What's New

The Biggest Opportunity for Businesses Today: Using the Right Business Data

SAP News - Mon, 03/11/2024 - 06:05

There is no doubt that generative AI for business will transform every aspect of how business is done. But the reality is that generative AI is only as good as the data that it’s trained on.

While data may be the fuel powering the engine of AI, it’s good data that’s the real game changer. With good data, a company can automate processes — freeing up their people to do the most impactful work — and analyze the most important variables facing their business to create intelligent insights.

That’s where a datasphere comes in. It makes data more complete and logical by understanding the different relationships within a company’s data. And that’s what can truly bring out the best in any business today.

Deliver seamless and scalable access to mission-critical business data Explore SAP Datasphere

Having a central hub for data is more critical than ever. It allows our customers to better model their business across all SAP business applications. That’s exactly why we introduced SAP Datasphere last year to empower businesses with insights they need – based on the right data – in the context of their business. Since then, generative AI has disrupted and simplified even more business processes, and data capture is no different. This week we announced new generative-AI features in SAP Datasphere that will transform enterprise planning through simplified data landscapes and more-intuitive data interaction.

Why is this important? Because having a unified data view that simplifies the data landscapes while retaining context and logic is what enables businesses to adapt faster to market changes and make better decisions. It’s also a more efficient way of working. Because while you’re busy pulling data together, competitors are circling your customers.

I am constantly speaking with our customers about the value of SAP Datasphere. It’s a data architecture that harmonizes mission-critical data across an organization. I hear amazing outcomes they’re able to achieve: from PwC breaking down silos in the different countries where it stores sensitive data so its workforce can access it more efficiently and securely for customers, to the Lufthansa Group taking data from different parts of its operations like aircraft, HR, and procurement, to see how decisions from one could impact the other. 
 
With our additional news this week, such as making our generative AI copilot Joule available in SAP Analytics Cloud and expanding our partnership with Collibra to help our customers meet compliance, privacy, and regulatory requirements related to AI as they evolve, we’re making it easier to find the right data and use it to drive deeper insights, more efficiencies, faster growth, and more trust in their business.

While PwC and Lufthansa show what’s possible today with a simplified data fabric, imagine what is about to become possible when you infuse it with the power of generative AI that understands your business – and then learns from that data. This has the potential to deliver exponential value from your data.

Or think of it this way: years ago, the biggest differentiators for businesses were price, location, products, and services. Today, and especially in the years ahead, it could very well be how effectively a business is training their AI models. That’s why building the right data fabric is one of the most important investments any business can make today.

It’s been said that the best way to predict the future is to invent it. And in an era where data is being created exponentially, I believe that those businesses that can separate the signal from the noise when it comes to their data will be the ones that invent the future in an AI-first world.

Scott Russell is a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE.

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Categories: What's New

HomeMade: Self-Service Home Care Because There Is No Place Like Home

SAP News - Fri, 03/08/2024 - 09:15

People over age 65 made up 16% of the Australian population in 2020, and they’re on track to represent more than 22% by 2026. This growing cohort is increasingly forgoing traditional facility care models to remain at home. The Australian government offers financial support to qualifying citizens, who can use those funds to support in-home care.

These government funds are typically managed by a traditional provider who establishes a plan within the customer’s budget and assigns caregivers. They offer limited to no choice regarding providers and little transparency on how the funds are being spent. This inefficient and costly approach reduces available funds for actual care with limited and often unfamiliar providers.

Enter HomeMade, a startup looking to disrupt the home care sector with a transformative solution that would empower customers to not only stay in their own homes but also to oversee their spending and self-select their providers. With an initial staff of only six, HomeMade set out to create a technology platform that would deliver efficiency, flexibility, transparency, and ease of use for customers and a scalable model that would grow and evolve with the company.

A Rock-Solid Technology Foundation for a Digitally Native Startup

Technology is at the heart of HomeMade’s business model, so choosing the right technology partner and the right digital platform was essential. “We wanted a solution that would give us that ability to scale rapidly and with confidence knowing that the rails weren’t going to fall off, because to be digitally enabled is what makes us different,” Laura Westhorpe, HomeMade general manager, said.

HomeMade found the perfect partner in Bourne Digital, part of Accenture, which steered the startup to SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). In choosing the platform, HomeMade benefits from a locally hosted, high-performance cloud architecture that can scale across its network. As a React Native open-source Cloud Foundry runtime service, the HomeMade application is intuitive, user-friendly, and easy for the company to maintain and support long term. Add SAP Integration Suite and SAP HANA data storage into the mix and HomeMade emerged with a secure, integrated, and scalable technology foundation to offer efficient care and support to Australia’s at-home care population.

Bring out your best with data and AI from SAP BTP Learn more Young Company Makes an Outsize Impact

In just two years, HomeMade has grown its business to 2,500 customers and reduced new user onboarding time from 14 days to 48 hours. The company has empowered qualifying citizens to manage their budgets and choose their care while saving 14 million Australian dollars and counting.

Customers and families rave about the solution’s functionality and ease of use. HomeMade’s team members, who have grown to over 100, can happily focus on the customer instead of the endless paperwork they might find in traditional care management. Service providers appreciate timely payment, and another critical stakeholder – the Australian government – conducted a regulatory compliance audit and found that HomeMade scored 100% across 42 requirements for the Age Care Quality Safety Standards.

And this is only the beginning for a new company already making an appreciable impact. “As the needs of HomeMade grow and evolve, the platform will grow and evolve with HomeMade,” Selim Ahmed, managing director of Bourne Digital, part of Accenture, explained. For example, Ahmed continued, “We leverage AI business services to read documents…and we’re feeling really confident that those AI services will continue to play a part in the future evolution of HomeMade as the company moves more and more towards automation and self-service.”

Adding Value Through Innovation

An SAP Innovation Award winner in 2023, HomeMade continues to grow and think creatively about how its foundational SAP BTP-based technology can enable it to continue to innovate and add value for customers. “There are endless opportunities,” Westhorpe said, from increasing efficiency to leveraging data to identify falls or other incidents to using large language models to recognize clinical deterioration in users and launch preventative interventions.

For other startups looking to build technology solutions that will make a dramatic impact, Westhorpe offered to consider, “You want to build everything and you’ve got all these grand ideas, but what are the biggest things that will add value for customers?” Ahmed adds that resilience, a strong partnership, and hard work are critical: “Adapt, learn, grow together, and accept feedback…To build something innovative, you must be prepared to roll up your sleeves.”

The Full Episode

Special thanks to SAP AppHaus, a hub for fostering human-centered innovation, for collaborating on this Better Together: Customer Conversations on SAP Business Technology Platform episode. Learn more about how HomeMade built a better solution for qualifying citizens:

  • Thought leadership podcast: Thulium’s CEO Tamara McCleary sat down with Westhorpe and Ahmed to discuss the change in caring for older adults, home-based care, and how technology can deliver on a promise dedicated to purpose.
  • Practitioners’ video: Westhorpe, Ahmed, and I discussed the challenges and opportunities in creating a world-class digital solution for a small but rapidly scaling startup.

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

  • Colsubsidio: This nonprofit provider of wide-ranging social services chose SAP BTP and SAP HANA Cloud to enable extensive solution integrations, helping deliver better data connectivity and operational efficiency.
  • Heartland Dental: Administratively supporting over 1,700 dental practices, Heartland Dental leverages SAP BTP to help improve the business assistant’s user experience, increase productivity, and reduce turnover.

For the full episode and the on-demand Better Together: Customer Conversations series, visit sap.com/btp.

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

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Categories: What's New

SAP AppHaus Network to Onboard New Partners in North America

SAP News - Thu, 03/07/2024 - 09:15

SAP plans to establish additional partner-driven locations for the SAP AppHaus Network in North America and is seeking SAP partners interested in applying to join the network and open a new location.

SAP AppHaus locations are customer-facing sites that represent the next step in SAP’s evolution of innovating with customers by putting the human experience first. The first SAP AppHaus was established in 2013. Today, the network is 23-strong across the globe, including three SAP-driven and 19 partner-driven locations.  

At the heart of SAP AppHaus Network is the belief that innovation requires a multidisciplinary team, a creative environment, and a human-centered approach to ensure innovation meets real-world needs. This human-centered approach combines design thinking and architecture thinking to make sure solutions are experientially desirable, technologically feasible, and financially viable. In short, the three success ingredients are people, process, and place.

SAP is continuously innovating for customers – and the future See how

“The award-winning human-centric approach to innovation that we and selected SAP partners apply in customer engagements creates significantly higher business outcomes,” states Birgit Fien-Schmalzbauer, global head of the SAP AppHaus Partner Network. “Involving end users, IT, and the business of the customer in a systematic way, for example, leads to higher user satisfaction and less training effort for newly introduced solutions. It supports customers in leveraging the opportunities brought about by the newest technologies, such as SAP Business AI, even in the short term.”

The next growth region for extending SAP AppHaus Network will be North America. The high demand for human-centric customer engagements led to the decision to further expand the reach of the current network representation in North America consisting of three locations:

“Customers in North America, like our customers in other regions, are looking for support to keep up with changing market environments and state-of-the-art technologies along their business transformation journey,” states Thorsten Leiduck, global head of SAP Business Technology Platform Ecosystem at SAP. “The services offered by partner members of SAP AppHaus Network provide our clients with the benefits of a human-centered innovation approach that leverages the power of SAP Business Technology Platform. Customers gain a significant competitive advantage by embracing a culture of innovation and improving their business processes through SAP technologies.”

“Our partners are qualified and trained in our innovation approach and can therefore enable customers to leverage SAP Business Technology Platform for their best benefit,” adds Carlos Estala Velasco, regional lead of SAP AppHaus Partner Network Americas, SAP. “I am looking forward to continuing to drive the Americas chapter of SAP AppHaus Network and expanding innovation opportunities for our regional customers.”

Interested partners are invited to apply. To do so, visit apphaus.sap.com/network and choose “Get in Contact” to request the submission template or more information. Submissions are open until April 30, 2024.

Svenja Mueller is program manager for SAP AppHaus Network.

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Categories: What's New

SAP Shapes the Future of Data-Driven Business Transformation with Innovations that Equip Customers to Succeed in the Era of AI

SAP News - Wed, 03/06/2024 - 10:01

WALLDORF SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced transformative data innovations that will help customers harness the full power of their data to drive deeper insights, faster growth and more efficiency in the era of AI. New capabilities in the SAP Datasphere solution, including new generative-AI features, transform enterprise planning through simplified data landscapes and more-intuitive data interaction.

