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The new SAP HANA Cloud vector engine enables businesses to combine the power of large language models (LLMs) with company-specific, real-time data and business process know-how, all integrated in one multi-model database: SAP HANA Cloud. With the latest quarterly release, the vector engine is now generally available.

SAP HANA Cloud is a market-leading database-as-a-service enabling intelligent data applications and is one of the most adopted services within SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) internally at SAP. As of today, more than 180 different applications and services use SAP HANA Cloud with its multi-model capabilities.

Now, SAP HANA Cloud is also a leader in the generative AI age.

At SAP, we work with various LLMs such as GPT-4, Llama2, Falcon-40b, and Claude2. While these models offer amazing opportunities, they also have limitations. For example, LLMs may rely on outdated training data and lack company-specific data and business process context.

As an example, imagine having an LLM as a colleague. This colleague would be very intelligent, able to program, pass exams, or have arguments – but this colleague would not know anything about what happened in the world in the past year, nor have any idea about internal processes of your company or any of your systems. Even worse, after every conversation you have, this colleague would forget what you just talked about. Working with such a lack of memory would be of limited value. This shortcoming is why an LLM cannot answer easy questions like “What do you think about the offer from our most important supplier last week?” An LLM can only work with the initial training data – all other data must be provided as context.

Supplementing this lack of information is where SAP HANA Cloud vector engine can assist. The engine can provide LLMs with all the relevant data of an organization through a process called “retrieval-augmented generation.”

Build and deploy intelligent data applications at scale with SAP HANA Cloud Learn more A Game-Changing Feature

So how does the vector engine work? It is a new addition to SAP HANA Cloud’s multi-model engines, enabling customers to utilize the similarity between two or more vectors to solve business problems. With the integration of AI-focused technology, SAP HANA Cloud can now empower businesses to combine intuition along with data-driven insights to solve even the most complex of problems.

Some key benefits and features of the vector engine include:

• Multi-model: Users can unify all types of data into a single database to build innovative applications using an efficient data architecture and in-memory performance. By adding vector storage and processing to the same database already storing relational, graph, spatial, and even JSON data, application developers can create next-generation solutions that interact more naturally with the user.
• Enhanced search and analysis: Businesses can now apply semantic and similarity search to business processes using documents like contracts, design specifications, and even service call notes.
• Personalized recommendations: Users can benefit from an improved overall experience with more accurate and personalized suggestions.
• Optimized large language models: The output of LLMs is augmented with more effective and contextual data.

The Database Foundation of SAP’s Generative AI Strategy

The addition of the vector engine establishes SAP HANA Cloud as the default database in SAP’s generative AI solution strategy. Customers can create the next level of user experiences along with other services within SAP BTP. As an example, SAP BTP can provide centralized access to SaaS-based LLMs from multiple vendors as well as host LLMs from open-source models or third parties. The generative AI hub in SAP AI Core, a capability that facilitates the use of generative AI capabilities, will soon rely on SAP HANA Cloud as the primary vector storage. One function of the generative AI hub feature is to help provide a process for creating embeddings and storing the resulting vectors in SAP HANA Cloud. Customers building intelligent data applications can use both services together to augment LLM queries with relevant context for meaningful answers.

SAP is working on foundation models that are specific for SAP-related industry and process knowledge.

The Database for Innovation

SAP HANA Cloud continues to lead the market by storing and processing different types of relevant business data – all within the same database. The new vector engine, combined with other multi-model capabilities, opens a world of possibilities for applications to help enhance the execution of business processes. Whether improving search capabilities, gaining deeper insights for informed decisions, or optimizing LLMs, SAP HANA Cloud enables the type of applications that can elevate the expertise and effectiveness of every user.

To learn more, sign up for an introductory webinar on April 4. Do you already have a use case for SAP HANA Cloud vector engine in mind? If so, consider registering for the SAP Early Adopter Care program.

Juergen Mueller is CTO and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Technology & Innovation.
Stefan Baeuerle is head of Database, SAP HANA Database, & Analytics for Technology & Innovation at SAP.

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When an organization starts its digital transformation journey, it does so expecting great outcomes. Whether that means increasing competitiveness, efficiency, innovation, growth, employee satisfaction, reducing costs, or all of the above — expectations are always high.

Expectations can also be very diverse. End users want their jobs to be made easier and more productive. The typical CIO wants scalability, greater data protections, and a secure IT infrastructure that runs with lower total cost of ownership.

And we — the cloud software provider — also have a clear-cut expectation that customers should actually use the software. Otherwise, bold transformation objectives won’t be met and subscription contracts won’t be renewed.

Disappointment is often described as the gap between expectations and reality. When software adoption is low and expectations for digital transformation outcomes are high, disappointment is almost guaranteed.

That is why we are making the changes necessary at SAP to increase customer adoption. Adoption is our main lever for increasing customer satisfaction by ensuring we deliver on the promise of large-scale transformation.

A New Ambition for Service Delivery

My goal leading our new Customer Services & Delivery Board area is to make it easier and faster for customers to adopt our solutions. We want to ensure that customers get all the benefits they are expecting out of their large-scale cloud transformation by reducing the hurdles and ensuring long-term value.

We are fully committed to ensuring that new digital opportunities are not only introduced, but also used to their full potential. Our focus is not on “lift-and-shift” to the cloud, but on holistically and actively supporting our customers in their transformation. And we act as customer advocates, trusted partners, and guardians of their interests.

My new Board area will therefore bundle services, including professional services, premium engagements, customer innovations, and customer support. In addition, it will include cloud infrastructure, cloud operations, cloud lifecycle management, and private cloud provision for SAP customers worldwide.

Why Now?

Adoption has always been at the core of our efforts. What’s different now is that a truly transformative technology — artificial intelligence — has emerged and is enabling end users to interact in more natural human ways. This has powerful technological and societal implications.

Be ready for AI built for business with SAP Learn how

It is also presenting software providers like us with unique opportunities to enhance adoption. Think how easy (and fun) AI interactions have become. AI innovation is a catalyst for us to enhance adoption, and we are seizing the moment with determined steps toward providing SAP Business AI.

But for our valued customers to benefit from all the advantages of SAP Business AI, we really need to be there for them throughout their cloud transformation journey, because AI innovation only happens in the cloud.

What’s Changing?

We know that cloud customers want flexible and innovative solutions that help them solve their biggest challenges and that can be deployed quickly and consumed easily. For the past 52 years, we have been vested in the success of our customers with the best team of experts in the industry to support them at every point of the customer value journey. That has not changed!

What has changed, however, is that we are putting the power of my new Board area behind the delivery of our solutions, providing governance and support to our delivery ecosystem, and continuously improving our cloud delivery and support methodologies. And we have created a unique opportunity to bring together cloud operations to streamline the entire customer experience.

Our overarching objective is customer satisfaction. We are committed to increasing it through comprehensive and innovative post-sales technical delivery services or partner-led implementations to drive our customers’ business transformation and deliver measurable value, which is “business speak” for absolutely delighting them! That’s how we will ensure organizations can fully realize their new digital opportunities.

Offering Transformation as a Service

We deliver the most complete business transformation suite in the industry. That has been our ambition since launching RISE with SAP some years ago. With the range of capabilities on offer today — including RISE with SAP, GROW with SAP, SAP Signavio, cloud application lifecycle management, SAP LeanIX, and, of course, SAP Business Technology Platform — we are well on our way to enabling customers to accelerate transformation.

We are committed to optimizing our portfolio for delivery, and we are working on tooling and automation to speed up the process. That’s how we are reaffirming our promise to provide transformation as a service. 

Closing the Gap Between Expectations and Outcomes

Adoption of our portfolio opens new possibilities for business model innovation along with increased competitiveness, cost savings, and employee satisfaction, while realizing the benefits of new SAP innovations more quickly: essentially all the outcomes organizations are expecting when they set out on the pathway to digital transformation.

So, you could say, we’re more dedicated than ever to closing the gap between expectations for cloud transformation and the corresponding outcomes.

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

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WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that SAP Chief Investor Relations Officer Anthony Coletta will leave the company to pursue a new opportunity outside of SAP. SAP is in the process of finding a successor. To ensure a smooth transition, Coletta will remain in his current role until the end of June 2024.

“Under Anthony’s leadership, SAP Investor Relations has strengthened its role as a reliable partner to the financial community. He further enhanced the trusted relationships with our investors that his successor will be able to build on,” said Dominik Asam, member of the Executive Board and CFO of SAP SE. “We are grateful for Anthony’s contributions and wish him well for his next steps.”

Coletta joined SAP in 2006. Prior to taking over the role as chief investor relations officer, he served as CFO of SAP North America, chief controlling officer of Global Sales in the Global Customer Operations team and in several other leading roles in the Americas region. Before joining SAP, Coletta held various leadership positions in finance and strategy, including at Siemens and ThyssenKrupp. Coletta holds master’s degrees in economics and applied foreign languages from Sorbonne University in Paris and has extensive international professional experience, including in Europe, Latin America and the United States.

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Carbon footprint calculation, patient privacy, and machine learning based on sensitive data – thanks to advanced encryption methods like fully homomorphic encryption.

Most have been in this situation before: one of the providers or services we use is a victim of a data breach and we want to determine if our personal user data has been impacted. This is where fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) comes into play. With FHE, the encrypted, personal password is compared against the data set of stolen user data and potential matches are identified without ever revealing the user’s password.

Use cases for this type of privacy-enhancing technology (PET) are numerous. They range from applications in medicine, where third-party service providers can analyze health data without compromising a patient’s privacy, to performing machine learning and AI algorithms on encrypted data, allowing organizations to derive insights from sensitive data sets without exposing the data to potential breaches or privacy violations.

How It Works

Fully homomorphic encryption allows calculations to be performed on encrypted data without having to decrypt it first. Confidentiality is maintained, as even the results are encrypted and can be viewed only with the appropriate decryption key. Further techniques for processing encrypted data are multi-party computation (MPC) and trusted execution environments (TEE).

Mathias Kohler, research manager at SAP Security Research, outlines the differences: “While FHE is the most known of the encryption technologies, MPC is the ideal candidate if working with several parties exchanging encrypted data across company borders. And it can be substantially faster than FHE.” While both are software-based technologies, TEE is hardware-based, which makes it the fastest choice. The downside: TEEs, unlike MPC and FHE, require decrypting the data for processing. While decryption happens in a trusted hardware environment isolated from the operating system, it can allow data leakage via side-channel attacks. Notably, PETs do not need to be considered in isolation and can augment each other. For example, MPC can encrypt and distribute an FHE decryption key, protecting the FHE key and ensuring no single party can decrypt everything.

SAP protects businesses’ applications and data by building, running, and maintaining more-secure operations Learn more Why It’s Relevant

There is a demand for this kind of technology. By 2025, 60% of large organizations will use at least one privacy-enhancing computation technique in analytics, business intelligence, or cloud computing, according to Gartner.

Fully homomorphic encryption has numerous applications, especially in scenarios where privacy and security are paramount, such as secure computation in the cloud, privacy-preserving data analysis, and secure outsourcing of computations. As long as one party is performing the data processing centrally, FHE is the encryption method of choice. FHE enables organizations to share encrypted data with partners or third parties for analysis or monetization purposes while maintaining data confidentiality. This is particularly relevant in industries such as advertising and market research.

