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Have you ever thought about how a piping system can contribute to climate protection?

Based in Germany, aquatherm is a global manufacturer of polypropylene pipe systems for plant construction and building services. Polypropylene is a material known for its ecological properties and high temperature and pressure resistance.

Climate protection, green energy, and clean water: with all these, aquatherm wants to contribute to preserving the natural foundations of life everywhere in the world. Its sustainable products, comprehensive service, and expert knowledge are part of its commitment to a climate-neutral life. The production line covers 17,000 articles across six lines for various applications, such as connection to heating and cooling, heating and cooling networks, and potable water.

With about 500 employees, the company operates in 70 countries via a strong partner network.

In 2022, aquatherm implemented SAP S/4HANA Cloud as its core business system and integrated a legacy solution to manage its production processes. But it heavily relied on manual data input, resulting in poor data quality and a high risk of human error. To meet increasing demand for its products and keep up with the company’s growth, aquatherm aimed to optimize its production processes by incorporating the latest technology.

Streamlining Operations and Automating Processes

Patrick Keller, SAP technical consultant, Digital Manufacturing, aquatherm, explained: “We wanted to streamline operations across nine manufacturing divisions and six production lines, minimize manual input, reduce interfaces, and track performance on the production floor. Our objective was also to gain visibility into machine activities, comparing key performance indicators across machines, workers, and production areas. In addition, we wanted to establish comprehensive traceability throughout the production process to swiftly address any issues.”

The solution was to implement a cutting-edge manufacturing execution system that was adaptable for the future and able to eliminate any manufacturing errors quickly by leveraging real-time machine data and KPIs. “After careful consideration, we decided to utilize SAP Digital Manufacturing for collecting machine data to automate processes. Overall, our intention is to utilize as many products as possible within the SAP cosmos,” Keller said.

Sustainable, risk-resilient manufacturing is here Learn more

SAP Digital Manufacturing is a manufacturing execution system (MES) provided as a cloud solution that can support sustainable, risk-resilient manufacturing operations through a resource-efficient, Industry 4.0 approach. It helps optimize production processes by connecting the business systems with the shop floor equipment and can enable execution, visibility, and analysis.

Establishing a Single Source of Truth to Improve Visibility

SAP Digital Manufacturing is currently implemented at one of the production areas, providing aquatherm with insight into machine performance and any issues that arise. It allows the company to check indicators from machines, like production times, and helps reduce downtime. As SAP S/4HANA Cloud is integrated with SAP Digital Manufacturing, information is pulled from SAP S/4HANA Cloud and transferred back from SAP Digital Manufacturing, enabling real-time insights to help improve decision-making.

“We appreciate the benefits of this cloud-based solution, as we get quarterly software updates and new features,” Keller said.

One of the challenges aquatherm faced was obtaining necessary and correct machine data from various machine manufacturers with different standards. By working with SAP and its partner BA Business Advice GmbH, it developed a standard machine template to use for each machine. “By utilizing the SAP fit-to-standard approach, we avoided custom development and stayed within our existing processes without the need for significant change to production processes,” Keller said. “With support of BA Business Advice, we went live within only six months, after a three-month proof of concept,” he added.

The overall benefits aquatherm achieved include:

• Achieved a 100% unified overview of manufacturing operations
• Experienced 90% less time spent on PC-based tasks through automated data exchange, freeing machine operators to focus on their core role
• Established a single source of truth for manufacturing operations, significantly improving visibility
• Improved data quality and freed up time for machine operators by eliminating manual processes and interfaces
• Empowered key stakeholders with accurate, real-time data for more transparent production management and informed decision-making
• Laid the foundations for enhanced data analytics and AI solutions to support future optimizations, helping to boost overall production efficiency

Future Plans to Boost Overall Production Efficiency

Looking to the future, aquatherm plans to roll out the solution across all production areas. Moreover, it plans to leverage the SAP Digital Manufacturing bundle for insights to even better control production operations and further integrate the SAP S/4HANA Cloud data exchange with SAP Digital Manufacturing in both directions. It also plans to utilize SAP Analytics Cloud and the production connector to help exchange data between SAP Digital Manufacturing and industry-specific standard data sources.  

“SAP Digital Manufacturing has enabled us to digitalize and automate our production processes thanks to a single source of truth. Accurate, real-time data ensures that there are no blind spots, so we can keep our operations running smoothly,” Keller said.

Karin Fent is senior director of Global Customer Success Digital Supply Chain at SAP.

Top photo courtesy of aquatherm.

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Home to more than 1,000 leading brands across fashion, homeware, and beauty, BrandAlley offers its more than 13 million members the labels they love at up to 80% off recommended retail price. BrandAlley is the UK’s largest members-only flash sales website. These online platforms offer heavily discounted products or services for a limited time, typically lasting a few hours to a few days. The significant discounts attract customers and create a sense of urgency, as customers need to act quickly to make a purchase before the sale ends or the available stock runs out.

Key to BrandAlley’s success is its deep understanding of its members and the impressive fact that 70% of these customers keep coming back for more. Fifty-two percent of them buy instantly, purchasing an average of three items, or £140 of value.

Michelle Hurney, head of Marketing at BrandAlley, explains the company’s core principle: “We launch up to 40 campaigns every day that offer up to 75% off on some of the best brands such as Reiss, Dyson, Levi’s, and many more.” Campaigns are exclusively for members and interested customers have to sign up to browse the website and to shop. Registration is free.

How BrandAlley Boosts Purchase Rates by Rewarding Customer Cohorts

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Always allow YouTube Always load all embeds--> Michelle Hurney, BrandAlley, and Kat Wray, Mention Me, on brand advocacy; video by John Hunt Focus on Brand Fans

“We have been rethinking the way we identify our best customers, moving away from the traditional view of the most valuable customers being those who spend the most,” Hurney says. For BrandAlley, the true value lies in its brand advocates who provide more than just what they’re spending. She refers to them as brand fans: “It’s about who they’re recommending to BrandAlley. When they tell their friends and family about our site, that’s where the real value is. Word-of-mouth marketing happens to be one of the most effective ways to acquire new customers.”

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To segment its customers, BrandAlley doesn’t only rely on the lifetime value of a customer (total amount spent by one customer), but accrues the amount spent across a customer’s connections and network. “Through the Mention Me Advocacy Intelligence platform, we’re tracking the true economic value, or ‘extended customer revenue’ of our VIPs, the people who are sharing their favorite brands,” Hurney adds. “This way, we can engage and reward them, and keep them doing what they’re doing.” According to her, other insights become visible as well, like the fact that customers overall are spending less these days while customers from referrals spend more on average and are also far more likely to recommend.

Integration of Mention Me Tactics with SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement

To identify these advocates BrandAlley is working with SAP partner Mention Me, the world’s first customer advocacy intelligence platform. The Mention Me platform uses advanced AI technology to track and provide detailed insights into customers’ advocacy behaviors, like recommending products or services to others. Additionally, the SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement solution includes prebuilt Mention Me advocacy tactics that can allow companies to quickly build personalized campaigns through various channels designed to motivate fans to share and recommend more frequently. Prebuilt workflows make the integration of Mention Me’s unique advocacy data with SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement seamless and easy.  

Kat Wray, director of Strategic Partnerships at Mention Me, explains the benefits: “Our integration feeds Mention Me’s first-party AI-powered advocacy data into SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement in real time to identify BrandAlley’s current and future brand advocates and activate them to drive growth. The combination of advocacy know-how and AI-based insights with SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement have led to a 25% increase of the repeat purchase rate at BrandAlley.”

The overall improvements are impressive: since the go-live of the solution in September, BrandAlley’s customer base has grown, with 12% more customers acquired organically through referrals and a £9.6 million increase in new customer revenue. Customers who are referred to the brand spend 63% more in their first six months, are two times more likely to purchase again, and are three times more likely to refer their friends.

Wray explains how advocacy insights impact customer engagements: “Traditionally one would offer a discount code to a customer who is about to defect, together with a message along the lines of ‘We’ve not seen you for a while, here’s a discount to come back.’ Based on advocacy data, we can now see that some of these customers might not be ready to spend but are more than happy to share and recommend the brand to friends instead – driving indirect revenue. They aren’t inactive customers but engaged advocates.”  

Machine Learning Advances Customer Loyalty

“At Mention Me, we use AI and machine learning to optimize referrals. We have our own AI engine with predictive capabilities that enable marketers to focus their activities on specific customer cohorts,” Wray says. She explains that it is key to understand that not all customers are ready to refer; some people just aren’t at that stage yet, but future advocacy behavior of specific individuals can be predicted. Machine learning also identifies a customer’s propensity to refer at a given moment. Customers with a high propensity to refer will be encouraged to do so. Once brand loyal, customers’ propensity to refer grows, and sometimes so does their propensity to purchase again.

Asked about BrandAlley’s next step regarding advocacy management, Hurney answers: “As we build on our strategic partnerships with Mention Me and SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement, we’re excited to see how our shift of focus from VIPs to ‘very important advocates’ will play an even greater role in our marketing and growth strategy.”

Top photo courtesy of BrandAlley

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Forests are rapidly disappearing around the world, with deforestation and forest degradation currently posing the biggest threats to the world’s woodlands. In a bid to halt this devastating situation, the EU is in the process of implementing the EU Regulation on Deforestation-free (EUDR) products.

The Burning Platform

Around 10% of the world’s forests – an area larger than the European Union – have been lost over the past 30 years due to deforestation and another approximately 10% of forests globally are severely fragmented with little or no connectivity. While this is not a new phenomenon, the current scale and pace of destruction is alarming, causing significant social, economic, and environmental impacts, locally and globally.

