SAP users focus more on economic efficiency

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The latest investment report from the German-speaking SAP User Group (DSAG) shows that many companies are investing more money in their SAP landscape again this year. However, it is less than in previous years. Specifically, 43 percent of the surveyed companies intend to increase their SAP budget, 26 percent want to keep it unchanged, and 28 percent are lowering it.

For comparison: In 2025 and 2024, 47 percent and 46 percent, respectively, wanted to invest more money. According to DSAG board member Jens Hungershausen, the development of budgets reflects the ongoing economic pressure that many companies are currently facing.

“Energy prices, geopolitical uncertainties, and a tense market environment mean that investments are being scrutinized more critically and sometimes postponed – including in the SAP environment,” Hungershausen describes the situation. From the user group's perspective, companies are investing more selectively without fundamentally questioning the Walldorf-based software company.

SAP's relevance remains high

The answers to the question about SAP's importance for future direction confirm the results from previous years. 36 percent indicated that relevance is increasing, for 48 percent it remains the same, and for 16 percent it is decreasing. However, it is also clear that investments in SAP are more selective today and are prioritized more strongly from an economic perspective.

For example, 79 percent of respondents each cited economic efficiency and economic framework conditions as strongly influencing factors in SAP investment decisions. 70 percent also named SAP's licensing and contract design as decisive. Product-related aspects such as the complexity of the system landscape (54 percent), SAP product planning (51 percent), or portfolio complexity (38 percent) were mentioned by significantly fewer companies.

Users continue to prefer on-premises

The current DSAG report also confirms the on-premises preference of users in the DACH region, which only partially aligns with their software provider's product strategy. For example, 42 percent of respondents plan high and medium investments in S/4HANA (on premises), while 22 percent plan this for the private cloud variant and six percent for the public cloud version. This aligns with the fact that only 35 percent strongly or very strongly orient their investment planning towards the target image of the “new” SAP Business Suite (Cloud ERP, Business AI, Business Data Cloud, and Business Technology Platform). For 62 percent, this is less strongly the case or not at all.

Incidentally, ten percent more companies plan high and medium investments for the older ERP generation ECC than for the public cloud variant. Almost half of this group stated that they plan the switch to S/4HANA by the end of 2030. This means they are literally accepting the switch after 2027 in extended maintenance for an additional charge. 37 percent want to have completed the switch by the end of mainstream maintenance. Four percent are planning the transition by the end of 2033, including the SAP ERP, Private Edition, Transition Option. One percent intends to use third-party maintenance.

S/4HANA migration complex and time-consuming

According to Hungershausen, the fact that some companies are planning the switch to S/4HANA only by 2030 should not be confused with a generally hesitant approach. Rather, companies simply need more time due to the complexity of their system landscapes. “A shortage of skilled workers, parallel transformation projects, and limited budgets also lead to schedules being pushed back – even if this results in higher maintenance expenses,” explains the DSAG board member.

AI, specifically AI from SAP, plays a negligible role among participants yet. 43 percent stated that they have already implemented AI use cases, while 51 percent have not yet realized any. Of those implementing AI, 77 percent are using non-SAP solutions in production or use. Only three percent rely on products from the Walldorf-based company here. 65 percent are in the testing phase with non-SAP solutions, and eight percent with SAP solutions. And 62 percent are conducting a proof-of-concept with non-SAP solutions and 26 percent with SAP software.

Hesitation with SAP AI

From the DSAG's perspective, the results underscore that the use of AI in companies is not yet widespread within the scope of concrete use cases. While third-party AI solutions currently often enable faster access, there is still hesitation with SAP-based AI scenarios, not least due to complex licensing models and heterogeneous system landscapes.

It should be noted: This year's investment report questionnaire was again sent out by the user group DSAG independently and not by SAP as in the previous year. As a result, fewer large companies tended to be among the addressees, and the public administration sector is more strongly represented. Accordingly, the current investment report is more comparable to that of 2024 than to that of 2025.

(mack)