Blood refreshment

To the surprise of many members of the SAP community, however, Christian Klein will not be in Leipzig in person at the DSAG Annual Congress this year, but his team is working on an online presence. Should the SAP CEO then turn to the congress visitors from the video wall, he will be sure to attract all the attention. It is not yet known whether he will also comment on the latest price increases. A statement from him on this matter would be illuminating.

Anyone who wants to meet Christian Klein in person should head to Hamburg a week later: At the Connect 2022 event of the SAP Partners Summit, he will be on stage together with his fellow board member Scott Russell. However, admission costs €1290, and smaller SAP partners in particular are annoyed by this high barrier to participation.

This year, SAP is making it very difficult for the community to get into personal contact: The Sapphire was invitation-only, there is only a video message at the DSAG Annual Congress, and the Partner Summit in Hamburg is expensive. But the success after 50 years of SAP can only be explained by trusting common ground with the community. SAP should not abandon this tradition of open and sustainable relationship management. A distant and detached SAP would be counterproductive, especially after two years of pandemic, when the community is trying to find its way back to each other.

In terms of relationship management, community contacts, partner care and customer events, SAP urgently needs a blood refresh. The need for exchange and cooperation is there. SAP should not now drive its existing customers into the arms of competitors by creating high hurdles, because the digital transformation has made the paths to other IT offerings and solutions very short. If Christian Klein does not maintain his relationship management, the SAP community will face a bloodletting.