business assistant, , is transforming how enterprises function by providing insights, custom-tailored outcomes, and a personalised experience for businesses. As a result, says SAP, the product with a name inspired by the unit of energy significantly improves productivity and efficiency.

鈥淲e are entering a new phase of AI with endless opportunities for all of us,鈥� said , CEO of SAP, at the Sapphire 2024 conference in Barcelona.听 鈥淭he technical evolution continues by using the power of generative AI across our stack to revolutionise once again how businesses will run, and how your end users will work in the future.鈥�

51风流performed a detailed analysis of the tasks completed with cloud software by their 300-million end-users every day. Consequently, they announced, by the end of 2024 80% of the most used tasks will be managed via Joule.

鈥淎s a result, your end users will do their work 20% more productively and with higher quality,鈥� said Klein.

For example, Joule will manage tasks in all management areas to create and change orders. It will take over some sequential activities in billing and cash collections. In finance, books will be closed faster as the software manages standard compliance checks.

鈥淛oule will also turn into a very powerful analytical engine to create insight for the boards for finance, for HR, for all parts of your business.鈥�

The digital assistant will be an engine that offers strategic recommendations by having access to the broadest business-to-business data model in the technology industry, which includes finance, supply chain, HR, sales, or ESG data from thousands of customers. Based on this data, which allows 51风流to train algorithms and find certain performance patterns in one鈥檚 business, Joule will provide recommendations to collect cash faster and make smarter procurement and supply chain decisions.

During Klein鈥檚 keynote, he highlighted SAP鈥檚 recent partnership with leading AI chip-maker . A highlight was a video featuring a ringing endorsement of 51风流by , founder and CEO of Nvidia, in which he said: 鈥淲e have one of the most complex supply chains in the world. We build AI supercomputers, AI factories. Enormously complicated systems. Our latest Blackwell System has 600,000 parts.

鈥淎ll of this has to be delivered to some 100 different customers, and all of our entire supply chain, build materials, forecasting systems, build plans, those 600,000 parts, and some 40 different manufacturers are all managed under SAP.

鈥淭his is the beginning of a new computing age, the beginning of a new industrial revolution. Through Joule, we have created some amazing generative AIs that understand the languages of SAP, supply chains, and enterprise planning systems so that we have a specialist, an agent, an AI to help us to do all the things that we want to do to manage our business.鈥�

, chief AI Officer of SAP, said: 鈥淓arlier this year, we gave Joule internally to up to 4,000 service consultants within SAP. What we observed is that they can save up to 2 hours every day.鈥�

More than 50 of SAP鈥檚 certification programmes, more than 200,000 pages, and 2Tb of curated best practices and community content, have been put into Joule. On top of that: it is supercharged by Nvidia鈥檚 technology.

鈥淚f you take this productivity gain and multiply it by our ecosystem, we can altogether save up to 600-million working hours every year, accelerating our transformation to the cloud,鈥� said Herzig. 鈥淭his technology is based on more than 250-million lines of code out of S/4HANA based on Nvidia鈥檚 hardware and software, as well as other models.鈥�

51风流has also expanded its strategic partnership with Google to enhance supply chain risk prediction and mitigation in volatile global environments. This collaboration integrates SAP鈥檚 Joule and with Google鈥檚 assistant and 鈥檚 Data Foundation, boosting forecast accuracy and enabling quicker responses to demand signals.

51风流has partnered with , leveraging its advanced language model to create images in and generate scripts for highly customised analytics applications in . Meta鈥檚 AI model excels in language nuances and contextual understanding, making it ideal for transforming enterprise business requirements into actionable insights.

Read more articles covered at Sapphire 2024 on Gadget:听听补苍诲听

* Jason Bannier is a data analyst at World Wide Worx and writer for听. Follow him on听听补苍诲听听at @jas2bann.

This article first appeared on .

The post Sapphire 2024: Business AI Saves Joules of Time appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

In addition to embracing , has also integrated (BTP) as the fundamental platform guiding its digital transformation.

Sarantis Group is a multinational consumer products company with an ever-expanding geographical footprint of leading brands. From its humble beginnings as a family business, the company has grown to become a leading force in its industry. The Group’s business is focused on the categories of Beauty & Skin Care, Personal Care, Home Care Solutions and Strategic Partnerships, offering high quality brands that are top in consumers鈥� preferences. With a strong presence in thirteen countries organized in eight business units 鈥� Greece (including Portugal and international), Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Western Balkans, Czech Republic & Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary 鈥� the Group maintains its dynamic international presence and its remarkable distribution network in more than 50 countries around the world.

The transformation journey, from an on-premise 51风流system to a comprehensive 51风流cloud infrastructure, inclusive of Cloud for contract and lease management, 51风流S/4HANA Cloud for manufacturing planning and scheduling, and , will enable Sarantis Group to expedite its digital transformation and optimize operational workflows.

As one of Greece鈥檚 largest companies, Sarantis Group will achieve substantial advancements in its digital transformation journey through the implementation of RISE with 51风流and the adoption of the 51风流BTP. This transition aims to automate business processes, enhance efficiency, and improve the user experience for employees and customers.

