LONDON, U.K., July 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- U.K. enterprises are delaying plans to adopt SAP’s S/4HANA intelligent ERP system due to continuing questions about the country’s exit from the European Union and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ SAP HANA and Leonardo Ecosystem Partners Report for the U.K. finds many enterprises in the country are sticking with SAP’s legacy ECC package instead of upgrading to S/4HANA. They are looking to service providers, however, to help them move their SAP implementations to the cloud and to provide automated services due to a shortage of skilled workers in the region. In many cases, enterprises also are seeking price reductions or payment deferments from providers across their SAP-related contracts.

“U.K. firms are unsure of the tangible benefits from any major SAP initiative during these times,” said Barry Matthews, partner and leader, ISG North Europe. “In this uncertain scenario, the complexity, costs and change management required for a change to S/4HANA adds to the reluctance to upgrade.”

However, many U.K. enterprises in the midmarket are looking to move their SAP functions to the cloud, the report adds. The cloud version of SAP ERP packages allows for less customization than the on-premises version, but also for automatic upgrades and faster implementation.

Some service providers are dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on cloud implementations and by shifting their services to the healthcare, manufacturing and utilities industries, the report adds. Service providers are trying to help healthcare organizations deliver seamless services while observing social-distance norms. The report sees manufacturing and utilities as industries where major SAP adoption will happen in the U.K. going forward.

In addition, with cost reduction a major focus at many U.K. enterprises, service providers are focusing on competitive or innovative pricing models. Enterprise customers are demanding new types of outcome-based pricing and services as they react to COVID-19 and Brexit. Enterprises and service providers are looking at several pricing arrangements, including consumption-based, gainsharing, risk-sharing and shared fixed-reward models.

In response, SAP service providers are looking to expand their relationships with clients, the report says. Providers are looking for ways to help customers deal with the pandemic, and they are proposing digital transformations to handle scenarios such as a lack of resources, or to enable sustainable growth and process continuity.

In addition, many service providers are allowing employees to work at home to ensure business continuity. Many are focused on giving employees work-at-home tools to continue working and supporting clients.

The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ SAP HANA and Leonardo Ecosystem Partners Report for the U.K. evaluates the capabilities of 34 providers across five quadrants: SAP S/4 HANA System Transformation – Large Accounts, SAP S/4 HANA System Transformation – Midmarket, Managed Application Services for SAP ERP, Managed Platform Services for SAP HANA, and SAP Cloud Platform and SAP Leonardo Services.

The report names Accenture, Capgemini, HCL, IBM, NTT DATA and Wipro as leaders in four quadrants and Mindtree and Tech Mahindra as leaders in three. Atos, Hexaware and Keytree are named leaders in two quadrants, and Birlasoft, Cognizant, Infosys, LTI and TCS are named leaders in one.

Customized versions of the report are available from Hexaware, Mindtree and Wipro.

The 2020 ISG Provider Lens™ SAP HANA and Leonardo Ecosystem Partners Report for the U.K. is available to subscribers or for one-time purchase on this webpage.

About ISG Provider Lens™ Research

The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG's global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISG's enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services globally, across Europe and Latin America, as well as in the U.S., Germany, the U.K., France, the Nordics, Brazil and Australia/New Zealand, with additional markets to be added in the future. For more information about ISG Provider Lens research, please visit this webpage.

The series is a complement to the ISG Provider Lens Archetype reports, which offer a first-of-its-kind evaluation of providers from the perspective of specific buyer types.

Starting this year, each ISG Provider Lens™ study will include a Global Summary to help enterprise subscribers better understand provider capabilities across all geographic markets covered by that study. All ISG Provider Lens™ reports also will now include an Enterprise Context feature to help executives quickly identify key insights related to their roles and responsibilities.

About ISG 

ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 700 clients, including more than 75 of the world's top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit www.isg-one.com.

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