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Jill Houghton, president of Disability:IN, the world’s leading nonprofit for business disability inclusion and equality, says leadership culture is key to disability inclusion.

In the latest episode of the AHA! Moments for Diversity & Inclusion video series, SAP Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer Supriya Jha talks to Houghton about how her first job started a lifelong advocacy for people with disabilities and how accommodations can make all the difference.

Disability Inclusion: AHA! Moments in D&I

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Seventy percent of the world’s population – 1 billion people – has an invisible disability, including anxiety, depression, hearing issues, or autism, to name but a few. Houghton, who has a learning disability, is one of them.

Houghton was lucky; accommodations at school meant that she had the extra time needed to process information in exams. But when she took her law school entrance exams, her luck ran out. With no extra time or accommodation, she fell behind. This changed the trajectory of her life. Instead of legal studies, an internship followed. Instead of a career in law, her first job was in Indianapolis, Indiana, placing people born with disabilities into employment.

The AHA! Moment

During her time in Indianapolis, Houghton recalls one client in particular, Erica, and how the job for her “wasn’t just about a paycheck, but that it was about respect and it was about being included in her community and having friends.” And, says Houghton, it “was at that moment that I knew why I existed, and I never turned back.” She has been a disability inclusion activist ever since.

It’s time to run a world where our differences are celebrated, equity is fostered, and everyone belongs Learn more

As president of Disability:IN, Houghton has been a driving force in promoting disability inclusion in companies and with the Disability Equality Index (DEI), a tool for measuring and offering best practices for disability inclusion. The DEI analyzes disability inclusion practices and processes in leadership and culture, employment practices, community engagement, and supplier diversity. It also offers advice on how to better disability inclusion.

In 2023, more than 480 companies participated in the DEI, including 69 Fortune 100 companies with more than 14 million U.S.-based employees and nearly 9 million non-U.S.-based employees. SAP was awarded the top score in the 2023 DEI rankings.

Workplace Accommodations and Leadership Culture

Only 5% of employees with a disability choose to disclose, and SAP’s Jha was keen to get Houghton’s insights on how to create a culture where disabled employees feel that they can articulate their needs and reach their full potential.

Houghton says the solution is twofold. First, leaders must use their platforms to be a disability inclusion ally or have the cultural space to own their identity – disabled or not. And second, workplace accommodations must be the norm.

Processes for requesting accommodations must be transparent and easy to follow. Managers must clearly understand how to arrange accommodations and, more importantly, budget must be available. If these processes aren’t easy, there is a risk that talent will be lost and that disabled employees will not have a sense of belonging.

Avoiding Microaggressions and Discrimination

To avoid microaggressions and discrimination against disabled employees, Houghton advocates using the best resource possible – your own employees, in particular disability employee groups. At SAP, there are Employee Network Groups such as SAP HEAR and Friends and Enabled@SAP.

Disability is a true cross-collaborative task. After all, Houghton concludes, becoming disabled is the “one team that anybody can join at any time in their life.”

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Across all industries, today’s enterprises manage increasingly complex ecosystems of suppliers, partners, and customers globally. As this ecosystem expands, so does the number of business relationships – and contracts – that a company must manage.

Contracts govern every dollar in and out of the enterprise and provide a legal framework for ongoing business relationships. This makes contract data one of the most valuable assets to inform decision-making and accelerate strategic outcomes for enterprises.

According to World Commerce & Contracting estimates, poor contract management can cost companies nearly 9% of their bottom line, creating significant revenue leakage alongside the risk and compliance concerns that come with a lack of visibility into commercial agreements.

Streamline procurement with contract intelligence from Icertis and SAP Learn more

SAP understands the value of balancing risk and profitability in the contracting process. To complement our solutions and provide additional advanced contract management capabilities to our customers, we partner with Icertis in a joint development effort that includes technological integration between SAP and Icertis solutions. This innovation complements a full suite of integrations designed to help SAP customers turn contracts into strategic assets. It can enable global enterprises to realize the true intent of their commercial agreements while managing and automating core processes with their SAP solutions.

Introducing the Latest Version of Icertis Contract Intelligence for SAP S/4HANA

One outcome of our joint development efforts with Icertis is the latest version of Icertis Contract Intelligence for SAP S/4HANA (Buy Side), an SAP endorsed app available on SAP Store. Originally launched at SAP Sapphire in 2023, the solution integrates SAP S/4HANA and the Icertis contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform. It can empower procurement teams to realize more profitable and compliant sourcing processes by optimizing supplier relationships and accelerating source-to-pay cycle times.

The new iteration of Icertis Contract Intelligence for SAP S/4HANA takes the integration one step further, deepening the connection with SAP S/4HANA for enterprise contract management. This can enable greater efficiency and visibility along with the ability to create a legal transaction in SAP S/4HANA that can automatically initiate a contract in the Icertis solution. Through richer contract data pools and seamless connectivity across the agreement lifecycle, procurement decision-makers can track obligations after the contract is signed, discover clauses, and negotiate more beneficial commercial terms to mitigate revenue leakage and ultimately create cost savings for their enterprises.   

Expanding Our Partnership to Benefit SAP Customers

Icertis and SAP expanded their partnership in 2022 and have continued to provide automation and analytics at scale by connecting AI and data that represents every business transaction within ERP, finance, procurement, sales, and HR solutions from SAP. Additional SAP endorsed apps available on SAP Store include Icertis Contract Intelligence for SAP Ariba, Icertis Contract Intelligence for SAP Fieldglass, and Icertis Contract Intelligence for SAP CPQ with SAP S/4HANA (Sell Side). Each solution is designed to provide enterprise leaders with a deeper understanding of what’s driving their business, as well as powerful new levers to steer future success.

To learn more about the transformative capabilities of SAP S/4HANA with Icertis Contract Intelligence, listen to this on-demand SAPInsider webinar.

Priya Wenzel is vice president and global head of Partner Ecosystem Success for Digital Supply Chain and Intelligent Spend & Business Network Solutions at SAP.

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In the modern business environment, the critical need to effectively harness data is undeniable. Companies that fail to become data-driven risk falling behind in a world where agility and informed decision-making are paramount. In the recent SAP Data Unleashed event we explored strategies to help organizations access data from any source, transform planning and analysis with a business data fabric, and foster trusted artificial intelligence (AI) across their businesses. Central to this transformation are SAP partners.

For decades, our partners have leveraged their industry expertise and technological know-how to bring immense value to companies of all sizes. They possess a rare fusion of deep industry insights and technological expertise, which they leverage to guide businesses through the delicate process of modernization while ensuring that the essence of their identity remains intact.

We recently asked several of our strategic SAP partners how they’re helping customers take better advantage of their organization’s data. Our partners have observed a significant shift in the way data is perceived and utilized. It’s no longer just a byproduct of business operations but a core asset that, when effectively distributed and made accessible, can revolutionize customer experiences and enable a more strategic, company-wide approach to decision-making.

SAP Partners Bring Out Your Best as a Data-Driven Organization

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However, the mere availability of data is not a panacea. The crux of the matter is transforming data into actionable insights. This is where our partners excel, mapping out advanced use cases and facilitating the transition to cutting-edge platforms like SAP Datasphere and SAP Analytics Cloud. These solutions can empower organizations to evolve into entities where data is not just present but central to every action and decision.

The practical implications of data are vast and deeply rooted in the operational successes of our clients. AI, for instance, is a frontier rich with potential, but its success is inextricably linked to the quality and accessibility of data. Recognizing this, SAP partners are investing in building AI capabilities that can not only propel new business functions but also deliver substantial value.

Another key area of focus for our partners is the concept of a business data fabric, which is critical in developing a flexible enterprise architecture. Such an architecture allows for co-innovation and customization of solutions, ensuring that data is not just an afterthought but a driving force in business operations.