Deforestation is one of the main drivers of climate change and biodiversity loss, and countries across the EU contribute to it by demanding and consuming a significant share of products associated with deforestation. In an effort to take accountability for this, the EU is determined to help end the issues by protecting and improving the health of existing forests, especially primary forests, while significantly increasing sustainable, biodiverse forest coverage worldwide. To achieve this goal, the EU has developed the Regulation on Deforestation-free products, scheduled to go into effect in December 2024.

To improve the health of existing forests and significantly increase sustainable, biodiverse forest coverage worldwide, the EUDR spans five main priorities:

• Reduce the footprint of EU consumption and encourage consumption of products from deforestation-free supply chains
• Work in partnership with producer countries to reduce pressures on forests
• Strengthen international cooperation to halt deforestation and encourage forest restoration
• Redirect finance to support more sustainable land-use practices
• Support availability and access to information on forests and commodity supply chains and support research and innovation

What’s at Stake

A number of industries and market segments are impacted by this new regulation, including consumer products, chemicals, pharma, agriculture, energy, retail, automotive, and mill and forestry industries covering paper, lumber, and wood. The regulation impacts seven commodities, which primarily consist of agricultural or raw materials, including cocoa, coffee, soy, wood, palm oil, rubber, and cattle, that are directly linked to deforestation and forest degradation. It also impacts derivatives, which are the products made using these commodities, such as chocolate from cocoa, furniture from wood, or fresh chicken meat made by feeding soya-based feed to poultry.

Companies such as manufacturers and exporters of these commodities and their derivatives are the ones most impacted by the regulation. Large companies in these categories must adhere to the regulation by December 2024, while small or mid-sized ones have until June 2025 to comply. To be approved for use in the EU, products must be covered by a due diligence statement (DDS) per delivery linked to a traceability system with evidence of chain-of-custody from the source of origin demonstrating that the product is deforestation-free and produced in accordance with relevant legislations.

Accelerate your transition to certified sustainable materials with SAP Green Token Learn more Main Impact on Operators

The legislation has two broad ramifications:

• Companies must carry out supplier risk assessments to ensure their suppliers of these seven commodities meet requirements, have mapped the land areas (shape files) of sourcing, and that their production does not violate local laws and regulations. If necessary, they must implement remedial action plans.
• Companies must do day-to-day DDS reporting per delivery to the EUDR portal, including the geolocation shape file of all plots of land where the relevant commodities or their derivates were produced, which requires supply chain traceability.

Responding to these impacts is an onerous task and for a typical large EU operator could involve hundreds of thousands of due diligence statements being created and sent to the EU annually. Due diligence statements must be kept for five years and must be auditable, making these tasks ripe for automation.

How to Get Started

Non-conformance to the EUDR may lead to fines, lack of market access, reputational risk, and other repercussions. Companies need an inexpensive, efficient solution to help meet their immediate reporting requirements, and SAP Green Token sustainability tracking software is being upgraded to fit the bill.

The out-of-the-box SAP Green Token solution currently includes DDS reporting capabilities and can cover the majority of technical requirements for customers. It can share information for commingled commodities in segregated supply chains with downstream partners and generate declarations.

SAP Green Token is being developed to help support automated EUDR DDS reporting and meet the audit history requirements. Also in the works is integration with data providers for standardized location information and integration with the EUDR reporting platform, called TRACES, for importing operators. Further expansions will enable a connection to SAP‘s sustainability business networks and end-to-end user experience scenarios.

Are You Equipped to Deal with the Upcoming Changes?

There is no better time than the present to prepare for the new regulatory landscape that is scheduled to take effect by the end of the year.

Companies can begin preparations by collaborating with suppliers to initiate the due diligence process, which includes three steps. It begins with collecting relevant data on types of products that are impacted and ensuring that they are being produced in accordance with regulations. If not, remedial steps can be taken in collaboration with partners and suppliers.

Next, companies must conduct risk assessments that address country-specific issues that can range from human right violations to tracing product origins. Again, remedial steps can be initiated collaboratively. And finally, the right technology is key to achieving compliance.

SAP Green Token can provide companies with the capability to track commingled materials in products using digital twins, segregated accounting, and blockchain technology to help prove sustainability. Not only can SAP Green Token help tackle this new regulation, but it can help demonstrate progress towards environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments in general and create a streamlined, transparent process for tracking and tracing materials to help drive a more sustainable, circular approach to business – one that benefits people and our planet while still driving profit.

Gloria Figaroa is part of Product Marketing for SAP Green Token at SAP.

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Production planning and scheduling is the bloodline of a successful manufacturing facility – it supports agility to adapt to market demands in real-time regardless of market fluctuations while optimizing inventory, distributing the workforce, decreasing waste, and ensuring the projected financial performance.

TAM International is a manufacturer of drilling products and services for the oil and gas industry with headquarters in Houston, Texas, and a presence on six continents. With a lofty goal of growing tenfold over the next 10 years, the company set out to ensure its business operations were adaptable, innovative, and efficient in a world that’s always changing. To achieve this, TAM International decided to adopt a state-of-the-art ERP system that would drive transparent and efficient business operations across finance, scheduling, and manufacturing.

“Our legacy scheduling system did little to empower our ambitions, and at times it felt like we were working for it. To quickly shift gears and remain competitive in a volatile industry, we needed to modernize and adopt solutions that would work for us, not have us work for them. We needed automated workflows and reporting, quality control, and the ability to connect different parts of our business for transparent planning and execution across the entire enterprise,” explained Rebecca DeHoyos, supply chain director, TAM International.

TAM International was aware that SAP was the gold standard for ERP in industrial manufacturing but believed that only the biggest corporations could afford it.

“We did not include SAP in our early conversation, thinking we were too small for them. Then, an executive from the SAP North America digital hub reached out to our CFO and presented not only the benefits of SAP, but also a convincing message backed by customer references that SAP’s cloud portfolio was indeed suitable for companies of all sizes. This changed everything,” DeHoyos said.

Digital hubs, located on six continents, are the engines that execute SAP’s digital customer engagement. The multi-disciplined and digitally skilled talent in the hubs use AI and the latest technologies to help support customers regardless of where they might be located or at which stage of their value journey with SAP they are. Through a powerful combination of automation and expert engagement, customers can realize their digital transformation business outcomes exponentially faster and at greater convenience.

“The first contact with a new customer is critical. Our digital customer engagement teams embed AI to scale SAP’s industry best practices to accelerate and deepen the understanding of customer needs, concerns, and aspirations before the very first meeting,” said Sam Masri, global head, SAP Digital, Customer Success. “We are delighted to have played an important role in facilitating an immediate connection to a dedicated account manager and multiple SAP experts who addressed the challenges that TAM International had, setting a strong starting point for a successful digital transformation road map for the customer.”

To gain a full understanding of the customer’s fundamental business goals and the obstacles caused by the disconnection between finance, scheduling, and production, the Industries and Value and Solution Advisory teams at SAP were engaged right from the start. Following the solution demos and the business case presentation, SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) were identified as the solutions of choice for TAM International.

“There is another major benefit of our partnership with SAP,” DeHoyos added. “Our workforce is incredibly diverse and young, with a majority sitting in the 27 to 41 age group. They are tech natives and will only work with businesses that share their passion for business success driven by technological innovation. Working with SAP’s ERP is a goal for many, and our relationship with SAP has also elevated our profile, making us more relevant to this talent group.”

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WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced today that MAHLE Group has chosen the RISE with SAP solution to move to the cloud. By choosing SAP S/4HANA Cloud, MAHLE Group, a global automotive supplier and leading international development partner to the automotive industry, will move its entire on-premise SAP landscape to the cloud.

In line with its vision to shape the future of mobility, MAHLE is moving its entire ERP processes — from warehousing, finance, analytics and transportation to material management — to the cloud. With access to the latest updates and enhancements from RISE with SAP, MAHLE will be able to increase flexibility, have the highest security standards and be able to access cutting-edge technologies, which will empower the company to further innovate.

“MAHLE and SAP have been working together for more than 30 years now, traveling a joint journey from SAP R/2 software to SAP S/4HANA and now RISE with SAP. It truly made us partners,” said Markus Kapaun, member of the MAHLE Group Management Board for Finance and IT. “This partnership is of strategic importance to us even more so today as it helps to ensure future market success for our group. With RISE with SAP, MAHLE will have a powerful tool to become an even stronger partner for our customers using state-of-the-art business processes based on future-oriented technologies.”

With sales of about 12.8 billion euros and 148 production locations around the world that provide products, services and systems for vehicles, MAHLE plays an important role in ensuring the vehicles on the roads are efficient, sustainable and safe. According to its strategy, MAHLE 2030+, the company acknowledges that the future of mobility comprises a mix of electric drives as well as clean and efficient combustion engines that run on renewable fuels such as hydrogen.

“This move to the cloud marks an important milestone for both SAP and MAHLE Group,” said Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Customer Services & Delivery. “With multiple SAP solutions already implemented, MAHLE Group can now benefit from all our great innovations in the cloud.

Both MAHLE and SAP are aligned to ensure a sustainable future in our respective industries for the world, and I’m glad to be working together to realize our goals.”

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Migrate with confidence and drive continuous innovation Learn more about RISE with SAP

Media Contacts:
Kerstin Cynthia Lau, +49 711 501 13185, kerstin.cynthia.lau@mahle.com, CET
MAHLE Newsroom
Lesa Plingen, +49 622 776 9000, lesa.plingen@sap.com, CET
SAP Press Room; press@sap.com

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP’s 2023 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
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SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices.

There’s no better proving ground for the incredible power of digitalized food chains than India, one of the most populated countries worldwide. As India’s leading food agritech company, WayCool Foods has pioneered a data-driven strategy designed to close the gap between supply and demand, decreasing food waste and increasing revenue for every organization across the value chain.

