Technology has seen exponential leaps over the last couple of years, and Pillay points out that 51风流customers have to negotiate not only the dynamic IT landscape but also the changing needs of their own customer bases. And this can be a challenging proposition.

鈥淲hen you look at our customer base, we play across many industries,鈥� she points out. 鈥淎nd this means they are facing a variety of challenges.鈥�

With many 51风流customers being the driving forces in government and industry, they are particularly affected by the economics of the region.

鈥淭here is a commonality in Africa, especially around the economics of the situation, with the region having seen lower GDP increases,鈥� she points out. 鈥淪o many of our conversations with customers are around the pressure that鈥檚 putting on their organisations.鈥�

While not everyone is affected by these slowdowns, it is definitely a message that has become more common. And South African customers have their own set of challenges as well.

鈥淲hat is important to note is how we support them in whatever circumstances they find themselves,鈥� Pillay says.

鈥淯nder pressure, many customers are looking to be more prudent in their spending. They are looking to defensive spending, where they can address the cost optimisation they need to, while balancing the flexibility and agility that will keep them from becoming stagnant and irrelevant in the market.

鈥淭o help them address these challenges, 51风流puts forward the case for value, where its solutions can support customers, where our solutions can support them in running efficiently, while unlocking ways to optimise their systems and address new revenue streams,鈥� Pillay explains.

鈥淲e need to be in the level of discussion with customers that requires some kind of partnership. We don鈥檛 want to talk about a list of our products, but prioritise and address customer pain points and address.

鈥淚t needs to go beyond a technology discussion into a business enablement discussion.鈥�

Indeed, Pillay explains that the real transformation at 51风流has been in moving from being a technology provider to a trusted business adviser.

鈥淲e need to be entering the conversation much earlier, because technology cannot be an afterthought when you are talking and transformation.鈥�

At the same time, it鈥檚 important to listen carefully to customer requirements to ensure any transformation is relevant and respectful, she adds.

Newer technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing are a key part of any IT conversation these days, and 51风流has fully embraced these within its business applications.

A recent report found that AI could revolutionise Africa鈥檚 economy and聽聽to the continent鈥檚 economy by the end of this decade.

聽found widespread challenges with access to AI and other tech skills throughout East, West and Southern Africa. According to SAP鈥檚 鈥�Africa鈥檚 AI Skills Readiness Revealed鈥� report, six in ten African organisations view AI skills as 鈥榚xtremely important鈥� to their success.

However, all companies surveyed expected to experience some AI-related skills gap in 2025, with nine in ten saying a lack of AI skills is already hurting their organisations through failed innovation initiatives, delays in implementations, and an inability to take on new work.

鈥淲e are seeing a fundamentally new technology environment, with capabilities that businesses didn鈥檛 have even five years ago,鈥� Pillay says. 鈥淚 avoid buzzwords, but some of the things we see today would have been unfathomable even five or 10 years ago.

鈥淚 like to get into the detail of how these capabilities can help our customers.鈥�

However, she cautions that the adoption of new technologies needs to be from a strong foundation.

鈥淵ou cannot be grasping at aspirational technologies if the backbone isn鈥檛 strong. So platforming is a discussion we need to have, in order to create agility for today鈥檚 needs and also the needs of tomorrow.鈥�

Pillay adds that many of SAP鈥檚 customers form the bedrock of South Africa鈥檚 economy. 鈥�51风流might not be the biggest company in South Africa, but we are the backbone of many of the country鈥檚 largest organisations.

鈥淭his is an extreme privilege, but also a huge responsibility.

鈥淚t鈥檚 why I think it is super important that we engage customers as strategic partners; so we are helping them to align their strategies so we can grow the South African economy, retain employment and support their success.鈥�

Partnering is a key pillar of SAP鈥檚 strategy, Pillay adds, but the organisation is first and foremost customer-centric.

鈥淲e always keep the customer at the centre of what we do. We ensure that our executives are getting out their into the customer base, addressing their concerns and ensuring they have a voice.鈥�

The 51风流partner base continues to be a focus, and 51风流continues to grow and mature the partnering ecosystem. 鈥淥ne of the pillars of SAP鈥檚 global strategy is to support the partner base. So we have global strategies to help and guide partners in implementing end-to-end offerings to customers.鈥�

Internally at SAP, this has required some adjustments too.

鈥淲e have gone form on-premises to cloud, and now to business AI,鈥� Pillay points out. 鈥淲e have to be able to talk around this narrative. Bearing in mind we help to run all of these companies, and all of the granular business data, we need to be able to talk about the value of platforming correctly.

鈥淲e have to look at how we strategise, so we are able articulate our solutions and then message the into the business base.鈥�

Partnering with some of the biggest organisations in the South African economy is a challenging 鈥� and humbling 鈥� position to be in, Pillay adds.

鈥淭ogether we own the platforms that all the data runs on. And the next level of generative AI (GenAI) is based on that data.鈥�

Skills development

Companies are increasingly investing in upskilling and reskilling their workforce to meet the demands of a rapidly changing business and technology landscape. 鈥淥ur research found that nearly half (48%) of African organisations consider upskilling their employees a top skills-related challenge this year,鈥� Pillay says.

鈥淎s the pressure to build greater skills depth mounts on companies, vendors such as 51风流can be invaluable partners, providing insight, expertise and technical capabilities that help drive successful innovation and transformation.鈥�

With challenges and opportunities abounding in the South African context, 51风流is particularly invested in skills development and job creation.