The journey toward a data- and AI-centric business model is an ongoing one, marked by evolving needs, emerging challenges, and a relentless pursuit of innovation. The ultimate aim is to convert potential into lasting business success.

The essence of our relationship with our partners is rooted in a shared vision. We are united in our pursuit of discovery, innovation, and improvement as we navigate the future together. Be sure to watch the videos with our seven strategic partners and discover how the SAP partner ecosystem can help your company become a data-driven organization.

Karl Fahrbach is chief partner officer at SAP.

SAP partners are helping their clients solve critical business challenges Discover how

Continuously advancing and amplifying the value of ERP, SAP offers a dynamic portfolio of flagship solutions that meet the evolving needs of organizations worldwide. The RISE with SAP offering continues this multi-decade legacy, guiding customers throughout their transformative journey to our modular cloud ERP – SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition – with steadfast support and continuous innovation. 

With the introduction of RISE with SAP add-on packages for critical lines of business, customers using RISE with SAP can reap significant value from their cloud ERP investment. Each targeted package augments the complete offering of cloud solutions, infrastructure, and services, creating a strategic arsenal for addressing uniquely nuanced challenges and opportunities. 

The first two sets of packages that are now available focus on the needs of finance and supply chain organizations. To advance critical functions from digital banking and treasury and risk management to product lifecycle management and logistics, these packages are designed to be versatile allies in the quest for greater efficiency, sustainability, and growth. 

Strengthening Financial Empowerment for Business Growth 

Financial management stands as a critical pillar for business growth. Within RISE with SAP, its impact can be heightened with add-on packages finely tuned for the office of the CFO. 

Digital Banking: Simplify connections with customers, banks, and payment service providers while meeting the highest security standards.

The digital banking package streamlines financial transactions and helps ensure a comprehensive and secure banking interface, supporting payment processes integrated with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. Read the blog for more details.

Treasury and Risk Management: Invest, borrow, and hedge exposures more confidently with a comprehensive solution for centralized treasury and risk management.

Through the RISE with SAP advanced treasury and risk management package, smooth integration with trading platforms allows finance organizations to streamline, automate, and unify trading activities and make more strategic decisions with real-time and predictive cash insights. Read the blog for more details.

Financial Three Lines of Defense: Let standardization and automation take center stage to address key activities in enterprise risk management, regulatory compliance, and audit processes.

The three lines of defense package empowers finance professionals to anticipate and respond to potential economic risks, identify and resolve issues faster, and gain near-real-time visibility into their company’s compliance status and control effectiveness. Read the blog for more details.

Billing and Revenue Innovation Management: Accelerate the monetization of innovative business models and billing processes for bundled-usage services, products, projects, and recurring services billed on a single invoice.

Using the billing and revenue innovation management package helps establish the foundation for supporting subscription order management, convergent charging and invoices, and contract accounting. It also facilitates incentives and revenue shares for business partners with high-volume customer billings. Read the blog for more details.

Building Resilient Bonds Across the Supply Chain 

Companies that connect their processes, contextualize their decisions, and collaborate with each supplier, partner, and stakeholder are well-positioned to run risk-resilient and sustainable supply chains. RISE with SAP brings this competitive edge by setting the proper foundation with the following add-on packages.

Advanced Product Lifecycle Management: Empower your development organization with the best capabilities for collaboration, visualization, requirements definition and specification, and change management.

The RISE with SAP advanced product lifecycle management (PLM) package equips product-centric companies with solutions that keep information flowing across each PLM activity and engage suppliers through digital networks. In return, design decisions are made more accurately, and delays give way to accelerated time to market. Read the blog for more details.

Advanced Supply Chain Planning: Build an agile, intelligent, and risk-resilient supply chain.

With the RISE with SAP advanced supply chain planning package, supply chain organizations can automate and tightly coordinate their planning processes, leverage AI-driven intelligence and planning capabilities, and identify disruptions and shortages early to respond faster and more effectively. Read the blog for more details.

Advanced Logistics: Increase resilience against constant change and deliver as promised at the right time – every time.

Through the RISE with SAP advanced logistics package, supply chain organizations gain best-practice logistics capabilities in warehousing, transportation, robotics, and yard management to reduce costs, avoid stock-outs, and improve order accuracy and on-time delivery. Read the blog for more details.

Advanced Manufacturing: Drive productivity safely and sustainably with intelligent manufacturing planning and execution.

The RISE with SAP advanced manufacturing package assists supply chain organizations in meeting demand with automated, flexible manufacturing processes that support risk-resilient operations and improve sustainability performance. Read the blog for more details.

Advanced Asset and Service Management: Enter a new world of optimized, AI-powered maintenance and service capabilities.

The RISE with SAP advanced asset and service management package opens the door to innovative technologies that maximize asset performance, reduce maintenance costs, and deliver service excellence. This approach allows asset owners and service providers to handle everything from asset strategy and planning to maintenance scheduling and field service management on mobile devices. Read the blog for more details.

Navigating the Future with Digital Synergy 

The RISE with SAP offering is not only emerging as an enabler for migrating on-premises ERP systems to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition; it’s also a transformative force shaping the future of businesses.

And with the addition of add-on packages meticulously crafted for finance and supply chain challenges, the offering stands to become a strategic partner, propelling SAP customers into a new era of efficiency, resilience, and sustained growth.

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

RISE with SAP add-on packages can help transform your business at your preferred pace and timeline Get started

Fast-growing organizations are increasingly turning to cloud ERP, such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, as a strategic investment for long-term business success. These businesses stand to benefit from the technology’s ability to simplify everyday work, steer regulatory compliance, and help optimize the workforce — all supported by continuous innovation and steadfast guidance.

SAP is pleased to introduce add-on packages for the GROW with SAP offering, which are uniquely tailored to the needs of finance and HR functions. These packages integrate the latest cloud solutions, infrastructure, and services into a strategic toolkit, addressing the challenges and opportunities growing companies face. 

The add-on packages provide a dependable, company-wide view that strengthens financial and HR management practices as strategic pillars for growth. In return, businesses can operate more efficiently, sustainably, and effectively — even when expanding their operations. 

Here is a summary of our new add-on packages.

Digital Banking Package for GROW with SAP

Connect your banks, financial institutions, and payment service providers directly to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition through a single, centralized platform: The digital banking package provides a multi-bank, digital channel between ERP systems and banks with optional embedded SWIFT connectivity. Integrated payment and statement processes are also available, bringing more comprehensive visibility across the payment value chain. 

With the digital banking package, businesses gain critical capabilities; for example:

• Smooth connectivity to financial and payment services to accelerate the onboarding of providers and strengthen compliance with PCI DSS standards  
• A cloud service for processing incoming credit cards, incoming and outgoing payments, and API-based instance balances 
• Reduction in cash reconciliation efforts while optimizing IT costs and increasing flexibility when choosing providers

Read the blog for more details .

GROW with SAP Advanced Treasury and Risk Management Package    

Invest confidently and mitigate financial risks while doing more with fewer resources: The GROW with SAP advanced treasury and risk management package gives treasurers the comprehensive solution they need to capture exposure data, classify and qualify risks, and trigger trade actions. Predefined connectivity and integration capabilities are available as well, connecting businesses to trading platforms and providers and supporting cash, investment, and risk processes in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.   

The package includes proven solutions, such as:    

• Financial risk management 
• Debt and investment management  
• Advanced treasury analytics and executive dashboards 
• Hedge management and hedge accounting in compliance with IFRS and U.S. GAAP requirements  
• Smart trading using SAP Business Technology Platform and smooth integration with an external trading platform

Read the blog for more details.

GROW with SAP Advanced Compliance Automation Package

Address evolving regulatory and industry compliance requirements with greater ease and confidence: The GROW with SAP advanced compliance automation package empowers finance teams to transform and standardize their processes globally while adhering to local standards efficiently. Furthermore, the package helps meet e-invoicing mandates while keeping order-to-cash processes efficient and internal controls adequate. 

