BUSINESS NEWS 2 - The World Management

20 January

Updates to SAP’s Integration Certification Program for Partner-Built Solutions

by tempuser_550864309 0 Comments

I am excited to share important updates regarding the integration certification program for partner-built solutions, managed by the SAP Integration and Certification Center (SAP ICC).

As SAP accelerates our strategy around applications, data, and AI, these certification enhancements will help ensure our growing ecosystem is aligned—both technically and directionally—with our clean core, cloud-forward, and AI-ready approach.

A framework designed around partner and customer needs

SAP is committed to delivering business innovations across applications, data, and AI. With this update, we have listened closely to partners and customers and introduced enhancements that make it easier for partners to validate their solutions while maintaining SAP’s high standards:

Empowering customers to leverage data-driven business and enterprise AI—securely and at scale
Supporting intelligent apps, seamless cloud connectivity, and adoption of SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP)
Adhering to SAP’s “clean core” extensibility guidelines, ensuring future-ready, upgradable integrations

Integration certification and the new interoperability review

Our refreshed framework offers two clear paths for partners.

Integration certification (use-case based)

For partner solutions aligned with SAP strategic priorities (SAP BTP-based, using SAP Business AI, clean core, public cloud, and intelligent apps)
Certification awarded for specific use cases that adhere to SAP strategic priorities for integration, data, and development guidelines
Benefits include certified status, branding rights, and access to go-to-market support, with clear guidance and transparency throughout the process

Interoperability review (open and inclusive)

We are especially excited to introduce the interoperability review, a new open program designed in response to partner and customer feedback.

Open to all partner and independent software vendor (ISV) solutions, including those that may not be eligible for integration certification
Showcase technical compatibility with SAP solutions through compliance with technical integration standards
Solutions listed as interoperable on SAP Notes and receive detailed review summery
Helps partners demonstrate interoperability and SAP compliance to customers.

This new interoperability review reflects our commitment to listen to the SAP ecosystem and enable more partners and ISVs to participate, fostering innovation across our platform.

How this benefits partners and customers

For partners:

Easier access to SAP’s integration framework, even if formal certification is not applicable
Clear pathways for strategic alignment and accelerated development of maintainable, future-ready solutions
Co-marketing visibility for certified solutions

For customers:

Access to a broader set of partner solutions that are future-ready, upgradable, and compliant with SAP’s clean core standards
Confidence in interoperability and technical quality across SAP’s business application landscape
Faster adoption of data-rich solutions built on robust foundations

Looking forward

The new framework, planned to launch in Q3 2026, is designed to empower partners, build trust with customers, and accelerate innovation across SAP’s platform.

Our Partner Ecosystem Success team will support this transition throughout the second half of 2026. Partners can preview the criteria for the integration certification and the interoperability review in the SAP Integration Certification framework reference guide or reach out to your SAP partner manager or the SAP ICC team with questions.

Karl Fahrbach is chief partner officer of SAP SE.

19 January

BUSINESS NEWS

AI in Healthcare: SAP and Fresenius Accelerate Digital Healthcare Delivery

by tempuser_550864309 0 Comments

WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) and Fresenius today announced that both companies intend to enter a strategic partnership to accelerate innovation for stronger digital healthcare delivery.

Together, the companies plan to create the digital backbone for a sovereign, interoperable and AI-supported healthcare system. The solutions will combine the expertise of Fresenius, one of the world’s largest healthcare companies, with future-oriented SAP technologies and meet high requirements for data sovereignty, security and regulatory compliance. The plan is to provide an open, integrated and data‑driven digital health ecosystem that enables hospitals and medical facilities worldwide to use AI securely and to handle health data responsibly.

Digital sovereignty for healthcare

SAP and Fresenius plan to jointly build an individual, scalable healthcare platform that enables connected, data-driven healthcare processes. Based on this, the companies will develop joint, future-oriented and AI-supported healthcare solutions to sustainably increase quality, transparency and efficiency across the entire care chain and set new standards for digital innovation in the healthcare sector. The foundation will be proven SAP technologies and products such as SAP Business Suite, SAP Business Data Cloud (SAP BDC), SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and SAP Business AI. These core elements help create a unified, compliant, open and expandable base for the more-secure exchange and use of data as well as for operating AI models in a controlled environment.

