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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 Digital CIO Summit, taking place April 4-6. Register for the free event here. Tune in to the event to hear from CIO practitioners discuss their modernization and growth strategies.
In this Cloud Wars Minute, Bob reviews his conversation with SAP CEO Christian Klein, as part of the lead-up to the 2023 Cloud Wars CEO Outlook Digital Summit, taking place on February 8. Register for the free event here.
Highlights
00:38 — Since Klein took over as CEO of SAP three years ago, he has led an extraordinary transformation of the company. All of SAP’s financial results point to customer success. In this episode, Bob focuses on the projection that Klein has made for the upcoming year and how it will impact customers.
01:18 — SAP has offered financial guidance for the full year of 2023 “in the range of 22%-25% in constant currency.” Without the “foreign exchange effect in there,” SAP’s financial results could be more like 29%-31%.
01:38 — Klein is bullish about 2023 because SAP is able to deliver a very wide range of the new capabilities that businesses need as they move into the digital economy, enabling them to set themselves up to meet the rapidly changing needs of their customers.
02:00 — In the full-length CEO Outlook video with Klein, he highlights the impactful partnership between SAP and the automotive company BMW. The two companies are working together to leverage the work BMW is doing internally, but also across the entire automotive supply chain. This is one example of the ways that SAP is trying to distinguish itself “in this whole industry solutions area.“
02:50 — Throughout Bob’s conversation with Klein, the CEO noted that customers are now looking to find solutions that have an end-to-end impact. Customers are seeking a provider that can integrate all of the solutions into a single outcome to optimize business processes.
03:21 — Klein noted that SAP is “very happy” with where it’s at. Bob notes that Klein is always looking for ways to further refine the company and dazzle customers.
The full-length CEO Outlook version of this interview is available exclusively to Acceleration Economy subscribers. Sign up here for the CEO Outlook Digital Summit to start your free subscription and see all of the Cloud Wars Top 10 CEO Outlook interviews that will air on February 8, 2023, or upgrade to Premium and get your all-access pass to our entire practitioner analyst library of content.