Business change is constant, and IT leaders are expected to guide the way forward. The challenge? Implementing a future-ready strategy that drives business goals while juggling limited resources.

IT leaders face no shortage of demands nowadays. From reducing costs to strengthening cybersecurity and adapting business models, they must tackle a variety of objectives. But here’s where the situation can get tricky – most IT projects meet individual goals effectively, but they still fall short when aligned with a broader business transformation initiative.

Take, for example, a siloed IT project. It may appear successful at first, but gaps are often exposed when it’s integrated into a larger initiative. Suddenly, what seemed like a cost-saving project becomes a source of delays and frustration due to a lack of coherent planning at the outset.

The key to overcoming this common challenge is mapping out the entire transformation process before starting a project. A tailored, well-planned IT strategy helps ensure every project contributes to the broader business goal without waste and with long-term value.

The Pathway to Comprehensive Plans

Too often, companies rush into transformation without a clear plan, leading to disjointed efforts. One project launches, then another, and another – without anyone considering how they fit together.

Enter the role of a business transformation advisor. This expert helps organizations create a custom strategy in which all components are meshed together to avoid execution inconsistencies, siloed teams, and mounting frustration.

Instead of relying on off-the-shelf solutions, business transformation advisors create a road map tailored to specific business needs by following five fundamental steps:

1. Set the mandate and scope. A clear mandate, scope, and approval from leadership are essential. This includes understanding the business’ mission, target markets, and future goals, such as AI innovation and sustainability.
2. Recognize and understand the strategic direction. Every IT project should reflect the overall business vision. Involved organizations must know what the drivers are, who the decision-makers are, and what criteria best measure short- and long-term success.
3. Define decision criteria. All project deliverables must align with the company’s long-term goals. By focusing on stakeholders’ priorities and requirements, every team can understand how their efforts contribute to the larger transformation – and demonstrate their value with transparency and accountability.
4. Define the procedure model. Whether picking process analysis tools or outlining project deliverables, every step of the plan needs to be carefully assessed. Investing in the right tools upfront saves time, prevents bottlenecks, and leads to better decision-making.
5. Identify key factors. The right partners, especially software providers, are critical for project success. Such factors include strong management sponsorship, clear time and budget constraints, and addressing potential resistance.

With these steps, your strategy will result in a solid IT foundation that directly supports business goals.

Partner Selection: A Make-or-Break Decision

When defining a corporate strategy, companies often question the role of their software providers. SAP strategic advisors help customers navigate this debate with unbiased guidance tailored to their unique needs.

With extensive industry, process, and methodology expertise, advisors help ensure that the overall business transformation is aligned with strategic goals. They often use tools such as SAP Signavio Process Insights for initial process analysis and SAP LeanIX solutions for architecture evaluation.

This approach is based on the TOGAF Standard for a comprehensive, layered assessment of the enterprise architecture. Advisors compare business capabilities with the right SAP solutions while occasionally involving product experts or developers to solve specific challenges. The final product choices remain with the customer, with SAP maintaining a neutral stance.

The Confidence to Drive Impactful Change

In any large project, confidence is vital. As a business leader, you need to be sure that your IT transformation will deliver results. Strategic advisors help ensure project outcomes align with business goals and decision criteria.

This process leads to several key deliverables, including:

• IT target architecture: A blueprint for aligning IT with business strategy
• Compatible transformation road map: A step-by-step guide to realizing IT goals while considering dependencies and capacity
• Effort estimate: A breakdown of resources, roles, and costs so nothing is left to chance
• Cost-benefit analysis: A detailed look at ROI, net present value (NPV), and other financial metrics to help guide decisions

Even though these deliverables provide the clarity necessary to help ensure the business stays on track, the people who help make the transformation should always be remembered. Early involvement of employees and business representatives drives smoother change management, especially when adopting a cloud mindset and dealing with the limitations of cloud solutions.

The Harmonization of IT and Business Goals

A tailored IT strategy isn’t just a road map. It’s a catalyst for future growth – and the future is now.

By customizing their strategy, IT teams become a powerful engine. They not only drive the business forward while meeting unique needs and goals but also align technology with the company’s vision, empower organizational teams, and unlock long-term success.

Explore the benefits of tailoring your IT strategy with a plan for a solid technology foundation. Read the full version of this excerpt and our service overview brochure.

Keywan Nadjmabadi is head of Business Transformation & Architecture for Switzerland and Central and Eastern Europe at SAP.

Björn Braemer, an expert in Transformation and Program Management at SAP, shares his insights as one of the co-authors of the “Mapping your journey to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition” guide. Here, he offers practical advice for companies starting – or already progressing through – their transition to cloud ERP.

Q: Your team recently made a comprehensive update to “Mapping your journey to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition.” Why?

