E3 Category: The opinion of the SAP community

Integrating the development and operation of software is a declared goal of every DevOps initiative. In view of the complexity of this task, many companies ignore security for the time being. But this is a fatal mistake.

The question is whether S/4 and Hana are just Potemkin villages or are meant to hide something real. The Russian imperial prince Potemkin had other things in mind.

The person who should be doing Operations is now doing Development at SAP. The world is upside down: Chief Technology Officer Jürgen Müller has disappeared and his colleague on the Executive Board, Chief Operation Officer Christian Klein, is doing his job.

On-prem here, public cloud there. Unthinkable a few years ago, more and more SAP customers are now turning to hybrid and multi-cloud computing. Linux also supports SAP Hana Large Instances on Microsoft Azure.

For years, May has been one of the most important months in SAP's calendar. Traditionally, Sapphire in Orlando and the Annual General Meeting in Mannheim take place in May. At both events, you can see SAP co-founder and Supervisory Board Chairman Professor Hasso Plattner and SAP CEO Bill McDermott.

Good craftsmen are hard to find and not necessarily at short notice. If you were able to book one, you may only realize later that he is not the best. Because not every craftsman also knows his trade.

The data center is in a period of upheaval. Digital transformation projects are bringing about a shift from on-premises legacy infrastructures to agile hybrid cloud environments.

What existing customers demanded and former Chief Technology Officer Bernd Leukert tried to do for a long time has not been an issue at SAP since Sapphire: integrating cloud acquisitions like Qualtrics into the core ERP/CRM system based on the Hana database platform.

It would be appealing: to take over SAP's production goods and no longer pay a maintenance fee. But wouldn't a clear separation of tasks make even more sense?

Although every SAP customer should be aware by now that SAP generates targeted revenue via compliance demands, many still blindly trust the non-transparent survey results.

Today, cloud operation mostly means: hybrid cloud. This changes the task of IT departments: Instead of administering IT themselves, they are increasingly taking on the role of orchestrating networked (cloud) landscapes.

Intelligent technologies are becoming a decisive factor in being able to hold one's own in a constantly changing and fast-paced market. The SAP ecosystem offers crucial tools for this.

Thorough preparation is everything when it comes to S/4 Hana migrations. Many companies are hesitant to switch to S/4 and Hana, waiting for the perfect moment to migrate - which will never truly come.

Focused Build goes into the next round - what does Service Pack 3 bring in terms of news and innovations? At SolEd last year, it was also announced that Focused Build will be available free of charge to all customers from 2020.

SAP CEO Bill McDermott basically does everything right, but when it comes to details, he puts his foot in his mouth. That shouldn't happen to a top manager. Does SAP need a new boss?

It feels like there have never been so many articles about SAP in the media at the beginning of the year. Naturally, we "only" write about SAP, but significant texts have also appeared in Manager Magazin, Wirtschaftswoche and Frankfurter Allgemeine.

Digitization is leading to better and more personalized B2C buying experiences. This development supposedly affects traditional B2B trade less. Why is that? B2B customers are also looking for a customer experience.

More and more SAP customers have their sights firmly set on hybrid and multicloud computing. Linux serves as the foundation - also in conjunction with container technologies such as Kubernetes.

Changing customer requirements, flexible deliveries and transparent processes: Intralogistics companies currently have to overcome various challenges. This often requires the automation and digitization of operational processes.

Deadline 2025? SAP is as correct, conscientious and punctual as Deutsche Bahn. Thus, the "Deadline 2025" stands, even if it may not become relevant until 2030.

Since the end of the 20th century, business processes have been increasingly digital - including in HR management. But in this document-intensive area in particular, the proportion of processes on paper is still considerable.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have arrived in German companies. However, many need the support of external IT experts to successfully integrate the new technologies into their processes.

The S/4 migration not only brings technological advantages, it also offers opportunities to renew outdated processes. Interesting: Bringing the license portfolio up to date with Contract Conversion and disposing of legacy processes.

The end of transparency: It can be dangerous if relevant information is no longer shared and openly distributed in the SAP community. Information monopolies are the precursor to fake news.

When migrating to S/4 and Hana, SAP recommends the use of agile methods as part of its SAP Activate implementation methodology. And rightly so. But in order to actually reduce the migration effort, additional automation is required.

The SAP Cloud Platform is not my primary interest. I stopped programming a long time ago, but there are strategic and educational aspects that are important to discuss. What does SAP want with the SCP?

There may be industries where repair service behavior and actionism can prevent major disasters, but in the SAP community, longevity and sustainability set the tone.

Sophisticated Linux platform management boosts SAP Hana deployment. Prerequisite: a functionally broad system management software that also supports the automation of an SAP infrastructure deployment.

The customer is invited to the store with a personalized discount promotion, receives detailed product information on the smartphone in the store and pays when leaving without having to scan the shopping cart again - shopping in the future.

Cloud requirements need process know-how. Anyone who wants to master the customer journey needs first and foremost an understanding of processes in addition to technological knowledge of the SAP CX Suite and Hana Cloud Integration.

SAP Activate is a new implementation framework for the S/4 Hana business suite. The new Activate method replaces two previous methods for S/4 - the Asap-on-premise method and the Launch-Cloud method.

One of the characteristics of an IoT platform is its openness to interfaces and file formats. Instead of delimited platforms, there is a trend toward open structures. SAP is also accommodating customers here.

Maintenance is an important topic in any industry. In healthcare, where patient safety and medical device regulations add complexity, the right tools are needed to make maintenance efficient.

One lever to bring "motion-weary" existing SAP customers into the ERP cloud is "indirect use": SAP is threatening huge license back payments while promising an end to all problems when switching to the cloud.

There are "rumors" that yet another SAP customizing has hit the wall. Unfortunately, these reports are all too often true! The culprit is quickly found: SAP.

Gartner forecast: Two-thirds of iPaaS vendors will cease to exist by 2023. How likely are SAP and partners like All for One to be among these failed vendors?

One of the biggest benefits that DevOps offers SAP legacy customers is the continuous improvement of integrated processes in development and operations. But the prize question is: Where does the continuum begin? The answer lies in measurement.

