Establishing a Mission and Vision for a Skills-Led Organization

It was a special moment when Caroline Hanke began her new role as global head of Organizational Growth and Health at SAP in early October 2024—though in an unexpected way. At the same time, Florida, where her and her family had moved into a new home three months earlier, was struck by Hurricane Helene, followed by Hurricane Milton two weeks later.

“We were evacuated and, fortunately, came out unscathed,” Hanke recalls. “But I had to hold the first all-employee meeting with the knowledge that we’d have to rebuild a flooded house, all while staying in a hotel with an unstable power supply.”

In her role, Hanke oversees strategic workforce planning, health, safety, and well-being, as well as the HR Trends and Innovation, People Insights, Organizational Design, and New Work departments.

Hanke also leads a new area of great importance for SAP’s future: the skills-led organization. But what exactly is a skills-led organization, and why is it important to focus on the capabilities of employees?

“A skills-led organization means moving away from rigidly defined job roles with a limited set of key qualifications and instead focusing more on the individual with their specific skills,” Hanke says. “The personal skill sets of employees will shape internal mobility, professional development, and our hiring strategies as a company.”

The skills-based approach recognizes that current job profile structures often fail to fully reflect employees’ competencies.

Hanke herself is a prime example of a personal skill set that extends beyond what a job description suggests. While she spent the past five years in the People & Culture Board area, her professional roots lie elsewhere.

Born in Germany, at the age of four Hanke moved to the U.S. with her parents for her father to work as a professor in computer science and software engineering at the University of Maryland. The planned one-year stay turned into nearly 10.

“I believe those formative childhood years in the U.S. not only gave me native-level English skills but also a deeper understanding of how culture shapes people’s thinking—and the importance of wanting to understand those differences,” she says.

While studying business information management in Mannheim, Germany, she joined SAP as a working student and gained experience in development. She later supported Daimler-Chrysler, initially as a technical quality manager and later as an engagement architect, where she served as a key SAP contact.

She then developed and led a customer management program for the private cloud, which at that point was still in its infancy. In that role, she reported weekly to the Executive Board of SAP SE and then-CEO Bill McDermott, which eventually led to discussions about her becoming his chief of staff.

“When I got the call, I thought there must be a misunderstanding because I hadn’t applied,” Hanke remembers. “The colleague on the other end laughed and said, ‘It seems someone recommended you.’”

This role took Hanke and her husband, along with their son born in Heidelberg, Germany, back to the U.S., where she had grown up. “I’ve never regretted it,” she says. “All in all, I’ve spent almost half my life in the U.S. and feel very at home here. I’d describe myself as half American, half German.”

When your people operate at their best, so does your business

After McDermott left SAP, Hanke worked in several roles for the new CEO, Christian Klein, before becoming COO in the then-new People & Operations Board area. Though she initially had little contact with HR, she quickly found the topics as engaging as they were challenging, especially given their impact on people and the organization.

“I think my own career path shows how much more experience and skills each of us brings beyond the role officially assigned to us,” she says. “The skills-based approach allows both the company and its employees to make better decisions. Employees want to stay relevant, and as an employer SAP aims to minimize disruptions for its people during changes.”

Skills Development with SAP SuccessFactors HCM

Two key areas impacted by the skills-based approach are training and hiring. Skills-based hiring means that while degrees won’t become irrelevant, the search for candidates will increasingly focus on individual skills and prior experiences.

But how can a company gain a clear picture of each employee’s range of skills?

This is where the growth portfolio, part of SAP SuccessFactors HCM, comes into play. All employees can conduct a skills inventory and add additional skills unrelated to their current role. These skills, often gained outside their formal roles, can now be documented.

Since it’s part of SAP SuccessFactors HCM, the growth portfolio can integrate seamlessly with functionalities like hiring, learning, career development, and talent management—areas that benefit the most from maintaining up-to-date skill data. Based on this information, the system can offer employees personalized, AI-driven recommendations for training and development, paving the way for their next career step.

The skills-based approach also brings significant advantages for workforce planning.

As Hanke explains: “For example, we want to avoid looking externally for skills that already exist within the company but haven’t been utilized or are in the wrong areas. That’s why transparency is so crucial.”

The more accurately workforce planning reflects the skills within the company, the better decisions can be made.

