NEWS 48 - The World Management

02 January

Streamline Lead-to-Cash Process with SAP Sales Cloud and GROW with SAP

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In today’s fast-paced and competitive business environment, delivering exceptional sales experiences is crucial for driving growth and staying ahead of the competition. However, many businesses still struggle with fragmented processes that make it difficult to take a personalized, timely approach to customers.

With disconnected enterprise resource planning (ERP) and customer relationship management (CRM) solutions, sales teams face challenges such as siloed data, delayed responses, and inconsistent messaging — all of which prevents sales teams from engaging customers effectively and scaling operations.

When businesses connect SAP Customer Experience solutions, such as SAP Sales Cloud, with SAP ERP, the results are impressive. According to research by Enterprise Strategy Group, organizations see:

Approximately 90% improvement in productivity in Sales team
Approximately 40% improvement in productivity in Business Operations team
Approximately 100% improvement in sales conversion rates

The Power of a Unified Lead-to-Cash Process

A unified lead-to-cash process is at the heart of every successful business. It enables organizations to manage leads from the moment they enter the pipeline — through qualification, proposal, negotiation, and, ultimately, to closed deals. However, for many, the journey from lead to cash is complicated by fragmented processes that prevent a holistic view of data.

When sales teams struggle to connect the dots between lead generation, order fulfillment, and invoicing, they encounter inefficiencies that prevent them from acting on real-time insights, providing consistent messaging, and delivering personalized experiences to customers. The result is missed opportunities and lost revenue.

This is where SAP Sales Cloud, together with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, comes in. These powerful solutions provide a unified process that connects all critical sales and operational functions into a seamless workflow. By integrating SAP Sales Cloud with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, businesses can break down data silos and transform their sales processes to be more agile, responsive, and customer-centric.

Key Benefits of SAP Sales Cloud and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

Real-Time Insights for Informed Decision-Making: With SAP Sales Cloud and SAP S/4HANA Cloud, sales teams gain access to real-time data, so they can make informed decisions on the spot. No more waiting for updates or dealing with outdated information. This integration helps teams respond to customer inquiries more quickly and tailor solutions to each customer’s unique needs.
Streamlined Lead-to-Cash Process: One of the most significant advantages of using SAP Sales Cloud in combination with SAP S/4HANA Cloud is the ability to streamline the entire lead-to-cash process. From capturing leads to managing opportunities and enabling AI-infused sales processes, these solutions provide a seamless experience for both sales reps and customers.
Improved Collaboration Across Teams: Integration between SAP Sales Cloud and SAP S/4HANA Cloud aligns different departments — from sales to finance — for seamless collaboration and unified access to critical data. This integration fosters better collaboration, so that everyone has access to the same data, improving alignment and accelerating deal closures.
Accelerated Sales Operations Through Automation: SAP Sales Cloud automates routine tasks like lead assignment, follow-ups, and quote generation, which accelerates sales cycles. This automation reduces manual workloads, empowers sales teams to focus on strategic activities, and helps close deals faster, all while supporting accuracy and consistency across the process.

Exclusive Access for GROW with SAP Premium Subscribers

For businesses using a suite of SAP solutions, the value is clear: SAP Sales Cloud is included as an entitlement for premium subscribers of GROW with SAP. This allows them to take full advantage of these powerful tools without additional cost, empowering them to unlock their sales potential and accelerate growth.

The benefits of GROW with SAP go beyond just access to SAP Sales Cloud. Premium subscribers of GROW with SAP also gain access to a suite of resources designed to optimize their SAP environment and empower teams with the skills and tools needed to drive success.

To learn more, watch “Unlock a Seamless Lead-to-Cash Process with Your GROW with SAP Subscription,” a webinar exploring common challenges and demonstrating how to establish a streamlined sales process.

Sung Cho is product marketing director for SAP Customer Experience at SAP.

30 December

BUSINESS NEWS

Is Content Chaos Holding Your Business Back?

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While the vision of a paperless workplace has been around for years, the tools to make it a reality are finally within reach. Yet, surprisingly, many organizations are still stuck on a hamster wheel of manual processes, siloed information, and on-premise software.

How can companies jump off that wheel and truly transform?

According to recent IDC research* sponsored by SAP and OpenText, the answer lies in starting with a content management platform that is accessible, integrated, and, above all, comprehensive. The paper highlights that this approach ignites digitalization outcomes that “enable efficiencies and higher quality as teams readily identify and obtain the information they need.”

Additional reported benefits include fast document migrations, streamlined invoice and finance-related operations, and effective regulatory compliance.

Digitalization Takes a New Turn

Resistance to digitalization is more than just an inconvenience; it’s a significant barrier to achieving the resilience, efficiency, and sustainability needed to stay competitive in a dynamic market. However, it is easy to be intimidated by the massive effort required to scan, consolidate, manage, govern, secure, and integrate a vast volume of information, documents, and content to achieve true business digitalization.

SAP enterprise content management (ECM) solutions by OpenText calm these fears, as demonstrated by IDC interviews with current SAP customers. IDC calculates that organizations save an average of US$54,600 per 1 million documents stored in the solutions, totaling $9.29 million on average. These savings directly impact different departments, streamlining workflows and freeing up resources for more strategic tasks.

The key to this transformation lies in integrating business processes with ECM solutions to drive continuous, efficient, and error-free processes. This integration moves beyond merely digitizing paper-based information to actively using content to work, innovate, and create new content more effectively and with greater impact.