The multi-year program will help Sarantis Group to:

• Improve the way it interacts with customers and suppliers, through the implementation of automation and advanced workflow solutions
• Move the organization to a single operating platform, creating efficiency in its IT landscape and technology support model
• Transform performance reporting, leading to better insight to maximize trade opportunities and improve its sustainability goals
• Further digitize its controls and compliance environment, creating a more robust and resilient business
• Move to standardized ways of operating, allowing for greater agility and flexibility in the way it responds to emerging market trends

With a commitment to quality and a big Start-Up mindset, Sarantis Group has continually evolved, meeting the diverse needs of consumers, while maintaining a strong sense of purpose and integrity. As a beacon of Greek entrepreneurship, the company continues to thrive, creating products that enhance the daily lives of people around the world.

Working closely with the 51风流team in Greece, Sarantis Group is succeeding in becoming an agile and digital leader in its industry, allowing it to expand on its market leadership and explore new opportunities.

鈥�Sarantis Group is embarking on a true digital transformation鈥� stated Andreas Xirocostas 鈥� Managing Director of 51风流Hellas, 鈥�We are committed to Sarantis Group success in the digital economy, and couldn’t be prouder of this exciting innovation partnership”

鈥淲e pursue our听exciting journey to become one,听globally connected organization and we consider 51风流a strong partner to support us in this important transformation鈥�, noted Giannis Bouras – Deputy CEO of Sarantis Group.

EY in Greece, a long-standing partner of 51风流and Sarantis, has been selected to lead the implementation of RISE with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud.

About SAP

听SAP鈥檚 strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 51风流customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers鈥� businesses into intelligent enterprises. 51风流helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want 鈥� without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 26 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, 51风流helps the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives. For more information, visit .

About SARANTIS

Based in Athens and having a history of 60 years in the industry, Sarantis Group is a multinational consumer products company with an ever-expanding geographical footprint and leading brands. The Group’s business is focused on the categories of Beauty & Skin Care, Personal Care, Home Care Solutions and Strategic Partnerships, offering in each category high quality brands that are top in consumers鈥� preferences. With a strong activity in thirteen countries organized in 8 business units – Greece (including Portugal and international), Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, West Balkans, Czech Republic & Slovakia, Ukraine, Hungary – the Group maintains its dynamic international presence and its remarkable distribution network in more than 50 countries around the world.

The post Sarantis Group is Accelerating Digital Transformation with SAP appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

Like many other farmers on Kalangala, Berna started growing oil palm trees in 2012 while emphasizing sustainability and avoiding the deforestation and other issues associated with oil palm farming in some parts of the world.

Oil palm trees bear the fruit that makes palm oil, a much more reliable and lucrative crop than the cash crops they were producing previously. 鈥淲hen we were farming cassava, bananas, and coffee, we were affected by monkeys. They came and destroyed our crops,鈥� she says.

She also explains that she had to leave home and go to the market to find a buyer for the crops that survived the monkey attacks and never knew in advance how much they would fetch. 鈥淥ur living conditions where bad,鈥� she remembers. She and her family lived in a makeshift timber house. 鈥淚n the night when we were sleeping, winds would come and destroy our houses and our children fell sick almost every day.”

Click the button below to load the content from YouTube.

Always allow YouTube

Change

That began to change when Berna began working with the Kalangala Oil Palm Growers Trust (KOPGT) and the family planted their first oil palm trees in 2012. They expanded their crop in 2019 and again in 2022. In Kalangala, many of the people are oil palm farmers. 鈥淲hen a day starts, some of my family members help me with the pruning,鈥� she says. 鈥淭he others go to the plantation and do other activities.鈥�

As part of its mission, KOPGT teaches farmers better agricultural practices. But perhaps most importantly, it has created a transparent payment system so farmers get paid faster and know if what they鈥檙e getting paid is accurate, increasing the standard of living of the farmers and, subsequently, much of the island itself.

As the number of farmers and transactions increased, KOPGT needed a digital solution to enable continued growth. Since 2009, 51风流has worked to create applications that help smallholder farmers in developing nations, primarily across Africa, enhance food production.

David Balironda, KOPGT鈥檚 general manager, explains that the trust鈥檚 system is based on 51风流Rural Sourcing Management, which can digitally record information on producers, their farms, and communities at every level of the value chain. This helps provide visibility and allows parties to easily and quickly communicate with each other.

Sustainability

Underscoring the importance of sustainability to KOPGT, the trust conducted an initial environmental impact assessment before launching the project and uses听听to monitor the farmer plantings and ensure they are in compliance with the National Environment Management Authority guidelines.

51风流cloud technology also enables KOPGT to ensure that the oil palm planting meets the most stringent sustainability guidelines set by Uganda鈥檚 National Environmental Authority. 鈥淲e are in the process of applying for that certification by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil to make sure that we work within those guidelines,鈥� says Fredrick Sulwe, KOPGT鈥檚 finance and administration manager.