“Business and HR Need to Work More Closely Together”

“HR is one of those areas where everyone thinks they can weigh in,” Hanke says. “Looking back, I must admit I initially approached it with a typical business mindset: HR—how hard can it be? But I quickly learned otherwise. The topics are incredibly complex because there’s no right or wrong answer—solutions must be tailored to individuals. My respect for the HR organization has only grown since then.”

Hanke made a deliberate decision to stay in the People & Culture Board area. For her, HR is more than just a reporting or operational function; it must be deeply integrated into business decisions.

“I believe that people transformation can be a significant competitive advantage in today’s dynamic world,” she says. “And with my mix of business and HR knowledge, I can add value here because these two areas can no longer be separated.”

Hanke also emphasizes the strategic importance of health, safety, and well-being. “Employee well-being is one of the fundamental requirements for a functioning organization.”

SAP’s award-winning health management program, Run Healthy, is set to expand globally to additional countries in 2025. Mental health, especially in the context of COVID-19 and global political developments, remains a critical focus.

“I’m continually impressed by how advanced and diverse SAP’s offerings are,” Hanke says, who has personally benefited from some of them. As a leader, she feels particularly responsible for addressing health-related topics appropriately.

“It’s important to us to see employees as whole individuals and support their holistic development,” she emphasizes. “The skills-based approach, which enables employees to fully leverage their potential, offers exciting new possibilities. We’re embarking on this journey together—and I’m looking forward to it.”


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The Triple Crown of Strategic Procurement: Leveraging AI for Business Improvement

Not a minute passes when executives don’t ask their organizations, “What are we doing for AI?” To put a spin on a famous JFK quote, “Ask not what you can do for AI, but what AI can do for your business.” While AI has enormous potential for organizations of all shapes, sizes, and industries, let’s focus on how it can drive a continuous cycle of improving risk, assurance, costs, efficiency, and sustainability. This cycle is what we call the “triple crown” of strategic procurement.

The triple crown strategy is a three-step approach that combines insights, planning, and action to revolutionize procurement processes. At the heart of this strategy lies the SAP Spend Control Tower solution, a powerful tool that helps bring together data from various sources to provide a comprehensive view of your spending.

Graphic showing the triple crown of procurement strategy: insights from SAP Spend Control Tower, planning from SAP Ariba Category Management, and action from SAP Ariba Sourcing.
The triple crown of procurement: It includes insights (from SAP Spend Control Tower), planning (with SAP Ariba Category Management), and action (with SAP Ariba Sourcing). In this article, we’re focusing on SAP Spend Control Tower and how it can provide crucial insights into your procurement landscape. Click to enlarge.

Step 1: Insights—Understanding Your True Business Objectives

Before diving into any initiative, it’s crucial to understand your true business objectives. These might include cost reduction, improved sustainability, increased profitability, improved customer service, or a combination of factors. The key is to identify and measure metrics that not only reflect these objectives but also help improve them.

This is where analysis and insights come into play. SAP Spend Control Tower is the engine that can drive these insights, offering a bird’s-eye view of your entire procurement landscape.

Let’s break down some of the key areas where SAP Spend Control Tower can provide valuable insights:

AI-Enabled Enrichment

Graph explaining enrichment analysis. It shows how after enrichments,  the number of unique suppliers is drastically reduced, which is an important initial step in driving value for most initiatives.
Enrichment analysis: In this example, the number of unique suppliers is drastically reduced, an important initial step in driving value for most initiatives. Click to enlarge.

This is a leading indicator of value. Without understanding duplicate supplier names and components, achieving objectives will be much more challenging. The supplier enrichment analysis is a quick way to understand that value will be achieved by showing the true number of suppliers where spend occurs.

For example, your organization may not perceive risk if materials are coming from five companies, but the situation changes if it’s really one company with many names or misspellings. From a cost-savings perspective, we may not realize this is actually one supplier, and our spend is five times more to a single supplier instead of one times to five different suppliers. This insight can significantly impact risk assessment and cost management strategies.

Spend Trends

By aggregating data from multiple systems and sources, the solution can reveal spending patterns over time. Are certain categories of spend increasing? Are there seasonal fluctuations you need to account for? Understanding these trends can help you make more informed decisions about budget allocation and negotiation strategies.

