SAP Best Business Practices
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SAP and Supply Chain
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Fratelli Branca Distillerie in Argentina Modernizes for Greater Efficiency with SAP Sales Cloud
Fratelli Branca Distillerie is the maker of Fernet-Branca, a uniquely flavorful bitter liquor with a legendary backstory that galvanizes its revered status as Argentina’s unofficial drink. Whether served neat or con coca (with soda), Argentinians simply can’t get enough of this iconic liquor and consume the most of all Fernet-Branca produced globally. In addition, Fernet-Branca’s loyal following in the international bartending community has boosted its popularity as the go-to drink at shift handover: the “bartender’s handshake.”
Fernet-Branca originated in Italy in 1845 as the creation of herbalist Bernardino Branca, who intended it as a medicinal digestif. Produced from a secret recipe of herbs, flowers, roots, and spices – thought to include saffron, rhubarb, myrrh, and artichoke – the drink remains popular for its many curative properties.
While the strong bitterness and unique flavor is arguably an acquired taste for most, sales of Fernet-Branca remain robust for global producer Fratelli Branca Distillerie, headquartered in Italy with production plants in both Italy and Argentina and from there they export to other countries.
Gaston Vega, director of IT at Fratelli Branca Distillerie in Argentina, summarizes the brand’s success: “In the last three years, counting until 2023, Fratelli Branca has been exceeding the sales level every year – meaning that each year of the last three, from 2021 to 2023, was a record.”
But with such success comes pressure to meet rising demand. For many years, Fratelli Branca in Argentina relied on a patchwork of outdated tools and time-consuming manual methods for its customer relationship management (CRM). To become a world-class, sales-driven organization, Fratelli Branca needed to carry out a digital transformation to modernize and automate its CRM processes for improved efficiency. But first, it urgently required an internal champion who could devote time to investigate the technology market and introduce new digital solutions. Vega, who had only recently joined the company in 2022 after many years in the consumer products industry, came to a disquieting realization: “In the mass consumption sector, the truth is we were quite behind,” he says. “There were many opportunities for automation, digitalization, and technology modernization.”
Valuing a Tradition of Continuous Innovation
For more than 175 years, Fratelli Branca has honored the company motto “Novare serbando” – a Latin phrase that means to keep innovating while respecting tradition. This commitment to continuous innovation is evident in the broad portfolio of premium beverages that the company produces, including many brand-name brandies, liquors, vermouths, vodkas, and whiskies.
Now it was time for the sales organization to champion this commitment to innovation through its digital transformation. Would the team be ready for a new way of working? Yes, Vega says: “When I raised the idea of implementing a CRM, I had the unconditional and absolute support of the sales director and the entire commercial area.”
With key stakeholders in agreement, Fratelli Branca evaluated a range of CRM solutions on the market. It chose SAP based on best performance, value, and ease of integration with the organization’s existing SAP enterprise resource planning software. “SAP Customer Experience solutions won in that bid for different reasons: first, we liked the application better, for cost, for different reasons,” Vega says, explaining that “basically, the need arose from automation. Many very manual processes were being done here. The sales order system was obsolete, almost unsupported. That was why we looked for an application like this.”
The sales team participated in the demo sessions and asked detailed questions to gain an in-depth understanding of how the new SAP solution could enhance productivity. “It is an application that they really liked from the first moment,” Vega says. “They thought it was super agile, super versatile, and that it was going to bring them many benefits. Reducing their manual and administrative tasks meant that they gained productive time. So, that’s a very big benefit.”
SAP Sales Cloud: Optimizing Each Customer Interaction for Improved Profitability
SAP Sales Cloud is an advanced CRM solution that helps sales-driven organizations maximize customer interactions and profit margins simultaneously. Using a data-driven approach, the solution expedites a comprehensive strategy to help optimize sales, customer service, and marketing operations. The integration of AI features can enable sales representatives to turn data into actionable insights to help enhance customer engagement, drive customer retention, and ultimately increase sales.
SAP Sales Cloud’s success can also be attributed to its versatility and adaptability; it can be seamlessly integrated into an organization’s existing IT infrastructure without interrupting routine workflow.
Dynamic and Strong Support Drives Project Success
To ensure project success, Fratelli Branca chose global consultancy Avvale, an SAP partner with a proven track record in helping clients accelerate value from digital transformation of core technologies. The work chemistry with Avvale was an important consideration, Vega says: “We have a great dynamic with them. They are people who understood very well what we needed and did not try to go a different path. They recommended things to us; we adopted them. So, that was the first milestone.”
