The future of SAP
There are many people in the SAP world who started working in this area many years ago. Five, ten, even twenty or thirty years of experience are not that uncommon. For them, as for myself, SAP is mostly an ERP system written on ABAP programming language.
But if you are new to this world, your view on SAP may be very different.
In my opinion, the change started when SAP (as a company) started to implement non-ABAP tools into the ERP system. I mean Java stack.
The addition of a Java layer was meant to help developers. And I hope it did.
In the meantime, SAP (as a company) started to move into the adjacent areas and also went shopping.
SAP Portal, SAP HANA and some others are SAP developments that are aimed at the non-ERP segment of business applications.
At the same time, Siebel, Fiori and others represent acquisitions that are ERP satellites.
Many of these new products have nothing to do with ABAP. Some of them have nothing to do with ERP either. But SAP still had a point in developing or acquiring them: they want to deliver a complex solution from a single vendor for the end customer.
Sometimes the integration of the complex solution goes well. Sometimes, especially on early and ramp-up phases, not so smoothly. Unfortunately, it is quite often that the customer pays for the additional development for the integration and loses money due to a lack of experience on the part of the implementation team. That is life…
What does that mean for us as consultants? It means you can now spread your knowledge to a wider range of systems and technologies, if you wish. It also means that ABAP knowledge may be unnecessary even for an experienced SAP consultant, if (s)he works in a non-ABAP environment.
What do you think about the future of SAP products? What is the SAP vision, from your point of view? Where will all of us end up?
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SAP keeps on acquiring companies (products), strategies from time to time which looks encouraging, but then lacks steam to take off from there.
1. SAP has been changing it’s mobile solutions strategy in the last five years – Webdynpro Mobile, SMP, SUP, Syclo, SAPUI5, Fiori. Customers are clueless of the best fit method to adopt for mobility enablement of the business process! Still struggling to implement a solution. Customers who have thought ahead of time, has gone in to implement non-SAP solutions.
2. HANA – SAP has been keeping about it for the least three years with thousands of customers. Most of them are in ramp-up customers. No decision taken as to how customers would like to adopt HANA. Some do not feel the need for it ! (Exception maybe for BW systems)
3. Java stack was adopted by SAP. The honeymoon period is over between Java and SAP, I strongly believe so . WebDynpro for Java is dead. So is Java native development for portal systems. Microsoftf’s Sharepoint is steaming rapidly to pace out SAP Portals. SAP PI prefer ABAP development more than Java Development.(except for SAP-non related integration with SAP), because of superior performance.
4. If you look around, most businesses are trying to implement non SAP products for new business processes, integrating with SAP systems. The demand for integration consulting is in upswing.
Conclusion: SAP has killed many products on Java stack with ever changing strategies (BPM, WDJ, BSP, SUP, SMP, Syclo, etc). It still relies on ABAP engine for its success, and they do know that happens to be it’s bread and butter for all business systems that they plan to release in future. As for consultants it is tough to integrate so many of non SAP and SAP systems and making it run seamlessly.
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SorrySAP but odoo.com