Supply Risk

In today’s volatile market, understanding and mitigating supply risk is more critical than ever. SAP Spend Control Tower can help identify potential risks in your supply chain, such as overreliance on a single supplier or geopolitical risks in certain regions. As tariffs are a hot discussion in 2025, understanding the potential of tax fluctuations can be a strategic weapon for your business.

Supplier Fragmentation

Are you spreading your spend too thin across too many suppliers? The solution can highlight areas where consolidating suppliers might lead to better pricing or terms.

Consolidation Opportunities

On the flip side, are there areas where you’re too reliant on a single supplier? SAP Spend Control Tower can help identify opportunities to diversify your supplier base for increased resilience.

Make faster spend decisions with even greater certainty

Diversity and Sustainability Targets

Many organizations have goals related to supplier diversity or sustainability. The solution can track progress towards these goals and identify areas for improvement.

Payment Terms Consolidation

Inconsistent payment terms across suppliers can lead to cash flow issues and missed opportunities for early payment discounts. SAP Spend Control Tower can help identify opportunities to standardize and optimize payment terms.

But here’s the thing: having all this data at your fingertips is just the beginning. The real magic happens when you start to connect the dots and uncover insights that weren’t visible before.

For instance, you might discover that while you’re meeting your overall spend targets, you’re falling short on your sustainability goals. Or you might find that your cheapest supplier for a critical component is also the one with the highest risk profile. These are the kinds of insights that can drive real change in your procurement strategy.

The Power of Real-Time Insights

One of the most powerful features of SAP Spend Control Tower is its ability to provide real-time insights. In today’s fast-paced business environment, waiting for monthly or quarterly reports just doesn’t cut it anymore. You need to be able to react quickly to changes in the market, shifts in supplier performance, or emerging risks.

Imagine being able to spot a sudden price increase from a key supplier the moment it happens, rather than discovering it weeks later when reviewing invoices. Or picture being able to track the impact of a natural disaster on your supply chain in real time, allowing you to quickly implement contingency plans.

This real-time capability isn’t just about reacting to problems; it’s also about seizing opportunities. Maybe you spot a dip in commodity prices that you can take advantage of, or you notice a trend in your spending that suggests an opportunity for bulk purchasing discounts.

The Human Element

While we’re talking about AI and advanced analytics, it’s important to remember that these tools are meant to augment human intelligence, not replace it. The insights provided by SAP Spend Control Tower can be invaluable, but they still need to be interpreted and acted upon by skilled procurement professionals.

This is where the art of procurement meets the science of data analysis. The solution might tell you that you have an opportunity to consolidate suppliers in a certain category, but it’s up to you to weigh that against other factors like supplier relationships, quality considerations, and long-term strategic goals.

The Road Ahead

As we wrap up this introduction to the triple crown of strategic procurement and SAP Spend Control Tower, it’s clear that we’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible. The next article will dive deeper into the planning phase, exploring how SAP Ariba Category Management can help you turn these insights into actionable strategies.

Remember, the journey to procurement excellence is ongoing. It’s not about reaching a destination, but about continuously improving and adapting to an ever-changing business landscape. With solutions like SAP Spend Control Tower, you’re equipped to not just keep up with these changes, but to stay ahead of the curve and drive real value for your organization.

So, are you ready to start your journey towards the triple crown of strategic procurement? The race is on, and with the right tools and strategies, you’re primed for success.

To learn more, check out this infographic outlining how to win the triple crown of procurement.


Sudy Bharadwaj is global vice president of Strategic Engagements for SAP Finance and Spend.
Cindy McKendry is director of Corporate Communications for Intelligent Spend and Supply Chain at SAP.

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Jump Start for Volkswagen’s Battery Startup PowerCo

Volkswagen, one of the leading car makers, is driving forward the transition to electric vehicles (EVs). To be successful, the Wolfsburg, Germany-based company believes that it’s crucial to vertically integrate the battery value chain. Consequently, Volkswagen took matters into its own hands and founded the battery company PowerCo in 2022.

“PowerCo will develop and produce battery cells for the VW Group in best quality, in large numbers,” Andreas Eckle, CIO of PowerCo SE, told the audience during a live session at Hannover Messe trade fair. “The gigafactories are set up to a standard factory design.” This ensures the same processes, the same equipment, and the same workflows at all its locations, he explained.

