BUSINESS NEWS 77 - The World Management

10 May

Meeting Workout: A Game to Improve the Meeting Experience

To help address the challenge of unproductive meetings, the Future of Work team at SAP and SAP AppHaus created the “Meeting Workout” board game. It brings a playful approach to making meetings more efficient. Interested teams can choose between a virtual template or a downloadable, do-it-yourself version.

For the majority of employees, work comprises enjoyable projects and duties but also routines and tasks that can be tiring or difficult. To make the work experience as positive and efficient as possible, experts and companies around the globe seek to continuously improve the realities of their workforce. This is also true for SAP.

Meetings, All Kinds of Meetings

An important facet of today’s work reality is meetings. They are where all sorts of work decisions are prepared and made, where briefings take place, where teams build up their team identity, exchange thoughts, solve challenges, share updates, align across geographical time zones, and much more. In many cases and for many roles, meetings consume a considerable part of overall working hours. So it comes as no surprise that, in their most recent project, the Future of Work team at SAP and SAP AppHaus colleagues joined forces to develop an easy approach for teams to improve their meeting routines.

“As featured by Forbes in May 2023, an average employee spends 31 hours per month in unproductive meetings. This is a challenge we want to address with the Meeting Workout game,” says Andreas Hauser, SVP and head of SAP AppHaus Network. “By innovatively blending play with productivity, we can transform these hours into opportunities for meaningful engagement and collaborative innovation, paving the way for a future where every meeting is a step towards building stronger, more dynamic teams.”

People playing the Meeting Workout game — *Photo courtesy of Hyun Lee.*

The Imperative for Efficient Meetings

According to a recent Microsoft report, inefficient meetings have been identified as the top disruptor to productivity, with an excessive number of meetings following close behind. As SAP Chief Future of Work Officer Christian Schmeichel states: “The way we are working is changing rapidly, and both the rise of hybrid work and new technologies have increased the number of meetings for many of us. Hence, it’s an imperative to foster meetings that best utilize our time, spark energy, and drive outcomes. The Meeting Workout game can help with an engaging workshop format that can not only improve meeting effectiveness but can enable teams to set new standards for workplace collaboration on their journey into the future of work.”

Playing for a Better Meeting Experience

From the initial idea to create a game for teams to improve their meeting routines, it took the New Work Practices team and SAP AppHaus a few weeks to design, test, and produce the Meeting Workout game. However, what might look like a fun project was very similar to any other design and innovation project.

“In our planning meetings and test sessions we really tried to put ourselves in the shoes of all kinds of teams in different organizations and setups,” recall project members Beate Riefer, UX designer at SAP AppHaus, and Filip Weidenbach, HR project expert in New Work Practices. “Through a very generic phrasing of the cards and in simple steps, the game should be applicable in the most diverse, if not all, environments. It’s not as easy as it might seem – and it’s the reason why we established breaks in our meetings to keep the energy and concentration levels up. Here’s an important recommendation for all teams playing the Meeting Workout game: have plenty of sticky notes and a variety of snacks available!”

50 Meeting Workout Games Available

The Meeting Workout game can be a perfect opportunity to help actively inspire and support teams in restructuring their current meeting formats. Users can choose between the virtual version available on Mural, a do-it-yourself, paper-based version for a physical workshop, and a tangible board game version.

The Future of Work team at SAP is gifting 50 board game versions on a first-come, first-serve basis. People or teams that would like to test and use the board game can contact SAPFutureOfWork@sap.com, thereby acknowledging that their postal address and contact information will be used only for the delivery of the game shipment, in accordance with the SAP Privacy Statement.

Waltraud Grimm is communications lead for SAP Future of Work.
Imke Vierjahn is communications lead for SAP AppHaus.

Top photo courtesy of Hyun Lee

09 May

BUSINESS NEWS

SAP BTP Wins Multiple TrustRadius 2024 Top Rated Awards

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SAP’s commitment to customers is steadfast in making SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) the best platform to extend and personalize SAP applications, integrate and connect landscapes, maximize the value of data, and drive business innovation through artificial intelligence (AI).

To that end, I am thrilled to announce that TrustRadius, a leading independent peer research and review platform, has once again recognized SAP BTP, along with multiple solutions that run on our platform, as winners of the 2024 Top Rated awards.