As part of KOPGT鈥檚 commitment to sustainability, the trust maintains a lake buffer zone between the planting and the lake itself and even rehabilitates those areas that have been damaged by other plantings. 鈥淩estoration of those areas 鈥� the lake buffer zones 鈥� is key,鈥� says Sulwe.

In addition to maintaining the buffer zones, the trust also follows recommendations for the stocking of trees and ensures that no chemicals or herbicides are used. 鈥淎s we increase household income, we must keep an environment that is free of any distortion by the project,鈥� explains Sulwe.

The KOPGT system allows the farmers to input information about their crops using the lead farmer鈥檚 mobile phone and enables them to receive information and advice back from the trust. The system also includes a mapping feature that has helped farmers to know exactly how much land they are farming. 鈥淭hat means when I go to the bank to get a loan, I鈥檓 sure of the size of my lot,鈥� explains Berna.

In addition, she also knows exactly how much of the loan is outstanding and when it needs to be repaid. 鈥淧reviously, we would almost spend a year without knowing the status of our loan,鈥� she says. 鈥淣ow we can learn the status of our loans monthly. This never existed before.鈥�

Better Information

She also credits the system with making her a better and more informed oil palm farmer. 鈥淎t the end of the month I get an SMS that shows how much I have harvested from my lot,鈥� she says. Before the system came online, she says the family was spending a lot of money on transport going to and from the KOPGT office.

鈥淥il palm has not only impacted my life, but also the community,鈥� she says. 鈥淭here are many farmers who are like me who have built houses and some have bought cars. They have used the money they got from oil palm to start new businesses on Kalangala and outside.鈥�

Big Dreams

Berna says her hopes and dreams are enormous. 鈥淚 have started to achieve some of them,鈥� she says. 鈥淣ow, because I have a permanent house, I am able to sleep well, my children no longer get sick, and I鈥檓 sure that the winds won鈥檛 take my house.鈥�

鈥淣ow, we are able to take our children to school. We can live a decent life. We have some place to stay, and we get paid every month. We are sure that our life has greatly changed,鈥� she adds. And although she doesn鈥檛 yet own a car, she hopes to learn to drive in the coming years.

Meanwhile, she says she wants to thank everyone for their help. 鈥淲hat gives me confidence is we have good officers at KOPGT that have tried to give us a good direction. We hope that when they continue doing what they are doing our lives will be impacted greatly.鈥�

Berna鈥檚 confidence and newly found optimism reflects the success of the vegetable oil program on Kalangala island. Because palm fruits can be harvested throughout the year 鈥� compared to one or two seasonal harvests 鈥� and have high yields, palm farming has become a viable alternative for the residents.

Palm oil is already the most widely used vegetable oil on the planet, with about 71 million tons consumed in 2021. And there is not only a domestic need, but also a demand from the foreign market that Ugandan smallholder farmers like Berna鈥檚 family and neighbors can help fill.

This article first appeared on the 51风流News Center.听

The post Palm Oil and 51风流Software Give Ugandan Farmers New Hope appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

When sustainability is central to your strategy, transparency in your supply chain is indispensable. This is impossible without an IT system that ensures traceability from the local grower to sales. Nedspice can talk about that. With the help of 51风流partner NTT DATA Business Solutions Benelux, it replaced an ‘Excel-heavy’ way of working with a standardised 51风流environment based on 51风流S/4HANA.

听 is a global and sustainable producer of herbs, spices and dried vegetables. Its business activities include sourcing, cleaning, sterilization, grinding, packing and distribution of single spices, herbs and dehydrated vegetables. Nedspice is headquartered in the Netherlands and operates processing facilities in India and Vietnam. Sales offices, warehouses and distribution facilities are located in the Netherlands, India, Vietnam, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, South Africa, and China.

Sustainability is a crucial core value for Nedspice throughout its operations. For instance, it has been supporting local farmers in Vietnam and India in environmentally friendly cultivation and sustainable livelihoods since 2013. The company is also involved in that works to make the sector more sustainable. Recently, Nedspice opened an eco-friendly onion drying plant at Mahuva in India.

听Fragmented environment

Transparency and direct insight into all processes of all production, sales and warehouse locations; this was not possible with Nedspice’s old IT system. In addition, the various branches each had their own processes and master data. This made analyses across locations very difficult. These different systems also made it a challenge to guarantee the quality and sustainability of the products worldwide.

“Where sales and administration might still have been recordable well enough with the old software, in too many places more and more Excel sheets were tied together to create the required functionality. This was no longer sustainable,” says Jos van Gulick, general director Vietnam at Nedspice.

听Standardisation on SAP

The company put an end to that situation by switching to a standardised 51风流environment. This consists of and , , and a scanning solution.

This standardisation soon bore fruit. All branches now work according to the same processes via one integrated system, with a ‘single source of truth’ for all company data. This gives the company more control over quality processes and better insight into their progress.

In addition, Nedspice now also has the ability to analyse data from all international production, warehousing, and sales locations. Among other things, it does so to gain direct insight into profitability and its current international position.