“With one integrated platform that connects data from farmers through processing, warehouses, and retail, we are transforming the traditional food chain from supplier-driven to demand-driven,” said Karthik Jayaraman, co-founder and managing director at WayCool. “We selected RISE with SAP because it is a flexible, cloud-based foundation for our growing business. SAP S/4HANA provides a single source of truth company-wide and across our ecosystem, helping us produce and deliver the delicious food that consumers want on their table.”  

The company has already reduced food wastage by up to 96% while improving the average income of farmers by over 13%.

WayCool Creates Sustainable Food Supply Chain with Cloud Tech

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Always allow YouTube Always load all embeds--> Video Producers: John Hunt, Rana Hamzakadi Data Insights Align Food Supply with Demand

Putting predictability and farming in the same sentence might seem like a stretch in a world rocked by disruptions like extreme weather and geopolitical conflicts. However, WayCool orchestrates a groundbreaking collaborative effort. It starts with farmers who produce the fruits, vegetables, and other staples that feed the Indian population and extends to partners, warehouse operations, distribution, and retailers.

“Sharing information with our partners in procurement who run processing and warehouse facilities, along with transportation logistics and retail, we can align supply with the right pricing for greater efficiencies and governance that produces the highest quality products,” said Avinash Kasinathan, chief technology officer at WayCool. “Data transparency also means that farmers can base field production on actual market demand and consumption.”

Farmer Income Grows with Data-Driven Strategy

WayCool’s ability to trace products from farm to end consumer provides the company and its ecosystem with forecasting and planning insights based on real-time customer feedback and market demands. Using this connected data, WayCool makes recommendations to farmers on what fruits and vegetables to grow for the highest yields and uptake at the best prices.

Meet the demands of today’s farming operations with innovative agribusiness solutions Learn more

Fourth-generation farmer Hari Prasad, located in a village called Karnataka on the outskirts of East Bangalore, is one of the over 200,000 farmers that WayCool provides with detailed cultivation plans.

“Unlike traditional farming, WayCool recommends what to plant, when, and where, letting us know up front what they’ll purchase at fair prices based on harvest time frames and factoring in staggered market demands,” he said. “We don’t have to worry about whether or not we’ll sell our yield, and we can calculate continuous earnings in a more predictable and consistent manner.” 

Although farmers may have smaller yields, harvesting crops on a more consistent basis throughout the year levels out supply and demand spikes and downturns. If crop prices fall one week and rise the next, farmers can average out major risks with a steadier stream of income over time.

AI-Based Technologies Reduce Waste and Boost Crop Yields

WayCool has infused AI capabilities across its digitalized supply chain to increase quality yield and decrease waste. AI is built into the recommendation engine that tells retailers which products on their shelves will sell faster according to store location demographics. In the field, farmers use AI-based image recognition to quickly identify plant diseases and set up treatment plans. Internet of Things (IoT)-based sensors in the soil send farmers alerts on weather patterns to guide more cost-efficient and sustainable irrigation decisions. The company is exploring generative AI use cases as well.

Sustainable Agriculture Vision for the World

For WayCool and its partners, sustainable business encompasses the full range of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments. Digitalization has an important role, for example, in regenerative farming practices. Farmers can use data-driven insights to produce stronger seeds for biodiversity, growing crops that are more climate-resilient and use less water and fertilizer in healthier soil.

Looking ahead, Jayaraman is eager to bring WayCool’s digitalized business model from India to other regions such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

“The food supply chain is a huge global market, yet agribusiness is one of the least digitized industries,” said Jayaraman. “We’ve experienced how technology is revolutionizing food chains in India, and we’re excited about bringing people in other parts of the world greater access to affordable, quality food for the next generation of sustainable agriculture.”

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Companies are leaning more on contingent workers to meet strategic goals and objectives, increasing the proportion of contractors, crowdsourced consultants, freelancers, and gig workers in their total workforce. But do they have the tools to manage this talent smoothly and integrate it with internal employees? Not necessarily.

According to Deloitte, the makeup of the modern workforce is growing so complex that organizational leaders are realizing that their existing workforce management systems are inadequate for bridging the gap between internal and external contributors.

This doesn’t have to be the reality anymore, thanks to the expanded edition of the SAP Preferred Success plan for SAP Fieldglass solutions. Organizations can now create a consistent strategy and experience for their entire workforce – from planning and staffing to onboarding and payment. More important, the plan can empower business leaders to innovate strategies that address future disruption, accelerate capacity ramp-up, and reduce costs.

Setting a Higher Standard for Workforce Management

This expanded edition adds more adoption and utilization-driving features to the base subscription of the SAP Preferred Success plan. Offering greater access to expert guidance, enhanced services, prescriptive reviews, and firsthand assistance with feature adoption, the expanded edition helps surround organizations with the guidance and conversations they need.

Fast track the value of your cloud investments with SAP Preferred Success Learn more

A product specialist orchestrates opportunities for an SAP customer to collaborate closely with relevant experts. This includes regular calls to discuss and triage concerns, assess business processes and technology usage, review implementation calendar and plans, document the solution landscape, and deliver services and follow-up.

One enhanced service is a solution review. The one-on-one workshop is tailored to meet the needs and objectives for an effective and efficient operation of SAP Fieldglass solutions, setting a higher standard for operational excellence. Engaging with SAP experts, organizations can obtain recommendations and advice on solution configuration changes that can alleviate pain points, improve the user experience, and eliminate or reduce bottlenecks.

SAP experts dive even deeper into an organization’s specific organizational and workforce needs during the business review. This semiannual, remote, one-on-one workshop allows collaboration with experts to help ensure deployed SAP Fieldglass solutions are optimized and aligned with evolving processes, strategies, and leading practices. Areas where new functionalities can be incorporated into the solutions are also assessed and identified, while business process improvements are considered based on KPI analysis.

The expanded edition also facilitates the activation of new features from SAP Fieldglass solutions that are relevant to business goals and can further enhance the user experience. Assisted by experienced subject-matter experts, organizations can identify, evaluate, deploy, and measure the impact of new features. The new features can also be tested before going live to pinpoint potential effects and determine changes necessary to maximize adoption.

But the benefits of the expanded edition of SAP Preferred Success for SAP Fieldglass solutions don’t end there. It also includes cloud release guidance on new capabilities in the contingent workforce management solutions, allowing organizations to reach their goals on their terms and timelines. Before each release, SAP experts identify release dates, notes, and crucial details surrounding new and sunsetting functionality to help organizational stakeholders stay current on what’s relevant to their business.

Moreover, managed learning resources are available through SAP Learning Hub for up to five administrative users at no extra cost. This component of the expanded edition helps empower the workforce with guided, hands-on training that can maximize the organization’s investment in SAP Fieldglass solutions. Access to learning content for all SAP solutions can enable business teams to learn faster with a redesigned learning experience, innovate smarter, and manage their knowledge proactively.

Driving Resilience with a Well-Managed Workforce

The expanded edition of SAP Preferred Success for SAP Fieldglass solutions offers a comprehensive framework for managing the total workforce, including contingent workers. The plan can empower organizations to navigate complexities and innovate strategies, achieving operational excellence and staying ahead in a dynamic landscape.

Ready to elevate the management of your workforce and forge a resilient path to future success? Visit sap.com or contact your local SAP representative to learn more about the expanded edition of SAP Preferred Success for SAP Fieldglass solutions.

John Wagner Jr. is global practice lead for SAP Preferred Success at SAP.

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WALLDORF and NEW YORK — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced Bain & Company, one of the world’s leading management consultancies, is now successfully running all of its core financials in 40 countries on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

This marks a milestone for Bain & Company since the firm embarked on an enterprise resource planning (ERP) modernization project in 2020.

Choosing the Cloud to Support Future Growth

Having grown significantly over two decades, Bain & Company now operates globally in over 65 offices. This growth, both organic and through acquisitions, led to a rise in manual and localized back-end processes, in addition to the challenges of integrating acquired businesses into the wider company. For these reasons, Bain & Company made the choice to migrate to the cloud with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition: Ready-to-run cloud ERP delivering industry best practices and continuous innovation Learn more

“SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition was the best ERP option to meet our needs because of its standard processes, latest industry best practices and continuously delivered innovation, and I believe that adopting an SaaS solution will help future-proof our technology stack as we continue to grow,” Bain & Company Chief Information Officer Ramesh Razdan said. “We’ve already completed our first year-end close on SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and are very pleased with the results we’ve seen. I’m confident that we’re on course to deliver significant value from this implementation in the coming years.”

A Strategic Opportunity to Optimize Business Operations

In implementing SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition across its global business in 40 countries, Bain was determined to realize the full potential of its new ERP system. From the outset, the program was owned by stakeholders from across both business and technology functions with the goal of fully standardizing core processes end to end and enabling its global users to deliver desired business outcomes with the new technology.  

Using its own ERP transformation teams and digital transformation expertise to deliver a “business-led” technology transformation of this magnitude, Bain worked together with SAP to design and deliver its end-to-end “SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition modernization program.” Additionally, Bain also invested in significant change management and training efforts to ensure global users were ready to harness the full value of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

“We treated this as a business-led transformation in the same way we advise our clients,” Bain & Company CFO Steve McLaughlin said. “We standardized many processes to create real business value and execution efficiency. For example, we simplified and standardized our chart of accounts enabling us to utilize SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, group reporting to provide the management reporting our leaders need to make timely decisions. Our business leaders and finance team have owned our SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition journey from day one, which was a real key to our initial success and knowing we have more to do.”

Successful “Big Bang” Implementation Across the Globe

Bain is now live globally with fully standard processes following a big-bang implementation across 40 countries. Today, it has a system built around a standardized core, which has enabled faster and better-informed decision-making, automated processes that will lead to reduced manual work, quicker onboarding of acquisitions, and seamless ERP upgrades and innovation.

