The No Customer Left Behind Strategy of SAP Customer Evolution

The relationship between an enterprise and its ERP vendor has always followed a predictable pattern: purchase, implementation, and then a long maintenance phase. Under this model, success was defined by stability. Therefore, if the system was running, IT was doing its job.

However, with enterprise landscapes transitioning to the cloud, this passive model has now become obsolete. In a recent webcast, SAP signaled a strategic pivot to meet this need with the SAP Customer Evolution program. This program aims not only to support the installed base, but to actively evolve every customer into an intelligent, sustainable enterprise, regardless of their starting point.

What Is SAP Customer Evolution?

This program marks a key shift in how SAP engages with its customers, especially those with older, existing systems. According to the Move to Cloud ERP webcast by SAP, the risk for CIOs today isn’t changing too quickly—it’s in staying static. Companies sitting on legacy SAP ECC or older SAP S/4HANA releases are essentially paying for shelfware if they don’t unlock the continuous innovation available in the cloud.

As a result, the strategy behind SAP Customer Evolution relies on a simple framework:

1. Plan: Unlike previous upgrade cycles, which were often driven by end-of-maintenance deadlines, this phase is driven by value. It involves mapping the organization’s current business processes against industry standards to find efficiency gaps.
2. Execute: This is the move to the cloud, such as SAP Cloud ERP Private (formerly RISE with SAP), but using a Clean Core mindset to streamline future updates and ensure they don’t break the organization’s customizations.
3. Innovate: Once in the cloud, the focus shifts to consuming new features like AI (for example SAP’s generative AI co-pilot Joule) and sustainability tracking. These capabilities cannot be retrofitted into a older systems.

Thus, the Customer Evolution program is SAP’s answer to the complexity paralysis that many IT leaders feel. By providing a structured pathway that acknowledges the history of an organization’s current landscape while pushing it toward the future, SAP ensures no customer is left behind in the on-premises past.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

If organizations are currently managing a legacy SAP landscape, the wait-and-see approach is becoming a liability. Here is how SAPinsiders can align with the Customer Evolution strategy immediately:

• Re-frame the upgrade conversation. Stop pitching the transition as a technical upgrade or a version change. Use the language from the SAP update, which notes that this is a shift from ERP being a cost center to an innovation driver. Quantify the opportunity cost of not having access to cloud-native AI and sustainability tools.
• Audit the organization’s technical debt. Before an organization engages with SAP, it should conduct an internal audit of its customizations. The Clean Core strategy discussed in the SAP webcasts requires SAPinsiders to know exactly which custom codes are business-critical and which are just 10-year-old workarounds. This preparation will make the engagement with the SAP Customer Evolution team significantly more productive.
• Engage with the SAP Customer Evolution program early. The SAP Customer Evolution program is designed to be proactive. SAPinsiders should reach out to their SAP representatives to discuss where they fit in the Plan, Execute, and Innovate framework of this program. They should specifically ask the SAP team how the program supports the organization’s specific industry compliance needs during migration.