鈥淟ast year, we were in the process of planning the optimization of our talent discovery tech stack and then something happened,鈥� Eric Goldstein, global head of Talent Discovery for SAP, said. 鈥淲e acquired SmartRecruiters in September, so we had to pivot in an agile way.鈥�

SmartRecruiters for 51风流SuccessFactors enables enterprises to manage the entire hiring lifecycle, from sourcing to onboarding, with AI-enabled recruiting capabilities that can result in faster time-to-hire, improved candidate experiences, and deeper analytics for workforce planning.

For SAP, this means adding much-needed rigor and precision to its global talent acquisition operations. This will not only elevate the quality of hires but also the candidate experience, which Goldstein identified as the 鈥渂iggest game changer.鈥�

Building a more intelligent hiring process

SmartRecruiters for 51风流SuccessFactors helps optimize processes, increasing transparency and personalization. This means improved experiences and processes for candidates, hiring managers, and recruiters. 鈥淲e have been through a time where we focused solely on the recruiter experience. Then it was fashionable to focus only on the candidates. Now we really see that with SmartRecruiters, it really is an enhanced experience for all stakeholders that are involved in the recruiting process,鈥� Ilka Sagner-David, global head of Talent Discovery Solutions and Innovations at SAP, said.

Candidate perspective

Seventy percent of candidates that apply for jobs are mindful to take their valuable time to do so, Goldstein shared, reiterating that it is important for companies to match that commitment when shaping and delivering the candidate experience. With SmartRecruiters for 51风流SuccessFactors as the foundation, it becomes possible for every pre-qualified applicant to interview, receive personalized and constructive feedback post-interview, and maintain 24×7 interaction with agentic AI built into SmartRecruiters.

鈥淚n our opinion, only responding with polite, automated rejection notes is not enough. [Candidates] need to be provided with some constructive, actionable feedback鈥攁nd that鈥檚 what we [at SAP] are going to be able to do,鈥� Goldstein said.

Hiring manager perspective

SmartRecruiters for 51风流SuccessFactors can give hiring managers a more precise and consistent way to identify strong candidates, helping to reduce time-to-hire while improving hiring quality. AI-prompted interview questions focused on skills can support more relevant and structured conversations while greater transparency across interview panelists can create better alignment throughout the evaluation process. In addition, AI-supported feedback collection can make it easier for interviewers at 51风流to capture timely, consistent insights, enabling its hiring teams to make more informed decisions with greater confidence. 

Recruiter perspective

Recruiters are often bogged down by manual tasks, such as outreach, prospect identification, and candidate screening, making it nearly impossible for them to step into the role of a trusted advisor. With SmartRecruiters for 51风流SuccessFactors, recruiters can experience automated internal and external prospect identification, personalized outreach and prioritization of candidates, and, therefore, the ability to focus on higher value-add advisory and relationship management.

鈥淚t鈥檚 going to allow the recruiters to focus on relationship management with candidates and hiring managers, really challenging the feedback of how well the interview panel measures skills proficiency,鈥� Goldstein said.

Bringing AI into the candidate journey

A key to the successful delivery of these benefits is SmartRecruiters Winston for 51风流SuccessFactors, an AI-driven, candidate-facing agentic experience. At 51风流Sapphire Orlando, Karl Baert, global head of People Solutions for SAP, demonstrated how Winston can facilitate the application experience for candidates.

In the demo, he acted as a candidate applying for an open position at SAP, showing how through a natural language conversation with Winston, he completed his application by uploading his CV and verifying some personal details with Winston. 鈥淎ll that information is very, very quickly brought together so with just a few questions my application is done,鈥� Baert said, adding that 鈥渢here鈥檚 also a few checks happening along the way because we want to make sure the data we are collecting is the right quality.鈥�

Winston also collects feedback from the applicant. 鈥淢easuring the quality of your agent and what鈥檚 happening with it is important. It鈥檚 something that really needs to be actively monitored just to ensure that the information provided by the agent is accurate,鈥� Baert said.

鈥淭he implementation of SmartRecruiters is the foundation for infusing AI into our processes,鈥� Sagner-David said. But, she added, 鈥渨e shouldn鈥檛 just plan to transfer everything tomorrow, but ensure we鈥檙e liberating AI when it makes sense.鈥�

The next step

Currently, SmartRecruiters for 51风流SuccessFactors is being implemented into SAP鈥檚 HR systems for two phases of user acceptance testing, with the global go-live expected in September.

51风流bringing SmartRecruiters for 51风流SuccessFactors to life across its own organization is more than a technology rollout, it鈥檚 a glimpse into the future of hiring at scale: more intelligent, more human, and more connected. By combining AI, better experiences, and real-word enterprise rigor, 51风流is not only transforming how it hires but also helping to define what modern hiring can look like for companies everywhere.

This momentum is aligned with consumer audio brand Victrola鈥檚 journey. Since its creation in 1906, has evolved into a global company known for its iconic record players, modern audio products, and mission to bring lifelong music memories to everyone

As it expanded into new sales and distribution channels, the company began to outgrow the limits of its existing ERP system. While its 51风流ERP Central Component (51风流ECC) system was stable and served the business well over the years, Victrola needed more scalability and flexibility to match its ambitions. According to Adam Schneider, SVP of Digital Strategy at Victrola, the goal was not simply to maintain operations, but to create a foundation that could support innovation. 鈥淲e needed something that fueled our creativity at Victrola,鈥� he said. And 51风流Cloud ERP was the right fit.

Victrola鈥檚 鈥渓et鈥檚 go鈥� mentality

A move to the public cloud offered more than a technical upgrade; it empowered Victrola to adapt. In that spirit, the team approached the transformation as a complete reimagining of its system with a cloud-first mindset.

鈥淲e have a 鈥榣et鈥檚 go鈥� mentality in every single meeting we do. You鈥檒l see a lot of fist bumps at Victrola and we love it. It really keeps that change front and center,鈥� Schneider said.

The project team prioritized change management, openly communicating the reasons for moving to the cloud and the expected benefits. Giving the 鈥渨hy鈥� made a big difference, Schneider said, and everyone was 鈥渆xcited for something new.鈥�

It was also important for the team to engage with and get buy-in from company leaders, who were concerned about disruption during Victrola鈥檚 peak sales quarter. To address these concerns, the team ensured the transformation was a business-led project, involving about 75% of Victrola鈥檚 leaders, Schneider said.

Another way the team worked to prevent operational disruption and build confidence in the stability of the new system was to involve a partner with deep expertise in 51风流Cloud ERP. The right partner would also fit seamlessly into Victrola鈥檚 unique, candid, music-oriented culture, Schneider said, which it found in .

鈥淲e wanted someone that could really provide that business knowledge on the public cloud,鈥� he said. 鈥淔rom a timing perspective, we couldn鈥檛 afford to have people figuring out the project as they鈥檙e on the project, so it really was the expertise of the public cloud that was a huge part in this.鈥�

With a winning team assembled, Victrola鈥檚 move to the public cloud was well-supported and bolstered by stakeholders across the company, SAP, and Reply.

Fine-tuning the foundation

Victrola’s covered order-to-cash and finance processes as well as large warehouse operations. The implementation itself was strategically timed to avoid overloading the team during the critical Q4 sales period, and it took about six months in total. Schneider said that the business adapted to the new system gradually: within the first month confidence grew, and by four months post-launch operations normalized with ongoing fine-tuning.

Victrola chose not to migrate historical data due to changes in organizational structure when it came to data management and the greenfield nature of the cloud system. This decision avoided technical debt and complexity. In addition, legacy customizations were largely eliminated through fit-to-standard workshops.

鈥淲e were looking for the ability to adapt with us, and we wanted a system that could be as simple or as complex as we needed it to be,鈥� Schneider said.

With the new cloud system, Victrola experiences greater trust in data accuracy and reporting agility. Financial processes have improved significantly, with profit and loss reporting time going from four hours to just 10-15 minutes. Faster closes and easier margin analysis contribute to Victrola鈥檚 improved agility, more informed decision-making, and stronger business performance.