The advanced compliance automation package features proven compliance offerings, including:

• SAP Document and Reporting Compliance solution to fulfill local compliance mandates and automate compliance processes
• SAP Risk and Assurance Management application to centrally manage internal controls over financial reporting, improving performance and protecting core data and processes

Read the blog for more details.

GROW with SAP, Core HR Add-On 

Drive continuous alignment between HR and finance to achieve better business outcomes: The GROW with SAP core HR add-on provides a modern cloud-based core HR system that serves as the source of people data in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. It contains the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central solution, allowing organizations to use a common data model for HR and finance.   

The core HR add-on helps businesses realize key benefits, such as:   

• Improve people and financial data quality with pre-delivered integration
• Drive more effective workforce planning with holistic real-time insights
• Embrace the latest innovations, such as AI, with a single cloud platform
• Engage users with consistent experiences across HR and finance applications
• Get up and running quickly with pre-configured processes and best practices

Read the blog for more details.

Business Growth with the Best of Finance and HR

Add-on packages for GROW with SAP provide fast-growing organizations with the tools they need to not only enhance their finance and HR operations, but also lay a solid foundation for future success. They can navigate an increasingly complex and competitive landscape with the insight and power to confidently embrace change, fuel innovation, and achieve ongoing growth in an ever-evolving economy.  

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

The add-on packages for GROW with SAP can help transform your business at your preferred pace and timeline Explore your options

Three of the more than 40 predominantly AI-based tools that SAP digital hubs use to serve large numbers of customers through insights-driven and robust self-service capabilities won silver and bronze at the 2024 Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.

Enterprise GPT and digital launchpad, powered by Joule, won silver in the Best Use of Technology in Sales category, while SAP Digital Value Discovery won bronze for Value-Based Selling Techniques.

Courtesy of The Stevie Awards.

Digital customer engagement at SAP is executed via digital hubs located at 15 locations across six continents. The hubs are home to more than 1,000 digitally skilled, multi-disciplinary teams that innovate with and apply AI capabilities to serve personalized and immersive engagements, whenever and wherever needed.

“SAP digital hubs were able to support more than 22,000 customer engagements last year – primarily virtually – thanks to a plethora of AI tools we adopt internally to drive wider customer coverage and faster execution of digital customer engagements,” explains Sam Masri, global head of Digital for Customer Success at SAP.

“We are scaling and expanding our digital customer engagement capabilities to every customer-facing role and function in SAP, ensuring everyone uses multiple AI tools to outsource administrative, repetitive, and manual activities to AI,” he elaborates. “This way, we have more capacity to focus on strategic activities that address customer needs and increase customer satisfaction. We engage with SAP customers of all sizes and industries at a pace that matches their pressing business requirements, accelerating business outcomes they get from our cloud solutions.”

The Stevie Awards encompass several of the world’s leading business award programs, including the prestigious American Business Awards® and International Business Awards®. More than 2,300 nominations from organizations of all sizes across all industries from 47 nations and territories were evaluated in this year’s competition. Finalists were determined by the average scores of more than 200 professionals worldwide.

Put customers at the center of your business with connected data and AI-fueled insights Explore the SAP Customer Experience portfolio

A small, round incident indicator hovers over the map of outer Baltimore Harbor in the virtual logistics situation room. That indicator corresponds with an alert reading “Risk Score: ! 17,” which warns of a high-risk event disrupting transportation.

On another day, this would be one of many alerts that supply chain logistics professionals see from SAP Business Network’s logistics collaboration solutions. Unfortunately, on this day there is more to the story than the indicator on the map can tell us.

SAP Business Network, intelligent insights add-on logistics situation room visualization shows a shipping risk for the Port of Baltimore on March 26, 2024. Click to enlarge.

By now, we’ve all seen photos and videos of the cargo ship Dali striking the Francis Scott Key Bridge, causing a section to collapse into the Patapsco River in Baltimore’s outer harbor on Tuesday, March 26. They tell the story on a human level.

This event was a terrible tragedy where people lost loved ones. We are also mindful of the thousands of people whose livelihoods have been affected and of the impact this tragedy will have on the City of Baltimore and surrounding areas for years to come. It is a reminder that transportation logistics is not just a routine process of moving goods from point A to point B. It’s high stakes, dangerous work that we depend on to keep the world’s economic engine running.

Recovering from the Disruption: Three Scenarios

Another reality to the tragedy is that even as events were unfolding in Baltimore, supply chain and logistics professionals were compelled to act quickly to address a shockwave of related disruptions. As one of my colleagues noted, “Globally, companies immediately devoted extra resources to determine what inventory they have at the Port of Baltimore, what’s on the water headed there, and what’s leaving their factories that can be rerouted.” Buying organizations looked closely at inbound shipments, while their suppliers were checking how the disruption would impact outbound deliveries.

Increasingly today, buyers and suppliers rely on technology to gain visibility into the global supply chain. This makes it possible to track shipments, reroute them as needed, or take other remedial action. To explain this further, I’d like to address three port disruption scenarios and how suppliers and buyers can use SAP solutions, including SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace, SAP Business Network Freight Collaboration, and SAP Transportation Management, to recover and be more resilient through adversity.

1. Identifying and Tracking Outbound Shipments Impacted by a Port Closure

When a port is closed, especially unexpectedly, suppliers immediately turn their attention to outbound shipments and their committed delivery dates. With SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace, suppliers and shippers can receive alerts about high-risk events affecting their shipments. They can also get alerts about deviations from planned or expected estimated deliveries. SAP solutions can generate these alerts based on global risk data from services like Everstream and from global positioning and event data from carriers and logistics visibility service providers.

Gain supply and delivery assurance by tracking orders and shipments in real time Explore SAP Business Network

However, knowing about delays is only one part of a business plan for supply chain resilience. To respond effectively, shippers also need to know the business impact. Which deliveries are impacted? Which customers? SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace helps keep global logistics visibility in the context of the business. This can enable shippers to identify and contact affected customers and prepare a recovery plan.

Similarly, buyers using SAP solutions can track inbound shipments. They can see how changes to the delivery date of a purchase order or stock transfer order will impact their inventory levels and production plans. This helps them avoid stock-outs and production delays that can ripple through the supply chain to their customers.

2. Adjusting for Shipments That Are Routed Away from a Closed Port

When a port is closed by a disruption, shipments headed there must be rerouted to another port. In many instances, new arrangements must be made for ground transportation from that port.

With SAP Business Network Global Track and Trace, shippers can see that the ocean vessel carrying their shipment has been rerouted. Then, they can use SAP Business Network Freight Collaboration to cancel ground transport out of the closed port and tender an order from the new port to the desired destination.

3. What About Shipments Stuck at a Port Suddenly Closed by Disruption?

If a port is suddenly closed, containers will remain piled up at the port, waiting either for pickup by another ocean vessel or for urgent ground transport to another hub. When a port is closed for an extended period, shippers must make alternative plans.

To do this efficiently and effectively, shippers can use SAP Transportation Management. The application helps them develop new plans to move their goods through new routes or with new carriers. This can include everything from load planning and balancing to leveraging new lanes and delivery methods.

Then, with a new plan in place, shippers can use SAP Business Network Freight Collaboration to collaborate digitally with carriers to execute the plan.

Anticipating and Avoiding Future Disruptions

Using technology to react to a supply chain disruption is not new. Inventory and production planning solutions have long helped businesses adjust when supply is affected. However, it may be even more important to understand how technology enables organizations to anticipate and even avoid disruption before it impacts their supply chain. This is the essence of logistics visibility.

Recovery and Resilience

Unexpected tragedies like the one in Baltimore Harbor are never easy on the many people impacted personally and professionally. As its effects ripple out across the world, we are reminded of the power of resilience. Building resilience is an axiom of supply chain management. Unfortunately, the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge is yet another resilience test for the world’s supply chains.