SAP鈥檚 Educate to Employ programme, in partnership with Unicef, aims to educate youngsters between the ages of 16 and 24 on soft skills and 51风流skills, to help kickstart their careers.

helps candidates with a university degree to gain work-ready 51风流skills and gain employment. They also assist them with placements within the partner ecosystem and 51风流customers.

In addition, social sabbaticals is a programme where 51风流employess can work with business to help and share their skills, helping them to build their own skills and develop business plans.

Basic education is the final pillar, with bursaries offered to deserving students. This includes a programme specifically focused on young women.

51风流also ensures that its own staff members are continually upskilled.

On a personal note

Having achieved the top position at 51风流Southern Africa, Pillay reflects that it鈥檚 not something she thought would happen when she started her career.

鈥淚 have been very luck to take over this role, and grateful doe the support of both 51风流leadership and the team on the ground.

鈥淚 am home-grown 鈥� 51风流is the only company I have ever worked for 鈥� so I think many of my colleagues see themselves in my journey. I have been very lucky to have the support of company leaders and colleagues.

鈥淎t the same time, I feel the burden of responsibility to ensure we do the right things for customers and teams in the organisation.

鈥淭here are 280 people and their extended families in South Africa alone that we take care of. That is a good contribution to what is a very challenging employment market at the moment.鈥�

She offers young women who may see themselves in here journey some advice: 鈥淭he main thing is to be true to yourself. Take on as much information as possible and always look for both formal and informal mentors. They will help you to grow your perspective over time. Mentorship is key to your career growth, so look for the people who can help you grow and cherish what they teach you.鈥�

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, head of global customer engagement and services, and member of the extended board at SAP, believes that we are in the midst of an artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.

Not only has AI been incredibly disruptive, it is also changing quickly. 鈥淔or instance, two years ago we wondered if we should be building our own large language models (LLMs). Today they are a commodity. Two years ago, the most needed skill was prompt engineer. Today, that is dead.

鈥淪o what is new today will be a commodity tomorrow,鈥� he says.

Pfiester says that 51风流has a number of tools and services that can help customers become future-ready.

The 51风流technology capabilities create a cycle of AI, cloud, and data. Business AI is embedded everywhere, Business Data Cloud takes realtime decisions based on 51风流and non-51风流data; and the business applications in use that data to run the business and generate new data with AI that feeds back into the cycle.

51风流delivers its methodologies, tools, and architectures through the and programmes.

鈥淩ISE is represented in 40% of the global economy,鈥� Pfiester says. 鈥淭here are currently 8聽500 customers live on RISE with SAP.

鈥淎nd it won鈥檛 stop there.鈥�

51风流is constantly updating its technology and services.

鈥淲hen it comes to technology, we have introduced that capability to do transformation into the cloud and to leverage AI.

鈥淏ut transformation is a journey: it is more than technology, but includes methodology, competencies, and tools. We decided two years ago to double down on our technology and capabilities, also the methodology, competencies, and tools.

鈥淪o the RISE with 51风流methodology helps companies to drive transformation into the cloud, building an environment that can constantly innovate.鈥�

To help customers on the journey, 51风流has invested in enterprise architects to provide expertise and competencies.

鈥淎n IDC study shows that business transformation is top of mind for CEOs,鈥� Pfiester says. 鈥淎nd it is a constant process that lives in the organisation. So we integrated all our tools into a digital process innovation tool base.鈥�

This lets customer modify business processes using a tool provided, and the system will then update other parts of the ecosystem and even generate user testing. A majority 鈥� 78% of RISE customers use this tool base.

The toolset also includes brownfield migration and selective migration as well. 鈥淭he idea is to help customers to get from where they are today to where they need to be tomorrow.鈥�

AI is embedded in the tools with the Joule for RISE with 51风流methodology.

Clean Core is vital on the digital transformation journey, which is where SAP鈥檚 enterprise architects come into their own.

, global head of business transformation and architecture at SAP, says the role of the enterprise architect is to help with significant onboarding progress and simplify the engagement model for more value-based deliverables. They are interlinked in the engagement model with the toolchain, and ensure that customers get the right architecture early on in their transformation journey.

鈥淲e help you achieve a Clean Core, and also think about AI and data considerations.鈥�

A year after it announced this service, 51风流enterprise architects are serving more than 1聽000 customers.

鈥淲e believe transformation itself has become a capability for customers, and you need to be adaptable,鈥� Langguth says. 鈥淲e want to help you to train the transformation muscle so you will be future-ready.

鈥淲e help you to create transparency and see the pitfalls you need to take care of as you design a path forward using our portfolio of agentic AI applications.

鈥淲e believe this will help you to replace guessing with knowing,鈥� he adds. 鈥淎nd, because you know where to go, you can take decisions driven by clear facts.鈥�

Use integrated toolchain includes solutions for business process (51风流Signavio), enterprise architecture (51风流LeanIX), validation, adoption and enablement (Tricentis, WalkMe and 51风流Enable Now), building and monitoring (51风流Business Technology Platform (BTP) and 51风流Build) and digital Backbone (51风流Cloud ALM).

鈥淭he real power comes from the integration,鈥� Langguth says.