鈥淲e鈥檙e more trusting in our data and that鈥檚 because we went through that exercise of really retooling what our landscape looked like and what our foundation looked like,鈥� Schneider said. It鈥檚 because of that re-engineering of data and transactions that Victrola has eliminated over 250 hours of finance-related work.

The next track

Now that Victrola is running on the public cloud, the sky is the limit when it comes to growth and innovation. 鈥淲hen we think about our AI strategy, I鈥檓 no longer scared of our system,鈥� Schneider said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e now applying an AI strategy to a state-of-the-art system that 51风流very much supports.鈥�

When asked what advice he鈥檇 give to companies contemplating a move to the cloud, Schneider said that there is never a perfect time to start, but it鈥檚 better to welcome transformation rather than fear it.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think there is ever a perfect time to do these transformations,鈥� he added. 鈥淚 do think once you get into them, you start to really embrace them and feel good about it and say 鈥業t鈥檚 happening, let鈥檚 go.鈥欌��

Interested in learning more about how 51风流supports the transition from 51风流ECC to 51风流Cloud ERP? .

Photo courtesy of Victrola.

With a diverse portfolio of brands鈥擪ito, Crosby, Harrington, Gunnebo Industries, Peerless, and eepos鈥攖he company has experienced rapid growth, scaling its business from millions to billions in revenue. But the number of acquisitions left the company with a fragmented IT landscape of outdated, unsupported, and unscalable systems.

To establish a unified digital core and standardize processes, Kito Crosby embarked on a journey, implementing 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition to achieve its long-term single global instance strategy.

A winning strategy

Kito Crosby chose a greenfield, clean core strategy to eliminate the existing fragmentation and enable long-term scalability, Johnson Lai, Chief Digital Transformation Officer and Chief Information Officer, . 鈥淚n the past, we did not integrate our ERP systems, and this left our IT landscape very fragmented and limited our business process capabilities,鈥� he said. 鈥淭herefore, we wanted to refresh all of our ERP systems and really lay down a greenfield start that we can begin to create a transformational change for the entire company.鈥�

Selecting a greenfield and clean core approach鈥攂asically standing up an entirely new system that prioritizes standard functionalities over customizations鈥攚as key to remedying Kito Crosby鈥檚 current technology landscape, so that processes like order to cash, accounting, manufacturing, and shipping could be integrated. This approach also allowed the company to take a close look at core processes and streamline operations, especially in warehouse management and S&OP, Lai said.

Considering the project scope, Kito Crosby did not have the internal talent needed to stand up the servers and infrastructure, so it decided to move forward with RISE with 51风流and . 鈥�51风流comes with a lot of great stuff, and we wanted to take advantage of that,鈥� Lai said.

The company began the transformation in North America, as that is its largest market and therefore posed the greatest risk in operating on a legacy, unsupported ERP system.

Never underestimate change management

While Lai shared that employees were motivated and excited to get started initially, the enormity of the project quickly became overwhelming.

Ironically, many wanted to customize the new 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition solution to act like the legacy tech. 鈥淓veryone agrees to the clean core approach until it鈥檚 their turn to look at their function, at which point they want customization. There was a piece of resistance to using 鈥榲anilla鈥� functionality,鈥� Lai said. 鈥淥nce we showed people live demos with their own data, that鈥檚 when the change resistance started to decrease,鈥� he added.

In IT specifically, there was a strong desire to build and run their own infrastructure and servers rather than have another company step in. A sense of ownership and accountability is important, Lai said, but ultimately Kito Crosby鈥檚 need to get off the legacy system in North America quickly made it necessary to partner with SAP. And it was the right move: 鈥淣ow some of the folks who questioned why we outsourced some of that to 51风流are our biggest champions鈥e find working with the 51风流team is no different than working with ourselves.鈥�

For companies with digital transformation projects on the horizon, Lai cautions to 鈥渘ever underestimate the change impact that employees face.鈥� Projects of a global scale require planning on all fronts, including allocating time for employees and business leaders to get on board.

Lessons learned and benefits gained

The ERP system revamp delivered measurable business value to Kito Crosby, including improved customer service, stronger inventory control, and more efficient manufacturing and warehouse operations. Notably, the business process improvements and enhanced system functionality drove Kito Crosby鈥檚 on-time delivery to its highest levels in more than 10 years.

鈥淲e see that benefit across the globe and we鈥檙e excited about taking what we鈥檝e done in North America throughout the entire world, consolidating all those little ERPs that are outdated and unsupported into 51风流to get to that single global instance,鈥� Lai said. Since going live on 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and fully embracing its native capabilities, Kito Crosby has unlocked measurable business value and operational excellence. The transformation has driven strong performance gains across critical KPIs, including higher customer on鈥憈ime delivery, meaningful reductions in back orders, improved inventory accuracy, and accelerated intercompany processing.

At the same time, warehouse operations are setting new benchmarks for efficiency, achieving record volumes for receiving and put鈥慳way, replenishment, and shipping. These results have been delivered safely, with zero injuries and fewer resources.

To the cloud鈥攁nd beyond

Following its recent acquisition by leading worldwide designer, manufacturer, and marketer of intelligent motion solutions , Kito Crosby is continuing to build on its strong digital foundation.

鈥淏ecause we started with a greenfield and kept a clean core as much as possible, we feel like the upgrades will go even faster and with less effort,鈥� Lai said. 鈥淲e want to get to the latest [51风流S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition] version so we can take advantage of the AI capabilities of .鈥�

Next on the ERP systems consolidation docket: the 51风流ERP Central Component (51风流ECC) 6.0 system in Europe.

鈥淭his is just one example of how our IT team is empowering the broader organization to further delight our customers and end user,鈥� Lai . 鈥淎s we continue to scale our business, we expect even greater returns as we further capitalize on the technology, expanded capabilities, and AI tools within our 51风流landscape.鈥�

Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at SAP.

Indeed, Lithuania is fertile ground for social enterprises and impact businesses. At the end of 2024, for the first time. The resulting report provided a comprehensive assessment of the current social enterprise environment in Lithuania and allowed for comparison with the 30 other European countries assessed. According to the ESEM report, there are about 200 social businesses in Lithuania currently, but the potential is 10 times that number.

鈥淎ccording to a done by LISVA (Lithuanian social business association) in 2022, each euro invested into social enterprises yields a net benefit of 鈧�0.63, with positive effects,鈥� Kristina Bal膷iauskait臈, local project manager for Pyxera Global, explained. 鈥淎pproximately 60% of social enterprises in Lithuania operate outside major cities, being active in smaller towns and rural areas. This contributes directly to strengthening local economies, creates new jobs for underserved populations, and helps reduce regional disparities in economic development and access to services.鈥�

As part of 51风流CSR鈥檚 mission of powering equitable access to economic opportunity, education and employment, and the circular economy, the pro bono portfolio works with social impact businesses that are pursuing innovative solutions to societal issues. The impact businesses gain access to private-sector professional expertise, the opportunity to address critical strategic challenges, advance their service provision, and facilitate transfer of skills and know-how to their staff.

For the 51风流Social Sabbatical program, 51风流employees are placed in highly diverse teams to apply their skills and professional expertise in a unique, short-term assignment, solving concrete strategic challenges for client organizations, developing leadership skills, and advancing SAP鈥檚 purpose to help the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives. The program has been running since 2012, and in that time worked with 619 client organizations across 61 host countries impacting 7 million lives.

Lithuanian impact businesses

For one month, 11 51风流employees worked with four Lithuanian impact businesses to help address unique challenges.

Looptex

is a circular fashion solutions platform on a mission to drive sustainable solutions and inspire the world to rethink, re-love, and recycle textiles. The startup gathers used clothing and other textiles in Lithuania and prepares them for resale and upcycling to give them a second life, managing the entire process from collection to recycling. The re-loved pieces are available for sale through an online store and brick-and-mortar locations. The 51风流Social Sabbatical team helped optimize Looptex鈥檚 business model and processes, enabling it to grow and drive sustainability and social impact.