Interesting use case scenarios from SAP’s perspective could be secure benchmarking and predictive maintenance.

Secure Benchmarking

Companies often assess their competitiveness relative to industry peers and compare business-relevant KPIs, such as automation rate or return rates, with peers and even competitors. With fully homomorphic encryption, all participating parties can share encrypted KPIs without revealing individual data. As a result, they learn about relevant statistics, such as averages or medians, to assess their relative competitiveness and decide where to improve and invest.

Predictive Maintenance

Predictive maintenance is a machine learning technique to forecast demand for maintenance or spare parts based on historical data. “In certain industries, required data, such as usage patterns and failures, is considered sensitive and is not easily shared with data scientists or maintenance operators,” says Anselme Tueno, senior researcher at SAP Security Research. By computing on encrypted data, however, no sensitive information is revealed while still allowing for the required insights to be gathered for prediction tasks.

Carbon Footprint Calculation with Multi-Party Computation

While it is early days from a product availability perspective, SAP is working on potential use cases with customers and partners. One key example is calculating carbon footprints of products.

Prime examples for complex collaborations are today’s supply chains, intricate networks that encompass various levels of suppliers, manufacturers, and processed goods. Unfortunately, there is often a lack of comprehensive visibility across the entire process – either for technical reasons or because businesses are often reluctant to share sensitive data across supply chains that often include direct competitors.

However, to accurately assess and disclose a product’s carbon footprint, sensitive production details and associated carbon costs for production-relevant parts and materials are required. Here, MPC can reveal only the required carbon footprint without disclosing associated, proprietary manufacturing details with other supply chain participants.

Currently, SAP is working with Bosch on cloud-native software for secure multi-party computation called Carbyne Stack.

“SAP participates in this open-source project and supports the development of Carbyne Stack’s storage and processing services and the deployment of Carbyne Stack on Amazon Web Services (AWS),” Kohler explains. “For Bosch, Carbyne Stack is a type of cloud-native operating system for MPC workloads that manages resources to run as efficiently as possible in multi-cloud deployments.” This effort can help SAP in the long run to integrate MPC as technology into SAP solutions and services while running in a cloud-native environment.

What’s Next?

Despite all the benefits around processing data, encryption introduces significant computational overhead due to the complexity of performing operations on encrypted data. Slow processing speeds, especially for complex operations and large data sets, makes fully homomorphic encryption impractical for real-time applications or large-scale data processing. Although the performance of FHE has greatly improved in recent years, its practical adoption is still limited due to the processing overhead and performance considerations. Ongoing research is focused on the design of FHE-specific hardware accelerators.

“PETs for computing on encrypted data have the power to amplify data-driven business collaborations and reshape the future of cloud computing,” explains Jonas Böhler, senior researcher at SAP Security Research. By safeguarding data, they enable access to previously untapped information while minimizing privacy risks and thwarting data breaches. The future of computing is encrypted.

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In a merger between two well-matched organizations, cultural integration can be the key to successfully transforming into a single high-performing entity ready to take on new opportunities. Notably, more than a few high-profile mergers have failed due to cultural incompatibility. Add a third organization into the merger and the cultural complexities increase exponentially. But some multi-organization mergers do successfully navigate these challenges and reap the transformational benefits.      

Convista, a consultancy and SAP partner based in Cologne, Germany, emerged stronger and better positioned to serve its clients following a recent merger that brought together three former consultancies: Axxiome Health, ConVista Consulting, and enowa. With 25 years of experience delivering transformation projects to its clients, Convista used that expertise in its own rebranding to present its capabilities to clients and employees: a vibrant people culture as well as a respected and trusted brand supported by SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for ERP and SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central for core HR.

“Trust and transparency are common values that we share at Convista,” declares Convista CEO Martin Hinz. “Combined with a dynamic team spirit and passion, it’s what we bring to our clients every day.”

With a workforce of around 1,200 employees, Convista has made a name for itself through its dedication and expertise providing end-to-end solutions to clients throughout the world with a presence in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Spain, Brazil, Israel, and further locations across the globe. It supports client projects primarily in four sectors: insurance, industry, healthcare, and energy/utilities. In recent years, Convista has twice been awarded SAP Partner of the Year in the Financial Services sector.

“At Convista you meet everyone on the same level, independent of your skill level or where you are in your career,” says Stefanie Weber, project lead of People and Culture – HR Systems, Convista. “Also, when we’re working with customers, we try to approach them at eye level, which makes quite a good working environment. The implementation of SAP SuccessFactors came as a natural extension to our brand and our culture.”

The Challenges of Data Siloed in Three Systems

Weber says one of the reasons she joined Convista in 2012 while studying business at university was the high priority its leaders place on trust and transparency, values that permeate the entire organization and empower employees in their work and career development. “Trust is one of our main values,” she underscores. “Also, the trust that people are willing to do their best to get motivated and move the company ahead.”

Convista grew quickly both organically and as a result of mergers with other consultancies. In 2019, IT service provider Axxiome Health joined the ConVista Group to deepen the organization’s expertise in the health insurance sector. In 2021, enowa joined the group, infusing its knowledge of industries and insurance. With the mergers complete, the incipient organization became the new Convista on January 1, 2023.

Though team members were highly motivated to collaborate from the start, Convista’s vision for itself as a modern organization was held back in both its daily work for projects and internal services. Using disparate tools based on older technology and a patchwork of third-party solutions that lacked integration proved to be inefficient and unsuitable as a basis for decision-making.

“Whenever we wanted to have a report, even something as simple as a headcount, we always had to go into three different systems, collect the data, and report on that,” Weber recalls. “It’s just one of the many examples of why we really urgently needed one IT platform.”

Project ONE Achieves Milestone Integration

To build a strong foundation for future growth, Convista embarked on “Project ONE” with the goal to have one digital platform flexible and powerful enough for the entire organization. For this, it chose SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and SAP SuccessFactors solutions with self-service capabilities for employees to log time-off.

Overall, implementing SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition can result in streamlined HR processes; end-to-end integration with seamless connectivity between HR and finance functions for accurate and up-to-date employee data across the organization; greater transparency of data for analytics and reporting on workforce trends, costs, and profitability to enable better strategic planning and resource allocation; and compliance with regulatory requirements and data security.

SAP SuccessFactors solutions can fuel the success of every individual and drive org agility at scale Learn how

Among the key advantages is the ability for employees to access their own HR-related information, such as personal details and time-off balances. This self-service capability helps empower employees, improve transparency, and enhance the overall employee experience.

Convista’s project team decided for a phased approach to the implementation by first introducing the SAP solutions in Poland and later in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland – with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition planned to launch in the German-speaking countries during the course of 2024. To optimize success, the project team used the combined best practices of Convista and SAP and hosted regular meetings that provided clear communication to steer the project. “We were always aligned on the requirements of the other teams,” says Weber, who managed the HR workstream. “We all knew the main goal of the implementation. This was helpful for everyone on the project.”

In-house experts from Convista certified on SAP SuccessFactors solutions contributed valuable knowledge for the implementation. Consultants from SAP Services and Support successfully integrated the cost center replication from SAP S/4HANA Cloud to SAP SuccessFactors and the workforce replication from SAP SuccessFactors to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, and delivered a detailed administration guide on the integration setup for Convista. Additionally, they provided an overview, the architecture guidance, and the navigation through major hurdles in performing the configuration to set up identity access governence (IAG), identity provisioning service (IPS), and identity authentication services (IAS). The SAP Early Adopter Care program supported Convista for the master data integration (MDI) during the implementation and helped to solve all roadblocks efficiently.

On January 1, 2023, Convista’s 80-person team in Poland was the first to go live with the new SAP solutions. “It was really a great experience for them and quite an advancement,” says Weber, citing the benefits of the new solutions that provide optimizations and intuitive workflows. The project took a pivotal turn on January 1, 2024, with the launch of SAP SuccessFactors solutions for Convista’s 800 employees in the German-speaking countries.

“The biggest milestone was to have [SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central] speaking with each other,” says Weber, who emphasizes how valuable it is for the team “to have an end-to-end process within one platform.” With an integrated IT platform in place, she says that it is no longer necessary to do workflows, authorizations, or any other processes in other systems.

The seamless synchronization of data by using a common data model for SAP business applications helps reduce the need for manual data entry and redundant processes. This means, for example, employee data that is maintained in SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central is available in real-time in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition; while master data, like cost center data, flows seamlessly from SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition to SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central. Eliminating data silos enables the HR and finance teams to work with consistent, accurate data for all-important employment decisions and legal reporting obligations.

Now Convista’s team is unified in its brand, values, spirit – and employee data. 

More Transparency and Intuitive Workflows Are Just the Beginning

Feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Weber, with employees speaking favorably about the improved transparency and workflows. “The first thing I heard from everyone was, well, this is simple and intuitive. They were so happy about it,” she says. “They are big fans of the mobile application. They find it very transparent and easy to use.”

For some colleagues, the new solution lets them view their own data for the first time. “When we went live, everyone was viewing their profile,” says Weber. “This was also quite new that you are able to see what data is maintained for your person, your address, but also job information – to view it and have this transparency. People like this very much and also the ability to have the self-services in SAP SuccessFactors.”

To strengthen communication between HR and employees, Convista will bring more people processes onto the new digital platform. In fact, the team very recently implemented the SAP SuccessFactors Performance & Goals solution for annual employee appraisals, goal setting, and project feedback. “It’s just the beginning,” Weber says. “There’s still a lot of work ahead of us.”

Hinz says, “We have been careful to preserve our workplace culture during the transformation. Now that we are rebranded as one organization, we are seeing the benefits of that early effort. With SAP, we now have the digital platform to build people-centered processes that advance our vision as a unified, high-performing organization serving our clients.”       

Find out more about SAP SuccessFactors solutions.

Jacqueline Prause is a journalist at SAP.

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The era of the hard sell is over – companies are now focused on creating sales and service experiences that naturally attract customers and solidify their loyalty. But this winning approach requires much more than the traditional seller-buyer transaction of engagement, trust, personalization, and mutual benefit.

B2B and B2C customers are demanding virtual sales interactions and smooth, consultative customer service experiences, according to a report from Harvard Business Review Analytics Services. Yet, 51% of businesses still struggle to provide the right data, processes, and capabilities that allow sales and service teams to deliver moments that create lasting connections.

Now, with greater ease, SAP customers can access the content, guided expertise, resources, and planning methods essential to building a cloud-based technology foundation for this new era of sales and services. And all of this is possible through the SAP Preferred Success plan for SAP Sales Cloud and SAP Service Cloud, expanded edition.

Maximizing Value with Focused, Proactive Guidance

Offering a combination of omnichannel sales and value-added customer service is, by no means, a simple feat that can be achieved overnight. Making this transformation requires mutual understanding and close collaboration between sales and service teams, accessing data-driven insights on customer needs and expectations and delivering value at every touch point with effective technologies.