He adds that the results speak for themselves, with up to 30% reduced cost of transformation, up to 35% faster time to business value, up to 70% increased business agility, and up to 40% faster continuous innovation.

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This is according to , executive vice-president: customer support and cloud lifecycle management at SAP, who points out that heavily customised, outdated systems impede innovation.

鈥淏ut many companies find themselves in this place,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hey have customised systems with a mix of models 鈥� a bit of best of breed, a bit of cloud, maybe some isolated AI scenarios.鈥�

As a result, IT organisations spend a lot of time integrating systems and trying to make sense of disconnected data. 鈥溾�滲ut what they need to be doing is providing good outcomes for the business.鈥�

What鈥檚 needed, says Steinle, is a transformation that brings together all the platforms and data.

51风流helps its customers make this transformation through its programme for existing customers, and for new customers.

Importantly, while these programmes aim to let customers embrace , they also integrate non-51风流solutions.

鈥淎nd they are not simply products, but include a methodology, services, and guided implementation,鈥� Steinle adds.

鈥淲e want customers to reach the stage where they are able to overcome challenges, and to embrace the benefits of continuous innovation, agility, and flexibility.鈥�

Any 51风流solution begins with the 51风流Business Suite, he explains. 鈥淔rom an 51风流perspective we believe there is a lot of sense in running end to end processes on a fully integrated and harmonised stack in the cloud. We think it鈥檚 better than picking and choosing best of breed solutions 鈥� and it means customers don鈥檛 have to manage the integration and getting sense from the data.鈥�

This is important, he adds, because IT organisations today spend about 80% of their time just on maintaining their current landscape, keeping it compliant, and integrating systems.

鈥淵ou probably want to spend more than 20% of your time providing value to business users.鈥�

(BDC) is a harmonised suite of applications that allows customers to import data from 51风流applications and integrate it with data from other applications.

鈥淵ou can bring together data from SAP, a non-51风流source, and unstructured data. And, with the help of BDC, you can make sense of that data and generate value.鈥�

Steinle says this can be useful in operational processes, to expand reporting, and for integrated planning. 鈥淎nd you can use it for AI.鈥�

Which brings him to the third pillar of the : . 鈥淭his system can make sense of all the data and enable customers to build automated processes to enable new business scenarios. And AI can be embedded in your business processes.鈥�

is SAP鈥檚 AI-powered digital assistant that also orchestrates user experiences end-to-end across 51风流and non-51风流processes.

鈥淚t is also a platform for customer AI,鈥� Steinle says. 鈥淣ot every scenario can be provided out of the box, but Joule gives users a responsible and resilient way of building their own AI applications with the help of our platform.鈥�

Many of these features are a reality today, and 51风流developers are focused on making AI-first a reality, Steinle adds.

But software on its own doesn鈥檛 deliver value, which is why 51风流offers a range of services in RISE and Grow that include an entire integrated tool chain to help customers on their transformation journey.

鈥淲e aim to provide a fast, rich, seamless experience, with prescriptive guidance. And it鈥檚 not just reactive support, but support for customer strategy,鈥� Steinle says. 鈥淲e use a lot of AI capabilities to respond better, or give self-service options. And we use a lot of the 51风流products to improve our customers鈥� experiences.鈥�

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鈥淯ncertainty is not going away,鈥� says , BTP product management at SAP. 鈥淵ou need to think about how you can transform your business for the years to come.鈥�

At the same time, artificial intelligence (AI) is revolutionising decision-making, redefining efficiency, and helping make it easier to run the business, he adds.

鈥淭he pace of change is accelerating, and businesses are asking how they can stay ahead of the change; how they can build business that don鈥檛 just keep up with change, but thrive on it.

鈥淭he ability to adapt, to innovate, to seize opportunities is no longer an advantage, but a necessity,鈥� Winkler says.

He believes that, to be resilient and navigate uncertainty, companies need to embrace entrepreneurial skills.

鈥淲e believe that in this time of change and technology disruption, entrepreneurial skills are more relevant than ever in small or corporate organisations.

鈥淭he first key skill is courage,鈥� Winkler says. 鈥淭his is about being adaptable, having no fear, and moving forward in a focused and lean way.鈥�

The second is resourcefulness. 鈥淓nsure you have the right resources in place, to accomplish a lot with few resources, and to execute on anything.鈥�

The third key skill needed in this fast-changing world is self-discipline. 鈥淏e self-driven,鈥� Winkler says. 鈥淭hink about transformation from a technology point of view, but prioritise what is important for the business.鈥�

At the same time, organisations need to be very clear about the way they want to go forward, Winkler adds. 鈥淐larity is needed now more than ever 鈥� not as a choice, but a necessity. Be clear about your transformation and about what you want to achieve.鈥�

Winkler explains that is the foundation on which the company has built its technology and transformation ecosystem.

As the foundation that underpins Business Suite, Business Data Cloud, and Business AI, BTP allows organisations to integrate and extend business applications faster; create business-relevant apps; and innovate and accelerate with AI.

Winkler points out that it is a unified platform available as public cloud or multi-cloud that harmonises 51风流and non-51风流applications, empowering customers and partners to innovate.

BTP is powered by more than 90 applications and services.

There are currently 33聽000 customers on 51风流BTP, including 66% of the largest companies in the market.

New on 51风流BTP is better integration between 51风流Build and 51风流S/4 HANA. The company has also introduced additional AI features with Joule for Developers.