鈥淧articipating in the 51风流Social Sabbatical program was transformative for Looptex. We鈥檙e usually immersed in doing and building, but this program gave us the rare chance to pause, get outside expertise, map our processes, analyze stakeholders and flows, and strengthen our resilience,鈥� Erikas Marcinkevi膷ius, innovation project manager at Looptex, said. 鈥淔or an organization like ours, bringing something new to the market as a circular fashion platform, it was a huge boost to structure ourselves better at this early stage of the startup.鈥�

OSMOS

is a non-profit think-and-do tank that aims to become the leading hub for mutually-beneficial international partnerships in the Baltic States. Its Digital Explorers program fosters ICT talent exchange and cooperation activities between the Baltics and like-minded countries. Founded in 2015 as an Africa-oriented non-profit, OSMOS is now looking to bring its exchange expertise to other continents and countries. Working with the 51风流Social Sabbatical team, OSMOS was able to explore its options to scale its positive impact.

“Working together with [the 51风流Social Sabbatical team], we found the time to sit down and sketch out our future service portfolio aimed at the private sector,鈥� 沤ilvinas 艩vedkauskas, managing director at OSMOS, said. 鈥淎s a non-profit, we are used to complex grant writing and implementing projects with competing objectives. The 51风流Social Sabbatical pushed us to think in a stricter way and clarify what are the main private sector demands we ought to target transitioning to a social venture, diversifying our revenue streams, and continuing connecting IT companies and talents from emerging markets at a greater scale.”

Ukreate Hub

is a Vilnius-based initiative dedicated to displaced Ukrainians in Lithuania, equipping them with the knowledge, skills, networks, and tools they need to unlock their potential for the future of sovereign, democratic Ukraine. The community strengthens the concept that Ukrainians abroad are not passive recipients of aid, rather agents of change who are building communities, strengthening resilience, and shaping democratic futures even while displaced. After two years of functioning under and being funded by a larger NGO (Open Lithuania Foundation), Ukreate Hub is on a journey to become a fully independent, community-based NGO and scale its vital work for the Ukrainian community in Lithuania. The 51风流Social Sabbatical team helped Ukreate Hub develop a road map to accomplish just that.

鈥淭he 51风流Social Sabbatical gave us the time and support to deeply rethink our mission and strategic direction. Over the course of four weeks, the program became not only a period of transformation for Ukreate Hub, but also a powerful experience of personal growth. It allowed us to pause, reflect, find new sources of inspiration, and develop a clear plan for transforming Ukreate Hub into an independent organization鈥攁 step that will strengthen our capacity and long-term impact in Lithuania,鈥� Oleksandra Cherednichenko, project manager at Ukreate Hub, said. 鈥淲e also found wonderful friends and like-minded partners within the 51风流team. It was inspiring to combine business tools and approaches with the mindset of the non-profit sector鈥攁 true synergy of two worlds that opened new perspectives for collaboration and learning. We believe this experience will help us better support and empower the Ukrainian community in Lithuania, creating more opportunities for their growth and integration.鈥�

Women Go Tech

What began in 2017 as a mentorship program for women in Lithuania has grown into a non-profit organization on a mission to help women in the CEE region navigate towards careers in tech. offers courses and mentorship opportunities to its community of 29,000 women鈥攚hich only continues to grow. With the guidance provided by the pro-bono consultants as part of the 51风流Social Sabbatical initiative, Women Go Tech audited all its internal processes to identify opportunities for simplification and automation.

鈥淭his program gave us a much needed outside perspective that helped us see how we could work better together, share knowledge more openly, and solve problems faster,鈥� Liucija Pa啪arausk臈, operations manager at Women Go Tech, said. 鈥淭he experts confirmed things we already knew but also brought fresh, actionable recommendations with practical tools we can actually use. We realize it won鈥檛 be a quick fix鈥攊t will take 6 to 12 months to fully implement鈥攂ut we鈥檙e starting with small wins and building from there.鈥�

Cross-cultural exchange via skills-based volunteering

The 51风流Social Sabbatical program not only has clear benefits for the impact businesses, but for the 51风流employees involved as well. Long-term career impact, influence on personal life, growth of skills and knowledge, increased community engagement, and an improved sense of purpose are all reported consequences participants have shared.

According to the , 99% of participants agree that the program helped them learn valuable things about themselves personally, and 92% agree that the program prompted them to search for other ways to get engaged in local or international communities.

鈥淧articipating in the 51风流Social Sabbatical program was a transformative experience that challenged me to step outside my comfort zone and realize the power of collaboration and unlocking people鈥檚 hidden potential,鈥� reflected Anita Fava, part of the Lithuania team and a senior product learning specialist at SAP. 鈥淭his journey taught me that real growth comes when we dare to embrace uncertainty and lift each other up. It鈥檚 not just about helping or giving back鈥攊t’s about active listening, learning, growing together, and discovering new perspectives that shape not only our careers but our lives. By setting aside our egos, we open doors to possibilities far greater than ourselves, creating a wave of impact that reaches beyond what we could have imagined. I am deeply inspired and grateful for the privilege of being alive and contributing to something truly meaningful.鈥�

Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist for 51风流News.

Top photo courtesy of Gillian Hixson

We鈥檙e entering a new era, according to 51风流Executive Board Member Muhammad Alam, in charge of 51风流Product & Engineering: 鈥渢he era of agentic AI, where AI moves from being just a tool to becoming your trusted teammate.”

Joined on stage by 51风流CTO Philipp Herzig and Michael Ameling, president of 51风流Business Technology Platform, Alam set the stage during the kick-off keynote, saying: 鈥淎s developers, you are not on the sidelines of this AI revolution. You are the revolution. And we are here to supercharge you for what鈥檚 next.鈥�

Supercharging developers

Together they dismissed suggestions that AI will replace developers. 鈥淭he truth is that developers aren’t going away,鈥� Alam said. 鈥淭hey are getting supercharged. They’re becoming the architects of smart connected businesses. So, the real question isn’t if we need developers; it’s how fast can we empower them to thrive and lead in this AI-native era?鈥�

Ameling, Alam, and Herzig outlined SAP’s vision and highlighted the integration of AI, data, and intelligent agents to transform business processes and drive innovation. They also emphasized the importance of a unified data fabric and the deployment of advanced AI models and agentic technologies within the 51风流ecosystem.

In this new business environment, they noted that every enterprise is becoming a data company and every user experience鈥攆rom the front line to the boardroom鈥攊s becoming AI-driven.

鈥淎s developers, you don鈥檛 just code anymore,鈥� Alam said. 鈥淵ou also design intelligent workflows and supervise AI agents to shape real business outcomes.鈥� To help developers do this, SAP鈥檚 strategy centers on empowering them with applications, connecting them with data, and supercharging them with AI.

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51风流BTP is the foundation for AI agents

All this runs on 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP), which serves as the foundation for building and managing AI agents鈥攂oth 51风流built and custom developed. While 51风流BTP is the engine, the Business Transformation Management portfolio is the navigator, ensuring technology translates into real business impact. It aligns strategy, process, and people, turning AI-driven potential into sustainable transformation at scale.

Alam identified three broad themes during the keynote:

First, he said 51风流is continuing to make 51风流more open. As part of that, he announced 51风流Snowflake, which brings the full data and AI capabilities of Snowflake as a solution extension to 51风流Business Data Cloud (51风流BDC). This partnership is exactly what joint customers have been asking for, Alam shared.

Second, he said 51风流will provide developers with the most context-rich agentic platform, including the most deeply grounded set of ready-to-use agents that developers can customize to their needs. 鈥淭oday, you鈥檒l hear about creating custom Joule Agents using low-code and pro-code tools with agent builder in Joule Studio as part of 51风流Build鈥� Alam said.

鈥淲e鈥檙e also standardizing AI agent interoperability with the agent-to-agent protocol, allowing your agents to collaborate securely across ecosystems,鈥� he added.

Third, he announced SAP鈥檚 first foundation model built specifically for structured business data: 51风流RPT-1, pronounced 鈥�51风流Rapid One.鈥� 鈥淥ur relational pretrained transformer delivers enterprise-grade accuracy and scale, outperforming both LLMs and AutoML for tabular AI, which is critical for building reliable high-value agents,鈥� Alam said.