The expanded edition of SAP Preferred Success for SAP Sales Cloud and SAP Service Cloud can deliver that advantage with exceptional support from knowledgeable SAP experts throughout the lifetime of a cloud solution investment. Without processing another statement of work, SAP customers can move from planning and implementation to go-live and active operation with such speed and effectiveness that they can transform their customer experience faster and more efficiently.

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

For example, reviews and related analysis help maintain peace of mind throughout the deployment of a cloud solution, keeping organizations on the right path toward achieving their goals. This can include quality checks to help ensure integration integrity, in-depth release guidance for future feature adoption, targeted training programs on the latest topics and best practices, and service-level agreements for enhanced support.

But what makes the expanded edition of SAP Preferred Success for SAP Sales Cloud and SAP Service Cloud truly distinctive is the long-term, enhanced partnership it can provide to help advance and accelerate the cloud journey. Throughout the subscription lifecycle, organizations are continuously supported by experts and specialized services designed to meet their unique needs.

Access to Product Specialists

Appointed based on their technical and product-based expertise, product specialists leverage their knowledge and insights to help accelerate business outcomes and maximize the consumption of SAP solutions. They achieve this by recommending and overseeing the delivery and scheduling of crucial services, providing direct access to experts for targeted advice on solutions, and advising on SAP best practices.

This experience can allow sales and services organizations and their stakeholders to enhance the ROI of their overall investment in cloud solutions from SAP by:

• Acquiring functional and technical knowledge when needed
• Receiving answers to queries related to standard integration with other SAP solutions
• Addressing critical implementation difficulties quickly and resolutely

Solution Reviews

During prescriptive solution reviews, SAP experts work closely with customers to analyze their usage patterns and advise on process improvements and transformation journeys that align with their success plans and business goals. Specifically, they focus on aligning usage with best practices, measuring the impact of changes on business operations, and identifying areas for improvement.

Customers can also benefit from collaborating with subject-matter experts during these reviews, receiving recommendations and advice on changes that can help mitigate or resolve business challenges, improve the customer journey, and reduce bottlenecks proactively. This service can offer stakeholders valuable insights into simplifying and optimizing operations, reducing administrative work, boosting process efficiency, and enhancing transparency for user adoption and cloud landscape stability.

New Feature Activation

SAP customers can also receive assistance in identifying, evaluating, activating, and maximizing the impact of the latest features to support their business operations better. Subject-matter experts help provide an enhanced adoption experience by aligning business goals with value and product capabilities, creating a tailored adoption plan, and providing guidance and enablement to activate features.

The new feature activation service can also assess and enable the impact of new configurations and simple customizations added to SAP Sales Cloud and SAP Service Cloud. By matching business needs to updates that offer better value, SAP experts can evaluate the potential benefits and risks of the new additions, pinpointing system changes needed to activate and test the update to measure business outcomes.

Reaching Mission-Critical Goals with Extra Impact

The right technology partner can make all the difference – especially as expectations for sales and customer service experiences continue to evolve. Providing access to expert guidance, resources, and support when and where needed helps ensure businesses drive customer loyalty and success.

The expanded edition of SAP Preferred Success for SAP Sales Cloud and SAP Service Cloud can deliver on that promise with a transformative approach to sales and customer service. This significant step towards creating personalized, value-driven experiences can help sales and services teams not only meet but exceed customer expectations, turning transactions into lasting connections.

Ready to amplify the impact of your sales and customer service experiences? Visit the SAP Preferred Success area of sap.com or contact your local SAP representative to learn more about SAP Preferred Success for SAP Sales Cloud and SAP Service Cloud, expanded edition.

Amitesh Tiwari is a solution manager for the Chief Innovation Office of Cloud Success Services at SAP.

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Without a doubt, the world of work has dramatically transformed over the past several years, with generative AI initiating the latest wave of change for organizations around the world. In a more complex and less homogenous business landscape, top-down HR processes of the past no longer meet the rising demands of employees for flexible career paths, intuitive work processes, and two-way communication – not to mention the growing skills gaps and talent shortages that keep leaders up at night. 

Leaders need to embrace generative AI as a way to address these challenges with talent intelligence and advanced analytics. According to Gartner, 26% of CEOs rank the talent shortage as the top damaging factor to business outlook, and 76% of HR leaders agree they will be lagging in organizational success if they don’t adopt and implement generative AI in the next 12 to 24 months. 

Adopt the latest in HR innovation with SAP SuccessFactors solutions Learn more

 At SAP, we have a proven track record of providing HCM solutions in the cloud for leading organizations around the globe. Our customers trust us to not only manage their sensitive employee data and payroll, but to help them understand their workforces as they prepare for the skills they need in the future. 

The SAP SuccessFactors HCM suite provides truly global HR cloud software with powerful AI capabilities to help organizations meet the challenges of today and innovate for tomorrow. Our more than 10,000 customers – from startups and midmarket companies to large enterprises – use our solutions to help bring out the best in their people by harnessing the power of AI to elevate every experience, guide every people decision, and connect HR across every aspect of the business. We do this with: 

• Core HR and payroll: A single source of truth is key for any organization to enable insight into the entirety of its workforce: employees, contingent workers, and dynamic teams. The SAP SuccessFactors HCM suite can provide localized support for over 100 countries and territories and cloud payroll for 50 countries and territories, plus additional modular solutions for time, benefits, and HR service delivery.

• Talent and learning: Skills gaps and talent shortages have been persistent challenges that continue to exist across all industries. Addressing them starts with an understanding of skills that currently exist, followed by pathways for employees to find new opportunities, learn new skills, and access mentors and feedback. The talent intelligence hub across SAP SuccessFactors solutions uses AI to continuously help organizations and employees understand their skills and match people with personalized career pathways.  

• A modern user experience: Every person has unique needs and preferences – in how they work, how they communicate, and what’s required for their role. Along with a refreshed, modern user experience, we’ve built in generative AI capabilities throughout our solutions to help people work smarter. And with Joule, SAP’s copilot, they can quickly complete HR tasks and get conversational responses to their questions.

• HR connected to ERP, finance, and more: Having access to people data connected across the business is critical to building agility, speed, and resilience within an organization. With the power of the broader SAP portfolio, organizations can improve end-to-end business processes across the entire business. This is also complemented with our partner ecosystem, which includes over 350 apps for HR.

We firmly believe that when organizations invest in their people – in their passions and potential – they return the investment over and over. And with the rapid acceleration of AI, it’s more important than ever to build pathways to employee growth, including new ways to upskill, reskill, and discover opportunities that align with a person’s skills, interests, and aspirations. 

Learn more about the SAP SuccessFactors HCM suite.

Dan Beck is president and chief product officer for SAP SuccessFactors.

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Although women comprise about 35% of the workforce at SAP, when it comes to shaping AI it seems they are punching above their weight.

Here, five SAP employees share about their roles, motivations, and tips for anyone wanting to step into AI. The women – Khawla Mallat, Camila Lombana Diaz, Xin Chen, Nadine Hoffmann, and Puntis Palazzolo – span four countries and three areas: Data Science Engineering, Product Management, and AI Ethics.

SAP Business AI: Revolutionary technology, real-world results Learn more

Data Science Engineering

Dr. Khawla Mallat, Security and Quantum Exploration Team, SAP France

“Be ready to be challenged all times,” says Mallat, if you want to build a career in AI.

Unlike most data scientists at SAP, Mallat does not work directly on the product but is firmly anchored in researching and addressing “some of the technical challenges related to AI, namely fairness, explainability, privacy, and security.”

Photo courtesy of Khawla Mallat

Prior to joining SAP two years ago, Mallat was confronted with the unintended prejudices of face analysis systems. Certain demographic groups, explains Mallat, used to be inadvertently omitted or underrepresented in the underlying data sets, leading to shortcomings in the face analysis capabilities. Such cases highlight the broader issue of bias in other AI applications. In areas like HR, she continues, removing personal details in data sets might seem to solve the bias issues, but AI can still infer these details. This leads to potentially biased outcomes and the lack of explainability in AI models makes identification of such biases difficult. Letting data sets like this take root and grow into powerful data models not subject to scrutiny will only magnify the inherent bias or discrimination.

Today Mallat’s passion for addressing such unfairness aligns well with her role of identifying the inherent risks of AI, educating teams about them, and defining technological solutions to mitigate them.

“We need to adopt an interdisplinary approach to AI, with experts from ethics, legal compliance, and domain experts, for example, and abstract ourselves from the role of data scientists to succeed,” says Mallat.

“I love working in AI,” she continues. “Everything is progressing at an incredible pace so if you want to work in AI, you have to have a certain thirst for knowledge. And, regardless of your role, you must take AI ethics – regulations and regulatory frameworks – seriously because these have huge implications not only for SAP but for individuals and societies in general.”

AI Ethics

Camila Lombana Diaz, Responsible AI, Germany

“AI is a mirror of our capacities as humans. And the biggest responsibility for those working in AI is, what do we want to see in that mirror?” explains Lombana Diaz, AI ethics research expert in the AI Ethics/Responsible AI team located in the SAP Business AI growth area.

Lombana Diaz’s responsibilities include maturing and applying the SAP AI Global Ethics policy, creating and delivering enablement content, defining AI personas and processes, and giving guidance to make responsible AI an operational reality for development, as exemplified in SAP’s AI ethics handbook.

Photo courtesy of Camila Lombana Diaz

When she joined SAP eight years ago, initially as a UX designer and then a strategic designer, machine learning and AI were core topics. But it became increasingly clear to her that “understanding the human implications of AI for a responsible and ethical AI demands a human-centric perspective.”

Even though SAP is committed to the ethical development of AI – developers must now complete AI ethics assessment tasks and a steering committee scrutinizes all high-risk use cases – Lombana Diaz emphasizes the need to remain focused on the inherent risks and unintentional harms that AI may present. Part of her role is an ongoing assessment of the technology, identifying risks and limitations and communicating them to different teams.

As AI continues to evolve at speed, so do the roles. Lombana Diaz is passionate about seeing AI beyond the confines of a technology-centric perspective. “AI is now an omnipresent technology shaping our daily lives; hence, we need individuals working in the field who challenge AI technology to be community centric. AI ethics is a space for experimental, open, curious, collaborative, and human-centered individuals,” and, she concludes, “the time to step into AI and build a career is now because, unlike the technology, the business of AI, the legal and ethical aspects, are still being shaped.”

Data Science Engineering 

Dr. Xin Chen, SAP HANA Machine Learning, China

“I have always enjoyed working at SAP since joining nine years ago. I like the work environment and the colleagues here and I really want to encourage others to join us here in AI,” says Chen, data science researcher on the SAP HANA Machine Learning team.

Photo courtesy of Dr. Xin Chen

The team works on a toolbox providing different kinds of machine learning algorithms for regression, classification, clustering, and so on for the SAP HANA predictive analysis library.

Part of Chen’s role is investigating research papers on the latest machine learning algorithms and, together with the team, deciding which algorithms would be beneficial to customers. Once the machine learning algorithms are implemented, Chen and the team evaluate feedback from customers and deliver enhancements.

Recently Chen and her team researched machine learning algorithms investigating notions of fairness. “Fairness is a very hot topic just now,” she says. “In mathematics, there are different notions of fairness, but it is still a complex and evolving topic.”

