Magic Quadrant For S/4 HANA

Magic Quadrant for SAP S/4HANA Application
Services, Worldwide
Published 14 June 2021 - ID G00733917 - 57 min read
By Analyst(s): Allan Wilkins, Jaideep Thyagarajan, Fabio Di Capua, Peter Adamo, Duy
Nguyen, Luis Pinto
Initiatives: IT Services and Solutions; ERP
This Magic Quadrant evaluates 20 service providers’ capabilities to

deliver SAP S/4HANA application assessment, implementation and
management services on a worldwide basis. This research will
help identify, evaluate and select potential SAP S/4HANA
application service providers.
This Magic Quadrant is related to other research:
View All Magic Quadrants and Critical Capabilities
Market Definition/Description
This Magic Quadrant is focused on the full life cycle of SAP S/4HANA application
services, spanning project-based assessment and implementation, and multiyear
application management services (AMS). Analysts evaluate service providers for their
ability to deliver a discrete or comprehensive set of assessment, implementation and
management services for clients worldwide (see Note 1), across the SAP S/4HANA
version 1610 or later and any S/4HANA Cloud version.
Assessment Services
Assessment services are discrete, project-based services to assess the impact of either a
new SAP S/4HANA implementation or a migration from a legacy platform(s) to SAP
S/4HANA. These services include consulting and potentially proof of concept (POC), and
cover the analysis of applicability of all SAP S/4HANA products, applications, databases,
analytics, middleware, mobile and other technologies (on-premises and cloud-based).
Assessment services include:
■ Impact assessment for both the business process and technical environments
■ Roadmap and business case development
Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 1 of 45

Implementation Services
Implementation services are discrete, project-based implementations of SAP S/4HANA
applications without ongoing management responsibilities.
These services include consulting, development and integration services, and cover all
SAP S/4HANA products, applications, databases, analytics, middleware, mobile and other
technologies (on-premises and cloud-based). Implementation services include:
■ Consulting services, which are advisory services designed to help companies

analyze and improve the effectiveness of business operations and technology
strategies. Gartner divides consulting services into two subsegments: business
consulting services and IT consulting services. Consulting services go beyond
technical blueprinting to include such activities as operating model changes,
business process improvement, and standardization and harmonization of
processes when they are part of an SAP S/4HANA program. They also include
program management, organizational change management (OCM) and governance.
■ Development and integration services, which include application development,

implementation and integration services for first-time implementations, upgrades,
rollouts, consolidations, optimization or any combination thereof for any version.
They also include configuration, customization and enhancement of existing SAP
S/4HANA functionalities, reports, interfaces, conversions, extensions, forms, data
loading, rollout, integration, testing and training. These development and integration
services can be implemented in a “greenfield,” “brownfield” or hybrid way. Greenfield
is a new implementation project, while brownfield aims to convert the current ERP
system landscape to SAP S/4HANA. Hybrid projects refer to a situation where clients
may have part of their projects as greenfield and others as brownfield.
Management Services
Management services are ongoing services focused on SAP S/4HANA applications that
are provided as part of a multiyear-based agreement and managed against defined
quality metrics. They include:
■ All ongoing activities related to application development, implementation,

integration, testing, maintenance and support (functional and/or technical), and help
desk services delivered within the scope of a multiyear application service
agreement

■ All ongoing activities required to perform application monitoring and operational
service activities as formalized in run books, inclusive job scheduling and execution,
and backup and restoration of the in-scope applications
■ All ongoing activities required for providing, maintaining, securing, scheduling,

backing up, recovering, and supporting inbound and outbound application interfaces
(electronic data extraction and translation and loading), web services and databases
This Magic Quadrant does not cover other SAP S/4HANA services. For example:
■ All activities relating to business process outsourcing
■ All ongoing infrastructure- and hosting-only services
■ Any physical — on-premises and cloud — compute assets’ associated revenue
■ Product-only activities, such as from the resale of SAP S/4HANA licenses or the
service provider’s third-party products
The list of industries included in this research can be found in Note 2.
A more detailed analysis of the service providers’ capabilities, with scoring based on use
cases (AMS or implementation), is available in Critical Capabilities for SAP S/4HANA
Application Services, Worldwide.
About the Vendor Profiles

Each vendor profile includes a summary of key characteristics of that vendor’s practice. It
also reviews the provider’s strengths and cautions regarding S/4HANA services, as well as
emphasizing the areas where the vendors are strong and highlighting the areas that need
improvement.
Gartner has chosen to include information on each vendor’s practice according to the
following areas:
■ Introduction: This outlines the characteristics of deals that Gartner believes are a
good fit for the vendor’s capabilities.
■ Total number of S/4HANA resources.

■ Breakdown of the above full-time equivalent (FTE) by region. This provides clients
the insight into where the system integrator (SI) has dedicated resources able to
deliver local services.
■ Revenue breakout by region. This provides insight into what geographic regions the
SI tends to sell their services.
■ Revenue split between assessment/implementation and ongoing management

services.
■ S/4HANA services revenue growth over the 2020 S/4HANA Magic Quadrant.
■ The top five industries (including ties) where the SI reported projects (based on
project/engagement count).
Magic Quadrant

Figure 1: Magic Quadrant for SAP S/4HANA Application Services, Worldwide
Source: Gartner (May 2021)
Vendor Strengths and Cautions
Accenture
Accenture is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, it is a

good fit for global enterprises seeking complex, digital transformation-centric S/4HANA
engagements.
The following are Gartner estimates for Accenture SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 28,950 (+43%)

■ Revenue growth: 32%
■ Regional revenue split: North America (NA): 34%; Latin America (LATAM): 2%; EMEA:
40%; Asia/Pacific (APAC): 24%
■ Services revenue split: assessment and implementation services: 86%; AMS: 14%
■ Top five industries by number of projects: consumer products; retail; utilities and
energy; oil and gas; industrial machinery and components
Strengths
■ Continued investments toward S/4HANA delivery: Accenture continues to enhance
its capabilities to deliver through investments in S/4HANA talent (both new
resources and upskilling), acquisitions (34) and a refresh of the myConcerto
platform. New functionality has been added to all the phases (assessment,
implementation and management).
■ Wide industry and business process expertise: Accenture brings breadth and depth
of expertise across more than 40 industry groups to client engagements. Accenture
is working with SAP on co-development of next-generation S/4HANA solutions and
is the first partner with SAP Model Company-certified industry solutions (oil and gas,
life sciences). Clients can expect a clear understanding of functional and industry
trends and how “out of the box” S/4 can be leveraged to support these trends in an
accelerated deployment.
■ Global reach and scale: Accenture’s S/4HANA delivery is supported by a global

network of over 100 application delivery centers, innovation centers and labs. Its
broad country resource coverage provides functional expertise with local knowledge
of legal, statutory and geographic requirements for clients with multicountry
deployment requirements.
Cautions
■ Selective engagement with small and midsize businesses (SMBs): One hundred
percent of Accenture’s S/4HANA application services projects were with clients with
more than 2,500 employees, and 83% from clients with more than 10,000 employees
(although down from 90% last year). While Accenture is expanding to address the
upper midmarket, it may not be the best fit for smaller SMB clients.

■ Price-premium provider with limited flexibility in negotiations: Accenture states that
it is not the best service provider for clients seeking commodity services like staff
augmentation with a focus on cost, where there is no opportunity for innovation,
continuous improvement or digital transformation services. Additionally, some
clients commented on limited flexibility on team composition in its negotiations.
■ Resource consistency: Some client feedback has noted concerns about inconsistent
quality of resources allocated to implementation projects. Clients working with
Accenture should insist on named resources for key roles and validate their
experience for the roles they are assigned on the project.
Atos
Atos is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Bezons, France, it is a

good fit for midsize to extra-large European enterprises undertaking an end-to-end,
technology-based business, service and cloud transformation.
The following are Gartner estimates for Atos SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 4,500 (+28%)
■ Regional revenue split: NA: 7%; LATAM: 4%; EMEA: 75%; APAC 13%
■ Services revenue split: assessment and Implementation services: 72%; AMS: 28%
■ Top five industries by number of projects: automotive; consumer products; industrial

machinery and components; energy and utilities; public sector
Strengths
■ End-to-end product offering: Atos has packaged a set of services into its OneCloud
offering. OneCloud covers cloud advisory consulting, application transformation,
prebuilt cloud accelerators, and cloud artificial intelligence and machine learning
(AI/ML) to enable ongoing business process optimization, security and year-over-
year carbon footprint reduction in a single package.

