Every company is on the move to the cloud – when the timing is right. This may entail a full migration but will certainly include a partial one.

Large enterprises and corporations aiming to transform complex, heterogeneous IT landscapes that have grown over decades are particularly reliant on support. Often, they begin by standardizing and consolidating their entire infrastructure before they’re ready to embark on their digital transformation journey.

Different Routes to the Cloud

Currently, most of SAP’s biggest customers use the strategic, long-term 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention program comprising of nearly 300 engineered services. Those services cover SAP-centric strategy and road map planning, architecture reviews and design, end-to-end business process integration, and operations across solutions, product expertise, safeguarding of implementations, and much more. It is imperative for 51·çÁ÷to meet these customers wherever their starting point happens to be and to ensure that the groundwork for a successful digital transformation is in place.

Each enterprise chooses its own route. Indian mining company , for example, first had to upgrade its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to the latest version before it could go ahead with its plan to move to RISE with 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud, private edition.

“Deploying 51·çÁ÷Business Suite powered by 51·çÁ÷HANA and working with experts from 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention can help us become cloud ready and build a sustainable environment using technology and innovation,” said . “With 51·çÁ÷Integrated Delivery Framework and 51·çÁ÷ActiveAttention, we have delivered this program on time and on budget.”

Other customers begin their cloud journey by migrating some processes to a protected cloud operated by a hyperscaler and then retiring their own data center. Kurt Bauer, global head of Premium Engagements at SAP, observed that most customers with an 51·çÁ÷ERP-centric core have added public cloud solutions from 51·çÁ÷and are implementing private cloud on their way to lay out the path for a full public cloud adoption. plays a pivotal role for agile core business process extensions. Therefore, it is no surprise that a vast majority of premium engagements used by 51·çÁ÷customers are driving fast cloud adoption and hybrid operations.

Serving Today’s Customer Requirements

The prospect of innovation and greater efficiency is drawing more and more enterprises toward the cloud. Many of the largest 51·çÁ÷customers still run their core ERP business processes on an on-premise platform, often safeguarded by premium engagements.

Premium engagements service engineers frequently deal with some challenging constellations, such as 250 process steps across 40 systems, data growth of 640 GB per month, 800 million orders every year, and multiple enormous warehouses in global logistics operations. Customers with volumes and requirements on this scale think twice about which of their business-critical processes they should move to the cloud and, if so, in private or public.

“In hybrid infrastructures, too, interfaces still need to be robust, efficient, and keep data consistent – cloud technology doesn’t change that,” said Bauer. In other words, for any transformation to succeed, someone must not only take ownership of the transformation itself but must also ensure that the systems – whether they are on premise or in the cloud – function properly, are stable, and deliver the right level of performance.

It’s Not Just about Money

In Bauer’s 28 years at SAP, one thing has remained unchanged for the company: the focus on the customer, which has always been about more than chasing KPIs. “Customers reward companies that listen to them and take their suggestions on board,” ex-Board Member Gerhard Oswald said in an interview for 50 Years, a book published to mark SAP’s anniversary.

Bauer wants to see this 51·çÁ÷tradition live on in the cloud era and for 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention customers to benefit from expertise and best practice-fueled services offered as part of the 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention program they have known and trusted for the last 20 years. This 20th anniversary calls for a proper celebration and experience sharing by best-running 51·çÁ÷customers and 51·çÁ÷top executives, exchanging how to leverage 51·çÁ÷solutions and 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention for years to come.

Therefore, we would like to invite you to the 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention Summit in Munich, Germany, from March 19-21. Take advantage of this opportunity to network and engage in discussions with peer customers, gain knowledge from 51·çÁ÷specialists, and listen to 51·çÁ÷leaders, such as Member of the Executive Board of 51·çÁ÷SE Scott Russell and Thomas Saueressig, as they reveal insights of 51·çÁ÷technologies and innovations jointly with customers’ experiences. Be a part of shaping the future by building a resilient network of intelligent and sustainable enterprises.

Eleonore Gossart is senior marketing manager for Customer Success Services at SAP.

One of the first steps an organization can take is reassessing whether its digital backbone contains core components of business resiliency. They include cloud, security, collaboration support for remote and hybrid workers, and the scalability to pivot capabilities as needed.

