But what happens when the bill comes due, so to speak, from local jurisdictions? How may a business transact commerce globally while adhering to an emerging set of electronic-invoicing requirements that differ among countries?

Global visibility across multiple tiers of the supply chain

As global supply chains weather shifting tariff policies, geopolitical tensions, and climate events, business leaders have turned to cloud-based business networks to instill operational resilience, extend transparency, and foster collaboration. The convergence of data, applications, and artificial intelligence capabilities enable businesses to manage supply chains, procurement, logistics, asset maintenance, working capital, dynamic discounting, and other crucial interdependencies with comprehensive reach. Yet just as digital platforms foster connected commerce, they also facilitate regulatory oversight of the very same activity. That which simplifies business processes can at the same time invite complexity in the regulations governing them, particularly when the fine print varies by jurisdiction. Call it a paradox of procurement, or an irony of the intelligent enterprise.

The proliferation of legislation mandating electronic invoicing reflects a desire on the part of governments to bolster tax compliance, streamline financial reporting, combat fraud, and document the ethical sourcing of product components. To aid with compliance in the jurisdictions where they transact, can support buyers and suppliers alike with the necessary workflows for invoice generation, submission, receipt, and storage鈥攁ll while safeguarding otherwise confidential data. Our prioritizes business-to-business collaboration by providing localization support for 41 countries, tailoring requested data to required format, and connecting businesses directly with trading partners and tax authorities. 51风流Business Network can integrate seamlessly with government electronic-invoicing portals through partners as well as through .

Electronic-invoicing capabilities take shape around emerging legislation

Already in 2026, new electronic-invoicing mandates have taken effect in , , and , with the and set to follow suit later in the year. Though it takes shape differently around the world, the trend toward electronic invoicing is unmistakable. Requirements range from periodic reporting to continuous transparency, from preapproval of transactions by tax authorities to notification after the fact, from country-specific formats to , and so on. In India, Malaysia, and Romania, for example, suppliers must clear invoices with tax authorities, whereas in Belgium, Germany, and Japan invoices must conform to a particular format. In France and the United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, a specific platform or network must be engaged. requires businesses to issue and receive invoices via its Sistema di Interscambio (SDI) platform, using a country-specific XML format called FatturaPA. By contrast, permits UBL, CII, and ZUGFeRD formats but takes an ambivalent approach as to method of transmission.

For each of these countries, 51风流Business Network can provide a solution. Connectivity to Italy鈥檚 SDI portal is natively embedded, obviating any need for additional licensing. For Germany, invoices sent through 51风流Business Network arrive in the UBL format. Organizations with a license for the cloud edition of the can even receive invoices originating outside 51风流Business Network, such as via e-mail or the pan-European Peppol procurement system.

Not only can 51风流Business Network accommodate the different formats set into law, but other invoicing attributes as well. Consider the obligation to archive. In Germany, invoices must be kept on hand for eight years. In France, it鈥檚 a decade. Elsewhere, mandates vary or may not apply. 51风流Business Network offers the flexibility to match business rules, or the parameters set by organizations within which transactions may proceed with trading partners, to all manner of regulatory requirements. This can prove especially valuable with orchestrating documents and processes that span sourcing, procurement, and finance鈥攃orporate functions that, prior to the advent of cloud-based networks, had often operated in relative isolation. 51风流Business Network can also provide businesses with the end-to-end visibility and鈥攅qually important鈥攖he analytics to assess performance, gauge against benchmarks, and identify opportunities for growth and collaboration.

For the emerging set of electronic-invoicing mandates across the globe and other compliance-related processes, . That鈥檚 because no matter where commerce takes place or in which local currency, C-suite leaders understand one thing is priceless: peace of mind. Only a cloud-based network supple enough to carry out operational processes on a global scale yet sufficiently nimble to adhere strictly to electronic-invoicing requirements and other regulations that typically arise on a national level can instill the confidence that businesses need to thrive in these turbulent times.

Learn how 51风流Business Network can by streamlining business processes, increasing visibility, and connecting to new buyers.

