Sometimes the enterprise software industry reveals its true nature through its legal disputes. The recent lawsuit between Celonis and SAP offers a particularly illuminating window into how the ERP ecosystem actually functions - not as the open, customer-centric marketplace it claims to be, but as a series of walled gardens designed to extract maximum value from captive customers.
The Lawsuit: A Quick Summary
On March 13, 2025, process mining specialist Celonis filed a 61-page antitrust complaint against SAP in San Francisco District Court. The allegations are straightforward: SAP is leveraging its dominant ERP position to crush competition in the process mining space by making it prohibitively expensive for customers to use third-party tools like Celonis.
The tactical playbook Celonis alleges is familiar to anyone who has spent time in enterprise software:
- Charge exorbitant fees for data access to third-party tools
- Offer your own competing product (Signavio) at artificially low prices or for free
- Spread FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) about competitors’ offerings
- Rely on customer lock-in to prevent meaningful exodus
If this sounds familiar, it should. It’s the standard operating procedure for maintaining power in enterprise software markets.
The “Indirect Access” Shell Game
At the heart of this dispute is the concept of “indirect access” - a brilliant invention of the ERP industry that deserves a moment of appreciation for its sheer audacity.
Let’s be clear about what “indirect access” actually means: You, the customer, have already paid millions for an ERP system. You own your company’s data that resides in that system. But if you want to access your own data through any non-SAP tool, you must pay SAP again for the privilege.
It’s as if you bought a house, filled it with your possessions, and then the builder charged you an additional fee every time you wanted to bring a friend over who didn’t use their preferred moving company.
The genius of this approach is that it creates a toll booth between customers and their own data. SAP isn’t selling additional functionality - they’re selling permission to use what you already own.
This isn’t unique to SAP. Oracle, Microsoft, and other enterprise vendors have similar mechanisms. It’s part of the larger strategy to ensure that once a customer commits to a platform, the cost of leaving becomes prohibitively high.
The Real Issue: Deliberate Complexity as Business Model
What the Celonis lawsuit reveals isn’t just anti-competitive behavior by SAP - it’s the fundamental business model of enterprise software itself. The strategy is simple:
- Create systems of overwhelming complexity
- Build walls around your data and processes
- Charge rent for access to what customers already own
- Use that dominant position to expand into adjacent markets
Process mining tools like Celonis represent an existential threat to this model precisely because they shine a light on the inefficiencies and complexities that ERP vendors profit from maintaining.
After all, if customers could easily see how complex their SAP processes have become, and how much waste exists within them, they might start asking uncomfortable questions about why they’re spending millions on maintenance fees for systems that require additional millions in consulting and services to operate effectively.
The AI Opportunity: Breaking the Cycle
What makes this moment particularly interesting is that we’re on the cusp of a fundamental shift in enterprise software. Large language models and AI assistants don’t just offer incremental improvements - they represent a complete rethinking of how business processes should function.
The current ERP paradigm was built around the limitations of previous generations of technology - the need for rigid data structures, predefined workflows, and human-operated interfaces. AI removes those constraints.
An AI-first finance and operations platform doesn’t need to trap customers in complexity because its value comes from simplification and intelligence, not lock-in and consulting fees. It can adapt to how businesses actually work, rather than forcing businesses to conform to the software’s limitations.
This is why the timing of the Celonis lawsuit is so telling. As AI threatens to reshape the enterprise software landscape, incumbent vendors are doubling down on their walled gardens, trying to extract maximum value before the paradigm shifts completely.
What This Means For Enterprise Software Buyers
If you’re currently evaluating or using enterprise software, the Celonis-SAP lawsuit offers several important lessons:
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Beware the “platform play”: When vendors talk about their “platform,” they’re often describing a mechanism for lock-in, not integration.
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Read the fine print on data access: Understand exactly what rights you have to access your own data through third-party tools before signing.
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Consider the full ecosystem costs: The sticker price of software is often just the beginning of a much larger total cost of ownership.
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Look for true SaaS alternatives: Modern, cloud-native solutions typically offer far more generous data access and API capabilities than legacy systems.
The enterprise software market is changing rapidly. The vendors who will thrive in the AI era will be those who create value through intelligence and simplicity, not those who extract it through complexity and lock-in.
Interested in how AI is transforming finance and operations? Contact us at [email protected].