Companies make their SAP authorization process too easy, which, according to current findings, leads to users having 75 percent more authorizations than they need. The motto is: Clean up.

Playing does not mean that one plays and the other watches. But how can two people play together when their understanding of business processes could not be more different?

According to Deutsche Telekom's latest Digitalization Index for SMEs 2018, 46 percent of SMEs see expanding their digital expertise as a key success factor in the future. 55 percent are already using or planning IoT applications.

One's own responsibility toward family and career determines the balance. What is SAP's responsibility to existing customers when it comes to striking a balance between SW manufacturer and cloud operator?

Henrik Müller, professor of economic journalism at the Technical University of Dortmund, wrote on Spiegel Online in early February: The economy is shrinking. And he meant the German economy. E-3 Magazine is shrinking, too!

The innovative collaboration between SAP, Intel and Suse marks a new milestone with the use of Persistent Memory in Hana deployment together with Linux in data centers.

Find the best online offer with voice bots and never listen to music on hold in the call center again: Companies are turning to AI to improve their customer communications and thus the customer experience.

More frequent, but smaller - thanks to DevOps, the risk per release decreases, but so does the time available for quality assurance. DevOps in SAP environments with their dependencies must be supplemented with automated test procedures.

Many companies that currently run a more or less well-functioning SAP R/3 system know that maintenance of ERP/ECC 6.0 and SAP Business Suite 7 will be discontinued as of 2025. However, many are only dealing with it as a low priority. Why?

Ultimately, the challenge of "indirect use" with SAP software will be decided by the assessment of "interoperability". To what extent must and may IT programs communicate and collaborate via APIs?

Digitizing the value chain as completely as possible has long been at the top of the agenda for the manufacturing industry. The need for automation and efficiency is high everywhere.

SAP CEO Bill McDermott has spent a lot of money on the cloud, but not much has come in. The return on investment is poor. SAP hardly has a chance against the hyperscalers.

SAP CEO Bill McDermott would love to embrace the cloud trend of hyperscalers. Instead, he is fighting for a better return on investment with an SAP restructuring.

"SAP on Cloud" is the order of the day in the universe of the Walldorf-based software giant. Without question, there is a wide range of tangible benefits to moving an ERP/ECC infrastructure to the virtual "cloud".

It came as it had to come: Spiegel readers were deceived because the Spiegel editors-in-chief demanded ludicrous things from Spiegel journalists. Fake news is the only way to survive. A truthful scene like the SAP community has better rules of the game here!

This year, the SAP Linux Lab celebrates its 20th anniversary. Suse has been on board from the very beginning. Highlights of the two decades.

Since 2012, there have been an increasing number of publicly disclosed and successful attacks on SAP systems. How has SAP security changed over the past ten years, how secure are SAP systems today, and what can we expect in 2019?

In the fifth IT season, when the numerous kick-off events thwart any meaningful work, I always have my thoughts about the next decade: What might an ERP/CRM system look like in ten years?

There is a saying in the IT world: "Everything that can become a platform will become a platform. Thinking only of business platforms such as Amazon, Airbnb and others is not enough. It's also about content, documents and business processes.

Professor Hasso Plattner once wanted to sell his Hana database as a disruptive innovation. Professor Clayton M. Christensen tried to dissuade him.

Every new technology is a step backward. The new is never as well established and evaluated as the old. The new will be better than the old - but that takes time. And SAP does not give its existing customers this time.

The new SAP product and licensing policy puts purchasing IT to a stress test. "Fewer functions versus more costs" - is this the alternative between an S/4 migration and an external procurement solution?

The field of IT security must emancipate itself and raise its profile. It is not a luxury, but a necessity, which includes sound training and years of experience. Security is grown up!

Once wait and see if Suse Linux is acquired by SAP to own the whole stack - apart from the hardware. This concentration brings completely new challenges for existing SAP customers - a topic for our DSAG?

CRM solutions in C/4 and S/4 Hana Customer Management convince with many process variants and seamless back-end integration.

There is an education strike in the academic world: Where should one publish? What should it cost? Who can read it? There are scientific publishers who get their content to be published free of charge from the academic world. Reading these journals now costs vast sums of money.

Linux is becoming increasingly important for Hana or SAP S/4 Hana as well as for data center transition and cloud computing.

Many retailers look with unease at Amazon's seemingly unstoppable growth. In September, the online giant's market value cracked the magic one-trillion-dollar mark. Retailers must now react.

With "Finance 2020," Michaela Peisger has just built the finance department of the future at KPMG in Germany. The new ERP system based on SAP S/4 Hana acts as a digital core to which all other systems are connected.

The Internet of Things is all about networking per se. But many IT managers are not yet exploiting the potential of integration at the data, system and technology levels.

How SAP's new Digital Access metric - economically discounted - can go from ROI killer to innovation driver. SAP's new licensing model from April this year remains a challenge for existing customers.

The number-crunching began at SAP with the corporate acquisitions. Even before that, SAP was not a transparent company, but cloud computing is a crystallization point.

With regard to indirect use, Voice e. V. is trying to bring about a concession for all existing customers throughout Europe by means of an antitrust complaint. The DSAG association is in discussion with SAP on behalf of its members in order to bring about rules and a better position in the DACH region. But everything will be different in 2019!

In the age of digital transformation, small and large companies are constantly challenged to bring new and innovative software quickly and with high frequency to the market and thus to (potential) customers.

Just in time for the turn of the year, the focus is on the developments of the past months, the current status and the plans, opportunities and challenges. There are three trends that user companies will be dealing with in 2019 and beyond.

Bill McDermott is in trouble on the inside: Hana anomalies exist and the board has been reorganized. To the outside world, he sells himself as a savior and has already bought another company, but the stock price is sinking.

Here the users of standard software, there in-house developments: This clear separation is also over in software development and maintenance, because cloud and AI development is becoming increasingly standardized.

The automation and digitization of business processes is advancing. But how do retail companies manage to process all information and data efficiently?

