SAP to Acquire SmartRecruiters: Integrating Innovative Talent Acquisition Portfolio Will Help Customers Attract and Retain Top Talent

WALLDORF and SAN FRANCISCOSAP (NYSE: SAP) and SmartRecruiters today announced that SAP has entered into an agreement to acquire SmartRecruiters, a leading talent acquisition (TA) software provider.

SmartRecruiters’ deep expertise in high-volume recruiting, recruitment automation and AI-enabled candidate experience and engagement are considered an ideal addition to the SAP SuccessFactors human capital management (HCM) suite. The planned acquisition will strengthen SAP’s all-in-one HCM suite, so customers have the tools they need to attract and retain top talent in an increasingly competitive landscape.

SmartRecruiters’ powerful, user-friendly interfaces and seamless workflows will complement SAP’s robust HR tools – improving decision-making, reducing time-to-hire and providing a better experience for candidates. Embedded analytics and AI-driven recommendations from both companies will provide rich insights into talent pools, hiring bottlenecks and workforce planning.

“Hiring the right people is not just an HR priority – it’s a business priority. With this planned acquisition, we will help our customers attract and hire the best talent so they can advance their talent acquisition agendas with speed and agility, while lowering their total cost of ownership,” said Muhammad Alam, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, SAP Product & Engineering. “Customers will be able to manage the entire candidate lifecycle — from sourcing and interviewing to onboarding and beyond — all in a single system to streamline the experience for recruiters, hiring managers and, in particular, candidates.”

Customers can expect enhanced and AI-enabled recruiting and hiring capabilities, making applicant tracking and candidate screening more efficient. Data-driven hiring and recruitment analytics will flow directly into SAP’s existing HCM tools, providing a single system of record and harmonized data for compliant, seamless operations. The SmartRecruiters portfolio will also continue to be available standalone for the foreseeable future.

SmartRecruiters’ Software-as-a-Service solutions and platform enable more than 4,000 organizations globally to efficiently manage their hiring workflows end-to-end, offering a compelling experience to recruiters, hiring managers and candidates.

SmartRecruiters CEO Rebecca Carr said, “SmartRecruiters’ mission has always been to make hiring easy. Joining forces with SAP presents a tremendous opportunity for enterprises worldwide to benefit from our industry-leading approach to talent acquisition. I couldn’t be more excited for the opportunity this planned acquisition presents for our customers, partners and employees as we build the future of hiring together.”

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2025, subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory approvals. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. J.P. Morgan served as exclusive financial advisor to SmartRecruiters.

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About SmartRecruiters

SmartRecruiters is the Recruiting AI Company that transforms hiring for the world’s leading enterprises. Built for global scale, SmartRecruiters delivers an AI-powered hiring platform that automates and optimizes the entire talent acquisition process, ensuring faster and smarter hiring decisions. More than 4,000 organizations, including Amazon, Visa, and McDonald’s, rely on SmartRecruiters to build winning teams. For more information, visit www.smartrecruiters.com.

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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Every Car Counts: How SAP and BMW Group Are Standardizing Production Logistics

Every 57 seconds, a new car rolls off the assembly line at the BMW Group’s plant in Regensburg, Germany. But the factory does more than just build highly desirable automobiles; it is also pioneering the company’s cloud transformation to SAP S/4HANA.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition: Tailored-to-fit cloud ERP

Using RISE with SAP, BMW Group converted the factory’s operations to modern cloud software, which also enables greater integration of AI. The successful go-live among this complex shift operation was the result of an extraordinary team, a strategic partnership lasting more than 30 years, and seven years of co-innovation between BMW and SAP.

Creating a new standard as partners

Following the initial rollout of the new solution at BMW Group’s MINI plant in Oxford, England, the Regensburg plant is the first full-scale BMW Group facility to transition to SAP S/4HANA.

The rollout of the new cloud solution for the parts process chain (abbreviated as PKT in German) affected the entire logistical process chain for the digital control of parts supply in vehicle production — from ordering required components from suppliers, receiving, and warehousing to delivering them to the production line.

In addition to purely logistical processes, the solution also covers the plant’s quality and maintenance processes. For the first time, the new PKT template for SAP S/4HANA enabled unified management of parts supply across all production technologies required to build a vehicle.

The project’s success is rooted in a team that worked across corporate boundaries toward a shared goal. Customer Services & Delivery and Product & Engineering teams from SAP partnered with BMW to create a blueprint for holistic digital transformation in production logistics — from the press, body, and paint shops to final assembly.

Awareness of the importance of this transformation project was palpable among every SAP employee involved. “We made one thing clear to everyone on the team: every single car counts,” says Carola Schoenfelder, chief project expert, Strategic Customer Innovations at SAP, and program lead for SAP at BMW. “It wasn’t only about IT; it was about the factory, the people, and the result.”

Transformation as a staircase

Around one-third of employees at the BMW plant in Regensburg work directly with SAP S/4HANA components, including SAP Transportation Management and SAP Extended Warehouse Management. Involving those affected in the change process was critical to success. Another factor in the project’s success was learning from experience. The smaller MINI factory in Oxford had already completed its go-live, which helped guide the project team as it worked on the bigger Regensburg project.

Instead of designing the transformation as a metaphorical “rock face” that had to be climbed without any safety equipment, the team viewed it as a “staircase”: an incremental, guided transition. In addition, satellite support points were set up within the factory to offer support at any time.

