The University of Cologne relies on SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Private Edition to ensure its ERP landscape is innovative, secure and scalable in the long term. With RISE with SAP, it is pursuing a modernization path that is both technically and organizationally sustainable.

The SAP4Campus project is a core element of the University of Cologne’s digitalization strategy with the aim of noticeably modernizing business processes and at the same time tapping into new innovation potential. To do this, it is necessary to standardize and consolidate the historically grown system landscape more, to reduce the proportion of in-house development and to make maintenance and further development easier.
Processes should become more user-friendly, leaner and more transparent and, through targeted automation, help to better manage workloads throughout the university. This last aspect in particular is very important to those responsible given current and future personnel shortages. They also rely on cloud-based operations to strengthen IT and operational security and to make further developments from SAP usable at short notice.

There are many arguments in favor of the cloud solution

From the perspective of Marcel Gehlen from the SAP4Campus project management, what has been described is “the necessary step to make the university’s ERP landscape permanently stable, sustainable and expandable.”

The aim of the transformation is to stabilize business processes and at the same time increase the pace of innovation. From Marcel Gehlen and his colleagues’ point of view, there are a whole series of arguments in favor of consistently relying on the cloud. The cloud-based approach strengthens the technical robustness of the central systems, simplifies operations and creates a reliable framework for the continuous development of business processes. Especially in a grown and individualized system landscape, this approach makes it possible to reduce complexity and provide modern functions in a uniform manner. At the same time, security and compliance requirements can be consistently implemented at a high level.

A strong signal for the future viability of the university

From the perspective of Victoria Mitchell from the SAP4Campus project management, the upcoming transformation offers the opportunity not only to technically modernize processes, but to rethink them.

“For us, the transformation to SAP S/4HANA in the cloud is much more than a change in technology. It is a cultural change: We want to create modern, more resilient processes and give the university’s employees access to innovative ways of working. In doing so, we are sending a strong signal for the future viability of our university.”

Victoria Mitchell, project manager of SAP4Campus

From their point of view, this future viability also includes creating structures that fundamentally enable cooperation, exchange and joint development across organizational boundaries.

Rethink processes and make innovations usable more quickly

The partners signed the contract in December and the project is scheduled to start in the first quarter of 2026. The project managers led by Christian Wagner, Head of Economics and Finance at the University of Cologne, are pursuing the goal of a stable, trusting and long-term partnership with SAP. The focus is on transparency, clearly defined responsibilities and close cooperation between the university, SAP, implementation partner and hyperscaler. This collaboration is particularly crucial when designing the target architecture, standardizing processes and establishing sustainable governance. A consistently high professional, technical and organizational quality forms the basis for a sustainable and successful transformation in all project phases.

Oliver Könn, overall project manager of SAP4Campus, emphasizes the strategic importance of the project for the University of Cologne.

“By switching to SAP S/4HANA in the private cloud, we are laying the foundation for a modern, secure and future-proof administration landscape. The transformation gives us scope to rethink processes, make innovations usable more quickly and use artificial intelligence responsibly.”

Oliver Könn, overall project manager of SAP4Campus