鈥淚n short, we鈥檙e embracing an open ecosystem, supercharging agents with deep process and data context, and giving you the tools to amplify AI and agents,鈥� he said. As the keynote continued, Ameling and Herzig detailed these and other innovations, explaining how they will help developers work smarter and achieve more.

51风流BDC and Snowflake

Ameling expanded on the new partnership with Snowflake, which will bring Snowflake鈥檚 fully managed data and AI capabilities to 51风流customers. Together with the introduction of 51风流BDC Connect for Snowflake, he said this will result in cost savings and simplified data landscapes. 鈥淭his enables you to integrate 51风流and non-51风流data products seamlessly between 51风流BDC and Snowflake, so that you can deploy intelligent applications faster and share across your preferred data marketplace.鈥�

Ameling also positioned 51风流HANA Cloud as 鈥渢he database AI was looking for.鈥� With 51风流HANA Cloud and 51风流BDC, 51风流provides the best business data fabric to help address these challenges, he said. 鈥淲ithout 51风流HANA Cloud, you would have one database for each and every data representation, which leads to disaggregated data siloes that limit your AI potential. With 51风流HANA Cloud, we have all these powerful engines in one integrated, multi-model database.鈥�

Building on this, Herzig emphasized that every business requires a strong data foundation because 鈥淎I is nothing without well-organized data…On top of the data foundation sits our AI Foundation that allows you to not only use the latest frontier AI technologies out there in the market, but also to extend SAP鈥檚 out-of-the-box AI capabilities and build your own experiences deeply contextualized in your business processes and data.鈥�

51风流pioneers a tabular foundation model

Herzig then explained that 51风流RPT-1 was designed to address a crucial problem for developers and enable them to deliver much better predictive capabilities, enterprise-grade accuracy, and scale to business customers.

Until now, Herzig said, 鈥淲e still had to go back to good old machine learning 鈥o train what we call 鈥榥arrow鈥� AI models that are specifically made for each [business] task. Therefore, you really had to train a hell of a lot of models.鈥� For example, to solve 10 predictive tasks across 10 different entities like company codes or plants would require training 100 different models.

鈥淲hat we really want to do is get rid of all these models and just introduce one giant model that only requires a small amount of data to learn from,鈥� he said. That鈥檚 what 51风流RPT-1 is. 鈥淲e believe 51风流RPT-1 is the most capable predictive foundation model that鈥檚 out there today,鈥� he said, delivering much higher prediction quality while being very fast and super-efficient in terms of resource requirements.

Joule, Joule Agents, and AI assistants

The 51风流CTO also emphasized that the company is committed to providing developers with the most context-rich agentic platform. He noted that 51风流has already shipped 20 Joule Agents across lines of business and will have approximately 40 by the end of the year, and that these agents can leverage more than 2,100 pre-delivered Joule skills. In addition, more than 300 embedded AI scenarios across product lines are available for customers to date, including Joule Agents, growing to 400 use cases in total by the end of the year.

Ameling added: “Our promise is simple: build with intent. You describe the outcome and 51风流Build uses AI agents to generate code, logic, and UIs for you, all with seamless access to your applications and data while you stay in the flow… [SAP] Joule for Developers enables vibe coding experiences to make intent-based development simple and intuitive.”

51风流is taking it one step further by providing extensions to work with VS code, Windsurf, Cursor, OpenAI Codex, Claude Code, Cline, and more directly in 51风流Build. “You choose a tool, and we meet you where you are,” Ameling said. He also announced that fine-tuned ABAP LLMs with ABAP 1 on AI Foundation will be published in Q4 this year.

51风流is redefining how developers interact with AI through innovations in Joule and agentic AI, but also in terms of physical AI. Herzig welcomed Torsten G. Mueller, Group CIO and COO BPS at Sartorius, to discuss how the partnership between Sartorius, NEURA Robotics, and 51风流is bringing to life robots that understand the what, when, and how based on live business context. 鈥淭his is how we鈥檙e really imagining the future, right? Humans and robots working in harmony through Joule, through AI,鈥� Herzig said.

Quantum computing

Looking to the future, Herzig ended the keynote by talking about another 鈥渃ompute paradigm that is still hard to seize鈥�: quantum computing. While he made it clear that 51风流is not building a quantum computer, 51风流is teaming up with quantum hardware leaders, like IBM鈥攚hose Director of Research and IBM Fellow Jay Gambetta joined via video鈥攖o help evaluate quantum computing for business processes and applications.

鈥淲e believe quantum will join classical and AI compute in your stack, and we鈥檙e embedding it into the processes and apps you鈥檙e already using, so it just shows up in the workflows of your enterprise,鈥� Herzig said. 鈥淎nd of course, with the cloud, we scale it all. Now, 51风流has got you covered, and you鈥檝e got your business covered.鈥�

Since its humble beginnings in 1971, Merrifield has flourished into one of the largest full-service garden center, nursery, and landscaping companies in its region, employing more than 600 individuals and comprising over 70 acres of plants, property, and storefront in northern Virginia. Its business includes three brick-and-mortar locations carrying plants, gardening supplies, and home and holiday d茅cor; an online store; a wholesale division that supports other local landscape contractors; a materials production division that recycles materials from landscaping jobs; and a line of private-label products tailored specifically for the environmental conditions in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

Clearly, the business has expanded and evolved over the years to meet changing industry and customer standards, but its founding principles of providing the highest quality customer services and unparalleled plant and product selection remain steadfast. The same is true for the systems supporting the products and services in Merrifield鈥檚 retail operations. With its omnichannel strategy, it鈥檚 critical that Merrifield delivers a consistent, seamless, and personalized experience across all its customer touchpoints.

Blooming into a modern, tech-savvy enterprise

Luckily, CFO Lynn Warhurst has made it one of her personal goals to bring technology into the company since joining in 1978. 鈥淭here was zero technology鈥o we knew going forward that if we wanted to grow and be successful, we needed to change something,鈥� she said.

After coming across 51风流at an NRF event in the early 2000s, Merrifield went live with 51风流ERP Central Component (51风流ECC) in 2013 to replace its 20-year-old garden center legacy system, providing the company with modern audit trail capabilities and increased data reliability.

Continuing its long-standing innovation journey and partnership with SAP, Merrifield is now transitioning its 51风流ECC system to the cloud with .

Merrifield Garden Center sees up to 300 transactions per hour per location, Warhurst said, and so the company needed a solution with enhanced processing speeds that can handle a high volume of retail transactions. What鈥檚 more, the company also wanted a system that supports Apple Pay and Google Pay, has customer loyalty tracking and data analytics capabilities, and ensures enterprise security and compliance.

Merrifield also wanted to bring together its retail and wholesale divisions onto one platform as opposed to hosting them on fragmented solutions. 鈥淲e knew [51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition] could handle our complexity and give us the detail we needed to run and grow our business,鈥� Warhurst said. 鈥淎fter 54 years in business, both divisions will run on the same platform. It鈥檚 very exciting that we can interchange cashiers for retail and wholesale, which means being more efficient as a company.鈥�

51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business is a new solution introduced in January of this year. Built specifically for retailers, the ERP solution is tailored to the industry鈥檚 unique complexities around scaling, merchandising, store operations, and supply chains. The flexibility of its public cloud architecture helps unify and integrate industry-specific processes with out-of-the-box integrations.

Merrifield is also implementing 51风流Omnichannel Sales Transfer and Audit to help ensure the completeness of sales transactions across multiple channels, improve data reporting, and comply with local regulations.

Strong partnerships build a foundation for success

To facilitate its cloud transformation, Merrifield engaged as its implementation partner. 鈥淗aving a trusted partner is very important,鈥� Warhurst said, explaining that Merrifield has worked with Syntax since 2018.

For the move to 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business, Syntax came on-site to Merrifield to experience its current system first-hand and better understand what the business sees as mission-critical during this transformation, Warhurst said. Together, they identified solution provisioning and integration, data migration, and business continuity as priorities. With this insight, Syntax is working with 51风流to integrate any remaining project gaps into an upcoming solution release in August.