Together, the companies also plan to build a sovereign, European solution for an integrated healthcare ecosystem that supports the integration of modern hospital information systems (HIS) based on SAP’s “AnyEMR” strategy. Interfaces based on open industry standards such as HL7 FHIR will enable the more-seamless connection of HIS, electronic medical records (EMRs) and other medical applications.

“With SAP’s leading technology and Fresenius’ deep healthcare expertise, we aim to create a sovereign, interoperable healthcare platform for Fresenius worldwide. Together, we want to set new standards for data sovereignty, security and innovation in healthcare. Thanks to SAP, Fresenius can harness the full potential of digital and AI-supported processes and sustainably improve patient care,” says Christian Klein, CEO and Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE.

“Together with SAP, we can accelerate the digital transformation of the German and European healthcare systems and enable a sovereign European solution that is so important in today’s global landscape. We are making data and AI everyday companions that are secure, simple and scalable for doctors and hospital teams. This creates more room for what truly matters: caring for patients,” adds Michael Sen, CEO of Fresenius.

As part of the joint transformation project, both companies plan to invest a mid three-digit million euro amount in the medium term to consistently drive the digital transformation of the German and European healthcare system through the use of digital and AI-supported solutions.

The partnership is implemented through various forms of collaboration. These include joint investments in startups and scaleups, joint technological developments and close cooperation within coordinated governance structures between the two companies.

Visit the SAP News Center. Get SAP news via LinkedIn and Bluesky.

Media contact:
Dana Roesiger, +49 62277 7 63900, dana.roesiger@sap.com, CET
SAP Press Room; press@sap.com

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP’s 2024 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
© 2026 SAP SE. All rights reserved.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices.

17 January

BUSINESS NEWS

Unlocking Growth by Embracing the Paradoxes of the Intelligent Age

by tempuser_81121692 0 Comments

The Intelligent Age is marked by rapid technological progress, societal shifts and complex paradoxes. We’re more connected yet more isolated; flooded with information but uncertain of truth; empowered and threatened by technology.

As companies and governments face challenges around sovereignty, security and competitiveness, they need to embrace approaches that initially appear contradictory: investing boldly despite limited resources, sharing data while protecting it and competing while collaborating. These are not contradictions – this is the new operating model.

Against this backdrop, it becomes clear that organizations must adopt a three-pillar approach to navigate this new normal of paradoxes.

First, they must ground themselves in flexible digital foundations; second, embed AI deeply and responsibly into their operations; and third, view collaboration as a strategic advantage rather than a compromise.

These principles form the backbone of a sustainable way of working in the Intelligent Age, where progress depends on navigating paradoxes with agility and shared purpose.

Laying the foundation for flexibility

Progress is moving at breakneck speed. Technologies that seemed futuristic yesterday are mainstream today and by tomorrow, they could even be obsolete. To keep pace, organizations need a foundation that is rigid but adaptable – a platform that can evolve as quickly as the world around it.

That foundation is the cloud. A cloud migration is more than an IT project: it is the digital foundation for a thorough modernization of the entire enterprise, for moving from “good “to “great.”

Modern cloud infrastructure enables data, applications and AI to interoperate seamlessly, creating an environment where innovation can flourish. It accelerates the deployment of software updates and new applications, reduces complexity and provides the scalability needed to respond to shifting demands.

True flexibility, however, goes beyond technology. Organizations must foster a mindset that embraces change, encourages experimentation and prioritizes resilience over perfection. This means empowering teams to adapt quickly, learn continuously and view change as an opportunity rather than a threat.

Drive AI innovation on your terms

As AI rapidly reshapes how we live, study and work, no organization can afford to ignore it, yet many still have questions about how to apply it.

In the business-to-business realm, AI cannot be treated as a standalone technology. To unleash its full potential, AI must be deeply embedded in business processes. This requires three pillars:

Modern cloud software
Advanced data management
A consistent stack of AI technologies

Companies that move from legacy on-premises software to integrated cloud applications unlock AI’s ability to access, understand and facilitate transactions across the enterprise. This enables AI agents to function as digital coworkers, capable of executing complex workflows spanning the business.

The power AI offers is undeniable and in today’s volatile world, this often leads to questions around digital sovereignty. True digital sovereignty is about maintaining control over critical data and assets while leveraging the best technologies available in line with national interests.

Data protection and compliance are non-negotiable. Companies and governments must ensure that sensitive information remains under appropriate jurisdictional control.

