SAP prepares customers to conquer every mountain

SAP is ready to future-proof customers for whatever challenges they may face, said CEO Christian Klein during his extended opening keynote at SAP Sapphire Orlando, outlining the company’s vision for customers and announcing that SAP is doubling down on artificial intelligence ( AI).

If we work together, we’ll conquer any mountain, Klein said in a speech that began and ended with climbing metaphors and was punctuated with customer stories, demos and new product announcements.

Julia White, Chief Marketing & Solutions Officer of SAP, joined Klein from the Orlando show floor during the keynote to discuss SAP’s pioneering initiatives in supply chain and sustainability, enterprise-wide automation, and how SAP solutions are answering the challenges senior business leaders across all industries face. to be confronted.

Microsoft, UnileverPfizer, Schneider Electric and Google Cloud were among the greatname partners and customers who appeared on stage or via video during the event. In addition, the keynote included a recorded video message from John Kerry, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, on how we can solve the climate crisis together.

Small and White framed the keynote all around How the CIO and their key business stakeholders — such as the chief people officer, chief commercial officer, And FINANCE DIRECTOR – respond to the challenges they each face, aand how JUICE solutions help solve thOR challengeS.

Klein told the audience in Orlando and those who competed virtually: Climbing the tallest mountain takes a strong team and, let’s face it, the same goes for transforming businesses. It takes a strong team between the business, IT and SAP… If we are in this together as one team, we will overcome any mountain.

SAP’s vision focuses on the need to build resilient supply chains, become an agile, intelligent enterprise and run a sustainable business, Klein explains. We deliver on this vision through our cloud portfolio.

Early in his keynote, Klein said that SAP will double down on its AI strategy because of the huge impact AI will have on our private and business lives. He noted that SAP software has been running the world’s most material and labor intensive business processes for 50 years, which is why we believe embedding AI into SAP software will bring tremendous value to your business.

Today, we already have AI embedded in many of our applications used by more than 20,000 customers, he said, SAP AI is built for businesses.

For example, he noted that AI in SAP’s financial solution helps predict and protect financial performance by analyzing a company’s pipelines, workforce, and other profit and loss drivers.

We have delivered many AI use cases that drive business process automation and increase productivity by an additional 15%. Now we see the incredible potential to take AI to the next level, he said. With generative AI, we increase the productivity of every end user by changing the way people interact with our software. For example, our software can answer any business question and recommend actions to improve your company’s performance.

Klein noted that SAP has already increased its own R&D investments to develop additional AI use cases and is also entering into technology partnerships to expand its AI offerings, including the generative AI partnership with Microsoft announced earlier this week.

After a demo showing how to embed generative AI in JUICE SuccessFactors software can improve recruitment, continuous learning, and workforce reskilling. Speaking from the SAP Sapphire show floor, White spoke with Aaron Rajan, global vice president of Customer Experience Technology at Unilever, about how the company is partnering with SAP to meet the growing demand for sustainable vanilla ice cream.

Thanks to the integration between SAP Ariba, SAP Business Network and SAP S/4HANA Cloud, we can get a complete view of the supplier’s performance metrics – including cost, reliability and sustainability – and make an informed decision not just on the fitness of the supply chain, but also about the carbon impact, White said.

Continuing with the business network theme, Klein noted that it is more important than ever to not just connect one company to another, but to bring entire industries together, as each industry has its own unique challenges and requirements. He also unveiled the new SAP Business Network for Industry offering.

To demonstrate the power of the network, Klein cited the life sciences industry. SAP already has 80 of the largest customers in the network, with more than 255,000 trading partners managing more than $200 billion in trade each year. He welcomed Lidia Fonseca, chief digital and technology officer at Pfizer, to the stage to explain the value of SAP Business Network.

Klein went on to describe the management of a company general ecological footprint as another important pillar for success: Besides the top and the bottom line, consumers, your employees, investors and accountants, they all want to support companies that care about the planet. Today, CFOs and Chief Sustainability Officers must ensure they are 20 times more climate compliant than in the past.

But he notes that hardly any company has an overall picture of greenhouse gas emissions. The SAP Sustainability Portfolio allows you to capture, report and act on real-time data, not averages, based on a green paper — including scope three.

To investigate this post, SAP CFO Dominik Asam spoke in a pre-recorded video with Hilary Maxson, CFO of Schneider Electric, about the challenges CFOs face with carbon accounting and sustainability disclosure. In addition, White has outlined a new set of SAP innovations to track and manage emissions, as well as a new green paper that will work with SAP’s cloud ERP to “provide natively integrated financial and environmental decision making at the time required.”

After introducing John Kerry’s video message to those in attendance, White added: We can meet the climate challenge with a powerful combination of technologies, partners in government and all of you. Klein then turned to the critical role data plays in running businesses today and the recent launch of SAP DataSphere, which enables customers to bring together and harmonize SAP and non-SAP data sources.

After White and Klein explained how SAP Signavio software enables end-to-end automation of business processes and the unique benefits of RISE with SAP and the GROW with SAP offering, which is aimed at mid-market customers transitioning to SAP cloud ERP, Klein concluded the keynote with an invitation to those in Orlando: Today we have seen that overcoming the mountains we face, the wide use of technology and one team. And we invite you to experience the full possibilities of these innovations for yourself in the coming days.

“As the famous climber once said, ‘It’s better to increase our skill than decrease the climb.’ at SAP, we don’t lower the climb, we raise the skills for every role in every industry to future-proof your business for every mountain you need to climb next.