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From airlines grounding flights to healthcare services, payment systems, and banking institutions facing disruptions, the recent CrowdStrike IT outage is a stark reminder of the vulnerability of even the most established and modern landscapes.

So, what went wrong? A “buggy” update to antivirus software.

Although the issue was identified and isolated and a fix was deployed hours later, it was already too late for millions of systems people rely on daily. Recovery often requires businesses to take actions that could lead to revenue loss, higher costs, operational inefficiencies, security breaches, and, even worse, reputational damage days, weeks, or months later.

But there’s an empowering truth underlying this mayhem: IT outages caused by faulty software deployments and updates are avoidable. According to IDC research, participating organizations that use automation and integration provided by SAP application testing solutions by Tricentis dramatically improve their testing-related efficiencies, throughput, and outcomes.

Unseen but Essential

Often hidden behind the scenes in the innovation journey, the software testing environment can be an unsung hero. By meticulously simulating real-world conditions, the environment can detect and resolve potential issues long before they reach production. This not only safeguards against the immediate chaos of an IT outage but also strengthens the overall stability and reliability of the IT system.

In a global survey of organizations using SAP application testing solutions by Tricentis, IDC discovered how the technology sets up a testing environment that prevents IT outages without compromising productivity, performance, or profitability.

IDC’s findings revealed essential advantages, including the following:

51% Faster Testing Life Cycles and Error Resolution

Testing cycles are accelerated when potential issues are identified and resolved fast enough to reduce the risk of deploying flawed updates. Analyzing the impact of change helps determine conditions that should be tested to minimize errors and those that do not carry that risk. As a result, the number of “must test” conditions for a single application can be far fewer than the scope in manual testing methods.

With SAP application testing solutions by Tricentis, the testing process can be automated to detect programs, applications, and integration connections that can be affected by any given change. Instead of running all conditions to mitigate all risks, organizations can physically work on approximately 20% of the initial scope.

At the same time, the automation capabilities of SAP application testing solutions do the rest. This narrower testing scope decreases errors and bugs when a newly developed application moves to production — a reduction of 1.5 to 0.3 for each project.

By reducing the risk of incidents that make it into the application during development and production, IT teams can improve everyday user experiences. Workplace frustration dissipates, workloads decline, and the need for future hypercare support is minimal.

Over 30% Higher Efficiency in Development, Testing, and Quality Assurance

Even if 70% of testing processes are automated, organizations can significantly lower costs related to the testing cycle by achieving full automation. For some teams, these savings are equivalent to 10,000 person-hours that can be reallocated toward more strategic projects.

Additionally, embedded machine learning in application testing solutions can help establish self-healing test cases, lowering test costs even further. Self-healing test cases automatically adjust to application changes, limiting manual intervention and delivering consistently effective and reliable tests. This capability not only decreases test maintenance requests but also enhances the overall efficiency of the testing process.

The added benefit of automation in development, testing, and quality assurance is easy to notice. When using manual processes, IT organizations often go live with new applications and updates every six months. Now, they can release new applications, features, and mobile apps within two months. This increased release frequency enables businesses to stay competitive and responsive to market demands, delivering enhanced user experiences more rapidly.

20% More Productive Development Teams

With automation cutting the time required by 99%, IT teams can perform performance testing weekly or more frequently, instead of just once per quarter. This regular testing cadence helps ensure updates and new features work as intended, maintaining system reliability and performance.

Automation allows development teams to conduct thorough performance tests more often, so the system can handle increased loads without losing functionality and performance. This proactive testing approach prevents issues before they occur, fostering a more stable and efficient IT environment.

Moreover, automated testing verifying essential capabilities can lessen demand for manual regression testing. This shift saves valuable time and frees development teams to concentrate on innovative and strategic projects. The result is a more agile development process, where users are given new features and improvements with greater speed and confidence.

The Ultimate (Digital) Safety Net

As companies grapple with the operational and reputational damage caused by such outages, it becomes increasingly clear that effective software testing environments are essential. By transitioning from reactive crisis management to proactive IT control, businesses can reduce the risk of outages, helping ensure smoother operations and enhancing customer trust.

SAP application testing solutions by Tricentis: Identify risks to business processes when making changes to SAP software Learn more

More important, proper software quality assurance goes beyond just testing. The key is having an integrated environment that not only tests one aspect of change but also predicts how the performance and connections of all applications within the system landscape can be impacted.

This is why SAP application testing solutions by Tricentis play such a critical role in many organizations. As the world advances and improves people’s lives with networks based on sophisticated technology, that one investment could mean the difference between a future of IT-fueled crises and a future of IT enabled innovations making our daily lives better.

Explore the calculated cost savings and business benefits of SAP application testing solutions by Tricentis. Read the IDC Business Value Snapshot, “The Business Value of SAP Application Testing Solutions by Tricentis,” commissioned by SAP and Tricentis.

Bil Khan is senior director of Global Partner Marketing at SAP.

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Source: the IDC Business Value Snapshot, “The Business Value of SAP Application Testing Solutions by Tricentis” commissioned by SAP, IDC #US52458724, July 2024.

SAP is one of the most sustainable companies on the planet in 2024, according to a recent study conducted by TIME magazine and data firm Statista. It ranks 15th out of 500 companies on the list, outperforming Cisco, Microsoft, and ServiceNow.

The 2024 sustainability study measures how organizations are tracking against climate programs, such as the 1.5°C Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) target or the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), and looks at scope 1 and 2 emissions and energy consumption, or proportion of renewable energy utilized in a company’s operations.

Our purpose is to help the world run better and improve people’s lives with sustainability at the core Learn more

For years, SAP has been putting sustainability at the very core of its vision and operations. Via a comprehensive portfolio of ERP-centric, cloud-based, and AI-enabled sustainability services and solutions, SAP helps customers across 26 industries become more sustainable. This is achieved by building long-term sustainability strategies around climate, resources, and people; powering businesses and their value chains with sustainable practices; and driving long-term business value. SAP is also committed to achieving net-zero emissions across its entire value chain by 2030 – 20 years earlier than originally planned.

“Together with our customers, which generate 87% of total global commerce, SAP has the unique opportunity to create a more sustainable world,” Daniel Schmid, chief sustainability officer at SAP, said. “We are regularly recognized by world-renowned sustainability rating providers for the company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts and achievements. Our ranking in TIME magazine underscores SAP’s role as a leader in sustainable business practices, setting a benchmark for others in the industry.”

Check out the list below for the full collection of ratings, rankings and reports of SAP’s sustainability performance globally.

Corporate Knights

In Corporate Knights’ 20th annual ranking of the 100 most sustainable corporations worldwide in 2024, SAP secured the 48th position. This recognition is highly significant, as the Global 100 companies represent the upper 1% of firms globally in terms of sustainability performance. The ranking was formulated by the Toronto-based media, research, and financial information products firm, which analyzed more than 6,000 companies with revenues exceeding US$1 billion, using 25 key performance indicators.

Corporate Sustainability Assessment by S&P (Dow Jones Sustainability Indices)

Since its inception in 1999, the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) has been conducting an annual evaluation of companies’ sustainability practices, covering over 7,000 firms worldwide. The CSA emphasizes sustainability criteria that is both industry specific and financially significant. In the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment, SAP secured a position within the top 5% of the software industry, scoring 71 out of a possible 100.

CDP

In the latest CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) assessment, SAP scored a B. This means that SAP was recognized by CDP as taking coordinated action on climate issues.

EcoVadis

In the last sustainability assessment of EcoVadis in October 2023, SAP was again awarded a gold medal with a score of 70 of 100, ranking in the 94th percentile* of all assessed companies. With more than 100,000 rated companies, EcoVadis is one of the world’s most trusted business sustainability rating providers. Its assessment covers a broad range of non-financial management systems, including environments, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement impacts.

Gartner

Gartner, a trustworthy analyst firm, has published a new report titled “Sustainability Assessment: SAP®”. Read more about Gartner’s assessment of SAP’s sustainability performance in this complimentary report offered to all Gartner readers.   

FTSE4Good

Administered by the Financial Times Stock Exchange-Russell Group (FTSE), the FTSE4Good Index Series is designed to measure the performance of companies demonstrating strong ESG practices. Transparent management and clearly defined ESG criteria make FTSE4Good indices suitable tools to be used by a wide variety of market participants when creating or assessing sustainable investment products.

As in previous years, SAP continues to be listed in the FTSE4Good indices based on assessment questions in areas such as environment, climate change, human rights, community and labor standards, tax transparency, and anti-corruption. Due to its good scoring, SAP remains a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index Series following the June 2024 review.

IDC

IDC Sustainablity Index for Software Providers reviews the ESG impacts of information and communication technology (ICT) players, focusing on three pillars: Technology as an Enabler, Vendor Performance, and Technology for Good. SAP was awarded 3rd place** in an assessment of 23 software vendors. This position highlights SAP’s exceptional performance, especially in the Technology as an Enabler pillar, where SAP excels in monetization, sustainable features, ESG reporting, operational optimization, and advisory services. SAP’s success is attributed to its commitment to sustainability, as well as to efficient internal product standards that prioritize cost and resource efficiency. Additionally, SAP has been named a leader among 18 vendors in the first-ever IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Carbon Accounting and Management Applications 2024 Vendor Assessment.

ISS ESG

The Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ESG Corporate Rating provides an assessment of companies’ sustainability performance based on high-quality and in-depth research and up to 100 sector-specific rating criteria that are regularly reviewed and developed. With its B rating, SAP has been acknowledged with prime status and is among the top decile. The score was confirmed in January 2023. ISS ESG is expected to update its score in the summer of 2024.

MSCI

MSCI ESG Research provides in-depth research, ratings, and analysis of the ESG-related business practices of thousands of companies worldwide. Its research is designed to provide critical insights that can help institutional investors identify risks and opportunities that traditional investment research may overlook. The MSCI ESG Ratings are also used in the construction of the MSCI ESG Indexes produced by MSCI, Inc. SAP upholds the highest rating of AAA*** and is an ESG leader in human capital development, corporate governance, privacy and data security, and clean tech as of the last assessment in May 2024.

Sustainalytics

SAP received a low-risk ESG Risk Rating of 10.9 from Sustainalytics, a leading provider of ESG research, ratings, and data. This rating reflects SAP’s commitment to sustainability and its efforts to minimize the financial impact of environmental, social, and governance factors. Sustainalytics, founded in 1992 and now a Morningstar company, is a trusted source for institutional investors and companies seeking to understand and manage ESG risks.