Internationally aligned sovereignty standards – such as ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) – would enable secure, compliant scaling across borders, unlocking the full potential of AI without compromising trust.

Not all data requires the same level of protection. Information essential to national security or public safety requires the highest levels of control. At the same time, less sensitive data can be managed in trusted cloud environments that comply with recognized cybersecurity standards.

This nuanced approach allows organizations to balance innovation with responsibility.

Compete with collaboration

The paradox of competition and collaboration is perhaps the most striking of all. In a hyperconnected world, no company or government can tackle today’s challenges alone. Cybersecurity threats, climate change and economic inequality are global issues that demand collective solutions.

The competitive advantage now lies in partnerships – across industries, sectors and borders. Public-private collaboration is essential to co-create AI use cases, build open ecosystems and invest in digital education. Such partnerships are strategic imperatives that strengthen our society and our economy for long-term growth.

Collaboration also extends to governance. Establishing shared frameworks for ethical AI, data privacy and sustainability will require dialogue among stakeholders with competing interests. Yet, this dialogue is the cornerstone of progress.

Dialogue: the operating principle

While the opportunities AI provides are immense, they are by no means guaranteed. The determining factor will be our ability to engage in meaningful dialogue – as companies and governments, technology experts and policy-makers, innovators and citizens.

In the Intelligent Age, the question is not whether we will face paradoxes, but how we face them. Dialogue must be our operating principle – the means through which we reconcile paradoxes, build trust and chart a course toward shared prosperity. The future will belong to those who embrace complexity, act with courage and collaborate across divides.

Christian Klein is CEO and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE.

This piece originally appeared on the World Economic Forum website.

16 January

BUSINESS NEWS

Out-of-the-Box AI Agents, AI-Assisted Insights and Loyalty Tools: What’s New with SAP Customer Experience in Q4 2025

by tempuser_3956469651 0 Comments

The recent holiday shopping season signaled a major shift in how people interact with brands, moving from traditional search toward conversational agents that do more than answer questions. These agents anticipate intent and orchestrate entire workflows: retrieving information, summarizing options, taking actions, and closing tasks.

This isn’t just a consumer trend; it is reshaping engagement models across industries.

The Q4 2025 SAP Customer Experience (SAP CX) release propels this transformation further with new out-of-the-box agents designed for customer service and the ability to easily build custom agents with Joule Studio. Additionally, AI features like predictive segmentation and AI-assisted reporting expedite planning and decision-making—foundational catalysts for future-ready businesses.

With WalkMe Premium now available across SAP CX applications, teams can upskill and reskill with in-the-moment guidance. And SAP Customer Loyalty Management takes new engagement models to the next level, helping businesses strengthen relationships and drive long-term growth.

Here, explore more of the highlights from the Q4 2025 release.

Better customer engagement with out-of-the box agents and custom tools

With SAP, customer experience applications, data and AI come together as one—powered by SAP Business Technology Platform. Whether it’s resolving an issue or managing inventory, CX applications connected to SAP ERP keep processes running smoothly. AI agents take it further, by reasoning and acting directly in core processes, turning complexity into clarity. One of the most critical areas is in customer support.

Digital Service Agent: Deliver instant and accurate self-service by putting knowledge at customers’ fingertips. Deflect common inquiries, resolve complex questions with AI, and escalate seamlessly to human agents when needed—reducing contact center load while improving customer satisfaction.
Digital Service Agent can be combined with Shopping Agent, creating one conversational AI that handles the entire journey—from product discovery and transaction to post-sales support. Customers can ask questions, get answers, and complete purchases in a single frictionless interaction. Together these agents unlock agentic commerce and intelligent service, which strengthens customer relationships and deliver experiences that truly stand out.

Product screenshot: Digital Service Agent — Digital Service Agent

Joule Studio, agent builder: Create custom, business-ready AI agents for SAP Customer Experience Cloud applications—fast and without complexity. Joule Studio, a part of SAP B uild, gives developers a powerful low-code, no-code environment to create and deploy AI agents and connect them seamlessly to Joule, SAP CX apps and third-party systems. These agents can retrieve information, complete tasks, and run autonomous actions grounded in enterprise data from SAP CX, SAP Knowledge Graph, and non-SAP systems.
For example, users can build a sales assistant agent that instantly pulls historical purchase records, analyzes buying patterns, and recommends the most relevant products or offers—helping sales teams increase conversion rates and shorten sales cycles. Learn how to activate Joule Studio and start building, testing, and deploying AI agents.