New Offering to Help Navigate Complex RISE with SAP Transformations

In the second quarter of 2025, SAP will announce an offering called “SAP ERP, private edition, transition option.” This cloud subscription service is designed to help large customers with complex installations on a RISE with SAP journey from SAP ERP systems to SAP cloud ERP.

RISE with SAP: Modernize your legacy ERP from SAP with an AI-enabled cloud ERP to thrive in the cloud

Here, we will give a brief preview on what this offering will be about and how customers will benefit from it.

Already today, thousands of SAP customers have successfully leveraged SAP cloud solutions to transform their businesses, achieve agility, and increase efficiencies. We see our customers unlocking new innovations through modernization of their business processes and embracing a cloud operating model.  For most SAP customers, it is not a matter of whether they are going to move from their legacy systems, but a question of how quickly they can do this in the overall context of their business and IT transformation.

As we approach 2030 and the end of extended maintenance for on-premise SAP ERP systems, this transformation becomes even more important. Continuing to use these systems beyond 2030 will become increasingly challenging and risk prone, as, for example, third-party products like older Java versions will no longer be supported from the respective vendors.

On the other hand, we know that SAP customers with very large and complex on-premise IT landscapes — including a large number of SAP ERP systems, some in the hundreds — require flexibility to move each part of their landscape to the cloud with the pace and agility needed to support evolving business requirements.

To help customers in this situation better prepare for the future, we will introduce a new cloud subscription offering, SAP ERP, private edition, transition option, designed to help our largest and most complex customers plan, execute and succeed in their cloud transformation.

This new offering will be an SAP ERP cloud subscription centered around SAP ECC, along with a set of dedicated services to help with the transformation to SAP cloud ERP. It will also support business continuity with patches for security, legal and software issues. It will be available for purchase starting in 2028 and will be active for usage from 2031-2033. SAP is pre-disclosing this offering because we understand that customers with complex landscapes need advance notice, hence we want to give sufficient time for planning purposes.

It is an additional and non-mandatory offering. Customers who are planning to complete their transformation journey by the end of 2030 will not need it. SAP ERP, private edition, transition option, is intended for customers who require additional time and support.

The offering will have a set of conditions, including:

  • The scope of products will be centered around SAP ECC; it will not include the full scope of SAP Business Suite 7 that is only available for subscription until end of 2030. SAP will make the eligible scope of products transparent starting later this year.
  • Systems relevant for the SAP ERP, private edition, transition option, need to be moved to SAP ERP, private edition prior to the end of 2030.
  • In order to be able to subscribe to the new offering from 2031 to latest end of 2033, a set of preparations are required: SAP HANA is the only supported database for the new subscription offering; there will be a set of further adjustments needed, e.g. as third-party technology, such as older versions of Java, are no longer supported.
  • More details will be announced closer to availability-to-purchase in 2028.

The natural next step and target after utilizing the new offering would then be a transition to SAP cloud ERP.

To clarify, we would like to emphasize that this is not a maintenance prolongation of SAP ERP. There are no changes for customers running on-premise SAP ERP systems after 2030.

The new offering, SAP ERP, private edition, transition option, will come at an expanded fee in 2031-2033 compared to a comparable ERP cloud subscription before 2031. Naturally, due to the complexity in offering such a service, this is targeted to larger and complex systems. More details will be shared with the broader launch in Q2 2025 and once we move closer to the contractual availability of the offering in 2028.

Feel encouraged to contact your SAP account executive or SAP partner to learn more and get started planning.


Stefan Steinle is executive vice president and head of Customer Support & Cloud Lifecycle Management at SAP.

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Intelligent Selling with Joule Now Available in SAP Sales Cloud

Sales teams are always looking for ways to make the most of their limited time. This is where SAP’s AI copilot Joule for SAP Sales Cloud can come in.

Joule is designed to help sales reps maximize their selling time, moments, and success, which is why we are excited to announce that Joule is available for the SAP Early Adopter Care program in SAP Sales Cloud.

Increase productivity and break down silos with AI copilot Joule

With Joule, sales reps can leverage AI-powered capabilities to streamline their work and engage more effectively with customers.

Joule AI copilot in SAP Sales Cloud

Streamline Administrative Tasks

Joule can update appointments and add notes from the latest customer interactions, turning admin time into more time for selling.

Joule updating appointment status

Access Insights from Across SAP Systems

Joule can access business data from other SAP systems like SAP S/4HANA Cloud to provide talking points for upcoming meetings or account and lead insights during customer calls. This puts the right information at reps’ fingertips, improving credibility and trust in every engagement.

