鈥淥ur CEO wants us to think and act like a digital company,鈥� said Dariush Shoja, vice president and corporate CIO at Sun Life. 鈥淯sing , we are digitizing and modernizing finance.鈥澛�

Shoja spoke during a session at the event in Boston, Massachusetts, where he showcased the company鈥檚 digital transformation that modernized the company鈥檚 finance platform.

Digital Closes Gap Between Generative AI Promise and Reality

Shoja immediately struck a responsive chord from the audience in the room who chuckled when he jokingly asked if anyone鈥檚 nightly dreams during college revolved around a career in finance. Drawing from his company鈥檚 experience with digital transformation, he acknowledged the industry鈥檚 change management challenges.

鈥淲hen we鈥檙e talking about finance in the context of digitization, it鈥檚 not just about automation or systems. It鈥檚 a paradigm and culture shift,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou need to start at the top with the CEO, CFO, and everyone on down to support the change. Organizations aiming to become digital and adopt state-of-the-art technologies like generative AI should focus on getting buy-in for the journey.鈥�

Modern Financial Services Platforms Are Cloud-Based

Coming from earlier sessions in the day that touted the incredible promise of technology advancements like generative AI, Shoja was also candid about overcoming the reality that professionals in the financial services industry face.

鈥淗istorically there hasn鈥檛 been a significant amount of investment to update finance systems that are aging or nearing end of life. However, we saw the opportunity and made the right investment to modernize,鈥� said Shoja. 鈥淥ne of the key enablers of growth is moving to the cloud. Digitization is creating the foundation for our future as we modernize our platforms.鈥�

Connected Data Drives Informed Decisions

One of the objectives of Sun Life鈥檚 platform modernization was to connect previously disparate data between geographies and business units. With operations in regions worldwide, including North America, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, along with an expanding product portfolio, managing data was paramount to effective financial management that fuels customer satisfaction and company growth.

鈥淲e have to build, evaluate, and run complex actuarial policy models that meet evolving regulatory mandates worldwide and corporate profitability objectives,鈥� said Shoja. 鈥淕oing to the cloud has provided efficiencies through consistent operations across every geography. Moving from manual spreadsheets to automated dashboards provides finance with faster access to insightful analytics from larger and more complex data sets. People can easily drill down to find the information they need to make the right optimal decisions.鈥�

Out-of-the-Box Digital Thinking

Like every organization that鈥檚 managing millions of transactions, data standardization and integration was extremely important to create Sun Life鈥檚 modern global platform.

鈥淓ven though our systems were only about 15 years old, eliminating technical debt was key to our transformation,鈥� said Shoja. 鈥淲e replaced traditional ways of thinking with out-of-the-box strategies, using modern native tools in the cloud platform to gain efficiencies. For example, when we want to pay a claim, the system automatically generates all relevant journal entries. We鈥檝e strategically aligned technology with finance teams.鈥�

AI Can Save Valuable Time for Financial Services

Shoja saw numerous solid use cases for generative AI, traditional AI, and machine learning in the financial services industry. AI could quickly find data gaps, speed up time-sensitive quarterly close, expedite the accrual management, and simplify reporting. Sun Life has created a team that鈥檚 focused on AI use cases in finance and other areas. The company is also relying on partners to bring the full value of AI capabilities into the business.

鈥淟arge language models may not be feasible for organizations to build on our own. Instead, AI can be built into digital solutions,鈥� he said. 鈥淎s 51风流is doing, we need partners to provide AI solutions and make it part of their package.鈥�

鈥淲ith one integrated platform that connects data from farmers through processing, warehouses, and retail, we are transforming the traditional food chain from supplier-driven to demand-driven,鈥� said Karthik Jayaraman, co-founder and managing director at WayCool. 鈥淲e selected because it is a flexible, cloud-based foundation for our growing business. provides a single source of truth company-wide and across our ecosystem, helping us produce and deliver the delicious food that consumers want on their table.鈥�  

The company has already reduced food wastage by up to 96% while improving the average income of farmers by over 13%.

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Data Insights Align Food Supply with Demand

Putting predictability and farming in the same sentence might seem like a stretch in a world rocked by disruptions like extreme weather and geopolitical conflicts. However, WayCool orchestrates a groundbreaking collaborative effort. It starts with farmers who produce the fruits, vegetables, and other staples that feed the Indian population and extends to partners, warehouse operations, distribution, and retailers.

鈥淪haring information with our partners in procurement who run processing and warehouse facilities, along with transportation logistics and retail, we can align supply with the right pricing for greater efficiencies and governance that produces the highest quality products,鈥� said Avinash Kasinathan, chief technology officer at WayCool. 鈥淒ata transparency also means that farmers can base field production on actual market demand and consumption.鈥�

Farmer Income Grows with Data-Driven Strategy

WayCool鈥檚 ability to trace products from farm to end consumer provides the company and its ecosystem with forecasting and planning insights based on real-time customer feedback and market demands. Using this connected data, WayCool makes recommendations to farmers on what fruits and vegetables to grow for the highest yields and uptake at the best prices.

Fourth-generation farmer Hari Prasad, located in a village called Karnataka on the outskirts of East Bangalore, is one of the over 200,000 farmers that WayCool provides with detailed cultivation plans.

鈥淯nlike traditional farming, WayCool recommends what to plant, when, and where, letting us know up front what they鈥檒l purchase at fair prices based on harvest time frames and factoring in staggered market demands,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 have to worry about whether or not we鈥檒l sell our yield, and we can calculate continuous earnings in a more predictable and consistent manner.鈥� 

Although farmers may have smaller yields, harvesting crops on a more consistent basis throughout the year levels out supply and demand spikes and downturns. If crop prices fall one week and rise the next, farmers can average out major risks with a steadier stream of income over time.

AI-Based Technologies Reduce Waste and Boost Crop Yields

WayCool has infused AI capabilities across its digitalized supply chain to increase quality yield and decrease waste. AI is built into the recommendation engine that tells retailers which products on their shelves will sell faster according to store location demographics. In the field, farmers use AI-based image recognition to quickly identify plant diseases and set up treatment plans. Internet of Things (IoT)-based sensors in the soil send farmers alerts on weather patterns to guide more cost-efficient and sustainable irrigation decisions. The company is exploring generative AI use cases as well.

Sustainable Agriculture Vision for the World

For WayCool and its partners, sustainable business encompasses the full range of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) commitments. Digitalization has an important role, for example, in regenerative farming practices. Farmers can use data-driven insights to produce stronger seeds for biodiversity, growing crops that are more climate-resilient and use less water and fertilizer in healthier soil.

Looking ahead, Jayaraman is eager to bring WayCool鈥檚 digitalized business model from India to other regions such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa.

鈥淭he food supply chain is a huge global market, yet agribusiness is one of the least digitized industries,鈥� said Jayaraman. 鈥淲e鈥檝e experienced how technology is revolutionizing food chains in India, and we鈥檙e excited about bringing people in other parts of the world greater access to affordable, quality food for the next generation of sustainable agriculture.鈥�

鈥淢oving to an as-a-service model dramatically changes how an organization does business and keeps customers satisfied, starting with product design and pricing through synchronized order fulfillment, revenue recognition and sharing, invoicing, and contract management,鈥� said Mirjam Wittmann, director of Product Marketing, High Technology at SAP. 鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing our customers begin with a targeted pilot in one line of business, followed by refinements and expansion to monetize XaaS packages for greatest competitive advantage.鈥�

XaaS-Driven Growth at Lenovo: Go Bigger Than Back Office

Everything-as-a-service business models are essential to growth plans. Long recognized for laptops, phones, tablets, data center servers, and business solutions, the company鈥檚 service-led transformation has been a catalyst for significant expansion in its non-PC business, accounting for over 42% of the company鈥檚 revenue.

鈥淲e’re in a phase of rapid acceleration, focusing our efforts on the expansion and refinement of our XaaS capabilities and business infrastructure,鈥� said Arthur Hu, senior vice president and chief information officer at Lenovo and chief technology and delivery officer at 尝别苍辞惫辞鈥檚 Solutions and Services Group. 鈥淭his journey involves a multifaceted approach, combining agile development, strategic partnerships, and continuous optimization to ensure that our XaaS offerings meet the evolving needs of our clients.鈥�

Hu said that  provides Lenovo with the flexibility to monetize services through pay-as-you-go, subscription, consumption-based, outcome-based, and other models. For example, the company can structure pay-as-you-go packages priced by the customer鈥檚 power consumption, storage of gigabytes, utilization, and number of nodes in an installation.

鈥淩edefine your product hierarchies to fit the as-a-service world. Update financial accounting for managed services, such as revenue recognition and costing. Provide the sales team with a clear understanding of the offerings so they can articulate the value to customers,鈥� Hu said. 鈥淢ake sure that every impacted system has the integrated data for accurate and timely fulfillment and entitlement that delivers the optimal customer experience and desired outcomes.鈥�

Personalized XaaS Offerings Generate Revenue at Autodesk

offers customers both subscription- and usage-based models for nearly all products across 50 countries. As a global leader in the design and software industry for media, construction, and engineering, Autodesk is using XaaS to future-proof the company.

鈥淎s-a-service provides us with a scalable, nimble foundation that drives better outcomes for customers and generates a steady stream of revenue for the company. We can quickly offer customers personalized products and pricing combinations for faster go-to-market,鈥� said Sudhir Misal, senior director of Engineering at Autodesk. 鈥�51风流solutions are the backbone of our as-a-service business model, helping us cost-efficiently manage orders, converged invoicing, contract accounting, and the financial supply chain. For example, we鈥檝e reduced quarterly financial closing times by over 80%.鈥�

Misal agreed that a successful XaaS strategy requires a mindset shift.

鈥淵ou need to partner closely with your system provider, in our case it was SAP, to understand the business context behind the offering. We focused on standardizing as much as possible,鈥� Misal said. 鈥淐hange management was a priority as we went through this journey that included all stakeholders. By talking with peer companies to hear their learnings, we avoided repeating mistakes that others have made.鈥�

Generative AI Promises Dynamic Innovation

No discussion of high-tech innovation would be complete without addressing the significance of generative AI. Misal said that Autodesk was exploring how AI can help companies quickly test and adopt value-added XaaS offerings.

鈥淕enerative AI can analyze data to help organizations see how customers are behaving depending on the services they鈥檙e using,鈥� said Wittmann. 鈥淒ata from generative AI can help companies cross sell and upsell personalized services that meet individual customer preferences, increasing customer loyalty. With faster market demand insights, companies can dynamically adjust XaaS bundles and iterate fresh ideas to take advantage of emerging opportunities before the competition.鈥�

Following a series of issued during the past decade, the has now mandated e-invoicing for all B2G (business-to-government) procurements. The same requirements are expected to include B2B transactions in Europe as well. So far, over 100 countries including Italy, Germany, Poland, Greece, France, and Romania have enacted mandatory e-invoicing legislation, as have numerous others in Latin America and Asia.

Cloud-Based Platform Collaboration Supports E-Invoicing Compliance

There鈥檚 no big mystery behind the e-invoicing push. In-country regulators and policymakers see digitalization as crucial to improve fraud detection, simplify VAT reporting, and gain a measure of transparency. While e-invoicing mandates from governments add a layer of complexity for buyers and suppliers, cloud-based platforms have become the norm to automate and simplify collaboration.

One example is , where buyers and suppliers can manage procurement and invoicing activities with their trusted ecosystem.

鈥淎s governments add e-invoicing mandates, we鈥檙e committed to help organizations by providing capabilities for regulatory consistency,鈥� Lorraine Yao, director of Product Marketing for 51风流Business Network, said. 鈥淒igitalization automates the flow of accurate information from order placement, shipping confirmation, and delivery through e-invoicing that鈥檚 connected directly to the company鈥檚 ERP system. Organizations can replace manual verification with automation based on real-time updates that speed up accurate processing, order fulfillment, and timely payments.鈥�

Buyers and Suppliers Reap Benefits of Connected Network

Yao said that organizations transact US$5.3 trillion in annual commerce on 51风流Business Network, totaling 746 million B2B transactions each year. Business results to date have been impressive.

After centralizing automated supplier invoicing and collaboration on 51风流Business Network, the procurement team at a U.S.-based clothing and accessories retailer saved time with quick access to spend details and reporting analytics. With fresh insights, the strategic sourcing team can identify savings opportunities and expediently act on emerging trends.

A multinational infrastructure and renewable energy company based in Europe moved to 51风流Business Network as part of its company-wide procurement transformation. Replacing manual processes with automated machine-to-machine transactions has reduced errors, increased efficiencies, and provided the procurement team with real-time insights across the supply chain for more informed decisions.

Global Business Transformation from E-Invoicing

E-invoicing is yet another advancement slated to leave legacy tax collection behind. In an survey, 61% of tax professionals agreed that e-invoicing will have a significant impact on their tax management process in the next 24 months. Researchers expect e-invoicing 鈥渢o fuse compliance and invoice management into one extended process鈥s VAT and GST (goods and services tax) protocols grow鈥his essentially means that every company conducting business in the global market will have to interact with these e-invoicing protocols.鈥� It鈥檚 no wonder that e-invoicing mandates are spreading rapidly as countries including Australia, Japan, New Zealand, and Singapore adopt the EU model, adapting requirements to their specific needs.聽

E-Invoicing Boosts Sustainability

Much more than surface automation measures, e-invoicing also contributes to what the calls the twin transition, meaning digital and green transformation. After all, when companies use less physical material such as paper, printing, and postage, along with fewer resources routing and archiving data, they can save energy.