As a reflection of direct customer feedback, the TrustRadius Top Rated awards offer an authentic measure of a product’s quality and customer satisfaction and highlight those products that have demonstrated excellence in fulfilling clients’ needs and expectations.

Best of Awards

SAP customers’ willingness to share their hands-on experience and opinions of SAP BTP is testament to our platform’s services, robustness, and ongoing innovation.

We are honored that the following solutions have been recognized with Top Rated awards:

SAP Business Technology Platform on TrustRadius: Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and Application Infrastructure
SAP Build on TrustRadius: Low-Code Development and Robotic Process Automation (RPA)
SAP Integration Suite on TrustRadius: Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS), and API Management
SAP Master Data Governance on TrustRadius: Master Data Management (MDM) and Data Governance

“SAP Business Technology Platform’s comprehensive suite of solutions has been recognized with a TrustRadius Top Rated award,” said Allyson Havener, senior vice president of Marketing and Community at TrustRadius. “SAP is committed to delivering innovative technologies that empower businesses to drive digital transformation, and achieve their goals. We congratulate SAP on this achievement, showcasing their continued leadership and excellence in providing cutting-edge enterprise solutions.”

Our Focus on Customer Success

At SAP, customer success and satisfaction are the ultimate measures of our own success. We strive to deliver industry-leading solutions, functionality, and user experience that exceeds customer expectations and unlocks business potential. This is especially important as customers accelerate their digital innovation across business operations while maintaining the agility to adapt to fluctuating market demands. SAP BTP provides this for our customers.

“SAP Business Technology Platform is the right tool to manage sites, applications, users, and everything you can imagine in the cloud and non-cloud world, from my point of view BTP is very well focused and has everything that a tool has to have.”

Read the full review by Warner Bros. Discovery on TrustRadius

To read what other customers said about SAP BTP, please take a look at our TrustRadius review page. We welcome you to try out SAP BTP for yourself too.

On behalf of the entire SAP BTP team, we sincerely thank TrustRadius for acknowledging SAP BTP in its 2024 Top Rated awards and our dedicated SAP BTP customers for their unwavering support.

JG Chirapurath is chief marketing and solutions officer for SAP Business Technology Platform.

09 May

BUSINESS NEWS

Three Key Actions Procurement Can Take to Increase Supply Chain Visibility

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As the global economy continues to evolve, supply chains have grown more interconnected, complex, and prone to vulnerabilities. This evolution, paired with increasingly stringent regulations that require businesses to report on sustainability practices, has necessitated that procurement teams deliver enhanced transparency into increasingly dynamic supply chain operations.

Yet, this has become a challenge for chief procurement officers (CPOs) who often lack information on the supplier base. In fact, a recent study from Procurement Leaders and SAP found that suppliers are often reluctant to disclose privileged information, leading to miscalculated procurement decisions.

Against this backdrop, how can procurement professionals elevate their role and transform the depth of insights the function can offer? I believe this starts with three key actions.

1. Go Beyond Reporting

Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) initiatives have become a priority for procurement teams in recent years. Unfortunately, buyers often fail to receive accurate or complete sustainability information from sellers, according to the Procurement Leaders study. This lack of transparency can increase the potential for regulatory violations, especially as climate-focused laws like the European Green Deal come to fruition.

While reporting should remain a key tactic, it is not sufficient to deliver on sustainability goals. Organizations must invest in software that fits within the organization’s scope, generates more touchpoints with sellers, and provides visibility into suppliers’ social and environmental impacts.

Software can help organizations increase regulatory compliance, reduce costs, and develop healthy relationships with sellers. Of course, there are limitations as suppliers can be reluctant to share information – like financial statements or internal regulatory policies.

However, software that is augmented with predictive analytics can deliver metrics and insights into supplier emissions and energy usage that enable organizations to evaluate suppliers against their sustainability objectives.

2. Take the Lead Through a Bold but Methodical AI Strategy

As procurement teams take on more responsibility in increasing transparency across the supply chain, they should be courageous but vigilant in efforts to uncover supplier insights. Consequently, many CPOs have opted for strategies involving AI.

AI can provide procurement teams with intelligent business data that can lead to more informed purchase decisions. Additionally, according to the Oxford College of Procurement & Supply, AI can reduce time spent on buying processes by up to 60% and reach cost savings of up to 40%.