TIME

TIME’s assessment of the World’s Most Sustainable Companies for 2024 recognized SAP for demonstrating a strong commitment to sustainability. SAP was ranked the 15th most sustainable company worldwide. This reflects SAP’s dedication to areas such as climate change, human rights, and anti-corruption and underscores SAP’s role as a leader in sustainable business practice.

*SAP’s score is higher than or equal to the score of 94% of all companies rated by EcoVadis.
**Doc #EUR147190121, May 2023
***Scale: AAA (leader) to CCC (laggard). The use by SAP SE of any MSCI ESG Research LLC or its affiliates (‘MSCI”) data, and the use of MSCI logos, trademarks or index names herein, do not constitute a sponsorship, endorsement, recommendation or promotion of SAP SE by MSCI. MSCI Services and Data are the property of MSCI or its information providers and are provided “as-is” and without warranty. MSCI names and logos are trademarks or service marks of MSCI.

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Copyright ©2022 Sustainalytics. All rights reserved. This article contains information developed by Sustainalytics (www.sustainalytics.com). Such information and data are proprietary of Sustainalytics and/or its third party suppliers (Third Party Data) and are provided for informational purposes only. They do not constitute an endorsement of any product or project, nor an investment advice and are not warranted to be complete, timely, accurate or suitable for a particular purpose. Their use is subject to conditions available at https://www.sustainalytics.com/legal-disclaimers. 

® Gartner, Sustainability Assessment: SAP, 11 December 2023, Ed Anderson, Fabio Di Capua
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

The 2408 update to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition brings the latest enhancements to our intelligent ERP solution, designed to help businesses run efficiently and effectively.

As a leader in the SaaS and cloud-enabled midsize business ERP applications market, as named by IDC, we are committed to delivering continuous value to our customers. Let’s dive in and explore the exciting new enhancements of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition 2408 update.

Improved Productivity with AI

The latest AI innovations for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition are redefining the way businesses operate. With embedded AI capabilities, companies can now streamline operations, make data-driven decisions, and ultimately drive growth and success in today’s competitive market.

Embrace the future of business with these state-of-the-art AI innovations:

Our AI copilot Joule enables users to express their business need in natural language and supports with answers based on SAP Help Portal documentation, with fast navigation to applications and with role-based insights on business objects.

Insights on business objects through Joule

The AI-assisted easy filter and AI-assisted smart summarization features in SAP Fiori enhance the user experience for business users. These features allow for efficient natural language filtering of business data and seamless summarization capabilities, enabling users to quickly extract relevant information and jump-start subsequent collaboration. This leads to faster decision-making, improved productivity, and more effective communication across teams.*

AI-assisted easy filter AI-assisted smart summarization

Intelligent resource matching reduces the time to find skilled resources by providing advanced skill matching.*

Leveraging generative AI, the review booklet for cost centers enables faster analysis and understanding of cost center data, facilitating quicker insights and more informed decision-making.*

*These features are currently available in beta; sign up here

Modern and Collaborative User Experience

This update is set to transform the way users work with user experience enhancements, enabling direct access to important applications and intelligent decision-making features.

Notifications of To Dos in Microsoft Teams allow direct actions on workflow items, saving time and reducing the need to switch between applications.

Notifications of to dos in Microsoft Teams

With the share as authenticated adaptive card-based loop component, users can collaborate with colleagues directly from an app and share live information using Microsoft Loop components. Cards can be copied between Microsoft applications; for example, from Microsoft Teams to Microsoft Outlook.

The Microsoft Copilot Integration for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, in combination with share as authenticated card-based loop component, enables users to collaborate, share live data, and access business data directly from their daily applications and activities.*

*This feature is currently available in beta

Microsoft Copilot in Microsoft Teams My Home enhancements (click to enlarge)

Updates to My Home include enhanced workflow-relevant information and in-place actions for daily tasks​, an intelligent homepage experience to boost productivity​, intelligent app recommendations, and pre-delivered cards for new cloud customers​. The updates allow business users to execute their tasks in My Home with speed and precision.

SAP Mobile Start allows direct access to the most important applications on the start screen with app favorites, displaying SAP Analytics Cloud KPIs as monitoring tiles and widgets, and managing to-do attachments to support the decision-making process.

Intelligent and Sustainable Finance

Propel your business toward a more intelligent and sustainable future with the latest finance enhancements, providing tools to achieve transparency, analyze financial data, and streamline processes to improve your business performance.

The cost center review booklet provides overhead cost accountants with transparent cost-center reporting, enabling daily analysis of actuals, plan data, commitments, and statistical key figures in one report, with the ability to switch between guided views and adaptable slicing, dicing, and pivoting based on business needs.

Review booklet for cost centers

The service profitability review booklet provides an interactive and comprehensive view of the financial KPIs related to the service profitability.

Service profitability review booklet

The Manage Operating G/L Accounts app streamlines processes and increases performance with a modern SAP Fiori app, providing a user-friendly interface and efficient workflows that enhance overall productivity and accuracy in managing general ledger accounts.

Manage Operating G/L Accounts app Powering Service-Centric Companies

The latest updates for service-centric companies support your business growth and improve your operational effectiveness.

Professional services companies can implement and automate a new business model in which they can negotiate a shared risk approach with their clients. This leads to more accurate real-time profitability and reduces the need for manual effort when a lower cost rate is negotiated for additional work.

Shared-risk-based revenue recognition for professional service project

Automating recommendations and simplifying the sales order process as part of the modern order management journey improves efficiency for internal sales representatives. This reduces administrative efforts and provides seamless support for business users in their daily work.

Intelligent scenario management

By leveraging advanced solution bundling in solution orders, businesses can facilitate the transition from selling products to higher-margin services and solutions, using pre-defined configurable bundle products which consist of various components in one order.

Changeable sales orders for solution orders provide flexibility in defining business roles through segregation of duties for solution order capturing and sales order fulfilment, improving business user productivity. Additionally, rate plan selection in solution orders minimizes the subscription master data required to accommodate the variations of a subscription business model.

Pre-defined bundles in solution orders

The creation of proof of services for unplanned lean services by referencing existing contracts guides users to the right contract item during the creation of service entry sheets. This supports compliance with contract-based buying for unplanned services and offers flexibility to suppliers for selecting products and services from contracts when submitting proof of service.

Boosting Manufacturing and Product-Centric Companies

Elevate operational efficiency, streamline processes, and unlock new revenue opportunities with updates for product-centric companies.

Partial goods receipt posting enables the warehouse staff to receive the handling unit and start the put-away process immediately after unloading it, instead of checking the complete inbound delivery first. By allowing immediate action on received goods, warehouses can streamline their workflows, improve accuracy in inventory recording, and optimize resource utilization — ultimately leading to better overall productivity and reduced operational costs.

Partial goods receipt posting

Automate the generation of packaging items based on assigned handling units to effectively track stock count and manage packaging materials. Integration with SAP Returnable Packaging Management enhances supply chain transparency and operational efficiency by facilitating accurate exchanges and account reconciliation with business partners.

Enabling return to supplier (scope item BMK) with cloud transportation management now supports advanced scenarios for efficient transportation planning for supplier returns. This enhancement optimizes logistics, ensuring timely and cost-effective return shipments, ultimately improving supply chain efficiency.

Enhancement of the dynamic third-party order processing with advanced available-to-promise functionality increases order fulfillment rates and flexibility in sourcing, based on availability information, and minimizes logistical steps and costs by directly shipping from the supplier to the customer.

Dynamic third-party order processing with advanced available-to-promise functionality Establishing a Solid SaaS Foundation

The latest SaaS foundation enhancements are designed to improve your experience and workflow efficiency:

• Localization investments have been made to ensure compliance with local regulations and cultural norms, including the introduction of new local public-sector version for Germany, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, and the UK and functional enhancements to our standard 59 local versions
• Providing a unified access to documentation about identity and access management on the SAP Help Portal ensures regulatory compliance and compliance with security standards
• The purpose assignment for business partner master data simplifies data separation of master data along with data controller and purpose attributes (legal entity) for most business processes dealing with personal data

More Information on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

For more details on what is being delivered for 2408, see the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition release info.

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition release information
• SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition on SAP Community
• Latest SAP S/4HANA Cloud release blog posts and previous release highlights
• YouTube playlist: product videos on SAP S/4HANA Cloud
• Early Release webinar series
• What’s New
• SAP Help Portal product page
• Read more about the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition AI innovations
• Explore extensibility options by leveraging sample scenarios in the SAP Extensibility Explorer
• SAP Business AI

Arpan Shah is senior vice president of Public Cloud ERP Product Management at SAP.

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WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced today its financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2024.

• Current cloud backlog of €14.8 billion, up 28%, both at nominal and constant currencies
• Cloud revenue up 25%, underpinned by 33% Cloud ERP Suite revenue growth, all at nominal and constant currencies
• Total revenue up 10%, both at nominal and constant currencies
• IFRS cloud gross profit up 29%, non-IFRS cloud gross profit up 28% and up 29% at constant currencies
• IFRS operating profit down 11% due to restructuring expenses of €0.6 billion. Non-IFRS operating profit up 33% and up 35% at constant currencies
• 2024 financial outlook reiterated. 2025 operating profit ambition increased to reflect anticipated incremental efficiency gains from expanded transformation program

“Our cloud growth momentum remained strong in Q2, with Business AI enabling many deals. We continue to execute on our transformation with great discipline, leading to an increase in our operating profit ambition for 2025. At the same time, we continue to invest into our transformation to be the leader in Business AI. Given our progress and strong pipeline, we are confident to achieve accelerating topline growth through 2027.”

Christian Klein, CEO

 

We are staying squarely focused on delivering our outlook for this year. Our current cloud backlog growth during the second half of 2024, and especially in Q4 will be decisive to lay a solid foundation for our cloud revenue ambition for 2025. At the same time, we’ll continue to execute against our transformation plan to achieve our 2025 free cash flow ambition despite a mid-triple-digit million cash out for restructuring spilling into next year.

Dominik Asam, CFO

Read the Quarterly Statement

At SAP Sapphire in 2024, Stefanie Kuebler, global head of Business and Data Transformation Solutions at SAP, and her team announced the eagerly awaited lean selective data transition for SAP S/4HANA in SAP Business Transformation Center.

