HARTING’s RISE with SAP Contract Signals Where Industrial ERP Is Heading

SAP announced on September 2 that HARTING Technology Group, an industrial connectivity provider, has signed a long-term contract for RISE with SAP. The company will move to SAP Cloud ERP Private, consolidating ERP, business process intelligence, and service capabilities into a single cloud-based subscription. SAP’s consulting partner NTT DATA Business Solutions AG will support the transition.

Philip Harting, CEO of HARTING Technology Group, framed the decision as a business strategy rather than an infrastructure project. He said the contract creates “the foundation to run HARTING as a more agile, data-driven business,” with the goals of “standardizing our global operations, accelerating the integration of new technologies and unlocking the potential of AI across our processes.” He added: “This contract marks a pivotal step in how we intend to grow and compete over the next decade.”

A Deal That Matches the Data

HARTING’s move lands in the middle of a shift SAPinsider has been tracking for two years. In the RISE with SAP 2025 benchmark report, legacy SAP ECC and Business Suite use fell below 50% of respondents for the first time, while organizations fully live on SAP Cloud ERP Private rose to 30%, up from 19% a year earlier. Overall, 73% of surveyed organizations were at some stage of that transition.

The ERP Migration and Transformation 2026 report confirms the direction. SAP S/4HANA Cloud usage (26%) now nearly equals traditional SAP S/4HANA deployments (29%), driven partly by early adopters converting to SAP Cloud ERP Private contracts as their original versions reach the end of maintenance. The report also notes that those moving now appear more likely to choose the cloud edition, in part because securing traditionally licensed SAP S/4HANA contracts has become more difficult.

Why AI Is Doing the Persuading

HARTING’s CEO put AI at the center of the announcement, reflecting a measurable shift in how SAP customers build their business cases. In SAPinsider’s RISE with SAP research, 43% of respondents said AI influenced their ERP decisions in 2025, up from 14% in 2023. The 2026 migration research goes further, finding that access to generative AI in SAP systems is now having a considerable impact on the overall transition, alongside the 2027 deadline.

Dirk Haeussermann, Managing Director of SAP Germany, made the same point from the vendor side. “Industrial companies are under real pressure to move faster, operate leaner and integrate AI into their core processes as a present-day advantage,” he said.

However, the data show caution. SAPinsider’s AI Adoption and Maturity in the SAP Ecosystem report found that 79% of respondents cite executive leadership support and access to high-quality, trusted data as prerequisites for scaling AI, and 27% named SAP S/4HANA or cloud migration as a direct driver of AI adoption. A cloud ERP contract opens the door to embedded AI. It does not, on its own, produce the governed data foundation that makes AI useful.

The Harder Questions Behind the Headline

Industrial manufacturers evaluating a similar move face three realities the research makes plain.

First, deployment is not completion. While 55% of organizations report having deployed SAP S/4HANA or SAP S/4HANA Cloud, only 34% have fully completed the transition, because legacy landscapes often require parallel operation.

Second, the business case remains contested. Half of respondents in the 2026 research struggle to articulate a clear value proposition to leadership, and cloud infrastructure costs are the most-cited barrier. HARTING’s public framing around standardization, IT resource reallocation, and continuous updates offers a template for how to build that case.

Third, the cloud does not transfer accountability. Only 45% of organizations running SAP Cloud ERP Private follow the shared responsibility model for security, leaving hardening requirements unapplied. A signed contract starts the security work rather than finishing it.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

Build the AI case into the ERP case from the outset. HARTING tied its cloud move directly to AI outcomes. With SAP reserving its generative AI capabilities for cloud ERP contracts, organizations still planning traditional deployments should re-evaluate now.

Plan for the transition, not just the signature. The gap between 55% deployed and 34% completed shows that sunsetting legacy systems requires its own program, timeline, and budget.

Own the shared responsibility model on day one. Fewer than half of SAP Cloud ERP Private customers apply SAP’s mandatory hardening guidance. Security and compliance monitoring belong in the migration plan, not the post-go-live backlog.