Customers want more information about cloud and AI strategy from the German ERP giant. Credit: Nitpicker / Shutterstock The German-speaking user group for enterprise software giant SAP says that customers’ willingness to invest in the company’s S/4HANA cloud product is rising, but still lags behind flagship ERP products like ECC 6, and some customers see the need for more discussion on SAP’s prolonged move to the cloud. DSAG, a group representing SAP users in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, also released data from a survey of its members. It found the most-used SAP product was still its traditional ERP line, with 68% of respondents saying they used it, compared to 41% for S/4HANA on-premises and 11% and 6%, respectively, for S/4HANA private and public cloud. DSAG’s chairman, Jens Hungershausen, said that perception of SAP’s cloud strategy was highly mixed, despite small gains made in cloud usage. “The DSAG members surveyed are critical of SAP’s S/4HANA cloud strategy,” he said in a statement. “Only 13% of those surveyed had a positive opinion, just under half had a negative one.” Security and AI were both important topics to DSAG members, as growing percentages cited it as a key topic for the future in the group’s survey. Fully 88% of those polled rated security as of either medium or high relevance to them, while the number of respondents saying they planned to invest in AI more than doubled in the last two years, to 28%. In the latter category, the group again wanted to see SAP take more input from the community, with just 31% rating the company’s AI strategy as “good” or “satisfactory.” Part of the problem for SAP, according to IDC senior vice president for research Bob Parker, is that the company isn’t seen as a leading partner for more transformative technologies, like AI and cloud. “AWS and Azure, Google Cloud, etc., tend to have more enviable positions,” he said. “So SAP is still in the midst of this transition to the cloud.” As for AI, Parker added that SAP’s moves in that area may take some time to bear fruit, but that they’re leading the company in positive directions. A unified data layer called Datasphere should prove a critical capability for businesses looking to take advantage of AI, as will acquisitions like Signavio, which provided a process mining and mapping capability. “So these are all very positive movements for them to start doing more innovative stuff,” he said. “They’re brilliant software engineers in Walldorf, it’ll just take some time, because their install base is very complex.” Related content how-to Download our cloud cost management enterprise buyer’s guide From the editors of our sister publication CIO.com, this enterprise buyer’s guide helps IT staff understand the cost management tools available to keep their cloud spend under control. By Peter Wayner May 15, 2024 1 min Budgeting Cloud Management Vendor Management analysis Canadian CIOs discuss driving a successful hybrid cloud roadmap By Lee Rennick, Editor, CIO May 15, 2024 4 mins Events Cloud Computing IT Leadership brandpost Sponsored by PagerDuty AI for Cybersecurity: Superhero or Sidekick? Maximizing cybersecurity with GenAI: Elevating incident response through AI partnership By Eric Johnson May 15, 2024 4 mins Artificial Intelligence brandpost Sponsored by PagerDuty Mitigate risk and gain efficiency with event-driven automation Unleashing event-driven automation: From human intervention to seamless machine-driven defense. Learn more today. By Hannah Culver May 15, 2024 5 mins AutoML PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe