The economy shrinks

After a long period of recovery and prosperity and E-3 issues of 100 pages and more, the second E-3 issue is now already before you with "only" 84 pages. What has happened? Professor Henrik Müller writes on Spiegel Online (February 3, 2019):

"For years, the state budget has been producing handsome surpluses. This phase is now coming to an end. The economic indicators do not yet show a recession, but they are not far from it.

In the third quarter of 2018, the economy already contracted slightly [...]. Leading indicators such as the Ifo business climate index are pointing downward. In addition, there are structural shifts."

The situation in the SAP community and among SAP partners is still stable. Last year was successful, even if the SAP share price - as a promise for the future - paints a more differentiated picture: Everyone was happy about the high of 108 euros at the end of September - but: The SAP share price left 2018 with a minus at the end.

It will be exciting to see what SAP shareholders will say at the Annual General Meeting in Mannheim, because SAP CEO Bill McDermott will not be able to reassure his shareholders with blockchain, IoT, machine learning and quantum computing.

If an eight-billion-dollar investment for U.S.-based Qualtrics doesn't translate into a higher contribution margin and thus more return on investment, then shareholders won't accept the CRM visions of a Bill McDermott either.

What is the state of the German economy, the SAP community and E-3 Magazine? "The economy is shrinking," says Professor Müller. The SAP community is filled to the brim with Hana and S/4 version change - or, better: chaos? - filled to the brim.

However, it hardly shows any medium- and long-term strategies. Because the Hana and S/4 deadline of 2025 is apparently producing so much work and chaos, hardly any SAP partners are thinking about the period beyond an S/4 change.

In the current work overload, hardly anyone thinks about their market positioning in a set and consolidated Hana and S/4 market. The positioning and communication of one's own corporate strategy has been put on hold and is neglected: E-3 Magazine has only 84 pages.

There are more than enough tasks in the SAP community where clarification, information and educational work would be necessary. But because the S/4 chaos is great, the digital transformation and many other important topics are neglected - as are market communication, relationship management and education.

Knowledge sharing, sustainable positioning in the SAP community, confidence-building measures hardly take place anymore. The major SAP partners have reduced their external impact to a minimum and communicate only with selected existing customers.

Educational work and mass communication via web, print and newsletters have no strategic significance for many SAP partners. The poor figures at SAP itself and at cloud providers such as Google, AWS, Telekom, Alibaba, etc. give a foretaste.