In the end, I believe the people of Baltimore and surrounding communities will show us what resilience really means. I also know that as recovery is achieved, supply chain practitioners around the world will do what it takes to make safety a top priority as they deliver what is needed to keep world economies running.

Doug DeLuca is an SAP Business Network product marketing manager.

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The Support Accreditation course offered by SAP plays a vital role in educating partners, customers, and internal employees about SAP’s support services. In this interview, Simone Engelhard, SVP and head of Customer Engagement Support for Customer Services & Delivery at SAP, discusses the importance of support channels, the 24/7 support structure, service continuity, and best practices for interacting effectively with SAP support teams.

Feedback from participants highlights the training’s success in improving the understanding and utilization of support services. Ongoing updates help ensure the course remains relevant amidst evolving technology and business landscapes, with future developments likely to incorporate advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning tools for support services.

Q: Can you provide an overview of the Support Accreditation training and its significance for anyone engaging with SAP’s support processes?

Engelhard: The Support Accreditation is a vital learning tool for our partners and customers as well as for our employees. It’s an informative course that can familiarize participants with SAP support services and help maximize their support experience. This is a unique opportunity to understand all the tools and resources available when interacting with SAP support and to learn efficient ways of engaging with our teams and resolving issues.

In situations of urgency or escalation, customers might try to contact someone at SAP they personally know rather than follow the regular process. How does Support Accreditation address such situations and educate participants on the importance of following the proper channels?

That’s a great point. In urgent or escalated situations, individuals might feel tempted to bypass the usual channels and seek immediate remedies. However, these uninformed measures can result in delays. The Support Accreditation course emphasizes following the correct SAP support processes, which can ensure their issues are routed to the appropriately skilled support teams, leading to more efficient problem resolution.

Can you shed light on how the Support Accreditation training details the importance of our 24/7 support structure and how customers and partners can take advantage of it?

The course thoroughly details our 24/7 support structure. We work to ensure that participants understand how, no matter their time zone, they can harness this around-the-clock support. It’s about making sure that our customers and partners know that they always have the backing of SAP, no matter when an issue arises.

Get started with support from SAP Explore the Support Accreditation course

How can customers and partners ensure that their issues are addressed efficiently even when their primary contacts at SAP are out of office?

We indeed cover this crucial aspect. The training delves into detail about the Customer Support organization, which aims to ensure service continuity even if specific account contacts at SAP are unavailable. Our course participants are made aware of the various support structures in place to assist them.

The Support Accreditation training also covers the etiquette and best practices for interacting with SAP support. Can you talk more about this and why it’s important?

Interacting with support teams forms a large part of managing SAP services, so etiquette and best practices in this area are covered in our course. We guide learners on the most effective ways to communicate with our teams, provide necessary information, and follow prescribed processes for optimal support assistance.

Do you have any insights related to the feedback from Support Accreditation participants? How has the course improved their understanding and utilization of our support services?

Feedback from Support Accreditation participants has been overwhelmingly positive. Our learners report significantly improved knowledge about SAP support services and tools, and they’ve been successful in applying this knowledge to engage more effectively with SAP support. This has resulted in smoother, quicker issue resolutions, translating to improved satisfaction and service experiences.

With technology and business requirements evolving, how will the Support Accreditation course adapt to these changes? What future developments can participants expect?

The course isn’t static; it evolves with the technology landscape and business requirements. We continually update it to include new tools, offerings, or changes to existing processes. This helps ensure that the Support Accreditation training remains up-to-date and continues to be a valuable resource for our customers and partners. Future developments will certainly involve advancements in AI and machine learning tools in support services, so participants can be well prepared for the future of support services.

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For the 10th consecutive year, SAP has been named as a Leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Transportation Management Systems.

SAP is positioned in the Leaders Quadrant based on our Ability to Execute and for the Completeness of our Vision.

We believe that this recognition confirms our strategy in Logistics, which is based on three pillars:

• Connecting every process and providing synchronized logistics execution to support highly efficient and fast paced fulfillment cycles
• Collaborating with a single network of carriers, digital forwarders, and visibility providers to spot risks and avoid disruptions and thereby provide best-in-class delivery experience
• Contextualizing every decision, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to optimize operations and to provide business insights

SAP Transportation Management is an integral part of the overall SAP strategy and gives companies the ability to manage their end-to-end transportation processes from procurement through planning and execution to freight settlement with analytics to support each step.

We continue to innovate in SAP Transportation Management based on our market analysis and even more importantly based on feedback from our global install base and ecosystem. Recent innovations include advancements in areas like sustainability, planning and optimization, supply chain execution, and generative AI.

SAP Transportation Management and SAP Business Network for Logistics enable logistics partners to collaborate with each other and provide visibility to all stakeholders throughout the shipment lifecycle and help manage risks as they arise through intelligent insights. We continue to grow SAP Business Network, adding more carriers and additional networks to provide expanded coverage around the world and across all transportation modes. 

As more customers evaluate SAP Transportation Management, we continue to strategically expand our partner network to ensure our customers have access to an ecosystem that supports their operations no matter where they are in the world or how they move their freight. Our global partner network made up of systems integrators, business consultants, and technology providers help our customers manage their transportation transformations, whether they be system replacements, upgrades, greenfield deployments, or part of larger enterprise transformations. 

“Our customers use SAP Transportation Management and SAP Business Network for Logistics to manage transportation operations in more than 20 industries and in every corner of the world,” said Till Dengel, global head of Logistics and Manufacturing Product Marketing at SAP. “Because we look at logistics holistically, clients can confidently confirm their orders, knowing that fulfillment can be executed as promised, since ERP, warehousing, and transportation are always in sync.”

“Adopting logistics solutions from SAP across our facilities in all our markets allowed us to optimize freight transportation,” said Carlo Noè, Global Process and Applications Manager for Trade, Transport, and Logistics Division at Hitachi Energy Ltd. “We can interact with our stakeholders and carriers in a digital way, helping us manage supply chain risk, enhance agility, and build supply chain resilience.”

For more details on the latest Gartner Magic Quadrant for TMS read the Gartner Reprint here.

Bill King is senior product marketing manager for Logistics at SAP.

SAP Transportation Management: Reduce complexity, increase efficiency, and improve agility for a more sustainable, risk-resilient supply chain Learn more

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

WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) will release its full results for the first quarter of 2024 on Monday, April 22, at 10:05 p.m. CEST/ 4:05 p.m. EDT.

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

Media representatives may listen in on the virtual analyst conference via Webcast on April 22 at 11:00 p.m. CEST/ 5:00 p.m. EDT, accessible at broadcast.sap.com/go/QReport.

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It is no secret that I have had technology in my blood since I was young, having received my first computer at age 12 and learned programming at 14. We founded our first company at 17 and, as time went on, we created our first professional application — a mini ERP system to help photographers with their business. With that, I began to realize the power of technological improvements for businesses and how enterprise software impacts lives in general.

For example, the introduction of low-code/no-code has made application development accessible to everyone in an organization — with or without a technical background — to improve experiences for everyone. Just take Dak, the then 12-year-old junior app developer from Massachusetts, who was part of my SAP TechEd keynote in 2022. With SAP Build solutions, Dak was able to develop all kinds of apps and publish them to a wide audience, such as the “Knowledge 4 Ever” app that offers kids a playful learning experience during summer break.

Then, there are cloud technologies that further boost accessibility and offer other benefits. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has put more power into more hands. Another advancement, composable technology, will make it easier for businesses to quickly assemble, reassemble, and compose solutions to meet their needs and those of their customers.

Over the course of my 11-year journey at SAP, the SAP Innovation Awards have served as a one-of-a-kind global platform to showcase customers and partners that have used their creativity, teamwork, SAP products, and cloud technologies to achieve remarkable results. This year, though, is a different experience for me. As an executive sponsor of the awards, I’ve had the privilege of experiencing up close what makes this program and the participating businesses so special.