■ Strong European presence and track record: Atos has a well-established EMEA
client base in its selected industries with local, legal and cultural compatibility.
Through successful implementation and management of earlier versions of SAP,
Atos has continued to work with those clients in moving to S/4HANA deployed on
public hyperscalers (Amazon Web Services [AWS], Google Cloud Platform [GCP],
Microsoft Azure) and private clouds.
■ Focused industry expertise and assets: Atos has improved its expertise and assets
to address clients’ SAP S/4HANA adoption in its core industries, which are digital
manufacturing, utilities and energy, and the public sector. A combination of internally
developed capabilities and acquisitions and a set of strategic tool partnerships have
enabled Atos to win large upgrade projects with leading European companies.
Cautions
■ Limited presence in North America and growth markets: Atos’ presence outside
Europe is limited, and clients should be careful to ensure that they are getting
suitably experienced resources allocated to, and committed for, the duration of the
project. Some clients reported inconsistency in the quality of resources across
countries. Atos recognizes the weakness in its coverage of the North American
market and has plans to grow its capability in this region.
■ Heavy assessment focus in 2020: SAP S/4HANA assessment projects accounted for
26% of Atos revenue and 52% of its project count in the period under review.
Potential clients should validate the implementation experience of the resources
allocated to them, especially for greenfield projects.
■ Limited experience with S/4HANA SaaS solutions: Atos has limited experience in
implementing SAP’s SaaS solution. Clients considering this product as part of their
solution should either look to more experienced SIs, or supplement Atos with SAP
MaxAttention or Value Assurance services.
Capgemini
Capgemini is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Paris, it is a good fit for

Europe-based global industrial organizations seeking to transform their business to
become an adaptable enterprise.
The following are Gartner estimates for Capgemini SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 11,450 (+34%)

■ Regional revenue split: NA: 30%; LATAM: 3%; EMEA: 58%; APAC 9%
■ Top five industries by number of projects: consumer products; retail; industrial

machinery and components; utilities and energy; life sciences
Strengths
■ Solid approach to S/4HANA-based transformation: Capgemini’s approach and
supporting assets are based on using SAP S/4HANA as the foundation for a
business digital transformation, with industry-relevant integrated applications
utilizing its Intelligent Industry solutions.
■ Industrial engineering focus: Capgemini is active on industry cloud through its

eleven S/4HANA based industry Path solutions, combining capability from SAP
Model Company with industry sector solution offerings based on knowledge and
experience. Its recent acquisition of Altran further enhances its capabilities in the
industrial, engineering and R&D sectors.
■ Continued investment in growing the practice: Capgemini has continued its

investment in resources to support the business with a 34% increase in S/4HANA
trained resources across all regions. It also continues to invest in certification of its
resources with the highest number of certifications held in the SAP partner
ecosystem.
Cautions
■ Fewer North America-based resources than other leaders: Capgemini has a smaller
percentage of its resources based in North America than its direct competitors.
Clients engaging with Capgemini in North America should validate the skills,
experience and continued availability of key individuals allocated to their project.
■ Focus on large client organizations: Fifty-one percent of Capgemini implementation

projects were for clients with over 10,500 employees and a further 24% for clients
with over 2,500 employees. Smaller clients outside its core focus industries may not
be a good fit for Capgemini in certain markets.

■ Implementation challenges with S/4HANA Cloud extended edition: Some clients
have noted challenges with setting up the S/4HANA Cloud extended edition (STE).
Clients implementing this solution should validate the proposed resources’
experience thoroughly.
Cognizant
Cognizant is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Teaneck, New

Jersey, it is a good fit for midsize to large organizations in its core industries that are
looking for a full-service provider.
The following are Gartner estimates for Cognizant SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 3,650 (+169%).
■ Regional revenue split: NA: 51%; LATAM: 1%; EMEA: 38%; APAC: 10%
■ Top industries by number of projects: life science; consumer products; industrial

machinery and components; engineering, construction and operations; and
healthcare providers, higher education & research; high tech; travel and
transportation; utilities and energy
Strengths
■ Solid approach migrating to S/4HANA: Using the Modernize platform to reimagine
processes and transform experience approach, Cognizant demonstrates a clear
understanding of assisting its clients in selecting which business capability to
renovate or rip and replace. Clients can leverage proprietary tools and accelerators at
any given stage, in addition to SAP-supplied tools, to build their transformation
journey to S/4HANA.
■ Commitment to innovation: Cognizant’s approach includes a continuous

improvement and innovation framework. Recent acquisitions focus on human-
centric design (Idea Couture), DevOps (Contino and SoftVision) and Industry 4.0
(Zenith Technologies). This has resulted in reported reduction in manual conversion
effort, conversion downtime and savings in implementation time. Cognizant also
continues to invest in its Intelligent Enterprise Platform building further on its
innovation framework and ready to use industry solutions

■ Client flexibility: Cognizant’s architecture and technology roadmap supports
Gartner’s view of the composable business where application capabilities can be
added as plug-and-play throughout the life cycle of SAP S/4HANA. Clients can adopt
and innovate at their own pace or stay ahead with the industry-specific capabilities
while minimizing total cost of ownership (TCO) on core S/4HANA support.
Cautions
■ Targeted industry focus: While Cognizant supports the breadth of industries offered
by SAP, its customers are concentrated in a few sectors. Currently, its focus is on the
life sciences and healthcare, consumer products, manufacturing, energy and utilities,
education, and technology sectors.
■ Limited in-country project delivery: Cognizant’s delivery model is based on an

offshore and “nearshore” resource model. While this may be suitable for a large
number of clients, those requiring strong locally based resources for implementation
may find Cognizant’s resource model not well-suited to their project, especially in the
light of travel restrictions due to COVID-19.
■ Not suited for small and midsize business clients: Due to the company’s investment
in substantial tools and technologies as a large SAP service provider, Cognizant
does not compete actively in the SMB space, but more on the large and extra-large
enterprise scale. Less than 10% of Cognizant’s projects are for clients with fewer
than 2,500 employees.
delaware
Delaware is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Antwerp, Belgium, it

is a good fit for midsize to large clients seeking a SAP S/4HANA consulting services firm.
The following are Gartner estimates for delaware SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 1,700 (+127%)
■ Top five industries by number of projects: consumer products; industrial machinery

and components; professional services; aerospace and defense (manufacturing);
retail

Strengths
■ Strong investment in resources: To keep up with the demand and prepare for
growth, delaware has grown its S/4HANA practice by over 126% within the last 12
months through a combination of upskilling, new graduate training and experienced
hires. Delaware has experience in implementations on every SAP platform, including
the SaaS Essentials and Extended editions.
■ Strategic partnerships to support hybrid migration: Delaware’s strategic

partnerships with SNP and Celonis position the company to be attractive to SAP
clients that are looking for a hybrid transition to SAP S/4HANA rather than a
greenfield implementation.
■ Good “Big 5” alternative: Delaware provides strong experience in delivering complete

SAP S/4HANA implementations by establishing long-lasting relationships with
clients based on transparency and a culture of collaboration. Its global delivery hub
network spreads across Europe, APAC and North America, presenting one of the
most complete coverage offerings among its competitors.
Cautions
■ Limited industry focus: Delaware has a limited industry focus, with no coverage of
the banking and insurance industries. Some clients have commented on delivery
challenges in the healthcare industry.
■ Not a low-cost commodity service provider: Delaware does not have a large pool of
offshore resources and is therefore not a good fit for organizations looking for a low-
cost SAP S/4HANA technical migration of customized development.
■ Limited resource coverage outside EMEA: Currently over 70% of delaware’s

resources are based in EMEA. While delaware plans to continue its growth and
expansion into other countries, clients should validate the availability and capability
of its resources outside EMEA. Delaware states that it has very limited delivery
capabilities in central African and Spanish speaking LATAM with no immediate
plans to address these regions.
Deloitte
Deloitte is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in London, it is a good fit for

large, global enterprises with the vision of using S/4HANA as the nucleus for a digitally
enabled organization.
The following are Gartner estimates for Deloitte SAP S/4HANA services:

■ FTE (worldwide): 25,400 (+1%)
■ Revenue growth in SAP S/4HANA services: 5%
■ Top five industries by number of projects: consumer products; high tech; life
sciences; industrial machinery and components; telecommunications
Strengths
■ Invests in enabling SAP-enabled digital enterprise: Deloitte has continued to
develop and acquire assets across the project life cycle (advise, implement, operate)
to enable the “built to evolve” digital enterprise. Deloitte invests in its client success
through a range of outcome-based contracting models. Clients have commented on
its orientation to the broader business transformation objectives versus simply
deploying technology.
■ Broad and deep industry experience: Deloitte’s has revamped its Industry Print
models combining industry insight merged with SAP platform capabilities. These
models provide over 60 industry-specific and cross-industry applications and SAP
core extensions based on what Deloitte considers leading practices. Deloitte has
also launched specific industry cloud solutions in the life sciences, consumer,
automotive and retail sectors.
■ Size and scale of S/4HANA practice: Deloitte reported the highest S/4HANA revenue
of all the SIs in this Magic Quadrant, supported by a globally well-distributed
workforce, 26 delivery centers and 55 innovation/digital studios.
Cautions
■ Not a commodity service provider: Deloitte does not focus its offerings and does not
bid on opportunities such as pure-play infrastructure upgrades, non-collaborative
engagements or subcontract/staff augmentation. It is therefore not a good fit for
cost-conscious clients looking for a technology implementation.
■ North American-centric business: Deloitte reported that 61% of its S/4HANA revenue
was from North America-based clients. Clients engaging with Deloitte should
confirm whether it is a good fit for the nature, size and geography of their project.

■ Slow growth this period: Deloitte’s revenue growth and FTE growth for the 12
months under consideration were lower than its peers. When demand for services
increases as pandemic-delayed projects (re)start, clients should validate that
resources proposed for their engagements have appropriate practical project
experience.
DXC Technology
DXC Technology (DXC) is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in

Tysons, Virginia, it is a good fit for large global enterprises with complex environments
looking to migrate or operate services across the SAP stack.
The following are Gartner estimates for DXC Technology SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 5,000 (+102%)
■ Revenue growth: +67%

and components; public sector; telecommunications; retail
Strengths
■ Intelligent Migration framework to minimize upgrade disruption: Together with
partners (smartShift, Datavard, Syniti, SNP and IBIS), DXC has developed a process
to automate upgrades with less risk and client disruption. It includes automated
code remediation and intelligent data migration. Forty-five percent of DXC projects
were brownfield migrations, which is twice the average across all other vendors in
this report.
■ Industrialized SAP support: Application management services account for

approximately 40% of DXC’s revenue and number of projects. DXC continues to
apply intelligent automation to improve its offering toward ongoing S/4HANA
operation, and its platform provides modular and automated services to drive
efficiencies.
■ Global presence: DXC S/4HANA resources are globally distributed, covering 29 of the
31 countries tracked in this Magic Quadrant. The S/4HANA practice operates as a
global integrated service line out of 39 integrated delivery centers.

Cautions
■ Limited coverage of the SMB market: DXC indicated that 87% of its S/4HANA
application services revenue came from clients with more than 2,500 employees. It
may therefore not be the best fit for smaller SMB clients. The majority of DXC’s small
to midsize customer engagements were in the Latin America and Asia/Pacific
regions.
■ Developing S/4HANA SaaS solution experience: DXC reported a lower than average
percentage of projects involving the SAP S/4HANA SaaS products (Extended and
Essentials editions) . Clients considering either of these platforms may want to
consider alternate partners, or include SAP services and thoroughly vet DXC’s
capabilities. DXC is a member of the pilot program for RISE with SAP and expects to
gain momentum in the space.
■ Limited brand recognition: Emerging from a recent merger, DXC reports lower than
average brand recognition in the SAP S/4HANA application services market. It
continues to invest in its marketing to improve overall recognition and consideration
of DXC as a viable SAP system integrator. This is being driven by new leadership at
the highest levels of the organization.
EY
EY is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in London, it is a good fit for large,

global, regulated industry enterprises engaged in transformation-centric S/4HANA
engagements.
The following are Gartner estimates for EY SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 11,550 (+15%)
■ Top five industries by number of projects: consumer products; high tech; life
sciences; oil and gas; industrial machinery and components
Strengths

■ Connecting across all service lines: EY is able to bring together consulting,
assurance, strategy and transactions, and tax services (as relevant) to any client
engagement. EY’s Agile Tax asset enables it to design and build S/4HANA solutions
that accommodate and optimize organizational tax and regulatory requirements,
driving additional client value.
■ Implementation work at scale: EY provides large, innovative and transformative

S/4HANA engagements by bringing together its three drivers of value: humans at the
center, technology at speed and innovation at scale. Large organizations looking for
leading practices or interested in exploring new industry-specific business models
would find alignment with EY’s “trusted partnership” approach.
■ Competent and knowledgeable: Gartner client experience indicates that EY

demonstrates significant breadth and depth of S/4HANA knowledge. EY is seen as
willing to explore unique approaches to align with business requirements and
effectively challenges clients that may be adopting suboptimal solutions.
Cautions
■ Not a commodity service provider: EY does not focus on provision of commodity-
based SAP S/4HANA services. Clients seeking technical upgrades only, or project
remediation activities that may not drive incremental value or those with high-
volume ABAP development demand will not align well with typical EY project
attributes.
■ Prefers mature partnerships: Because EY brings high value, innovation and

transformation delivery capability to its clients, it prefers to work in a mutually
beneficial partnership approach. Clients looking for low-cost, competitive price
bidding will not find EY a suitable player.
■ Not ideal for small clients: Close to 75% of EY’s clients are organizations of more
than 2,500 employees, and about 30% of its clients have an employee base of
10,000. Smaller organizations seeking noncustomized services or that are outside
EY’s core industries would be better served exploring other providers.
Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Tokyo, it is a good fit

for large and midsize Japan-oriented manufacturing companies looking to leverage its
industry solutions and full life cycle capabilities.
The following are Gartner estimates for Fujitsu SAP S/4HANA services:

■ FTE (worldwide): 1,750 (+17%)
■ Top five industries by number of projects: industrial machinery and components;

consumer products; engineering, construction and operations; automotive;
chemicals; life sciences
Strengths
■ Manufacturing heritage: Fujitsu leverages its parent company DNA as a
manufacturer of heavy industry and technology products to provide clients with
optimized solutions for smart manufacturing and field services. It has developed
supplemental solutions to address areas where SAP is not strong, such as
manufacturing execution systems implementation and integration in discrete
manufacturing.
■ Regional capabilities in major manufacturing countries: Fujitsu’s resource locations

are focused on major manufacturing countries such as Japan, the U.S., Germany
and India. Over the past year, Fujitsu has aligned its Global Delivery Center and team
to provide global SAP offerings and strengthen its regional capabilities.
■ Positive client relationship with existing customers: Client relationship is

paramount to Fujitsu. Existing clients consistently praise Fujitsu and its consultants
for their positive client orientation, execution ability, flexibility and technical
competence.
Cautions
■ Limited S/4HANA application management: Fujitsu generates the majority of its
revenue through S/4HANA implementation services and is still developing its SAP
S/4HANA AMS offering. Buyers should vet proposed AMS offerings for the
appropriate experience in S/4HANA solutions.
■ Unbalanced regional revenue split: While building its capabilities and experience
through an increasing number of clients and projects outside Japan, Fujitsu’s SAP
S/4HANA revenue is still biased toward the Japanese market. Buyers should vet
proposed Fujitsu delivery resources for the appropriate experience for an S/4HANA
solution in other regions.