Also, SAP continued to monitor the project’s progress, so Fratelli Branca was never alone or stuck for answers. “SAP obviously sold us the product, it sold the licenses, but it never stopped accompanying us in the implementation,” Vega says.
With a strong team and stakeholder support, the implementation of SAP Sales Cloud, including the SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement platform, proceeded quickly, so that within five months, Fratelli Branca was ready to introduce the new CRM solution to the sales team. The implementation team knew that selecting highly motivated key users would be necessary to ensure acceptance and spur adoption. “When you bring a new tool that no one knows about, finding the key user who is your internal partner is essential,” Vega says. “Luckily, we had that commitment on the side of the key users.”
Real-Time Data Access with Mobile-Ready Solution
With a host of powerful capabilities for sales teams, SAP Sales Cloud offers a mobile-ready solution to help meet the needs of a remote and traveling workforce, meaning that salespeople can have immediate access to critical data and analytics from anywhere. For the sales team at Fratelli Branca, access to real-time information while in the field has been a game-changer.
With sales coverage responsibility for the entirety of Argentina – from rugged Patagonia in the south to the wine-growing region of Cuyo in the west and the sunny wetlands of the Argentine Littoral in the northeast – Fratelli Branca’s sales team is on the go to meet customers, take sales orders, check invoices, and monitor sales progress. Now equipped with tablet computers and mobile phones, the team is achieving new levels of efficiency, as they can better perform their work in the field. “[It’s] everything that a CRM gives you and in a super agile way,” Vega says. “Imagine that we went from almost prehistory to modernity.”
Fratelli Branca continues to evolve its use of the new digital solution to further automate sales processes and eliminate onerous manual and repetitive tasks. One of the features it plans to implement is a survey module that can save photographs at the point of sales – usually a bar or restaurant – and gather important sales-related information about pricing and competitor data.
Overall, Vega describes the adoption of SAP Sales Cloud as “super positive, with always good positive comments. The truth is that I never had a complaint.” He notes that previously the “sales team was manual and today they are digitalized; you clearly notice that the sales team and the directors value precisely this greater efficiency [from] having digitized certain processes.”
SAP Recognized as a Leader in IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Medium-Sized Business ERP Applications 2024
At SAP, we are focused on evolving our cloud ERP solutions to tackle the modern challenges businesses face, ensuring they deliver real-world value. Our hard work has paid off again with notable recognition highlighting our leadership in delivering world-class ERP solutions.
Based on an IDC analysis and customer feedback, SAP has been positioned in the Leaders category of the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Medium-Sized Business ERP Applications 2024 Vendor Assessment.*
*Source: IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Medium-Sized Business ERP Applications 2024 Vendor Assessment, IDC #US50655223, June 2024.
This acknowledgment highlights our commitment to providing an integrated end-to-end suite that empowers customers’ business processes and decision-making.
Here are some additional defining strengths of SAP S/4HANA that reinforce our leadership status:
- Comprehensive suite: For more than 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. The GROW with SAP offering for SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud is designed to help small and midsize customers rapidly adopt cloud ERP to simplify their everyday work, grow their business, and secure their success with solutions, industry best practices, adoption acceleration services, community, and learning.
- Enhanced with AI and analytics: SAP S/4HANA includes “embedded AI, including digital assistants, AI-enabled business processes, and predictive analytics,” which help streamline and enhance decision-making across customers’ enterprises.
- Industry-specific solutions: SAP S/4HANA provides “industry-specific operational business process capabilities” and supports “next-generation end-to-end business process support,” including specialized offerings such as SAP Customer Experience, SAP Ariba, and SAP SuccessFactors solutions.
- Global accessibility: Available as SAP S/4HANA Cloud, our ERP systems cover “26 industries, with globalization and a partner ecosystem,” and are delivered “with one semantic model and with one user experience as a service.
- Sustainability integration: SAP S/4HANA enables customers to address sustainability “across key dimensions, including zero emissions, zero waste, zero inequality, and reporting,” through our portfolio of sustainability-specific solutions. Customers find “meaningful business impact when sustainability is integrated into their business processes,” exemplified by systems like a “carbon accounting system [that] mirrors a financial accounting system to create a carbon ledger.”
Looking forward, we are excited about the potential of integrating more generative AI and machine learning capabilities into our solutions, further enhancing usability and functionality for our clients.
As market conditions evolve, SAP remains committed to leading the way in cloud ERP solutions, helping businesses of all sizes to not just respond to changes but to actively shape their futures.
Learn more:
- What is GROW with SAP?