Here, she shares about how the pair work together to help supercharge customers’ digital transformations.

Q: Can you give a little background on SAP Business Transformation Center?

A: SAP Business Transformation Center was envisioned as a one-stop shop for customers that want to transition from SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ERP) 6.0 to SAP S/4HANA. The challenges to such a transformation are, of course, numerous and daunting. Customers need to cull current data, pull together fragmented tool sets, line up the right human resources, and keep an eye on time to value.

With SAP Business Transformation Center, we’ve done our best to bring together the latest functionality and expert guidance to smooth the way – in a single, powerful software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. And SAP Business Transformation Center is easily accessible, deployed on SAP Cloud ALM atop SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). It comes with any implementation of RISE with SAP or any cloud solution from SAP and can be ready to use in less than half an hour.

Q: Where can customers go for further details?

A: The support materials at SAP Business Transformation Center include a quick summary of features and benefits, along with the introductory video.

Q: What does SAP see as the core mission of SAP Business Transformation Center?

A: Kilian Carolan from the Premium Hub – CoE Ireland Data Management has described the mission this way: “To play an active part in the SAP S/4HANA adoption journey by supporting key data management and data migration topics and to serve as the trusted advisor for our customers.” He continues to explain that we do this through end-to-end support, including hands-on execution, optimization, transformation, upgrade, and migration of Big Data and data platforms. In short, we apply our vast portfolio of enterprise information management and landscape transformation tools, methodologies, and processes to the customer’s unique transformation scenario.

Q: Where are we in the ongoing evolution of SAP Business Transformation Center?

A: Our first step was to help customers fully understand the structure of their SAP legacy systems through the digital blueprint. This supplied the background they needed to begin scoping the transformation project. And now we’ve completed the second step for moving data across to the target system – with lean selective data transition for SAP S/4HANA.

Optimize your data transformation process and seamlessly transition to a more agile and innovative enterprise Learn more

Q: What exactly does the lean selective data transition for SAP S/4HANA do?

A: Data transformation is traditionally a highly complex undertaking, and we’ve made a huge dent in that complexity. Right at the start, lean selective data transition for SAP S/4HANA helps radically reduce the decision-making efforts involved in choosing data to migrate. The underlying principle is to provide smarter suggestions and fewer difficult choices through market-leading services and tools – and end-to-end advice on making the most of them. That approach helps customers ensure that they only move data that will continue to be useful, reducing the volume of data for the testing and go-live phases and accelerating the transition exponentially.

With lean selective data transition for SAP S/4HANA, customers can pare down SAP legacy data and bring the target system live with a clean data foundation. In combination with the digital blueprint, lean selective data transition for SAP S/4HANA can give SAP Business Transformation Center the power to do all the heavy lifting of accessing source systems; extracting, transforming, and loading relevant data; and validating data for completeness, consistency, and correctness.

Q: What types of data can customers choose to exclude from the transfer?

A: For example, they could decide to completely ignore obsolete company codes, such as data for companies they have since divested or which are no longer in use.

Q: What does the wider market see as the single most revolutionary aspect of lean selective data transition for SAP S/4HANA?

A: For the very first time, SAP provides standard functionality not only for complete rebuilds, greenfield implementations, system conversions, or brownfield implementations, but also for projects somewhere in the middle. This is a third path, if you will, and it’s a holistic approach to the big transformation from SAP ECC 6.0 to SAP S/4 HANA Cloud Private Edition.

Q: Can you take us a little deeper into how lean selective data transition for SAP S/4HANA works and how customers can benefit?

A: With the SAP Readiness Check tool for SAP ERP usage and data profiling, we can collaborate with the customer to read the data from the source system and identify legal entities that are no longer in use or will soon be obsolete. SAP Business Transformation Center then can propose that these entities and the associated data are “removed from the scope” before starting the data transition and can provide clear instructions on how to do this. It can also help to identify customer-specific data in the SAP legacy system. Here, too, the customer has the option of leaving this data behind on the way to SAP S/4HANA to support its clean core strategy and move closer to the standard again.

Both these jobs would previously have meant time-consuming manual work for the solution architect – and higher costs and longer time to value for the customer. With the addition of lean selective data transition for SAP S/4HANA to the already popular functionality for digital blueprinting, SAP Business Transformation Center can now provide optimal support and transparency in each phase of the transformation project. It helps customers analyze the source system, define migration scope, create migration cycles, and finally transform the leaner body of data they’ve elected to move across. From strategy to execution, we serve as a trusted partner, helping to ensure that every step of the way leads to meaningful insights and sustainable results. And that lowers both total cost of implementation (TCI) and total cost of operation (TCO).

Q: What have customers been saying about lean selective data transition for SAP S/4HANA?

A: Long-term partner BMW Group, for example, has told us, “This feature significantly speeds up our evolution into an intelligent enterprise by applying sustainable and efficient solutions and methodologies.”

Karin Baeumler is part of Go-to-Market, Business & Data Transformation Solutions, at SAP.

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Datricks, the leader in AI-powered risk mining, expands its relationship with SAP with the launch of Datricks for Risk Mining as an SAP endorsed app. The solution helps empower organizations to proactively detect, prevent, and mitigate risks through advanced technology and streamlined integration.

The strategic alliance between Datricks and SAP Signavio leverages the strengths of both to deliver unparalleled value to customers, revolutionizing proactive risk management to help accelerate business process transformation. Together, Datricks and SAP Signavio aim to provide a seamless and integrated solution for financial business risk mining and process management that supports both internal controls and business transformation. This collaboration underscores a shared commitment to innovation and excellence, driving forward the capabilities of risk management in the financial sector.

Datricks’ cutting-edge, AI-driven technology, combined with SAP Signavio’s leading expertise in business process transformation, helps deliver a comprehensive solution that can streamline operations and empower organizations to proactively identify and mitigate risks before they escalate into major disruptions. The solution can tackle the gap between business processes and compliance and can reduce long and expensive auditing cycles, allowing our customers to maximize efficiency and reduce costs. Risks and controls are identified by Datricks and then integrated into SAP Signavio solutions to access control and process effectiveness, fostering proactive risk management.

Our end-to-end solution enables customers to:

• Uncover hidden risks: Datricks’ AI-powered risk mining solution continuously analyzes 100% of customers’ financial data, exposing unseen anomalies and potential threats to financial integrity.
• Prevent financial and reputational damage: Mitigate risks proactively before they escalate, safeguarding your company’s financial health and reputation.
• Streamline audits and controls: Eliminate error-prone manual work and enhance existing controls with automated and reliable processes.
• Gain real-time insights: Receive immediate answers to audit-related questions, identify the root cause of risks, and make informed decisions with confidence.

Datricks for Risk Mining helps automate risk detection and mitigation, ushering in the era of autonomous finance. It seamlessly integrates with SAP Signavio solutions, offering a holistic view of risk and process management. Together, we provide an end-to-end solution for financial business risk mining and process management, supporting both internal controls and process transformations.

Mani Pirouz is chief business officer for SAP Business Transformation Management.

The fastest and most accurate solution for audit and compliance powered by AI Explore Datricks for Risk Mining on SAP Store

The intelligent automation revolution has arrived. According to a recent report from McKinsey & Co, this is the third wave of digitization and generative AI, in which businesses can add new unstructured content to analytical AI’s structured data capabilities. This means we see massive productivity gains for businesses, especially regarding their finance operations.

Generative AI: Revolutionize your business with AI built right into your applications Learn how

For the CFO and their teams, there is a wealth of opportunity here, but also not inconsiderable risk. The best CFOs are masters of balancing risk with opportunity; those who can do it well right now have an immense opportunity to write a new playbook for AI leadership. That’s because effective AI strategies involve more than just tools. They require a strong sense of where the business value lies and a keen sense for ensuring every technology investment has a clear return for the business — all things savvy CFOs have in abundance.

Two areas that stand out are payments and cash flow management. Recent research from Gartner compared organizations it saw as leading the way with successful AI strategies and implementations with their competitors. The study revealed that 46% of organizations with the most successful AI implementations leverage AI in customer payment forecasting, illustrating the vast potential for AI in this space.

But it’s not just about forecasting accuracy. It has been estimated that as much as $44 trillion is locked in global supply chains at any time. Accessing these funds, or at least ensuring they are working as efficiently as they can for you, can go a long way in helping you invest, expand, or diversify. McKinsey ranks enhanced working capital management as one of the top three areas for AI investment, alongside predictive cash flow forecasting and growth prioritization/M&A targets.

The real game-changer is the natural language-based tools and the capabilities to generate thorough financial scenarios. For example, you could ask, “What are my options to ensure the Board has the $750 million needed to make that acquisition or R&D investment in the year’s second half? What are the three best scenarios to ensure we achieve a free cash flow of $500 million in Q4 of this year?”

Assuming you have the data, the combination of predictive and generative AI will give you the analysis you need and the narrative to provide a clear pathway to your business goal.

Another opportunity is around fraud detection. Electronic payments are standard in many countries and supply chains are increasingly complex, which means the threat of fraud is increasing. AI can detect unusual patterns from typical transaction profiles, minimizing the rejection of legitimate transactions and maximizing the accuracy of fraudulent payments.

Automation is also an area that is ripe for significant leveling up. The future of payments powered by AI strives for complete autonomy, from predicting future incoming payments based on behavioral patterns to independently initiating dispute management in the event of non-payment to automated incoming payment reconciliations.

When we talk about AI’s transformative abilities, the most significant benefit is its ability to support continuous optimization. Whether it’s benchmarking against industry peers, risk modeling, or analyzing supplier behavior to optimize payment, the ability of AI tools to absorb and analyze vast amounts of data and generate scenarios in a multitude of forms gives you the power to act faster, with greater cost efficiency and insight.

Of course, it’s not just the technology that delivers the difference; it’s the combination of technology, financing partners, and processes. AI tools are most effective in the hands of a team that understands how to use them and has the processes in place to enable them to be used effectively. They also require access to vast amounts of data, internal and external.

For many businesses, the most effective and least risky investment is in platforms and technology tools that already have AI capabilities built in and in the people who know how to leverage them.

There is no doubt that the potential for everyone is significant. The early evidence suggests that those who have taken the plunge and are investing strategically are already reaping the benefits.

