BUSINESS NEWS 47 - The World Management

20 February

Driving Efficiency and Compliance: Capgemini’s Journey with SAP Fieldglass

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In 2016, Paris-based consultancy firm Capgemini was looking for ways to better manage its global network of employees using existing technology. At the time, the company had limited visibility into its contingent workforce, and its procurement team wanted a tool that would help consolidate insights and track metrics such as headcount, performance, capabilities, compliance, and more. Additionally, with legislative requirements changing rapidly in different regions, the company needed technology that could quickly adapt.

This challenge reflects broader trends in the SAP-sponsored Economist Impact report titled “Flexible Futures: Navigating the Evolving External Workforce,” which dives into how companies like Capgemini are leveraging external workers to meet skill deficits and productivity demands. The report highlights how organizations are turning to innovative technologies and strategies to seamlessly integrate external talent, ensuring they stay competitive in a rapidly changing workforce landscape.

In Capgemini’s case, it used SAP Fieldglass solutions to help manage its contingent workforce program across more than 30 countries. The cloud-based solutions can integrate with other SAP solutions and leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to help optimize external workforce management, helping companies stay resilient in an evolving talent landscape. With the addition of SAP Fieldglass solutions, Capgemini has managed contractors and temporary workers across its entire supply chain. The company has successfully leveraged data from over 50 countries, seeing a 26% increase in unitary cost savings with a 50% increase in productivity from the internal procurement services team.

“The increased visibility into all external workforce-related outcome and process steps has enabled sharpened insights, along with smaller fulfillment time frames, higher fill rates, and improved compliance,” says Andreas Hettwer, group procurement category director at Capgemini. “We have truly optimized functions around the external workforce.”

Smart and efficient talent acquisition

In today’s dynamic business environment, the external workforce—comprising freelancers, contractors, consultants, and gig workers—has become a critical component of many organizations. However, efficiently hiring and managing this diverse talent pool while staying adaptable to future workforce needs can be daunting.

This is because talent acquisition for an external workforce requires finding the right people at the right time, often under tight deadlines. The Economist Impact report also shared that internal skills and talent gaps have increased the demand for proper recruitment of the external workforce.

Capgemini serves as a prime example of how this approach works in practice. When it experiences a surge in demand, its preferred suppliers are notified and SAP Fieldglass solutions pull recommendations from distribution lists of candidates who have the necessary skill sets. This helps accelerate the hiring process and can ensure Capgemini is choosing from the best possible pool of potential candidates. The data is developed in SAP Fieldglass solutions and extracted into Capgemini’s various dashboards, instantly providing a comprehensive snapshot of each supplier’s performance.

Robust data maximizes ROI

Managing an external workforce is a delicate balancing act that involves countless variables. Beyond sourcing talent, it requires tracking budgets, ensuring compliance, and measuring performance. AI-powered automation can help streamline these processes, making it easy to capture, compare, and collaborate on critical information about non-payroll labor. This empowers companies to make informed decisions that maximize their return on investment (ROI).

When inflation surged in 2023, Capgemini fielded a large volume of rate increase requests. Through constructive and fact-based discussions with its supply base, the company managed a cost-rate evolution and shared inflation impact KPIs with its board. This increased executive trust in the global contingent workforce’s ability to deliver productivity. At the end of the implementation, Capgemini fulfilled 80% of its eligible contingent worker demand.

“We have full visibility,” Hettwer says. “We know the number of contractors, we know our demand per geography, per business line, and we know the cost rates we pay for certain roles, and we measure how the cost rates evolve over time.”

Capgemini is also exploring new ways to use the large amount of data coming from the global deployment of SAP Fieldglass solutions, including AI. Economist Impact data reinforces Capgemini’s perspective, as executives cited integrating traditional systems with AI and machine learning as a top priority over the next three to five years.

“AI will certainly be an important factor in our business,” Hettwer says. “We’re being patient and methodical in order to make sure that we introduce it safely and effectively.”

Driving workforce excellence through innovation and insights

Capgemini’s journey with the SAP Fieldglass portfolio demonstrates the transformative power of leveraging advanced technology to manage and optimize an external workforce. By enhancing visibility, streamlining processes, and utilizing AI-powered insights, Capgemini has achieved significant improvements in talent acquisition, supplier performance, and cost efficiency. This resulted in the firm capturing 98% of its global contingent workforce spend with a 60% quicker fulfillment time compared to the start of the program.