- Why do SMEs choose cloud business solutions from SAP?
- What is SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition?
- Experience the advantages of cloud ERP firsthand: Request a live demo
Justin Raudys is content lead for GROW with SAP.
From IT Outage to IT Control: The Power of an Effective Software Testing Environment
From airlines grounding flights to healthcare services, payment systems, and banking institutions facing disruptions, the recent CrowdStrike IT outage is a stark reminder of the vulnerability of even the most established and modern landscapes.
So, what went wrong? A “buggy” update to antivirus software.
Although the issue was identified and isolated and a fix was deployed hours later, it was already too late for millions of systems people rely on daily. Recovery often requires businesses to take actions that could lead to revenue loss, higher costs, operational inefficiencies, security breaches, and, even worse, reputational damage days, weeks, or months later.
But there’s an empowering truth underlying this mayhem: IT outages caused by faulty software deployments and updates are avoidable. According to IDC research, participating organizations that use automation and integration provided by SAP application testing solutions by Tricentis dramatically improve their testing-related efficiencies, throughput, and outcomes.
Unseen but Essential
Often hidden behind the scenes in the innovation journey, the software testing environment can be an unsung hero. By meticulously simulating real-world conditions, the environment can detect and resolve potential issues long before they reach production. This not only safeguards against the immediate chaos of an IT outage but also strengthens the overall stability and reliability of the IT system.
In a global survey of organizations using SAP application testing solutions by Tricentis, IDC discovered how the technology sets up a testing environment that prevents IT outages without compromising productivity, performance, or profitability.
IDC’s findings revealed essential advantages, including the following:
51% Faster Testing Life Cycles and Error Resolution
Testing cycles are accelerated when potential issues are identified and resolved fast enough to reduce the risk of deploying flawed updates. Analyzing the impact of change helps determine conditions that should be tested to minimize errors and those that do not carry that risk. As a result, the number of “must test” conditions for a single application can be far fewer than the scope in manual testing methods.
With SAP application testing solutions by Tricentis, the testing process can be automated to detect programs, applications, and integration connections that can be affected by any given change. Instead of running all conditions to mitigate all risks, organizations can physically work on approximately 20% of the initial scope.
At the same time, the automation capabilities of SAP application testing solutions do the rest. This narrower testing scope decreases errors and bugs when a newly developed application moves to production — a reduction of 1.5 to 0.3 for each project.
By reducing the risk of incidents that make it into the application during development and production, IT teams can improve everyday user experiences. Workplace frustration dissipates, workloads decline, and the need for future hypercare support is minimal.
Over 30% Higher Efficiency in Development, Testing, and Quality Assurance
Even if 70% of testing processes are automated, organizations can significantly lower costs related to the testing cycle by achieving full automation. For some teams, these savings are equivalent to 10,000 person-hours that can be reallocated toward more strategic projects.
Additionally, embedded machine learning in application testing solutions can help establish self-healing test cases, lowering test costs even further. Self-healing test cases automatically adjust to application changes, limiting manual intervention and delivering consistently effective and reliable tests. This capability not only decreases test maintenance requests but also enhances the overall efficiency of the testing process.
The added benefit of automation in development, testing, and quality assurance is easy to notice. When using manual processes, IT organizations often go live with new applications and updates every six months. Now, they can release new applications, features, and mobile apps within two months. This increased release frequency enables businesses to stay competitive and responsive to market demands, delivering enhanced user experiences more rapidly.
20% More Productive Development Teams
With automation cutting the time required by 99%, IT teams can perform performance testing weekly or more frequently, instead of just once per quarter. This regular testing cadence helps ensure updates and new features work as intended, maintaining system reliability and performance.
Automation allows development teams to conduct thorough performance tests more often, so the system can handle increased loads without losing functionality and performance. This proactive testing approach prevents issues before they occur, fostering a more stable and efficient IT environment.
Moreover, automated testing verifying essential capabilities can lessen demand for manual regression testing. This shift saves valuable time and frees development teams to concentrate on innovative and strategic projects. The result is a more agile development process, where users are given new features and improvements with greater speed and confidence.
The Ultimate (Digital) Safety Net
As companies grapple with the operational and reputational damage caused by such outages, it becomes increasingly clear that effective software testing environments are essential. By transitioning from reactive crisis management to proactive IT control, businesses can reduce the risk of outages, helping ensure smoother operations and enhancing customer trust.
More important, proper software quality assurance goes beyond just testing. The key is having an integrated environment that not only tests one aspect of change but also predicts how the performance and connections of all applications within the system landscape can be impacted.
