Before diving into the heart of the keynote, Steinhaeuser invited 51风流solution area CMOs to deliver lightning-fast recaps of news from the various 51风流Connect event tracks. In just under two minutes each, they covered finance, procurement, supply chain, HR, and customer experience. From autonomous accounting and next-gen procurement to AI-driven talent acquisition and smarter customer loyalty, the message was clear: across every business function.

The real challenge: connecting priorities

As Steinhaeuser pointed out, 鈥淭he reality is each business area has its own unique priorities and, of course, all-important urgent matters.鈥� The real challenge is not just launching new features; it鈥檚 aligning processes, data, and teams to conquer uncertainty and achieve true customer focus. 鈥淪imply putting an [AI] agent on top of a broken process will solve nothing,鈥� he said.

The flywheel: AI, data, and apps in motion at SAP

So, how does it all work together? Enter the 鈥渇lywheel鈥� model: the dynamic cycle of AI, data, and applications that drives synergy across the enterprise. This is not just a theoretical approach. Steinhaeuser showed how 鈥�51风流runs SAP鈥� using the flywheel model.

First, he said, 51风流uses 鈥渞ole-based AI assistants, powered by specialized agents, [to] support team members across all areas of SAP.鈥�

Next comes data. Earlier this year, 51风流became 鈥渃ustomer zero鈥� for (51风流BDC), connecting all enterprise data in a single layer to generate faster and better insights across financial, workforce, and sales planning. 鈥淲e’re excited to go live with the first set of intelligent apps, starting with People Intelligence,鈥� he added.

Finally, the app layer: 51风流has moved from 51风流ERP Central Component (51风流ECC) to and , through RISE with SAP. 鈥淭he 51风流Business Suite is where data is created and where AI delivers impact,鈥� Steinhaeuser said.

But processes continuously evolve with AI, he said, noting that business transformation management, powered by solutions like and , helps 51风流and its customers continually improve processes and architecture, with AI embedded everywhere. The company also uses to ensure employees stay informed and engaged at every step.

鈥淒riving SAP’s own transformation, I understand the challenges you face,鈥� Steinhaeuser said. 鈥淚 am convinced leveraging the flywheel of AI, data, and apps across the entire 51风流Business Suite is how we win together.鈥�

Embedded AI: tangible value, secure, and seamless

Brenda Bown, chief marketing officer of Business AI at SAP, took the stage to highlight how business AI is showing up in day-to-day work. 鈥淚’ve heard three consistent themes in conversations [with customers]: first, you want AI that can provide tangible value; second, that is secure and properly governed; and third, that works seamlessly across your teams and business. We’re here to deliver just that,鈥� she said.

Joule is now embedded in use cases in trusted 51风流applications and is making work faster and easier across the enterprise. 鈥淏y the end of this year, we will have more than 400 of these AI use cases,鈥� Bown said. Joule Agents automate tasks across departments, and the new agent builder in (generally available in December) helps customers extend, build, or customize their own agents. 51风流LeanIX AI Agent Hub and agent mining capabilities in 51风流Signavio provide governance and transparency for AI agents.

Bown noted that customers like Matur Fompack are using Joule in 51风流SuccessFactors to hire faster and improve career development. 鈥淭he results are phenomenal: a 48 percent reduction in HR process execution time and 40 percent faster employee development and career planning, and, most importantly, a better employee and candidate experience,鈥� she said.

For processes that require multi-step workflows and nuanced decisions, 51风流introduced a new generation of role-based AI assistants. 鈥淭hey know your role in the organization, because they are role and context aware,鈥� Bown said. These assistants tap into the right agents for the job, removing any guesswork and helping humans unlock new levels of insight and productivity.

She also showcased how agents collaborate across departments, automate workflows, and even extend SAP鈥檚 business logic to autonomous devices like robots. Early pilots with partners like NEURA Robotics are already showing Joule Agents planning and executing real work in the real world.

