In 2019, SAP has undergone major leadership and organizational change with the departure of Bill McDermott, the software giant’s esteemed leader for a decade. Immediately taking over his role were SAP Executive Board Members Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein as co-CEOs.
Before McDermott leaving SAP, several SAP veterans such as Dilipkumar Khandelwal, Managing Director of SAP Labs India, Robert Enslin, President of its Cloud Business Group, and Bernd Leukert, Executive Board Member and a co-lead of the SAP Digital Business Services, have also left the German software giant last year.
Now, SAP continues its organizational reform in its recent announcement of leadership and organization change geared towards more customer-centric operations and processes. This development aims to propel its customers’ digital transformation.
In the SAP release, it was established that outstanding products, exemplary support and service processes, aside from industry knowledge, are essential to customers. Clear and simple communication channels, a uniform appearance and transparency in product strategy and integration scenarios were also acknowledged critical to the market.
Hence, with the customer as the top of mind, the following organizational changes were made to help realize those goals:
- Adaire Fox-Martin will manage the Customer Success board area that will now be bundled with sales, service and related customer success organizations.
- Thomas Saueressig will lead the product management, development and product support under one board area.
- Juergen Mueller, aside from heading the SAP’s overall platform and technology development and intelligent technologies, will also now be responsible for delivering one seamlessly integrated data management solution.
These changes bring Saueressig and Mueller’s board areas to continue to work closely together while most former SAP Digital Business Services organization teams get fully integrated into Fox-Martin and Saueressig’s board areas. All Cloud Business Group board teams, except Qualtrics, CX Engineering, CX Product Strategy, and major parts of Concur, will also be integrated into the new organizational model.
Christian Klein, Co-CEO of SAP SE said:
“Our customers rightly expect our portfolio of services to be seamlessly integrated and for all solutions to work together smoothly. SAP’s success is dependent on customers’ trust in our competence and ability to solve their challenges of the future.”
Jennifer Morgan, Co-CEO of SAP SE, also commented:
“In order to be able to present ourselves credibly as ONE SAP, we have further strengthened the potential of our organization and merged functions across divisions. We are convinced that this will ensure the long-term success of both our customers and SAP. This is what we are fully focused on.”
Alongside the leadership and organizational change is SAP establishing six primary solution areas in pursuit of offering both best of breed and best of suite to customers. These areas that would utilize the SAP Cloud Platform are:
SAP Customer Experience
SAP S/4HANA
People (SAP SuccessFactors)
Intelligent Spend (inclusive of SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass, and SAP Concur)
SAP HANA & Analytics
Qualtrics
SAP Veterans Exit
As SAP goes through org revamp, two SAP Executive Board Members have decided to leave the German company. Stefan Ries and Michael Kleinemeier, who have also held various leadership roles, were announced exiting the firm.
SAP veteran Ries has held different HR roles, which includes heading the HR Business Partner organization and overseeing all HR functions on an operational level. Likewise, Kleinmer who has been with SAP since 1989 has also held various leadership roles, including head of Industry Solutions, Managing Director of Germany and President of the Middle and Eastern Europe (MEE) region.
Professor Hasso Plattner, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of SAP SE, has recognized the contribution of the two esteemed board executives in the growth of the ERP giant.
“I would like to thank them both for their many years of close collaboration. Stefan played a major role in making SAP one of the most attractive employers in Germany and internationally, creating a workplace at SAP that drives innovation, performance, and engagement. Michael has had a lasting influence on our success and that of our customers for over 30 years. Under his leadership, the Services and Support divisions have played a key role in helping customers on their way to becoming intelligent companies,” Plattner said.