And Chen’s advice to would-be AI developers? “Critical thinking will become even more important to understand what solutions to offer, to make judgements on your own innovations, and to know if the generated output is right or wrong,” she says, reflecting on how this skill will become ever more important for future AI developers.

Product Management

Nadine Hoffmann, SAP Business AI, Germany

“I translate and I want to fascinate,” says Hoffmann, global AI product manager in the SAP Business AI growth area.

Even after more than 20 years at SAP, disruptive ideas and mindset shifts still energize Hoffmann. To be an expert in new technologies, and to be energized and enthused by the constant volume and speed of them, is critical to being successful in the AI product management teams of today because product management is the glue between partners, customers, the field, and development.

Photo courtesy of Nadine Hoffmann

“On the one hand,” says Hoffmann, “SAP has data scientists, software engineers, and researchers taking our software to the next level. And on the other, there are experts defining the legal and ethical guardrails.” Product management must be fluent in both “technical software speak” and “customer speak” to understand desires, pain points, and business processes.

Pivoting between these and aligning customer speak with technical software speak is akin to being a  translator, Hoffmann says. Our software will only meet the requirements of customers if there is a common understanding between the teams responsible for the technological development, the legal teams responsible for ethical and legal compliance, and the customer.

Regardless of the latest innovation, Hoffmann says success in product management is “not only about convincing teams and partners about the ease and positiveness of a technology, but also infusing them with a fascination about it so that they become passionate advocates and are intrinsically motivated to find out more by themselves.”

Data Science Engineering

Puntis Palazzolo, AI Strategist & Ethics Lead, SAP SuccessFactors, U.S.

“The ethical challenges presented by AI have transcended the scope of individual enterprises, extending beyond entities like SAP. It is crucial that we collaborate with others to collectively address AI’s emerging concerns,” says Palazzolo, who leads the SAP SuccessFactors Data Science team.

The team acts as a consulting service on AI use cases for product teams in SAP SuccessFactors, analyzing the problem, developing code and algorithms, and building proof-of-concepts. Successful AI use cases are then integrated into SAP SuccessFactors solutions.

Photo courtesy of Puntis Palazzolo

Much of the data in SAP SuccessFactors solutions is sensitive customer data. With the dramatic increase in generative AI use cases, safeguarding customer data must take precedence, Palazzolo says. “Generative AI is a powerful technology that introduces new challenges, such as hallucinations and automated decision-making. In high-risk sectors like HR, we need to explain how we reach certain decisions, especially when we are impacting people’s lives.”

Palazzolo joined SAP 11 years ago and has been based in Palo Alto, California, since 2013, where she represents SAP on MLCommons – a collaboration of academia and companies, such as Google and NVIDIA, dedicated to developing safe practices and industry-standard benchmarks to improve AI models. 

Her advice to current and would-be AI practitioners? Follow your passion, be ethical, and make your voice heard while we still have time.

“Legislators alone cannot write AI regulations for us because they do not have a full understanding of its complexities,” she says. “We cannot solve all the problems by ourselves, but we must make our voices heard to shape the future of AI.”

Alexa MacDonald is an SAP News editor.

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WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Deutsche Telekom, one of the world’s leading integrated telecommunications companies, has chosen the RISE with SAP solution to accelerate its journey to the cloud.

RISE with SAP: Improve compliance and build business resilience in a managed cloud offering Learn more

Deutsche Telekom is the first enterprise to implement RISE with SAP through SAP’s recently expanded partnership with T-Systems as a premium supplier of RISE with SAP, marking a significant milestone in the relationship between SAP and Deutsche Telekom.

As Europe’s largest telecommunications provider, with more than 252 million mobile customers, 25 million fixed-network lines and 22 million broadband lines, Deutsche Telekom operates in more than 50 countries. Aligned with the company’s vision to be the leading digital telecommunications provider in the world, Deutsche Telekom has chosen RISE with SAP to transform a major part of its ERP landscape to SAP S/4HANA Cloud. As a premium supplier of RISE with SAP, T-Systems will migrate, consolidate and manage more than 300 systems into the public and private cloud using T-Systems’ Future Cloud Infrastructure (FCI) and select hyperscalers. This is designed to enable customers to meet all German and European data protection requirements, as well as to benefit from tailored migration and orchestration of complex landscapes.

Peter Leukert, chief information officer of Deutsche Telekom, said, “SAP is a trusted and important partner for Deutsche Telekom in both reliably running core business processes and accelerating innovation in the cloud. Through RISE with SAP, we can drive business transformation and take our partnership to new heights. With SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Deutsche Telekom will be able to drive efficiency across key business functions such as logistics, procurement and finance.”

“Deutsche Telekom’s decision to select RISE with SAP to migrate and streamline more than 300 of their systems to the cloud marks an important milestone in their business transformation and continues a long history of our two companies innovating together for our customers,” said Scott Russell, member of the executive board of SAP SE, customer success. “This investment by Deutsche Telekom will give them new capabilities, drive greater efficiencies, and allow them to access key insights from across their enterprise so they can adjust to changing market conditions and seize new opportunities faster than they could before. We look forward to supporting Deutsche Telekom in this exciting new era of their cloud transformation.”

As a premium supplier of RISE with SAP, T-Systems offers “Thrive with T-Systems,” a collection of end-to-end transformation services that includes consulting, migration, implementation and operation of RISE with SAP and support for RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition.

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About SAP

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

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In an ever-changing global landscape, businesses must be prepared to navigate shifts and changes while keeping their operations running smoothly. Recent years have seen a series of events that have underscored the critical importance of resilient supply chains. Rather than being caught off guard by these challenges, companies need to equip themselves with the right tools and strategies to not only adapt but thrive in uncertain times. Collaboration within a business network has emerged as a key solution for addressing these challenges and increasing resilience.

Supply chain resiliency has become a critical factor for businesses across industries. According to a recent IDC white paper, sponsored by SAP, titled “Enabling an Adaptive Supply Chain: Multi-Enterprise Business Networks and Supplier Collaboration,”* companies must develop a new level of resilience in their supply chains. This involves adapting operating models and gaining a true end-to-end understanding of supply chains. Outdated approaches to communicating and transacting with trading partners lead to issues related to visibility, compliance, and efficiency. SAP Business Network can provide a modern approach to digitally connecting people, processes, and systems with trading partners, revolutionizing supply chain collaboration. It can enable companies to adapt to changes more quickly and easily, ultimately helping them to meet customer expectations and comply with regulations.

SAP Business Network: A Solution for Visibility, Efficiency, and Compliance

In today’s complex business landscape, companies face numerous challenges that impede visibility, efficiency, and compliance. Outdated tools, siloed systems, and point-to-point connections often result in broken connections and fragmented insights into the supply chain. Collaborating with contract manufacturers or subcontractors becomes difficult, and identifying new or alternate sources of supply quickly is a challenge. Moreover, complying with new or existing regulations can be a daunting task.

To address these challenges, SAP Business Network offers a solution that can enable companies to overcome these obstacles and achieve their goals. It can provide a range of capabilities to help enhance visibility, efficiency, and compliance across the supply chain, and helps them be more resilient.

The largest and most comprehensive business network, trusted by millions of companies around the world Learn more about SAP Business Network

One of the key features of SAP Business Network is its ability to enable digital document and data exchange with trading partners based on automated business rules. This includes the seamless routing of various line of business documents, such as invoices and orders, as well as shipping confirmations, work orders, and quality notifications. By automating business rules and supporting multi-party scenarios, such as working with contract manufacturers or subcontractors, the network can improve efficiency and streamline processes as well as help ensure compliance with regulations. Additionally, SAP Business Network can support onboarding and system-to-system integration, helping to ensure seamless connectivity with various communication standards like EDI, cXML, and Peppol. It also offers interoperability with third-party systems and networks, working to further enhance the connectivity and integration capabilities.

The network can also provide intuitive dashboards and apps that can offer visibility into the status of orders and shipments. This helps companies track and trace batches and serial numbers, facilitating the resolution of quality issues in products when they occur. By leveraging these dashboards and apps, businesses can proactively manage their operations, improve decision-making, and enhance overall efficiency.

Furthermore, SAP Business Network includes a trading partner directory that allows suppliers to create and manage company profiles. These profiles can be viewed by buying companies, providing them with valuable insights into potential suppliers. The directory also incorporates environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings from EcoVadis, enabling buying companies to choose suppliers aligned with their sustainability goals. Additionally, the trading partner directory enables buyers to search for suppliers, facilitating the identification of new or alternate sources of supply. This capability can not only enhance supply chain resilience but can also present opportunities for cost savings, diversification, and innovation.

According to a recent IDC MarketScape report, SAP is recognized as a leader in the worldwide multi-enterprise supply chain commerce network market.** The scale and reach of the network, with annual commerce reaching US$5.3 trillion and 746 million B2B transactions in 2023, make it a valuable tool for helping expand supplier bases and enter new markets.

Supply Chain Collaboration in Action

SAP Business Network is trusted by millions of companies across 190 countries. One of these companies is Vestas, a leading wind turbine manufacturer. Vestas has implemented SAP Business Network and SAP Ariba solutions to address quality control issues and streamline its complex global supply chain. With over 10,000 individual parts sourced from suppliers worldwide, Vestas relies on the B2B platform of SAP Business Network to collaborate with suppliers, track orders, and ensure quality standards are met. The network allows Vestas to conduct quality tests, document them, and take corrective action if needed. It also provides transparency and an audit trail in case of quality defects or incidents. By leveraging SAP solutions, Vestas has improved supply chain efficiency, reduced friction losses, and advanced its sustainability goals.

Another customer that has benefited from SAP Business Network is Richemont, a global luxury goods company. Richemont has utilized the network to establish seamless collaboration with suppliers and partners, streamlining its supply chain operations. By leveraging real-time data exchange and visibility provided by SAP Business Network, Richemont has been able to proactively manage inventory, optimize production planning, and respond swiftly to market demands. This has significantly enhanced the company’s supply chain resilience and enabled it to deliver exceptional luxury products to customers with efficiency and agility.

These success stories highlight the power of collaboration and technology in building resilient supply chains. SAP Business Network can provide the platform for companies to connect, collaborate, and exchange critical data, enabling them to navigate disruptions with resilience.

Leveraging Technology to Strengthen Your Supply Chain

In a world where disruptions are expected and circumstances tend to change, building resilience in supply chains is crucial for the success of businesses. The ability to adapt and thrive in the face of uncertainty requires collaboration, transparency, and efficiency. SAP Business Network offers a comprehensive solution that can enable companies to achieve these goals.

*Source: IDC White Paper, sponsored by SAP, “Enabling an Adaptive Supply Chain: Multi-Enterprise Business Networks and Supplier Collaboration,” #US51374823, November 2023.
**Source: “IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Commerce Network 2023 Vendor Assessment,” #US49948423, December 2023.

Tony Harris is SVP and chief marketing and solutions officer of SAP Business Network.

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LAS VEGAS — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced new product and partnership milestones that reimagine travel and expense management experiences and offer new capabilities powered by generative AI.