J枚rn Keller is executive vice president and chief product officer for 51风流Business Network.

Visibility has always been essential for navigating uncertainty in business-to-business commerce. Yet it is also insufficient. After all, what good is merely seeing across the various tiers of the supply chain if a business lacks the ability to identify available alternatives, shift course immediately, and counter disruption before it impinges on the balance sheet?

At , our customers and partners had an extraordinary opportunity to explore our latest 51风流Business Network innovations鈥攁nd the generative and agentic AI solutions that are rapidly reshaping enterprises鈥� ability to extend N-tier visibility and take the decisive actions necessary to preserve the smooth flow of operations from the dual threats of volatility and risk.

To strengthen every link in the supply chain, businesses need to connect their mission-critical operational processes with those of their trading partners. Doing so enables them to achieve transparency, foster collaboration, drive efficiency, and maximize customer satisfaction. Through the vast troves of operational data that millions of trading partners accumulate in the routine course of day-to-day operations, 51风流Business Network鈥攖he world鈥檚 largest business-to-business platform鈥攊s uniquely positioned to help business leaders orchestrate their supply chains for success, no matter the circumstances.

Today, 51风流helps our customers to accomplish these objectives with a suite of AI-infused supply chain management applications鈥攁ll of them integrated with ERP and adjacent line-of-business applications to connect seamlessly with trading partners. By applying advanced analytics, operational insights, predictive signals, and recommended actions derived from both internal and external data sources, 51风流Business Network has set in motion an increasingly autonomous supply chain.

The innovations underlying it, meanwhile, are accelerating.

To further distinguish 51风流as the leader in enabling supply chain orchestration, I am extremely excited that in the first half of 2026 we will deliver a new product to help provide enterprises with capabilities for issue detection, insight, and action across their supply chains. Aptly called 51风流Supply Chain Orchestration, this new solution will help deliver N-tier insights and transform external and internal signals across supply chains into prioritized actions. These capabilities will rest on the 51风流Business Network foundation, drawing upon master data as well as native AI solutions to help orchestrate workflows and dramatically expand visibility across every tier of the supply chain.

51风流Supply Chain Orchestration can equip our customers with the tools and inference-driven insights they need to help mitigate multi-tier risk, enhance compliance, and bolster decision-support. The goal is to head off disruption before it arises鈥攁nd to offer our customers one of the most elusive yet priceless advantages that anybody can have in these turbulent times: peace of mind.

That鈥檚 why our customers entrust so many of their core operational processes to 51风流Business Network in the first place: for peace of mind, for resilience, for enduring value. Our strategy to deepen that value takes root in our ongoing transition to 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP), working to provide faster speeds, easier integration, faster collaboration, and continuous innovation on a grand scale, across industries. Our vision takes shape through intelligent applications, network convergence, and unmatched extensibility. Our priority to accelerate the value we make available to suppliers on the network finds example through our innovations that help simplify e-invoicing, expand automation, and facilitate discoverability by new potential trading partners. All these strategic elements take center stage in our product strategy, each of them strengthened by the unmatched generative and agentic AI capabilities that customers and partners have come to rely on from 51风流in our quest to make the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives.

Couldn鈥檛 join us in Las Vegas? Check out the Supply Chain Connect at 51风流Connect Virtual keynote session, 鈥�,鈥� presented by Dominik Metzger, president and chief product officer, 51风流Supply Chain Management.

J枚rn Keller is executive vice president and chief product officer for 51风流Business Network.

Amid the ongoing stresses to global supply chains exerted by tariffs, geopolitical tensions and the proliferation of mandates in many countries regarding electronic invoicing and materials traceability, how can organizations best deploy cloud-based business networks and artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to extend visibility, steady the flow of commerce, and mitigate third-party risk?

To instill resilience throughout mission-critical operations and those of their trading partners, businesses are turning increasingly to AI-powered cloud solutions to orchestrate complex, often volatile, supply chains. But the sheer volume of transactions and rigor of processing across vast troves of underlying data require that digital commerce be anchored within an infrastructure durable enough to withstand today鈥檚 pace of change yet supple enough to sustain tomorrow鈥檚 scope of innovation.