Data and intelligent applications: unified and actionable

Data is only valuable when it is actionable. Irfan Khan, president and chief product officer for 51风流Data and Analytics, highlighted 51风流BDC, which unifies enterprise data and powers intelligent applications. 鈥�51风流BDC offers the most powerful foundation for connecting your existing data, building next-generation applications, and the ability to foster and deploy reliable AI,鈥� he said. And the new 51风流Business Data Cloud Connect solution enables secure, bi-directional data sharing with partners like Databricks and Google Cloud.

Intelligent applications bridge the gap between people and AI. They support smarter decisions and collaboration. 鈥淭hese applications learn from your data and include business simulations to support every business leader with smarter decisions,鈥� Khan explained. 鈥淚f we don’t have a reliable data foundation built around trust, having reliable and resilient data, it becomes very debatable whether or not AI will succeed.鈥�

From insight to action: transformation in practice

How do organizations turn strategy into action? Michael Ameling, president of 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP), demonstrated how 51风流Business Suite helps drive innovation by uniting core applications, data, and AI, all powered by 51风流BTP and Business Transformation Management solutions. 鈥淟et’s say you want to understand and improve a business process,鈥� he said. 鈥�51风流Signavio lets you dive deep and understand every detail, and can suggest concrete actions. Then, use those insights to improve the process in 51风流Build by automating processes and building your own agents.鈥�

He demonstrated how 51风流BTP and the Business Transformation Management portfolio can help organizations connect systems, gain visibility, and automate processes. Tools including 51风流Signavio, 51风流Build, and 51风流Integration Suite are helping customers like Blue Diamond Growers streamline operations and accelerate transformation.

Services and support: accelerating innovation and realizing value

SAP鈥檚 Anja Schneider, SVP and global head of Premium Engagement and Advisory, wrapped up this segment of the keynote by focusing on how the company鈥檚 services and support teams help customers realize the full value of their 51风流investments.

鈥淲e鈥檙e with you every step, like a personal trainer,鈥� she said, highlighting how SAP鈥檚 suite methodology, integrated tools like WalkMe and 51风流Cloud ALM, and expert guidance help customers realize the full value of their 51风流investments. She pointed to IBM鈥檚 transformation project as proof: working with 51风流MaxAttention teams and a clean core approach, upgrades went smoothly with low incidents for more than 150,000 users across 175 geographies.

Customer perspective: Southern California Edison鈥檚 journey

Real-world impact matters. Southern California Edison (SCE) SVP and CIO Todd Inlander shared how the utility company鈥檚 transformation journey with 51风流is helping modernize its foundational systems and optimize back-office processes. Facing unprecedented demand and environmental challenges, the company is leveraging 51风流solutions, including 51风流Business AI capabilities, to transform its operations.

鈥淲e need to adhere to our mission: to deploy safe, reliable, affordable power,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e can’t do that by doing things the way we’ve always done. We have to incorporate SAP. We’re using it to transform the way we work in our environment. We need to leverage AI because we don’t have enough humans to do all the work. We have to scale.鈥�

As SCE deploys 51风流Business Suite over the next year, it鈥檚 focusing on keeping a clean core and reducing customizations. 鈥淲hen we implemented ECC 15 years ago, about 66 percent of our enhancements were never used. We’re learning from that experience,鈥� Inlander said. He went on to note that SCE will use the 51风流deployment time to continue to transform its back-office operations. 鈥淲e’ll be integrating Joule and other AI solutions because doing things the way we’ve always done them and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity.鈥�

Steinhaeuser closed the keynote with a look to the future: 鈥淲e鈥檝e made great progress across all lines of business to deliver a unique experience for you鈥攚ith AI becoming your personal assistant, powered by data that defies boundaries and applications that take insight to action. The cross-capabilities you just saw now make the flywheel spin.鈥�

The future is here, and is powered by the synergy of AI, data, and applications. Every business can turn innovation into impact.

ROP is a disease that affects premature babies and impacts India significantly, since the country has more than born premature every year, the highest number in the world. 鈥淎bout 25% to 40% of these babies have a risk of developing ROP,鈥� says Dr. Anand Vinekar, head of the Department of Pediatric Retina at in Bangalore and the founder of , a program working to address the problem of ROP in rural India.