“Bain & Company and SAP have been long-standing partners,” said Scott Russell, chief revenue officer and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. “We are delighted to support them in their journey to the cloud so that they are poised to continue transforming their business as well as the businesses of our joint customers. I look forward to seeing Bain & Company fully utilize all the latest innovations, including industry best practices and new technologies like generative AI, available to them through SAP solutions.”

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SAP Sapphire in Orlando and Barcelona were action-packed with groundbreaking announcements and insightful customer interactions.

SAP Sapphire: Taking Business to the Next Level in the Era of AI Read the news guide

Businesses are looking at the transformative power of business AI to help them adapt to rapid market changes, grow customer loyalty and profitability, and get tangible outcomes. Yet, it can be challenging for business leaders to separate the hype from reality and we at SAP Customer Experience (CX) remain committed to helping. We showcased customer stories with some of the biggest brands in the world that have transformed their customer experiences using our products. We are riding a wave of momentum, having introduced an impressive 600 new innovations to our customers in the last year.

At SAP, we take a holistic and integrated approach to customer experience with our composable and scalable solutions. We align people, processes, and technology across the customer journey to help enhance profitability and shareholder value while ensuring an exceptional customer experience. Our solutions are based on the four pillars of intelligent CX and built with the highest standards of trust, privacy, AI ethics, and security. We create a comprehensive and ethical foundation for customer-centric CX with measurable business results.

The four pillars of intelligent CX are:

• Connected by design, seamlessly uniting operational and experience data and processes, helping you deliver delightful holistic experiences that span back and front office while safeguarding your TCO
• Insightful by enabling you to rapidly turn your most critical asset data into proactive and contextual insights that drive real business outcomes – intelligent CX helps you start on your AI journey today with meaningful generative AI capabilities infused across the entire solution portfolio
• Adaptive by allowing you to experiment with agility through our hybrid composability approach by extending SAP’s core capabilities with a plethora of carefully curated, pre-integrated, and certified partner solutions, helping take the guesswork out of these crucial decisions
• Industry-tailored by applying deep industry context, experience, and knowledge of over 25 industries – coupled with our rich, curated partner ecosystem, SAP CX solutions can support end-to-end blueprints that are tailored to the unique needs of your industry and its customers

With these pillars, we have been hard at work bringing innovative features to our customers. Here’s a closer look at some of them.

Enrich the Customer Experience for Maximized Loyalty and Interaction Value AI Shopping Assistant

Transform your B2B and B2C storefronts with SAP’s new AI shopping assistant. This cutting-edge technology can act as a shopper’s personal product expert, uncovering subtle details and complex information often hidden in user manuals or specifications through natural conversation. By engaging with shoppers on your storefront, it helps identify their specific needs and can offer detailed recommendations and insights to make it easy for them to find the right product.

Agility and Experimentation for Enterprise Merchants in SAP Commerce Cloud

Enterprise merchants have historically struggled to balance agility and compliance in commerce. These new capabilities can enable them to be more innovative and agile while still experiencing the reliability that they have come to expect from SAP Commerce Cloud.

Conversational Messaging

Marketing teams can now engage customers with conversational messaging. They can send customized one-way messages, automated responses, and engage in two-way interactions with customers on their preferred chat application.

Rev Up Productivity with AI-Driven Tools Enterprise Service Management

Organizations can now break down operational silos, curb redundant processes, and automate tasks to serve their internal and external customers in more effective, efficient, and personalized ways.

AI Image Creation

Commerce and marketing teams can now easily create engaging and personalized product images, using natural language to produce new product photos or make seamless edits to existing images, including changing or completely removing backgrounds. As a result, their product visuals can better reflect their brand’s identity, enhance the customer experience, and reduce costs.

AI Expert Recommendations

Sales, service, and commerce teams can quickly find the right subject-matter experts to answer customer queries and concerns. Rather than sifting through e-mails, notes, team messages, and org charts, CX teams can now easily type questions using natural language and receive recommendations on who within their organizations is best equipped to provide insights and answers.

AI Segment and Content Generation

Marketing teams can now easily create, copy, or insert new content from the catalog. Additionally, they can generate simple, understandable descriptions for existing segments or create new segments using natural language prompts.

Grow Profitably with Generative AI Innovation AI for SAP Sales Cloud

Empower your sales team with AI capabilities that can anticipate, automate, and personalize customer experiences.

Predictive Forecasting

Predictive forecasting can give CROs and sales executives a more accurate view of sales performance and revenue forecasting by using AI to predict the likelihood of deals closing across the entire business portfolio.

Predictive Product Recommendation

Predictive product recommendations can empower sales teams with insights into what are the right products to pitch to customers.

AI Account Summary and Lead Booster

AI-based account summary and lead booster insights use both internal and external sources to help provide sales teams with the news, background, and information they need to have informed prospect outreach and ongoing deal management.

AI Order Insights

AI order insights from SAP Sales Cloud help surface order information from SAP ERP in a highly consumable way in the platform sales teams use every day, so they can be prepared to answer customer questions quickly and efficiently.

Custom Generative AI Tools and Data Sources in SAP CX AI Toolkit

Enhance your customer experience with AI customized for your business. Leverage your CX data to create, customize, and deploy secure and trusted AI tools that help generate relevant content aligned with your business needs. Furthermore, integrate your own knowledge base and data sources to power generative answering for sales, service, and commerce teams. Don’t be limited by pre-built solutions – build AI that reflects your unique customer journey.

The innovations we unveiled at SAP Sapphire are a testament to our commitment to drive tangible business outcomes and bring out your best customer experience. These innovations are available now or will be available in H2 2024. In addition, we have many more exciting offerings in the pipeline. Brace yourself for an exciting journey ahead with our next-gen CX solutions and stay tuned for more developments on the horizon!

Find out more about these innovations here.

Ritu Bhargava is president and chief product officer for SAP Industries and Customer Experience.

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According to Albert Einstein, “Life is like a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” He had a point! The same is true of business.

SAP Sapphire: Taking Business to the Next Level in the Era of AI Read the news guide

Successful businesses keep moving and evolving, especially in times of rapid change and macroeconomic uncertainty. And given the current volatility, business transformation is no longer optional; it’s imperative.

Knowing this, we launched RISE with SAP in 2021 not as a technical IT migration approach, but as a comprehensive solution designed to drive broad business transformation. With 6,000 customers having selected RISE with SAP, we know we cannot stop moving either. And I was thrilled to share at SAP Sapphire this year how we are taking the RISE with SAP experience to the next level and improving services and delivery for customers end-to-end.

Here are some key takeaways.

Evolving How We Engage with Customers

Navigating the transformation of today’s complex system landscapes and business processes is like orchestrating a symphony with countless instruments and moving parts. To succeed, we need to keep refining our engagement approach to better manage the intricacies of our customers’ complex architecture at an unprecedented level of detail.

To this end, we’re making a lot of changes in how we engage with customers, including strengthening the role of the enterprise architect (EA). The EA harmonizes all elements and guides the customer throughout their cloud journey.

Enhancing Methodologies

We know the biggest challenge for any cloud transformation is to make the system landscape more agile and enable innovation — quickly. We’ve been listening and have introduced solutions. For example, our RISE with SAP Methodology is a significant step forward in creating a consistent experience for all RISE with SAP customers, independent of their individual cloud journeys. Now, a dedicated enterprise architect guides customers through the RISE with SAP Methodology to enhance onboarding and provides transparency throughout the project with key milestone checks, q-gates, and checklists that ensure consistent quality and more predictable timelines throughout the implementation process.

This new offering is included in our SAP RISE Migration and Modernization program, which is designed to give customers the confidence to migrate even the most complex ERP systems to the cloud. By enabling our customers to integrate and extend SAP S/4HANA with a clean core approach, we ensure our customers experience better maintainability and lower total cost of ownership.​ Because legacy ERP systems often carry technical debt and, let’s face it, code is also a liability not just an asset. The more code you have, the more you have to optimize, debug, and modernize. And this is something we all need to actively work against.

Introducing Partner Training and Validation

We are also making it easier for RISE with SAP customers to identify partners to help with complex SAP S/4HANA Cloud transformations. It is essential for our partner ecosystem to follow the RISE with SAP Methodology as well. For customers to onboard successfully, there needs to be a close alignment between SAP, the customer, and implementation partner. This is why we are training and validating partners to use the RISE with SAP Methodology and will collaborate closely with partners to provide consistency and quality.

We are also introducing the RISE with SAP Validated Partner recognition, which verifies a partner’s adherence to the RISE with SAP Methodology and our q-gates, giving businesses the confidence to know that they are fully leveraging the potential of cloud-based innovations from SAP. Almost 90% of all SAP implementations are overseen by partners, so training and validating them is a key part of our strategy to ensure consistency and quality for customers.

Building a Seamless End-to-End Tool Chain

As a former SAP CIO, I’ve felt the challenges (and pain) of large-scale transformation. I know the pressure CIOs are under to show tangible business outcomes quickly. It’s why true business transformation requires a holistic approach, not a simple technology lift and shift.

We deliver the most complete business transformation suite in the industry. With the range of capabilities on offer today — including SAP Signavio, SAP LeanIX, and SAP Cloud ALM solutions as well as SAP Business Technology Platform — we have an amazing set of tools to bring out the best in businesses. Now, we are bringing them more closely together as one end-to-end seamless tool chain to make it easier to manage the process, system, and data landscape holistically.

With our recently announced agreement to acquire WalkMe, we plan to further strengthen our ability to deliver successful business transformation across applications, processes, systems, and people. ​WalkMe will help us incorporate user-centric adoption, enablement, and productivity capabilities alongside our Business Transformation Management portfolio of SAP Signavio and SAP LeanIX solutions. And WalkMe’s AI capabilities will complement our process AI with user intelligence, improving the capabilities of our generative AI copilot Joule to help people get work done faster.​

SAP Business AI: New Frontier for Business Transformation

In 2024, SAP Sapphire has been an opportunity for us to showcase how we are introducing in a new era of optimized business operations, with all the IT complexity concealed behind intuitive, AI-powered user experiences.