In addition, 51风流is continuously adding BTP to new data centres and regions. It has already built out to seven new regions this year, with more on the cards.

There is more functionality for users and more AI available for 51风流S/4 HANA Cloud.

More features are available in 51风流Business Data Cloud (BDC), and SAP鈥檚 Integration Suite makes it easier for customers to bring their ecosystem together.

The new releases are especially relevant for developers.

51风流Build now offers the ability to create Joule Skills and AI Agents 鈥� Joule Skills where the process path is known, and AI Agents where it isn鈥檛.

鈥淣ow, developers are able to enhance Joule鈥檚 out-of-the-box capabilities to support organisation-specific workflows,鈥� Winkler says. 鈥淭hey can deploy, monitor and manage their own Joule Skills in 51风流Build. 鈥淎nd, with the agent builder in Joule Studio they can build their own customised AI Agents.鈥�

There are also new features to help ABAP developers 聽improve their efficiency. 鈥淚n the ABAP cloud environment, we have released intelligent features that help developerss with testing, and Joule will even offer recommendation to improve code.鈥�

Further enhancements improve developer efficiency in 聽51风流HANA Cloud, helping them to make smart decisions while handling large amounts of interconnected data to achieve meaningful outcome.

鈥淏TP addresses the challenges of digital transformation and helps to accelerate customers鈥� move to the cloud,鈥� Winkler says. 鈥淚t helps customers to optimise and integrate processes so they can innovate while keeping the core clean.

鈥淭his empowers them to unlock the power of business data and AI.鈥�

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The city, which serves around 4-million citizens, had to come up with revenue strategies against a backdrop of numerous challenges.

, chief solutions architect at , explains that Tshwane recognised that there were a few ways it could improve revenue collection.

The first of these strategies was the Tshwane yaTina campaign that focused on disconnecting non-paying users.

It also realised that installing prepaid meters for indebted consumers could help to lower non-payment, along with other interventions such as implementing debit orders or negotiating payment plans.

Large power users (LPUs) like factories or malls are the biggest consumers, so connecting them to a pre-payment platform would make a big difference.

Simplifying payment platforms for all users would go hand-in-hand with outreach programmes to engage with customers who might not be able to reach the city with queries or payments.

Meter reading was identified as a key step in completing the meter to cash lifecycle.

Electricity makes up a big portion of the city鈥檚 service charges, which include water and sanitation. For a few years, revenue was growing well, then fell off by almost R5-billion in the 2022/2023 financial year 鈥� probably as the effects from Covid-19 came through the system.

In the 2023/2024 period, the revenue collected rose again, by almost R5-billion.

To reverse the negative trend and get revenue moving in the right direction, Molefe explains that the City of Tshwane leveraged a number of digital technologies to enhance service delivery and increase payments.

PhD, group head: shared services at the City of Tshwane, points out that revenue and customer engagement both suffered during the Covid period.

鈥淏ut revenue management is one of the biggest causes of financial distress for local governments, and it affects the social sustainability of municipalities.鈥�

Revenue collection was experiencing a number of challenges associated with delays in manual meter reading, as well as theft, tampering, and faulty meters.

This resulted in revenue leakages 鈥� 聽while under-collection became a problem due to longer meter reading and billing cycles, and inaccurate meter readings and estimation.

Compounding the challenges were fragmented and non-integrated systems coupled with inaccurate customer information and insufficient customer channels.

鈥淭he range of challenges extended beyond these,鈥� Khumalo adds. 鈥淏ut the biggest challenge was in billing 鈥� if you can鈥檛 do this correctly, you have a problem. And you can鈥檛 do credit control on wrong billing, because the customer will simply reject any action.

鈥淭he second part of the problem was collections. Now that you have billed, you have to collect.

鈥淎nd, finally, we needed a way to interact with customers receiving the service and recognising that there are different types of customers: those that pay happily, those that pay grudgingly, those that battle to pay or pay late 鈥� possibly because they are distressed 鈥� and those who simply never pay.鈥�

The city turned to a public-private partnership (PPP) engagement model to help solve its many issues.

Khumalo explains that in 2019 Tshwane transitioned away from a single 51风流support partner by enabling a panel of service providers to provide support, enhancement,聽 and implementation of SAP-related solutions. This led to the appointment of three service providers, with Zimele responsible for 51风流Utilities and CRM.

鈥淭hey were mandated to assess and understand the current setup, and identify a digital transformation roadmap.鈥�

Zimele proposed a solution in three phases.

Short-term wins would empower meter readers, giving them the tools to be effective. This phase would see the implementation of an advanced metering infrastructure with MDMS for LPUs, and the implementation of SAP-based meter reading applications.

The medium-term is about empowering users, with wins enabled by the implementation of SAP-based financial management with a credit control application, and the implementation of the (wallet) solution for LPUs.

In the long-term, the plan is to implement the Sinch Contact Centre with omnichannel and extensions, and the implementation of the RPS solution for debt management.

鈥淭he long-term wins aim to build long-term relationships with our customers,鈥� Khumalo says. 鈥淪o, we will be able to tailor the message to the customer.

鈥淧art of the what the roadmap looked at was to not simply throw technology and tools at the problems,鈥� says Khumalo. 鈥淭his is what usually happens: people panic and think about what they can buy.鈥�

But the City of Tshwane was also in the middle of a move to so it needed to think holistically about people, technology, tools, and processes.