Identifying optimization potential

Six months after go-live, it is clear that the transition to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition is more than just a technical upgrade; it’s noticeably changing daily operations. In particular, the new SAP Extended Warehouse Management application is proving to be a key technology that supplies important data and identifies potential for optimization.

Thanks to the new data foundation, the potential for optimization can be more precisely identified, for example, by the use of tugger trains and reduction of internal transport kilometers.

Standardization brings not only efficiency but also flexibility. Employees can switch between tasks more easily, and even between factories, because less specialized knowledge is needed. The processes are more streamlined and more transparent.

“The global digitalization of our production logistics significantly increases transparency and standardization, allowing us to respond more quickly to changes in demand or supply shortages,” explains Michael Nikolaides, head of Production Network and Logistics at the BMW Group.

Ready for an AI-driven future

Strategically, the new IT infrastructure has brought significant changes. The cloud provides speed and flexibility, without users having to worry about the technology in the background. Moreover, the introduction of standardized cloud solutions is a crucial step toward fully harnessing the potential of AI in the future. To benefit sustainably from AI, standardized software solutions that can be quickly enhanced with new capabilities are needed.

“With the next stage of digitalization in production logistics — enabled by consistent, unified data structures and standard process templates — we have significantly advanced the AI enablement of the BMW Group,” explains Alexander Buresch, CIO and senior vice president of BMW Group IT.

Over a seven-year period of co-innovation, BMW shared its automotive-specific requirements while SAP mapped large sections of these requirements in SAP S/4HANA and in the industry solution SAP S/4HANA for manufacturing logistics. “As part of our partnership with SAP, we have transferred key corporate processes to a service-oriented, cloud-based platform, achieving a new level of efficiency, quality, and automation,” Buresch says.

Those who use a shared standard can also find solutions collectively, share them, and co-develop solution designs. If other automakers configure on the same standard in the future, BMW will also benefit from new SAP releases.

The strategic collaboration to develop the PKT template began in 2018 as a project driven by deep expertise and strong commitment. The go-live in Regensburg is a key indicator that SAP S/4HANA Private Cloud can meet the complex demands of a high-volume vehicle plant. Together with BMW, the SAP consulting team demonstrated that with meticulous preparation, a lossless go-live in a complex shift operation is possible. The rollout process works and can be adapted and expanded plant by plant.

Hendrik Haas, senior vice president, general manager, and head of Customer Services & Delivery Middle and Eastern Europe at SAP, adds: “The collaboration with our lighthouse customer BMW is making waves in the market and demonstrates how digital transformation in production logistics can be successfully implemented. BMW’s Regensburg factory was an important step, with extraordinary commitment from both sides of the partnership. We will continue the RISE with SAP transformation at the main factory in Munich this summer, together with BMW.”

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Top image courtesy of BMW Group.

Why Understanding the Customer Journey Matters More Than Making the Product Perfect

In the world of product development, innovation often is the No. 1 priority. However, true success lies not just in what we build, but in how it’s experienced. When product teams shift their focus from features to customer satisfaction, they unlock the power to create solutions that resonate deeply with users.

SAP Business Suite: Deliver exceptional business value and help your business stay ready for what’s next

Let’s explore how embracing customer insights transform good intentions into meaningful impact across SAP Business Suite.

Build relationships with customers, not attachments to products

Product teams pour enormous passion and effort into building innovative solutions. Yet the real impact comes when that same energy is focused not just on what we build, but how it is experienced.

A product can be packed with features and innovation, but none of that matters if the overall experience does not meet real user needs. That is why product experience eats product capabilities for breakfast.

From good intentions to real impact: outcome over output

Today, at SAP we are in the fortunate position of having access to rich data that helps us understand:

  • How customers use our software
  • How they truly experience it
  • What they actually need from SAP Business Suite

Customer insights replace internal assumptions with the reality how end-users are interacting and using the different capabilities of our software. Instead of guessing what matters, we uncover it through data-driven discovery. Instead of building based on what we think is needed, we deliver what’s proven to create value.

This is how product managers evolve: from intuition-led decision-makers to data-driven strategists, designing solutions that align with real-world use – and with the business outcomes our customers care about.

Three layers of insight that drive better software

This insight-driven approach is grounded in real data that reflects how customers use and experience our software. To improve how software is built, introduced, and adopted, we focus on three essential types of product insight.

  • License consumption reveals usage gaps and efficiency opportunities: What has the customer licensed and how much of it is actually being used? This gap often reveals untapped potential and opportunities for greater efficiency across SAP Business Suite.
  • Functional usage highlights adoption patterns and usability challenges: Which apps, features, and capabilities are being used regularly? Equally important: what’s being underused or not used at all, and why? Low adoption does not always mean low value. It might indicate complexity, lack of awareness, or gaps in enablement.
  • Product experience feedback captures the human voice behind the data: How do users feel about the product? Are they satisfied? Where do they get stuck? This feedback adds human context to the raw data. In 2024 alone, end users, customers, partners, and consultants submitted more than 2.7 million product improvement requests and feedback records via in-product feedback surveys and our Customer Influence site, a rich source of insight to guide meaningful change.

Together, these three layers give our teams the foundation of a holistic view — of both product performance and of the experience behind it. And that experience is often the difference between a product that is used and one that is valued. This understanding enables smarter decisions, faster iteration, and ultimately software that reflects and supports the way customers work.

Product 360: SAP Business AI-powered one-stop insights hub

Disclaimer: The data shown in this screenshot is for illustrative purposes only. It is based on sample content and does not reflect any actual customer or usage data.

