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.
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In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I examine some changes SAP is making to its RISE program that it hopes will catch the eye of current on-premise customers.
Highlights
00:17 — I’m taking a look today at a big new announcement from SAP about how it’s significantly expanding its successful RISE program, which has been around for about two-and-a-half years. It’s a sort of a go-to-market program that simplifies cloud journeys for customers.
01:18 — If you think about the big prize, the big hook, and the big concern, here’s the big prize: In a meeting with financial analysts a few months ago, SAP said that the opportunity to bring 25,000 of its on-premise customers, an enormous number, into the cloud, would equate to about 25 billion euros, which translates to about $27.5 billion.
02:19 — Beyond SAP, more businesses are realizing changes are taking place in the world, everything from GenAI, to new sorts of applications that need to be more nimble. These 25,000 on-premise customers have to be feeling a fairly severe case of intensity about getting to the cloud. Will they pick SAP?
02:49 —The hook that SAP is offering with this RISE program has three tiers: Base, Premium, and, the big hook, Premium Plus. That is where all the goodies are: generative artificial intelligence (GenAI); other new AI tools and offerings; and extremely helpful sustainability, supply chain, and financial space capabilities.
04:12 — This points to the vision that was very clear from SAP CEO Christian Klein, three-and-a-half years ago when he took over as the sole CEO. Two and a half years ago, he led a forceful, unwavering transition to the cloud. SAP launched its RISE program, which was a big success.
04:54 — Now, it is breaking out into three different versions to give customers more choices. But it’s got to watch out: There’s going to be a lot of other very, very persuasive tech vendors chasing those 25,000 customers and that $27.5 billion-dollar prize.