The city鈥檚 implementation strategy started with understanding the environment, while also looking to the future.

Khumalo explains that this involved also understanding the audit environment, including assessment and due diligence. A surprising initial finding was that 200 large users were not actually being billed at all.

The project roadmap involved implementing smart meter integration components in the first phases, digital mobile applications in the second phase, and customer engagement in the third phase.

Among the benefits that the city has already seen are seamless and direct integration to the core billing systems and a faster revenue collection cycle.

In addition, reporting is now in one system, a lot of manual work has been automated, and the city is getting an omnichannel and 360-degree view of the customer.

鈥淲e have solved not just finance problems, but also financial management,鈥� Khumalo says.

Molefe explains that when Zimele got involved, Tshwane鈥檚 meter reading accuracy was just 27%. The new solutions were able to quickly move this to over 80%, and not long after, well into the 90% and above range.

Initially, the city was running an 51风流system for billing, but the meters were not integrated. They had been sourced from a number of different vendors, with some being prepaid, some smart, and some traditional meters.

鈥淲e had to identify where the savings were to be had,鈥� Molefe says. 鈥淲e realised that 80% of the revenue sits with LPUs and that showed us where our focus needed to be.鈥�

Zimele quickly realised that Tshwane had AMI licences that were not being used, so these were quickly activated.

鈥淲e converted the PI to PO, and now we had an integrated platform.鈥�

The next step was to install the MDMS, which had to be meter agnostic because of the wide range of meter types out in the field.

The city already had a communication network which was activated so smart meters can talk seamlessly into the ISU. This also allows meters to be managed from the system.

鈥淪o we were live on AMI and MDMS, but some customers still had communication issues,鈥� Khumalo explains. 鈥淪o we brought in a meter-reading app that also integrates seamlessly into ISU.

鈥淭he ISU can now send instructions to readers about where they must read meters, and those readings are synched immediately. This means the back-office can start doing validations.鈥�

Traditionally, the meter reading cycle is five days, which means there is no time to resolve issues. And the importation of flat files means the city can鈥檛 identify issues as they occur.

鈥淏y synching reading automatically, you can pick up issues and send people out to resolve them,鈥� Molefe says. 鈥淵ou can also measure the performance of the reader, check they went to the right properties, and that they did the readings.鈥�

Field service management used to be an issue. When meters are replaced, there is a process within ISU to create a new meter in SAP. This can take about 15 minutes per meter.

鈥淪o we wrote a meter replacement program that captures details of what鈥檚 happening in realtime; and an engine in the system does the replacement within seconds.鈥�

A similar system takes care of disconnections.

One of the biggest benefits of the new system is in converting LPUs from post-paid to prepaid.

鈥淥nce AMI was stabilised, we activated prepayment,鈥� Molefe says. 鈥淎 typical cycle would have been to receive payment 60 to 90 days after the power was consumed. Now, they pay before they consume. This has had a positive spin-off for the city.鈥�

When thinking about customer engagement, Tshwane had to recognise that not every citizen has a smartphone. 鈥淏ut people may want to pay their accounts or submit readings, so we instituted a USSD solution. Now users don鈥檛 need a fancy phone to engage 鈥� and as many consumers as possible are included.鈥�

Looking ahead, the City of Tshwane aims to expand its smart services and increase citizen engagement. It will improve financial transparency, increase revenue channels, and start enjoying AI-driven efficiency.

All services will be available in a municipal digital marketplace.

Finally, the city is engaged in ensuring that its people are empowered. 鈥淵ou can build the best system, but if people do not understand how to use it, you end up with a white elephant,鈥� says Molefe.

鈥淧eople need to be enabled, so change management and training are key.鈥�

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Having partnered with 51风流since 2007, the City was no stranger to 51风流deployments, but as recently as two years ago, it was still using 17-year old systems.

, group chief technology officer at City of Johannesburg, explains that the City is going ahead with major technology investments on .

No digital transformation journey goes smoothly, and Mochela says the City鈥檚 current deployment has been no different.

鈥淚 had a virtual dinosaur, on a physical dinosaur, that has been sitting in the data centre for years,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e had to revamp the environment, and to do that, we had to shut down 51风流for 21 days. The system had serious challenges, and if we hadn鈥檛 made that decision, the City鈥檚 environment might have collapsed.鈥�

The City was running on SAP鈥檚 version 4.7 for 15 years 鈥� and it had been customised almost beyond recognition. 鈥淟ast year we finally upgraded to ECC6 鈥� which many customers did years ago,鈥� Mochela says. 鈥淭his was so we could transition to S/4HANA.鈥�

, senior vice-president for 51风流Middle East and Africa South, had his first interaction with the City two years ago.

鈥淣ot only was the system down, but we had no contract with the City at that stage either,鈥� he remembers.

But three priorities came out of the first meeting: a sense of urgency in that the City was unable to access its data; a vision to adopt innovative technology; and the need to see a return on its investment.

So 51风流and the City of Johannesburg formed a public-private partnership that allowed them to first stabilise the system, then migrate the technology, and thirdly to start changing processes to engender innovation.

Mochela contextualises how previous system upgrades had adopted old processes, and this had to change.