鈥淏uyers can quickly process information and data contained in electronic invoices and feed them directly into a company’s payment and accounting systems,鈥� Yao said. 鈥淥ur 51风流Business Network customers find that procurement teams spend less time retrieving information and more time modeling strategic decisions. They can easily collaborate between internal groups and external suppliers, reducing inquiries and speeding up approvals while improving compliance.鈥�

Broadened Positive Impact of Digitalization

Although e-invoicing is a government mandate in a growing number of countries, leaders in many organizations have realized that digitalization has broader business benefits. analysts predict that by mid-2025, 70% of global businesses will use embedded financing to collect and make payments. This includes services like invoice transmissions.

鈥淒igitalization gives both buyers and suppliers transparency to see e-invoice status, saving time and improving efficiencies,鈥� Yao said. 鈥淗aving immediate visibility to relevant procurement data in one dashboard, accounts payable teams can make the most of early-payment discounts and better manage working capital. This also improves cash flow for suppliers who receive timely payments. 51风流is committed to help companies manage procurement end-to-end, including e-invoicing to meet country-specific mandates, and build trading partner relationships for business growth.鈥�

Susan Galer is a communications director at SAP. Follow her @smgaler.

As longtime partners, 51风流and Mercedes-Benz have a history of shared knowledge for mutual competitive advantage. The fleet management program is grounded in the companies鈥� similar business philosophies and product road maps. 

Mercedes-Benz has committed to move the company鈥檚 B2B business to 100% digital and plans to sell 25% of all new cars online by 2025. The company selected to help support this mission. It will create a future-proof composable commerce portfolio designed to reliably power the company鈥檚 digital strategy, including a standardized offering across different markets. It will also simplify processes and reduce time-to-market.

Benefits of Digitalized Fleet Management

From the 51风流employee鈥檚 perspective, ordering a company EV couldn鈥檛 be simpler. Instead of time-consuming manual research and back and forth communication with the car dealer, employees can use to order the EV they want directly from the Mercedes-Benz online catalog. They can choose the features they want, such as car make and model, color, and equipment packages, within SAP鈥檚 pre-set guidelines.

鈥淭he car configurator automates the EV selection process end-to-end, eliminating manual steps and saving time while providing the employee with a highly personalized experience,鈥� said Steffen Krautwasser, head of SAP鈥檚 global car fleet. 鈥淎utomating the approval process assures data consistency and eliminates the need for manual quality checks.鈥� 

There鈥檚 a tremendous convenience factor in captured EV data as well. In one pilot program for select EVs in SAP鈥檚 fleet, the digital twin will automatically track mileage. Drivers will no longer need to manually enter mileage every time they recharge, and 51风流can use this data to better manage the fleet.

Connected Data Drives Sustainable Business

Once ordered, EVs are tracked as assets in SAP鈥檚 financial system. After delivery, creates a digital twin that can capture relevant, secure data across the EV鈥檚 lifetime. SAP鈥檚 fleet management team can track CO2 emissions based on green energy usage, mileage, and the number of vehicles on the road. Krautwasser envisioned reporting this data to support the company鈥檚 global sustainability commitments.

鈥淧erformance data from the EV digital twin can help corporate fleet managers guide employees in choosing the best vehicle for their driving needs,鈥� said Krautwasser. 鈥淥ver time, drivers can better understand travel ranges between charges.鈥� 

Data is expected to help address so-called range anxiety, alerting EV drivers when their vehicle needs a charge and, most important, where to recharge. Mercedes-Benz is investing in charging infrastructure to create an ecosystem that would be integrated with public and private charge point providers in the U.S., China, and Europe.

The partnership also reflects a shared commitment to sustainability. Mercedes-Benz has committed to become carbon neutral by 2038, and transition to 100% electric vehicles by 2030 wherever possible. 51风流is transitioning the company鈥檚 vehicle fleet for employees in Germany to all EVs by 2025 as part of its corporate commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030.

Omnichannel Is Fastest Path to Customer Love

The digital experience is extremely important for customers who expect convenience and quality. Organizations in many industries have shifted to an omnichannel strategy that offers people their preferred experience, whether online or in-person, building brand loyalty and repeat business.

鈥淲e want to provide a seamless journey for employees as they research, select, purchase, and enjoy their vehicle,鈥� said Krautwasser. 鈥淭he most exciting part of our EV fleet management strategy is how we can use our knowledge to enhance the employee experience. Through data and digital services, we can get closer to our employees and act quickly based on their feedback, making improvements and introducing new offerings that keep us on top of trends and support SAP鈥檚 sustainability commitment.鈥�

EVs represent a profound business model shift for the entire automotive supply chain as automakers sell direct to customers, provide digital services from vehicle data, and explore new revenue opportunities. It鈥檚 clear that Mercedes-Benz and 51风流are going the distance for a sustainable and satisfying driving experience.

Susan Galer is a communications director at SAP. Follow her @smgaler.
Top photo courtesy of 51风流employee Jude Calvin Parong.

While it might be early days given hardware limitations, 51风流experts are in full-on discovery mode, working with customers and partners at quantum-related industry associations.

How Quantum Computers Can Solve Real-World Problems

51风流experts are spearheading several working groups as members of the . QUTAC is a German-based group focused on applying quantum technology for business value in various industries. In one group, the team is modeling potential use cases using quantum computing for optimization and machine learning in production and logistics. In another, they are researching various quantum computing systems to compare strengths and weaknesses for use case consideration.

鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to understand how quantum computers can solve real-world business problems,鈥� said Andrey Hoursanov, head of Quantum Exploration at SAP. 鈥淚n collaboration with other QUTAC members, we鈥檙e identifying which next new quantum computing use cases will be most valuable for organizations, sourcing information from external research and our own expertise.鈥�

Working Groups Take On the Quantum Challenge

Quantum computers can speed up computationally intensive tasks, promising the delivery of better and faster solutions for specific classes of problems. Much of this exploratory phase consists of benchmarking available quantum technologies, such as available machine capabilities by qubit size to handle industry-specific problems. Questions include what special properties each kind of quantum system offers, as well as their suitability and scalability to address business relevant challenges. For example, some teams are focused on applying the unique advantages of quantum computers to speed up and improve anomaly and fraud detection, cost optimization for cloud providers, image recognition, and data synthesis.

鈥淭hrough open discussions with different companies that are participating in these working groups, we鈥檙e discussing potential road maps for innovation,鈥� said Peter Limacher, leading researcher of the Quantum Exploration team at SAP. 鈥淧eople are very interested in quantum computing, and we want to make sure that we prioritize use cases that have the greatest potential to deliver business value.鈥� 

Limacher was involved in a working group that recently published a based on a study of quantum computing approaches for multi-knapsack optimization, meaning one recurrent task that several industries face. In addition to the high demand for better quantum hardware, the paper concluded that the industry needed more and improved quantum optimization algorithms for multi-knapsack and other problems.

51风流Is Committed to Meet Enterprise-Grade Expectations

To be clear, there鈥檚 a significant gap between the performance of current quantum computer hardware and the many variables that require scaling quantum-driven solutions in actual industry settings. Forward-thinking innovators are moving ahead despite the chicken and egg conundrum.

鈥淭o meet our customers鈥� expectations, we cannot wait until full-fledged quantum computers are completely operational,鈥� said Hoursanov. 鈥淭hrough collaborative use case discovery and testing, we鈥檒l be prepared to provide customers and partners with access to the latest technology as soon as it makes sense for them.鈥�

Just as standardized frameworks for classical computers evolved, so will quantum computers. There are no standards yet, and every quantum computer design has advantages and disadvantages. For example, superconducting quantum computers require low temperatures and protection from electromagnetic waves to prevent qubit degradation. Eventually, researchers will be able to match targeted use cases to the best-suited quantum systems and software application developers will apply quantum programming to any machine.

Collaboration Unlocks the Quantum Advantage

51风流is also a member of the , a non-profit organization focused on developing the quantum industry and ecosystem for the region and others including North America, Japan, and ANZ. In addition to her role as research project director at SAP, Laure Le Bars is president of QuIC.

鈥淥ur members consist of companies of all sizes that create and use quantum technologies, including hardware manufacturers and software developers. They鈥檙e working together with members in government policymaking, academia, standardization bodies, and others to help spark market growth from quantum advantage,鈥� said Le Bars. 鈥淚n the future, we鈥檒l have hybrid architectures with a combination of classical and quantum computers using their respective strengths to achieve business objectives.鈥�

Susan Galer is a communications director at SAP. Follow her @smgaler.

Photo courtesy of 51风流employee Renan d’Avila

The impacts of climate change and geopolitical conflicts coupled with volatile commodity prices and inflation are only exacerbating food supply chain challenges. Food prices are expected to rise 80% by 2050, and crop yields are forecast to decrease up to 30% by 2080. During a recent event at SAP鈥檚 Hudson Yards office in New York, agriculture experts and policymakers discussed how organizations in the private and public sector can work together to build a more sustainable food supply. 

鈥�51风流continues to co-innovate with agribusiness leaders to digitalize the farm-to-consume value chain,鈥� said Anja Strothkamper, global vice president of Agribusiness and Commodity Management at SAP. 鈥淓very organization in the ecosystem has the opportunity to come together and make a significant contribution towards affordable, efficient, and resilient farming, food production, and distribution. We collaborate across the food chain including agricultural production and farming, origination and trading, commodity processing, food manufacturing and packaging, and retail. These digital ecosystems help companies manage risk, improve decision-making, and maximize crop yields.鈥� 

Data Insights Reduce Complexity for Cost-Efficient Sustainable Farming

Case in point is the collaboration between 51风流and VISTA that uses satellite images and AI-fueled algorithms to create digital twins that can simulate predictive forecasts for optimized decision-making in farming. VISTA is a subsidiary of BayWa, Germany鈥檚 largest digital agricultural company. I sat down with Strothkamper and Tobias Fausch, Baywa鈥檚 CIO, who shared how working together is cultivating the future of agriculture.   

鈥淪atellite imagery plus AI models capture and analyze a wide range of data in digital twins, including soil quality, crop variety and health, water availability, weather conditions, and other farming activities,鈥� said Fausch. 鈥淭he technology simulates yield predictions, calculating various scenarios based on precise risks by field location and weather patterns. Farmers can automate optimal soil preparation, irrigation and fertilization, crop rotation, and harvest times for sustainable efficiency and high yields. Even with the effects of climate change, these models reveal that we have sufficient resources to better manage global, end-to-end farming for adequate food production.鈥�

In one example, a soybean farmer in India used VISTA to harvest the highest yield ever, despite a drought in the country. Fausch said that optimizing crop yields sustainably bolsters food security and also makes economic sense.

鈥淯sing the technology, we can automatically calculate the availability of water for not just individual farms, but also a region or country,鈥� said Fausch. 鈥淭his data can help governments better manage water resources for maximum crop yields in the face of events that make crop yields unpredictable. For example, if there鈥檚 a drought in one part of the country, water could be transported into dryer regions for storage and irrigation where it鈥檚 needed most.鈥� 

Digital Platform Scales Up Secure Food Supply Chains

Accessibility to advanced technology is crucial to organizations in the food value chain, especially smallholder farms. The collaboration between 51风流and VISTA offers growers of all sizes a simple yet powerful tool to help capture intelligent data in the field using their mobile device. Available on , VISTA is integrated with .

鈥淭he digital twin is the smart superpower, and 51风流makes the information available across the digitalized value chain, triggering business processes like automated irrigation and fertilizer services, increased storage and transportation capacities for higher yields, or accurate government subsidy payments for fertilizer,鈥� said Strothkamper. 鈥淧ublic and private sectors can partner to extract value from the predictive modeling data. Farmers can increase yields, banks would have the traceability for investment decisions in startups to grow the economy, insurers can track claims, and governments can better plan and respond to dynamically changing community needs.鈥�

Generative AI for Intelligent Agriculture

SAP鈥檚 agriculture solutions are evolving to incorporate the latest technologies like AI for valuable business results. An uses 51风流Intelligent Agriculture to help smallholder farmers digitalize operations, providing advice based on captured data in the field and beyond. Farmers have already improved crop yields based on harvest time guidance.

鈥淲e built this solution through our ongoing collaboration with organizations that are part of the 51风流Advisory Council for Agribusiness,鈥� said Strothkamper. 鈥淐limate change has rendered time-honored farming practices irrelevant. Generative AI can democratize intelligent agriculture with data-driven insights. Tools based on ChatGPT and other large language models that provide advice based on tremendous amounts of data throughout the ecosystem are the vision for the sustainable food value chain of the future.鈥� 

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In an interview, Mueller shares SAP鈥檚 amazing generative AI journey with partners and customers that鈥檚 supercharging generative AI development and how companies operate.

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Q: What are the top three things that developers, IT professionals, and business leaders need to know about the at 51风流TechEd 2023?

A: First, we want every 51风流ecosystem developer to become an AI developer and we are rolling out new tools, leveraging generative AI, to help them build and deploy intelligent data applications at scale.

Second, we are simplifying interactions between large language models (LLMs), enabling developers to implement intelligent data for generative AI applications. By expanding 51风流HANA Cloud database capabilities with a vector engine, developers can combine the generic LLMs and gain the context they need with company-specific real-time data.聽

Third, is the choice for infusing 51风流and partner applications with AI. By embedding generative AI into our solutions and giving developers, partners, and customers access to all our technology and learnings through 51风流BTP, 51风流is the go-to partner for business AI and generative AI-powered enterprise applications. We already have 22,000 live 51风流BTP customers in the cloud.

Lastly, our ecosystem is critical for all our efforts to provide our customers with beneficial innovations for their digital transformation. We have 2,100 partners on 51风流BTP, and there are 2,000 innovative partner solutions on the today. More than 360 of these solutions offer AI capabilities that drive business value.

Can you give us a snapshot of the major announcements this year?