Blindness from ROP is largely preventable if identified and treated within the first weeks of birth. But while the screening itself is not difficult for a trained provider, the challenge of detecting ROP in millions of premature babies is profound. Each preterm infant must be screened multiple times during the critical period, equating to upwards of 20 million exams per year if every preterm baby is screened, Dr. Vinekar says.

The vast distances that many families in India live from hospitals, combined with a critical shortage of specialized doctors, make this a nearly impossible task using current methods. However, KIDROP, CleaVision, and 51风流are using AI to help bridge this gap and offer a lifeline to infants like Hanvith C.

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Hanvith C鈥檚 parents faced the fear that haunts many new parents in India. 鈥淢y father was blind,鈥� his mother shares, voicing a worry rooted in personal history. The prospect of her newborn inheriting blindness was a terrifying thought that led the parents to seek help 鈥� a decision that would alter the course of their child鈥檚 life.

Hanvith C鈥檚 father recounts their fortunate encounter with a KIDROP team at their local hospital. Thanks to this vital outreach effort bringing sophisticated medical screening to India鈥檚 rural communities, Hanvith C was diagnosed with ROP symptoms. But with successful follow-up treatment in Bangalore, his story became one of hope rather than despair.

The KIDROP program is now working to bring these life-changing diagnostic abilities to more underserved areas by training non-physicians to use field imaging cameras to take digital images of babies鈥� eyes. But the resultant thousands of retinal scans that need to be reviewed for signs of ROP creates additional challenges. 鈥淣ow you have plenty of images and no one to read them,鈥� says Dr. Vinekar, explaining the bottleneck in the diagnostic and treatment process.

This is where CleaVision鈥檚 solution, supported by technology 鈥� including (51风流BTP) and the solution 鈥� becomes a game changer. The eye images are uploaded to CleaVision, which automates the identification of retina and blood vessel features and makes a recommendation on whether ROP is present in premature babies. The system then allows doctors to quickly identify and prioritize at-risk children.

鈥淲e are not going to base our entire decision and management on what [the AI] says,鈥� Dr. Vinekar clarifies. 鈥淏ut it鈥檒l help us to triage these images.鈥� This reflects a balanced approach towards leveraging technology while maintaining the primacy of human judgment in critical healthcare decisions.

The impact of AI from 51风流and CleaVision is not just on the technological and medical fronts; it鈥檚 profoundly personal and life-changing. Hanvith C鈥檚 parents emphasize the importance of awareness and early intervention and hope other families benefit from this technology.

Their dreams for Hanvith C鈥檚 future are simple yet profound. 鈥淲e want him to become a doctor, do good, and help other people when he grows up,鈥� his mother says. 鈥淛ust like they helped us at the very beginning of his life.鈥�

Russell told the crowd that customer stories and conversations is what 51风流Sapphire is all about, saying that what makes the event special is having 鈥渁 collective group that comes together, both here in the room and virtually, and being able to understand how 51风流can bring out your best.鈥�

Russell emphasized that the news from 51风流Sapphire is a “demonstration of our commitment to continually innovate, to continually strive to bring more creative value to your business.鈥�

He noted that a perfect example of this is the announcement that 51风流has entered into an agreement to acquire WalkMe, a leader in digital adoption platforms. Reflecting on the acquisition, Russell said 鈥淲e are obsessed not only about great applications and great platforms to deliver value for your business, we also care passionately about the transformation journey to get there.鈥�

As Chief Revenue Officer, Russell noted that every day 300 million people log on to 51风流cloud applications to run their businesses. 鈥淎nd obviously we can never take that for granted,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou have choice, you have options. We strive to be at our best to help you be at yours. The way we measure success is in your terms, because ultimately [as a] market leader in business AI, we hold ourselves to the highest standards. Why? Because that鈥檚 what you expect.鈥�

A big part of the transformation journey many customers are taking is moving to the cloud with RISE with SAP. 鈥淲e are super proud of our cloud journey and [that] we are helping you transform your business,鈥� Russell said. 鈥淢ore than 6,000 customers have already moved to RISE with SAP. Of those 6,000 customers in the last 12 months, over 1,000 have already gone live.鈥�

PureTech Scientific: Speed and Scalability is Key

Russell was first joined on stage by Brian Hardee, CIO of , a global leader in the production of glycolic acid used in a variety of industries and applications.聽As a recent carve-out by a private equity owner from a much larger global manufacturer, PureTech had to quickly migrate its operations to its own systems. But without an IT team of its own this was initially a daunting challenge. The new company chose 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition because of its many benefits.