It is not only about collecting feedback; it’s about closing the loop, so every voice helps shape the product. And it’s about making sure our customers can see that we listen and understand what they really need.

Turning insights into action for product teams and customers

We are not just collecting this data for our product teams at SAP; we’re making it transparent and actionable for customers. Through SAP for Me, customers can access dashboards that visualize license utilization and feature usage within their own portfolio, along with key value drivers and benchmarks across peers and industries. For SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, they also receive aggregated feedback summaries from their end users, with more products to follow.

To turn these insights into real outcomes, we combine the power of SAP Business AI and Joule with in-app guidance tools like WalkMe solutions. This allows users to see where action is needed and to immediately take the right steps. From surfacing relevant KPIs to guiding users through change and process adoption, we are making enablement part of the flow of work.

By shifting our focus from what we build to how it’s experienced, we are not only improving software; we’re elevating the entire customer journey. Every insight, every piece of feedback, and every usage pattern brings us closer to delivering solutions that truly matter.

The more we understand how products are experienced, the better we can shape what comes next — for our customers, our teams, and the future of SAP Business Suite. Because when we fall in love with our customers, not just the product, we create value that lasts and experiences that lead the way forward.


Florian Heretsch is senior vice president and global head of SAP Product Experience.

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SAP Leaders Redefine the Digital Sovereignty Debate

Global geopolitical uncertainty, trade tensions, and national security concerns are fueling the debate over digital sovereignty as well as the market growth for sovereign cloud services and demand by enterprises for secure, local access to the latest AI tools.

SAP Sovereign Cloud: Embrace the cloud, without compromise

The public cloud has ushered in unprecedented benefits for businesses and governments in terms of data access and data flows. But in uncertain geopolitical times, sensitive data — including government classified information and data generated by regulated industries — requires special protection.

As SAP CEO Christian Klein noted recently in an interview with the Financial Times, these concerns have fueled customer anxiety over cloud infrastructure choices and boosted the concept of “sovereign” data centers, where information remains within national borders.

Sovereign clouds

Historically, governments, government agencies, and a select group of private sector organizations in sensitive areas, including defense and public utilities, led the demand for sovereign clouds. Technology companies, including SAP, have responded by providing highly secure sovereign cloud services.

But in recent months the debate over digital sovereignty has widened. As Hayete Gallot, Google’s president of Customer Experience, recently noted, “Sovereignty used to be a very niche thing that applied to very regulated industries, such as defense and intelligence, and suddenly in the current environment, everybody is thinking about it.”

The EU has proposed spending €20 billion to build five “gigafactories” to facilitate digital sovereignty and help Europe compete more effectively in AI against the predominantly U.S.-based hyperscalers and large language models (LLMs). But others, including Klein, are not convinced that it makes sense to replicate the physical infrastructure built by hyperscalers and others.

The data center hardware race is over

Klein argues that spending billions in government funding in the EU on huge new data centers would be misguided, and that European companies already have control and sovereignty over their own data. “The hardware train has left [the station],” he said. Together with other senior SAP executives, he also argues that digital sovereignty is about more than physical infrastructure — the operational, technical, and legal dimensions of data sovereignty matter just as much.

Crucially, SAP Sovereign Cloud offers a model that keeps customer data within national borders and in compliance with local laws, without the need to replicate the existing physical infrastructure. Its services, developed over the past 20 years, are already provided to some of the most security-sensitive organizations in the world, including those in the U.S. through SAP National Security Services (SAP NS2).

Sovereign cloud customers

Outside the U.S., the SAP Sovereign Cloud Services organization already counts more than 170 customers globally and has plans to invest a further €2 billion over the next decade to expand regional coverage. For example, SAP is currently in talks with four Asian countries. In Germany, the unit provides secure sovereign cloud services through Delos Cloud and plans to launch similar services in France through Bleu.

Instead of getting involved in a futile race to catch up with the U.S., SAP executives argue that Europe must now promote the use of vertical AI for individual industries and special areas of application.

In a recent guest commentary in the German business newspaper Handelsblatt, Klein called for a digital strategy for Europe that builds on the region’s digital strengths: “A new, European-defined concept of sovereignty is necessary, one that relies on self-determination rather than self-sufficiency.” He also cautioned that digital sovereignty “is not an end in itself” and called for “profound change” to industry business models.

These models “need to be rethought, processes digitized, and AI used in a targeted manner for more innovation, for greater efficiency, for sustainability,” he added. 

Martin Merz, president SAP Sovereign Cloud, agrees. “The debate around digital sovereignty in Europe has gone on too long with too many buzzwords and too little substance,” he said. “We’ve reached a point where Europe can no longer afford misguided discussions. What counts is value creation. Real sovereignty includes empowering people, industries, and governments to lead through innovation.”

“When it comes to highly sensitive data, SAP Sovereign Cloud comes in,” Merz continued. “It’s purpose-built to protect the most sensitive, security-critical data, enabling the highest level of protection and operational autonomy, without slowing down innovation.”

Locally hosted AI

Underscoring this shift in the data sovereignty debate, many SAP customers are now talking about sovereign AI or what SAP calls “locally hosted AI.” To help facilitate this, SAP CTO Philipp Herzig recently noted that the company is now offering a range of self-hosted AI models in a more secure and local environment. “Starting Q3 this year, we are providing the entire AI foundation end-to-end out of European data centers. This is AI fully managed and operated by SAP,” he shared.