As the workforce landscape continues to evolve, SAP Fieldglass solutions can equip organizations with tools that enable them to manage the complete lifecycle of their external employees, from requisition and engagement to offboarding and evaluation. These capabilities are vital to remaining resilient, agile, and data-driven while transforming external labor into a versatile, value-driving resource.

Capgemini’s strategic focus on innovation and compliance sets a benchmark for businesses aiming to unlock the full potential of their contingent workforce in today’s competitive global environment.

Amber Roth is vice president of Global Presales & Strategy for SAP Fieldglass.

15 February

BUSINESS NEWS

SAP’s Sovereignty Commitment: “Building a Secure and Sovereign Future, Together”

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Security is in our DNA. SAP security measures meet the highest standards for cybersecurity, operations, and privacy protection tailored to the individual needs of our customers.

We manage security and compliance risks and operate cybersecurity and physical security programs across our technology landscape, including cloud environments, facilities, events, and employees. We apply our security framework for every customer, all the time.

Recent geopolitical shifts and technological advancements have heightened the challenges for organizations responsible for society’s most critical functions, such as government, defense, and essential infrastructure. These security-sensitive organizations face growing threats from malicious actors targeting their mission-critical operations. As national security and sovereignty become top priorities, regulatory requirements are rapidly tightening. Any lapse in security could have serious consequences not only for the organizations themselves but also for the states and societies they serve.

Many security-sensitive organizations may face obstacles in their digital transformation due to these unique requirements and challenges. This has consequences, because in today’s environment, leveraging data to its full potential is just as relevant for national security and sovereignty as the highest level of protection.

At SAP, the needs and success of our customers are our focus. SAP understands the challenges these security-sensitive organizations are facing and is committed to supporting them in their sovereign digital transformation. Thereby, we are convinced that we need a new view on sovereignty in the digital age. One that goes beyond eliminating risk by actively creating value. With SAP Sovereign Cloud, we are implementing this approach.

With SAP’s Sovereignty Commitment, we underline what we at SAP consider also critical for sovereignty in the digital age: a commitment to contribute to building a secure and sovereign future, together.

SAP has been living this commitment through actions for many years. Starting in the U.S., UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Germany, we have highlighted our commitment to sovereign cloud solutions. The announcements of several billion-dollar investments in SAP Sovereign Cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) alone in the past months underline that.

With SAP’s Sovereignty Commitment, we underscore this commitment and dedication to supporting even the most security-sensitive organizations with specific sovereignty requirements to navigate their unique challenges in their sovereign digital transformation in the selected countries. Recognizing the urgent need for transformative action, we are determined to cooperate with those organizations on building a strong pillar for a more secure and sovereign tomorrow.

In the Sovereignty Commitment, we outline how we do it and what we plan in the future.

“In today’s complex geopolitical landscape, digital sovereignty is not just about reducing risk; it’s about actively creating value,” said Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Customer Services & Delivery. “SAP is proud to be a trusted partner for most security-sensitive organizations around the world. With SAP Sovereign Cloud, even the most security-sensitive organizations are enabled to maintain control over their mission-critical workload while unlocking its full potential.”

We are an experience and trusted partner

Most security-sensitive organizations with specific sovereignty requirements need a partner that can flex to their specific regulatory needs and unlock operational value without compromising on sovereignty, protection, or control.

Backed by the world’s leading business data and a more than 50 year legacy of enterprise innovation, SAP is pioneering sovereign cloud transformation to help leaders in government, defense, and highly regulated industries comply with sovereignty requirements and seize new opportunities.

Pioneering sovereign cloud transformation, our sovereign cloud portfolio includes Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

SAP Sovereign Cloud: A holistic approach based on national requirements

At SAP, we take a holistic approach to sovereign cloud, in which we consider four major dimensions based on the national requirements: data sovereignty, operational sovereignty, legal sovereignty, and technical sovereignty.

With SAP Sovereign Cloud, we tailor solution delivery to the regarded countries’ specific national requirements — a sovereign cloud transformation is not empowered with a one-size-fits-it-all approach. We build on the SAP solution portfolio, which is secure by design. We offer with SAP Sovereign Cloud bespoke solutions on dedicated in-country infrastructure and operations covering the central sovereign cloud capabilities in line with our customers’ needs and deliver state-of-the-art solutions based on our innovation pipeline.