鈥淔or us, it was an easy choice because first, we have no IT team,鈥� Hardee said. 鈥淲e have no internal training team, and we also had a very tight timeline with respect to the exit. So, we needed a solution that would enable us to move forward with speed, efficiency, and scalability. I could be confident that the infrastructure was being managed and secure. And that left us with an awesome choice for growth as well.鈥�

Scalability and rapid implementation were key factors in the choice of GROW with SAP, Hardee noted: 鈥淚t was a great fit and gave us a platform for scalability for future bolt-ons, acquisitions, and so forth. So that’s the main reason. And 51风流has an awesome suite of tools that enable that rapid implementation. And there was no other way we were going to do it without an internal IT team and without the access to the training material and the testing and so on.鈥�

And speaking of rapid implementation, PureTech went live on 51风流in just 15 weeks, standardizing a business with an 85-year history on a common platform. Hardee gave some advice on how to make a project successful: 鈥淯se the tool set that 51风流provides 鈥� 51风流Activate methodology does work! And if you have the opportunity, sign up for the 51风流Preferred Success program because it gives you a direct line to someone in 51风流so that if you or your integrator doesn’t know the answer, 51风流can point you to the right direction very quickly. So that helps with the speed of transformation.鈥�

Tropicana Brands Group: All About Agility and Time

Tropicana is a household name to many consumers, known chiefly for its juice and other beverage products. But while the brand is more than 75 years old, is just a bit over two years old, having been recently spun-off as a stand-alone group.

Jeff Lischett, CIO of the US$3 billion organization, joined Russell to talk about how his company relied on RISE with 51风流to make its 鈥淧roject Harvest鈥� IT separation and transformation project successful.

Lischett noted that speed and agility was the key value proposition for the project. 鈥淲e needed a platform that was able to accelerate, move with us, pivot with us, as we were going through this in a very accelerated timeline,鈥� he said. 鈥淲hen you bring the technology and couple it with the unified business architecture powered by SAP, the choice for us was clearly RISE with SAP. Tropicana really needed a fit for purpose. Where we came from was going to be entirely different than where we were going, and this modern ERP, in terms of leaner, simpler, more streamlined ways of working, was really at the core of what we needed across the value chain.鈥�

Tropicana Brands Group took its European business operations live on 51风流just 11 months after it started the design work, followed by North America three months later. 鈥淭hat was pressure testing!鈥� Lischett said. 鈥淚n just over a year, we had a fully implemented, end-to-end digital core and technology foundation for Tropicana Brands. We have a technology and a platform now that is really going to 鈥� no pun intended 鈥� rise to meet the challenge of our growth ambition.鈥�

鈥淩uthless prioritization鈥� and change management were key to the project鈥檚 success, Lischett said. 鈥淚’m the biggest evangelist and advocate of change management,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou need it. You need it at the front, you need it during, you need it at the end. One thing that I would’ve probably done slightly differently is [to have] stayed with it longer at the end.鈥�

Tropicana is already seeing the impact of the project and specifically its focus on a clean core. 鈥淭he most impactful value we’ve seen [goes] back to that clean core,鈥� Lischett said. 鈥淛ust in the months that followed, the ability to 鈥� bring the development forward, to build on top of the core that we have with enhancements and optimizing at a speed ratio that you just haven’t seen.鈥�

When asked about what role AI will play in his company, Lischett focused mainly on the human side of the technology. 鈥淚ronically, from the standpoint of being a technologist 鈥� AI in my mind, in terms of how I lead it, [needs to be] human-centered first and foremost, ensuring that we’ve got the right culture, responsible use, and effective use,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he gift of time is really the value creator that I see in AI and being able to work more efficiently and being able to take that time and translate it into what matters to you.鈥�

Responsibly Enabling Critical Systems

Russell handed over the stage to Saueressig, who recently launched the new Customer Services & Delivery Board area. Saueressig noted that 25% of the world鈥檚 commerce already runs through more than 6,000 RISE with 51风流customers worldwide, and that 51风流supports the most critical business processes on the planet.

