🎙️ LIVE PODCAST TODAY — SAP Sapphire Conference Takeaways

Why It Matters

The announcement reshapes the commercial calculus for thousands of enterprise SAP customers weighing costly cloud migrations versus alternatives like third-party support, with potential revenue upside for SAP but also churn risk as customers seek cheaper, less disruptive support options. Investors and CIOs will watch adoption and contract-structure outcomes closely for signals on SAP’s growth trajectory and enterprise spending trends.

Summary

At SAP Sapphire, SAP pushed broader AI access—extending capabilities to ECC and S/4HANA on-premises—but tied that access to a requirement that customers move roughly 50% of their maintenance spend to the cloud, prompting investor unease and a dip in SAP’s stock. Panelists from Rimini Street used the conference to spotlight third-party support as a lower-cost, customization-friendly alternative that lets customers avoid forced upgrades and extend support lifecycles. Speakers stressed the reality that many large customers remain on older ECC releases and are wary of SAP’s cloud-centric nudges and upgrade roadmap. The conversation framed Sapphire as both a marketing success and a flashpoint revealing tension between vendor cloud monetization and customer flexibility.

Original Description

Fresh off the floor at SAP Sapphire, I will sit down with Scott Hays (VP, Product Marketing – Support) and Krista Glantschnig (Product Marketing Director) from Rimini Street to unpack what really happened in Orlando — and what it means for SAP customers navigating the road ahead.

We'll dig into the announcements that mattered, the ones that raised more questions than answers, and the strategic implications for CIOs, CFOs, and IT leaders running ECC, S/4HANA, and Business Suite landscapes.

What we'll cover:

🔹 The biggest themes and announcements from SAP Sapphire 2026

🔹 SAP's evolving cloud-first and RISE strategy, what's hype vs. reality

🔹 Agentic AI in the SAP ecosystem: opportunity or overreach?

🔹 ECC and S/4HANA maintenance deadlines and what your options really look like

🔹 How customers are pushing back on forced migrations and reclaiming roadmap control

🔹 Practical advice for CIOs and CFOs making long-term ERP decisions

Whether you're an SAP customer, advisor, partner, or just trying to make sense of the noise coming out of Orlando and Barcelona, this conversation will give you a candid, vendor-independent perspective you won't hear on the Sapphire keynote stage.

Drop your questions in the comments. We will answer as many as we can live.

📅 Live today

🎧 Available on demand immediately after

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