“Capturing data to make better decisions is an enterprise technology imperative that’s become increasingly critical as AI – which relies on quality data – revolutionizes every aspect of business,” said Juergen Mueller, SAP Chief Technology Officer and member of the Executive Board. “Our newest SAP Datasphere innovations, as well as an expanded partnership with Collibra, represent a quantum leap in our ability to help customers drive intelligent business transformations through data.”

Deliver seamless and scalable access to mission-critical business data Explore SAP Datasphere

At the heart of these announcements is the business data fabric, an architecture that helps ensure data is not just an asset but also the core underpinning of strategic initiatives. The innovations and partnership announced today equip organizations to deliver meaningful data to data consumers – with business context and logic intact.

“We have decided to leverage SAP Datasphere for a modern business data fabric architecture in conjunction with our SAP S/4HANA landscape. It allows us to effectively establish a modern data analytics platform that enables a business self service capability on the basis of trusted data and data models,” said Achim Welter, Senior Director ERP, Digital & IT Strategy, Hershey’s.

Today’s SAP Datasphere innovations help customers achieve a unified data view that simplifies their data landscapes while retaining context and logic – enabling them to adapt faster to market changes and make more-efficient decisions. From new copilot and vector database capabilities that help ensure business context remains constant in generative AI outputs to a new knowledge graph that helps uncover insights and patterns in complex data, SAP’s data innovations help ensure customers have the full power of their data at their fingertips.

Today’s key innovations include:

Generative-AI Copilot and AI Governance

SAP’s generative-AI assistant, the Joule copilot, is now coming to the SAP Analytics Cloud solution to automate the creation and development of reports, dashboards, plans and more. This automation is enabled by the SAP HANA Cloud vector engine capabilities, which combine the power of large language models with the relevant data of your organization – helping ensure business context is a constant for generative-AI outputs.

Incorporating generative AI across the business isn’t possible without trusted and governed data. To provide organizations with a solution to govern the policies, processes and practices of AI, SAP is announcing an expansion of our partnership with Collibra to integrate Collibra’s AI Governance with SAP data assets. This can help provide transparency and accountability for organizations and help ensure regulatory, compliance and privacy policies are met.

Discover Hidden Insights and Patterns with Knowledge Graph

With the new SAP Datasphere knowledge graph, organizations can discover hidden insights and patterns across their applications and systems. This enables both technical and business users to deeply understand the relationships between data, metadata and business processes, as well as boost the effectiveness of machine learning and large language models.

Unified and Advanced Planning and Analytics

The new SAP Datasphere integration with SAP Analytics Cloud offers a single data management system and advanced analytics to power cross-organizational planning. Planners can leverage a single flexible model to break down silos between planning using one tool for data preparation, modeling and planning.

Additionally, business users can use the new compass capability in SAP Analytics Cloud to realize better outcomes in planning and analytics through data-driven simulation. It enables organizations to run complex simulations using a chat interface to evaluate predictive outcomes and continually adjust controllable variables to find the optimal plan.

This supports customers to transform their planning by unifying financial, operational, supply chain and workforce planning with native connection to SAP applications and third-party data.

To learn more, please read: Unleashing the Latest SAP Data and Analytics Innovations.

Visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP at @SAPNews.

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About SAP

SAP’s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: SAP customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 26 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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Categories: What's New

Unleashing the Latest SAP Data and Analytics Innovations

SAP News - Wed, 03/06/2024 - 10:00

Today at SAP Data Unleashed, SAP proudly announced the latest innovations in data and analytics.

Read on to learn more about these transformative announcements, which will enable businesses to unlock new potential in the areas of data management, AI-driven planning, and analytics.

Access Insights Wherever Your Data Resides

SAP Datasphere Knowledge Graph

SAP Datasphere knowledge graph will enable organizations to better represent their real-world use of data, leading to more effectively leveraging it for generative AI and better reasoning.

As data is onboarded, transformed, and integrated in SAP Datasphere, SAP Datasphere knowledge graph automatically creates an ontology representing the relationships in the data, including the inherent business context from SAP application sources like SAP S/4HANA. This is then available to be extended and augmented via an ontology editor to reflect specific attributes within an organization. Finally, the data in SAP Datasphere is automatically applied to this ontology to create a knowledge graph that allows the data to be processed as a semantic web of relationships, drawing new insights from connections that are otherwise difficult to follow.

These knowledge graphs are better suited for answering complex, often open-ended questions. For example, a marketing manager might ask a question like: “What type of campaign for mountain bikes works best for my highest performing cities with a population over 1 million?”

Knowledge graphs can provide better context to large language models (LLMs) and prevent AI-generated “hallucinations.” SAP Datasphere knowledge graph will enable organizations to unleash the power of AI for even the most complex queries.

The effort and cost of manually creating knowledge graphs is typically very high. SAP Datasphere knowledge graph overcomes this by pre-populating the knowledge graphs using all the valuable content already available in SAP Datasphere. The knowledge graph can then be used with Joule, SAP’s generative AI co-pilot, allowing business users to ask both open-ended and specific questions and get instant and well-documented answers. Sign up for a preview of SAP Datasphere knowledge graph via the link below.

Auto-generated knowledge graphs enable AI to answer complex, open-ended questions

SAP HANA Cloud Vector Engine

With the next release of SAP HANA Cloud, a vector capability will be added to existing multi-model capabilities, allowing customers to gain value from all relevant types of business data using a single database. The inclusion of a vector engine further enables customers to build intelligent data applications that combine the natural intuition of human interaction with powerful machine learning and multi-model processing capabilities.

The vector engine in SAP HANA Cloud provides the ability to store and compare vectors using SQL. Determining similarity between vectors enables use cases such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), recommendations, classifications, clustering, and more. Key benefits of SAP HANA Cloud vector engine include:

  • Simplify data architecture and security with a single multi-model database with SQL interaction
  • Gain new insights by combining spatial, graph, JSON, and relational data with vector queries
  • Easily incorporate vector use cases in solutions based on the HANA Cloud ecosystem (clients, Python libraries, CAP, etc.)
  • Integrate with open-source community tools such as LangChain via plug-ins

SAP HANA Cloud vector engine is currently in public preview and is planned for general availability in late Q1 2024.

Simplified Consumption of Data Products in SAP Datasphere

Data products facilitate self-service access to data as a product and enable data sharing across application boundaries. Data consumers need an easy way to explore, understand, and activate the data needed to perform their tasks — and data providers need an easy way to publish their assets and make them available to data consumers.

SAP is innovating in this space with an improved user experience that drives data sharing at scale. This starts with published data products, whether produced by SAP line-of-business applications, industry solutions, or third parties, and follows with simple consumption in SAP Datasphere.

In SAP Datasphere, customers will find ready access to SAP and non-SAP data products and easily install them into their SAP Datasphere instance. The procedure establishes relevant connections and creates the necessary artifacts in SAP Datasphere without the user having to enter those details. Key to this is making data provisioning easier via metadata, which are described via the Open Resource Directory (ORD) protocol. The experience will be harmonized within SAP Datasphere by bringing catalog and the data product installation closely together. Visit SAP Road Map Explorer for the latest updates.

Data products available in catalog enhances the experience and productivity of data users

SAP Datasphere Semantic Onboarding Enhancements

Semantic onboarding provides a seamless import of semantically rich objects from SAP S/4HANA and SAP BW/4HANA into SAP Datasphere. Now, we are taking the next step by adding support for SAP HANA Cloud and SAP data products through the same unified onboarding experience.

Customers will be able to combine their SAP HANA Cloud modeling approach with SAP Datasphere by importing calculation views into the data layer of SAP Datasphere. This preserves the semantic information such as measures, attributes, hierarchies, aggregations, and currencies/units, while keeping SAP HANA Cloud and SAP Datasphere objects in sync — allowing customers to leverage their prior investments in SAP HANA modeling.

Likewise, semantic onboarding of SAP data products will enable inheritance of business context from SAP line-of-business applications and industry solutions. By providing the semantics of the source systems and transferring that into the business data fabric as a foundation, SAP Datasphere drastically improves the analytic workflow and accelerates and simplifies data-driven insights.

Collibra AI Governance Integration with SAP Solutions

The SAP and Collibra partnership enables end-to-end data governance and delivers trusted data to all users across the business data fabric. As more tasks and decisions are automated by AI within critical business processes, the need to extend governance to AI has also become apparent.

The partnership with Collibra is being expanded to address the data and AI governance needs of joint customers via Collibra AI Governance. We will build tailored integrations between Collibra AI Governance and SAP solutions to connect the data used for AI with the models themselves in a single platform, allowing enterprises to track and manage their AI development efforts.

  • Customers will better understand data lineage and metadata of SAP data that is utilized in AI modeling. With that, users can see what data their AI models were trained on to ensure that the data is accurate and from a trusted source.
  • Customers will benefit from a single view to understand what AI models exist in their organization, and what data is being used to power them. AI/machine learning models created with SAP technology will be registered with the Collibra AI Governance platform.

This extension of the SAP partnership with Collibra will increase transparency and accountability for organizations, and help ensure that regulatory, compliance, and privacy policies are being met. More importantly, it will build user trust by preventing biased decision-making, inaccurate recommendations, and other risks arising from AI.

Together, SAP and Collibra will help joint customers address the data and AI governance needs across their organizations. Collibra AI Governance was launched last week and is available to interested customers.

SAP Datasphere Confluent Integration

Core to the SAP data strategy is providing customers with the ability to interoperate with the world’s leading data and AI vendors through an open data ecosystem. To this end, the newly enhanced Confluent integration enables real-time streaming of data to and from SAP Datasphere.

First, the outbound capabilities were extended by taking advantage of Confluent’s proprietary schema registry capabilities. Second, the Confluent schema registry will be used to enable seamless consumption of Confluent data within SAP Datasphere.

The integration is specifically tailored to Confluent and provides a superior user experience for joint customers. It allows connections on the application level without additional custom application development. The integration is a pre-established replication flow in SAP Datasphere, which already includes delta and real-time processing natively. This makes the process very efficient as it does not force customers to load all the data at every step, but only when data has changed.

The first integration for data ingestion into Kafka and Confluent is generally available. Additional capabilities for Confluent specific outbound and inbound integration will be generally available at the end of Q1 and Q3, respectively.

Transform Planning with a Business Data Fabric

SAP Analytics Cloud for Planning Deep Integration to SAP Datasphere

SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud for planning will be more closely integrated to expand the business data fabric to planning use cases. SAP Analytics Cloud planning models can be deployed into SAP Datasphere, bringing plan and actuals data together for real-time steering.

