DSAG Annual Congress 2025 | SAP Keynote: Thomas Saueressig

Yes, I am really very pleased to be allowed to be here again today, for the sixth time in a row now. A warm welcome from my side as well.

Yes, so first of all, it is naturally an extremely important question and a very strategic question, and I can assure everyone, for us, the private cloud is naturally extremely strategic in our portfolio, in addition, of course, to the public cloud. And I think that is also because we naturally know our customers and our installed base very well and, accordingly, also the needs. And that is why it is very clear to us that the private cloud is not only of high relevance, but is also strategically important in the long term, that we invest in the private cloud in the long term, for example, that we embed AI scenarios into the private cloud capabilities that we deliver. In this respect, the first message is absolutely strategic. What is important for us in the private and public cloud is the ambition. The ambition that we continuously deliver innovation to our customers and that it is not just a lift and shift. So also in the private cloud, the ambition is there that one naturally continuously uses AI, for example, and that is why we are also developing the private cloud further, working together naturally also with the DSAG, with all the working groups, for example, on the topic of Clean Core, and not for the sake of Clean Core, but so that we can run faster upgrades, cheaper upgrades, so that we can benefit faster from new innovations and thus also adapt the topic of AI faster. This means that the use of standard best practices is a very important aspect. We then naturally also learn through this collaboration, because we listen, because we also appreciate the feedback from the DSAG, and again, many, many thanks for the great collaboration. And that is also the reason why we have continuously developed the RISE with SAP methodology. You mentioned the toolchain, how we are developing this further with LeanIX and Signavio, and that is why it is very important. What we are additionally doing is, of course, we want to be closer to the customer, to accompany this transformation more closely, the change management, and invest. That is why, for example, also with the Enterprise Architects, to really work out these individual roadmaps, as you also said. We have just expanded our portfolio this year with the Transition Preparation Service to really design individual roadmaps together.

Well, I think there are several factors that have contributed to this. On the one hand, I think the topic of cloud has basically arrived in the market. And through the further development of your solutions, but also of all the other solutions, one is naturally much further in dealing with and perceiving what potential this brings. And in this respect, I think that companies can now also assess much better what is simply included for them on the topic of cloud. And that is why it is clearer. And I think another point is, however, also the topic of communication and transparency. I have the perception that you communicate your strategy much more clearly and clearly, and that you also stick to your strategy. And that naturally resonates with the companies and our members, because it is simply clear in which direction this is developing now, and one can then make the decision for oneself whether this is something for one or not. So, these are the points. And in the end, one must also not forget that you naturally also support the companies and organizations. There are various incentives, programs, for example, also the topic of migration and modernization funding. So in this respect, there are indeed incentives that companies then also accept.

Well, first of all, cybersecurity is naturally top of mind for us, because one thing is completely clear, especially as a cloud provider, this is the foundation of everything. We can talk about AI for a long time, we can talk about innovation for a long time, if the security is not secured to operate the most business-critical systems, then customers will not trust us either. This means, the first statement is that for us, this is the most important topic, actually, with cloud operations to guarantee this security. We also know our responsibility alone in the private cloud area, where we are talking about more than 8,000 customers with more than 160,000 system IDs that we operate. We are pleased that we have an SLA achievement of 99.998%. But the reality is naturally that cyberattacks have also doubled in the last year at this point. When we now speak of customers like Lockheed Martin, Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, BMW, Mercedes, Bosch, Porsche, and could continue, it is completely clear that it is essential for us that we absolutely secure all these landscapes. This means, to your point that you mentioned, absolutely important, Security by Design, Zero Trust policies and the like is an absolute minimum standard for us. We naturally, NIS 2 is a very big topic for us. We are in the process, also have the corresponding levels. We are naturally also in the entire regulation, which has more than quadrupled, the regulation for security that we have to apply, but it is also right, because naturally the risk has also more than quadrupled. In this respect, I think it is an important aspect. You mentioned earlier the figure of several billion in damage for security. There is also a very good statistic from 2023. It has certainly increased further now. Alone in Germany, 250 billion in economic damage through cybersecurity. That is almost 5% of the gross domestic product. We have to let that sink in. That is why it was also simply important for us to invest even more in security, but also you mentioned briefly earlier, based on the geopolitical situation, to invest even more in the topic of sovereign cloud with the announcement to invest more than 20 billion in this topic, to enable all customers the possibility of cloud and AI. We are very pleased that we can welcome customers like the Federal Employment Agency here today in the sovereign cloud, because that is naturally for us also the claim in our journey, that we can take everyone along accordingly, as you mentioned, and that is naturally an extremely important aspect for us. And I believe the last short aspect also why the topic of cloud and this continuous innovation is so important is naturally through the working model that we have and through the extreme automation of all the 400,000 customers that we operate in total in the cloud, it is naturally clear that if we find a security issue, we can naturally also patch it much faster accordingly. And we have statistics now that we can detect not only the threats more than 90% faster, but also patch more than 60% faster accordingly. And we will naturally continue to do more there, and that is naturally also a benefit of the cloud to increase the security posture for our companies at this point.