We highlighted the progress we are making embedding Joule throughout our enterprise portfolio and the enormous potential we see for AI to support both customers and partners in their RISE with SAP journey. I was thrilled to announce that starting in Q4 of 2024, customers and partners can leverage generative AI-powered assistance for their RISE with SAP clean core success plan.

We are also bringing new consulting capabilities to Joule, aimed at simplifying SAP implementations for partners. The new consulting capability draws insights from SAP product documentation and the SAP community to provide consultants with vital information and is planned to be available in the second half of this year.

Business Transformation: More Than an IT Project

At SAP, we understand that true business transformation is more than an IT project. It requires a holistic approach and not a simple technological lift and shift. That’s why we are putting the people, methodologies, financial incentives, tools, partner practices, and SAP Business AI in place to ensure our customers not only have compelling reasons to move to the cloud, but also a compelling experience.

Learn more:

• Watch the replay of the Customer Keynote at SAP Sapphire
• Read all the announcements in the SAP Sapphire News Guide

Thomas Saueressig is a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE leading Customer Services & Delivery.

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BARCELONA — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced that RHI Magnesita (LSE: RHIM), has chosen the RISE with SAP solution to rebuild and streamline its technology infrastructure for continued growth in the refractory industry.

SAP Sapphire: Taking Business to the Next Level in the Era of AI Read the news guide

A global leader in refractories, RHI Magnesita provides essential parts of the infrastructure that we use and need in our everyday lives. Supplying high-grade refractory products, systems and solutions, RHI Magnesita has 47 main production sites across the world, and ships its products to more than 100 countries.

With its vision to sustainably manage heat to build a better world, RHI Magnesita needed a technology foundation that would allow end-to-end interaction across its customers, suppliers and business partners across all geographies, end markets and product lines. Choosing to implement a multi-tier landscape consisting of both SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, RHI Magnesita is now equipped to redefine all its technology processes and landscape.

Ticiana Kobel, Executive VP Legal & Digital Transformation at RHI Magnesita, stated, “With the revamped digital landscape that we will shape together with SAP, RHI Magnesita will transform into a digitally fortified company, centered around our customers and driven by data. The transition to SAP S/4HANA Cloud marks a pivotal moment in RHI Magnesita’s journey toward unparalleled efficiency, agility, and innovation which will enable us to unlock real-time insights, streamline operations, and enhance decision-making across our global network.”

With SAP S/4HANA Cloud, RHI Magnesita will have one unified view of its operations and supply chain, reducing its infrastructure footprint, and poises itself for better integration of future acquisitions while delivering cost savings. 

“RHI Magnesita is embarking on a true digital transformation that will see the streamlining of several landscapes that will allow it to leverage the cost savings, scalability and flexibility that comes with moving to the cloud,” said Alexander Klaeger, President of SAP MEE. “Already a leader in the industry, I’m excited to see RHI Magnesita use SAP S/4HANA Cloud to sustainably provide infrastructure the world needs.”

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This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ.  Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP’s 2023 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
© 2024 SAP SE. All rights reserved.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices.

After intensive preparation, 24 European national soccer teams will be presenting themselves at the upcoming European Championship. Besides concentrating on training and match practice, they’ll be analyzing their opponents and discussing tactics and game plans. Germany’s coaching team is relying on technology-driven support from the sports management solution SAP Sports One.

Sights Set on the European Championship

“SAP Sports One enables us to efficiently share tactical insights and key information about our next opponents with our players. And by accessing the software on a tablet, we can even give them the latest updates in the changing room shortly before kickoff or at half time,” says Benjamin Glück, assistant coach to the German national A-team.

“SAP’s sports management suite is very important to the national soccer team as a central platform for collecting and analyzing data and for presenting the insights gained from that data to our players,” explains Glück. “We use the video and visualization functions in SAP Sports One to help us illustrate findings about our opponents and their key players. These features make conveying tactics and preparing for specific matches much easier and clearer.” The German team also uses analytical insights to prepare for penalty scenarios. In SAP Penalty Insights, goalkeepers can study the behavior of potential penalty-takers, such as which area of the goal they usually aim for and even how these preferences change under pressure. Conversely, penalty-takers can gain insights into the tactics of their opponents’ goalkeepers.

The coaches and analysts of the German Football Association (Deutscher Fußball-Bund, or DFB) work with data created within SAP Sports One as well as data and analyses from third-party sources. The SAP solution serves as the central platform for consolidating and analyzing all the data.

An SAP App for All Players

Germany’s national players stay in close contact with their coaches and analysts through the SAP Sports One messaging app – SAP Team One – which they have on their phones. Among other things, the mobile app is used to pass on match preparation information, such as opponent analyses, annotated clips, and videos.

Take professional sports team management to a new level Learn how

The players also use the mobile app to share information about themselves. For example, they complete questionnaires about how intense they perceived the last training session or match, how well they slept, and how they are feeling overall. Their responses are used to generate an RPE (rating of perceived exertion) value. By gauging each player’s general health and well-being in this way, coaches can manage intensity levels according to each individual’s situation. Both the DFB and the player’s home club monitor this RPE value to guard against overtraining and injury. SAP Analytics Cloud can draw on data from SAP Sports One to create player-specific reports that are forwarded to the player’s home club after courses, tournaments, and matches the German team takes part in.

DFB and SAP: An Established Partnership

The DFB is a familiar name around the globe. With almost 7 million members spread across more than 25,000 clubs, it is the world’s largest national sports federation. At the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, which Germany won, the country’s national team was already using SAP Match Insights, a prototype of the solution that is now part of SAP Sports One. This prototype helped the DFB evaluate large volumes of data for match analysis for the first time.

Today, more than 1,000 DFB users – players and the “teams behind the teams” – work with SAP Sports One. “Our successful collaboration with the German national team was a key factor in SAP’s decision to turn the prototype we developed for the DFB into a standard product. Now, clubs and associations in 19 countries are using SAP Sports One,” says Fadi Naoum, senior vice president and head of Development, SAP Sports One. More joint projects followed, including the development of SAP Penalty Insights and SAP Challenger Insights, a mobile app that helps teams prepare for upcoming matches. On the horizon of this co-innovation partnership are plans to leverage the power of AI to make the functions in SAP Sports One even more efficient.

Shaping the Future

In addition to Germany’s national men’s and women’s soccer A-teams, the DFB manages 12 junior and U21 teams, too. “The challenge for us is to keep a close eye on the pool of talented young players we have and to help them reach their full potential,” says Christofer Clemens, the DFB’s head of Scouting, Match Analysis, and Diagnosis. “Our coaching teams watch an average of 1,500 games every season and identify a large number of gifted talents in the process. To qualify these players, the coaching teams compile a huge volume of scouting reports, which we manage in SAP Sports One. These qualitative insights are vital for us. However, at the moment, the task of judging the development of a player or comparing individual players based on that information is time-consuming,” says Clemens. “We’re hoping that AI will make the complex task of analyzing these vast amounts of data much simpler for us.” Alongside scouting reports, the DFB plans to use publicly available data sources and match statistics to complete player profiles.

“Another area where the DFB sees enormous potential for AI is in analyzing opponents before international matches,” says Martin Vogelbein, a member of the DFB’s Scouting, Match Analysis, and Diagnosis team and project lead in managing the SAP Sports One solution. SAP Sports One is already helping the DFB prepare for big games, he explains, but the plan is to go a step further and use AI to automatically analyze insights from opponents’ past matches.

“We are hoping that SAP’s AI copilot, Joule, will bring enormous benefits in terms of consolidating match reports. That would minimize the manual tasks our match analysts need to complete and reduce the time it takes to get answers to a range of key questions we have when preparing for games,” says Vogelbein. Typical questions are: What patterns are visible in the opposing team in different phases of the match? What does this tell us about the team’s strengths, weaknesses, and about the options we have? “We already have a huge amount of information – particularly qualitative data – available to us before games. SAP Challenger Insights, a component of SAP Sports One, allows us to visualize insights from that information and discuss them with the team. But, looking ahead, AI-driven analyses could help us prepare key background information for our players even more easily,” says Vogelbein.

Clemens and Vogelbein are very pleased with the results so far. “We see enormous potential in our work with SAP on the AI-driven evaluation of information that is relevant for scouting and match analysis. The prototypes SAP has presented to the DFB look very promising, and we are looking forward to using them live soon.”

Top image courtesy of Thomas Böcker

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Imagine entering a virtual classroom where students tackle dynamic, interactive challenges that mirror the complexities of the business world, powered by cutting-edge technology. The Business Builders game, a result of a longstanding partnership between SAP University Alliances and HEC Montréal, is where education meets real-world needs.

SAP Sapphire: Taking Business to the Next Level in the Era of AI Read the news guide

The innovative gaming platform is designed to redefine educational experiences and equip students with the skills they need for a successful career start.

To engage with the platform, users need to be enrolled students or active professors. By offering challenges designed to allow students to experience, analyze, and respond to business scenarios in a safe and controlled environment, the platform aims to enhance their analytical, data storytelling, and decision-making skills. The initiative reflects a shared vision for future-ready education, aligning with the World Economic Forum’s recognition of analytical thinking as a core skill for the future workforce.

“Data visualization is one of the most sought-after skills in the current job market, and our gaming platform equips students with a competitive edge,” shared Karina Montilla Edmonds, global head of Academies and SAP University Alliances at SAP. “By merging learning with gaming, we are driving student engagement while building career-relevant skills. It’s a win-win.”

Gamifying Learning Experience to Shape Future Professionals

Business Builders offers students hands-on experience with SAP Analytics Cloud through immersive, data-driven business challenges that mimic real-world business scenarios. It welcomes learners at all levels of familiarity with SAP, including those with no prior knowledge of data science and programming.