Connect travel, expense and invoice management for today visibility and control Learn how

These announcements were made at SAP Concur Fusion 2024, the flagship conference for SAP Concur users and experts, from March 19-21 in Las Vegas.

AI is only as good as the quality and breadth of the data it draws upon. SAP Concur is one of the global market leaders in travel and expense solutions with more than 92 million end users booking travel and/or processing expenses.

SAP debuted new business AI capabilities in SAP Concur solutions to help customers save time and improve accuracy when managing business travel and expenses:

• Concur Request: Now uses generative AI to provide intelligent cost estimates for trip planning.
• ExpenseIt solution: Customers can upload receipt images to ExpenseIt web, where it taps AI to automatically create a new expense with several key fields prepopulated. Plus, ExpenseIt now itemizes hotel folios using generative AI.
• Generative AI search: A new capability within Concur Support allows SAP Concur customers to type questions in natural language and get quick answers using generative AI without having to submit a support ticket.

The evolution of Concur Travel, featuring a consumer-grade user experience, now offers new content and features:

• Hotel and rail content: New direct integrations to American Express GBT, BCD, CWT RoomIt, FCTG and HRS designed to enhance the traveler’s shopping experience by providing more options, clarity and transparency. Additionally, users can search, book and purchase UK rail content.
• Microsoft Teams integration: Travelers can share a reservation from their Concur Travel trip list to a Microsoft Teams chat, so that coworkers can book the same trip.
• Sustainability-based travel decisions: Through an integration with Thrust Carbon, one of the travel industry’s leading independent sustainability intelligence platforms, evolution of Concur Travel users can view and sort the greenhouse gas emissions of each flight segment, as well as rail and car rental options, and browse hotel providers by emissions, certifications and sustainability scores.

The new, reimagined Concur Expense experience is AI-powered, optimized for mobile and already being used by early adopter customers. In the new experience, expense reports are automatically created and easily managed thanks to the following capabilities and a new partnership with Mastercard:

• Automatic expense entry, itemization, and categorization with ExpenseIt
• Timeline view of expenses
• Intelligent notifications such as missing receipts, missing attendees or expense reports ready for submission
• Attendee suggestion based on expense type and amount
• Automated expense creation for Mastercard transactions

To learn more about announcements at SAP Concur Fusion or to join the virtual event, visit here.

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Customers Can Harness Their Business Data in Cloud Solutions from SAP Using Customized LLMs Deployed with NVIDIA AI Foundry Services and New NVIDIA NIM Microservices

WALLDORF and SANTA CLARA, Calif. — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) and NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) today announced a partnership expansion focused on accelerating enterprise customers’ ability to harness the transformative power of data and generative AI across SAP’s portfolio of cloud solutions and applications.

The companies are collaborating to build and deliver SAP Business AI, including scalable, business-specific generative AI capabilities inside the Joule copilot from SAP and across SAP’s portfolio of cloud solutions and applications – all of which are underpinned by the SAP generative AI hub. The generative AI hub facilitates relevant, reliable and responsible business AI and provides instant access to a broad range of large language models (LLMs).

 As part of SAP’s ongoing initiative to build generative AI directly into the applications that power the world’s businesses, the partnership aims to help customers adopt generative AI capabilities at scale across their organizations. SAP will use NVIDIA’s generative AI foundry service to fine-tune LLMs for domain-specific scenarios and deploy applications with new NVIDIA NIM™ microservices. SAP and NVIDIA plan to make the new integrated capabilities available by the end of 2024.

“Enterprise customers want to leverage state-of-the-art technology that delivers real business value,” said Christian Klein, CEO and Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. “Strategic technology partnerships, like the one between SAP and NVIDIA, are at the core of our strategy to invest in technology that maximizes the potential and opportunity of AI for business. NVIDIA’s expertise in delivering AI capabilities at scale will help SAP accelerate the pace of transformation and better serve our customers in the cloud.”

“SAP is sitting on a gold mine of enterprise data that can be transformed into custom generative AI agents to help customers automate their businesses,” said Jensen Huang, founder and CEO of NVIDIA. “Together, NVIDIA and SAP will bring custom generative AI to the thousands of enterprises around the world that rely on SAP to power their operations.”

Harnessing Business Data and Generative AI to Advance Customer Insights

SAP and NVIDIA plan to collaborate to integrate generative AI into cloud solutions from SAP, which include the latest release of the SAP Datasphere solution, SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and RISE with SAP.

SAP plans to build additional generative AI capabilities within SAP BTP using NVIDIA’s generative AI foundry service, featuring NVIDIA DGX™ Cloud AI supercomputing, NVIDIA AI Enterprise software and NVIDIA AI Foundation models. These new capabilities are designed to be the basis of SAP’s development and deployment of generative AI for customers and is expected to be accessible in the generative AI hub in SAP AI Core and SAP Datasphere.

Additional generative AI initiatives include:

• New capabilities for the Joule copilot: Joule can leverage retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) capabilities built by NVIDIA and SAP, which can be deployed on leading hyperscalers or SAP’s own cloud environments. As a natural-language, generative AI copilot, Joule helps customers unlock the potential in their business by automating time-consuming tasks and quickly analyzing business-critical data to deliver more intelligent, personalized experiences.
• Innovative use cases leveraging SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors and SAP Signavio: SAP and NVIDIA are exploring more than 20 generative AI use cases where the companies can combine assets to simplify and enhance digital transformation. Among these are generative AI features that can automate enterprise resource planning with intelligent invoice matching in SAP S/4HANA Cloud; improve human resources use cases leveraging SAP SuccessFactors; and accelerate new generative AI insights from SAP Signavio to better process business recommendations and optimize SAP’s customer support processes.
• Unifying AI data sources with SAP Datasphere: Built on SAP BTP, SAP Datasphere enables integration and a unified view of semantically rich SAP data with third-party data across the enterprise landscape to help customers adapt faster to market changes and make more efficient and better informed decisions. With SAP Datasphere, customers can confidently access a high-quality data fabric using AI and machine learning (ML) models. To accelerate SAP’s federated machine learning (FedML) capabilities for SAP Datasphere, NVIDIA and SAP are facilitating easier access to data for data scientists and enhancing ML workload performance with the support of NVIDIA accelerated computing platforms and NVIDIA AI Enterprise data science software such as NVIDIA RAPIDS™.
• Using LLMs for the ABAP programming language: To aid developers in creating domain-specific language code, SAP plans to use NVIDIA AI foundry services to assist in fine-tuning LLMs. This will build on SAP’s use of generative AI models to assist developers who use ABAP through the company’s ABAP Cloud model and SAP Cloud Application Programming model.

NVIDIA AI Enterprise Powers Production-Grade Generative AI Across Cloud Solutions from SAP

Once models are ready for deployment in cloud solutions from SAP, SAP plans to use NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, including NVIDIA NIM inference microservices and NVIDIA NeMo Retriever™ microservices. NVIDIA NIM can be used to accelerate and maximize inference performance across the accelerated infrastructure from SAP. Using NVIDIA NeMo Retriever microservices, SAP plans to add RAG capabilities that enable generative AI applications to more securely access data running on SAP software to improve accuracy and insights. Customers can plan to use RAG on both SAP and third-party data.

To learn more about the SAP and NVIDIA partnership, watch the replay of Huang’s GTC keynote address.

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About NVIDIA

Since its founding in 1993, NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) has been a pioneer in accelerated computing. The company’s invention of the GPU in 1999 sparked the growth of the PC gaming market, redefined computer graphics, ignited the era of modern AI and is fueling industrial digitalization across markets. NVIDIA is now a full-stack computing infrastructure company with data-center-scale offerings that are reshaping industry. More information at https://nvidianews.nvidia.com/.

About SAP

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

Revolutionize how you interact with SAP business system while simplifying your day-to-day with faster work, smarter insights and better outcomes Meet Joule

Note to editors:
To preview and download broadcast-standard stock footage and press photos digitally, please visit www.sap.com/photos. On this platform, you can find high-resolution material for your media channels.

For customers interested in learning more about SAP products:
Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
United States Only: 1 (800) 872-1SAP (1-800-872-1727)

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NVIDIA: Shannon McPhee, +1 (310) 920-9642, smcphee@nvidia.com

Certain statements in this press release including, but not limited to, statements as to: the benefits, impact, performance, features, and availability of NVIDIA’s products and technologies, including NVIDIA’s generative AI foundry service, NVIDIA NIM microservices, NVIDIA DGX Cloud AI supercomputing, NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, and NVIDIA AI Foundation models, NVIDIA accelerated computing platforms, NVIDIA AI Enterprise data science software such as NVIDIA RAPIDS, RAPIDS cuDF and cuML, NVIDIA NeMo Retriever microservices; NVIDIA’s partnership with SAP, the benefits and impact of such partnership, and the features and availability of its services and offerings; SAP sitting on a gold mine of enterprise data that can be transformed into custom generative AI agents to help customers automate their businesses; and NVIDIA and SAP bringing custom generative AI to the thousands of enterprises around the world that rely on SAP to power their operations are forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause results to be materially different than expectations. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially include: global economic conditions; our reliance on third parties to manufacture, assemble, package and test our products; the impact of technological development and competition; development of new products and technologies or enhancements to our existing product and technologies; market acceptance of our products or our partners’ products; design, manufacturing or software defects; changes in consumer preferences or demands; changes in industry standards and interfaces; unexpected loss of performance of our products or technologies when integrated into systems; as well as other factors detailed from time to time in the most recent reports NVIDIA files with the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, including, but not limited to, its annual report on Form 10-K and quarterly reports on Form 10-Q. Copies of reports filed with the SEC are posted on the company’s website and are available from NVIDIA without charge. These forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and speak only as of the date hereof, and, except as required by law, NVIDIA disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect future events or circumstances.

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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Businesses have always relied on third-party services to help them get things done. Today’s business environment makes procuring the right services at the right price from the right provider crucial for success. And yet, many organizations lack a mature approach to sourcing and managing services. This exposes them to greater risk and higher costs, and it leaves them unable to measure project outcomes effectively.

These are among the findings of the newly released Benchmarking Services Procurement: A Global Study, conducted by Art of Procurement and sponsored by SAP. In examining the current state of services procurement, the study seeks to answer two basic questions: Is procurement moving beyond the role of “a pass-through for services contracts”? And how are procurement teams using new approaches and technology to innovate services procurement?

The Challenges of Procuring Services

Whether it’s for IT consulting, marketing services, facilities management, or legal services, procuring services through a third party gives organizations access to personnel with advanced skills and expertise. It can also be cost-effective.

Business leaders have taken note, as highlighted in 2023 research from Ardent Partners. “On average, professional services spending comprises between 45% and 65% of an organization’s total non-employee spending,” Ardent reports.

However, acquiring these services requires a significant level of procurement sophistication. Many services are too complex to fit neatly into a catalog and sourcing them requires organizations to consider key questions, including:

• Are we buying labor or an outcome?
• What is the cost mechanism – daily rates, time and materials, fixed-fee?
• Can we balance risk with agility?
• How do we maintain our service provider relationship?

Procurement teams have the expertise to bring a higher level of maturity to professional services. They provide a strategic approach that streamlines everything from sourcing and contracting to invoicing and vendor management. But are businesses taking full advantage of their expertise?

