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In my new role as PwC Global SAP Alliance and Competence Leader, I’m kicking off a new blog series. I’ll be chatting to leaders from across our global SAP practice to bust myths, share successes, identify market trends and find out what makes them tick. In this first instalment, I sit down with Alexander Hartwig, who leads our SAP Cloud ERP (formerly S/4HANA) cloud practice in EMEA and Germany.
Martin: Let’s start with some quick-fire questions. What SAP myth do you want to bust?
Alexander: The main myth I’d like to debunk is the idea that public cloud is only for small and mid-size organisations. That’s simply not true. Here at PwC, we’re helping some of the world’s biggest companies with public cloud SAP implementations.
Martin: What excites you most about the PwC SAP alliance?
Alexander: I love that we partner so closely with SAP at every level of the business. From a delivery standpoint, I work closely with SAP’s product teams, and I can talk to developers if I have specific questions about the technology. PwC and SAP also collaborate closely at the strategic level, finding powerful ways to join forces, go to market together, and develop industry-focused solutions in public cloud. These initiatives aren’t confined to a particular country or region – they’re reflected right across our global operations.
I also enjoy seeing our complementary skillsets combine to deliver even greater value for clients. We’re extremely close to the market and we understand our clients’ business requirements in detail. This enables us to provide useful feedback to SAP, so that it can make its world-leading ERP solutions even better.
Martin: What’s the most exciting project you recently worked on?
Alexander: I have two recent highlights. First up is a client that specialises in electrification and automation solutions. We’re supporting a strategic public cloud implementation there, with client stakeholders and PwC specialists spread across multiple countries. We’re driving transformation across the business and technology, including SAP Cloud ERP, SAP Business Data Cloud and SAP Analytics Cloud. And we’re operating right at the heart of their business.
The second one is a global logistics provider that’s moving its entire SAP environment from private cloud to public cloud to accelerate innovation. No large organisation has done this before, so if we succeed, it’ll demonstrate that even the largest and most complex organisations can run everything on public cloud. The client’s mantra is “adopt, not adapt”. In other words, they’re embracing a greenfield mindset and modernising business processes so that they can embrace standard SAP functionality.
Martin: Thanks Alexander. Now, over to you. What else would you like to share with our readers about the world of public cloud?
Alexander: I’ve been focused exclusively on public cloud since 2019. During that time, I’ve seen public cloud become increasingly popular among large companies, as I mentioned earlier. To build on that point, it’s worth busting another myth: the idea that public cloud is only for back-office processes like finance. SAP Cloud ERP Public is mature enough to cover the full ERP scope, including manufacturing, supply chain, research and development, quality management and more. Increasingly, we’re seeing clients opt for “two-tier” approaches, where they run their main systems in private cloud, then their non-core entities in public cloud. For example, public cloud is particularly useful for shared services like procurement, where efficiency and simplicity are key. It’s also ideal for carve-outs and acquisitions, which demand fast, cost-effective ERP deployments. Many of the biggest companies in Europe are doing public cloud implementations somewhere, but usually outside their core business.
Europe is at the forefront of these developments. Public cloud is becoming the north star of companies’ ERP transformation journeys. As clients migrate from old SAP ECC applications to the new SAP Cloud ERP, some are going straight to public cloud. Others are choosing private cloud for the time being but aiming for “clean core” implementations based on standard SAP functionality, enabling an easier move to public cloud in the future.
Many large companies are recognising that public cloud offers faster innovation at lower cost. These considerations have become even more important as clients explore ways to drive value from AI.
The growing appetite for public cloud is one of the key reasons why we’ve developed a new set of Express solutions, which give clients a flexible way to deploy SAP in weeks, based on PwC’s best practices. The solutions are pre-configured, and they handle the heavy lifting that’s usually involved in SAP implementations. This means that deployments are much faster, and we can spend time where it matters, like addressing clients’ specific requirements. The Express solutions bring SAP solutions within reach of entirely new market segments – especially small and mid-size companies. But they’re also a powerful accelerator in our biggest and most complex projects. In other words, they’re a great way for us to provide additional value to our clients all over the world.
It was great talking to Alexander and hearing about his significant work in public cloud for clients across EMEA. I’m excited to reveal insights from more leaders across our global SAP alliance soon. Next up, I’ll be sharing views from the South-East Asia region. Thanks for reading.
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