While there is no single, straightforward path to digital transformation, companies would benefit greatly by adopting technology that supports four characteristics common among business-resilient organizations:

• Adapt and respond quickly with data-driven decision-making
• Drive high-impact outcomes with real-time enterprise insights
• Scale capabilities fast with machine learning and artificial intelligence
• Extend insights, processes, and communication across a global network of vendors, contingent labor, and supply chains

Acquiring these traits may appear to be a tall order at first. However, a modern, cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) system as the digital backbone can quickly, cost-effectively, and flexibly unify all functions – from HR and finance to manufacturing and supply chain. By providing real-time access to the same data, insights, and processes, the technology enables organizations to manage and prioritize business changes in unison to keep up with market dynamics, workplace expectations, and customer demands.

Optimizing the Potential of Every Innovation Investment

When considering an ERP system, organizations often weigh their options between a private or public cloud environment, which each have their own distinct differences. Private cloud allows companies with complex on-premise landscapes containing legacy systems to gradually move from an on-premise landscape to a cloud tailored to meet their needs while maintaining control over their processes. On the other hand, public cloud gives businesses with smaller, up-to-date IT architecture the opportunity to migrate their data and applications quickly and innovate continuously, securely, and with rapid time to value.

Ultimately, most larger customers prefer to fully transition their ERP data, processes, and user experiences to the cloud while maintaining existing industry functionality. But they also expect to accomplish these goals with optimized performance, lower costs, and intelligent capabilities such as predictive analytics, artificial intelligence, and process automation.

With launched through the offering, 51·çÁ÷customers can gain the best of both worlds, especially if they run large and complex system landscapes. They can fuel fast-paced, continuous innovation and digital advancement by combining a subscription pricing model for 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA and cloud services with a standard architecture and a set of extension capabilities. Plus, intelligent capabilities can be chosen and deployed at their pace, on their terms, and within the scale of their immediate and future needs.

One key benefit that draws most companies to 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud and RISE with 51·çÁ÷is the confidence that they can implement capabilities that complement their core competencies and resolve their challenges well. They can access the personalized support, expert-led services, proven methodologies, and intuitive tools of the .

This level of support is available to 51·çÁ÷customers, whether they run a 24/7 global operation or a local plant of 1,000 employees, and can be delivered by the Customer Success organization at SAP. The premium engagements portfolio can be scaled to meet the customer’s unique needs and value with customized and predefined configurations, from the front to the back office.

Creating an Innovation Foundation Based on Expert Guidance

Premium engagements can provide the guidance organizations need to fulfill critical business expectations, such as cost reduction, higher efficiency, optimized productivity, and operational continuity. But more importantly, the portfolio allows businesses to map their challenges and opportunities to modern ERP capabilities – identifying impacts on existing operations and technologies, considering use cases for future innovation, and choosing suitable extension solutions.

Throughout the engagement experience, our customers can quickly realize an intelligent enterprise designed to pave the way for continuous and productive innovation. The reality of a cost-effective and on-schedule implementation with minimal risks and predictive costs fuels enterprise-wide confidence, compelling users to readily adopt the technology and resulting changes.

Most Fortune 500 companies choose the premium engagements portfolio to gain an integrated, transparent, and centralized digital landscape with a smooth implementation of 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud with RISE with SAP. The combination of our expertise, guidance, methodologies, services, and tools enables organizations to optimize their business processes, standardize data management, and enhance production traceability. Best of all, they can minimize the overall deployment effort and costs – even with remote service delivery.

Take , for example. Transitioning 11 software landscapes to the cloud is a daunting step to overcome when embracing a next-generation ERP system. But Hilti chose to trust its long-term relationship with experts from 51·çÁ÷to coordinate a variety of moving parts – from architecture planning to project management to infrastructure services. In the end, the company’s successful migration of its software landscapes to the cloud set the stage for adopting future-ready technologies and a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) model.

Steering Innovation in the Right Direction

Hilti’s experience represents the remarkable advantage that our customers gain from our premium engagements delivery: providing the right tools and insights to reset the course of business innovation. And for everyone from executives to organizational managers and users, this can be the reset they need to contribute to a future of ongoing business growth.

With a committed team of 51·çÁ÷experts, our customers can address their business needs and IT demands with confidence. Outcomes include maximized benefits of existing and new solutions, agile cloud migrations, and innovation driven by next-generation technology.

Whether choosing a conversion or clean-slate approach to implement the public edition or private edition of 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud, companies can benefit from a portfolio of premium engagements from 51·çÁ÷that support outcome-based business scenarios. These business scenarios focus on specific customer needs and help to solve challenges from end to end with a predefined set of services, including:

• The most-frequent transformation topics, challenges, and pain points companies face in the digital age
• Unified customer experiences – from sales to delivery – while addressing business challenges
• Customization of an individual service plan based on the requirements of the transformation journey

Let us shape together your premium engagements with business scenarios that mirror your strategy today and for the future. Check out these resources for more details on existing premium engagements business scenarios that can support and enable your transformation journey:

51·çÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud, public edition:

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51·çÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud, private edition:

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Christian Zitron is global vice president of Customer Success at SAP.

