The German operator becomes the first major enterprise to announce its transition to SAP's managed offering, Rise and Grow. Over 300 systems will transition to the new generation of software. SAP achieves a significant milestone in its effort to shift its installed base towards its managed offerings, known as Rise with SAP and Grow with SAP. As part of the partnership between SAP and T-Systems on these offerings, the parent company of the German IT services provider, Deutsche Telekom, will migrate a large portion of its ERP environments to Rise. The project involves consolidating over 300 different systems into both public and private cloud, according to a statement from the Waldorf-based software vendor, without further detail.

"With SAP S/4 Hana Cloud, Deutsche Telekom will enhance the efficiency of key business functions such as logistics, procurement, and finance," assures Peter Laukert, CIO of the leading European telecom operator, which boasts over 252 million mobile customers, manages 25 million fixed lines, and 22 million broadband lines. While the project will showcase T-Systems' expertise in this type of migration, it marks a significant endorsement of the strategy of the leading European software vendor, which is now pushing its customers towards its cloud offerings.

GetLink, an 18-month project

In France, Getlink, the operator of the Channel Tunnel infrastructure, has completed its migration to Rise with SAP after an 18-month project. Led by the specialized provider Pasàpas, a subsidiary of the Talan consultancy, the project aimed to replace aging versions of SAP (ECC 6.0, BW 7.0, and CRM 7.0) and was sequenced into two major phases: a progressive technological migration of components and functional optimization.

It is worth noting that SAP's insistence on leading its installed base towards its managed cloud offerings has irked the vendor's customer base, a large portion of which has initiated or plans to modernize their software to the S/4 Hana generation without necessarily embracing the shift towards the latest offerings from the vendor. "Our members would first like to complete the transition to S/4 and understand the value of migrating to Rise. We feel like we're witnessing a rush forward, and the gap between what companies expect and what SAP provides is growing," explained Gianmaria Perancin, president of USF (the French-speaking SAP users' club), in our columns last February. Although since then, the atmosphere has somewhat calmed following assurances, particularly from SAP France.