E3 Category: Editor-in-Chief Blog

The DSAG Annual Congress 2024 highlighted the necessity for an efficient SAP Basis team during and after an SAP RISE project. During a RISE conversion, numerous tasks are transferred to SAP, necessitating the presence of a controlling Basis team to oversee the process.

SAP's database platform has lost one of its attractions: the Hana House in Palo Alto, California, has closed its doors. Professor Hasso Plattner is no longer Chairman of the Supervisory Board, and his legacy is now being disposed of.

It is essential that IT platforms provide a transparent structure for users and integrate ERP applications in a comprehensive manner. Following the introduction of NetWeaver and subsequent developments such as HCP (Hana Cloud Platform), SAP has now unveiled BTP (Business Technology Platform). It represents the future of ERP.

The old IT adage applies: Never change a running system! The DSAG investment survey reveals that only just over half of DSAG members believe that the relevance of SAP for the future of their company will remain the same.

SAP CEO Christian Klein is a dedicated and hard-working executive. Following the departure of three members of the SAP Executive Board, he has been required to assume responsibility for a number of additional tasks. Klein is adept at multitasking and consistently maintains a high level of productivity. However, the ERP company is lacking in innovation.

The SAP community is familiar with the terms "clean core" and "BTP." SAP has been reluctant to provide detailed information regarding the specifics behind these terms, any relevant roadmaps, or any associated costs. SAP’s visions of a clean core and BTP appear to be only half-finished.

Jürgen Müller, SAP's Chief Technology Officer and BTP (Business Technology Platform) strategist, is leaving the company, creating a new balance of power on the SAP Executive Board after the recent departures of Julia White and Scott Russell.

Abap modifications were both a savior and a blocker of innovation. Abap was able to turn R/3 and ECC 6.0 into individual successes and also prevent the next release change. Light and shadow lie close together in the Z namespace.

SAP is stuck in the past. The world leader in ERP still believes in the paradigm of applications and data, which means it believes in the classic release change. But AI will produce applications for every occasion and around the clock. Data is the true added value.

Siemens has shown that it is possible to do good business with software, which means there is a future in implementing innovations in algorithms. SAP should ask itself whether AI and the cloud or business software will be what drives digitalization.

SAP has definitely lost its way. It started with its foray into databases. Hana is only a satisfactory success because of SAP's market dominance—a monopoly. Will cloud and AI suffer a similar fate at SAP?

In no other German supervisory board is the balance of power as opaque and secretive as at SAP. Although he was only elected for two years, Pekka "the Puppet" Ala-Pietilä has now given SAP Executive Board members Julia White and Scott Russell the boot. Who is pulling the strings behind the scenes?