Benchmarking Services Procurement: A Global Study by Art of Procurement and SAP Read the full study Three Things the Study Tells Us

The Art of Procurement study reveals a lot about the state of professional services procurement. Here are a few of my thoughts – from a global perspective.

Many organizations aren’t benefiting from technology.

Fifty percent of respondents said they purchase services contracts via e-mail and phone, and 23% buy from the same procurement catalogs they use to buy goods. Only 27% use a technology platform designed for services procurement.

Choosing not to use services procurement technology creates compliance and governance challenges. It also limits buyers’ ability to get the best pricing. Moreover, e-mails and phone calls don’t provide a secure, centralized data trail, which is useful for demand planning and forecasting and for making strategic decisions about insourcing and outsourcing.

Too often, bidders seek fixed pricing. That inhibits innovation.

Seventy-nine percent of respondents said they use some form of fixed pricing to buy services. Although this allows them to know the price up front, it also presents challenges. For example, with fixed pricing, statements of work must be tightly written to detail exact project requirements. Otherwise, businesses could pay for more than they receive.

The Art of Procurement research also notes “a worrisome lack of risk and reward mechanisms in services procurement contracts.” It warns that disregarding these innovative mechanisms can jeopardize supplier relationships and stifle innovation. “Without clear incentives for success and mitigations for failure, procurement could unintentionally foster a transactional, short-term mindset in suppliers, leading to cut corners or a reluctance to invest in long-term innovation.”

Organizations prefer single project bids, which are less efficient.

In the survey, 39% of respondents said they set rates by project. Managing bids one by one forces businesses to go back to the market continuously – requiring more proposals, more negotiation, and more contracts.

But there’s also good news. The remaining 61% of respondents say they use either frameworks or preferred supplier panels to drive efficiency. A framework is a general agreement with pre-qualified suppliers, outlining terms and conditions under which specific goods or services will be procured. Panels are groups of pre-approved suppliers, selected for their ability to deliver specific services. These suppliers meet specific qualification criteria and have undergone a competitive selection process.

Overall, the Art of Procurement study paints a picture where procurement is not putting forth its expertise to help the business acquire and manage professional services. As such, it is conceding its strategic role to stakeholders and suppliers.

How Technology Can Help Turn the Tide

The Art of Procurement study advises procurement teams to “select and implement technology with breadth in mind, aiming to address as much services spend as possible rather than allowing pockets of sourcing activity to flow through non-standard platforms and processes.”

SAP Fieldglass Services Procurement is a broad technology application that can simplify how external services projects are initiated, engaged, managed, and completed. It can enable procurement teams to:

• Initiate service requests with competitive bidding, facilitating collaboration on bid criteria with colleagues, expedited approvals for authorized terms and budgets, and distribution of bids to services providers.
• Engage selected vendors through a negotiation process that follows a side-by-side evaluation of all responses, and then finalize an agreement.
• Manage global services engagements within a single, centralized system – securely onboarding workers, tracking deliverables, validating work, and generating invoices.
• Complete the project with automated offboarding, including terminating system access, retrieving assets, and giving performance feedback.

SAP Fieldglass has been named to the G2 list of Best Software Products for 2024, based on user reviews. It is also one of G2’s Best Mid-Market Products for 2024.

Procurement Must Lead the Way

Based on the findings of the Art of Procurement study, it’s clear that organizations need to adopt a more mature approach to services procurement. Procurement teams have the expertise to lead this transformation, although they must do more to assert themselves within the business. Technology can help accelerate this by enabling procurement to establish consistent, end-to-end processes for initiating, engaging, and managing external service projects.

Read the Art of Procurement report here.

Gordon Donovan is global vice president of Research, SAP Procurement, and External Workforce at SAP.

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With geopolitical conflict and climate change roiling global shipping corridors from the Suez Canal to Panama and elsewhere, enterprises rely increasingly on cloud-based business networks and artificial intelligence (AI) applications to extend visibility, facilitate collaboration, and ensure they stay one step ahead of the looming threat of disruption.

Meanwhile, as legislation to bolster transparency in supply chains takes hold around the world, the digital platforms through which trading partners carry out interconnected operational processes have become indispensable for managing risk, advancing sustainability objectives, and verifying adherence to ethical business practices – even as volatility in international commerce gathers pace.

After rebounding from several years of logjammed seaports, idled factories, and quarantined workers, many businesses find that though COVID-19 has receded, disruption stubbornly persists. Yet visibility across all aspects of the supply chain – from sourcing raw materials and managing logistics capacity to securing working capital solutions and managing dispersed physical assets – remains paramount in the quest to ensure business continuity, instill operational resilience, and deepen competitive advantage.

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

To help provide businesses with the 360-degree visibility and collaborative capabilities they require across complex trading relationships, SAP Business Network can connect people, processes, and systems across multiple enterprises to help digitize transactions, harness data-driven insights, and create transparent, resilient, and sustainable supply chains. Through SAP Business Network for Procurement, trading partners can gain process efficiencies, improve supply assurance, and achieve business process and regulatory compliance by increasing operational transparency. With SAP Business Network Supply Chain Collaboration, companies can achieve supply chain visibility by enabling plan-driven automation, optimizing capacity and inventory, and streamlining workflow. Aided by SAP Business Network for Logistics, shippers and carriers can work together in unison, track and trace goods in transit, and achieve transparency throughout the supply chain by optimizing logistics processes, increasing on-time deliveries, and mitigating third-party risk. Relying on SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration, owners, operators, and service providers can strengthen joint processes and the flow of shared information through a single, consistent version of asset master data to help streamline asset maintenance processes and reduce maintenance costs. With the benefit of SAP Business Network for Finance, trading partners can enhance payment security, free up working capital through early-payment discounts, and leverage access to capital bound up in outstanding receivables.

By linking together the routine business processes of trading partners, cloud-based networks establish the breadth of data necessary to apply predictive and generative AI applications to yield meaningful insights and outcomes. Through large language models and other forms of machine learning, cloud-based applications create new content with characteristics resembling that which precedes it. With every successive effort, generative AI sharpens its ability to tailor desired content.

As the world’s largest platform for business-to-business commerce, SAP Business Network can present an ideal setting for generative AI, in that it helps bring together an extremely large volume of trading partners across hundreds of millions of transactions representing US$5.3 trillion in commerce annually. Later this year, generative AI capabilities in SAP Business Network will be able to help detect errors and present automatic summaries when businesses create invoices. AI will also enable the network to help enrich catalog content and discovery posting responses for suppliers.

SAP Business Network has accumulated significant structured content over many years to help generate broad operational insights for trading partners. When buyers, suppliers, carriers, and financing solution providers share operational data with each other in real time, the mutual value they create can be exponential rather than additive, enabling all participants in commerce to plan ahead with confidence, continuity, and enduring resilience.

For further information on SAP Business Network and how we are equipping enterprises large and small with the digital tools needed to counter disruption, visit sap.com/businessnetwork.

Jörn Keller is executive vice president and chief product officer of SAP Business Network.

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Composable payment options enhance the customer experience at
checkout and accelerate retailers’ business growth

WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced a new composable payment solution to help retailers stay ahead of changing customer expectations. The new solution, SAP Commerce Cloud, open payment framework, helps retailers become more agile as new payment options – such as buy now, pay later – gain popularity.

Unlock business agility and transform customer experiences with SAP Commerce Cloud Learn more

The framework integrates SAP Commerce Cloud with numerous third-party payment service providers (PSPs), including Stripe, Adyen, Worldpay and Airwallex, based on their specific use case. Additionally, SAP’s composable architecture allows retailers to cherry-pick payment partners tailored to their unique needs and international markets, enabling them to build at their own pace, scale their business faster and avoid being confined to a single provider.

“Retailers want to extend more payments options to shoppers and quickly, and SAP is leveraging its vast partner ecosystem to fulfill this need,” said Leslie Hand, group vice president, Retail & Financial Insights, IDC. “With SAP’s deep understanding of retail and commerce and new offering to have a quick connection to the PSPs, retailers can adopt the plug and play framework they need that greatly reduces the complexity of a traditional integration. It’s great to see SAP delivering on its promise to offer composable solutions, so customers can adjust to new market requirements when and where it works best for them.”

SAP Commerce Cloud’s seamless and native integration capabilities ensure PSPs can be rapidly adopted, and it reduces complexity by eliminating the need to integrate and deploy extensions to the commerce codebase. The framework is extensible and headless, helping ensure the front end and back end are decoupled and operate independently, creating an opportunity to cater to a wide range of channel requirements and add on new solutions, including prebuilt payment experiences available on SAP Commerce Cloud, composable storefront. It also ensures customers have the freedom to pick their preferred payment method, which enhances the checkout experience.

“SAP’s unmatched industry expertise is the foundation of our strategy, as it enables us to deeply understand the complexities of delivering seamless and positive customer experiences that reinforce the brand promise with every interaction,” said Sven Denecken, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Product Marketing for SAP Industries & CX. “SAP’s unique, industry-led approach to composability places the retailer’s digital commerce needs front and center while we work with them to manage their digital transformation, navigate pathways to sustainable growth, and deliver on industry expectations.”

This no-code, low-code framework gives retailers a low-cost, adaptive, and agile payments system that can best fit their business and customer needs. It covers common payment needs and end-to-end payment processes across authorization, capture, refunds, and re-authorization as well as automatic updates with security and compliance standards.

• Example use case: A jewelry retailer that leverages a leading PSP wants to expand its payment options to offer a buy-now, pay-later payment option. They can add the new offering with a few clicks, immediately make the option available while meeting security requirements, and help guarantee an end-to-end payment experience for the customer.

SAP Commerce Cloud helps deliver profitable digital commerce growth, from discovery to delivery and beyond, and can be implemented with agility across industries such as retail, automotive, consumer products, utilities, and many others globally through its headless and composable offering. The open payment framework for SAP Commerce Cloud is in beta and SAP customers can join now. It is planned to be generally available in H2 2024.

Read comments from SAP partners here.

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Media Contact:
Jillian Baker, +1 (212) 653-9600, jillian.baker@sap.com, ET
SAP Press Room; press@sap.com

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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.

Partner Quotes: SAP Announces New Commerce Cloud Payment Solution with Partners

WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced a new composable payment solution to help retailers stay ahead of changing customer expectations.

The new solution, SAP Commerce Cloud, open payment framework, helps retailers become more agile as new payment options – such as buy now, pay later – gain popularity. The framework also integrates with any third-party Payment Service Provider (PSP), including Stripe, Adyen, Worldpay and Airwallex, based on their specific use case.

SAP partners are an extension of our business, bringing experience and domain expertise that help retailers innovate, transform, and simplify. SAP’s payment partner ecosystem is made up of many providers who are solving some of the most critical industry or region-specific business needs to empower shoppers to buy and pay on their own terms.

SAP partners are important to this initiative. Read the following comments from SAP partners, many of which have apps available on the SAP Store online marketplace, about their involvement.

