valantic SAP Study 2024: Trends and Highlights – What Makes the SAP Community Tick

Since 2018, valantic has been surveying top-tier SAP experts annually to gauge their perspectives on S/4HANA migration, investment trends, preferred technologies, and emerging business opportunities. In 2024, the survey was extended to include questions on artificial intelligence and companies’ AI strategies. By comparing year-on-year results, the survey reveals long-term trends and evolving developments.

Background: The 2024 online survey was conducted in two waves during the first half of the year, with 200 SAP experts and IT managers from the DACH region participating.

Facts, Figures, Insights – Ten Key Findings

• 78.6 percent plan  to leverage SAP S/4HANA to drive automation in their company, leveraging technologies including AI.
• 45.2 percent of participants are seriously contemplating a transformation to SAP S/4HANA, a significant increase from 13.2 percent the previous year.
• 40.5 percent—the largest group—prefer the fast-track, less costly brownfield migration approach, despite its potential downsides, such as postponing optimization opportunities to a later stage.
• 69.1 percent lament insufficient resources for transformation projects.
• Nearly 60 percent still operate their ERP systems on-premises.
• 47.6 percent cite the large number of in-house developments and, the same percentage, the limited ability to influence cloud operations as major concerns when considering cloud migration.
• 23.8 percent categorically reject the public cloud.
• At 42.9 percent, the AI assistant Joule is the most popular AI application in the SAP community.
• Only 6.6 percent use AI as an integral part of their business processes.
• 64 percent view the Business Technology Platform (BTP) primarily as an integration engine.

Top Trends in the SAP Community: SAP AI, AI Copilot Joule, and SAP S/4HANA

Unsurprisingly, companies are currently intent on evaluating how artificial intelligence (AI) can be seamlessly integrated into SAP modules and corporate workflows to maximize value and engender significant benefits. One of the key findings from the survey is the enormous confidence placed in SAP’s platform of the future, S/4HANA, with 78.6% of participants—by far the largest share—planning to migrate to the platform; in doing so, their goal is to harness AI, predictive analytics, and associated data science technologies to leverage automation to improve their competitiveness and business success.

Survey participants see even more business advantages with the migration to S/4HANA: the platform simplifies the standardization of SAP applications and expedites transforming business workflows into real-time processes. These are significant benefits and compelling motivators. As a result, 23.8% have already completed their transition to S/4HANA, while 21.4% (up from 9.5% the previous year) are currently in the midst of their migration. The biggest leap, however, is seen in the planning stage—45.2% are now actively contemplating and preparing for a switch to S/4HANA, more than triple the 13.2% recorded in 2023.

The valantic SAP Study 2024 delivers a clear conclusion: SAP S/4HANA is firmly established in companies— it is no longer a question of “if” but rather “how and when” the migration will proceed. For companies with older systems (accounting for over a quarter of respondents), the greenfield approach is attractive, using the migration as an opportunity for a comprehensive overhaul of their processes and systems. This contrasts with companies with newer SAP installations which lean towards the faster, more cost-efficient brownfield approach (40.5%).

Digitalization and SAP consulting firms like valantic offer a third option: the Extended Brownfield/Bluefield approach, which skillfully blends the flexibility of greenfield with the speed and cost-effectiveness of brownfield. Combining the best of both migration worlds, this intelligent hybrid approach resonates with 33.3% of participants, who indicated they would opt for valantic’s refined strategy for their SAP S/4HANA migration.

The responses to where companies prefer to host their S/4HANA systems are also revealing. Despite the widespread hype surrounding the cloud—now considered standard for many services—nearly 60 percent of the companies surveyed by valantic still prefer on-premises operations for their most critical asset: their ERP system. This is surprising and possibly due to a lack of communication and education about cloud solutions. Nevertheless, 31 percent of respondents are transitioning to the secure SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud, tailored specifically to their company’s needs. However, only 9.5% feel confident using the SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud. Our blog article offers guidance on which of the options—Private or Public Cloud—to choose.