WALLDORF — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) will release its results for the fourth quarter of 2024 and 2024 year-end results on Tuesday, January 28.

SAP CEO Christian Klein and CFO Dominik Asam will host a press conference to present fourth quarter financial figures and 2024 year-end results, as well as an outlook on the current financial year.

Media representatives are invited to join in person or participate in the press conference via Webcast at 10:00 a.m. CET/4:00 a.m. ET, accessible at broadcast.sap.com/go/pc.

Working together in a co-innovation project, SAP customer Etienne Lacroix Group, SAP partner STMS, and SAP Co-Innovation Lab created a prototype for a generative AI solution that produces shipping labels for dangerous goods.

As the world’s No.1 fireworks provider, French pyrotechnics company Etienne Lacroix ships fireworks globally and has supported events such as the Burj Khalifa Grand Opening Fireworks Show in Dubai and Bastille Day, France’s national holiday that is celebrated on July 14 each year.

Logistics play a major role for the global player in the pyrotechnics sector, as shipping hazardous materials such as fireworks requires special precautions, especially when crossing international borders. Labels typically include warning pictograms and complex regulatory information in various formats. Recipients such as customs officers must be able to tell at a glance what sort of goods are inside, what the required shipping conditions are, and who is authorized to open the freight.

“On top of that, customers have their own specific requirements,” Eric Marini, director of Information Systems at Etienne Lacroix explains. “Also, there are different color codes in place for hazmat, depending on the country of destination. Red may mean danger in European countries, but in China, for example, it stands for celebration. Green has a different meaning in the Middle East that it does in the U.S., and so on.”

With so many different regulations in place around the globe, labeling the shipments at the end of the production line is not only time-consuming, but also leaves a lot of potential for human error. Now, with support from SAP partner STMS and SAP, the prototype for a generative AI solution was introduced that has the potential to reduce human involvement to a minimum.

Business AI Co-Innovation Project with SAP partner STMS

In early 2024, Sébastien Faure, general manager at STMS SOLUTIONS, a longtime partner of both SAP and Etienne Lacroix, participated in a Hack2Build event where SAP partners leveraged SAP technology to address pain points of their customers. The idea for a generative AI use case came up, and STMS approached its customer Etienne Lacroix.

At that time, IT and business experts at Etienne Lacroix were very interested in how generative AI could assist them in making their processes easier. 

“But I have to admit, I was also a little skeptical,” Marini says. “Everybody is currently talking about AI, about how to introduce it to the industry and the huge benefits we will reap from leveraging it. But suggestions are scarce when it comes to implementing it in a way that guarantees the company will benefit from it.”

“Together, we looked at the pain points of the company and discussed possible use cases with SAP Co-Innovation Lab,” Faure says. “We received the requirement from the business that AI should help avoid human tasks that are error-prone and don’t actually add value.”

Supply Chain Use Case with Generative AI

The team quickly identified that the administrative process of creating labels for shipping was a task currently performed by human employees that required a huge amount of time and focus. The huge potential for the usage of generative AI was evident. 

“With guidance from experts from the SAP partner organization, we were able to build a specific SAP app on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and SAP S/4HANA to organize and use AI,” Faure says. “We then collected feedback from the business experts at Etienne Lacroix and, in the next step, brought in the generative aspect.”

To meet the regulations from the customer, the developers from STMS aggregated all the necessary data and created a model on SAP HANA Cloud vector engine.

Thanks to SAP HANA Cloud vector engine, which was newly introduced in 2024, SAP Business AI can allow customers and partners to leverage large language models (LLMs) in a much more accurate way on multi-model database SAP HANA Cloud. In case of the generative AI use case for Etienne Lacroix, the LLM was ChatGPT 3.5 Turbo.

“Technically, this prototype leverages everything SAP has to offer in terms of AI right now,” Faure says. “The app uses SAP’s generative AI hub and SAP HANA Cloud vector engine to draw on all the necessary information and generate the label.”

The remaining human task is to validate whether everything on the label is correct. “That was the most important requirement,” Marini says. “Human intervention must be guaranteed, as with all AI use cases.”

“It’s the generative aspect that makes all the difference,” Miliau Pape from SAP Co-Innovation Lab says. The LLM suggests what should go on the specific label—such as warning pictograms—based on legal regulations, historical customer requirements, cultural standards, and so on. The Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) provides the LLM with context and makes the outcome relevant and reliable. “Simply put, when the AI is trying to be as creative as possible, the RAG provides guardrails, so it doesn’t potentially go wild and come up with nonsense,” Pape says.

For each shipment, a prompt draws on destination, shipping route, specific customer data, such as the storage and language this customer required the last time, or the colors or signs used to indicate that the shipment contains hazardous materials and can only be opened by experts with a certain certification.