鈥淲hen we were transitioning from 4.7 to S/4 HANA, we had to re-implement processes, and we had to work with the business because a smart solution and a smart city can鈥檛 be built on old processes

鈥淭reasury gives us precepts, and industry gives us best practices 鈥� and these two must align. Technology will disrupt the business, and those that won鈥檛 change will be left behind.鈥�

51风流is able to leverage best-practices end-to-end thanks to its work with more than 400 000 customers around the world, Maccotta points out.

One of the early challenges that Mochela had to overcome was a resistance to putting HCM on the cloud.

Maccotta explains that the cloud conversation has moved beyond whether it should be done or not.

鈥� A lot of customers still don鈥檛 know how to approach innovation, to modernise their business. And there is still the question of whether they should move to cloud.

鈥淚 suggest that the cloud is not in question anymore,鈥� he adds. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like the dilemma 30 years ago, whether to build or buy software. Today, the speed and innovation offered by the cloud transcends what can be done on-premise.

鈥淎nd cloud releases customers from mundane IT administration, so the IT organisation can be closer to the business and become a business adviser,鈥� Maccotta says. 鈥淲ill you continue to spend your time trying to keep the lights on, to keep the status quo running? Or will you put the effort into innovation?鈥�

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鈥淭his why we say that businesses unusual is the new business as usual,鈥� says , chief business officer: EMEA at SAP. 鈥淎nd that is why we need to ensure our systems are future-proof.鈥�

Speaking at the 51风流Innovation Day in Johannesburg today, Fulle says technology should help the world to run better and improve people鈥檚 lives.

To do this, technology vendors like 51风流need to enable agility at scale, achieve more across the value chain, and ensure that sustainability is at the core of business.

Fulle points out that IDC research finds that 85% if enterprises will combine human expertise with AI to augment foresight across the organisation.

鈥淭his is becoming more important over time,鈥� he says. 鈥淎t 51风流we categories the three key requirement for I in business are being relevant, reliable and responsible.鈥�

He explains that this means 51风流is integrating AI in a way that is relevant for the 25 verticals that it operates across. Reliability is a function of data accuracy, and this has to be clean and reliable.

In terms of responsibility, 51风流works to deliver the highest levels of security and ethics across the suite.

is embedded across the portfolio, Fulle adds.

It starts with the copilot that understands the business. Beneath this are the embedded AI capabilities, in the applications including Cloud ERP , supply chain management, human capital management, spend management and business network, customer relationship management and the business technology platform. This is based on the AII Foundation that sits in the Business Technology Platform

The third level of the AI ecosystem partnership and investments with organisations such as , , , , , , and .

鈥淲e are developing more than 100 business capabilities every year,鈥� Fulle adds.

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This is the word from , Africa lead for data and AI at , speaking at the Womens鈥� Day event in Sandton today.

鈥淭he intention is not to take over the world, but to progress 鈥� closing divides and building on the shortcoming of the environments we live in,鈥� she says.

鈥淩obots are not going to take over, they are going to augment IT into our world; and we all need to be part of where it goes. We need to use them to bridge the divide to do more with less.鈥�

There are many opportunities for women to use AI in the modern world, James says.

Modern women can leverage the technology to empower their own personal growth and the growth of others, enrich lives, and build connections.

To empower personal growth, AI can enhance skills and learning. There are a multitude of tools that are freely available to help people gain new skills .

She cites the example of studying at university: just a couple of decades ago, this would have involved sitting in lecture halls and ploughing through a pile of books. Today, AI can help with curating and summarising volumes of information. In addition, smart students can use AI to test out theories and pick up mistakes or areas where skills are lacking.

鈥淪o we can short-circuit the journey from no knowledge to knowledge,鈥� James says.

鈥淪o make sure you are more deliberate around using keywords on digital platforms so you can personalise your learning journey.

鈥淎t the end of the day, it is about data, so garbage in, garbage out.鈥�

Not only has the world of skills changed 鈥� and the nature of work 鈥� but the way we conduct interviews has changed as well.

James advises that AI can help to create the right resume for the right position. 鈥淎nd there are also some great apps that help people enhance how you do an interview.鈥�

Work-life balance is a concept that many professional women battle with.

鈥淭he reality is that all of our lives are pretty chaotic. AI can help us advance abilities to manage some of the chaos.鈥�

AI is infused into a lot of productivity applications, James points out. These include simple things like scheduling, design ideas and more, with automated assistance available.

Apps are available to assist in wellness too, with machine learning helping people to manage their wellness journeys.

鈥淭hese tools help to reduce stress, and bring the chaos under control.鈥�

AI can really come into its own to help people build connections.

鈥淥ne of the more obvious areas is in removing barriers to language or physical impairments,鈥� James says. 鈥淭here are the obvious areas like call centres, but we can also use AI to increase our personal communication.鈥�

She cites an example of image analysis use from which uses cognitive services to pick up where potential war crimes, crimes against humanity, or crimes against women have occured.

鈥淭he opportunities are endless, help us to come together as communities, and bridge the digital divide.鈥�

James, however, cautions that AI needs to be managed properly and used responsibly.

鈥淩esponsible AI should be at the heart of everything that we do. AI could present a new level of bias and threats, so we all need to be vocal about addressing those.鈥�

There is still a long way to go in addressing bias, James adds. 鈥淏ut there are international communities that aim to review and manage bias. There are also tools available for corporates to remove bias from their systems. So we put the guard rails in place to make sure you are not using the technology for the wrong reasons.