With SAP Sovereign Cloud, our customers can simultaneously unlock the potential of technological advancements, ensuring competitiveness and innovation in fulfillment of the national sovereignty requirements. SAP invests in and expands the SAP Sovereign Cloud portfolio, recognizing our most security-sensitive customers’ urgent demand.

Today, SAP Sovereign Cloud is available in six countries. We are planning to further expand our established footprint with additional geographies and SAP solutions.

We take a forward-thinking approach

At SAP, we strive to think ahead, focusing on the unique and evolving needs of our most security-sensitive customers.

Dedicated leadership for national security: Recognizing the critical importance of national security, the Supervisory Board of SAP SE has established a dedicated Government Security Committee. This committee ensures that the specific requirements of our security-focused customers remain a strategic priority at the highest levels of our organization.
Centralized unit for sovereign solutions: To better serve security-sensitive customers, SAP has established the Sovereign Services & Delivery unit. This dedicated team consolidates expertise across cloud infrastructure, regulatory compliance, and digital transformation to address the most stringent sovereignty requirements. The unit ensures seamless collaboration along the entire value chain, enabling faster and more tailored responses to market demands. By fostering closer integration, we empower customers to achieve secure, compliant, and scalable sovereign cloud solutions.
Investing in sovereignty: We are making bold investments to support cloud sovereignty. SAP plans to invest more than double-digit billion into AI and research and development, as well as cloud infrastructure, over the next five years in Europe. In Germany alone, we plan to invest €2 billion in SAP Sovereign Cloud, underscoring our commitment to strengthening digital independence and the sovereignty of the societies we proudly serve.

Martin Merz is president of Sovereign Services & Delivery at SAP.

13 February

Futuristic Technology Retail Warehouse: Worker Starts Inventory Digitalization with Barcode Scanner Analyzes Goods, Cardboard Boxes, Products. Delivery Infographics in Logistics, Distribution Center

BUSINESS NEWS

SAP Debuts Business Data Cloud with Databricks to Turbocharge Business AI

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Landmark Collaboration Redefines Enterprise Data Management and Unleashes the Full Potential of Agentic AI

NEW YORK — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced SAP Business Data Cloud, a groundbreaking solution that unifies all SAP and third-party data throughout an organization, providing the trusted data foundation organizations need to make more impactful decisions and foster reliable AI.

The solution harmonizes data from organizations’ most mission-critical applications with data engineering and business analytics capabilities, paving the way for next-level innovation and insights.

This landmark partnership between SAP and Databricks marks a new era in enterprise data management as two leaders in their domains come together to redefine how applications and data platforms work together. The new solution natively embeds Databricks technology for data engineering, machine learning and AI workloads.

“SAP Business Data Cloud unleashes the full value of enterprise data for Business AI,” said SAP CEO Christian Klein. “It combines SAP’s unique expertise in mission-critical, end-to-end processes and semantically rich data with Databricks’ world-class data engineering capabilities to create a ground-breaking solution that helps organizations do more with their data than ever before.”

“Every company on the planet wants to get more value out of their data and greater returns on their AI investments,” said Ali Ghodsi, Co-founder and CEO of Databricks. “By joining forces with SAP, we’re helping organizations bring together all their data — regardless of format or where it lives — to govern, analyze and build domain-specific AI applications on the Databricks Data Intelligence Platform.”

Introducing the data product economy

SAP Business Data Cloud also helps SAP foster the growth of a data product economy. It delivers fully-managed SAP data products across all business processes – from finance, spend and supply chain data in SAP S/4HANA and SAP Ariba, to learning and talent data in SAP SuccessFactors. These data products maintain their original business context and semantics, providing immediate access to high-quality data without costly extraction processes. For example, if a CFO wants to assess the impact of rising inflation on profitability, SAP Business Data Cloud integrates real-time external data such as the consumer price index with financial data products such as general ledger accounts or cost centers to create a comprehensive financial snapshot.

SAP Business Data Cloud will also offer new capabilities called insight apps that use data products and AI models connected to real-time data to deliver advanced analytics and planning across all lines of business, including core enterprise analytics, finance and human resources.

