Long before a customer becomes your customer, their engagement with your brand begins. Customer experience (CX) starts with early interactions like marketing engagement, product exploration, and initial conversations with sales teams.

These critical pre-purchase moments generate interest and open pathways toward deeper customer relationships. Organizations that convert interest into measurable outcomes with clarity, accuracy, and speed strengthen the overall customer experience, thereby boosting loyalty and bottom lines.

CX becomes even more meaningful as opportunities progress into clear agreements supported by accurate configuration, pricing, and quoting. This transition from opportunity to agreement represents one of the most consequential stages in the customer journey.

Lead-to-cash represents a coordinated motion across sales engagement, pricing precision, service alignment, and performance visibility. When these capabilities operate together, organizations deliver consistent customer experiences while maintaining operational clarity.

Eight years running: a leadership signal at the heart of lead-to-cash

Within the lead-to-cash journey, quoting connects sales engagement, performance management, service continuity, and ERP alignment. It represents a critical moment where customer intent is translated into accurate pricing, configuration, and agreement terms.

When SAP CPQ operates within SAP Customer Experience, it becomes part of a connected lead-to-cash motion that spans SAP Sales Cloud, SAP Service Cloud, sales performance management solutions, and SAP ERP. Sales teams engage with structured opportunity data and guided pricing logic. Service teams inherit full visibility into agreed terms. Performance leaders access insights grounded in accurate pipeline and quoting data.

When it comes to this level of intelligent, real-time, connected processes, very few companies can compete. SAP was again recognized as a Leader in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Configure, Price, and Quote Application Suites. This marks the eighth consecutive year SAP has been positioned in the Leaders quadrant based on Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision.

SAP CPQ supports organizations in producing accurate quotes — even in environments with advanced configuration and pricing requirements — helping accelerate sales cycles and improve sales execution across complex selling environments.

Extending CPQ leadership across SAP Customer Experience

In modern enterprises, quoting connects directly to demand generation, pipeline management, contract processes, fulfilment, and service delivery. SAP Customer Experience brings together commerce, customer data, marketing, sales, service, and sales performance management into an integrated portfolio designed to support truly connected customer journeys.

Within this portfolio, SAP CPQ plays a pivotal role in the lead-to-cash journey. When integrated with SAP CX solutions, it helps align pricing strategy, product configuration, customer agreements, and sales performance insights across the revenue lifecycle. The result is a more reliable transition from opportunity to revenue realization.

Connected lead-to-cash experience

For CX leaders, lead-to-cash is a core driver of experience differentiation and revenue execution. A connected lead-to-cash strategy ensures that:

• Customer intent is translated into accurate configuration and pricing.
• Sales engagements reflect approved pricing and product standards.
• Customer agreements are consistently captured and supported across systems.
• Sales performance and revenue outcomes remain visible and aligned across teams.

Business impact of connected lead-to-cash

Lead-to-cash determines how consistently organizations translate customer engagement into measurable outcomes.

By combining SAP Customer Experience capabilities with a CPQ solution recognized for its ability to execute and completeness of vision, organizations strengthen alignment across sales, pricing, service, performance management, and ERP systems, transforming engagement into measurable outcomes with confidence and precision.

In today’s environment, customer experience and operational precision are closely connected. Strength in one reinforces performance across the other.

You can learn more about how SAP CX connects SAP Sales Cloud, SAP CPQ, SAP Service Cloud, sales performance management solutions, and SAP ERP across the lead-to-cash journey here.

Sindy Conway is senior Product Marketing consultant for SAP Customer Experience.

SAP introduces SAP Cloud ERP Private 2025 FPS01. Designed to turn complexity into clarity, FPS01 builds on the landmark 2025 release from October, advancing AI innovations, delivering industry-ready data products, and further strengthening the core to help enterprises navigate today’s global operations.  

A modern foundation for growth at global scale 

In an era defined by global volatility and ambitious growth targets, businesses require a system that doesn’t just record data but actively anticipates needs and simplifies complexity. SAP Cloud ERP Private is evolving into a truly AI-enabled ERP, serving as the critical core foundation that can allow organizations to navigate the realities of global operations while maintaining total control over their footprint. 

To achieve this, innovations in FPS01 are strategically delivered across three key dimensions: AI, data, and applications. 