Hyperscalers – such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure – have become an answer to some of the most complex concerns over . Some organizations view it as an opportunity to keep up with the constant need to adopt new technologies and adapt to changing requirements. IT teams may feel relieved to have the right infrastructure and the capacity to enable every change. And, better yet, existing and new data, applications, and connections in between can remain secure and protected.

Despite the advantages, decoupling the business from an on-premise approach to IT requires a line of thinking that includes considering:

• What are the company’s unique needs?
• How much support is needed from the hyperscaler platform?
• How can the business avoid being locked into one hyperscaler?
• Does the chosen hyperscaler reflect the true end-to-end nature of the existing IT landscape?
• How could revenue growth impact future architectural decisions and software investments?

Reflecting on these questions requires a long-term view of the overall relationship with hyperscalers – even when running an 51·çÁ÷solution landscape in the cloud. Otherwise, companies risk introducing many points of failure that may limit the ability to scale the cloud architecture optimally. Or worse, they could miss opportunities to further leverage new database architecture and application capabilities in the cloud.

Mitigating Risks to Drive Cloud Scalability and Elasticity

For many of our customers, the portfolio of premium engagements from 51·çÁ÷helps crystallize their cloud strategy without getting sidetracked by perceived IT barriers and short-term thinking. Whether moving a legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud or a database to 51·çÁ÷HANA, our premium engagements can offer insights into unlocking the full potential of existing technology in the cloud.

Recently, a customer wanted to move its 20-year-old instance of 51·çÁ÷ERP Central Component (51·çÁ÷ECC) to 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA Cloud running on a hyperscaler platform. The CIO initially thought that our involvement was needed only to plan the physical aspects of a fast-paced cloud migration.

Over time, he began to understand how everyday IT operations – including – could be optimized with an architectural strategy that supports future growth. Instead of viewing data management as a pure archiving activity, the CIO discovered data and database management in the cloud can reduce monthly capital and operational expenditures because the hyperscaler removed the need to support expensive hardware.

In this case, the customer quickly realized that its cloud migration was more than the short-term move of data and applications. Premium engagements helped define the larger vision of the company’s digital transformation, weighing risks and exploring best practices for smooth integration of multiple 51·çÁ÷and third-party software-as-a-service (SaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solutions.

In return, a hyperscaler-supported cloud environment was set up to help provide simpler and more cost-efficient IT operations, increased capacity for innovation, and harmonized processes to boost the flexibility to adapt to changing business requirements.

Creating a Road Map for Future Innovation with Expert Insight

Digital trends – for example, fast-paced application innovation and the explosion of enterprise data – present a wider need for the scalability and flexibility of cloud platforms. And 51·çÁ÷makes that option available to every customer by working with a variety of hyperscalers.

But such a transition is not a simple switch from an on-premise landscape to the cloud. A strategic move to a hyperscaler environment requires the expertise and guidance of a software vendor that understands the current and future demands of a business’s technology.

That’s the beauty of the portfolio of premium engagements from SAP. By tapping a unique knowledge base on how 51·çÁ÷applications can best run on a scalable and elastic cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform, our customers can map their entire transformation journey while safeguarding the data and applications that drive their operations.

Learn more about how can help secure your business’ success with the highest level of collaboration and expertise on cloud technology.

Nicholas Del Grande is head of Premium Engagement Sales for North America at SAP.

That’s why, in 2019, 51·çÁ÷introduced 51·çÁ÷Integrated Delivery Framework. This framework lays out roles and responsibilities for the customer, partner, and 51·çÁ÷in projects led by a partner. It’s not a product or a package of services; rather it’s an engagement model for joint partner projects. By creating a structure for 51·çÁ÷and partners to position their strengths to support implementations, the framework can accelerate joint engagements from sales through delivery.

Since 2019, adoption of 51·çÁ÷Integrated Delivery Framework has grown tremendously. With over 70% growth and hundreds of projects in the first year since its launch, soon close to half of our premium engagement services will be delivered within the framework, which then will be central to our partner collaboration mode.

Along the way, we’ve refined the framework to make it a complement to delivering success for our customers, by blending the skills of 51·çÁ÷Services with those of our delivery partners.