“My first thought when I saw this, was—simply put—wow,” Marini says. “Wow, they actually did it. Wow, this will make our lives easier. This generative AI use case, at this point, may still be only a prototype, but it’s an applicable idea, an actual use case for an actual pain point in our company.”

“To show the world of possible, push the boundaries of the technology—that is the purpose of the exercise,” Pape says.

Etienne Lacroix Group is in the process of migrating to SAP S/4HANA. With the components of the app ready on SAP Business Technology Platform, go-live is planned for 2025.

“Our ERP was aging and no longer very popular with business users,” Marini says. “Migration to SAP S/4HANA gives us access to the newest technologies such as generative AI. This motivates users to take ownership of their IT solutions again and brings our business and IT together. All in all, it allows our company to fully exploit the potential of our SAP system.”

He adds: “The generative AI solution for labeling shipments is a tangible proof of the power of AI, a real use case, and we have it in our company. It is a very decisive first step in our AI journey.”

• SAP also debuts solutions to address loyalty gap as new survey results show 80% of U.S. consumers feel undervalued by brands

NEW YORK — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced a slate of new solutions and capabilities catering to the retail industry at Retail’s Big Show, the flagship industry event hosted by the National Retail Federation.

SAP’s top news is the general availability of the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business solution. This enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution is built specifically for retailers and marks a significant milestone in bringing tailored ERP capabilities to retailers of all sizes worldwide.

“SAP’s announcement of an all-in-one platform tailored for retail represents a meaningful differentiator in the market,” said Leslie Hand, Group Vice President for IDC Retail Insights. “Retailers often struggle with fragmented solutions that excel in some areas but cannot deliver the end-to-end integration necessary for seamless retail operations.”

“With SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business, SAP brings the same best-in-class functionality trusted by market leaders and recognized worldwide, now tailored to meet the scale, price and time-to-value required by fast-growing organizations,” said Balaji Balasubramanian, senior vice president and global head, Commerce and Consumer Industries at SAP SE. He added that retailers, in order to deliver personalized experiences, need an ERP system with retail-specific processes and capabilities that are tailored to the complexities of merchandising, store operations, and retail supply chains. Balasubramanian notes that generic ERP systems lack these end-to-end retail processes and aren’t flexible enough for today’s digital consumer.

SAP’s latest offering addresses these challenges through a solution built on the flexibility of public cloud architecture that unifies industry-specific processes, data and AI and offers out-of-the-box integrations. It also provides a comprehensive suite of capabilities designed to streamline processes, enhance customer experiences and drive sustainable growth. The new platform offers integrated management of finance, procurement and merchandising, with unified operational data and ready-to-use AI.

New loyalty solution to feature data-driven personalization

SAP also announced a new loyalty management solution aimed at retailers and consumer packaged goods companies, scheduled for release in the second half of 2025.

According to new research from SAP Emarsys, four in five (83%) U.S. consumers feel undervalued by the brands they remain loyal to, with many questioning their loyalty altogether. This new solution aims to equip organizations with experiential journeys and personalized, real-time offers to help earn customer loyalty through integration with the SAP Commerce Cloud, SAP Service Cloud, SAP Emarsys and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business solutions.

Key features include:

• Loyalty profiles that connect every shopper with a cloud-based loyalty wallet, facilitating targeted and personalized offers, entitlements, and real-time basket analysis.
• Multi-brand loyalty management, as well as shared loyalty programs with partners that centralize loyalty programs across regions and markets, enabling combined brand programs for gaining market share.
• A single place for omnichannel promotion planning with real-time redemption to deliver any type of offer, digital payment and gifting to all customers on any channel.
• Loyalty journey planning that delivers experiential omnichannel journeys tailored to customer needs through personalized commerce, marketing, service and retail interactions.
• Quantifiable metrics that track promotion performance and loyalty-related liabilities, linking to financial systems to measure ROI, and enable settlements with the member and partner brands.

Artificial intelligence to make online shopping easier than ever

SAP also announced the general availability of an AI shopping assistant in the first half of 2025. This intelligent assistant, delivered with the SAP CX AI Toolkit, expands the existing AI capabilities of SAP Commerce Cloud, transforming the online shopping experience through natural language conversations that help customers quickly find exactly what they need.

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

Media Contact:
Mallory Kuno, +1 (425) 239-9362, mallory.kuno@sap.com, ET

SAP Press Room; press@sap.com This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ.  Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP’s 2023 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
© 2025 SAP SE. All rights reserved.
SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE in Germany and other countries. Please see https://www.sap.com/copyright for additional trademark information and notices.

