Value-added positioning

SAP invites to sales training on October 16 "SAP S/4MOVE - value-added positioning of SAP S/4HANA with existing customers.". Bring 100 euros entrance fee, without which S/4 Move can not be consumed.

"Furthermore, the experience of the last 5 years regarding sales of SAP S/4HANA was analyzed and processed"

writes SAP in the invitation letter - satire, right?

We have already recommended and wished SAP many things, but certainly not that the past five years should also be the last of this proud Dax company. Why SAP's sales training is now talking about the last five years, just before the magic year 2025, remains a mystery.

Added values are good and important! But what is "value-added positioning"? The past years have clearly positioned S/4: a streamlined, retreaded and renovated ECC 6.0.

Relevant SAP partners have no problems adapting their on-prem add-ons to S/4. Everything remains better in the ERP core! Perhaps existing customers should be made to fear the S/4 transformation with confidence-building educational measures, instead of obscuring their view of digitization with value-added positioning.

Naturally, SAP must now ensure that its own existing customers move in the direction of S/4, but to do so, it must communicate openly and at eye level with its existing customers and partners.

As long as the SAP community is tormented with meaningless marketing slogans; SAP cannot find the right language to express justified concerns; and partners are asked to pay 100 euros for their own positioning - mistrust and doubt will sabotage any reasonable roadmap.

Where SAP is heading, there should be added value for existing customers. But existing customers must perceive this added value themselves. SAP must explain why it is going down this path. SAP must present arguments for its own position.

SAP partners must find confidence and security in this positioning - and should trust SAP and not fear for their own IP (intellectual property).

The path would be very simple if greed - 100 euro entry fee - and arrogance - value-added positioning - did not prevent the simple following of the roadmap.

Simple Finance and Simple Logistics are good arguments for an S/4 release change. But if SAP swears in its own partners in a sectarian manner, charges fees for this, and merely puts forward marketing language, how is the existing SAP customer supposed to trust both SAP itself and its IT partner?