SAP users are wasting a total of $30bn (£19.3bn) by running too many instances of SAP, a survey has revealed.
The research, released by HCL Enterprise Application Services and conducted among 255 large enterprises with revenues in excess of $1bn, has shown that more than a third of companies are running more than six instances of SAP software. The average annual cost was found to be $1,518 (£979) per user, but the research argues that cutting down to a single instance could save large enterprises up to 25 per cent.
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"Many large enterprises have a global SAP footprint, yet have been unable to truly operate in a truly unified manner due to having a fragmented software landscape," said Steve Cardell, president of enterprise application services at HCL.
"For some, there are legitimate reasons for multiple instances such as country-specific requirements. However, for a significant majority it has been a result of mergers and acquisitions or multiple implementations across different areas of the business, which have never been rationalised or consolidated."
Cardell said there are still "substantial political and operational hurdles" standing in the way of companies achieving a single instance of SAP", and accused many companies of considering consolidation "the wrong battle to fight", instead focusing on improved integration between existing systems.
The research also showed that only a third of companies (37 per cent) are using SAP's current ERP Central Component ECC 6. 54 per cent are still running ECC 5, while 44 per cent still run SAP ECC 4.7. Versions earlier than 6 are no longer covered by extended maintenance contracts. However, 80 per cent said they were sure SAP's in-memory database offering, HANA, will "play a major role" in future company software plans.