In mid-October, two noteworthy media events took place that also have relevance for the SAP community: On Friday, October 19, 21 representatives of European broadcasters signed the "Potsdam Declaration," a commitment to strong public broadcasting in Europe. On the same day, there was a press conference at FC Bayern, where SAP is making a sustained commitment.

Beyond Hana or S/4 Hana: In the data center transition towards Software Defined Infrastructure, Linux and other open source solutions are important cornerstones.

Cloud environments such as S/4 or SAP Cloud Platform are regarded as the central nervous systems of intelligent companies. What opportunities does this open up for handling CAD data in the context of forward-looking engineering?

With SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC), decision-makers have a tool that enables highly specialized analyses from source systems in real time, along the entire value chain.

Migration to S/4 Hana is on the agenda for everyone who uses SAP ERP. Such a migration is a complex project in which the authorization concept must also be adapted.

There are sensible cloud concepts, but food is eaten at home.

Companies are increasingly using DevOps for efficient application delivery. DevOps promises shorter time-to-market, improved product quality and higher customer satisfaction, but also brings new security risks.

The CRM system C/4 announced and planned by SAP CEO Bill McDermott is stillborn - unnecessary and expensive. A blunt weapon against Salesforce and others.

The disturbing sentence "Cloud only brings ERP into the dilemma" was on the cover of the DSAG member magazine. A wake-up call, but one that did not reach SAP Chief Technology Officer Bernd Leukert.

For many SAP products, the license terms or prices and metrics are quite diverse and keep changing. Therefore, it is a challenge every year to get through the SAP license measurement in one piece.

The SAP community needs a harmonious and functioning customer-vendor relationship. But existing customers also need universally applicable conditions and transparency in license prices. Only an antitrust suit can restore the level playing field, right?

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are referred to as the "general purpose technology" or enabling technology of the future due to their broad application potential in actually all industries.

Warehouse logistics in particular, as the link between industry, retail and the end customer, is undergoing a profound transformation in the course of the digital transformation, which is characterized by many challenges - such as increasing transparency of the logistics chain for the customer, shortened product cycles, small delivery quantities and increasing automation.

Do you also feel the compulsion to finally do something with "artificial intelligence"? There is no excuse, no ducking out, no ignoring: Free of charge are many AI offerings at AWS, Google and Microsoft. If you distrust these IT giants, you can try an inexpensive Linux PC and open source. Good luck!

To be successful in the battle for new employees and charismatic managers, you have to come up with a lot: Recruiting events on the golf course, job speed dating and a positive work-life balance are often no longer enough.

Digitization is changing our buying behavior. Customers are annoyed by product offers they don't need. Retailers are increasingly responding to this desire for more personalization with intelligent solutions.

It is not uncommon for companies to invest ten percent of their annual budget in business travel - a cost factor that still largely ignores process costs. How can costs be optimized with cloud-based solutions?

The combination of SAP Hana and Linux is steadily expanding in the broad SME sector. This also applies to smaller companies, which are classified as Small Medium Enterprises (SME).

The country needs new buzzwords! After DevOps, DevSecOps is now the hype topic du jour and finally puts security at the center of the software development and operation process.

An anonymous article about Donald Trump appeared in the New York Times. Parallel to the debate about the content, a discussion arose about the right and the sense of anonymous publications, as n/n I feel hit.

SAP Solution Manager is loved and hated at the same time. SAP's compulsory measure is a "Swiss army knife" for ERP/ECC 6.0 and partly S/4. But the universal IT tool is not enough.

For a long time, SAP was considered a closed system in a heterogeneous system environment. R/3 and even still ERP/ECC 6.0 feel comfortable on different platforms.

With GLAC, the license compliance function is centralized - detached from the sales organization. After the introduction of the document-based digital access licensing model, experts are pouncing on products such as XI. SAP is usually the bogeyman.

There are triggers that more or less put every SAP CoE leader under stress. This should not be so, because if you know that you are compliant, you can meet a post-purchase proposal from SAP with calm. Conscientious preparation is half the battle.

The time is ripe to automate logistics processes across the supply chain based on the Internet of Thing (IoT). But ambiguities, lack of incentives and standards are hindering digitization.

Many existing SAP customers already deliver changes and enhancements continuously and automatically - but not for their SAP solutions. An end-to-end DevOps toolchain provides a remedy here.

For Germans, AI has no place in areas where people are valued. The majority also do not want to leave the control of weapons systems to intelligent machines.

In security concepts for productive SAP systems, often only the production client is considered. However, the other clients, especially client 000, must also be included in the security consideration.

Are we forward-looking enough in our communication? Of course, everyone sees the death of newspapers on the horizon, but online is also no longer an all-encompassing solution since EU-DSGVO and "fake news" on Twitter and Facebook. Advertising would be an investment in the future. But forecasts are difficult, especially when they concern the future.

Instead of waiting for long planning periods, companies should start Industry 4.0 projects pragmatically in production: An OPC router connects controllers, sensors and printers directly with SAP software.

In many companies, the switch to the Hana platform is being pushed in the medium term or is already underway. It makes sense to integrate CPM and control systems from the Office of Finance into the strategy right from the start.

Before I criticize SAP's service quality, let me compare it with SAP's existing customer Lufthansa: At Miles & More, the service hotline hangs up on me when I get stuck. I wanted to rebook air miles.

In times of digitalization, one thing is clearly emerging: global networks will determine the future - especially in procurement. Without networking, there is no future; without collaboration platforms, there is no networking.

SAP Hana and Linux have long since become a successful tandem. Now Suse Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) for SAP Applications 15 is here. With innovative multimodal functionality and enhancements for Hana deployment.

Given the rapid success of AI, companies and scientists should think about ethical boundaries now - before it's too late. If necessary, legislators will have to intervene. But do governments always have an interest in doing so?

The "transparent" SAP inventory customer, in combination with historical license and contract knowledge, can have his licenses counted by USMM and LAW as well as evaluated by experts - and save! But SAP can use this knowledge to evaluate "indirect" usage. Almost anything is possible.

The core task of maintenance has always been to prevent accidents and malfunctions in order to ensure the value and operational readiness of the plant(s).