A: Since the first edition of the guide was published in 2018, the technological landscape has changed significantly and, of course, we want to provide our customers with the most up-to-date information. That’s our ongoing goal: to offer comprehensive guidance to companies looking to transition to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. There’s plenty of information on the subject online, coming from different perspectives and with various focal points. We wanted to create a central, reliable source of information that can serve as a planning tool. The entire transition process is covered, from initial considerations to go-live. At the same time, you can read the chapters independently if a specific topic feels more relevant. And it’s all written in a practical, hands-on way – no buzzwords, just real value for the reader.

“A successful SAP migration starts with the right mindset. The cloud mindset makes all the difference.”

Q: What sources did you use?

A: Our approach draws heavily on external sources and focuses on addressing real customer pain points. We gathered insights from various user groups and institutions, such as Koblenz University of Applied Sciences, to document the specific challenges customers face – or perceive they face. While our internal experts, such as the Regional Implementation Groups and the Customer Care Center, played a role, they primarily contributed SAP’s best practices and expertise to answer these customer-driven questions. Using the Pareto principle, we identified the challenges that account for 80% of project success. But we didn’t stop there. We are actively updating the guide based on ongoing customer feedback. For example, we were recently asked to add a chapter on our acquisition of WalkMe – and we’re on it!

Q: Were there any challenges that surprised you?

A: Surprised might not be the right word, but there are two main areas where I see easily avoidable issues.

First, there’s the lack of a cloud mindset. Some decision-makers still struggle to understand that a cloud environment has different requirements compared to an on-premise infrastructure. Throughout the guide, we address this need in several chapters, including the “Clean Core” chapter, which emphasizes standardizing processes and moving away from old customizations. A true cloud mindset requires attention to multiple components, all aimed at achieving greater flexibility, simplicity, and innovation. Everyone involved needs to understand this before the project starts or else you end up with misunderstandings and delays.

Second, there’s often room for improvement in project management. A project setup with clearly defined responsibilities and the right expertise is crucial. And those in charge need to be empowered to make decisions – otherwise, too much time gets wasted on unnecessary approvals or multiple iterations for validation and consensus discussions.

Q: Considering the entire guide, what are the most important recommendations?

A: Having a clear goal is the foundation. It serves as the central guiding element for all individual decisions. The goal must be clearly defined from the outset and, most importantly, pursued consistently. It may sound simple, but it’s so easy to lose sight of the bigger picture in the heat of the moment! For example, does a company primarily want to reduce existing dependencies or get prepared for digital business models? Depending on the objective, the processes will be shaped quite differently.

The Only Book You Need to Read About SAP S/4HANA

“Mapping your journey to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition” provides IT leaders with the perfect blend of theoretical insights and practical guidance to help keep their company digitally prepared beyond 2027.

Download it for free now.

Thomas Bamberger is president of SAP Customer Evolution.

Melding “iron and tech” – that’s how world-class equipment and services company CNH is advancing the time-honored vocations of agriculture and construction workers. To improve business agility and increase productivity, the company is embarking on an HR transformation journey with the goal of fostering a culture of continuous improvement and engagement, supported by an enhanced employee experience.

With a passion for innovation and technology, CNH supplies a full range of agricultural and construction products, including smart, connected machinery and precision farming tools that maximize productivity by using seamless digital technologies such as automation, connectivity, and data analytics. CNH’s brand portfolio comprises highly respected names: Case IH, New Holland, CASE, and New Holland Construction.

A commercial presence in 180 countries, underpinned by its 42 manufacturing plants and 49 R&D centers, enables CNH to optimally collaborate with its customers to deliver technological advancements for the agricultural and construction equipment sectors. By integrating leading technologies into its products, CNH delivers on its purpose of “breaking new ground.”

“We go back a long way. All the way back to 1842, in fact,” says Giovanni Gregorutti, group lead for HRIS Digital Transformation at CNH. “That’s over 180 years of developing pioneering equipment and services for farmers and builders. And everything we do is with those farmers and builders in mind. We are striving to provide the very best machinery and technology to make their lives easier – and their businesses more efficient and profitable.”

An Efficient and Dedicated Team

Representing CNH’s commitment to developing new solutions and ideas are its 40,000 talented employees, spread over 34 countries, who work together in seamless collaboration to deliver specialized products and services for the agriculture and construction industries.

“Our employees are our most valuable asset,” says Roberto Lanzavecchia, head of Global Talent Management at CNH. “A satisfied customer reflects an efficient and dedicated team that shares the same values, holds each other accountable, and strives to deliver the best for our customers.”

The company prides itself on offering a broad range of opportunities for career development, mentorships, leadership development, and training programs. To support employees as they bring their whole selves to work, the company advances a diverse and inclusive workplace and offers work-life balance solutions to fit employees’ needs. In the marketplace for skills and talent, CNH’s reputation for providing a responsive, fair, and industrious workplace culture has earned it recognition as an employer of choice. 