Through a reduction in both data footprint and modeling efforts, SAP Analytics Cloud extends planning functionality via SAP Datasphere and its native capabilities for transformation and integration. This reduces the complexity and risk inherent in storing multiple copies of data which is prevalent today.

SAP Analytics Cloud for planning will have live access to actual and plan data for extended planning and analysis scenarios, including the live usage of master data. With this, SAP Datasphere will become the platform on which planning processes and tools can integrate.

In this example, third-party inflation data from the World Bank (blue box) is provisioned through Datasphere to help planners do scenario planning with SAP Analytics Cloud compass

SAP is the only vendor to offer a business data fabric that seamlessly integrates planning and therefore covers the entire technology stack required to transform data into insights and future actions. Visit SAP Road Map Explorer for the latest updates.

Foster Trusted AI Across Your Business

SAP Analytics Cloud Generative AI Co-Pilot

SAP customers will embrace the power of generative AI to create and simulate business plans in SAP Analytics Cloud. With the power of Joule, planning and analytics professionals can leverage generative AI capabilities in a wide range of business processes. Activities such as data discovery, dashboard creation, planning model maintenance, and more are benefitting from a boost in core capabilities and an unmatched user experience.

With the power of natural language processing, end users can easily run analytical queries, simulate driver impacts, plan resource allocations, and auto-generate dashboards and calculations. For example, a business user seeking to understand why gross margins declined in the latest version of a plan could query Joule, which could automatically look through previous plan iterations and attached comments, and uncover the fact that planners were estimating higher commodity costs.

SAP’s investment in AI and its understanding of the context of business data provides truly limitless potential in unleashing the world of planning and analytics.

A preview of Joule co-pilot functionality in SAP Analytics Cloud is planned to be available in Q2 2024. Sign up for the preview via the link below.

With Joule co-pilot, planning and analytics professionals can prompt Joule to analyze all aspects of extended planning and create new analytical views on the fly, provisioned specially for individual user types

SAP Analytics Cloud Compass

In an increasingly volatile business climate, it is essential to create operational and financial plans and provision BI insights with risk mitigation in mind. This requires the ability to simulate uncertainties and the probability of their impact. Knowing how uncertainties in commodity prices, labor costs, or production volumes will hit your operational expenses or revenue means that companies can quickly prepare and plan counter measures for any scenario.

SAP Analytics Cloud compass provides Monte Carlo simulation capabilities with a business user-friendly interface. This enables non-technical users to perform real-time multi-variate analysis without prior IT setup or advanced statistical skills.

Users can perform business simulations directly in SAP Analytics Cloud at a fraction of the time and effort required to perform similar analysis manually. Scenario modeling capabilities will allow comparisons between assumptions, and the reporting of impact variances provides real-time insight, concept validation, and reveals the sensitivity of the drivers chosen. Now customers can identify their major drivers and combinations over time, enabling a better understanding of the dynamics between the data, and how to continuously simulate better and faster. With compass, customers can face the future with confidence.

A preview of SAP Analytics Cloud compass is planned to be available at the end of Q3 2024. Sign up for the preview via the link below.

SAP Analytics Cloud compass showing distribution of impact probability on the operating income based on a simulation of uncertainty in inputs such as inflation or other relevant drivers. Get Started Today

Begin your path toward unlocking the full potential of your business data with SAP Datasphere. Embrace the opportunity to seamlessly integrate and activate your data landscape, propelling your business into a new era of insights and efficiency. Start now and transform how your organization leverages data with SAP Datasphere.

Start your journey today to bring out your best with SAP data and AI:

Irfan Khan is chief product officer and president for SAP HANA Database & Analytics.

Deliver seamless and scalable access to mission-critical business data Explore SAP Datasphere
Categories: What's New

SAP Data Unleashed: The Future Belongs to Data-Driven Organizations

SAP News - Wed, 03/06/2024 - 09:59

At SAP, we strive every day to help organizations unleash the power of their business data. Last March, we announced SAP Datasphere along with our open data ecosystem to radically simplify data landscapes with a business data fabric.

It’s never been easier to connect, unify, and manage SAP and third-party data. That’s why industry leaders such as Porsche, Hanes, and Bosch are using SAP Datasphere to enable self-service access to trusted business data across any cloud infrastructure.

Today, our mission continues at our SAP Data Unleashed virtual event. We’re taking another step forward to enable organizations to bring out their best with data and AI. 

For more details, read Unleashing the Latest SAP Data and Analytics Innovations
by Irfan Khan, chief product officer and president for
SAP HANA Database & Analytics

Access Insights Wherever Your Data Resides

With many data landscapes distributed across different siloes in the cloud and on premises, organizations require an integrated approach that unifies their underlying data landscapes. This is made possible with SAP Datasphere, which enables a business data fabric architecture. By providing seamless and scalable access to all data without duplication, data and planning professionals can securely access all their data no matter where it resides.

In fact, organizations seeking to implement a business data fabric architecture can save up to 138% using SAP Datasphere compared to third-party implementations.

GigaOm Performance & TCO Analysis, Data Fabric Field Test: SAP Datasphere vs. DIY, March 2024

At SAP, we understand that a critical capability in the era of AI is to understand the real-world use of business data. With decades of experience helping organizations run mission-critical business processes, we see firsthand the power business data has in determining optimal business performance.  

To make this possible, we’re excited to announce the SAP Datasphere knowledge graph. This capability enables organizations to discover hidden insights and patterns across their applications and systems. And it empowers both technical and business users to deeply understand the relationships between data, metadata, and business processes, as well as boost the effectiveness of machine learning and large language models (LLMs).  

Transform Planning with a Business Data Fabric

SAP connects people and enterprise planning more powerfully than ever before. Now any organization can transform planning by unifying financial, operational, supply chain, and workforce planning through a business data fabric architecture.  

The new SAP Datasphere integration with SAP Analytics Cloud offers a single data management system and advanced analytics to power cross-organizational planning. Planners can leverage a single flexible model to break down silos between planning with one tool for data preparation, modeling, planning, and analytics and to conduct thorough analysis, understand the broader context, and make more informed decisions. 

Additionally, business users can use the new SAP Analytics Cloud compass to realize better outcomes in planning and analytics using Monte Carlo simulation. This enables organizations to run complex simulations via a chat interface to predict possible outcomes and find the optimal plan. 

Foster Trusted AI Across Your Business

We’re bringing the power of generative AI to planning and analytics with SAP Analytics Cloud, which provides AI-generated data exploration, automation of planning and data management tasks, and deep analysis with Joule copilot. This is enabled by vector capabilities in SAP HANA Cloud that combine the powerful capabilities of LLMs with all the relevant data of your organization — ensuring business context is a constant for generative AI outputs.

Incorporating generative AI across an organization is not possible without trusted and governed data. To provide customers with a solution to effectively manage data and AI policies, processes, and life cycles, we are excited to announce the expansion of our partnership with Collibra. Beyond the integration between SAP Datasphere and Collibra announced last year, we will now work together to integrate Collibra’s AI Governance platform with SAP data and analytics solutions. 

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JG Chirapurath is chief marketing and solutions officer for SAP BTP.

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Categories: What's New

From CSRD Reporting to Sustainable Business Outcomes

SAP News - Tue, 03/05/2024 - 09:15

To capture value, leaders are no longer talking about reporting alignment alone but about the opportunity to transform business processes for sustainable impact. By leveraging SAP Sustainability solutions, organizations can move beyond compliance and operationalize sustainability across their business.

Across industries, accurate data is the foundation for both auditable disclosures and reliable insights to steer sustainable transformation. But environmental, social, and governance (ESG) data aggregation and validation can be a daunting challenge given that most companies have not fully integrated their ESG data recording and control into their core financial, procurement, supply chain management, and human resources systems.

For over 50 years, SAP has helped businesses master complexity. With today’s evolving ESG regulatory landscape, including the arrival of the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), SAP is again rising to the complex challenges of enabling customers to record, report, and act on their sustainability obligations. This includes the difficulties in collecting accurate emissions data across internal operations and global supply chains.

Achieving Competitive Advantage with SAP Sustainability Solutions Powered by SAP Business AI

By integrating sustainability data with cloud ERP, SAP can uniquely enable businesses with the agility to keep pace with rapidly evolving ESG standards; link disparate data sources to share trusted, real-time insights with sustainability decision-makers; and achieve their net-zero ambitions.

Build an ESG data foundation that accelerates sustainable business outcomes with SAP Find out how

Companies can start today by adopting SAP Sustainability Control Tower – integrated with SAP S/4HANA Cloud – for ESG data management and reporting. They can extend sustainability management with SAP Sustainability Footprint Management and SAP Sustainability Data Exchange to help accelerate their journey to the green ledger, managing the carbon entering and leaving their systems and balancing their “carbon books” the same way they balance their financial books.

SAP Business AI can take the value of our sustainability solutions to the next level by helping our customers set data-driven ESG and net-zero strategies, increase the transparency of supply chain emissions, automate sustainability reporting, achieve regulatory compliance, find and mitigate ESG-related risks, and better communicate the value of sustainability to their customers – all powered by the world’s largest and most comprehensive pool of foundational business data.

Combined with partner services for customer-specific data and reporting requirements, SAP Sustainability solutions can offer new levels of business insight for executive-level decision-making to help businesses reach their sustainability goals and comply with CSRD and other regulatory frameworks.

CSRD Toolbox

Companies operating in the EU face pressure from the expanding ESG regulations under CSRD to disclose their sustainability performance with a data granularity and auditability that – over time – will bring sustainability reporting on par with financial reporting. CSRD requirements will first impact large public-interest companies with over 500 employees that need to report in 2025 on 2024 ESG performance. Requirements cascade to small and midsize enterprises in coming years.

Under CSRD, companies will need to report based on the requirements of both the EU Taxonomy, which classifies sustainability disclosures for investors, and the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), the disclosure rules set by the European Financial Reporting Financial Group (EFRAG), a standard-setting body of the EU. With SAP Sustainability Control Tower, companies can comply with both the EU Taxonomy and ESRS, gaining agility through the convergence of ESG data management and cloud ERP – and soon AI-driven business process optimization.

SAP Sustainability Control Tower: A Trusted ESG Data Foundation for EU Taxonomy and ESRS

With SAP Sustainability Control Tower, you can assess activities in line with the EU Taxonomy, reporting on KPIs for eligibility and alignment.