AI in action: from assistants to agents 

The shift toward an AI-enabled ERP is highlighted by two key advancements in FPS01: 

1. AI assistants and specialized agents: A standout in this release is the Change Record Management Agent for R&D. Previously a manual, high-friction process, this agent can now autonomously analyze change impacts and propose next steps, helping to free R&D teams to focus on innovation. 
2. Process embedded AI: SAP is making the system more intuitive through Joule. Instead of navigating complex menus, users can now use conversational shortcuts, for example, to instantly search service contracts or extend expiring prices in sales, turning multi-minute tasks into five-second interactions. 

Looking at the road ahead, SAP is building toward agent-to-agent collaboration, where specialized agents across functions like R&D and procurement “talk” to one another to resolve bottlenecks before they even reach a human user. FPS01 is a critical step toward that future. 

Data: industry-ready insights 

On the data front, SAP is introducing specialized data products for key industries, like retail, and functional areas, such as asset management and services. These are not just tables; they are pre-configured, business-ready data sets that align with our SAP Business Data Cloud (SAP BDC) roadmap. This helps ensure your data is “AI-ready,” allowing you to move from raw data to industry-specific insights with zero friction. 

Application: strengthening the global core 

On the application side, SAP continues to deliver deep functional enhancements based on direct customer feedback to help ensure your business backbone remains agile. A key highlight is the new Multistage Intercompany Sales and Stock Transfer. Following our commitment at the RISE with SAP moment in November, SAP is further expanding the scope to cover two-entity transfers, enabling automated orchestration across multiple legal entities. This can ensure even the most complex global supply chains remain transparent and compliant. 

A full collection of deep-dive articles on the new FPS01 is available on SAP Community. 

Looking ahead: your catalyst for transformation 

FPS01 reflects a core SAP principle: innovation should be both a foundation for today and a catalyst for what’s next. With enterprise AI, industry-ready data, and a stronger application core, organizations can run smarter and transform at their own pace. 

To see these innovations in person, register for SAP Sapphire to experience the future of the autonomous enterprise. 

Maura Hameroff is chief marketing officer for SAP Cloud ERP Private and RISE with SAP.

With the EU Pay Transparency Directive reshaping how organizations disclose and govern pay, transparency is no longer optional—it’s becoming a defining leadership imperative. This International Women’s Day, organizations have an opportunity to turn compliance into trust, equity, and smarter workforce decisions.

“When we give, we gain” is this year’s International Women’s Day theme, and in the workplace, giving can take many forms: mentoring, advocacy, visibility, resources, and transparency.

For organizations, pay transparency is one of the most tangible ways to “give” in service of gender equality. When employees better understand their compensation, historically underrepresented groups gain clarity and fairness. And when organizations commit to equitable practices, the benefits ripple across the business—from greater trust and engagement to stronger talent outcomes and overall performance.

Transparency starts with accountability

Many organizations are still early in their pay transparency journey. At SAP, this has been a multi-year effort grounded in data, accountability, and action. Each year, we conduct global internal pay equity analyses comparing employees in comparable roles, levels, and geographies to ensure compensation is fair, market-aligned, and internally consistent. When outliers are identified, centrally funded adjustments bring pay in-line.

This reflects SAP’s fair pay philosophy: equitable compensation that is transparent and free from bias, forming the foundation for performance-based differentiation.

Technology is central to this approach. SAP operationalizes fair pay through SAP SuccessFactors Compensation and SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, embedding pay analysis, job architecture, and range guidance, so managers can consistently apply structured, explainable decisions during hiring and annual cycles.

Today, over 99% of SAP employees worldwide have transparency into their pay range through a compensation assistant tool built on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). This tool integrates SAP SuccessFactors data to display salary ranges across career levels, which can replace guesswork with confidence and can give employees clear insight into their value, career progression, and how pay decisions are made.

From compliance to strategic intelligence: the EU Pay Transparency Directive

The shift from voluntary transparency to regulatory mandate is already underway. For European Union member states, the EU Pay Transparency Directive is driving change by requiring salary range disclosures in advance of the first interview, employee access to pay information, and gender pay gap reporting, with corrective action mandated when unexplained gaps exceed 5%. As implementation timelines approach, HR, legal, and finance teams across the EU are racing to operationalize new transparency requirements, making pay governance a board-level issue for many organizations.