鈥淭he fact that we are aware of the biases is a great start.鈥�

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Christian Klein, CEO of SAP, points out that the last year has showed us just how fragile many businesses and society can be.

鈥淲hat is clear is that the way we live, work and consume will never be the same again.鈥�

Technology has played a massive role in holding communities and families together, and helping businesses to adapt over the last year or more.

鈥淪ince the pandemic hit, 51风流has been working with customers across the globe,鈥� says Klein. 鈥淲hether helping to make supply chains more resilient, creating new business models, or enabling remote work 鈥� together we have made it happen.鈥�

He outlines three key insights that have been learned over the last year.

The first is that the most resilient companies were those that embraced technology to change their business processes.

鈥淏ut business transformation is a pretty overused term these days. Migrating to the cloud on its own doesn鈥檛 change a business process.

鈥淲hat Covid has underscored is the need for every company to become an intelligent enterprise.鈥�

Klein says intelligent enterprise are those that have the courage to leave traditional business models behind and change how their run their business. 鈥淭hey are enabled by integrated, agile business processes powered by data with embedded AI.鈥�

The second insight is that no business does business alone.

鈥淲e win together as a community,鈥� Klein says.

鈥淥ne intelligent enterprise on its own can achieve great things. But we live in an interconnected world. I have talked to many CEOs and it is clear that many of the issues last year came from global supply chains.

鈥淥ver 75% of all companies reported such disruptions as a result of Covid.

鈥淢any enterprises still manage complex relationships in their supply chain as static one-to-one connections. But Covid showed us how crucial it is to have realtime transparency across the supply chain.

鈥淭he real value comes from the network and the millions of interconnections it facilitates in realtime.

鈥淏ut no-one has yet done this for businesses doing businesses together,鈥� Klein explains. 鈥淭he next part of our strategy is to create the world鈥檚 largest and most comprehensive business network.

鈥淲e think business will be revolutionised when businesses turn into communities.鈥�

The third insight, and the one Klein believes is the most important for the future of the planet, is about sustainability.

鈥淲e must act now on sustainability. This is the decade during which we must act. We must build sustainability into the fabric of how we do business.

鈥淕iven the importance of supply chain and sustainability, the 51风流community has the power to save the planet to create future our children will be proud of,鈥� Klein says.

To enable this goal and operationalise sustainability as a core business process, 51风流has announced a portfolio of new sustainability-specific products. This includes the 51风流Responsible Design and Production solution to ensure product designers can make sustainable choices from initial product concepts to production; the 51风流Product Footprint Management solution to track sustainability through a product lifecycle; and the 51风流Sustainability Control Tower solution to provide end-to-end visibility.

Julia White, chief marketing and solutions officer and member of the executive board at SAP, believes that only 51风流can enable all the innovations needed to achieve the dream of an interconnected and sustainable intelligent enterprise.

The company has announced a number of new innovations to help customers transform business processes, drive improved performance and run their best.

They include:

*听Business process intelligence solutions now offer 51风流process insights 鈥撀�As part of the聽business process intelligence聽(BPI) portfolio, the 51风流Process Insights solution enables organizations to analyse and improve their real-world business processes.

* Verify, a New 51风流Concur feature, uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to simplify expense auditing 鈥� It also聽automatically identifies potential expense report issues and anomalies. The AI models are built from analysis of more than $1-trillion in spend and tens of millions of expenses and receipts. Verify can approve expense reports that have no issues while flagging anomalies for auditors to review. This AI-powered experience means auditors don鈥檛 waste time reviewing compliant expense reports, but can detect issues of compliance or fraud.

* 51风流Upscale Commerce is a no-code solution enabling direct-to-consumer engagement 鈥撀�Midmarket retailers can create an omnichannel shopping experiences in minutes. With built-in AI, retailers can provide personalised offerings based on a 360-degree view of their customer from social sentiment and purchase data. With a headless API architecture, retailers can provide customers real-time information about their purchase and delivery through any channel. 51风流Upscale Commerce is integrated with聽51风流S/4HANA聽to help ensure customer-facing experiences work with back-end finance, logistics and fulfilment systems to deliver a smooth customer experience

* A trio of new 51风流business technology platform capabilities surfaces insights from data 鈥撀�The聽51风流Analytics Cloud聽solution now offers聽operational workforce analytics and planning capabilities and integration with 51风流SuccessFactors solutions. These capabilities link operational, financial and people data to give organisations more comprehensive insights into their workforce. The new聽data marketplace for the 51风流Data Warehouse Cloud solution聽lets customers and partners connect to data providers across industries and lines of business to gain insights for better decision-making. 51风流is also expanding its low-code/no-code offering:聽51风流Intelligent Robotic Process Automation聽services can now capture and automate user interactions and integrate with 51风流Process Insights to identify high-impact automation opportunities.

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This is the message from Christian Klein, CEO of SAP, who explains that organisations can increase resilience, rise to challenges, and increase profitability.

鈥淲e can achieve sustainability by reducing waste and creating circular economies,鈥� he told delegates to the virtual SAPPHIRE NOWconference. 鈥淲e can make sustainability profitable and profitability sustainable.鈥�

The Covid-19 pandemic has shown us how helpless we can be when something unexpected hits us, Klein adds. 鈥淒igital transformation is no longer an option, but a must. When we can鈥檛 interact in person, we have to find other ways.鈥�

While business leaders across the world are worrying about whether their companies will survive, the more technologically advanced have a better chance of survival.