  • Enable a holistic view of EU Taxonomy reporting through shared use of data  
  • Kick-start EU Taxonomy data management and reporting with pre-built and adaptable templates  
  • Simplify the EU Taxonomy process with integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud 
  • Integrate customer or partner extensions via APIs 
Click to enlarge.

You can also streamline ESRS disclosures, integrating ESG data across systems and extending content and functionality.

  • Gather ESG data and determine KPIs 
  • Meet evolving ESG and financial disclosure requirements including ESRS 
  • Set, track, and achieve targets to support sustainable business 
  • Obtain a limited external assurance and prepare for reasonable assurance 
Click to enlarge. Act Now

Businesses need to start now to be prepared not only for CSRD compliance, but for gaining the insights to steer sustainability investments and future-proof long-term value. 

For over 50 years, SAP has been enabling the world’s leading businesses to master complexity, delivering the integration and innovation needed for industry-leading performance. With SAP Sustainability Control Tower and other cloud-driven innovations, SAP and its partners can help companies master CSRD as well and build the foundation for the evolution of their long-term sustainability strategies.  

To learn more, visit www.sap.com/sustainability/csrd-guide.html.

Sophia Mendelsohn is chief sustainability and commercial officer and co-GM for SAP Sustainability. 

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Categories: What's New

The Importance of Intelligent Asset Management and Maintenance for Petrobras

SAP News - Fri, 03/01/2024 - 09:15

Petrobras, a leading energy company based in Brazil, recognized the critical importance of intelligent asset management and maintenance in achieving its vision of being the best diversified and integrated energy company.

To address the challenges of manual processes, lack of accurate information, and decentralization of maintenance processes, Petrobras sought help from SAP to implement an innovative new solution.

The Need for Transparency of Asset Management Processes and Value Chain

The company’s use of manual spreadsheets and the lack of real-time insights and transparency into the asset management process hindered its ability to make informed decisions. Additionally, regular failures and disruptions, as well as synchronization issues with supplier assets and third-party products, impacted worker morale and overall efficiency.

“We lacked real-time insights and transparency into the asset management process and value chain to make informed decisions based on real-time data,” explained Bruno Vidal, business applications consultant at Petrobras. “We were looking for a best-in-class platform that could provide a central view of our mission-critical assets, allowing our assets and data to work in harmony.”

Manage the entire lifecycle of your physical assets with EAM software systems from SAP Learn more

Petrobras needed a solution that could provide real-time insights, reduce downtime, and align with its wider ERP and digital transformation strategy.

Building on Petrobras’ Ongoing SAP Journey

Petrobras looked to SAP Intelligent Asset Management due to its rich SAP ecosystem and legacy. Building on its ongoing SAP journey, the company saw an opportunity to enhance its SAP footprint across the organization and implement other SAP innovations.

“We had an SAP legacy, a technological program to implement SAP S/4HANA, and we had a strong operational demand for an asset management solution,” Vidal shared. “Together, this created a powerful business case for SAP-powered intelligent asset management solutions and tied in with our SAP–first approach.”

From Proof of Concept to Successful Pilot Implementation and Beyond

In 2020, Petrobras conducted a proof of concept to evaluate the feasibility and potential of SAP Intelligent Asset Management. The successful execution of the solution led to the selection of the BUZIOS oilfield for a pilot implementation project. The BUZIOS field is the world’s largest ultra-deepwater reservoir, representing almost 16 percent of oil and gas production for Petrobras.

“Given the size of the BUZIOS field, even a small return of value has the potential to generate a huge return for the company with reduced downtime and increased efficiency,” said Vidal.

Thus, the project initially focused on a limited scope, including SAP Asset Strategy and Performance Management for reliability assessments and SAP Predictive Asset Insights for equipment monitoring and failure predictions. The pilot implementation project started with one unit and expanded to include all units and critical systems. such as gas compression, oil and gas production gathering, fire and gas detection, firefighting, and energy generation. These systems involved a significant amount of maintenance and reliability data.

Leveraging Machine Learning to Detect Errors and Predict Failure

In addition to the pilot implementation, Petrobras activated the machine learning engine in the SAP solutions as a pilot project for anomaly detection and failure prediction.

Deliver the perfect customer experience with zero down time and and optimal asset performance See how

“We had great results from the machine learning features, which allowed us to uncover further insight and make performance improvements,” Vidal recounted.

Thanks to the success, the solutions were later launched to five more critical systems of the oilfield, including offloading, oil, water and gas treatment, and water pumping for injection. By the end of 2023, Petrobras had moved from proof of concept through going live with 10 critical systems in all units from BUZIOS field, including uncovering machine learning benefits, as well as concluding the proof of concept for the same solutions in Petrobras’ downstream operations.

Business Benefits that Create High Value to Petrobras

As the company achieved significant operational benefits at the BUZIOS oilfield, it plans to roll out SAP Intelligent Asset Management solutions to other upstream locations, introducing solutions beyond reliability engineering. With a significant return on investment, Petrobras plans to evaluate the value returned by the new technological solution and expand its usage across its teams and other locations in the future.

“The implementation of SAP Intelligent Asset Management has led to an improvement of our operational efficiency and increased availability of our machines,” Vidal concluded. “When we reduce failures, accurately monitor our equipment, get real-time performance data, reduce production losses, and implement a reliability culture, we reduce oil losses, inspire greater confidence in our people, and return huge value to our organization.”

Karin Fent is senior director of global Customer Success Digital Supply Chain.

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Top image courtesy of Petrobras

Categories: What's New

SAP CSR’s eBook Celebrates a Year of Global Impact

SAP News - Fri, 03/01/2024 - 08:15

Reflecting on the past year, one event stands out vividly in my memory: the Social Enterprises World Forum (SEWF) in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. For those unfamiliar, imagine a global assembly where more than 1,500 entrepreneurs from 82 countries dedicated to societal and environmental missions come together. These enterprises prioritize people and the planet, reinvesting their profits to advance their respective causes. Witnessing the energy and innovation in Amsterdam was a powerful reminder of why SAP has emphasized social entrepreneurship for the second consecutive year.

It makes me proud to think about the 676 SAP colleagues who, in 2023, participated in our pro bono consulting programs, offering their expertise to these visionary social entrepreneurs. As in previous years, this collaboration has proven mutually beneficial, with 74% of our employees reporting a positive, lasting impact on their careers. Furthermore, 96% of the supported organizations and 77% of their beneficiaries have seen significant improvements. These numbers speak volumes about the shared value of our engagement.

But the 2023 SEWF wasn’t just a personal highlight; it marked the beginning of another significant milestone. We announced our investment in the Social Enterprise People and Planet First Verification with Good Market and SEWF. This initiative aims to set a global standard for recognizing organizations prioritizing social and environmental impacts. Social enterprises can now also identify themselves on SAP Business Network, the world’s largest B2B commerce platform. This breakthrough can make it easier for these businesses to explore new business-to-business opportunities while also helping SAP customers achieve their goals of being more environmentally and socially responsible. Saying it’s a win-win situation is a bit cliché, but in this case it’s actually true.

SAP is powering equitable access to economic opportunity, education and employment, and the circular economy Learn more

Working with SEWF shows how much we believe in working together and driving towards collective impact. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: we can’t do this by ourselves. Working with others is the key to driving the kind of systemic change our world needs. This idea is a big part of what we stand for at SAP, and is at the heart of our corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy.

This idea of working together really comes to life in our collaboration with UNICEF and Generation Unlimited. In 2023 – the fourth year of our partnership – we set out to make a real difference by not just developing the skills of young people but also finding jobs in the SAP ecosystem. Launching the SAP Educate to Employ program is a big step in that direction. Helping 25 young people get jobs with SAP in each of our pilot countries – Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, and the Philippines – might not sound like a lot, but it’s a huge deal for each of those young people. For them, it’s a gateway to a sustainable livelihood, offering them not just gainful employment but a chance to build a career, achieve financial stability, and make meaningful contributions to their communities and the broader world. It’s about unlocking their potential and enabling them to participate in the digital and green economy. By the end of the year, we saw amazing results. While more than 2,500 had already passed the aptitude test, over 1,000 young people in Africa finished our “Boost Your Career with SAP Skills” course and more than 500 got through the first big part of their training.

But, what’s a year recap without some high-level numbers? Let’s dive into some impressive numbers from 2023. More than 20,000 of our SAP colleagues volunteered over 140,000 hours. Our initiatives reached over 2.8 million young people – almost half girls – and supported over 41,000 teachers. Our partner network reached 1 billion people in over 140 countries. These stats are just the tip of the iceberg, showing our big reach and impact together with our partners.

Building on this, our signature partnerships with Africa Code Week, Meet and Code, and Latin Code Week have always been at the heart of our achievements. As we handed over these initiatives in 2023, we took a moment to reflect and evaluate Africa Code Week and Latin Code Week outcomes more deeply. For instance, by empowering 14.6 million participants with the education, knowledge, and ICT skills needed to participate in the digital future, Africa Code Week has increased the likelihood that beneficiaries will realize higher earnings during their working lives. Common Good Marketplace estimates that Africa Code Week catalyzed up to US$1 billion in social value for program participants between 2015 and 2022 based on future increased income.

As we close the chapter on 2023 and look ahead, the journey we’ve embarked upon at SAP CSR is a testament to the power of collective action and shared vision. The stories, numbers, and outcomes shared in our eBook reflect our commitment to making a meaningful difference. Read the full eBook.

Thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey. Your passion, dedication, and commitment are what drive us forward.

Alexandra van der Ploeg is global head of Corporate Social Responsibility at SAP.

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Categories: What's New

Fairness, Transparency, and Human Involvement: The Ethical Side of Artificial Intelligence

SAP News - Thu, 02/29/2024 - 08:15

Relevant, reliable, and responsible – those are SAP’s guidelines for the artificial intelligence embedded in its solutions and products. The “responsible” part is being monitored by the software company’s AI Ethics department, led by Dr. Sebastian Wieczorek.

“At SAP, ethics has been part of our research and development of artificial intelligence from the very beginning,” Wieczorek, head of AI Ethics at SAP, says. “Every development in the area of AI is deeply aligned with SAP’s values.”

The Beginnings of Artificial Intelligence at SAP

Wieczorek was part of SAP’s first AI unit, founded in 2014. “In addition to the technical and product tasks, we have always considered the ethical aspect of our work from the beginning,” he says.

SAP was the first European company to define guidelines for dealing with AI and set up a corresponding advisory panel. Wieczorek’s work has always had a technical focus, but he has also been a member of the SAP AI Global Ethics steering committee, a member of the Enquiry Commission on AI in the German Bundestag, and has reported on the uses of artificial intelligence at the EU Parliament.