Take, for example, invoice management. Organizations can digitalize and automate the accounts payable process, enabling them to manage and accelerate invoice processing and comply with regional and global regulations. The capture of incoming business documents can also be modernized and automated to extract and process critical information from invoices and related documents, eliminating the need for manual intervention.

Quantitative Benefits of Digital Content Integration

The advantages of SAP ECM solutions by OpenText extend beyond just financial operations. IDC found that businesses using these solutions achieve a 351% three-year ROI. This is primarily due to the fast and efficient handling of document-related tasks such as intake, processing, and auditing — all of which are critical components of ECM.

As a customer shared during the IDC study, one of the standout benefits is streamlined data management: “We can now look at all types of data in one place with OpenText connected to SAP. It’s all about speed and efficiency of access by having one place to go instead of many, and the ability to take data governance seriously.”

What do all these advantages mean to everyday business operations? Here’s what some of the surveyed customers shared.

35% Faster Document Migrations
Document migration is often one of the most challenging aspects of digital transformation, particularly when transitioning to a cloud ERP system such as the private and public editions of SAP S/4HANA Cloud. However, by integrating ECM solutions with BPM strategies, organizations can experience a 35% reduction in migration time and a 53% boost in efficiency among employees required for the task.

This efficiency translates to lower costs and a smoother transition. As one customer said: “One of the most significant impacts has been the automation of invoice approvals, which has drastically reduced processing time and minimized human intervention.”

$5.36 Million Saved in Invoicing and Accounts Payable
One of the most significant benefits of linking business processes with ECM is the reduction of errors, particularly in areas such as invoicing and accounts payable. Manual processes are prone to mistakes, leading to costly penalties and missed opportunities.

As an example, by using the AI and machine learning capabilities within the SAP Information Capture Core application by OpenText to automate invoicing and accounts payable tasks, organizations reported a 37% increase in team efficiencies. In addition, they realized a $1.74 million savings in accounts payable process costs and an additional $5.36 million saved in total invoicing and accounts payable.

These findings suggest that incorporating ECM solutions into business strategies not only improves financial performance, but also enhances overall compliance. By providing secure, centralized access to documents, these solutions support remote work and collaboration, which are increasingly important in today’s globalized business environment. As a result, businesses can maintain high levels of productivity and compliance, regardless of where their employees are located.

25% Faster Payment on Vendor Invoices
Another benefit highlighted in the IDC research is the 25% acceleration of vendor payments, generating an annual savings of $1.08 million per organization. This acceleration in payment processing directly impacts cash flow, enabling companies to optimize working capital and potentially secure early-payment discounts, while reducing the risk of late-payment penalties.

As one customer from the IDC study noted, “The AI and ML functionality integrated has revolutionized our invoicing operations. One of the most significant impacts has been the automation of invoice approvals, which has drastically reduced processing time and minimized human intervention.”

The improvement in payment speed is driven by the automation and intelligent processing capabilities of SAP ECM solutions by OpenText. By automating invoice data capture, extraction, and validation, these solutions eliminate bottlenecks and errors that typically slow down manual processing while enhancing accuracy and compliance.

The Full Potential of ECM Unlocked

The IDC research shows that integrating SAP ECM solutions by OpenText with business processes enabled by SAP S/4HANA Cloud is essential for breaking free from manual processes and outdated systems. With significant ROI, faster document migrations, improved invoice processing, and quicker vendor payments, these solutions drive operational efficiency and financial performance.

Explore the calculated cost savings and business benefits of integrating BPM with SAP enterprise content management solutions by OpenText in the *IDC White Paper, sponsored by SAP and OpenText, “The Business Value of SAP ECM Solutions by OpenText,” doc #US52389824, July 2024.

Learn more about SAP ECM solutions by OpenText here.

Bil Khan is senior director of Global Partner Marketing at SAP.

*IDC Business Value White Paper, “The Business Value of SAP ECM Solutions by OpenText ,” commissioned by SAP and OpenText, IDC #US52389824, July 2024

24 December

BUSINESS NEWS

Loop Earplugs’ Digital Journey to International Expansion with SAP

by sherwin@eyeconz.com 0 Comments

Loop Earplugs, an innovative leader that has revolutionized the way we experience sound protection, has recently adopted SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition to support rapid international growth.

“The world is becoming increasingly noisy, and our mission is to support our customers in hearing the world the way they want to,” said Koen Spliet, project manager, Loop Earplugs. “A strong practical value and an aesthetically appealing design have made our earplugs a desirable accessory. Fueled by the popularity of our earplugs in Europe, the U.S., and Asia, we have scaled globally, growing at 1,500% over the last four years.”

To continue the growth momentum, Loop Earplugs needed an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution capable of seamlessly supporting its international expansion with robust, embedded localization. This would ensure real-time insights into the state of the business, allowing Loop to focus on innovation that continuously advances its core business functions.

Loop chose SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition offered through the GROW with SAP for scaleups program due to its clear, future-proof, and scalable architecture that can easily integrate with Loop’s existing e-commerce channels and marketplaces. In addition, the ability to support external partners in fulfilling Loop’s supply chain was one of the key advantages that put SAP’s solution forward.