16 January

BUSINESS NEWS

New Research from SAP and Forrester Consulting Reveals the State of Global Transformation Readiness

by tempuser_2770432575 0 Comments

New research from Forrester Consulting, commissioned by SAP, has revealed that 74% of organizations plan to increase investment in transformation. But when it comes to the maturity required to execute transformation effectively, only 6% qualify as leaders.

Competitive pressures, systemic risks, technological disruption, and workforce shifts are reshaping the modern business landscape constantly, meaning most organizations already run multiple transformations simultaneously. In fact, Forrester’s research reveals that 72% of organizations are pursuing four or more transformation initiatives annually.

However, despite its continuous nature, many still treat business transformations as a series of disconnected projects, limited to specific functions or technology upgrades—a fragmented approach that slows execution, reduces impact, and prevents organizations from realizing the full value of their investments.

That’s why SAP partnered with Forrester Consulting to deliver a comprehensive survey of enterprise-level global organizations, assessing levels of business transformation management maturity.

The results clearly show that developing a repeatable, scalable transformation capability is how organizations best prepare themselves to address the challenges mentioned above and transform successfully again and again. Building and growing such a capability means bringing together strategy, processes, technology, and culture into a cohesive and strategic framework that accelerates execution, improves measurement, and enables ongoing innovation.

The 6% club

Conducted online with over 1,000 cross-industry senior decision-makers at organizations in APAC, EMEA, Latin America, and North America, the “From Ambition To Execution: Building Repeatable Business Transformation” survey was able to segment respondents into four maturity tiers—beginner, intermediate, advanced, and leader—based on their strengths across five dimensions: strategy and leadership, applications and technology, process, data, and people and culture.

Only 6% of the surveyed firms qualified as transformation leaders, with most organizations still facing significant gaps in execution, governance, and cultural alignment. The findings also showed:

Transformation is now ‘business as usual.’ Over half of organizations (52%) plan to increase transformation investments by 11% to 20% in the next 12 months; another 22% expect to boost spending by more than 20%. Only 1% plan to reduce investment.
Barriers to success are common. Fifty-six percent of respondents struggle with poor data, 55% encounter persistent organizational silos, and 52% highlight employee fatigue from continuous change
Governance is lacking. Only 24% of organizations have a cross-functional transformation governance board, and just 25% embed transformation goals into KPIs.

Fortunately, even organizations that haven’t yet reached the leader stage are conscious of the benefits of building a transformation capability, with respondents highlighting the following expected outcomes:

Increased ability to pivot in response to market shifts or disruptions (68%)
Faster upskilling and reskilling of the workforce (66%)
Faster execution of strategic initiatives (65%)
Increased consistency and reliability in process execution (65%)
Increased leadership alignment and accountability (64%)

Unlocking the benefits

Overall, survey respondents were committed to transformation at scale, but fragmented execution and the lack of an overall strategy have hampered their efforts. This missing piece of the puzzle is where business transformation management solutions from SAP can be of most use.

“Transformation challenges will always exist, particularly in aligning localized execution with an enterprise-wide approach,” Dee Houchen, head of Marketing for SAP Signavio and SAP LeanIX, says. “Our research shows that true transformation leaders embed change into their organization’s DNA. That means prioritizing early employee involvement, building dedicated change functions, and putting a high premium on digital adoption management.”

“SAP Signavio, SAP LeanIX, and WalkMe solutions offer clarity and transparency in business transformation, helping organizations turn transformation from isolated plans into comprehensive action across the entire organization,” Houchen adds. “This report is an invaluable resource for anyone wondering how they can build repeatable transformation capability and become transformation leaders in their own right.”

Lucas de Boer is global marketing program lead for SAP Signavio.

15 January

BUSINESS NEWS

SAP and Syngenta Announce Partnership to Scale AI-Assisted Agriculture

by tempuser_3412383652 0 Comments

WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) and Syngenta, a global leader in agricultural innovation, today announced a multiyear strategic technology partnership to accelerate AI-assisted innovation across Syngenta’s global operations.

The partnership will embed artificial intelligence at the core of Syngenta’s enterprise, modernizing operations and enabling accelerated innovation through advanced data analytics across the business — from manufacturing and supply chain to grower-facing products and services.