Each of these advancements reflects SAP鈥檚 commitment to become the No. 1 generative AI enterprise application ecosystem together with our partners and supported by our platform, 51风流BTP.

• 51风流Build Code offers AI-powered productivity tools for developers. It鈥檚 an exciting evolution of the 51风流BTP low-code solution that we launched last year. Our unified lobby of tools enables enhanced collaboration between citizen developers, professional developers, and IT departments. Developers will be able to create new applications or extensions for 51风流solutions using our generative AI assistant Joule to generate code, create data models, and test data for applications.
• New vector capabilities for 51风流HANA Cloud allow developers to enrich business data with unstructured data including text, images, and audio. This is a unique offering from SAP, as customers will be able to combine the intelligence of LLMs with their business-specific data to provide accurate, relevant, and insightful responses. is the database management foundation of 51风流BTP.
• AI Foundation on 51风流BTP is our one-stop-shop for developers to build business-ready AI applications and extensions on 51风流BTP. From ready-to-use AI services to AI runtimes and lifecycle management, we鈥檙e providing the tools developers need to manage enterprise-grade generative AI with security, governance, and trust. As part of AI Foundation we will also include a generative AI hub in 51风流AI Core to provide developers with instant access to a broad range of LLMs from different providers.
• Learning is foundational to SAP鈥檚 ambitious goal to upskill 2 million professionals by 2025. Our newly announced role-based certification for ABAP Cloud back-end developers will drive expert skillset growth for agile cloud business transformation. Moreover, we鈥檝e supplemented the with a new , which explains how to build and implement business applications on 51风流BTP.

How do 51风流solutions help developers, data scientists, business users, and other professionals power their personal success and organization鈥檚 growth?

51风流is already at the forefront of generative AI advancements. Over 24,000 cloud customers are actively using more than 130 AI scenarios built on 51风流BTP. We have the business data, processes, and customer relationships, and we believe that most business AI capabilities will be consumed in an embedded way.

SAP鈥檚 unique access to business data and our industry depth — together with our foundation in ethics, data privacy, compliance, and security — mean that we鈥檙e able to deliver unparalleled automation and seamless human-machine collaboration capabilities to our customers.

Most important, 51风流Business AI is relevant, reliable, and responsible. In our trusted environment, people are creating relevant AI use cases in the context of their organization鈥檚 real-world business processes and embedded into their daily 51风流systems. These use cases are reliable because they鈥檙e based on an understanding of both the business data and what it means within the business process.

Finally, our AI is responsible as it is built on leading ethics and data privacy standards.

How are customers and partners generating business results from 51风流BTP generative AI capabilities?

Many of our partners are pioneering multiple generative AI use cases with our support.

51风流partner and customer HCLTech is using AI technology to simplify daily tasks like recruiting in 51风流SuccessFactors software for speed and efficiency in finding the best job candidates. They鈥檙e developing a catalog of generative AI-infused processes across industries and line-of-business use cases. India鈥檚 Mahindra & Mahindra, which has automated more than 250 business processes in just three months using 51风流Build Process Automation, has piloted two generative AI use cases.

In Brazil, social enterprise startup SDW brings clean water to over 20,000 people. The company used 51风流Build Apps to develop an app that speeds up field worker collaboration and analyzes accurate data to help measure the impact of its services against KPIs, proving ROI that boosts investments for growth. Henkel is co-innovating with 51风流on its first large-scale generative AI use case, combining natural language processing, simulation, and planning to make decisions faster.

Can you preview what developers should expect from SAP鈥檚 generative AI vision as we head into 2024?

We are building AI capabilities, including our new generative AI copilot Joule, into our cloud-based enterprise applications. This includes SAP鈥檚 just ask feature in , available in Q1 2024. We鈥檒l also continue expanding access to LLMs in the generative AI hub. Watch for more generative AI use cases that will be released in the first half of 2024.

Now the organization is expanding its strategy to create a digital virtuous circle founded on a simple principle: the only way to deliver a seamless, personalized customer experience is to do the same for employees. It鈥檚 designed to provide artificial intelligence (AI)-based training and career development at the precise intersection of customer expectations and employee skills and aspirations.

鈥淯sing technology and empirical evidence, we can provide a positive, personalized employee experience that motivates people to deliver that little extra effort, going above and beyond for the benefit of our customers,鈥� said Tim Gregory, managing director of HR Innovation and Workforce Technology at Delta Air Lines. 鈥淚f you do well by your people, they will do well by customers. This is the cornerstone of our skills-based organization.鈥�

Generative AI to Help Customers and Employees

Speaking at this year鈥檚 , Gregory said that Delta Air Lines is developing a generative AI proof of concept slated to automatically transform generic skill descriptions into more accurate capabilities that reflect the job鈥檚 requirements based on real-world, updated employee and customer data in context.

鈥淲e want to include the concept of intuitive reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF) that allows the hiring manager to provide feedback to the machine, going beyond just fine-tuning,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat way, our employee鈥檚 time goes towards benefiting our customers and achieving our business goals.鈥�

Here are highlights from Gregory鈥檚 presentation where he shared how Delta Air Lines was investing in the company鈥檚 employee experience to the delight of customers and for the organization鈥檚 competitive advantage.

Linking CX to EX Generates Customer-Centric Business Results

According to Gregory, research found that skills-based organizations were 107% more likely to place talent effectively and 98% likelier to retain high-performing talent and have a reputation as a great place to grow and develop. It鈥檚 impossible to argue with the strong business results of Delta鈥檚 strategy that links the customer and employee experience. ranked Delta the sixth best employer in the world. The airline is No.1 in on-time arrivals and a trusted consumer brand.

Just as data reveals what matters to customers most, so does it surface insights to help Delta create a positive employee experience, whether someone was just hired or has ambitions to move up in the organization. For example, Delta has already exceeded one of its objectives to fill 25% of corporate and management positions with people who are currently in customer-facing roles.

“Delta people are highly diverse with many kinds of backgrounds, educational levels, and capabilities,鈥� said Gregory. 鈥淏ringing our frontline employees into management makes solid business sense because they have a customer-centric perspective that they鈥檒l incorporate into their managerial role. That will enable us to have a strategic direction focused on our customers. These folks can leverage their existing knowledge so that the learning curve and time to productivity is lower than if we were to hire externally. It鈥檚 more cost-effective to move someone up through the organization, and it gives us a deep bench of talent for succession planning.鈥�

Gregory added that 90% of non-executive management roles at Delta Air Lines no longer require a college degree.

Career Path Intelligence with 51风流SuccessFactors

To help employees move from an hourly, customer-facing role to the salaried corporate position of their dreams, Delta Air Lines is building a dynamic, skills-based experience for continuous employee learning using the talent intelligence hub in . Individual employees have a growth portfolio, which is a profile that includes their current skills and competencies mapped to formal and informal learning opportunities within and outside the organization, some recommended by AI-based algorithms. 

鈥淲e are incorporating disruptive technologies like our AI-driven skills ontology that automatically incorporates industry trends with embedded intelligence,鈥� said Gregory. 鈥淲e can say which skills are most important to Delta Air Lines and the employee can easily combine those with their current capabilities, strengths and styles, and aspirations to create a personal career path. All of the content is based on Delta-specific skills and personalized to each employee鈥檚 career goals.鈥�

How to Build a Modern, Skills-Based Organization

Centralizing employee profiles with opportunities to learn and collaborate on one intelligent platform provides Delta鈥檚 employees with development paths that reflect the organization鈥檚 business strategy. 

鈥淲e鈥檝e taken our approach to customer experience and applied it to the employee experience, building a modern, skills-based organization,鈥� said Gregory. 鈥淥ur digital virtuous circle means that we invest in our employees, the employees invest in our customers, our customers invest in us by choosing Delta Air Lines, and our shareholders keep investing in us to keep the whole flywheel turning.鈥�

Susan Galer is a communications director at SAP. Follow me @smgaler.

One example is Technologies, Canada鈥檚 leading life sciences research company that sees itself as a company of scientists helping scientists. Based in Vancouver, STEMCELL has a 30-year history of growth in developing and manufacturing products and services that help other industrial and academic scientists innovate in the areas of stem cell, immunology, cancer, regenerative medicine, and cellular therapy research. STEMCELL has staff in 20 countries and sells a constantly expanding portfolio of over 2,500 products, including cell culture media, cell separation technologies, instruments, and accessories, as well as education and services. Reducing the time to market for new products is crucial to the company鈥檚 mission of pursuing life sciences discoveries leading to the next generation of healthcare treatments.

鈥淲e鈥檙e always looking for ways to accelerate time to market for new products and adapt our technology environment to meet the evolving needs of our internal stakeholders and external customers,鈥� said John Lilleyman, CIO at STEMCELL. 鈥淎dvanced discoveries in areas like precision medicine are bringing new hope to patients and their families. At the same time, we have to comply with increasingly stringent global mandates for sustainable packaging and product safety.鈥�

Faster Innovation with 51风流S/4HANA

Since STEMCELL went live with , the biotech leader has been intent on using the latest innovations from 51风流to help speed up product testing. Speaking during a session held at this year鈥檚 , Lilleyman shared the company鈥檚 strategy for effective and fully automated software with SAP.

鈥淲e鈥檙e particularly excited about the cloud-first innovations from , which will help us deliver a more sustainable solution, continuously meet security and compliance requirements, and set us up for success with future upgrades,鈥� he said. 鈥淲ith a new test-automation strategy, we can make sure that testing is an accelerator and not a bottleneck to change.鈥�

Automation Expedites Rigorous Product Testing

STEMCELL doesn鈥檛 create end-user patient therapies. Rather, the company develops the products and solutions that help other life sciences researchers innovate for new therapeutic discoveries. To develop these solutions for other scientists, STEMCELL performs rigorous product quality testing to comply with the and other global regulatory frameworks and guidelines.

Replacing manual testing with a highly automated process has generated significant results for the company. To date, STEMCELL has reduced the time required to complete 51风流system validation for GxP 鈥済ood practice鈥� guidelines and regulations by 86%, test quote-to-cash scenarios by 97%, and execute a full regression cycle by 98%.

鈥淚nstead of taking the better part of a month or more, most of the testing is now completed in a handful of days or less,鈥� said Lilleyman. 鈥淭his is a tremendous accelerator for our business and our teams. We鈥檒l be able to take advantage of enhancements in 51风流solutions faster. It will continue to pay dividends every day, week, month, and year as we move forward, expanding our footprint in new product markets and locations.鈥�

Digital Helps Fast-Track Global Expansion

Averaging 20% annual growth, STEMCELL has made digitalization central to its strategy for bringing products to market faster and more sustainably. Lilleyman said that speeding up testing in compliance with global mandates will help the company as it expands worldwide.

鈥淐loud-based automation at all stages of testing helps move us towards continuous compliance in a continuously changing market,鈥� he said. 鈥淎s we continue to expand our inventory for testing, we鈥檒l be able to accelerate upcoming projects as we open up in different environments. We can have a library with a simple checklist to set up a new entity where we can test end-to-end. We can shift the testing burden away from business users to release innovations faster with completed testing.鈥�

He looked ahead to greater benefits from further automation, including on-demand validation reports for updated system testing and quality controls. Speedier testing from STEMCELL is making the lives of researchers easier by accelerating the release of the tools they need to in turn deliver advanced, patient-centric therapeutic discoveries for a healthier world.

Susan Galer is a communications director. Follow me @smgaler.

The immediate outcomes of cloud-based services are obvious. Manufacturers gain continuous monetization from a steady stream of revenue, while their customers have new payment flexibilities to better control cash flow. However, as-a-service business models are not just a different way of doing business. They are also a relationship-building lever between manufacturers and customers 鈥� whether consumers or businesses. Two market leaders in the manufacturing industry shared their service-based strategies during a session held at this year鈥檚 that was hosted by Heidi Zhao, director of Global Billing and Revenue Solution Management at SAP.

Service-Based Innovation at Align Technology Is Reason to Smile

Global medical device company manufactures Invisalign clear aligners and 3D digital scanners that improve the smiles of millions of people each year. A longtime pioneer in advanced orthodontics, Align is constantly innovating to serve doctors in over 120 markets worldwide. The company is on a digitalization journey with 51风流that will support monetization from as-a-service offerings for orthodontics care professionals and their patients.

鈥淲e selected to help evolve our monetization models providing outcome-based services to our customers,鈥� said Mary Kumar, senior vice president of Enterprise Engineering at Align Technology. 鈥淐ustomers will gain the ease of subscription-based options on a consumption or on-demand service model. In addition, having the ability to meet the country-specific needs of orthodontists and dentists in our global markets is super important.鈥�

Align is undergoing the same business transformation as every traditional high technology company, exploring as-a-service choices such as leasing scanners to orthodontists and subscription-based packages that combine aligners and treatment planning.

鈥淐ustomers don鈥檛 always want to pay larger amounts up front to purchase our scanners or diagnostic orthodontic software. They want to modernize their practice using our advanced technology, but with manageable monthly payments,鈥� said Kumar. 鈥淭hese market demands are driving pay-as-you-go and subscription-based models with our customers who prefer to pay as they scan instead of paying for the scanner itself. Similarly, we produce four million aligners each day with automatic treatment planning. They may want to purchase a set number of aligners and mix and match treatment.鈥�

51风流Is Central to 尝别苍辞惫辞鈥檚 As-a-Service Transformation

Services are an important part of vision to provide smarter technology for all through personal computers, smartphones, televisions, and wearable devices. As the world鈥檚 top PC manufacturer, providing the building blocks of modern IT, the US$70 billion company transformed itself two years ago to bring service-based solutions to meet customers where they are.