■ Narrow industry focus: As Fujitsu’s strength and heritage are in discrete
manufacturing, clients from other industries should perform due diligence on its
capabilities when considering Fujitsu. The company also states that it is not a good
fit for clients solely focused on low-cost providers.
HCL Technologies
HCL Technologies (HCL) is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in

Noida, India, it is a good fit for large to extra-large organizations seeking a predictable
price and time frame for S/4HANA platform upgrades.
The following are Gartner estimates for HCL Technologies SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 1,800 (+10%)
■ Top five industries by number of projects: aerospace and defense (manufacturing);

life sciences; utilities and energy; consumer products; travel and transportation
Strengths
■ SAP conversion factory: Over 50% of HCL’s projects underway and completed are
brownfield conversions. HCL has developed a highly automated platform based on a
combination of SAP and proprietary tools to enable “T-shirt-sized” (small, medium,
large) fixed duration and price conversions as a forerunner to a digital
transformation.
■ Large integrated service deals: Over the past year, HCL has won several large
integrated service deals at global clients with SAP services at the core of the work
portfolio. Clients have consistently shared HCL’s “easy to do business with”
partnership mindset, praising its flexibility, pricing approach and operational
capabilities.
■ Growth in the Australia/New Zealand market: HCL recently acquired DWS, an

Australian IT, business and management consultancy, as the nucleus for
acceleration of S/4HANA services growth in the region.

Cautions
■ Limited business consulting and OCM capabilities: HCL recognizes its challenges in
these areas and continues to strengthen its capabilities especially outside of its core
industries and geographies. In many of these situations, it partners with third-party
consulting companies. Clients looking for a single one-stop vendor should carefully
evaluate HCL’s capabilities.
■ Resource availability: Some clients have shared concerns about resource

availability, bench strength and turnover. HCL’s S/4HANA resource pool is in the
lower quartile of this Magic Quadrant. Clients should validate the quantity and
experience of the resources proposed for their projects, especially in certain regions
such as LATAM, Eastern Europe, China and Japan.
■ Industry experience: Although HCL reported projects in 20 of the 27 tracked

industries, the average number of projects by industry are below the peer group
average. This suggests that while HCL delivers projects across many industries,
industry experience may not be a key decision criteria. This notion is further borne
out by 50% of projects being technical upgrades. Buyers should assess HCL’s
capability in delivering industry expertise outside its core industries.
IBM
IBM is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Armonk, New York, it is a good
fit for global enterprises focused on outcome-based business transformation programs
based on S/4HANA and hybrid conversions.
The following are Gartner estimates for IBM SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 21,000 (+14%)

and components; high tech; automotive; retail
Strengths

■ Comprehensive end to end offering: IBM’s service offerings cover the full life cycle
of S/4HANA with expertise, tools and accelerators for assessment, implementation
and management. IBM has the highest percentage of hybrid projects completed and
in progress among the vendors in this research.
■ Industry, process and technology expertise: IBM has 13 preconfigured industry-

specific S/4HANA solutions, together with industry best practices, testing, training,
security and analytics accelerators. IBM’s acquisition of TruQua, announced in
November 2020, further deepens its capability in the SAP Central Finance, Planning
and Analytics areas.
■ Industrialized, global delivery: IBM has a wide global presence with 40 global
innovation and delivery centers and two service integration hubs underpinned by a
single globally consistent methodology to enable consistent delivery. IBM Global
Finance enables IBM to offer innovative outcome-oriented contracting models.
Cautions
■ Not fit for commodity service engagements: IBM states that it is focused on clients
making the business transformation to the Cognitive Enterprise and will give these
projects priority over staff augmentation, IT-driven or other commodity-based
engagements.
■ Resource quality inconsistency: Some clients have shared concerns with the skills
and long-term assignment of resources on projects. Clients who engage with IBM
should vet the proposed resources.
■ Fewer SAP SaaS implementations: IBM has fewer SAP S/4HANA SaaS (Extended
and Essentials editions) engagements than most in the Magic Quadrant competitor
group. Clients planning to implement either of the SaaS versions of S/4HANA should
validate IBM’s proposed resource capabilities.
Infosys
Infosys is a Challenger in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Bengaluru, India, it is a

good fit for large organizations seeking a technology-based platform implementation in
its core industries and leveraging its full life cycle accelerators.
The following are Gartner estimates for Infosys SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 13,050 (+30%)

■ Top five industries by number of projects: consumer products; automotive; life

sciences; retail; utilities and energy
Strengths
■ Experience on all variants of S/4HANA: Infosys has solid and balanced
implementation experience across all the SAP S/4HANA products and engagement
types: Core S/4HANA/SaaS Essential edition/SaaS Extended edition, and greenfield,
brownfield or hybrid upgrades. This broad range of implementation capabilities has
resulted in above-average revenue growth over the past year.
■ Strong impact assessment for S/4HANA transition: Assisting clients in developing

a strong business case is considered as essential for IT to convince its business
leaders to agree to adopt S/4HANA within the next two to three years. Infosys
applies its preconfigured industry templates and solutions, such as Infosys Catalyst,
into the studies, rather than the generic SAP tools that many others use.
■ Embedded OCM capabilities: Infosys has embedded its OCM practice with a
functional business team instead of keeping the focus at the project management
office level. This approach enables the ability to promote business process
reimagination and drive better insight into how to educate end users to adopt new
ways of working more effectively.
Cautions
■ Resource onboarding and capability: Some clients have shared concerns with
resource onboarding delays and skill consistency. Clients should carefully assess
the competencies and availability of proposed resources.
■ Evolving SMB operating model: While Infosys’ focus to date has been on large and
extra-large organizations, they are developing an operating model specifically geared
to the SMB segment. Clients in this segment should validate the proposed approach
and maturity of the operating model.
■ On-site support limited for Africa and the Middle East: Infosys indicated that while
it has a global remote support team present, on-site support for clients in Africa and
the Middle East is currently limited.

LTI
LTI is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Mumbai, India, it is a good
fit for midsize to large companies in asset-intensive industries.
The following are Gartner estimates for LTI SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 2,200 (+50%)
■ Top industries by number of projects: engineering, construction and operations;

consumer products; high tech; industrial machinery and components; life sciences;
media
Strengths
■ Asset-intensive industry acumen: Gartner client experience indicates that LTI’s
knowledge in the energy and utilities, manufacturing, and construction industries is
well-regarded, and S/4HANA engagements have been well-received. Clients that have
worked with LTI note that it is flexible, adaptable and a reliable partner.
■ Reinvested to build capability: LTI has seen an increase in annual revenue and has
reinvested $20 million in increased headcount across industry cloud and platform
modernization services, including focused efforts to drive continued value for clients
in the semiconductor and life science industries.
■ Talent management: LTI actively instills a continuous learning mindset within its
workforce. Ongoing focus on talent development initiatives — including LTI’s own
Cloud Infrastructure Academy and partnerships with startups — contribute to
development of resources well-positioned to deliver value to clients.
Cautions
■ Not a good fit for small clients: Over 80% of LTI’s clients have between 2,500 and
10,000 employees, and a further 13% are even larger. Revenue per engagement is
also relatively high. LTI focuses on large core industry clients, and potential clients
falling outside these parameters may not find LTI a good fit.

■ Smaller S/4HANA headcount: With a S/4HANA headcount of 2,194 FTE, LTI is one
of the smaller providers among the competitors in this research. Organizations
looking to scale support teams significantly in the short term may face potential
bandwidth challenges. Client experience indicates some challenges with
communication between time zones and locations.
■ Limited engagement volume: LTI has the lowest total number of engagements
among all providers in this Magic Quadrant. Clients within industries identified as
limited focus areas by LTI (banking and financial services, insurance, and travel and
transportation) should exercise caution.
NTT DATA
NTT DATA is a Challenger in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Tokyo, it is a good fit

for midsize clients looking for a technology-oriented service provider with good global
resource coverage.
The following are Gartner estimates for NTT DATA SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 9,400 (+22%)

professional services; consumer products; automotive; chemicals
Strengths
■ Small to midsize business services: About 30% of NTT DATA’s assessment and
implementation work is delivered to clients with fewer than 1,000 employees.
Similarly, relative to other providers, a large percentage of NTT DATA’s management
projects are delivered to clients of this size.
■ Strong client relationships and delivery: Gartner client experience indicates NTT
DATA engages with clients to understand their specific needs, leveraging strong
technical acumen and a proactive approach to drive customer success. NTT DATA
receives praise for demonstrating a “client first” mindset, coupled with improved
delivery capability.

