP software.

Borrowed from the game of poker, Call stands for possible solutions for companies that want to use their SAP systems and only invest as much as is necessary.

Raise refers to the well thought-out, sustainable and strategic decisions, particularly with regard to the new SAP target strategy and the implementation of new (cloud) technologies.

And Fold stands for the option to fit and look for an alternative after intensive examination. Based on the latest SAP investment report, a hybrid IT trend is emerging in the SAP community that will include on-prem, edge and cloud computing. However, this is also associated with an exit strategy that will lead existing SAP customers out of the SAP cloud (private and public).

The old and new name "SAP Business Suite" reactivates a successful product label from the on-prem era, which SAP now intends to transfer in its entirety to the cloud solutions. The Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) continues to form the central technical foundation of this new Business Suite and will play a decisive role, for example in the integration of the various SAP solutions. Finally, the Business Data Cloud (SAP BDC) is intended to enable cross-system harmonization and use of SAP data - also and especially for the use of AI-based use cases.

"And with a suite, the commercial advantage must of course also be clearly evident if everything comes from a single source with SAP. Both technically and commercially - in other words, transparent cost structures and contract models," says Sebastian Westphal, DSAG. "And since it is unlikely that one business suite will be able to cover all of today's use cases, long-term support for partner solutions is needed as part of the SAP Clean Core strategy. The frequently used add-ons in particular should remain usable on the basis of stable, long-term certification conditions - which is in the common interest of partners, user companies and SAP itself in light of SAP's S/4 Hana maintenance commitment until 2040."

SAP Business Data Cloud: Will the ERP cards be reshuffled?

From DSAG's perspective, SAP BDC, Business Data Cloud, could become SAP's biggest change in strategy since S/4. The target image envisaged by SAP is intended to harmonize today's fragmented data structures. "This is an enormous challenge: not only does SAP want to take on more operational responsibility for the integration and provision of uniform data models than before - the BDC is about nothing less than the transformation of existing landscapes into a future-proof, cloud-centric architecture, for on-prem and public cloud customers alike. The DSAG experts are in favor of the new strategy if the BDC is available to all existing SAP customers, including for on-prem systems and independently of commercial constructs such as Rise with SAP and Grow with SAP," demands DSAG Technology Director Sebastian Westphal.

The SAP Business Data Cloud (BDC) product is set to bring the long-awaited turnaround to the data chaos. After the failed attempts with Data Hub and then Datasphere, BDC is now set to orchestrate the data structures. However, what SAP CEO Christian Klein announced very boldly at the beginning of this year turned out to be yet another cooperation with a specialist IT provider just a few weeks later, because the company's own team was once again unable to build a functioning solution. SAP chose Databricks to close the gaps in its own offering.

A data project that SAP drives to the wall is naturally not yet a turning point. But all the events of the first quarter of 2025 taken together clearly show a structural weakness at SAP: a Business Data Cloud that does not deserve the name; an SAP share price that plummets disproportionately at the slightest irritation on the market; a DSAG SAP investment report in which only 243 of thousands of customers return the questionnaire; an AI development that does not produce a big hit apart from hundreds of gadgets; a very successful SAP Business Technology Platform because it enables the continuation of on-prem and Abap modifications.