DSAG Annual Congress 2023: Successfully mastering change

The DSAG Annual Congress 2023 has kicked off in Bremen with a keynote by DSAG Board Chairman Jens Hungershausen. The three-day event is themed “Wonderfully changeable – creating new perspectives together” and focuses on successfully dealing with change.

Want to accelerate your digital transformation?

The coverage of the DSAG Annual Congress 2023 at a glance

• Preview: SAP users meet in Bremen

• Day 1: Successfully mastering change

• Day 2: Technology is good, trust is better

• Day 3: Positive summary and political impulses

Increasing dynamics and complexity of change

Companies are permanently confronted with transformations. There is continuous change - inside and outside organizations. The fact that there is change is nothing new to begin with. However, the dynamics and complexity of change are currently significantly higher than in the past. The various dimensions (digital, technological, ecological, economic and demographic change) influence each other. Accordingly, companies have to deal with a large number of issues at the same time

Overcoming challenges with the help of technology

As far as digital transformation is concerned, more than half of the member companies state in the DSAG Investment Report 2023 that they are not very far along yet. While the adoption of SAP S/4HANA is steadily increasing, more than 50% of companies still have the SAP S/4HANA migration ahead of them. DSAG members have also been rather reluctant to invest in innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

DSAG Chairman Jens Hungershausen is convinced that DSAG and SAP can offer companies valuable support to successfully master the change. 86% of user companies agree with the statement that SAP’s existing solutions help solve current and future challenges. Collaboration in the SAP ecosystem between user companies, partners and SAP itself also appears to be working well, although there is potential for improvement.

SAP S/4HANA on-premise customers must not be disadvantaged

In light of SAP’s announcement that in the future it will only implement strategic innovations as part of the “RISE with SAP” and “GROW with SAP” offerings for SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Jens Hungershausen appealed to the software manufacturer not to alienate numerous long-standing and loyal customers. Although the DSAG is in favor of cloud use, at the same time the user companies must have the freedom to decide when and to what extent they want to go to the cloud without external constraints. For example, identical service offerings are required for SAP S/4HANA on-premise and SAP S/4HANA private cloud, as well as the identification of clear development paths for a smooth transition to the cloud. In doing so, he said, SAP must focus more strongly than before on the needs of customers and partners.

SAP-CEO: “No company will be left behind”

SAP CEO Christian Klein took up this ball during his appearance on stage at the DSAG Annual Congress 2023 and made the promise that no company would be left behind. The maintenance guarantee for SAP S/4HANA until 2040, which is still valid, is a clear signal of this. After all, existing customers are SAP’s greatest treasure.

At the same time, however, Christian Klein also appealed for understanding for the fact that certain strategic innovations such as AI remain limited to the cloud – and cited, among other things, the volumes of data required for the optimization of algorithms and uniform semantic data models as arguments.

Into the cloud with RISE with SAP

Using the cloud as an enabler for new technologies and innovations requires companies to have the courage to rethink their business models and processes. And this is precisely what the transformation offering RISE with SAP is aimed at – with the ambition of establishing an agile, modular ERP system and accelerating the digital transformation. This closes the circle to the SAP vision that Christian Klein outlined at the beginning of his keynote: the creation of a network of intelligent companies that have transparent, resilient supply chains and operate sustainably.