The business intelligence (BI) and analytics market is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by rapid advancements in generative AI and the demand for more intuitive, integrated data experiences.

A trusted data foundation is critical in the age of AI. But in a global survey of 1,200 business and technology leaders, 55 percent cited poor data quality as their biggest challenge. And nearly half struggle to harmonize data across multiple ecosystems.

SAP Business Data Cloud offers organizations a fully managed SaaS solution that unifies and governs SAP data while seamlessly connects with third-party data. This data platform gives organizations the tools they need to make even more impactful decisions and insights across all lines of business.

After only eight months in the market, leading analyst firms have given SAP Business Data Cloud high marks for its analytics and BI solutions, primarily SAP Analytics Cloud.

SAP recognized as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Business Intelligence and Analytics Platforms 2025 Vendor Assessment

IDC MarketScape provides in-depth quantitative and qualitative technology market assessments. The evaluation highlights the most influential factors for technology buyers that want to introduce, modernize, or replace business intelligence and analytics tools within their organization.

“Organizations are constantly striving to engage in data-driven decisions,” said Megha Kumar, research vice president, Analytics and AI, IDC. “This need for insights across the board puts pressure on data and analytics teams. This will result in organizations seeking capabilities around automation, GenAI, and agentic AI features within their business intelligence and analytics platform. It is also important that these insights are available in the flow of work to allow for improved collaboration and decision velocity.”

IDC MarketScape recognizes SAP as a Leader for the following strengths:

• Focused on integrating data from SAP and non-SAP sources and enabling customers to engage in analytics, planning, and AI in a single environment
• Solution designed to support both technical and nontechnical users, with self-service analytics, ad hoc data exploration, and embedded analytics experiences within business applications
• Features such as zero-copy data integration and focused on expanding the ecosystem beyond traditional SAP data sources

Read an excerpt from IDC’s report with additional details here.

SAP named a Market Leader in BARC Score Enterprise BI & Analytics Platforms, 2025

The BARC Score report assesses solutions that fulfill a broad set of BI and analytics needs. BARC named SAP a Market Leader, citing the following benefits:

• Integrated business-user-oriented solution for planning and analytics — with embedded functionality for augmented analytics and application design
• Smart features and natural language generation functions help users to dig deep into data sets quickly by surfacing trends and outliers automatically
• Exclusive connectivity, live access, embedded analytics, and prebuilt content available for SAP sources and applications speed up implementation and help to gain insights from these systems
• Capabilities to govern master data and align KPIs across an organization
• Flexible options for product usage with multi-tenant or private tenant options for deployments in the public cloud on AWS, Azure, Alibaba, and GCP

Read BARC’s full report here.

This recognition from both the IDC MarketScape and BARC reinforces the pivotal role of SAP Business Data Cloud in empowering organizations to become truly data-driven.

By providing a unified, intelligent, and scalable platform that fuels business AI, SAP continues to set the standard for modern data and analytics, ensuring customers can derive trusted insights and drive decisive actions in an increasingly complex business landscape.

Dan Yu is chief marketing officer for SAP Business Data Cloud at SAP.

Generative AI is widely celebrated as a powerhouse for improving productivity, automating workflows, and accelerating efficiency in the workplace.

However, its potential goes far beyond simple optimization: generative AI can be a trusted ally for personal growth and confidence building, especially when navigating unfamiliar professional territory.

Whether you’re assuming a new leadership role, mastering a complex technical skill, or simply feeling uncertain about your next career step, AI platforms can truly help you gain clarity and confidence.

Here are three straightforward ways to use AI as a growth tool when venturing beyond your career comfort zone.

1. AI as a judgment-free partner

One valuable yet often underappreciated role of generative AI is its ability to serve as a non-judgmental sounding board. Transitioning to a new role or company often brings uncertainty, questions, and sometimes self-doubt. Regardless of the change, AI offers a non-judgmental space where users can openly share thoughts and explore solutions. This use of AI can help individuals better understand their uncertainties and organize their experiences in a positive, constructive way — laying the groundwork for confident problem-solving and, ultimately, success through a transition or challenge.

2. Breaking down big hurdles into bite-size goals

Facing broad, complex objectives can feel overwhelming. Generative AI can aid career growth by breaking down daunting challenges into smaller, manageable milestones. By asking AI to convert broad objectives into “bite-size” tasks, professionals gain a clear road map to achieve their goals. This approach reduces cognitive overload and encourages momentum through steady progress. Whether leading a new team or mastering advanced analytics, these small wins build confidence and reinforce a proactive mindset.