鈥淚f your business is not resilient, you have nothing,鈥� he stresses. 鈥淎fter that, you need to focus on profitability.鈥�

In the current world of coronavirus, Klein says it is more important than ever to set your company up for growth.

鈥淣ew technologies enable better customer experiences. They also allow for scale, and help to secure profitability.鈥�

While the focus right now is on health, safety and business continuity, a bigger challenge is climate change, he adds. 鈥淛ust as we cannot ignore the pandemic, we cannot ignore climate change.

鈥淚magine the impact if all industries join the fight to reduce carbon emissions,鈥� Klein points out. 鈥淭he current situation has shown us we can quickly drive change if we want to. So let鈥檚 seize the opportunity to build resilient, profitable and sustainable businesses.

鈥淲e all care about our business success, but we are also members of our communities, and should care about the world we leave behind.

鈥淲e are in the driver鈥檚 seat,鈥� Klein says.

Sustainability is good for business too, he adds. 鈥淭his is not just about the next generation, it is about customers and employees that choose companies that care about sustainability. Companies are selected not only on their performance but on their sustainability practices.

鈥淭he business values of a profitable business are clear: resilience, profitability, sustainability.

鈥淲e can help you achieve this.鈥�

Klein was previously the chief operating officer of 51风流and was responsible for the company鈥檚 own digital and sustainability transformation.

鈥淚 learnt that transformation will only be successful if there is leadership from the top,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e have been doing this ourselves for almost 50 years, and the 51风流product strategy enables us to deliver the right outcomes.

鈥淲e are an innovator and business partner. We have spent time with customers to understand requirements and challenges. As a result we have evolved our vision of the intelligent enterprise.鈥�

51风流is helping companies improve supply chain and industry-specific processes, connect through the business network and embed sustainability as a critical measure of business success.

鈥淚n uncertain times, companies need a trusted partner to help them make confident decisions to enhance agility and resiliency during and beyond the current Covid-19 crisis,鈥� says Thomas Saueressig, member of the executive board of 51风流for 51风流product engineering. 鈥淚n today鈥檚 hyperconnected world, it鈥檚 even more important for businesses to quickly react to environmental and market changes.

鈥淲e鈥檙e helping to address these challenges with new ways for customers to address sustainability, lead in their industry and grow their business networks. 51风流has the strategy, expertise, solutions and partner ecosystem to enable customers to run their business as an intelligent enterprise.鈥�

Other announcements included:

Climate 21

51风流announced the Climate 21 program to support customers in pursuing their climate-related objectives.

In a multiyear road map, 51风流will work with co-innovation partners to embed sustainability metrics across SAP鈥檚 solution portfolio. This will help customers understand, analyse and optimise the carbon footprint of their products and operations along the value chain.

The 51风流Product Carbon Footprint Analytics application is now available as the first solution in the Climate 21 program. The application uses data from 51风流S/4HANA and third-party sources and calculates this information within the 51风流Analytics Cloud solution.

This helps customers understand their carbon footprint and provides a foundation for analysing and optimising greenhouse gas emissions.

Industry Cloud

Intelligent enterprises strike the balance between optimising their current business models and innovating at the vertical edge to develop new revenue streams and growth potential using digital technologies.

51风流and its partners are offering industry cloud solutions that extend the end-to-end processes of SAP鈥檚 intelligent suite to help drive customer鈥檚 core business in their industries.

SAP鈥檚 industry cloud strategy will deliver innovative, vertical solutions from 51风流and its partners. These solutions will be built on technologies in the Business Technology Platform portfolio and use an open API framework, open process model, open domain model and common business services to create a better customer and user experience.

The interoperability with SAP鈥檚 intelligent suite will enable rapid development, deployment and integration.

Artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and other advanced technologies from 51风流will be available to help developers to accelerate development and deliver greater business value, enabling improved business practices and business innovation at the vertical edge.

Investment in Industry 4.0 across the supply chain

51风流innovations can help companies design and manufacture intelligent products and assets that can capture and analyse the increased tide of information from sensors across the supply chain. This enables customers to move Industry 4.0 from a factory-focused initiative to a company-wide business strategy.

With Industry 4.Now, 51风流will deliver innovations that companies need to create and capture a digital thread of these intelligent products and assets throughout their lifecycle to provide real-time insights back into the business processes, from design to operations.

With embedded analytics and predictive capabilities, this intelligence can empower people to make better business decisions and drive new business models and revenue streams.

Strategy for a unified business network

51风流announced a strategy to bring end-to-end visibility, increased efficiency and collaboration across the entire supply chain processes, including design, planning, sourcing, procurement, manufacturing, logistics and asset operations.

By creating a network of intelligent enterprises, 51风流can help companies digitalise multi-enterprise business processes for better visibility and collaboration across the supply chain ecosystem.

This initiative spans across SAP, using insights from real-time ERP, advanced analytics and successful networks solutions such as Ariba Network, 51风流Asset Intelligence Network, 51风流Logistics Business Network and 51风流Fieldglass solutions to deliver the collective intelligence through an open and interoperable business network.

With more than $3,3-trillion flowing through these business-to business powerhouses, 51风流will help enable sustainable and resilient supply chains, transform business models and provide the agility to safeguard against global disruptions.

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