SAP should improve communications and make licensing more flexible, says user group

The SAP user group director, Alan Bowling, has criticised SAP's "clunky" methods

The UK and Ireland SAP User Group (UKISUG) has called on SAP to reassess the complexity of its licences and improve communication with customers.

Alan Bowling, chairman and director of UKISUG, spoke to Computing at the User Group's annual conference today in Birmingham and was keen to point out ways in which SAP could improve over the next 12 months.

Bowling said he thinks SAP could better manage Customer Connect, the mechanism by which the User Group delivers messages and problems around SAP products, allowing it to integrate changes into future upgrades or releases.

Businesses submit problems to a Customer Connect panel, which then establishes which issues should be relayed to SAP.

However, Bowling insists that it is not being operated effectively. "Customer Connect is meant to be a relatively straightforward way of us identifying issues and then presenting them to SAP in a consolidated format," he said.

"It was supposed to be a simple way of affecting the changes – however, the whole mechanism has become very clunky. It's so bureaucratic," Bowling added. "It's not delivering and we are frustrated about it. It needs to be more efficient and straightforward. This isn't complicated stuff."

Bowling also argues that SAP needs to look at the way it communicates with its existing customers, stating that it should plug its marketing message less and focus more on tangible solutions for business.

"SAP has two types of customer: new and existing ones. If you are an existing customer, you are not interested in the glossy marketing message because you are already using the product. We want to do more with it," explained Bowling.

"The analogy I use is that if I was looking to buy a BMW I would look at all the glossy brochures and pictures. But if I already owned one I would be more interested in how the engine works and how I can improve it," he added. "SAP needs to think about delivering messages that mean more to its customer base".

Bowling provided an example of SAP's recent announcement that it is going to extend the maintenance on its Business Suite product until 2020, positive news for users of the Suite.

"The way SAP communicated this news was not fantastic. The company spoke to us about it and we got very excited and broadcast it all over our website. But SAP did virtually nothing," said Bowling.

"But it is really significant, as they have given us another nine years on the product. We don't have to divert our scarce cash to upgrades and we can really focus on improving our businesses," he added.

"Extending maintenance on the Business Suite could mean more sales for them in terms of services to improve it over the next nine years, but they don't seem to have realised that".

Licensing was another bugbear for Bowling, and he believes that SAP has not realised the benefits of developing a simple model for businesses. He argued that it is too complicated and not flexible enough.

"Licensing is damn complex. If you have ever tried to buy a SAP product from scratch and you are new to the SAP arena, God help you," said Bowling.

"You can buy licences for individuals, for software engines, data records, products and processes. You have got this incredible matrix and it is too difficult to manoeuvre," he added.

"In reality this works against SAP. People aren't buying new licences because they have so many already. Flexibility on the volume of licences needs to improve.

"We are saying make it easier, make it simpler. Make it something that aids adoption and the use of SAP products and doesn't deter potential customers."