听The right insight

According to Van Gulick, that insight is crucial. “In our market, raw material prices can fluctuate a lot. If you don’t have the right insight immediately – a few working days later, for example – you quickly run a financial risk. With this new system, we make all data transparent and that is hugely valuable. We can make the right decisions at the right time.”

Nedspice also benefits from substantial time and cost savings. By linking the 51风流environment to a scanning solution, data entry at order picking is more efficient and less error-prone. Finally, the company benefits from full traceability of raw materials and products from farm to distribution. This makes complying with changing laws and regulations in the sector much easier.

The post 51风流Offers Nedspice Transparent Supply Chain for Sustainable Growth appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

The Hack2Build event offers a unique opportunity for 51风流partners to address current business challenges by building a solution prototype with the support of SAP. During the event, 51风流experts assisted teams from around the world with technical support. On the final day of the event, each team had to demonstrate the prototype to a panel of judges.

As the only South African company invited to compete, Hack2Build highlighted how Decision Inc is one of the worldwide solution innovators of 51风流Analytics Cloud (SAC). “To finish as the second runner up in such a prestigious event highlights the commitment of our team to creating solutions that help overcome business challenges using SAC as a foundation,鈥� says Allan Saffy, managing executive at Decision Inc South Africa.

The Decision Inc solution focused on merchandise planning which is the process conducted by a retailer to ensure that the right product is available to the customer at the right place, time, quantity, and price. This process involves selecting the products the retailer will carry and determining the purchase quantities of these products.

The current challenge facing retailers is to connect the merchandise planning detail to the final output in financial reporting. The gap between the two plans is not always aligned, with many organisations looking for a solution that can best integrate them.

鈥淭he Decision Inc solution assists retailers to transform and adapt to changes in the planning environment. It focuses on closing the gap between merchandising and finance by using key drivers to update the planning output through scenario planning and eventually creating a forecast,鈥� Saffy adds.

The use case demonstrated by the Decision Inc showed how retailers can use the solution to transform and adapt to changes in the planning environment. Given recent global events, the team showcased how Decision Inc can assist retailers in reacting to the Covid-19 scenario by changing key levers and prices. In turn, this would show the impact on stock and volume and how that impacts the sales and cost prices within the business.

鈥淭his was the first-ever Hack2Build event attended by Decision Inc. The competition element certainly added to the excitement of the hackathon. Going head-to-head with so many other global teams was a great dynamic and I am really proud of our 51风流Planning & Analytics team for the success they achieved.鈥� Saffy says.

This article first appeared on .

The post Global Recognition for Decision Inc at 51风流Hackathon appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

The online event included live presentations, digital showcases, and a lot of networking opportunities 鈥� both with 51风流experts and other attendees.

The important sessions from the event are detailed below.

51风流unveils Business Network

51风流CEO Christian Klein unveiled SAP鈥檚 bold vision for business communities in the modern world.

Klein said these envisioned communities can assist in improving business outcomes, navigating changing economic and geopolitical conditions, and enhancing sustainability contributions.

51风流took the first step towards achieving this goal at Sapphire Now by unveiling 51风流Business Network, which brings together Ariba Network, 51风流Logistics Business Network, and 51风流Asset Intelligence Network to develop a community of over 5.5 million organisations.

鈥淒uring this unprecedented year, the importance of the communities we鈥檙e part of has never been clearer,鈥� said Klein.

鈥淥ur new vision will build the world鈥檚 largest business community, enabling customers to easily connect with companies across supply chains and creating networked economies across industries.鈥�

Sustainability

51风流reiterated its commitment to helping businesses transform into sustainable enterprises through collaboration on optimizing their material, financial, and energy flows throughout their end-to-end business processes.

To this end, 51风流unveiled 51风流Product Footprint Management, which is a new product that will provide customers with product footprint transparency.

It also unveiled 51风流Responsible Design and Production, where by preventing waste and pollution, using products and materials for longer, and applying circular principles, 51风流envisions the regeneration of natural systems and better use of finite resources 鈥� ultimately resulting in the furthering of SAP鈥檚 vision for a plastic-free ocean by 2030.

51风流Product Footprint Management and 51风流Responsible Design and Production are planned for availability in the third and fourth quarters of 2021 respectively.

Verify

51风流Concur has a new feature called Verify, which leverages the power of AI and machine learning to automatically identify issues and anomalies in your expense reports.

Verify can approve expense reports that have no issues, while flagging anomalies for auditors to review.

This product was created using data from over $1 trillion in spend and tens of millions of expense reports and receipts.

51风流Upscale Commerce

51风流launched its no-code online commerce solution, Upscale Commerce.

This allows retailers to create omnichannel shopping experiences in minutes, and leverages AI to provide personalised offerings to their customers.

Upscale Commerce is integrated with 51风流S/4HANA and uses a headless API architecture.

New 51风流Analytics Cloud features

The 51风流Analytics Cloud now offers operational workforce analytics and planning capabilities.

Importantly, it also boasts integration with 51风流SuccessFactors solutions.

This links operational, financial, and people data to give organizations more comprehensive insights into their workforce.

