Business innovation can have a tremendous impact economically, environmentally, and socially—not just for companies but also for communities and the world around us.

Businesses that have participated in the SAP Innovation Awards over the years have supported innovative solutions that meet challenges inside and outside their organizations. For instance, one previous award winner in the energy sector achieved sustainability with a new supply chain solution. Another previous winner in home appliance manufacturing successfully dismantled organizational silos to deliver better customer service.

That’s why I’m especially pleased to announce the groundbreaking winners of the 12^th annual SAP Innovation Awards.

What determines the winners?

This year, 217 companies entered the competition. Of that group, 46 were selected by our judges as finalists and 23 as winners.

Representing a variety of industries, the winners have demonstrated creativity, tangible outcomes, and, of course, innovation by applying SAP products and cloud technologies for the betterment of their customers, community, and organizations.

As technology constantly evolves, opportunities arise that can make the world a better place through sustainability, customer experience, and more. The winners demonstrate creative and innovative ideation that takes advantage of the following tools to make an impact:

• Applications: Integrating and optimizing core business processes with SAP applications to generate semantically rich data that drives global economic growth
• Data: Centralizing unmatched data from SAP and non-SAP sources into a unified semantic layer to unlock insights, advanced analytics, and AI capabilities
• AI: Powered by accurate data, harnessing AI and generative AI to deliver a unique advantage in cross-function collaboration and enable smarter decisions and transformative outcomes

What comes with winning an SAP Innovation Award?

Award winners receive global recognition, which can add to their organization’s reputation and credibility with current and potential customers and the community. They’re also honored with a tribute event, trophy, and the option of choosing a $1,000 SAP4Good charitable donation voucher or an admission ticket to SAP Sapphire in Orlando, Florida, May 19-21, or in Madrid, Spain, May 16-28.

To everyone involved

I’d like to thank everyone who contributed to the success of the 2025 SAP Innovation Awards, especially the organizations that submitted applications and the participating SAP teams. I look forward to reading about the innovations presented at this year’s event that continue to positively transform business and the world.

Interested in participating in 2026?

In addition to global recognition, praise, and prizes, your organization will have the opportunity to receive:

• Unique resources: Receive access to marketing materials, including full digital packages, and other branded support to help promote your greatest achievements.
• Best of breed collaboration: Collaborate with other leading companies and industry leaders that are at the forefront of innovative change.
• Inspiring stories: Learn about the accomplishments and creative genius of past winners and finalists to motivate your teams to foster a culture of innovation and strive for excellence.

Stay in the know

Subscribe to the SAP Innovation Awards newsletter for details on next year’s event. Want more inspiration? Watch this video and start planning how to leverage your innovative ideas for 2026.

Stephan de Barse is president of the SAP Global Business Suite Organization.

Image courtesy of SAP employee Rudragouda Sanakal.

With more than four years in market, RISE with SAP has successfully helped thousands of SAP customers modernize their ERP systems, embrace the cloud, and drive meaningful transformation.

“Thanks to this successful transformation and the move to the RISE with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition solution, we have become an innovation leader.”

Nils Krugmann, head of Architecture & Data, Commerz Real AG

The introduction of the RISE with SAP Methodology — along with the integrated toolchain that supports customers through their business and technical journeys — was a game changer to accelerate time to value and support the business case for transformation.

“Moving forward, we’re confident that the cloud transformation enabled by RISE with SAP will empower our organization to innovate and excel in today’s competitive healthcare market and contribute to our Fresenius vision of advancing patient care.”

Ingo Elfering, CIO, Fresenius Group

Today we announce a new commercial package that will support customers even further in this journey.

Introducing the SAP Cloud ERP Private package

The new SAP Cloud ERP Private package is designed to drive customers’ transformation, accelerate time to value, and enable business agility. It includes:

• Business applications to modernize business processes with a comprehensive cloud ERP solution, integrated with applications designed to enhance financial agility across the entire supply chain
• Transformation tools and services to accelerate time to value with expert support, and to streamline and transform business processes, landscape, and architecture using our comprehensive, integrated toolchain
• Cloud optimization and extensibility services to advance the path to a clean core by eliminating data silos and ensuring custom code aligns with cloud compliance, enabling companies to continue building, extending, and innovating ERP for future growth

The package is designed to support customers every step of the way.

Business Applications

Customers can:

• Benefit from modern cloud business applications with the latest standard capabilities
• Continuously innovate with new features in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition in a private cloud operating model
• Gain financial agility across the supply chain with SAP Business Network Supplier Portal for SAP Cloud ERP Private and the SAP Enterprise Service Management solution and SAP Taulia solutions

By integrating these applications, customers will enhance collaboration and agility to run operations, embodying the connected essence of the SAP Business Suite offering.

Transformation Tools and Services

The foundation of a successful transformation journey starts with a holistic assessment of the current systems and a clear understanding of the impact of transitioning to a cloud ERP. This data-driven analysis lays the groundwork for a robust foundation in the ERP transformation journey.

By including SAP LeanIX and SAP Signavio capabilities into the package, customers gain a comprehensive understanding of their current landscape helping to shape the target architecture. This results in a smoother, more agile ERP cloud transformation and long-term process efficiency. This data-driven approach ensures informed decision-making and continuous transformation monitoring, aligning perfectly with the RISE with SAP journey.

Embedded services from SAP include expert support to drive solution activation as well as onboarding and kick-off of the transformation project, ensuring that all critical aspects are addressed from the outset. It also includes workshops to align technology to the business goals that are strategic for the transition, tailored road map development, and adoption plans.