As a result, he said, customers will have access to cutting-edge local models like Mistral Small and Mistral Medium, Aleph Alpha, or the T-Free model used by the German government. “Their data will remain local, trusted, compliant, and secure, and seamlessly integrate with SAP Business AI capabilities without compromising on performance, governance, or privacy,” Herzig added.

He also revealed that Swiss Federal Railways is leading the way as an early adopter, using locally hosted AI with Mistral AI to power innovation in a trusted environment. Speaking during a recent NVIDIA conference in France, he also announced that SAP has formed a strategic partnership with Mistral AI and Capgemini to accelerate AI adoption across Europe.

“Together, we’re building the future of enterprise AI – secure, local, and smart,” Herzig said.

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Connected for Growth: What’s New with SAP Customer Experience in Q2 2025

In the arena of customer experience, competitive advantage can be won or lost in a single interaction. And long-term loyalty — keeping customers coming back — is an ongoing challenge.

Unite your business processes end to end with customer experience solutions from SAP

Every moment in the customer journey is a chance to deliver value, earn trust, and build relationships. But delivering consistently great experiences means adapting to evolving trends and expectations with a connected approach to people, data, and systems. 

The Q2 2025 release of the SAP Customer Experience (SAP CX) portfolio does just that. Whether engaging customers, streamlining operations, or empowering employees, this release delivers smarter, faster, more personalized experiences at scale. Powered by AI with harmonized data, it brings improvements across the customer experience life cycle, from first touch to long-term growth, with seamless, value-generating experiences across service, sales, marketing, commerce, and consumer industries.  

Here are the highlights from SAP CX in Q2 2025.  

Making every interaction count 

Everyday moments turn into meaningful engagements when experiences are connected, relevant, and effortless. This release helps users go beyond meeting customer needs to building trust and loyalty at every touchpoint. 

SAP Service Cloud  

SAP Commerce Cloud 

  • B2B Self-Service Portal: Raise customer satisfaction and reduce service volume with this scalable, easily implemented 24/7 self-service solution. B2B customers can view order status, invoices, and delivery updates—regardless of how the order was placed. 
  • AI Shopping Agent: Engage customers in real time to drive conversions and growth. With prompting questions and natural, conversational language, the agent guides product discovery and enables in-chat actions like add to cart as well as view order and shipping details.
Check Order Status with Shopping Agent

SAP Emarsys 

  • Mobile Wallet Enhancements 
    • Segmentation: Combine wallet and customer data to target the right people; for example, reengaging those who have not interacted recently with Mobile Wallet campaigns.
    • Expanded Wallet Delivery Channels: Reach customers anywhere with the new Mobile Inbox and Mobile Push channels.
    • Pass Notifications: Automatically deliver timely lock-screen updates for on-the-spot engagement and conversion with mobile wallet users or targeted customer segments. 
  • WhatsApp Template Messaging: Automate one-way WhatsApp communications like promotions and order updates using the rich content, personalization, and multi-language support in SAP Emarsys.
  • Conversational Messaging for WhatsApp (SAP Early Adopter program): Have lively, real-time WhatsApp conversations based on contacts’ responses.

Scale smarter, operate better 

Sustainable growth requires operational efficiency and built-in customer experience. With unified data connected to core business operations and AI-driven insights, these updates improve internal operations, enhance scalability, and set the foundation for differentiated customer experiences. 

SAP Commerce Cloud 

  • B2B Self-Service Portal: Give customers transparency without committing to full commerce and scale when ready, without data migration or replatforming. Launch this 24/7 self-service portal for B2B customers in just weeks with partner packages that simplify setup and accelerate time to value. Built as an ERP add-on, the portal connects natively with back-end systems to surface real-time order and invoice data, reducing support workload and improving the customer experience with accurate, always-on self-service. Out-of-the-box compatibility with SAP S/4HANA and SAP Cloud ERP means faster setup, less IT effort, and long-term flexibility. 
  • Open Payment Framework: Support for B2B transactions and workflows brings unified checkout, reliability, and built-in security and validation to the payment experience, accelerating time to market and increasing conversions. 

SAP Sales and Service Cloud 

  • SAP Preferred Success Services Navigator: Accelerate time to value and maximize your investment in SAP with services navigator for SAP Sales Cloud and SAP Service Cloud Version 2 implementations. Part of SAP Preferred Success for SAP Customer Experience solutions, the navigator helps users discover relevant services from their SAP Preferred Success subscription for each stage of a project, align support offerings with project goals and timelines, and improve business outcomes with accelerated adoption and reduced risk.
  • SAP Enterprise Service Management: Reduce the costs and complexity of internal issue resolution with unified service delivery. By centralizing and structuring inquiry management and response, out-of-the-box integrations of SAP Enterprise Service Management with SAP Business Suite applications break down silos to improve service delivery across finance, HR, marketing, facilities, sales, support, and more. 

SAP Revenue Growth Management 

New to SAP Revenue Growth Management in Q2 2025 includes:  

  • Fund management: Gain control over trade spend—create funds, manage and adjust fund budgets, and track spending for promotions.
  • Analytics dashboards: Get quick access to planning data and insights into P&L for individual promotions with embedded SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Revenue Growth Management analytics dashboards. 
Profit and Loss Analytics with Revenue Growth Management 

AI that accelerates impact

Across the experience life cycle, AI-powered embedded intelligence and autonomous AI agents help unlock faster decisions and better outcomes. This release helps teams move faster, engage smarter, and scale with confidence.