鈥淐onsumers and businesses want more flexibility in how they consume our products,鈥� said Arthur Hu, senior vice president and CIO at Lenovo. 鈥淚n the process of taking our portfolio and offering it as a service, 51风流Billing and Revenue Innovation Management helped us evolve to a pay-as-you-go service model, providing the technology capabilities that underpin our business model transformation.鈥�

Historically, Lenovo has sold hardware devices like laptops, phones, and tablets on a one-time basis. Now customers want to reduce the overhead surrounding the purchase and maintenance of 尝别苍辞惫辞鈥檚 computing and edge devices and networking and storage solutions.

鈥淗aving an understanding of what your customers and their customers are doing drives innovation. Building a new business model is about exploring ideas, using technology to iterate quickly with insights from integrated data,鈥� said Hu. 鈥淐ustomers are interested in a more managed service model for our devices across hundreds of countries and tens of thousands of seats. They want a secure computer experience for end users. Infrastructure-as-a-service is also on the rise. We can support everything-as-a-service, providing customers with different ways to consume our solutions, helping them be more nimble by reducing capital expenditures.鈥�

Getting closer to customers may well be among the most positive unintended consequences of as-a-service business models. Manufacturers know precisely how customers are using their products and can continuously innovate services to better serve them, opening up greater revenue streams and delivering stronger experiences.

Follow @smgaler

Electric vehicles (EVs), solar and wind power, and batteries for energy storage will need much more copper, nickel, and zinc than traditional power sources. Grid electrification also requires far more of these base materials than infrastructure of the past. Indeed projected copper demand will nearly double over the next decade to support the technologies necessary for achieving net-zero 2050 goals. For Lundin, this is an amazing business opportunity.

鈥淚t鈥檚 an exciting time for us as the world moves to renewable green energy,鈥� said Blossom Gonsalves, global head of Enterprise Solutions at Lundin Mining. 鈥淔or example, copper is one of the backbones of renewable energy mandates and will power huge market demand as EVs and solar panels go mainstream and renewable energies become the norm. We are expanding our footprint with acquisitions worldwide that will help us provide new energy materials for the world鈥檚 sustainable future.鈥�

Headquartered in Canada, Lundin Mining has a proven history of successful acquisitions. The company has operations and projects in Latin America, Europe, and the U.S., primarily producing copper, zinc, gold, and nickel. During a session at this year鈥檚 , Gonsalves talked about how Lundin was modernizing for growth and efficiency by consolidating previously siloed systems on one global foundation with SAP.

Automation Boosts Strategic Growth

After years of rapid expansion through acquisitions worldwide, Lundin began its next strategic transformation, working with 51风流to standardize global processes on 51风流S/4HANA.

鈥淢oving to a single global 51风流system has simplified what was a very complex landscape and lowered total cost of ownership while providing us with a single source of truth. Replacing disparate, disconnected, and often manual processes with automated systems has helped us become more strategic, streamlined, and efficient,鈥� said Gonsalves. 鈥淲ith real-time visibility into operations globally, we鈥檝e decreased risk and improved situational awareness with greater foresight. Just as important, we鈥檝e empowered the business by reducing administrative tasks, providing people with more time to focus on strategic activities that will grow operations.鈥�

Safe and Agile Business Expansion

Safety is paramount in the mining industry, and having connected data between finance, supply chain and procurement, and enterprise asset management has helped Lundin meet corporate commitments as well as regulatory mandates.

鈥淲e needed the ability to scale and manage operational risk often in remote locations with challenging environments for connectivity,鈥� Gonsalves said. 鈥淔rom a risk perspective, having connected data on one trusted platform can help us manage site audits smoothly. As we bring in new acquisitions, we鈥檒l be able to easily add them into our landscape as well.鈥�

Self-Paced Transformation to the Cloud

Acknowledging the change management required to transform Lundin鈥檚 software landscape, Gonsalves said that the company was able to adopt 51风流solutions 90% out-of-the-box with targeted customizations based on specific need areas. She advised working closely with a partner to precheck process changes and walking employees through the new system and its benefits.

鈥淲e obtained early business buy-in for the project and then introduced the changes to make sure people were used to them,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e began with solutions in HR to accelerate the cultural transformation, and was an early project that generated benefits in upstream procurement. You need to focus on adoption. If you give employees the resources to use digital tools, they鈥檒l experience and value the results.鈥�

Business Benefits Company-Wide

Lundin has gained significant benefits from consolidating corporate applications on SAP. Finance teams have standardized planning and budgeting. People across supply chain and procurement have improved sourcing compliance and spare parts planning and automated invoice matching for greater spend control. With globally standardized asset maintenance processes and data, Lundin has reduced reactive maintenance, unplanned downtime, and costs.

鈥淲e took a proactive approach with asset management and adopted best practices coming out of the 51风流mining solution,鈥� said Gonsalves. 鈥淎cross our supply chain, we鈥檝e put partners on 51风流Ariba solutions for a global view of activities throughout sites, providing us with a much better negotiating position.鈥�

Innovations Unlock Human Potential

Sustainability and innovation are baked into Lundin鈥檚 strategy. The channels revenue from operations back into communities, providing financing for climate startups, community skills training and education, local supplier development, and economic diversification programs. The company is also infusing automation throughout operations. At the recently acquired Josemaria mining project located high up in the Andes Mountains of Argentina, Lundin is designing autonomous operations that will provide crews with remote control capabilities to withstand harsh environmental conditions.

While the new energy economy is upending business models everywhere, it鈥檚 also turned into a sustainable business opportunity for ambitious leaders like Lundin.

Susan Galer is a Communications Director at SAP. Follow her @smgaler.

During a panel discussion held at this year鈥檚 51风流Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference Orlando, three industry leaders shared their XaaS experiences, including business drivers and results, lessons learned, and future strategies.

HPE: Broad Service-Based Mix Gives Customers Flexibility

Shifting customer expectations are behind the decision of most organizations to innovate with service-based offerings, and global infrastructure leader is no exception. HPE provides customers with a range of software-as-a-service (SaaS) and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings.

鈥淥ur industry is going through an incredible amount of transformation in terms of how our customers, from large enterprises all the way down to individual developers, consume services and infrastructure,鈥� said Dave Carlisle, chief technology officer of Global IT at HPE. 鈥淗aving a broad mix of service-based options means that customers can choose what works best for their business. You need to balance flexible customer options with standardization guardrails to manage complexity.鈥�

For a 75-year-old organization like HPE, moving to a subscription-based business model has involved every part of the organization.

鈥淵ou have to be fully aligned, between developing new offers and capabilities to the customer experience and partner engagements,鈥� said Carlisle. 鈥淯sing as the foundation for our service-based business, we鈥檝e radically simplified our end-to-end move to a subscription-based model. What used to take days or weeks to quote is now minutes. Overall, it鈥檚 a tremendous opportunity for us to evolve and innovate our business models.鈥�

Autodesk: XaaS Data Drives Business Growth

Sudhir Misal, senior director of Engineering at , agreed that the XaaS business decision was primarily customer-driven.

Transforming to a service-based model has helped the global design and software company better meet the needs of its customers in the architecture, engineering, construction, product design and manufacturing, and media and entertainment industries.

鈥淲e have multiple subscription-based offerings that reflect how our customers want to buy,鈥� said Misal. 鈥淚t鈥檚 also a mindset shift for the whole company, as well as partners and customers. You have to make sure everyone comes along on this journey from planning to execution. gives us a connected system of record to run the business, and 51风流Billing and Revenue Innovation Management provides us with subscription-based order management capabilities.鈥�

Besides boosting speed to market, XaaS is surfacing valuable data for business expansion and scale.

鈥淭his digital transformation informs our investments for future growth,鈥� said Misal. 鈥淲e have collected a lot of data over the years and can use that to reinvest for new market opportunities. With a strong foundation in place, we can roll out new business models quickly worldwide.鈥�

SAP: Start Small for Big Impact from Subscription-Based Offerings

At , transitioning to a cloud-based business model has made perfect sense for this market leader in enterprise application software across an unrivaled swath of industries.

鈥淛ust about every industry is extending the reach of their products to get closer to their customers with embedded software and services,鈥� said Stefan Krauss, senior vice president and general manager for Discrete Industries and Energy & Natural Resources at SAP. 鈥淔or us, this meant creating new software-as-a-service offerings like and , where we support companies of all sizes that are making the move to the cloud on their transformation journeys.鈥�

Krauss explained how one 51风流customer, a power tools manufacturer, embedded sensors in its products, allowing it to charge by actual usage, sell predictive maintenance as a service, and track items throughout the entire lifecycle, including design and recycling for a circular economy. He advised companies to carefully pinpoint where service-based offerings can generate the greatest results and involve the entire organization in the shift from selling products to services.

鈥淥ne manufacturer in Germany had to reeducate salespeople to not sell products but sell solutions,鈥� he said. 鈥淢ost companies start somewhere small. Sometimes there鈥檚 a crisis that forces companies to rethink how they do business. For example, subscription-based offerings can help customers that may be struggling because of unexpected market disruptions.鈥�

researchers predict that digital products, services, and experiences will generate 40% of total revenue for G2000 organizations by 2026. Introducing XaaS is a strategic business decision that, when done right, is a win-win for companies and their partners.

Susan Galer is a communications director at SAP.

Speaking at this year鈥檚 during a keynote with Sven Denecken, senior vice president and chief marketing and solutions officer for 51风流Industries and Customer Experience, Scheier modestly described her revolutionary strategy.

鈥淚 decided to have a small goal of changing the fashion industry to be inclusive of the 1.8 billion people on earth who are living with a disability,鈥� said Scheier. 鈥淗aving a partner like 51风流helps us navigate the world and understand that people with disabilities are living in a world that actually wasn鈥檛 made for them. Our equation is that fashion plus technology equals adaptive, and 51风流is the platform to help us expand and understand the power of inclusion, especially with the largest minority on our planet.鈥�

Building an Ecosystem of Changemakers

Runway of Dreams develops programs and events that celebrate people鈥檚 differences with fashion shows that exemplify the power of collaboration across industry ecosystems. Unlike typical runway events with one fashion designer, numerous world-renowned brands come together to sponsor Runway of Dreams fashion shows that debut clothing designed for people with disabilities. Scheier is also founder and CEO of GAMUT Management, the first-of-its-kind consulting company to work exclusively with and for people with disabilities.

鈥�51风流has come in to help our shared clients understand the huge business opportunity around people with disabilities,鈥� said Scheier. 鈥淭he button was invented in the 13^th century, giving technology a huge opportunity to get involved in this space and be a changemaker. And GAMUT is a platform for that. Just because things have been done in a certain way for years, doesn鈥檛 mean that鈥檚 how they have to remain.鈥�

Future-Ready Mindset for Industry Differentiation

The fashion industry is just one example of how 51风流helps customers stay one step ahead of market dynamics where industries are converging, embedded artificial intelligence (AI) is an indispensable tool, and partner ecosystems are vital for business growth.

鈥淭o be future-proof, companies need to have a future-ready mindset,鈥� said Denecken. 鈥淚ndustries are the vertical edge that provides differentiation for the business鈥nd 51风流offers that deep industry knowledge to help organizations鈥avigate every emerging trend, turn the unexpected into opportunities, and differentiate to grow at that vertical edge backed by our . We are reshaping every industry.鈥�

Industry Convergence Transforms CX

Denecken used the central digital showcase at the event as an example of how convergence is rapidly reshaping industries, redefining boundaries between traditional value chains for sustainable, intelligent, and networked business. This improves the customer experience and helps build the circular economy.

鈥淐onvergence is happening in every sector. There are many scenarios such as energy where fuel stations are becoming retail stations, [straddling] the oil and gas, automotive, utilities, and retail industries,鈥� he said. 鈥淭o digitally transform鈥nabling people, partners, and the entire system to collaborate on product and service experiences, you need to think across industry boundaries to create added value that will differentiate your brand. 51风流has the digital industry solutions and business process understanding to help you deliver value that drives profitable growth.鈥�

Generative AI with a Business Purpose

Industry convergence is also behind 51风流industry networks, where organizations from industrial manufacturing, life sciences, consumer products, and high technology go beyond traditional partnerships to collaborate across boundaries, sharing data and tools for faster innovation, including embedded generative AI that has a business purpose and delivers results.

鈥淭urning AI technology advancements into business impact is a challenge for many companies, especially if they lack in-house expertise,鈥� said Denecken. 鈥淲e have built business AI capabilities directly into the 51风流portfolio, combining that with our industry knowledge to power critical functions that include transportation management with generative AI, predictive replenishment, intelligent product recommendations, and 51风流Digital Assistant, which can provide a unified natural language interface for all 51风流solutions.鈥�

Industry-Specific Data Fulfills Customer Promise

Denecken explained how SAP鈥檚 mission is to help industries become more customer-centric, linking data company wide. In a fascinating demonstration, Andre Bechtold, senior vice president and head of Solution and Innovation Experience at SAP, showed how the company鈥檚 on-site delve into real-world scenarios for industries, connecting data across business value chains between consumers and organizations to strengthen customer relationships and generate revenue from new cross-industry business models.

鈥淲e鈥檙e making the customer experience more industry tailored, starting with automotive, consumer products, retail, and utilities,鈥� said Denecken. 鈥淭his allows companies to meet individual customer needs at any touchpoint. Personalized experiences result in increased order sizes, return visits, customer loyalty, higher profit margins, and greater wallet share.鈥�

Driven by cloud-based technologies, industries are blazing new business trails with boundary-crossing innovations like inclusive fashion for consumers.

Susan Galer is a communications director at SAP.聽Follow her @smgaler.

