Welcome to the Cloud Wars Minute — your daily news and commentary show, hosted by Cloud Wars Founder Bob Evans. Each episode provides insights and perspectives around the “reimagination machine” that is the Cloud.
This episode is sponsored by Acceleration Economy’s “Cloud Wars Top 10 Course,” which explains how Bob Evans builds and updates the Cloud Wars Top 10 ranking, as well as how C-suite executives use the list to inform strategic cloud purchase decisions. The course is available today.
In this Cloud Wars Minute, Bob shares details from SAP’s Q2 earnings call.
Highlights
01:00 — Part of SAP’s new go-to-market plans that were announced in last week’s earnings call will only be available in the cloud. For access to innovation, SAP is requiring that customers migrate to the cloud.
01:40 — RISE with SAP continues to be an enormous success. The program is referred to by SAP as “business transformation as a service.” SAP is now saying that customers must be part of the RISE program — or its GROW program — to access new innovations. “You can’t do that as a vendor if customers are not expressing interest in your products or services.”
03:03 — The proof of SAP’s success can be noted in its Q2 earnings. Q2 revenue was up 22% (in constant currency), for overall cloud revenue of $3.68 billion. S/4HANA Cloud revenue was $913 million for the quarter, up 74%. SAP’s S/4HANA Cloud backlog was up 65%, for a total of $4.13 billion. Finally, SAP’s current cloud backlog was up 25%, for a total of $12.8 billion.
04:20 — Every Cloud Wars Top 10 company not only has to have superb technology and innovation but also has to work to become more customer-centric and insightful in the go-to-market programs they’re using. “That combination is something businesses are looking for more and more.”
