The valantic S/4HANA study 2020: Into the digital future despite Corona

With the SAP S/4HANA Study 2020, we are continuing our HANA study series and have now examined for the third year in a row to what extent SAP S/4HANA is accepted on the market by companies of all sizes and industries and which opportunities and risks are associated with an implementation.

For topical reasons, this year a special focus was placed on the effects of the Corona crisis in a hot topic.

Here are the essential statements of the S/4HANA Study 2020:

SAP S/4HANA is a central component of companies’ IT strategy

80% of the companies surveyed have planned SAP S/4HANA firmly into their IT strategy. In the process, these organizations especially want to profit from innovations in and enhancements to SAP and at the same time, increase the efficiency of their internal processes. This reflects a trend that was already evident in the 2019 SAP S/4HANA Study.

However, SAP’s announcement that they are extending maintenance of their ERP 6.0 environments up to and including 2027 has had some effects on industry: Approximately 60% of the companies surveyed are taking this announcement to take time pressure off the planning of IT strategic measures. As a result, these organizations want to focus on the specific planning of a migration to the new SAP platform only later.

Hot Topic: Impact of the Corona crisis

The ongoing Corona crisis is causing breakdowns not just socially in many areas, it’s also causing companies to examine planned strategic measures and delay them for an indeterminate time. Especially affected is the handling of ongoing SAP projects:

But it’s not just SAP projects that are suffering from the general insecurity. There’s a widespread tendency on the part of companies to stop all projects that are not essential for maintaining the company until further notice. Only 10% of the companies surveyed said they could hardly feel the influence of the Corona crisis on their internal IT strategy.

Despite these serious consequences, industry’s power of innovation has hardly been braked by Corona. Nearly three-quarters of the companies surveyed are actively advancing the digitalization of internal business processes or, due to Corona, devoting themselves increasingly to this topic.

With these insights, it is possible to say in sum that the current Corona crisis can also be regarded as an opportunity to examine the status quo with respect to a company’s own power of innovation and to develop suitable measures for the future.