SAPPHIRE 2016 - It's All about Empathy for the End User

Bill McDermott at this year’s SAPPHIRE: “everything has to start with that ultimate empathy for that end user and the experience that they are getting from your company”. Message, which translates into focus on the frontend layers, whether it is Fiori, or, for example, Web UI experience. Personalised, easy to use and configure with minimum development effort.

Strategic directions for SAP that have been outlined at the conference include making its products easier to use, principally through the more user-friendly ERP suite, S/4HANA, and software as a service (SaaS) offerings which are meant to simplify delivery of SAP technologies, including the HANA in-memory database. SAP would also become more of an organic innovation machine.

Looking back at the origins of SAP HANA and its continuous success, Hasso Plattner envisions an In-Memory Future: “The Boardroom of the Future is not a collection of KPIs. It is real-time information providing an instantaneous glimpse into any part of the company”.