“One of the most meaningful shifts introduced by the EU Pay Transparency Directive is giving employees clearer tools to understand their own compensation. With capabilities like individual pay transparency reports generated through SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, employees now have a self-service way to see how their pay compares within their role and organization. That level of visibility is a major step forward for pay equity because it brings clarity to something that historically has been difficult for employees to question or address.”

Anita Lettink, Future of Work and Pay Expert

Compliance is just the starting point. Organizations that embed transparency into everyday HR processes ensure pay decisions are consistent, equitable, and aligned with skills, performance, and business priorities. SAP is already preparing customers for this shift, with tools designed to help meet these new requirements confidently.

With EU Pay Transparency Insights, a new capability within the People Intelligence package in SAP Business Data Cloud, organizations can:

• Identify structural pay gaps and outliers before they become systemic issues.
• Connect compensation data to job architecture, skills, and performance to inform decisions and governance.
• Generate directive-aligned, ready-to-use reports without heavy manual effort.
• Turn transparency into action, guiding adjustments, equitable promotions, and workforce planning at scale.

These insights complement established fair pay practices—such as structured job architecture, peer-based analysis, and centrally funded adjustments—enabling customers to implement transparent, equitable pay practices while meeting regulatory requirements.

Giving to gain: the leadership opportunity

This International Women’s Day, transparency should be treated as a strategic priority, not a compliance task. Clear, consistent pay practices help employees understand their value and help leaders make smarter, data-driven workforce decisions.

Pay transparency is accelerating, and organizations that act now will be the ones that lead. Don’t miss our upcoming webinar, EU Pay Transparency: Turning Fair and Equitable Pay into Your Strategic Advantage, where Future of Work and Pay expert Anita Lettink will break down the latest regulatory expectations and share best practices for building fair, equitable, and motivating compensation structures. Register here.

Maryann Abbajay is chief revenue officer for SAP SuccessFactors.

The landscape of user interfaces is undergoing a seismic shift. The explosion of consumer AI has reset expectations for business software: Employees now expect their enterprise apps to have the same intuitive, conversational interfaces they use at home.

This has led to a “Terminal Renaissance,” a return to text-in, text-out interaction.

For many applications, text works, letting users express intent naturally with no onboarding. However, text struggles to convey structured data that is common in business, and without real-time updates, static text results lose relevance the moment they’re generated.

Structured data is easier to digest when users can filter, sort, and visualize it—that is why graphical user interfaces (GUIs) excel at presenting structured data and guiding users through complex workflows. But GUIs are expensive to build and rigid, forcing generic, one-size-fits-all solutions that struggle to provide the fluid, tailored experiences users now demand.

Text is flexible but limited; GUIs are robust but rigid. Generative UI is the unmet need between them and the new frontier for business software.

From static dashboards to dynamic workspaces

Imagine a procurement manager investigating a supply chain disruption. Instead of navigating five different applications and manually cross-referencing data, she asks: “Show me the suppliers at risk in Southeast Asia and model alternative sourcing scenarios.”

This request sets agents to work behind the scenes. They gather and analyze live data, simulate outcomes, and calculate the projected impact of every alternative. Execution agents are also pre-positioned and ready to act on command.

The user doesn’t have to deal with any of this complexity. For them, a dynamic interface materializes in seconds—not a generic dashboard, but a purpose-built mission control center. Interactive maps highlight affected regions and supply chain graphs update in real time. As the user tweaks parameters, risk scores adjust instantly. Embedded controls stand ready to trigger purchase orders or notify suppliers, enabling the user to decide and execute. Collaboration is simplified; colleagues can join a living workspace: no briefing decks, no context-setting calls.

This is the future: a business suite where a user’s intent defines their interface and their decisions drive action. To get there, we are combining Joule and Joule Agents with our vision for generative UI. This is not just about on-demand dashboards; it’s about steering a business with interfaces that adapt to each user’s role, context, and tasks. This is “vibe coding” for enterprise operations: shifting focus from syntax to intent.

We are entering an era where AI constructs UIs on the fly, allowing users to engage with them immediately. Generative UI marks the transition from static software suites to “batch size 1” applications that act like ephemeral control centers tailored to a specific problem.