Adyen

“Adyen has a strong foundation of servicing customers through our existing SAP Commerce Cloud integration, and the open payment framework is the first step of a larger strategic partnership with the goal of enabling digital payments for customers across a larger range of SAP solutions. Adyen and SAP support some of the world’s largest enterprise organizations, and this partnership provides a gateway for those companies to easily migrate to a single global payments platform with the flexibility and support that Adyen is known for. Working closely with SAP, we intend to scale our already considerable payments processing volumes to the next level.”

– Kyle Jenke, VP, Global Head of Partnerships, Adyen

Worldpay

“Worldpay’s collaboration with SAP using the new open payment framework for SAP Commerce Cloud aims to revolutionize the way businesses manage their payment processing, offering seamless and secure solutions for our customers around the globe. By combining SAP’s industry-leading software with Worldpay’s innovative payment technology, we can provide businesses with a comprehensive payment ecosystem that optimizes efficiency, enhances security, and drives growth. We look forward to the exciting opportunities this collaboration around SAP Commerce Cloud will bring, and we are committed to continuing to innovate and provide cutting-edge solutions in the payment industry.”

– Maria Prados, SVP, Global Enterprise Go to Market, Worldpay

Airwallex

“This is an important first partnership between Airwallex and SAP, as we mutually look to support merchants with their international expansion plans. As one of four official payment service providers added to the SAP Commerce Cloud solution, Airwallex’s global payments and proprietary financial infrastructure will provide merchants with even more choices and payment options that suit their growing customer base. This is the start of a long-term relationship in which we look forward to strengthening our enterprise playbook and further scaling into the Americas and EMEA while supporting SAP’s business in APAC.”

– Ravi Adusumilli, EGM, Americas, Airwallex

Media Contact:
Jillian Baker, +1 (212) 653-9600, jillian.baker@sap.com, ET
SAP Press Room; press@sap.com

Whether you’re searching for a partner, looking to join our ecosystem, or trying to find resources — discover the power of partnership with SAP Learn more

The connection between net-zero emissions and the circular economy is backed by research. When it comes to cutting greenhouse gases, the main focus is on improving energy efficiency and transitioning away from fossil fuels to renewables, but that only accounts for 55% of greenhouse gas emissions. The remaining 45% is tied up in products, materials, and food.

Key administrations are aware of this and are starting to act accordingly. Accelerating innovation in industrial products and fuels for a net-zero, circular economy is one of five priorities in U.S. President Joe Biden’s Net-Zero Game Changers Initiative. Meanwhile, the new Circular Economy Action Plan (CEAP) is a main element of the European Green Deal.

In parallel, the UN is collaborating multilaterally to create policy to regulate plastics. The UN Plastics Treaty is a consensus by 175 nations to deliver a legally binding agreement to tackle plastic pollution by the end of 2024. This is significant because plastic has become fundamental to the products we create and the packaging we use to contain and ship them. Plastic has an enormous impact on the environment due to the emissions involved in its creation and mismanaged plastic waste polluting the air, the oceans, our food, and even our blood.

Currently, the linear economy dominates, as only 7.2% of the world’s resources are reused or recycled. In the case of plastic, we take oil from the ground, turn it into products and packaging, use them, and throw them out when we’re finished. Continuing like this isn’t an option because we will run out of resources, worsen global warming, and cause further damage to our ecosystem. The circular economy is about running the resources around in loops, so materials retain their value and can be reused.

It sounds logical, so why aren’t we doing it already? The first reason is financial. In the long term, the circular economy will create jobs, cut costs, improve profitability, and secure supply lines. Achieving this, however, requires massive capital investment in the short term. Additionally, more data is required to help us understand the impact of our decisions. And we need a new, more collaborative way of working.

Capital investment-wise, we must invest in designing and manufacturing products with circularity in mind. We need to adapt and build machinery and systems to rescue resources from existing products and turn them into new items. The labor market must evolve to train people in the skills required and to make circular economy jobs attractive, with good remuneration and benefits packages. More wealth must also flow back up the supply chain to ensure the sustainability of raw materials and to enable growth and sustainable manufacturing. To help companies and financial institutions understand the benefits and necessity of the circular economy, more education is required.

Record, report, and act on your sustainability goals with SAP solutions Learn more

Data systems need to evolve to give companies insights on material flow and traceability, help them avoid waste, extend periods of use, recover and regenerate materials, and make informed decisions about products and packaging. This is where SAP comes in, with 80% of the world’s businesses using our software.

Take plastic again: the SAP Green Token solution can help businesses trace plastics back to their source polymer to understand what type of material is used in every plastic element in a product. This can help companies prove the environmental credentials of a given plastic. SAP Responsible Design and Production can be used to understand how recycled and recyclable a component is and can help a company understand the true end-to-end cost of a material. This can be useful in regulating certain materials for comparison and decision-making purposes as well as in helping businesses anticipate taxes and fees associated with their products.

We can interrogate upstream supply chain data, which relates to what a product is made from, but we don’t yet have a complete downstream picture of what happens to a product at its end of life. Recyclability varies wildly between countries, so to understand how recyclable materials are in certain countries or jurisdictions, a partnership approach with national governments, local authorities, NGOs, and others is required to build a database that can inform companies which types of plastic to use or avoid for certain markets to achieve circularity. SAP can add value by collecting this data and pulling it into solutions.

At the same time, to embrace the circular economy, our way of working must evolve. Instead of working in silos within our individual businesses and in vertical supply chains, we need to work collaboratively to share the data and bring the skill sets and processes together. For example, SAP works with groups of companies, such as with the WBCSD, to establish frameworks for exchanging data. SAP Sustainability Data Exchange started with embedded carbon in products, but the application can be extended to track other important material information for the circular economy like recycled content or water content.

Collaborations between businesses and non-corporate bodies accelerate progress. A clear example of this is how, by working with the WBCSD and the Ocean Plastics Leadership Network, SAP works towards updating solutions to help customers respond to new requirements that arise from the negotiations.

The ambition is to replicate this approach to plastic for other products, such as steel, batteries, electronics, textiles, and even food. With a circular economy across these industries, I’m convinced we can get halfway to net zero and if, in parallel, the energy experts continue to move the needle on energy efficiency and renewable power generation, we’ll get the rest of the way.

Learn more about SAP Sustainability solutions at sap.com/sustainability.

Darren West is a product expert in Circular Economy at SAP.

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SAP was recently named a Strategic Challenger in the 2024 Fosway 9-GridTM for Learning Systems, a multidimensional learning market analysis model. As a Strategic Challenger, SAP is recognized as demonstrating solid performance with solutions that have a rich and broad suite of capability compared to the market.  

With the widened availability of AI, the race for skills is impacting both people and organizations. While people are learning how to use AI to drive more efficiency within their individual roles, organizations are also under pressure to adopt AI technology that can deliver more personalized development opportunities and greater talent intelligence.  

Over the last year, SAP has made significant investments across SAP SuccessFactors solutions, specifically in SAP SuccessFactors Learning, to deliver these capabilities. 

Boost employee skills while helping ensure compliance with SAP SuccessFactors Learning Learn more

These investments are part of a broader strategy to help our customers focus on accelerated skills growth and build a future-ready workforce. Recently, we released a redesigned integrated learning experience that can deliver an entirely new way for people to experience learning at work. The highly personalized experience can guide the learner to not only accomplish compliance trainings – what they “have to learn” – and organizational goals – what they “need to learn” – but also helps to drive an intrinsic culture of learning around what they “want to learn,” tapping into each individual’s needs, aspirations, interests, or preferences based on their growth profile.  

Furthermore, the AI-powered talent intelligence hub is now available across all SAP SuccessFactors solutions. It is a framework that helps organizations understand the skills their employees have today, the gaps that exist, and how to close those gaps. With this intelligence, SAP SuccessFactors Learning can continue to deliver even more personalized learning and development recommendations. 

“The level of innovation within the learning systems market continues to accelerate rapidly – specifically around AI and skills,” said David Wilson, founder and CEO of Fosway Group. “As a major vendor in this space, SAP continues to invest significantly in innovating its learning and talent capabilities, reflecting its focus on enhancing the value it delivers to learning buyers as well as its wider HCM audience.” 

Source: 2024 Fosway 9-GridTM for Learning Systems. Click to enlarge.

Both multinational and midsize companies leverage SAP SuccessFactors Learning, along with our partner ecosystem, to help drive upskilling and reskilling and create a culture of continuous learning. 

San Pablo Farmacia, a Mexico-based pharmacy retail chain, created an intuitive and engaging training experience that employees can consume at their convenience. By integrating the learning solution with other talent management applications, it can design personal training and development plans in line with its growth strategies and the individual needs of the entire workforce. The company delivered certified training to 1,800 employees without the need to transport its people to a training location and take them away from their pharmacy stores. 

Delta is also embracing AI to drive upskilling and personalized development opportunities. “We are incorporating disruptive technologies like our AI-driven skills ontology that automatically incorporates industry trends with embedded intelligence,” said Tim Gregory, managing director of HR Innovation and Workforce Technology at Delta. “We can say which skills are most important to Delta Air Lines and the employee can easily combine those with their current capabilities, strengths and styles, and aspirations to create a personal career path. All of the content is based on Delta-specific skills and personalized to each employee’s career goals.”  

Looking ahead, we will continue to deliver more learning-specific enhancements and new AI capabilities throughout 2024 across all SAP SuccessFactors solutions so leaders can hire the best talent and grow their personal skills with individualized plans while building up the compliance and strategic skills needed by the organization.  

Learn more about SAP SuccessFactors Learning.

Vinita Venkatesh is vice president of Product Management for SAP SuccessFactors Learning. 

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Quantum computing reports are still working up steam, but error correction remains elusive. Research into quantum computing has yielded many positive results, in quantum computing and also improvements in classical algorithms. In addition, it has inspired new hardware that potentially improves how businesses will optimize. Last year, SAP and Fujitsu collaborated to test out Fujitsu’s new quantum-inspired Digital Annealer Unit (DAU).

If you ask a quantum researcher what keeps them awake at night, error correction might be their likely answer. And so, while quantum computing still makes great strides, the quantum advantage can sometimes be overstated in the press. To mitigate this, however, a new type of quantum-inspired computing is coming of age. What started as simulated annealing has given rise to dedicated simulated annealing machines. These typically work on optimization problems, finding the best way to do something.

Harnessing Fujitsu’s Digital Annealer Unit for Efficient Optimization

Fujitsu’s Digital Annealer Unit (DAU) is a quantum-inspired machine. It works by finding the optimal combination when presented with a list of possible combinations, and it works fast. Last year, SAP ran a proof of concept with Fujitsu to test and benchmark its DAU – with some promising results.

SAP is continuously exploring new ideas, business models, and pioneering technologies Learn more

As mentioned in a recent blog, the DAU was tested against some rather abstract but standardized research problems from the Library of Quadratic Programming Instances (QPLIB). We also tested the possibility to seamlessly integrate SAP solutions with the DAU, proving a simple execution to start. As a result, SAP was able to demonstrate that the DAU has real potential and marks an important milestone in the progress of quantum-inspired computing towards practical, real-world, standard business solutions. We are currently working with Fujitsu to extend this potential to other optimization problems, like creating more efficient schedules for manufacturing, vehicle space optimization, and ultimately an even broader use case application.

