2020 Tech Challenges - SAP’s Approach is on Growth and Operational Efficiency

When I started to think about 2020 technology challenges, I did not anticipate a global pandemic to test us as severely as it has so far. In my recently posted article about the Global Pandemic, a Supersized Stress Test for any CIO organization I provided some insights into how SAP is leveraging disaster preparedness plans to safeguard business continuity, and how we are using innovative technologies in support of that. As of today, it is hard to predict what, if any, impact this unprecedented crisis will have on the IT industry and whether it will impose further technology challenges, or give rise to unexpected innovation. Only time will tell.   

And I am certain that we can all agree, prior to these recent events, the world of IT already experienced a fundamental change in as little as 5 years. The consumerization of innovation is proliferating well into the demands of today’s enterprise customers, and now more than ever CIO’s are required to ensure that their strategic objectives anticipate and move in sync with customer and market expectations. That in addition to safeguarding business continuity and the provision of advanced technologies can become a tough challenge for any CIO organization. But it doesn’t have to be.   

As SAP’s CIO, it is my job to provide the technological backbone for SAP’s innovation and business success, while also being a step ahead of trends and customer demands. I have made it a habit to think about challenges as opportunities, as it empowers me to calibrate our internal GPS in full alignment with market expectations, and with our customers’ success in mind. Today’s technology environment provides enormous opportunities for SAP as we continue to pursue our strategic objective of delivering and run the Intelligent Enterprise, with focus on growth and operational efficiency. We understand that we must focus on - and be fully committed to - our strategic approach.  

At the core we emphasize on growth and operational efficiency. 

Our current total addressable market is at €300 billion and set to grow to about €500 billion in 2023. With innovations like SAP HANA and a robust product portfolio, our leadership position in ERP, HCM, SCM, Analytics, and Experience Management provides us with an excellent outlook on reaching our strategic growth objectives. So, let’s take a closer look at operational efficiency and how we are approaching it.  

Operational efficiency in this context encompasses effective business processes, integrated product offerings and leveraging advanced cloud technology. It is at the core of our business success and we have set targeted measures on several fronts, including eliminating product overlaps and simplifying the SAP portfolio for our customers, to make it easier to expand their use of SAP products and services. When I am talking about growths and efficiencies, it also leads me to the large number of successful acquisitions SAP has gone through in the last few years. Related product and process integration continues to be high on my delivery list for 2020. For instance, delivering the Intelligent Enterprise to our customers requires the seamless integration of business processes between all major cloud acquisitions and SAP S/4HANA, because product innovation will primarily be based on SAP HANA and the SAP Cloud Platform. Therefore, we are accelerating the integration of SAP’s cloud offerings more closely along our cloud infrastructure. Here we will focus on our partner IaaS offerings such as Alibaba, AWS, GCP, Microsoft, in addition to our own cloud offerings.

Business processes are infinitely part of all optimization efforts in any organization and they sit at the pulse of everything we do. In 2020, we are targeting all aspects of end-to-end business process integration. Our plans are to infuse experience data across every business process. An example of that in the Lead-to-Cash process would be the integration of C/4HANA, Supply Chain and S/4HANA. It will enable SAP customers to predict what their customers are looking for, and then to build and deliver products accordingly. Or another example is the Source-to-Pay integration across the Digital Supply Chain, Ariba, Concur and S/4HANA. Here we are looking at delivering visibility of spend across every part of our customers' applications, so that they can optimize their expenses. Another top priority for us is the technical integration of our products. To achieve a high degree of integration and consistency across our end-to-end solutions, we follow a technical construction plan for the Intelligent Enterprise that is based on a set of well-defined technology guidelines. The goal is to provide a unified experience across SAP’s LoB solutions, S/4HANA as the Digital Core, and the Business Technology Platform as the underlying technology foundation. We are transforming our offering to a truly integrated suite, and with that, SAP customers can realize immediate value from the SAP solutions they have in place. 

So, where do we go from here and what is on the horizon beyond 2020 tech challenges? With the growing consumer demand driving innovation, I see the SAP related tech landscape to further evolve in the cloud business with an accelerated move toward cloud-based ERP software. Data is hailed the most valued commodity in our industry; the digitalization of the enterprise being fuelled by better use of enterprise data derived from operations and third-party Big Data will have an immense impact. Architectures will evolve to become modular by design, to increase agility and better adapt to the new ways in which software is flexibly combined.

To successfully arrive at our strategic goals, it is critical to be very defined about what we are setting our focus. It doesn’t really matter what year we are in; it is fundamental to our success to strategize along the lines of growth, efficiency, integration, innovation and customer centricity. With the emphasis on our customers’ success, we are driving the momentum forward by turning challenges into opportunities for everyone.