Joule surfacing accounts to click into more details

Update Deals Effortlessly

Reps can tell Joule to update a lead, opportunity, or quote with the latest information, enabling real-time forecast accuracy without friction. By assisting with these tasks, Joule allows sales teams to focus on what matters most: building relationships and closing deals. It makes updating deals effortless, giving sales leaders the forecast confidence they need.

Joule updating opportunity details

Join the SAP Early Adopter Care Program

You can be among the first to experience the benefits of Joule through the SAP Early Adopter Care program for SAP Sales Cloud. Participants in the program will get:

  • Early access to Joule features
  • Dedicated support from SAP for a successful rollout
  • The chance to provide input and shape the future of Joule
  • Recognition as pioneers in AI-powered selling

With Joule, you have the opportunity to transform how their sales teams work, engage, and deliver.

Get Started Now

Ready to empower your sales team with Joule? The SAP Early Adopter Care program is accepting registrations until March 31, 2025. Register now through the SAP Customer Influence site.


Steven Spears is AI Product Marketing lead for SAP Customer Experience at SAP.

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Data Federation: Giving New Meaning to the Adage “Think Globally, Act Locally”

In December 2024, SAP Business Network—the world’s largest B2B platform, facilitating more than US$6.2 trillion in commerce annually in 190 countries—launched its first data center in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), representing a major step forward in the execution of SAP’s data federation strategy. SAP Business Network has now become a distributed, decentralized, and federated business network for SAP Business Network for Logistics and SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration across the EU, U.S., and KSA. With this milestone, SAP has delivered on a crucial promise made to a highly consequential set of customers.

But what exactly is data federation? And why does it hold so much promise for customers in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere?

To counter the ever-present threat to global supply chains posed by disruption—whether arising from geopolitical conflict, labor unrest, financial crisis, natural disaster, or other upheaval—businesses are turning increasingly to cloud-based solutions to extend visibility and instill resilience across their operations and those of their trading partners, particularly when managing supply chains, logistics, and dispersed capital equipment or other mission-critical assets. Yet just as businesses must assess risk on an international scale to stay competitive, they also must comply with a burgeoning set of regulations around the world requiring operational data to reside physically within a nation’s borders. By applying cloud-based solutions, businesses can transact commerce through global digital networks while adhering strictly to regional data residency requirements through an approach known as data federation.

Data federation permits operational information from disparate sources to be accessed and updated as though it resided in a single, unified location. Instead of moving or copying data from one system to another, federation provides users with real-time access unburdened by duplication.

Federation becomes crucial when an organization must unify its data across different storage platforms while ensuring the integrity and security of the underlying operational sources. This becomes particularly vital for companies with complex data architectures, whose data may reside in SAP systems, cloud data lakes, or third-party applications. Data federation brings multiple advantages, especially in hybrid or multi-cloud environments, including global access, cost efficiency, unified governance and security, and faster time to insights.

But the advantages extend still further. With the launch of our KSA data center, SAP Business Network core services have been deployed. This includes multilingual support, such as proficiency with languages read right-to-left like Arabic, and a Federated Trading Partner Index Service for routing transactions between different data centers. Saudi customers can thus adhere to local data privacy regulations while retaining the ability to collaborate and transact with trading partners around the world.

Why Is This Important?

With the deployment of SAP Business Network in the KSA data center, public sector or critical national infrastructure (CNI) customers and prospects in KSA can rest assured that regulations have been followed strictly, allowing these organizations to transact on SAP Business Network for Logistics and SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration. Data federation helps ensure that trading partners can find each other, regardless of where they may be registered.

What’s Next?

The deployment of SAP Business Network for Logistics and SAP Business Network Asset Collaboration for Saudi customers in the public and critical national infrastructure sectors, for whom data federation is crucial, marks only the initial step. Later this year, both products will become available for private-sector customers in KSA as well. SAP Business Network Commerce Automation and SAP Business Network Supply Chain Collaboration will also be deployed in the KSA data center in coming quarters. Meanwhile, SAP will continue to expand its data center footprint and data federation program across the globe, with the expansion of SAP Business Network capabilities throughout 2025 and beyond.