“We are delighted to have Loop Earplugs in the GROW with SAP for scaleups community. We support growth-focused companies in expanding their operations, maximizing valuations, and running lean and agile businesses capable of fast growth,” said Romain Gauthier, VP, GROW with SAP for scaleups. “The program helps scaleups grow the bottom line through optimized operations, working to ensure they are always ready for business expansion.”

“With our rapid growth, time is always essential and we greatly appreciated being engaged digitally by SAP’s Digital Hub team. It was an exceptionally fast, professional, and personalized way to address all the questions and ideas we had, exceeding our already high expectations,” Spliet said. “We had about 30 contacts with SAP on our buying journey, yet only two were needed in person. This was critical in meeting the accelerated business outcomes we required.”

“SAP is evolving our customer engagement, founded on AI and the latest technologies, which are enabling our digitally-skilled talent to deliver fast, immersive, and end-to-end customer experiences. This allows our customers to pursue their digital transformation journeys at the pace their businesses dictate,” explained Sam Masri, global head, SAP Digital, Customer Success.

“For example, based on SAP’s industry best practices and the information our teams had about Loop’s value drivers, our Digital Solution Advisory team in the EMEA digital hub was able to determine ahead of the meeting with the customer that SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition was the best fit. This immediately triggered our Digital Value Advisory and Digital Asset teams to deliver a customer-specific microsite, with the business case, solution demos, and reference videos for Loop to explore at its own pace. This seamless and digital motion helped Loop wrap up the buying journey in under four months from the first contact,” Masri added.

SAP worked with the partner Delaware that engaged with the customer in person at its location. The hybrid engagement model, where SAP engaged digitally and Delaware was available on-site, provided the best mixture of high-velocity digital engagement and human touch to deliver a personalized and efficient solution discovery and adoption journey to the customer. “We are impressed with SAP’s AI capabilities and the efficiencies they enable. We are now exploring how we could leverage these SAP innovations for our own productivity gains as well as for our sustainability efforts,” Spliet said.

24 December

BUSINESS NEWS

How Hamburg Prevents the Super Traffic Jam

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Streets, bridges, waterworks: The maintenance of Hamburg’s infrastructure is complex. How does the city manage to balance necessary construction sites and flowing traffic?

Hamburg has more bridges than any other city in Europe. For Germany’s second largest city it’s a complex task to maintain its 2,500 bridges and other structures like pedestrian tunnels, locks, flood barriers, and embankments.

The State Agency for Roads, Bridges and Waterways (LSBG) operates a large portion of the traffic infrastructure in Hamburg and is responsible for the entire lifespan of these public works.

“We’re an important player in flood protection and the prevention of water pollution as well as the maintenance of most roads and bridges in Hamburg,” Erdinc Karabugday, head of Planning and Controlling at LSBG, shares. “Together with our network, we build and protect everything that keeps Hamburg together.”

SAP technology is one building block to perform this duty safely and efficiently.

Free Flow of Traffic as Top Priority

Mobility plays a key role in the lives of people in Hamburg and other major cities. Bridges bear a particularly heavy load, because they are critical junctions in the city’s transportation network. Tracking the condition of bridges and planning for their maintenance needs and upgrades is vitally important to keep people moving in urban areas.

Karabugday describes the problem in a nutshell: “Our objectives are long term, so basing operational decisions solely on the current situation isn’t enough. We need comprehensive data for the strategic context – not only economic aspects, but social and ecological impacts as well. Our SAP solution supports us with this.”

The manual entry of damage to structures like bridges used to be very expensive and time-consuming, a complex process made even more difficult by the fact that data entry and analysis are performed by both the agency’s own staff and external companies.

Digital Representation of Infrastructure

To reduce Hamburg’s renovation backlog and create a sustainable long-term solution, LSBG teamed with SAP to develop a standardized data platform. One central aspect involves merging data from a variety of sources on SAP HANA Cloud, making it possible to blend data such as the location and condition of each structure. The results feed into a digital model of streets and bridges and can be used to guide decisions and generate precise forecasts for maintenance and budget planning.

Ulrike Brecht, architect advisor in Customer Advisory Public Sector at SAP Germany, explains: “The project was initially intended to handle bridge maintenance. Employees conduct the necessary maintenance work and inspections on site. They also document the condition of a structure, ensuring that necessary maintenance measures are carried out at the right time.”

All available data on the structures, including road and bridge data as well as geographic and monitoring data, is merged in SAP HANA Cloud. When combined with aging models for the structures, this information can be used for forecasting when specific road segments will require resurfacing, for instance.

These data-driven forecasts put infrastructure budget planning on a new, firmer foundation and make it possible to define the priorities for object renovation to minimize the impact on traffic flows and the lives of urban residents.

Future Urban Platforms

Cities around the world face enormous challenges in the coming years when it comes to protecting and maintaining their residents’ quality of life. Dr. Philipp Schulz was a research assistant at the University of Heidelberg and wrote his doctoral thesis on digital urban development. Today, he advises cities and communities on topics like revitalizing inner cities, redesigning public spaces, and civic participation.

One trend Schulz has observed in the cities and towns he works with is the development of urban dashboards that show all the data collected in a city as important parameters such as air quality, weather forecasts, and movements of people.

For Schulz, developing a long-term digital strategy is one of the pillars of modern urban planning.

“From my perspective the term ‘smart city’ is outdated,” he says. “Today I call it ‘platform urbanism,’ an approach in which different players and their information are brought together on one platform.” Platform urbanism describes how apps and websites are changing the way people in cities live, work, and interact with one another. It involves the digitalization of individual areas, which are then brought together incrementally.

