As 59% of companies now run on SAP S/4HANA—a 13-point jump in a single year—the race to migrate from legacy systems before support ends in 2027 is accelerating. Yet many projects face delays and budget overruns, with data quality emerging as a critical underestimated challenge. A 2026 report by Precisely and ASUG highlights that demand for experienced SAP S/4HANA specialists could outpace supply threefold by 2027.
German SAP consultant Baris Ozcan, with 18 years of experience, works at the heart of this invisible layer of digital transformation. He resolves data errors that can disrupt risk models, reporting, and operations within hours, rebuilding and stabilizing SAP systems that large enterprises depend on.
When Data Models Become Mission-Critical Infrastructure
In large companies, SAP BW systems process everything from financial reporting to logistics and risk calculations. When these systems fail, business operations can slow within hours. At a leading European automotive financial services company in Braunschweig, Ozcan oversees systems running around 2,000 automated process chains and 300 daily data loads connected to leasing, credit scoring, and regulatory reporting. His role is to find broken chains, restore data flow, and keep reporting stable under constant operational load.
At Wieland Electric, he managed the SAP BW environment during a transition to S/4HANA—a project that went beyond technical migration to reassess data movement, reporting functions, and analytics evolution. “A migration to S/4HANA is not just about moving data,” Ozcan explains. “It is an opportunity to rethink how reporting, analytics, and business processes should work together. The real challenge is ensuring existing operations continue while preparing for the next stage.”
Why Old Systems Are Difficult to Replace
Many companies in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland still rely on older SAP systems that are hard to modernize. The shortage of specialists with hands-on experience in complex transitions compounds the problem. On a project for Messe Berlin, Ozcan helped transform event reporting and CRM data into a structured analytics setup, enabling real-time tracking of visitors, sales, and service operations—replacing previously static data.
“A similar transformation occurred for KJO, an Aramco-related oil and gas operation, where I developed a reporting system linking supply chain data to the SAP analytical platform, switching from Excel to a centralized system with real-time KPIs,” Ozcan notes.
The Invisible Layer of Digital Transformation
While digital transformation is often associated with AI and user services, the foundational layer—data infrastructure—remains hidden but essential. Ozcan’s work across automotive, energy, logistics, and public sectors ensures data is structured, accurate, and decision-ready. His expertise is recognized through peer review and architectural evaluations. In 2026, he won the Cases & Faces award as “Innovator of the Year” in Digital Transformation.
At KJO, he also created training and documentation to explain reporting setups and data flows, sharing knowledge that helps organizations build resilient systems. As companies modernize, specialists like Ozcan remain the unseen foundation of the digital economy, ensuring data reliability, consistency, and value.