Adopting AI throughout the source-to-pay process has obvious benefits, although many companies lack the internal skills needed to leverage the power of this technology. Organizations should take a holistic and careful approach, ensuring that internal and external stakeholders are “bought-in” and empowered through cohesive training and change management programs.

Similarly, CPOs should take steps to maintain rigorous data privacy policies to build trust with suppliers. Procurement teams should only implement AI technologies that are relevant, responsible, and reliable, ensuring that the implementation of AI follows guiding principles and protects the privacy of all users.

3. Select a Trusted Technology Partner

Leading procurement teams are realizing the importance of cultivating trusted and mutually beneficial relationships with suppliers, particularly those offering resources vital to business continuity. Identifying a technology partner who understands the needs of different industries and the power of developing connections can empower procurement teams to optimize decision-making.

This is where SAP is in a unique position to help. We not only have unmatched access to business data, but we’ve processed data responsibly and reliably for decades through our ERP systems, SAP Ariba solutions, and now SAP Business Network. This makes it possible to help organizations counteract supplier reluctance, as SAP Ariba solutions work with millions of trading partners to help develop connections and provide greater visibility.

In addition, SAP Ariba solutions can provide guided recommendations for buyers, supporting internal compliance even if the user is unaware of regulations. This can enable deeper knowledge of spend management, helping to reduce redundancies and complexities and provide employees with more time to solve harder problems.

Procurement’s visibility into the supply chain is paramount for informed decision-making and mitigating risk. By moving beyond reporting, investing in AI methodically, and partnering with a trusted solution provider, procurement will not only achieve greater supply chain visibility but also lay the foundation for increased innovation and competitive advantage in today’s global economy.

Now is the time to rethink your procurement technology strategy.

Baber Farooq is senior vice president and head of Market Strategy for SAP Ariba.

09 May

BUSINESS NEWS

IBM and SAP Plan to Expand Collaboration to Help Clients Become Next-Generation Enterprises with Generative AI

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New Value Generation partnership initiative focused on delivering greater client productivity and innovation with new generative AI capabilities and industry-specific cloud solutions

WALLDORF and ARMONK — IBM (NYSE: IBM) and SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced their vision for the next era of their collaboration, which includes new generative AI capabilities and industry-specific cloud solutions that can help clients unlock business value.

“IBM and SAP’s shared approach to generative AI, built on an open ecosystem, trust and purpose-built models, will help empower clients to optimize business outcomes,” said John Granger, Senior Vice President, IBM Consulting. “Our new Value Generation partnership initiative will enable clients to accelerate the path to innovation, competitive advantage and become a next generation enterprise through generative AI.”

“It makes perfect sense to expand our partnership with IBM to help more customers accelerate their cloud journey leveraging RISE with SAP and realize the transformative benefits of generative AI for business in the cloud,” said Scott Russell, Chief Revenue Officer & Executive Board Member, Customer Success of SAP SE. “This expanded partnership will help more of our joint customers reach new heights by innovating through the cloud, data and business AI to grow and transform their businesses.”

IBM Consulting and SAP aim to accelerate transformation enabled by RISE with SAP by supporting clients in the following key areas:

Next-Generation AI Business Processes: Together, the companies are exploring opportunities to build new generative AI capabilities for RISE with SAP and infuse AI into SAP business processes across industry-specific cloud solutions and line of business applications. Initially, IBM plans to extend AI capabilities across SAP’s portfolio of cloud solutions and applications, all of which are underpinned by SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). This includes RISE with SAP, the GROW with SAP solution, financial solutions for the office of the CFO, supply chain management solutions, solutions for human capital management, SAP Customer Experience solutions and intelligent spend management solutions. IBM also plans to leverage SAP Signavio and SAP Business AI solutions to help define next-generation business processes through a proof-of-concept adoption program.
Next-Generation Industry Innovation: IBM and SAP plan to build intelligent industry use cases, enabled by data-driven insights, into end-to-end business processes to fuel next-generation industry innovation. These use cases will initially focus on the industrial manufacturing, consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, defense, automotive and utilities industries. This includes IBM’s recent work with SAP to develop new AI solutions for the CPG and retail industries. As part of this initiative, IBM has begun the development of an extensive portfolio of over 100 AI solutions across industry, line-of-business and product delivery. In addition, IBM plans to develop prescriptive industry value maps that define next-generation business processes and opportunities for impact with AI. Clients will be able to access all of these new AI solutions through the global IBM Innovation Studios and SAP Experience Center sites.
Next-Generation Platform Architecture and Customer Adoption Approach: Next-generation enterprises require next-generation platform architectures and a modernized approach to customer adoption. Through the Value Generation partnership initiative, IBM intends to provide next-generation reference architectures that enable a clean core approach. To do this, IBM plans to leverage SAP BTP, SAP Signavio and LeanIX solutions. These new reference architectures will help define standards across data, process, systems and device integration, process orchestration and automation. IBM consultants supporting clients on SAP projects can also leverage IBM Consulting Advantage, IBM’s AI services platform, and its portfolio of proprietary methods, assets and Assistants to bring more repeatability and consistency to client delivery. With IBM Consulting Advantage, IBM consultants can transform the way they deliver SAP solutions to boost productivity and mitigate risk by leveraging generative AI to help complete tasks like generation of user stories, test scripts, training and change management content and code creation.
Next-Generation Ecosystem Expansion: IBM and SAP plan to partner around their respective employee network groups and “next-gen” communities, such as the business women’s networks at IBM and SAP, the SAP University Alliances program and the Veterans to Work program of SAP and Veterans at IBM to increase the SAP solutions experience in the consulting workforce and develop the next generation of talent. The companies also plan to explore new ways to collaborate on social impact programs, such as training at- risk youth in the IT sector and accelerating the integration of social businesses into global supply chains.
watsonx Planned Availability on the Generative AI Hub: IBM Granite Model Series are expected to be accessible for use across SAP’s portfolio of cloud solutions and applications – which is underpinned by the generative AI hub in SAP AI Core. The generative AI hub facilitates relevant, reliable and responsible business AI and provides instant access to a broad range of large language models (LLMs). This expands on IBM and SAP’s collaboration around embedding IBM Watson AI technology into SAP solutions. To further highlight watsonx.ai Granite capabilities, IBM Consulting plans to build extensions using the model on the generative AI hub for select customers.

This initiative will build on the companies’ over 50-year collaboration based on deep technology, industry and domain expertise and demonstrates the two organizations’ joint commitment to continue to evolve to put clients first and meet market demand.

IBM Consulting accelerates business transformation for our clients through hybrid cloud and AI technologies, leveraging our open ecosystem of partners. With deep industry and business expertise spanning strategy, experience design, technology, and operations, we have become the trusted partner to the world’s most innovative and valuable companies, helping modernize and secure their most complex systems. Our 160,000 consultants embrace an open way of working and apply our proven, collaborative engagement model, IBM Garage, to scale ideas into outcomes. As the only major global systems integrator inside a technology company, we don’t just advise – we invent and build what’s next together with our clients. Find out more at IBM.com/consulting.

To learn more about the Value Generation partnership initiative, visit ibm.com/info/sap-value-generation.

Visit the SAP News Center. Follow SAP at @SAPNews.

About IBM

IBM is a leading provider of global hybrid cloud and AI, and consulting expertise. We help clients in more than 175 countries capitalize on insights from their data, streamline business processes, reduce costs and gain the competitive edge in their industries. More than 4,000 government and corporate entities in critical infrastructure areas such as financial services, telecommunications and healthcare rely on IBM’s hybrid cloud platform and Red Hat OpenShift to effect their digital transformations quickly, efficiently and securely. IBM’s breakthrough innovations in AI, quantum computing, industry-specific cloud solutions and consulting deliver open and flexible options to our clients. All of this is backed by IBM’s commitment to trust, transparency, responsibility, inclusivity and service.

Visit www.ibm.com for more information.

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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09 May

BUSINESS NEWS

SAP SuccessFactors Takes Home 12 Top Rated Awards from TrustRadius

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SAP SuccessFactors has once again been recognized as a leader in human resources software by TrustRadius, earning 12 Top Rated awards in 2024. TrustRadius is a peer research and review platform designed to help business leaders find and select the right software to meet their needs.

“At TrustRadius, we pride ourselves on providing unbiased and transparent insights into the software industry,” said Allyson Havener, senior vice president of Marketing and Community at TrustRadius. “Receiving a TrustRadius Top Rated award is a testament to SAP SuccessFactors HCM’s exceptional performance as validated by unbiased user feedback. This recognition highlights SAP SuccessFactors’ commitment to delivering innovative human capital management solutions that truly meet the needs of businesses.”

