Another SAPPHIRE has come and gone, day 2’s keynote focused on a key theme: empowering customers in their transition to the cloud. Speakers highlighted inspiring customer success stories and showcased the innovative tools SAP provides to streamline and support the transformation process.

It was great to hear SAP announce during the keynote that 8,500 customers are now live on RISE. In a previous blog, I questioned why SAP does not disclose the total number of S/4HANA customers in their quarterly or annual statements. While the 8,500 live RISE customers offer some insight, I believe the actual number of S/4HANA customers is higher, as this figure does not account for S/4HANA on-premise or S/4HANA public cloud users. Additionally, based on a survey indicating that 40% of RISE customers drive the global economy, it suggests that most RISE customers are large enterprises, likely including many Fortune 500 companies.

On stage, we heard inspiring customer transformation stories from Mercedes-Benz, Phoenix Global, and Mars—two showcasing GROW journeys and one highlighting a RISE journey. A clear trend is emerging: large enterprise organizations like Mars are leveraging S/4HANA Public Cloud (GROW) for smaller acquisitions. This approach makes strategic sense, as one of the first steps post-acquisition is integrating financials for consolidated reporting. While S/4HANA Public Cloud (GROW) remains a costly solution for many small-to-midsize businesses, it is a viable choice for large enterprises seeking a streamlined approach to onboarding newly acquired entities.

The final announcement from SAP centered on the RISE integrated toolchain, designed to support customers in their S/4HANA cloud transformation. This toolchain includes SAP Signavio, LeanIX, CloudALM, and WalkMe, each playing a critical role in the migration process. Depending on your RISE commercial package, you may have free trial access to select products like SAP Signavio Process Insight, LeanIX, and CloudALM.

Here’s how each tool contributes to an S/4HANA implementation:

• SAP Signavio analyzes your current state (As-Is) to identify gaps, automation opportunities, and processes outside of SAP that could be integrated.

• LeanIX helps design your future architecture, aligning it with SAP’s cloud portfolio.

• CloudALM assists with system change management and testing oversight.

• WalkMe focuses on change management and training, ensuring smooth adoption.

Of course, no keynote speech would be complete without a mention of AI. By the end of the year, new AI-driven features powered by Joule will be integrated into the RISE toolchain, aiming to enhance productivity in S/4HANA implementations.

Final Thoughts on the Keynote & SAPPHIRE

SAP did an excellent job during the keynote, highlighting its future vision for AI and introducing new products like SAP Business Data Cloud and WalkMe, which are designed to enhance AI strategies and help customers maximize AI capabilities powered by Joule.

However, one key aspect that felt underrepresented was the relevance of SAP’s offerings to a broader customer base. The focus seemed primarily on large enterprise organizations, leaving many SAP customers—especially those still on SAP ECC or in the early stages of their S/4HANA transformation—without a clear path to adopt these AI-driven solutions. Many of these businesses are years away from fully leveraging the AI tools SAP is promoting.

SAP announced that 400 embedded AI use cases will be available by the end of the year. However, the critical question remains: how many of those use cases are designed for ERP? Instead of showcasing AI integration within core ERP processes, the examples presented mainly focused on non-ERP applications. While ERP is just one component within a broader business suite, for most SAP customers, it remains the most critical system with the highest number of users.

Additionally, SAP has stated that 80% of its customers are small-to-midsize enterprises, yet its messaging does not fully align with the needs and priorities of this customer segment. As the event wrapped up, the conversations, insights, and strategies shared will undoubtedly fuel the next steps in digital transformation.

If you're exploring your S/4HANA journey and have questions, feel free to reach out at info@contax.com. We would be happy to offer guidance!