Challenges and SAP’s answers

Delivering an intent-driven business suite at enterprise scale requires addressing complex realities. We are building generative UI because we understand its promise and its perils—and we have unique assets to bridge that gap.

Accuracy

Large language models (LLMs) can produce plausible but incorrect outputs, or “hallucinate.” A consumer chatbot that hallucinates a movie plot is tolerable; a procurement system that misrepresents supplier terms has real consequences. Our generative UI approach addresses this by visualizing data directly from systems of record with transparent lineage. Grounding the UI in real-time, trusted data is our first defense against inaccuracy.

Trust

If every interface is generated on the fly, how do users know it is reliable? Trust is built on consistency and predictability. Our generative UI is built on the familiar and proven architectural grammar of SAP Fiori for lists, dashboards, and workflows. The content is bespoke and the structure is consistent and familiar, so users can always judge and adjust with confidence.

Complexity

Enterprise systems are sophisticated and unique. They are built over decades, encoding massive domain knowledge and business logic. Generative UI builds on Joule’s existing integration and orchestration capabilities, which already connect to systems across a landscape and coordinate agents to execute complex workflows. Generative UI leverages this foundation, letting users interact with deeply integrated processes through simple interfaces while Joule handles the orchestration underneath.

Why this matters now

The expectations set by consumer AI are real, and the gap between what employees experience at home and what they use at work is widening.

The future of enterprise software isn’t chatbots bolted onto legacy screens. It’s bespoke mission control—interfaces that materialize around a user’s intent, grounded in live data, executed by agents, and governed by the user.

With that, we’re reimagining how work gets done.

Jonathan von Rueden is chief AI officer of SAP SE.

WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced the evolution of its SAP Services and Support portfolio, introducing a streamlined, tiered engagement model designed to help businesses achieve greater transparency, speed and flexibility in their transformation journeys.

The reimagined portfolio, which includes the Foundational Success Plan, Advanced Success Plan, and Max Success Plan tiers, aims to deliver measurable results and a consistent, ongoing experience for customers. Designed to provide continuous engagement throughout each customer’s journey, the portfolio helps with adoption of the latest innovations and continuous value from a full investment in SAP Business Suite.

The updated portfolio addresses the increasing need for organizations to adapt quickly to market changes, adopt AI-driven innovations and support business continuity. Each success plan offers clearly defined tiers of engagement, ranging from self-guided resources and proactive support to strategic and personalized partnership with dedicated experts. These tiers help customers select the right level of guidance for their unique needs.

Foundational Success Plan, included with every cloud solution from SAP, provides essential onboarding, technical cloud operations and preventive support. This plan is centered around, and expands upon, our well-known SAP Enterprise Support offering and is designed to help organizations get solutions running efficiently, enable business continuity and achieve ongoing value. Customers benefit from curated content, learning resources, guided transformation with application lifecycle management solutions and preventive mission-critical support, enabled by AI and all built into the solution subscription at no additional cost.

Building on this, Advanced Success Plan adds specialized expertise and AI-assisted guidance. Organizations receive proactive support to detect risks and optimize processes, as well as activation sessions to deploy new functionality and refine operations. Enhanced-support service level agreements and intelligent tools help maintain peak performance and realize measurable business outcomes.

For enterprises navigating complex transformations, innovating quickly and striving to get the most out of AI, Max Success Plan offers SAP’s premium, strategic level of engagement. It includes all the benefits of Advanced Success Plan, plus dedicated success plan managers, cross-solution process improvement and access to customer-specific prototype development to accelerate offerings such as SAP Business AI. This tier is built for organizations seeking a true strategic partnership, guiding modernization, reducing risk and accelerating value realization across their SAP software landscape.

“Our evolved SAP Services and Support portfolio is designed to help customers operate with ease and apply AI to drive business efficiency. It aims at mastering transformation, innovating at scale and turning decisions into action with clarity and impact,” said Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Customer Services & Delivery. “By offering a unified, enterprise-wide engagement model, SAP helps customers continually adopt and derive the latest innovations and realize reliable ROI throughout their entire journey.”

Customers can further extend their experience with a streamlined set of professional, development and application management services that leverage SAP’s expertise and partner ecosystem. With this enhanced portfolio, SAP reaffirms its commitment to orchestrating customer success and enabling organizations to run at their best in a rapidly changing world.