3. Expert-curated learning tailored to your needs

Finally, generative AI can customize and deliver high-quality learning resources that address your unique knowledge gaps and career context. For instance, AI can recommend expert insights and training modules that align with your individualized development path via the SAP Learning site, which provides access a broad portfolio of self-paced and premium learning opportunities to achieve business transformation and grow your career with free, self-paced, and on-demand SAP learning resources to both obtain and maintain SAP Certifications. From exploring agile frameworks as a project manager to deepening cybersecurity expertise as an IT professional, AI acts as a personalized guide to expert-level content designed to meet your specific needs.

To further support scalable and targeted learning, the SAP Learning site provides learners access to both self-paced and guided learning resources, allowing them to follow learning journeys tailored for specific roles and skill levels in a self-paced way. This adaptive approach enhances engagement and retention, helping users not only acquire new skills, but effectively apply them in their roles. Seamlessly embedded into everyday workflows, these online courses empower employees to engage in continuous development without interrupting their daily responsibilities — strengthening both their individual growth and overall organizational capability.

Whether managing cross-functional projects, mastering data analysis, or navigating career pivots, AI-enhanced learning experiences provide dynamic support that transforms uncertainty into clarity and fosters sustained growth.

Leveraging generative AI has become essential for confident, forward-thinking career advancement as new skills and roles emerge rapidly. Integrating AI into personal development helps professionals transition into new roles with greater assurance and agility.

More than a productivity tool, AI serves as a growth partner — listening without judgment, breaking down complex challenges into clear steps, and offering tailored learning paths. By embracing AI as a trusted resource, individuals and organizations can nurture a culture of continuous learning and navigate change and growth opportunities with confidence.

Andre Bechtold is president of Industries & Experiences at SAP.

WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that Henkel AG & Co. KGaA, a leader in adhesives, sealants and consumer goods, and SAP have codeveloped a solution using SAP AI Services to streamline and enhance the returns and exchanges process.

The custom-built solution will enhance Henkel’s dispute management process by automating the indexing and classification of claim-related documents, setting a new industry standard for customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.

The custom solution, referred to as financial and supply chain management deduction and dispute management indexing (FSCM DDM Indexing), leverages SAP AI Services to automatically process and extract relevant information from customer claim documents. By embedding SAP AI Services into the early stages of the dispute resolution lifecycle, the solution minimizes manual interventions and ensures faster and more accurate case creation. This transforms what is often a manual and time-consuming process into a swift, intuitive and customer-centric experience.

“SAP’s AI-enabled solution will help us streamline our dispute management process, reducing manual labor and the time required for dispute resolution,” said Dimitri Lerner, Henkel’s corporate director of value chain platform. “As we continue our digital transformation, the partnership with SAP will not just enable our employees to become more productive but also elevate customer experiences.”

Based in Düsseldorf, Germany, Henkel is known for iconic brands such as Persil, Schwarzkopf, Dial and Purex. It operates in 79 countries. As such, its teams must often review high volumes of diverse and complex claim documentation, with claims policies differing in countries and rules. Where the process previously required considerable manual effort, the new AI-assisted claims solution automates the retrieval of documents from a central in-box and enhances the analysis of documents to determine reason codes and location codes. This speeds up and improves the accuracy of the returns and exchanges process. Once logged, these claims are integrated into Henkel’s business performance data, ensuring the company has real-time insights into its business operations, facilitating end-to-end process management.

“We are proud to support Henkel in its digital journey by delivering innovations tailored to its business processes while addressing operational challenges,” said Sindhu Gangadharan, head of SAP’s Customer Innovation Services organization. “This solution harnesses the power of AI to simplify dispute processing and improve end-user productivity. It is an excellent example of how SAP’s innovation capabilities can deliver tangible business outcomes at scale. We look forward to deepening our collaboration with Henkel.”

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SAP partners enrich our industry-leading portfolio with unique IP built on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), the platform that unlocks partners’ ability to innovate, extend, and integrate business applications at scale.

To further empower partners to build AI-driven innovations and unlock new possibilities for customers, we are pleased to announce free access to SAP Build test, demo, and development (TDD) licenses for all SAP partners.

SAP Build offers partners a comprehensive suite of low-code, code-first, and generative AI tools to create custom Joule skills and agents, applications, automations, and digital workspaces. This new offering gives partners access to SAP Build with included entitlements up to fair use limits, allowing ISVs to innovate at a low initial cost.

