SAP managers under increasing pressure to move from the “old world” to the “new world”
Change is becoming an essential skill for gaining a competitive advantage, according to Basis Technologies, a specialist in the SAP environment. But it remains a challenge.
Despite the pressure on their businesses, no less than 84% of SAP’s corporate customers are delaying upgrades and updates! Is the SAP environment still as rigid as ever?
According to Basis Technologies, change is urgently needed. According to the SAP Change Management Index 2025, conducted among 200 SAP transformation managers in the United Kingdom, the United States, and Germany, those responsible for SAP change within the world’s largest organizations are being propelled into a new era: they are moving from the “old world” of manual and cautious processes to a “new world” where rapid and intelligent change directly underpins business strategy.
“For too long, SAP change has been seen as a bottleneck by some business leaders,” comments Martin Metcalf, CEO, Basis Technologies. “It is slowly becoming a competitive advantage. But slowly.”
But the pressure is there! The study reveals that 48% of respondents are seeing a significant reduction in business request delivery times, while 41% report increased pressure for a faster return on investment.
New responsibilities
According to David Lees, Chief Technology Officer at Basis Technologies, 40% of organizations complain about their change management and testing functions. Their grievances? Faulty requirements planning and roadmaps (37%), a lack of appropriate tools and delays in providing test data for development and testing (34%), immature Agile/DevOps capabilities, and, finally, ineffective collaboration between teams (33%).
“These organizations need to improve their current quality and change governance,” says David Lees. “They also need to address issues such as auditability, segregation of duties, and more traditional challenges before they can meet the new requirements.”
The study data also reveals that SAP managers have new responsibilities. They are increasingly expected to lead communication, training, and cross-team engagement (54%), drive initiatives that support broader business objectives (53%), and contribute to upstream strategic planning and stakeholder alignment (45%).
Time to shine!
At the same time, ongoing and complex changes are pushing companies to abandon information silos and enter a new era of smarter decision-making. Unsurprisingly, more than half (59%) of respondents say they plan to adopt AI to automate manual change processes. “In the past,” Martin Metcalf continues, “SAP change managers worked behind the scenes, out of sight; Today, they are at the forefront, on deck and in the spotlight: they drive strategy, foster innovation, and shape business results.”
SAP change managers are under pressure like never before, but according to Basis Technologies, this is also their moment to shine! “By embracing automation and intelligence, they can transform SAP change from a source of risk into a competitive advantage,” concludes Martin Metcalf. “In doing so, they help their organizations adapt to the demands of modern business.”