That is why some of the most significant innovation underway for , the world鈥檚 largest business-to-business platform, involves its ongoing move to (51风流BTP), a shift with profound implications for 51风流customers and their ability to counter disruption.

The cloud-native architecture of 51风流BTP optimizes collaboration and innovation capabilities for organizations large and small, and the platform offers the scalability that 51风流Business Network customers and their trading partners require to perform at their peak as business needs evolve. With its high-performing infrastructure, 51风流BTP ensures seamless connectivity not only between 51风流Business Network and other 51风流solutions but across third-party systems as well.

Meanwhile, as differing regulatory regimes for electronic invoicing and materials traceability take effect in various countries, the built-in security and compliance features of 51风流BTP ensure that businesses can manage multi-tier supply chains while adhering strictly to regional requirements. In addition, ongoing innovation to 51风流Business Network takes full advantage of extensive AI capabilities in 51风流BTP to automate complex workflows and securely augment applications with agentic capabilities.

Facilitating carries the obligation that a business network continually earn anew the trust of the enterprises that rely on it for operational continuity, data security, decision-support quality, and regulatory compliance.

For 51风流Business Network, this means reinvesting on a regular basis in the architecture and infrastructure necessary to accelerate the speed of transactions, responsiveness to up-to-the-minute fluctuations in supply and demand, scalability to support business growth, streamlined integration across 51风流and non-51风流systems, greater extensibility and deeper functionality, an intuitive user interface that reduces complexity and friction, and the most advanced, AI-augmented analytics capabilities available anywhere.

The ongoing transition for 51风流Business Network to 51风流BTP accomplishes all of the above. Over the long run, however, the change that customers are likely to appreciate most is the ease with which they can innovate alongside their trading partners and shape new business models through the insights harnessed by AI applications drawing upon sprawling repositories of accumulated day-to-day operational data.

While 51风流Business Network upgrades its platform, it continues to innovate with several new capabilities announced at 51风流Sapphire. To provide additional support for product compliance and quality control, is introducing these features:

• Mass upload of certificate documents: Suppliers can now bulk upload quality and compliance certificates directly within the advance shipping notification (ASN) upload template at the line-item level, significantly reducing manual effort and improving data accuracy
• Buyer-controlled document mandates: Buyers can specify which type of certifications are required for each purchase order, automatically enforcing compliance and quality standards while streamlining the process

These capabilities simplify the tracking of critical certifications, including sustainability credentials, carbon footprint documentation, and industry-specific certifications. Benefits include improved compliance, reduced delays, enhanced process adoption, and improved traceability, thus supporting regulatory compliance and sustainability goals throughout the supply chain.

To enhance supply chain efficiency and sustainability, is introducing these features:

• Enhanced greenhouse gas emissions tracking: Integration of actual emissions data from carriers and logistics service providers into , enabling planned versus actual analysis, marks a crucial step toward capturing and analyzing data from external sources
• Extended ocean freight support: New ocean tendering and dispute handling functionalities within 51风流Transportation Management are essential as the global container shipping market is to around US$15.87 billion in 2028

To strengthen the ability of operators, manufacturers, and service providers to manage equipment and other physical assets via a digital network for resiliency and transparency, is introducing these features:

• Cloud-based ERP integration: Users can now initiate and manage ERP integration directly from the cloud, offering greater control over data synchronization
• Enhanced material and model integration: Bi-directional integration of materials and models between 51风流Business Network Asset Collaboration and ERP systems
• Inbound integration for shared functional locations: Synchronizing shared functional locations to improve collaboration between operators and service providers
• Asset administration shell (AAS) file upload for equipment creation: Automate equipment creation and associated document management through AAS file uploads, reducing manual data entry
• Quality inspection checklists: By the integration of checklists into 51风流Business Network Asset Collaboration, operators can share their inspection checklists and characteristics with service providers, who can in turn record the results for the operator

All of these enhancements are scheduled to be available by the end of 2025, offering businesses across industries the opportunity to transform their supply chain operations, drive sustainability initiatives, and attain new heights in efficiency, visibility, and competitive advantage.

