If 90% of an organisation’s customer base said they found dealing with elements of the business difficult, it’s hard to imagine a turnaround that could pull back customer confidence from such low ebbs, but this is exactly the challenge currently facing SAP after a recent survey by Macro 4 discovered that 90% of SAP software users considered IT upgrades a “challenge”.

The main concerns relate to time, complexity and resources; so the same old story for ERP customers everywhere. With support ending in 2010 for older versions of SAP, however, businesses are left with scant choice – except in the scope of the upgrade they select. Which is why we are seeing so many organisations concentrating their SAP upgrades on core system elements, and looking to best-of-breed providers to deliver the peripherals, such as procurement.

On-demand systems that fit seamlessly alongside the core SAP financials deliver more quickly, cleanly, cost-effectively and above all intuitively from an end-user perspective. So whilst a couple of years ago many organisations simply said we’ll have it because it’s SAP, in an uncertain economic environment it simply no longer makes sense.