Human evolution
The maker of expensive management software which no one is really sure what it does, SAP, is discovering that its customers are not so keen on getting the latest and greatest versions.
SAP appears to be struggling to get users to move to its S/4HANA offering with many quite happy sticking with their existing ERP products from the vendor.
Research from Rimini Street has found that the overwhelming number of respondents – 89 percent – were going to stick with existing products because they continue to meet business needs.
When asked if they would move to S/4HANA the reasons for not making the effort included struggling to find a strong business case, unclear ROI and fears of high migration and reimplementation costs.
Rimini Street CEO Seth Ravin said that the survey highlights that CIOs and IT decision makers prefer to maximize the value of their current robust SAP ERP system that more than meets their business requirements, rather than advancing to a new platform that is still in development with no current business case to support a full reimplementation.
“It also illustrates how they are pursuing innovation strategies, such as hybrid IT, to help their business gain competitive advantage now, without having to wait indefinitely for meaningful new innovations and capabilities from SAP,” he said.
The hybrid IT approach is also one of the reasons why many customers are quite happy to use software that has largely been designed for on-premise use.