SAP focuses on embedding AI that is relevant, reliable and responsible by design Learn more

SAP initiated internal processes early on to formulate an approach to ethically unobjectionable AI, which ultimately led to the SAP AI Global Ethics policy.

To address ethical questions, experts must possess deep knowledge about AI technology and also be willing and able to engage in philosophical and moral questions as well as the legal side of technology.

“Our work in AI ethics is somewhat similar to that of a translator,” Wieczorek says. “Technological realities and possibilities have to be ‘translated’ into the language of philosophy, sociology, and law. The results must then be ‘translated’ back into technological requirements, so that a constant exchange between the two areas is achieved.”

The Role of Humans

Currently, AI systems cannot develop a motivation of their own or a concept of themselves or the world – never mind considering, on their own initiative, how to best optimize this world.

“Their purpose and tasks are determined by humans,” Wieczorek emphasizes. “What humans no longer do is define the exact implementation of the task.”

As always, when tasks are delegated – whether to machines or other people – it must be ensured that certain rules regarding fairness, transparency, and human participation rights are adhered to in their execution.

“We know less about how decisions are ultimately made when it comes to AI than we do when it comes to conventional software,” Wieczorek says. “Therefore, we must keep the possibility open to intervene if this automation does not work in certain cases as we want it to.”

What such an intervention looks like in individual cases can be quite varied, as the software as a whole and not just individual components must be considered.

The most well-known example of discrimination by intelligent software is the exclusion of historically underrepresented groups in job application processes. The historical data with which the AI is trained may reflect the biased selection criteria of the past. Therefore, it is theoretically possible that the AI may adopt and reproduce these biases for its own selection process.

“Side effects of this kind can occur relatively quickly on a large scale due to the high automation potential of AI software,” Wieczorek says. “Therefore, we must set high standards for the type and manner of automation and have the ability to limit side effects and efficiently reverse them.”

Guidelines for training data sets are neither the only leverage nor a guarantee of maximum fairness.

“There is a chain of things to consider,” Wieczorek says. “The system as a whole must be able to provide guarantees that the evaluation is fair – its behavior must be impeccable in the overall view.”

A Dedicated Ethics Review for Every AI Use Case

“In the SAP AI Global Ethics policy, it is stipulated that all of our products and solutions that use AI must be monitored from an ethical perspective – both during the development phase and later, when they are already on the market,” Wieczorek says.

Each AI use case is therefore subject to a separate review, which includes declarations from the product teams on how the use case complies with the guidelines of the SAP AI Global Ethics policy.

After their definition, all use cases undergo a classification process. However, if use cases, for example, make automated decisions that affect people or process personal data, they are automatically considered sensitive and are classified high risk.

“Such use cases then undergo a mandatory review process, which is continuously accompanied by experts, for example from my team,” Wieczorek says. “This way, each individual case is systematically checked for risks, in order to then decide, if necessary, what measures need to be taken to implement the ethical standards prescribed by SAP.”

Does the Use of AI Limit Human Responsibility?

Routine tasks taken over by AI are most often already automated to a degree and do not have to be formulated anew every time. But as increasingly personalized tasks are also being taken over by AI, such as through chat interactions, the individual user’s responsibility grows.

Wieczorek sees a shared responsibility between the AI developer and the user. “Especially with tasks that affect people and have human consequences, we will not shift the responsibility to the products,” he emphasizes.

Those providing an AI application are obligated to provide transparency about its behavior and to clarify what it was designed for – and what it was not designed for.

This in turn allows users to take on their own responsibility: tasks assigned must adhere to ethical principles and the results must be verified, rather than simply accepted.

It is particularly important for people to still be able to intervene in the functioning of the systems in case an undesired side effect, such as unfair behavior of the system, becomes apparent over time.

“It must always be ensured that humans can review, question, and possibly reverse the decisions made by the AI,” Wieczorek says. “This is the responsibility of the manufacturers of AI systems, as laid out in the SAP AI Global Ethics policy.”

Learn more about SAP’s approach to ethical AI:

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SAP Releases Integrated Report 2023 and Files Annual Report 2023 on Form 20-F with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission 

SAP News - Thu, 02/29/2024 - 08:07

WALLDORF  SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that it has filed the SAP Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended December 31, 2023, with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and it is accessible online at www.sap.com/investors/sap-2023-annual-report-form-20f. SAP also announced that the SAP Integrated Report 2023 is now available and accessible online at www.sapintegratedreport.com. The SAP Integrated Report 2023, which discusses the company’s social, environmental, and financial performance, is the 12th integrated report the company has issued. 

You can access PDF versions of the SAP Integrated Report 2023 and the SAP Annual Report 2023 on Form 20-F at our Investor Relations website www.sap.com/investor. A hard copy of the audited consolidated financial statements can also be requested free of charge by sending an email to investor@sap.com or via phone +49 6227 7-67336. 

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About SAP

SAP’s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: SAP customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 26 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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SAP Named Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for iPaaS for Fourth Consecutive Time

SAP News - Wed, 02/28/2024 - 10:15

We are proud to announce SAP has been recognized as a Leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) with SAP Integration Suite for the fourth consecutive time.

We believe this prestigious recognition is a testament to our current capabilities, ongoing innovation, and commitment to providing world-class integration solutions for customers.

Unparalleled Recognition in iPaaS

The Gartner Magic Quadrant provides an overview of the technology vendors in the iPaaS market and positions them according to their Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. According to Gartner, “Leaders have a deep understanding of the iPaaS market. They have a record of strong execution and an ability to influence the market’s direction. Leaders have a clear product road map to solidify the product’s position and to help buyers protect their investments. In the latest report, SAP is positioned as a Leader again.”

Unleash the power of connectivity and innovation with SAP Integration Suite Learn more

The ability for an organization to connect and automate its business applications faster and in new ways is critical in today’s digital world. SAP customers are seeking a robust integration solution to support their innovation and modernization initiatives. We believe this recognition serves as validation of our commitment to delivering industry-leading solutions that can empower businesses to seamlessly connect their applications, data, and processes.

A Winning Combination of Technology and Expertise

SAP’s vision for SAP Integration Suite is to connect and automate business processes. As the key integration technology of SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), SAP Integration Suite can empower customers to achieve seamless, scalable business processes without disruption. Its user-friendly interface, extensive library of proven prebuilt content for SAP and non-SAP applications, and robust security features help make it easy for customers to jump-start their integrations.

Organizations across the globe have embraced SAP Integration Suite to help support automation of business processes, streamline operations, and strengthen their collaboration with partners and customers. Take Pitney Bowes for example. It wanted a solution to support its transformation from selling stand-alone products to offering holistic solutions that orchestrate physical delivery, installation, and support while minimizing the need for customization and providing growth for the company.

“Using SAP Integration Suite, part of SAP BTP, to integrate SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition with SAP Sales Cloud and third-party providers, we’re simplifying and standardizing business processes, increasing agility, and supporting our growth ambitions in select countries.”

Stuart Beadle, Senior Director, Global Order Management, Supply Chain Applications and SAP Service, Pitney Bowes Inc.

Customer experience is one of the criteria evaluated by Gartner in the report for the ability to execute. According to the report, “Relationships, products, and services/programs that enable clients to be successful with the products are evaluated. Specifically, this includes the ways customers receive technical support or account support. This can also include ancillary tools, customer support programs (and the quality thereof), availability of user groups, service-level agreements, and so on.”

See Gartner Peer Insights to read the reviews.

Learn More

SAP Integration Suite can accelerate innovation, speed connectivity, and connect everyone to automated processes. We remain steadfast in providing powerful and reliable integration solutions. To learn more:

JG Chirapurath is chief marketing and solutions officer for SAP BTP.

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Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Integration Platform as a Service 19 February 2024, Keith Guttridge Et Al.
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.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Categories: What's New

SAP Business Network Digitalizes Procurement for VAT E-Invoicing Mandates

SAP News - Tue, 02/27/2024 - 09:15

Government mandates for e-invoicing to track VAT (Value-Added Tax) payments are one of the fastest growing trends driving the digitalization of business practices worldwide.

Following a series of directives issued during the past decade, the EU has now mandated e-invoicing for all B2G (business-to-government) procurements. The same requirements are expected to include B2B transactions in Europe as well. So far, over 100 countries including Italy, Germany, Poland, Greece, France, and Romania have enacted mandatory e-invoicing legislation, as have numerous others in Latin America and Asia.

Cloud-Based Platform Collaboration Supports E-Invoicing Compliance

There’s no big mystery behind the e-invoicing push. In-country regulators and policymakers see digitalization as crucial to improve fraud detection, simplify VAT reporting, and gain a measure of transparency. While e-invoicing mandates from governments add a layer of complexity for buyers and suppliers, cloud-based platforms have become the norm to automate and simplify collaboration.

One example is SAP Business Network, where buyers and suppliers can manage procurement and invoicing activities with their trusted ecosystem.

“As governments add e-invoicing mandates, we’re committed to help organizations by providing capabilities for regulatory consistency,” Lorraine Yao, director of Product Marketing for SAP Business Network, said. “Digitalization automates the flow of accurate information from order placement, shipping confirmation, and delivery through e-invoicing that’s connected directly to the company’s ERP system. Organizations can replace manual verification with automation based on real-time updates that speed up accurate processing, order fulfillment, and timely payments.”

SAP Business Network helps procurement with supply assurance, efficiency, compliance, and spend transparency Learn more Buyers and Suppliers Reap Benefits of Connected Network

Yao said that organizations transact US$5.3 trillion in annual commerce on SAP Business Network, totaling 746 million B2B transactions each year. Business results to date have been impressive.

After centralizing automated supplier invoicing and collaboration on SAP Business Network, the procurement team at a U.S.-based clothing and accessories retailer saved time with quick access to spend details and reporting analytics. With fresh insights, the strategic sourcing team can identify savings opportunities and expediently act on emerging trends.

A multinational infrastructure and renewable energy company based in Europe moved to SAP Business Network as part of its company-wide procurement transformation. Replacing manual processes with automated machine-to-machine transactions has reduced errors, increased efficiencies, and provided the procurement team with real-time insights across the supply chain for more informed decisions.

Global Business Transformation from E-Invoicing

E-invoicing is yet another advancement slated to leave legacy tax collection behind. In an IDC survey, 61% of tax professionals agreed that e-invoicing will have a significant impact on their tax management process in the next 24 months. Researchers expect e-invoicing “to fuse compliance and invoice management into one extended process…as VAT and GST (goods and services tax) protocols grow…This essentially means that every company conducting business in the global market will have to interact with these e-invoicing protocols.” It’s no wonder that e-invoicing mandates are spreading rapidly as countries including Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore adopt the EU model, adapting requirements to their specific needs. 