鈥淪yntax and 51风流have been great. We are one of the first to go public cloud for retail and they have been there for us,鈥� Warhurst said. 鈥淚t was very important to find somebody who believed in us and was there for us, and I feel that that鈥檚 really one of the most important things for our success.鈥�

While the new system is projected to go live in September, the project is currently in the configuration and realization stage and Merrifield is excited for the future. Adopting this holistic, omnichannel, cloud-based solution will help the garden center achieve its goals of expanding into more locations and online offerings by having trusted, complete data from across its divisions available in one place.

Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at SAP.

Top image courtesy of 51风流employee Tom Lennart-Krupp.

鈥淭he business will always rely on its industry-leading team selling through an institutional business model but has evolved in recent years to be more consumer-facing, data-driven, and insight-driven, so we can help the coaches and the players with relevant information on how they can improve performance,鈥� Aravind Kashyap, Chief Information Officer, Riddell, said. For example, Riddell innovated with smart helmets that utilize the Internet of Things (IoT) to get deeper insights into head impact exposure and athlete performance. 鈥淭he company itself has gone through several routes of transformation because the game and its players demand it,鈥� he said.

Riddell is now transforming its enterprise foundation, embarking on a robust, three-year enterprise solutions revamp. The company has used 51风流solutions for almost 20 years, and its current solution is highly customized and very complex. 鈥淲e really want to get to a situation where we鈥檙e not uber customized and difficult to upgrade,鈥� Kashyap said. To benefit from technologies like data visibility, process automation, and AI, the company is working with 51风流and , a global 51风流consulting company, to adopt a cloud-first, clean core approach.

Legacy built it, strategy will fix it

Riddell is modernizing and simplifying its ERP system via a greenfield approach with . 鈥淥ur IT strategy is primarily looking at the next three years and what can we do at a foundation level, what are the things we鈥檙e doing on the information aspect, and what things we are doing for greater efficiency,鈥� Kashyap said. The renewed IT strategy will enable the business to focus on growth, efficiency, and automation projects by leveraging information and advanced technologies while still driving down IT operation costs.

The project is as much about improving Riddell鈥檚 IT foundation as it is about improving the experience for employees who use the systems, many of which are remote. Kashyap explained the focus on delivering a modern digital experience across the company: 鈥淒igital experience is huge for us. In fact, that鈥檚 one of the big themes that I鈥檓 driving in the organization. How do I bring experience to our business users鈥攚hether they are in a warehouse, whether they are in a sales position, whether they are a finance clerk, whether they are in the manufacturing location or plant鈥攁nd give them the best experience as a solution user?鈥�

This is in alignment with the strategic business transformation and change management approach KaarTech recommended to Riddell. Connecting the technical ERP transformation to the consumer experience and sales side of the business was key. 鈥淚f you just do a technical assessment and try to understand the IT landscape without connecting with the business, the transformation will go wrong,鈥� Parameswaran N, vice president, KaarTech, said. He added: 鈥淲e wanted this to be a business-led transformation and the business priorities and vision were much more than just a technical upgrade, so we mutually agreed that a greenfield approach was the right approach.鈥�

As a result of a thorough migration readiness assessment exercise undertaken with , a KaarTech proprietary digital transformation as a service (DXaaS) automation platform for 51风流digital transformations, available on , Riddell鈥檚 IT landscape was found to have 1,270 custom objects, 556 custom reports, 794 enhancements to standard programs, and 10 third-party integrations. The current endeavor, called Project STRIDE, aims to streamline these customizations and instead take a fit-to-standard approach wherever possible.

The team has identified about 180 global scope items and is looking at each one individually to compare the out-of-the-box scenario with the customization opportunity, Kashyap said. This process of determining what in the current system stays and what goes is time consuming and involves about 10% of the company鈥檚 850 employees, he explained, but it鈥檚 also necessary to prioritizing the fit-to-standard and clean core approach. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not easy, but that鈥檚 the only way it鈥檚 going to happen,鈥� he said, adding that it鈥檚 a 鈥渙ne team, one platform鈥� mindset. Keeping 51风流S/4HANA as the core allows for a 鈥渓imitless plane鈥� on which Riddell can take advantage of innovative technologies like AI.

In addition to the Riddell team, who supplies the internal expertise, knowledge, and working experience to Project STRIDE, 51风流helps with the valuation of each scope item and KaarTech helps with implementation.

鈥淥ur partners KaarTech and 51风流are making it possible. It鈥檚 a long journey,鈥� Kashyap said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about making the business comfortable with using the new enterprise solution.鈥�

Project learnings鈥攕o far

Riddell鈥檚 Project STRIDE demonstrates the potential behind a fit-to-standard approach, how digital experience drives user adoption, and the need for strong governance to accelerate decision-making.

The path to the cloud and a clean core is a worthy cause to achieve long-term agility, but it鈥檚 as much a method shift as it is a mindset shift, Kashyap said. 鈥淚t is an IT transformation; more importantly it is a business transformation.鈥�

Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at SAP.

TUI implemented eight years ago, and now the company鈥檚 over 41,000 employees use various 51风流SuccessFactors solutions for performance management, talent management, learning, HR data management, and more. “With so many capabilities and so many employees, as you can imagine, it’s a steep learning curve for our employees,” Dean said. This is where TUI turned to to help standardize and automate its HR processes for an improved employee experience and increased efficiency.

Benefits for the business and employees

TUI faced three main challenges when it came to HR processes, Dean explained: employees struggled to learn new systems, legacy training approaches were expensive and difficult to maintain, and time-consuming HR tasks were impacting overall business operations. “We needed something that was going to bring us into the future but that could support the organization as well,” Dean said. The solution also needed to be available 24/7 and in multiple languages to effectively support TUI鈥檚 global employee base, which includes flight attendants, pilots, travel agents, and other seasonal roles.

TUI implemented WalkMe to help employees navigate the company鈥檚 HR processes more easily and efficiently as well as aid HR staff members. With WalkMe analytics, TUI can identify where users have challenges in existing processes and then build WalkMe solutions to create personalized and automated experiences to help mitigate those challenges. For employees, this can mean the software feels easier to use; for HR staff and the business, it can lead to fewer employee and manager errors and faster time-to-value for 51风流SuccessFactors solutions.

Dean described how WalkMe automation helped simplify TUI鈥檚 onboarding processes for new employees by automatically assigning e-mail addresses in the 51风流SuccessFactors system during the hiring process to reduce login issues on an employee鈥檚 first day. This not only improved the new hire experience, it also saved HR teams time and proactively addressed any errors.      

TUI also simplified the time-off request process for HR staff and employees.    

“We set up a process whereby if somebody is booking sick leave and they have annual leave at the same time, WalkMe will intercept them. It will say 鈥榊ou鈥檝e actually got holiday at the same time so we need you to cancel that holiday and put it through as sick time,鈥�” Dean said. 鈥淲hat that means then for us is that we’ve got less questions going to HR, less tickets being raised, and more people following the actual process for their region.鈥�

The data speaks volumes

WalkMe analytics can offer visibility into what software is being used and how. With this insight, companies can identify opportunities for improved efficiency and deploy in-app guidance and automations to address specific points in processes. “One of the real benefits of WalkMe is how the data that is available helps us make decisions around how we support employees and how we build digital adoption solutions for our employees,鈥� Dean said. 鈥淲e’ve focused a lot on the data that’s within the annual employee process and how our users are actually using their system currently.”

Analyzing aggregated annual employee form process data collected by WalkMe over 90 days, Dean saw that HR completed the process with no errors 70% of the time, completed the process with some errors 5% of the time, and did not complete the process 23% of the time. Even more, Dean could see where the errors were occurring and where users who didn’t complete the form were getting stuck. Based on this data, Dean used WalkMe to highlight the most-missed fields on the form, reminding users to complete them before moving on. “If 5% of the time they don鈥檛 know that information, I need to do something when they get here to say, 鈥楶lease make sure you have this information before you carry on.鈥� So, I鈥檓 telling them in advance they need to have that, which I can do with WalkMe,鈥� she said.