The Schaeffler Group has been driving groundbreaking inventions and developments in the field of motion technology over the last 75 years. From bearing solutions and linear guidance systems to repair and monitoring services, the manufacturer has innovated a range of critical technologies, products, and services for electric mobility, CO₂-efficient drives, chassis solutions, and renewable energies.

All this hard work and ingenuity has turned Schaeffler into a reliable partner in making motion more efficient, intelligent, and sustainable across the entire life cycle.

According to Christof Heurung, head of Strategic Digitalization at Schaeffler: “We see sustainability and digitalization as key topics for our future success. By combining the right digital technologies, such as AI innovations, with our pioneering spirit, we can take sustainability to the next level and create an even more sustainable future for Schaeffler, as well as for our customers and suppliers.”

Partnering for Greener Supply Chain Digitalization

Shipping diverse offerings to customers worldwide requires a wide array of containers — all of which must be managed efficiently and transparently across internal operations, suppliers, and customers. However, to be successful, this approach demands the integration of numerous business systems and applications to access and exchange information securely, streamline processes strategically, and react to new challenges and opportunities with precision.

Unfortunately, most companies fall short of achieving this advantage. Shipping containers are often managed with a fragmented application landscape. This setup challenges the ability to respond quickly to packaging trends and new business requirements. It also limits the transparency needed to reconcile customers’ returnable-packaging accounts accurately and outsource delivery services to the right shared-service center. Suppliers using the same containers operate on a separate third-party system, leading to disjointed operations.

“After using SAP solutions for around 40 years now, during the past five years, we have established a strategic partnership with SAP to develop and introduce new IT application systems while forging ahead in our desire to run a more sustainable operation,” says Gerhard Stoessel, IT program lead for SAP S/4HANA at the Schaeffler Group. “Such a relationship is allowing Schaeffler and SAP to identify unmet industry needs and launch numerous innovations.”

Introducing Industry-Wide Circular Logistic Flows

One of those innovations is the SAP Returnable Packaging Management solution. The industry-specific solution supports circular logistic flows for returnable and reusable packaging material such as containers, boxes, and pallets — from supplier and customer deliveries to intra-company movements and the journey back to the company.

When Schaeffler first used SAP Returnable Packaging Management, it covered only 30% of container management requirements. Sven Proschek, product owner of SAP S/4HANA Cloud for logistics at Schaeffler, notes that the company’s close collaboration with SAP was key to turning this trend around: “Our partnership with SAP enabled us to enrich the solution with the industry-relevant capabilities that companies like ours need, as well as near-seamless, end-to-end integration of the container management cycle.”

Schaeffler is currently rolling out the solution across over 80 manufacturing plants in its worldwide ecosystem. This approach is streamlining the supply chain into a more efficient and robust network, resulting in fewer delivery failures and deeper transparency in the company’s packaging material inventory. The overall workload is decreasing even though the company ships products to more customers — thanks to AI capabilities such as container reconciliation automation and self-services for reordering packaging materials and checking inventory.

“We can now react quickly to new trends, support an end-to-end collaborative solution for suppliers and customers, and save time and costs through automation,” Proschek reports. “Efficient container management also helps us avoid delivery failures due to shortages.”

Making Sustainability More Cost-Efficient

Schaeffler is also exploring new AI-enabled capabilities for SAP Returnable Packaging Management that can help the business, as well as its peers, further bridge the gap between sustainability and cost efficiency.

One idea that is gaining traction is machine learning-powered returnable packaging account matching. It aims to reduce the manual effort needed to analyze unmatched items and determine whether the underlying issue is a logistical exception or a discrepancy in matching attributes between incoming statements and open line items.

With this capability, Schaeffler can perform returnable account matching with the help of machine learning models and automate the matching process by activating line-item matching. Doing so streamlines the reconciliation process and enhances efficiency, empowering packaging planners to focus on strategic tasks. Additionally, it minimizes errors and increases the accuracy of the returnable packaging material inventory across the supply chain.

Expanding the Possibilities with a Future-Minded Vision

Schaeffler’s commitment to innovation and sustainability is evident in its adoption of AI-powered solutions for sustainable packaging and supply chain management. By using technologies such as the line-item matching functionality available in SAP Returnable Packaging Management, Schaeffler is not only streamlining its operations but also reducing costs, minimizing errors, and increasing efficiency.

As Schaeffler continues to lead the way in sustainable packaging practices, it sets a compelling example for the industry, showcasing the transformative potential of cloud innovations and AI in driving sustainable business practices.

Korbinian Koblitz is Business Development lead at SAP.

• New offering designed to move SAP S/4HANA workloads from IBM Power Systems on-premises to cloud within 90 days

• IBM realized 30% reduction in infrastructure costs and related operations over 18 months in RISE with SAP modernization project supporting 150,000 ERP users

ARMONK and WALLDORF — Today, IBM (NYSE: IBM) and SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) announced the upcoming release of RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server, designed to help make it the fastest and easiest path for IBM Power customers to accelerate their ERP transformation.