It points to a future full of incredible opportunities ahead and we are really excited about it!

Scott Russell is chief revenue officer and a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE.
Cedric Bru is CEO of Taulia.

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This story also appeared on SAP BrandVoice on Forbes.

Your time is precious. Especially during summer, when the outdoors calls – and so do your family and friends.

At SAP, we’ve designed our spend management and business network solutions with this in mind. SAP Ariba solutions, SAP Business Network, SAP Concur solutions, and SAP Fieldglass solutions help you spend less time bogged down by tactical work, giving you more time to focus on strategic initiatives.

Our market-leading solutions help provide complete visibility into your company spending, so your decisions are smarter and your time and money saved. And with AI becoming ubiquitous, we’re automating repetitive tasks and analyzing enterprise-wide spend analytics to identify tail spend, improve compliance, and identify rapidly increasing costs.

Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Everything About Enterprise Software

AI is revolutionizing the global business landscape and SAP is at the forefront. We continuously embed new AI capabilities into our software to deliver intelligent spend management solutions to our customers. With our AI-infused products, work – and your workforce – can be more productive and supply chains more resilient.

At SAP Sapphire in June, we announced more time- and cash-saving product enhancements that provide generative AI capabilities. Here are several of them:

• New generative AI capabilities in SAP Fieldglass solutions help procurement departments streamline the recruitment of external workers. Hiring managers can generate and maintain effective job descriptions, while project managers can deliver detailed statements of work (SOWs) more rapidly with the press of the “Enhance with AI” button. This can enable businesses to quickly identify and engage contractors with the right skills and qualifications.
• Business owners and sales executives can now benefit from new generative AI capabilities in SAP Business Network to help generate accurate and timely RFI responses to potential buyers consistently. This can result in a 2-4 times* increase in lead conversion and can reduce effort in responding to requests by up to 75%*.
• SAP’s generative AI copilot Joule, which can quickly sort and contextualize data from multiple systems to help advance automation and improve decision-making, is expanding throughout SAP’s portfolio and will be embedded in SAP Ariba solutions to help improve procurement processes and supply chain planning by the end of 2024.

The AI enhancements mentioned above are only a few examples of how we’re transforming spend management and how businesses approach procurement through AI. Check out our AI spend management road map to see which new features will soon be available at your fingertips.

Eliminate the mundane and elevate the strategic with generative AI Learn more

With the record-breaking travel over the July 4th holiday weekend in the U.S., I would be remiss in not mentioning that Amtrak for Concur TripLink is now live! Released in April, connected customers can book tickets directly on the Amtrak website or mobile app, select the business booking path, and see their company’s negotiated rates while browsing. With skyrocketing airline ticket prices and the extra legroom, I’m on board with taking Amtrak to my next customer meeting.

Our Customers Are Winning

I could talk all day about how our customers are winning with SAP spend management and business network solutions, but these customer examples speak for themselves:

• Pony.ai needed to meet growing demand as a global leader in autonomous mobility with business units for robotaxi, robotruck, and personally owned vehicles. After implementing SAP Business Network and SAP Ariba solutions, procurement cycle times were reduced by one week on average and the supplier qualification verification process sped up by three times.
• With the introduction of Japan’s electronic bookkeeping law, CRE Inc., a logistics real estate company, seized the opportunity to digitalize its expense reimbursement process and align with the new regulations simultaneously. It selected Concur Expense to help automate processes and eliminate manual workflows and now spends 80% less time on the expense reimbursement process.
• When Accenture wanted to gain deeper insights into its services-based spend activity and align procurement with environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments, the firm embraced SAP Fieldglass solutions. With rich data on how suppliers deliver against an agreement, Accenture can now effectively tie services spend to individual contracts.

It’s Great Being #1

New honors from Ardent Partners, Procurement Magazine, and TrustRadius have us buzzing with gratitude.

Ardent Partners has positioned SAP Fieldglass as a Market Leader in its 2024 Vendor Management System (VMS) Technology Advisor report**. It reads, “SAP Fieldglass has consistently set the bar for the extended workforce solutions industry through a blend of innovation, advanced analytics, and total talent management functionality.” For a more in-depth view of this win, check out this article from my colleague Vish Baliga.

Procurement Magazine is an established, trusted, and leading voice on all things procurement, and we are honored that our SAP spend management solutions are ranked No. 1 in two of their recent lists:

• SAP Concur is the No. 1 Top Mobile Procurement App on the Top 10 Mobile Procurement Apps List.
• SAP Ariba is the No. 1 Spend Analysis Platform on the Top 10 Spend Analyst Platforms List.

In May, TrustRadius announced that SAP is the winner of 11 Top Rated awards in 2024. This includes all our flagship offerings in our spend management portfolio:

• SAP Ariba – Procurement, Expense Management, and Supply Chain Management
• SAP Fieldglass – Leader in Workforce Management, Vendor Management Systems (VMS), Contractor Management, and Freelance Management
• SAP Concur – Leader in Expense Management, Accounts Payable, and Travel Management
• SAP Business Network – Supply Chain Visibility Procurement

The TrustRadius Top Rated awards are annual awards that recognize the most trusted and reliable vendors on TrustRadius, based solely on customer satisfaction ratings in customer reviews. SAP owes this recognition to our valued customers. Thank you for constantly inspiring us to be better. 

Join Us at SAP Spend Connect Live

I hope to see you at the world’s premiere spend management conference, SAP Spend Connect Live, which takes place October 14-16, 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada. This event is a sure bet to learn how to achieve full visibility into your enterprise spend through SAP’s spend management solutions for procurement, external workforce, travel and expense, and business network.

Meet me at the intersection of procurement and supply chain to learn how analytics and SAP Business AI can provide visibility into both. SAP Spend Connect Live is a unique, in-person networking experience, where you’ll connect with procurement and supply chain leaders from businesses and industries worldwide to share ideas, learn from each other’s success, and discuss best practices.

To learn more and register, visit the SAP Spend Connect Live website.

Jeff Collier is chief revenue officer for SAP Intelligent Spend and Business Network.

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*Disclaimer: Values mentioned in this blog post are estimates based on average industry benchmark numbers, resulting from an SAP analysis. Customers interested in a specific business case calculation can consult their SAP account team.

**Ardent Partners’ 2024 Vendor Management System (VMS) Technology Advisor is designed to help procurement, human resources, human capital, and talent acquisition executives navigate the complex and mature VMS solutions marketplace. This report analyzes and assesses the primary VMS solution providers in the marketplace today. You can read the full report here.

“We are not just selling products. We sell projects to people so that they can create their visions,” says Carsten Mueller, head of Enterprise Architecture & Security at Hornbach Baumarkt AG, summarizing the core business of one of the largest home improvement and do-it-yourself (DIY) retailers in Europe.

Known for its extensive range of products, competitive pricing, and customer-centric approach, Hornbach has built a solid reputation over the years. Founded in Germany in 1877 as a small workshop, the retailer has grown into a major player in the European DIY market, employing 25,000 people. The company remains family operated, with a strong focus on customer satisfaction and long-term growth.

“We have more than 170 stores operating in nine European countries, and we keep expanding our footprint across Europe,” Mueller says. “As Hornbach focuses on providing the best price to its customers, efficiency of processes – and especially an efficient software solution – is key for us.”

How HORNBACH Provides a Consistent Buying Experience Across Channels

Click the button below to load the content from YouTube.

Always allow YouTube Always load all embeds--> Carsten Mueller, head of Enterprise Architecture at Hornbach, on multi-channel retailing; video by John Hunt Expanding the Business Model: From Stores to Reseller Platform

The DIY retailer focuses on four key pillars: a wide product range with more than 120,000 products in categories including building materials, tools, garden, and decorative supplies; large store formats often exceeding 10,000 square meters; a low-price policy with high-quality products; and well-trained staff providing support for DIY projects.

“Everything you need for your garden or home renovation, you can get at Hornbach,” Mueller explains. To offer customers even more products for their personal projects, the retailer decided to level up its online store and create a reseller platform where it will connect offerings from other retailers with its own customer base.

To build a system that would scale to accommodate the expected growth within the next 10 years, Hornbach implemented SAP Order Management foundation as a stable foundation for its corporate strategy.

Enable omnichannel execution with one consistent order across your enterprise Learn how

“SAP Order Management foundation is a system that helps businesses process orders efficiently,” explains Pano Papadopoulos, business development manager for SAP Retail.

“SAP Order Management foundation uses an event-based architecture to rapidly channel any orders through various business systems, including ERP and fulfillment systems,” Papadopoulos adds. “This intelligent system not only processes orders swiftly but also harnesses order data for strategic analysis, enabling smarter business decisions for the future.”

Hornbach already realized the benefits of this solution, Mueller says: “SAP Order Management foundation allows us to access new markets quite fast and connect all the systems we need. In the first month of its launch, we have processed more than 100,000 orders and we can respond to a customer’s order within milliseconds. Today we process up to 1,000 orders in under one minute. This will allow for the order volumes we expect in the future. We measure the success of the solution by using OpenTelemetry, an open source standard, and monitor the processing speed of incoming orders. This way we can tackle potential issues early.”

Besides dealing with large order volumes, Hornbach’s system landscape already proved its adaptability. Due to the flexibility of its modular system landscape, the retailer could integrate a recent acquisition into its operational system in a very short time.

Hybrid Architecture: Connecting to Cloud Services

Hornbach is running on a hybrid system architecture, following its SAP S/4HANA transformation project step-by-step. “We chose a cloud-native architecture that can scale – for all system loads that we might not be aware of today,” Mueller says. SAP Order Management foundation is a cloud-native solution connecting to an on-premise system backbone.

Hornbach wants to be able to add more channels fast and create a seamless customer experience across all its channels. “We aim for a composable enterprise architecture, and for that we use event-driven architectures,” Mueller says. “That’s where SAP comes in, because we’re able to connect our enterprise event mesh to plug in business created through platforms of hyperscalers like Amazon or Azure.” By moving to an event-driven architecture, Hornbach will be able to leverage the power and innovations from hyperscalers as well as connect new systems with current on-premise systems.

In the future, Hornbach will keep transforming its system landscape. SAP Order Management foundation will be rolled out to further countries and the scope of the solution will be extended: B2B orders as well as orders from external marketplaces will be routed through SAP Order Management foundation. Additional solutions like SAP Omnichannel Sales Transfer and Audit will be next on the retailer’s list.

