Information technology software giant SAP SE said today it’s launching a new RISE with SAP Migration and Modernization program to help companies move their enterprise resource planning environments to the cloud, where they can benefit from an increased pace and level of innovation.

The new program is aimed at addressing two of the key issues companies face when moving to the cloud, namely the scope and cost of such migrations. Among the benefits are the elimination of process complexity, the need for custom code and data silos, SAP said.

Eric van Rossum, SAP’s chief marketing officer for cloud ERP, said it has become clear that every enterprise needs to adopt a cloud-first business strategy. “It’s more important than ever for customers to start their migration and modernization journey, so they can harness the potential of the latest cloud innovations, including AI and sustainability solutions,” he said.

Announced three years ago, the RISE with SAP program is described as a “business transformation-as-a-service” offering that will help customers transition from thinking of software as something they have to purchase to own, toward a software-as-a-service model.

The service is less about the core ERP features and more about ERP-as-a-service, and it bundles various value added services and capabilities.

S/4HANA Cloud, which is SAP’s flagship ERP product, is just one piece of the puzzle, albeit one of the most important ones. One of the major selling points is the idea of a single contract, with unified billing for all of SAP’s software, services and infrastructure.

Other parts of the package include SAP’s partner-provided migration and implementation services, access to the SAP Business Network, including Ariba, intelligent business process engineering services, and more. RISE with SAP can be accessed via SAP’s own cloud infrastructure, or alternatively hosted on Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud or Microsoft Azure.

With the new Rise with SAP Migration and Modernization program, SAP said, it’s helping customers to become “innovation-ready.” When they move their ERP environments into the cloud, SAP takes on the burden of management to ensure more regular updates, superior reliability, security and compliance, as well as simplified access to its other services.

No matter if the customer is currently running SAP S/4HANA or the SAP ERP Central Component on-premises, the company will provide a simplified path to RISE with SAP, managing every step of the migration. Customers can choose from self-guided assistance or fully assisted services, the company said.

SAP is offering a number of incentives besides the aforementioned benefits of RISE with SAP, including a time-limited offer that promises to reduce migration costs by up to 50% and shorten time to value. Available through June 2024, via RISE with SAP or GROW with SAP, customers can access cloud credits that can offset the costs of maintenance, cloud services and cloud subscriptions, the company said. The incentive covers both S/4HANA Cloud and other services, such as SAP’s human resources, supply chain, customer relationship management, spend management and business transformation services.

The company said the migration and modernization process will be fully transparent with key milestone checks for customers to ensure they remain on track. Migrations will be supported by SAP specialists, who will ensure everything is done correctly from the initial discovery stage through to going live.

Finally, SAP is offering a new SAP S/4HANA Cloud Safekeeper service for customers that need extra time to migrate to RISE with SAP. With the new offering, it’s providing customer-specific maintenance of existing ERP environments while they get their systems ready for the upgrade. It’s also offering business continuity for customers’ existing systems with updates and patches for up to two years.

Christine Grimm, a board member of Deutschsprachige SAP Anwendergruppe e.V., an industry group that represents SAP users in its German, Austrian and Swiss heartlands, said today’s announcement shows that SAP appreciates the complexity its customers face when migrating to the cloud.

“The program is part of SAP’s strategy for a more agile and innovative cloud solution tailored to customers’ diverse needs and is supported by funding to ease the transition.” Grimm said.

Photo: SAP