Today, I am thrilled to announce the 2024 SAP Innovation Award winners. Out of 170 businesses, one in three were chosen as finalists and now the winners have been announced. These winners come from various industries and locations worldwide. What all of them share is the use of SAP products and technologies to create innovative solutions for their customers, employees, and communities. Congratulations to all participants for demonstrating remarkable abilities and highlighting the importance of curiosity and continuous learning!

SAP Innovation Awards Winners Revealed: Get Inspired and Submit Your Own Ideas

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Generative AI has empowered more people. Many of the participants have utilized SAP Business AI to boost their businesses. Take the winner Martur Fompak, one of the world’s leading suppliers of automotive seat systems, which has leveraged SAP solutions, including SAP AI Launchpad and SAP AI Core, to revolutionize cockpit customization. When personalizing cockpit elements such as seats, door panels, and dashboards, OEMs and customers can see the carbon impact of each choice. By providing and promoting more sustainable and environmentally friendly options, Martur Fompak has decreased carbon emissions by 34% for each seat the company produces. AI has also helped the company increase its efficiency to achieve calculations 50 times faster than with manual methods and accelerate data collection by 75 times. 

Sustainability for a Better World Today – and Tomorrow At SAP, we love to celebrate inspirational customer and partner stories Learn more about the SAP Innovation Awards

Technology has significantly contributed to improving lives, both within and beyond business contexts. Numerous winners like Martur Fompak have prioritized sustainability. Let us look at one more innovator in this area: González Byass S.A.

A producer of high-quality sherries, González Byass is committed to the circular economy concept of eliminating waste, circulating materials, and regenerating nature. The company deploys sustainable and water-saving agricultural techniques. To assist with eliminating and recycling waste, González Byass turned to SAP and SAP Responsible Design and Production. The company needed a faster, more transparent way to gather and manage data, specifically around the purchase and use of plastic. With SAP Responsible Design and Production, González Byass can quickly and effectively monitor, measure, and act on data. The company recovers 99% of the waste generated during production while recycling 100% of paper, cardboard, glass, and plastic.  

Adoption Can Be Challenging

Even top technologies such as AI may need support to gain widespread acceptance. Many of this year’s winners have been innovative with their focus on adopting SAP technology. Vestas Wind Systems A/S is a prime example.

A leader in onshore/offshore wind energy production, Vestas wanted to improve its supplier and partner collaboration and selected SAP for the task. Vestas began its journey with SAP in 2007 by employing SAP ERP Central Component and consolidating to ONE ERP in 2015. Since 2017, the company has been transforming its digital procurement for supplier collaboration with SAP Ariba solutions. Last year, Vestas began to build out its value chain alongside suppliers and partners with SAP Business Network, enabling data transparency and connectivity in finance, production planning, and logistics management. As a result, 6,000 suppliers were onboarded, US$12.5 billion in purchase orders was executed, 350,000 orders were confirmed, and 25,000 advance ship notices were generated, to name a few transactions — all in 2023. 

I am happy to say that the 2024 SAP Innovation Awards honor businesses that have demonstrated their innovation and effective use of SAP products and technologies. They’ve adapted to and met the ever-changing needs of their customers and communities and, as I wrote earlier, achieved remarkable results in diverse areas. Congratulations to all winners! 

The Winners Shine in Seven Categories

If you’re curious about the path to victory for our winners, learn more in this article. Thirty winners were selected, covering the following categories:

• Business Innovator, focusing on transforming the supply chain, processes, or business networks using cloud solutions from SAP
• Industry Leader, for employing SAP solutions to address big challenges and change how business is conducted
• Experience Wizard, for achieving business transformation with cloud solutions from SAP to improve employee and customer experiences
• Sustainability Hero, achieving sustainability with leading-edge solutions
• Services Supernova, for outstanding achievements in transforming businesses into sustainable enterprises
• Transformation Titan, demonstrating exceptional innovation and transformational leadership in using SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP)
• Partner Paragon, for accelerating the adoption of SAP BTP

Juergen Mueller is chief technology officer and a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE.

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The SAP Pinnacle Awards, our most prestigious global partner recognition program, shine a spotlight on our top-performing partners that demonstrate excellence in unlocking innovative new ways for customers to run their businesses.

SAP’s ecosystem plays a key role in our vision to enable every organization and every industry to become a network of intelligent, sustainable enterprises. Through their unique industry expertise, implementation methodologies, complementary solutions, and commitment throughout the Customer Value Journey, partners help customers thrive and succeed with SAP.

Across 26 categories in the areas of Customer Success, Intelligent Enterprise Realization, Sustainability, and Social Impact, partners are recognized for their outstanding contributions, exponential growth, and simplification. Through delivering cloud innovations that help customers achieve their goals, these partners exemplify dedication to teamwork and embody our vision for partnering excellence.

Twenty-five of the 2024 winners and finalists were selected from SAP’s wide-ranging partner base, using system-generated data on core metrics and key performance indicators. A steering committee of global SAP representatives reviewed, vetted, and ranked the achievements according to our internal criteria, which aligned with SAP’s communicated business strategies.

The only exception is the Social Impact category, which recognized a partner’s lasting societal impact by leveraging SAP innovation with concrete results. Partner nominations were evaluated and ranked by a panel of jurors consisting of SAP internal and third-party representatives.

Winners and finalists for all categories will receive a communication package to help them promote their success to their customers, prospects, and the media, including logos for online and physical marketing vehicles. To increase their global exposure, SAP will list the winners and finalists on its Web site for an entire year, in addition to running a comprehensive campaign that promotes these winners and finalists to joint prospects and customers.

Congratulations to the winners and finalists! We look forward to celebrating your success at SAP Partner Connect and SAP Sapphire.

Karl Fahrbach is chief partner officer at SAP.

SAP Pinnacle Awards showcase partners that have excelled in helping customers become best-run businesses Check out this year’s winners and finalists

WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced that Ericsson, a world leader in 5G and communications technologies and services, has selected the SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain (SAP IBP) solution to drive further operational efficiencies in its global supply chain network.

Stand up to disruption with connected processes and fast, flexible planning Learn more

Supporting networks with more than 2.5 billion subscribers in more than 180 countries, and with 40% of the world’s mobile traffic outside China carried over its networks, Ericsson needed a technological foundation to provide for a single source of truth for its entire planning and logistics process.

The cloud-based SAP IBP solution integrates business planning capabilities across various business functions, improves the ability of companies to anticipate supply-chain risks and offers mitigating solutions. With SAP IBP, Ericsson will be able to navigate complex planning requirements while improving response times of sales, operations, resources, and inventory planning. This will empower Ericsson to further focus on driving innovation and improving cost efficiencies.    

The ability to predict and meet demand in an agile manner is crucial for companies to achieve several business objectives. Choosing SAP IBP is part of a long-time SAP and Ericsson partnership, in which SAP has supported Ericsson’s vision of providing limitless connectivity for the world.

“Agility, resilience and trust are critical for global leaders like Ericsson to achieve supply-chain resilience and meet customers’ needs,” said Dominik Metzger, head of the SAP Digital Supply Chain organization. “Ericsson and SAP have had a strong collaboration over the years, and its choice of SAP IBP allows us to support it in further digitalizing its supply chain to cement its position as one of the world’s leading telecommunications companies.”

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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.
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SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices.

Over the past few years, HR has steadily evolved into one of the most critical functions for any organization. HR not only has a seat at the table, but the ability to become a driving force behind organizational change and growth. Most customers I speak with recognize this opportunity, but many have the same question: how can HR make the most impact?

