SAP Weekly Brief
By Balint Tolnay-Knefely
Categories: Technology
SAP Weekly Brief, the conversations behind SAP transformation. I'm Balint Tolnay-Knefely, EY Partner with 20+ years in SAP transformations. On this podcast, I talk with the people who actually shape SAP transformation: strategists at SAP, leaders at EY, and practitioners from projects worldwide. We cover what keynotes rarely say: What really works today with AI, Joule, and cloud ERP? Where are the obstacles? And what should CIOs and CFOs decide next? Plus concise analyses of the big moments: earnings, Sapphire, DSAG. My standard in every episode is one question: Where is the evidence? A personal initiative with an EY-grounded perspective. Independent commentary, not affiliated with SAP SE, no investment advice. Episodes in German and English.
43 episodes indexed on PodSearch.
Recent episodes
- Nicht Oracle, nicht Salesforce: Gegen wen SAP wirklich kämpft – mit SAP-Stratege Patrick Zimmermann #43 SAP Weekly Brief
#43 SAP Weekly Brief: Wer sind SAPs echte Wettbewerber, wenn KI die Spielregeln der Unternehmenssoftware neu schreibt? In dieser Folge spreche ich mit Patrick Zimmermann, Vice President in der Corporate Strategy Group von SAP. Er arbeitet genau dort, wo SAPs Strategie entsteht und in die Umsetzung…
- 42 SAP Weekly Brief: Anna Kempen, EY, mit Oliver Klein, SAP – Tausende AI-Agenten, null Governance?
Tausende AI-Agenten, null Governance? Für viele Unternehmen ist das gerade Realität, und mit dem EU AI Act wird es zur rechtlichen Frage. In dieser Folge übergebe ich das Mikrofon an meine EY-Kollegin Anna Kempen. Sie spricht mit Oliver Klein, VP SAP BTM Technology Partner & Partner Programs, der…
- 41 SAP Weekly Brief with SAP`s Paul de Wildt on Signavio and the Business Transformation Management Story
Paul and Kevin Berger, Senior Manager bei EY für Business Transformation Management, sprechen über die Möglichkeiten und Herausforderungen rund um SAP`s Service Offering im Kontext Process Mining, Prozessanalyse, Prozessdokumentation und über die Zukunft der Branche mit AI.
- 40 SAP Weekly Brief with EY GDS SAP Lead Gaurav Tamotia: The End of the Consulting Pyramid - How AI Is Reinventing the Offshore Model
What happens to a delivery model built on thousands of junior consultants when AI starts doing exactly their work? In this episode, I speak with Gaurav Tamotia, EY GDS SAP Lead, and we discuss how the offshore model is being reinvented rather than retired: why the labor arbitrage era is over and…
- 39 SAP Weekly Brief - SAPs FDE teams, a thousand new SAP developers and the Palantir Model
While the industry retells the Manager Magazin cover story about SAP's SWAT teams, this episode extracts what is actually new in it: the publicly confirmed IP mechanics for the first time (the tailor-made solution belongs to SAP, the pilot customer gets early, cheaper access), the internal target…
- 38 SAP Weekly Brief: Mythbusters Vol. 2 – The Sovereignty Edition
Episode 38 combines the late-summer news – Mistral live in SAP’s German data center, the Federal Cartel Office’s decision as the second regulatory all-clear within three weeks, the NTT DATA win for SuccessFactors and Joule, and a record patch day with twelve critical vulnerabilities – with SAP…
- 37 SAP Weekly Brief mit Sarah Lorenz, EY Senior Managerin, zu Carve-Outs: Die unsichtbare Disziplin der SAP-Transformation
Was passiert eigentlich mit SAP, wenn ein Konzern ein Geschäft verkauft? In dieser Folge spricht Balint mit Sarah Lorenz, Senior Managerin Technology Consulting bei EY und Spezialistin für IT-Separationen in M&A-Transaktionen – über die unsichtbarste Disziplin der SAP-Transformation.Es geht um die…
- 36 SAP Weekly Brief mit Dr. Yilmaz Alan, Managing Partner EY Consulting Deutschland
Yilmaz und ich sprechen über das große Thema: "Schafft Deutschland die Wende?" - und damit auch über Themen der KI, der großen deutschen Unternehmen und warum SAP nicht mehr zu den größten 100 Unternehmen der Welt gehört.
- 35 SAP Weekly Brief mit Tobias Unger, SAP SVP, Head of Strategic Customer Engagement BTM
Tobias und ich sprechen zu den Business Transformation Management Themen rund um das neue Produktportfolio von Agent Hub, Knowledge Graph, conversational process AI mit Signavio, und natürlich zur Positionierung von SAP im globalen AI Markt!