E-Invoicing Boosts Sustainability

Much more than surface automation measures, e-invoicing also contributes to what the EU calls the twin transition, meaning digital and green transformation. After all, when companies use less physical material such as paper, printing, and postage, along with fewer resources routing and archiving data, they can save energy.

“Buyers can quickly process information and data contained in electronic invoices and feed them directly into a company’s payment and accounting systems,” Yao said. “Our SAP Business Network customers find that procurement teams spend less time retrieving information and more time modeling strategic decisions. They can easily collaborate between internal groups and external suppliers, reducing inquiries and speeding up approvals while improving compliance.”

Broadened Positive Impact of Digitalization

Although e-invoicing is a government mandate in a growing number of countries, leaders in many organizations have realized that digitalization has broader business benefits. IDC analysts predict that by mid-2025, 70% of global businesses will use embedded financing to collect and make payments. This includes services like invoice transmissions.

“Digitalization gives both buyers and suppliers transparency to see e-invoice status, saving time and improving efficiencies,” Yao said. “Having immediate visibility to relevant procurement data in one dashboard, accounts payable teams can make the most of early-payment discounts and better manage working capital. This also improves cash flow for suppliers who receive timely payments. SAP is committed to help companies manage procurement end-to-end, including e-invoicing to meet country-specific mandates, and build trading partner relationships for business growth.”

Susan Galer is a communications director at SAP. Follow her @smgaler.

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Categories: What's New

Vestas: Powering Quality in the Supply Chain

SAP News - Mon, 02/26/2024 - 09:15

Problems with wind turbines are rare. But if one does catch fire or blades break and fly off in a storm, it tends to be headline news. This can not only damage the reputations of wind turbine manufacturers and operators, but also adds weight to arguments against wind power. And repairs are costly, too. Product defects are one possible cause, but how can manufacturers resolve quality issues when supply chains are so complex?

To address this challenge, Vestas, a major wind turbine manufacturer, launched a quality initiative powered by SAP solutions and SAP Business Network.

Pillars of the Energy Transition

Faced with the climate crisis, many countries around the globe are investing heavily in zero-emission renewables. China’s 14th Five-Year Plan is driving the market for renewable energy, as are the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States and the Green Deal in the European Union. In these parts of the world, wind energy is regarded as the pillar of the energy transition and is the largest source of renewable energy.

But the wind energy sector is highly competitive, experiences rapid innovation, and is prone to massive supply chain issues. Manufacturers must source raw materials, manage global logistics operations, and mitigate the risks of supplier dependency while still keeping pace with demand. They also need to be confident that all the components in their turbines meet rigorous quality standards and deliver performance and reliability. Quality control issues can result in faults, repairs, and – at worst – major failures.

As a market leader in wind turbines, Vestas Wind Systems, headquartered in Aarhus, Denmark, launched a large-scale quality initiative. Its 29,000 employees in 88 countries develop wind energy projects worldwide and manufacture, install, and service the turbines for them. The 85,000 turbines Vestas has installed to date generated 173 gigawatts of electricity and over 151 gigawatts under service as of September 2023. Several newly commissioned major projects will see that output increase significantly in the coming years.

“Collaboration with suppliers and partners is of crucial importance to Vestas when it comes to creating a sustainable future for the world by leading the global demand for onshore and offshore wind energy,” Adeola Abegunde, director of Technology Area Lead Digital Procurement and Supply Chain at Vestas, says.

Sourcing Quality with SAP Business Network

Today’s wind turbines are made up of more than 10,000 individual parts. Since the companies that produce these parts are based all over the world, the supply chain is highly complex. To help manage this complexity, Vestas relies on SAP Business Network, the B2B platform used by millions of companies across 190 countries that can connect buyers with contract manufacturers and suppliers.

SAP Business Network enables Vestas to run all its procurement and supply chain collaboration processes online – even beyond company boundaries. Employees use its supply chain functions to collaborate on orders and subcontracting orders. When a supplier confirms an order and sends a shipping notification, staff at Vestas and its contract manufacturers see this information right away. Vestas employees therefore know whether raw materials or the components for an order will arrive at the contract manufacturer on time.

SAP Business Network powers transparency, resiliency, and sustainability Learn more

Projects of this scale need to run smoothly and according to plan. This is where the quality collaboration features in SAP Business Network come in. Before a supplier confirms or sends an order, it has to complete predefined quality tests and document them on the network. Vestas employees are then aware in advance of any quality issues further up the supply chain and can take corrective action. Through the network, employees can pass on changes to specifications if, for instance, one particular part had to be replaced sooner than expected and needs to be improved. If quality defects lead to incidents, the network can make these failures transparent to all partners and provide an audit trail. That helps everyone in the supply chain understand what went wrong and solve the problem.

“SAP Business Network allows Vestas to offer its trading partners a platform that makes all sorts of collaboration scenarios transparent from end to end. This means that Vestas is better able to mitigate the impact of disruptions in its global supply chain, making it more robust, future-proof, and sustainable,” Florian Seebauer, senior director of the SAP Business Network unit at SAP, says.

Reducing Supply Chain Friction

Suppliers also benefit from the network’s forecasting capabilities. Vestas can provide them with information from the planning tool so that they can prepare for changes and capacity increases. This helps suppliers plan more accurately and can minimize friction losses in the supply chain.

SAP Business Network also supports Vestas’ sustainability goals since it allows users to select and rate suppliers by sustainability criteria. When compared to electricity generated from fossil fuels, Vestas’ solutions have saved 1.9 billion tons of carbon emissions – equivalent to 88 million cars driven for a year. Vestas has established sustainability performance as a core priority across its entire value chain and introduced pioneering initiatives such as its “Circularity Road Map” for the circular economy. It is no surprise then that Vestas is ranked as one of the world’s most sustainable companies, featured regularly at the top of lists such as Corporate Knights 100.

Vestas and SAP have a long-standing relationship. Vestas has been running SAP as its ERP system since 2007. In 2017, it adopted SAP Ariba solutions for e-procurement and SAP Business Network. Through SAP Business Network, it now has access to a vast pool of potential trading partners. And, because the network is connected to Vestas’ ERP and the complex ordering and collaboration processes running in the background, users don’t have to switch away from the systems they are familiar with. With SAP’s help, Vestas is breezing into a bright future.

Top image: Borssele 3 & 4, The Netherlands, Courtesy of Vestas Wind Systems A/S

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Modernizing Defense for the Digital Age

SAP News - Fri, 02/23/2024 - 10:15

International security leaders placed technology at the forefront of discussions during last week’s Munich Security Conference (MSC). Governments increasingly recognize the necessity of investing in the digitalization of the defense sector to ensure a competitive edge in the new global security environment.

SAP has helped defense and security customers around the globe navigate economic and geopolitical shifts for decades, enabling transformation and infusing intelligence into their operations. Today, SAP’s tailored solutions remain the nervous system of modern Western defense. Drawing insights from discussions at MSC, we see three crucial steps to ensuring NATO, the European Union, and the broader defense sector are ready for the digital age.

“Digital transformation and the secure exploitation of data will comprise the bedrock of European defense establishments’ future military power; they will need to make significant progress in these areas before European defense can seriously consider the operational integration and battlefield deployment of advanced technologies like AI.”

Digitalization of Defense in NATO and the EU: Making European Defense Fit for the Digital Age, International Institute of Strategic Studies Adopting Cloud

Cloud adoption is critical for organizations looking to be more agile, innovative, and competitive because cloud applications offer unparalleled flexibility and scalability. With dynamic and secure cloud-based applications, defense organizations can increase collaboration between agencies; quickly manage, analyze, and share vast amounts of data; and manage complex design, simulation, and engineering tasks so they can deploy their resources most efficiently. Cloud also revolutionizes the way defense forces utilize data as a strategic asset. Since the cloud facilitates the integration of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and data analytics, the defense sector can gain actionable insights from diverse data sources that enhance their readiness and operational effectiveness.

Despite the clear benefits of cloud, there are challenges to cloud adoption due to varying requirements between countries and defense organizations. However, these challenges are not insurmountable. Working with the world’s leading defense organizations, including 21 North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nations, SAP has the knowledge and experience to help the defense sector effectively navigate modernization. By facilitating dialogue between countries and organizations like NATO and the EU, we can work to harmonize approaches that help pave the way for widescale cloud adoption and can strengthen both security and interoperability.

Defense and security organizations are using intelligent SAP solutions to maintain mission readiness Learn more Embracing Artificial Intelligence

Advancements in AI have unlocked the potential for game-changing operational efficiencies and new strategic advantages. AI can ensure logistics and supply chain operations are efficient, agile, and resilient by forecasting demand, optimizing transportation routes, and managing inventory.

SAP’s AI capabilities can support the defense sector in predictive maintenance, quality control, supply chain optimization, and overall operational efficiency. The MSC discussions came in a timely manner as SAP teams are currently discussing AI use cases with NATO and the defense forces at the Defense Interest Group (DEIG).

AI can help ensure private and public organizations are more intelligent and resilient, but AI must be relevant, reliable, and responsible. With SAP Business AI, customers can realize the full value of AI because it is built with the highest concern for security, privacy, compliance, and ethics and connected to SAP’s wealth of enterprise data.

Increasing Digital Collaboration and Interoperability

Given the multinational and multifaceted nature of the defense sector, digital collaboration can expedite the product development lifecycle and enhance the efficiency of operations and supply chains by enabling real-time communication and coordination. Cloud-enabled digital collaboration tools, such as SAP Business Network, can be crucial for achieving interoperability among allied forces as they enable seamless communication and data exchange between diverse systems and platforms. The fact that a significant majority of NATO, EU, and key partners’ defense forces run on SAP makes us “allied by design.” The automotive industry set a good example of what digital collaboration can look like with Catena-X – an inspiration for “Defense-X” to enable digital collaboration of the sector from the factory to the foxhole.

The ability to truly modernize the defense sector hinges on its ability to adopt the cloud, embrace AI, and achieve greater collaboration and interoperability. However, the disparate regulatory landscape remains an impediment to modernization efforts and poses challenges to global cloud adoption. Harmonizing regulatory requirements is key to ensuring a cohesive and standardized approach. SAP is ready to help unlock the transformative capabilities of cloud and AI technologies effectively for defense forces and lead the dialogue across NATO and the EU together with defense clients, partners, and regulators.