Each year, the SAP SuccessFactors Growth & Insights team conducts in-depth research on the latest trends and predictions impacting the HR function. Our PhD-level organizational psychologists and market intelligence experts aggregate and analyze a mountain of HR trends and predictions data to deliver a list of actionable “meta-trends.” For 2024, a list of 611 individual trends were broken down into nine key themes.

Above all, there is no question that 2024 is the year of artificial intelligence (AI). No longer just hype or speculation, AI is officially here. Exciting possibilities have become realities and organizations must embrace AI or risk being left behind. And while our number one HR trend is AI, you can also see its effects across every trend.

Below is a snapshot of the top three 2024 HR meta-trends, with examples of how SAP SuccessFactors solutions can help organizations stay ahead of the curve.

1. AI Upends the World of Work as We Know It

I don’t go a day – or maybe 10 minutes – without a customer asking for all the latest and greatest on AI innovation. That makes sense, as AI has dominated the 2024 trends discourse and it’s increasingly become seen as a way to augment human work.

Trends indicate that using all forms of AI to improve day-to-day productivity will be top of mind for organizations in 2024. In particular, self-serve AI tools like copilots are poised to increase employee productivity on various day-to-day tasks. As employee sentiment about using AI tools at work has improved, so has the ability of these tools to make employees more efficient and effective.

Be ready for AI built for business Meet SAP’s AI copilot, Joule

HR use cases abound, particularly within talent acquisition, but concerns continue about data privacy, ethics, and regulatory compliance. There’s a lot of noise and movement in the space, and regulators and enforcement agencies are acting quickly to keep up.

With the tech landscape and market realities in mind, the HR leaders who head AI implementation programs, maintain a strong policy posture, and avoid overhyped or underbaked propositions to take advantage of the most valuable capabilities will steer their organizations down the right AI path.

Embedding an AI copilot in HR solutions, like Joule in SAP SuccessFactors solutions, can help employees and managers work faster and smarter by making it easier to find information and complete common HR tasks, such as updating personal data, giving feedback, and initiating a promotion.

Joule, SAP’s AI copilot. Click to enlarge. 2. Skills Become the Center of HR Practices

As AI needs rise within organizations, many organizations will need to immediately respond to determine what AI skills are needed, who possesses those skills, and how to fill skill gaps – whether build, borrow, buy, or bot. On the other hand, AI capabilities will also drive the ability for organizations to more effectively engage in strategic workforce planning.

Furthermore, in today’s increasingly complex business environment, traditional top-down human resources approaches fail to address employees’ increasing expectations for flexible and personalized career development. In 2024, HR will need to meet employees’ growing expectations for bespoke career paths while also solving the broader organization’s growing skills gaps and talent shortages, which present a major concern for leaders.

Looking forward, it will be interesting to see whether the average organization fully engages in long-term, strategic, skills-based workforce planning, which has long been a strategic objective for many but often remains out of reach as they react to immediate priorities. AI skills could work as a forcing function here – and contribute to other trend areas like learning and employee potential.

SAP SuccessFactors solutions for talent management can drive better employee experiences and business outcomes by using a common skills framework across recruiting, learning, performance management, internal mobility, and development.

Overview of skills and aspirations in a growth portfolio for SAP SuccessFactors. Click to enlarge. 3. Hybrid Work Returns to the Office

Looking back at our yearly analyses of HR meta-trends, we saw the hybrid work topic shift from a focus on remote work as a reactive tactic to protect employees’ health and safety in 2020, to a focus on flexibility in 2021, to maintaining productivity and collaboration while working flexibly in 2022, and finally to an emphasis on underlying flexibility and the need for and benefit of malleable guidelines and principles in 2023. With the recent increase in partial and full return-to-office (RTO) policies, 2024 trends data suggests that the pendulum has swung back to hybrid, referring specifically to work location versus a broader perspective centered on flexibility.

Companies in 2024 will continue to experiment with motivating employees to return to the office in ways that promote productivity, collaboration, and cost savings but don’t alienate their top talent. But some organizations are focusing more on redesigning the nature of work rather than just mandating where or when work gets done.

SAP SuccessFactors solutions for core HR, time, and payroll help employees adopt a hybrid working model by providing options for common HR tasks regardless of when and where they are working, such as clocking in and out via desktop, mobile, or Microsoft Teams.

Clock in and out via Microsoft Teams with SAP SuccessFactors solutions. Click to enlarge.

There are plenty more strategic takeaways in the full report – the entire paper is a must-read for HR leaders to learn more from our research team on the latest trends in:

• Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI&B)
• Employee mental health
• Leadership trust
• HR skills and agility
• Compensation
• Sustainability

For additional insights, read the full report.

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

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Recently, SAP partnered with the Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team to upshift its IT infrastructure and become future-proof. Together with SAP, the team will tap into cloud solutions, infrastructure, and services that will enable them to thrive on and off the track.

Formula One is a technologically innovative form of motorsport, where each car features over 300 sensors onboard that generates 1.5 terabytes of data in a single race weekend – data that needs to be analyzed to detect potential performance enhancements and reliability and safety concerns.

But until the late 1960s, Formula One cars were designed on traditional drawing boards by engineers using retractable pencils and a set of French curves. This is not dissimilar to the tech industry, where for decades the value cases for investing in technology were architected for customers by busloads of engineers armed with Excel spreadsheets.

Cloud computing changed not only what technology to buy, but also how businesses engage with their vendors when making investment decisions. Enabled by new technologies like mobility and artificial intelligence (AI), customers now expect immediate responses, exponentially faster time-to-value, immersive experiences, and flexible and intuitive engagements powered by robust low-touch and self-service capabilities. Not surprisingly, industry research shows that four out of five B2B customers will want to be engaged digitally by 2025.

SAP executes digital customer engagement via digital hubs located on six continents. The hubs are home to highly collaborative teams of diverse, digitally skilled talent that can deliver comprehensive, virtual customer engagement services. Like an F1 team, digital hubs use cutting-edge technologies to help drive accelerated business outcomes for customers with great customer experience, incredible innovation speed, and optimal levels of productivity achieved through data-driven, surgically precise execution.

Speed of Execution: Embracing Flexibility and Adaptability

Formula One teams operate in a relentless pursuit of speed, continuously refining their strategies to gain a competitive edge. Similarly, the ability to deploy teams to serve SAP customers virtually with the latest digital innovations allows us to reach more businesses faster at precisely the time they need us, no matter where in the world they might be and which stage of their digital transformation journey they are at.

Step into the future with SAP digital hubs, where innovation meets opportunity Learn more

Digital customer engagement can allow us to close the feedback loop across thousands of customers around the globe at velocity, helping to shorten their time to value from years to months and from months to weeks. In 2023, SAP digital hubs supported more than 22,000 digital customer engagements across the globe, setting these customers up for successful digital transformation journeys at unprecedented speed.

Speed matters and the race is on. The ability to recognize what a customer needs to grow and to work with partners that can quickly address these needs has foundationally elevated the need for digital customer engagements.

Precision in Execution: Leveraging Data and Technology for Optimal Performance

In Formula One, every aspect – from car design to the race strategy – hinges on harnessing and analyzing terabytes of data, often in real time. Similarly, in an increasingly competitive business environment, embracing precision through technological innovation allows organizations to balance accelerating their digital transformation decisions and optimizing profitability. The balance can be struck only through an almost unreasonable obsession with measuring and executing on fact-based insights.

At SAP digital hubs, we can track key value metrics across the entire customer journey, be it for demand campaigns, customer value propositions, personalized digital asset performance, the adoption of new productivity-driving tools, and so on. We do this not only to understand what’s most relevant to our customers but also to track the effectiveness of what we do and how we do it in the context of what our customers need.

Customer Experience: Focusing on Value, Personalization, and Great Experiences

In Formula One, success is not solely measured by speed. The sport thrives on delivering a captivating experience tailored to engage multifaceted fans from a multitude of angles, making sure everyone gets value from the event. The same is true in the digital business world.