The city of Hamburg is on the right track. “Hamburg’s goal is to handle the full maintenance management of its infrastructure through a standardized data platform,” says Brecht.

The city is in the process of expanding the accomplishments of this project to other areas, such as the maintenance of public parks and municipal buildings.

21 December

BUSINESS NEWS

SAP Business AI Helps Syntax Revolutionize Timesheet Task Tracking

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Canadian consulting firm Syntax leverages SAP Business AI and natural language processing to transform its timesheet project tracking. The new intelligent solution helped the company shorten the billing cycle significantly.

What has helped Syntax, formally Beyond Technologies, might soon be available for its clients too.

The tracking of revenue-generating activities and efficient billing routines are critical for professional services and consulting business to succeed. In exactly this operational area of its company, Syntax identified opportunities for improvement.

The company decided to explore use cases and existing solutions that leverage the power of SAP Business AI to transform and improve its timesheet task tracking.

Human-Centered Approach: Business AI Explore Workshop

Professional service firms that bill clients for their work need highly efficient time-tracking and billing systems. To address these challenges, Syntax, along with two other customers, began its journey with the SAP Business AI Explore Workshop, a human-centered process that helped evaluate operational issues. Following an additional SAP Business AI Design workshop, also offered by SAP AppHaus, Syntax entered the “Run and Scale” phase to implement an effective solution to meet its specific needs.

Navigating Billing Inefficiencies

For Syntax, the timesheet process is a necessary part of operations, serving as the backbone of task tracking and billing. The Timesheet app in SAP S/4HANA Cloud is widely utilized in the professional services industry. Considering the time constraints that most consultants have when entering their time reports, Syntax wanted to look for opportunities to enhance its usability and efficiency. Syntax recognized that complexities within the app could lead to delays in time entry. These delays often resulted in incomplete or inaccurate records that impacted billing and ultimately revenue generation.

Syntax looked to the SAP AppHaus team to optimize timesheet data entry and elevate the user experience for both employees and management through the use of SAP Business AI.

Harnessing the Power of Generative AI and SAP BTP

In a joint project with the SAP AppHaus team, Syntax and two other customers evaluated existing SAP solutions for the use case. To tackle billing inefficiencies, SAP developed an innovative application powered by generative AI and built with SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) and SAP S/4HANA Cloud (see diagram), based on feedback from users such as Syntax.

“With this Timesheet app task tracker, consultants can effortlessly record billable hours in real time using natural language, right after completing a task,” Ingo Feucht, senior director of Product Management for SAP S/4HANA at SAP, said about the success of this project. “Ultimately, we consider this a Joule use case, but the project is a great showcase of how SAP customers can leverage generative AI hub to quickly build their own custom business AI solutions.”

Easy Handling

The new solution enables real-time task logging and processing. It allows users to enter timesheet data with simple conversational prompts. The usual so-called “shadow systems” that people use to temporarily note down what they worked on — for example, in Notepad or Excel — can be eliminated as the information is directly sent to the Timesheet app in draft format.

Employees can easily and accurately track how much time they spent working on each client. First experiences with the application have shown that it can considerably reduce entry delays and help ensure that employees record their hours efficiently without the cumbersome steps traditionally associated with timesheet management.

Improved Billing Accuracy

Companies failing to accurately track billable hours can lose thousands of dollars in annual revenue per employee. The new solution supports invoices in being processed more swiftly and accurately, leading to reduced days sales outstanding as well as less non-billable hours and less customer inquiries. This means that consultants can dedicate more time to high-value tasks rather than administrative duties, ultimately resulting in an even more productive workforce.

What’s more, the new task tracker replaces individual notes, be it in Excel, Notepad, or other places where employees used to track their own time. By empowering employees to accurately and easily log their time, thus reducing unbilled hours, the new solution helps organizations capture every billable hour, maximizing revenue potential.

Frank Densborn, enterprise architect at the SAP AppHaus, summarized his experience: “With this solution, we were able to eliminate the need for shadow systems that consultants put in place to temporarily track their work before entering it into the system. So, instead of building a new timesheet application, we collaborated and innovated using SAP BTP and the generative AI hub to solve the real business problem, leveraging SAP’s human-centered approach to innovation.”

Driving Future Growth and Efficiency

The implementation of this new SAP Business AI solution not only addressed immediate operational challenges, but also positions Syntax and its clients for future growth. By benefitting from the capabilities of SAP AI Core and SAP AI Launchpad, businesses can continuously evolve their processes, ensuring they remain competitive in an ever-changing market.

Leonardo De Araujo, partner for Global SAP Innovation at Syntax, reflected on the project success: “As early adopters of SAP S/4HANA Cloud and participants in the lighthouse program, we’ve used SAP Business AI to tackle industry challenges like inefficient timesheet processing. This innovation has significantly reduced our days sales outstanding. By saving up to $100,000 per day, we shorten the billing cycle.”

A New Era for Timesheet Management

Syntax’ journey illustrates the power of innovation and collaboration within the SAP ecosystem. By harnessing advanced technologies like generative AI built with SAP BTP, organizations are not only transforming their own processes but, in the case of Syntax, also driving significant improvements for clients.

Syntax is setting a new standard. The impact of its generative AI-driven solution will undoubtedly resonate throughout the industry, inspiring others to follow suit. The future of timesheet project tracking has arrived, and it’s powered by SAP Business AI.

