SAP's strategy of offering AI innovations only in the cloud continues to attract a lot of criticism from its user base. Here's what SAP customers would like to see happen.

Many SAP customers are still looking for the transformation melody that suits them. This was once again made clear at this year's annual congress of the German-speaking SAP user group (DSAG), which the organizers held under the motto "Triad of the future: users, SAP, and partners as the pacesetters of transformation." But there can be no talk of sweet music from this trio. Discordant notes clearly disturb the harmony between SAP and its customers.

Half of the SAP customers surveyed still say they have not made much progress with their own digital transformation. As a result, just one in 10 say they have been able to keep up with the speed of change on a technical, social, and economic level; 59% said they have been able to keep up somewhat; and almost a quarter are not only out of step with the pace of transformation but have already fallen behind.

Innovative capabilities could help close these gaps. But, customers note, access to those capabilities from SAP still doesn't appear to be coming in the form necessary to help them.