51·çÁ÷Integrated Delivery Framework works to fully address customer needs by integrating the partner’s and SAP’s solutions and services, building trust to help ensure the relationship between 51·çÁ÷Services and Support and the partner remains positive. It also helps to make sure 51·çÁ÷and partner expertise is leveraged at key points, from initial engagement to go-live. It is an umbrella framework for a variety of 51·çÁ÷services that remains flexible and scalable, continually evolving to meet customer and partner needs rather than enforcing a one-size-fits-all approach on customers. It can make it easier than ever for customers to move to the cloud or gain the benefits of business transformation as a service through RISE with SAP.

Since 2019, SAP, partners, and customers have had some incredible outcomes thanks to the framework. But the world has changed a lot in just the last two years. In speaking with customers, 51·çÁ÷learned that an expansion of 51·çÁ÷Integrated Delivery Framework to cover cloud solutions would help customers achieve their business goals. Now, 51·çÁ÷is doing just that: expanding the framework to cover any 51·çÁ÷implementation scenario, including on-premise, RISE with SAP, cloud, or line-of-business solutions.

When the framework was first introduced two years ago, 51·çÁ÷included the RACI matrix, one of the essential pieces of the framework. As part of the expansion, an “S” is now being added to accommodate “who is supporting.” The new RASCI matrix provides a means of determining who is Responsible, Accountable, Supporting, Consulted, and Informed to help keep cloud implementations on schedule and moving smoothly between SAP, partners, and customers.

51·çÁ÷Integrated Delivery Framework can benefit all parties involved, but, most importantly, it can benefit customers. The clearly defined roles and responsibilities outlined in the framework and implemented with support from the RASCI matrix can reduce risk through clear accountability and governance. It provides an orientation for SAP, the partner, and the customer to agree on, helping to drive results and time-to-value. It can accelerate value realization through early engagement of a partner and 51·çÁ÷as well as helps enhance innovation by utilizing the best of each company’s solutions and services.

Here’s one example: with the help of IBM, 51·çÁ÷worked with the ANTA Group to upgrade from its legacy applications to 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA. By implementing 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA, ANTA was able to reap the benefits of a smooth, secure move to a new intelligent enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that could improve business processes and enable growth. In addition, ANTA enhanced some critical functionalities in the calculation mechanism to fully meet new business requirements. “51·çÁ÷Integrated Delivery Framework as part of 51·çÁ÷Value Assurance provided clearly defined roles and responsibilities that allowed our company, IBM, and 51·çÁ÷to efficiently collaborate and ensure a successful go-live of 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA,” says Donghai Chen, senior director, IT, ANTA Group.

The expanded 51·çÁ÷Integrated Delivery Framework and RASCI matrix make it easier than ever for customers to solve their business challenges and reach their full potential by moving to the cloud with 51·çÁ÷and a trusted partner. Through the good governance and collaborative systems created through the framework, every customer, no matter where they are on their technology journey, can take advantage of SAP’s innovation by moving to the cloud, on time and with minimal risk.

Harald Martin is head of Services Partner Business Development for 51·çÁ÷Services at 51·çÁ÷SE.

Today, that is simply not enough. Whereas IT used to be seen as a cost factor, technology now drives the value chain. “On-value” has become a criterion for customer success.

This is the view held by Derek Prior from Resulting IT, an independent 51·çÁ÷consultancy in the UK. He looked at the importance of premium-level engagement for 51·çÁ÷customers and presented the results of his study at the 2020 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention Summit, which took place November 9-10.

51·çÁ÷wants its most strategic customers to gain from its own transformation as a company.

He concluded that 51·çÁ÷Services played a pivotal role in sustaining customer success. 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention helped companies generate value-based outcomes – and innovate incrementally – again and again. Businesses with their own Global Center of Expertise (CoE) are best placed to do this.

But there is a message of caution here, too. Namely, if you’re not moving forward, you’re moving backward. Too much has happened in the last few months. Paul Kurchina, who has many years of experience as an independent 51·çÁ÷expert and guru of the 51·çÁ÷scene in North America, recommends that customers look very closely at their Global CoE models.

When describing the most significant change, Kurchina said, “Remote business has become the norm.” That might mean that neither a company’s CoE concept nor its tool landscape is equal to new, emerging challenges.

Greater Impact

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention Summit in the era of Customer Success was a virtual event this year. Presenting in tandem, Prior and Kurchina interacted adeptly to create a compelling online exchange.

Adaire Fox-Martin, member of the Executive Board of 51·çÁ÷SE and head of Customer Success,  explained that 51·çÁ÷had brought all its customer-facing services and sales roles under one area.