J枚rn Keller is executive vice president and chief product officer for 51风流Business Network.

But what exactly is data federation? And why does it hold so much promise for customers in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere?

To counter the ever-present threat to global supply chains posed by disruption鈥攚hether arising from geopolitical conflict, labor unrest, financial crisis, natural disaster, or other upheaval鈥攂usinesses are turning increasingly to cloud-based solutions to extend visibility and instill resilience across their operations and those of their trading partners, particularly when managing supply chains, logistics, and dispersed capital equipment or other mission-critical assets. Yet just as businesses must assess risk on an international scale to stay competitive, they also must comply with a burgeoning set of regulations around the world requiring operational data to reside physically within a nation鈥檚 borders. By applying cloud-based solutions, businesses can transact commerce through global digital networks while adhering strictly to regional data residency requirements through an approach known as data federation.

Data federation permits operational information from disparate sources to be accessed and updated as though it resided in a single, unified location. Instead of moving or copying data from one system to another, federation provides users with real-time access unburdened by duplication.

Federation becomes crucial when an organization must unify its data across different storage platforms while ensuring the integrity and security of the underlying operational sources. This becomes particularly vital for companies with complex data architectures, whose data may reside in 51风流systems, cloud data lakes, or third-party applications. Data federation brings multiple advantages, especially in hybrid or multi-cloud environments, including global access, cost efficiency, unified governance and security, and faster time to insights.

But the advantages extend still further. With the launch of our KSA data center, 51风流Business Network core services have been deployed. This includes multilingual support, such as proficiency with languages read right-to-left like Arabic, and a Federated Trading Partner Index Service for routing transactions between different data centers. Saudi customers can thus adhere to local data privacy regulations while retaining the ability to collaborate and transact with trading partners around the world.

Why Is This Important?

With the deployment of 51风流Business Network in the KSA data center, public sector or critical national infrastructure (CNI) customers and prospects in KSA can rest assured that regulations have been followed strictly, allowing these organizations to transact on 51风流Business Network for Logistics and 51风流Business Network Asset Collaboration. Data federation helps ensure that trading partners can find each other, regardless of where they may be registered.

What鈥檚 Next?

The deployment of 51风流Business Network for Logistics and 51风流Business Network Asset Collaboration for Saudi customers in the public and critical national infrastructure sectors, for whom data federation is crucial, marks only the initial step. Later this year, both products will become available for private-sector customers in KSA as well. and will also be deployed in the KSA data center in coming quarters. Meanwhile, 51风流will continue to expand its data center footprint and data federation program across the globe, with the expansion of 51风流Business Network capabilities throughout 2025 and beyond.

For information on 51风流Business Network and how we are equipping enterprises with business AI and related capabilities needed to instill resilience, counter disruption, and foster collaboration, visit and .

J枚rn Keller is chief product officer for 51风流Business Network.

Beneath the glow of its famed neon lights, the city is set to play host to the world鈥檚 premier spend management conference, where 51风流will showcase the increasingly vital role played by AI-enabled cloud solutions in shaping the flow of business-to-business commerce 鈥� and in ensuring the transparency needed for trading partners to foster collaboration, gauge sustainability, and bolster resilience throughout global supply chains.

To carry out business processes with confidence and continuity amid uncertain market conditions 鈥� from procurement and supply chain to logistics and asset management 鈥� organizations rely on an unending stream of data amassed through the routine course of operations. A firm鈥檚 growth prospects typically correlate with its access to such data, both its own and that of its trading partners. The higher the quality of that data, the more valuable the insights it contains, particularly when analyzed by emerging AI capabilities. At a time when operational data increasingly determines competitive advantage, businesses have turned to cloud-based networks to harness its potential. Operational data has thus become one of the most precious resources in any organization.

Of course, successful businesses have always set themselves apart by access to scarce resources. But did you know the same holds true for world-class cities as well?