鈥淲e are driven by our mission to make a meaningful difference for people worldwide who are impacted by difficult-to-treat cancers and other serious diseases,鈥� said Chris Astle, chief financial officer at Zymeworks. 鈥淲e chose because it鈥檚 a trusted solution for the biotech and pharmaceutical industries, proven to manage the complexities we face around pricing, manufacturing, supply chain logistics, and more. We鈥檙e building the bedrock for our growth in a dynamic industry with ever-changing market conditions.鈥�

A 2023 , Zymeworks went live with a broad range of solutions through RISE with SAP. I sat down with Astle during this year鈥檚 , where he filled me in on how 51风流solutions are essential to the company鈥檚 expansion plans. He told me that Zymeworks expects significant resource savings from replacing manual, multi-step processes with self-service automation, gaining efficiency improvements from 50% up to 90% respectively across operational planning, HR, and invoicing.

Digital Platform Creates Automation Efficiencies

Working on new drug development and clinical trials for oncology treatments, Zymeworks is tackling one of the most challenging healthcare markets given the numerous kinds of cancers, sub-types of cancers, and patient populations. Headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with operations in the U.S., Zymeworks is expanding to Europe and Asia. Astle was well aware of what the company鈥檚 finance, manufacturing, research and development (R&D), supply chain, procurement, and HR teams are up against as the volume of transactions, currencies, and compliance mandates increase with geographical build-out.

鈥淲e鈥檙e constantly exploring therapeutics for patients where there鈥檚 a high unmet need with few treatment options to date,鈥� said Astle. 鈥淎s we grow, we鈥檒l need to manage greater transactional volume, risk, and complexity. Having end-to-end, integrated data company-wide will automate processes and provide the digital foundation of the company. Once the systems are fully operational and everyone is trained, we expect a significant reduction in time to prepare budgets, close the books, and manage HR onboarding and reporting. This will free people up to focus on more strategic, value-added activities.鈥�

Data Transparency Supports Financial and Healthcare Governance聽

Although currently in the clinical development phase, Zymeworks went live with 51风流solutions to be better prepared to meet global industry mandates, including external audits as products are launched.

鈥淓mbedding compliance within our processes reduces risk and gives us more flexibility and agility,鈥� said Astle. 鈥淲e interact with healthcare leaders, as well as government policymakers and auditors. With , we can accurately track and report our spend with partners like physicians, grant writers, and advisory boards. are our primary source for travel and expense data, helping monitor compliance with industry regulations.鈥�

Integrated Data Has Company-Wide Business Results

People are at the heart of Zymework鈥檚 innovation and using for the company鈥檚 self-service HR will help bring extended benefits throughout the company.

鈥淲e鈥檝e developed an organizational hierarchy matrix with well-defined roles for promotions and career planning,鈥� said Astle. 鈥淲e鈥檝e set up workflow automation based on someone鈥檚 role, assigning tasks accordingly, whether it involves onboarding new hires, regulatory sign-offs, or purchase order approvals. Automation from integrated data helps people make better decisions faster, increasing efficiencies from standardized processes as we grow.鈥�

Working with 51风流Bolsters Continuous Journey to Best Practices

Zymework鈥檚 relatively small size compared to industry behemoths in no way detracts from the value of the company鈥檚 relationship with SAP. In fact, the organization has the best of both worlds 鈥� best practices with less customization.

鈥淚mplementing a tier 1 solution like 51风流was a big training opportunity for our finance team and the wider organization,鈥� said Astle. 鈥淲e鈥檝e acquired best practices from the largest industry leaders and can go with a more out-of-the-box solution that鈥檚 already standardized and fit for purpose, requiring almost no customization.鈥�

Future-Proofing the Business with Adaptability

Despite the daunting task ahead developing advanced treatments, Zymeworks is well-positioned for growth, committed to ongoing investments for innovation.

鈥淚t鈥檚 strategically important to be diverse to reduce company risk, and we are looking at other therapeutic areas, too. We have some really innovative science and fantastic scientists, and we鈥檙e not afraid of the challenge,鈥� said Astle. 鈥淲ith our move to SAP, we鈥檝e laid the foundation for the future growth of our company. We can focus on achieving our vision, innovating to bring new medicines to market for patients in need.鈥�

To hear more from customers on their digital transformation journey with SAP,聽.

Susan Galer is a communications director at SAP. Follow me @smgaler.

As a manufacturer supporting hundreds of leading brands in just about every industry, Jabil is adept at helping companies bring products to market with speed and agility, including smart home appliances and electronics, industrial machinery, cloud computing solutions, energy storage systems, and telecommunications infrastructure.

Customers depend on Jabil for everything from product design and engineering through volume manufacturing, assembly, quality testing, procurement, and logistics, which is why the company has undergone a massive digital transformation moving to .

鈥淲e鈥檝e seen marked improvements in speed because we鈥檙e on an database,鈥� said Cynthia Kendall, IT director at Jabil. 鈥淚n addition, bringing our ERP applications into the cloud has given us significant improvements in scalability from business transparency. For example, we now have visibility into all open sales orders by facility in just seconds, versus what historically took over an hour.鈥�

Jabil is a longtime 51风流customer, and the two companies share numerous business objectives, notably a commitment to innovation and sustainability. At this year鈥檚 , Kendall showcased how the company working with 51风流was inherent to its cloud-first strategy.

Connected Data Speeds Up Operations

It鈥檚 no understatement to say that Jabil is complex. The multi-billion dollar, Florida-based company employs over 250,000 employees who serve customers from more than 100 sites, totaling over 500 million square feet of manufacturing space 鈥� the equivalent of 868 football fields. Digitalization that connects accurate data across these vast operations has boosted accurate planning and forecasting. As a result, Jabil can react faster to customer demands.

鈥淲e鈥檝e increased efficiencies with inventory management, capturing real-time data on materials in stock as products are finished,鈥� said Kendall. 鈥淲e have exact numbers on the components and materials available for each product as they鈥檙e produced. This data speeds up our ability to build, ship, and invoice products.鈥�

Cloud-First Business Results

Staying on top of fast-moving innovations that continuously redefine customer markets is core to Jabil鈥檚 growth strategy. Kendall said that the company鈥檚 move to 51风流S/4HANA has provided the entire organization with critical flexibility.

鈥淪ince moving to the cloud, we鈥檝e resized our app servers; what once took days is now completed in hours,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e collapsed a number of servers into a larger one, requiring less time to manage. This has allowed our business to explore how to transform and innovate in this new 51风流S/4HANA landscape in ways that we could never do before.鈥�

Future-Proof Strength Amidst a Sea of Change

Jabil鈥檚 customers are selling products worldwide, facing increasingly stringent and rapidly changing global regulations. This reality was behind one of the company鈥檚 decisions to migrate to the cloud with SAP.

鈥淚t didn鈥檛 make sense to keep customizing our legacy 51风流solutions,鈥� said Kendall. 鈥�51风流S/4HANA provides the platform we need to build advanced capabilities aligned to the evolving compliance mandates and market demands facing our customers.鈥�

Supply Chain Resiliency Despite Disruptions

Having gone live with 51风流S/4HANA during the pandemic, Jabil鈥檚 innovation is well underway with pilots designed to help achieve business goals in a dramatically different environment of supply chain and other disruptions.

鈥淲e鈥檙e showing the business many opportunities that weren鈥檛 available before,鈥� said Kendall. 鈥淓specially in production planning, we are able to make faster, better-informed decisions. Even in the face of supply chain shortages, this will help us make educated and nimble decisions moving forward with what we can actually manufacture and when we can manufacture it.鈥�

Start Now to Forge a Path to Innovation

More than anything, Jabil鈥檚 journey with 51风流is a tremendous opportunity for the company to transform and innovate. Kendall鈥檚 advice to other organizations was clear.

鈥淓mbrace the fact that you鈥檒l need to migrate to 51风流S/4HANA, and start planning now,鈥� she said. 鈥淓ven if your project isn鈥檛 kicking off for another six months or later, there are things you can do today to prepare for the journey so you鈥檒l be future-ready for tomorrow.鈥�

This pragmatic advice and expert insight into 51风流S/4HANA migration planning is at the heart of , the company鈥檚 new 51风流S4-as-a-Service offering developed by practitioners for practitioners to help streamline and simplify 51风流S/4HANA Cloud migrations.

To hear more from customers on their digital transformation journey with SAP, .

Susan Galer is communications director at SAP. Follow me @smgaler.

The companies were emblematic of the many customers at the event held last week in Orlando, and featured organizations of all sizes sharing business results from solutions that included , , and .

鈥淔or over 50 years, 51风流has been there for our customers, adapting to ensure their success,鈥� Russell said. 鈥淎s we enter the next 50 years, we will continue to be your engine for business, bringing powerful, proven innovations that serve you both now and into the future. The reality is that future-proof can be built right into your business with SAP.鈥�

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Whether companies are transitioning amid market uncertainty or are intent on getting ahead of the competition and being ready for fast-changing demands, Russell explained how 51风流helps address top priorities: achieve business transformation at speed, gain easy-to-use innovations, and work with a trusted partner.

Here are highlights from the incredible journeys of three of these 51风流customers.

Innovative Business Transformation, Cirque du Soleil Style

As a beloved entertainment brand with a 40-year history of bringing customers joy, emerged from the pandemic reenergized with a vision for creative endurance in a changed world. Among the most delightful moments of Russell鈥檚 keynote was when he donned a clown鈥檚 nose at the behest of Cirque du Soleil Chief Growth Officer Nicole Tara Nickole, who joined him on stage to share how her company expanded its long-time partnership with 51风流to future-proof the organization for the next 40 years.

鈥淔irst, we are going to create performances in the Cirque du Soleil vision, but do it differently with more awe-inspiring immersive-style experiences that let people walk through it, touch it, and feel it,鈥� she said. 鈥淪econd, we are forging a digital connection with our audience to participate in a digital universe that we鈥檙e creating with Cirque鈥檚 passion and innovation. Third, we will show our customers and fans what we鈥檙e doing in communities worldwide to help better the planet and the world we live in.鈥�

Nickole said that Cirque du Soleil was transforming in ways that will impact its millions of fans, creators, and performers who currently stage shows in 60 countries each year.

鈥淲e鈥檝e come out of what was a dark era into one full of innovation and light — powered by technology, driven by our fans, and thinking about the future,鈥� she said. 鈥淟ooking at this global constituency of SAP, including customers, staff members, and fans, we鈥檙e so privileged to have partners like you. When we think back to our darkest days鈥� 51风流stood beside us. We are empowered by our partnership with SAP.鈥�

HanesBrands Gets Closer to Consumers with Data-Driven Insights

Known and loved by consumers worldwide for iconic everyday apparel, is transforming its over 100-year-old heritage into a data-driven growth powerhouse. Chief Information Officer Subra Goparaju explained the company鈥檚 strategy to increase revenue, improve margins, and grow the business.

鈥淭echnology transformation is the foundation of our plan,鈥� said Goparaju. 鈥淏y consolidating our ERP system on SAP, we can reduce complexity, standardize business processes, and simplify business. 51风流is central to our transformation journey, helping provide us with the business capabilities that a modern retail-centric organization needs.鈥�

HanesBrands recently went live on RISE with 51风流for the company鈥檚 flagship Champion brand, and Goparaju described how the 鈥渄igital foundation with a technology spine鈥� has already delivered results.

鈥淧utting our entire technology footprint on RISE with SAP, a highly scalable platform, means that our 鈥榗rown jewels鈥� now run with reduced disruptions,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e have clean, consistent data across the company, integrated omnichannel inventory visibility, and omni-commerce capabilities, helping us provide a better consumer experience鈥� We鈥檝e also enabled a global integration platform on 51风流BTP. We鈥檙e excited about these business capabilities because the value they unlock will help us achieve our goals.鈥�

RISE with 51风流Accelerates Boom Supersonic

Boom Supersonic is among the 51风流customers that are changing the world; in this case, by building the world鈥檚 fastest airliner designed to fly at twice the speed of today鈥檚 airliners and run on 100% sustainable aviation fuel. Although relatively small, Boom Supersonic partnered with 51风流to power huge innovation — namely, manufacturing a commercial aircraft that could fly passengers from New York to London in about three hours. Russell welcomed Boom Supersonic Chief Information Officer Charles Valentine, proclaiming, 鈥淭hey鈥檙e getting good now so they can be great tomorrow.鈥�

Valentine sketched out why his organization selected RISE with 51风流to support the company鈥檚 mission in making the world dramatically more accessible. Having recently broke ground for a jet assembly plant in North Carolina, Boom Supersonic needed to jumpstart a modern ERP system before production began.

鈥淭his is a story of true scalability and knowing that we would need to depend on 51风流in five, 10, and 15 years. What appealed to us was that we could get our feet wet with it, and as we grew, we could grow the license count accordingly,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e could change our internal processes to map to the industry standard鈥� And we started the migration early in anticipation of the data we will be creating.鈥�

Valentine described the tenets his team followed to go live with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud in just 90 days, including out-of-the-box integration and a phased strategy: 鈥淲e are focused on our mission to design and build a supersonic airliner, and every second we spend not 100% focused on that mission is wasted. We didn鈥檛 want to customize unless it gave us a competitive advantage to do so鈥� We also need to rely on technology to take on as much of the busy work as possible, so we鈥檙e really embracing automation to support our growth.鈥�

SAP: Trusted Partner for Digital Transformation

Emphasizing that 51风流cannot rely on its history being the company鈥檚 future, Russell said that everyone at 51风流earns the trust of customers every day.

鈥淲e know that these customer stories don鈥檛 just happen. It takes great technology and a partnership ecosystem that makes it come to life, along with a partner like 51风流that will stand with them every step of the journey,鈥� he said. 鈥淓very journey is different. Every path is unique, but the destination with 51风流is secure. Trust us as your partner in the journey.”

