We’re liv­ing in excit­ing times. 

The enter­prise resource plan­ning (ERP) land­scape is rapid­ly chang­ing. As IT pro­fes­sion­als, we are all famil­iar — even com­fort­able — with inno­va­tions to the enter­prise tech­nolo­gies cru­cial to our work. How­ev­er, cur­rent tech­nol­o­gy trends are not incre­men­tal changes. They are seis­mic. This is an excit­ing time for the SAP ecosys­tem. While there are cer­tain­ly hur­dles to over­come, there are also enor­mous oppor­tu­ni­ties to inno­vate and improve our enterprises. 

This notion is exem­pli­fied by the results of our 2024 ASUG Pulse of the SAP Cus­tomer Research sur­vey. Reflect­ing the out­look and atti­tudes of SAP users from all indus­tries and across all busi­ness func­tions, this sur­vey gives us a glimpse of the trends and solu­tions that are cur­rent­ly top of mind for our mem­ber community. 

With that data in hand, here are four shifts I believe will define this ecosys­tem for years to come.

1. SAP S/4HANA Adop­tion

With SAP set to end main­stream main­te­nance for SAP Busi­ness Suite 7 — which includes SAP ERP Cen­tral Com­po­nent (ECC) 6 — at the end of 2027, SAP cus­tomers are pri­or­i­tiz­ing adopt­ing SAP S/4HANA. Near­ly half (48%) of respon­dents to the 2024 ASUG Pulse of the SAP Cus­tomer Research said mov­ing to SAP S/4HANA is a top focus area in 2024. I’m not sur­prised. The 2027 dead­line is fast-approach­ing, and I believe SAP is stick­ing to it. 

Respon­dents under­stand this as well, with 47% of respon­dents indi­cat­ing they are already live on the ERP plat­form or are start­ing to move. This is a six-per­cent increase from last year and a 10% increase from the 2020 Pulse of the SAP Cus­tomer Research (the same year SAP moved the SAP Busi­ness Suite 7 main­te­nance dead­line from 2025 to 2027). I’d encour­age all SAP cus­tomers — and ASUG Mem­bers — to con­sid­er their SAP S/4HANA adop­tion sched­ules before vital imple­men­ta­tion and inte­gra­tion resources become too scarce in the com­ing years.

2. Migra­tion to the Cloud

Anoth­er major focus for SAP is help­ing its cus­tomers migrate to the cloud. To date, the soft­ware com­pa­ny has launched two pro­grams aimed at cloud adop­tion: RISE with SAP and GROW with SAP. Cloud com­put­ing — much like AI — is here to stay. Solu­tion main­te­nance and upgrad­ing are eas­i­er for both SAP and its cus­tomers. Addi­tion­al­ly, cloud-based solu­tions low­er cus­tomers’ total cost of own­er­ship over time while enabling improved scalability. 

Cloud usage is grow­ing among ASUG Mem­bers. Only 37% of 2024 ASUG Pulse of the SAP Cus­tomer Research respon­dents report­ed using on-premis­es land­scapes (com­pared to 53% in 2021). Mean­while, 26% of respon­dents are lever­ag­ing hybrid solu­tions, while 22% are on third-par­ty pub­lic cloud options and 17% are using pri­vate cloud options. Giv­en SAP’s com­mit­ment, cloud com­put­ing will become the norm, while full on-premis­es instances will fall out of pop­u­lar­i­ty. Enter­pris­es must take the prop­er steps to pre­pare them­selves for this inevitability. 

3. Grow­ing Work­force and SAP Skills Gaps

Both AI and cloud com­put­ing rep­re­sent sig­nif­i­cant oppor­tu­ni­ties for SAP cus­tomers. How­ev­er, enter­pris­es need expe­ri­enced, edu­cat­ed work­forces to enact those imple­men­ta­tion projects. The IT ecosys­tem is see­ing a grow­ing skills gap. As more IT pro­fes­sion­als retire, there is not enough new tal­ent and exper­tise to replace them. We’re feel­ing this in the ASUG com­mu­ni­ty, with 29% of the 2024 ASUG Pulse of the SAP Cus­tomer Research respon­dents indi­cat­ing that main­tain­ing knowl­edge­able staff and turnover pose sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges for their orga­ni­za­tions. Mean­while, 28% said that build­ing inter­nal skills to man­age new prod­ucts is a challenge. 

This gap will only grow as more tal­ent exits the IT world. How­ev­er, the growth of inno­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies — like AI and cloud com­put­ing — presents incred­i­ble oppor­tu­ni­ties for enter­pris­es to find new tal­ent and bol­ster the skillsets of cur­rent employ­ees. For exam­ple, the SAP Vet­er­ans to Work pro­gram is help­ing U.S. mil­i­tary ser­vice mem­bers with ERP expe­ri­ence hone their skills and tran­si­tion into civil­ian IT careers. 

4. The Emer­gence of Gen­er­a­tive Arti­fi­cial Intel­li­gence

Arti­fi­cial intel­li­gence is a gen­er­a­tion-defin­ing tech­nol­o­gy. Unlike oth­er recent flash-in-the-pan solu­tions, AI is here to stay. It will impact all aspects of our work­ing lives, includ­ing how we man­age and use ERP platforms. 

In the SAP com­mu­ni­ty, gen­er­a­tive AI is quick­ly becom­ing a pil­lar. Dur­ing the recent SAP earn­ings call focused on fourth-quar­ter and full-year finan­cial results for 2023, SAP CEO Chris­t­ian Klein said SAP is posi­tion­ing itself to become ​“the no. 1 busi­ness AI com­pa­ny.” With that focus in mind, SAP expects to invest approx­i­mate­ly €1 bil­lion in AI use cas­es for customers. 

AI is also a grow­ing pri­or­i­ty for ASUG Mem­bers. Accord­ing to the 2024 ASUG Pulse of the SAP Cus­tomer Research, automa­tion is a top pri­or­i­ty among respon­dents (below only inte­gra­tion and SAP S/4HANA migra­tion), with 34% indi­cat­ing it is the most impor­tant focus area for their orga­ni­za­tion. About one-third (38%) of respon­dents also expect AI and ML to great­ly affect their orga­ni­za­tions’ dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion efforts in the next two years. 

While we are at the begin­ning stages of AI devel­op­ment, I believe the tech­nol­o­gy — if uti­lized effec­tive­ly — will be a game chang­er for many SAP customers. 

I am excit­ed to help ASUG Mem­bers make the most of these excit­ing times as they embrace the tech­nolo­gies of tomor­row. While the ERP ecosys­tem is in a time of great change, there is a sig­nif­i­cant oppor­tu­ni­ty for us all to embrace these changes to vast­ly improve our oper­a­tions. It’s a great time to be in the SAP com­mu­ni­ty, and ASUG is ready to help you max­i­mize your SAP investments. 

Lis­ten as ASUG CEO & Chief Com­mu­ni­ty Cham­pi­on Geoff Scott digs deep­er into the 2024 ASUG Pulse of the SAP Cus­tomer Research results in a pod­cast con­ver­sa­tion with ASUG Research Direc­tor Maris­sa Gilbert. Lis­ten on asug​.com, Apple Pod­casts, or Spo­ti­fy.