Process mining pioneer Celonis has filed suit in California against SAP, claiming the ERP giant has violated anticompetition laws by not allowing third-party vendors to access SAP data.
Celonis and SAP are actually long-standing partners. SAP’s ERP Central Component and S/4HANA were among the first systems that Celonis focused on when offering process mining services to businesses. In the suit, the German company said many of its customers have made its software part of their SAP projects.
In 2021, however, SAP acquired Signavio, a Celonis competitor, and integrated the technology into its platform. Celonis alleges SAP is using control over its ERP ecosystem to prevent other process mining vendors and third parties from accessing data from the SAP ecosystem. SAP has “embarked upon an aggressive campaign to exclude third-party application and technology providers from its ecosystem,” according to the lawsuit.
Celonis asked a judge to award unspecified monetary damages and to issue an order halting SAP’s allegedly anticompetitive conduct.