For information on SAP Business Network and how we are equipping enterprises with business AI and related capabilities needed to instill resilience, counter disruption, and foster collaboration, visit sap.com/businessnetwork and sap.com/ai.


Jörn Keller is chief product officer for SAP Business Network.

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SAP Takes Early Charge in 2025 with Innovative Spend Management Solutions

2025 is already off to a fast start, and that’s no different for SAP.

As we dive into 2025, SAP is already making waves in the spend management arena. Building on last year’s momentum, we are constantly innovating our market-leading solutions so you can reduce costs, mitigate risks, improve collaboration, and make sure every spend decision is aligned with your business strategy to help drive your business forward.

Q4 Breakthroughs: Highlighting Our Latest Innovations

It was an honor to collaborate with so many of you last year. When your business is at its best, so is ours, and this mutual partnership is what fuels our commitment to innovation. In Q4, our solutions—SAP Ariba, SAP Business Network, SAP Concur, and SAP Fieldglass—made significant strides, particularly in SAP Business AI. Here are just a few highlights:

  • SAP Spend Control Tower: Now generally available, this solution can provide a single source of truth for all payment and supplier data, enhanced with AI-enabled spend classifications and supplier insights. It helps streamline spend processes, cut procurement costs, manage supplier risks, and track sustainability goals.
  • Generative AI in SAP Business Network Discovery: We’ve introduced generative AI capabilities to help accelerate supplier search and improve network catalog product descriptions and summaries with AI-generated content.
  • AI flight recommendations in Concur Travel: This new feature can suggest policy-compliant flight options based on user preferences, loyalty programs, available inventory, and other factors.
  • Joule, SAP’s AI copilot, got cozy in SAP Fieldglass solutions this past quarter with the introduction of new features and functionalities, including:
    • Interactive guidance for creating and scheduling new reports through natural conversation, helping to navigate report creation, searches, and data insights
    • Quick answers to issues or questions with concise and easy-to-digest summaries of relevant information and helpful links to learn more
    • AI-assisted job posting and statement of work template selection, recommending the most relevant one and pre-filling data fields to save you time

These innovations align perfectly with the Hackett Group’s 2025 Procurement Agenda and Key Issues Study Results findings. The study highlights data and analytics reporting as the top priority for procurement transformation, a need we’re addressing head-on with our AI-enhanced solutions.

Automate spending processes and actively manage more spend for better control, greater value, and more savings

New Customer Stories and Honors

We built our solutions to elevate spend management from the most mundane part of your day to the most strategic. But don’t just take my word for it. Discover how companies like Molex, SKYTRAC, Atruvia AG, and SATORP leverage SAP solutions for better control and business resilience.

Transforming Customer Support With Artificial Intelligence

Customer support is one of the cornerstones of a successful business, yet it remains one of the most complex and demanding areas of the knowledge economy. It requires synthesizing vast amounts of information — including customer business needs, industry specifics, technology, and governance — into actionable insights. 

See how you can benefit from AI built into your core business processes

At SAP, we’ve harnessed the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and other data-driven technologies to revolutionize customer support, turning it into a seamless, efficient, and value-added experience.

The Evolution of the Knowledge Economy

Beyond resolving everyday challenges, we continue to serve our customers as true business partners, collaborating with them to help them achieve their broader business goals. While we live in a knowledge economy, where economic value is derived from that knowledge and how we apply it, this paradigm is changing. As humans, our role in the economy is evolving as AI systems increasingly replicate human cognitive skills — retrieving and using the right knowledge at the right time.

In this new paradigm, success will be determined not by how much you know, but by how effectively you can allocate and manage resources to get work done. In customer support, this means moving from simply resolving issues to orchestrating AI tools and human expertise to deliver optimal outcomes.

AI, including generative AI, becomes a collaborative partner, enabling support teams to allocate resources efficiently and focus on higher-value tasks. Recognizing this paradigm shift, we go beyond resolving everyday challenges and serve our customers as true business partners, collaborating with them to help them achieve their broader business goals — as the world changes.

AI Is the Perfect Partner for Customer Support Transformation

At SAP, AI is built into core business processes of customers, connecting finance, supply chain, procurement, sales, marketing, human resources, and IT. Data-driven technologies such as AI, robotic process automation (RPA), and process mining elevate support experiences for our customers. They do it by simplifying support access, addressing complex scenarios using AI agents, and enhancing automation to increase efficiency while delivering personalized solutions, as well as taking advantage of system metrics and process insights.