■ Brownfield migrations: Clients looking for efficiency in migration from SAP ECC to
S/4HANA should note NTT DATA’s SAP Qualified partner-package solution. Named
ready2run (R2R), this conversion service is underpinned by a conversion factory
approach for schedule and budget adherence.
Cautions
■ Maturing organizational change management capability: Clients considering NTT
DATA should be aware that its OCM practice is still maturing and not always
included in SAP S/4HANA implementation projects. NTT DATA is investing in
building out its OCM capability, however clients looking for fully integrated OCM
provider capabilities today should either source these skills in-house or consider
looking elsewhere for supplemental capabilities.
■ Less suitable for the mining/oil and gas industry: While NTT DATA has some past
experience in providing SAP services to clients in the mining and oil and gas
industries, this area saw limited services in 2020. Ongoing investments by NTT
DATA in its Intelligent Business Suite are not focused on clients in these domains.
■ Evolving transformation-as-a-service offering: NTT DATA launched a subscription-

based pricing model in mid-2020, called Digital Transformation as a Service
(DTaaS), with over 100 packages of consulting services plus hosting and AMS
choices. Clients wanting to mix and match their own bundle of services at various
price points should be aware that this is a new and evolving offering.
PwC
PwC is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in London, it is a good fit for

global enterprises looking to implement S/4HANA as part of a business transformation
project.
The following are Gartner estimates for PwC SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 11,351 (+99%)
■ Top five industries by number of projects: consumer products; retail; high tech;
automotive; banking

Strengths
■ New global focus for SAP: PwC has restructured its SAP practice to a global
operation, enabling consistent delivery across the full S/4HANA services spectrum. It
has invested in a single standardized SAP methodology with common tools, assets
and Acceleration Centers. Additionally, PwC has expanded its territory footprint to
more than 80 countries to support global client projects and doubled the number of
S/4HANA resources.
■ Combining technology and business service offering: With its industry-led

management consulting and tax heritage, PwC brings a combination of strategy,
business and technology consulting and tax and regulatory expertise to
organizations looking to reimagine their ERP platform, as opposed to upgrading their
current system.
■ Growth in application managed services capabilities: PwC has invested in and

grown its NextGen AMS platform to complement its other S/4HANA services. The
focus is on continuous life cycle services to drive ongoing innovation and business
improvement, which has resulted in PwC doubling its AMS business over the past
year.
Cautions
■ Less suited for pure upgrade projects: PwC’s focus is on multiyear business
transformation projects and does not seek out clients looking to undertake a pure
technology-upgrade-oriented project. It is also not a fit for clients who look to deviate
from SAP standards with plans to highly customize SAP to their unique needs.
■ Not a low-cost provider: PwC does not leverage lower-cost offshore resources as
much as other SIs due to its business-transformation-driven multiyear strategy, and
as such, its costs are frequently reported as higher than its competitors.
■ Technical resource quality: Some clients have shared concerns about the experience
of the resources allocated to their projects, especially on newer versions of the
S/4HANA product. Clients should validate the knowledge and experience of the
proposed resources on the version of SAP being implemented.
Samsung SDS
Samsung SDS is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Seoul, South
Korea, it is a good fit for global Southeast Asia-based clients in the high tech industry.
The following are Gartner estimates for Samsung SDS SAP S/4HANA services:

■ FTE (worldwide): 1,200 (+10%)
■ Top five industries by number of projects: high tech; industrial machinery and
components; chemicals; engineering, construction and operations; public sector
Strengths
■ Smart ERP accelerator: Samsung SDS’s Smart ERP provides ready-made assets
based on best practices for target industries. It covers manufacturing, construction
and heavy industry, chemical, government and defense, retail, and finance. It is
designed to speed implementation through an agile, building-block-based approach.
■ Scalable delivery: Samsung SDS has optimized its S/4HANA service delivery model
based on enterprise size, which ranges from SMB (delivered through Miracom, a
subsidiary) to very large, all with positive client feedback.
■ Investments in expanding coverage: Samsung SDS has expanded its service

offering to include an impact assessment and planning capability to include
evaluation of migration to the cloud and consolidation of SAP environments. It is
partnering with HARMAN, a Samsung Electronics acquisition, to expand its
geographic coverage and address opportunities in North America, Eastern Europe
and the broader APAC region.
Cautions
■ Narrow industry focus and capabilities: Samsung SDS reported implementation
projects in only six of the 27 industries Gartner tracks. Additionally, Samsung SDS
has limited experience with the SAP S/4HANA SaaS products (Essentials and
Extended editions). Buyers should vet the appropriate experience in noncore SAP
S/4HANA industries and products.
■ Small and very regional resource pool: Samsung SDS reported 1,200 resources in
only nine of the 31 countries that Gartner tracks. This is the smallest S/4HANA
practice in this Magic Quadrant. The vast majority of its resources (88%) are in
Korea, with small numbers in other predominantly APAC countries. This limited
resource availability may impact delivery in other markets in a continued post-
COVID-19 travel-restricted world.

■ Evolving S/4HANA application management: Samsung SDS is still developing its
AMS offering and generates most of its revenue through S/4HANA implementation
services. Buyers should vet proposed ongoing support offerings for the appropriate
experience in S/4HANA solutions.
SAP
SAP is a Visionary in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Walldorf, Germany, it should

be considered by companies that want a direct services relationship with the software
vendor, and plan to leverage only the SAP-provided tools.
The following are Gartner estimates for SAP SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 5,700 (+5%)
■ Services revenue split: assessment and implementation services: 50%, AMS: 50%
■ Top five industries by number of projects: professional services; consumer products;

retail; utilities and energy; banking
Strengths
■ Focused on adoption of S/4HANA: SAP provides a range of engagement services
such as directly delivered, standardized services (SAP Value Starter, Value
Assurance, MaxAttention, Active Attention) and full responsibility implementation for
strategic SAP adoption and/or accounts. Clients can use the SAP-supplied tools and
services to supplement their internal or partner teams on any of the standard
migration strategies.
■ Access to deep technical product and industry knowledge: SAP invests in building
the knowledge of its services consultants through direct knowledge transfer from the
development teams in advance of new product releases. The industry and line of
business content previously branded as SAP Model Company has expanded the
breadth and depth of coverage in the last 12 months (SAP now covers 25
industries). Customers valued the direct access to deep technical expertise in
complex implementations and integrations.

■ Co-innovation with customers: SAP’s Co-Innovation Labs provision and deliver co-
innovation services and project environments from 16 locations worldwide that
reflect the regional nuances of localized businesses. This allows SAP to solve
regional unique localized business problems faced by customers, allowing for more
personalized services.
Cautions
■ SAP product adoption focused assessment services: Clients should be aware that
SAP acknowledges that its assessment and planning services are focused on
assisting clients with their adoption of the S/4HANA product and less on the direct
management of implementation or management services.
■ Not all assets are a good fit for migration from a non-SAP environment: Some of
the value that the SAP tools and accelerators deliver is in the analysis of a client’s
existing ECC environment and the move to SAP S/4HANA. Organizations moving
from a non-SAP ERP environment cannot get the full value of all of SAP’s data-
driven insights and services from its tools.
■ High-cost provider: Gartner client feedback indicates that SAP services come at a
premium price, and that the organization demonstrates a lack of flexibility in
negotiations.
TCS
TCS is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Mumbai, India, it is a good fit

for global, multinational enterprises looking to leverage its industry expertise and its
integration capabilities.
The following are Gartner estimates for TCS SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 27,200 (+62%)
■ Top five industries by number of projects: life sciences; high tech; retail; automotive;
consumer products