“The combination of new technologies like event-driven architecture, AI, and cloud-native solutions will give Hornbach great power for growth in the next years,” Mueller says, smiling.

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With over 10 million social enterprises operating globally, generating US$2 trillion in revenue annually, and creating 200 million jobs, these businesses are effecting sustainable societal change by putting people and planet first.

With the world in a state of polycrisis – a term describing the simultaneous occurrence of several catastrophic events such as conflict, poverty, unemployment, and climate change – social enterprises are more critical than ever. These organizations, like Faces Up Uganda, Elli Cares, Key Farmers Cameroon, and Alexa Goodman Consulting, are a powerful force for change, and although it may seem like a recent trend, MovingWorlds reports that social enterprises have been around for over 600 years.

However, despite their growing impact, these organizations face a number of hurdles. Limited access to financing, lack of public awareness and recognition, lack of government support, inadequate legal or fiscal frameworks, and restricted access to procurement processes can all hinder their ability to thrive.

At SAP, we actively support social enterprises through our comprehensive corporate social responsibility strategy, which includes knowledge and skills transfer from employees and social procurement. Through this strategy, we facilitate pro bono consulting, mentorships, and coaching opportunities to help support social enterprises to scale their businesses, as well as connect them with new B2B markets like SAP Business Network. This approach can empower social enterprises to overcome business challenges, scale their impact, and achieve their ever-important missions.

SAP is powering equitable access to economic opportunity, education and employment, and the circular economy Learn more Pro Bono Consulting: A Win-Win for Social Enterprises and SAP Employees

Building on more than a decade of experience executing pro bono consulting programs, SAP introduced a new way for more employees to share their expertise and experience with social enterprises through the Acceleration Collective initiative. The initiative is hosted on the TRANSFORM Support Hub, a global platform launched in partnership with MovingWorlds, Unilever, and the TRANSFORM program as a resource for social enterprises to access free, ongoing, bespoke support to scale their business.

Last year alone, 120 SAP employees leveraged their expertise on the platform, completing 51 projects and generating an in-kind contribution of $458,835. This initiative can not only offer growth for the social enterprises but can also foster SAP employees’ development through valuable experiential learning.

Employees Creating Change and Being Changed

SAP employees tap into skills from their day-to-day role and harness this expertise to create a solution to a real business challenge their social enterprise client is experiencing. Through this collaboration, employees contribute to the social enterprise’s mission while given the opportunity to flex and grow valuable leadership skills like cross-cultural collaboration, active listening, and a greater understanding of the challenges that small businesses face. To bring that to life, here are a few inspiring stories from employee participants of Acceleration Collective:

Collaborating with a Youth Art Education Organization on Its Strategic and Funding Plans

David Elliott, a senior user assistance developer at SAP UK, collaborated with Faces Up Uganda, a youth development NGO supporting young people from vulnerable backgrounds. The organization uses arts and crafts education to help young people overcome psychosocial challenges and develop essential personal and professional skills.

Elliott reviewed the organization’s website and strategic plan, enhancing the communication of its vision, mission, and values, and wrote grant applications to help secure funding. His work included regular meetings with the organization’s founder, Ssekitto Kalule Emmanuel, who praised David for making “every word count” and inspiring the team.

“My experience with Faces Up revealed the potential of my skill set,” Elliott added. “Clarifying grammatical rules and style taught me about the impact of language in specific contexts, which has influenced my role at SAP. Seeing my work’s impact and receiving gratitude has motivated me to donate many hours to these projects.”

Partnering for Growing an App Supporting Independence for People Living with Dementia

A team of SAP employees from across the Asia, Pacific, and Japan (APJ) region – Binh Pham, senior value advisor; Sandra Chang, senior commercial business partner; and Summer Zeng, delivery manager, Product Engineering – worked alongside Elli Cares, a startup focused on supporting people with cognitive impairments. The team brainstormed with the founder, offering insights and recommendations on scaling and growing to take the business to the next level.

Pham found the experience fun, insightful, and humbling, as the team learned the challenges that startups like Elli Cares face and provided recommendations and solutions. “I was pleasantly surprised that my skill sets from my day-to-day job were transferrable and applicable to the case of this organization,” Pham said.

Enhancing the Funding Strategy for an Organization Empowering Rural Agricultural Communities

A Germany-based pro bono team – Fabio Westphal, solution advisor; Cansu Günay, enterprise customer success partner; Charlie Vu, specialist solution advisor; and Lilly Selzer, customer success partner – focused on strengthening Key Farmers Cameroon’s investor and donor outreach. This enterprise empowers rural communities through sustainable agriculture and vocational training. The SAP team refined the organization’s pitch deck and social media presence, enhancing its chances of securing funding. Westphal highlighted that he learned the importance of clear, trustful communication and concise storytelling in conveying complex ideas.

Scaling the Online Presence of a Consulting Firm Dedicated to Addressing Environmental Challenges with Creative Scientific Communication

Jaime Atilano, digital solution advisor, and Mallory Rioux, Customer Success, used their expertise in technology, brand building, and customer success to assist Alexa Goodman Consulting. Founded by scientist and environmental activist Alexa Goodman, the firm offers services in environmental education, science communication, professional development, diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), and team building.

The SAP team optimized the organization’s website SEO to drive traffic and grow its online presence. “This experience was eye-opening. It’s one thing to learn about moving from empathy to action, but this opportunity allowed empathy to thrive,” Atilano shared. “I learned new skills, collaborated with a great team, and supported an entrepreneur working to save our oceans and advocate for LGBTQIA+ rights. It brought SAP Corporate Social Responsibility to life and confirmed that there is good in this world, and we can be part of it.”

Are You a New Pro Bono Consultant?

Two of our experts share their advice:

“Have confidence in your ability to provide value where you least expect it.”
– David Elliott, technical communication specialist at SAP

“Embrace the uncomfortable. You won’t know everything, but you are there for a reason. Lean on your strengths and bridge gaps, even in small ways. Learning a new skill can seem daunting, but it’s a win-win: upskilling for you while supporting a social good endeavor. Your effort will make a difference for the client and the world.”
– Jaime Atilano, digital solution advisor at SAP

Looking Ahead

The challenges we face in today’s world may be vast, but the potential for change that is created when social enterprises and professionals come together is even greater. As we move toward solutions, social enterprises have emerged as a springboard to a more just and sustainable future. Through collaboration and the power of collective action, we can further enable these changemakers to create innovative solutions to some of the world’s biggest challenges, all while bolstering the skills and expanding the perspectives of our own employees.

Are you inspired to utilize your skills for good and join the pro bono consulting movement? SAP employees and alumni can find more information through the Acceleration Collective launch page, and professionals from other organizations as well as social enterprises can learn more through the TRANSFORM Support Hub.

Hemang Desai is global program director of the Pro Bono Consulting Portfolio for Corporate Social Responsibility at SAP.

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Historically, procurement teams have not been granted the same access to strategic decision-making as other departments. They’ve been limited within the scope of the supply chain and forced to make choices based on company policy. That is finally shifting as procurement executives have more input in long-term company planning.

In a broad study sponsored by SAP, Economist Impact examines procurement’s growing role, interviewing 2,307 C-suite executives from January to March 2024, spanning multiple countries, regions, and industries. The report finds that external pressures have compelled procurement teams to break down silos and collaborate with other departments to deliver value toward organizational goals. This is not only enhancing cross-functional collaboration but also positioning procurement as a key function in shaping and executing business strategies.

The report, “Across the procurement-verse: Changing trends in the procurement function,” touches on what trends are impacting the growing expectations for procurement.

“The 2024 survey results unmistakably point to an expanding role for procurement in businesses and a growing perception of the function as a value generator,” the report states. Interviewees cite lasting effects from the pandemic, inflation rates, and other supply chain disruptions as reasons for the increasing reliance on procurement.

Effective Collaboration with Chief Operating Officers

With macroeconomic conditions constantly fluctuating, procurement teams are increasingly reporting to chief operating officers (COOs) rather than chief financial officers (CFOs), reflecting the expanding scope of procurement beyond just cost reduction to operational risk management. According to the Economist Impact survey, 75% of respondents agree that procurement collaborates effectively with the rest of the organization to achieve the company vision, a significant increase from the previous year.

However, with only 18% of strongly agreeing, there is still room for improvement in procurement’s collaboration and value creation. “Procurement has often operated in this bubble that was in service of its own goals as opposed to in service of the goals of the wider business,” the report states.

Fortunately, the survey suggests that procurement executives are increasingly focusing on generating insights that align with the needs of various stakeholders, fostering cross-functional collaboration to improve outcomes across the organization.

AI as a Driver for Digitalization

AI has shown that it can increase efficiency across many business use cases. Within procurement, AI and generative AI can optimize spend, enhance supplier management, create cost savings opportunities, and allow procurement professionals to focus on value-adding activities.

Read the full report from Economist Impact Learn more

The Economist Impact data suggests that AI is a significant driver of digital transformation. Accelerating digitalization is tied as the top procurement priority over the next 12-18 months, with 44% of respondents identifying AI as a crucial technology focus. Respondents anticipate that AI would bring about significant enhancements in two areas: the automation of procurement processes (48%) and improved guidance and optimization (45%).

Chief procurement officers (CPOs) are seeing direct impacts on business outcomes through increased technology investment. However, to realize the value of AI, procurement executives must create a road map for change management, adopt new ways of working, and invest in developing new skills for their workforce. The survey cites that 69% of respondents believe a lack of vision and business alignment poses a major change management challenge in procurement transformation.

Inflation’s Lasting Impact

Cost management continues to remain a high priority on procurement’s agenda, especially as high inflation rates become a growing concern for CPOs, with 49% of executives citing monetary uncertainty as their top priority compared to other procurement risks – a 29% jump from 2023. Even while inflation rates have dipped, costs for materials and items remain high.

It is no surprise that 71% of the CPO respondents identify macroeconomic risks as one of the primary external factors influencing their organizations’ strategic priorities over the next 12-18 months.

It is difficult to predict when and if the economic turbulence we are all experiencing will settle down. But, once it does, procurement executives expect to shift their attention to risk management, as 40% cite supplier diversification as a priority over the next three to five years. However, “diversifying from suppliers is not as easy, especially if the supplier is the sole provider of the goods or service, or if they are deeply embedded in the supply chain,” the report states.

