Key Milestones of the Resume
From 2006 to 2012, Prof. Alexander Zeier led Professor Hasso Plattner’s research project “HANA” at the Hasso Plattner Institute. This work resulted in the invention of a new in-memory data architecture that later became SAP HANA and laid the technological foundation for SAP S/4HANA, released by SAP in 2015. As a co-inventor of the HANA technology, he co-authored the book In-Memory Data Management together with Professor Hasso Plattner and is a co-inventor on multiple patents related to HANA and its applications.
From 2012 to 2023, Prof. Zeier served as Global Managing Director and Global CTO of the SAP Business Group at Accenture. In this role, he advised senior executives on large-scale enterprise system modernization programs, including SAP S/4HANA and cloud transformation initiatives. He founded and directed the Accenture Innovation Center for SAP HANA and the Global HANA Center of Excellence. During this period, his teams were involved in more than 150 SAP S/4HANA transformation programs, developed over 100 S/4HANA roadmaps, and supported more than 500 SAP HANA projects worldwide.
Building directly on the architectural principles of SAP HANA, he co-developed a patented enterprise cloud architecture (“Digital Cloud Coupling”) that extends the HANA architecture into hybrid and cloud environments. This architecture enables the parallel adoption of cloud-based and AI-driven services alongside stepwise S/4HANA transformations, reducing transformation timelines by up to 50%.
Since 2013, Prof. Zeier has been an Honorary Professor at the Faculty of Computer Science of Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, focusing on enterprise systems, cloud architectures, and artificial intelligence.
Since 2020, he has been a Co-Founder and Board Member of the Cloud Academy and the Open Enterprise Cloud Initiative, a joint initiative of Google Cloud, Accenture, and Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, dedicated to research, education, and knowledge transfer in cloud-based enterprise systems.
Since 2024, Prof. Zeier has been Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of Nova Intelligence, a research-driven agentic AI platform focused on the analysis, modernization, and long-term governance of SAP custom code. This work builds on his combined academic and industrial experience and applies agentic AI architectures to enable clean-core compliant SAP systems, accelerated S/4HANA modernization, and sustainable enterprise system evolution.
Across more than three decades of research and industrial innovation, Prof. Zeier’s work traces a continuous architectural line from early SAP systems and his doctoral research on enterprise applications, through the invention of the HANA in-memory architecture, to its extension into patented cloud architectures and, more recently, to agentic AI architectures for SAP system modernization, including automated code analysis, fit-to-standard assessment, clean-core compliant redesign, and AI-supported development.
Please find below the complete biography in sequential order:
- Professor Dr. Alexander Zeier graduated from the University of Wuerzburg in Business Management (Dipl-Kfm./MBA) and successfully completed his studies in Information Technology at the Technical University He worked for two years as a strategic IT Consultant.
- He earned his Ph.D. in Supply Chain Management Systems from the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg between 1998 and 2002. He pursued this degree at the Information Systems Department under the guidance of Prof. Dr. Dr. h. c. mult. Peter Mertens on “Differentiation of Standard Application Software for Supply Chain Management Focused on Company Types and Industries in Especial Consideration of SAP APO”
- After this he worked three years as Product Manager for SCM Software and Director for Strategic Projects at SAP AG, before he joined Hasso-Plattner-Institute in 2006 as Deputy of Prof. Dr. Hasso Plattner for the Group “Enterprise Platform and Integration Concepts” (EPIC).
In April 2006 start of the research project “HANA”, hiring all core team members, project lead, and was the key driver of the development of In-Memory Technology, which resulted in SAP HANA, the basis of S/4HANA, launched in 2015 by SAP AG.
Co-author with Prof. Dr. Hasso Plattner of the book “In-Memory Data Management – An Inflection Point for Enterprise Applications” (2011). Extended version in 2012 focusing on innovative In-Memory Applications Development (“In-Memory Data Management – Technology and Applications”).
As a Co-Inventor, number of patents granted (e.g. US9626421B2, US8601038B2, US9542424B2, US8756686B2) regarding In-Memory Technology and Applications with Prof Dr. Hasso Plattner and the HANA team. - 2006-2012, he served as Executive Director of the MIT Forum for Supply Chain Innovation Europe.