Partners can use SAP Build to develop, test, and deploy applications and proofs of concept, making it easier to bring new solutions to market. These solutions can be sold on SAP Store, expanding the reach to SAP’s global customer base.

Free TDD licenses for SAP partners: what’s included

Here is what’s included — all available as of today:

• All SAP Build capabilities (developer, base and premium user, runtime, including Joule Studio and ABAP Cloud)
• SAP HANA Cloud, our multi-model database, which serves, among other capabilities, as an enabler for RAG applications and powerful persistency layer for SAP Build projects
• Additional SAP BTP services such as generative AI hub, logging services, cloud identity, and others

Furthermore, the SAP Joule for Developers add-on continues to be free for customers and partners until further notice as part of a promotion. 

Accelerating transformative AI innovation on SAP Build

SAP Build makes it easier than ever for partners to develop and integrate AI into their applications. With a SAP Build developer license, you can use Joule Studio to create and enhance Joule skills — all with intuitive drag-and-drop tools.

And, coming soon, agent builder in Joule Studio will let you design, build, and deploy your own custom AI agents. These agents will tap into the SAP Knowledge Graph for rich business insights and the SAP Business Data Cloud (SAP BDC) for seamless access to data across SAP and non-SAP systems.

At the heart of it all is AI Foundation, your one-stop shop for AI. The powerful, easy-to-use platform brings together everything you need to build, extend, and scale AI solutions. With tools like generative AI Hub, partners have secure access to frontier large language models (LLMs), prompt management, and tools, such as data masking and more, that provide them with everything they need to innovate with confidence.

SAP Build: making it easier for partners to create intelligent applications

There is even more to look forward to as we continue to invest in new SAP Build capabilities to help partners innovate and grow their market share.

In the second half of 2025, SAP Build will integrate with SAP BDC, enabling developers to connect with SAP BDC data products. Coming in early 2026, partners will be able to use SAP Build to create intelligent applications and data products that can be used with SAP Business Data Cloud.

Unlock the full potential of SAP Build: exclusive webinar and partner resources

To learn more, partners can register for our SAP Build free TDD enablement webinar on August 13, 2025. Partners can visit the SAP Partner Portal for more information about SAP Build capabilities and TDD license fair use limits.

Michael Ameling is president of SAP Business Technology Platform and a member of the Extended Board of SAP SE.
Karl Fahrbach is chief partner officer of SAP.

SAP acquired Silicon Valley-based Taulia in March of 2022. Three years on, the fintech is helping customers unlock liquidity, and save big on costs as a result. Thomas Mehlkopf explains how.

The SAP Taulia portfolio offers solutions for working capital management and supply chain financing, as well as a network for buyers, suppliers, and financial institutions.

Mehlkopf is global chief revenue officer for Treasury and Working Capital Management at SAP, and is responsible for marketing and rolling out the solutions for these domains to customers.

Q: Three years ago, we announced that the Taulia products would be integrated into the SAP portfolio. What’s the status?

A: After acquiring Taulia, we pushed ahead with three main priorities to align with SAP Business Suite. The first was the integration of the portfolio into SAP Business Network so that, where suppliers and buyers both run SAP Taulia solutions, they can utilize the network to benefit from early payment options and supply chain finance.

We also worked on integrating the solutions into SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and released the SAP Taulia solutions for receivables financing and payables financing on SAP Cloud ERP in February 2025. These are particularly relevant for small and midsize enterprises that want to grow and that need quicker payments to do so. The current focus is on the U.S., Canada, UK, DACH, and Singapore markets, with the goal of making this functionality available in additional countries soon.

Our third priority was to embed SAP Taulia Virtual Cards into SAP Ariba solutions. The cards enable buyers to pay their suppliers sooner — even before they issue an invoice — using a “pay on purchase order” transaction. This ensures that the supplier in question has sufficient cash flow to fulfill the order.

Back in 2022, Taulia was described as a growth opportunity for SAP and for customers. Could you tell us how SAP Taulia is performing?

SAP Taulia already has several customers that finance billions through the platform, thereby improving both their own liquidity and that of their suppliers. My team’s objective is to increase that number and to continue scaling up, and we’re making good progress. Over the last three years, the volume of transactions processed with SAP Taulia has risen steadily from US$500 billion to US$800 billion.

Customers are benefiting from this progress: one large enterprise in the oil and gas industry saved almost €700,000 within a single month of going live. Extrapolated to a full year, that’s annual savings of almost €8 million. So, the business case for customers is definitely there.

