Earlier this year, SAP announced a comprehensive set of resources and services to help customers build a cloud-first business strategy. SAP also announced the infusion of business AI capabilities throughout its portfolio of business applications.

To learn more about how these enhanced strategies impact the customer support strategy, I met with Stefan Steinle, executive vice president and head of Customer Support, SAP SE.

Q: SAP has an ambitious goal of being No. 1 in the enterprise applications and business AI space, and it is already clear that the support strategy must be equally ambitious. To what extent does our corporate strategy influence the support strategy?

A: To a great extent! Don’t forget that SAP is also on track to be No. 1 in market share, No. 1 in customer satisfaction, No. 1 in customer lifetime value, and No. 1 in portfolio adoption. Yes, the heavy hitters required for impact are all part of our company goal.

Right from its inception, our Customer Support organization has distinguished itself as a team with an expanded business function that goes beyond bug fixes and issue resolutions. Solving tickets and resolving customer issues are the day-to-day tasks to achieve our larger goal of helping customers maximize their business value, secure their existing investments, and optimize their SAP operations. In a nutshell, we are a business partner that proactively works with customers to achieve their business goals.

Q: What do customers want from Customer Support?

A: As guardians of customer business value, our primary focus is to understand what customers expect from us – both the expressed and the implied requirements. With a legacy of over 50 years, SAP is the world’s largest provider of enterprise application software, which also makes us a trusted advisor for over 437,000 customers across 190 countries. Customers rely on our rich expertise for guidance on how to run their business transformation.

In a support engagement, nobody likes surprises. Customers want us to be proactive, especially with respect to ease of implementation and implementation quality. They also expect us to identify potential issues early, prevent them, and inform them of applicable solutions and workarounds that we have used for other customers. As with any customer/provider relationship, they expect us to adhere to SLAs, quick response times, and quality benchmarks.

Our customers want us to process their feedback beyond the scope of issue resolutions. They expect us to cascade this feedback back to our development teams to improve product quality, supportability, and usability.

Q: How do we address these expectations?

A: We have a four-fold approach: guide, empower, solve, enhance.

Guide – by drawing on more than 50 years of expertise
We provide guidance by offering the tools, methodologies, and processes to help customers transform their processes and IT landscape. We help them transform their solution in the cloud with the help of SAP Cloud ALM, our application lifecycle management solution.

Empower – because customers love self-service options
I can speak for myself that when I am a consumer, I would choose a five-click self-service option any day over a five-minute phone call. I find that I am not alone here: our customers love self-help. They prefer DIY fixes to raising a ticket. We help address this by providing detailed SAP Knowledge Base Articles, guided tutorials, and other self-service procedures.

Solve – and get the business workflow back on track
Issues that need specialist skills or technical expertise are immediately assigned to support engineers who can resolve the problem at hand while working to ensure that we help our customers with quick, reliable, and high-quality solutions. 

Enhance – by mining customer and end user feedback
Imagine that you are the developer of a mobile app and some of your users have notified you of minor bugs that they have managed to bypass because they are techies. You know that not all users are tech-savvy, and the so-called “minor bugs” could end up being showstoppers for most users. This makes a solid business case for you to set aside resources to convert user feedback into proactive product improvements in your next release. Regular mining of customer and user feedback helps refine your products in quality, supportability, and usability – before the issues snowball into something unmanageable.

Customer Support at SAP has set up a system among our Product Management, Engineering, and Cloud Operations teams to feed customer requests back into the product, helping to ensure that we can monitor and prevent issues from happening in the first place.

Q: What is it about Customer Support at SAP that really delights the customer?

A: Four keywords: self-service, real-time, built-in, and bi-directional!

Time is at a premium and customers are vocal about it. In today’s fast-paced society where consumers are spoiled for choice with real-time options, such as collaboration tools, e-booking, flight tracking, QR code payments, or digital health records, it is only natural that support services are also available in real time. Market pressures and the nature of businesses have evolved to a stage that real-time actions are the order of the day. Real-time processing is no longer a unique offering; it is a basic expectation.