Peter Selfridge is global head of Government Affairs at SAP.

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What the Automotive Industry Can Learn from the Next Wave of Digital Transformations

SAP News - Thu, 02/22/2024 - 14:05

Disrupt yourself or risk being disrupted. That’s true in every industry today. But when it comes to the automotive industry, disruption can be a massive opportunity.

The speed at which the auto industry is changing is nothing short of remarkable. Just think of all the changes we’ve seen in vehicles over the past few years — from more autonomous driving capabilities to being more connected to your surroundings as you drive.

Advance your business and navigate the dynamic world of mobility with SAP Learn more

Electric vehicle demand has also surged over the past few years, which is also great news for the planet. Consumer buying habits are changing as well, with more and more people shopping for vehicles online. Last year, 65% of U.S. vehicle buyers said they shop for vehicles partially or entirely online according to S&P Global Mobility. Car companies are even building for entirely new ownership models.

Generative AI is forcing even more change, particularly by automating time-consuming tasks and allowing data to be used in more intelligent ways. For the auto industry, it’s beginning to improve everything from design and forecasting to manufacturing and production, while also making the customer experience more personal.

All in all, Precedence Research projects the global market for generative AI in the auto industry to eclipse more than $2 billion by 2032. All of this is fueling a new urgency for automotive companies to transform digitally. But what exactly does that mean?

Simply put, it means incorporating digital technologies into every aspect of a business’ operations. It allows businesses to seize new growth opportunities faster than they could before and future proof their operations in new ways. By transforming digitally, businesses can plan and pivot at the same time.

There are so many stories of SAP customers embarking on digital transformation journeys with important lessons to teach for industries.

Take the BMW Group for example: the company has had a longstanding partnership and collaboration with SAP for more than 30 years. Last year, it entered a new phase of its digital transformation journey by moving to a digitized cloud architecture through SAP S/4HANA for its iFactory in Oxford, UK.

Jointly creating the first blueprint for process digitization of automotive plants, it marks the first step to creating a digitized cloud architecture for its connected factories. The solution will simplify and unite the process of making complex changes to the IT systems of its plants in the areas of parts logistics, finance, and meeting customs requirements.

By doing so, the BMW Group intends to create a common digital language that will allow for reducing costs and increasing efficiency for its other automotive plants. And that could create a whole new standard for process efficiencies throughout the auto industry.

The BMW Group’s transformation story shows what is possible by moving to a cloud architecture. It also shows how the company is putting the pieces in place to take full advantage of generative AI as it ushers in a new wave of automation.

Despite a lot of macroeconomic uncertainty in the world, I believe the future for the auto industry could not be brighter. And it will belong to those who put digital transformation at the center of their business strategies, fueling unlimited possibilities for growth and success.

Scott Russell is a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE.

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Sales Performance Management: Empowering Sales Teams for Better Outcomes

SAP News - Thu, 02/22/2024 - 10:15

In today’s dynamic business environment, organizations need highly efficient sales teams to generate revenue and stay ahead of the competition. But while advances in AI-powered tools have accelerated the sales process, they have also increased the value of soft skills and the relationship-building acumen that talented salespeople bring to their jobs. That’s why savvy organizations are more committed than ever to keeping their sales teams engaged and productive.

Accelerate business outcomes with sales performance management products from SAP Learn more

High-performing sales teams are using sales performance management solutions from SAP SuccessFactors to manage and optimize sales compensation and incentives – rewarding sales reps for their performance – while streamlining sales processes and using real-time insights to improve operational efficiency and drive revenue.

“There’s this renewed emphasis on efficiency,” said Rahul Iyer, general manager, Sales Performance Management, SAP SuccessFactors, speaking to SAP customers at the SAP North America Sales Performance Management Customer Summit, held February 13-14, 2024, in Dallas, Texas. “Customers want faster, simpler outcomes – and they want to provide a great seller experience, as well. At SAP SuccessFactors, we’ve threaded the intelligence of connected cloud applications throughout the SPM solution portfolio. This allows us to deliver the efficiency, transparency, and rich experience of SAP in a comprehensive platform that covers a full range of end-to-end processes in sales compensation.”

Together for Success

Under the banner “Together we can make it better,” the summit event provided a venue for SAP customers – some of whom came from as far away as South America – to meet one-on-one with experts and gain valuable knowledge from product road maps, demos, and deep dive sessions, as well as learn from one another’s experiences in customer sessions. 

Iyer affirmed SAP’s commitment to deliver the advanced innovations customers need to be competitive: “As a strategic partner to our customers, we have the moral responsibility to help them receive progressively more out of technology innovations, while accelerating with the best-in-class capabilities SAP has to offer. We are simplifying from every angle to make it easy for our customers to adopt, so they can achieve business outcomes faster.”

Barbara Rubis Linning, SAP SuccessFactors global vice president, Product and Engineering, presented the latest innovations and features across the sales performance management solution set, which includes SAP SuccessFactors Incentive Management, SAP SuccessFactors Territory and Quota, SAP SuccessFactors Agent Lifecycle Management, and SAP SuccessFactors Agent Performance Management. With features like territory planning and incentive compensation, SAP sales performance management solutions enable organizations to optimize their sales performance for better business results. The solutions use advanced features – for tasks such as drive time analysis and mapping to optimize territories – to streamline processes and make workflows easier so that customers realize value faster. The ongoing introduction of the Horizon visual theme on key administrative pages delivers a fresh, modern user interface (UI) for an elevated user experience. 

“We want our customers to have winning sales teams,” said Linning. “Their success is why we continuously look for new ways to build innovations and relevant features into the portfolio to accelerate business outcomes. SAP is building intelligence that is relevant, responsible, and reliable because we believe it leads to smarter, data-driven decision making and results in better sales performance. Our new intuitive UI helps simplify tasks and puts people at the center of business for improved productivity.”

SAP SuccessFactors solutions deliver Joule, SAP’s natural language processing AI copilot, to help people be more productive in their jobs using SAP business solutions.    

The integration of sales performance management solutions with SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP Datasphere enables seamless access to real-time data and analytics, empowering organizations to make informed decisions and drive sales success.

Winning with Sales Compensation

As the all-important link between an organization’s products and services and its customers, the sales team is a principal driver of bottom-line growth for the whole organization. Correctly incenting sales teams requires the use of proven strategies and solutions to align the pay program with organizational goals, said David Cichelli, revenue growth advisor at The Alexander Group, who presented “Leading the Sales Design Compensation Project.”

He advised sales compensation leaders adopt an annual review process that includes assessment, strategic alignment, taskforce design, and comprehensive communication phases. “Sales compensation design needs to reflect the consensus of key stakeholders: sales, finance, product management, and HR,” he said. “By following a proven design process, you can develop a strategically aligned, effective, and motivational pay program.”

Supporting Customer Success for Better Outcomes

The summit showcased the SAP ecosystem with sponsorships and informative sessions from SpectrumTek, Canidium, OpenSymmetry, Cahaba Consulting Group, The LC Firm, and Aspire Digital.

SAP experts highlighted SAP’s message of ongoing support for customer success: “We’re here for you,” said Tak Kusano, global chief operating officer of SAP SuccessFactors. “SAP has a tight-knit community of sales performance management experts that bring deep domain knowledge to this niche space. That’s why we’re able to work so closely with customers to gain consensus on the road map and product innovations, like AI. We’re passionate about bringing the best of technology to SAP customers.”

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Categories: What's New

Driving Customers’ Business Outcomes with the Growing Power of Telemetry

SAP News - Thu, 02/22/2024 - 09:15

In today’s business landscape, technology plays a pivotal role in solving customer problems and driving growth. But simply purchasing software doesn’t ensure resolution of the business issue.

Consider this: your business implements new software intended to speed up processes but finds out that your processes are instead stalling. Why? Because your employees never fully adopted the solutions. Now you may ultimately decide to stop using that software. To avoid this scenario, more and more software vendors are turning to an adoption-focused mindset that empowers customers to make the most of their software investments.

In fact, 85% of businesses say adoption and utilization data is the most valuable information in determining a software renewal. Yet, only one-third of software vendors on the market have a documented adoption framework to assess how well specific customers are adopting their technology. Enter telemetry, which can help organizations make more informed decisions, optimize business processes, and realize the full potential of emerging technologies.

Telemetry Helps Us Help You

Telemetry often refers to the automatic collection of data measurements from physical equipment. Telemetry has had profound impacts on Industry 4.0, as it’s adopted by not only manufacturers but also by any business that uses virtually any kind of equipment. But with the advent of artificial intelligence (AI) and its seamless integration into many cloud applications, companies from all industries can consume AI-driven insights and capabilities. These innovations are transforming the way businesses operate, creating new opportunities, and driving efficiencies.

Increasingly though, telemetry is also helping software vendors gather data on the performance and use of their customers’ deployments of their software. This includes SAP. Just like Industry 4.0 data analytics help your business optimize equipment, telemetry from your SAP software helps us see where you could best use our solutions to meet your unique goals, how it can be optimized, and where further enhancements may be necessary.

The ever-expanding landscape of intelligent software and next-generation technology has opened many new doors for businesses, but all these opportunities can be overwhelming and even confusing. Telemetry empowers software vendors – including SAP – to help their customers understand the full potential presented by new software solutions.

SAP Business AI: Revolutionary technology, real-world results Learn more Telemetry-Driven Customer Success

Telemetry is a game-changer in the realm of customer success. It provides a more accurate, near-real-time look at how software investments are performing. For software vendors, telemetry’s greatest advantages to help our customers include:

  • Identifying user patterns: Telemetry can provide a real look at user behavior with our software. By tracking navigation patterns and time spent on specific tasks, we can gain a comprehensive understanding of how your users work every day – and how they should work instead. With this insight, businesses can make data-driven decisions to enhance user experiences and drive greater adoption, which drives greater value.
  • Optimizing business processes and performance: Using telemetry, we can see how your software is performing across environments. It helps us discover process bottlenecks, frequently occurring errors, and system resource usage. With these insights, we’re better prepared to help you find out what processes simply aren’t working and why.
  • Analyzing feature use: Find out what features are most popular among your users – and which ones aren’t. Using this information, we can encourage users to take advantage of the features you’ve implemented or implement new ones that help users work more efficiently.
  • Predictive analytics: Telemetry data can be leveraged to create predictive models, anticipating potential issues or opportunities before they arise. This can help businesses stay one step ahead, ensuring smooth technology adoption and minimizing disruptions.

