User groups give SAP’s 50% Rise incentive the thumbs up

The German SAP user group DSAG (Deutschsprachige SAP-Anwendergruppe) has welcomed an incentive from SAP that gives businesses a 50% discount on moving to the Rise cloud platform.

DSAG had previously criticised SAP over its plans to offer innovations such as artificial intelligence (AI) and a green ledger only on Rise. SAP has now responded to customer feedback with a limited-time offer that it says can reduce the cost of migration by up to 50% and shorten the time to value.

Until the end of 2024, S/4Hana and SAP ECC customers moving to the Rise with SAP or Grow with SAP systems through the new Rise with SAP Migration and Modernisation Programme will have access to credits that can be applied to offset the cost of maintenance, cloud services or cloud subscriptions.

Christine Grimm from the DSAG executive board said: “By expanding the Rise with SAP offering to include financial incentives and support, SAP is reaffirming its promise to actively support customers on their journey to the cloud, and thus make the transition easier.

“At DSAG, we appreciate this initiative and the willingness shown by SAP. The aim must be to further improve and expand this offering in collaboration with SAP to take into account the complex requirements and challenges of our members who are deciding in favour of a transformation process to the cloud. In doing so, we want to ensure that they benefit fully from the extended possibilities and innovations of the Rise with SAP offering.”

Eric van Rossum, chief marketing officer for Cloud ERP at SAP, said: “It’s more important than ever for customers to start their migration and modernisation journey so they can harness the potential of the latest cloud innovations, including AI and sustainability solutions.”

“We will be canvassing the opinion of members … to see if the financial incentives offset the additional costs they will incur from moving to the cloud to access the latest innovations … but this is a move in the right direction”

The UK Independent SAP User Group (UKISUG) said it would be looking at the implications of the incentive SAP is offering.

UKISUG chair Paul Cooper said: “We’re pleased to see that SAP has listened to the concerns of our members and has engaged with us over the challenges its new cloud innovation strategy creates for on-premise customers. The Rise with SAP Migration and Modernisation Programme is a welcome first step and the financial incentives will help current ECC customers make the business case for moving to the cloud.

“We will be canvassing the opinion of members who made the move to S/4Hana on-premise to see if the financial incentives offset the additional costs they will incur from moving to the cloud to access the latest innovations. We look forward to understanding the details, but this is definitely a move in the right direction.”

Cooper noted that there would still be a significant number of on-premise customers that will not move their core SAP system to Rise. It urged SAP to make innovations available via SAP’s Business Technology Platform. “This is an area we will continue to push SAP on, as we are led to believe that there is no technical reason why this isn’t possible,” he added.