With SAP’s live channels, customers can chat in real-time using Expert Chat or Schedule an Expert with the same technical experts who would also be processing the ticket. You would be surprised that this is not such a common offering in our business segment.

Built-In Support moves support right into the product, providing one consistent support experience no matter what application or solution you are in. SAP’s support is also bi-directional, with smart AI solutions constantly monitoring application and support data, allowing us to proactively reach out to customers to help prevent issues from arising in the first place. This approach takes Customer Support beyond the scope of traditional reactive support. It leverages AI to predict and prevent issues, helping to reduce downtimes and customer effort and establish a collaborative relationship with operational efficiency. Note that all of these offerings are part of every cloud subscription through SAP Enterprise Support.

Our AI-powered Real-Time Support is designed along the concept that the customer needs support anytime, every time, and all the time.

Renuka Abraham is part of Customer Support at SAP.

SAP is one of the most sustainable companies on the planet in 2024, according to a recent study conducted by TIME magazine and data firm Statista. It ranks 15^th out of 500 companies on the list, outperforming Cisco, Microsoft, and ServiceNow.

The 2024 sustainability study measures how organizations are tracking against climate programs, such as the 1.5°C Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) target or the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), and looks at scope 1 and 2 emissions and energy consumption, or proportion of renewable energy utilized in a company’s operations.

For years, SAP has been putting sustainability at the very core of its vision and operations. Via a comprehensive portfolio of ERP-centric, cloud-based, and AI-enabled sustainability services and solutions, SAP helps customers across 26 industries become more sustainable. This is achieved by building long-term sustainability strategies around climate, resources, and people; powering businesses and their value chains with sustainable practices; and driving long-term business value. SAP is also committed to achieving net-zero emissions across its entire value chain by 2030 – 20 years earlier than originally planned.

“Together with our customers, which generate 87% of total global commerce, SAP has the unique opportunity to create a more sustainable world,” Daniel Schmid, chief sustainability officer at SAP, said. “We are regularly recognized by world-renowned sustainability rating providers for the company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts and achievements. Our ranking in TIME magazine underscores SAP’s role as a leader in sustainable business practices, setting a benchmark for others in the industry.”

Check out the list below for the full collection of ratings, rankings and reports of SAP’s sustainability performance globally.

Corporate Knights

In Corporate Knights’ 20^th annual ranking of the 100 most sustainable corporations worldwide in 2024, SAP secured the 48^th position. This recognition is highly significant, as the Global 100 companies represent the upper 1% of firms globally in terms of sustainability performance. The ranking was formulated by the Toronto-based media, research, and financial information products firm, which analyzed more than 6,000 companies with revenues exceeding US$1 billion, using 25 key performance indicators.

Corporate Sustainability Assessment by S&P (Dow Jones Sustainability Indices)

Since its inception in 1999, the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) has been conducting an annual evaluation of companies’ sustainability practices, covering over 7,000 firms worldwide. The CSA emphasizes sustainability criteria that is both industry specific and financially significant. In the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment, SAP secured a position within the top 5% of the software industry, scoring 71 out of a possible 100.

CDP

In the latest CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) assessment, SAP scored a B. This means that SAP was recognized by CDP as taking coordinated action on climate issues.

EcoVadis

In the last sustainability assessment of EcoVadis in October 2023, SAP was again awarded a gold medal with a score of 70 of 100, ranking in the 94^th percentile* of all assessed companies. With more than 100,000 rated companies, EcoVadis is one of the world’s most trusted business sustainability rating providers. Its assessment covers a broad range of non-financial management systems, including environments, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement impacts.

Gartner

Gartner, a trustworthy analyst firm, has published a new report titled “Sustainability Assessment: SAP®”. Read more about Gartner’s assessment of SAP’s sustainability performance in this complimentary report offered to all Gartner readers.   