Yasaman Jalaei is a working student in the SAP Business Technology Office.

21 December

BUSINESS NEWS

Raumedic: Future-Proofing Manufacturing in a Highly Regulated Market

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Sometimes a difficult starting point is the best driver for real improvement. “When we began the project in 2023, our initial situation was challenging,” recalled Christian Vogler, an SAP enterprise architect at medical product manufacturer Raumedic AG. “Our existing manufacturing execution system was set to an end of life in 2025, with extended software support until 2028.” Vogler, who is project lead for SAP S/4HANA and SAP Digital Manufacturing, spoke about his company’s SAP Digital Manufacturing implementation project in a session at the SAP booth at the Hannover Messe industrial trade fair.

Based in Germany, Raumedic designs, develops, and produces polymer- and silicone-based solutions for customer-specific medical and pharmaceutical applications, as well as products for intensive care. It offers a variety of products ranging from a single medicine tube to more complex systems such as kits for liver transplants or infusions. This diversity brings about very complex production and assembly processes. The company has over 70 years of experience in the industry; its more than 1,300 employees work in five locations in Europe and the U.S.

20 December

BUSINESS NEWS

IDC MarketScape Names SAP a Leader in SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Direct Spend

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In today’s fast-paced landscape, procurement teams must continuously navigate market volatility; cost pressures; environmental, social, and governance (ESG) requirements; and other complexities and headwinds.

Advanced software solutions have become indispensable tools that facilitate the procurement of essential raw materials and components and help teams manage supplier relationships while managing costs.

As the recognized market-share leader in the overall procurement applications space*, SAP consistently sets benchmarks within the industry. I’m excited to share that SAP was recently named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Direct Spend 2024 Vendor Assessment.** The report is based on IDC MarketScape’s comprehensive assessment of SAP Ariba solutions and feedback from our customers.

What Makes SAP a Leader?

The IDC MarketScape report noted, “SAP Ariba solutions are strongly positioned to help companies administer spend that spans complex events, direct and indirect, services, and capex.”

The report also identifies several key strengths that make SAP a Leader:

SAP has gained an expansive and impressive roster of enterprise client wins across a variety of industries as a result of being a mature, established, and trusted provider of direct sourcing functionality, particularly in the automotive and industrial manufacturing sectors.
An industry-first category management offering illustrates SAP’s innovation that is focused on value-added capabilities for its users.
SAP provides a platform that places an emphasis on collaboration via structured, workflow-driven tools that facilitate collaboration across procurement, quality management, logistics, and R&D and engineering.
Strong industry-leading sourcing optimization and PO collaboration capabilities provide business value and significantly improve operating efficiency.

The report notes SAP should be considered when, “Clients in need of a trusted, enterprise-ready direct sourcing solution that comes with expansive industry-specific expertise and the ability to administer the most complex direct sourcing challenges and offer broad optimization capabilities are well-served by SAP.”

Vision for the Future of Procurement

The procurement landscape is continuously evolving, with trends like AI integration, automation, and sustainability reshaping how organizations approach direct spend management. With SAP’s ongoing investments in innovation and a commitment to addressing customers’ most pressing needs, we are leading this transformation. Procurement is a strategic enabler of cost management, risk reduction, and compliance and SAP solutions are designed to empower organizations to make strategic, data-driven decisions that optimize their spend and operations.

At SAP Spend Connect Live in October, we announced innovations and new capabilities that will revolutionize the spend management landscape. These include:

SAP Ariba Intake Management: Our newest solution, which is planned to be available in early 2025, is designed to offer an intuitive and simple user experience. It is planned to automate procurement request creation, routing, and support by orchestrating processes across multiple systems.
Joule: We’ve begun integrating our generative AI copilot Joule across SAP Ariba, SAP Business Network, and SAP Fieldglass solutions. This will enable organizations to complete complex workflows and manage important tasks quickly and accurately.
SAP Business Network Promote Subscription: This innovation can help suppliers receive recommendations to improve discoverability and access to advanced search results, supplier profile verification, and network catalog APIs. The Promote subscription will be available in early 2025 to help suppliers identify sales opportunities based on regional search data, and generative AI tools deliver advanced insights that make it easy to track business growth on the network.

The Exciting New Era Ahead

The future of procurement and direct spend will be defined by groundbreaking technologies to help organizations adapt to an increasingly complex and dynamic global environment.

We believe recognition as a Leader in the 2024 IDC MarketScape Direct Spend Assessment underscores SAP’s commitment to driving innovation and enabling businesses to thrive in today’s competitive environment. By delivering AI-powered innovation, fostering collaboration, and ensuring operational excellence, SAP empowers organizations to achieve procurement success on a global scale.

Learn more about SAP Ariba and procurement solutions at sap.com.

Baber Farooq is senior vice president of Market Strategy for Procurement Solutions at SAP.

*IDC Worldwide Procurement Applications Market Shares, 2023: A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats, doc #US52580824, September 2024
**IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Direct Spend 2024 Vendor Assessment, #US52734424e, December 2024

20 December

BUSINESS NEWS

Meet Business Builders: A Gamified Learning Tool Equipping Students with the Skills an AI-Powered Tomorrow Needs

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In an era where artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly displacing and disrupting employee skill sets, it’s imperative to help current – and future – employees bridge the gap between the skills that AI demands and the skills they currently have. While corporations focus on reskilling their current workforces, educators around the world are hard at work developing and delivering courses to equip today’s students with the skills required to thrive in a world increasingly defined and driven by AI.

