Rise with SAP attracts 11% interest from SAP customers

The UK & Ireland SAP User Group (UKISUG) has published research indicating that 11% of their member organisations plan to use the Rise with SAP business transformation service launched in January 2021.

Among those intending to use the offering, which is a subscription service that packages managed cloud infrastructure and managed services in one contract, the main reason for using it is to speed up moves to the supplier’s flagship ERP, S/4 Hana.

Paul Cooper, chairman of the group, said: “Our findings are very similar to recent research from both ASUG [the American user group] and DSAG [the German-speaking user group] in that it shows many organisations still aren’t overly familiar with Rise with SAP, what is covered by the single contract and how it could help them.

“Whether Rise can help customers build a strong case to move to S/4Hana is still to be seen,” he said. “Every customer situation is different, but many need a much clearer understanding of the commercial impact and how it effects existing cloud investments before they can make an informed decision.

“We will be hosting a dedicated Rise with SAP stream at our conference later this month, which we hope will provide attendees with greater clarity.”

The survey of 106 SAP user organisations revealed that 25% of the 11% that plan to use Rise are looking to accelerate their move to S/4, 19% to simplify their so-called “cloud journey”, the same percentage to reduce the number of suppliers they need to deal with and 17% to improve their change management processes.

Some 44% pronounced themselves either extremely or somewhat familiar with Rise, with 30% stating they had never heard of it.

Customers avoiding Rise said they did not see benefits to it (18%), 15% are yet to see enough case studies, 12% are not making a cloud journey and 12% want to avoid supplier lock-in.

For the supplier, Michiel Verhoeven, managing director of SAP UK & Ireland, said: “Rise with SAP is designed to help organisations smoothly transition from on-premise legacy ERP systems to SAP S/4Hana Cloud, through simplifying, focusing and supporting transformation to a truly Intelligent Enterprise. This message is clearly resonating with the market, and we’ve already seen major UK brands in the form of Asda Stores, EG Group, Inchcape and Briggs of Burton capitalise on Rise to embrace their transformation journey with us.”

Scott Russell, the SAP Executive Board member who heads its Customer Success activities globally said: “The onus continues to be on SAP to educate and advise. The reality about Rise is that customers are on different journeys. Some have moved to S/4, but they don’t feel they have transformed their business to the next level. Others are on ECC on-premise and others are in-between. The reality is that the starting point is different, and the tailoring of Rise is different.”

From an SAP partner perspective, Pierre-Francis Grillet, global director of SAP Business Development at SoftwareONE, commented on the research: “As more organisations consider their move to S/4Hana and Cloud, it’s more important than ever for them to understand the avenues and commercial options available,” he said.

“Organisations need to cut through the noise to determine which path and commercial model best fits their unique business needs. For some, a single contract through Rise may be the best option, but others may want to avoid vendor lock-in and retain commercial relationships with their public cloud providers. Whichever option businesses choose, knowing their licensing position and how to optimise their cloud environment and cloud services is critical to realising the full benefits of S/4Hana.”