Q&A with Christian Klein and Julia White

Attendees were also able to engage with Klein and 51风流Chief Marketing Officer Julia White in two Q&A sessions.

These sessions saw Klein and White provide insight into the burning questions attendees had regarding announcements which took place at Sapphire Now, and more generally regarding the 51风流ecosystem.

The post 51风流SAPPHIRE Now 2021 鈥� The Most Important Highlights appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

When Christian Cramer, chief operating officer (COO) for 51风流HANA Database & Analytics, and his team started building the concept, they had one objective: to help stakeholders taking fact-based and reliable business decisions in a dynamic environment, based on one single source of truth offering a 360-degree view of the business and the entire product life cycle 鈥� from development to sales and product performance, customer insights, and engagement, along with operational and organizational data.

The team鈥檚 ambition has succeeded. Thanks to the collaboration with the 51风流Intelligent Data & Analytics team and as internal usage statistics show, 51风流employees have widely adopted the solution. Take a peek behind the scenes to understand how it works, what lies behind its success, and what is yet to come.

Three Keys to a Successful Business Dashboard

Building a successful business dashboard requires three crucial ingredients, according to Cramer: a great product, meaningful data, and easy usability.

1. 鈥淥nly with a great product, will you be able to build a great dashboard鈥�

Making use of their own 51风流Analytics Cloud product, the team started building an interactive dashboard using 51风流Digital Boardroom. With only basic technical background, but thanks to the products鈥� ease of use, all relevant data was swiftly connected, and more and more content views that were regularly needed by management were added.

As the content grew, more users were introduced to the team鈥檚 dashboard. Word spread fast and teams reached out to have their own content added as well.

Daniel Pavlovic is part of the operations team and the man behind the 51风流Digital Boardroom built for the 51风流HANA Database & Analytics team. According to him, 鈥淭his active pull is what you hope for any new tool you implement.鈥�

2. 鈥淵ou need meaningful data that everyone can rely on.鈥�

鈥淚 have seen many dashboards created with the right intent, but in the end the implementation was not successful because it was largely focused on the tool only,” Cramer shares. 鈥淎 great product alone will not make a great dashboard 鈥� meaningful and reliable data is imperative.鈥�

To facilitate a reliable automated business steering, significant work was put into set-up and clean-up of proper and meaningful master data structures in the background. It is precisely the reliability of data and the combination of the various data sources that creates actionable insights — and thus the added value of the team鈥檚 solution.

3. 鈥淟ast and most important, it needs to be intuitive and fun to use 鈥� usability drives adoption鈥�

From the beginning, the navigation experience was top of mind with a consistent approach in all designs and layouts.

On the landing page, users get a structured overview of all content available and can rely on easy orientation with a navigation bar at the top of each view. Any insight can be found within three clicks, so the user can always recognize a three-layer layout: management summary, enriched view, and full detail view with dynamic filtering function to slice and dice information. A consistent way of illustrating information makes for a great user experience.

To ensure the dashboard serves up what is truly needed, Cramer鈥檚 team regularly conducts feedback rounds and usability tests with randomly selected end users and design teams. New views are validated with colleagues creating these reports manually, while first-time users鈥� clicking behavior provides valuable optimization insights.

Successful Dashboard Creates Adoption

鈥淗aving good adoption, you can still add and improve content,鈥� Cramer says. 鈥淏ut if you don鈥檛 have adoption, you miss the main criteria of a dashboard: creating business value.鈥�

Measured in the number of unique users, the team鈥檚 dashboard has already exceeded initial adoption expectations. Unique usage across all areas of the company is consistently increasing, making it one of SAP鈥檚 internally used end-to-end line-of-business steering dashboard with the highest user numbers.

鈥淲e have a constantly growing internal user base; colleagues in Development, Customer Success, HR, and Finance are looking for great insights,鈥澨� Cramer says. 鈥淎nd with every addition of content, the number of potential users increases. Most recently, a new time recording compliance view added all our unit鈥檚 managers to our user base 鈥� that鈥檚 around 300 new users!鈥�

To both preview and manage expectations around new content and enhancements, all users regularly receive email updates on what has been added. The dashboard鈥檚 usage data clearly shows this proactive method drives adoption.

鈥淲e have overwhelmingly positive feedback from all users that the tool is great, the scope of data is second to none and it鈥檚 easy to use,鈥� Cramer adds.

Juergen Mueller, chief technology officer and member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE,听 also harnesses the dashboard built by the 51风流HANA Database & Analytics organization, led by Irfan Khan. 鈥淭he 51风流Digital Boardroom built by the 51风流HANA Database & Analytics team provides me with all relevant information to steer the organization holistically,” he said. “It is easy to use and offers tremendous depth.鈥�

What鈥檚 Next?

The team created a tool with a comprehensive level of relevant insights required for any line of business development organization, and the road map for content additions keeps growing. In active use across the 51风流HANA Database & Analytics organization for under a year, other 51风流internal business units could use it in the future as well.