Game On: Business Builders Prepares Future Business Leaders for a Complex, Data-Driven World

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Students can engage in three distinct scenarios: sustainability, supply chain resilience, and international business expansion. Each scenario is designed to challenge students in specific areas of business management, including data analytics in the sustainability scenario, logistical complexities in the supply chain resilience scenario, and market analysis and product development in the international business expansion scenario.

In the future, additional scenarios will be added to extend the scope of Business Builders. The aim is for students to learn and apply advanced visualization and data storytelling techniques to gain insights from business data and successfully solve the business challenges.

“All business school students, regardless of their specialization, benefit immensely from learning advanced visualization techniques,” said Pierre-Majorique Léger, full professor of IT at HEC Montréal. “These skills enable them to manage and interpret vast amounts of data, derive meaningful business insights, and make informed decisions effectively.”

The practical experience gained through the business games helps students understand the complex interdependencies of business processes, enhancing the overall educational impact. Additionally, the platform’s interactive nature and competitive elements, such as classroom and global leaderboards, infuse learning with excitement and a tangible sense of achievement.

The platform offers educators an opportunity to revitalize their curriculum, extending beyond the confines of traditional teaching methods to make learning more hands-on, enjoyable, and relevant. They can integrate current, pressing business issues and trends into their lessons, making education more interesting and directly linked to what students will face in their future jobs.

And by joining a global network of educators using the platform, they can extend the reach and impact of their teaching, further enhancing the educational experience with a wide array of perspectives and expertise from around the world.

Free Access for More Inclusive Education

One of the cornerstones of this initiative is its commitment to inclusivity. By offering the platform free of charge to students, educators, and academic institutions worldwide, SAP University Alliances and HEC Montréal aim to ensure that aspiring leaders — regardless of geographic or socioeconomic barriers — have access to state-of-the-art resources.

This democratization of educational tools is critical for preparing diverse groups of students for what lies ahead, making sure they are ready to hit the ground running in the digital economy and data-centric world.

To find out more about the gaming platform, read about it in the SAP Sapphire News Guide or visit businessbuilders.games.

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BARCELONA — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced Otto Group’s Bonprix, a leading international fashion company, has successfully completed its implementation of the SAP BW/4HANA and SAP Datasphere solutions.

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One of Germany’s top four online fashion shops, Bonprix now operates a dynamic multi-cloud data landscape that enables it to integrate both on-premise and cloud data sources in one single platform.

Based in Hamburg, Germany, Bonprix has over 16 million active customers in more than 25 countries. The company looked to SAP solutions for a simplified IT architecture, a faster time-to-market in business decision-making process and a self-service-enabled semantic layer to respond to market changes and ensure customers have access to the latest catwalk trends.

Supported by SAP services and partners, including Beratungscontor, Bonprix implemented its analytics stack on SAP Datasphere and the SAP Business Warehouse application. By deploying SAP Datasphere as a cloud-based data platform to SAP BW4/HANA, Bonprix gains access to a powerful analytical platform that  bridges data across finance, sales, logistics and customer relationship management between transactional SAP data and end users.

“The Bonprix business intelligence data based on SAP solutions is adeptly designed for the future, leveraging the robust capabilities of SAP BW/4HANA at its core to manage and efficiently process vast volumes of data,” said Sergio Lopez Nunez, Bonprix senior BI engineer. “When paired with SAP Datasphere, which offers extensive multi-cloud access, it enables the seamless integration of data from diverse sources. In essence, the Bonprix BI data platform is not only a cornerstone in daily operations but also a strategic asset in the relentless pace of technological change, ensuring that Bonprix is well-equipped to continue promoting responsible trade that inspires, now and into the future.”

Having already implemented SAP Business AI solutions – specifically, the Document Information Extraction business service – Bonprix already has experienced significant efficiency gains by automatically extracting relevant data from incoming invoices, reducing manual data entry errors and accelerating the overall invoice processing workflow.

“As one of Germany’s top online fashion shops, Bonprix’s digital transformation journey is impressive as they continue to make millions of customers happy,” said Sven Mulder, managing director of SAP Germany. “The adoption of SAP Datasphere and SAP BW/4HANA marks the beginning of Bonprix’s successful cloud journey. They’re now empowered to make real-time, data-driven decisions, positioning the brand to expand into new markets with style.”

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This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ.  Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP’s 2023 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
© 2024 SAP SE. All rights reserved.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices.

BARCELONA — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Roca Group, one of the world’s leading bathroom fixtures and design companies has selected SAP S/4HANA and the RISE with SAP solution as it embarks on its next phase of digital transformation, focused on integrating and standardizing its IT systems.

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A family-owned business with over 100 years of heritage, a presence in 170 markets, and more than 21,500 employees and nearly 80 factories globally, Roca Group  had embraced digitalization to remain competitive and relevant in the dynamic sanitary industry. Having made several acquisitions over the years, Roca Group saw RISE with SAP as the ideal solution to consolidate various IT systems into one IT landscape. Roca’s decision in choosing SAP S/4HANA Cloud was driven by the desire to increase efficiency and the ability to make informed, real-time, data-driven business decisions.

“Roca Group’s strategy is based on a long-term future vision supported by innovation, technology and sustainability,” said Albert Magrans, CEO of Roca Group. “Moving to SAP S/4HANA enables Roca to leverage the last technology and innovations of SAP software to boost our digital transformation. We are looking forward to faster execution speed, the enhancement of functionality with the Joule copilot, real-time analytics and further innovations from SAP and its ecosystem.”

“Roca Group and SAP have collaborated closely for a number of years, with Roca trusting SAP with multiple SAP implementations,” said Manos Raptopoulos, VP of SAP Europe, Middle East and Africa. “Roca’s IT strategy is fully aligned with its business transformation with SAP solutions as an integral part of this strategy. Our close partnership allows our teams to have real-time insight into their business transformation, allowing for seamless integration of SAP solutions as they embark on their SAP S/4HANA Cloud journey.”

In choosing SAP S/4HANA Cloud and various cloud solutions from SAP, such as SAP Customer Experience, SAP Ariba and SAP SuccessFactors solutions, Roca Group continues to be well-positioned to leverage SAP’s integrated suite of solutions that will enhance customer experience and potentially open up new business opportunities. In adopting a clean core approach, the group will have a single platform for its production centers and logistics platforms, tapping onto the SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain solution for demand and production planning, and the SAP Transportation Management application for transport management. With these solutions implemented, the operations already using them have seen a cubic capacity of their transports rise by 10%.

Additionally, Roca plans to use SAP SuccessFactors to improve learning programs, manage global payroll and enhance the employee self-service portal through SAP’s suite of solutions in addition to travel expense management with SAP Concur solutions.

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To increase visibility for organizations and enable more accurate data and insights, we introduced updates to our procurement, business network, and external workforce platforms at SAP Sapphire Orlando last week.

With new integrations for SAP Ariba solutions, SAP Business Network, and SAP Fieldglass solutions, as well as the incorporation of new generative AI features, we aim to automate and streamline procurement, supply chain, and external workforce management processes. These innovations will help empower organizations to access real-time spend data and focus on proactive decision-making, ultimately increasing their visibility and effectiveness.

As businesses continue to embrace advanced technologies, the integration of responsible, relevant, and reliable business AI and Joule, SAP’s natural language, generative AI copilot, into the SAP suite of solutions represents a significant leap forward in optimizing business processes and accelerating strategic initiatives. By harnessing the power of supply chain data alongside business AI and generative AI, we are setting the stage for practical procurement and workforce scenarios to thrive.

Taking Business to the Next Level in the Era of AI Read the news guide Joule Combined with SAP Ariba and SAP Analytics Cloud Can Improve Procurement Processes and Supply Chain Planning

Digital transformation has brought on endless potential for procurement teams, as embedded generative AI and increased access to data across the supply chain can lead to better visibility into spend. That is why we’re announcing further integration of Joule into our procurement solutions.

Later this year, Joule will be generally available in SAP Ariba solutions. Through this update, sourcing managers can utilize intelligent product and supplier recommendations to develop proposal requests. The combined platform will consider cost-effectiveness, sustainability ramifications, compliance regulations, and previous transactions.

Another new generative AI-based feature in SAP Ariba solutions will migrate data from SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition to help provide customers with a 360-degree buying user experience to enable a simple, agile, and collaborative process to identify products and skills in the same purchase order, otherwise known as spend bundling. Buyers can describe their purchasing needs with natural language prompts, and the system will deliver intelligent and personalized recommendations. This will help increase flexibility for buying materials and services, creating a collaborative and straightforward process from searching for products and services through order fulfillment.

To this end, we revealed a version of our generative AI-powered SAP Spend Control Tower during a session with Blackstone at SAP Sapphire. The command center, which can provide a single location for enterprise-wide spend analytics, can identify tail spend, improve compliance, and constantly identify rapidly increasing costs. This will help create meaningful value for organizations by increasing end-to-end visibility to drive efficient spend performance. Find out how to take advantage of the solution’s native connections to other SAP applications and improved insight to action here in this video.

Optimizing SAP Fieldglass with Generative AI to Mitigate Risk

HR departments and procurement teams often struggle to collaborate, creating silos that limit the ability to identify proper external candidates who can fill skills gaps in organizations. The latest update to SAP Fieldglass solutions will introduce embedded AI to help reduce risk and increase the value of the external workforce.

We are leveraging generative AI to produce scope of work (SOW) descriptions, job descriptions, and job description translations for external workers, automatically identifying the required skills and qualifications for each organization. This will help remove data silos to enable total workforce management, an organizational strategy to provide visibility into all temporary and permanent employees.