SAP Sales Cloud 

  • Sales Order Summary: Enable sales managers to act quickly with relevant insights like price changes, product substitutions, on-time delivery probability, and more — boosting accuracy and profitability.
  • Account Duplicate Check: Protect data quality and reduce the manual effort of dealing with redundant data. Account Duplicate Check uses AI to detect potential duplicate accounts so users can maintain clean, accurate records and drive smarter engagement. 

SAP Service Cloud 

  • Registered Product Summary: Empower agents with a complete overview of a product’s service history, turning standard service calls into a strategic conversation. 
  • Business Information Extraction: Extract and convert key data from unstructured documents using AI, helping unlock insights and action. 

SAP Emarsys 

  • Natural Language Search for Product Curation: Enable marketers to curate products faster using natural language search, helping them move faster and build the right use cases. 
Sales Order Summary in SAP Service Cloud 

Innovation that connects it all

From loyalty to growth to operational agility, these innovations help deliver more intelligent, connected experiences at every touchpoint — with the adaptability and scalability to grow lifelong customer value. 

Learn more


Balaji Balasubramanian is president and chief product officer for SAP Customer Experience.

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Merrifield Garden Center Nurtures Omnichannel Innovation

A garden center and plant nursery may seem like a seasonal business, but Merrifield Garden Center is continuously evolving to meet the needs of its customers no matter the time of year.

Since its humble beginnings in 1971, Merrifield has flourished into one of the largest full-service garden center, nursery, and landscaping companies in its region, employing more than 600 individuals and comprising over 70 acres of plants, property, and storefront in northern Virginia. Its business includes three brick-and-mortar locations carrying plants, gardening supplies, and home and holiday décor; an online store; a wholesale division that supports other local landscape contractors; a materials production division that recycles materials from landscaping jobs; and a line of private-label products tailored specifically for the environmental conditions in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

Clearly, the business has expanded and evolved over the years to meet changing industry and customer standards, but its founding principles of providing the highest quality customer services and unparalleled plant and product selection remain steadfast. The same is true for the systems supporting the products and services in Merrifield’s retail operations. With its omnichannel strategy, it’s critical that Merrifield delivers a consistent, seamless, and personalized experience across all its customer touchpoints.

Blooming into a modern, tech-savvy enterprise

Luckily, CFO Lynn Warhurst has made it one of her personal goals to bring technology into the company since joining in 1978. “There was zero technology…so we knew going forward that if we wanted to grow and be successful, we needed to change something,” she said.

After coming across SAP at an NRF event in the early 2000s, Merrifield went live with SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) in 2013 to replace its 20-year-old garden center legacy system, providing the company with modern audit trail capabilities and increased data reliability.

Reimagine your retail operations and create exceptional customer experiences with SAP

Continuing its long-standing innovation journey and partnership with SAP, Merrifield is now transitioning its SAP ECC system to the cloud with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business.

Merrifield Garden Center sees up to 300 transactions per hour per location, Warhurst said, and so the company needed a solution with enhanced processing speeds that can handle a high volume of retail transactions. What’s more, the company also wanted a system that supports Apple Pay and Google Pay, has customer loyalty tracking and data analytics capabilities, and ensures enterprise security and compliance.

Merrifield also wanted to bring together its retail and wholesale divisions onto one platform as opposed to hosting them on fragmented solutions. “We knew [SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition] could handle our complexity and give us the detail we needed to run and grow our business,” Warhurst said. “After 54 years in business, both divisions will run on the same platform. It’s very exciting that we can interchange cashiers for retail and wholesale, which means being more efficient as a company.”

SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business is a new solution introduced in January of this year. Built specifically for retailers, the ERP solution is tailored to the industry’s unique complexities around scaling, merchandising, store operations, and supply chains. The flexibility of its public cloud architecture helps unify and integrate industry-specific processes with out-of-the-box integrations.

Merrifield is also implementing SAP Omnichannel Sales Transfer and Audit to help ensure the completeness of sales transactions across multiple channels, improve data reporting, and comply with local regulations.

Strong partnerships build a foundation for success

To facilitate its cloud transformation, Merrifield engaged Syntax as its implementation partner. “Having a trusted partner is very important,” Warhurst said, explaining that Merrifield has worked with Syntax since 2018.

For the move to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business, Syntax came on-site to Merrifield to experience its current system first-hand and better understand what the business sees as mission-critical during this transformation, Warhurst said. Together, they identified solution provisioning and integration, data migration, and business continuity as priorities. With this insight, Syntax is working with SAP to integrate any remaining project gaps into an upcoming solution release in August.

“Syntax and SAP have been great. We are one of the first to go public cloud for retail and they have been there for us,” Warhurst said. “It was very important to find somebody who believed in us and was there for us, and I feel that that’s really one of the most important things for our success.”

While the new system is projected to go live in September, the project is currently in the configuration and realization stage and Merrifield is excited for the future. Adopting this holistic, omnichannel, cloud-based solution will help the garden center achieve its goals of expanding into more locations and online offerings by having trusted, complete data from across its divisions available in one place.


Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at SAP.

Top image courtesy of SAP employee Tom Lennart-Krupp.

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Q2 2025: SAP’s Customer Momentum in the Americas

In the second quarter of 2025, SAP demonstrated significant momentum in the Americas. Organizations across the region and industries are continually recognizing SAP as a premier partner for driving transformation and strategic initiatives. 

