After my SAPCRM State of the Nation and Lightat the End of the Tunnel articles of earlier this year it is time again to have a look at what and how SAP is doing in the wider CRM arena. After all SAP also recently released its 1608 Hybris version, which in my eyes makes SAP very competitive again.
Let?S begin with some statistics, which I?D like to vicinity into a bigger context:
- SAP CRM 7.0 is in mainstream maintenance until end of 2025. This should give some relief to the existing customer base
- SAP CRM (the on premise product) continues to receive only little investment; on the positive side this investment is very customer driven
- At the same time CRM 7.0 is the only version that is not in customer specific maintenance; means it is the only version that still gets legal/regulatory and other updates
- SAP’s CRM strategy ‘Beyond CRM’ has a strong focus on the Hybris line of products, which, I think, meanwhile is highly competitive
- As an aside to the above points this situation makes the maintenance fee of 22 per cent for SAP CRM in combination with the suboptimal support appear very high
- The user interface of the Hybris line of products is a lot sleeker than the UI of CRM 7.0
- From a functionality point of view, especially looking into industry specific functionalities, CRM 7.0 still has an edge over the Hybris portfolio, with the possible exceptions of Retail as an industry and Hybris Marketing.
- S/4HANA is getting pretty successful – this may be taken as conjecture, but people I trust confirm this; S/4HANA, however does not have a discernible CRM foot print that I am aware of – let us hold this thought for a while
- SAP has a good number of on premise customers and I do think, cloud or not, this will continue to be the case – not only for SAP; let’s talk about that again in 2025 ;-)
What does all this advocate for clients?
Well, that is based upon ?
Let?S hold in mind a few eventualities.
You do no longer run CRM however want to trade this
Do now not neglect about to have a check the Hybris line of products, mainly in case you are already an SAP consumer. Ruling it out right from the begin meanwhile is a mistake in any case. The Hybris line of merchandise can compete with every Salesforce and Microsoft and, inside the case of e-commerce additionally has a smooth vicinity over both. Microsoft does not provide a strong e-alternate solution itself and Salesforce is likely to be busy integrating Demandware better into the suite of merchandise.
You despite the fact that use SAP CRM pre 7.Zero
This can handiest suggest considered one of 3 matters. Customer is satisfied with the solution and self-sustainable ? Or not using it the least bit. In these situations, one just desires to ensure that no preservation fee is paid anymore. Check your agreement and money owed.
If there occurs to be a contract on consumer particular protection due to the fact ongoing help is needed, my strong recommendation is to take into account an improve or change of device.
In any case one ought to get out of patron particular maintenance; e.G. Go 0.33 celebration renovation, or agreement professionals in, if assistance is required. Any of those situations is plenty much less luxurious than client specific preservation and offers a few, but differing, benefits.
Better move for an upgrade to CRM 7.Zero or migrate to the Hybris line of products, if you can not see your self placed in a self-sustained situation! After an upgrade to CRM 7.Zero you still may want to move zero.33 celebration renovation, on a complicated platform ? However that is every other tale.
Of path, the choice for Hybris or CRM 7.0 wishes to be carefully evaluated. SAP has a focal point on Hybris, device integrators one on billable days. After all the choice boils all the manner down to what you want now and in 3 ? Five years. Preparation pays off.
You use CRM 7.Zero
Now this is wherein the fun begins. This situation is in which SAP offers least steerage. It is likewise the motive for this post ?
Because there is no other way than considering the Hybris products if additional, modern functionality is required to improve the customer facing operations. On the other hand, this is pretty costly and may result in redundantly licensing/subscribing to overlapping functionality. This certainly needs to get checked and corresponding negotiations are likely to be easier if SAP is chosen as opposed to <name any competitor>. The good news is that the integration between CRM 7.0 and the Hybris line of products is improving a lot. The bad news, of course, is that integration is needed …
So, basically SAP is in the hot chair to provide vision and guidance for customers.
Two Scenarios for SAP to improve the Customer Situation
Let’s take up the thought I put on hold above. The ongoing need for integration between different SAP products and solutions is hard on customers as well as SAP.
And it is not really necessary. A micro services architecture on HANA can take care of that. Personally I would treat Hybris Commerce as a separate entity here but that may be up to debate.
Both approaches essentially boil down to fulfiling Hasso Plattner’s original vision of Business by Design. The technology is all there.
Scenario 1 – “S/4HANACRM”
CRM 7.0 already runs on HANA. S/4HANA is missing a CRM. So one could get the idea to modularize CRM’s object model more and to make it a part of S/4HANA. This also involves adopting the S/4HANA UI. Maybe strip out some of the marketing functionality and replace it with SAP Hybris Marketing. Over time do the same with other functionality, probably starting with merging the Hybris Service Engagement Center and Hybris into “S/4HANACRM” replacing the existing CIC. Continue with the balance of service sales functionality.
This could give a nearly immediate boost to S/4HANA, cover on premise, private- and public cloud scenarios, and, most importantly, provide existing on premise customers with a clear migration path, which is currently missing. There is also a richness of industry specific functionalities immediately available. On the flip side there still is the existence of different products that address the same potential customers. This needs to get managed. Technically I can imagine that the configuration initially is somewhat of a challenge due to different concepts.
Scenario 2 – “S/4HANAHYBRIS”
This approach basically works the other way round. Take the Hybris portfolio of CRM applications and merge them into S/4HANA. This emphasizes on the current strategy (although an overall rebranding might be in order) and should be less work as the Hybris suite should also be very close to a micro services architecture.
Following this approach would also help SAP to start from a cleaner code base with less legacy. The implementation of customer facing functionality would also follow an ‘important things first’ approach.
Industry specific integrated processes will come later, along with clearly defined migration paths, e.g. leveraging the Data Hub.
On the down side this approach might initially cause some not overly excited customers, if they do not get access to the good new functionality they need via the Hybris solution stack – at reasonable conditions.
Of course SAP might have a totally different view – but these are the most promising ways for SAP to approach ‘Beyond CRM’ that I see.
I actually would opt for the “S/4HANAHYBRIS” scenario.
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