“SAP Business Data Cloud will help us unlock the value of our data and drive innovation across our business,” said Markus Hartmann, Corporate Vice President and Head of Business Technology and regions Europe, APAC and IMEA, at Henkel, a multinational chemical and consumer goods company. “Its semantically rich data products and deep Databricks integration will enhance our existing data products and empower us to model scenarios and leverage AI insights, building a sustainable future for our data ecosystems.”

Delivering on the full promise of AI agents

SAP Business Data Cloud will improve how Joule, SAP’s generative AI copilot, accelerates cross-functional workflows and improves business decision-making with AI agents. Powered by the highest-quality enterprise dataset in the industry – and the SAP Knowledge Graph solution, which provides a business-friendly model of data – Joule agents deeply understand end-to-end processes and can collaborate across functions to solve complex business challenges, something no other agent builder technology can do out of the box.

Underscoring today’s announcement and its significance for AI innovation, SAP also unveiled a series of ready-to-use Joule agents across finance, service, sales and more to come across the SAP Business Suite. In finance, for example, agents will work together across a variety of tasks to process claims faster and improve cashflow. Joule sales agents, meanwhile, will accelerate multi-step business processes to resolve disputes and process customer inquiries faster.

SAP today also announced a powerful new agent builder capability, so customers can build and deploy their own AI agents alongside SAP’s library of ready-to-deploy Joule agents. SAP’s decades of business process expertise are built into the guided workflow so users can ground their custom agents in the most relevant data and business context.

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About SAP

As a global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, SAP (NYSE:SAP) stands at the nexus of business and technology. For over 50 years, organizations have trusted SAP to bring out their best by uniting business-critical operations spanning finance, procurement, HR, supply chain, and customer experience. For more information, visit www.sap.com.

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13 February

BUSINESS NEWS

SAP and Databricks Open a Bold New Era of Data and AI

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Data stands as the bedrock of all modern enterprises. It is the unwavering cornerstone of all digital transformation and the driving force behind artificial intelligence (AI). Drawing on five decades of experience running mission-critical processes across every industry, we’ve seen the transformative power of business data.

Today, SAP announced SAP Business Data Cloud, a fully managed software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution that unifies and governs all SAP data and seamlessly connects with third-party data. As an evolution of our industry-leading data, planning, and analytics solutions, SAP Business Data Cloud brings together SAP Datasphere, SAP Analytics Cloud, and SAP Business Warehouse with a unified experience that delivers transformational insights across all lines of business.

SAP also announced a landmark partnership with Databricks that brings the power of Databricks directly into SAP Business Data Cloud. This marks a new era in enterprise data management, with two leaders in their domains coming together to redefine how applications and data platforms work together.

Unleash transformative insights

Many organizations still grapple with data they cannot trust. This persistent gap in trust remains a barrier to true innovation in data and AI.

A global survey of 1,200 business and technology leaders found that 55 percent cite poor data quality as their biggest challenge. And nearly half of these leaders pointed to the difficulty of harmonizing data across ecosystems as a key reason that innovation stalls.

SAP Business Data Cloud bridges this gap with a trusted and harmonized data foundation, empowering IT and business leaders with full business context to drive more impactful decisions.

SAP Business Data Cloud delivers fully managed SAP data products across all business processes. These curated data products align to a highly optimized and unified “one domain model,” maintaining their original business context and semantics, which means you get immediate access to high-quality data you can trust.

Since these data products are fully managed by SAP, you no longer bear the hidden costs of rebuilding and maintaining data extracts. The SaaS experience simplifies life cycle management, ensures data consistency, and enables zero-copy sharing across your data and analytics ecosystem.

With these data products, SAP Business Data Cloud delivers a suite of pre-built analytical applications that help you uncover hidden insights and fast-track decision-making. These “insight apps” are fully managed and incorporate pre-defined metrics, AI models, and planning capabilities, simplifying how you connect and integrate every part of your business.

This accelerates use cases aligned with your most important business functions, including ERP, spend, supply chain, HR, customer experience, and finance.

Every organization needs a pulse on its most important resources. With insight apps, you can use preconfigured packages already connected to your business data, such as working capital, to gain a 360-degree view of your organization’s financial health with real-time visibility into cash flow and profitability.

