In a recent Enter­prise Archi­tects Red­dit thread sim­ply named ​“Enter­prise Archi­tects: What are you?” one pro­fes­sion­al laid out a detailed, deeply per­son­al account of a role that blurs the lines between busi­ness analy­sis, solu­tion design, and enter­prise strat­e­gy, only to be met with a cho­rus con­flict­ing definitions.

The adage goes: Ask 10 EAs what they do, and you’ll get 10 dif­fer­ent answers. Ask them what keeps them up at night, and you’ll get one: the feel­ing that the expec­ta­tions are infi­nite, the resources are finite, and no one in the room ful­ly under­stands the weight of what this role carries. 

This debate high­lights a fun­da­men­tal real­i­ty: EAs are nav­i­gat­ing one of the most com­plex and con­se­quen­tial roles in the enter­prise, often with­out clear sup­port. That is why the ASUG Enter­prise Archi­tect Com­mu­ni­ty has grown: it cham­pi­ons the peo­ple dri­ving busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion and helps keep them in the driver’s seat. 

The Role Has Nev­er Been More Crit­i­cal — Or More Com­pli­cat­ed 

The ASUG 2026 Pulse of the SAP Cus­tomer Research makes it clear: with 65% of EAs increas­ing their SAP invest­ments and 70% iden­ti­fy­ing AI and ML as the tech­nolo­gies most like­ly to reshape their orga­ni­za­tions, the stakes have nev­er been high­er. And yet SAP S/4HANA migra­tion remains the num­ber one chal­lenge, with more than half of EAs nav­i­gat­ing that com­plex­i­ty right now. 

EAs are being asked to do more than archi­tect sys­tems. They are expect­ed to: 

• Gov­ern clean core while accom­mo­dat­ing the cus­tomiza­tions the busi­ness gen­uine­ly needs.
• Dri­ve enter­prise mod­ern­iza­tion with­out dis­rupt­ing rev­enue, cus­tomers, or financials.
• Man­age tech­ni­cal debt while simul­ta­ne­ous­ly deliv­er­ing on today’s roadmap.
• Build AI readi­ness in orga­ni­za­tions that want results yesterday.
• Con­nect SAP and non-SAP ecosys­tems into a coher­ent, gov­erned whole.
• Keep data strat­e­gy, lin­eage, and own­er­ship intact across an increas­ing­ly com­plex landscape. 

EAs are the strate­gic orches­tra­tors of trans­for­ma­tion — the peo­ple respon­si­ble for trans­lat­ing busi­ness vision into tech­nol­o­gy real­i­ty, at speed, under pres­sure, with stakes that have nev­er been higher. 

Their respon­si­bil­i­ties are wide-rang­ing. Beyond design­ing sys­tems, EAs active­ly dri­ve inno­va­tion by lead­ing exper­i­men­ta­tion, mod­ern­iz­ing lega­cy envi­ron­ments, and build­ing the flex­i­ble, secure frame­works that sup­port long-term growth. As trust­ed advi­sors to lead­er­ship, they ensure tech­nol­o­gy invest­ments align with busi­ness pri­or­i­ties, reduce com­plex­i­ty, and posi­tion IT as a cat­a­lyst for trans­for­ma­tion rather than just a sup­port function. 

If trans­for­ma­tion is a jour­ney at full speed, EAs are the ones who map the road, plot the course, and make sure the entire orga­ni­za­tion is head­ing in the same direction. 

But as AI reshapes SAP land­scapes at break­neck speed, that posi­tion has nev­er been more com­plex or more con­se­quen­tial. There is both a skills gap and a tal­ent gap emerg­ing as orga­ni­za­tions strug­gle to define and hire for EA roles, while a gen­er­a­tion of expe­ri­enced EAs are retir­ing and tak­ing decades of insti­tu­tion­al knowl­edge with them. 

The Sup­port from ASUG 

For EAs, the ASUG com­mu­ni­ty is not an add-on. It is the blue­print for mul­ti­lay­ered, foun­da­tion­al sup­port pro­vid­ing the con­nec­tion, clar­i­ty, and growth this role demands. From pod­casts, such as Nav­i­gat­ing Enter­prise Archi­tec­ture and AI and The Role of an Enter­prise Archi­tect, to vir­tu­al events cov­er­ing top­ics like AI in action, busi­ness and IT align­ment, and build­ing a con­nect­ed view of trans­for­ma­tion, to arti­cles explor­ing every­thing from strate­gies to the evolv­ing iden­ti­ty of the EA role itself, the ASUG Enter­prise Archi­tects Com­mu­ni­ty offers a steady stream of prac­ti­tion­er-focused con­tent designed to meet EAs exact­ly where they are and help them get to the next step on their journey. 