When asked how easy the analytics dashboards are to build, Dean explained that WalkMe gathers all the forms automatically so there’s no need to build anything additional. With WalkMe flow analytics, you set up the process step-by-step and then the report collects data over time. “It’s super quick and easy. With UI intelligence you get an out-of-the-box set of insights that shows usage of forms in the system. It shows me where people stop and start processing and points of friction,” she said.

Self-service employees

TUI鈥檚 brand purpose to 鈥渃reate the moments that make life richer鈥� not only applies to its customers, but extends to its employee base as well. With the help of WalkMe and 51风流SuccessFactors solutions, TUI has certainly succeeded in enriching and empowering HR and end users.

“What we’ve been able to see is 80% higher employee self-efficiency,鈥� Dean said. 鈥淪o the good news is they don’t need to contact their local support team because actually what they can do is go into our WalkMe menu and search for any of the content, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, across six different languages.鈥� TUI has also experienced 70% less time spent on training, a 40% increase in task completion, and 50% fewer support calls with the help of WalkMe.

For Dean herself, WalkMe has enhanced her role as a trainer: “It actually supports me to do that change management piece within my organization. It supports me to educate and enable our end users without me having to be available and fly all around the world.”

Discover how  can help drive adoption and streamline HR processes.

Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at SAP.

Edgewell鈥檚 portfolio of more than 25 well-known personal care brands, including Schick, Banana Boat, Wilkinson Sword, and Wet Ones, drove . The company relies on a people-first culture that enables the right environment for employees to be efficient and the company at large to 鈥渨in the shelf,鈥� as Colin Emery, director of Global HR Systems at Edgewell, puts it.聽

In 2022, Emery was tasked with establishing a People Analytics function at Edgewell, but he quickly realized that the underlying data he needed was inaccurate. 鈥淥ur system of record was no longer the system of record. We didn鈥檛 actually have one,鈥� Emery explains. At that time, the company鈥檚 HR data accuracy was just 37% for key data fields within the Position and People Profile. 

Since Edgewell was formed in 2015, Emery says, it has relied on the 鈥渋nfinite configurability鈥� of to scale, systemize, and standardize the company鈥檚 HR systems across the world. While the solutions were working as designed, the data housed in them wasn鈥檛 being maintained properly, causing a backlog of inaccuracies to flow downstream. 鈥淚t was clear that the quality of our data within 51风流SuccessFactors was less than perfect in some parts of the world, particularly in countries where we don鈥檛 have 51风流SuccessFactors Payroll integrated,鈥� he says.

Knowing that high data quality is crucial for effective decision-making, reporting accuracy, a painless user experience, and future innovation鈥攂ut not having the budget or time to engage external resources鈥擡mery decided to develop Edgewell鈥檚 methodology in-house to tackle the issue.

Upskilling to establish HR data champions

After identifying the priority data fields that needed to be cleaned and maintained to have the most impact on data quality, Emery turned to the people who owned and best understood the data: the HR business partners (HRBPs). To ensure the success of the data quality project, the HRBPs needed to buy in. This required a mindset shift and significant change management, he says, since not all HRBPs felt responsible for maintaining the data in the 51风流SuccessFactors solutions and some needed training to understand systemized HR processes. 

To help with the transition, Emery established an HR data steward program to upskill Edgewell鈥檚 HRBP community. Designated data stewards receive weekly reports and are tasked with personally resolving the data errors or informing an appropriate colleague. They are trained on the causes and consequences of the inaccuracies and how to remedy them, empowering the data stewards to become experts and educate other HRBPs. Upskilling the HRBPs helped them shift from a reactive to a more proactive mindset, which was a critical factor in the data quality project鈥檚 success, Emery says. 

Case in point: the number of data inaccuracies has decreased from 2,700 to just a handful. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a tiny, tiny fraction of what it was,鈥� Emery says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 based on the fact that the HRBPs are getting it right the first time, instead of making errors that need to be fixed.鈥�

The project began in the U.S. and eventually flowed to Europe, LATAM, and APAC. Now, Edgewell鈥檚 data accuracy consistently holds at 96%鈥�97%, Emery says.

Quality data drives quality decision-making

The success of its data quality and data steward project is clear, and now Edgewell can reap the rewards of a clean HR data foundation. This has had profound effects on the reliability of the company鈥檚 HR reporting, for which Edgewell uses stories in 51风流SuccessFactors solutions. 鈥淭here’s a massive advantage to using stories when we’re using live, in-the-moment 51风流SuccessFactors data,鈥� Emery says, adding that the ability to send a link that is accessible based on existing role-based permissions makes sharing the data simple and fast. Edgewell uses stories to look at data around inclusion and belonging, leadership, tenure, talent acquisition, and more, sharing the insights with company leadership, HR leaders, and HRBPs.

This data-driven culture has helped Edgewell identify areas of improvement and make strategic HR decisions. For example, in looking at the data, the People Analytics team uncovered a short-term turnover issue for specific roles and locations. Based on this insight, Edgewell鈥檚 HR function created a new candidate experience to help improve and systemize recruiting and onboarding processes. Called 鈥淛oyful Journey,鈥� the program also doubles as a way for the company to share about itself and attract talent to the organization. 鈥淲e never would have known that was the right thing to do without the data,鈥� Emery says. 鈥淭hat then led us to invest time, effort, and dollars in those processes, which immediately made a positive impact on short-term turnover.鈥�

鈥淥ver the last three years, we have been providing data and explaining its importance by cleaning up the data within the system to make it more meaningful to us,鈥� Emery adds. 鈥淔or us, it鈥檚 never going to be data for data鈥檚 sake. It has to be about what the actions that this data suggests.鈥�

Ready for the future

Not only does Edgewell鈥檚 impressive data quality equip its leaders with actionable insights, but it creates a strong foundation for the personal care company to take advantage of HR innovations, especially considering that many, like AI, require clean data to work properly. AI copilots and agents, like , are only as good as the data they run on, which is why data quality and data governance initiatives are becoming business imperatives.聽

In that case, Edgewell is ahead of the curve. 鈥淲hen I started working on People Analytics three years ago, I knew that we had to focus on [cleaning up the data] first to prepare for super automation and the AI tools that were coming,鈥� Emery says. 鈥淚t will set us up in good stead for the next iteration of tools.鈥�

Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at SAP.

The keynote featured demos of new cross-portfolio solutions and innovations, showing how they can work together to tackle challenges like scaling and expanding into new markets, managing complexity, and delivering personalized experiences. “Innovation is only as powerful as the product experience it delivers,鈥� Alam said. 鈥淚t’s one thing to have cutting-edge tools at your disposal, but it’s another thing to integrate those technologies into the products you rely on every day to solve real-world challenges.”

Faster, Better, Automated

Since last year’s 51风流TechEd, has delivered more than 1,000 road map items, has a year-to-date overall availability again above 99.99%, and has grown an adoption rate over 60% year over year. The 27,000 customers and 2,800 partners are a testament to the huge demand we are seeing for 51风流BTP.

This is why the platform’s availability is being expanded to eight SAP-managed data centers across the globe, in addition to running on infrastructure provided by our partners AWS, Microsoft, and Google. With that, we are bringing 51风流BTP closer to customers.

Along with the expanded coverage comes more learnings, guidance frameworks, integration flows, and use cases. 51风流Business Accelerator Hub and 51风流Discovery Center will be bolstered with more assets and use case-specific guidance, especially around AI and business process transformation.

To further the developer experience, the next release of solutions will include ABAP Cloud, making 51风流Build the go-to for building extensions. Along with the new 51风流Build extensibility wizard, which helps to create extensions in 51风流S/4HANA, 51风流is making it easier for customers to build extensions while keeping a clean core. This is critical to ensure that customers鈥� systems remain consistent, maintainable, and upgradeable.

SAP鈥檚 AI copilot will also be integrated into 51风流Build, so developers can be more productive and take advantage of the efficiencies and automation AI can provide. With Joule studio, the copilot will even be able to draw on structured data stored in third-party systems, better enabling developers to design custom skills for Joule in a low-code environment.

