Hallelujah Or Hanalujah?

The most recent Investment Report of the German-speaking SAP user group DSAG shows a mixed landscape for 2021. Despite (or rather, because of) the pandemic, companies are planning to invest more in their IT and SAP systems. Acceptance of Hana and S/4 is growing slowly, but steadily. With a few more SAP innovations and some patience, the finish line 2030 comes in sight.

Excitement about cloud computing is still a ways off, though. Former co-CEOs Bill McDermott and Jim Hagemann Snabe tried their best to convince SAP customers of its merits, but to no avail. Most remained in their own datacenters where they still reside to this day.

DSAG’s Investment Report 2021 shows that cloud computing is still far from inciting excitement in customers. Of course, there are scenarios where CIO and CFO will want to leverage the advantages of the cloud. If maximum agility, flexibility, and speed are the order of the day, SAP customers usually opt for cloud solutions; according to DSAG, they prefer Microsoft Azure over AWS and Google Cloud. However, the full potential of S/4 functionality has yet to be unleashed in the cloud – no Hanalujah for now, then.

SAP CEO Christian Klein believes in cloud computing and tries to gently nudge his customers into that direction. The love-hate relationship most customers have with SAP APO can now be experienced in the cloud with IBP, Integrated Business Planning, but it remains to be seen if this will satisfy customers. Concerning HCM, SAP has committed to on premises. For the time being, most customers have the best (and the worst) of both worlds. Let’s see how it will play out.