Strengths
■ Continued investment in resources and assets: New solutions and offerings TCS
Crystallus and TCS ConvertCore were introduced to address gaps in TCS offering
portfolio. Together with continued investment in TCS Enterprise Navigator, its
consulting-led transformation framework, these have resulted in a 92% increase in
revenue over the past 12 months.
■ Strong system conversion approach: TCS ConvertCore is a modular approach for

clients to accelerate their system conversion to S/4HANA based on an outcome-
driven conversion roadmap. Over 50% of TCS’s current and completed projects have
utilized a brownfield or hybrid conversion model, and client feedback on this
approach has been positive.
■ Large global workforce: One hundred percent of TCS’s SAP workforce is now
S/4HANA-trained. TCS has invested in putting its SAP S/4HANA workforce where its
clients are located, with both revenue and revenue growth per region, aligned to its
FTE distribution. Clients were positive in their comments on the commitment to
partnering and success.
Cautions
■ Less focus on SMB market: TCS reported that greater than 71% of its S/4HANA
application services revenue came from clients with more than 2,500 employees.
SMB clients, outside of the core industry focus areas or looking for staff
augmentation type resources, should carefully evaluate whether TCS is a good fit for
their organization.
■ Limited experience with SaaS versions of S/4HANA: TCS has limited experience in
implementing the S/4HANA SaaS products. Clients should validate the capabilities
of TCS and the proposed resources if the S/4HANA SaaS products are being
considered for implementation.
■ Limited public sector experience: TCS has a relatively low number of projects in the
public sector in North America and Europe. This is an acknowledged area for
improvement, but clients in this sector should thoroughly vet TCS’s capabilities if
considering it as a potential services partner.
Tech Mahindra
Tech Mahindra is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Pune, India, it
is a good fit for businesses looking to leverage its core industry expertise.

The following are Gartner estimates for Tech Mahindra SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 2,450 (+33%)
■ Regional revenue split by region: NA: 35%; LATAM: 7%; EMEA: 38%; APAC: 20%

utilities and energy; automotive; consumer products; life sciences
Strengths
■ Strengthened industry and geographic coverage: Tech Mahindra made a number of
acquisitions to drive growth and strengthen its delivery capability in certain
geographies (U.S., Australia and New Zealand). It is also strengthening its focus on
specific industries to address key areas such as customer experience, user
experience, Industry 4.0, digital manufacturing and supply chain.
■ Long-term customer relationships: Tech Mahindra claims that the top 25% of its
customers have had a business relationship with the company for over 10 years, and
is committed to client success. As a result, client satisfaction with Tech Mahindra’s
S/4HANA services is high. Customers have cited excellent client engagement and
responsiveness to address customer specific challenges.
■ Focus on business in growth markets: Tech Mahindra has several identified growth
markets, and 7% of its S/4HANA resources are now based in the Middle East and
Africa to support these. It has won a number of deals in countries in these regions
due to local support and operations.
Cautions
■ May not be a good fit for very large, global clients: Tech Mahindra has a relatively
lower percentage of projects with very large client organizations (more than 10,000
employees). With relatively smaller SAP S/4HANA-trained resources, Tech Mahindra
had some issues during COVID-19 to staff projects due to travel restrictions and the
inability for India-based consultants to travel onshore. Clients should validate the
skills and experience of proposed local resources in North America and EMEA.

■ Limited industry breadth: While Tech Mahindra reported projects in 25 of the 27
industries tracked, the number of projects is low outside of its core focus areas.
Clients outside of Tech Mahindra’s core industries should carefully evaluate its
ability to provide industry-specific thought leadership and differentiation for their
specific use cases. Clients have shared concerns with its consultants’ lack of
experience implementing solutions for their specific industry.
■ Limited OCM capabilities: Tech Mahindra’s approach to OCM focuses on the tactical
outcomes of technology enablement. Clients noted a need for a more
comprehensive change management approach with more focus on strategic
outcomes. Therefore, clients anticipating a high degree of support for change may
find its capabilities fall short of their expectations.
Wipro
Wipro is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Bengaluru, India, it is a

good fit for large enterprises looking for skills in its core industry verticals and employing
an Agile/DevOps implementation approach.
The following are Gartner estimates for Wipro SAP S/4HANA services:
■ FTE (worldwide): 9,150 (+48%)
■ Services revenue split: assessment and implementation services: 80%, AMS: 20%

consumer products; high tech; utilities and energy; automotive
Strengths
■ Differentiated offerings: Wipro has focused on building differentiated offerings
across the full life cycle of delivery. It unites its implementation, transformation and
application managed services capabilities in an agile delivery model called APEX
2.0. This, coupled with strong investments in bolstering its workforce through
acquisition and upskilling, has enabled Wipro to win large SAP S/4HANA
transformation projects.

■ Focus on maintainability of solutions: A focus on S/4HANA standardization and
simplification underpins Wipro’s intent to design solutions for ease of
maintainability. Utilities, retail, consumer goods, fashion, manufacturing, automotive,
real estate, mining and technology clients seeking large transformative work
(particularly cloud-based) are a good fit.
■ Establishing strong client partnerships: Client feedback indicates that Wipro

partners well with organizations. Wipro offers commercial flexibility and has
demonstrated an appetite to assume commercial risks based on contract outcomes.
Clients note Wipro’s project ownership, commitment and ability to drive solutions
from concept to delivery.
Cautions
■ Less suitable for limited scope engagements: Wipro engages with clients that
benefit from its industry insights and are capable of working within or adapting to
the DevOps methodology inherent in Wipro’s delivery model. While Wipro does
selectively deliver limited scope engagements, clients with narrower project scope
may wish to confirm Wipro’s suitability and/or consider other service providers.
■ Not a fit for smaller clients outside certain markets: Wipro predominantly seeks
opportunities to work with large enterprise clients. Clients of modest scope, scale
and operational maturity outside of its specifically targeted SMB markets (Germany,
the Middle East and India) may not be able to fully avail themselves of Wipro’s
preconfigured solutions.
■ Establish governance and open communications: Some clients shared concerns

that Wipro consultants are less vocal about risks and need to establish governance
at appropriate levels of seniority to drive effective support.
Vendors Added and Dropped

We review and adjust our inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants as markets change. As a
result of these adjustments, the mix of vendors in any Magic Quadrant may change over
time. A vendor's appearance in a Magic Quadrant one year and not the next does not
necessarily indicate that we have changed our opinion of that vendor. It may be a
reflection of a change in the market and, therefore, changed evaluation criteria, or of a
change of focus by that vendor.
Added
No companies were added to this year’s research.

Dropped
BearingPoint was dropped from this Magic Quadrant due to not meeting the inclusion
criteria.
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria

The criteria for inclusion of service providers for the Magic Quadrant are based on a
combination of quantitative and qualitative measures.
Quantitative Criteria
To qualify for inclusion in this Magic Quadrant, providers must have:
■ A minimum of $100 million revenue in the 12 months between 1 October 2019 and
30 September 2020, derived from application services for assessing, implementing
and/or managing SAP S/4HANA version 1610 or later and any SAP S/4HANA Cloud
version
■ A minimum of $10 million revenue generated in each of three of the four regions
under consideration for this research, namely:
■ North America (U.S. and Canada)
■ EMEA (U.K., Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Nordics, Middle East and Africa)
■ APAC (Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Japan)
■ LATAM (Central and South America)
■ A minimum of 500 full-time employees dedicated to SAP S/4HANA application

services
Qualitative Criteria
■ Overall market interest in and visibility of the service provider, as determined by
serious consideration for selection from enterprise clients
■ Gartner analysts’ interactions with enterprise buyers, which reveal interest in specific
SAP S/4HANA service providers
■ Broad capability and technical/package expertise in combination with domain and

process knowledge of the SAP S/4HANA application suites

Evaluation Criteria
Ability to Execute
Table 1: Ability to Execute Evaluation Criteria
Evaluation Criteria Weighting
Product or Service High
Overall Viability Medium
Sales Execution/Pricing Low
Market Responsiveness/Record High
Marketing Execution NotRated
Customer Experience High
Operations High
Source: Gartner (June 2021)
Completeness of Vision

Table 2: Completeness of Vision Evaluation Criteria
Market Understanding High
Marketing Strategy Low
Sales Strategy Low
Offering (Product) Strategy High
Business Model NotRated
Vertical/Industry Strategy High
Innovation High
Geographic Strategy Medium
Quadrant Descriptions
Leaders
Leaders are performing well today, gaining traction and mind share in the market; they
have a clear vision of market direction and are actively building competencies to sustain
their leadership position in the market. Leaders have built a considerable S/4HANA track
record and capabilities across multiple industries, geographies, deployment approaches or
modules.
Challengers

