Thread regarding SAP layoffs

Here at SAP, having Board mandates is one of the biggest jokes ever.

Whether it be travel, hiring freeze, etc., the golden rule at SAP has always been, you bring company mandates at noon and by 12:15 the employees will have figured out how to get around them. I have been in meetings where cost guidance topics from the SAP Board members have been brought up and everyone just laughs at them. They are 100% meaningless - they apply to just the peons.

Just call the Kalipeh and ask what is the occupancy number and you will see how ineffective the "no travel" rule is :-)

Cuts are starting, just very discrete, a co-worker in NA got their job eliminated last week with a severance package. SAP is always very quiet and stealth with the cuts. More to come later this month I'm sure.

For sure the Gala Event in Germany will really help us sell more product and get more profitable.

It exactly what we have been waiting for and no doubt it's also just what the customers have been asking for. Here's to more Gala Events worldwide !!!

I think everyone expects some layoffs this year. One school of thought is that SAP will have minor layoffs in Q3, especially if the performance results do not look good.

The hope would be that there is some improvement in Q3 - good enough to buy some time to turn profitable by Q4. If it turns out that we have not improved profit and margin good enough in Q3, then expect a bigger cut in q4 and allow SAP to close out the year in a significant cost cutting mode and a bigger round of layoffs. I would think that before we go to next year when it seems very likely we will have some level of a global recession that hopefully SAP has shed as much cost and expense as can be done and be in better shape to deal with what will come in 2023.

The problem will come if SAP continues to struggle with getting enough compliance and ability to mandate cost reduction to achieve a turn around on profits. But that depends much more on the employees than it does with the leadership - the culture of entitlement must change. If not then continued lack of Profit combined with high inflation and impending recession will surely make for a bloodbath here.

Anyway we should have the new CFO by Q4 or Q1/23 and I would think as part of the vetting hiring process they will be asked for detailed ideas on how to improve margin and cut costs and the new CFO will then have the chance to implement their ideas as type of new sheriff in town. Here's hoping to whoever it is, they can do it.

The 50th anniversary Gala held in Germany last weekend will “build up the brand” and RISE us to new and unprecedented heights on ACV, pipeline, and gross deal margins.
Think outside the box and outside on premise…

@1cve+1i0P9a0A You better check again regarding Job Postings. All you have to do is go to SAP.com and look under career. I am not going to count them but there are pages and pages of posting, probably into the hundreds of "active" postings, at least as of one minute ago they were all still there - absolutely nothing has disappeared.

I have been with SAP a long time and can tell you that if teams find a candidate for one of the existing postings, they will bring some "business justification" and most likely will be able to hire them. It's all about appearance and what looks good. in the end if the particular team has the right connections ( like sales) they will bring in new people, simple as that.

And BTW, this phony guidance about hiring freeze when we are bringing in Cusers all over ( who sometimes make more than the FTE's) is also how other guidance is disregarded. Like the other post said about Winners Circle, once you see how money is wasted in areas like this (who are underperforming with deals that have no/low profit) , then nobody is taking cost cutting seriously.

Board Member Thomas Sauer..... came with company wide communication that we now have a hiring freeze in SAP.

Sounds pretty good in as far as a good way to get costs under control and bring profit towards positive vs negative numbers. Well not quite.

Like many things at SAP, there is much window dressing and talk is cheap.

While there may be a hiring freeze ? ( but then why are all the positions still posted on SAP.com ?) there is no freeze on C-users. We have teams today who are continuing to substitute FTE with C-users with absolute no regard to any guidance about attempting to keep HC down. This has long been the practice with SAP where there is some Board guidance and within 10 minutes, people have already figured out how to get around the rules.

The use of C-Users in this regard and how our people play games with mandates is exactly why it has been so difficult over the years to impact Operating Margin & Profit. No one is held accountable for anything, whether it be overrunning a budget or adhering to fake hiring freeze.

I wonder if the investment community bought the story and thinks SAP is seriously attempting to reduce costs. Well the Q3 results will tell the story one way or the other and if we have another quarter of Profit losses, we know the reason behind.

SAP has already announced curbs on spending, no travel, they have got rid of expensive IT equipment and all of the job postings have disappeared. I definitely think there will be 'optimization' in teams, but the ones most affected will be the US and Europe! I cannot see how on earth Germany and Northern Europe could escape when it cant afford the energy

The news on Oracle is that they are having mass layoffs across the Board, but mostly all are in the US. Same situation as SAP, big decline in Profits last quarter and the employees there are saying Oracle wants to fix this in Q3 and go into Q4 with better chance at improving before year end closing. Makes me wonder what plans SAP might have to deal with the same issue.

I am based in US and talk of layoffs has been going on for months. I think we all know there will be some type of reductions sometime this year.

Between the SAP expectations and where we need to improve our numbers and the external factors like inflation and it's impact on customer spending on IT budgets and an impending recession - times will be difficult in the months ahead.

Just do your job best you can and what will be will be.

All I know is there is no way SAP can have a Q3 like Q2 where operating profit was down 32%. This is what happened to Oracle where they also had a poor Q2 and significant decline in profits and had to take difficult decision to have employee layoffs.

 I would expect SAP will take action in this quarter to bolster profit.  Either we get more profitable deals or SAP will have to reduce costs - which means employee cutbacks.