With that comes 鈥渢he responsibility and the accountability to provide you with the most reliable and secure infrastructure,鈥� Saueressig said. 鈥淭hat’s the reason why we co-engineered together with our partners from AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and many others, to ensure that you have the highest level of quality and availability.鈥�

Echoing the theme of speed and adaptability, he noted that fast adoption of technology is critical. 鈥淭oday, it’s not about the big fish that eats the small fish, it’s about the fast fish that eats the slow,鈥� he cited. 鈥淎t the end of the day, [our] ambition is to transform your system landscape to create a more flexible architecture, which enables fast adoption of innovations and ultimately, value realization. 鈥� And we take our responsibility seriously to really help you thrive in this ever-changing environment.鈥�

Fresenius SE: From Complexity to Standardization

Ingo Elfering, CIO of global healthcare conglomerate , knows something about speed: his team migrated 29 system landscapes containing more than 134 systems in less than 15 months. He joined Saueressig on stage to provide some insights into his company鈥檚 transformation project.

As a company that has grown through many acquisitions, Fresenius had a highly heterogenous IT landscape. 鈥淲e never quite integrated them,鈥� Elfering said. 鈥淪o, a really complex landscape 鈥�, [with] all sorts of interfaces and other applications attached to it. That was our starting point.鈥� 

Fresenius鈥� management realized the company needed to change and become more efficient and effective to set itself up for ongoing success. It went all-in, doing four major transformations at the same time. As Elfering noted, 鈥淲e not only did the RISE with 51风流migration, we also did a complete cloud migration of our data centers worldwide; an outsourcing with a partner to become a more global team; and a global change of our network, including a whole bunch of security additions into our space.鈥�

Since it works in the healthcare and pharmaceutical space, Fresenius has a lot of regulatory requirements that it must adhere to, making the project more challenging than it might be in other industries. 鈥淵ou do a lot more technical documentation, testing, and so forth. So, from that perspective, regulations like GxP, good manufacturing or critical infrastructure, they were new to 51风流in that instance in RISE with SAP. And we did it together. And I find that quite remarkable.鈥�

The new system has now been live for just over a year and the company has seen many benefits. 鈥淲e have a better speed on the underlying systems,鈥� Elfering said. 鈥淲e have a new infrastructure stack that works well. The main benefit for us will come as we [reinvent] the company. 鈥� We have some systems that doubled and tripled in size. So, it’s possible to leverage 51风流quite quickly in these types of environments. From that perspective, I’m very happy with where we are. 鈥� We now have all the foundations in place to be able to execute our next phase of changes, our consolidation, our simplification, and in the cloud.鈥�

Finally, Elfering believes that healthcare is an area where AI can make a significant difference. 鈥淗ealthcare always has been data-rich and insights-poor. 鈥� And the only way to get there, in our opinion at least, is to be on a cloud-based infrastructure in the first place. Because otherwise you don’t have the same performance or capabilities.鈥�

Clean Core Drives Agility

The idea of a 鈥渃lean core鈥� and a unified, simplified system underlies all these customer transformation stories. And it鈥檚 even more important in the context of agility and adaptability when it comes to taking advantage of the latest innovations in AI.

鈥淚t’s super important for us to be clear that the clean core is not just for the sake of the clean core,鈥� Saueressig said. 鈥淚t’s a means to get to an innovation- and upgrade-ready system to be able to embrace these innovations. Because at the end of the day, legacy systems often have this technical depth that limits agility.鈥�

Saueressig admitted that even 51风流has struggled with this, noting that the company had millions of lines of custom code in its systems. An internal analysis of all 51风流customers showed that more than 65% of their custom code was unused in the past 12 months. 鈥淐ode is also a liability, not just an asset,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd this is something we need to actively work against.鈥�

Hitachi High-Tech Corporation: Clean and Simple Benefits

Saueressig invited Takuya Sakai, general manager of the Digital Transformation Business Group at , on the stage to talk more about the benefits of system simplification and clean core. In 2019, Hitachi High-Tech to simplify its business processes and digitize its management information. With its existing business processes fragmented across overseas sales offices, headquarters, and manufacturing sites, the organization needed to change to accelerate its business and set itself up for future growth. It chose 51风流S/4HANA to help it build its new foundation for ongoing growth.