Additionally, SAP Fieldglass solutions enhanced with generative AI can rank candidates based on salary preference, skills, and experience. Procurement teams can then identify the best candidates in an unbiased manner to reduce the time to hire, ultimately accelerating strategic decision-making. These added facets will help enhance planning and preparation for all external talent scenarios.

Introducing New Enhancements to SAP Business Network

One of the highest priorities for any supply chain professional is to ensure their people, processes, and technology are resilient. Supply chain resilience extends beyond being able to withstand disruptions – it includes visibility into all activity and agility to react quickly to find and secure alternative sources of supply.

In fact, SAP was recognized as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Commerce Network 2023 Vendor Assessment* and by TrustRadius as a top supply chain software for visibility.

Our latest modernization of SAP Business Network helps enhance customers’ communication channels with trading partners for increased visibility and agility. Improved integrations between SAP Business Network Supply Chain Collaboration and SAP Business Network Material Traceability can allow suppliers to share product genealogy data to help ensure full traceability and compliance across the supply chain. Additional links between SAP Business Network Supply Chain Collaboration and SAP Business Network Freight Collaboration will help automate updates for inbound deliveries, simplifying management of carrier appointments and shipments.

Enhancements to the SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration solution will help increase access to millions of supplier profiles from whom alternative products can be found. These new features across SAP Business Network solutions will work to reduce silos between and within organizations, resulting in significant time and cost savings with fewer manual steps in processing work orders.

Strategic Investment Across the SAP Suite of Solutions

SAP has augmented integrations across its entire portfolio of spend management and business network solutions, aiming to improve efficiency. By investing in technology that provides catered and end-to-end solutions, customers can have all-encompassing visibility to all business processes, from procurement of raw materials to delivery of the final product.

What we shared at SAP Sapphire will only improve relationships between buyers, suppliers, logistics providers, and service providers across the supply chain, developing a larger view of all functions and employees. This will lead to better decision-making, increased productivity, and improved agility.

Manoj Swaminathan is chief product and technology officer for Intelligent Spend and Business Network at SAP.

*Source: “IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Commerce Network 2023 Vendor Assessment,” #US49948423, December 2023.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is currently forcing the technology industry to undergo a paradigm shift, further accelerating the upheaval in business and society. We see AI embedded in tools we have been using for years, and we see software finding its way into every aspect of competition today. Against this background, it comes as no surprise that 94% of business leaders see AI as critical to success over the next five years. However, many report the lack of resources and talent to drive competitiveness with these new tools.

Taking Business to the Next Level in the Era of AI Read the news guide

To make it easier to develop relevant skills and secure business success in such a volatile environment, we embarked on a journey to upskill millions of people worldwide in search of opportunity. After launching a digital skills initiative for those underserved in tech, forging new partnerships, offering the first role-based certifications to help meet real-life business needs, and making future-focused learning resources available to all, we are now taking our efforts to an even higher level – with more free, self-paced learning and engagement opportunities, new solution demos to experience the latest innovations in SAP Business AI, cloud ERP, and SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), among others, a full portfolio of role-based certifications and a new certification model, as well as an extended digital skills initiative.

More Than 250 Free Online Courses Now Available for All

From global talent shortages and changing job profiles to the digitalization of entire economies, many organizations see the gaps between skill supply and demand grow wider and wider while searching for ways to adapt to a business landscape where advancements like AI, machine learning, and a new era of Big Data come into play. In this ever-changing atmosphere, tens of thousands of organizations have deployed SAP solutions to support them on their path to bring out their best, leading to skyrocketing demand for SAP talent.

To help meet the increasing demand, we recently launched more than 50 new free, self-paced learning journeys – many of them touching on AI features embedded in our software – bringing the total number of digital courses on the SAP Learning site to more than 250. By allowing everyone with an Internet connection to quickly learn a new skill for free, keep up with the latest innovations, and prepare for an in-demand SAP Certification, more professionals can advance in the competitive technology labor market, while customers can draw on a deeper bench of skills to accelerate digital transformation.

Launching Role-Based Certifications for All Key Roles

As organizations need to be more adaptive and dynamic, traditional university degrees become less important and skills-based hiring is on the rise when trying to fill positions. In fact, recent reports show that up to 52% of job postings in the U.S. in the beginning of the year did not state an educational requirement. Instead, role-based certifications and practical experience have become more determining factors for career paths and hiring.

Recognizing the advantages role-based certifications can offer both individuals and organizations, we have further enhanced our certification program to better align with real-life business needs, now offering role-based certification for all key roles, including consultants, analysts, and architects. These role-based certifications come with a clear career path for individuals. Together with a new model to get and stay certified with continuous assessments, this is our way to help ensure skill sets are sharp, focused on core competencies, and more sustainable and valid for longer periods of time.

With these enhancements, we believe we have now taken an important next step to support professionals and organizations in the SAP ecosystem to bring out their best with ongoing and up-to-date knowledge of the latest skills, helping to maximize the ROI of SAP software, shorten deployment times, lower costs, speed innovation, and increase employee retention and satisfaction.

Simplified Access to Pre-Trained SAP Talent

However, we recognize that many people considered underrepresented in tech still do not have access to future-focused educational resources and with it, fulfilling careers. Launched in late 2022, SAP’s digital skills initiative was intended to equip 10,000 people from underrepresented and underserved groups for a career in the tech industry with free, self-paced learning resources and a free certification exam attempt to obtain an in-demand SAP Certification to show their expertise. Ever since its launch, the initiative has grown – and contributed to amazing success stories.

Hearing that SAP professionals like Lin Fan, a Chinese immigrant to Germany, could overcome gender bias because of our digital skills initiative, makes me proud. “[The digital skills initiative and SAP Certification] indeed opened new doors and helped me get noticed by recruiters,” Fan said. “I got several interviews from major SAP consulting firms shortly after handing in my application. In the interviews, I highlighted what I learned and expressed my confidence in accepting challenges for rolling out SAP S/4HANA. In the end, I got an offer and gladly started a junior role at a consulting firm that actively implements SAP S/4HANA projects.”

While Fan’s path is inspiring, she is not the only one who turned their life around with the help of SAP. Given the expectation-exceeding demand of now more than 14,500 candidates, we are overwhelmed by the positive uptake of the initiative. One of our recent graduates, Chelcie Scott, agreed to tell her story on camera and shared how intimidating the tech industry appeared to the single mother at first. Thanks to her willpower and commitment, plus a little help from the digital skills initiative, she recently got certified and hired by an SAP partner. And as organizations are still struggling to find skilled employees, we have decided to extend SAP’s digital skills initiative, bringing candidates and organizations together. With simplified access to SAP-trained talent, we are helping customers and partners to recruit talent and expand their workforce faster while also allowing for greater diversity and innovation.

At SAP, we recognize the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead for customers, partners, and individual learners within and outside of the SAP ecosystem. With these enhancements, we have taken the next step to help organizations equip their existing workforce with the right tools and resources to future-proof their skill set while also paving career growth for those who do not have a seat at the table yet but can bring a fresh set of perspectives to it.

Break Down Barriers With the Help of SAP’s Digital Skills Initiative

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Andre Bechtold is SVP and head of Solution & Innovation Experience at SAP.

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SAP is delivering AI capabilities that transform everyday tasks in HR – saving time, improving outputs, and helping organizations lead with an employee-first mindset to make every employee a success story.

That was the message at this year’s SAP Sapphire Orlando conference, where the spotlight was on the SAP SuccessFactors HCM suite, now supercharged with more than 25 additional AI-enabled capabilities to help organizations improve employee experience and drive organization agility at scale.

Taking Business to the Next Level in the Era of AI Read the news guide

The acceleration of AI is changing how organizations attract, hire, retain, and skill their employees. In fact, research conducted by a team of SAP SuccessFactors organizational psychologists, published in Top HR Trends for 2024, identifies AI and skills as the top two meta-trends that every HR professional is talking about today. Also, among CEOs and CIOs, these two trends are topping the list of business priorities that require action.

“We are in the midst of a transformative era,” said Aaron Green, chief marketing and solutions officer for SAP SuccessFactors, while speaking to an audience of SAP customers and HR leaders at SAP Sapphire (watch on demand). 

“This is a pivotal moment for HR, because it’s not just about keeping up. Now it’s about leapfrogging; it’s about how we stay ahead,” he said. “It requires investing in your people and investing in their skills in a fundamentally different way. The only way to do this is by investing in technology to help your people work smarter, faster, and to help them make data-driven decisions – because the future is undeniably people-led.”

Making AI Available to Customers Here and Now

More than 10,000 customers and 290 million people use the SAP SuccessFactors HCM suite for HR processes spanning the employee experience from hire to retire. A thriving partnership with the global customer community helps SAP understand the challenges and opportunities faced by organizations of all sizes, geographies, and industries.

Throughout the community are individual success stories showing how using the AI-led power of SAP SuccessFactors is helping organizations drive agile change at scale while simultaneously delivering more personalized experiences to the workforce. That’s because SAP’s AI-led capabilities are available right now – not in the far-off future, as Green underscored. 

Döhler Puts People at the Heart of Digital Transformation

Döhler Group, a global producer of natural ingredients for the food and beverage industry, is among those customers using the AI solutions in SAP SuccessFactors HCM to achieve real business outcomes. Based in Germany, Döhler takes an SAP-first approach to its use of technology in support of its company values of innovation, trust, quality, and sustainability.

With SAP SuccessFactors solutions, Döhler puts people at the heart of its digital transformation by putting AI directly in the hands of its HR professionals and its entire workforce. Strategically, Döhler delivers change to the workforce by introducing AI-led capabilities and then layers additional functionality on top, so that employees get used to the new technology and start to work with it more efficiently and effectively.   

Pierre Wiese, head of Business Applications, Döhler Group, articulated the company’s approach to AI: “We expect SAP to deliver business AI innovations with empowering built-in functionalities,” said Wiese. “With our AI consumption, we move forward as quick as possible because we plan to have massive impact on the daily work of our people at Döhler.”