A recent World Economic Forum survey reported that cognitive skills, such as creative thinking, analytical thinking, and technology literacy, a type of critical thinking skill, are forecast to be the most sought-after employee skills by 2027.

Collaboration between academia and industry is essential to deliver these skills at speed to students. That’s why the SAP University Alliances program has been forging partnerships with educational institutions for 25 years, with more than 2,800 institutions currently working with SAP to educate tomorrow’s talent with SAP skills.

One of these partners is HEC Montréal, a prestigious, internationally recognized business school with a long history of creating innovative learning approaches to equip students with SAP skills.

Two decades ago, HEC Montréal pioneered ERPsim, a revolutionary and hugely successful educational tool immersing students in a real-life business scenario within SAP. Today, an estimated 30,000 students a year learn with ERPsim.

In an interview, Professor Pierre-Majorique Léger of HEC Montréal talked about the latest collaboration between HEC Montréal and SAP: Business Builders, the next generation of SAP gamified learning.

Business Builders: Game On with SAP Analytics Cloud

Business Builders is a gamified learning tool that can develop STEM skills and helps students sharpen their analytical, critical, and creative thinking skills using the SAP Analytics Cloud solution.

Professor Léger says educators are caught up in the generative AI tsunami and need to “rethink a new pedagogical approach for students to develop data analytics and data literacy skills while at the same time recognizing that ChatGPT, for example, makes it super easy for students to circumvent doing the tasks themselves.”

Business Builders is one solution to that problem.

The game can be played either face-to-face or in virtual teaching sessions, either synchronously in a single session or over several sessions.

Students find themselves in one of three scenarios in a fast-paced, competitive game with interactive, realistic learning scenarios. There is no chance of resorting to ChatGPT or a similar AI tool to win. Instead, students must demonstrate data-driven decision-making skills and apply visualization techniques to make informed decisions.

In each game, students take on roles such as marketing or product researcher, financial analyst, or supply chain analyst. Each game has multiple stages, with subsequent stages demanding greater skills and knowledge.

The stages comprise 10 business questions targeting different levels of skills and knowledge. The business questions are designed for students with little or no data analytics skills as well as those with more advanced data visualization and manipulation skills.

As part of the game, students use SAP Analytics Cloud to visually analyze the data and identify the best graphical representations to answer the questions.

Real-Life Problems with Realistic Data

The game uses vast synthetic data sets to make the business decision-making process as authentic as possible. “The notion of synthetic data is important,” Professor Léger explains, “because sometimes reality is too complex to bring into the classroom and does not serve the pedagogical process. Based on experience with ERPsim, creating a realistic synthetic data set that is as close as possible to reality is the best way to go.”

Business Builders currently offers three game scenarios offering a diverse range of real-life problems that students can solve using SAP Analytics Cloud: environmental, social, and governance; supply chain resilience; and international expansion.

According to HEC Montréal, the most-played scenario to date is supply chain resilience. This scenario involves a real-life problem where the Panama Canal gets shut down due to climate change, affecting the shipment of holiday gifts from Southeast Asia to the United States. Students are tasked with deciding how to reroute the containers and prioritize products to minimize the impact of this event.

A Win-Win for Students, Educators, and Employers

“It is the challenge of our generation of professors faced with generative AI to come up with a novel way to teach students about data analytics,” Professor Léger says. “We have found a way of using gamification to engage students in leveraging what they know about analytics and mathematics to become business builders. Using data to get insights and solving problems on the best technology that exists – SAP Analytics Cloud. And the best thing of all, it’s free for lecturers and their students around the world.”

To guide students through the game scenario questions and help optimize the learning experience, educators have access to tailor-made training materials. Instead of taking a hit-and-miss approach with the data and platform features, these tailor-made training materials help lecturers deepen the learning experience. Students can understand how insights are uncovered and how to make informed business decisions based on analysis of data sets and data visualizations.

SAP has also created a handbook about the basic concepts of data visualization and storytelling in SAP Analytics Cloud. Available in a slide-deck format, educators can refer to the theoretical aspects while students are getting hands-on practical experience in SAP Analytics Cloud.

Since its launch in July 2024, more than 300 educational institutions have registered for access to the Business Builders game and an anticipated 2,500 students will use SAP Analytics Cloud to compete with their peers in the game by the end 2024.

With technology accelerating at an ever-increasing speed, the good news is that educators can register and get up and running with Business Builders free of charge in a just matter of days. Find out how on the Business Builders website.

20 December

BUSINESS NEWS

Essen für Alle: Swiss NGO Fights Against Hunger and Food Waste

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The devastating COVID-19 pandemic exposed some of society’s most precarious fault lines, like in our healthcare systems, supply chains, and social support systems. People who once felt secure – those with stable jobs, access to food, and reliable safety nets – suddenly faced the harsh reality of vulnerability.

Once perceived as a distant issue, food insecurity became a lived experience for millions as economic instability, layoffs, and shortages spiraled out of control. Even in the most affluent countries, the cracks became visible. In March 2020, a former refugee, Amine Diare-Conde, watched as social service agencies and food banks in his adoptive country of Switzerland were shuttered, risking enormous food waste and adding to the 745,000 people already living below the poverty line in one of the world’s most prosperous nations.