The Customer Support & Cloud Lifecycle Management organization at SAP also drives AI innovation to analyze process metrics collected from the customer’s systems to evaluate efficiency, bottlenecks, and opportunities for improvement; improve processes using domain-specific machine learning models; and build AI solutions that can be integrated into applications used in a business process or scenario.

Generative AI: Elevating Customer Support

Generative AI has been a game-changer for customer support. It empowers our support teams by enhancing the quality and speed of outcomes and enabling more personalized recommendations for customers. It also opens new possibilities for orchestrating AI services in combination with AI agents.

AI agents streamline support processes by automating time-consuming tasks, such as retrieving and assessing information, while enabling human-machine collaboration. This allows support professionals to focus on improving both customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

Real-World Impact: AI Use Cases in Customer Support

SAP has developed more than 50 AI-driven use cases, showcasing the transformative power of AI in customer support. These include:

  • Precise and fast generative AI-infused recommendations appear for customers while they type their requests. Customers also benefit from proactive recommendations on trending content and preventative recommendations like system health checks.
  • Smart ticket routing ensures support tickets reach the right experts, quickly.
  • Proactive issue identification detects and addresses potential problems before they escalate.
  • Internal workflow enhancements deliver efficiency gains from workflows such as intelligent search, automated error categorization, clustering of tickets with the same root cause, or expert swarming for complex issues.

Other generative AI capabilities include summarizing tickets, assisting in knowledge creation, and improving communication with customers.

These advances not only elevate support experiences for SAP customers, but also create significant efficiencies for our support engineers.

The SAP Advantage

SAP’s AI-driven support strategy is structured around three key pillars:

  1. Capturing business opportunities with domain-specific AI models: By leveraging our domain expertise and historical data, we design machine learning models tailored to specific support challenges. These models enable precise and actionable recommendations.
  2. Gathering real-world process insights: Using tools like SAP Signavio, we capture and analyze detailed process insights. This provides a solid foundation for identifying improvement opportunities.
  3. Building and integrating AI solutions: We integrate AI-driven solutions into existing workflows, ensuring seamless application and measurable impact. Process insights guide ongoing refinements and enhancements.

And the numbers speak for themselves: SAP’s AI support scenarios are called up more than 1 million times by our customers on an average day. More than 35,000 end users use our AI capabilities per month.

The Road Ahead: Human-Machine Collaboration in Support

The future of customer support lies in human-machine collaboration. By combining the analytical power of AI with human expertise, we can deliver unparalleled support experiences. AI agents will play a pivotal role in this transformation, assisting with things like ticket triage, data analysis, and troubleshooting, thereby enabling support teams to focus on strategic activities. As AI continues to evolve, these agents will become even more capable of providing real-time insights and proactive solutions to anticipate customer needs before they arise.

SAP’s commitment to AI-driven innovation ensures that we remain at the forefront of customer support transformation. By continuously evolving our AI capabilities, we are setting the stage for a new era of value-driven, scalable, and efficient customer support.

But there is one thing that AI will never replace: the empathy, care, and passion of our support teams, ensuring every customer feels supported as we solve their challenges together. The future of customer support lies in blending AI’s analytical power with human expertise. By working together, we’re setting a new standard for customer success.


Thomas Saueressig is a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE leading Customer Services & Delivery.
Stefan Steinle is executive vice president and head of Customer Support & Cloud Lifecycle Management at SAP.

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SAP Is a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Configure, Price, and Quote Application Suites

For the seventh consecutive year, Gartner has named SAP a Leader in its Magic Quadrant for Configure, Price, and Quote Application Suites.

2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Configure, Price and Quote Applications

SAP CPQ enables organizations — however complex, across however many channels, and regardless of which CRM they run — to produce quick and accurate quotes, accommodating the most advanced configuration and pricing requirements, resulting in a better sales experience and faster sales cycles.

This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from SAP. Click to enlarge.

Gartner evaluated 15 vendors and named SAP a Leader based on our “ability to execute” and “completeness of vision.” This recognition serves as an acknowledgment of SAP’s ongoing commitment to providing our customers with a CPQ solution that can meet and exceed their needs.

