The SAP transformation Zeiss CIO Carsten Trapp wants is not really a big deal for the corporate IT department. “It’s pretty unspectacular for us,” he says. “Like all other companies, we’re doing it right now because SAP will end support for R/3 and become S/4, so at some point you’ll be there.”
After all, Zeiss’ IT has been working on this since 2017, and in 2020, it became clear to the board because this shift would be a big and long-term project with great consequences for the group.
Focus on standards
As things progressed, Trapp deliberately opted for a greenfield approach. “It’s a lifetime opportunity to clean up, because we, too, have messed up our R/3 system over the last 30 years,” he says. By starting over on S/4, his team can set up all processes cleanly in the SAP standard from the start. Plus, he’s declared it a mandatory requirement to stay with this standard wherever possible.