Empowering Employees and HR for Increased Productivity

Having used SAP’s on-premise human capital management (HCM) solution since 2009, CNH began to encounter challenges with its legacy software, which struggled to keep up with the dynamic needs of a modern workforce. This resulted in outdated goal setting, performance management, succession planning, and employee feedback. It became clear that CNH needed to move to the cloud for a comprehensive transformation of its HR system.

CNH chose SAP SuccessFactors HCM as the foundation for its cloud-based HR transformation as it offers comprehensive, scalable, and user-friendly solutions that can integrate seamlessly, as well as robust analytics capabilities. This change was necessary, according to Gregorutti, who says, “We knew it was time to make a shift in the terms of improving the employee experience and to leverage the new capabilities, including AI, and moving to SAP SuccessFactors was an obvious choice.”

CNH outlined its goals for the HR evolution, which included identifying critical factors and eliminating non-value-adding activities; improving the overall employee experience to empower employees and the business to deliver more value, better outcomes, and increased productivity; and exploring ways to empower HR to own and solve enterprise-wide issues affecting the business, the workforce, and work-related processes.

Elevating Employee Experience with Streamlined HR Processes

Expediting its vision of empowering its workforce and HR team, CNH started by implementing the SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central solution as its core HR platform for 40,000 employees in 34 countries and integrating it with 10 new payroll platforms within 11 months.

To ring in the new year in January 2024, CNH introduced the SAP SuccessFactors Performance & Goals solution to support all employees for goal setting. The solution can connect to SAP Integration Suite to help enable seamless analytics capabilities that can lead to better data visibility and data-driven decision-making. “We are about to conclude the first year of the performance management cycle using the new module,” Lanzavecchia says, highlighting the value of SAP SuccessFactors Performance & Goals in streamlining processes for HR and employees. “We then went live with the succession module in September 2024, and we’ve just used it for the first time to present to our senior leadership the succession plan and the main talent indicators of our employees, allowing each manager to work on their talent pipeline creation and development.”

As CNH’s transformation journey enters a new phase, it plans to implement the SAP SuccessFactors Recruiting solution by the end of 2024 and the SAP SuccessFactors Onboarding solution by the middle of 2025. In September, it implemented the SAP Archiving and Document Access application by OpenText to make capabilities for archiving documents available. Early next year, it plans to improve integration of this application with SAP SuccessFactors solutions.

Building an Agile, Efficient, and Employee-Centric Workplace

With the first steps in its transformation journey complete, CNH is already experiencing the benefits of cloud-based HR solutions, which are bringing improved efficiency, better data visibility, and greater agility. As a result of streamlining HR processes, CNH has achieved new levels of process optimization, so that HR tasks are managed more efficiently. By reducing administrative burdens, HR teams can increase their focus on higher-level strategic initiatives and time spent with employees.

Thanks to improved data visibility, CNH is able to advance its people strategy and plan long term. Talent management, for example, has improved because succession planning based on talent data enables more effective identification and development of future leaders.

“The transformation has created a more agile, efficient, and employee-centric environment at CNH, enhancing the overall employee experience and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and engagement,” Lanzavecchia says.

Employees now have the benefits of an elevated experience – one of the primary goals of CNH’s HR transformation. With support for continuous feedback and goal setting, employees are engaged and motivated, in part because they are more connected to their goals and receive regular feedback from managers, who are now more accountable for their teams’ development and performance through timely and constructive feedback.

Making Every Employee a Success Story

With modern cloud-based HR solutions in place, CNH now has the capabilities for HR to gain efficiency and achieve greater productivity – plus deliver data-driven insights to the business for improved decision-making. An improved employee experience is leading to better engagement and career development, opening opportunities for each employee to further their success story.

As both Gregorutti and Lanzavecchia see it, this is a promising beginning in CNH’s ongoing HR evolution. Next year brings new possibilities to introduce AI capabilities for HR, as the company evaluates the benefits of implementing the talent intelligence hub in SAP SuccessFactors HCM to help power employee growth and skills development. “CNH has undergone significant and successful transformation over the last three years,” they say. “Keeping this momentum up in a tougher market scenario is imperative. The continued transformation of CNH involves embracing employees’ professional passion, achieving personal fulfilment, and simply having fun.”

Learn more about SAP SuccessFactors HCM.

An astute young person once said that while youth make up 25% of the population, they represent 100% of the future. This insight resonates when considering the challenges businesses face in developing the necessary skills for a sustainable, digitally transformed future. Empowering young people is crucial, not only for their own growth but for addressing critical challenges, such as climate resilience, and preparing them to lead in a rapidly evolving world.

The global skills and opportunity gap is a recurring topic at landmark events such as the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos and UN General Assembly and Climate Week in New York. This is no different at the current UN Conference of the Parties (COP29) in Baku, Azerbaijan.