There are concerns in the SAP community about the old and new licensing models. At the DSAG association, people believe that time heals all wounds. But the IA4SP and Voice associations and we are active!

The principle of rebilling was introduced by SAP during the reign of McDermott's predecessor, Léo Apotheker. The short-term CEO was a genius salesman and fundraiser.

All SAP customers are facing extensive S/4 migration projects and contract conversions. These can be managed with the combination of Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM) and strategic license management.

No other system has grown as deeply into companies and their processes as SAP. Digitization presents SAP's existing customers with completely new challenges. What can DevOps do to help them cope with these tasks?

There is something masochistic about good consultants: they optimize and automate until they themselves are no longer needed either. The SAP Data Hub could have a similarly unpleasant effect on the rest of SAP's offering.

Attending cybersecurity conferences these days, all vendors seem to agree: "Artificial Intelligence" is the new silver bullet in the fight against malware, hacks, exploits and the measles.

Lucky who can fight back! SAP is successful. And honor to whom honor is due. Fighting back against SAP is pointless. The ERP group has been too powerful for many years to have to compromise. The community loves and reveres SAP, but it also fears the company. Its market position makes it unassailable.

Thinking in terms of end-to-end processes has dominated ERP from the very beginning. E2E is ultimately the added value of any holistic, business IT system. In these systems, everything is connected to everything else - an advantage for the user, a challenge for license management.

Most business processes depend on decisions that people have to make. Not infrequently, these are precisely the time-consuming and cost-intensive bottlenecks that prevent the business process from running smoothly.

I still know the term "ABC weapons" from my military days - nuclear, biological, chemical. Now SAP also has a "C" that has to be used for another relaunch of a CRM system. C/4 is supposed to be the wonder weapon against Salesforce.

DevOps is on everyone's lips. But many companies have a hard time with agile development. Especially when it comes to their own SAP systems. Why that is. And how it can be changed.

When I think about data, an image often comes to mind lately: a picture of a person sitting on the beach, looking longingly across the sea to the next island, oblivious to the treasure of gold beneath him in the sand.

The fourth industrial revolution is facing the challenges of increasingly complex supply chain management (SCM), which at the same time must guarantee more customized and flexible production.

Once again, SAP is taking a run at building the world's best CRM system. The attempts can hardly be counted. This time it is to be a best-of-breed approach.

Since April 10, everyone has been talking about the preliminary license model that SAP had agreed on with its user groups ASUG and DSAG: There is a rudimentary concept, a price list. What is still missing, however, is a technical evaluation.

It makes perfect sense to rely on blockchain for dedicated business processes. SAP supports companies from various industries with blockchain services. Hana and Linux are quasi blockchain-compatible.

E-commerce is an important driver of digitization. But it is often not taken seriously. A mistake! I think decision-makers can learn a lot from the modern form of online commerce for the digital transformation in their companies.

The investment hurdles for new technologies are lower than ever. Modern finance and accounting solutions can be introduced quickly and used easily - the perfect time for CFOs to make trend-setting decisions.

Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Amazon have also recognized the trend and released parts of their source code. Success stories like Firefox or OpenOffice.org have shown that open source projects can prevail.

Voice control, sensors, IoT and machine learning are fundamentally changing shopping behavior and creating a paradigm shift in digitally supported commerce.

SolMan is much more than a necessary evil for maintenance planning. SAP has already proven this with 7.1. Nevertheless, too little attention is paid to some functional areas. A mistake on the path to digital transformation?

Do you know this? Your boss says to you: "Mr. Meier, you have a new task. You'll be in charge of one of our future projects, the implementation of end-to-end digital integration from the corporate level to the store floor."

SAP has a vision: to make the companies of SAP's existing customers smarter. As always, this is not about employees, but about new software that is supposed to flush more license payments into SAP's coffers.

Children are not afraid of technology: They use modern technology to create video blogs and creatively use the Internet's knowledge for homework. The situation is often quite different in the working world.

The use of a Hana database requires a legally compliant configuration of the log components. But how can a concept for this be created and technically implemented before productive use?

Linux quickly established itself among SAP's existing customers. After all, Hana requires the use of Linux. The use of other innovations in the infrastructure is already taking hold.

Indirect use is a mirage. If you believe the EU Software Directive, interoperability between computer programs is its most natural destination. What is supposed to be "indirect" here?

At last there would be a proper CRM system in Walldorf, says one group. Many experts think that SAP would then no longer have any revenue from "indirect use". Neither will happen.

Artificial intelligence is currently ubiquitous in both the B2B and B2C sectors. But will the hype and the mood of optimism really be followed by the announced revolution or is the next AI winter already just around the corner?

Do SAP licensees need a lawyer? Yes, because the combination of PKL and GTC can only be mastered by trained experts with historical knowledge. No, because operational, complex ERP architectures cannot be synchronized with SAP license agreements anyway. Anything is possible.

Until now, indirect use has hovered over companies like a sword of Damocles. SAP has reacted and introduced a new licensing model. We look into the question of whether this is a fair solution or a toll.

Data is the new gold - and CIOs no longer need to be visionaries to realize this. Big Data and IoT are a reality and have caused data volumes to explode.

Augmented reality offers its users the possibility to experience complex information intuitively. With the help of SAP CAR, retailers can use these possibilities to create a new, more convenient shopping experience.

The "right" relationship management is the cornerstone of success in almost every industry. We also collect data and inform ourselves about our business partners.

The transformation driven by digitalization is not only producing new job profiles, but is also changing the profile of established professions - including employees in F&A (Finance & Accounting) departments.

The digital transformation offers opportunities, but it also harbors new risks. What is needed is a discussion that includes not only the technical aspects of industrial digitization but also the digital business models.

The connection of analog and digital worlds brings enormous growth impulses. Hybris in combination with the digitization services of the SAP Cloud Platform and Conversational AI can provide the technical basis for this.

SAP Data Hub focuses on data management, data integration and data orchestration. The solution is underpinned on the infrastructure side with Linux, but also with the latest container technology.

In the Wild West, "Clark Stanley's Snake Oil Liniment" promised relief from many illnesses - and turned out to be completely ineffective. Since then, snake oil has stood for expensive, useless products - just like today's anti-virus solutions?

