With roots in ancient Greece and an Olympic history that dates to 1912, equestrian sports are steeped in tradition. Take dressage, which the Fédération Équestre Internationale (FEI) describes as the “ultimate expression of horse training and elegance,” a complex sport where human and equine athletes compete at events all over the world, evaluated by judges and spectators in an array of categories that prize beauty, grace, and tradition.

Bringing a sport like dressage into the digital age would be no small feat, but that is precisely the challenge Black Horse One undertook in 2016.

Partnering with SAP, Black Horse One CEO Daniel Göhlen and his team of 12 brought a quiet digital revolution to the paper-based, tradition-bound world of equestrian sports—introducing digital scoring systems, streamlining event operations, and facilitating fan engagement—that supported and enhanced the experience of trainers, athletes, judges, federations, event managers, and fans all over the world.

However, Black Horse One saw room for even more innovation in equestrian sports, particularly in addressing the operational challenges of equestrian event management and the untapped potential of the industry’s heavily siloed data.

Digital transformation unlocks boundless potential

With its “consistency, affordability, and proven reliability,” SAP quickly became mission-critical for Black Horse One. Building on that success, Göhlen turned to SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) to bring the company’s next vision to life—a digital event management system designed to transform how equestrian competitions are run. The new system delivers real-time, end-to-end oversight and streamlines every workflow, giving “show organizers and national federations a 360-degree software” that has cut event preparation time in half.

The industry quickly took note, and Black Horse One went from 100 equestrian shows a year in 15 countries to around 300 in 32 countries and from 50,000 unique users per month to as many as 3 million—an exponential increase in operations that the company supports with the same small team.

Further digitization of processes and information has helped Black Horse One dismantle the data silos that challenge many industries, especially one as rooted in tradition as equestrian sports. Data pours in from multiple sources: national federations maintain separate records for each horse, judges and audiences submit marks in real time, and organizers update competition systems on the fly. Every change must be reflected instantly, not only to maintain accurate results but also to meet fans’ expectations for real-time updates.

Göhlen, himself a former equestrian athlete, explains that many seasoned trainers and riders struggle to capture and pass on their hard-earned expertise and knowledge built over decades in the arena. A platform that enables real-time recording and sharing of performance data, scoring insights, and training techniques across a global, always-on network is transforming how the dressage community preserves and transmits its know-how.

And, in a sport where animal welfare is paramount, continued technological advancement offers additional layers of information and accountability when it comes to tracking and monitoring horses, which, Göhlen hopes, will continue to equate to happier, healthier equine athletes.

Leveraging AI in a world of tradition

Black Horse One continues to take a storied sport across new technological frontiers, leveraging SAP BTP to help bring artificial intelligence (AI) into its offerings. The company is already using AI to analyze performance data and biomechanical metrics, delivering personalized training and technique insights. It can even generate AI announcers when human ones aren’t available. Göhlen notes that Black Horse One is still in the early stages of exploring the “tremendous” potential of AI—using it to support and advance equestrian sport in ways that are not only exciting but also wise and effective.

Göhlen himself offers sage advice when it comes to assuaging stakeholders’ fears around digital transformation and AI in particular: “People really need to see that the technology supports them rather than replaces them.”

Real and sustainable innovation

Black Horse One’s remarkable story of leveraging technology to transform an age-old sport demonstrates that there is no company too small or industry too niche to benefit from digital transformation.

For those looking to embark on a similar journey, Göhlen has advice: first, start with the pain points, “where processes are currently inefficient or fragmented,” and then find the technology to ensure meaningful innovation. Second, Göhlen advises companies to earn and keep their customers’ trust. “In many of our mission-critical settings, if we make a mistake, we can’t undo it. So, make sure that you choose your technology wisely,” he says.

Finally, and most crucially, remember that innovation is a process, not a destination. “Never stop learning,” Göhlen says. “Each project should push you and your team to grow technically and strategically. This is how innovation stays real and sustainable.”

For the full Black Horse One episode and the on-demand Better Together: Customer Conversations series, visit here.

The full episode

Learn more about how Black Horse One brought digital transformation to the tradition-bound world of equestrian sports.

• Thought leadership podcast: Göhlen, CEO of Black Horse One, talks with Tamara McCleary, CEO of Thulium, to share his motivation and journey merging tradition with technology to transform equestrian events, improving the sport and the sporting experience for athletes and audiences and winning over even the most traditional participants.
• Practitioners’ video: Göhlen talks with me about what it took and the technologies that have resulted in a suite of applications that revolutionized the dressage world.

To access the whole series, on demand, visit here.

Do you have ideas for topics or technologies we should cover, or would you like to be a guest on the show? We want to hear from you, just e-mail us.

Timo Elliottis vice president and global innovation advocate for SAP BTP at SAP.

A garden center and plant nursery may seem like a seasonal business, but Merrifield Garden Center is continuously evolving to meet the needs of its customers no matter the time of year.