FTSE4Good

Administered by the Financial Times Stock Exchange-Russell Group (FTSE), the FTSE4Good Index Series is designed to measure the performance of companies demonstrating strong ESG practices. Transparent management and clearly defined ESG criteria make FTSE4Good indices suitable tools to be used by a wide variety of market participants when creating or assessing sustainable investment products.

As in previous years, SAP continues to be listed in the FTSE4Good indices based on assessment questions in areas such as environment, climate change, human rights, community and labor standards, tax transparency, and anti-corruption. Due to its good scoring, SAP remains a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index Series following the June 2024 review.

IDC

IDC Sustainablity Index for Software Providers reviews the ESG impacts of information and communication technology (ICT) players, focusing on three pillars: Technology as an Enabler, Vendor Performance, and Technology for Good. SAP was awarded 3^rd place** in an assessment of 23 software vendors. This position highlights SAP’s exceptional performance, especially in the Technology as an Enabler pillar, where SAP excels in monetization, sustainable features, ESG reporting, operational optimization, and advisory services. SAP’s success is attributed to its commitment to sustainability, as well as to efficient internal product standards that prioritize cost and resource efficiency. Additionally, SAP has been named a leader among 18 vendors in the first-ever IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Carbon Accounting and Management Applications 2024 Vendor Assessment.

ISS ESG

The Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ESG Corporate Rating provides an assessment of companies’ sustainability performance based on high-quality and in-depth research and up to 100 sector-specific rating criteria that are regularly reviewed and developed. With its B rating, SAP has been acknowledged with prime status and is among the top decile. The score was confirmed in January 2023. ISS ESG is expected to update its score in the summer of 2024.

MSCI

MSCI ESG Research provides in-depth research, ratings, and analysis of the ESG-related business practices of thousands of companies worldwide. Its research is designed to provide critical insights that can help institutional investors identify risks and opportunities that traditional investment research may overlook. The MSCI ESG Ratings are also used in the construction of the MSCI ESG Indexes produced by MSCI, Inc. SAP upholds the highest rating of AAA*** and is an ESG leader in human capital development, corporate governance, privacy and data security, and clean tech as of the last assessment in May 2024.

Sustainalytics

SAP received a low-risk ESG Risk Rating of 10.9 from Sustainalytics, a leading provider of ESG research, ratings, and data. This rating reflects SAP’s commitment to sustainability and its efforts to minimize the financial impact of environmental, social, and governance factors. Sustainalytics, founded in 1992 and now a Morningstar company, is a trusted source for institutional investors and companies seeking to understand and manage ESG risks.

TIME

TIME’s assessment of the World’s Most Sustainable Companies for 2024 recognized SAP for demonstrating a strong commitment to sustainability. SAP was ranked the 15^th most sustainable company worldwide. This reflects SAP’s dedication to areas such as climate change, human rights, and anti-corruption and underscores SAP’s role as a leader in sustainable business practice.

*SAP’s score is higher than or equal to the score of 94% of all companies rated by EcoVadis.
**Doc #EUR147190121, May 2023
***Scale: AAA (leader) to CCC (laggard). The use by SAP SE of any MSCI ESG Research LLC or its affiliates (‘MSCI”) data, and the use of MSCI logos, trademarks or index names herein, do not constitute a sponsorship, endorsement, recommendation or promotion of SAP SE by MSCI. MSCI Services and Data are the property of MSCI or its information providers and are provided “as-is” and without warranty. MSCI names and logos are trademarks or service marks of MSCI.

Copyright ©2022 Sustainalytics. All rights reserved. This article contains information developed by Sustainalytics (www.sustainalytics.com). Such information and data are proprietary of Sustainalytics and/or its third party suppliers (Third Party Data) and are provided for informational purposes only. They do not constitute an endorsement of any product or project, nor an investment advice and are not warranted to be complete, timely, accurate or suitable for a particular purpose. Their use is subject to conditions available at https://www.sustainalytics.com/legal-disclaimers. 

® Gartner, Sustainability Assessment: SAP, 11 December 2023, Ed Anderson, Fabio Di Capua
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is 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.