By Deepa Salem, Vice President and Research Director, SAPInsider With millions of lines of such ABAP code in their landscape, the most burning question SAP customers face today is how they can monetize their past SAP investments in ABAP code while rapidly migrating to SAP S/4HANA and deploying applications in the cloud that takes them into the future. SAPinsider surveyed 141 IT professionals across the world during January and February 2022 about their application strategy, goals, and challenges including their ABAP approach. The findings were published in Application Strategies and Development for SAP S/4HANA and Cloud research report. Some of the key questions that were explored in the report around ABAP development are:

• How do we monetize our significant past investments in ABAP
•  custom code and extensions?
• How can we build a “clean core” to be nimbler in the future and reduce technical debt?
• Can low-code/no-code platforms be a viable option to accelerate ABAP migration?

The Application Strategies and Development for SAP S/4HANA and Cloud research report discovered that 82% of companies have finalized their strategy for ABAP code. Of these, 28% have decided not to move their ABAP code to the cloud, 21% are replacing ABAP customizations with standard SAP S/4HANA functionality, and only 16% are rewriting ABAP for the cloud.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR SAPINSIDERS?

How can SAP customers enable a nimble and effective application strategy to drive growth and competitive differentiation?

• Finalize the approach for legacy ABAP code before it becomes a burden, slowing down modernization. Cautiously weigh the various approaches for ABAP code on cost, time-to-market, and expertise considerations.
• Evaluate ABAP migration as a major use case for low-code/no-code platforms. Various platforms offer capabilities for code assessment for cloud and assist in migration of code. Evaluation in collaboration between IT and business users is critical.
• Upskill IT resources in critical areas such as ABAP migration or ABAP development in the cloud. Some skill-building cannot wait. ABAP strategy is often a precursor for ERP modernization and skilled ABAP cloud developers and migration experts can make the strategy successful.

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