One of my favorite times of the year is here—the time when SAP dedicates a forum to honor our customers that are leveraging emerging technology to transform their fields. Submissions for the SAP Innovation Awards in 2025 are open! Until March 14^th, you’ll have the opportunity to showcase how you’ve not only revolutionized your organization, but helped the world run better.

Now in its 12^th year, SAP Innovation Awards celebrate future-minded organizations that have harnessed the power of SAP products, including cloud-based solutions using artificial intelligence (AI) or generative AI. In a time of immense change, these awards feel more relevant than ever as they highlight innovations that drive business growth and move society forward.

Making a Difference

The 2025 winners will be recognized for utilizing SAP technologies in distinct and dramatic ways to support new business models, inspire industry convergence, and connect with customers. And I, for one, cannot wait to see what you all bring to the table!

At its core, SAP Innovation Awards are devoted to encouraging every organization to live up to its social responsibility by creating initiatives that engage the broader community around environmental and other crucial issues that, in one way or another, affect us all.

Before entering a submission, think about how your innovation is resilient and sustainable, helps businesses, including your own, addresses workforce concerns, and adapts to the needs of the public.

How to Tell Your Story

Every organization has its own story, and the judges want to hear them all—specifically the challenges each group faced and how SAP products were used to effectively overcome obstacles.

When asked about the best way to catch the judges’ attention, I always say that more important than simply listing the products you used is sharing the thought process that motivated you to use technology creatively to overcome barriers and forge new paths. Want to get a sense of what winning looks like? Check out the 2024 entries for examples of inspiring submissions.

The heart of your story should revolve around the outcome of your efforts:

• The impact the solution had on your company, community, and individuals
• How it transformed your vision of the future

The best way to showcase this? Provide at least three primary metrics and business proof points that demonstrate your business outcomes.  Remember, nobody understands your innovation story better than you. After all, you are the storyteller! Keep it compelling, human, and, yes, inspiring.

So Many Ways to Win

Along with access to networking and promotional opportunities, each winner receives a trophy and the option of either a complimentary pass to SAP Sapphire—where an exclusive SAP Innovation Awards celebration will be held—or a US$1,000 SAP4Good donation voucher to a charity of your choice.

The great thing is that you can win in a variety of categories. These include:

• Partner Paragon, for an SAP partner that has developed a next-generation application
• Business Network Innovator, for a client that utilized cloud solutions from SAP—including those using AI—to transform supply chains, processes, or business networks
• Cloud ERP Champion, for a customer that took advantage of SAP cloud ERP opportunities to future-proof its business
• Transformation Titan, presented for solving problems by making the most of SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), an integration suite combining such technologies as data and analytics, application development, AI, and automation

Other award classifications are Customer Experience, People Experience, AI Excellence, Services Superstar, and Sustainability Hero. Read more about all the categories on our website.

This is your opportunity to imagine big and inspire your peers. These transformations inspire us all to grow without limits, expand our industries, and enrich lives. So, join us and participate in the 2025 SAP Innovation Awards! Visit our submissions page to get started and watch this video to learn more.

Ada Agrait is executive vice president and global head of Corporate Marketing at SAP.

Loop Earplugs, an innovative leader that has revolutionized the way we experience sound protection, has recently adopted SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition to support rapid international growth.

“The world is becoming increasingly noisy, and our mission is to support our customers in hearing the world the way they want to,” said Koen Spliet, project manager, Loop Earplugs. “A strong practical value and an aesthetically appealing design have made our earplugs a desirable accessory. Fueled by the popularity of our earplugs in Europe, the U.S., and Asia, we have scaled globally, growing at 1,500% over the last four years.”

To continue the growth momentum, Loop Earplugs needed an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution capable of seamlessly supporting its international expansion with robust, embedded localization. This would ensure real-time insights into the state of the business, allowing Loop to focus on innovation that continuously advances its core business functions.

Loop chose SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition offered through the GROW with SAP for scaleups program due to its clear, future-proof, and scalable architecture that can easily integrate with Loop’s existing e-commerce channels and marketplaces. In addition, the ability to support external partners in fulfilling Loop’s supply chain was one of the key advantages that put SAP’s solution forward.

“We are delighted to have Loop Earplugs in the GROW with SAP for scaleups community. We support growth-focused companies in expanding their operations, maximizing valuations, and running lean and agile businesses capable of fast growth,” said Romain Gauthier, VP, GROW with SAP for scaleups. “The program helps scaleups grow the bottom line through optimized operations, working to ensure they are always ready for business expansion.”

“With our rapid growth, time is always essential and we greatly appreciated being engaged digitally by SAP’s Digital Hub team. It was an exceptionally fast, professional, and personalized way to address all the questions and ideas we had, exceeding our already high expectations,” Spliet said. “We had about 30 contacts with SAP on our buying journey, yet only two were needed in person. This was critical in meeting the accelerated business outcomes we required.”

“SAP is evolving our customer engagement, founded on AI and the latest technologies, which are enabling our digitally-skilled talent to deliver fast, immersive, and end-to-end customer experiences. This allows our customers to pursue their digital transformation journeys at the pace their businesses dictate,” explained Sam Masri, global head, SAP Digital, Customer Success.

“For example, based on SAP’s industry best practices and the information our teams had about Loop’s value drivers, our Digital Solution Advisory team in the EMEA digital hub was able to determine ahead of the meeting with the customer that SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition was the best fit. This immediately triggered our Digital Value Advisory and Digital Asset teams to deliver a customer-specific microsite, with the business case, solution demos, and reference videos for Loop to explore at its own pace. This seamless and digital motion helped Loop wrap up the buying journey in under four months from the first contact,” Masri added.

SAP worked with the partner Delaware that engaged with the customer in person at its location. The hybrid engagement model, where SAP engaged digitally and Delaware was available on-site, provided the best mixture of high-velocity digital engagement and human touch to deliver a personalized and efficient solution discovery and adoption journey to the customer. “We are impressed with SAP’s AI capabilities and the efficiencies they enable. We are now exploring how we could leverage these SAP innovations for our own productivity gains as well as for our sustainability efforts,” Spliet said.