Blog

The valantic S/4HANA study 2020: Into the digital future despite Corona

SAP Services

SAP Consulting
SAP S/4HANA

Björn Enger

July 13, 2020

Bild eines Laptops und eines Handys, daneben ein Schild mit der Aufschrift "Covid 19 - We are open", drei Personen im Gespräch vor einem Computer, im Hintergrund die Skyline von Köln

Share this article

With the SAP S/4HANA Study 2020, we are continuing our HANA study series and have now examined for the third year in a row to what extent SAP S/4HANA is accepted on the market by companies of all sizes and industries and which opportunities and risks are associated with an implementation.

For topical reasons, this year a special focus was placed on the effects of the Corona crisis in a hot topic.

Here are the essential statements of the S/4HANA Study 2020:

SAP S/4HANA is a central component of companies’ IT strategy

80% of the companies surveyed have planned SAP S/4HANA firmly into their IT strategy. In the process, these organizations especially want to profit from innovations in and enhancements to SAP and at the same time, increase the efficiency of their internal processes. This reflects a trend that was already evident in the 2019 SAP S/4HANA Study.

However, SAP’s announcement that they are extending maintenance of their ERP 6.0 environments up to and including 2027 has had some effects on industry: Approximately 60% of the companies surveyed are taking this announcement to take time pressure off the planning of IT strategic measures. As a result, these organizations want to focus on the specific planning of a migration to the new SAP platform only later.

Hot Topic: Impact of the Corona crisis

The ongoing Corona crisis is causing breakdowns not just socially in many areas, it’s also causing companies to examine planned strategic measures and delay them for an indeterminate time. Especially affected is the handling of ongoing SAP projects:

valantic S/4HANA Study 2020 results and the impact of the corona crisis

But it’s not just SAP projects that are suffering from the general insecurity. There’s a widespread tendency on the part of companies to stop all projects that are not essential for maintaining the company until further notice. Only 10% of the companies surveyed said they could hardly feel the influence of the Corona crisis on their internal IT strategy.

Despite these serious consequences, industry’s power of innovation has hardly been braked by Corona. Nearly three-quarters of the companies surveyed are actively advancing the digitalization of internal business processes or, due to Corona, devoting themselves increasingly to this topic.

With these insights, it is possible to say in sum that the current Corona crisis can also be regarded as an opportunity to examine the status quo with respect to a company’s own power of innovation and to develop suitable measures for the future.

Image of three bubbles: In the first bubble there is a laptop and a mobile phone, next to it in the second bubble there is a sign saying "Covid 19 - We are open", in the tird bubble there are three people talking in front of a computer, in the background you see the skyline of Cologne

Have we piqued your interest?

Then download the complete report about our SAP S/4HANA Study 2020.

Download now

More on this topic

Work@valantic June 10, 2026

Florian’s SAP career: How he is advancing the cloud business at valantic in Austria

Florian Steinwendtner is Head of SAP Cloud Advisory and leads the logistics team at valantic in Austria. In this interview, he talks about his extraordinary path from landscape gardener to SAP consultant, his enthusiasm for SAP Cloud ERP, and how he is helping to drive valantic's SAP Cloud Powerhouse forward.

Artificial Intelligence June 9, 2026

SAP Sapphire 2026 – the way into the Autonomous Enterprise

SAP Sapphire 2026 marks the mindshift from assistant to agent: In the Autonomous Enterprise, Joule Assistants orchestrate networked agents that perform routine work independently across SAP and non-SAP systems. They are based on Joule Work and Joule Studio, the SAP Business Data Cloud and the Business AI Platform - provided that the data, cloud setup and culture are in sync.

Business team working on a laptop computer. Three people are wearing casual clothing. They are standing in a board room. Multi ethnic group with Cauc and o men and women

Artificial Intelligence May 28, 2026

How AI agents solve business problems

At the DSAG Technology Days 2026 in Hamburg, innovation was not just discussed but actively developed: Together with valantic, DSAG organized a hackathon where seven teams of students and young professionals presented their ideas for AI agents.

Don't miss a thing.
Subscribe to our latest blog articles.