- 03/2007-08/2012 Project Principal of the Design Thinking collaboration and joint projects at d.school with Prof. Larry Leifer and Prof. Terry Winograd e.g., on global distributed Design Class ME310 and several Design Research Projects.
- From 05/2009-08/2012 Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), 03/2012-08/2012 in residence. Guest talks and joint research in the area of innovative Enterprise Applications, Supply Chain, and Business Process Optimizations leveraging In-Memory Technology/SAP HANA.
- From 2012 to 2023 IT- Senior Executive at Accenture:
CTO of SAP Business Group for the last 7 years, which consists of over 85,000 skilled SAP professionals at Accenture globally. Primary role was to advise C-Level Executives of Accenture’s 200+ Diamond clients worldwide to design and implement market-leading, technology-led innovations leveraging, e.g., SAP HANA as a Data Platform, S/4HANA as a lean Digital Core, coupled with disruptive cloud-native applications for custom extensions.
Development of Digital Cloud Coupling, a patent-granted, flexible, and resilient Composable Enterprise Architecture (Ref. Gartner) that gives companies the agility to continuously innovate on MS Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, SAP Cloud (BTP), and open-source multi-cloud solutions.
Founder and Director of the Accenture Innovation Center for SAP HANA & Global HANA CoE, active involvement in over 150 S/4HANA projects, completion of over 100 S/4HANA roadmaps, and the completion of more than 500 HANA projects over 11 years.
Following the market launch of S/4HANA in 2015, the role expanded to Global Managing Director for HANA-related Services combined with the latest cloud technologies. Over the years, his line of business has grown into a multi-billion dollar revenue operation.
Over the years, various additional responsibilities have been added: - First Cloud Fellow of Accenture: Chief Cloud Advisor for C-Level Executives (3 years).
- Master Technical Architect; Defining Technology Strategy with C-Level, technical responsibility
for particularly complex, innovative, and large Accenture projects (10 years). - Board Member of MTA: Establishment of novel enterprise architectures and global quality standards, classification of Accenture`s architects based on their skills (3 years).
- Selective QA Director (2 years).Joined Accenture in Sept. 2012 as Global Managing Director In-Memory Solutions (incl. SAP HANA) and as CTO for Platforms.
- In June 2013 appointed as first honorary Professor at the faculty of Computer Science at the Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, focusing on In-Memory & Cloud Technology and Applications. Lectures also focus on topics and skills for Cloud Transformation, new lean Digital Core in S/4 HANA combined with a Composable Architecture to realize a Composable Enterprise.
2020 founding and board member of the Cloud Academy and Open Enterprise Cloud Initiative of Google Cloud, Accenture, and Otto-von-Guericke University. - Current Research and Industry Focus – Agentic AI for Enterprise System Modernization
Since 2024, Prof. Zeier’s current work focuses on agentic AI architectures for the modernization and long-term governance of large-scale SAP enterprise systems. As Co-Founder and Chief Scientist of Nova Intelligence, he defines and guides the scientific and architectural direction of research on agentic AI systems that combine large language models with autonomous reasoning, planning, and execution capabilities.
This research addresses core challenges in enterprise system evolution, including AI-driven analysis and documentation of SAP custom code, automated fit-to-standard assessment, clean-core compliant system redesign, and AI-supported development and refactoring workflows. The focus is on using coordinated AI agents to reason over complex legacy systems, preserve business-critical logic, and systematically reduce unnecessary custom code.
This work builds directly on more than three decades of prior research and industrial innovation, spanning early SAP systems and doctoral research on enterprise applications, the invention of the HANA in-memory architecture, and its extension into patented cloud-based enterprise architectures. Agentic AI represents the next architectural step in this lineage, applying autonomous AI reasoning to large-scale enterprise modernization and long-term system governance.
-> Overall, Prof. Zeier brings more than 30 years of experience with SAP and enterprise IT systems. He began working with SAP R/3 Version 1.2 in 1992, followed by SAP R/3 and SAP ERP in the late 1990s, as well as SAP SCM solutions including SAP APO. His experience spans more than 15 years of work with SAP HANA and SAP S/4HANA, the systematic extension of these architectures into cloud-based enterprise systems, and most recently the development and application of agentic AI architectures for large-scale SAP system modernization and long-term governance.