While still a proof of concept, these connections and benchmarking results demonstrate the potential for simulated annealing to deliver on real-world problems, such as balancing the load across all manufacturing tool sets, by using the DAU as a machine dedicated to the task of optimization, rather than a universally reprogrammable computer.

As a world-leading enterprise application provider, SAP continues to help innovate and bring the benefits of quantum-inspired computing to customers through our solutions.

Benchmarking Against Current Optimization Methods

Before committing more resources, SAP wanted to test the DAU against problems that serve as industry or academic standards for optimization. This is where the QPLIB comes in. It is essentially a huge repository of math problems, none of which are mapped to potential use cases but all of which can determine what kind of problems the DAU might excel at. The advantage of this approach is that it allows us to benchmark against current optimization methods, although the use case context has been removed. Take the example of a drug trial, where scientists test the new drug in test tubes against drugs already on the market. It may not show side effects, but it will show whether it’s worth risking trials on living subjects.

The DAU takes a Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) problem as its input, which sets up the cost-benefit matrix. It then outputs a string of 1’s and 0’s, telling the user whether it is optimal to include, for example, a unit of stock, where the variance is to be minimized. The key is that it must either be faster or output a more optimal solution.

Most quantum computers run their quantum circuits at gate-level. Fujitsu’s approach was inspired by quantum annealing, a technique that specializes entirely in optimization. Although quantum annealing makes great progress in the number of qubits (quantum bits), it is subject to similar limitations of error. The advantage of Fujitsu’s quantum-inspired approach is that it relies on existing hardware, eliminating the need for expensive cryogenic cooling.

It is SAP’s sincere hope that this quantum-inspired optimization can help our customers bridge the optimization gaps until quantum hardware becomes more reliable. The incorporation of Fujitsu’s DAU into SAP technology helps establish a platform designed to tackle the impending gaps in the years ahead. This remarkable advancement is a key achievement in SAP’s journey towards the next era of enterprise software, aiming to enhance business operations and foster value creation.

Together, SAP and Fujitsu are pushing the boundaries and redefining what is possible, as the industry looks to a future transformed by the advancements in quantum-inspired computing.

Paul McElligott is a fellow in the Quantum eXplorers Group at SAP.

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Last week, to a virtual audience of nearly 50,000 employees, the Executive Board of SAP SE announced the 2023 winners of the Hasso Plattner Founders’ Award, the company’s most prestigious employee recognition.

Three teams were selected for outstanding and innovative projects in the categories Go-to-Market, Operational Excellence, and Products and Technology.

In 2023, 115 nominations involved more than 750 employees from 35 countries. Eight teams consisting of 81 employees from around the world made it to the final round.

In honor of the three winning teams, SAP will make donations to three charities selected by the team members. The €30,000 total donation – €10,000 per team – will be split between Better Shelter, World Central Kitchen, and Embrace Global.

Meet the 2023 Hasso Plattner Founders’ Award Winners

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Always allow YouTube Always load all embeds--> Go-to-Market Winner Reimagined RISE with SAP Business Case with SAP Signavio and SAP Value Lifecycle Manager Integration

When shifting to a cloud-first approach, it can be a challenge to pitch the cloud to customers due to the comprehensiveness of the solution spanning across the entire value chain of an enterprise.

To apply a more streamlined and dependable method for crafting compelling value propositions, the Value Advisory team at SAP implemented the SAP Signavio portfolio of cloud-based business process management solutions within their practice to demonstrate value to customers through data-driven insights.

The team created a system where business metrics from SAP Value Lifecycle Manager and process performance data from SAP Signavio solutions were merged and applied to business KPIs to identify cases of suboptimal performance. This allows customers to more easily see the connection between business outcomes and the process capabilities, supported by data.

The approach offers a robust and repeatable performance diagnostic that can be used to identify, clarify, verify, and amplify value throughout the customer value journey, helping customers better understand the value of the cloud and RISE with SAP. The innovation helps build customer trust and intimacy while also helping our business operate at scale. To date, this process-driven value management has impacted more than 190 customers.

“Our future focus involves enhancing usability and capabilities to comprehensively cover the customer value journey,” Nitin Singh, team leader and Value Advisory principal, says. “We extend our sincere gratitude to our leaders for fostering a culture of innovation, our colleagues for experimenting and navigating challenges with us, and prior colleagues whose work paved the way for this journey. We genuinely stand on the shoulders of giants.” 

Operational Excellence Winner Plutus: Rate Optimization and Management

Cloud services are a critical part of SAP’s recent evolution, with the company dedicating extensive time and resources to seamlessly integrate all essential services into the cloud. This effort aims to enhance customer experiences – and Plutus serves as the cornerstone of these endeavors.

Plutus, which leverages SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), is a one-stop solution for major hyperscalers. It’s crafted to empower lines of business by providing smarter and more efficient advice for optimizing cloud services. Plutus can centralize the management of cost optimization and intelligently navigate users through cloud expenses, providing top-notch recommendations and comprehensive end-to-end management. It caters to users’ needs from guidance to execution, helping to ensure cost savings every step of the way.

The Plutus team used cutting-edge technologies to create a 24/7, fully integrated, user-centric cloud service hub and a smooth user interface platform that can operate across various channels. Plutus provides simplified financial operations processes by offering an intuitive interface across all platforms, working to eliminate pricing disparities and provide reliable cost-saving solutions. These efforts strongly emphasize SAP’s commitment to advancing global digital sustainability through innovative enterprise solutions.

The solution uses machine learning to provide smart recommendations. The team also plans to integrate a versatile digital chatbot based on generative AI to help ensure seamless and comprehensive user support in the future.

Plutus allows for a new approach to SAP’s cloud cost optimization strategy, unlocking new avenues for significant cost savings and margin improvements. To date, Plutus has generated over US$920 million in net savings for SAP, with projections reaching $1 billion in Q1 2024. It has also achieved and maintained remarkable, best-in-industry cloud utilization and coverage rates – exceeding 97% and 90%, respectively.

“Winning the Hasso Plattner Founders’ Award reflects our dedication to teamwork and innovation,” Donghua Chen, Plutus team lead, says. “Our journey to this point has required a lot of hard work. But as we celebrate this achievement, we remain committed to continually analyzing cloud usage to maximize savings for SAP through rate optimization.”

Products & Technology Winner CAP and capGPT – SAP Cloud Application Programming Model and Generative AI

The SAP Cloud Application Programming Model (CAP) was started in 2018 as a project to address the lack of guidance for developers building apps on what is now SAP BTP. At first, developers could choose from a huge number of technologies, which made integration with the platform services a relatively high effort.

As a development framework, CAP automatically solves about 80% of the problems backend developers face – such as multitenancy, expandability, or business features such as localization and translatability. But thanks to CAP’s domain-driven approach, it is no longer necessary to always change the coding in each of those cases. And for special use cases that CAP doesn’t cover, the coding can be easily added to build in this functionality. To help safeguard customers’ investments, CAP offers the possibility to interchange components, such as runtime or the database, without changing the actual implementation.

CAP, as a centerpiece of Golden Path and SAP Build Code, is now an integral part of the consumption experience of SAP BTP. Today, thousands of internal and external developers use CAP to build business applications on SAP BTP, driving higher developer productivity and easier SAP BTP service adoption.

“This award is a great testament to the hard work and dedication of the whole CAP unit and a recognition of the impact we have both internally as well as for our customers and partners,” Ole Lilienthal, team lead, says.

To make prototyping even easier, in spring 2023, SAP software architect David Kunz applied ChatGPT’s large language model to writing code for business apps.

capGPT, as the new functionality is called, allows users to write in natural language what they want their app prototype to be able to do. In as little as 30 seconds, they can receive all the code – which previously had to be written by hand – and access the prototype to test it. This can not only save experienced developers an amazing amount of time, but can also enable non-developers to create prototypes of the apps they need. capGPT can also generate user interfaces in addition to backend applications. It will soon be available to customers through integration into SAP Build Code as part of AI-development assistant Joule.

“Seeing capGPT go from an idea to a Hasso Plattner Founders’ Award winner within a year is a true testament that everything is possible at SAP,” Kunz says. “I feel very proud and I’m energized to continue to push the limits of what generative AI can enable.”

Photo courtesy of SAP employee Fateh Kassab

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As a longtime executive sponsor of the SAP Innovation Awards, I always look forward to the day we announce our winners to the world. And the countdown is now on. But before we get to the big reveal, we are proud to share some incredible stories from this year’s finalists.

These organizations exemplify resilience and innovation. Despite macro challenges and an unpredictable business climate, they harness technology, culture, and sometimes pure grit to address some of the world’s biggest challenges. We at SAP are honored to be part of their journey. With our help, they develop business processes, solutions, and services to better serve their customers, operations, and communities around the world.

SAP Innovation Awards celebrate inspirational customer and partner stories Learn more Real-World Problems, Real-Life Solutions

For the past 11 years, SAP has run the prestigious SAP Innovation Awards, proudly recognizing top global innovators that use SAP solutions to make the world a better place. Our distinguished judges of industry thought leaders, influencers, community members, and SAP experts have carefully reviewed 160 entries to determine the 2024 SAP Innovation Award finalists.

These organizations are setting the standards in improving operations across the value chain, boosting employee and customer experiences, shaping a sustainable future, and much more. A huge congratulations to all of our finalists! I know I speak for everyone involved when I say I can’t wait to find out this year’s winners.

Click to enlarge. 30 Winners Across Seven Categories

Judging for the SAP Innovation Awards is based on a few big elements: the creativity of an organization’s use case, the tangible outcomes, and their innovation in employing AI technologies and cloud solutions from SAP. We highlight winners in the following seven categories:

• Business Innovator: This category focuses on how customers are transforming their supply chain, processes, or business networks using cloud solutions from SAP.
• Industry Leader: Customers are recognized for employing our solutions to address big challenges in their industries and disrupting the way their industries have traditionally conducted business.
• Experience Wizard: This one focuses on customers achieving tangible business transformation using our cloud solutions to delight their employees and customers.
• Sustainability Hero: To be honored here, customers must be actively committed to sustainability with leading-edge solutions.
• Services Supernova: Customers are recognized for outstanding achievements in transforming businesses into sustainable enterprises. They’ve exceeded their business goals, optimized IT resources, increased user enablement, and improved productivity or learning using RISE with SAP or Cloud Success Services.
• Transformation Titan: How do you become a titan? Demonstrate exceptional innovation and transformational leadership in using SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). Selected customers are employing the full portfolio of SAP products.
• Partner Paragon: This category highlights how partners accelerate the adoption of SAP BTP by developing a monetized application that has been deployed by customers.

Continuing the Celebration

SAP Innovation Awards represent an amazing opportunity to learn, be inspired by, and celebrate the unique and innovative ways our customers and partners are making a difference and we look forward to celebrating the winners on April 10!

Do you know of a customer or partner that would be a good candidate for next year’s SAP Innovation Awards? Or do you just want to learn more about the awards, the finalists, and the winners when they’re announced? Join us and showcase your innovation story! Get started here.

Dorit Shackleton is senior vice president and head of Global Customer Adoption and Events Marketing at SAP.

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