Dark clouds are gathering over Walldorf. Colleague and DSAG board member Andreas Oczko put it this way in a press release: We need to win back the trust of customers, which seemed to have been lost somewhat recently.

Shortly before a momentous escalation, SAP and the user association DSAG have agreed on a provisional licensing model. Whether the solution delivers what SAP and DSAG promise should be clarified by the end of the year, because DSAG e. V. praises in anticipatory obedience without giving details.

SAP is aware of its "license debt" and is trying tentative repair service behavior without losing face. But SAP CEO Bill McDermott has too many construction sites for quick answers. The next escalation threatens around a possible "Native Hana Developer".

Initially it was an option: All SAP existing customers out of AWS, MS Azure and Google Cloud Platform! US Cloud Act including DSGVO is an attack on European SAP users.

Open source technologies and SAP solutions form a powerful duo that companies can no longer ignore on the path to digital transformation today.

This year's Annual General Meeting of Shareholders of SAP SE was held on Thursday, May 17, at the SAP Arena in Mannheim, Germany. The complete event was broadcast as a livestream on the web by SAP. Very remarkable were the speeches of the shareholder representatives and the answers of the chairman of the supervisory board Hasso Plattner as well as the executive board.

Hasso Plattner wants to lead his existing customers into the age of digital transformation. The ideas of what is innovative and what is digital diverge.

In purchasing, service procurement is considered the supreme discipline. However, the SAP standard is not sufficient for seamless digitization of collaboration with suppliers.

What does the gasoline receipt in Italy have in common with the VAT return in Hungary? Both must be transmitted electronically to the local tax authorities as of July 1 of this year.

After decades of research, the breakthrough of AI is imminent. It offers companies that rely on data and AI-driven technologies both enormous revenue opportunities and crucial competitive advantages.

Support for SAP SRM will expire in 2025. As a result, companies will have to reimage their complex purchasing processes, some of which have been built up over many years. The solution: S/4 Hana and SAP Ariba - in combination.

Live or online patching of the Linux kernel in the enterprise environment is already a reality - without typical system stop-and-go scenarios. Sophisticated management software acts as an additional benefit provider.

Everyone is talking about AI. But where are the people? I am convinced that human creativity, decision-making ability, intuition and experience have a firm place in the financial sector of tomorrow - perhaps even more than ever.

SolMan is the central tool for managing the entire SAP system landscape. Especially in the life sciences, the effort for implementing the regulatory requirements according to GAMP 5 can be significantly reduced.

If you believe the message from the DSAG Technology Days, S/4 AnyDB is dead. At least that's what my staff report says. SAP will be happy about that. But who will save the community now? Perhaps an implementation of the NetWeaver stack in the Oracle cloud?

Fake News or Disclaimer? It seems very easy to spread Fake News when all responsibility is stripped away and ignored. Perhaps the lack of responsibility is one reason for the tsunami of fake news: What do I care about yesterday's gossip?

Cyber security has continued to grow in importance in recent years. The reason for this is the current threat situation. It is estimated that there are 45 million cyber attacks worldwide per year, or 85 attacks per minute.

Every company is currently dealing with the topic of S/4 Hana by necessity. For its existing customers, SAP has announced that it will guarantee the old SAP Enterprise maintenance until 2025. But what comes after that?

SAP was a revolution in terms of its technical and business approach. The company and its relationship with existing customers have largely evolved. SAP is not a quick fix, so historical knowledge is a guarantee for future success.

Currently, companies are using AI and machine learning (ML) to primarily improve customer loyalty and customer experience. Expectations are raised by ML-based churn prediction solutions to prevent customer churn.

It's like the fable of the hare and the hedgehog. Until now, companies have been under the impression that internal information is better protected in-house than in the cloud.

The GDPR creates a new balance between companies and consumers. Only those who manage to build irresistible worlds of experience for the customer, whose "share of vallet" strategy will continue to work in the future.

SAP obviously believes that its own existing customers are stupid and inexperienced. A usage-based business model is the first step toward self-sacrifice.

The term digitization plays an important role in the coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and the SPD. However, it lacks the economically and politically necessary reorientation of IT policy toward innovation and trustworthiness.

With clever moves, SAP lures its existing customers into an inescapable dependency. An oligarchy becomes an ERP, database and cloud monopoly.

More and more large and very large companies are moving to S/4 Hana. To what extent does Suse Linux SLES for SAP support this group of SAP users with their large, complex SAP systems?

Concur becomes SAP Concur: About three years after the largest acquisition in SAP history, the seamless technical integration is now also expressed in the brand identity.

When the first Focused Solutions presentations took place at SAP events, there was a lot of unrest in the SolMan community. Was the end of SolMan imminent? Was it to be replaced by a paid solution?

Whether the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is overdue, just in time, or overshoots the mark will keep legal and IT experts busy for a long time to come. But one thing is already certain: online loses and print wins!

Many cooks spoil the broth and relationship management was once upon a time. In our IT procurement and controlling departments, SAP is like a pigeon coop: a constant coming and going. And what remains is ...

In complex companies, CFOs need more technology to make decisions effectively, in addition to a functioning strategy. This gives CFOs a more active role in shaping strategy and corporate governance.

The interaction between the Industrial IoT (IIoT) and the ERP is one of the major construction sites for IT managers. It is a basic prerequisite for digitizing workflows and automating processes.

Artificial intelligence is currently heralding a global trend reversal. Even though it is still in its infancy, companies should already be addressing the topic of AI now. Otherwise, they will be left behind in just a few years.

In the past, some SAP customers had to make subsequent license requests based on license terms that could be found in the SAP PKL but had not been actively communicated.

Those who don't start building up SAP licensing expertise now will regret it when they migrate to S/4 at the latest. The British beverage company Diageo could have saved itself a lot of problems and money if it had known the true story of indirect use. The facts have been on the table since 2005.

There's no such thing as no cloud anymore: our private lives are already dominated by the cloud. Imagine an HR leader who drives Tesla. Her Tesla knows her calendar entries, her driving style, what music she listens to, where she travels, if and when she is tired, and who she talks to most often on the phone.