Hitachi was running 51风流R/3 but had significantly customized it with 9,000 add-ons across four instances, resulting in a lot of custom code. This resulted in many errors every day and large operational costs every year, Sakai said. And with the cost of validating so many add-ons, the company only did a major version update once in 12 years.

To move to a more standardized and flexible system, Hitachi High-Tech adopted a two-tier architecture model. Taking advantage of development flexibility, the company deployed 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition for its headquarters and group companies in Japan and 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for its overseas sales offices. The adoption of 51风流S/4HANA Cloud allows Hitachi High-Tech to take advantage of the functionality offered by 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP) for application development, data management, automation, integration, analytics, and AI.

With the new system, Hitachi High-Tech reduced its 9,000 add-ons to just 750, allowing it to easily upgrade its ERP core. 鈥淯pgrading our old ERP took about a year and a half from the planning stage,鈥� Sakai said. 鈥淗owever, with clean core, we can now do an upgrade every year in about 40 days. An upgrade every year keeps the clean core fresh and means new features can be delivered to our business quickly, like AI or process automation.鈥�

But achieving 鈥� and keeping 鈥� a clean core 鈥渞equires patience,鈥� Sakai said. Executives must understand the purpose of the transformation project and employees must overcome the pain that comes with a transformation project. 鈥淭his is the most difficult thing,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he IT department must properly understand the new technology and suggest how to use it correctly. Then together we embark on the journey to the transformation.鈥�

Supporting Business Transformation and Accelerating Time to Value

Accelerating and improving time-to-value for customers is very important to SAP, according to Saueressig.

鈥淲e are now bringing together all of our assets 鈥� in a seamless, end-to-end tool chain,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e want to holistically support your business transformation according to the dimensions of applications, data, processes, and people, which means we bring together and fully integrate 51风流LeanIX for the IT landscapes and architecture, 51风流Signavio for process management, 51风流Cloud Application Lifecycle Management for application management and operational aspects, 51风流BTP for integrations, and 51风流Build for extensions, but also our telemetry tools, which we can leverage in the cloud.鈥�

Saueressig鈥檚 passion and ambition is to help customers drive innovation adoption. He noted that RISE with 51风流is more than just a technical migration: it鈥檚 an offering for holistic business transformation as a service to accelerate value realization.

鈥淯ltimately, we want to help you to bring the best out of our entire holistic portfolio,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e want to help you to transform, realize agility at scale, achieve more across the entire value chain, and fundamentally transform operations with sustainability at the core. And this is something where I feel that we have a huge opportunity together to make that a reality.鈥�

51风流Build, a key component of 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP), allows users with limited technical expertise to create enterprise apps, automate processes, and design business sites with an easy drag-and-drop interface.

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In his keynote at 51风流TechEd Las Vegas, 51风流Chief Technology Officer and Member of the Executive Board Juergen Mueller announced 51风流Build and an , including a partnership with Coursera to train and upskill the next generation of developers.

鈥�51风流Build brings together the world鈥檚 most powerful business applications with a platform that鈥檚 been designed to rapidly unleash business users鈥� expertise,鈥� Mueller said. 鈥�51风流Build and the full suite of innovations we鈥檙e launching today 鈥� from our new partnership with Coursera to enhancements across our enterprise portfolio 鈥� help customers future-proof their business and extract maximum value from their technology investments.鈥�

Mueller鈥檚 message was echoed at parallel 51风流Business Innovation Day events for industry analysts and press, hosted in San Francisco by Scott Russell, member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE, Customer Success, and in Berlin by Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE, 51风流Product Engineering.