Technology can help procurement teams easily identify alternative sources of materials, ensuring supply chain resilience and minimizing the risk of disruptions.

The Sustainable Buyer

As external pressure mounts from internal stakeholders and regulators for companies to act on environmental issues, procurement teams have placed a larger emphasis on sustainability.

In fact, 70% of executives say legal and regulatory non-compliance is a key external risk. Procurement teams have responded accordingly, as 32% of executives list sustainability as a top priority, a 7% increase from 2023. Additionally, the top priority for sustainability among executives is compliance, demonstrating an increased focus on regulatory risks.

The increased attention on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) has been successful, as 68% of executives express confidence in procurement consistently meeting ESG goals, an increase of 21% from the 2023 survey. With long-term sustainability measures in place, procurement teams may serve as a model for regulatory compliance.

Shaping the Procurement Function of the Future

The Economist Impact research indicates procurement’s growing value within organizations, with CPOs and their teams gaining a seat at the table. However, to maintain this position, procurement must address critical areas for improvement, such as spend management and cost control capabilities, where a third of C-suite executives lack confidence in procurement’s abilities.

The survey points to deeper issues, including gaps in procurement’s visibility into stakeholder risks and priorities, limitations in creating accurate spend data, developing clear road maps, and forging deeper relationships with stakeholders. Collaboration and improved communication are crucial for building trust and sustaining engagement with procurement’s insights.

Investing in procurement technology, such as SAP Ariba Procurement solutions, can help address priorities and enhance the procurement function. These solutions can span various aspects of procurement and include new integrations and generative AI features to help automate and streamline processes. Additionally, enhancements to SAP Business Network aim to reduce silos between and within organizations and can result in significant time and cost savings.

Through in-depth interviews and targeted research, the Economist Impact report provides a broad analysis of the state of procurement. View the infographic and download the report.

Baber Farooq is senior vice president for Market Strategy Procurement Solutions at SAP.

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SAP is among the solution leaders according to Chartis Research’s “Integrated GRC Solutions, 2024: Market Update and Vendor Landscape” report.

GRC: Get early and predictive insight into anomalies and potential risks Learn more

“SAP’s category-leading position in our iGRC quadrants reflects its strong set of solutions across most of the major GRC categories,” said Sid Dash, chief research at Chartis. “Moreover, it combines these with a strong element of integration, as well as links with corporate operations and infrastructure management.”

Governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) has evolved from its historical roots in the scope of audit and organizational control, progressing to incorporate a broader set of concepts and procedures.

In the latest release, SAP is featured in six categories: GRC analytics, internal audit, third-party risk, conduct risk and control, EGRC, and operational risks. These categories are evaluated based on two key offering dimensions: offering completeness and market potential.

GRC Analytics

GRC analytics involves not only the overarching qualification of risk, but also the specific methods, models, and techniques than can be used to analyze risk, including dynamic and ad hoc visualization and statistical methods. In this category, SAP is recognized for its industry-leading capabilities in the tool’s offering completeness, as well as advanced features in coverage, mapping and transformation, data management, and visualization.

Internal Audit

When discussing audit management, automation and data-driven activity come into play. As various tools that enable the industrialization of internal audit become more accessible, SAP possesses industry-leading capabilities, specifically in audit content and workflow automation. In addition, capabilities in data management, case management support, and dashboard and control are rated as advanced.

Third-Party Risk

Following several years of disruptions in the supply chain, third-party risk is now being scrutinized more closely from a regulatory perspective. Value chains and third parties are growing more complex and harder to analyze, so a constant IT and cyber risk monitoring process with multiple profiles is becoming an increasingly crucial element of any system. SAP provides industry-leading capabilities in coverage, risk analytics, and process management in this category.

Conduct Risk and Control

The vendor community providing conduct and controls is highly diverse. Many leading consulting companies have extensive content control libraries and have established large sets of control tools that integrate with their core platforms. In this assessment, SAP has achieved the best-in-class capability in control library coverage.

Enterprise GRC

Enterprise GRC (EGRC) amalgamates elements of workflow management, case management, and intelligent automation. The technology available to address EGRC have experienced significant advancements — a revolution — that improve how these processes are managed and automated. SAP leads in prepackaged content, followed by advanced workflow and automation, data management, and content management.

Operational Risk

As a subset of GRC analytics field, operational risk focuses on regulatory support and dynamics. It also emphasizes purer operational risk, which makes a broader collection of operational analytics increasingly relevant. In this case, SAP advances in data management, tools, and visualization.

Vishal Verma is global vice president and head of GRC Product Marketing at SAP.

Chartis RiskTech Quadrants for Governance, Risk and Compliance – 2024 Download the report

WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) will release its full results for the second quarter of 2024 on Monday, July 22.

SAP CEO Christian Klein as well as CFO Dominik Asam will host a virtual analyst conference to present second quarter financial figures, as well as an outlook on the current financial year.

Media representatives may listen in on the virtual analyst conference via Webcast at 11:00 p.m. CEST/ 5:00 p.m. EDT, accessible at https://broadcast.sap.com/go/QReport.

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I’m thrilled to announce significant enhancements to our RISE with SAP commercial packages. These improvements are designed to accelerate digital transformation and bring the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to all our customers.

Since launching RISE with SAP in January 2021, we’ve partnered with thousands of customers across various industries and geographies in their journey to cloud ERP. During this time, we’ve witnessed dramatic shifts in the global business landscape:

• AI and generative AI have become top priorities for executives.
• Business and supply chain risks have intensified.
• ESG regulations have expanded across regions.
• Companies are increasingly reliant on their partner networks.

In response to these changes and valuable customer feedback, we’ve revamped our RISE with SAP offering to better serve our growing customer base.

Packages Designed for Every Need

With RISE with SAP, we continue to offer two main packages to help transform business at your preferred pace and timeline:

• RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, premium: This augments SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition with access to SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), features for low-code application development, additional capabilities for generative AI, CFO suite, SAP Datasphere, and SAP Business Network.
• RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, premium plus: This extends the premium edition with advanced sustainability features, expanded access to generative AI capabilities, and CFO solutions.

AI for All

I’m particularly excited to announce that all RISE with SAP customers will now have access to Joule, our recently announced AI copilot natively integrated into SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, which helps revolutionize the way users interact with their SAP business systems.

Joule serves as a productivity tool that can make every touchpoint count and every task simpler. The AI copilot can significantly enhance the end user experience, allowing interactions in natural language. It helps elevate outcomes for end users and businesses alike by generating insights grounded in the business data, enriched by the business context, and tailored to the end user’s role. It can quickly sort through and contextualize data from multiple systems to surface smarter insights. This democratization of AI capabilities is a game-changer for businesses of all sizes.

Modernize your legacy ERP with an AI-powered cloud ERP from SAP to thrive in the cloud Learn how

AI has significant potential to accelerate business processes and optimize decision-making. We are constantly innovating to deliver more AI-powered business processes that can effect better outcomes for our customers. To enable our customers to pilot these AI-driven innovations, we are including SAP AI units for our premium edition customers. These AI units will enable customers to pilot already delivered, advanced AI innovations like SAP Cash Application, SAP Business Integrity Screening, and SAP Field Service Management. Further, there are many more AI innovations planned on our road map, including sales order fulfillment, transportation management, business partner maintenance, and more.

Data-Driven Decision-Making

All business decisions need to be grounded in accurate and timely data. With this in mind we’re including SAP Datasphere in the premium edition for RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, providing seamless access to mission-critical data from both ERP and third-party sources. This can help supercharge insights and support more informed decision-making across the organization.

Additionally, SAP Analytics Cloud for planning is now part of the premium edition, empowering customers to enhance their financial planning, budgeting, and forecasting using data from their entire system landscape.

Streamlined Supplier Collaboration

SAP Business Network is now also included in the premium edition, enabling customers to create a networked ERP with a supplier portal. This helps simplify spend compliance, improve cash flow, and drive business value by facilitating closer collaboration with suppliers and automating procurement and invoice transactions.

Personalized Onboarding

To help ensure a smooth transition to cloud ERP, we’ve introduced embedded launch activities in every RISE with SAP package. The embedded launch activities include personalized onboarding support through an assigned SAP advisor. The advisor helps customers to navigate the implementation road map and can provide education on the overall journey, RISE with SAP Methodology, the clean core strategy, and initial setup of tools and services. Through initial personalized one-on-one calls and a series of recorded enablement content, the advisor helps ensure the customers are set up for success.

These enhancements reflect our commitment to providing cutting-edge solutions that address the evolving needs of businesses in an increasingly complex global landscape. By integrating AI, improving data accessibility, and streamlining supplier collaboration, we’re empowering our customers to make more informed decisions and drive innovation in their respective industries.

I’m incredibly proud of these improvements and excited to see how they will transform our customers’ businesses. As we continue to innovate and adapt to the changing business landscape, we remain committed to supporting our customers’ success every step of the way.

Learn more about RISE with SAP and the available packages and add-ons available to help you transform your business here.

Maura Hameroff is head of Product Marketing for RISE with SAP.

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Worldwide, women-owned businesses foster equality and economic development that helps lift communities, reduce poverty, improve environmental sustainability, elevate diversified consumer choices and voices, and contribute to more balanced, equitable, and holistic decision-making on broader issues.

It has been challenging, though, for women entrepreneurs and their businesses to be visible in the global marketplace. Equally, it had been difficult for buyers dedicated to diversity and inclusion to identify best-in-class women-owned suppliers.

Not-for-profit WEConnect International, with help from SAP partner Premikati Inc. and SAP experts, worked to develop a solution to expedite and simplify connecting member-buyers with member-suppliers and vice versa while reducing barriers and opening doors for women entrepreneurs to the international value chains.

Connecting US$4 Trillion in Purchasing Power with Women-Owned Businesses

Women own 33% of all privately held businesses worldwide but earn only 1% of the total spend. Many organizations have a clear mandate and mission to seek out women-owned companies. Still, organizations have no easy means of discovering qualified women-owned suppliers in the vast international marketplace. Similarly, women-owned businesses have no clear path to a seat at the table in the conventional system dominated by legacy corporate giants and complex, often rigid government agencies.