Find the SAP solutions you need to run your business processes and enterprise more efficiently

SAP’s commitment to investing in innovation is delivering growth and value to organizations across the region. Thousands of companies continue to place their trust in SAP to propel their digital journeys, evident in the rising adoption SAP Business Suite and SAP Business AI, which are redefining how work is done and processes are streamlined. Businesses are increasingly implementing AI agents to automate complex tasks, freeing up valuable time and resources for innovation and growth. 

Accompanying this transformative shift is the importance of SAP Business Data Cloud, which integrates both SAP and non-SAP data. This enhanced visibility and informed decision-making capability are crucial for driving effective business outcomes and maintaining a competitive edge. 

In the second quarter, organizations that selected SAP Business Data Cloud include Acron Aviation, which also selected SAP Business AI and SAP Cloud ERP Private, Brown-Forman, and NEBCO, which also selected SAP Cloud ERP. 

Coming off our partnership announcements at SAP Sapphire and Adobe Summit, in Q2 Adobe selected SAP Signavio, SAP Business Data Cloud, and expanded its WalkMe footprint for an enterprise-wide adoption. 

Meanwhile, companies across the Americas are continually embracing RISE with SAP Methodology, leveraging SAP Cloud ERP Private to drive their digital transformations. Companies that embarked on this journey during the second quarter include: 

  • LEROY MERLIN Brasil, is the largest retail chain for home improvement, present in 14 states with 55 stores. The company is renowned for its significant investments in innovation and sustainability, and it stands as SAP’s largest retail customer in the country. To drive innovation, embrace AI, and build a resilient supply chain amid the fast-paced retail industry, LEROY MERLIN has migrated to SAP Cloud ERP Private.  
  • Mannington Mills, a fifth-generation family-owned leading manufacturer of fine flooring, selected SAP Cloud ERP Private, SAP Business AI, and SAP SuccessFactors to streamline business operations and further improve productivity. 
  • Iochpe-Maxion, a Brazilian multinational, is a global leader in automotive wheel production and a major manufacturer of automotive structural components in the Americas. With operations spanning Maxion Wheels and Maxion Structural Components in the automotive sector, and AmstedMaxion in the railway sector, the company produces around 50 million wheels annually. To boost its technological infrastructure and further streamline global operations, Iochpe-Maxion strategically migrated its existing SAP S/4HANA to SAP Cloud ERP Private  
  • Mega Alimentos, the prominent Mexican company with over three decades of experience in the candy, sauce, and chamoy industry, including its iconic brand “La Botanera,” has embarked on the path of RISE with SAP with SAP Cloud ERP Private as part of its commitment to digital transformation. 
  • Transpire Bio is a U.S.-based, clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing inhaled drug-device combination products for serious diseases where therapeutic options are significantly lacking. The company selected SAP Cloud ERP Private to track its revenue, streamline operations, and prepare for growth as they bring their pipeline of inhaled therapies to market. 

Other organizations that chose SAP in the second quarter include Gardner White, which selected SAP Cloud ERP and SAP Business AI, and Delta, a leading global airline that served more than 200 million customers in 2024. The airline selected SAP Supply Chain Management solutions to help boost logistics visibility, ensure better process controls, and effectively manage freight costs.  

As we look ahead, we are committed to empowering our customers to achieve more than ever before. We’re continuing to invest in the innovations that will deliver growth, value, and success to our customers around the world.

Indeed, SAP is helping businesses lead the way into the future.


Jan Gilg is CRO, president of SAP Americas & Global Business Suite, and a member of the Extended Board of SAP SE.

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SAP Gears Up for Long-Term Business Resilience with New Net-Zero Partnership

Matthias Medert is global head of Sustainability at SAP. Here, he speaks about key aspects of the company’s long-term resilience plans and the challenges along the way. In the interview, he also discusses a new partnership to advance SAP’s commitment of achieving net-zero greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030 and beyond.

SAP is a globally recognized leader in the area of sustainability

Q: How does SAP view sustainability within its overall business strategy?

A: Sustainability is a core element of business strategy and deeply embedded in our vision to help the world run better and improve people’s lives. This means it is not a separate initiative, but an integral part of our leadership and long-term goals as a company. And as such, sustainability is a business catalyst and value driver.

What does SAP’s commitment to reach net-zero GHG emissions by 2030 mean in practice?

We recognize that with a customer base that generates 84 percent of the total global commerce, we have the responsibility and opportunity to lead in corporate climate action efforts. This isn’t just about reporting numbers; it’s a science-based transformation that is embedded in our operations, collaboration with suppliers, technology, and what we offer to our customers.

For us, it means our strategy aligns with the 1.5°C pathway set in the Paris Agreement. We aim to reduce gross GHG emissions by 90 percent across our relevant value chain (market-based). The remaining emissions — no more than 10 percent — will be neutralized through high-quality, verified carbon removal projects. Our reduction efforts have earned SAP’s inclusion in the EU Paris-Aligned Benchmarks, which gives climate-conscious investors confidence in our approach.

What does SAP’s decarbonization strategy consist of?

Our transformation is structured around four interconnected pillars:

With cloud transformation, we’re accelerating the shift from on-premise to cloud solutions, with SAP-managed data centers already powered by 100 percent renewable electricity. In parallel, we are collaborating with hyperscalers and our customers to push renewable electricity adoption upstream and downstream. An important part of this transition is enhancing GHG accounting and moving from estimates to primary data from our suppliers.

With upstream supply chain engagement, we are revising procurement policies and working closely with our suppliers to lower emissions across the supply chain. This includes aligning on data transparency and decarbonization targets. The rise of energy-intensive technologies like AI presents new challenges, but we’re addressing them through joint commitments and shared accountability.

