SAP Solution: Peter Färbinger

SAP's CCC/CCoE will determine the success of the S/4 conversion in the coming years, because only at the SAP base can the challenges regarding licenses, automation, staff shortages, monitoring, security and digital transformation be solved.

The window of opportunity for SAP to correct its course is closing. The next two years will determine whether SAP will become a cloud company or remain the ERP leader for standard business software.

SAP CEO Christian Klein has achieved a great feat: the pre-programmed crash was prevented. SAP has turned the corner, has not landed in the ditch and is now in calm waters. But where will the company go from here? No one at SAP knows.

Nowhere does a prediction seem to be as difficult as in IT - especially when it concerns the ERP future. The current example of ChatGPT has shown how quickly supposedly safe parameters have to be re-evaluated.

The SAP Business Technology Platform can become the platform not only for S/4, but also for its successor. For this to happen, however, the BTP must be functionally convincing and not just a technical fireworks display.

To err is human, and that is why many industries have prototypes with which to test the future. While the automotive industry keeps surprising, SAP is content with a promise of maintenance until 2040.

Since the beginning of this year, Christian Klein has been communicating in a completely confused manner and without any context. Always in the best of moods, he says whatever comes to mind, true to the motto: What do I care about last day's chatter?

Should existing customers now believe SAP that cloud computing is very attractive: Faith belongs in the church and the cloud is a bad cloud cuckoo land. But a good foundation is the guarantee for success.

For SAP, customer satisfaction is a very important part of the business model. After all, the very first SAP system was developed on the customer's hardware. Since then, many ideas from users have found their way into SAP's ERP.

Officially, Christian Klein still believes in "cloud first" and hopes for "cloud only". Thousands of SAP's existing customers and his own experts know better: Cloud computing remains out of reach for ERP in the medium term.

Cloud computing severely restricts individualization because it is determined by standards. SAP's demand to "Keep the Core Clean" is therefore logical. However, the added value of ERP only comes from modifications and coding.

With the elimination of the 9000 euro S/4 flat rate, SAP is trying to move all existing customers to S/4 this year. The trick: It's not about operational systems, but only about license rights - but SAP has never made a precise distinction here.