Settled in 1905 as a rail link between Salt Lake City and Los Angeles, the sleepy stopover known as Las Vegas was an unlikely candidate to become a century hence. Limited in arable land, much of the region lay fallow in the early twentieth century. But with the opening in 1936 of the Hoover Dam only 50 kilometers to the southeast, a city was born and a spectacular growth story begun. The world鈥檚 largest public works project of its day, construction of the dam required 21,000 workers to excavate 4.2 million cubic meters of rock, lay 937 kilometers of pipe, and pour 3.5 million cubic meters of concrete 鈥� enough to pave a highway stretching from Lisbon to Lapland.

Completed more than two years ahead of schedule in the depths of the Great Depression, the Hoover Dam soars 221 meters over the Colorado River, irrigating 1 million hectares of farmland in California, Arizona, and Nevada. It provides drinking water for urban centers including Phoenix, Tucson, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas and produces 4 billion kilowatt-hours of sustainable hydroelectric power annually for millions of homes and businesses across the southwestern U.S.

For nearly nine decades, the Hoover Dam has served as a conduit through which water and electricity flow in abundance, giving rise to a thriving city synonymous with legendary entertainment, a resplendent skyline, and limitless opportunity. For its part, too is a conduit for exponential growth. But the precious resource it distributes is operational data, and its beneficiaries are the millions of trading partners that conduct business through its enterprise applications augmented by .

Powerful business networks, not unlike mighty hydroelectric dams, represent marvels of engineering, feats of architecture, and transformative solutions to formidable operational challenges. With this in mind, I鈥檓 hard pressed to think of a more fitting backdrop to spotlight our latest 51风流Business Network innovations than the gleaming city of Las Vegas and the vivid growth story it embodies. Please join us there for , where we鈥檒l explore how customers are countering disruption, extending visibility, reducing costs, infusing sustainability, and strengthening resilience throughout their interconnected operations and those of their trading partners. We鈥檒l devote extensive discussion to the broadening set of capabilities within 51风流Business Network鈥檚 trading partner experience, aimed at optimizing value for all of the disparate parties engaged in business-to-business transactions. You can bet on an engaging, enlightening set of sessions led by peers; and I hope to see you there.

J枚rn Keller is executive vice president and chief product officer of 51风流Business Network.

But in reality, some functions are much better suited than others to gain from AI. The deeper the reservoir of data associated with an operational process 鈥� and the broader the sharing of that data not only within an organization but among its trading partners as well 鈥� the greater the potential for AI to bolster collaborative capabilities, instill operational resilience, and unlock exponential value.

By facilitating the convergence of trading partners鈥� operational data, cloud-based networks strengthen transparency and foster collaboration across interconnected processes such as procurement, supply chain, logistics, and asset management. The vast troves of data accumulated from these functions 鈥� and the insights they reveal 鈥� bear significant implications for forecasting demand, planning inventory, sourcing components, procuring labor, maximizing utilization, managing logistics, gauging sustainability, achieving compliance, and securing financing. Yet the sheer volume of such data, sometimes spanning billions or more transactions, can defy human interpretation in the quest to optimize decision-making.

That鈥檚 where artificial intelligence comes in.

As the world鈥檚 largest B2B collaboration platform, facilitates hundreds of millions of transactions per year, capturing a unified, end-to-end view of spend. So prodigious is the cloud-based network鈥檚 volume 鈥� exceeding US$5.3 trillion in commerce annually, greater than the gross domestic product of every nation except the United States and China 鈥� that, through innovations in predictive and technologies, 51风流Business Network is transforming procurement, supply chain, logistics, asset management, and related operational processes, with the goal that every business runs as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise.