In internal operations, we have several initiatives in place. For instance, since 2014 SAP has been running all offices, owned data centers, and co-locations on 100 percent renewable electricity. In addition to this, we are electrifying our vehicle fleet, and we have an internal carbon pricing scheme for business flights in place. The generated funds are invested in projects that have a positive impact on local and global populations as well as climate and biodiversity.

To neutralize SAP’s residual emissions that remain beyond 2030 after all feasible reduction efforts, we are investing in high-integrity carbon removals, ranging from nature-based to engineered solutions. Great examples of this are our long-term investments in the Livelihoods Carbon Funds and Climeworks’ Direct Air Capture solutions. The partnership with Climeworks marks a significant milestone for SAP and our commitment to durable carbon removals. Additionally, we make annual contributions to climate finance. The voluntary investments made during our transition to net-zero allow us to take responsibility for our emissions, increase our overall impact beyond our own decarbonization efforts, and help the world keep their climate targets in reach.

Where does the partnership with Climeworks fit into your strategy?

We have entered an agreement with Climeworks to secure 37,000 tons of high-quality carbon removal credits through 2034. This includes technologies like direct air capture, biochar, and enhanced rock weathering. More than just a carbon removal purchase, this is a strategic innovation partnership.

Together, we are co-creating ERP-centric carbon management tools, integrated into solutions like SAP Sustainability Control Tower, and making it available via SAP Store. These tools will help companies manage and mitigate emissions in real time, making carbon removal more actionable at scale.

Is Climeworks also adopting SAP solutions?

Yes, and that is part of what makes this partnership so compelling. Climeworks has implemented SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud through the GROW with SAP journey and is using the SAP LeanIX portfolio to support its rapid growth. These tools help with compliance, financial management, and operational efficiency — all critical elements for scaling in the climate-tech space.

How does this alliance benefit SAP’s business and customers?

It is a strategic move that strengthens our position economically and environmentally. As SAP Chief Sustainability & Commercial Officer Sophia Mendelsohn recently shared, this partnership allows us to lock in carbon removal capacity at preferred rates, hedging against future price volatility. But more importantly, it enables us to create new sustainability-focused solutions for our customers, helping them meet regulatory and stakeholder expectations.

As SAP pushes ahead with its decarbonization strategy, where do you see the biggest opportunities for positive impact, both within SAP and for the broader ecosystem?

As SAP advances its decarbonization strategy, the biggest opportunities for positive impact lie in leveraging our technology and ecosystem to drive systemic change — both internally and across industries.

Within SAP, our greatest opportunity is embedding sustainability directly into core business processes — such as procurement, supply chain, and finance — using our own solutions. This not only reduces our operational GHG footprint but serves as a model for our customers. Our sustainability solutions aim to empower organizations to measure, manage, and act on their sustainability goals. By doing so, we scale our impact.

We remain grounded in the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) Corporate Net-Zero Standard and see opportunities to lead by example, even beyond 2030, by continuously improving our net-zero program and sharing best practices.

In the end, we are not just preparing for a net-zero future; we are shaping it. Through collaboration, transparency, and technology, we are proving that climate action is essential to long-term success.


Karen Restrepo Avila is Sustainability and Net-Zero communications lead at SAP.

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SAP Business AI: Release Highlights Q2 2025

Customers are at the center of everything we do with SAP Business AI. Our innovations and partnerships announced at SAP Sapphire and additional releases in the second quarter of 2025 reaffirm this focus.

Create transformative impact with the most powerful AI and agents fueled by the context of all your business data

SAP Sapphire saw Joule further cement itself as our new UI in the age of AI, as it continues to redefine the end-user experience. Customers are asking questions in natural language, and Joule is working hard behind the scenes to find answers.

More than 40 Joule Agents were announced at SAP Sapphire, and the first set of Joule Agents is now available to customers. These agents work across business functions to help customers resolve dispute cases, maintain strong customer relationships, complete follow-up tasks, and more. AI Foundation, the AI operating system for all SAP Business AI solutions, simplifies AI development by centralizing all the tools to build, extend, and run custom AI solutions and agents at scale.

And those are just a few announcements from SAP Sapphire! Check out the 2025 SAP Sapphire Innovation Guide or this overview for more announcements and the full picture. As we close the second quarter of 2025, we have a ton of SAP Business AI updates to share.

In the second quarter of 2025, we continued accelerating the delivery of high-impact innovations to customers with enhancements to Joule, Joule Agents, and additional AI scenarios embedded across the portfolio. These features are all built with AI Foundation on SAP Business Technology Platform and add to over 240 existing AI scenarios and 1,600 Joule skills. We are working hard and are fully on track to have over 400 AI scenarios by the end of 2025 that will deliver unparalleled business value to customers.