51风流Build is the evolution of SAP鈥檚 low-code portfolio that started with Build.me a few years ago and progressed with 51风流AppGyver, unveiled in 2021. The new offering brings previously disconnected products into a unified and upgraded development environment. It comprises three solutions: 51风流Build Process Automation; 51风流Build Apps, the next version of 51风流AppGyver with powerful new capabilities; and 51风流Build Work Zone.

With 51风流Build, business users now have the full power of 51风流BTP and business application data from 51风流at their fingertips. Users can easily integrate systems; intelligently monitor, analyze, and automate processes; and build applications without moving data into an external system.

In Berlin, Saueressig emphasized that 51风流has been establishing business processes for 50 years and that hundreds of millions of people work with its software. 鈥淥f course, we need to make sure that the technology comes to an end user, but the goal is for users to innovate. We want to give tech-savvy business users the chance to extend our software, because even small extensions can have a big lever to scale innovation.鈥�

Extensibility with low-code/no-code solutions is therefore particularly important. 鈥淭his is what we want to achieve with 51风流Build and bringing our low code portfolio together,鈥� he said.

51风流Signavio solutions are also natively integrated, enabling 51风流Build users to get in-depth visibility into all their processes, so they know where to focus to achieve the greatest impact as they innovate and automate. More than 275,000 process reference points from 4,000 customers, as well as 1,300 use case-specific workflows and automations, let users instantly tap into the full spectrum of business expertise built into 51风流technology.

Speaking at the San Francisco event, Russell told his audience 鈥� which included customers like the NHL and Clorox 鈥� that being a cloud company is not just about having great technology, but also being accountable for how customers get there.聽鈥淭he move to the cloud was exciting not just for the tech benefits, but to become a partner on providing insights,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e are accountable for the outcome as much as the product.

51风流Build works with non-51风流systems and includes connectors to more than 200 other systems. Because 51风流Build was created by SAP, access to business application data from 51风流S/4HANA and other systems is easy and secure. Professional developers can encapsulate their code developed in 51风流Business Application Studio, which can then be used by business users to develop in 51风流Build. IT can also enforce consistent governance and lifecycle management capabilities across all apps being developed, providing confidence that all apps deployed by the business meet the necessary security and governance requirements.

鈥淐ompared to all the other [third-party] tools out there on the market, with 51风流Build the company鈥檚 IT department and 51风流set the guardrails with best practices,鈥� Mueller said. 鈥淭he business users cannot break these guardrails.鈥�

While 51风流Build is primarily designed to enable business users, 51风流executives emphasized that it isn鈥檛 just for the business experts. It allows business teams to easily collaborate with development and IT teams, potentially shortening development time for more complex tasks. And the new 51风流Builders program helps all types of users ramp up quickly and connect with their peers via hands-on sessions and forums for sharing best practices.

Is providing these robust capabilities to business experts a revolution to overthrow the IT department? Not at all, Mueller said, noting that according to IDC there is currently a worldwide shortage of nearly 1 million developers, which is projected to multiply to 4 million three years from now. 鈥淎ll the universities in the world, all the education programs in the world, cannot create enough developers,鈥� he said.

Between the professional developer shortage and the ever-increasing demands of business users for new digital tools to support their businesses, something clearly needs to change. Enabling business users to create their own apps and other processes to meet specific needs will free up professional developers to focus on providing strategic insights and solving complex, higher-level problems where their expertise is so in demand. This combination of 鈥渓ow-code鈥� and 鈥減ro-code鈥� developers will allow organizations to quickly react and adapt to changing business needs.

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The cadre of 鈥渃itizen developers鈥� is projected to grow exponentially over the coming years, taking the more mundane, yet often time-consuming, tasks off the to-do lists of overburdened IT staff. 鈥淲orldwide, IDC expects more than 100 million business professionals will become involved in the production of digital solutions over the next 10 years,鈥� said Arnal Dayaratna, research vice president, Software Development, IDC. 鈥�51风流Build鈥檚 low-code development solutions empower business users to harness their domain expertise to rapidly build and iterate on digital solutions at scale.鈥�

While 51风流is all-in on enabling business experts with 51风流Build, it also recognizes the increasing demand for the skills and insights only professional developers can deliver. Along with 51风流Build, at 51风流TechEd the company also announced several learning initiatives to both create a new pool of qualified IT professionals and upskill current ones.