This is why SAP application testing solutions by Tricentis play such a critical role in many organizations. As the world advances and improves people’s lives with networks based on sophisticated technology, that one investment could mean the difference between a future of IT-fueled crises and a future of IT enabled innovations making our daily lives better.
Explore the calculated cost savings and business benefits of SAP application testing solutions by Tricentis. Read the IDC Business Value Snapshot, “The Business Value of SAP Application Testing Solutions by Tricentis,” commissioned by SAP and Tricentis.
Bil Khan is senior director of Global Partner Marketing at SAP.
Source: the IDC Business Value Snapshot, “The Business Value of SAP Application Testing Solutions by Tricentis” commissioned by SAP, IDC #US52458724, July 2024.
SAP Q2 Results Show Cloud Growth and Strong Financials
SAP Q2 results reveal a significant surge in the company’s cloud business, marking a notable milestone in its strategic transformation. The current cloud backlog reached €14.8 billion, reflecting a 28% increase, while cloud revenue grew by 25%, primarily driven by a 33% rise in Cloud ERP Suite revenue. This performance underscores SAP’s robust growth trajectory […]
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SAP Recognized as One of the World’s Most Sustainable Companies in 2024
SAP is one of the most sustainable companies on the planet in 2024, according to a recent study conducted by TIME magazine and data firm Statista. It ranks 15th out of 500 companies on the list, outperforming Cisco, Microsoft, and ServiceNow.
The 2024 sustainability study measures how organizations are tracking against climate programs, such as the 1.5°C Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) target or the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), and looks at scope 1 and 2 emissions and energy consumption, or proportion of renewable energy utilized in a company’s operations.
For years, SAP has been putting sustainability at the very core of its vision and operations. Via a comprehensive portfolio of ERP-centric, cloud-based, and AI-enabled sustainability services and solutions, SAP helps customers across 26 industries become more sustainable. This is achieved by building long-term sustainability strategies around climate, resources, and people; powering businesses and their value chains with sustainable practices; and driving long-term business value. SAP is also committed to achieving net-zero emissions across its entire value chain by 2030 – 20 years earlier than originally planned.
“Together with our customers, which generate 87% of total global commerce, SAP has the unique opportunity to create a more sustainable world,” Daniel Schmid, chief sustainability officer at SAP, said. “We are regularly recognized by world-renowned sustainability rating providers for the company’s environmental, social, and governance (ESG) efforts and achievements. Our ranking in TIME magazine underscores SAP’s role as a leader in sustainable business practices, setting a benchmark for others in the industry.”
Check out the list below for the full collection of ratings, rankings and reports of SAP’s sustainability performance globally.
Corporate Knights
In Corporate Knights’ 20th annual ranking of the 100 most sustainable corporations worldwide in 2024, SAP secured the 48th position. This recognition is highly significant, as the Global 100 companies represent the upper 1% of firms globally in terms of sustainability performance. The ranking was formulated by the Toronto-based media, research, and financial information products firm, which analyzed more than 6,000 companies with revenues exceeding US$1 billion, using 25 key performance indicators.
Corporate Sustainability Assessment by S&P (Dow Jones Sustainability Indices)
Since its inception in 1999, the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) has been conducting an annual evaluation of companies’ sustainability practices, covering over 7,000 firms worldwide. The CSA emphasizes sustainability criteria that is both industry specific and financially significant. In the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment, SAP secured a position within the top 5% of the software industry, scoring 71 out of a possible 100.
CDP
In the latest CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) assessment, SAP scored a B. This means that SAP was recognized by CDP as taking coordinated action on climate issues.
EcoVadis
In the last sustainability assessment of EcoVadis in October 2023, SAP was again awarded a gold medal with a score of 70 of 100, ranking in the 94th percentile* of all assessed companies. With more than 100,000 rated companies, EcoVadis is one of the world’s most trusted business sustainability rating providers. Its assessment covers a broad range of non-financial management systems, including environments, labor and human rights, ethics, and sustainable procurement impacts.
Gartner
Gartner, a trustworthy analyst firm, has published a new report titled “Sustainability Assessment: SAP®”. Read more about Gartner’s assessment of SAP’s sustainability performance in this complimentary report offered to all Gartner readers.
FTSE4Good
Administered by the Financial Times Stock Exchange-Russell Group (FTSE), the FTSE4Good Index Series is designed to measure the performance of companies demonstrating strong ESG practices. Transparent management and clearly defined ESG criteria make FTSE4Good indices suitable tools to be used by a wide variety of market participants when creating or assessing sustainable investment products.