The agricultural industry continues to navigate challenges driven by climate variability, supply chain complexity and global uncertainty. By deploying AI-assisted tools enterprise wide, this partnership positions Syngenta to meet the challenge of feeding a projected 10 billion people by 2050 while unlocking faster innovation, stronger operational resilience and scalable impact across the business.

“AI is the catalyst for agricultural transformation and has quickly become a core competitive edge for Syngenta,” said Feroz Sheikh, chief information and digital officer at Syngenta Group. “Our partnership with SAP is transforming how we run the enterprise, modernizing core operations and unlocking new ways to work — a testament to our commitment to becoming an agriculture company with AI at its core.”

“Syngenta’s transformation sets a benchmark for digital innovation in agriculture,” said Philipp Herzig, chief technology officer at SAP SE. “Together, we’re demonstrating how cloud and AI technologies can drive sustainable growth and efficiency in one of the world’s most critical industries. This partnership will help Syngenta future-proof its operations to feed the world responsibly.”

Scaling an AI-First Operating Model for Agriculture

Syngenta’s transformation will begin with SAP Cloud ERP Private solutions, modernizing core operations across the value chain to deliver agility, resilience and scalability. The company’s ambition is clear: unlock innovation faster, strengthen its leadership in agriculture and future-proof operations against volatility.

Through the SAP Business Data Cloud solution, Syngenta will create a unified, more secure and scalable data foundation essential for real-time decision-making and AI integration. Combined with SAP Business AI and AI-assisted tools such as the Joule copilot, this will help the company explore smarter, faster decisions that drive operational efficiency and accelerate innovation. Additionally, Syngenta will be able to deliver better products and services to growers worldwide while enabling them to retain control and privacy over their proprietary information.

Visit the SAP News Center. Get SAP news via LinkedIn and Bluesky.

Media contacts:
Lesa Plingen, +49 622 776 9000, lesa.plingen@sap.com, CET
SAP Press Room; press@sap.com
Syngenta Media Relations, media@syngentagroup.com

Top image courtesy of Syngenta

15 January

BUSINESS NEWS

SAP Business AI: Release Highlights Q4 2025

by tempuser_3711453211 0 Comments

We want our customers to get value from AI. So when organizations cite barriers to deriving value, such as integration complexity, regulatory compliance, AI sovereignty, or data quality, we work to alleviate them.

That’s why, in Q4 2025, we significantly enhanced the way customers work with AI through new models, sovereign cloud offerings, and partnerships, alongside numerous product updates. Let’s dive straight in.

SAP-RPT-1 is a novel AI model that is optimized explicitly for predictions on tabular data. While LLMs predict the next word in a text sequence, SAP-RPT-1 forecasts the next field in a table row; it can interpret relational business data and handle virtually any predictive task. Additionally, as our single, universal AI engine, SAP-RPT-1 enables customers to simplify their approach to working with AI by eliminating the need for a myriad of narrow AI specialist models, each requiring arduous training, maintenance, and investments. SAP-RPT-1 also requires 50,000 times less energy, 100,000 fewer GPU FLOPs, and offers up to 3.5 times better predictions and 50 times more speed than state-of-the-art LLMs. Announced at SAP TechEd and now available in our generative AI hub, customers can leverage the SAP-RPT-1-small and SAP-RPT-1-large models.

EU AI Cloud is our new full-stack sovereign cloud offering that supports EU data residency and full sovereignty. It makes meeting regulatory and operational requirements easier by giving customers complete control over their infrastructure, platform, and software. Customers can deploy it on SAP’s own data centers, on trusted European infrastructure, or as a fully managed solution on-site. Now, European enterprises and public sector organizations can benefit from the latest AI innovations securely, in full compliance with European standards and with the sovereignty and flexibility they need.

We also took steps to simplify our customers’ data landscape and preserve the business context of all data. SAP Snowflake combines Snowflake and SAP Business Data Cloud (SAP BDC). This partnership enables zero-copy data sharing across Snowflake and SAP BDC Connect. Customers using Snowflake can integrate their existing instances with SAP BDC for seamless, real-time access to combined, semantically rich SAP and non-SAP data in SAP BDC. SAP Snowflake will be made generally available in Q1 2026, and SAP BDC Connect for Snowflake will be available later in H1 2026.

