Happy 7th Birthday SAP S4

SAP S/4 was announced onto an unexpecting world on 3rd February, 2015. (I suspect some people at SAP knew about it before) and I was at the kick off for it. At that time I was really pleased to hear about this direction of travel and I actually got quite excited. But, I think it is fair to say a lot has changed since then. Let’s celebrate its birthday, it has made me very happy!

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As we approach its 7th?Birthday I think it is fair to reflect on what has happened since in the SAP world.

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Before I do that, I will say that one of my colleagues on hearing the announcement, was so excited that he had to leave the meeting, go to his hotel, work out what it all meant for our business, stay up all night and then return the next morning and say ‘I’ve got it’. He/she will remain nameless.

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2015 - Why do it S/4?

2022 - When and how do we do S/4?

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2015 - No one had it as a reference for S/4

2022 - There are lots of references…

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2015 - Old school ABAP etc. (mainly) Leonardo was just a twinkle in someone eye

2022 - PAAS BTP

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2015 - SAP services market shrinking and no S/4 skills at that time

2022 - SAP services market exploding and 80% of work is S/4

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2015 - On Prem

2022 - 80% cloud for S/4 and RISE

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2015 - Bill McDermott, trying to fight Oracle and Sales force

2022 - Christian Klein Winning in the cloud

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2015 - S/4 was incomplete

2022 - Full solution going beyond the old ECC

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2015 - Waterfall

2022 - Agile

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2015 - Bespoke everything

2022 - Standard Core, innovate in the cloud

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2015 - SAP SAAS component integration needed some work

2022 - SAP SAAS component integration is best in class

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2015 - We looked at finance core

2022 - We look at full digital transformation

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2015 - Workday and Salesforce tried to eat our lunch

2022 -?The fight back is real and accelerating and clients are coming back to SAP

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2015 - I was 110 Kilos

2022 - I am 110 Kilos but slightly more grey hair

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So, the past 7 years has actually seen a bit of a revolution and I believe there is a lot more to come. By the time S/4 becomes a teenager, perhaps the market will have changed as much again, so it is going to be exciting. I could have taken a more negative view, but it is S/4’s birthday and let’s party!