The cloud is uniquely fit for the task of delivering simplicity within a many-to-many network of trading partners. A network鈥檚 features, from its search functionality to the matching of buyers with suggested suppliers, must aid the dual goals of transparency and ease of use. Predictive and generative AI capabilities augment businesses鈥� ability to discover trading partners on the basis of complementary resources, mutual value, and strategic alignment. With every successive use, generative AI sharpens its ability to anticipate operations professionals鈥� requirements to match supply with demand. Meanwhile, AI helps businesses to automate their most time-consuming procurement and supply chain activities through predictive mechanisms as well, hastening the ability to arrive at better, more informed decisions. When applied to the broadest possible sets of operational data, AI removes the guesswork from business-to-business commerce and replaces it with new leads, renewed confidence, and resilient supply chains.

With these objectives in mind, 51风流Business Network is transforming its powerful discovery functionality into a simple chat prompt this year. Also in 2024, generative AI will enable 51风流Business Network to create catalog content based on existing data in the network, detect potential errors within invoices, and obtain quote requests from buyers via natural-language, on-screen dialogue with matched suppliers. Integrating AI capabilities into 51风流Business Network thus promises to reshape the trading partner experience by enabling buyers to reach far more suppliers with precision for the specific goods and services they produce. Trading partners large and small benefit equally from the increased flow of accurate, detailed, and complete information identifying each other鈥檚 offerings and competitive advantages.

As AI technologies take shape and mature, infusing intelligence natively into business processes, digital commerce platforms are certain to introduce many enhanced capabilities. Naturally, with its scale and history of innovation, you can expect 51风流Business Network to lead the way. But you鈥檒l know the moment that artificial intelligence has truly transformed enterprise software when its features subtly blend in, almost imperceptibly, to simplify everyday operational processes, making business applications more intuitive and predictive for trading partners. That is our vision for AI at 51风流Business Network, where the intelligence may be increasingly artificial but the commitment to customer success is invariably genuine.

For further information on 51风流Business Network and how we are equipping enterprises with AI and other digital tools needed to counter disruption, visit and .

J枚rn Keller is executive vice president and chief product officer of 51风流Business Network.

Meanwhile, as legislation to bolster transparency in supply chains , the digital platforms through which trading partners carry out interconnected operational processes have become indispensable for managing risk, advancing sustainability objectives, and verifying adherence to ethical business practices 鈥� even as volatility in international commerce gathers pace.

After rebounding from several years of logjammed seaports, idled factories, and quarantined workers, many businesses find that though COVID-19 has receded, disruption stubbornly persists. Yet visibility across all aspects of the supply chain 鈥� from sourcing raw materials and managing logistics capacity to securing working capital solutions and managing dispersed physical assets 鈥� remains paramount in the quest to ensure business continuity, instill operational resilience, and deepen competitive advantage.

To help provide businesses with the 360-degree visibility and collaborative capabilities they require across complex trading relationships, 51风流Business Network can connect people, processes, and systems across multiple enterprises to help digitize transactions, harness data-driven insights, and create transparent, resilient, and sustainable supply chains. Through , trading partners can gain process efficiencies, improve supply assurance, and achieve business process and regulatory compliance by increasing operational transparency. With , companies can achieve supply chain visibility by enabling plan-driven automation, optimizing capacity and inventory, and streamlining workflow. Aided by , shippers and carriers can work together in unison, track and trace goods in transit, and achieve transparency throughout the supply chain by optimizing logistics processes, increasing on-time deliveries, and mitigating third-party risk. Relying on , owners, operators, and service providers can strengthen joint processes and the flow of shared information through a single, consistent version of asset master data to help streamline asset maintenance processes and reduce maintenance costs. With the benefit of , trading partners can enhance payment security, free up working capital through early-payment discounts, and leverage access to capital bound up in outstanding receivables.

By linking together the routine business processes of trading partners, cloud-based networks establish the breadth of data necessary to apply predictive and generative AI applications to yield meaningful insights and outcomes. Through large language models and other forms of machine learning, cloud-based applications create new content with characteristics resembling that which precedes it. With every successive effort, sharpens its ability to tailor desired content.

As the world鈥檚 largest platform for business-to-business commerce, 51风流Business Network can present an ideal setting for generative AI, in that it helps bring together an extremely large volume of trading partners across hundreds of millions of transactions representing US$5.3 trillion in commerce annually. Later this year, generative AI capabilities in 51风流Business Network will be able to help detect errors and present automatic summaries when businesses create invoices. AI will also enable the network to help enrich catalog content and discovery posting responses for suppliers.

