Strong SAP Foundation

We have learned that SAP is not only innovative, but also erratic. Customer evolution is an important term in the SAP community, but without a foundation and back office, it becomes an empty phrase.

Older members of the SAP community still remember R/3 and the Customer Competence Center (CCC), which was ubiquitous at the time. SAP laid the foundation for successful and efficient ERP operations for customers with this idea. There was a certification program and an annual congress with up to 500 participants. Successful certification brought real benefits and incentives to existing customers.

However, there has been a lot of unrest among us and our regulars over the past few years due to subsequent release changes to ERP/ECC 6.0, Business Suite 7, Hana, S/4, and now SAP Business Suite again. Our counter-strategy to SAP's erratic behavior: expanding our own SAP Basis team, strengthening the CCC, and investing heavily in training and further education.

The CCC has since been renamed the CCoE (Customer Center of Expertise), and SAP is still determining this system unit's final positioning in the cloud and hyperscaler era. SAP has also discontinued the annual CCC managers' congress and related professional groups' meetings. This was a strategic mistake! The CCoE is needed more than ever. SAP marketing promises an all-inclusive offering for S/4 users with RISE and GROW, but the reality is different. The RISE and GROW transfer programs are moving toward S/4 Hana and "Suite First," but they require active support from existing customers with their own CCoE.

At the DSAG Annual Congress 2024 in Leipzig, it was revealed that RISE S/4 operations are largely controlled via a ticket system. Users request that SAP support execute selected functions. The challenge is that even if S/4 Cloud operations are anchored at SAP, customers still need to know where they want to go with their S/4 systems.

Last year in Leipzig, one SAP customer reported that its CCoE team had to be expanded because managing the S/4 system via the SAP ticket system now requires considerably more effort. Added to this is the educational requirement. SAP support can be managed well via the ticket system, but only if the CCoE knows the direction of the RISE and GROW journey and the new Business Suite. This means an all-encompassing approach is challenging! SAP has recognized these new requirements as part of its Customer Evolution program, and the CCoE initiative will be expanded and strengthened from Walldorf in the coming months. Further AI tools will be added.

SAP's new goal is to convert systems with the support of a Joule agent. Until now, SAP has always made recommendations for greenfield, brownfield, or system conversions. A readiness check has been helpful, as has the sustainable expansion of the "SAP for Me" dashboard in recent months. However, all of these guides and tools were standardized and compliant. Now, artificial intelligence is set to make system conversion more individualized. With the SAP AI agent Joule, we aim to provide customers with an intelligent support system.

Good tools and SAP AI services are a necessary prerequisite for a successful ERP roadmap, but they are not sufficient. The name of the future SAP ERP—S/4, Suite First, or Composable ERP—seems to be of secondary importance due to the weak SAP foundation. My colleagues agree: SAP needs to invest much more in customer evolution, a strong foundation, and an open, agile ERP roadmap. The future belongs to the CCoE and composable ERP. We are collaborating with hyperscalers and SAP competitors in the areas of AI, platforms, and applications. SAP will remain the group-wide ERP foundation alongside our CCoE.