SAP’s digital hubs virtualize and leverage SAP’s rich heritage of industry best practices and benchmarks to help personalize the customer journey, bringing customer stakeholders in alignment with one another and delivering on SAP’s value promises across geographies, cultures, and industries through immersive and memorable experiences. SAP digital hubs can accomplish this across the entire customer journey with SAP – from the time we create awareness, to customer onboarding, to supporting customers with valuable solution and industry expertise, until we help customers realize the full value of the SAP solutions they adopt.

AI-Powered, Human-Led Approach: Focusing on Digitally Native and Digitally Skilled Talent

In Formula One, decisions pivot on data. But it’s the team that uses their experiences to apply that data and simulate different scenarios to discover new ways to drive superior outcomes. Similarly, while data and AI technologies fuel decisions and actions in SAP digital hubs, it’s human ingenuity that leverages the tech and data and elevates customer outcomes.

Just like the F1 teams, our hubs attract and employ only the best of the best, offering a high-energy working environment that thrives on intricate collaboration. The individuals who join us can gain immediate cross-role and cross-geography exposure, enabling them to become productive members of the team in record time. Continuous learning and pointed diversity, with gender parity in half of our digital hubs today, form the backbone of our digital culture, where everyone is treated with respect, skills are constantly honed, and different roles are seamlessly orchestrated to present a unified customer experience.

The rules change, and we have to as well. Every pit stop and each customer touchpoint is a chance to pivot in real time, refine, and go faster, helping SAP customers and shareholders gain more value at exponential velocity and great volumes. This is the “3V” promise of SAP digital hubs and this is how we win the race!

Sam Masri is global head of Digital Hub, Customer Success at SAP SE.

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With the gathering pace of headlines touting artificial intelligence in the business press, one could be forgiven for assuming that all facets of the enterprise stand to benefit equally from its application – everything from the electric stapler to the espresso machine to the ergonomic furniture.

But in reality, some functions are much better suited than others to gain from AI. The deeper the reservoir of data associated with an operational process – and the broader the sharing of that data not only within an organization but among its trading partners as well – the greater the potential for AI to bolster collaborative capabilities, instill operational resilience, and unlock exponential value.

By facilitating the convergence of trading partners’ operational data, cloud-based networks strengthen transparency and foster collaboration across interconnected processes such as procurement, supply chain, logistics, and asset management. The vast troves of data accumulated from these functions – and the insights they reveal – bear significant implications for forecasting demand, planning inventory, sourcing components, procuring labor, maximizing utilization, managing logistics, gauging sustainability, achieving compliance, and securing financing. Yet the sheer volume of such data, sometimes spanning billions or more transactions, can defy human interpretation in the quest to optimize decision-making.

That’s where artificial intelligence comes in.

As the world’s largest B2B collaboration platform, SAP Business Network facilitates hundreds of millions of transactions per year, capturing a unified, end-to-end view of spend. So prodigious is the cloud-based network’s volume – exceeding US$5.3 trillion in commerce annually, greater than the gross domestic product of every nation except the United States and China – that, through innovations in predictive and generative AI technologies, SAP Business Network is transforming procurement, supply chain, logistics, asset management, and related operational processes, with the goal that every business runs as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise.

Connect people, processes, and systems across multiple enterprises to digitalize transactions Check out SAP Business Network

The cloud is uniquely fit for the task of delivering simplicity within a many-to-many network of trading partners. A network’s features, from its search functionality to the matching of buyers with suggested suppliers, must aid the dual goals of transparency and ease of use. Predictive and generative AI capabilities augment businesses’ ability to discover trading partners on the basis of complementary resources, mutual value, and strategic alignment. With every successive use, generative AI sharpens its ability to anticipate operations professionals’ requirements to match supply with demand. Meanwhile, AI helps businesses to automate their most time-consuming procurement and supply chain activities through predictive mechanisms as well, hastening the ability to arrive at better, more informed decisions. When applied to the broadest possible sets of operational data, AI removes the guesswork from business-to-business commerce and replaces it with new leads, renewed confidence, and resilient supply chains.

With these objectives in mind, SAP Business Network is transforming its powerful discovery functionality into a simple chat prompt this year. Also in 2024, generative AI will enable SAP Business Network to create catalog content based on existing data in the network, detect potential errors within invoices, and obtain quote requests from buyers via natural-language, on-screen dialogue with matched suppliers. Integrating AI capabilities into SAP Business Network thus promises to reshape the trading partner experience by enabling buyers to reach far more suppliers with precision for the specific goods and services they produce. Trading partners large and small benefit equally from the increased flow of accurate, detailed, and complete information identifying each other’s offerings and competitive advantages.

As AI technologies take shape and mature, infusing intelligence natively into business processes, digital commerce platforms are certain to introduce many enhanced capabilities. Naturally, with its scale and history of innovation, you can expect SAP Business Network to lead the way. But you’ll know the moment that artificial intelligence has truly transformed enterprise software when its features subtly blend in, almost imperceptibly, to simplify everyday operational processes, making business applications more intuitive and predictive for trading partners. That is our vision for AI at SAP Business Network, where the intelligence may be increasingly artificial but the commitment to customer success is invariably genuine.

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

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

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WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced that Churchill Downs Incorporated (NSQ: CHDN, “CDI”) has selected the GROW with SAP solution to support the company’s financial technology transformation as CDI continues to grow within the racing, online wagering and gaming entertainment industries.

CDI has chosen cloud solutions from SAP to serve as its technology foundation for the financial systems across its portfolio of 27 properties in 14 states, including Churchill Downs Racetrack (“Churchill Downs”), the home of the Kentucky Derby. CDI’s significant technology transformation builds on the company’s partnership with SAP as a signature partner and the first official technology partner serving Churchill Downs, the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition: Ready-to-run cloud ERP Learn more

By adopting SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, CDI can benefit from the ready-to-run cloud ERP that delivers the latest industry best practices and continuous innovation. Additionally, choosing SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP SuccessFactors solutions allows CDI to leverage the cloud to streamline its data sources while using business data to make informed strategic decisions underpinning business transformation. From creating engaging employee experiences with SAP SuccessFactors solutions to running business analytics to understand and predict data, CDI plans to be able to integrate business data from various acquisitions, allowing it to have one, unified view of its business operations.

“Cloud solutions from SAP will enable us to streamline our financial processes and support the significant long-term growth of our company,” said Marcia Dall, CDI Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. “We are excited to work with SAP to innovate and evolve our financial technology platform with cloud solutions from SAP.”

“Churchill Downs Incorporated has a long history of entertaining and delighting people,” SAP North America President Lloyd Adams said. “By choosing SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and several other cloud-based solutions, CDI now can integrate data across its portfolio and make data-driven decisions that help the company reach its goals. This is an incredible example of how companies invest in SAP solutions to help them grow.”

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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.

BYK is a leading global supplier of specialty chemicals. The company’s innovative additives and differentiated solutions optimize product and material properties as well as production and application processes. Amongst other products, BYK’s high-performance additives improve scratch resistance and surface gloss, the mechanical strength or flow behavior of materials, and properties such as UV and light stability or flame retardancy. BYK also produces measuring and testing instruments that serve to effectively assess appearance and physical properties.

To better react to market changes and expand its competitive edge, BYK saw the need to select and implement a new supply chain demand planning system.

Integrated Approach to Address Demand Planning Processes Holistically

The company was challenged with inefficient, diversified, and isolated supply chain demand planning processes on disparate legacy planning systems that impeded forecast accuracy. Therefore, the goal was to enhance data and process transparency and establish one source of truth for sales, operations, and demand-planning processes.

Create accurate demand plans with the support of SAP Find out how

BYK found that the SAP Integrated Business Planning application for demand, a cloud-based application with comprehensive capabilities, could best meet its goals to harmonize demand planning processes across the organization and improve forecast accuracy. In addition, the company decided to use the SAP Supply Chain Control Tower solution, enabling the company to get real-time visibility and control over its supply chain.