You presented the first AI use case in SAP Taulia at SAP Sapphire in 2025. Can you tell us about its value for customers?

The AI use case relates to our “insight to action” approach and helps companies plan and improve their cash flow. SAP Taulia has already been using artificial intelligence for some time to forecast supplier behavior around early payments. By combining this insight with data from an app on SAP Business Technology Platform that provides transparency on free cash flow, the AI use case will give customers tips on how to improve their liquidity. It also runs through various scenarios showing them ways to influence it. Information like this is especially important for CFOs — never more so than in times of uncertainty.

Are there any other recent announcements you would like to share?

Yes, another important update is that SAP Taulia is now part of SAP’s cloud ERP packages for the public cloud, SAP Finance Base and SAP Finance Premium, as well as the private cloud, SAP Cloud ERP Private. This means that we can quickly show customers the positive business case for their transformation of using SAP Taulia to improve their cash flow and achieve savings.

In times of global crisis, trade tariffs, and supply chain disruption, why are the SAP Taulia solutions so vital for cash flow?

Cash is still king, especially in a crisis. An article published recently in German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported that net debt among the 40 companies on Germany’s DAX stock market index has increased eight percent to €227 billion since the pandemic. Clearly, financing is a major issue, particularly given that interest rates have risen so sharply. Many companies borrowed when interest rates were low and are now having to refinance their loans at higher interest rates, which puts enormous pressure on their finance teams. SAP Taulia solutions can help by providing the funding that businesses need.

Given the impact that trade tariffs have on the supply chain, it is vital that companies carry out liquidity planning and scenario analysis. They need to think about where they will manufacture their products in the future, what effect that choice will have on revenues, and how they can use SAP Taulia to improve their cash flow.

Which reference customers are already benefiting from this?

SAP Taulia customers include Henkel, Airbus, Nissan, AstraZeneca, Kimberly-Clark, and Bridgestone.

One customer has enabled early payments to suppliers totaling over €5 billion since the start of the program, which has led to an improvement in cash flow of more than €1 billion during this period.

Your pledge is “to create the future of finance together.” What does that involve?

We want to team up with our partners and customers to influence the transformation of corporate finance. That includes working with banks and implementation partners and integrating SAP Taulia into a swathe of SAP solutions. Together, we offer customers a comprehensive portfolio of treasury and working capital solutions, ranging from payments and cash management to financial risk management.

One key aspect of our road map is our treasury and payment portfolio, which covers topics such as the future of payments. We are also working to integrate new technologies, including blockchain and digital currencies, so that we can offer our customers innovative payment and financing solutions.

Based on a long-term relationship with SAP AppHaus Network partner Bluestonex, renowned luxury retailer the Watches of Switzerland Group moved to SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) in a partner-managed cloud approach to fully enable application development and digital innovation.

With the help of its trusted partner, the Watches of Switzerland Group also set up SAP Integration Suite within only two weeks, enabling the company to incorporate insurance offers in their processes.

The Watches of Switzerland Group is a leading luxury watch retailer with a reputation for quality and exclusivity. With operations spanning the UK, U.S., and parts of Europe, its portfolio of brands has been a trusted name in luxury timepieces for decades. As the company expands its business and adapts to new market dynamics, Watches of Switzerland Group is transforming its technology infrastructure to prioritize scalability, efficiency, and streamlined operations across its global presence.

The journey to SAP BTP as a partner-managed cloud model

At the beginning of the engagement, the English watch retailer relied on an enterprise architecture including legacy systems such as on-premise SAP ECC 6.0 systems and middleware built in-house. Limited IT resources made scaling difficult to meet business demands for faster project delivery and modern integrations.

After purchasing SAP BTP credits, the company faced internal skill gaps and competing priorities. Finally, the company wanted to adopt cloud-based technologies while remaining flexible about future ERP decisions, whether transitioning to SAP S/4HANA or exploring alternative platforms.

