If you use SAP in your enterprise, you know this massive application dominates the ERP market for a reason: It can automate, optimize, and analyze just about every business function, and includes modules for every conceivable variation of process and industry.  

But by the same token, SAP solutions are famously complex and difficult to administer – especially as SAP is now encouraging migrating to its new, cloud-based version, S/4HANA. There may be times you’ve wondered whether other SAP users and administrators are wrestling with the same kinds of challenges you have, and how your progress on new ERP initiatives compares to your counterparts’.  

.So we recently partnered with ASUG, the Americas’ SAP Users’ Group, to survey power users at major SAP customers in North America. We got honest, unfiltered, anonymous answers from more than 150 different organizations, in industries ranging from manufacturing to retail to utilities. They told us about their successes and disappointments, plans and interests, challenges, and wish lists for SAP administration. And now we’re sharing highlights of the survey findings with you. 

Troubles caused by downtime

One of the major concerns of the survey responses we got was downtime. 90% of the respondents said they experience unplanned downtime. The bigger observation is that for the majority (66%+), up to 25% of their daily time is spent resolving these unpredictable issues. Overwhelmingly, business user impacts are the top concern/impact due to downtime. Internal downtime impacts are experienced much more than external impacts, though 39% still noted direct impact on customers. 

Q. Which of the following impacts/concerns do you experience, if any, due to downtime? (Please select all that apply.)(n=153)

A response from one of the respondents clearly states the negative impact of downtime: “The unplanned downtime that we are currently experiencing is slowing down our implementation project and will likely prevent our go-live from proceeding until the underlying issues are identified and resolved successfully.” 

Leveraging SAP automation solutions

When it comes to leveraging SAP automation solutions, the largest share of respondents feels their organizations are not leveraging automation solutions as much as they could. Overall, more openness and efforts to adapting new technology, back-end support, and automation across systems is needed to realize benefits.  

Another interesting observation is that about 52% think they are using automation but are actually using RPA tools – which are not the same thing. Now, RPA (robotic process automation) is not bad. It involves simple scripts that can perform simple tasks, and that’s helpful in a limited way. But these scripts, or bots, cannot understand the context and apply the corresponding fix. RPA is basically the first step towards mature automation; now it’s time to upgrade to AI and machine learning that will make your automation intelligent.   

here are a couple of responses that showcase the reasons why companies may struggle to leverage automation solutions effectively 

  • Not having enough time at hand – “Business Owners remaining open to changes in technology that sometimes are out of our control because we will be out of support if we do not perform the enhancement/upgrade/automation etc.” 
  •  Other top priorities – “Need to move to latest technology, i.e. S/4HANA.” 
  • Plan in place but no actions – “We need to implement more automation notifications as well as workflow. We need to unify our solutions from around the globe to get full usage.” 

When we asked, “Do you think automation can help SAP avoid any business disruptions?” We saw resistance to adopting automation from a few respondents that makes us wonder: Since AI and automation is inevitable, are we still struggling with the battles of the past? 

  • “Automation cannot replace human decision-making.” 
  • “I don’t want anything automatically happening without our company testing it.” 
  • “Too complicated. We have multiple BASIS teams.”  
  • “Too many integrations and critical systems.” 

Transforming SAP operations

When we asked which technologies/initiatives are needed to transform SAP operations, we got some interesting findings.  

Given the anticipation for automation to reduce the amount of time spent on manual patch upgrades, respondents said reducing manual processes is their top-priority initiative to improve SAP operations. Data analytics/dashboard insights and supply chain optimization were their next highest priorities. More than half also selected automation. 

Some typical responses: 

  • “The significant amount of time it takes for BASIS to help manage updates, upgrades and data refreshes would benefit from automation to alleviate their time.” 
  • “We could automate more of our testing. It would be great if something could automate which programs would be impacted by the upgrades/patches.” 
  • “We often don’t know what are unwanted changes in SAP during/after upgrade until customer complaints about it, would be nice if we get an alert ahead of time.”  

Q. Which of the following technologies/initiatives are needed to transform SAP operations at your organization? (Please select all that apply.)(n=153)
Q. Out of all the options you selected, what is the number one technology/initiative needed to improve SAP operations at your organization? 2% selected ‘Other’

Usage of AI/ML and monitoring tools

We were shocked to see that in 2023, just 15% of respondents are currently using AI/ML. One-third are considering it in the future – but we feel that is still low. When the technology is making a shift towards Generative AI, why should SAP automation take a back seat?  

Another interesting finding was that about 60% of organizations use up to 20 tools for monitoring. In a world where a unified view of operations through a single pane of glass is necessary, we are surprised that major companies are using so many tools. 

S/4HANA status and key automation areas

Automation and SAP S/4HANA are top-of-mind for customers. We can expect involvement to increase for both as plans to use in the future adds significantly to already strong current usage. In our discussions with ASUG SMEs, we also found that 60% of customers will be using automation in the SAP S/4HANA migration process. While some respondents are quite eager to move to S/4HANA to take advantage of new capabilities/features and upgrade their legacy systems, quite a few others have simply been given a mandate to upgrade. 

Q. For each of the following areas in your SAP operations, please select approximatedly how much is currently automated. (Please select one option per row.)
Note: Data and sample sizes rebased to exclude respondents who selected ‘N/A’ or ‘Don’t know/not sure’; highlighted cells indicate largest % per row

While BASIS administration and service requests mark the highest usage of automation as expected due to ease of applying automation in these areas, many still are not fully leveraging automation, even here. On the other hand, areas like master data management, IDocs, Solution Manager alerts and incidents barely make use of automation. These areas too have a lot of scope to automate and reap benefits by reducing human effort and errors.  

Make SAP operations more efficient

SAP operations are integral to many businesses, but they frequently pose challenges. ASUG Digitate’s survey emphasizes the importance of improving SAP processes through automation, effective training, and the use of suitable tools. The survey also underscores the value of reducing human effort and minimizing errors. Based on these findings, here are practical recommendations that involve harnessing automation, upholding data integrity, proactive monitoring, regular team training, seeking expert guidance, and adopting autonomous operations as the path forward 

At Digitate, we’ve recognized these challenges and have developed solutions for these challenges using SAP automation. In the ever-evolving landscape of SAP operations, having the right tools and solutions is crucial. Digitate’s ignio AI.ERPOps is specifically designed to address the unique challenges of SAP management and enhance the efficiency, reliability, and agility of your day-to-day SAP operations. This solution is built on a foundation of innovation and expertise, offering a comprehensive approach to SAP management. Whether it’s managing intricate workflows, ensuring data integrity, or optimizing system performance, ignio AI.ERPOps is well-equipped to confront these challenges head-on, ultimately driving operational excellence. 

Click here to read more: https://digitate.com/ignio-ai-erpops/ or request a focused demo to understand the offering in depth: https://digitate.com/request-a-demo/