SAP Business AI in HR: Relevant, Reliable, and Responsible

In the first half of 2024, SAP SuccessFactors delivered new AI-enabled capabilities across SAP SuccessFactors HCM that are now being used by organizations to help free HR teams of time-consuming tasks, enhance organizational efficiency, and drive future growth. “We’ve reimagined the HCM suite, and we’ve made huge investments across the board in our user experience [to help] employees, managers, power users have a truly delightful experience with SAP SuccessFactors,” said Daniel Beck, president and Chief Product Officer, SAP SuccessFactors.

SAP’s Daniel Beck and Nadja Ericsson on stage at SAP Sapphire Orlando.

Beck highlighted how SAP is delivering customers world-class AI technology and large language models (LLMs). With SAP Business AI in human resources, SAP is committed to delivering AI that is relevant, reliable, and responsible within use cases for HR professionals.

For example, SAP has put controls in place through the SAP AI Global Ethics organization and legal experts to evaluate AI use cases – ensuring that they will be used safely, responsibly, and without bias – before they are made available to customers. Beck said, “When you’re deciding, whose business AI can I trust? I think you will be well served with the data, security, the legal frameworks, the ethical frameworks that SAP is delivering. It gives you that peace of mind.” 

In a software demonstration on stage, HR leaders saw the power of the expanded AI capabilities of SAP SuccessFactors HCM. New technologies like retrieval augmented generation (RAG) enable SAP solutions to combine the strengths of LLMs and personal or business information to quickly deliver contextualized insights and answers for HR teams.

Some of the new new AI-led capabilities include: a generative AI writing assistant to help SAP SuccessFactors users complete tasks, such as writing learning course descriptions; the ability to help employees draft performance and development goals; candidate skill matching to help recruiters quickly screen and filter job candidates; and generative AI to summarize an employee’s compensation and job history, based on data in SAP SuccessFactors, so managers can have more informed compensation discussions.

For the foreseeable future, rapid advancements in AI technology will continue to bring new use cases to customers. “This is a super exciting time. I think the next two years in HR technology will be the most innovative – even better than the prior 20 years,” Beck said. “We want to be your trusted partner in that journey.”

Watch the SAP SuccessFactors Strategy Talk from this year’s SAP Sapphire on demand. 

Photos courtesy of José Rodrigues.

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Customers Can More Easily Identify Partners with Deep Expertise and Experience in Large and Complex RISE with SAP Implementations

The RISE with SAP Migration and Modernization program helps bring renewed focus on the cloud transformation journey by enabling smooth, secure migration of on-premise SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) and SAP S/4HANA customers to the cloud.

SAP Sapphire: Taking Business to the Next Level in the Era of AI Read the news guide

One of the key pillars of the program is RISE with SAP Methodology. The methodology is designed to provide a consistent approach — from planning to go-live to ongoing operations and evolution — that can meet customers’ business transformation goals leveraging specific implementation stages and success KPIs.

To support customers’ RISE with SAP transformations, SAP is training and validating partners to use RISE with SAP Methodology and collaborating closely with these partners on quality and consistency. By following the methodology, customers can drive predictable timelines for implementations and provide progress transparency with key milestone assessments.

SAP customers with complex SAP ERP landscapes starting their journey to RISE with SAP can now identify their ideal cloud transformation partner through the new RISE with SAP Validated Partner recognition.

These select partners meet elevated capability and experience criteria for the RISE with SAP offering, have proven experience in large enterprise engagements, and demonstrate their implementation approach is aligned with RISE with SAP Methodology. Using this methodology, the validated partners can ensure customers are cloud compliant and innovation ready, with an accelerated time to value.

Partners that have been validated as part of this program include Accenture, Capgemini, Deloitte, EY, IBM, Infosys, NTT DATA, and PwC.

In addition to adhering to the principles of RISE with SAP Methodology, these validated partners complement it in several ways, such as by leveraging specialized tools, templates, architecture patterns, and pre-configured solutions that speed up transformation of our enterprise customers. Additional eligible partners will be validated in the second half of 2024. 

“Empowering our partners with RISE with SAP Methodology isn’t just about alignment; it’s about forging a standardized path to success,” said SAP Chief Partner Officer Karl Fahrbach. “By formalizing our engagement model, we reinforce a commitment to excellence, ensuring every project delivers with precision and consistency, driving unparalleled results for our most valued customers. Our partners can lead the way with our support, igniting a paradigm shift in how we approach innovation and collaboration.”

Companies also have the option to leverage SAP Partner Finder and the Competency Framework to find the expertise they need, no matter their business challenges, company size, industry, or location. Partners that have attained the essential level have met the minimum training and delivery requirements for delivering RISE with SAP implementations. This gives customers confidence that the partner has the necessary level of maturity and has demonstrated customer success through effective project delivery.

RISE with SAP Validated partners are required to attain the expert level of multiple competencies, including RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, SAP Business Technology Platform, and SAP Business Process Transformation. These designated partners must also maintain bi-annual performance requirements and eligibility checks with a focus on clean core quality gates.

For additional information regarding the RISE with SAP Migration and Modernization program and the importance of partners, read “Partners Are Vital to Your Company’s Success When Transitioning to Cloud ERP.”

Eric van Rossum is chief marketing officer for Cloud ERP at SAP.

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What if enterprise decisions considered both profit and planet, empowering every level of a company to make better product, pricing, financial, and investment choices? It’s not only possible, it is an achievable reality according to new research conducted by SAP and Technical University of Munich.

SAP Sapphire: Taking Business to the Next Level in the Era of AI Read the news guide

Carbon management can add emission quantities to existing financial accounting and connect emissions and finance at the transactional level — transforming carbon accounting practices, producing a more comprehensive view of a company’s sustainability position. With this added dimension, decision-making becomes more integrated and efficient. By shifting the carbon management mindset, companies can also provide investors with more decision-useful information.

The research shows there are clear benefits and opportunities to businesses that are ready to rethink carbon management, embrace transparency, and treat carbon as money in their financial accounting and reporting practices.

Reimagining Carbon Management

A recent study by the Technical University of Munich and SAP generated some promising results and opportunities for carbon management enhancements with an ERP-centric approach. The study introduced the concept of consistently adding carbon data to a company’s general ledger transactions. This significant change allows carbon accounting to be transaction driven, with journal entries consisting of both monetary values and carbon emissions. The modification enables integrated thinking, on all hierarchical levels, by considering carbon emissions at the same level of reliability and consistency as financial information.

Beyond environmental responsibility, this innovative approach unlocks additional advantages. Merging carbon data with financials strengthens the very foundation of a company: the data itself. Balance sheets and income statements will represent a more complete picture of a company’s impact. This level of transparency and elevated quality of data empowers investors and decision makers while advancing decision-useful information.

Quality of data — from inside and outside a company’s core operations — is also critical when moving toward embedding artificial intelligence (AI) across business processes and analytics. AI will help companies accelerate their sustainability impact by improving operational efficiency, fostering greater transparency around emissions, automating reports, and complying with ever-evolving regulations.

Global Transparency

Carbon reporting is rapidly becoming a standard requirement for business. The common denominator is the set of requirements put forth by the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol. SAP proactively anticipated and closely monitors the laws and regulations developing in this sector.

With the global trends toward a low-carbon, modern economy driving business transformation, SAP developed SAP Green Ledger, an ERP-centric solution that builds on existing financial accounting practices and applies them to carbon accounting standards.

This new ledger-based accounting elevates greenhouse gas counting to true accounting using financial steering dimensions. By doing so, SAP Sustainability solutions are set apart through deep integration with SAP cloud ERP solution business processes, providing precise and actionable insights rather than the estimates/averages in competing solutions. This unique approach will empower companies to go beyond regulatory compliance and embed sustainability into their operation to drive meaningful change. By aligning business processes with sustainability goals, companies can pave the way for a sustainable future.

Make Carbon Audit-Ready

To reach net-zero targets, most companies must consider carbon offsets as part of their decarbonization journey. SAP’s carbon management approach recognizes offsets as intangible assets.

With SAP Green Ledger, both carbon and financial information are recorded, resulting in a carbon flow statement that shows carbon emissions across all three scopes. The flow items incorporate initial, additional, exiting, and ending carbon balances, as well as emissions not allocated to an asset position in the balance sheet. Adoption of this new carbon accounting process could take different forms, but all leverage the existing ERP system and general ledger accounts.

Standard auditing procedures were also considered and accommodated for in this methodology. Since carbon emissions are allocated to transactions as quantities expressed in tons of CO2e, auditors can verify these transactions and their corresponding internal controls. Auditors can also perform an assessment covering the assertions of completeness, existence, accuracy, valuation, and presentation.

Reporting of sustainability-related data is within the purview of the governing bodies and subject to change. Downstream Scope 3 emissions and non-financial transactions are not yet part of this approach; however, future research could find ways to integrate those components.

Don’t Just Report Profits, Report Progress

Carbon reporting is a crucial aspect of a decarbonizing economy. Our new methodology fosters integrated thinking — between finance and sustainability — producing a clearer view of a company and their products’ carbon footprint.

“Our study has the potential to significantly transform carbon accounting practices,” Professor Dr. Jürgen Ernstberger, a primary contributor to this research, affirms.

It’s a win-win for the planet and the bottom line.

Key Takeaways

ERP-centric solutions enhance carbon reporting by:

• Increasing connectivity on a transactional level between financial and non-financial data
• Leveraging established auditing procedures when accounting for carbon
• Fostering integrated thinking on all hierarchical levels by providing carbon information on the same granular level as financial information
• Producing more insightful and comprehensive reports, boosting confidence among key stakeholders and investors

To learn more, read the full report.

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Stephan Mueller is product marketing lead for Finance and Sustainability at SAP.