Meanwhile, an unprecedented lockdown created drastic shifts in consumer demand, and surplus food and other necessities accumulated in warehouses while families went hungry, amplifying another existing crisis: food waste. Millions of tons of food are lost annually in Switzerland alone, and food waste worldwide accounts for a quarter of the environmental impact of the entire food system.

As the pandemic wore on, Diare-Conde saw an opportunity to tackle two urgent challenges simultaneously – feeding people in need and reducing food waste. He founded Essen für Alle (EfA), an entirely volunteer-run non-governmental organization (NGO) dedicated to eradicating hunger in Switzerland by redistributing surplus food to anyone who needs it. Essen für Alle means “food for all.”

The Right Partners, Across Generations, at the Right Time

Diare-Conde found an unlikely IT lead in then-thirteen-year-old Matthias Beeler, who coded the software that got EfA up and running, collecting and distributing food at its first location in Zurich. As the organization continued to grow, Beeler’s heroic, homegrown solution was struggling to keep up with increasingly complex logistics – coordinating the shifts of hundreds of volunteer workers, tracking the intake and distribution of thousands of pounds of food and other supplies, and keeping secure records – especially, Diare-Conde explained, since EfA’s IT lead was often otherwise occupied with school and homework.

EfA needed a secure, scalable, user-friendly solution that would help maximize the organization’s resources and supplies and, therefore, impact. Enter Keywan Nadjmabadi, who brought Diare-Conde a possible solution: perhaps Nadjmabadi’s employer could sponsor the organization’s new software and build EfA a cloud-based technology foundation. Nadjmabadi’s employer? SAP Switzerland. Diare-Conde was quickly convinced. SAP jumped on board, and within five months EfA’s new software, created using SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), went live.

Streamlining Aid, Maximizing Reach

In the short time since, EfA’s user-friendly, cloud-based, mobile-optimized solution has streamlined food distribution and volunteer management – enabling the distribution of around 900 tons of food and the management of 10,000 volunteer shifts – while offering 360-degree visibility for planning and oversight and providing advanced analytics to enable further process innovation and optimization.

Of particular importance to EfA’s clients were the new solution’s stringent protocols for safeguarding sensitive personal data. “Many clients come to us asking if we can guarantee that [their] details will be kept securely, and I can say we work with SAP so we have everything we need to guarantee secure data handling,” Diare-Conde said.

By leveraging the SAP BTP AI-enabled business optical character recognition (OCR) capability, new clients experience a seamless registration process with a passport scanner that securely captures their personal information, while returning clients benefit from a smooth and efficient check-in experience.

The scalable, cloud-based SAP BTP solution that runs on a database as a service means that EfA’s technology solutions can quickly and efficiently evolve with the organization. “We are constantly working on enhancements and improvements to the existing solution,” Nadjmabadi said. SAP BTP was instrumental in integrating and connecting the entire EfA landscape.

For now, every Saturday, volunteers from a database that has grown to 1,000 members distribute 20 tons of food to 2,000 people at up to five locations across Switzerland. And, Beeler explained, EfA’s impact is even more significant than these numbers suggest because some recipients are collecting food for an entire family, meaning that the organization’s dedicated volunteers serve as many as 10,000 people each week.

A Beacon of Hope

Unfortunately, demand for EfA’s services will only be increasing. In 2023, 30,223 refugees applied for asylum in Switzerland, up 20% from 2022. Diare-Conde plans to keep pace: “We will cover almost all of Switzerland soon.” And the NGO isn’t stopping there – the organization is currently exploring a partnership with a prominent German food bank.

But given that food waste is estimated to account for 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gases, EfA’s impact is already reverberating beyond Switzerland’s borders by directing thousands of tons of food that might otherwise be wasted onto the plates of people in need and by blazing a bold trail that others may follow.

Technology Serving People

The human side of technology is about ensuring that technology serves people, not vice versa. Known for his thought leadership in intelligent automation and digital transformation, Pascal Bornet said: “It’s about designing and implementing technology with empathy, understanding how it impacts individuals and society. Doing so enables a future where innovation benefits everyone – ethically, inclusively, and sustainably.”

The Full Episode

Learn more about how Essen für Alle is feeding Switzerland and tackling food waste by the ton:

Thought leadership podcast: Essen für Alle IT Leads Beeler and Nadjmabadi and AI and Automation Expert Bornet sat down with Thulium CEO Tamara McCleary to discuss how technology can be of service to humanity.
Practitioners’ video: Diare-Conde, founder of Essen für Alle, shares how a talented teen equipped with tenacity and technology created a solution that reduces food insecurity and waste at the same time.

Explore more success stories of customers leveraging SAP BTP to solve a problem innovatively:

Brigada Carcarae: Through geo-referencing and image records, Brigada Carcarae modernized its operations and work with real-time data for monitoring and analysis. Learn how SAP helped Brigada Carcarae achieve its goals of preventing forest fires, salvaging and reestablishing apiaries, and reviving and replanting forests.
Canton of Zurich: Learn how the Canton of Zurich expedited compensation processing and payments during COVID-19 using SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation.

For the full Essen für Alle episode and the on-demand Better Together: Customer Conversations series, visit sap.com/btp.

Timo Elliott is VP and global innovation advocate for SAP BTP at SAP.