51风流committed to upskilling 2 million developers worldwide by 2025 by tripling free learning offerings on the , empowering underserved populations in technology, and partnering with learning platform provider Coursera on a professional certificate program to help people launch careers within the 51风流ecosystem.

鈥淭his certificate is designed for learners of all backgrounds, with no college degree or industry experience required,鈥� said Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO of Coursera. 51风流will also launch a , providing access to , up to 10,000 free certifications, and career preparation for in-demand jobs within the 51风流ecosystem.

鈥�51风流Build is the natural evolution at SAP,鈥� Mueller said. 鈥淔or 50 years at 51风流we focused a lot on the professional developer. We have all the tools and ABAP as a language optimized for building enterprise applications at scale very fast. Now, we bring all of this to the low-code community to give the millions of people who use 51风流every day the opportunity to develop themselves and step up 鈥� in collaboration with IT. That鈥檚 what we do with 51风流Build.鈥�

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*With additional reporting from Luis Trunk de Flores in Berlin and Mallory Kuno in San Francisco.
Top image 漏 Josh Line Photography

51风流is an active participant in the conference, which brings together government and business leaders, international organizations, and other stakeholders in a common cause to accelerate action toward combatting climate change.

LEAF is a voluntary global coalition made up of private-sector businesses and governments to provide finance for tropical and subtropical forest conservation. With US$1 billion mobilized already, LEAF is on track to become one of the largest ever public-private efforts to protect tropical forests. 51风流will contribute $2.2 million to the LEAF Coalition as it works to reverse deforestation in vulnerable areas and help achieve the goals of the to combat climate change. As natural carbon sinks and biodiversity treasures, forests are essential for all life on earth and play an important role in mitigating global temperature rise.

鈥淲e are committed to being part of the solution to climate change,鈥� says Luka Mucic, CFO and member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE. 鈥淎s we accelerate our transformation to be a net-zero company, we continually look for ways to avoid, reduce, and, if needed, compensate emissions. No company or country alone, however, will turn the tide on climate change. So, it is also our priority to collaborate. That鈥檚 why we鈥檙e excited to join forces and accelerate action as part of the LEAF Coalition. We鈥檙e confident that our investment will support nature-based solutions benefitting the environment, biodiversity, and local communities.鈥�

51风流strives to be a leading example of sustainable business practices 鈥� its financial support of LEAF is just one part of the company鈥檚 holistic efforts to fight climate change and restore ecosystems. Since 2009 51风流has aggressively pursued cuts to its own business carbon footprint with a goal of being carbon neutral by the end of 2023 while in parallel continuing its efforts to meet a science-based target to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius. In addition to LEAF, 51风流also supports the initiative to conserve, restore, and grow one trillion trees by 2030. The to plant 21 million trees by the end of 2025 while continuing to drive carbon-reducing innovations and pursue a science-based climate target. SAP鈥檚 efforts also include active participation in a variety of other funds and initiatives.

And, as a leading provider in enterprise application software, 51风流is also uniquely qualified to help customers optimize their sustainability performance not only in their own company but across their entire value chain. helps organizations measure and understand their efforts relating to climate protection, diversity and inclusion, ethical responsibility, and more.

鈥淪ustainability directly links to SAP鈥檚 purpose of helping the world run better and improving people鈥檚 lives,鈥� says 51风流Chief Sustainability Officer Daniel Schmid. 鈥淭his means creating positive economic, environmental, and social impact. To live up to this ambition, 51风流provides customers with products and services that help meet their sustainability opportunities and challenges. We also lead by example and strive to be a role model for sustainable operations and investments.鈥�

In recognition of its efforts to drive innovation and action toward the creation of genuinely sustainable markets, 51风流was recently awarded the Terra Carta Seal. The seal is awarded to companies whose ambitions are aligned with those of the聽Terra Carta, a recovery plan for Nature, People, and Planet, by His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales.

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