SAP announces new leadership team

SAP announced that Bill McDermott has decided not to renew his contract and is stepping down from his position as chief executive officer. In activating the company’s long-term succession plan, SAP Executive Board Members Jennifer Morgan and Christian Klein have been appointed co-chief executive officers, effective immediately, with the approval of the Supervisory Board of SAP SE. McDermott will remain in an advisory capacity until the end of the year to ensure a smooth transition Read the full announcement on www.sap.com.

“SAP would not be what it is today without Bill McDermott,” said Professor Hasso Plattner, chairman of the Supervisory Board of SAP SE. “Bill made invaluable contributions to this company and he was a main driver of SAP’s transition to the cloud, which will fuel our growth for many years to come. We thank him for everything he has done for SAP.

“Every CEO dreams of being able to transition a company to its next generation from a position of significant strength,” said McDermott. “When you look at where we were and where we are, I simply could not be prouder of what this company has achieved over the past decade. I am thankful for the opportunity to lead one of the world’s finest companies. Now is the moment for everyone to begin an exciting new chapter, and I am confident that Jennifer and Christian will do an outstanding job. I look forward to supporting them as they finish 2019 and lay the foundation for 2020 and beyond. To every customer, partner, shareholder and colleague who invested their trust in SAP, I can only relay my heartfelt gratitude and enduring respect.”

With the formal endorsement of the Supervisory Board, the company activates its leadership succession plan, designed to preserve continuity and empower its next-generation leaders in advance of the formal kickoff to calendar year 2020.

“As they have already demonstrated, Jennifer and Christian complement each other perfectly and will be strong co-CEOs, a leadership model that is time-tested at SAP with multiple prior instances of success.” Plattner added.

Morgan and Klein bring decades of experience in the enterprise applications software industry. Both serve on the Executive Board. Morgan, who joined SAP in 2004, most recently served as president of the Cloud Business Group, overseeing Qualtrics, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass, SAP Customer Experience and SAP Concur. She was named an Executive Board member in 2017.

"We are sad to see Bill go. He was a fantastic leader but it also is great to know who is taking the helm at SAP. Jennifer is a fantastic leader and will lead the organization with Chris in the right direction and keep building upon what Bill has built as a base over the last 10 years," added Christopher M. Carter, CEO of Approyo.

Read the full announcement at www.SAP.com 

SAP Positioned as a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Management Solutions for Analytics for Seventh Consecutive Year

SAP announced that it has been positioned by Gartner Inc., the leading provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry, as a Leader in the Magic Quadrant for Data Management Solutions for Analytics report — where SAP has been positioned as a Leader since 2013.

The evaluation is based on completeness of vision and ability to execute. According to the report, “Gartner defines a data management solution for analytics (DMSA) as a complete software system that supports and manages data in one or many file management systems, most commonly a database or multiple databases.”

“We are convinced that our improvement on the ‘ability to execute’ axis in the Leaders quadrant of Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Data Management Solutions for Analytics report — as compared to the previous year — reflects the success of our customers and the value they create with SAP HANA. It’s the only data management platform with a multimodel database, advanced analytics, machine learning and AI capabilities,” said Gerrit Kazmaier, senior vice president, SAP Database and Data Management and SAP Analytics.

“Looking ahead over the next year, we are very focused on making enterprises more intelligent through our proven solutions for analytics and our data management portfolios available on premise and in the cloud.”

To qualify for inclusion in this Magic Quadrant, DMSA vendors must have had to support one or more of the following four use cases Gartner identifies that support analytics: traditional data warehouse, real-time data warehouse, context-independent data warehouse and logical data warehouse.

Read the full announcement on SAP.com 

2018 year in review: Top SAP News

It's hard to believe by 2019 is almost here. As we head into the final few weeks of 2018, the Approyo team wanted a chance to look back at some of the important moments of the past year. Over the next few weeks, we will publish a series of 2018 year in review blog posts, looking back at the top stories of the year.

Top SAP news of 2018
What's new in SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 03 - March 28, 2018
SAP HANA 2 is the business data platform for the intelligent enterprise. Leveraging state-of-the-art database and data management technology, advanced analytical capabilities and intuitive application development tools in the only all-in-one, in-memory-first data platform – SAP HANA 2 frees up valuable resources and human capital for new and innovative application development to meet your business’s strategic objectives.

SAP HANA 2.0 SPS 03 includes a mix of new and continuous innovations across the themes of database management, data management, analytical intelligence and application development. Read the full blog post...

SAP Acquires Callidus Software Inc. - April 11, 2018
SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced that it has completed its acquisition of Callidus Software Inc. (Nasdaq: CALD), a market leader known for its lead to money applications, including sales performance management and configure-price-quote (CPQ).

Here is the official announcement from SAP. These applications, marketed under the brand CallidusCloud, will provide SAP and its customers a differentiated, cloud-based customer relationship management (CRM) solution, putting SAP in a leading position to compete in the US$46 billion CRM market. SAP plans to consolidate CallidusCloud product assets within the SAP Hybris cloud portfolio, which is part of SAP’s Cloud Business Group. Read the full blog post...

SAP Announces SAP C/4HANA - June 5, 2018
Major news from the first morning at the 2018 SAP SAPPHIRE NOW Conference. SAP CEO Bill McDermott announced a new suite of applications, SAP C/4HANA, to help businesses serve and retain customers. SAP also announced the SAP HANA Data Management Suite, the industry’s first comprehensive data management solution that enables companies to turn data sprawl into business value. Read the full blog post...

SAP Announces new SAP HANA Data Management Suite - June 6, 2018
The SAP HANA Data Management Suite is based on the latest versions of the SAP HANA business data platform. It allows for secure, governed enterprise-class applications and analytics by providing an open, hybrid and multicloud-enabled solution suite that orchestrates all the data needed into a trusted, unified landscape. SAP HANA Data Management Suite is the foundation for building agile, data-driven applications that are always tapping into live data. With one query, SAP HANA Data Management Suite can deliver results from a single logical data set that covers the whole enterprise — turning the concept of universal data into a reality. Read the full blog post...

SAP Releases SAP S/4HANA 1809 - October 2, 2018
SAP announced the latest version of SAP S/4HANA; SAP S/4HANA 1809. The latest release promises to continue on with SAP's commitment to both converting existing ECC functionality into S/4, as well as, introducing newer functions and features. Read the full blog post...

Key Takeaways from SAP TechEd 2018 - October 10, 2018
Another SAP TechEd 2018 Las Vegas is in the books and it delivered five days of education, training, networking, and fun. Topics included SAP HANA Data Management Suite, SAP Cloud Platform, SAP Leonardo, SAP Analytics Cloud, and how real customers are building intelligent enterprises. Following up the SAP SAPPHIRE NOW Conference earlier this year, the main focus was the "Intelligent Enterprise". Expect to continue to hear this term from SAP and it's partners for the next several months and years.  Read the full blog post...

SAP Acquires Contextor to Augment Robotic Process Automation Capabilities
- November 20, 2018
SAP announced on November 19 that it has acquired a company called Contexter to boost robotic process automation in SAP S/4HANA and SAP Leonardo. SAP is expected to start integrated this into its products in 2019. Read the full blog post...

Check out the Approyo blog for more information.