Partnering with Bluestonex

Watches of Switzerland partnered with Bluestonex and transitioned to a partner-managed cloud model – in this case SAP BTP. Under this model, Bluestonex took over responsibility for managing SAP BTP credits, resource allocation, and infrastructure support, allowing Watches of Switzerland Group to shift from an internal, self-managed approach to an expertly managed environment, always aligned with the retailer’s business objectives. Since moving to this model, Watches of Switzerland Group has:

• Increased SAP BTP value: Freed from managing credits and technical configurations, the customer team can focus on business-critical projects
• Streamlined SAP Fiori applications: All SAP Fiori apps have been successfully migrated to the cloud, enhancing performance and improving the user experience
• Strengthened IT resilience: With Bluestonex acting as a strategic partner, Watches of Switzerland has built a foundation to support future growth and innovation
• Future-proofed infrastructure: The agnostic capabilities of SAP BTP ensure that the integration framework remains relevant, regardless of the future ERP platform

Bluestonex Innovation Factory

With the foundational work completed, Watches of Switzerland decided to further expand its adoption of SAP BTP services, integrating more business processes and scaling globally. But what were the core business processes? Where was the room or even need for improvement to deliver best-in-class customer services, be successful overall, and remain on top of things in the luxury retail segment?

“The partnership with Bluestonex is not just about technology,” said Glenn Bamford, head of Business Systems at Watches of Switzerland Group. “They act as an extension of our team, bringing innovation and expertise that we lack internally. With their support, we’ve been able to make strategic moves towards modernizing our systems while remaining agile for the future.”

To understand business, user, and customer needs, thorough research can provide reliable answers and a solid foundation for innovation. So, along the human-centered approach to innovation, Bluestonex Innovation Factory team organized a user research journey visiting six representative Watches of Switzerland Group showrooms, shadowing employees and observing different processes in the context of purchasing, customer inquiries, deliveries, commissioning, and many more.

After visiting the different showrooms, one observation was that requirements could vary considerably from one to another, simply because of different locations and customer profiles. In some showrooms, it was mainly about selling middle-priced watches and attending several customers at a time; in others, it was about serving one customer with specific needs for a purchase of a very expensive and unique piece.

Incorporating insurance options with the help of SAP Integration Suite

Despite all the differences, there is one requirement the researchers observed, that spanned across all customer engagements. That is the wish for an appropriate insurance option for the purchased watch. The Watches of Switzerland Group and Bluestonex decided to realize this integration of an insurance option in its service processes through SAP Integration Suite.

In just two weeks, the insurance integration went live as scheduled, allowing the Watches of Switzerland Group to meet crucial business demands without sacrificing quality or functionality. With SAP Integration Suite, Watches of Switzerland Group is now positioned to continue modernizing its technology stack in alignment with its strategic vision. This scalable solution can evolve with their future needs, including a potential transition to SAP S/4HANA.

“This project demonstrates the value of Bluestonex as a strategic partner,” Bamford said. “Not only did they execute the integration under intense time pressure, but they also provided critical expertise. SAP Integration Suite, deployed with Bluestonex’s support, paves the way for greater flexibility and scalability as we move forward with our digital transformation.”

During the annual SAP BTP strategy day held in the Bluestonex AppHaus Shropshire, Watches of Switzerland Group identified concrete business objectives and how technology could be harnessed to accomplish these goals, both for them and for Bluestonex as its partner. With the proven hands-on methods to prioritize and align different solutions to these goals the joint team was able to map goals to short-term and medium-term actions.

Looking back, Bluestonex Commercial Director Richard Henry said: “Our partnership with Watches of Switzerland was born from our SAP AppHaus DNA, as well as the focus on providing value-driven user experience in SAP BTP applications. As a niche SAP partner, we could provide the right skill set, along a human-centered approach to innovation and support the Watches of Switzerland Group in its digital strategy with SAP.”

After realizing the value of SAP Integration Suite, Watches of Switzerland Group and Bluestonex are now looking for further integration projects right across the business. The group’s flexible and secure cloud-first approach enables it to adapt to changing markets and continue to deliver the best possible customer service.

The way ahead

One area where both teams are equally eager to progress is in artificial intelligence (AI). The Bluestonex team always looks for business use cases that could be improved with the help of SAP Business AI capabilities. Also, the Watches of Switzerland Group’s team is keen to understand how to unlock the use of AI in its organization. Bluestonex showcased several solutions, including its document processes application, which was developed as part of the Next Level Programme in just 10 days, as well as the integration of SAP’s generative AI copilot Joule for its flagship product Maextro, a data governance tool.

For all the opportunities SAP Business AI holds in stock, customer and partner are currently planning for a first SAP Business AI Explore workshop to identify use cases that could be improved with the help of AI. As said above, it is all about thorough research and a trustful collaboration to stay future-ready and a leader in luxury retail.

Imke Vierjahn is communications lead for SAP AppHaus Network.