The Business Value of Using SAP’s Foundational Success Plan
This IDC white paper shows how organizations use SAP’s Foundational Success Plan to keep critical SAP environments running and realize faster value. Employing its specialized Business Value methodology, IDC calculated that customers achieved benefits worth an annual average of $4.86 million by: Improving business continuity and incident resolution; Supporting upgrades, updates, and deployments; Providing proactive monitoring and risk mitigation; Giving access to self-service and expert guidance; and Enabling SAP innovation adoption. Скачать документ
This IDC white paper shows how organizations use SAP’s Foundational Success Plan to keep critical SAP environments running and realize faster value. Employing its specialized Business Value methodology, IDC calculated that customers achieved benefits worth an annual average of $4.86 million by: Improving business continuity and incident resolution; Supporting upgrades, updates, and deployments; Providing proactive monitoring and risk mitigation; Giving access to self-service and expert guidance; and Enabling SAP innovation adoption. Megan Szurley
Business Value Manager,
Business Value Strategy Practice, IDC
The Business Value of
Using SAP’s Foundational
Success Plan
Elaina Stergiades
Research Director,
IT Service Strategies for
Proactive Customer Success, IDC
April 2026
Business Value White Paper
Sponsored by SAP
Business Value Manager,
Business Value Strategy Practice, IDC
The Business Value of
Using SAP’s Foundational
Success Plan
Elaina Stergiades
Research Director,
IT Service Strategies for
Proactive Customer Success, IDC
April 2026
Business Value White Paper
Sponsored by SAP
2April 2026 | #US54140525-BVWP | Sponsored by SAPThe Business Value of Using SAP’s Foundational Success Plan
Table of Contents
Click any title to navigate directly to that page.
Business Value Highlights 3
Executive Summary 4
Situation Overview 5
Enterprises Face Many Challenges as They Adopt AI-Powered Solutions 6
IT Organizations Are Using Services in Their Cloud Subscriptions for Help 7
Foundational Success Plan Overview 8
The Business Value of Using Elements of the Foundational Success Plan from SAP 10
Study Firmographics 10
Choice to Utilize Elements of the Foundational Success Plan 11
Business Value and Quantified Benefits 13
IT Benefits from Elements of the Foundational Success Plan 15
IT Cost Benefits 16
IT Staff Efficiencies 17
Business Enablement Benefits 24
Challenges/Opportunities 27
Conclusion 28
Appendix: Methodology 29
About the IDC Analysts 30
Table of Contents
Click any title to navigate directly to that page.
Business Value Highlights 3
Executive Summary 4
Situation Overview 5
Enterprises Face Many Challenges as They Adopt AI-Powered Solutions 6
IT Organizations Are Using Services in Their Cloud Subscriptions for Help 7
Foundational Success Plan Overview 8
The Business Value of Using Elements of the Foundational Success Plan from SAP 10
Study Firmographics 10
Choice to Utilize Elements of the Foundational Success Plan 11
Business Value and Quantified Benefits 13
IT Benefits from Elements of the Foundational Success Plan 15
IT Cost Benefits 16
IT Staff Efficiencies 17
Business Enablement Benefits 24
Challenges/Opportunities 27
Conclusion 28
Appendix: Methodology 29
About the IDC Analysts 30
3April 2026 | #US54140525-BVWP | Sponsored by SAP
The Business Value of Using SAP’s Foundational Success Plan Return to Table of Contents
Business Value Highlights
$4.9 million average annual
benefits per organization
27% more efficient IT cloud
infrastructure teams
28% less time spent on
incident management
31% quicker to prepare for
upgrades and updates
36% less time spent keeping
the lights on
45% more accurate
when answering business
end-user questions
31% faster patching acceptance
31% less time spent monitoring
21% more proactive in identifying
issues in SAP Cloud
21% more efficient system
integrators
11% more efficient security teams
39% reduction in impactful
security breaches
29% faster response to
security risks
$1.9 million in additional
net revenue per year
16% more productive end users
Click each to jump to related content. Use “Return to Highlights” in the page header to get back here.