SAP has a long-known behavioral disorder: impatience. No sooner has a new idea been born than the existing customer is expected to license it. Corrections and bug fixes then happen during operations.

Mobile applications and in-memory computing are now used in a variety of forms. In view of these progressive developments, consulting firms are constantly faced with new tasks and challenges.

Digital innovations are unthinkable without digital technologies. Open source solutions are an accelerator. Digitization should therefore include a platform strategy that combines them with agile ways of working.

This sentence is not a leftover carnival joke, but a recommendation from SAP note 2586312 regarding Meltdown, Spectre and Hana. Who knows of an operational Hana server that can be patched and rebooted on the fly?

SAP's Walldorf is close by - more of that later. Trump's America is too far away for me to be able to judge what is happening there from my own perspective. So I have to rely on hearsay:

The trend in IT is clearly pointing in the direction of IoT, Industry 4.0 and the processing of huge volumes of data in in-memory databases - as with Hana. The requirements of the EU Data Protection Regulation must be taken into account right from the start.

For Christmas, I received an Atmos from Jaeger LeCoultre from my wife. For an engineer and all watch lovers, there can be no better gift. Matrix and SAP's Fiori are also about the energy issue.

Many existing SAP customers are completing or initiating the Hana or S/4 Hana transition this year - which also means using Linux in the future. An assessment of the current situation.

Changed and new business models, innovative technologies, collaboration across company boundaries, digitized processes, Big Data, data security and, last but not least, a modern, cloud-based ERP system are currently on everyone's lips.

Permanently growing volumes of data of every color and computing capacities that are cheaply available everywhere: These are the two factors that are propelling us into the age of machine learning. Are companies ready for it?

SAP plans to enforce a license condition on its customers in the new year 2018, which is already included in the Price and Conditions List (PKL) 2017/4 on page 25.

A few years ago, core competence was a popular term. Then, imperceptibly, the paradigm shift began. More and more often, every IT provider could do everything. Differentiation appears impossible for the user. There is a lack of orientation and credibility.

Energy suppliers are waiting with bated breath: SAP finally wants to serve the energy industry with S/4 from 2018. The IT tasks of an energy supplier are currently extremely diverse.

Cloud solutions, if they become established, will revolutionize the IT industry. System houses will have to radically change their character if they want to continue to exist. Innovation and customer leadership will become massively more important.

Good CEO Bill McDermott wants to go to heaven with SAP Cloud Platform. Bad SAP customers are going everywhere, including AWS, Google and MS Azure cloud - and HCM on-premise.

How can a cloud infrastructure for SAP midmarket be built based on OpenStack that is optimized for short provisioning times? Suse, Thomas Krenn and FIS-ASP have created an offer for the midmarket.

When SAP uses great visionaries like Leonardo da Vinci to communicate something new, it's worth taking a closer look to see if these topics can put a Mona Lisa-like smile on our faces.

SAP customers who have always relied on High Availability and Disaster Recovery will not want to do without them when it comes to Hana or Hana-based solutions. A look behind the scenes at how HA/DR utilization works.

Alarm among IT security experts: the breakthrough of quantum computers may become a mortal threat to conventional encryption methods. Post-quantum cryptography is the order of the day.

Defined development processes can be precisely planned and controlled with a method for fast and low-risk implementation until handover - on Hybris.

In a complex world, dialog is often the first step toward a sustainable solution. In the best case, this results in a discourse that provides a successful roadmap over many years.

No! There will be no SAP's act of courtesy towards European existing customers, developers and analysts in 2018 either. Europe has become SAP's "cash cow." Communication takes place elsewhere.

In the course of the Internet of Things and Industry 4.0, data has become a factor that is decisive for competition. Data management also plays a central role in the SAP environment.

There is a lot of hype in the technology community right now around the recent explosion of blockchain use cases that extend far beyond the financial industry.

Many companies still see no benefit in cloud computing and wonder how, in a world of dynaxity where rates of change are growing in leaps and bounds, the cloud alone will provide the solution.

SAP is always good for a surprise. The "roadmap" for add-ons, Z-functions and modifications is schizophrenic. The direction of travel turns like a flag in the wind.

AI promises more efficient and faster operations through a higher level of automation - also in customer service. This guest article shows how humans and machines will work together in the contact center in the future.

Once again, SAP CEO Bill McDermott is not moving fast enough. Hana and S/4 should have been ticked off and standard long ago. SAP Cloud Platform is the order of the day and Leonardo should be the revelation.

For months, DSAG and SAP have been in talks about how to deal with the contentious issue of the "NetWeaver Foundation For Third Party Applications" in the future.

Companies are under immense pressure to rapidly transform their existing business into the digital age and to develop and launch new models in parallel.

There is a certain amount of catching up to do for SAP users when it comes to digitization. The new DSAG survey brought this to light. Infrastructure innovation for this - standards based on open source - is available. You just have to use them.

"Do it or don't do it. There is no try!", Yoda in the Star Wars movie "The Empire Strikes Back". When upgrading to SolMan 7.2, you also have exactly one try when activating content.

Customers today decide spontaneously how and where to shop and do not follow predefined touchpoints. The key to successfully addressing customers lies in personalized offers via the channels that are relevant to them.

"Yes, I said, Cebit, what's up? The time is ripe for new styles," says Jan Delay. The Cebit organizers think so too, by the way.

The robots are coming - at least in the form of semi-autonomous programs that further automate ERP business processes. One possible result: SAP's ERP suite S/7 and S/4 lose their luster and attractiveness.

SAP is a table-driven application. The contents of these tables are the starting point for forensic data analysis in the SAP system. In the following, some principles and tools of forensic data analysis will be presented.

The software audit is regarded as the spectre of IT: a measurement of the SAP license inventory followed by contract negotiations without reliable information about which licenses are available and how they are actually used.

Many use standard software, with systems standard components. It has always been like this: I tell the system provider what I want. If something doesn't work, I open a ticket. But can my problem also be solved quickly?

