Success factor partner ecosystem

E-3: In your experience, what have been the main motivations for users to switch to Hana so far?

Hinrich Mielke: The three main reasons we see with our customers are: First, customers have identified performance benefits of Hana in a PoC and want to use the technology productively.

These are projects that are often set up with a tight timeframe. Because once the department has seen what is possible, it does not want to wait long.

For some customers, the licensing costs of the competition in databases were a reason to look intensively at Hana. Another group of customers has decided to follow SAP's strategy as part of the usual application lifecycle management and is making a planned switch to Hana or S/4 Hana.

E-3: DSAG is calling on SAP to clearly present and communicate beneficial business cases for the use of Hana. Is that how you see it?

Mielke: Useful use cases can be highly customized. Here, the process of idea generation and realization is only at the beginning of development.

For example, retailers can take into account the weather, current traffic congestion and regional campaigns by competitors in addition to the usual parameters when it comes to logistics.

If a customer wants to gain a competitive advantage, he must make the necessary investments in advance and cannot wait for SAP to roll out the use cases.

A project for a prototype together with the business can be set up at short notice, and creativity can spark and trials can be carried out.

E-3: What are the main challenges faced by existing SAP customers during an SAP Classic Hana transition?

Mielke: There are two aspects here. First, it makes sense to rethink the internal SLAs for operating the SAP systems. An expansion or higher customer proximity of the business processes often results in completely different requirements than previously manifested.

New SLAs may then result in changed requirements for the architecture, operational processes, and support model. Second, the transition to Hana is a welcome opportunity to thoroughly evaluate existing custom code for legacy, unused functionality and potential code pushdown.

That is, leveraging the in-memory computing functionality of Hana. Code pushdown can achieve huge performance gains that affect the entire system, including areas that have not changed.

E-3: New applications, changed business cases, new DB and system landscapes, and changed operating processes are what companies face when they switch to Hana. How can you proceed in a structured and efficient manner? Is there a silver bullet or master plan?

Mielke [laughs]Use external advice and the experience already gained by others! No, seriously: You don't have to invent every wheel yourself, that's what consulting houses are for.

The best way starts with close and continuous coordination with the business on the use cases and the resulting or changing SLAs.

This results in the master plan with architecture, operational processes, custom code management and structured change management. This master plan is then implemented as part of the usual service creation process.

The switch to Hana is therefore also a unique opportunity to modernize the IT service portfolio in a structured way and to tie it more closely to the business.

E-3: With Hana, SAP IT landscapes and operating processes are changing, and at the same time cloud computing - especially on the basis of OpenStack - is becoming increasingly popular. How do existing SAP customers view this?

Mielke: Every CIO (Chief Information Officer) should actively promote the topic of OpenStack out of self-interest. As a customer, I remain flexible and can exchange cloud providers.

In the long term, OpenStack aims to abstract IT environments to the point where customers are completely independent of service providers, their location and infrastructure; separation between different customer systems is ensured.

In short: OpenStack can become for the cloud what the x86 processor is for hardware procurement: comparability and interchangeability are given. In addition, the overarching manageability is announced.

E-3: Hana was the beginning. It became a platform. Other technologies complement the SAP offering. Please briefly evaluate the following technologies from a strategic perspective - OpenStack ...

Mielke: OpenStack is strategically very crucial, because it enables independence from infrastructure providers for hardware, storage, networking and also virtualization in the medium term.

Agility increases - the desire for a "software defined data center" is approached -, licensing costs for corresponding management software can be reduced and cloud providers become interchangeable.

E-3: Hadoop ...

Mielke: Hadoop is the strategic extension of Hana with High-
End-high performance in the direction of Big Data in the petabyte range with simultaneously low-cost infrastructure. The combination of both will enable interesting new use cases as outlined before.

E-3: Linux ...

Mielke: Linux is established and ready for enterprise use, is set and "here to stay".

E-3: How do you assess the Linux knowledge and acceptance of open source in the SAP community?

Mielke: The Linux knowledge is given with the majority of the customers, on the one hand by a SAP-on-Unix history or the already existing Linux applications.

Open source is accepted by customers if there is a stable community and the active commitment of well-known companies. This may be somewhat more time-consuming in the strategic examination of the use of a potentially new product than with the product of an established manufacturer, but it is no longer an obstacle. The independence and often lower licensing costs easily outweigh this effort.

E-3: S/4 opens up many new possibilities for SAP users - IoT, Big Data, mobile integration, extended analysis and ERP functions. When is it worthwhile for companies to switch to S/4?

Mielke: Planning of the master plan, as previously shown, should begin promptly. If my company wants to gain a competitive advantage, prototypes should be set up as soon as possible, possibly in the cloud.

If these show the desired effect, the changeover is also carried out as quickly as possible. Otherwise, the changeover can be carried out as part of the usual application lifecycle management, embedded in the master plan. This way, a customer is prepared for the new possibilities. In any case, starting the process early is better than postponing it.

E-3: SAP customers can choose: S/4 Hana use on premise, use in the private managed cloud, or use via public cloud subscription. Spoiled for choice?

Mielke: This only seems like a pain at first glance. On the one hand, the deployment model that best fits the task can be selected.

On the other hand, OpenStack makes it possible to flexibly orchestrate different deployment models, as the saying goes. OpenStack is only at the beginning of its development here, and the possibilities will be greatly expanded with further development.

E-3: What opportunities do you see for outsourcers?

Mielke: Outsourcers are at a crossroads. Competition from the cloud is very strong. Industrialization must reduce their own costs.

Here, an early and intensive engagement with OpenStack is important - because this also reduces the use of hardware. There are two differentiators to cloud providers:

It is important not to lose one's own flexibility and to always be ahead of a cloud provider, as well as to offer the customer solutions that Amazon, Google and Microsoft cannot or do not want to offer.

On the other hand: if the headquarters of the company is located in Germany/Europe, in order to at least legally not be subject to the American legislature - keyword: Patriot Act.

E-3: In your view, how will Hana and S/4 continue to gain acceptance among SAP's existing customers? What can or must SAP contribute to further market penetration?

Mielke: An important factor will be that SAP actively cherishes the partner ecosystem. This was one of the success factors in the spread of SAP R/3.

The partners have a strong relationship of trust with the customer. They serve as multipliers and can answer customers' questions, dispel reservations, and smooth paths to an extent that SAP itself cannot do due to manpower.

Partners can also serve areas and target groups that SAP does not cover, thus significantly increasing the market penetration of S/4 Hana.