Connect all your data

SAP Business Data Cloud connects all your data by leveraging business data fabric principles, making it easier to discover, share, govern, and model your data. It includes Databricks as a first-party data service, bringing the power of Databricks directly in SAP Business Data Cloud.

Business semantics: Use SAP Datasphere to discover, share, and model the same trusted data across existing platforms without costly data extraction. Build a powerful knowledge graph of all your data, preserving its business metadata and semantics, so your data is easily searchable and actionable. For existing SAP Datasphere customers, your investments remain fully supported—with no disruptions—and all SAP Datasphere capabilities will natively be available in SAP Business Data Cloud.
Data engineering and machine learning/AI: SAP and Databricks empower every data professional to accelerate AI models and generative AI apps on their business data. Native capabilities like Delta Sharing harmonize SAP data products with existing lakehouses bi-directionally. By integrating all your data with a zero-copy approach, you can apply advanced AI and machine learning models to finance use cases, like predicting the payment date on open receivables.
SAP Business Warehouse modernization: SAP Business Data Cloud gives on-premise SAP Business Warehouse customers a flexible path to the cloud. With native integration to SAP Business Warehouse, easily access your data as a data product with the object store via Delta Share—simplifying your modernization journey and maximizing your SAP Business Warehouse investment.
Analytics and planning: SAP Business Data Cloud brings analytics and planning together in one solution, enabling you to go from insights to actions instantly. Automate reporting, simulate possible business outcomes with AI, and unify your financial, supply chain, and operational planning—all in a connected view.

“SAP Business Data Cloud will help us unlock the value of our data and drive innovation across our business,” said Markus Hartmann, corporate vice president and head of Business Technology at Henkel. “Its semantically rich data products and deep Databricks integration will connect and enhance our existing data products, ensuring long-term adaptability. Trusted, business-ready data will empower users to model scenarios and leverage AI insights, building a sustainable and flexible future for our data ecosystems.”

Foster reliable AI

The rapid growth of agentic AI requires organizations to first have the right data foundation. SAP Business Data Cloud brings together all your data to ensure agentic AI is built on accurate, trusted data with business context.

Joule, SAP’s generative AI copilot, is deeply integrated with SAP Business Data Cloud. The knowledge graph in SAP Business Data Cloud connects your data, metadata, and business processes, enabling AI agents, Joule, and large language models (LLMs) to understand your data within the context of its relationships.

This mapping creates clear data links, making insights more reliable for users and applications. Training AI agents and Joule on business knowledge and context drives increased productivity. For instance, users can use AI to complete cross-functional tasks, uncover insights, and summarize critical information across the business—without heavy reliance on IT support. This empowers the usage of AI to automate complex analytics and planning tasks, such as risk assessment, forecasting, and other advanced scenario simulations.

SAP Business Data Cloud ecosystem

At the core, SAP Business Data Cloud is built to prioritize openness and customer choice. To simplify your data landscape, SAP Business Data Cloud supports an open data ecosystem. It integrates natively with leading data and AI partners like Collibra, Confluent, and DataRobot. And it doesn’t stop there; we’ll announce new strategic partnerships in the coming weeks and months to further expand the open data ecosystem.

Supported by our large partner ecosystem, we’ve made it easier to unleash transformative insights from all your data. We have partners with deep business process and industry domain expertise that are building insight apps on SAP Business Data Cloud.

From data enrichment to data activation, partner insight apps build on top of the data products and the core services SAP Business Data Cloud provides. We’re thrilled to announce our first partner apps with Accenture, DataRobot, Spendscape by McKinsey, PwC, EY, Deloitte, and Capgemini.

Get started today 

Start your journey with SAP Business Data Cloud and unleash the power of AI with trusted business data:

Experience SAP Business Data Cloud with the guided product tour
Register for the upcoming webinar: “30-Minute Primer on SAP Business Data Cloud”
Learn more about SAP Business Data Cloud

Irfan Khan is president and chief product officer for SAP Data and Analytics at SAP.

13 February

BUSINESS NEWS

Joule Agents: How SAP Uniquely Delivers AI Agents That Truly Mean Business

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AI agents mark the next era of AI and a quantum leap in business productivity. They stand ready to address one of the biggest roadblocks to your business growth and competitive agility — friction in true collaboration across end-to-end processes.