The Business Value of Using SAP’s Foundational Success Plan Return to Table of Contents
Business Value Highlights
$4.9 million average annual
benefits per organization
27% more efficient IT cloud
infrastructure teams
28% less time spent on
incident management
31% quicker to prepare for
upgrades and updates
36% less time spent keeping
the lights on
45% more accurate
when answering business
end-user questions
31% faster patching acceptance
31% less time spent monitoring
21% more proactive in identifying
issues in SAP Cloud
21% more efficient system
integrators
11% more efficient security teams
39% reduction in impactful
security breaches
29% faster response to
security risks
$1.9 million in additional
net revenue per year
16% more productive end users
Click each to jump to related content. Use “Return to Highlights” in the page header to get back here.
4April 2026 | #US54140525-BVWP | Sponsored by SAP
The Business Value of Using SAP’s Foundational Success Plan Return to Table of Contents
Executive Summary
With the race to realize the value of AI-powered applications well underway,
many organizations are still completing their multiyear journey to a fully digital business.
And despite the promise of simplicity, migrating to AI-powered cloud applications
still presents several technology challenges, not to mention managing the people,
process, and cultural shifts necessary to ensure successful adoption and alignment
across the organization.
To address these challenges, more IT organizations are using the success and support
capabilities included in their cloud software subscriptions. While these features are
available at no additional cost, many teams underuse them, missing opportunities to
improve adoption, prevent issues, and optimize performance. With more attention
from the C-suite to achieve desired outcomes through technology, IDC recommends
implementing the full suite of success and support capabilities available through their
cloud subscriptions to drive innovation, enhance AI adoption, and achieve strategic
operational goals.
IDC conducted research exploring the value and benefits organizations achieved by
leveraging SAP Enterprise Support as the centerpiece of SAP’s new Foundational
Success Plan.
Employing its specialized Business Value methodology, IDC calculated that
these customers achieved benefits worth an annual average of $4.86 million by:
• Improving business continuity and incident resolution:
SAP provided reliable, SLA-backed, mission-critical support and clear escalation paths
that helped organizations minimize downtime, reduce operational risk, and keep core
SAP systems running smoothly.
• Supporting upgrades, updates, and deployments:
Through prescriptive guidance, advisory services, SAP Cloud Application Lifecycle
Management (ALM), value maps, and Enterprise Architect engagement, organizations
were better prepared to plan and execute upgrades, updates, and deployments with
reduced disruption.
• Providing proactive monitoring and risk mitigation:
Capabilities such as SAP EarlyWatch Alerts, Continuous Quality Checks, and SAP for Me
dashboards enabled earlier identification of performance, stability, and security issues,
which reduced manual monitoring and prevented problems before they became critical.
The Business Value of Using SAP’s Foundational Success Plan Return to Table of Contents
Executive Summary
With the race to realize the value of AI-powered applications well underway,
many organizations are still completing their multiyear journey to a fully digital business.
And despite the promise of simplicity, migrating to AI-powered cloud applications
still presents several technology challenges, not to mention managing the people,
process, and cultural shifts necessary to ensure successful adoption and alignment
across the organization.
To address these challenges, more IT organizations are using the success and support
capabilities included in their cloud software subscriptions. While these features are
available at no additional cost, many teams underuse them, missing opportunities to
improve adoption, prevent issues, and optimize performance. With more attention
from the C-suite to achieve desired outcomes through technology, IDC recommends
implementing the full suite of success and support capabilities available through their
cloud subscriptions to drive innovation, enhance AI adoption, and achieve strategic
operational goals.
IDC conducted research exploring the value and benefits organizations achieved by
leveraging SAP Enterprise Support as the centerpiece of SAP’s new Foundational
Success Plan.
Employing its specialized Business Value methodology, IDC calculated that
these customers achieved benefits worth an annual average of $4.86 million by:
• Improving business continuity and incident resolution:
SAP provided reliable, SLA-backed, mission-critical support and clear escalation paths
that helped organizations minimize downtime, reduce operational risk, and keep core
SAP systems running smoothly.