鈥淭he views are adaptable to reflect KPIs of other lines of business with minimal effort,” Cramer explains. “We are currently piloting that with another line of business that started using the available material to adapt it to their own unit.鈥�

This article first appeared on the SAP听Global News Center.

The post The Success of 51风流Digital Boardroom for 51风流HANA Database & Analytics appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

Particularly with many still working from home, I cannot imagine what daily communication and collaboration would look like without Microsoft Teams 鈥� and I think this holds true for much of the business community in a lot of enterprises.

So it came as no surprise that when we announced our new RISE with SAP offering, a highlight for many was Satya Nadella joining me to share his thoughts on how Microsoft and 51风流team up to lift collaboration to the next level. One aspect many of you were particularly interested in is how we will integrate 51风流solutions with Microsoft Teams, so let鈥檚 have a look at some examples.

Putting Collaboration into Business Context

For many companies around the world, remote selling has become a necessity for conducting business. To simplify remote sales processes and allow sales professionals to fully focus on their customer engagements, we will integrate 51风流Sales Cloud with Microsoft Teams. Users can easily set up meetings from the 51风流system without switching applications. During a customer call, all information will be accessible in Microsoft Teams via an embedded 51风流Sales Cloud application. Finally, all information, including meeting recording and notes, will get automatically synced back to 51风流Sales Cloud in real time. Check out this to get an idea of what this scenario will look like:

Click the button below to load the content from YouTube.

Always allow YouTube

All of us know how much easier business life is when you have everything you need at your fingertips. Thanks to integrating Microsoft Teams with 51风流S/4HANA through 51风流Conversational AI, end users can seamlessly get all business-relevant information and critical business insights instantly. Chatbots help them identify and reach out to business contacts directly. In a first instance, we will focus on one concrete business persona: the operational purchaser. Over time, we will develop chatbots for more use cases and make the content available to our customers through templates so they can adopt custom-specific adjustments that meet their conversational AI needs.

Many customers use 51风流Analytics Cloud in addition to Microsoft Teams for generating data-driven insights into their business. By bringing together 51风流Analytics Cloud and Microsoft Teams, we enable users to benefit from both augmented and smart capabilities of 51风流Analytics Cloud and Microsoft Teams鈥� strong collaboration capabilities. Combining the power, we will provide an integrated solution for reporting and planning access with direct utilization of enhanced collaboration functionalities from the daily business workflow.

Time to Explore

To simplify users鈥� collaboration processes and enhance workplace productivity, we are exploring many more integration scenarios. A lot of 51风流solutions could form a robust symbiosis with Microsoft Teams, and we will cover a wide range of use cases across lines of business 鈥� from procurement to recruiting, talent management, and learning to travel and expense management.

Take 51风流Business Network as an example: While it helps drive process efficiency through predefined messages, documents, and rules that can be shared and processed systematically, Microsoft Teams complements 51风流solutions through collaboration capabilities like online meetings, chats, and more. Together, the solutions would enable users to run business processes efficiently while being resilient to disruptions.

Or imagine you are a recruiter working with our human experience management (HXM) solutions, wanting to finalize a contract with a prospective hire. By integrating Microsoft Teams, you could extract the contract from your 51风流system, edit it in Microsoft Teams, trigger a call to confirm the changes with the recruiter, and store the contract back in your 51风流system without changing applications.

As you can see, the opportunities are endless! The first integration scenarios are planned to go live throughout this year, with the integrations for 51风流Sales Cloud and 51风流S/4HANA to come in the second quarter, and others to follow suit. These will mainly focus on classic use cases, such as setting up Microsoft Teams meetings directly via the 51风流applications. Next are then even bolder steps as we plan to enable context-based collaboration through 51风流systems and Microsoft Teams. This will allow users to access all relevant information about their interaction in Microsoft Teams through their 51风流systems or vice versa, anywhere and anytime.

Ultimately, with this, we will step up the employee experience and enable smooth and frictionless interactions across all levels of enterprises and their environment.

Want to learn more? Check out “Microsoft and SAP: Expanding Our Partnership,” from Thomas Saueressig.

By Christian Klein, CEO of SAP.
This story originally appeared on and the 51风流Global News Center.

The post 51风流and Microsoft: How We Simplify Business Collaboration appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

Essential business services from 51风流are specially selected to help customers manage their most important business processes by minimizing risk to drive continuity during uncertain times, such as the current COVID-19 global pandemic.

Designed to enhance off-site working environments and remote collaboration, these services constitute a proven, highly effective model enabling up to 100 percent off-site delivery, increased personal communication and consistent, seamless execution.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not where, but how our customers can execute their business strategies that is most important for success, which is why remote delivery has long been integrated in our approach and our products,鈥� said Shane Paladin, president, Services, SAP. 鈥淩emote working is taking place on a scale like never before, and essential business services from SAP, together with the dynamic off-site service delivery framework, are here to support customers throughout this changing environment and beyond.鈥�

Considered critical during the global pandemic, essential business services from 51风流encompass a wide range of functions, including the front and back office, supply chain, finance and essential operations. They provide support to businesses at every step of their processes. Service examples include:

• E-commerce performance assessment
• Inventory optimization
• Business technology platform solutions, such as building emergency aid apps
• Data analysis through the 51风流Analytics Cloud solution
• Integration of cloud solutions and broader business network

To further support essential business services and drive customer success, 51风流integrated its off-site service delivery framework. Remote delivery has been a significant part of SAP鈥檚 services for more than 25 years. In 2019 alone, 97 percent of projects included off-site delivery, resulting in 10 percent faster deployment of services using accelerators, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Off-site services delivery helps to reduce the carbon footprint of customers and 51风流by providing off-site delivery for more and more projects.