Every day, your people spend too much time aligning data, decisions, and actions across functional silos. AI agents can help bridge these silos, so that core processes run flawlessly and the entire organization operates more efficiently.

However, capturing this opportunity is not about creating lots and lots of siloed agents across the enterprise that help reinforce more functional independent tasks. Instead, it’s about having the right agents, grounded in the correct business context and data, that can work together, supporting human collaboration and improving end-to-end processes.

At SAP, we have been investing heavily to deliver the full promise of AI agents. From the start, we’ve architected SAP Business AI with a Suite-first principle that ensures an integrated AI strategy that brings exceptionally more value with every skill, feature, or scenario added to our portfolio of applications and platform.

Joule, our generative AI copilot, provides one seamless integrated experience across the suite, providing a unified user interface across all business functions and more than 1,300 skills to perform work across the organization. You can ask any question or present any business problem, and Joule will work across every part of your business to solve it like no other solution in the market.

These investments set a strong foundation for realizing our vision for Joule agents — a vision we first shared at SAP Sapphire in 2024. Joule agents are uniquely capable of working together and with business users in various roles to execute complex cross-functional processes with speed and reliability.

Watch the video: How Joule Agents Work

With today’s announcement of SAP Business Data Cloud, the foundation for Joule agents becomes even stronger, because AI agents are only as powerful as the data in which they are grounded.

SAP Business Data Cloud equips Joule agents with a single trusted data layer that breaks down data silos, unifying data across SAP and non-SAP sources. With SAP Business Data Cloud, Joule agents access the most complete and context-rich data sets, allowing them to reason more deeply and act with more insight to solve problems.

SAP Knowledge Graph, previously announced at SAP TechEd in 2024, serves as the semantic bridge between Joule agents and SAP Business Data Cloud. SAP Knowledge Graph reveals the connections between data and processes, helping Joule agents find all the most relevant data to ground their decisions and actions.

While knowledge graphs are not a new concept, combining them with new advanced technologies makes them extremely powerful. SAP Knowledge Graph is rapidly advancing to make SAP’s unique 50-plus years of business process expertise available to Joule agents. This process grounding further enables Joule agents to be aware of the context in which they operate and, therefore, to solve more challenging problems that involve multi-step processes spanning supply chain, procurement, finance, and more.

All these innovations turn our long-held AI agent vision into a reality, with more innovation to come, faster. Today, we announced the availability of a collection of ready-to-use Joule agents across finance, service, and sales, with more across the SAP Business Suite portfolio in 2025.

The announcement includes the planned first quarter availability of a cash collection Joule agent previewed at SAP TechEd in 2024. The cash collection agent will analyze disputes and work across finance, customer service, and operations to validate details and recommend resolutions. This Joule agent exemplifies the full promise of agentic AI — delivering new levels of operational efficiency by working cross-functionally to complete a complex, multi-step process that usually takes hours in just a few seconds.

Watch the video: Joule Agents Demo – Dispute Resolution

Today’s announcement also includes new ready-to-use Joule agents that advance efficiency across multi-step sales and service tasks. This includes a Q&A agent that continuously monitors opportunities and customer cases, proactively spotting questions and surfacing relevant answers from approved knowledge sources; a knowledge creation agent that automatically identifies novel case resolutions and creates structured knowledge articles that scale expertise across your organization; and a case classification agent that understands case context — for example, recognizing a tax-related inquiry even if the word “tax” isn’t mentioned — and correctly routes the case to the correct team.

This class of functionally focused Joule agents will become part of Joule’s collaborative agent architecture, making them available to team with other Joule agents to solve problems across cross-functional processes. For example, when the case classification agent identifies a customer billing dispute, it can route it to the cash collection agent, autonomously kicking off the dispute resolution multi-agent workflow. Through such agent teamwork, a dispute can not only be resolved in seconds but also within seconds of its receipt, further increasing process efficiency and delighting customers with unmatched response time.