The trend towards using more and more cloud services in companies is still continuing. The advantages of "Software as a Service (SaaS)" offerings are also increasingly recognized and appreciated in the DACH region.

SAP users can actually look forward to the upcoming EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR) with peace of mind.

Almost every organization, scene and community has its own secret language. This doesn't have to mean anything bad. Often, the point of a "secret language" is the desire to communicate efficiently and quickly.

Even at the DSAG annual congress in Bremen, the issue of indirect use was not adequately resolved. Who will have to pay for licenses in the future and what do existing customers know about SAP's plans.

Autonomous cars, digital assistants or chatbots: AI is currently changing many industries and departments. So far, AI has been used most frequently in the IT department - with far-reaching consequences for SAP experts.

Without knowing it, companies have already made the start for Industry 4.0. They have valuable data at their disposal. To use it innovatively, they can learn from startups and combine the benefits with their own resources.

Attacks like WannaCry have shown that conventional protection measures are often inadequate. To increase security, greater focus should be placed on user rights management and application control.

Since the end of August, I have been firmly convinced that artificial intelligence, or machines, will very soon destroy thousands of jobs - at least to my benefit.

At Sapphire, SAP unveiled its development strategy for Demand-Driven MRP. This supports a concept that finally adapts supply chain planning to business realities. For many SAP users, this is still uncharted territory.

With the availability of Hana 2.0 and Suse Linux SLES for SAP 12 on Hana-on-Power (HoP) systems, byte order processing has been changed from Big to Little Endian. What this means.

About a year ago, Microsoft and Suse deepened their partnership at a meeting in the USA. SAP brought together two IT companies that could become support and competition for the ERP world market leader from Walldorf.

The regular, sometimes surprising license measurements are a thing of the past. With Leonardo Machine Learning, SAP makes ERP life easier for existing customers.

ERP can also be a musical chairs. When the music stops playing, you may not find a seat. SAP is still playing funny.

Seamless integration of new software into an existing program such as SAP saves time and money. Modernization and inclusion in existing systems via interfaces prevents the business from having to adapt existing software.

In the long term, artificial intelligence will change our lives extremely significantly. Many people are unclear when this future will dawn, but the fact is that it has already begun.

The other day, the license manager of a company called me and asked for support. The license measurement was just around the corner and he wanted to get a few more tricks and recommendations from me so that he would not experience any nasty surprises.

S/4 Hana Enterprise Management has been on the market since November 2015 and maps all relevant business processes of an integrated company from Release 1610 at the latest. Nevertheless, there are many unanswered questions that particularly concern companies that are still using SAP ERP ECC 6.0, 4.7 or even SAP R/3.

Often, when I ask SAP ecosystem CEOs or executives to what extent open source is used in their company, I get the answer, "WE don't use any!"

Big Data is increasingly becoming a fundamental part of the operational system landscape. Structuring the Big Data architecture and integrating it with the existing process-oriented SAP world are crucial for success.

Maintenance for SAP Solution Manager 7.1 will end at the end of 2017. IT users should now use the remaining time to make the switch promptly.

SAP Ariba cooperates with Mercateo in Europe for its Spot Buy feature and uses its B2B networking platform Unite as infrastructure. This enables a shopping-like experience for non-strategic purchasing.

A few months ago, I was sitting in a hotel bar in Amsterdam with the CEO of an SAP partner. I was talking about our fifteen-plus years of educational work in the SAP community, the ups and downs of producing a monthly magazine, writer's block, and real and imagined media crises.

In July 2015, the Act to Increase the Security of Information Technology Systems (IT Security Act) came into force. This article explains the requirements that the new IT Security Act places on website operators.

Hana 2.0 represents a whole series of further developments or changes. Also regarding the usage as well as the support matrix of Suse Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications.

"Usually, when people hear just words, they think there must be something to think about." I think nothing when I hear SAP CEO Bill McDermott talk about "run simple".

The last will be the first. The last R/3 users who customize the promised Hana beyond 2020 will get a mature, stable version X. Everyone else is a guinea pig.

Today, corporate success depends more than ever on future-oriented HR work that uses harmonized data, processes and KPIs. This can only succeed if HR data is managed centrally in a modern cloud solution, defined KPIs exist across all locations, and the process is supported by a competent partner.

After importing the latest Support Package Stack (SPS), Hana reports to the existing customer with, "The doomed greet you!"

With the open source Drupal content management system, companies can extract data from their SAP systems and use it for interactive customer communication, such as service portals or predictive maintenance.

Faster, bigger, better. The digital age, as the last two decades are being paraphrased, puts the focus for companies on one main feature: speed. This poses new challenges for IT in particular.

Digitization and networking have already entered the minds of decision-makers for use in production and logistics, but marketing and sales still skillfully evade digitization and thus (again) measurability.

Workers in many industries today worry about robots taking their jobs. Paul Roehrig, Chief Strategy Officer, Cognizant, advises taking a pragmatic view of artificial intelligence.

After all, everything was supposed to be simpler and more understanding. In 2015, the motto of the Sapphire keynotes was "Run Simple" and "Make Digital Simple. In 2016 and 2017, SAP CEO Bill McDermott spoke of "Empathy" in Orlando.

An open letter: Dear Dr. Leukert, the SAP community and the E-3 editorial team have known you for many years as an innovative, technology-savvy executive. You have done and continue to do great things for SAP's existing customers. But your presentations no longer resonate. In short: We don't understand you!

A few years ago, I checked the authorization concept of a plant manufacturer with several thousand employees - and what did I find? The buyers of one plant could trigger payment runs in the other plants of the company.

Customers don't want to be inundated with stimuli, but want to be understood and inspired with emotional content that is relevant to them. Personalization is therefore no longer a trend, but a duty.

At SAP Cloud Platform, the DevOps model for application development and deployment is a fact. Linux plays just as important a role here as OpenStack and Cloud Foundry, and recently also the virtualization topic of containers.

Under the leadership of Bill McDermott, SAP is moving forward quickly. This obviously pleases Hasso Plattner. However, we existing customers are not always aware of the direction. Speed and real-time are replacing necessary directional decisions and strategies at SAP.