Furthermore, SAP’s generative AI hub includes the latest frontier models from Mistral, OpenAI, Gemini, and Anthropic, allowing customers to implement the model that best suits their specific use cases. The 350 AI features, including Joule Agents, along with the over 2,400 Joule skills, are already delivering unparalleled value to customers—built on AI Foundation in SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP).

Here are some of the highlights from Q4 2025:

Joule was more integrated than ever in Q4. The bidirectional integration with Microsoft 365 Copilot offers a unified user experience, allowing users to access insights directly within their workflows. Joule for Consultants has enhanced citation visibility, while Joule deep research capability provides users with synthesized explanations for complex inquiries that draw on both internal and external data—structured or unstructured—using capabilities like Model Context Protocol, document grounding, and Perplexity. Joule analytics center offers customers granular insights into user adoption, and the Joule preview landscape provides a dedicated customer environment for testing and validating software updates before they are released to production. Explore all the new capabilities for Joule in the section below as well as within the specific products.
SAP Business AI for supply chain delivers unprecedented clarity. New analysis capabilities in SAP Integrated Business Planning summarize complex optimization, inventory, and forecast results, translating intricate calculations into clear, natural language. The new Production Planning and Operations Agent automates prerequisite checks for releasing production orders by identifying material shortages and suggesting workarounds to prevent delays. There’s more to discover below.
SAP Business AI for human resources is transforming talent management and reducing administration. The Performance Preparation Agent automates data collection and generates talking points to ensure managers are fully prepared for more impactful one-on-one meetings. Employees can also boost internal mobility by identifying and surfacing hidden skills directly from their resumes. There is so much more to explore; dive into everything below.
SAP Business AI for finance is packed this quarter, with new agents automating more complex processes. The Accounting Accruals Agent helps expedite the period-end close. The International Trade Classification Agent ensures robust compliance for global shipping, and the Cash Management Agent provides unparalleled oversight of cash flow. Joule also now assists with master data governance, analyzes allocation run results, and simplifies risk management tasks. There is just the beginning in finance, so check out everything below.
With SAP Business AI for IT and developers, customers can build, automate, and analyze more quickly and easily than ever. Joule Studio agent builder is in GA and enables users to create custom AI agents that automate complex, end-to-end business processes. To manage this growing landscape, the new AI agent hub in SAP LeanIX offers a central dashboard for governing agents. SAP is also introducing its own foundational models: SAP-RPT-1, a new model for structured business data, and SAP-ABAP-1 to accelerate ABAP code generation. See more below.
The latest SAP Business AI innovations for spend management, procurement, and customer experience are simplifying complex processes and making them more personalized. In spend management, the new Booking Agent simplifies trip planning with tailored recommendations, while the Receipt Analysis Agent ensures accurate expense reports. Procurement customers can use natural language to route demands in SAP Ariba and automate the creation of statements of work in SAP Fieldglass. In customer experience, marketers can now instantly build reports in SAP Emarsys using simple prompts, and service agents receive AI-generated summaries to resolve billing inquiries more efficiently.

Joule

Joule with Microsoft 365 Copilot
General availability

Bidirectional integration between Joule and Microsoft 365 Copilot has been completed. This integration helps deliver a unified user experience across enterprise systems. Users can now access Joule capabilities directly from within Microsoft 365 Copilot, bringing Microsoft-powered insights into the generative AI environment in Joule.

This tight interoperability will help strengthen how organizations work, collaborate, and make decisions within their SAP and Microsoft landscapes.

14 January

BUSINESS NEWS

How Heartland Dental Is Leveraging SAP for Digital Transformation in Dental Care

by jennychua@twm.com.sg 0 Comments

What happens when digital transformation meets dental care? Robert “RJ” Jerome, senior vice president and chief digital officer at Heartland Dental, reveals how SAP solutions contributed to the company’s technological journey.

Heartland Dental is the largest dental support organization in the United States, with over 3,000 supported doctors in more than 1,900 supported practices across 39 states and Washington, D.C. But beyond numbers, what sets Heartland apart is its tight knit community and people culture. As Jerome shared, “The first thing I associate with Heartland is community; we’re doctor-led. In our support role, we don’t tell dentists how to practice. Our role is to make their lives easier—enabling dentists to concentrate on patient care.”

Making lives easier is a vision Heartland shares not only for its supported dentists but for its own operations. The company’s digital journey began “backwards” starting in 2018 with SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), instead of with ERP, to resolve disparate data from all over. Once SAP BTP was established and adopted by the organization, it then began to incorporate SAP Cloud ERP.