“Whether your company is just starting out or has been on a journey with us for many years, we鈥檙e so excited to help you become future proof.鈥�

鈥淔resh produce organizations and their partners are rapidly moving from experience-based to data-driven farming,鈥� said Anja Strothkaemper, global vice president of Agribusiness and Commodity Management at SAP. 鈥� for agribusiness are designed to help fresh produce companies use data from the fields, grower contracts, and finance to make better decisions for managing the food value chain end-to-end to achieve optimal yields and higher revenue.鈥�

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Farming Innovations Start in the Field

Watching the plants just won鈥檛 cut it in a world beset by storms, droughts, and other unexpected challenges. Farmers are investing in technology to capture and act on data in the fields. For example, they can make cost-effective and yield-boosting irrigation improvements based on soil conditions and local weather forecasts. This also helps save water, which is becoming a scarce resource in many parts of the world.

In many cases, fresh produce companies working with independent growers provide farming advisory services to their growers based on historical and current field data, as well as crop and variety-specific data science models. Using , they can replace manual spreadsheets with cloud-based, centralized field data. They can also offer digital services on a mobile platform to farmers, providing 24/7 advice for each field. The idea is to automatically capture and analyze data that helps growers make better decisions throughout the farming cycle, from planting to harvest. For fresh produce companies that have contracts with many farmers, relevant data is a way to build trusted relationships and control the quality of their supply.

Sustainability to Weather Any Market Storm

As sustainability becomes a business imperative, agribusiness is responding with climate-friendly crop protection and care. Farmers want to minimize environmentally harmful pesticides and fertilizers, and conserve valuable natural resources like water. Data that supports intelligent irrigation planning can help reduce the use of water even in the face of droughts. Real-time soil analyses can help farmers use less fertilizer and pesticides, saving costs while reducing crop loss risk.

Connected data also supports innovation and agility, providing fresh produce researchers with updated information as they explore new varieties resistant to evolving weather conditions. They can track yields against regional demand, adjusting planting strategies as market tastes shift and producing higher-revenue varieties at the right time.

Deep Partnerships Extend Food Value Chain Innovation

The food value chain is wide and deep, making partner collaboration another essential ingredient for fresh product companies.

鈥淪AP鈥檚 strategy is to provide customers with a cloud-based platform that allows them to build intelligence by collaborating with partners for optimized end-to-end processes,鈥� said Strothkaemper. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we鈥檙e partnering to extend co-innovation using , offering tools and technology to partners so they can extend 51风流solutions and build complementary industry cloud applications.鈥�

Numerous agritech startups are working with 51风流to explore untapped opportunities and develop solutions for sustainable agriculture. One example is , a participant in SAP.iO Foundry Paris, that developed a to automate quality control based on the size and color of fresh fruits and vegetables in real time. Clarifruit鈥檚 latest innovation, recently announced in beta version, expands the platform鈥檚 capabilities to automate the identification of defects.

鈥淎utomating quality control with real-time data provides inspectors along the food value chain with objective and consistent information, allowing sellers to get the price they expect and buyers the quality their customers demand,鈥� said Elad Mardix, CEO at Clarifruit. 鈥淲ith early visibility into the quality of fresh produce, growers, wholesalers, and retailers along the supply chain can reduce quality mismatch and rejections, helping decrease waste and increase profits.鈥�

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Data Intelligence Cuts Through Complex Food Value Chain

It鈥檚 impossible to talk about the farm-to-consume value chain without mentioning . Storing and transporting perishable foods like fruits and vegetables requires integrated data across warehouses and vast transportation networks. Looking to the future, Strothkaemper envisioned fully connected data from fields through planning, planting, and harvest to supply chain transport and delivery.

鈥淚magine if fresh produce companies could digitally link what鈥檚 happening in the farming fields with to better meet retailer demands,鈥� said Strothkaemper. 鈥淵ou may have enough apples to meet orders in the system, but do you have the transportation capacity to pick them up and can the store and pack them? Our vision is to help fresh produce companies connect the farm-to-consume data silos between growers, fresh produce companies, and transportation service providers. With connected, intelligent data, companies gain more control in an unpredictable environment.鈥�

Susan Galer is a communications director at SAP. Follow me @smgaler.

鈥淥rganizations are struggling to forecast energy costs in a volatile market and understand the impact of new trends such as e-mobility on operations and finance,鈥� said Catherine Garcera, global head of Sustainability, Services Industry at SAP. 鈥淭hey need resilience against the current energy crisis and the ability to grow and generate profits while meeting corporate sustainability goals.鈥�

Step 1: Power Up Energy Savings with Digital Twins

Lowering energy consumption and operating costs begins with a thorough understanding of an organization鈥檚 energy data. Leading-edge companies are using digital twins to capture and analyze real-time energy usage data including electricity, natural gas, and renewables. That鈥檚 the purpose behind Flexinergy, an energy management software platform developed by , an 51风流partner. The platform creates a digital version of an organization鈥檚 energy contracts and usage, allowing the customer to pre-calculate the bill. Information can include distribution costs across subsidiaries, taxes, size and location of facilities, occupancy rates, external temperatures, and more. This helps customers catch invoice mistakes, evaluate energy efficiency, and reduce consumption.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not unusual to find discrepancies between what the bill should be and the provider鈥檚 actual invoice,鈥� said Erwin Guizouarn, CEO and founder of Evolution Energie. 鈥淐ustomers also use our software to better forecast energy costs in case of price fluctuations, new contracts, or supply chain disruptions.鈥�

Guizouarn said that customers can be overcharged up to 5% on an annual basis due to billing errors. As for cost reductions, one large airport saved 17% in energy consumption.

Real-time data became particularly important for organizations during the recent energy crisis. Guizouarn said that customers can explore what-if scenarios, factoring in changeable energy prices and other parameters like lower carbon emission fuels, revised contract terms, or hedging to lower risk in case of energy price fluctuations. Ongoing alerts notify decision-makers of deviations to the plan, say if energy prices climb higher than expected, helping companies adjust strategies as needed.

Evolution Energie first began working with 51风流through its participation in the Green Tech and Sustainability cohort of , the company鈥檚 global B2B accelerator. With shared business-to-business target markets, both companies are proving the incredible power of connected data.

鈥淢erging energy-related data with financial information from your system and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) information from , you can see the impact on profitability and emissions objectives,鈥� said Garcera. 鈥淵ou can adjust operations by day, week, or even season to gain efficiencies that could increase profits while meeting sustainability commitments.鈥�

Step 2: Transition to Green Energy

Moving to green energy is another step that energy-intensive companies can take to achieve ambitious decarbonization targets. Some customers are increasingly focused on purchasing renewable energy, as well as producing green energy and investing in green assets. Here, too, a digital twin can help companies capture energy usage and resultant costs while tracking CO2 emissions from electricity, biomass, hydrogen, and other renewable sources.

鈥淵ou can balance your green energy strategies against the cost of new contracts and greenhouse gas emission targets,鈥� said Garcera. 鈥淚n addition, companies need to ensure the provenance of the green energy they consume for accurate reporting against corporate sustainability objectives, supporting the brand鈥檚 image and building trust with customers and investors.鈥�

Step 3: Realistically Explore New Energy Trends

While the vision is to consume as much green energy as possible, organizations are tempering sustainable business plans with reality. Some industries like aviation aren鈥檛 ready for full decarbonization; there鈥檚 limited availability of sustainable aviation fuel and it will take significant efforts to revamp complex infrastructure. In any case, organizations require energy strategies that combine finance, risk management, and sustainability.

鈥淔ast-moving energy prices on top of changing sustainability regulations mean that companies have to continually monitor costs to find more efficiencies, and prove compliance with corporate commitments and industry regulations,鈥� said Garcera. 鈥淭he more you can accurately anticipate disruptions, the better you can make decisions to adapt for business resilience.鈥�

Green Market Revolution Fueled by Informed Data

Connected data is foundational to managing energy consumption and costs. analysts predicted that by 2025, 75% of large cities and communities will form industry ecosystems with IT, architectural, engineering, and real estate firms to share data, applications, and expertise to address ESG issues. With zero-emission mandates moving apace, researchers advised organizations to continuously follow the price and performance and capability improvements in renewable energy systems and also 鈥渨ork with supply chain partners to improve procurement efficiencies.鈥� As unpredictable as the next crisis may be, organizations can stay grounded with accurate data to build a resilient future.

Susan Galer is a communications director at SAP. Follow me @smgaler.

The event was moderated by Monica Gassmann, a chapter lead for the Business Women鈥檚 Network (BWN) from 51风流and sustainability program lead for SAP鈥檚 Discrete and Energy and Natural Resources Industries. On the panel were Marjan Olthof, head of Customer Services at Tata Steel, and Mari Pulkkinen, director of 51风流and M&A Center of Excellence at LyondellBasell. Both women are helping lead innovations at their respective companies that are also 51风流customers. During the illuminating conversation, they opened up about taking career risks, rising above gender-based stereotypes, and forging new paths to leadership in historically male-dominated industries.

Women鈥檚 Voices Can Head Off Stereotyping

research has found that initiatives like 鈥減romoting diversity in succession planning and holding celebratory events to highlight underrepresented groups鈥� are highly effective at creating cultures of belonging. Indeed, the luncheon鈥檚 relaxed, friendly setting united all of us in a shared passion for diversity and inclusion. Rising above narrow stereotypes that can trap women was a common theme. Olthof talked about her learnings from working in sales, production, and engineering at Tata Steel, a multinational steel supplier and manufacturer based in India.

鈥淲ith fewer women in the workplace, there can be role expectations that don鈥檛 necessarily align with who you are,鈥� said Olthof. 鈥淢y advice to women is to be yourself because what you have to offer is really valuable. Stay with your own personality while pursuing your ambitions.鈥�

Pulkkinen shared lessons from her early career experiences. She currently works at LyondellBasell, a multinational chemical company headquartered in the Netherlands.

鈥淢en have traditionally dominated leadership positions in the chemical industry but when women use their voice, they can continue to offer new perspectives,鈥� said Pulkkinen. 鈥淒uring my first role on the supply chain team at a chemicals company, the first thing that my male colleagues wanted me to do was take notes. I told him that with my qualifications, I had been hired to do something else.鈥�

Preventing Unconscious Bias

Everyone on the panel agreed that addressing unconscious bias starts with clear goals that increase opportunities for women. It鈥檚 just as important to change daily behaviors that define corporate culture.

鈥淎ddressing unconscious bias is something that I鈥檓 passionate about, and we have been accelerating our diversity and inclusion commitment,鈥� said Pulkkinen. 鈥淔or example, we have 47 nationalities in our Rotterdam office and want to make sure that people appreciate everyone鈥檚 unique background in a positive way. Small jokes based on stereotypes can affect how people are treated and perceived in the workplace.鈥�

Building a Workforce Culture of Diversity

Tata Steel is also building a people culture that celebrates and encourages diversity and inclusion. Its five-pillar approach includes recruitment, sensitization, retention and development, infrastructure, and celebration.

鈥淲e鈥檝e made diversity a No.1 priority by putting more women in senior roles,鈥� said Olthof. 鈥淧eople are inherently biased towards their definition of normal and what they see in their environments and experiences. Unconscious bias also extends beyond gender to assumptions based on someone鈥檚 age. To make mindset changes, we need to be aware of these challenges and address them.鈥�

Sponsors Help Women Progress

What became clear from the discussion was that women want to contribute their talents but need the space to be heard. Managers 鈥� women and men 鈥� have the clout to help.聽While recognizing the value of mentoring, Gassmann said that more women need sponsors who advocate for them.

鈥淢entors are great, but sponsors lift you up, connecting you with the people who can help advance your career,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hese are men and women in management who provide you with visibility in meetings or informal settings to develop your career.鈥�

Corporate women鈥檚 networks are growing. Olthof said that Tata Steel has a group of people who identify women candidates for promotion as vacancies occur. The BWN from 51风流is an employee-driven group with over 90 global chapters that share professional insights, education, and experience to help women advance their careers. At LyondellBasell, mentors regularly help women with introductions and other support.

After 90 minutes of a fascinating dialogue, I walked out of this session at the conference fully energized. Yes, in leadership positions across some industries, including chemicals and steel. But as leaders at industry associations and companies like SAP, Tata Steel, and LyondellBasell speak up and act on diversity and inclusion commitments, there鈥檚 hope that more change will surely follow.

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鈥淲e want to make life better day in and day out. We create products with characteristics that make the final consumer product really special,鈥� said Thomas Meinel, senior vice president and head of Indirect Procurement at Evonik Industries. 鈥淲e鈥檙e farming salmons with a more sustainable feeding alternative for the climate and our environment. We supported the development and production of the first mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 by supplying the lipid nanoparticles that transport these gene-based vaccines to the right target site in the human body.鈥�

Digital Is Foundation of Business Resilience

After hearing Meinel speak at the recent in Madrid, Spain, I reached out to Dr. Marko Lange, product manager for 51风流Chemicals, for his thoughts on industry modernization.

In a disrupted world rocked by geopolitical conflicts and resultant soaring prices and shortages, he said that Evonik Industries stands out for its foresight in business modernization, bringing in and other 51风流solutions.

鈥淓RP is a hot topic again in the chemical industry because an ERP platform supports business resiliency across supply chains and operations in turbulent times like these,鈥� said Dr. Lange. 鈥淎 next-generation ERP system provides insights, simulations, and decision support to help you understand disruptive impacts on your business and effectively respond. It is a real companion to operating your business, detailing granular, real-time information about what鈥檚 happening and the consequences.鈥�

Procurement Is Strategic Business Partner

Digitalization has transformed how every department at Evonik Industries operates. At the conference, Meinel shared how procurement was the next step in his company鈥檚 digital journey.