WEConnect, helmed by CEO and co-founder Elizabeth Vazquez, stepped in with a vision to bridge the gap with a solution connecting a formidable member-buyer network with a collective annual purchasing power of $4 trillion with women-owned businesses in 135 countries.

Better Together: Customer Conversations with WEConnect International Watch the video A Solution to Lower the Barriers to Supplier Onboarding

Vazquez realized the original WEConnect solution did not allow suppliers and buyers to find each other easily, it was cumbersome for suppliers to apply for certification, and the staff had problems registering and certifying global businesses because the solution only supported one language, English. A new solution had to eliminate those barriers and provide targeted, comprehensive, user-friendly searching for buyers while integrating seamlessly with buyers’ existing technology.

As a lean nonprofit with no IT department, WEConnect relied on the expertise of Premikati, a wholly women-owned business, and SAP, a member-buyer, to design and build WECommunity, the organization’s new, mobile-enabled solution, which helps deliver on its mission to drive revenue to women-owned suppliers around the world. “We wanted to go straight to, what platform is the most commonly used amongst our member buyers for managing their suppliers?” Vazquez recounts. “And it was an obvious decision that SAP was the go-to platform for most of our member-buyers. They use some form of SAP or multiple SAP offerings.”

Improved Search Increases Supplier Onboarding

WECommunity is a trusted self-service solution that allows “buyers and suppliers to find each other efficiently and effectively,” Vazquez explains. In addition to accomplishing that essential goal, WECommunity makes the organization’s robust network of worldwide member-buyers available in 10 of the most common languages among members. The mobile-optimized solution also includes a portal that enables women supplier members to easily register their businesses and initiate requests for certification using just their smartphones.

All the improvements, including added security features, have driven a 95% increase in certified and registered women-owned businesses in the WEConnect database. WECommunity’s streamlined, user-friendly functionality has also made WEConnect more appealing to buyers, and the organization has seen a 91% increase in membership.

100% Increase in Spending on Women-Owned Businesses

Since the launch, WECommunity-tracked spending with women-owned businesses outside the U.S. has doubled, from $4 billion to $8 billion, and the impact of those dollars has rippled far beyond the pockets of business owners. “I am obsessed with moving as much money into the hands of women as quickly as possible because of how they reinvest in their employees, families, and communities,” Vazquez says. Proving her point: in 2021 alone, the certified women-owned businesses in WEConnect’s network created 24,000 new jobs.

Preparing for a Future of Innovation

WEConnect, a 2023 SAP Innovation Award winner, looks forward to scaling its solution to accommodate more suppliers and buyers while continuing to leverage data analytics to empower women-owned businesses. But WEConnect won’t stop there – AI and machine learning are next for added efficiencies, accuracy, and automation as the organization and its membership expand. Vazquez explains that the organization is actively conversing with SAP and other member-buyers: “How do we all collaborate? How do we use AI and machine learning to find the women suppliers of the world, get them up to speed on what it takes to compete for larger contracts, and make it easier for them to connect with buyers?”

With boundless ambition and limitless imagination, the future is bright for women-owned businesses and the families and communities they support.

For More Information

Learn more about how WEConnect builds transformative connections and opportunities for women-owned businesses through its solution built on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), including SAP Integration Suite with intelligent robotic process automation (iRPA).

• Thought leadership podcast: Thulium’s CEO Tamara McCleary sat down with Vazquez to discuss the wide-reaching impact of women-owned businesses and why they are critical to the global economy.
• Practitioners’ video: Vazquez and Timo Elliott discussed the unique challenges of creating a new technology solution with no IT department and takeaways for other nonprofits or small organizations undertaking a digital transformation.

Explore more success stories of customers leveraging SAP BTP to optimize processes for the sake of people and purpose:

• MOD Pizza: People set MOD Pizza LLC apart from the competition. The rapidly growing company knows that when it takes care of employees, it takes care of customers. So, MOD Pizza uses SAP solutions to create a culture of opportunity for 10,000 employees at hundreds of locations and counting.

• Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation: Adopting a culture of innovation to support economic development and community growth, RES Corporation replaced its legacy ERP system with a modern solution offering industry best practice processes and the flexibility to support future business growth and enable new processes and business capabilities.

Explore 31 on-demand episodes of the Better Together: Customer Conversations series at sap.com/btp. Share your input on the topics and technologies you want us to cover. Interested in being a guest on the show? E-mail us.

Timo Elliott is vice president and global innovation advocate for SAP BTP at SAP.

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While Sun Life has been synonymous with traditional insurance, the Canadian-based organization has forged ahead to digitally transform into a fully diversified and modern financial services institution that includes US$1.4 trillion in asset management. In fact, 45% of Sun Life’s income is from wealth and asset management with the rest divided across a comprehensive portfolio of health and insurance products for consumers and institutional clients. Virtual healthcare is among the comapny’s digital innovations that provide customers with access to quality care.

“Our CEO wants us to think and act like a digital company,” said Dariush Shoja, vice president and corporate CIO at Sun Life. “Using SAP S/4HANA Cloud, we are digitizing and modernizing finance.” 

Shoja spoke during a session at the SAP and SAP Fioneer for Financial Services Forum Americas event in Boston, Massachusetts, where he showcased the company’s digital transformation that modernized the company’s finance platform.

Digital Closes Gap Between Generative AI Promise and Reality

Shoja immediately struck a responsive chord from the audience in the room who chuckled when he jokingly asked if anyone’s nightly dreams during college revolved around a career in finance. Drawing from his company’s experience with digital transformation, he acknowledged the industry’s change management challenges.

“When we’re talking about finance in the context of digitization, it’s not just about automation or systems. It’s a paradigm and culture shift,” he said. “You need to start at the top with the CEO, CFO, and everyone on down to support the change. Organizations aiming to become digital and adopt state-of-the-art technologies like generative AI should focus on getting buy-in for the journey.”

Cloud- and AI-based insurance software helps protect your customers’ health, property, and business Learn more Modern Financial Services Platforms Are Cloud-Based

Coming from earlier sessions in the day that touted the incredible promise of technology advancements like generative AI, Shoja was also candid about overcoming the reality that professionals in the financial services industry face.

“Historically there hasn’t been a significant amount of investment to update finance systems that are aging or nearing end of life. However, we saw the opportunity and made the right investment to modernize,” said Shoja. “One of the key enablers of growth is moving to the cloud. Digitization is creating the foundation for our future as we modernize our platforms.”

Connected Data Drives Informed Decisions

One of the objectives of Sun Life’s platform modernization was to connect previously disparate data between geographies and business units. With operations in regions worldwide, including North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, along with an expanding product portfolio, managing data was paramount to effective financial management that fuels customer satisfaction and company growth.

“We have to build, evaluate, and run complex actuarial policy models that meet evolving regulatory mandates worldwide and corporate profitability objectives,” said Shoja. “Going to the cloud has provided efficiencies through consistent operations across every geography. Moving from manual spreadsheets to automated dashboards provides finance with faster access to insightful analytics from larger and more complex data sets. People can easily drill down to find the information they need to make the right optimal decisions.”

Out-of-the-Box Digital Thinking

Like every organization that’s managing millions of transactions, data standardization and integration was extremely important to create Sun Life’s modern global platform.

“Even though our systems were only about 15 years old, eliminating technical debt was key to our transformation,” said Shoja. “We replaced traditional ways of thinking with out-of-the-box strategies, using modern native tools in the cloud platform to gain efficiencies. For example, when we want to pay a claim, the system automatically generates all relevant journal entries. We’ve strategically aligned technology with finance teams.”

AI Can Save Valuable Time for Financial Services

Shoja saw numerous solid use cases for generative AI, traditional AI, and machine learning in the financial services industry. AI could quickly find data gaps, speed up time-sensitive quarterly close, expedite the accrual management, and simplify reporting. Sun Life has created a team that’s focused on AI use cases in finance and other areas. The company is also relying on partners to bring the full value of AI capabilities into the business.

“Large language models may not be feasible for organizations to build on our own. Instead, AI can be built into digital solutions,” he said. “As SAP is doing, we need partners to provide AI solutions and make it part of their package.”

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Cloud ERP helps companies simplify their everyday work and standardize their business processes. As the primary cloud ERP for fast-growing organizations, GROW with SAP helps companies successfully adopt cloud ERP, including a complete offering of solutions, services, and SAP Community and SAP Learning.  

As of today, the premium edition of GROW with SAP will now include access to the SAP Sales Cloud and Concur Expense solutions.

SAP Sales Cloud helps customers improve sales processes, improve forecast accuracy, and increase wins, while Concur Expense helps customers unlock spend insights and optimize performance via a world-class expense management solution. 

SAP Sales Cloud Solution for GROW with SAP  

With SAP Sales Cloud, organizations will benefit from leading sales automation capabilities that are powered by cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI. The inclusion of SAP Sales Cloud with GROW with SAP provides the opportunity for organizations to maximize revenue generation and improve the buying experience.

With SAP Sales Cloud, sales organizations can optimize B2B sales processes by:

• Delivering effective sales engagements that drive revenue and customer loyalty through a single, connected view of data, processes, and people
• Helping sellers focus on key business priorities through guided sales actions and customer insights
• Adapting to new market opportunities through intelligent, flexible sales processes that use data and AI to inform the next best action

Together with GROW with SAP and Concur Expense, organizations can achieve a complete lead-to cash process delivered on cloud-native and user-centric user experience (UX) at the lowest possible TCO. 

SAP Sales Cloud: Improve sales engagements and build lasting relationships Learn more Concur Expense Solution for GROW with SAP

With Concur Expense, customers can transform spend management beyond automation with a connected, flexible solution. With its robust open architecture, Concur Expense enables customized workflows that optimize productivity, ensure compliance, and reduce expenses effortlessly.

 The package includes proven benefits; for example, the ability to: 

• Focus on the most important business tasks through automated and streamlined expense management every step of the way, from receipt capture to report approval
• Get visibility into expenses and reporting needs to better manage spend, wherever and whenever it happens within Concur Expense
• Meet organizational and regulatory compliance needs throughout the expense reporting life cycle

Now, customers can enforce spend management policies, adapt to changing requirements and regulations, and future-proof their organization. Additionally, with the Concur Expense mobile app, employees and supervisors can effectively manage their expenses from any location, on any device.