Here are some of the highlights from Q2 2025:

  • Joule continues to redefine the way people interact with SAP. As SAP Joule for Consultants is now generally available, consultants can rapidly grasp ABAP code and best practices for faster project execution, less rework, and time savings. The phased integration of Joule with Microsoft 365 Copilot offers a unified experience across SAP and Microsoft environments for seamless task completion. Joule’s analytical insights feature is generally available, delivering tailored, on-demand decision support through natural language.
  • Joule Agents and AI Agents: For example, in supply chain management, agents can already do so much, from autonomously scheduling and optimizing service orders to continuously analyzing real-time data to suggest maintenance schedule adjustments, help reprioritize tasks, and improve asset health. In human capital management, the Performance and Goals Agent provides managers with data-driven insights before one-to-one employee meetings. In SAP CX AI Toolkit, the Shopping Agent and CX Agents Builder are now generally available, with the opportunity to build custom agents for customer experience scenarios, such as quote creation, Q&A, or service classification.
  • SAP Business AI for supply chain is working to minimize disruptions and simplify planning. SAP Digital Manufacturing gets error analysis, and Joule’s general availability provides instant access to critical information through natural language. There’s an add-in for Microsoft Excel and SAP Integrated Business Planning (SAP IBP) to generate IBP formulas using natural language. These are just some of the supply chain updates. Explore more below.
  • SAP Business AI for finance and spend: It’s all about efficiency when it comes to SAP Business AI for finance and spend. Joule partners with SAP Document and Reporting Compliance to translate complex e-invoicing errors into natural language. This way, error misunderstandings are a thing of the past. Joule enhancements in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition increase efficiency with proactive sales order fulfillment monitoring, direct fixed asset master data creation, and price adjustment suggestions. For SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, Joule helps users with field logistics, cash management, contract analysis, and streamlines convergent invoicing processes. The first Joule agents are now available in spend management. The Concur Travel Meeting Location Planner Agent simplifies off-site planning by automating information gathering and coordination. The Concur Expense Report Validation Agent can proactively flag issues and guide users through corrections, reducing report preparation time dramatically. Learn more below.
  • SAP Business AI for procurement sees Joule join SAP Fieldglass and boosts Contingent Workforce Management with AI-assisted skill-based job postings, which reduce time defining and matching skills and lower worker ramp-up time. Plus, the AI summarizer in SAP Ariba slashes document review times by 50%, and the Sourcing Agent, available in beta, speeds up the sourcing event creation process. Dive in below.
  • SAP Business AI for HR shows the power of AI and SAP SuccessFactors. New language features streamline translation, interview feedback improves candidate evaluations, and “Explain Pay” in Joule reduces payroll help desk tickets and raises employee satisfaction. Explore more below.
  • SAP Business AI for IT and developers puts the power of Joule in developers’ hands. Generative AI hub in AI Foundation gets the latest and greatest models, including Google Gemini 2.5 Pro and Flash, OpenAI GPT, o3, o4-mini, 4.1, 4.1-mini, 4.1-nano, and Mistral Small 3.1, Anthropic Claude Opus 4, Sonnet 4, and NVIDIA Llama 3.2 nv embedqa 1b. The prompt optimizer is now available in early access. It automates prompt optimization across AI models, eliminating vendor lock-in and expediting model adoption. SAP Document AI now includes file filtering, for example, allowing AI agents to process only relevant document pages for more efficient processing and more flexibility for task-specific document handling. Learn more below.

We will deliver more use cases across our entire solution range in the second half of 2025. Customers can stay updated with forthcoming  SAP Business AI releases here.

Joule

SAP Joule for Consultants
Generally available

Consultants navigating complex innovation and transformation projects require access to reliable and efficient information. SAP Joule for Consultants assists consultants in rapidly understanding ABAP code purpose, business logic, and structure through a model trained on 300 million lines of ABAP and 30 million lines of CDS code. This access to SAP’s exclusive content, coupled with over 200,000 pages of SAP documentation, over 50 SAP Certifications, and more than two terabytes of curated SAP Community content, allows consultants to make informed decisions and align projects with best practices.

The resulting business value includes up to a 14 percent acceleration in project execution, a 50 percent reduction in design iterations and rework, and an estimated 1.5 hours saved per consultant per day due to much faster knowledge access and improved code interpretation.*

This capability was recently included in the first cohort of the World Economic Forum’s MINDS program, which shows how AI can be applied in real-world scenarios to solve complex global challenges responsibly.

Discover how KPMG is revolutionizing SAP transformations with SAP Joule for Consultants and SAP Business Data Cloud:

SAP Announces Q2 and HY 2025 Results

WALLDORF — SAP SE today announced its financial results for the second quarter and half-year 2025.

At a glance

  • Current cloud backlog of €18.1 billion, up 22% and up 28% at constant currencies
  • Cloud revenue up 24% and up 28% at constant currencies
  • Cloud ERP Suite revenue up 30% and up 34% at constant currencies
  • Total revenue up 9% and up 12% at constant currencies
  • IFRS operating profit of €2.5 billion; non-IFRS operating profit of €2.6 billion, up 32% and up 35% at constant currencies
  • Outlook 2025 unchanged

Q2 2025 I in € millions, unless otherwise stated

Christian Klein, CEO:

“We have delivered yet another quarter of outstanding results. AI innovations such as Joule becoming available ‘everywhere and for everything’ and SAP Business Data Cloud as a powerful accelerator of AI make our portfolio ever stronger. Enterprise operations are about to enter a new era, and SAP is best positioned to benefit from that evolution.”

Dominik Asam, CFO:

“We achieved a very good Q2, with accelerating total revenue growth, strong profitability and free cash flow. Our performance was supported by continued customer demand and disciplined cost control. As we move into the second half, we remain cautiously optimistic, keeping a close eye on geopolitical developments and public sector trends.”

Find all results in the Quarterly Statement

For more information, press only:
Joellen Perry, +1 (650) 445-6780, joellen.perry@sap.com, PT
Daniel Reinhardt, +49 (6227) 7-40201, daniel.reinhardt@sap.com, CET

For more information, financial community only:
Alexandra Steiger, +49 (6227) 7-60437, alexandra.steiger@sap.com, CET

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