And it does not stop at con­tent. This is one of ASUG’s most vibrant and active com­mu­ni­ties. It’s a prac­ti­tion­er-led space where EAs work along­side one anoth­er, shar­ing expe­ri­ences, chal­leng­ing per­spec­tives, and co-cre­at­ing solu­tions to build con­fi­dence, capa­bil­i­ty, and a stronger sense of con­nec­tion across the ecosys­tem. Most recent­ly, SAP CEO and Chair­man of the Exec­u­tive Board Chris­t­ian Klein joined ASUG CEO and Chief Com­mu­ni­ty Cham­pi­on Geoff Scott to dis­cuss how AI is being prag­mat­i­cal­ly embed­ded across the SAP port­fo­lio and what it means for EAs shap­ing long-term roadmaps. 

Here is what being part of this com­mu­ni­ty actu­al­ly looks like: 

• Peer Exchange That Goes Beyond Sur­face-Lev­el: Com­mu­ni­ty Con­ver­sa­tions give EAs a space to sur­face chal­lenges with­out the fil­ter of a ven­dor pitch or a con­fer­ence panel. 
• Cross-Com­mu­ni­ty Con­nec­tion: ASUG has built inten­tion­al bridges between the EA Com­mu­ni­ty and SAP Busi­ness Trans­for­ma­tion Man­age­ment (BTM), con­nect­ing dots across the entire SAP ecosys­tem so archi­tects are nev­er oper­at­ing in silos.
• A Pri­vate Net­work Built on Trust: A pri­vate LinkedIn group gives mem­bers a space to con­nect and col­lab­o­rate out­side of for­mal ses­sions — because the best con­ver­sa­tions often hap­pen between events.
• A Grow­ing Com­mu­ni­ty Resource Cen­ter: Prac­ti­tion­er-dri­ven resources, research, and insights curat­ed for the EA role specif­i­cal­ly, not repur­posed from some­where else.
• A Ded­i­cat­ed Home­base Email: A month­ly guide to keep con­tent rel­e­vant and top of mind for the community. 

If the EA’s mis­sion is to ensure every project sup­ports the over­ar­ch­ing goals of the orga­ni­za­tion, then who is sup­port­ing the EAs? This com­mu­ni­ty is. 

The Val­ue Being Gen­er­at­ed 

In this sup­port­ive ecosys­tem, mem­bers are find­ing each oth­er and speak­ing open­ly about the com­plex­i­ty they are actu­al­ly carrying. 

In ASUG Com­mu­ni­ty Con­ver­sa­tions (all avail­able on demand through the EA Resource Cen­ter), mem­bers are can­did about what they are up against: 

• “Across the HR land­scape, we are dri­ving an appli­ca­tion mod­ern­iza­tion effort to con­verge region­al sys­tems into one glob­al, stan­dard­ized solution.”
• “Matu­ri­ty and capa­bil­i­ty are a mov­ing tar­get. The tool is one way to go, but flex­i­bil­i­ty and adjust­ing based on pri­or­i­ty is the key.”
• “The archi­tec­ture is much more than just SAP — it needs to encom­pass the whole ecosys­tem, includ­ing costs for all need­ed aspects.”
• “Inte­gra­tion of a mod­ern solu­tion like SAP S/4HANA with lega­cy solu­tions, and try­ing to work through the secu­ri­ty set­up to use mod­ern solu­tions, adds to the chal­lenges list. Also try­ing to upskill resources to use the lat­est and greatest.”
• “We have enter­prise infra­struc­ture and appli­ca­tions, but I am focused on SAP HCM and Suc­cess­Fac­tors — and we are lag­ging with inconsistencies.” 

These voic­es reflect a com­mu­ni­ty wrestling with chal­lenges in real time. The chal­lenges are struc­tur­al, orga­ni­za­tion­al, and deeply human. From these gath­er­ings, we are lucky enough to wit­ness a com­mu­ni­ty that is find­ing some of their best solu­tions from peers who have already been through it. 