鈥�In a rapidly changing world with new business models, procurement is increasingly part of make or buy decisions to take advantage of greater opportunities,鈥� said Meinel. 鈥淪ourcing managers still need classic procurement skills because they are responsible for a company鈥檚 global strategy. But they also need to work from anywhere, interacting effectively with teams on collaborative platforms with internal colleagues and external suppliers. Cloud-based platforms provide many more scouting possibilities to discover future suppliers.鈥�

Managing the procurement experience in a digitalized word requires different capabilities from people as they assume new responsibilities. Meinel said that sourcing managers at Evonik Industries were strategic relationship managers who continually innovated, not just on elements like pricing, but working as part of a team to negotiate and strengthen supplier relationships.

鈥淒igitalization will change what procurement does and how we do it,鈥� said Meinel. 鈥淲e are buying more digital products along with products that have been digitally enhanced. For example, the pumps we purchase use significantly more digital data, which changes how people work, what skill sets they need, their capabilities, and managerial expectations.鈥�

Connected Procurement Data Boosts Efficiencies

Similar to organizations in many industries that are deeply impacted by mergers and acquisitions, Evonik Industries needed real-time data visibility into contract management for daily activities, as well as accurate auditing.

鈥淓verything we do has to be connected, which is the objective of going digital, to make process efficiencies end-to-end,鈥� said Meinel. 鈥淲ith and , we can transform procurement, integrating data across systems as we create, sign, store, and manage contracts that often travel between departments and locations around the world.鈥�

People Are as Strong as Their Network

Meinel said that digitalization is profoundly changing how the company鈥檚 procurement professionals function on a daily basis. Robotics speed up purchase order creation and artificial intelligence (AI)-fueled algorithms produce forecasts, while people apply human judgment to handle exceptions and contribute to other higher value tasks. Instead of working in isolation, procurement teams are analyzing and using data to build a stronger global network of decision-making. After implementing 51风流Ariba solutions, Meinel said that Evonik Industries gained significant employee productivity efficiencies and met objectives for cash flow savings. Automating tedious, repetitive tasks frees up procurement to stay on top of fast-changing market conditions, including finding new suppliers in case of unexpected disruptions.

鈥淚鈥檓 convinced the future of procurement will be one of constant change,鈥� said Meinel. 鈥淟ifelong learning needs to be part of the culture beyond designated trainings. People don鈥檛 care what system they use. They want efficient processes and to be seamlessly connected. What matters is the user experience. Our digital business core is 51风流S/4HANA, helping us become an agile, intelligent network able to manage constant change.鈥�

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鈥淎lthough remanufacturing has been an industry norm, the difference now is its direct connection to meeting sustainability objectives at scale,鈥� said Georg Kube, global vice president and head of Industrial Manufacturing at SAP. 鈥淥rganizations can gain faster near-term value from bringing back existing products and reusing them for innovations that help achieve net-zero and net-neutral goals across the .鈥�

In a recent , respondents from industrial manufacturing and high tech industries said that results from their circular economy initiatives included better brand reputation (80%), increased innovation (79%), and enhanced regulatory compliance (78%).

Circular Economy Meets Sustainable Business Imperatives

Circular manufacturing has taken on new urgency. Material shortages are pushing costs higher. Easily disrupted supply chains add to challenges, where a single roadblock in one corner of the world cascades with massive negative impact on production elsewhere. At the same time, given increasing regulations, manufacturers have to calculate whether the energy consumption for one-time-use goods is profitable. Remanufacturing can help companies reduce the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Scope 1, 2, and especially 3 emissions that make up a significant percentage of carbon debt in their products. Localized remanufacturing is even more environmentally friendly.

鈥淚f manufacturers could harvest recyclable materials from locally sold and used consumer goods instead of dumping them in landfills, their customers become their suppliers for a fundamental change in supply chain dynamics,鈥� said Kube. 鈥淐ircular economy is a powerful way for manufacturers to demonstrate how they are committed to the environment and aligned with customers likelier to buy sustainably built products.鈥�

Kube added that some organizations are generating a strong revenue stream from remanufacturing their own products and selling those same services to other companies. Manufacturers are also moving factories closer to remanufacturing locations, reducing emissions from shipping and logistics.

Remanufactured Supply Chains Coalesce Around Sustainability

For heavy equipment manufacturers that typically have large portfolios, the circular economy involves prioritizing which machines and components make sense to reuse based on actual product value and carbon emissions saved. Calculations include the cost of materials, components, and production, along with depreciation and lifetime energy usage. Manufacturers that buy back certain products from their distributors can disassemble the returned machines, clean up designated high-value parts, and upgrade the component鈥檚 capabilities for reuse in advanced releases.

鈥淭he goal isn鈥檛 to try and remanufacture every single product in your portfolio,鈥� said Kube. 鈥淵ou want to remanufacture only those items with significant carbon savings and economic value, opening up possibilities for cost-effective innovation while complying with sustainability mandates and addressing customer expectations. Suppose you get back a second-generation pump. Its core has the highest value and most carbon emissions. You can take it apart and replace one chip in the motherboard to add a feature like remote control, transforming the product into the next generation.鈥�

Business Sustainability Is Built on Data Sharing

Despite legal edicts and consumer-led clout, sustainable business practices deep in the industrial manufacturing supply chain aren鈥檛 a given. Once a manufacturer has decided which parts make the most sense for reuse, customers still need incentives to return the product; maybe the payment for returns exceeds the dumping costs. Managing the logistics to identify, inspect, and take back products will require trailblazing industry collaboration.

鈥淎s products are sorted between scrap and remanufacturing, the manufacturer needs accurate data that captures the flow of materials and financial information,鈥� said Kube. 鈥淲e are innovating with solutions like , as well as , to securely connect data within an organization and across trusted ecosystems. The circular economy will depend on a network of enterprises moving in sync towards a sustainable planet.鈥�

Long before and after they touch our lives, products have a direct and indirect impact on the environment. Just reporting carbon emissions won鈥檛 make industries like farming, construction, energy, and automotive sustainable. Remanufacturing will tighten and shorten the loop between first-time product usage and reuse that reduces waste and increases profits, powering the circular economy.

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Increasing regulations are also sparking digital innovation across life sciences. For example, organizations are required to share updated supply chain data with trusted partners for compliance with the final phased-in regulations of the . Initially passed in 2013, the latest batch of requirements from this act will require pharmacies, wholesalers, and manufacturers to track and report drug shipments for legitimacy between authorized trading partners. That鈥檚 where Spherity Credentialing Service CARO comes in, an app that provides updated information proving a dispenser鈥檚 trading partner status.

鈥淲hen a pharmacist in a tiny dispensary in North Dakota has suspicions about a received drug shipment, they send a verification request to a global pharmaceutical manufacturer that has numerous wholesalers in between them and the pharmacy,鈥� said Dr. Oliver Nuernberg, chief product owner of Life Sciences at SAP. 鈥淎utomating the credentialing process builds transparency and trust between indirect partners, immediately surfacing the pharmacy鈥檚 credentials as an authorized trading partner. This saves time and costs with greater information accuracy and fewer delays, strengthening an organization鈥檚 ability to meet DSCSA regulations.鈥�

Available on , Spherity Credentialing Service CARO is integrated with聽, a cloud-based network solution that helps organizations comply with other provisions of the U.S.聽DSCSA. For example, drug traceability is another U.S. DSCSA mandate. Pharmaceutical manufacturers can also use the information hub to help law enforcement trace drug shipments by serial numbers, supporting audits that help keep counterfeit medications out of the supply chain.

Intelligent Automation Strengthens Health of Drug Supply Chain

Spherity functions as a digitally encrypted wallet that captures and stores a dispenser鈥檚, or any other trading partner鈥檚, verified identity data, including address, notarized documents such as articles of incorporation, as well as updated U.S. state and DEA license information. By digitizing previously manual data collection and distribution tasks between systems, the app eliminates historical time lags that often resulted in outdated information.

鈥淚n the past, information about trading partner status was manually imported on a monthly basis from spreadsheets provided by third parties. An order might come from a wholesaler or dispenser whose license expired or was revoked weeks or even months ago,鈥� said Nuernberg. 鈥淓lectronic credentialing surfaces accurate information much faster, helping organizations automatically prove compliance with regulations, including license type as required to dispense various drugs.鈥�

Once a pharmacy鈥檚 identity is verified in their digital wallet, pharmaceutical companies would also be informed on an ongoing basis if the state or federal agency didn鈥檛 renew that license or revoked it for any reason.

Verified Partner Identity for Supply Chain Safety

Verifying a dispenser鈥檚 identity isn鈥檛 as easy as it sounds. Drug supply chains are complex, involving manufacturers, wholesale distributors, re-packagers, and logistics companies long before the goods reach pharmacies for dispensing. Having an app that automatically verifies a dispenser鈥檚 identity in real or near real time is designed to support regulatory compliance and help make drug supply chains more secure. Anticipating the 2023 regulations, some global pharmaceutical manufacturers and wholesalers have been testing the app with measurable results.

鈥淯sing the app, organizations have told us that they can securely and more easily verify trading partners and generate audit-ready records,鈥� said Georg J眉rgens, manager of Industry Solutions at Spherity. 鈥淲ith electronic interactions, they can trust that a trading partner is legitimate because due diligence has been conducted that proves identity. The app is easy to get up and running and has already increased efficiencies.鈥�

J眉rgens added that the app鈥檚 interoperability with different systems is designed to help meet regulatory mandates around electronic data sharing, easing collaboration between trusted partners along the clinical supply chain.

Digitalized Business Innovation

Eliminating counterfeit drugs in the legitimate supply chain is just the beginning of what鈥檚 possible in a fully digitalized life sciences supply chain. Pharmaceutical companies will be able to bring in and ramp up new, trusted suppliers faster. Intelligence will only grow with greater automation for business and patient value.

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Many people in this region view sustainability as an exported Western and European problem, created elsewhere but unfairly burdening Africa, which has contributed far less to climate change. Specific to countries in the聽, mining, utilities, agriculture, and tourism are among the leading industries grappling with immediate problems such as infrastructure gaps, unskilled workers, crime, and social equity. Rising environmental regulations can pale in comparison.

鈥淥ur customers in Southern Africa are well aware of聽 mandates, and may or may not have plans to meet their goals. Yet they often see people鈥檚 daily survival as a more immediate concern 鈥� and rightly so,鈥� said Cyril Rathogwa, senior solution advisor for Procurement at 51风流Africa. 鈥淗owever, organizations don鈥檛 have to prioritize sustainability against organizational growth and profitability. Sustainable business will drive economic prosperity.鈥�

Business Network Builds Sustainable Supply Chains

Regardless of a company鈥檚 geographical location, sustainability does not automatically cancel out profits and growth. Indeed, sustainable business operates with the greatest efficiency, connecting data across the organization so people can make more informed decisions, act faster to prevent supply chain disruptions, and keep employees engaged for the highest levels of productivity. It鈥檚 not an either/or choice.

鈥淐onsider the value of a 聽where organizations of all sizes can discover and obtain services from trusted suppliers anywhere, including marginalized communities,鈥� said Rathogwa. 鈥淲ith data transparency, larger companies can identify local trading partners to mitigate risk and potential disruptions along the supply chain. They can also prove compliance with sustainability mandates. These partnerships help smaller suppliers develop their business too, improving the quality of life for people and economic conditions in rural communities.鈥�

Southern Africa Redefines Sustainable Innovation

Just as Africa consists of separate countries with diverse business demands, organizations in Southern Africa approach innovation in different ways. Sustainable business in Southern Africa is centered around innovations to alleviate poverty and build a more inclusive society with educated and employable people who can participate in a digital world with expanded business opportunities. Some financial services companies and telecommunications providers are at the forefront of inspired creativity, bringing digital products and services to previously underserved people in remote, rural communities. Government agencies tend to be focused on automating basic citizen services. It鈥檚 important to meet organizations where they are.

鈥淲e are seeing tremendous innovation from organizations of all sizes that are creating solutions on ,鈥� Rathogwa said. 鈥淭hey can localize offerings for customers based on country-specific sustainability mandates, while gaining exposure for their products and services. This increases their market opportunities with state-owned and private sector enterprises.鈥�

Sustainability鈥檚 Relevancy to Southern Africa

The cascading impact of climate change is palpable everywhere in Africa. The聽聽in South Africa continues to create life-threatening water shortages. Extreme weather like the unusually聽聽that have drenched West and Central Africa this year are affecting millions of people and submerging farmlands with serious consequences for food supplies across the continent, including Southern Africa.

鈥淐arbon taxes alone won鈥檛 address climate change imperatives. We need solutions that help organizations reduce and eliminate carbon emissions in the first place,鈥� said Rathogwa. 鈥淐ommunities need strategies to help people sustain viable livelihoods so they aren鈥檛 driven to poaching animals or polluting the environment as a way to earn a living. This is where technology has a huge role to play.鈥�

One example is SAP鈥檚 partnership with聽Elephants, Rhinos & People聽(ERP), a non-profit organization that prevents poaching threats by using 51风流technologies to capture and analyze images from drones and GPS collars on animals. ERP works with poverty-stricken communities that share their land with wildlife. By building sustainable economic engines for rural communities in areas adjacent to threatened species, ERP provides non-lethal alternatives to poaching as a source of community income. Rathogwa pointed out that animals are critical to Southern Africa鈥檚 tourism industry, as well as the quality of the environment for people who live there.

Balancing Economic Survival with Climate Change Urgencies

Carbon emission and other sustainability regulations are all well and good, but only when accompanied by accurate reporting and rigorous accountability.