• Supporting upgrades, updates, and deployments:
Through prescriptive guidance, advisory services, SAP Cloud Application Lifecycle
Management (ALM), value maps, and Enterprise Architect engagement, organizations
were better prepared to plan and execute upgrades, updates, and deployments with
reduced disruption.
• Providing proactive monitoring and risk mitigation:
Capabilities such as SAP EarlyWatch Alerts, Continuous Quality Checks, and SAP for Me
dashboards enabled earlier identification of performance, stability, and security issues,
which reduced manual monitoring and prevented problems before they became critical.
5April 2026 | #US54140525-BVWP | Sponsored by SAP
The Business Value of Using SAP’s Foundational Success Plan Return to Highlights Return to Table of Contents
• Giving access to self-service and expert guidance:
Self-service tools and embedded expertise provided quick access to fixes,
best practices, and learning resources, which improved IT efficiency and
reduced reliance on external consultants.
• Enabling SAP innovation adoption:
Guidance around standardization and clean core practices helped
organizations adopt new features more easily, reduce custom code, and
enable scalable innovation across their SAP environments.
Situation Overview
For most organizations, modernizing the IT environment to support the
adoption of AI technologies across the business and moving to the cloud is
an ongoing, multiyear initiative. Upgrading underlying infrastructure,
cleansing and optimizing structured and unstructured data, and rationalizing
applications and processes are complex and time-consuming. Recent IDC
research indicates that only about 40% of enterprises consider themselves
a “fully” digital business, or a digital-native business, with 60% still in the
process of completing the transition (Source: IDC’s Future Enterprise Resiliency
and Spending Survey, June/July/August 2025). CIOs and IT managers are
facing pressure from business leaders to implement AI-powered cloud
application software quickly and effectively while also expecting IT to help
roll out new solutions, drive adoption across end users, and demonstrate ROI
in a timely manner.
However, even though AI-powered business solutions promise to simplify
the user experience and ongoing operations while helping business leaders
accelerate value delivery across the market, the reality of adoption and
integration has been challenging for most enterprises. IT organizations must
manage system integration, data governance, and change management
challenges across the business while optimizing IT operations, modernizing a
complex IT infrastructure, and meeting demanding expectations from internal
and external customers.
with 60% still in the
process of completing
the transition.
Only about 40% of
enterprises consider
themselves a “fully”
digital business, or a
digital-native business,
The Business Value of Using SAP’s Foundational Success Plan Return to Highlights Return to Table of Contents
• Giving access to self-service and expert guidance:
Self-service tools and embedded expertise provided quick access to fixes,
best practices, and learning resources, which improved IT efficiency and
reduced reliance on external consultants.
• Enabling SAP innovation adoption:
Guidance around standardization and clean core practices helped
organizations adopt new features more easily, reduce custom code, and
enable scalable innovation across their SAP environments.
Situation Overview
For most organizations, modernizing the IT environment to support the
adoption of AI technologies across the business and moving to the cloud is
an ongoing, multiyear initiative. Upgrading underlying infrastructure,
cleansing and optimizing structured and unstructured data, and rationalizing
applications and processes are complex and time-consuming. Recent IDC
research indicates that only about 40% of enterprises consider themselves
a “fully” digital business, or a digital-native business, with 60% still in the
process of completing the transition (Source: IDC’s Future Enterprise Resiliency
and Spending Survey, June/July/August 2025). CIOs and IT managers are
facing pressure from business leaders to implement AI-powered cloud
application software quickly and effectively while also expecting IT to help
roll out new solutions, drive adoption across end users, and demonstrate ROI
in a timely manner.
However, even though AI-powered business solutions promise to simplify
the user experience and ongoing operations while helping business leaders
accelerate value delivery across the market, the reality of adoption and
integration has been challenging for most enterprises. IT organizations must
manage system integration, data governance, and change management
challenges across the business while optimizing IT operations, modernizing a
complex IT infrastructure, and meeting demanding expectations from internal
and external customers.
with 60% still in the
process of completing
the transition.
Only about 40% of
enterprises consider
themselves a “fully”
digital business, or a
digital-native business,