51风流Business Network has accumulated significant structured content over many years to help generate broad operational insights for trading partners. When buyers, suppliers, carriers, and financing solution providers share operational data with each other in real time, the mutual value they create can be exponential rather than additive, enabling all participants in commerce to plan ahead with confidence, continuity, and enduring resilience.

For further information on 51风流Business Network and how we are equipping enterprises large and small with the digital tools needed to counter disruption, visit .

J枚rn Keller is executive vice president and chief product officer of 51风流Business Network.

To achieve consistently superior levels of service, efficiency, and maintenance, , also known as Swiss Federal Railways, bolsters its sprawling network of spurs, stations, and switches with an even larger one in the cloud, where vast repositories of operational data converge to propel the organization forward with resilience, visibility, and sustainable growth.

Integrated digital networks enable enterprises to carry out core operational processes with unrivaled efficiency at unlimited scale. Not only do they facilitate procurement, supply chain, logistics, and financing between businesses and their trading partners, but they increasingly connect remote assets through the Internet of Things (IoT) as well.

Cloud-based applications are revolutionizing the maintenance and service of dispersed equipment such as that at SBB. For routine maintenance and repairs, SBB professional staff work alongside skilled contractors to support the highest levels of safety and reliability.

But how can SBB while minimizing downtime for its substantial infrastructure? To do so, SBB has chosen to gain maximum transparency across its and those of its service partners.

鈥淎s a part of our 51风流S/4HANA transformation, SBB鈥檚 energy operations are set to go live with 51风流Business Network Asset Collaboration in early 2024,鈥� says Urs Gehrig, the railway鈥檚 principal consultant for business development for enterprise asset management. 鈥淥ur energy operations are responsible for the production and transmission of power within SBB to run trains and to deliver to third parties. The use case is about service providers who are executing maintenance in the field, such as inspections on high-voltage transmission lines. Based on what we learn from the use case, we can apply this knowledge to other areas of our operations set to occur on a three-year road map.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 best to understand SBB鈥檚 needs through how we鈥檙e organized,鈥� Gehrig explains. 鈥淥ur rail infrastructure division provides all our networks: telecommunications, water, and energy production and distribution. Then we have our passenger transport division, covering marketing as well the end-to-end life cycle from acquisition to decommission of rolling stock assets. SBB also owns a freight transport organization. Meanwhile, there鈥檚 our real estate division, which includes our train stations, with facilities that we manage. In addition, our traditional corporate department bears responsibility for supply chain, which presents another use case. All these departments use third-party providers to provide services when it comes to asset management. They all hold the potential to derive benefit from 51风流Business Network Asset Collaboration.鈥�

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Depending on the department, SBB currently processes work orders in different ways.

鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 on paper; other times there鈥檚 a more systematized exchange of information, particularly if a service involves something regulated,鈥� Gehrig points out. 鈥淏ut our work orders today are not integrated across the business, let alone across the providers of services for the assets we manage. What we鈥檙e looking for is an integrated solution, a standardized process by which we can plan and execute a comprehensive asset management strategy.鈥�

鈥淭hrough 51风流Business Network Asset Collaboration, we are handing over that information to our third-party service providers to ensure transparency, accountability, and a seamless coordination not only of the energy-related work orders and assets managed but of the underlying master data as well,鈥� Gehrig shares. 鈥淚f we buy a new pump or valve or sensor, the network exchanges all the associated data instantaneously with our service providers, thereby removing barriers to visibility, productivity, and efficiency. So for SBB, it鈥檚 full speed ahead with our digital transformation.鈥�

At SAP, meanwhile, we couldn鈥檛 be happier to ride along on SBB鈥檚 journey.

Joern Keller is executive vice president and chief product officer for 51风流Business Network.