Since its humble beginnings in 1971, Merrifield has flourished into one of the largest full-service garden center, nursery, and landscaping companies in its region, employing more than 600 individuals and comprising over 70 acres of plants, property, and storefront in northern Virginia. Its business includes three brick-and-mortar locations carrying plants, gardening supplies, and home and holiday décor; an online store; a wholesale division that supports other local landscape contractors; a materials production division that recycles materials from landscaping jobs; and a line of private-label products tailored specifically for the environmental conditions in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

Clearly, the business has expanded and evolved over the years to meet changing industry and customer standards, but its founding principles of providing the highest quality customer services and unparalleled plant and product selection remain steadfast. The same is true for the systems supporting the products and services in Merrifield’s retail operations. With its omnichannel strategy, it’s critical that Merrifield delivers a consistent, seamless, and personalized experience across all its customer touchpoints.

Blooming into a modern, tech-savvy enterprise

Luckily, CFO Lynn Warhurst has made it one of her personal goals to bring technology into the company since joining in 1978. “There was zero technology…so we knew going forward that if we wanted to grow and be successful, we needed to change something,” she said.

After coming across SAP at an NRF event in the early 2000s, Merrifield went live with SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) in 2013 to replace its 20-year-old garden center legacy system, providing the company with modern audit trail capabilities and increased data reliability.

Continuing its long-standing innovation journey and partnership with SAP, Merrifield is now transitioning its SAP ECC system to the cloud with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business.

Merrifield Garden Center sees up to 300 transactions per hour per location, Warhurst said, and so the company needed a solution with enhanced processing speeds that can handle a high volume of retail transactions. What’s more, the company also wanted a system that supports Apple Pay and Google Pay, has customer loyalty tracking and data analytics capabilities, and ensures enterprise security and compliance.

Merrifield also wanted to bring together its retail and wholesale divisions onto one platform as opposed to hosting them on fragmented solutions. “We knew [SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition] could handle our complexity and give us the detail we needed to run and grow our business,” Warhurst said. “After 54 years in business, both divisions will run on the same platform. It’s very exciting that we can interchange cashiers for retail and wholesale, which means being more efficient as a company.”

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business is a new solution introduced in January of this year. Built specifically for retailers, the ERP solution is tailored to the industry’s unique complexities around scaling, merchandising, store operations, and supply chains. The flexibility of its public cloud architecture helps unify and integrate industry-specific processes with out-of-the-box integrations.

Merrifield is also implementing SAP Omnichannel Sales Transfer and Audit to help ensure the completeness of sales transactions across multiple channels, improve data reporting, and comply with local regulations.

Strong partnerships build a foundation for success

To facilitate its cloud transformation, Merrifield engaged Syntax as its implementation partner. “Having a trusted partner is very important,” Warhurst said, explaining that Merrifield has worked with Syntax since 2018.

For the move to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business, Syntax came on-site to Merrifield to experience its current system first-hand and better understand what the business sees as mission-critical during this transformation, Warhurst said. Together, they identified solution provisioning and integration, data migration, and business continuity as priorities. With this insight, Syntax is working with SAP to integrate any remaining project gaps into an upcoming solution release in August.

“Syntax and SAP have been great. We are one of the first to go public cloud for retail and they have been there for us,” Warhurst said. “It was very important to find somebody who believed in us and was there for us, and I feel that that’s really one of the most important things for our success.”

While the new system is projected to go live in September, the project is currently in the configuration and realization stage and Merrifield is excited for the future. Adopting this holistic, omnichannel, cloud-based solution will help the garden center achieve its goals of expanding into more locations and online offerings by having trusted, complete data from across its divisions available in one place.

Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at SAP.

Top image courtesy of SAP employee Tom Lennart-Krupp.

A great employee experience isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s a business imperative. Every interaction, every HR touchpoint shapes how employees feel, engage, and perform. But as expectations rise and workplaces evolve, HR teams need new ways to meet the moment. That means delivering faster, more personalized, high-quality support—and doing so at scale.

With AI-powered innovation and a unified approach to HR service delivery, organizations can create the seamless, connected experiences employees expect while unlocking new levels of efficiency and strategic impact for HR. That’s exactly what SAP is enabling with the SAP SuccessFactors Enterprise Service Management solution, recently delivered in the 1H 2025 SAP SuccessFactors HCM release and now available.

Leading companies like Döhler Group, a global producer of natural ingredients for the food and beverage industry, are already seeing the impact, with benefits such as:

• 33% reduction in case resolution times
• 4X productivity increase
• 80% reduction in e-mail writing time using generative AI

Paul Wittig, head of HR Operations & Services, Döhler, said, “Enterprise service management for HR is a huge step towards a more digital and, therefore, more transparent and structured way of work.”

The future of HR service delivery is now

The employee experience is shaped not just by big career moments, but by everyday opportunities, interactions, and the ability to get support when it’s needed. That’s why one of the most critical HR touchpoints in any organization is the HR help desk—and it’s also one of the most overburdened.