In addition, SAP also previewed a custom agent builder capability for Joule studio in SAP Build. The new agent builder will make it simple for users such as citizen developers to create custom agents for their company’s unique business needs. A guided no-code workflow, informed by SAP’s business process expertise, helps ground custom AI agents in business processes and data, allowing them to solve problems through autonomous actions across a customer’s SAP and non-SAP applications. With the unique foundation provided by Joule, Joule agents, SAP Business Data Cloud, and SAP Knowledge Graph, the agent builder enables organizations to build powerful custom AI agents.

Watch the video: Building Custom Joule Agents in Joule Studio

With Joule agents, Joule is not just an AI copilot, but becomes an AI orchestrator across all your organization. Joule can now adaptively assemble and orchestrate teams of agents — including out-of-the-box as well as customer’s custom-built AI agents — from multiple business functions to perform complex end-to-end processes. With Joule agents, teams work more seamlessly, work moves faster, and businesses operate more efficiently.

To learn more, visit the Joule agents page.

Brenda Bown is chief marketing officer of SAP Business AI at SAP.

08 February

BUSINESS NEWS

Football in 3D: Elevating Match Analysis with Apple Vision Pro

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Using Apple Vision Pro, a new SAP Sports One prototype offers a unique 3D view on football matches from any player’s perspective to help gain deeper insights into game situations and boost player development.

Innovation from the Bottom-Up

It started with a hackathon for SAP engineers with the goal to create a prototype combining the power of immersive technology and SAP solutions. The SAP Sports One team won with a prototype unlocking the potential of spatial computing in football match preparation.

SAP Sports One is a comprehensive solution that helps sports organizations optimize performance on and off the field and is trusted by football clubs like TSG Hoffenheim and FC Bayern as well as the German Football Association.

Taking SAP Sports One to the Third Dimension

Imagine being able to dive into a match, not just as a spectator, but through the eyes of a player on the field. The prototype SAP Sports One Immersive allows exactly that.

Using Apple Vision Pro, analysts and players can replay and analyze match scenes in 3D from any player’s perspective. A user can switch between the perspectives of various players to better understand a specific situation during a match. This immersive experience enables a new kind of match analysis and can make it easier to identify situations where another behavior of a player would have potentially been better.

Through an app on Apple Vision Pro, this prototype aims to empower teams to optimize their performance—whether it’s preparing for the next big match or analyzing past performances. Timo Gross, head of Match Analysis for football club TSG Hoffenheim, believes there’s a huge potential in the simulation of game scenarios in immersive 3D. “This enhances player training and tactical understanding,” he said. “In fact, I believe that this has the potential to pave the way for a new approach in player development, especially in the youth space.”

Professional Feedback: TSG Hoffenheim Thinks Immersive

“TSG Hoffenheim is an innovative club, always looking for new technologies to improve match preparation and talent development,” Gross said. “Immersive match analysis could be a next big step.”

Using immersive technology, users can feel as if they are standing on the field. They can observe players, move around, and gain a comprehensive perspective of a game situation. “This immersive prototype shows a match analyst the exact perspective of a player in a specific moment,” Gross explained. “For the player, it makes the transition from viewing a theoretical situation on a tactic board to the real-life moment on the pitch much easier.”

For Gross, another powerful feature of the prototype is the 3D visualization of classical 2D tactics scenes. Using the SAP Challenger Insights mobile app, coaches and players can sketch game situations on a tablet. These 2D sketches can be transferred into the 3D immersive view.

From Hackathon onto the Stage

Winning the SAP hackathon on spatial experience was just the first step. On February 5, 2025, the prototype was presented at the SPOBIS Conference in Hamburg, Germany, Europe’s largest sports business event. In a live, on-stage presentation, Gross was joined by experts including Dr. Dietmar Blicker, deputy managing director at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Sports and Sports Science; Michael Oenning, UEFA-Pro licensed coach; and Fadi Naoum, senior vice president SAP Sports and Entertainment; to discuss the potential of immersive technologies in sports.

*On stage at SPOBIS, from left to right: Naoum, Oenning, Blicker, Gross, *moderator Achim Ittner (SAP)*. Copyright: Olivia Lehmann*

Oenning, who was head coach for German national division clubs Hamburger SV and 1. FC Nürnberg, is passionate about developing and promoting talents. “Training young people using technologies they encounter in their daily lives is something I would definitely use in my work as a coach,” he said. “Offering different perspectives of a game situation is an experience young players can benefit from tremendously.”