What makes this journey truly stand out is how Heartland is using technology to serve people, supported through seamless integration with tools like SAP Concur solutions, embedded AI—such as smart invoice management—and embedded analytics. These features are freeing up time and resources so teams can focus on what matters most: supporting doctors and improving patient care.

The team has rolled out SAP Build Work Zone across its supported practices and is investing in AI tools like Joule to help employees access information faster, automate repetitive tasks, and focus on what really matters—patient care and experiences. Jerome explained, “Just like we take the administrative burden off our supported doctors, SAP takes the tech burden off us, so we can focus on supporting doctors and their teams.”

Heartland’s next big milestone is going live with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and taking AI a step further to automation.

Heartland Dental’s story shows that with the strategic adoption of technological innovations, it’s possible to build a future-ready healthcare support organization grounded in people and purpose.

Chris Putvinski is a communications specialist at SAP.

14 January

BUSINESS NEWS

The Digital Ocean: In Conversation with the Biggest Cleanup Project in Human History

by tempuser_1891578810 0 Comments

In a world where technology moves at lightning speed, I am fortunate to have a vantage point and a unique opportunity to see the connections business leaders make and the possibilities they create in defining moments for their industry.

“Beyond Tech – Expanding Perspectives” is about their stories. With this series, I hope to provide a glimpse into the inspiring minds I encounter, capturing their ideas to spark insight and innovation.

For the first episode, I had the privilege of speaking with Nisha Bakker, director of Partnerships at The Ocean Cleanup, an organization proving that, with the right vision, evidence, and engineering, we can solve global challenges at scale.

Plastic is one of humanity’s greatest inventions and one of its most persistent problems. Durable, cheap, and versatile, it has transformed food security, medicine, logistics, and manufacturing. But that same durability means most of the plastic ever produced still exists today. And much of it has ended up where it shouldn’t: in our rivers, our oceans, our ecosystems—even our bodies.

Today, the world produces more than 430 million tons of plastic annually. Production is still rising, projected to grow 66 percent by 2040, even as waste management systems are overwhelmed. Only nine percent of plastic is recycled globally. A third is mismanaged, left to leak into the environment through open dumping, unregulated landfills, and littering. As a result, more than 109 million tons of plastic have accumulated in rivers and lakes, far more than the 30 million tons in the oceans themselves.

Rivers are the main conveyor belt carrying waste to the sea. In 2020 alone, 1.4 million tons of plastic flowed from rivers into the ocean. Without intervention, this will more than double by 2060. Just a thousand rivers account for 80 percent of this flow, largely in rapidly developing economies where growth, urbanization, and weak waste systems collide.

This is where The Ocean Cleanup has focused its mission. The organization aims to rid the world’s oceans of plastic through a comprehensive strategy that includes removing legacy plastic accumulated in the ocean and along coastlines while also stopping new plastic pollution from entering the marine environment. Their ambition is bold and unambiguous: to put themselves out of business by 2040.

Data, vision the difference in cleanup efforts

During our conversation, Nisha explained how the work is driven not only by passion, but by evidence. “You could look at a river, see the problem, and start removing plastic immediately,” she said. “But we first determine the best place to remove it, and then build the entire value chain around it—including recycling, operators, permits, and long-term partners. Data is what sets us apart.”

Behind every cleanup is an enormous amount of engineering and analysis. The Ocean Cleanup’s teams map political, economic, and social dynamics in each country with an affected river system. They deploy trackers to understand how fast plastic moves, where it gets stuck, and how seasonal changes from monsoons to dry months affect pollution flows. Cameras equipped with detection algorithms help quantify volumes and patterns. Modelling and simulations guide where to deploy Interceptor systems and how to scale them.

This foundation of data explains their success: more than 46 million kilograms of waste intercepted and removed from marine and freshwater environments, thanks to System 03, their towed ocean technology spanning over 2.2 kilometers, which can clean an area the size of a football field in five seconds; and over 20 Interceptor systems deployed across the world’s most polluted rivers. The organization recently unveiled plans to tackle up to a third of all plastic emissions from rivers through its 30 Cities Program, targeting urban centers with important waterways and major pollution problems.

But as Nisha stressed, cleanup is only one part of the solution. “We’re buying time for systemic change,” she told me. “Ultimately you need governments, producers, recyclers, and communities working together.”