SAP CPQ is an essential component of SAP’s portfolio of products that help automate the quote-to-cash process, which enables organizations to convert sales opportunities into profitable repeat customers. SAP’s customers can transform to “everything-as-a-service” with innovative revenue models, can quickly adapt to market changes, support multiple sales channels and ensure regulatory compliance with end-to-end automation.

Our customers are the reason we do this, and they participated in the Gartner Peer Insights process by providing reviews that included:

  • “A Must buy along with SAP Eco System”
  • “SAP CPQ is an amazingly stable and consistent product with the ability to connect with different platforms and creating value for customer.”
  • “SAP CPQ is user-friendly and simplifies the configuration process. SAP CPQ can scale to meet the need for business.”
  • “An excellent integrated configuration solution, easy to setup and use”
  • “Everything is well laid and easy to navigate. Easy to teach people who have never use the system.”
  • “Really love using this platform, really simple to use and a good configurable system with enhanced features!”

Customer case studies provide descriptions of specific value.

In under 15 minutes, the sales team at Cleaver-Brooks is creating sales quotes for its complex boiler systems. The company has been using SAP CPQ since 2005 to help automate and scale its legacy quoting process, empowering more than 700 salespeople creating many thousands of quotes per year.

“You basically give the salesperson one to two days of their week back by using SAP CPQ,” Dominic Kasten, director of Sales Technologies at Cleaver-Brooks, shared. “When you give time back to salespeople, you are encouraging them to sell solutions to customers instead of just reacting to specifications.”

EXFO Inc., has created a quote system with a 360-degree view of customers to slash response times, improve quote accuracy, and enhance customer experiences. It has also created a new revenue stream by combining products and services in a single quote while increasing the number of quotes created per month by 70 percent.

“SAP CPQ underpins an intuitive system that helps sales teams produce speedy, accurate quotes, letting them concentrate on what matters most to customers,” said Sheila Thibodeua, CRM Solutions and Digital Sales manager at EXFO.

To learn more about how SAP helps to automate quote-to-cash, visit the SAP CPQSAP Billing and Revenue Innovation ManagementSAP Subscription Billing, and SAP S/4HANA Cloud areas of sap.com.


Jonathan Rhodes is head of Product Marketing for SaaS ERP at SAP.

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GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are 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.

SAP Introduces SAP Demo Environment 2.0 for Partners

SAP today announced the launch of the new SAP Demo Environment 2.0, a platform designed to benefit partners by providing easy access to the entire SAP solution demo portfolio. This allows partners to effectively communicate the value of SAP solutions, helping customers understand how these tools can address their specific challenges and enhance their businesses.

Product demos play a crucial role in helping customers visualize the core features and capabilities of SAP solutions. Customers want to see tangible proof of how SAP solutions can solve their pain points and improve their success. However, creating tailored demos that reflect customer needs can be resource-intensive and time-consuming. The new SAP Demo Environment is designed to provide clarity and confidence, simplifying this process and enabling partners to deliver high-quality, relevant demos that resonate with customers.

Using Live Data to Showcase Real-World Scenarios

Through the Content Discovery tool, partners can gain free and unlimited access for up to 10 users to an integrated, pre-scripted demo landscape with a continuously updated library of, as of the start of 2025, more than 240 demos to 100 SAP solutions across various landscapes. These turnkey, scripted demos utilize live data to showcase real-world scenarios and processes, allowing to effectively address customer challenges and demonstrate the full potential of SAP solutions. With access to interactive demo scripts, professionals can build their own knowledge and leverage interactive value journeys to explore demos in a click-through format without needing a live system.

Driving Meaningful Business Outcomes in Delivering Value to the Customers

As many organizations are undergoing digital transformation, the new demo environment is a game-changer. It empowers users to enhance their skills and leverage future-ready demos that can directly address customer’s needs, ultimately helping to drive meaningful business outcomes and foster long-term partnerships.

“The new SAP Demo Environment 2.0 is a significant leap forward in equipping SAP partners to effectively convey the value of SAP solutions,” says Karl Fahrbach, chief partner officer at SAP. “By streamlining the demo process with a comprehensive library of cutting-edge demos and interactive demo scripts, partners can double-down on their commitment to innovation excellence, drive customer success, and unlock new opportunities for growth.”


Andre Bechtold is SVP and head of Solution and Innovation Experience at SAP.

Partners drive customer success with solutions from SAP, delivering trusted advice and deep product knowledge

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