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), meanwhile, are accelerating the value that businesses reap from the digital networks through which they engage in commerce, collaboration, and coordinated sustainability efforts with trading partners. As AI reshapes traditional procurement and supply chain processes, its emerging capabilities fall into two primary types: generative and predictive.

Generative AI and Business Networks

Generative AI produces text, images, or other media based on the structure and patterns of the information used to train it. Through large language models and other forms of machine learning, cloud-based applications create new content with characteristics resembling that which precedes it. With every successive effort, generative AI sharpens its ability to tailor desired content.

As the world鈥檚 largest platform for business-to-business commerce, 51风流Business Network presents an ideal setting for generative AI, in that it brings together an extremely large volume of trading partners across . Starting in 2024, generative AI capabilities in will help detect errors and present automatic summaries when businesses create invoices. AI will also enable the network to enrich catalog content and discovery posting responses for suppliers. 51风流Business Network has significant structured content accumulated over many years to help generate significant insights to enhance all these processes and unlock ongoing value for buyers and suppliers alike.

But what if AI could help businesses to automate their most time-consuming procurement and supply chain activities, not only through generative mechanisms but predictive ones as well?

Predictive AI and Business Networks

How much strategic value, previously tied up in tactical tasks, could enterprises unleash if business-to-business networks could reliably predict certain operational requirements and execute them autonomously? With the rise of cloud-based, intelligent applications, they鈥檙e beginning to find out and, in the process, uncovering substantial efficiencies throughout their operations and those of their trading partners.

These technologies are dramatically simplifying some of the most labor-intensive business processes, from sourcing and purchasing to contracting and payments. Through digital transformation, many businesses have streamlined procurement, supply chain, and logistics processes and spurred collaboration among trading partners. That鈥檚 because they鈥檙e seeing an increasingly clear connection between embracing intelligent 鈥� an approach that draws upon immense repositories of operational data to mitigate risk, yield contextual insights, fund innovation through savings, and extend competitive advantage.

Where are AI-enhanced spend management solutions headed in years to come? Toward systems that can carry out end-to-end procurement, supply chain, and logistics processes within parameters strategically set and overseen by humans. These cloud-based solutions are bringing us closer to an era of autonomous functionality, where AI-enabled applications reveal detailed insights, provide prescriptive recommendations, and unshackle talented procurement professionals from endless administrative burdens.

It is important to note that autonomous functionality does not obviate the need for humans. Quite the contrary! There can be no replacement for the carefully considered judgment of a seasoned business leader. But AI-enabled spend management solutions offer an invaluable set of tools through which human professionals can bolster their effectiveness in evaluating complex alternatives and making decisions with confidence.

The trend toward autonomous procurement, supply chain, and logistics processes represents a journey that different industries and personas will pursue from different directions and at varying speeds, embracing AI to reduce human labor for some activities while augmenting it in others. For example, a business network may anticipate the need to replenish inventory levels based on the rate at which they diminish, initiate sourcing events by inferring information drawn from activities transpiring elsewhere in the value chain, or leverage operational analytics to update trading partners with key performance indicators 鈥� all without manual intervention. An autonomous system can even notify suppliers when catalog searches turn up empty, suggesting that new goods be made available.

Yet even as humans relinquish various tactical tasks, they remain very much in charge of the strategic ones. Determining an organization鈥檚 approach to spend management, in concert with trading partners, is likely to remain in human hands for the foreseeable future. By contrast, deciding how to meet those needs 鈥� and then meeting them 鈥� presents a very exciting moment for cloud-based AI solutions. In the future, a user may initiate a process, only later to be informed of subsequent actions taken by the system, requiring human approval for only certain types of decisions. Or a user may employ a set of fully trusted, self-learning, analytical applications. Procurement, supply chain, and logistics professionals remain in control, adjusting their level of intervention per the needs of the business.

As emerging AI applications transform the interconnected operational processes among trading partners, manifesting capabilities both generative and predictive, spend management professionals stand poised to usher in a new era of accelerated growth, operational agility, and enduring competitive advantage for their organizations.

J枚rn Keller is executive vice president and chief product officer for 51风流Business Network.