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DSAG Annual Congress 2024

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The DSAG annual congress in Leipzig has come to an end, and this is what we learned from the SAP and ABAP area.



In this article we will go into some details of the annual congress. As always, we will summarize the keynote and then go into some sessions.

 

Introduction 

From Tuesday to Thursday in Leipzig it was the DSAG annual congress. This time SAP experts, managers and executives came from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and also from Lichtenstein. For us, the annual congress means above all a meeting of colleagues, acquaintances and fellow campaigners who we have not seen during the year or at least only seen online. And when we leave the annual congress, we will most likely have a bag full of freebies and made nice new acquaintances.

 

Keynotes

The keynotes at the annual congress are divided up over the different days. In this section we will go into the different parts.

 

DSAG - Day 1

We started with some figures about the DSAG and from the surveys with the ASUG. For example, around 50% of companies are not yet that far along with their digital transformation or have already started with it. The DSAG now has over 4,000 companies and partners in the network with 70,000 members. Currently, around 13% of members see the S/4HANA cloud strategy as positive, while 48% are still against it. If we look at the challenges, it is primarily the structures and functions of the cloud that make it difficult for companies to migrate.

Companies are currently very cautious when it comes to AI and investments. In principle, companies see added value in the topic, but at the moment they are mainly investing in other areas. It is very likely that companies are still in the actual transformation or are waiting for the announced content from SAP. Therefore, one of the DSAG's key demands is that AI products come from a single source (SAP), but should also be available in the cloud and on-premise.

 

SAP - Day 1

The topic of the lecture was: "If you rest, you rust" and refers to the competitiveness of German companies. The corporate world is developing very quickly at the moment, which we can see above all in the hype surrounding AI, which every company is currently implementing in its products. To this end, companies should also start the transformation. Then SAP also wanted to clear up some rumors that have been circulating for a while:

  1. The end of maintenance in 2030 is artificial - This is not only due to SAP and its own products, but above all to the solutions used, such as the database or the Java stack.
  2. No support for on-premise - SAP is already offering a maintenance commitment until 2040, longer than any other software manufacturer on the market.
  3. Innovations only in the cloud - More than 800 innovations have already been delivered to on-premise.

 

Recently, SAP has also been working on additional programs to make RISE more attractive. The "RISE with SAP Migration and Modernization" program gives customers additional options for easier transformation to a public cloud solution. This is intended to make the RISE program more attractive and efficient for customers. This time the focus was on Henkel for the topic of RISE and BTP, as well as the Schwarz IT subsidiary "Schwarz digits", which wants to test RISE in the German cloud with STACKIT for the first time. This would provide another option to not migrate your systems to the typical hyperscalers, but to be able to use the European cloud.

 

DSAG - Day 2

Day 2 began with a few facts. SAP currently supports 25 different industry solutions and is constantly expanding these. Modularity is not always the best step, as it creates more complexity in our system landscapes and more dependencies within the interfaces and systems. If we look at the solution around the topic of hospitals, there is now a corresponding solution and further development by various partners.

The DSAG also made a few demands to SAP:

  • More stability in the product portfolio
  • Better regulation for separated solutions
  • Transparency in the portfolio
  • Support with product changes (example Sales Cloud)
  • Reliable delivery of legal changes
  • Stronger joint presence with partners

The results from a recent survey also show that a very large proportion are currently still using ECC or S/4HANA and there are hardly any customers in RISE or the Public Cloud. But at least 48% already use BTP in their portfolio. They also wanted better transparency in BTP billing with regard to changes in prices or the basis for measurement. Finally, the "maintenance fee" is still a thorn in the side of the DSAG, especially when it is increased from year to year, although there are hardly any adjustments to the old systems.

 

Partner Advisory Board

For the first time, the newly founded Partner Advisory Board took the floor on stage in its own keynote speech. The topic here was how partners can support the transformation and, above all, provide broader support in the future in the customer value journey. The partners also want better communication so that they can submit their own feedback to SAP. The partners also want to be placed more at the center of communication with the customer so that more dialogue can be opened up.

 

Takeway

This year there were only a few slaps in the face for SAP at the keynote, perhaps this is the right way to finally start an exchange and enable constructive feedback. With the wishes of the community and the feedback of customers and partners, changes can be made at SAP in exactly the same way without starting a mudslinging match.

 

Presentations

In this section you will find some selected presentations that we have attended. We will go into the content and topics.

 

Clean Core with Custom Code Automation

This presentation looked at the complex development landscape at CLAAS. Since the agricultural machinery manufacturer does not have a suitable module, it uses the various modules from SAP. They also have many add-ons on the system. The company is currently on the way to Clean Core and would like to implement a lot of the preparatory work. This includes replacing the database, a new test organization for better test coverage and the removal of unused resources. To do this, they use the "washing machine" from smartShift. The custom code is exported to the software and more in-depth analyses can be carried out using this. Things like dependent tables and the use of modules. Numerous changes can then be made automatically to the source code, which can then be imported into the system via a change. Such changes can come from various areas, such as Securit, Clean Core or ABAP Cloud.

 

AMG

Mercedes AMG has presented its current development landscape, tools and methodologies. It must be noted that our colleagues are not working on the latest release, but still use a wide range of tools. In the current release, only technologies such as BOPF or the first types of Core Data Services are available to them. They rely 100% on Fiori as the front end for the end product, which is already very impressive.

 

ABAP Environment

ABAP Cloud is on everyone's lips, but we often notice in discussions that there are always gaps in the knowledge of developers and business users about what can actually be done with it. In addition, the ABAP Environment offers simple ways to learn ABAP Cloud and to expand on-premise systems in a side-by-side scenario. In this session, SAP once again discussed the terms and options and, as a supplement, there were real use cases from a customer who is already using the ABAP environment.

 

Security for small and large

Security is now an important component in IT infrastructure and even more important than high-performance systems. Here you should look within the company to see what you can already do to increase system security. There are four typical areas that you should look at:

  • Threat Detection - Detection of suspicious behavior
  • Code Vulnerability - Detection of security gaps in the source code of custom code and add-ons
  • Patch Management - Comparison of systems to the current patch status of critical information
  • Identity Protection - Protection and detection of identity misuse in the system and notification

 

The session with SecurityBridge showed that basically all areas and modules are important. The weakest link in the chain will always cause the problems.

 

SAP

SAP now regularly offers various formats at its annual congress, where we as customers have the opportunity to get in touch or receive current information.

  • Stand - At the SAP stand, various presentations from SAP on a wide variety of topics will be held throughout the day. You should check the agenda to see if there are any topics there that are of interest to you. This year there were two stages.
  • Trial Area - In the Trial Area, you can get hands-on with the system and test some of the products. This year there was ABAP Cloud, Integration Suite and the SAP Build Portfolio to try out. In a demo we looked at the topic of SAP Build Process Automation and how modeling works using the tools. Our colleagues at SAP will support you if you get stuck.
  • Influencing Session - A very underrated format is the Influencing Session. Here you have the opportunity to exchange ideas with the product managers and contribute new features and ideas. In most sessions you first get an overview of the product and can then give feedback and ideas. The SAP colleagues look forward to your cooperation.

 

If you would like to get in touch with the SAP colleagues more, you can do so via the various formats or speak to the colleagues personally.

 

Conclusion

As always, the event was packed with topics, community and passion for the SAP area. Even though we have been in this area for many years, it is always like coming home. In December it continues with the ABAPConf in the community and at the DSAG with the Future Days at the end of January.


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SAPAnnual Congress2024
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