Enterprise adoption of SAP S/4HANA continues to climb regardless of the obstacles in its means, based on new analysis by consumer teams within the US and Europe. Adopters are being drawn by superior capabilities within the new software program, and pushed by considerations about upkeep of older methods.Within the UK and Eire, 89% of SAP prospects are both utilizing or planning to make use of S/4HANA, up from 74% in 2021, based on a survey performed for the UK & Eire SAP Consumer Group (UKISUG).“With every thing else that’s been happening this yr, I feel that’s fairly an enormous transfer,” mentioned UKISUG chairman Paul Cooper, pointing to the distractions CIOs confronted with the pandemic and ongoing provide chain issues.The largest driver for the transfer to S/4HANA, cited by 70% of survey respondents, is SAP’s plan to finish upkeep assist for its ECC 6 and Enterprise Suite 7 software program in December 2027.However based on Cooper, different drivers embrace a need for brand spanking new performance (49%), accompanying a wider enterprise transformation (47%), enhancing productiveness (41%) or simplifying enterprise processes (38%).These UKISUG members with no plans to undertake S/4HANA aren’t essentially enjoying hen with SAP over upkeep assist, he added: they may very well be planning a change to a different ERP, or don’t have any plans for something greater than a yr out given present financial difficulties.Within the US, the proportion of SAP prospects utilizing or planning to make use of S/4HANA remained secure at 78%, though the proportion now stay on the platform rose to 31% from 28% in 2021, based on a survey performed for the Americas’ SAP Customers’ Group (ASUG).Consciousness and adoption of the Rise with SAP all-in-one bundle of licensing, internet hosting and utility administration can be on the up. ASUG’s survey discovered that 38% of respondents have been aware of Rise, in comparison with 23% in 2021, and solely 20% had by no means heard of it, down from 39%. UKISUG discovered that 28% of those that had heard of Rise used it or deliberate to take action, seeing it as a approach to speed up their transfer to S/4HANA and the cloud.The change to S/4HANA is exhibiting up in SAP’s gross sales figures too — S/4HANA income for the third quarter of 2022 was up 98% yr on yr to €548 million — however there are nonetheless obstacles to wider adoption, the consumer teams discovered.Abilities scarcity nonetheless a concernTraining supplied by implementation accomplice was rated as poor or very poor by 32% of organizations surveyed by UKISUG (down from 34% in 2021), whereas 36% rated technical sources supplied by SAP as inadequate (down from 38%). Little marvel, then, that organizations but to maneuver to S/4HANA are extra involved than ever {that a} lack of accessible expertise will gradual their migration, with 92% citing it as an issue, in comparison with 71% a yr earlier.UKISUG plans to do one thing in regards to the expertise scarcity subsequent yr, launching its personal S/4 Academy to assist organizations handle their migrations. This may complement the deep-dive technical coaching that SAP gives, not compete with it, Cooper mentioned: “We’re pitching this because the kind of sensible and pragmatic issues that it is advisable to know and perceive, versus find out how to configure one thing in SAP.”ASUG members additionally cite expertise shortages as the largest barrier to innovation, particularly in a multi-cloud surroundings, with one-fifth in search of to optimize their cloud improvements by upskilling current workers with assist from free studying platforms and enterprise companions.Customization challengesExisting software program customizations nonetheless pose a problem for 72% of organizations transferring to S/4HANA, UKISUG discovered, down from 92% in 2021, though this variation of angle could also be as a result of extra respondents are resigning themselves to casting off customizations altogether. That’s the case for twenty-four% of organizations, up from 12% a yr earlier.Integrations additionally proved difficult for 64% of those that already made the transfer to S/4HANA, with simply 28% of them counting on SAP’s personal Enterprise Expertise Platform for assist with integration. Little marvel that quite a few market analysis organizations forecast that the integration-platform-as-a-service market will develop at over 30% yearly over the subsequent few years.Grounds for optimismRecent forecasts from the likes of IDC and Gartner put progress in IT spending at round 5.1% in 2023 regardless of broader belt-tightening and despondency in regards to the financial surroundings.After evaluating notes with quite a few CIOs at UKISUG’s current annual convention, Cooper was equally optimistic in regards to the prospects for IT departments within the yr forward.“Your intestine feeling, based mostly on the entrance pages of the newspapers, can be that individuals can be slashing [IT budgets], however there nonetheless appears to be very strong funding and plans to develop and develop their IT methods,” with the uptake of S/4HANA being only one signal of that, he mentioned.