Challengers execute well today for the portfolio of work selected, but they have a less-well-
defined view of the market’s direction than Leaders do. Consequently, they may be
tomorrow’s Leaders, or they may not be aggressive and proactive enough in preparing for
the future. Challengers have a considerable S/4HANA track record and capabilities, but
their vision is not strong enough to capitalize on the changing market.
Visionaries
Visionaries recognize and articulate important market trends and directions. However, they
may not be in a position to fully deliver and consistently execute on that vision today.
They may need to improve their service delivery in general or for a particular segment of
the market (such as assessment, implementation or AMS).
Niche Players
Niche Players are strong in particular segments of the market, such as project services
versus AMS, a particular industry, size of client, functional area or geography. Their Ability
to Execute is limited to those areas of strength, and their track record in multiple
industries, geographies or use cases may be limited as well. Many of the providers in this
segment were evaluated highly for customer satisfaction, and many can be considered to
be leading players within their niche markets or industries. Niche Players need to increase
their capabilities across all use cases, geography coverage, number of projects by
industry, innovation and bench strength across the spectrum of services.
Context
This Magic Quadrant addresses the worldwide SAP S/4HANA application service
capabilities of providers that met Gartner’s criteria for inclusion. The positioning of
providers in this Magic Quadrant is based on factors determined by Gartner as being
relevant to this market. This Magic Quadrant is a point-in-time analysis, with all of the
provider profiles reflecting the status as of May 2021. Quantitative data collected was for
a 12-month period ending September 2020.
When considering S/4HANA service partners for a request for information or a request for
proposal, clients are advised not to simply select service providers in the Leaders
quadrant. A provider may appear in a particular quadrant based on Gartner’s extensive
analysis across the full-service life cycle in many industries and other criteria. However, for
any given deal, a client company’s selection criteria will be narrower and more specific.
Consequently, vendors in the Challengers, Visionaries or Niche Players quadrants may
prove to be more appropriate for the engagement.

Use the Magic Quadrant as a tool to help inform your shortlist and evaluation of providers
for your SAP S/4HANA programs. However, because the inclusion criteria in this research
results in the analysis of the largest providers in the SAP S/4HANA application service
market, clients should not disqualify any potential competitor simply because it doesn’t
appear in this Magic Quadrant.
Market Overview
The combined growth in S/4HANA service revenue for the 20 service providers in this
Magic Quadrant for the 12 months ending in September 2020 compared to the preceding
12 months is 27%, with close to $21 billion in total revenue. The percentage growth
decreased from the 41% seen in the 2020 Magic Quadrant. This is due to a combination
of the SAP mainstream maintenance extension, slower-than-expected adoption among
current SAP ERP customers and general business slowdown due to the COVID-19
pandemic.
Despite this growth, Gartner estimates that only 10% of SAP Business Suite’s installed
base is live in at least one site with SAP S/4HANA today. About 74% have yet to purchase
an S/4HANA license. Among the service providers, 77% of their revenue comes from
assessment/implementation services and 23% from managed services.
Cloud adoption is mixed. Service providers reported that nearly every S/4HANA
conversation involves the exploration of infrastructure cloud adoption, with AWS, Google
Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure as the most visible candidates. Note that the
percentage of clients requiring S/4HANA implementation on their own private
infrastructure has decreased sharply, from 37% to 26%, showing that adoption of private
cloud is increasing. On the other side, S/4HANA Cloud (both Extended and Essentials
editions) is still an emerging market, accounting for about 11% of S/4HANA
implementations and live projects, according to Gartner estimates.
Cost of implementation continues to be a challenge for clients as they struggle with

competing budget priorities, a situation exacerbated by the pandemic’s impact in many
industries. Service providers are tackling this issue and differentiating themselves by
investing in tools, accelerators and preconfigured solutions. While SAP has its own
preconfigured solution, dubbed SAP Model Company, many service providers augment the
SAP Model Company through extensions that enhance the value of S/4HANA to specific
industries and processes.

For existing clients, there is an increase in the use of migration tools like CBS, Datavard,
Natuvion and SNP. These tools support migration of data and code between existing ECC
systems and S/4HANA. Gartner estimates that around 10% of clients benefit from the use
of these tools, which SAP categorizes under the umbrella of Selective Data Transition.
The slower S/4HANA license sales (2,200 in 2020 versus 3,300 in 2019) has triggered SAP
to launch a new offering called RISE with SAP, with the aim of incentivizing new and
existing customers to migrate to public or private cloud. This offering will embed in a
single contract software support, infrastructure management and technical managed
services.
Greenfield implementation (new and reimplementation) still continues to be the approach

for more than half of the market. Greenfield implementation makes up an average of 57%
of the SAP S/4HANA engagements (down from last year’s 63%). Existing clients
undertake greenfield implementation when their current systems are fragmented, highly
customized and brittle, and unable to support their digital transformation ambition; or if
their businesses have changed over the years and outgrown their legacy ERP systems. In
addition, many clients implement S/4HANA when they have a corporate event, like
acquisition or divestiture.
For a greenfield approach, clients look for service provider capabilities beyond S/4HANA
skills to process optimization, change management, industry and functional expertise. In
the next few years, Gartner expects brownfield conversion and hybrid implementation
(part greenfield, part brownfield) to flourish as existing clients migrate to S/4HANA ahead
of the end of mainstream support for the current ERP product in 2027.
Gartner Peer Insights data shows that customer satisfaction levels are high among the
vendors in this research, but they do report areas where there is room for improvement.
These areas are organizational change management, use of newer technologies
(including automation) and accuracy of planning.
On the supply side, service providers are continuing to train existing resources, hire
experienced consultants and recruit new graduates for their S/4HANA practice. The 20
service providers in this Magic Quadrant reported a total of 197,100 trained S/4HANA
resources, an increase of 31% from last year. Service providers have to ramp up their
trained resources ahead of demand and not all resources have real project experience.
While it is unrealistic to demand a team comprising only experienced S/4HANA resources,
customers must perform due diligence on the proposed consulting team to ensure they
are getting the right mix of consultant experience vis-à-vis their requirements and price.

Evidence
Evaluation in this Magic Quadrant is informed by:
■ Primary research — Gartner inquiries with user organization clients. Services and
sourcing analysts collectively took more than 400 inquiries with end-user clients on
service providers relating to SAP S/4HANA services over 12 months (March 2020
through February 2021).
■ Primary research — A 60-minute vendor briefing from each participating service

provider addressing capability proof points of each evaluation criterion in the Magic
Quadrant.
■ Primary research — A detailed vendor survey covering revenue, staffing, geographic

capabilities, investments and other relevant information, totaling more than 1,000
data points.
■ Secondary research — Press releases and publicly available information, including

company websites and financial reports.
■ Gartner Peer Insights — Gartner Peer Insights reviews for SAP S/4HANA Application
Services (posted from March 2020 to February 2021).
■ Other Gartner analysts — Peer review of this document by 11 Gartner analysts. Their
views and comments were taken into account. In addition, this document was
presented and defended at the 13 May 2021 Technology and Service Providers and
IT Leaders Services Market Research Community meeting.
Note 1: SAP S/4HANA Resources in Countries or Subregions

SAP S/4HANA Resources in EMEA
In the process of collecting data from the included vendors, Gartner has requested
detailed numbers for SAP S/4HANA service resources in the following EMEA countries or
subregions:
Western Europe:
■ Benelux — Combining Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg
■ France
■ Germany

■ Italy
■ Nordics — Combining Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland
■ Spain
■ United Kingdom
■ Rest of Western Europe — Combining Austria, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Portugal and
Switzerland
Eastern Europe:
■ Poland
■ Romania
■ Rest of Eastern Europe — Combining Algeria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Croatia

(Hrvatska), Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Russia, Serbia,
Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine
Middle East:
■ Middle East — Combining Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Oman, Qatar,
Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, United Arab Emirates and Yemen
■ Africa:
■ South Africa
■ Rest of Africa — Combining Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Egypt, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria
and Tunisia
SAP S/4HANA Resources in North American Countries
detailed numbers for SAP S/4HANA service resources in the following North American
countries:
■ United States
■ Canada