First of all, I was very pleased to see the interest in AI, because I also see it as absolutely essential that we must use AI to increase productivity in Germany, to increase competitiveness. On the other hand, you mentioned, it must also pay off, you said I think. And it is naturally so, and there are also other statistics, like recently MIT came out with a study, there one can also discuss, but the reality is already that many customers have done projects, simply used technology and done POCs, but the added value was not there. And it confirms our strategy that AI must be part of business processes, that it must be embedded naturally in modern enterprise applications. And that is exactly our strategy, to embed AI into our complete suite, into our complete product portfolio. And you mentioned more than 400 AI scenarios that we will deliver by the end of the year, more than 60 agents that we want to deliver by the end of the year. Joule, our digital copilot, will even develop into a multi-agent framework by the end of this month and become agentic and then also ultimately use the A2A protocol, so that agent-to-agent integration with all things is also possible accordingly, because naturally the open architecture there is also extremely essential. That is also feedback that we naturally also receive from the DSAG. That is why it is so important that we continue to develop this. But we also want to deliver a secure foundation, and that is the AI Foundation that we deliver accordingly with the Gen AI Hub and Joule Studio to also extend AI, because there we must also be aware that we need customer-specific extensions, naturally also based on the relevant data. And that is exactly where we then believe that with the application that generates the data, higher-value AI scenarios can be generated in this flywheel, together with the partnerships that we have in the ecosystem with the various providers ultimately. And I believe that is certainly an ambition of ours here to really help all customers to really get the added value from AI and not just do POCs that are somehow technologically oriented, because at the end of the day, as harsh as it sounds, it comes down to the top and the bottom line that must be supported.

Thank you very much. I believe what is still very important for me to say at the beginning is really this collaboration, the dialogue with the DSAG, with the member companies, and also especially the work of the function holders, which is really so essential and we appreciate it very much. And that is why from my side again really a heartfelt thank you, because I know it is extra work on top of the respective jobs that everyone does here, but that is also very important for us. And I hope that SAP and it was also with the art of balance a topic between stability and innovation together, that we find the right way together. And that is naturally close to our hearts, also with a stable strategy, which we, as Jens also said, have pursued very consistently in recent years with the Suite First, AI First strategy, based on our programs to go into the cloud with RISE and Grow with SAP, to ultimately guarantee stability for our customers, knowing that we must contribute our share and help. And I hope that one sees how we are further developing the corresponding portfolio items to make the migration faster and cheaper. And then we naturally also use AI, that is quite clear, to accelerate this migration. One will certainly hear more in the future about how we can use tools for consultants, tools for developers and the like even more to optimize these project cycles. We are absolutely convinced, actually, that it is very differentiating that we have the business application with the data to then ultimately be able to create AI in a completely different way, because at the end of the day it comes down to differentiating AI scenarios and it means naturally proprietary data that the customer has themselves and we must use that to ultimately use industrially applied AI to differentiate ourselves there. Now I thought today that I would not hold a classic keynote, because the strategy is known. You have all heard the strategy at the various SAP events. Jens summarized it excellently earlier in his keynote. That is why I thought what actually illustrates it best is when one speaks with customers about how this strategy is implemented and how the customers ultimately use our strategy, our products, to accelerate this digital transformation. In this respect, I am really very pleased to welcome two great customers on the stage today to really speak with them about how they have done it, with the various products to advance their companies. And it really pleases me very much to welcome Marianne Heidingsfelder, SVP Business Transformation Pandora, as well as Benedikt Bönemann, Member of the Board of Adesso. And now a warm welcome and huge applause for Benedikt and Marianne.

Hello Benedikt. So, yes, before we start with the SAP topics, I would suggest you briefly introduce your company. And perhaps Marianne, you start with Pandora. Tell us a bit about what makes Pandora special.

So, I can assure you, my wife is also a customer and I think it is a great idea. So after every SAP go-live, a ring from Pandora, that would be something.