As in previous years, SAP continues to be listed in the FTSE4Good indices based on assessment questions in areas such as environment, climate change, human rights, community and labor standards, tax transparency, and anti-corruption. Due to its good scoring, SAP remains a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index Series following the June 2024 review.
IDC
IDC Sustainablity Index for Software Providers reviews the ESG impacts of information and communication technology (ICT) players, focusing on three pillars: Technology as an Enabler, Vendor Performance, and Technology for Good. SAP was awarded 3rd place** in an assessment of 23 software vendors. This position highlights SAP’s exceptional performance, especially in the Technology as an Enabler pillar, where SAP excels in monetization, sustainable features, ESG reporting, operational optimization, and advisory services. SAP’s success is attributed to its commitment to sustainability, as well as to efficient internal product standards that prioritize cost and resource efficiency. Additionally, SAP has been named a leader among 18 vendors in the first-ever IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Carbon Accounting and Management Applications 2024 Vendor Assessment.
ISS ESG
The Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ESG Corporate Rating provides an assessment of companies’ sustainability performance based on high-quality and in-depth research and up to 100 sector-specific rating criteria that are regularly reviewed and developed. With its B rating, SAP has been acknowledged with prime status and is among the top decile. The score was confirmed in January 2023. ISS ESG is expected to update its score in the summer of 2024.
MSCI
MSCI ESG Research provides in-depth research, ratings, and analysis of the ESG-related business practices of thousands of companies worldwide. Its research is designed to provide critical insights that can help institutional investors identify risks and opportunities that traditional investment research may overlook. The MSCI ESG Ratings are also used in the construction of the MSCI ESG Indexes produced by MSCI, Inc. SAP upholds the highest rating of AAA*** and is an ESG leader in human capital development, corporate governance, privacy and data security, and clean tech as of the last assessment in May 2024.
Sustainalytics
SAP received a low-risk ESG Risk Rating of 10.9 from Sustainalytics, a leading provider of ESG research, ratings, and data. This rating reflects SAP’s commitment to sustainability and its efforts to minimize the financial impact of environmental, social, and governance factors. Sustainalytics, founded in 1992 and now a Morningstar company, is a trusted source for institutional investors and companies seeking to understand and manage ESG risks.
TIME
TIME’s assessment of the World’s Most Sustainable Companies for 2024 recognized SAP for demonstrating a strong commitment to sustainability. SAP was ranked the 15th most sustainable company worldwide. This reflects SAP’s dedication to areas such as climate change, human rights, and anti-corruption and underscores SAP’s role as a leader in sustainable business practice.
*SAP’s score is higher than or equal to the score of 94% of all companies rated by EcoVadis.
**Doc #EUR147190121, May 2023
***Scale: AAA (leader) to CCC (laggard). The use by SAP SE of any MSCI ESG Research LLC or its affiliates (‘MSCI”) data, and the use of MSCI logos, trademarks or index names herein, do not constitute a sponsorship, endorsement, recommendation or promotion of SAP SE by MSCI. MSCI Services and Data are the property of MSCI or its information providers and are provided “as-is” and without warranty. MSCI names and logos are trademarks or service marks of MSCI.
Copyright ©2022 Sustainalytics. All rights reserved. This article contains information developed by Sustainalytics (www.sustainalytics.com). Such information and data are proprietary of Sustainalytics and/or its third party suppliers (Third Party Data) and are provided for informational purposes only. They do not constitute an endorsement of any product or project, nor an investment advice and are not warranted to be complete, timely, accurate or suitable for a particular purpose. Their use is subject to conditions available at https://www.sustainalytics.com/legal-disclaimers.
® Gartner, Sustainability Assessment: SAP, 11 December 2023, Ed Anderson, Fabio Di Capua
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and is used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
RISE with SAP Packages Enhance AI Integration for All Customers
RISE with SAP packages have undergone significant enhancements aimed at accelerating digital transformation and making artificial intelligence (AI) more accessible to all customers. Launched in January 2021, RISE with SAP has partnered with thousands of customers globally, helping them transition to cloud ERP. This period has seen dramatic shifts in business dynamics, including the rise […]
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Cyclife Implements SAP S/4HANA ERP in the Public Cloud
Cyclife, a subsidiary of the EDF group, has chosen the SAP S/4HANA ERP to streamline its operations and support its growth, deploying the system in a public cloud environment. Cyclife, established in 2016, specializes in the dismantling and management of radioactive materials and waste, contributing to the sustainability of nuclear energy. With a rapid expansion […]
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