For the implementation and deep solution know-how, BYK sought help from SAP Services and Support and the SAP Preferred Success service, which included architecture planning, implementation guidance, and process reengineering expertise. Moreover, SAP helped deploy SAP Integrated Business Planning for demand and SAP Supply Chain Control Tower in a technically standardized and lean way.

Enabling All Functions with a Single Source of Truth to Improve Decision-Making

Major benefits BYK achieved include:

• Improved collaboration by implementing a harmonized and automated demand planning process
• Simplified and integrated planning practices for sales, demand planning, supply chain management, controlling, and strategic supply planning teams with more than 200 users
• One platform as a single source of truth for improved data quality and process transparency across sales, operations, and demand-planning processes
• Increased forecast accuracy with real-time data reflecting changes to planned demand

• Quantity- and value-based planning for all planning teams to make decisions based on financial impact

“With SAP Services and Support, we successfully implemented SAP Integrated Business Planning for demand and SAP Supply Chain Control Tower, enabling precise and accurate demand planning,” said Matthias Beenen, Supply Chain Process Management, BYK. “This is critical to supply chain efficiency and for delivering high quality service to our customers.”

“In the future, we will continuously work on optimizing the implemented processes and extend SAP Integrated Business Planning for demand by adding subsequent supply chain planning processes,” he concluded.

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

Top image courtesy of BYK.

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Do you ever feel like the list of procurement challenges we wake up to grows a little bit longer every day? Just as we come to terms with one, another pops up. Whether it is the economy, global turmoil, the latest tech disruption, or any number of other things, we are always being tested.

On top of that, we still need to foster relationships with suppliers, manage costs, address sustainability mandates, and build resilient supply chains — all while transforming procurement into a more strategic business function. Not surprisingly, procurement leaders are looking to the next wave of technology to help them position their organizations to adapt quickly to changing conditions.

RISE with SAP: Better adapt to changing market dynamics and innovate more quickly Learn how

For many, moving key business processes to the cloud represents that “next wave” and for that, RISE with SAP is the perfect option.

The RISE with SAP solution is a managed cloud offering that enables a smooth, secure migration of on-premises ERP, including SAP ERP and SAP S/4HANA, to the cloud. Its holistic approach to business transformation empowers organizations to better adapt to changing market dynamics and innovate more quickly.

Businesses can leverage RISE with SAP to modernize their IT infrastructure, optimize and automate key processes, and unlock new levels of efficiency. They can also harness the power of data and analytics to make informed decisions, enabling them to achieve their business goals more effectively and efficiently.

The Challenge for Procurement: Extending Digital Transformation to Suppliers

For many years, “digital transformation” has been the hot trend for business functions, including procurement. Organizations are moving their internal business operations from manual processes and disparate software applications to integrated ERP systems. These systems are starting to leverage generative AI to improve the user experience, digitalize manual processes, and accelerate strategic decision making.

This is a win for the business with one caveat: “traditional” digital transformation does not go beyond the four walls of the organization. This creates a challenge for procurement because suppliers operate outside those four walls, where communication can be anything but digitalized. In fact, a 2023 IDC InfoBrief sponsored by SAP* revealed that 68% of respondents use email to transmit and receive data and documents for procurement and supply chain collaboration. Other methods include telephone (44%), supplier/customer portals (38%), and EDI (26%).

Given the technology available today, this is not only unproductive, but it also is completely unnecessary. With RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP offers a premium plus edition that includes SAP Business Network for Procurement. This enables businesses to extend the digital transformation of business processes outside their walls.

Better Collaboration, Faster Invoice Processing, and an Improved User Experience

SAP Business Network for Procurement is a cloud-based collaboration offering that gives buyers and suppliers a way to find each other and do business within a single, networked platform. The network makes it possible for organizations to:

• Exchange data and documents digitally with suppliers, eliminating the need for phone calls, faxes, emails, or snail mail
• Achieve enhanced spend visibility and compliance
• Access a marketplace of suppliers to ensure business resilience, diverse spending, and alignment with sustainability objectives

Additionally, improved transactional operations and invoice status visibility enable better working capital management for stronger trading partner relationships. Finance colleagues can enjoy a faster month-end close due to improved accounts payable efficiencies and increased procurement and payment compliance.

SAP Business Network for Procurement Extends SAP S/4HANA Cloud

When RISE with SAP is combined with SAP Business Network for Procurement, procurement teams can collaborate digitally with suppliers across procurement and invoicing processes. This dramatically improves transactional efficiency.

SAP Business Network for Procurement

A natural extension of ERP, SAP Business Network provides an environment in which procurement processes initiated from SAP S/4HANA Cloud can be transmitted digitally to suppliers. As a result, suppliers can view and generate transactions like orders, order confirmations, ship notices, and invoices, and then act quickly to accelerate the procure-to-pay process.

SAP Business Network for Procurement improves process efficiency in many areas, including:

• Purchase order processing: Digital purchase orders that are created in ERP are sent automatically to suppliers. Once confirmed by the supplier, buyers have visibility into order acceptance and delivery dates.
• Invoice payment status: Invoice and payment status information is available on the SAP Business Network dashboard to update suppliers, eliminating the need for phone calls.
• Invoicing business rules: Buyers have the flexibility to configure applicable business rules that require adherence to business process and regulatory compliance.
• Change order update: Buyers and suppliers can communicate changes to open purchase orders, which creates an auditable record of changes and variations. Related documents, such as shipping notices, are also synchronized with updates.
• Payment compliance: Quick invoice processing and data accuracy minimizes wrong or duplicate payments, while improving accounting processes and overall financial visibility.
• Supplier collaboration: Digitalization enables quicker feedback from suppliers, making it possible for suppliers to “flip” purchase orders into confirmations and invoices, reducing errors and manual effort.
• Promotional opportunities: Networked suppliers have additional opportunities to grow their business by using the network to promote their offerings and connect with new customers.

The Next Wave of Digital Transformation

When you invest in RISE with SAP, you are enabling your business to migrate core business processes to the cloud. By complementing this solution with SAP Business Network, you extend your digital transformation to interactions with trading partners though a single, end-to-end technology landscape built on standardized processes and consistent data.

This is the next wave of technology that will enable you to address the ever-growing list of business challenges you wake up and face every day.

Etosha Thurman is chief marketing and solutions officer of Intelligent Spend and Business Network at SAP.

Improve supply assurance, procurement efficiency, compliance, and spend transparency on SAP Business Network Learn more

*Driving Best-in-Class Supply Chain Collaboration with a Business Network, doc #US50854723, July 2023

WALLDORF —  SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that it has extended the contract of Dr. Juergen Mueller, Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of SAP SE, for another three years until the end of 2027. Mueller joined SAP in 2013 and has been a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE since 2019.

As CTO, he leads the Technology & Innovation Board area at SAP and has successfully established SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) as the platform for SAP and as an external business unit. In his mandate as CTO, he will prepare SAP for its accelerated cloud growth. In addition to SAP BTP, he is responsible for architecture decisions and innovations across SAP as well as Business Transformation Management with SAP Signavio and SAP LeanIX. Global security and cloud compliance are also part of his responsibility.

“I would like to thank the Supervisory Board for their trust and am thrilled to continue shaping SAP’s technology strategy and driving innovation for our customers around the world,” Mueller said. “Together with our teams, I will continue working with the clear goal of being the number one enterprise application and business AI company.”

“In recent years, Juergen Mueller and his team have successfully developed SAP BTP and established it as the platform of choice for our customers,” said Professor Hasso Plattner, chairman of the Supervisory Board of SAP SE. “We thank Juergen Mueller for his successful work to date and are convinced that he will continue to ensure SAP’s innovation capabilities in the future.”

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