For more information, read the blog post: Orchestrating Continuous Transformation for Stronger Business Outcomes.

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

Media Contact:
Martin Gwisdalla, +49 (6227) 7-67275, martin.gwisdalla@sap.com, CET
SAP Press Room; press@sap.com

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Molton Brown has long been synonymous with British luxury—known for its fragrance craftsmanship, premium bath and body formulations, and commitment to sustainability.

In today’s omnichannel reality, delivering that elevated experience consistently and at scale is essential to protecting brand trust and loyalty. Peak moments like Black Friday and Cyber Monday amplify the challenge, when traffic surges and expectations for fast, personalized service are at their highest.

The team recognized that legacy systems couldn’t provide the speed, stability, or connected view required to meet those expectations at scale, prompting a shift to a modern customer experience (CX) foundation with SAP.

Modernizing the digital core with SAP Commerce Cloud

Moving from legacy technology to SAP Commerce Cloud gave Molton Brown a high‑performance engine designed for peak‑season reliability and continuous innovation. The results came quickly: 100% uptime during peak trade, even as volumes spiked to one order every three seconds during major events, freeing teams to focus on enhancing the customer experience rather than firefighting, and ensuring uninterrupted service for customers across global markets.

“Peak performance isn’t a one‑time effort; it’s about reliability. We have to rely on technology operations to achieve 100% efficiency so the business can succeed, which in turn helps our customers succeed. Technology should enable business success, not block it—and SAP has proved that multiple times.”

Naresh Krishnamurthy, Senior Manager – Business Transformation, Prestige, Kao UK Ltd

That stability also matters as product discovery increasingly begins beyond owned channels—from social platforms to emerging AI‑powered assistants—where consistent, trustworthy content and availability help the brand stay visible and credible wherever customers choose to engage. SAP’s evolving agentic commerce innovations anticipate this shift, ensuring products remain discoverable, trusted, and actionable across both human and AI agents.

A seamless luxury journey across channels

With SAP Commerce Cloud and SAP Engagement Cloud (formerly SAP Emarsys) working together, Molton Brown aligns what customers see online with what they experience in store. Product categories, storytelling, and navigation are mirrored across channels; store associates can act on online browsing signals; and store teams are enabled with real‑time insight to deliver high‑touch clienteling experiences.

The result is an unbroken, premium journey that reduces friction and reinforces trust in the brand—exactly what luxury shoppers expect.

Personalization that builds loyalty, not just transactions

SAP Engagement Cloud helps Molton Brown deliver channel‑appropriate experiences, from mobile‑first engagement to email and in‑store clienteling, aligned to evolving customer preferences. These programs are complemented by thoughtful gifting moments, personalized birthday acknowledgments, and sustainability‑focused communications that strengthen repeat‑purchase behavior.

Crucially, the team treats every holiday period as a data‑rich learning cycle: months of performance testing, UX refinements, and campaign iteration inform what customers experience in the following season. Those insights help the team refine the experience so it remains consistent, intuitive, and premium, even under peak pressure. That consistency is what sustains loyalty, not just the promotions themselves.

As Naresh Krishnamurthy explains: “Black Friday is not just about revenue; it’s about brand engagement and building the strong foundation that enhances the relationship through loyalty.”

Ready for the next era of intelligent commerce

With a dependable CX core in place, Molton Brown is now exploring SAP Business AI to anticipate risks ahead of campaigns, sharpen decision‑making, and streamline fulfillment—augmenting the experience behind the scenes without compromising luxury standards.

This direction aligns naturally with SAP’s broader agentic commerce vision, where AI systems help interpret intent and keep trusted products discoverable and transactable across new surfaces—another reason a reliable, “machine‑readable” CX foundation matters.

“Everything we’re doing ladders up to one goal: a truly connected customer experience—personal, consistent, and effortless in every channel.”

Molton Brown’s partnership with SAP CX has reset what’s possible at peak, and every day after: dependable operations, consistent omnichannel experiences, and personalization that earns loyalty. The brand now scales confidently during its biggest moments, and stays ready for what’s next as AI changes how people (and agents) discover and buy.

This transformation positions Molton Brown to adapt quickly as customer expectations and digital commerce behaviors continue to evolve.

To explore how SAP Commerce Cloud can elevate your customer experience, visit sap.com/commerce.