Inexorable march of progress at SAP threatens to leave users behind

Nearly a quarter of SAP users in its European heartlands say they cannot keep up with technological, social or economic advances.

Research by the German-speaking SAP user group (DSAG), which includes members from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, found that only 11 percent of respondents can easily match the pace of change, including digital transformation, social media, and AI. Fifty-nine percent said they can keep up to some extent, while 24 percent said they cannot, according to the survey of 228 CIOs and technology managers.

SAP has spent the past year or more integrating AI features into its S/4HANA ERP platform, available only in the private cloud edition. DSAG called for these features to be available in the on-premises edition of its technology, and has also asked for more appropriate and transparent pricing models based on the maturity level and scope of AI functionality.

The organization also requested greater detail in the use cases presented by SAP to justify AI investment. "After all, there needs to be clear added value in the form of viable business cases for each of these use cases. We are in very close contact with SAP in this regard," said Jens Hungershausen, chair of DSAG's board.

SAP's efforts to whet its users' appetite for AI investment were met with muted response, according to the survey conducted over August and September. Only 1 percent said they see themselves as experts in SAP's approach to AI, while none felt confident with the generative AI technology, Joule. Thirty-two percent said they are not up to date with SAP business AI, and 35 percent said they are not up to date with Joule.

Users are demanding greater transparency and clarity about where AI is used and what data it is based on - 92 percent of respondents said it was important or very important for SAP to provide these elements.

DSAG urged SAP to provide reference architectures, best practice guides, and standards for integration scenarios and technologies, including uniform regulations for the integration of AI models in SAP applications and data usage.

Last year, DSAG said SAP's plans to make innovation such as AI available only in the public and private cloud threatened to breach trust with its German-speaking users as it seemed to contradict a 2020 statement from the vendor saying that it would support S/4HANA until 2040, with no specific mention of deployment infrastructure.

SAP CEO Christian Klein responded in September last year, saying it would continue to localize and maintain more than 200 ERP versions in more than 130 countries on S/4HANA, spending billions of euros in the process.

But "strategic" innovation, such as the introduction of generative AI into enterprise systems, could only be achieved in the cloud, he said. ®