This year, SAP SuccessFactors earned awards across the following categories: Applicant Tracking, Compensation Management, Talent Management, Workforce Analytics, Sales Incentive Compensation Management, HR Management, Workforce Management, Employee Performance Management, Sales Performance Management, Corporate Learning Management, Succession Planning, and Internal Payroll.

We are grateful to our more than 10,000 global customers whose partnership allows us to help make every employee a success story by harnessing the power of AI to elevate every experience, guide every people decision, and connect HR across every aspect of the business.

In the past year, SAP has introduced new AI capabilities that span the entire SAP SuccessFactors HCM suite and help transform how organizations unlock individual and collective potential. Joule, SAP’s natural language generative AI copilot, helps employees and managers work faster and smarter by making it easier to find information and complete common HR tasks. With an embedded AI-driven skills framework, SAP SuccessFactors solutions help power an organization’s learning and talent strategy and address critical skills gaps. The combined force of these innovations helps customers better meet the business challenges of today and tomorrow.

Below are a few reviews from our customers:

“We chose SAP SuccessFactors over competitors for its comprehensive HR suite, superior integration capabilities with SAP systems, and global scalability. Its user-friendly interface and extensive analytics stood out, offering more in-depth insights and a seamless experience compared to other solutions in the market.”

Solution Architect, Barclays

“The benefit of [SAP] SuccessFactors is its flexibility. I have implemented [SAP] SuccessFactors at companies with as little as 1,500 employees and also with as many as 120,000 users. It can handle the complexities of global requirements while still being able to scale to a small, midsized business in a cost-effective manner.”

HRIS Manager, Great Lakes Cheese

“SAP SuccessFactors has a clean employee view of data and offers a wide range of functionality to support midsize to large companies.”

Software Engineer, John Deere

Learn more about SAP SuccessFactors HCM and read our customer reviews on TrustRadius. For more information about these recognitions, visit the TrustRadius scoring FAQ page.

Aaron Green is chief marketing & solutions officer for SAP SuccessFactors.

08 May

BUSINESS NEWS

Insights from SAP MaxAttention Summit 2024

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At SAP MaxAttention Summit 2024, attendees received in-depth information about SAP Business AI, clean core with SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), updates on enterprise architecture, and more.

The event was held April 23-25 in Heidelberg, Germany, and customers on-site experienced insightful keynotes and sessions from SAP Executive Board Members Thomas Saueressig and Muhammad Alam, as well as SAP Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer Philipp Herzig and other experts.

SAP and customer speakers presented important updates on topics that also included Business Transformation as a Service, RISE with SAP, and SAP BTP. Attendees also benefited from interactive “eXpert eXchange” sessions and opportunities to network and share their experiences and best practices.

The SAP MaxAttention program offers premium-level engagement and personalized service for customers to move business-wide transformational change from boardroom plans to business reality with a tailored, premium experience. Program participants get premium access to trusted SAP experts, tools, and methodologies that can help deliver expected outcomes successfully with SAP solutions.

Replays

Watch the replays to see more:

Thomas Saueressig’s Keynote

08 May

BUSINESS NEWS

SAP Named a Leader in the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Warehouse Management Systems for the 11th Consecutive Year

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SAP has been named as a Leader in the 2024 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Warehouse Management Systems. For the 11th consecutive year, SAP is positioned in the Leaders quadrant based on Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision.

We believe that this recognition confirms our strategy in logistics, which is based on three pillars:

Connecting every process to facilitate synchronized logistics execution, supporting highly efficient and fast-paced fulfillment cycles through seamless integration with logistics applications like SAP Transportation Management, SAP Business Network for Logistics, etc.
Collaborating within a diverse ecosystem of system integrators, software partners, hyperscalers, hardware partners, and robotics OEMs, with warehouse management being an integral part of cloud ERP.
Contextualizing every decision leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to optimize operations and to provide business insights

SAP Extended Warehouse Management (SAP EWM) is an integral part of the overall SAP strategy and gives companies the ability to operate modern warehouses that must respond quickly to changing business conditions. The flexibility of SAP EWM helps manage a high volume of goods and run sustainable, risk-resilient operations with digitized warehouse processes in the cloud including direct control of warehouse automation equipment.