Requirements management with SolMan 7.2 enables the control of change management for innovations requested by the business departments in the company and thus forms an important interface between the business department and IT.

SAP is dismantling its own ecosystem because the executive board believes that partners and allies are no longer needed in a cloud-first world. The existing customer in the cloud is a source of money and no longer a friend and discussion partner.

Industry 4.0, as it is called by the Industry 4.0 platform jointly controlled by the Federal Ministry of Economics and the Federal Ministry of Research, dovetails production with state-of-the-art information and communication technology.

Industry 4.0 will only succeed if digital planning reflects the reality in production as accurately as possible and production control reacts quickly to deviations.

When Professor Hasso Plattner and former Chief Technology Officer Vishal Sikka presented the "revolutionary" Hana many years ago, the message was: no version numbers, eternal compatibility, never again release changes.

The Internet of Things, social media and the analysis of web traffic are generating ever greater volumes of data - Big Data par excellence. Solutions like Hadoop are predestined for this. How can performance be increased even further?

More and more companies are taking up the cause of machine learning, and intelligent machines are more than ever a topic of public discussion. Yet the concept of machine learning is fundamentally not new. So why the hype?

Time and again, we find that one of the main causes of overlicensing among our SAP customers is inadequate SAP user management. However, this is the basis for correct licensing because it can be used to determine the exact number of SAP users required in the landscape.

While cloud computing has gradually arrived in German SMEs, it is still not an issue for one in ten German companies. For them, Jan Leufgens has summarized the basic considerations when taking the step into the cloud.

No one can hold a candle to SAP when it comes to business software. When it comes to ERP, SAP is unmatched. Its S/7 and S/4 business processes are unbeatable. McDermott is leaving this virtuous path.

At regular intervals, we critically and constructively scrutinize our paper's line. With our numerous comments from members of the SAP scene, we are clearly number one: We are the opinion of the SAP community!

Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently a hot topic. However, opinions about it differ.

The recent decision in SAP UK v. Diageo Great Britain is just one of several software licensing disputes that major manufacturers are fighting out with their customers in court.

An idea becomes a nightmare. The Internet of Things is a good concept, but in real life it's a monster that's almost impossible to control. An internal conference of IT and production managers in our group revealed some astonishing facts.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently one of the top topics in IT. An amazing career for a term that has long been virulent, but in the past mostly led a shadowy existence in lecture halls or laboratories.

Many established companies face an innovation dilemma. They have to combine their proven business processes with innovative ideas and implement them quickly. How can they reconcile this with the old world? The solution is two-speed IT, or as Gartner calls it: bimodal IT.

Anyone following the flow of information on the current legal situation regarding the deletion and blocking of personal data will inevitably be led to the SAP ILM business function and the question of the feasibility of data protection aspects in SAP systems.

SAP has long been attuned to the networked factory and production units that communicate via the cloud. The SAP Manufacturing Suite solutions integrate the ERP landscape with production processes of the Industry 4.0 era.

With the Business Process Change Analyzer, SolMan provides a tool that sheds light on the relevant scope of testing. This paves the way towards "smart testing".

Many SAP customers operate extensive, complex SAP landscapes that have grown over the years and see Hana as an opportunity to catapult themselves into the future. But the change is also a strategic, organizational and technological break.

There are quite a number of existing SAP customers who have had little to do with open source up to now. But without knowing it, they are indirectly using Linux, OpenStack, or Cloud Foundry.

If you want, you can obtain Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) services, such as Hana in combination with Suse SLES for SAP Applications, from three public cloud industry heavyweights or cloud platforms: Amazon/AWS, Microsoft/Azure, and Google/GCP.

During his Sapphire keynote this year, Professor Hasso Plattner praised his CEO Bill McDermott for a run-simple campaign - but the praise was not convincing.

There will not be a DB "Hana" monoculture. Executives from the SAP community confirm: An AnyDB strategy is being evaluated. With diplomatic words, an SAP defeat is transfigured into a success for the community: DB freedom of choice for all!

And a summer party will not save the IT spectacle. It didn't have to come to this, but arrogance, ignorance and short-sightedness have prevented any positive development of the trade fair concept.

The English mathematician and logician Alan Turing (1912 to 1954) developed a test to evaluate whether the computer can simulate a thinking ability similar to or sufficient for humans.

Digital transformation is revolutionizing every aspect of business, from operational processes to customer engagement. Like so much else, purchasing is now digital. There is no way back.

In addition to the smart factory, smart intralogistics is considered a central building block for Industry 4.0. The development of "smart" internal logistics requires a holistic concept and competent advice.

SAP regularly expands the functional scope of its products, also with regard to security components. Staying "up to date" is essential here, as the fundamental security of SAP systems depends on it.

When it comes to IT attacks, the first question on outsiders' minds is who is to blame. People want to assign an attack to a perpetrator, at least in their minds.

The maintenance period for Solution Manager 7.1 (SolMan 7.1) ends this year. For companies that, like life science companies, have to meet special regulatory requirements, the end of maintenance and the changeover to the new version are special challenges.

Anyone who programs dynamic analytics applications wants to be able to use open source and commercial software non-dogmatically as needed. Software manufacturers and open source communities must enter into dialog.

SAP data centers are increasingly transforming into software-defined data centers. In addition to Linux, OpenStack, and Suse Manager, Suse is now working with partners to provide the Ceph-based SDS solution Suse Enterprise Storage for Hana deployment.

From SAP's point of view, charging a license and maintenance fee for indirect use is a sensible precaution. For partners and existing customers, however, it is an obligation that threatens their very existence.

Regardless of the disasters and mistakes with Hana and S/4, SAP is determined to now build a Hana monoculture after years of R/3 pluralism - SAP is cleaning up its act. While SAP's cloud program becomes more and more chaotic: Amazon, Google, Microsoft or SAP itself?

More and more companies are now realizing how important it is to license and manage software correctly. For some time now, the focus has been on indirect use - for SAP customers, this is the biggest risk factor in licensing.

Of course - everyone is moving to the cloud. Users because they are convinced of the benefits of outsourced infrastructure and applications or because they have been convinced by resourceful providers.