Are SAP’s CCoEs Still Necessary?

Well, at least at the very beginning, it was called CCC. Later, it was renamed Customer Center of Expertise (CCoE). The idea remained the same, and on-prem customers benefitted from it. However, it seems as though SAP thinks that CCoEs are no longer necessary in the cloud era.

Some existing SAP customers disagree. For example, in our German September issue, there was a powerful commentary by Johannes Szalachy imploring customers to fight for the continued existence of the CCoE. Regardless of the operating model, SAP customers need this concept to provide optimal support for their own employees. CCoEs are some of the most important interfaces between users and SAP. Everyone benefits from a well-managed CCoE. SAP seems to have forgotten that – or is willfully ignoring it for its own benefit.

Things have changed

When at first an SAP sales representative talked to the responsible SAP manager of a prospective or existing customer, SAP has switched gears in recent years. Having grown tired of factual licensing discussions and well-prepared arguments, SAP decided to bypass the IT and ERP experts entirely, instead opting to negotiate with specialist departments. The task of salespeople became significantly easier: They only had to demonstrate what was possible, not what was feasible. No critical questions meant less focus on facts and more admiration for SAP’s magic tricks.

The competence the CCoE offered customers was more disturbing than helpful for SAP. From SAP’s perspective, the CCoE became a critical disruptive factor, since it also armed specialist departments with the necessary know-how to ask critical questions. This development has only accelerated with the advent of cloud computing and the resulting license transformation. For S/4 conversion or the move to the cloud, for both of which SAP depends on customers’ goodwill, the CCoE might be seen as more of a hindrance than a help.

When all of SAP’s licenses, data, algorithms, and add-ons are on the Business Technology Platform and SAP customers are one hundred percent dependent on SAP – then yes, customers really won’t need CCoE anymore. Then SAP can show its tricks without the risk of criticism, without objections from the CCoE and without objections from the CIO. Which makes it all the more crucial to keep fighting for it.