SAP continues to innovate in SAP EWM based on market analysis and even more importantly based on feedback from our global install base and ecosystem. Recent innovations include cross-process integration in the areas of transportation, production, and quality management, addressing industry-specific requirements, extensibility, and usability.

SAP EWM combined with SAP Transportation Management and SAP Business Network for Logistics provides a platform for companies to collaborate with their logistics partners to gain end-to-end visibility and insights across their logistics operations.

Our global partner network — made up of systems integrators, business consultants, and technology providers — helps our customers manage their warehouse management transformations, whether they be system replacements, upgrades, greenfield deployments, or part of larger enterprise transformations.

“Warehouse Management with SAP EWM is an integral part of our cloud ERP offering,” said Till Dengel, global head of Logistics and Manufacturing Product Marketing at SAP. “Customers use SAP EWM to manage their warehouse operations in 66 countries and 24 industries.”

“SAP Extended Warehouse Management helped Bridgestone reduce errors, with a new level of productivity and safety.”

Eric Dyason, National Distribution Manager, Bridgestone New Zealand Ltd.

Get more details on the latest
Gartner Magic Quadrant for WMS here.

Ganesh Wadawadigi is chief product marketing owner for Logistics at SAP.

*Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Warehouse Management Systems, Simon Tunstall, Dwight Klappich, Rishabh Narang, Federica Stufano, 2 May 2024

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07 May

BUSINESS NEWS

Innovative Cloud ERP at Department of Defense Agencies with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition

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Over the past several years, defense agencies in the United States have become increasingly cloud-centric. The cloud has proven its ability to streamline operations, empower real-time decision making, and support mission success.

As announced May 2, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition has received a provisional authorization from the Defense Information and Systems Agency (DISA). This means SAP NS2, an independent subsidiary of SAP that facilitates the adoption of SAP cloud solutions for customers who require enhanced compliance, can officially deploy SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition within the Department of Defense FedRAMP+Impact Level 4 (DoD IL4) secure cloud environment.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition enables a cloud experience with the same functional scope and upgrade flexibility that SAP S/4HANA Cloud offers, but with added security and compliance that allows Department of Defense customers a quick adoption of cloud solutions.

With this new certification, defense customers can choose to adopt a secure cloud ERP solution that supports mission-critical operations in real time, from any location. Once limited to on-premise solutions, which exhausted budget and resources, defense agencies can now migrate operations to the cloud where data is stored on cloud servers and resources can be reallocated to support defense workforces and alternative needs.

“Obtaining our FedRAMP+DoD IL4 authorization was a tremendous step in supporting our defense and federal agency customers,” said Amy Spruill, senior vice president and general manager of Regulated Industries at SAP. “SAP S/4HANA Cloud will provide the commercial cloud capabilities our customers are looking for while improving their security perimeter and mitigating attacks on critical data.”

The FedRAMP+DoD IL4 secure cloud environment is dedicated to defense agencies and protected with continuous monitoring, vulnerability scanning, and intrusion detection to ensure Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) is safeguarded. SAP NS2 adheres to National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) 800-53, FedRAMP®, International Traffic and Arms (ITAR), and FedRAMP+Impact Level 2 (DoD IL2).

Harish Luthra is CEO of SAP NS2.

07 May

BUSINESS NEWS

Foodstuffs South Island Implements SAP S/4HANA RISE

by sherwin@eyeconz.com 0 Comments

Foodstuffs South Island, New Zealand’s leading grocery retailer, has successfully implemented SAP S/4HANA RISE in a significant move towards digital transformation. This strategic shift enables the organization to optimize its operations, revolutionize the member and supplier experience, and effectively meet the growing demand for fresh and affordable groceries. Foodstuffs South Island, with its extensive network of […]

The post Foodstuffs South Island Implements SAP S/4HANA RISE appeared first on InsideSAP.

07 May

BUSINESS NEWS

The Path to AI with Clean Core

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From cloud to generative AI, the list of new and emerging technologies continues to grow in our era of digital intelligence. Yet it’s also the era of inflation, geopolitical tension, supply chain disruption, and countless other challenges. How are businesses supposed to make sense of all these technologies – let alone transform their businesses with them – while simply trying to survive during such a challenging time?