That’s because today’s youth are the leaders, innovators, and problem-solvers of tomorrow. However, as these gaps remain, it’s important to accelerate active engagement and enhance collaboration across sectors. Ensuring that young people are adequately prepared to enter and excel in the workforce is an investment in their future and a strategic imperative for businesses and societies worldwide. Without adequate learning pathways, young people risk unemployment and businesses may struggle to compete in the burgeoning green and digital economies due to a widening talent shortage.

Human Capital and Youth Day

For this reason, November 18 has been designated as the COP29 theme day for Human Capital Development for Climate Resilience. The initiative underscores that addressing climate change requires a holistic approach supported by healthier, better educated, and adequately skilled young people.

The Human Capital Day serves as a reminder that tackling climate change requires societal transformation – and there is no better time than now. A key component of this shift is ensuring access to quality education and skill development opportunities for youth that lead to tangible employment opportunities. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), global youth unemployment was 13% in 2023, with many young people facing limited prospects for stable and decent work. At the same time, the World Economic Forum found that 44% of businesses report difficulties in finding talent with the right skills to fill jobs.

At SAP, we believe in our responsibility to support the next generation of professionals and users with our best-in-class digital learning. We fully support the COP29 agenda for human capital and are actively involved with the global community of governments, financial institutions, and private sector entities.

SAP Education and Employment Programs

SAP has several programs and partnerships to help tackle the deepening mismatch between the supply of young job seekers and the demand for skilled talent. These initiatives focus on human capital development and provide valuable educational opportunities for youth:

• SAP and UNICEF’s partnership in support of Generation Unlimited develops innovative solutions to global skilling challenges to help young people transition to earning. The goal is to generate inclusive opportunities for underserved young people worldwide, preparing them for decent work with the skills needed in the market. The program helps equip youth with essential skills and builds on UNICEF’s Generation Unlimited (GenU) signature program, the Youth Agency Marketplace (YOMA), a platform developed by young Africans to tackle labor market challenges. To date, the partnership reached more than 600,000 youth with foundational and digital skills that help young people unlock opportunities in the changing global economy.
• SAP Educate to Employ is one of the learn-to-earn pathways on YOMA designed by SAP to equip youth with essential competencies for the digital economy. Implemented by a local social enterprise in South Africa called UMUZI, the free program focuses on developing skills, knowledge, attitudes, and values to help prepare and bring candidates into employment within the SAP ecosystem. More than 1,000 learners completed one or more foundational skills courses, while 165 learners completed over 550 hours of critical skills development training and earned an SAP technology consultant professional certificate. The next step is to secure meaningful employment opportunities within the SAP ecosystem and beyond.
• The SAP University Alliances program includes over 2,700 members in more than 100 countries. It enables academia to educate the next generation on using intelligent AI-enabled technology, engage at SAP events, build industry partnerships, and prepare graduates for the SAP ecosystem. SAP University Alliances initiatives aim to empower youth to work in digitized enterprises, shape their futures, and have a meaningful impact on the world. During COP29, SAP will engage with students and faculty members from local university partners in Baku. Planned activities include an on-campus, gamified learning experience with a focus on sustainability, dialogue on learning and skills for sustainable youth development, and student visits to SAP’s booth in the Green Zone.

To further amplify youth empowerment, SAP actively collaborates with leading youth organizations. Through these partnerships, SAP brings young voices to the forefront of decision-making, fostering intergenerational collaboration and innovative solutions to pressing global challenges.

• We Are Family Foundation (WAFF) is a non-profit organization that empowers youth and brings them to decision-making tables to share ideas and innovative solutions for global problems. For instance, at COP29, WAFF, in partnership with Care About Climate and Groundswell, launched the Universal NDC Youth Clause campaign – a global call to action for governments to integrate youth voices into their updated climate plans due in February 2025. By adopting this clause, governments pledge to work collaboratively with young people to achieve ambitious climate goals.
• The SAP and World Scouting partnership examines the critical role that youth-led initiatives play in advancing environmental sustainability. It provides opportunities to share insights on successful youth-driven projects and discuss challenges and the support needed to scale efforts. The engagement is based on the premise that young people are at the forefront of environmental activism and are leveraging technology, creativity, and community engagement to make tangible impacts amid unprecedented environmental challenges.

As the world grapples with urgent challenges like climate change and digital transformation, SAP believes that investing in youth and human development has never been more crucial. SAP’s contribution to building a sustainable future through initiatives that equip young people with job-ready skills underscores the importance of a whole-of-society approach.

By collaborating with global multistakeholder partners and empowering the next generation, we can help bridge the talent gap, foster climate resilience, and ensure that today’s youth are prepared to lead us into a more sustainable and inclusive future.