- 34 SAP Weekly Brief Q2 Results
SAP's Q2 delivered the turnaround: The cloud backlog accelerated to 26 percent growth – organically, despite macro headwinds – proving that the system of record gains rather than loses value as the agent era approaches, while the much-headlined profit guidance cut is actually the quarter's most…
- 33 SAP Weekly Brief on SAP`s strategy change, EU antitrust settlement and open AI model application
Episode 33 argues that the SAP competitive landscape has fundamentally shifted – the real contest is no longer with Salesforce, Oracle, and Workday but with Anthropic and OpenAI for control of the enterprise intelligence layer – and Klein's Project Fuji reorganization, personally taking direct…
- 32 SAP Weekly Brief mit EY SAP Lead Germany Michael Renz
Michael und ich sprechen über exklusive Einblicke in die SAP und ihrer internen Entwicklungen, die Marktentwicklung und die Möglichkeiten mit AI
- 31 SAP Weekly Brief mit Fabian Pennart zu der Einordnung der Sapphire Ankündigungen
Fabian und ich sprechen in aller Tiefe und Breite zu dem „latest shit“ der SAP
- 30 SAP Weekly Brief on SAP Mythbusters
Episode 30 launches the new monthly SAP Mythbusters format with six current myths systematically refuted by evidence – from the false claim that Joule is just another Copilot clone, through the misreading of the DSAG three-percent adoption figure, the unfounded promise of five-times-faster…
- 29 SAP Weekly Brief on SAP Souvereign Cloud, Oracles CAPEX desaster and pricing negotiations
June 2026 has been the most consequential month of the year for SAP – the company secured a unique German BSI VS-NfD sovereignty authorization that no European competitor can match, is closing a long-running EU antitrust investigation through customer-favorable concessions, and continues executing…
- 28 SAP Weekly Brief on AI SAP transformation acceleration potantials - an honest and deep analysis and opinion
Sources and Show NotesOn the productivity gap and the perception-versus-reality problem in AI-assisted coding:METR (Model Evaluation and Threat Research): "Measuring the Impact of Early-2025 AI on Experienced Open-Source Developer Productivity" – July 10, 2025. The randomized controlled trial…
- 27 SAP Weekly Brief: Sapphire 2026 aftermath, BIG4 positioning, competitor positioning
Three weeks after Sapphire, SAP has clawed back above €150 with BlackRock taking a 3% institutional stake and Goldman Sachs, Barclays, BMO, Jefferies, UBS, and TD Cowen all reiterating buy ratings – Jefferies framing Sapphire as "a logical evolution," which validates the Episode 24 thesis that SAP…
- 26 SAP Weekly Brief Interview mit Armin Kaltenmeier, EY Global SAP Partnership Lead
Armin and I speak about the latest SAPPHIRE 2026 News, current SAP Developments
- 25 SAP Weekly Brief mit Saskia Backhaus, EY Partnerin: Change Management in großen Transformationen
Saskia und ich sprechen über die aktuellen Entwicklungen, wie Transformationen in die Organisation getragen werden müssen um erfolgreich zu sein
- 24 SAP Weekly Brief: Summary of SAPPHIRE 2026
SAP unveiled the Autonomous Enterprise at Sapphire 2026 with five concrete pillars: a unified Business AI Platform anchored by one Knowledge Graph, a live Autonomous Suite with 50+ assistants and 200+ agents, Joule Work as the reimagined UX that turns the underlying modules into invisible…
- 23 SAP Weekly Brief with Jan-Paul Drost of Brenntag, Director Finance, on their S4 Trafo Journey
Jan-Paul and I discuss the challenges around SAP transformations, what Brenntag‘s challenges are and what we as consultants can do better.
- 22 SAP Weekly Brief: Framing of the SAP Acquisitions, Expectations for Sapphire and ServiceNow competition on AI
SAP delivered remarkable strategic substance this week with two simultaneous acquisitions – Dremio for open data lakehouse access and Prior Labs with a 1.17-billion-dollar commitment for tabular foundation models – completing a coherent data strategy alongside the running Reltio deal, even as the…
- 21 SAP Weekly Brief Interview mit EY‘s Risk Consulting Europe West Leader Benjamin Lüders
Benjamin und ich sprechen über die Entwicklung von Risikomanagement in SAP Transformationen, den Möglichkeiten von Process Mining und wie man Doppelrollen meistert.Die im Podcast erwähnte Studie von EY findet sich hier:Risk management's strategic opportunity in a time of turbulence
- 20 SAP Weekly Brief mit Rouven Morato, ex Business Transformation Management Lead bei SAP
Rouven war in seiner Verantwortung jahrelang sehr nah dran am engsten Führungszirkel der SAP. Er teilt Einblicke in diese Welt, in der er mit Luka Mucic, Thomas Saueressig und Christian Klein eng zusammengearbeitet hat, um von 0 ein 1Mrd€ Business innerhalb eines Großkonzerns hochzuziehen.
- 19 SAP Weekly Brief Q1 Earnings Interpretation and competitor market view
SAP delivered structurally strong Q1 results – 27% cloud growth at constant currencies and a current cloud backlog of €21.9 billion up 25% – but a total revenue miss and an explicit Q2 deceleration warning sent the stock down over 6% in aftermarket trading, mirroring a brutal sector-wide sell-off…
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