Licensed bots, IoT, AI and blockchain

SAP and DSAG have jointly failed in their educational work. The latest survey by the user association not only clearly shows that ERP/ECC 6.0 with AnyDB is still high on the agenda, but also that existing customers hardly perceive anything of SAP's "innovations" - and don't understand them anyway! The delta between DSAG working groups and SAP reality is large.

The digital transformation affects organizational, business, and technical issues. This revolution in information technology and in the organizational structure and workflows of almost all existing SAP customers can only be managed jointly, transparently and in partnership. Instead, there is an "egoism" in the IT community that knows only one goal: more sales!

Numerous existing customers from the SAP community complained to E-3 Magazine about SAP's increasingly "sales-oriented" behavior. The common tenor: In the past, when the SAP sales representative came to the company, there were interesting technical discussions and, naturally, another license deal; today, the sales representative immediately puts SAP's price list on the table and talks about indirect use and sublicensing. A meaningful technical discussion about upgrades, version changes and cloud alternatives is not possible.

Even in its own house, SAP seems to be neglecting educational work among sales staff. Numerous experts and analysts confirmed to E-3 Magazine SAP's "radical" focus on selling, selling, and selling on-premise licenses (indirect use) and cloud computing.

But it is precisely now that SAP's existing customers need intensive advice on their ERP architecture and licensing model. The digital transformation is massively expanding the spectrum and area of application of ERP.

Bots, IoT, AI and blockchain are representative here and are merely the tip of the iceberg: blockchain is an almost infinite chain of certificates that reside on users' computers around the world.

• does an SAP's blockchain make this user chain indirect users?
• Will every IoT sensor and every M2M communication require a license from SAP?
• Does a bot using Leonardo Machine Learning (AI) also need to purchase the SAP Professional User license at 3200 euros?

SAP and DSAG were unable to answer any of these questions at the annual congress in Bremen. And the opening presentations given there by the two most important protagonists - DSAG CEO Marco Lenck and SAP Chief Technology Officer Bernd Leukert - were hardly illuminating in this regard.

Marco Lenck reported that S/4 is now also running under his CIO responsibility at his employer - with evasive criticism from SAP partners present: With so much support from SAP, you get S/4 running everywhere.

But even SAP's Chief Technology Officer Bernd Leukert was able to contribute very little to general enlightenment, understanding and educational work this year - you weren't allowed to listen closely during his opening lecture!

His comments on the topic of "SAP Data Hub" showed that IoT data comes to Hana via (Apache) Kafka and using Vora. It is correct that there is an Apache Kafka Connect Framework for connecting to SAP systems (Hana Smart Data Streaming).

But on GitHub, where the open source Apache Kafka interface is available for download, it also says: Currently only SAP Hana is supported. Support for SAP Hana Vora (In-memory and Disk Engine) to be added.

The inaccuracy with the open source product Kafka and its availability with respect to Vora may be an oversight and is certainly forgivable in the overall context.

But why is it not possible to speak truthfully, transparently and helpfully in front of experts and professionals at such an important and meaningful event as the DSAG Annual Congress - instead, smoke candles are lit and the real problems are not discussed. My response: SAP CEO Bill McDermott has issued revenue targets, so transparent educational work is just a disruptive factor!