There are signs of progress: more than 90 countries now have plastic bag bans; extended producer responsibility regulations are expanding; and negotiations toward a global plastics treaty have brought unprecedented international attention to the issue despite agreement remaining elusive.

The importance of systems

What struck me most in our discussion was the philosophy that drives The Ocean Cleanup. With employees from 40 nationalities, they are building bridges across sectors, disciplines, and geographies. They are proving what is possible when a global movement is anchored in evidence-based design and relentless experimentation.

At SAP, we recognize this mindset. Helping the world run better and improving people’s lives requires more than intention; it requires agile systems capable of putting insights at the fingertips of business. That’s why The Ocean Cleanup relies on SAP to deliver on its mission. Every hour they spend building business systems is an hour not spent developing ocean systems, river systems, or new engineering solutions. Our role is to provide a stable, integrated digital foundation so they can focus on innovation, not administration. Technology should accelerate impact and enable scale, not get in the way of it.

The same is true for every organization. Whether fighting pollution, reimagining supply chains, or transforming business models, the biggest breakthroughs happen when you combine purpose with technology that can support it. Clean, connected data, intelligent processes, and applications that automate what can be automated so people can focus on what matters most: This is why SAP is more relevant than ever.

The Ocean Cleanup shows what is possible when bold ideas meet the right technology and the right partnerships. This is exactly the type of conversation I look forward to bringing you through Beyond Tech – Expanding Perspectives, stories of inspiring minds that demonstrate that the future is not something we predict, but something we build together.

Manos Raptopoulos is global president of Customer Success, Europe, APAC, Middle East & Africa, and a member of the Extended Board at SAP.

13 January

BUSINESS NEWS

Redefining the Path to Loyalty-Led Growth with SAP Order Management Services

by tempuser_81121692 0 Comments

Just two years ago at NRF, SAP introduced SAP Order Management Services, a cloud-native, composable, and modular order management solution designed to help unify data and processes for orders, inventory, POS transactions, and fulfillment management across all channels.

Since the launch, SAP Order Management Services has empowered organizations to streamline operations for increased efficiency, reduced manual workloads, and untangled multi-channel complexity. With this approach, businesses can deliver on customer promises with seamless customer experience. This momentum has also been recognized in the market, as SAP Order Management Services was named a Leader in the Order Management Market 2025 report by IHL Group for its robust capabilities and enterprise readiness.

Hornbach, a leading German home improvement retailer, is already seeing the benefits. With SAP Order Management Services, Hornbach connects digital and physical stores with full visibility into day-to-day transactions, providing omnichannel retail experience at scale to its customers.

However, the retail landscape is evolving continuously. While profitable growth is critical to businesses, earning and sustaining customer loyalty now is becoming more important. Ahead of the curve, SAP has heavily invested in expanding capabilities in the SAP Order Management Services bundle to help retailers deliver on customer promises with intelligence, scalability, and adaptability, leading to boosts in customer loyalty.

At NRF 2026, SAP is unveiling new and enhanced capabilities that power retailers to not only operate more efficiently but also achieve loyalty-led growth through every order.

AI in SAP Order Management Services

Joule in SAP Order Management Services: SAP’s AI copilot, Joule, is now available in SAP Order Management Services. Access order-related data, analysis, and insights through conversations in natural language and visual display.

Order Reliability Agent: Accelerate operational efficiency with the Order Reliability Agent in SAP Order Management Services. Proactively mitigate and resolve any potential issues and gaps, such as stock discrepancies or process bottlenecks, to help ensure every order is fulfilled seamlessly and to boost customer loyalty.

AI-assisted copy generation and translations: Create promotional copy in seconds and translate it into any language with AI assistance, helping to reduce manual workload and accelerate time-to-market.

UI enhancements

Workflow-optimized UI: The enhanced and unified UI in SAP Order Management Services can deliver a consistent user experience across order, inventory, and fulfillment operations. Teams can now work faster, reduce training time, and maintain full visibility across every step of the order lifecycle.

Watch the SAP Order Management Services retail demo video to get a closer look at the AI capabilities in action. Visit the SAP booth at NRF 2026, January 11 – 13, to learn more about SAP Order Management Services and catch an in-person demo.

Emilie Fournelle is head of Product Management for SAP Order Management Services at SAP.