HR service reps at large enterprises often work in shared business centers and are responsible for managing high case volumes and diverse requests, ensuring accuracy and compliance. They may process hundreds of service requests in a month, each taking 1-3 days to resolve depending on the complexity of the issue, leaving employees waiting for the answers they need and HR teams overwhelmed by volume.

But this model is evolving—advancements in technology solutions are fundamentally reshaping how this work gets done. It’s no longer just about processing more cases, faster. It’s about preventing many of those cases from being raised in the first place. Intelligent, AI-powered tools enable employees to find answers independently, reducing case volumes and allowing HR teams to focus on more complex issues that require human expertise.

According to Gartner*, “By 2025, 70% of organizations with more than 2,500 employees will have invested in an HR service management solution.”

The momentum is clear, and organizations taking action are already seeing the benefits: reduced case volumes, faster resolution times, and a more seamless experience for both employees and HR teams.

The potential of AI to transform service delivery is also reflected in recent SAP SuccessFactors research. In one survey, 89% of employees said their workplace experience would improve if they could use AI to get answers to HR questions. In a related survey, HR leaders identified self-service and other AI-enabled administrative tasks as the most valuable use cases for their teams—freeing them from repetitive requests and creating space for more meaningful conversations with employees, from career development to conflict resolution.

The question is: what does HR service really look like in an era where embedded AI has the potential to transform not just the speed, but the entire nature of support?

The benefits of a single cloud platform, powered by AI

SAP SuccessFactors Enterprise Service Management enables organizations to completely reimagine HR service delivery with a unified cloud platform powered by AI.

Enhancing the employee experience is among the top benefits of SAP SuccessFactors Enterprise Service Management. Delivering added value to HR, the solution can harness the power of AI to help search, analyze, and update the underlying knowledge base and policy data, enabling it to better address employees’ questions in the future before cases are generated. SAP’s AI copilot Joule can give employees instant access to the answers and support they need through collaboration tools, a rich knowledge base, and omnichannel self-service experiences.

For example, imagine an employee with questions about parental leave. Instead of submitting a case and waiting for an HR response, the employee can simply ask Joule the question from directly within the platform. Joule can provide accurate, personalized guidance based on company policies and the employee’s specific eligibility, helping to instantly resolve the inquiry without any manual intervention. If the question is more complex or requires documentation, the technology helps seamlessly create and route the case to an HR service rep, along with all relevant details, working to ensure fast, informed support. The best part: Joule can be accessed from anywhere across SAP and is not just contained within HR.

The solution also benefits HR teams by helping to simplify daily operations and significantly scale efficiency. SAP SuccessFactors Enterprise Service Management can enhance HR service delivery behind the scenes with AI-driven case management, automated document handling, and intelligent knowledge updates, working to reduce manual effort for service reps and improve compliance. AI at work is central to this process, enabling auto-classification of service requests, content summarization to give agents a concise, contextual view of each case, and next-best action recommendations to help resolve issues quickly and effectively. The solution can continuously learn from past interactions, helping to make classification and resolution processes smarter and more accurate over time. Generative AI can further elevate efficiency by automatically generating clear interaction summaries, consistent resolution recaps, and professional, personalized e-mail drafts—helping to accelerate case handling, enhance communication quality, and ensure a more seamless, consistent service experience for both employees and HR teams.

With embedded SAP Analytics Cloud, HR teams can gain real-time visibility into service performance, enabling data-driven decisions to further optimize operations and elevate the employee experience.

A win for the business, employees, and HR

SAP customers that already use SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central for core HR are well positioned to quickly implement and reap the benefits of SAP SuccessFactors Enterprise Service Management. Together, these solutions can create a unified, AI-powered foundation that can deliver personalized, compliant HR support at every touchpoint.

Real-time, trusted core HR data from SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central helps ensure employees receive accurate, context-aware support, while quick actions embedded in the solution can make it easy to complete common HR tasks with just a few clicks—all within the flow of work. Within SAP SuccessFactors Enterprise Service Management’s case management experience, HR service reps can also benefit from direct access to the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central people profile, available as a mash-up, helping to provide immediate, secure visibility into relevant employee information without the need to switch systems. The solution can extend core SAP SuccessFactors HCM investments with a secure, compliant service layer to help maintain centralized data governance, streamline service processes, and reduce manual effort—working to ensure a seamless, intuitive experience for employees and HR teams alike.

We all know that HR is not just a back-office function. It is central to shaping employee experience and driving business outcomes. With SAP SuccessFactors Enterprise Service Management, powered by SAP Business AI, organizations can deliver the support employees expect while reducing HR workloads and improving efficiency. The result? A triple win for the business, employees, and HR.

Learn more about SAP SuccessFactors Enterprise Service Management for HR service delivery.

Lara Albert is chief marketing officer at SAP SuccessFactors.

*Source: Gartner: Market Guide for Integrated HR Service Management solutions, May 2024