Concur Expense: Speed up back-office processes, reimburse employees faster, avoid errors, and more Learn more Grow Your Business with the Best of SAP Sales Cloud and Concur Expense

Through these new entitlements, your business can improve sales processes, improve forecast accuracy, and increase wins with SAP Sales Cloud, and also unlock spend insights and optimize performance with Concur Expense.

Together, organizations have the tools they need to optimize their business and build a connected foundation for future success. 

• Learn more about GROW with SAP here
• Discover more about the premium edition of GROW with SAP here

Jonathan Rhodes is senior vice president and head of Product Marketing for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition at SAP.

The Support Accreditation course serves as a comprehensive resource for customers and partners engaging with SAP’s support channels and services, providing a detailed overview of our support offerings and tools.

In this interview, Dennison John, support center network head and managing director of SAP Labs Latin America, shares insights on the latest advancements in this fundamental training. 

Q: Can you provide a recap of the Support Accreditation course and its importance for those who engage with support from SAP?  

A: Support Accreditation is a training that covers all the support services and tools offered by SAP. Launched in 2020, the course is continuously updated to align with the evolving nature of our support offerings. It is designed to equip SAP users with all requisite resources they need when engaging with support from SAP. The easy-to-use units can guide you through the material with one-pager snapshots, how-to guides, and interactive quizzes.

Q: What has changed in this updated version of Support Accreditation? 

A: In the second release, we have a dedicated unit on AI. This new unit covers advanced topics such as AI-driven support innovations, proactive and predictive support mechanisms, and deep dives into complex support scenarios. These topics are designed to provide those who take the course with cutting-edge knowledge and skills that can enable them to leverage the latest SAP technologies and methodologies to help resolve issues more efficiently and anticipate potential problems before they arise. 

Q: What specific aspects of AI-guided support are covered?  

A: The new unit on AI-guided support covers a range of topics, including the fundamentals of AI in support, how AI algorithms are used to predict and prevent issues, and the practical application of AI tools like Incident Solution Matching and predictive analytics. It also explores the integration of AI with existing support channels and how AI can enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of support operations. The course provides hands-on training and real-world examples of how these AI tools can be used to streamline support processes, reduce response times, and improve overall support quality. 

Participants can leverage AI-guided support tools to improve their operations by using AI-driven insights to predict potential issues before they occur, automate routine support tasks, and provide faster, more accurate solutions to common problems. The course teaches one how to integrate these tools into their daily workflows, enabling them to reduce response times, increase the accuracy of issue resolution, and enhance the overall customer support experience. 

Get started with support from SAP with Support Accreditation Learn more

Q: Are there any additional lessons in the second release of Support Accreditation?  

A: Yes, we have several new lessons, including support for our SAP Ariba, SAP Fieldglass, and SAP Concur solutions. As a result, we can confidently assert that the Support Accreditation course can now provide comprehensive learning material for our full suite. 

Q: How does Support Accreditation help in utilizing Real-Time Support more effectively?  

A: The training provides detailed modules on Real-Time Support channels, such as Expert Chat, Schedule an Expert, Schedule a Manager, and Ask an Expert Peer. These lessons help in understanding how to access and use these channels efficiently. By familiarizing one with the functionalities and best practices of these tools, the course helps ensure they can quickly and effectively resolve support issues as they arise. 

Q: What feedback have you received regarding the first release, and how has it influenced the second release?  

A: The feedback from the first release has been overwhelmingly positive, with many appreciating the comprehensive nature of the course and the clarity of the content. However, some suggested deeper dives into specific advanced topics. Additionally, we are continuously refining the course content based on ongoing feedback to ensure it meets the evolving needs of our customers and partners. 

Q: How does SAP measure the effectiveness of the training in improving customer and partner interactions with SAP support?  

A: We measure the effectiveness through several key metrics, including feedback, course completion rates, and the impact on support case resolution times. We are delighted by the significant number of customers and partners who have completed the accreditation. Within the initial six months, we have surpassed 3,500 customers and partners who have successfully completed the course and obtained a record of achievement. This certification demonstrates their comprehensive understanding of the course material.  

We encourage all to provide feedback on the content and their overall learning experience after completing the course. Additionally, we analyze data on support case resolution times to assess if there has been an improvement in efficiency and effectiveness as a result of the training. This comprehensive evaluation helps us continuously refine the course to better meet the needs of our customers and partners. 

Q: How does the course address self-service and case prevention strategies?  

A: Support Accreditation includes comprehensive units on self-service and case prevention strategies. These units provide participants with tools and techniques to help proactively address potential issues before they escalate to support cases. Topics covered include using SAP Knowledge Base Articles, leveraging automated tools for common problem resolution, and implementing best practices for maintaining system health. By focusing on these strategies, the course can empower all to minimize downtime and improve system performance, leading to more efficient operations. 

Q: How does the training contribute to the long-term success of SAP customers and partners?  

A: The course contributes to the long-term success of SAP customers and partners by providing them with the skills and knowledge needed to help optimize their use of SAP support services. This can lead to more efficient issue resolution, reduced system downtime, and better overall performance. For partners, the course can help them deliver superior service, build stronger client relationships, and achieve better project outcomes. For customers, the course helps foster self-sufficiency and confidence in managing their SAP systems, ultimately driving business growth and success. 

Leonardo Mauhs is part of Customer Support at SAP.

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The excitement of football fans in Europe and around the world for the European championship this summer is high, as Germany takes on the role of host for the second time in the history of the tournament.

While fans enjoy action-packed games, the service in the stadiums also plays a crucial role. Food and drinks are an important part of the stadium experience, and smooth processes are essential for this. Fans want to get their favorite snacks and drinks quickly so they don’t miss a minute of the game. Efficient service not only ensures satisfied visitors but also contributes to the overall mood and atmosphere in the stadium.

This means that the behind-the-scenes systems for orders and payments must function flawlessly. Fast and reliable checkout systems are essential to avoid long queues and serve fans in the shortest possible time. A smooth transaction process helps fans enjoy the action on the field without interruptions.

SAP Technology Drives Smooth Processes at the Stadiums

SAP is also part of the action. SAP Customer Checkout, an integrated point-of-sale application for the gastronomy and retail industry, helps ensure that the fans’ catering runs smoothly and efficiently. The application is in use at four venues of the championship: Munich, Stuttgart, Duesseldorf, and Cologne, where it has already proven to be effective at numerous events.

The application is designed to serve a large number of fans in the shortest possible time, even during high visitor traffic periods. Its efficiency has been successfully demonstrated not only in football stadiums but also at large international events such as EXPO 2020 in Dubai. The payment flexibility in SAP Customer Checkout can also be a great advantage, allowing international visitors in particular to pay with Alipay, Apple Pay, or other options.

Caterers at the Venues Rely on SAP

The catering providers in Stuttgart, Duesseldorf, Cologne, and Munich already use SAP Customer Checkout and are delighted with the results. Michael Fichtner, CIO of FC Bayern Munich Digital & Media Lab, says: “We have been relying on SAP Customer Checkout at the Allianz Arena in Munich for years and appreciate the speed, reliability, and variety of payment methods available. We are also expecting numerous international visitors during the European championship and trust that SAP Customer Checkout will ensure smooth processes.”

The use of SAP Customer Checkout at the 2024 tournament is also a significant milestone for SAP. “We are excited to be part of the European championship, the biggest football event of the year in Germany, and to optimize processes for fans, cashiers, and caterers with SAP Customer Checkout,” says Fadi Naoum, senior vice president at SAP Sports and Entertainment.

This article first appeared on the German SAP News Center.

Get the point-of-sale functionality you need to excel across sports and entertainment, retail, merchandising, and catering Learn more

The leading Italian multiutility company Iren Group follows an ambitious 2030 vision to meet the needs of citizens and territories. It is built upon three strategic pillars: ecological transition, territoriality, and service quality. On its overall innovation path, Iren identified opportunities to improve its IT device assignment, replacement, and return processes.

With one specific device assignment use case in mind and based on its existing relationship with SAP AppHaus, Iren approached SAP in early 2024. The company’s goal was to not only make the corresponding processes more efficient but also eliminate potential error sources; it had detected errors caused by reliance on e-mail communication or through error-prone manual data entry. What’s more, the company wished to have transparent process insights and get real-time updates on device status and availability.

Building on SAP BTP

To work on this innovation step, Iren Group’s IT department asked for expertise support in testing and applying SAP Build Apps. For a first kick-off meeting, the SAP AppHaus team invited Burak Demir, product manager, SAP Build Apps, to join the project. With the customer’s system landscape built on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), the joint project team took a first step to check the SAP Discovery Center site for existing solutions. They encountered a helpful use case in the “Keep the Core Clean Using SAP Build Apps with SAP S/4HANA” mission. The mission allowed them to build upon prior experiences, benefit from existing material, and get helpful guidance that was, to a certain extent, applicable to Iren’s system landscape.

The New Solution: SAP Build Apps and SAP Build Work Zone

The new solution consists of different components, such as SAP Build Apps, SAP S/4HANA, SAP Build Work Zone, as well as the SAP S/4HANA solution for waste and recycling, which provides a platform for managing device records and information.

“My role in this project was to be available for very specific questions,” Demir says. “Iren’s citizen developers did a great job in using and applying the available material and resources! They used SAP Build Apps very successfully to solve one defined use case, which is exactly what the product was made for. And even if the impact of this one web application may not be too impressive yet because of the number of users, the enablement and experience the customer team gained in creating it is invaluable. I am sure it will encourage the team to look for more innovation opportunities that can be addressed with the help of SAP Build Apps.”

Smooth Operations and Transparency in Device Management

With the new web application that was built with SAP Build Apps and deployed to SAP Build Work Zone, Iren gained real-time updates and visibility of device status. The seamless integration with OData library allowed for automatic device creation and updates, eliminating the need for manual data entry. The use of the new solution further improved the accuracy and reliability of device records. What’s more, it brought about significant time savings, enhanced transparency, and much-desired visibility into device status.

“In our IT department, this app has truly improved our device assignment processes by eliminating the manual process via e-mail and automatically importing data from an SAP Build Apps web form into SAP,” Sara Miola, IT specialist at Iren Group, says. “We have achieved significant time savings and increased efficiency, as the time spent has been reduced from several days to few minutes. The implementation of SAP has enabled us to overcome our challenges, resulting in streamlined processes and enhanced device management effectiveness.”

Develop enterprise apps with drag-and-drop simplicity Explore SAP Build Apps