SAP chief Christian Klein has spoken out in favor of a digital ministry before the general election. He was disappointed with how little had been said in the previous debate about the important topic of digitization, he said at a press conference before the annual congress of the customer association DSAG. In addition to the Corona warning app, SAP have made other suggestions to combat the pandemic. A program for the occupancy of intensive care beds, for example, or one to control subsidies for restaurant operators. He would wish he didn’t have to speak to eight ministries about it. In order to advance digitization, it takes “courage and leadership from above”.
The conditions in Germany – administration, universities, health care – are actually very good. What is missing is a change in awareness. As an example, he cited the discussion about the corona warning app co-developed by SAP. “35 million people voluntarily share their data on Facebook, and we are seriously discussing whether we should share the data for the pandemic with the health authorities.” In Germany, data has to be talked about less emotionally and more fact-based. Klein, the son of a CDU member of the state parliament, said he had already voted by letter. Who, he doesn’t say.
The meeting of the DSAG shows, however, that digitization is not progressing as quickly as hoped, even among SAP users and thus in large parts of the economy. The potential has not yet been exhausted, said DSAG CEO Jens Hungershausen about the customer survey traditionally carried out before the meeting. “The acceptance of cloud solutions in the applications can still be expanded.”
According to Hungershausen, IT budgets were not as badly affected by the pandemic as feared last year. Nevertheless, Corona has led to a dilemma. Many companies are currently concerned with securing their livelihoods, they lack the courage to make changes. “The momentum of 2020 has waned.” Confident of making rapid progress with digitization are only 54 percent of the companies surveyed by the DSAG. In the previous year it was 61 percent. Conversely, it can be seen that the number of those who, according to their own assessment, is making slow progress with digitization has risen from 34 to 38 percent.
According to its own information, the DSAG represents 3700 companies and is therefore the most important yardstick for SAP in the German-speaking area. Again, the association expresses criticism of the integration efforts of the group. A year ago, Klein pulled the rip cord in a remarkable strategy swing and promised to first integrate the solutions that had been purchased for more than 30 billion euros before making further acquisitions. In response to pressure from existing customers, the promise of integration also applied to so-called “on-premise” solutions, i.e. programs that are not rented via the cloud, but are conventionally installed on the customers’ computers.
Change is needed
In the survey, however, only 28 percent of the companies rate the status of integration as good. 14 percent each named it inadequate or even inadequate. Hungershausen said the result should be a wake-up call for SAP.
Klein, who has been much more accommodating to old customers than his predecessor Bill McDermott, was disgruntled. SAP has made great strides with the integration, but now customers also have to migrate their systems. After all, Apple does not provide every new development for an old iPhone 6 either. The most important SAP competitors have already said goodbye to on-premise solutions.
In Klein’s words, SAP continues to offer customers a lot of support. The specially launched “Rise” migration program has been very well received. He knows from his own experience what efforts are necessary in such a transformation. As the responsible head of department, he also had to “break through some walls” at SAP.
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Klein was convinced that the future lies in the cloud. In order to exploit the full potential, it is not enough to technically migrate the software. A comprehensive adaptation of the business processes is required, he said. “The change must take place holistically.”
He cited climate change as an example of the possibilities offered by data management in the cloud. Today all entrepreneurs talked about climate targets, “but very few know their carbon footprint”. Using a cloud-based business network, however, it is possible to record the CO2 emissions of suppliers and transport companies and to include them in your own balance sheet.
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