Does the SAP way have a goal?

From FUEs to BTP

How good, how bad is SAP? Where is SAP heading? We don't know, because SAP hardly communicates with the SAP community. There are webinars and newsletters, but no discourse that explains the way forward. The Viennese philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 to 1951) coined the term discourse, among other things. He also called this type of communication a language game, which is a little confusing at first. Adults do not play. However, Wittgenstein believed that any meaningful communication also needs rules, i.e. rules of the game. What rules does SAP play by?

In the Tractatus logico-philosophicus, Wittgenstein wrote: "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent. Naturally, he did not mean that there is something to keep quiet about, but that only those topics should be discussed that can be meaningfully talked about, i.e. facts that can be objectively and scientifically proven. So should the SAP community have a discussion about SAP's license model FUE, Full Usage Equivalent? And what is the SAP Business Technology Platform?

Full Usage Equivalent

For many years, the DSAG user association has been calling for a sensible price list, i.e. a logically constructed SAP price list that is easy to understand. SAP fails every quarter with the many user types and engine prices. The Excel version of the price list has long since become a table monster. The associated license measurements regularly add to the misery.

With a three-page specialist article in E3 May 2024 and specialist presentations and discussions at the SAP Competence Center Summit On June 5 and 6 in Salzburg, we will once again try to shed light on the SAP PKL (List of Prices and Conditions). There may be a lottery prize hidden in these Salzburg discourses: If the PKL is used correctly, existing SAP customers can avoid high license fees!

Business Technology Platform

This SAP platform has no standardized rules, so a language game (discourse) does not seem to be possible. In a keynote speech at the end of February in Heidelberg, Wolfram Jost from the Scheer Group denied BTP any right to exist as a platform. It is a wonderful collection of individual and useful functions, but they all obey their own rules. What is missing is the common ground, what ultimately makes a platform. According to Wolfram Jost, there is no discourse on all S/4 challenges and necessary modifications on the SAP Business Technology Platform.

Roadmap without discourse

SAP is marching ahead, but is not saying where the journey will lead. Existing SAP customers will find AI and the cloud in their luggage, which can be good or bad. SAP does not explain itself. Even the user association DSAG seems at a loss as to which way to go, and in a recent survey its members attest to the global ERP market leader's declining relevance.

The global market leader for standard business software is in a bad way. SAP has lost its compass and Head of Strategy Sebastian Steinhäuser believes he has a vision. He is even failing spectacularly when it comes to self-reflection and the need to improve communication! In response to a simple question from my colleague at Manager Magazin, Christina Kyriasoglou, he answers "truthfully". Is your journey getting easier now? "We've learned a lot over the last three years, we wouldn't do everything the same again, but the journey has basically gone in exactly the right direction."

So now Head of Strategy Sebastian Steinhäuser himself says that it is "the last three years" (not the last few years). Then he will probably no longer need a clear plan for "how we want to take SAP to the next level". Read here the interview, but don't be alarmed by the state of SAP.

The latest from SAP

The linguistic distinction between "last week I went to the movies again" and "last week" may seem pedantic at first glance. But what if the hard-working ERP programmers at SAP were just as imprecise with the abap commands? Software quality is a valuable asset. Algorithms are created according to well-formed rules (syntax). The language game shapes the semantics, i.e. the content. SAP should value both syntax and semantics when communicating with the community.