SAP S/4HANA Resources in Latin American Countries
detailed numbers for SAP S/4HANA service resources in the following Latin American
countries:
■ Argentina
■ Brazil
■ Chile
■ Colombia
■ Costa Rica
■ Mexico
■ Rest of Latin America
SAP S/4HANA Resources in APAC Countries
detailed numbers for SAP S/4HANA service resources in the following APAC countries:
■ Australia
■ China
■ India
■ Philippines
■ Singapore
■ Vietnam
■ Rest of APAC
Note 2: Industries
This Magic Quadrant addresses the capabilities of the included vendors in the following
27 industries:

■ Aerospace and defense
■ Agriculture
■ Automotive
■ Banking
■ Chemicals
■ Consumer products
■ Defense and security
■ Engineering, construction and operations
■ Healthcare (providers)
■ High tech
■ Higher education and research
■ Industrial machinery and components
■ Insurance
■ Life sciences
■ Media
■ Mill products
■ Mining
■ Not-for-profit
■ Oil and gas
■ Professional services
■ Public sector
■ Retail
■ Sports and entertainment
■ Telecommunications

■ Travel and transportation
■ Utilities and energy
■ Wholesale distribution
Evaluation Criteria Definitions

Ability to Execute
Product/Service: Core goods and services offered by the vendor for the defined market.
This includes current product/service capabilities, quality, feature sets, skills and so on,
whether offered natively or through OEM agreements/partnerships as defined in the
market definition and detailed in the subcriteria.
Overall Viability: Viability includes an assessment of the overall organization's financial

health, the financial and practical success of the business unit, and the likelihood that the
individual business unit will continue investing in the product, will continue offering the
product and will advance the state of the art within the organization's portfolio of
products.
Sales Execution/Pricing: The vendor's capabilities in all presales activities and the
structure that supports them. This includes deal management, pricing and negotiation,
presales support, and the overall effectiveness of the sales channel.
Market Responsiveness/Record: Ability to respond, change direction, be flexible and

achieve competitive success as opportunities develop, competitors act, customer needs
evolve and market dynamics change. This criterion also considers the vendor's history of
responsiveness.
Marketing Execution: The clarity, quality, creativity and efficacy of programs designed to
deliver the organization's message to influence the market, promote the brand and
business, increase awareness of the products, and establish a positive identification with
the product/brand and organization in the minds of buyers. This "mind share" can be
driven by a combination of publicity, promotional initiatives, thought leadership, word of
mouth and sales activities.

Customer Experience: Relationships, products and services/programs that enable clients
to be successful with the products evaluated. Specifically, this includes the ways
customers receive technical support or account support. This can also include ancillary
tools, customer support programs (and the quality thereof), availability of user groups,
service-level agreements and so on.
Operations: The ability of the organization to meet its goals and commitments. Factors
include the quality of the organizational structure, including skills, experiences, programs,
systems and other vehicles that enable the organization to operate effectively and
efficiently on an ongoing basis.
Completeness of Vision
Market Understanding: Ability of the vendor to understand buyers' wants and needs and
to translate those into products and services. Vendors that show the highest degree of
vision listen to and understand buyers' wants and needs, and can shape or enhance those
with their added vision.
Marketing Strategy: A clear, differentiated set of messages consistently communicated

throughout the organization and externalized through the website, advertising, customer
programs and positioning statements.
Sales Strategy: The strategy for selling products that uses the appropriate network of
direct and indirect sales, marketing, service, and communication affiliates that extend the
scope and depth of market reach, skills, expertise, technologies, services and the customer
base.
Offering (Product) Strategy: The vendor's approach to product development and delivery
that emphasizes differentiation, functionality, methodology and feature sets as they map
to current and future requirements.
Business Model: The soundness and logic of the vendor's underlying business
proposition.
Vertical/Industry Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings
to meet the specific needs of individual market segments, including vertical markets.
Innovation: Direct, related, complementary and synergistic layouts of resources, expertise

or capital for investment, consolidation, defensive or pre-emptive purposes.

Geographic Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to
meet the specific needs of geographies outside the "home" or native geography, either
directly or through partners, channels and subsidiaries as appropriate for that geography
and market.
Document Revision History

Magic Quadrant for SAP S/4HANA Application Services, Worldwide - 30 April 2020
Magic Quadrant for SAP S/4HANA Application Services, Worldwide - 20 May 2019
Recommended by the Authors

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Strategic Sourcing Guide for SAP S/4HANA
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Top 6 Questions Answered About Transitioning to S/4HANA
© 2021 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner is a registered trademark of
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without Gartner's prior written permission. It consists of the opinions of Gartner's research
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this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Gartner disclaims all warranties
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Table 1: Ability to Execute Evaluation Criteria
Product or Service High
Overall Viability Medium
Sales Execution/Pricing Low
Market Responsiveness/Record High
Marketing Execution NotRated
Customer Experience High
Operations High
Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 1A of 2A

Table 2: Completeness of Vision Evaluation Criteria
Market Understanding High
Marketing Strategy Low
Sales Strategy Low
Offering (Product) Strategy High
Business Model NotRated
Vertical/Industry Strategy High
Innovation High
Geographic Strategy Medium
Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 2A of 2A

Magic Quadrant For S/4 HANA

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Magic Quadrant For S/4 HANA

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Magic Quadrant for SAP S/4HANA Application

Initiatives: IT Services and Solutions; ERP

This Magic Quadrant evaluates 20 service providers’ capabilities to

This Magic Quadrant is related to other research:

View All Magic Quadrants and Critical Capabilities

■ Roadmap and business case development

Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 1 of 45

■ Consulting services, which are advisory services designed to help companies

■ Development and integration services, which include application development,

■ All ongoing activities related to application development, implementation,

Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 2 of 45

■ All ongoing activities required for providing, maintaining, securing, scheduling,

■ All activities relating to business process outsourcing

■ All ongoing infrastructure- and hosting-only services

■ Any physical — on-premises and cloud — compute assets’ associated revenue

The list of industries included in this research can be found in Note 2.

About the Vendor Profiles

■ Total number of S/4HANA resources.

Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 3 of 45

■ Revenue split between assessment/implementation and ongoing management

Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 4 of 45

Source: Gartner (May 2021)

Vendor Strengths and Cautions

Accenture is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, it is a

■ FTE (worldwide): 28,950 (+43%)

Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 5 of 45

■ Global reach and scale: Accenture’s S/4HANA delivery is supported by a global

Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 6 of 45

Atos is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Bezons, France, it is a

■ FTE (worldwide): 4,500 (+28%)

■ Revenue growth: 25%

■ Top ﬁve industries by number of projects: automotive; consumer products; industrial

Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 7 of 45

Capgemini is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Paris, it is a good ﬁt for

■ FTE (worldwide): 11,450 (+34%)

Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 8 of 45

■ Top ﬁve industries by number of projects: consumer products; retail; industrial

■ Industrial engineering focus: Capgemini is active on industry cloud through its

■ Continued investment in growing the practice: Capgemini has continued its

■ Focus on large client organizations: Fifty-one percent of Capgemini implementation

Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 9 of 45

Cognizant is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Teaneck, New

■ FTE (worldwide): 3,650 (+169%).

■ Revenue growth: 40%

■ Top industries by number of projects: life science; consumer products; industrial

■ Commitment to innovation: Cognizant’s approach includes a continuous

Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 10 of 45

■ Limited in-country project delivery: Cognizant’s delivery model is based on an

Delaware is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in Antwerp, Belgium, it

■ FTE (worldwide): 1,700 (+127%)

■ Revenue growth: 99%

■ Top ﬁve industries by number of projects: consumer products; industrial machinery

Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 11 of 45

■ Strategic partnerships to support hybrid migration: Delaware’s strategic

■ Good “Big 5” alternative: Delaware provides strong experience in delivering complete

■ Limited resource coverage outside EMEA: Currently over 70% of delaware’s

Deloitte is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in London, it is a good ﬁt for

Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 12 of 45

■ Revenue growth in SAP S/4HANA services: 5%

Gartner, Inc. | G00733917 Page 13 of 45

DXC Technology (DXC) is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Headquartered in

■ FTE (worldwide): 5,000 (+102%)

■ Revenue growth: +67%