Blicker agreed that “3D experiences like these enhance the cognitive perception of a player.” Technology savvy by the nature of his role, he isn’t only involved in sports from an academic perspective, but also coaches the U23 team of the German second division team Karlsruher SC. “As a coach, I often sketch a tactical situation. But such a 2D drawing doesn’t easily translate to a real situation. The body height of a close opponent might cause a risk to an intended pass, or the distances on the field don’t match up in the end. Practicing situations in an immersive setting can help players to internalize certain behaviors,” he said.

SAP’s Naoum noted the importance of applying new technologies. “This prototype is a result of our continuous collaboration with partners like TSG Hoffenheim where we constantly test innovative technologies,” he said. “For SAP, sports serve as a front-runner to demonstrate new technologies that can potentially be applied in other industries as well.”

07 February

BUSINESS NEWS

Empowering Innovation: A Mutual Commitment to Skill Validation for Agile Success

by twm@twm.com.sg 0 Comments

Accelerated cloud migration is not merely a technical shift; it is a vital response to broader societal and economic changes. To support businesses in their digital transformations, SAP and its partners have announced a commitment to validated skills, ensuring that companies can innovate swiftly to remain agile and successful.

As businesses increasingly adopt cloud-first strategies, their approach to IT infrastructure and enterprise applications is significantly evolving. Recent studies show that artificial intelligence (AI) adoption has more than tripled since 2017, with over 70% of companies now integrating AI into their operations.* For SAP customers, this transition presents opportunities to leverage innovative technologies and enhance business agility. However, success relies heavily on careful planning, strong partnerships, and future-ready skills.

To help customers remain agile, respond quickly to innovations, and continuously evolve their operations, SAP and its partners are committed to maintaining certified skills. New requirements, including annual certification renewals, ensure that experts stay current. By July of this year, all partner resources in key roles—such as enterprise architects, developers, business transformation management consultants, and project managers involved in RISE with SAP projects—must hold a valid SAP Certification. Furthermore, by the end of 2025, 50% of relevant partner practitioners are expected to possess at least one valid certification across the SAP solution portfolio.

Since its launch in 2021, SAP partners have been integral to RISE with SAP transformation projects, leveraging their expertise to tailor solutions to customer needs. From designing cloud transition road maps to implementing process automation and optimizing costs, partners can enable businesses to maximize the value of SAP solutions. They help ensure organizations adopt intelligent enterprise practices efficiently while addressing unique challenges and goals.

“This mutual commitment underscores SAP and its partners’ dedication to delivering exceptional value, staying ahead of evolving industry standards, and driving customer success in an ever-evolving landscape,” says Karl Fahrbach, chief partner officer at SAP. “Working with certified innovators skilled in the latest SAP technologies enables customers to achieve significant benefits—from reducing errors and risks to fostering innovation and accelerating deployment times.”

By collaborating with certified partner experts, customers can expect to adapt more readily to change and maintain competitiveness in a dynamic market. SAP and its partners’ commitment to innovative SAP skills highlights the importance of continuous learning and upskilling, working to ensure exceptional value delivery. With the latest competencies in high-demand SAP solutions, SAP’s ecosystem of partners strives to achieve our shared goal: delivering innovation excellence to customers.

*McKinsey, The state of AI in early 2024: Gen AI adoption spikes and starts to generate value, 2024

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

06 February

BUSINESS NEWS

Establishing a Mission and Vision for a Skills-Led Organization

by sherwin@eyeconz.com 0 Comments

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Skills Development with SAP SuccessFactors HCM

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Business and HR Need to Work More Closely Together”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

06 February

BUSINESS NEWS

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

by wendy@eyeconz.com 0 Comments

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

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

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

Step 1: Insights—Understanding Your True Business Objectives

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

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

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

AI-Enabled Enrichment

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

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

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

Spend Trends

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

Supply Risk

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

Supplier Fragmentation

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

Consolidation Opportunities

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

Diversity and Sustainability Targets

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

Payment Terms Consolidation

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

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

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

The Power of Real-Time Insights

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

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

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

The Human Element

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

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

The Road Ahead

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

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

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

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

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

05 February

BUSINESS NEWS

Jump Start for Volkswagen’s Battery Startup PowerCo

by jennychua@twm.com.sg 0 Comments

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

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