Telemetry serves as a source of 360-degree signal interpretation, and it provides you with opportunities for intervention in the moments that matter most. Building off the above benefits, you can use telemetry to take advantage of predictive analytics for feature development, feedback-driven iterations, and customized user training.

Bridge the “Hype-Reality” Gap

Telemetry and data analysis are helping us help our customers solve arguably the greatest threat to solution adoption: the “hype-reality” gap. Often, businesses hype up their latest software investment to users, claiming they’ll save employees time and effort. But when users don’t see results, they get disappointed – and they stop using the new software. Telemetry, by providing insight into how real users have been using your new software, is a critical way to show real-time results and get the entire business on board.

In addition, telemetry builds on the increasing value of partnership between software vendors and their customers. By harnessing the power of real-time insights right from our customers’ own deployments of our software, we’re better prepared to steer the future of our software toward outcomes that support our customers. As organizations combine telemetry with advances in generative AI, they have a powerful tool at their disposal to drive customer technology adoption and success with data-driven insights.

Claudio Muruzabal is chief business officer at SAP.

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SAP Proposes Dividend of €2.20 per Share and Announces Candidates for Shareholder Representative Elections

SAP News - Wed, 02/21/2024 - 17:16

WALLDORF — The Supervisory Board and Executive Board of SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) recommend that shareholders approve a dividend of €2.20 per share for fiscal year 2023. If approved by shareholders and assuming the same level of treasury shares as at December 31, 2023, the total amount distributed in dividends would be approximately €2.568 billion (2022: €2.393 billion), representing a pay-out ratio of 43.1% (2022: 139.6%).

SAP believes that its shareholders should benefit appropriately from the profit the Company made in 2023. The Company’s dividend policy is to pay a dividend totaling 40% or more of profit after tax.

The following dates are relevant for the dividend payment:

  • Record date for dividend payment: May 15, 2024
  • Ex-dividend date: May 16, 2024
  • Payment date: May 21, 2024
Elections of Shareholder Representatives to the SAP Supervisory Board

As announced on February 11, 2024, the Supervisory Board has nominated Pekka Ala-Pietilä to stand for election at the 2024 Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGM) as shareholder representative on the SAP Supervisory Board.

  • Dr. h. c. mult. Pekka Ala-Pietilä (67), Helsinki, Finland, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Sanoma Corporation, Helsinki, Finland. In case of election, his term would expire in 2026. The Supervisory Board intends to elect him as chair.

Further, the Supervisory Board is announcing the nomination of the following candidate to stand for election:

  • Prof. Dr. Ralf Herbrich (49), Falkensee, Germany, Managing director, professor for artificial intelligence and sustainability, Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Engineering gGmbH, Potsdam, Germany. In case of election, his term would expire in 2028.

Additionally, three candidates have been nominated to stand for re-election:

  • Aicha Evans (54), Los Gatos, CA, USA, Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors, Zoox, Inc., Foster City, California, USA. In case of re-election, her term would expire in 2028.
  • Gerhard Oswald (70), Walldorf, Germany, Managing director, Oswald Consulting GmbH, Walldorf, Germany; Associate lecturer, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Germany. In case of re-election, his term would expire in 2026.
  • Dr. Friederike Rotsch (51), Königstein im Taunus, Germany, Group General Counsel, Deutsche Bank AG, Frankfurt, Germany. In case of re-election, her term would expire in 2028 and she would continue in the role of Lead Independent Director (LID).

These nominations are in alignment with the Profile of Skills and Expertise, the Supervisory Board’s Diversity Policy, and the objectives set by the Supervisory Board for its own composition.

Note to holders of SAP ADRs (American Depositary Receipts):
One SAP ADR represents one SAP SE share. The final dividend amount per ADR is dependent upon the euro/US dollar exchange rate. Since SAP SE pays cash dividends on the ordinary shares in euro, the exchange rate fluctuations will affect the US dollar amounts received by holders of ADRs. The final dividend payment by SAP SE to the depositary bank is scheduled for May 21, 2024. The depositary bank will then convert the dividend payment from euro into US dollars as promptly as practicable.

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About SAP

SAP’s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: SAP customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. SAP helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 26 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, SAP helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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Categories: What's New

Digital Eco-Farming: How SAP Japan Helps Revitalize Rural Communities

SAP News - Wed, 02/21/2024 - 08:15

With rural population in decline, many communities in the Japanese countryside struggle to continue farming and harvesting their land. SAP partner PSI and SAP Co-Innovation Lab in Japan launched a co-innovation project to help the town of Minano revitalize its community.

Like other industrial nations, Japan has been facing massive demographic challenges in its agriculture sector. An aging population and a lack of younger individuals entering the sector to replace them have led to farms being abandoned and fields lying fallow.

Japan’s government has realized the demographical issue, of course, as it touches not only the agricultural sector. To revitalize rural areas and stem the rural exodus, the government launched a national action plan.

In alignment with this action plan, SAP Japan has joined the effort of encouraging rural communities to thrive by launching a co-innovation project with PSI, an SAP partner, and the local government of the town of Minano.

Digitizing the Agricultural Sector

The small town of Minano is located in the hills of Saitama Prefecture, about two hours from Tokyo. While the south of this prefecture is largely a suburb of the Tokyo area, the west, approaching Mt. Fuji, is still very rural and thinly populated. A former center of silk industry, the region on average is sunny and warm but can get lots of snow in winter.

“Farms in this area are traditionally small and dispersed, located between forests and mountains,” says Yoshihisa Horiguchi, chairman of MINNANO Future Create. “Big supermarkets and retailers overlook them. Nowadays, the farmers cultivate rice and vegetables in small amounts to consume themselves, sell to their neighbors, or send to their children or grandchildren that live in cities.”

Since 1950, Minano has lost roughly one-third of its population, largely due to the decline of the agricultural sector. Today, it counts about 10,000 inhabitants.

“Young people often migrate to urban areas for better education and employment opportunities,” Horiguchi explains. “Where 50 years ago, a farm may have relied on 20 young workers, now only two elderly workers are left.”

Digitization is one obvious approach that may help prevent those areas from depopulating completely.

“But while large-scale farms benefit from the economic feasibility of applying robotics and the like, it is financially and logistically challenging to apply such technologies to small-scale dispersed farms,” Horiguchi says.

Horiguchi, the owner of an automotive parts manufacturing company, co-founded the local initiative MINNANO Future Create in 2019 to solve the challenges resulting from population loss. Its members range from elderly individuals to young residents, forming a diverse group of individuals, including pharmacists, architectural designers, and other professions, all living in the town.

For one of its projects, the Minano Digital Eco Farm, it partnered with SAP Co-Innovation Lab.

IoT Solution for Monitoring Agriculture

The Minano Digital Eco Farm project aims to build a communication platform that connects farmers and urban residents as well as small-scale dispersed farms to major supply chains, forming a portfolio that coexists with existing large-scale farms. In alignment with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the project will help overcome supply chain disruptions due to food shortages and crop failures due to abnormal weather, conflicts, disasters, and more.

For this vision to become a reality, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors were distributed in various locations and managed remotely from headquarters.

Tap the power of SAP BTP to integrate and connect landscapes Learn more

“The idea was to have an IoT solution running on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) that would help monitor all the agricultural processes,” says Atsushi Minakuchi, senior solution specialist at SAP Co-Innovation Lab in Japan.

SAP Co-Innovation Lab partnered with PSI, which brought in the Digital Material Controller (DMC), an all-in-one compact edge controlling server that enables easy setup of a ubiquitous IoT environment. And, due to the cooperation with SAP Co-Innovation Lab, the DMC has also obtained SAP certification.

“Many IoT sensors lack cybersecurity functions,” Mitsuhiro Yamazaki, senior advisor and former president of PSI, says. “However, by connecting sensors to a DMC with cybersecurity capabilities, it becomes possible to securely store locally collected data on the DMC, safely transmit to SAP BTP, and accumulate, analyze, and utilize data from the DMC. This enables seamless and easy integration between the SAP core system and the IoT system.”

“Collaboration with SAP Co-Innovation Lab has significantly expanded the application possibilities of DMC,” Masaki Fukui, former PSI Cyber Security Lab director and now with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, says. “Global users of SAP now could have the opportunity to easily implement and utilize a ubiquitous supply chain platform through the combination of DMC and SAP BTP.”

Through integration with SAP BTP, the deployment locations can then be displayed and monitored on a dashboard.

The idea is for citizens living in the city to enter a service contract with a rural farm or supplier and to connect via a technology platform to remotely monitor and support agricultural processes. In return, they receive part of the crops – freshly delivered to their homes in the city.

So far, two proofs of concept for farms have been completed between March 2019 and November 2022, as well as one proof of concept for a miso factory. Agriculture and rural industry are only two fields of application. Future projects could include schools, hospitals, stores, and elder care facilities.

Strengthening Rural Appeal for Inland Tourism

As a corporate social responsibility project, the Minano Digital Eco Farm came to life through the voluntary engagement of SAP employees in Japan who supported the project on top of their regular work.

The project is supported by a government program unique for Japan, the so-called hometown tax payment, which makes it possible for citizens to choose and support the region they were born and raised in or a community they wish to engage with.

“The possibility of hometown tax payment is very popular among Japanese people,” Hidenori Kurosawa, vice governor of Minano, explains. “To us in rural regions, it seems that this played a significant role in creating an interest in the countryside. People want to get to know and support local towns.”

Indeed, the appeal of small, thinly populated communities surrounded by beautiful forest landscape hasn’t gone unnoticed by Japanese inland tourists.

Kurosawa says: “We wish to make Minano appealing to visitors by offering return gifts that provide an experience – that allow visitors to come to the town, interact with the locals, and experience things that are unique to this place.”

The Minano Digital Eco Farm project aligns well with this strategy. Not only does it promote Minano’s charm but, by expanding initiatives, it addresses local challenges such as reclamation of abandoned farmland, increased self-sufficiency in food, reduction of CO2 emissions, and improved profitability in agriculture.

“We have great expectations that this initiative will contribute to addressing the town’s challenges and advancing the UN SDGs,” Kurosawa states. “We express our sincere gratitude to the volunteers from SAP Japan who provided invaluable assistance in bringing the Minano Digital Eco Farm project to life.”

“MINNANO” means “for everyone” in Japanese and is pronounced the same way as the name of the town. Fukui from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication explains the idea behind that name: “One action can have multiple meaningful impacts. The issue of unseen small-scale dispersed farms facing economic challenges can be witnessed around the globe. By collaborating with SAP, we hope to inspire rural communities beyond our own prefecture, maybe even beyond Japan.”

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