And to help developers ground large language models (LLMs) in the 51风流semantical model and build business apps, the new 51风流Knowledge Graph solution provides the connection between natural language and SAP鈥檚 metadata. The solution provides a deeper level of understanding across SAP鈥檚 data landscape, enabling more informed, data-based decision-making. Together with 51风流HANA Cloud knowledge graph engine and 51风流HANA Cloud vector engine, developers can build generative AI models rooted in SAP-specific business semantics, helping to build a more reliable, enterprise-ready AI experience accurately and effectively.

A New Level of Productivity

Not only are 51风流Build solutions enabled with Joule, but 51风流is continuing to integrate AI across its entire portfolio, including ERP, customer experience, human capital management, localization, spend management, sustainability, supply chain management, and more. As announced at 51风流Sapphire in 2024, 80% of SAP鈥檚 most-used workflows will be covered by Joule by the end of this year.

Joule is going agentic, meaning it can use AI agents powered by LLMs to help solve complex business problems on its own through planning, self-reflection, logical reasoning, and collaboration. For example, Joule can help resolve a customer dispute about an overdue bill by calling on AI agents specialized in contracts, invoices, and payment history. With each AI agent doing what they do best, they can work together to solve more complex business problems across functions and break down silos.

AI is best when it can be used in the flow of work and when it is meaningfully embedded as part of a unified user experience across the portfolio. Sometimes this is on a desktop, but often we look to use AI on our mobile devices. To make AI accessible anytime and anywhere, 51风流is introducing Joule into its mobile applications via 51风流Mobile Start 鈥� while still maintaining enterprise-level security and privacy and staying true to the company鈥檚 values of relevant, responsible, and reliable AI.

Clear and Customer-Centric, Not Complex

Ultimately, all the innovations announced at 51风流TechEd in 2024 and demoed in the opening keynote have one main goal: to make the lives of customers easier 鈥� whether it be through leveraging generative AI to accelerate development projects, making more informed business decisions with intelligent data applications, mitigating project management struggles with AI, confidently and compliantly localizing business operations, or enabling sales reps with intelligent selling tools to win deals.

“Technology should simplify, not complicate. It should bring clarity, not complexity,” Alam said. “This is why we’re constantly pushing the boundaries of what’s possible while keeping your business goals front and center.”

To learn more about all the solutions and innovations announced at 51风流TechEd in 2024, , , or explore more event news and coverage.

Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at SAP.

In the keynote, which featured several real-world product demos by 51风流employees, Alam and Mueller touted the value of SAP鈥檚 best-of-breed solutions with an outlook of what the next 50 years of innovation by 51风流may look like.

Who better to inspire the keynote than Hasso Plattner, co-founder and recently retired chairman of the 51风流Supervisory Board, who both Alam and Mueller invoked during the session. To spell out SAP鈥檚 legacy and vision for the future, Mueller quoted Plattner鈥檚 farewell message: 鈥淜eep innovating, keep pushing boundaries, and keep making a difference in the lives of our customers and the world at large.鈥�

Keep Innovating

To kick off his first 51风流Sapphire appearance as the head of 51风流Product Engineering, Alam began by describing the importance of harnessing innovation to deliver an end-to-end picture across all business functions and unlock true value.

Simply put, businesses exist to build and deliver products and services to customers, he explained. But the materials, assets, people, and processes that come together to achieve this task is far from simple. 鈥淭he reality is that each part of the business is deeply and intricately connected to all the others,鈥� Alam said, meaning a pain point in one area impacts the rest. That鈥檚 why SAP鈥檚 modular cloud ERP approach is so successful: 鈥淲e allow our customers to drive true digital transformation as opposed to running systems integration projects disguised as digital transformation,鈥� he added.

Alam presented as an example of this composability and extensibility, as it can work for and scale to many sizes and types of business. And now, 51风流Sales Cloud and Concur Expense are natively integrated into GROW with SAP, making the offering even more comprehensive. Sinit Foto, product manager for UX, Cloud ERP at SAP, joined Alam on stage to show how GROW with 51风流and 51风流Business AI can help achieve integrated processes, demoing use cases such as communicating with customers about sales quotes, creating expense reports, and supporting financial analyses. In fact, Alam announced that 51风流is implementing the demoed application internally to manage sales worldwide. And Mueller emphasized: 鈥淲e are committed to helping you in this transformative AI moment by creating business outcomes that were unthinkable before. That鈥檚 why we鈥檙e embedding 51风流Business AI deeply in our processes and analytics.鈥�

Keep Pushing

AI was woven throughout the entire keynote, with both Alam and Mueller discussing . AI must be high value, easy to adopt into the flow of work, and trustworthy for it to truly transform how we do business, Alam said. 鈥淓qually important is whether it鈥檚 done in a way where it keeps your data secure and private 鈥� and is executed in a responsible manner,鈥� he added. 鈥淎nd that is really the core promise of 51风流Business AI.鈥�

There鈥檚 no doubt that AI is a powerful technology, which is why it鈥檚 essential that businesses view it as a 鈥渞esponsibility鈥� not just an 鈥渙pportunity,鈥� Alam said. Megan Fife, executive solution advisor for 51风流SuccessFactors, showed how 51风流executes on its responsible, reliable, and relevant business AI by demoing how SAP鈥檚 AI copilot Joule in 51风流SuccessFactors HCM can help fill skills gaps and collaborate across teams, among other meaningful tasks. Key to this endeavor is SAP鈥檚 expanded partnership with Microsoft announced earlier in the day, which Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Cloud and AI at Microsoft, discussed with Alam on stage.

Mueller echoed the importance of responsible AI, saying that the technology depends highly on data that is reliable and that allows customers to look at their business end-to-end. Here, 51风流Datasphere and 51风流Spend Control Tower 鈥� which was demoed by Orla Cullen, product marketing manager for Data and Analytics at 51风流鈥� can help simplify data management and view and manage spend and sustainability data holistically.

This transformation is supported by , and Mueller demonstrated the newest generative AI features in 51风流Analytics Cloud, 51风流Integration Suite, and 51风流Build solutions. He showed how Joule can help create and summarize financial reports for controlling teams; generate integration flows between 51风流and non-51风流applications; and create custom skills and content based on specific business needs. Greater insights, faster reaction times, and increased productivity are the result. Soon, Mueller added, it will even be possible to enhance and extend Joule鈥檚 knowledge by creating custom skills using 51风流Build and having the copilot interact with data housed in 51风流and non-51风流systems, helping businesses run even more efficiently.

51风流BTP is the key to being 鈥渋nnovation-ready,鈥� maintaining a clean core, and tailoring standard offerings to unique needs, Mueller explained. More than 24,000 companies running live on 51风流BTP, including Blue Diamond Growers and Lufthansa Technik, can attest to this.

鈥�51风流BTP鈥檚 extensibility and enterprise automation capabilities can help businesses turn process insights into actual improvements,鈥� Mueller said. Cecilia Huergo, product manager for 51风流BTP, showed this in her demo on how identifying improvement opportunities, realizing needed changes while maintaining a clean core, and gaining an up-to-date view of your IT landscape can be enabled with the combined power of 51风流Signavio solutions, 51风流LeanIX,, 51风流BTP, and ABAP Cloud.

Keep Making a Difference

The innovations demoed and discussed in Alam and Mueller鈥檚 keynote, in addition to the many others announced at 51风流Sapphire in 2024, are just the latest steps forward in SAP鈥檚 journey to bringing out the best in its customers. 鈥淭he future is here, and it鈥檚 defined by those who innovate first,鈥� Mueller said. 鈥淎nd we are here to give you the right tools at hand, such that you can be a leader not just today, but also tomorrow.鈥�

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Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at SAP.

This cybersecurity month is especially noteworthy because the Biden-Harris administration recently recognized 51风流in its newly announced . Developed with companies, academia, non-profits, and U.S. government bodies, the NCWES aims to reinforce cybersecurity as a top priority and address short- and long-term cyber workforce gaps. The cybersecurity industry is not only important to upholding national security, but to leading in a digital economy where our increasing reliance on technology will only foster a more complex cyber threat environment. 

