Transforming ERP

Jon Gill at Spinnaker Support proposes seven questions every CFO should ask their CIO before saying "Yes" to RISE with SAP  

 

Since its launch in 2021, RISE with SAP has become one of the most talked-about approaches to ERP transformation.  

 

The original pitch was persuasive: instead of dealing with multiple vendors and service providers, SAP customers could get a unified experience, bundled infrastructure, managed services, application support, and S/4HANA, all wrapped up in a single contract with one “hand to shake.” 

 

Four years on, how well has that promise held up? 

 

Many organisations have found the reality of RISE with SAP far more complex, inflexible, and costly than anticipated. Concerns are growing about the viability of the offering. The vision of simplification has, for many, translated into a loss of control, a lack of transparency, and a greater dependency on a single vendor whose internal capabilities may be overstretched and whose priorities may not always align with yours. 

 

Scaling is backed by many invisible partners. Some don’t have the same incentive for customer excellence. They just have service ticket closure SLAs. Earlier this year, Gartner stated that “By 2030, 40 percent of SAP customers currently using its legacy ERP systems will still not have migrated to the latest software”. That is an indication of the response thus far to RISE. 

 

As a result, finance leaders are being drawn into conversations that would previously have sat squarely with CIOs and CTOs. And rightly so. Because a RISE migration isn’t just an IT initiative. It’s a strategic transformation with financial, operational, and governance implications that reach across the entire business.

 

 

Seven key questions

So, before your organisation makes the leap, here are seven essential questions every CFO should be asking their CIO.  

 

1. What are we giving up in terms of control and flexibility, and are we comfortable with that? 

RISE with SAP centralises many services—from infrastructure to operations—under SAP’s umbrella. In doing so, it limits your team’s direct access to environments and tools they’ve historically managed. Customisations, backup restorations, and even basic OS-level tasks often require submitting a ticket and waiting in line. 

 

This loss of hands-on control can slow innovation, extend resolution times for business-critical issues, and reduce your organisation’s ability to pivot quickly. Ask your CIO what day-to-day operations will look like after migration, and whether this new operating model aligns with your business’s pace and complexity. 

 

2. Are we budgeting for the actual cost or just the starting price? 

SAP originally positioned RISE as a way to reduce total cost of ownership. In practice, the costs often rise, and not always transparently. Custom configurations, system integrations, third-party tooling, data egress charges, and higher-tier SLAs are all potential hidden expenses. There is also Business Process Re-mapping to consider, which is always a runaway problem that very few organisations catch. Any good CIO/CFO team will ask this question. 

 

Before you commit, ask for a full TCO projection that includes implementation, operational overheads, downtime costs, and change requests over time. If your CIO can’t give you a straight answer, your finance team won’t be able to forecast confidently either. 

 

3. Who’s actually accountable when something breaks? 

RISE with SAP introduces a shared responsibility model across SAP and its ecosystem, but customers report that the lines between teams are unclear. You may be promised a “single throat to choke,” but in reality, issue resolution often involves navigating several siloed SAP teams and vague ownership boundaries. 

 

Accountability is fundamental to managing risk. Ask your CIO who will be responsible for specific services, how issue escalation will work, and what happens if things stall. 

 

4. Has the IT team had full visibility into the contract, or just the C-suite? 

More than a few RISE with SAP deals have been signed with minimal technical review. SAP often sells to business stakeholders directly, leaving CIOs and their teams to reverse-engineer delivery expectations after the contract is inked. 

 

Ask whether IT leadership has done a thorough assessment of the RISE scope, contract terms, and architectural implications. Were procurement and sourcing, and the business units involved? Were SLAs and support models benchmarked?  

 

5. How will RISE with SAP impact our existing cloud and vendor strategy? 

Many organisations already have cloud infrastructure strategies in place — contracts with hyperscalers, outsourced BASIS support, or integrations with third-party systems. RISE with SAP can isolate or disrupt these relationships. 

 

The bundled nature of RISE may mean rearchitecting systems, renegotiating contracts, and sidelining trusted partners. CFOs and CIOs should press for a full impact assessment: What’s being replaced? What’s being left out? And what’s the cost of dismantling existing structures to fit SAP’s preferred model? These are questions that SAP won’t provide. 

 

6. How long will this migration really take, and how will we protect business continuity during that time?

While smaller organisations might move to RISE within six months, most enterprises face far longer timelines—often 12 to 18 months or more. During that period, disruption to core processes is inevitable. 

 

Beyond project plans, ask your CIO what is the realistic time frame? Let’s look at the process - buy the software, RFP process to choose a Systems Integration partner (12 month process minimum), project plan assessment from the RFP process (another 3 to 6 months), Business Process impact (3 to 6 months), BPI alignment (12 months). 

 

Realistically, organisations are looking at 3 years minimum before they even see anything. SAP will support your ECC install if you choose RISE, but how do you choose RISE, then figure it out? Any CFO and CIO must understand all of this before a decision is even made. 

 

7. What’s our exit strategy, and can we afford not to have one? 

Perhaps the most important question: what happens if RISE with SAP doesn’t deliver? 

 

Once you’re in, going back is not straightforward. There’s no reverting back to a perpetual model. Custom exit provisions are difficult to negotiate. And disentangling from SAP’s bundled services can be complex and expensive. 

 

Before you commit, ensure your CIO has mapped out potential exit scenarios. What would a rollback involve? How would you protect operational continuity? And what options - if any - do you have if your requirements evolve but SAP’s roadmap doesn’t? 

 

 

Operational change on your terms

There’s no doubt that RISE with SAP has opened up a new path for organisations looking to modernise their ERP estate. For some, it may well be the right fit. 

 

But fit is the key word here. 

 

Because while the model promises simplicity, it demands trade-offs. These include less flexibility, less visibility, and a deeper reliance on SAP’s pace, structure, and roadmap. And for complex enterprises with layered architectures, multi-vendor ecosystems, or unique operational needs, those trade-offs deserve closer scrutiny. 

 

Any major operational change must work for your business and on your terms. 

 

That starts with asking the right questions. Questions that go beyond cost projections and delivery timelines and get to the heart of operational control, accountability, and strategic resilience. Questions that open up space for honest dialogue between finance and IT, long before contracts are signed. 

 

In a transformation of this scale, the biggest risk isn’t saying no for fear of getting left behind. It’s saying yes too soon.  

 

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Jon Gill is VP EMEA at Spinnaker Support

 

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com and metamorworks