SAP and customers are converging on it; human nature guarantees it.

This weeks newsletter has been co-authored with Paul Byrne, a joint effort, sharing our observations as to a fundamental change in how the transformation model that has held firm for decades has moved on in a flash with the arrival of AI and Industry 5.0 edge. I wrote this as an essay to my self, I hope it hits the spot.

What You'll Learn in This Week's Newsletter

This week we argue that SAP's biggest AI asset is not Joule, Business AI or even S/4HANA. It is the legacy installed base.

We explore why Private Cloud Edition may represent far more than a cloud migration strategy, how it could become the AI toll gate through which future enterprise agents access business processes, why this could create significant value for both SAP and its customers, and why continuous AI-driven innovation may ultimately disrupt the traditional systems integration model.

Closing the Gap Between AI Investment and Enterprise Value

What you will gain from this blog

AI investment is moving fast. The real question is whether the value is moving with it.

This blog looks at why many organisations are struggling to turn AI activity into measurable business outcomes, why System Integrators are regrouping around AI delivery hubs, and why SAP sits right at the centre of the enterprise AI value conversation.

It also explains why closing the AI Value Gap is not about chasing perfect data. It is about exposing the data, process, controls and history already sitting inside the enterprise, so AI can operate with context.

Finally, it sets out how Dragon ERP Phase Zero helps organisations take the risk out of AI adoption before they commit to large-scale spend.

FORGET ECC ARMAGEDDON 🚨

“You must migrate from ECC to S/4HANA before the 2027 deadline or the world will stop!” 💣 Here we go again.

The usual suspects arrive with the familiar S/4HANA value proposition:

Real-time insights.
Simplified processes.
Improved performance.
Embedded analytics.
Automation and AI readiness. Better user experience.
Cloud scalability.
Clean core.
A future-ready SAP landscape.

Lovely. Where do I sign?✍️

Then comes the awkward bit.

If I start now, I might get it in 2028. If I am lucky.😅

This week's article looks at the European Commission'👩‍⚖️ SAP ruling, SAP's latest AI announcements for ECC customers, and why we believe they signal a much bigger shift in enterprise strategy.

I wasn’t planning another newsletter before the end of summer and then the SAP migration factory put on an AI hat.

This extra edition explains why rip it out and start again is over, and why the future is Enterprise Kaizen.

The migration factory will hate it.

Good

SAP’S BIGGEST AI ASSET IS NOT JOULE - It is the legacy customer base.

Thousands of organisations have spent decades building their businesses around SAP.

Their ECC, BW and early S/4HANA estates contain something most AI companies would kill for: structured processes, transactional history, financial truth, controls, relationships and corporate memory.

September is when the SAP machine starts again.

Everyone is back from the beach. Budgets come back into focus. Programmes accelerate towards December or Easter cutovers.

And everywhere you look: AI, AI, AI.

Before you restart the SAP agenda, ask one question:

If we were choosing our SAP direction today, would we still choose the same route?

S/4HANA is not the destination. SAP has already moved on.

You don’t see me blogging or talking about S/4 anymore, but when you come to th mo about it, neither does SAP anymore, it’s moved on leaving much of the SAP
consulting industry in a weird state
of limbo

Liquid legal is the global industry SAP has never really conquered.