SAP Ecosystem Helps U.S. Firms Catch Up On Sustainability

The 2022 ISG Provider Lens SAP Ecosystem report for the U.S. finds companies face growing pressure on sustainability but find it hard to hire enough experts to meet those expectations. They look to service providers for the expertise they need, especially in high-demand segments such as SAP solutions for sustainability.

One reason for the shortage of sustainability talent is that the U.S. is still catching up to Europe, where the trend toward decarbonization emerged earlier, ISG says. European experience and case studies should help global SAP service providers assist U.S. firms.

The next big innovation driving the market for SAP’s ERP offerings will be the expansion of IoT to capture and analyze data for insights relevant to environmental, social and governance (ESG) objectives, the report says. SAP ecosystem partners are collaborating more with SAP to create sustainability solutions such as carbon footprint analysis, supply-chain track-and-trace capabilities, and route optimization.

Many U.S. enterprises are aggressively pursuing digital transformation and increasing their use of SAP applications in the process, primarily in the cloud. ISG research shows adoption of S/4 Hana is up from last year among both large and mid-sized companies.