Cloud Optimization and Extensibility Services

The SAP Cloud ERP Private package includes SAP Build, enabling both on-stack and side-by-side extension of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition with AI-powered application development and process automation. SAP Build allows customers to innovate while maintaining a clean core — a central principle of the RISE with SAP methodology. The deep integration with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, combined with the code-first, low-code, and generative AI capabilities of SAP Build, guarantees that extensions and personalization add value without complicating core operations.

This is aligned with the continual innovation and extensibility strategies encouraged by the RISE with SAP journey. SAP HANA Cloud is a cloud-native database for modernizing enterprise systems that allows customers to build and deploy intelligent data apps at scale. The package also includes the SAP Master Data Governance application to enhance data quality and help maintain a single source of truth, further aligning with the continual innovation and extensibility strategies

Summary and Next Steps

As businesses venture into the new digital era, SAP is committed to guiding and supporting every step of their journey toward integrated, cloud-powered operational excellence.

The SAP Cloud ERP Private Edition package is not just a solution; it is a gateway to a future of limitless potential and unprecedented business agility. Let us embark on this transformative journey together and redefine what’s possible for your business.

Learn more about the new offering and its bundled cloud capabilities here.

Maura Hameroff is senior vice president of Cloud ERP Product Marketing at SAP.

At SAP Concur Fusion 2025, SAP showcased AI-driven innovations and a strategic partnership, enhancing travel and expense management with improved visibility, automation, compliance, and spend insights while driving efficiencies and enriching employee experiences.

As our world demands organizational adaptability at warp speed, business travel also is transforming in a fast-paced and complex environment. At our annual flagship event for SAP Concur users and experts, we delved into the power of AI, sharing insights and experiences. Whether customers and partners attended in person in Seattle, Washington, or virtually, they all gained new perspectives on how to navigate the complexities of tomorrow’s business landscape with confidence. 

Global participation and experts on-site

Customers and partners joined SAP Concur Fusion from all over the world, representing 75 countries. At the Seattle Convention Center, attendees could explore the new Fusion Pavilion in the exhibition hall and talk to SAP Concur experts and 43 exhibiting partners. We offered over 180 unique learning opportunities including Ask the Expert and breakout sessions, micro forums, and product trainings to explore how SAP Concur solutions can deliver innovation in travel and expense while unlocking efficiencies.

Debut: Integrating Joule with SAP Concur to enhance user experience

During the event’s day one keynote, we announced new generative AI innovations and an expanded partnership with American Express.

SAP is embedding its generative AI copilot Joule into SAP Concur solutions, bringing the portfolio one step closer toward a fully automated travel and expense management process.

In the Concur Expense solution, Joule will help answer employees’ questions and work to ensure that expense reports are ready for submission with minimal effort. For example, Joule can assemble a timeline view of expenses, review for mistakes or missing expenses, and make recommendations for how best to complete the expense report. General availability is expected in the second quarter of 2025.

In the Concur Travel solution, Joule will be embedded to help plan locations for off-site meetings, providing meeting location recommendations and high-level flight and hotel cost estimates based on meeting attendees’ origination points. Once the meeting site and hotel options are selected, Joule will create an e-mail template to send to team members with a link to book directly in Concur Travel. Joule with Concur Travel is now in the SAP Early Adopter Care program with general availability expected later this year.

Automating expense management in Concur Expense

On stage, we also announced an expanded partnership with American Express to help simplify expense management for shared customers. SAP Concur and American Express are launching a real-time authorization data capability whereby American Express Corporate Card purchases automatically generate and categorize expenses in Concur Expense at the time of spend. This feature will first be available for meal expenses. It also will include mobile notifications that send the employee expense policy reminders in the moment.

We also are working to expand access to our integration with Mastercard, which automates expense entry at the time of purchase, so more Mastercard customers can benefit from a simpler and more efficient experience.

Additionally, American Express Global Business Travel has integrated its hotel marketplace, featuring over 2 million properties across 180 countries with competitive rates, into the new Concur Travel solution, providing customers with access to comprehensive hotel content, including negotiated programs and preferred partner rates.

Announcing SAP Concur Innovation Award winners

On day two of the event, we celebrated the remarkable achievements of our SAP Concur Innovation Award winners. These companies have leveraged SAP Concur solutions to revolutionize their travel and expense processes, enhancing efficiency and visibility. The 2025 winners include L’Oréal Groupe, which streamlined user provisioning between HR and expense systems, and Weatherford, which automated its global travel and expense program, significantly improving data integrity and compliance.

UST, Coca-Cola, E.ON, and Mayekawa also have demonstrated exceptional innovation. UST consolidated its T&E processes; Coca-Cola unified its travel booking and expense systems; E.ON automated data collection for GDPR compliance; and Mayekawa reduced its finance team’s workload by more than 12,000 hours. These successes highlight the transformative power of SAP Concur solutions in driving business efficiency and growth. We are very proud to recognize these exceptional organizations as 2025 SAP Concur Innovation Award winners.

Move to future T&E: Spotlight on generative AI

SAP Concur is creating a world where travel and expenses practically manage themselves. At SAP Concur Fusion, we shared with customers and partners how we continue to deliver on that journey—with touchless, intuitive experiences enabled by industry-leading SAP Business AI and close partnerships with top payment providers. The Concur Travel and Concur Expense solutions are part of SAP Business Suite, SAP’s comprehensive portfolio of integrated solutions that combines our core cloud ERP and line-of-business applications, fueled by unmatched business data and actionable AI.

Chris Juneau is SVP and head of SAP Concur Product Marketing.