20 December

BUSINESS NEWS

From Questions to Insights with Joule: Now Available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and Supply Chain Management Applications

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In September 2024, SAP celebrated the first anniversary of Joule, our generative AI copilot. Over the past year, Joule has rapidly evolved, supporting business processes across customer experience, procurement, human resources, and more. Today, we are thrilled to announce that Joule is expanding its capabilities even further – it is now available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and supply chain management applications.

This marks a significant step in transforming how businesses operate by simplifying everyday tasks and making interactions more efficient and intelligent.

Starting today, you can use Joule to help optimize your interactions with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, the SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain solution, and SAP’s product data management solutions. Additionally, SAP Asset Performance Management customers are invited to explore early access to Joule through the SAP Early Adopter Care program.

Joule in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition: A Transformative Experience

Joule Is Now Available in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

Joule is now seamlessly integrated in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition as part of the November 2024 release after being in early adoption since February this year. This isn’t just another tool – it is a transformative experience designed to help address the everyday challenges customers face. This integration offers a more intuitive way for users to interact with SAP solutions. Instead of manually searching for information or navigating multiple interfaces, users can simply ask Joule for what they need – whether it’s insights on business data or guidance on performing specific tasks.

Joule Helps to Simplify Your Work

Joule is a part of the broader vision of autonomous ERP, which offers businesses ready-to-run cloud business solutions powered by AI. Through the embedded AI features in GROW with SAP, businesses can simplify everyday work processes while scaling efficiently.

Supported by Joule, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition users can work faster, smarter, and more efficiently, all while maintaining control over crucial decisions and data.

You can use Joule for:

Quick navigation: Find and quickly navigate to applications for your next task.
Instant insights: Get fast insights on critical business data, such as purchase orders and outbound deliveries.
Enablement content: For those needing help, Joule can guide users to relevant enablement content, speeding up task completion.

A recent study showed that businesses using AI-powered tools like Joule experienced a 30% reduction in time spent on administrative tasks. This saving of time allows employees to focus on more strategic activities that drive value.

Customer Experience and Feedback: AGILITA AG

Several customers have already tested Joule through the SAP Early Adopter Care program. Their experiences with Joule give us valuable insights that help us continuously enhance our solution.

Swiss and German-based IT services and consulting company AGILITA AG has already tested Joule as a GROW with SAP customer. As both a customer and a partner of SAP, AGILITA AG is uniquely positioned to understand the value of the latest AI solutions in GROW with SAP and help other customers realize these values for their own businesses.

According to Thomas Neuhaus, head of Digital Experience at AGILITA AG, “When we started using Joule at AGILITA, we quickly observed significant improvements in our operations. Joule has made it incredibly easy for our employees to find the SAP applications they need for their daily tasks and access help documentation quickly when required. This has streamlined our workflows, allowing our team to interact with SAP systems seamlessly and retrieve important information much faster.”

Joule in Supply Chain Management: Building Resilience

Supply chains are becoming increasingly complex, driven by global disruptions, unpredictable demand patterns, and other evolving challenges. To address these issues, businesses require AI-driven supply chain solutions that enhance agility and resilience. With Joule now integrated into supply chain management processes, SAP’s vision of AI in supply chain management is empowering customers to transition their supply chains from digital to adaptive and, ultimately, to autonomous systems. This vision comes to life when you look at what Joule can now do for you and the skills it will gain over the coming months to help you build a more resilient supply chain.

How TE Connectivity Leverages Joule for Supply Chain Planning

TE Connectivity is a global industrial technology leader creating a safer, sustainable, productive, and connected future. It offers a broad range of connectivity and sensor solutions that enable the distribution of power, signal, and data to advance next-generation transportation, renewable energy, automated factories, data centers, medical technology, and more.

SAP Integrated Business Planning is used across the organization to enable more than 1,500 supply chain professionals to manage the demand and supply of the different business units of TE.

According to Luis Rocha, IT director for SAP Integrated Business Planning Solutions at TE Connectivity, “We are excited about the future capabilities that Joule brings to TE, such as explaining planning results, quickly highlighting key constraints, and autonomously comparing different scenarios. These features will empower us to make better supply decisions with significantly less effort.”

TE’s IT team has activated Joule in SAP Integrated Business Planning and has done first tests with the help documentation use case. They confirm how easy it is to engage with the copilot and how relevant it is to do contextual querying of SAP Integrated Business Planning features– it speeds up the investigation of requirements and the adoption process.

Joule will be available for research and development (R&D) functions via SAP’s product data management solutions and for planners via SAP Integrated Business Planning. For those that want to explore Joule to improve the health of their assets, you can now register for the SAP Early Adopter Care program for Joule in SAP Asset Performance Management.

See examples of Joule in action in your supply chain:

How to Get Started with Joule

For more information on how to activate Joule, please contact your SAP support contacts directly to identify the channel and regional prerequisites. To learn more about how these tools can streamline your operations and drive efficiency, visit the SAP Help Portal for detailed information about SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, product data management, and SAP Integrated Business Planning.

To learn more, see AI in GROW with SAP, supply chain management, and SAP’s AI copilot Joule.

By integrating generative AI tools like Joule into everyday operations, businesses can simplify complex tasks, make faster decisions, and focus on what truly matters – driving growth and innovation. As we move forward, we’re committed to helping companies not only meet today’s demands but also thrive in the face of tomorrow’s uncertainties. Together, we’re shaping a future where technology serves as a true partner in building stronger, more agile organizations.

Jan Gilg is president and chief product officer for Cloud ERP at SAP.