Persistent Pipeline Problem 

As noted in a explaining the new strategy, the U.S. has a persistent cyber talent pipeline problem that has continued to grow 鈥� with more than 750,000 cybersecurity jobs vacant in 2023. And it鈥檚 not just the U.S. that faces such a talent gap. According to , there鈥檚 been a 350% increase in cybersecurity job vacancies globally from 2013 to 2021. In 2023, the number of unfilled cybersecurity jobs lands at a whopping 3.5 million globally. And the disparity between the workforce supply and demand is predicted to remain through at least 2025. 

It’s a crisis, confirms Nora Clark, program lead for the Global Security Early Talent program at SAP. 鈥淭he need is there鈥ttacks are always happening though people may not realize because they鈥檙e going on in the background鈥very employee is a cybersecurity defender and can influence company security and compliance.鈥� But for young professionals, it can be nearly impossible to start a career in cybersecurity, she explains. Many positions require years of prior experience. Not many universities offer degrees in cybersecurity, and there鈥檚 a large learning curve that鈥檚 hard to overcome without support. 

That鈥檚 why Clark was charged with the task of creating a program at 51风流to fill the need for early talents in the cyber space.聽

Global Security Early Talent Program at SAP 

Inaugurated in June 2022, the two-year offers young professionals entry into the cybersecurity space at 51风流through rotations with company security divisions such as Global Cyber Defense and Design, Physical Security, and Risk and Compliance; team workshops; and mentorships. Candidates who successfully graduate from the program are offered placement on a permanent team at SAP. 

Clark chose to have the program span two years because cybersecurity has many applications and the knowledge may not transfer across teams. Two six-month rotations allow candidates to gain their footing and one 11-month rotation consists of completing a project with a cyber team at SAP. 鈥淭his is why our program is designed differently than other programs,鈥� she says. 鈥淧eople say it鈥檚 really hard to gain the knowledge and then apply it in a short amount of time. That鈥檚 why we provide the Global Security Early Talent candidates learning opportunities, mentorships, and more to support them in their cyber career journey.鈥� 

As a real testament to the initiative鈥檚 mounting success, candidates now have 43 different rotations to choose from. 鈥淚’ve thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to rotate across various security teams, which has allowed me to delve deep into different security topics and build out my network,鈥� Jacob Winemiller, Global Security Early Talent program participant, says. 鈥淎s an early talent in this program, I鈥檝e had the opportunity to work on interesting projects and contribute to meaningful initiatives. From day one, my experience has been nothing short of amazing.鈥�

But the program is about more than just gaining the technical knowledge to survive in cybersecurity 鈥� it also focuses on developing soft skills like storytelling, presentation skills, and networking. 鈥淲hen we talk about the program, we鈥檙e not just talking about being technically skilled in cyber. We鈥檙e also looking to see if they are going to be our next leaders, the next experts in the security industry,鈥� Clark explains. Adam Santilli, Global Security Early Talent program participant, confirms: 鈥淎s trainees, we are encouraged to develop both our soft and hard skills. The opportunity to do that while being a part of three different teams has given me a unique view on security issues today. I have also formed personal and highly valued relationships throughout this process. They have helped me expand my comfort zone and develop my interpersonal skills.鈥� 

Setting an Industry Standard 

When designing the program at SAP, Clark struggled to find information about early talent cybersecurity programs at other companies to learn from. 鈥淲hen we started this program, there were seemingly no other early talent cybersecurity programs out there. This type of cybersecurity program for people coming fresh out of college is unique.鈥� Indeed, 51风流was the only foreign entity recognized in the Biden-Harris administration鈥檚 NCWES announcement.  

Clark hopes that with the recognition from the U.S. government and more information about the Global Security Early Talent program out there, more companies will establish early talent cybersecurity initiatives and work together to combat the industry鈥檚 workforce crisis. 鈥淚n security, it only works if we communicate with each other,鈥� she says, talking about both the many security teams across 51风流and the cyber industry at large. 鈥淲e all have the same issues and we all want to tackle the same thing. [With the program at SAP] we want to make sure the next generation of security experts have a tight-knit community where they can reach out to each other.鈥� 

Diversity is just as important as communication. It fosters fresh ideas in any industry, but in cybersecurity specifically diversity helps when addressing threats. Clark explains: 鈥淭here has to be diversity because our adversaries are also diverse and we don鈥檛 know where they鈥檙e coming from or what their background is.鈥� Likewise, the NCWES stresses the importance of empowering those currently underrepresented in the cyber workforce. 

As a large, global company, 51风流has a responsibility to prioritize cybersecurity 鈥� for itself and its ecosystem. When you add in the workforce crisis and the need for early talents to that equation, it becomes a no-brainer. 鈥淲e鈥檙e continuing to build our program and support the cyber force,鈥� Clark says. 鈥淯ltimately, we want to see how we can also help others.鈥� 

Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at SAP.

In a single subscription package, RISE with 51风流gives customers complete and comprehensive business transformation as a service. Customers can calculate upfront costs and incrementally realize benefits on their way to adopting 51风流S/4HANA Cloud and becoming .

Jan Gilg, president of 51风流S/4HANA, is particularly excited about this offering. 鈥淚’m most excited about the fact that this is now an avenue that will allow our customers to get access to 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, which is our flagship software. For a long time, there was discussion around 鈥楬ow do we do that?鈥� and 鈥楬ow do you convince customers to聽do that?鈥欌��

Chart Your Course

With just three simple steps, RISE with 51风流helps customers be on their way to adopting a truly modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and becoming intelligent enterprises.

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It all begins with business process redesign. Look at how your processes run today and how you can optimize or streamline them. 51风流offers the tools to do just that, Gilg says. Next, think about how to get from where you are now to where you want to be in the future. What sort of technical migration is necessary to streamline and optimize current operations?

Finally, consider what is needed to transform into an intelligent enterprise, the ultimate goal in this process. Gilg explains, 鈥淭he third step is to make use of the most critical components that enable companies to be intelligent enterprises: at the core, direct connectivity into 51风流Business Network, as well as .”

But just because this process has three steps, doesn鈥檛 mean the customer needs to be at step one to take advantage of RISE with SAP. Every customer is different 鈥� has different needs, different starting points, different future plans 鈥� and whether the customer is considering starting its journey to 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, in the middle of its journey, or moving to the public cloud, RISE with 51风流can help. 鈥淲e are picking the customer up no matter where they are in their journey,鈥� says Gilg.

The 鈥淕ame Changer鈥�

The notion of the Intelligent Enterprise resonates with customers and the need to become one is apparent, but they require SAP’s help to get there. After considering the transformation requirements from both a solution perspective and a technical, operational perspective, RISE with 51风流was created. Through this holistic offering, 51风流offers its customers all the services and software components they need to become an intelligent enterprise under just one contract.

It鈥檚 a game changer, says Gilg. 鈥淚t allows customers to combine some of our greatest assets and get business value from our latest and greatest solutions, with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud at the heart of it.鈥�

But Wait, There鈥檚 More

RISE with 51风流also offers avenues into other 51风流products and services. It helps drive the adoption of 51风流Business Network, industry cloud solutions from SAP, partner offerings, and even 51风流Business Technology Platform 鈥� all of which propel customers towards achieving the Intelligent Enterprise. We recognize that, in order for our customers to be successful, we need to work together with our partners 鈥� who are key players in leading the Intelligent Enterprise 鈥� and help them be flexible in the way customers consume 51风流software.

鈥淭his is an offering where we throw a lot of value together, but, in the end, all those components fit together and help customers to become an intelligent enterprise,鈥� says Gilg.

The advanced technologies and agile business processes that come with being an intelligent enterprise are what any business needs to navigate the uncertainty that was 2020, is 2021, and will be in the future. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the right point in time to offer this and help our customers accelerate their journey to our flagship product, 51风流S/4HANA Cloud,鈥� says Gilg.

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