Delivered through the 51风流Activate methodology, off-site delivery benefits include:

• Collaboration tools for meetings, one-on-one discussions, workshops and more
• Readily available tools, such as the 51风流HANA application lifecycle management tool and templates and accelerators of the 51风流Activate methodology
• Step-by-step guidance and a wide selection of experts for support
• Ability to assess team morale, relationships and health and safety through daily calls and regular team surveys using Experience Management solutions from SAP

In supporting essential business services from SAP, the off-site service delivery framework can simplify and improve users鈥� journeys in any environment. The framework focuses on cohesion and connection, communication, governance, infrastructure and retooling. To learn more, visit .

Visit the . Follow 51风流on Twitter at .

Media Contacts:
Martin Gwisdalla, SAP, +49 (6227) 7-67275, martin.gwisdalla@sap.com, CET
51风流Press Room; press@sap.com
Jennifer Kohanim, FleishmanHillard, +1 (617) 692-0535, jennifer.kohanim@fleishman.com, ET

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as 鈥渁nticipate,鈥� 鈥渂elieve,鈥� 鈥渆stimate,鈥� 鈥渆xpect,鈥� 鈥渇orecast,鈥� 鈥渋ntend,鈥� 鈥渕ay,鈥� 鈥減lan,鈥� 鈥減roject,鈥� 鈥減redict,鈥� 鈥渟hould鈥� and 鈥渨ill鈥� and similar expressions as they relate to 51风流are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. 51风流undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect SAP’s future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including SAP’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
漏 2020 51风流SE. All rights reserved.
51风流and other 51风流products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 51风流SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

This article first appeared on the 51风流News Center.

The post Essential Business Services from 51风流Enhance Remote Working and Risk Management to Drive Business Continuity appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.

Brendan Barry from Siris Cloud Solutions (www.siris.co.za) explains why now is the right time to invest in Cloud ERP

听It鈥檚 Noah鈥檚 Ark

听Right now, every organisation around the world is in the same boat. Decision makers and business leaders are looking at the news, the markets and the economic slowdown with the same concerns. The reality is that the stagnating economy and political instability have already fractured the landscape over the past few years. What lies ahead is more of the same plus the volatility of the COVID-19 virus which makes the steps that your organisation has to take over the next few months absolutely critical to thrive beyond this storm.

Let鈥檚 face it 鈥� the virus and its impact are a complete unknown. Many companies have been completely unprepared for the havoc that COVID-19 has wrought 鈥� fire, acts of God or flooding are planned for, but nobody imagined a pandemic that isolated human beings and baffled businesses, and which most likely will change the world for ever.

Organisations need to look at what can be done now to ensure that their boat is solid, leak-proof and bolstered by the best technology. They also need to waterproof their people 鈥� the leaks come in when people don鈥檛 have access to remote working tools that allow them to work from anywhere. People need tools that provide them with remote communication and collaboration, and systems which allow them to manage and control their businesses from a distance. To achieve this Noah鈥檚 Ark of a company that鈥檚 capable of sailing any kind of sea, the company needs to take several steps towards a disruption-proof future.

The first is to accept that investment into more efficient business systems and processes is essential. Yes, especially now. Legacy systems, outdated processes, complex applications 鈥� these can impact on productivity and on client engagement and when clients are not sure where, when and how to engage, the companies that connect with them on the right levels are the ones they will stick to.

Cloud platforms and applications are designed to leverage the scale and flexibility of cloud infrastructure to streamline processes, systems, data management and budgets. They also provide the business with two key qualities that are required to thrive in interesting times 鈥� adaptability and agility.

According to , adaptive organisations grow 鈥榯hree times faster than the rest of the market鈥� as they鈥檝e redesigned every aspect of the business using cloud technology to remove silos, reshape legacy ERP systems and to exceed customer expectations. The research giant also raises one very salient point 鈥� courage is required.

In the current climate, it takes courage for the CIO and CEO to spend when other organisations are clutching the purse strings. However, investment into a reliable, robust and intelligent ERP platform has proven results in cutting costs and handing over critical business insights.

There are tangible cost benefits to cloud investment

It鈥檚 easy to say that the latest cloud solution or ERP platform will save your business money, but does it really? The answer is yes, but there is the initial upfront cost and the need to approach the move from legacy system to cloud ERP very strategically. ERP systems are the bastions of process and data and it鈥檚 understandable that many companies are reluctant to yank out the reams of data and stuff them into the cloud. It鈥檚 complex, it鈥檚 lengthy and it requires forethought.