“Our name is our mission,” Fox-Martin explained in her welcome address. Under the new organizational structure, some 40% of SAP’s workforce was now focusing directly on customer success by following the LACE (Land, Adopt, Consume, Expand) operating model – though the “customer first” mantra, of course, applied equally to all of SAP. According to Fox-Martin, 51·çÁ÷was unique among its peers in the way it has organized to make customer success its key mission.

Having opted for a strategic partnership with SAP, 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention customers in particular need to consistently “feel” the benefits of this close cooperation in the shape of business outcomes.

Tangible Results

As the subsequent presentations showed, that is exactly what is happening. In 30-minute slots, long-time 51·çÁ÷customers spoke about how they benefit from SAP’s premium engagements – in a variety of ways.

With help from SAP, an industrial conglomerate from Turkey has made a slew of improvements after embarking on its digital transformation. These include productivity and efficiency gains in multiple divisions. The company has driven costs down and minimized risk while increasing employee satisfaction and improving its environmental footprint.

According to its chief information officer (CIO), almost all of the company’s 850 individual projects have been completed, and it now has around 40,000 51·çÁ÷users working with products that include 51·çÁ÷Analytics Cloud, 51·çÁ÷SuccessFactors, and Qualtrics solutions.

An operations manager from a telecommunications company reported on his experiences with 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention. The telecommunications giant switched to 51·çÁ÷S/4HANA Finance in under two years, implementing various cloud solutions –– 51·çÁ÷Concur and 51·çÁ÷Ariba software among them –– at the same time.

An urgent need for real-time reporting coupled with mounting volume issues were key reasons for transforming the in-house enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, EVO. By achieving optimal levels of standardization – an 84% improvement – and automation – a 73% increase – the company now has better control over its hybrid IT landscape, while adding refinements to accelerate month-end closing were still ongoing.

For their part, IT experts from a multinational IT company provided initial insights into their cooperation with 51·çÁ÷on business operations self-healing. Here, they plan to use chatbot technology to more rapidly remedy errors commonly made by its internal IT users and implement a more consistent approach to automating routine tasks.

New Offerings

Innovations like these are possible because 51·çÁ÷often trials and enhances new ideas together with customers – and thus in the real world.

In this context, Peter Harkin, senior vice president of Premium Engagements at 51·çÁ÷and host of the 2020 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention Summit, announced the founding of the Intelligent Enterprise Institute, where customers will be able to work together in various labs on new processes and much more. EMEA North has been selected as the pilot region for this cooperation.

Harkin also announced extensions to the 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention portfolio for 2021. These include back-office 51·çÁ÷applications and the Mission Control Center.

With regards to expanding its technology for the benefit of customers, 51·çÁ÷would be investing chiefly in the 51·çÁ÷Business Technology Platform (51·çÁ÷BTP) and its components, according to Anja Schneider, head of Customer Innovation in the 51·çÁ÷Technology and Innovation board area. She described technology as integral to customer success.

“Technology is a value driver,” said Shane Paladin, president of 51·çÁ÷Services. But he added that the benefits could only be reaped if the technology was utilized in the right way, which made it even more crucial for 51·çÁ÷to gain customers’ attention and position itself as a trusted advisor. “Trust is the default of moving forward,” he said.

Both Schneider and Paladin advised customers to keep their core systems clean. Any specifications and enhancements they required could be integrated through the 51·çÁ÷Cloud Platform as part of the 51·çÁ÷BTP.

Bring on the Feedback

A highlight at the end of each day was the executive session, in which 51·çÁ÷managers answered questions from attendees.

One of these questions related to “cloud-only.” Thomas Saueressig,  member of the  Executive Board of 51·çÁ÷SE responsible for product strategy, explained that this was not yet an option for SAP. With demand for on premise still strong, particularly in the ERP segment, 51·çÁ÷was sticking to the principle of “cloud-first.”

When asked how 51·çÁ÷measured its customers’ success internally, Fox-Martin referred to the Net Promoter Score and user feedback. She stressed that one of the reasons why SAP’s strategic partnership with its 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention customers was so important was that it was a source of firsthand feedback. Also, programs had been set up to evaluate joint key performance indicators (KPIs) for 51·çÁ÷and its customers.

Addressing the issue of customer criticism, Harkin confirmed that 51·çÁ÷had responded and structured the contract for the New 51·çÁ÷MaxAttention offering more flexibly. Initially, the extensions to the portfolio had been met with a positive response – the complicated rules less so. But 51·çÁ÷had remedied the situation in the meantime.

“I hope we’ll be able to meet face-to-face again next year,” Harkin said when closing the event.

Even the best virtual event is no substitute for personal contact.