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

The Burning Platform

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

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

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

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

What’s at Stake

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

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

Main Impact on Operators

The legislation has two broad ramifications:

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

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

How to Get Started

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

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

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

Are You Equipped to Deal with the Upcoming Changes?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP at @SAPNews.

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

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP’s 2023 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
© 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.

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

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

Choosing the Cloud to Support Future Growth

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

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

A Strategic Opportunity to Optimize Business Operations

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

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

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

Successful “Big Bang” Implementation Across the Globe

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

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

Visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP at @SAPNews.

About SAP

As a global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, SAP (NYSE: SAP) stands at the nexus of business and technology. For over 50 years, organizations have trusted SAP to bring out their best by uniting business-critical operations spanning finance, procurement, HR, supply chain, and customer experience. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP’s 2023 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
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According to Albert Einstein, “Life is like a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” He had a point! The same is true of business.

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

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

Here are some key takeaways.

Evolving How We Engage with Customers

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

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

Enhancing Methodologies

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

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

Introducing Partner Training and Validation

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

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

Building a Seamless End-to-End Tool Chain

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

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

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

SAP Business AI: New Frontier for Business Transformation

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

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

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

Business Transformation: More Than an IT Project

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

Learn more:

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

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