Almost 60 per cent of SAP users are currently using or plan to use SAP’s cloud offerings, but there is significant confusion about the benefits of SAP HANA’s Cloud Platform (HCP) and SAP’s overall cloud strategy, according to a recent survey of 100 members by the UK & Ireland SAP User Group.
Top benefits of using SAP cloud solutions cited by respondents included reduced costs/capex at 64 per cent, followed by faster deployment times at 46 per cent and greater mobile access to information at 42 per cent. Top barriers were listed as existing investments in on-premise applications (57 per cent), and a lack of clarity surrounding SAP’s product roadmap (52 per cent).
Forty-four per cent of respondents said they do not understand how SAP’s acquisition of SuccessFactors, Ariba, Fieldglass and Concur fit into the company’s overall cloud strategy, while 58 per cent said they were concerned that SAP’s push toward the cloud portfolio could mean a loss of focus on its installed on-premise user base, which could miss out on future product enhancements.
“Over the last 18 months, we have seen more of our members looking to move elements of their SAP estate to the cloud. However, as the survey results show, users still face challenges when it comes to adopting SAP’s cloud offerings,” said Paul Cooper, vice-chairman, UK & Ireland SAP User Group.
“For organisations that have heavily invested in on-premise applications in the past, there still needs to be an attractive business case for them to move to the cloud. If users are to fully realise the benefits of SAP cloud offerings, they need to understand the company’s roadmap and strategy. For instance, the survey highlighted that just over half (52 per cent) of respondents were unsure that S/4HANA would make them more readily consider using cloud services from SAP in the future,” said Cooper.
While 34 per cent reported using or planning to use SAP’s HCP, 32 per cent said they didn’t know what HCP was and only 10 per cent said they believed SAP had done a good job of communicating HCP benefits and use cases. In fact, 60 per cent said they did not think that SAP has done a good job of communicating the user benefits of its cloud offerings in general.
“Our findings show that SAP needs to do more to educate users regarding the potential benefits of the HANA Cloud Platform compared to other platforms such as Amazon Web Services. It is our job to work closely with SAP and ensure users get access to the information they need,” said Cooper.
“SAP is committed to helping deliver business value to all its customers and we welcome the feedback from the UKI User Group,” said Kevin Kimber, head of Ccoud, SAP UK and Ireland.
“We’re encouraged by the results of the survey that show that the majority of SAP users are either already using or planning to adopt our cloud offerings,” he said. “We’re committed to engaging in an active dialogue with our customers and the wider ecosystem to share our vision and roadmap for cloud solutions and will continue to promote this message publicly.”