That’s where Claudio Muruzabal, chief business officer of SAP SE, steps in.

Muruzabal is responsible for supporting the Customer Advisory solution area and Customer Success Management & Engagement teams at SAP. For more than eight years, he has played an important role in understanding not only an increasingly complex technology landscape but also how businesses actually use the technology at their disposal. He supports teams that help bring SAP customers closer to their goals by leveraging SAP solutions. This begins with advising customers through honest conversations about how they can apply the intelligent capabilities now included in many SAP solutions, such as generative AI.

I sat down with Muruzabal to find out more about his role, how SAP customers are winning with intelligent technology, and the growing impact of customer success management at SAP.

Q: AI is all the rage today, so let’s start there. What are the biggest opportunities for businesses to use AI?

Muruzabal: Opportunity is everywhere for AI. And it’s bigger than just automating processes to increase efficiency, which is what was talked about for the longest time. At SAP, we’re seeing how AI can support relevant business processes to instill innovation and competitiveness. While many players in the industry are focused on developing AI engines and large language models, we are focused on accelerating business value through generative AI. I could talk all day about how AI is transforming data analytics and decision-support systems as well as supply chain optimization, predictive maintenance, and HR. Every day we are discovering new opportunities for customers to leapfrog their competition when they combine the power of generative AI with the context of their business data and processes.

What are some examples of how SAP customers are using AI, and what value have they realized so far?

There’s really so much to get excited about when it comes to how our customers are using the AI capabilities included with their SAP solutions. Across industries, workers everywhere are using natural language to instantly get the data insights they need using the SAP Analytics Cloud solution. I like how busy recruiters can tap into generative AI with SAP SuccessFactors solutions to create compelling job descriptions and interview questions in less time. Joule, our AI assistant and copilot, can support end users in getting the right answers on how to get the most of our cloud solutions. With Joule already embedded across the portfolio – generally available in SAP SuccessFactors HCM, SAP Start, and SAP S/4HANA Cloud – we are all excited about the opportunities for our customers.

All industries can get this unique value, including professional soccer clubs FC Bayern Munich and Hertha BSC that are using a scouting prototype powered by AI to find and develop the next generation of star athletes.

AI can solve a lot of problems, but what about the underlying foundational technology stack companies have today? What conversations are you having with businesses about their technology investments?

Early on in our conversations with customers, it’s important to understand how businesses can set up their core, foundational enterprise technology platform running in the cloud. This is critical to establish a journey of innovation including SAP Business AI. Coming back to the foundation, many of our customers have built numerous modifications on top of their core ERP. In order to build a true cloud operating model – essential to embrace innovation including AI – it is critical to move to a clean core model. This means that any modification to the ERP functionality offered by SAP is built outside of the core, using extensibility solutions. This is not a technical topic only. Although clean core contributes to the cost-efficient operation of the platform, the true contribution is bringing flexibility and adaptability to the business, converting the cloud operating model into a unique “innovation as a service” platform.

What makes SAP unique and stand out to customers with its value proposition?

SAP has the unique value of being the global leader in best of suite solutions built with more than 50 years of industry knowledge and ERP technology leadership. On top of this, our leading “best of breed” solutions, such as in HCM, customer experience, intelligent spend and business network, and more, can provide the best functionality and the right integration into the core. Only SAP can offer this value proposition. When we combined this with the cloud operating model – widely adopted by our RISE with SAP customers – we provide exponential value for the innovation as a service proposition.

How can customers get the most from their investments? What kind of support is there to help them transform and innovate?

Customer success management is essential in the cloud. It is the end-to-end engagement with our customers, from advisory to sales execution to onboarding, adoption, and consumption. We provide the tools, assets, and content to help accelerate adoption and consumption so as to maximize the value from first use of the solution to full and future use. SAP Preferred Success services can accelerate the time to value even more. To support this motion, deep telemetry being built into our cloud solutions allows customers and our customer success management leaders to better understand how the solutions are being used while identifying opportunities to expand usage.

Where do advisory services fit into the customer journey?

Customer advisory services might be the most essential part of the journey with a customer. Successful projects start with the right business case definition, anchored in the best understanding of the industry and business of our customers. With that in mind, our Customer Advisory teams support building the right technical solutions that can support an enterprise architecture. This is the first step in moving in the right direction of building the cloud operating model.