SAP Market Alert: Proceed with caution.
With SAP Cloud Revenue exceeding expectations and SAP Management cheering on the RISE program, it looks like they finally have been able to get some traction with a business change program.
Some SAP customers that have been delaying their ERP refresh, maybe thinking they are running out of time to make a final decision on what to do with their SAP R/3. Not coincidentally, the RISE program seems to come at the right time for some, as an easy option when they are already on an SAP Platform.
We caution our Clients however, in taking a shortcut in your deliberations and not disregard the natural decision-making window of opportunity. These choices will have far reaching impacts for your future and careers.
Source: SAP Announcement for Preliminary 4Q Results and Full Year 2021 Results (dec 21)
Selecting a completely new ERP, is like an open-heart surgery, and should not be taken lightly. The move to SAP S4/HANA in the Cloud is like a completely new ERP implementation and would take a multiyear project and create substantial cost and effort to the organization. The key concern of many enterprises is the potential down time at migration, therefore SAP is supporting both a greenfield implementation as well as system conversions.
This leads to the question. Why stick with SAP and re-commit for the next decade (again) to the SAP technology, which you might have been trying to get away from! For many customers, SAP has not been delivering the required value over the last years when they were using SAP on premise.
With several ERP providers being specific for different industries, there is a wide variety to choose from or to validate with your future requirements:
- Infor, Oracle incl Netsuite, Microsoft D365, SAGE, WORKDAY, Acumatica, SysPro, Epicor, IFS, VISMA, Unit4, Exact, Afas, ODES to name a few.
How confident are you that SAP will be the right choice for you in delivering that cutting edge technology to support your disruptive transformation and ensure your organization will be ready for the next decade? Will you future proof for elements such as AI, Blockchain, changing consumer behavior and logistical models, and environmental challenges? Or will you just seek similar functionality, differently labelled, and no longer as an asset, but as a subscription?
If your organization is thinking about truly transforming the business, and want to bring in modern technologies, we would challenge you think twice (three times!) before making the decision to go with the RISE program, simply because you are an SAP Client (as they are counting on).
NET(net) can support you in your thought process and compare the different solutions and help ensuring you will get the best value for your money going forward. Which based upon your requirements, may still be SAP, but then at least the decision is based upon your requirements and a thorough process, rather than accepting the status quo and having regrets when SAP fails to meet expectations in the future.
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