On-Site Pres­ence at the Events That Mat­ter 

The ASUG EA Com­mu­ni­ty exists far beyond a dig­i­tal vac­u­um. We bring these con­ver­sa­tions to life both vir­tu­al­ly and in per­son, often col­lab­o­rat­ing with the SAP BTM com­mu­ni­ty. This year, that includes both the ASUG pre-con­fer­ence sem­i­nar Enter­prise Archi­tec­ture & Busi­ness Trans­for­ma­tion Man­age­ment: A Deep Dive and the ASUG Com­mu­ni­ty Con­ver­sa­tion with the BTM com­mu­ni­ty at SAP Sap­phire and ASUG Annu­al Con­fer­ence, as well as our con­tin­ued pres­ence at ASUG Tech Con­nect, which remains a pri­ma­ry hub for EAs to con­nect face-to-face. 

In addi­tion to its online and in-per­son event offer­ings, ASUG also shows up at events as a con­sis­tent voice on the community’s behalf. From the Next Gen­er­a­tion SAP Enter­prise Archi­tect Learn­ing Forum to the SAP Cloud ALM Sum­mit, our goal is to ensure EA prac­ti­tion­ers are rep­re­sent­ed in the rooms where deci­sions are made, while gath­er­ing the key insights and inside infor­ma­tion to bring back to the group. 

That pres­ence is inten­tion­al. As Kel­ly Dowl­ing, ASUG Direc­tor of Prod­uct Strat­e­gy — Com­mu­ni­ties, shared after attend­ing the EA Forum in New­town Square, ​“Spend­ing time at the Next Gen­er­a­tion SAP Enter­prise Archi­tect Learn­ing Forum last month, it was clear this is a com­mu­ni­ty that thrives on shared expe­ri­ence and prac­ti­cal insight, and it rein­forced that what we’re build­ing at ASUG is aligned with their needs.” It’s a reflec­tion of how we con­tin­ue to lis­ten, learn, and show up in the spaces that mat­ter most to EAs. 

What’s Com­ing: SAP Cloud ALM Sum­mit (April 14 – 16) 

For EAs respon­si­ble for align­ing strat­e­gy with oper­a­tional exe­cu­tion, the SAP Cloud ALM Sum­mit is the next oppor­tu­ni­ty to see how trans­for­ma­tion capa­bil­i­ties come togeth­er across the SAP ecosystem. 

Ses­sions will cover: 

• AI-dri­ven trans­for­ma­tion and autonomous operations
• Inte­grat­ed tool­chains sup­port­ing trans­for­ma­tion programs
• Clean core imple­men­ta­tion approach­es and governance
• Val­i­da­tion strate­gies for RISE with SAP projects
• Hands-on ses­sions for mon­i­tor­ing and man­ag­ing SAP envi­ron­ments with Cloud ALM 

This is not a pas­sive obser­va­tion event. It is a place to bring your hard­est ques­tions and leave with real answers — along­side peers who are nav­i­gat­ing the same terrain. 

Your Seat at the ASUG Enter­prise Archi­tec­ture Com­mu­ni­ty Table Is Wait­ing 

EA is evolv­ing faster than any job descrip­tion can cap­ture. The expec­ta­tions are high, the land­scape is shift­ing, and the iso­la­tion of the role is real. But it does not have to be. 

The ASUG Enter­prise Archi­tects Com­mu­ni­ty is where prac­ti­tion­ers come to be seen, chal­lenged, and sup­port­ed as the strate­gic lead­ers this moment demands. Whether you are gov­ern­ing a clean core migra­tion, build­ing an AI readi­ness strat­e­gy, or sim­ply try­ing to make sure the whole ecosys­tem holds togeth­er, you belong here. 

Your next steps: 

• Join the ASUG Enter­prise Archi­tect Com­mu­ni­ty.
• Reg­is­ter for the SAP Cloud ALM Sum­mit — April 14 – 16.
• Reg­is­ter for upcom­ing ASUG Com­mu­ni­ty Con­ver­sa­tions on April 21 and April 23.
• Explore pre­vi­ous Com­mu­ni­ty Con­ver­sa­tions on demand in the EA Resource Cen­ter.
• Reach out to your ded­i­cat­ed EA sup­port per­son, Nadalee Williams, and say hello.