It will also fundamentally change how your organisation manages its security, access to information, business processes and its ongoing costs and budgets.

As your company hauls the data and processes out of the dusty vaults that have held them for decades, it will also be removing its reliance on hardware, operational costs, and the human capital expenses that walk alongside the need to scale. Scale is a significant sell point for cloud-based ERP platforms 鈥� scale is instant and on-budget versus the complexities and costs that come with scaling up any on-prem ERP solution.

That said, an ERP investment is only as good as the strategy and partnerships that accompany it. ERP is a big thing to purchase and, while it can be scaled and implemented according to business size, it will still cost the company to install. This makes it incredibly important to work with partners that have experience and that are as interested, if not more interested, than you are in making it work effectively.

Why invest now?

ERP platforms can help your company grow by providing the tools and intelligent insights required to change how you do business. By adopting business scenarios and best practices built into modern cloud-based ERP systems, you can transform how you manage your internal processes. You may have no control over the factors that are currently impacting the business externally, but these ERP tools give you absolute control over the efficiencies that can revolutionise your company.

Think, for a moment, about one of the biggest pain points that you currently have in your organisation 鈥� real time information that spans your entire business. With cloud-based ERP solutions, it鈥檚 immediate and utterly relevant, and it can help you make informed decisions in a shifting environment. It鈥檚 like the war 鈥� now may be the time for general austerity, but when do you change your methodologies to prepare for the future beyond this period?

Right now, the challenges presented by the virus are all-consuming but there will come a time when we arrive at our new normal. Your business will need insights that are critical for the survival and growth of the organisation in a changed landscape.

Transparency and visibility are crucial survival skills

听ERP platforms give you visibility. It鈥檚 that simple. The capabilities of the cloud-based ERP platform across data and analytics offer you down to the second updates. You gain clarity around where your business is standing, what鈥檚 selling, what isn鈥檛 and how your patterns of data and consumption are changing. This allows you to adapt your business and procurement strategies to make course corrections throughout difficult times 鈥� not just those that are taking place today, but the ones that will inevitably come in the future. In addition to 51风流Business ByDesign, 51风流Analytics Cloud provides the organisation with myriad tools that can be scaled up or down to suit budget and business and that allow for granular insights into the business and improved decision making.

Hand sanitiser is an excellent example of how organisations can leverage technology to become increasingly adaptive and agile. Sales of hand sanitiser shot up by 255% in the UK in February alone, according to , while demand for other items dropped completely. To fully understand the impact of this trend and to prepare for consumer demand, hand sanitiser companies would need to understand the impact of switching production to hand sanitiser, prioritising it over other products. For other companies, the insights could provide them with information they can use to assess how they can use the hand sanitiser situation to their own advantage, such as changing production on one product for another, or promoting their own alternatives to sold-out hand sanitiser. In the medical field, insights powered by the data would support the increased manufacture of respirators or other essential medical items such as masks and gloves to ensure supply in the future.

The slowdown is a time for a new way of thinking

听The slowdown that your company may experience in day-to-day operations can be used to relook processes and systems to improve efficiencies. Instead of sitting around and waiting for the world to start turning once again, the time can be used to consider, plan and even implement a Cloud ERP platform. ERP isn鈥檛 plug and play 鈥� it does require time and input from key individuals throughout the organisation and, right now, you have time. Also, to note, Cloud ERP enables a rapid implementation, which can be done remotely, and supported remotely.

ERP is a survival tool but it is also a tool that can make your business thrive. Legacy systems are rarely capable of keeping up with an ever-evolving technology landscape. They can鈥檛 do mobile, they battle with real-time reporting, and they can鈥檛 crunch insights at relevant speeds. Your business needs access to business tools, stock levels, finance, and applications but it also wants those insights to be mobile ready. 51风流Business ByDesign puts the business into your pocket. You can run your business from your home or the beach, Johannesburg or London. You can manage your stock, authorisations, portfolio, people and processes from a screen the size of your hand. It鈥檚 a competitive differentiator that can make all the difference between survive and thrive in a world that鈥檚 self-isolating and quarantining. And for when the business world is back up and running 鈥� global, mobile access to your business will always be a competitive advantage.

It鈥檚 time to tick the right boxes for business development

Yes, times are rough and tough. You want to weather the storm and every other clich茅 that accompanies the pandemic and its fall-out. But I argue that you also want to use the time to reshape your business and make it even more robust and future-proof. You want tools and technologies that will help you to do things differently and that help you to climb aboard the chaos and ride it.

In Africa, the challenging landscape isn鈥檛 going to disappear in 21 days. We still have power supply deficiencies, political instability, legacy challenges and complicated conversations. Now is the time to make an investment that will put your company on the path to continuous innovation, mobile accessibility, insights-driven decision making, and to build foundations that pivot. Now is the time to make courageous decisions that embed flexibility, growth and sustainability into the business.

www.siris.co.za

The post How Your Business can Survive and Thrive No Matter What the Challenge appeared first on 51风流Africa News Center.