Together, SAP and IBM aim to help organizations more seamlessly transition and modernize their on-premises ERP environments to the cloud and support AI-powered business processes.

RISE with SAP is a guided journey delivering outcome-driven services, cloud ERP and platforms to help organizations rethink their operating model. As a new SAP hyperscaler offering, RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server can help reduce risk and improve SAP S/4HANA Cloud migration time from IBM Power Systems on-premises to cloud within 90 days.*

“RISE with SAP has emerged as a business priority for enterprises across all industries as they move to SAP S/4HANA Cloud,” said Anurag Agrawal, Founder and Chief Global Analyst, TechAisle. “The new offering from IBM and SAP promises to be a compelling option for buinesses looking to migrate their mission-critical ERP workloads securely, quickly and with minimal disruption.”

Cloud Migration Enabled by Industry-Leading SAP Certified Infrastructure

Using IBM Power Virtual Server, the cloud-based version of the mission-critical IBM Power server platform used for on-premises ERP, customers can more rapidly transform on-premises SAP ERP systems on cloud, modernize business processes and become more agile. Known for its high security, scalability and reliability, IBM Power servers are ranked #1 in availability among SAP-certified infrastructure**, engineered for fewer disruptions and faster migration, supported by the highly resilient and secured IBM Cloud platform.

“IBM has worked hand-in-hand with SAP to provide a seamless and fast migration path for customers that rely on the IBM Power platform for their SAP workloads and applications,” said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, Software and Chief Commercial Officer, IBM. “This new capability helps reduce the complexity of moving to the cloud and accelerates impact, benefits we experienced firsthand in our own modernization journey using RISE with SAP.”

IBM Completes Global SAP S/4HANA Cloud Modernization Using RISE with SAP

IBM has deep expertise with SAP S/4HANA Cloud modernization and managed services projects. In one of the largest and most complex SAP S/4HANA Cloud modernization projects of any SAP customer to date, according to SAP, IBM recently moved its quote-to-cash and record-to-report processes to RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server.

The IBM project touched more than 150,000 users across 175 countries in 18 months. During this time, it resulted in a 30% reduction in infrastructure costs and related operations by rationalizing overall server and data footprint and increasing process automation.† IBM Consulting led this transformation work end-to-end, providing the technical services, implementation and application management services expertise required to help securely move and run these complex solutions.

“SAP is helping organizations run their best through cloud-based enterprise applications embedded with the power of SAP Business AI,” said Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. “This announcement is yet another milestone in SAP’s long-term partnership with IBM, offering our joint customers a clear path to the cloud designed for faster time-to-value, increased flexibility, and continuous innovation.”

IBM Consulting and Ecosystem of Partners to Help Accelerate Transformation

Customers will also be able to accelerate transformation with SAP S/4HANA Cloud by working with IBM Consulting or any other SAP partner. To give clients choice, IBM is also in the process of working with other global systems integrators and services partners to architect, deploy and migrate RISE with SAP projects.

The two companies, along with an ecosystem of partners, intend to work together to help IBM customers transform through RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server with combined solutions, capabilities and joint go-to-market efforts. RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server customers and IBM Business Partners will also have access to a new IBM Transformation Suite for SAP Applications to help begin the migration to SAP S/4HANA Cloud and RISE with SAP. It will include a bundle of best-of-breed software and services for the assessment of current environments, data migration and automated testing.

More than 10,000 SAP customers over 50 years have used IBM to deliver and run SAP solutions on IBM systems. IBM is a full lifecycle strategic partner of SAP, providing end-to-end consulting and technology solutions for SAP customers, including hybrid cloud, automation and generative AI with watsonx.

RISE with SAP on IBM Power Virtual Server is planned to be available in second quarter of 2025, along with a customized investment program from IBM. Customers can learn more here to begin planning for their transformation using assessment and migration services from IBM Consulting and other IBM and SAP Business Partners.

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

Statements regarding IBM’s future direction and intent are subject to change or withdrawal without notice and represent goals and objectives only.

*Estimate based upon internal IBM modeling of onboarding customers in an SAP landscape when moving from SAP S/4HANA on Power on-premises to Power Virtual Server assuming the right level of customer collaboration around network integration and testing.
**Based on the ITIC 2023 Global Hardware, Global Server Reliability Report and list of all SAP-certified and supported certified SAP HANA hardware.
†Based on IBM results from worldwide migration to SAP S/4HANA Cloud and RISE with SAP.

About IBM

IBM (NYSE: 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. Thousands of 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 affect 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 long-standing 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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This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP’s 2023 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
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