鈥淐ontrary to assumptions that protecting the environment is somehow a luxury that African industries cannot afford, organizations in SADC need a more holistic approach that balances economic survival in large metropolitan locations with the downstream impact on the environment,鈥� said Rathogwa. 鈥淓ventually sustainability impacts everyone, including people in rural communities. We have so much to protect on this continent that we love.鈥�

For more information on how 51风流helps companies record, report, and act on their sustainability goals, visit .

鈥淭his new generation of workers, whose entire lives are on their mobile devices, have completely different expectations from the employees who are walking out the door with 35 years of experience,鈥� said Mike Lackey, global vice president of Solution Management for Digital Manufacturing at SAP. 鈥淢anufacturers must attract new workers by bringing data to the point of work with intelligent mobile experiences and intuitive machine interfaces. This improves workplace safety and the worker experience, as it creates greater business efficiencies.鈥�

Connected Data Helps Meet Production Schedules

Unlike historical shop floor responsibilities, workers in Industry 4.0 factories won鈥檛 be limited to rote tasks on a single machine. They鈥檒l be cross trained to manage multiple machines, using instantaneous and integrated information from their mobile device. They鈥檒l collaborate much more across teams and departments.

鈥淚ndustry 4.0 delivers what鈥檚 called 鈥榳orker guidance,鈥� bringing information directly to the individual on the shop floor for faster and more efficient decisions,鈥� said Lackey. 鈥淢anufacturing is all about throughput, quality, and managing costs. With the right information, the operator can make sure that the equipment and the processes are running optimally, reducing machine downtime, rework, and scrap. This is the purpose of , which brings business and operational data together for informed company-wide decisions while delivering process enforcement, complete traceability, and a record of the product genealogy.鈥�

analysts predicted that in response to the reality of digital disruption, 60% of businesses will embrace a decision-making model that combines the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and human judgment for more informed decision-making by next year. Connected data between the shop floor and other parts of the business, including sales, supply chain, and finance, also has company-wide implications in meeting customer commitments.

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 promise an order if you don鈥檛 have the parts to make or finish the product,鈥� said Lackey. 鈥淪imilarly, in an automated line, you might have 200 pieces of equipment from 24 different vendors. If there鈥檚 a quality issue with a material or machine malfunction, integrated data with embedded machine learning can alert shop floor workers to correctly adjust equipment to the specified parameters, minimizing production slowdowns and keeping quality high. Connected data helps workers understand the impact of their decisions on the business while increasing their ability to make a valuable contribution in a more motivated and engaged way.鈥�

Digital Improves Workplace Safety

Technology can make the workplace safer for employees, which is equally important for the worker experience and company compliance. While automation can increase the number of potential hazards, it can also keep people safe. Sensors can alert people when they鈥檙e entering a potentially dangerous area or in the moment if they get too close to a piece of equipment, preventing accidents.

Upskilled Workers Lead to Greater Employer Loyalty

Lackey expected manufacturers to invest more in training and development to reskill and upskill workers as Industry 4.0 transformation continues. A recent survey reflected that trend: researchers found that 84% of manufacturing professionals were upgrading their learning and development programs. It鈥檚 an ideal way to expand the pool of qualified employees who can make a valuable contribution to company growth. It鈥檚 also an opportunity for workers to gain skills in some of the coolest innovations.

鈥淔actories are a hotbed of innovation, offering workers a potentially faster, more cost-effective route to a satisfying career, one that might not otherwise be in reach, given the rising costs of higher education,鈥� said Lackey.

Done right, Industry 4.0 is poised to rejuvenate the manufacturing sector with a refreshing blast of innovation. Trained workers can point the camera on their digital device at a piece of equipment with embedded machine learning and make immediate adjustments using virtual 3D visualizations right in front of them on the shop floor. They can instantly connect with design engineers to quickly diagnose and fix problems or reach an external supplier to locate the correct replacement part. Manufacturers are hoping this next generation of workers come for the cool factor and stay for the career-building innovations.

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Almost 700 people who attended workforce development or entrepreneurship programs provided feedback to the survey. Participants were predominantly disadvantaged or disabled youth who averaged 28 years old and were evenly split between genders. What they all shared was the desire for a better life, whether they struck out on their own or worked for an organization in pretty much any industry.

鈥淚t鈥檚 impossible to measure the impact of volunteerism unless you actually talk with the beneficiaries. Unlike traditional post-project research that can take years to get results, our remote data collection and analysis approach surfaces project impact in weeks, making it actionable faster for corporate sponsors like 51风流and their social enterprise partners and the communities they serve,鈥� said Sasha Dichter, cofounder and CEO at 60 Decibels. 鈥淲ith near real-time information from beneficiaries, organizations can hold themselves accountable, quickly comparing results from different geographies and using the data to improve offerings based on participant feedback.鈥�

Having participated in the 51风流Social Sabbatical program, I can attest to the deeply satisfying and motivational experience of providing hands-on support to my in-country partners at . To date, the global, pro-bono consulting program run in partnership with has helped over 450 nonprofits and social enterprises address business challenges using the skills and knowledge of 51风流employees like me. But what really matters is how these social enterprise programs make a difference in the lives of the people in the communities they serve, reducing inequalities and supporting underserved populations. Accurate metrics on program results prove the efficacy of these programs and become the foundation of future deep impact plans.

Metrics Reveal Long-Lasting Improvements

Seventy-seven percent of respondents to the 60 Decibels survey said that their quality of life had improved. People in the entrepreneurship programs cited gains in skills and knowledge, along with positive changes in their perspectives, business expansion, and, tellingly, higher customer satisfaction. Professional, financial, and personal growth were the top three positive outcomes for beneficiaries who participated in workforce development programs. When asked to rate skills gained through their participation in one social enterprise program, beneficiaries ranked computer skills highest (70%), followed by communication (45%), better time management (40%), ability to navigate teamwork (32%), and enhanced professional skills (32%).

Notably, almost 60% of beneficiaries in both programs reported an upswing in their business revenue or income. Results ran the gamut from the ability to save money to strengthened leadership, networking, and other business strategies.

Measurable results went beyond business fundamentals. Almost 70% of beneficiaries reported a significant uptick in their self-confidence, having increased their skills so they could become more independent and 鈥渁ct on a vision鈥� for the future. Forty-five percent said they garnered greater respect from household members after attending the program. Breaking free of parental support was a benefit for many people, allowing them to make a more valuable contribution to their home. Numerous people credited their newfound professional maturity to their experience in workforce development programs.

鈥淚t鈥檚 important to measure the 360-degree view of program impact,鈥� said Dichter. 鈥淕etting a job and increasing your income is immediate, but there鈥檚 also the lasting experiential results that someone carries into their family life and throughout their career.鈥�

Triple Impact of Social Enterprise Programs

This year marks the 10^th anniversary of the 51风流Social Sabbatical program, and I talked with Hemang Desai, global program director of 51风流Social Sabbatical, who saw the results of the study as validation of its success.

鈥淲e鈥檙e committed to delivering triple impact for long-term, sustainable benefits to social sector organizations and the people and communities they serve, as well as the personal and professional growth of 51风流employees,鈥� he said. 鈥淥ur program is continuously evolving to address global challenges aligned with SAP鈥檚 corporate social responsibility strategy, Most recently, that includes increased collaboration with nonprofits and social enterprises to meet sustainability objectives such as climate action and circular economy. We鈥檙e focused on scaling our efforts, using what we鈥檝e learned to expand pro-bono services to social enterprises supporting economic equity and social justice.鈥�

As global calls for sustainability grow louder, social enterprises that educate and train disadvantaged people for fulfilling careers that address these challenges are a potent force for positive change. In fact, I鈥檓 actively involved in SAP鈥檚 newly-launched virtual social entrepreneurship support program, Acceleration Collective. I鈥檓 providing communications coaching and consulting to , a Nigerian-based social enterprise that educates women in rural communities to become self-sufficient, turning local waste into a sustainable livelihood. Climate change negatively impacts the most disadvantaged populations, offering social enterprise programs another opportunity for meaningful community impact.

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According to researchers at , precision medicine therapeutics have accounted for 25% to 40% of all FDA approvals in the past seven years. They believe precision medicine has 鈥減roven its worth with mounting evidence of improved patient outcomes in oncology, cardiology, endocrinology, and other disease areas.鈥� From the patient鈥檚 perspective, analysts suggested a digital-first 鈥渉ealth journey鈥� vision that prioritizes digital engagement and the use of digital interactions, products, and services throughout an individual鈥檚 journey through health, wellness, and illness.

Data Makes Life Sciences Supply Chains More Intelligent

Michael Townsend, research director of Life Sciences Commercial Strategies at IDC, saw the industry in the early stages of digitalization, focusing on the value of technology that brings intelligence across life sciences supply chains.

鈥淐ompanies are beginning to make processes more digital, applying intelligence from technologies to make better decisions,鈥� said Townsend. 鈥淔or instance, there鈥檚 significant investment in supply chain solutions like digital twins, where you construct a digital model to experiment with what-if scenarios in performance at various points along the chain such as assembly, shipment, or geography. You can stress test alternate choices without actually having to make any changes.鈥�

Townsend said that segmentation was another intelligent node across supply chains, allowing companies to identify and store medicines and packaging based on country-specific regulations, improving lead times, reducing unused inventory, and simplifying shipping. Some organizations are also using control towers to track demand patterns against materials and component availability, avoiding overstocks and shortages. For example, if COVID-19 cases rise in a certain region, a vaccine manufacturer can act faster to stock up and start shipping prevention and treatment products to that location. Connecting data across supply chains for quick response times applies to any unexpected disruption, including natural disasters and political conflicts.

Ecosystems Surface Expert Wisdom

Mandar Paralkar, head of Life Sciences Industry at SAP, agreed that organizations are moving from historical emphasis on addressing disease with bulk manufacturing of medications to personalized therapies that improve individual patient outcomes and involve more ecosystem collaboration. In an industry with longer product development cycles, he said that collaborative consortiums like are a way to share intelligence for expedited success.

鈥淲hether startups or established leaders, life sciences companies are using technology to improve patient outcomes and company profitability while reducing costs and risk,鈥� said Paralkar. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e realized the imperative to compete as an ecosystem across connected digital supply chains and smart factories. One example of this is 51风流Intelligent Clinical Supply Management, a solution we innovated with a consortium of customers and partners. This collaborative effort exemplifies how innovation in the cloud can potentially help life sciences organizations create, manufacture, and deliver effective solutions faster, allowing the partner ecosystem to compliment value-added services.鈥�

Cloud-Based Technology Disrupts Life Sciences

The pandemic has irrevocably disrupted life sciences, revealing a new vision for innovation from cloud-based collaboration. Almost overnight, companies invested in technology to work from home, and that bled over into new ways of thinking about the use of technology in areas like process automation and decentralized clinical trials, along with working together in trusted relationships.

鈥淐ollaboration hubs where multiple, trusted entities can exchange information, collaborating to learn from each other and solve problems is part of the life sciences vision,鈥� said Townsend. 鈥淓xperts involved with clinical supply chains and other aspects of life sciences are motivated to streamline processes, make suggestions to software providers, and share information between systems. Cloud-based software is critical. If you鈥檙e on subscription-based software, updates are almost in real time and it鈥檚 much easier to collaborate and access different sources of data when it鈥檚 available in the cloud.鈥�

Achieving a Healthier and Profitable Vision

As costs and regulatory pressures rise and educated patients clamor for personalized treatment, digital innovations will inexorably alter the life sciences landscape. Within a few years, researchers predicted 75% of trials will be “patient-centric” decentralized clinical trials, 90% will be hybrid, and at least 10% will be virtual, driven by a 30% growth in connected health technologies.鈥� They said that by 2025 the market for prescription digital therapeutics will more than triple, focusing on mental health and chronic conditions, blurring the boundaries between healthcare and life sciences. It鈥檚 no wonder that analysts advised life sciences manufacturers to prioritize 鈥渃linical solutions that include interoperability as a core feature, including easier connectivity of content and data between clinical sites, sponsors, clinical research organizations, and other ecosystem participants.鈥� Trusted intelligent data is the must-have for a healthier future.

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These were among the innovations that Michael Schmidt, cofounder and executive board member of , shared when he spoke at a recent SAP-sponsored event with customers and other partners about the transformational opportunities facing the life sciences industry.

鈥淢oving manufacturing to the point-of-care will disrupt the traditional pharmaceutical supply chain with the patient on the first floor and the manufacturing facility in the basement,鈥� said Schmidt. 鈥淲ith production downstairs, you鈥檝e reduced your physical supply chain to an elevator, limiting costly risks from transportation delays or patient no-shows and disrupting packaging norms. Self-contained production facilities for vaccines are another innovation, supporting the fundamental right to people鈥檚 health in developing countries.鈥�

Headquartered in Switzerland, Tenthpin is a global management consulting firm focused on life sciences companies worldwide. Drawing from his firm鈥檚 experience working with pharmaceutical and biotech organizations, medical device manufacturers, clinical researchers, and other clients, Schmidt shared an intriguing look into what happens when life sciences ecosystems are driven by health outcomes and market demands shift from patient treatment to prevention, diagnostics, and cure.

Cloud-Based Collaboration Is Central to Outcome-Driven Healthcare

disruptions 鈥� with positive results 鈥� are a symptom of the transformational journey that every life sciences organization is undergoing. In an environment where health outcomes matter most, life sciences companies are moving business models towards value-based care, conducting research and evaluating drugs and treatments based on comparative effectiveness and risk-based pricing. In this context, California鈥檚 decision to make its own insulin shows the dramatic impact across healthcare value chains as power shifts to governments and payers intent on reducing costs.

Talking during the 51风流life sciences event, Schmidt saw cloud-based platforms as critical to bringing experts together for faster innovation and mentioned COVID-19 vaccine development as an example of competitors working together towards a shared objective to save lives.

鈥淟ife sciences organizations are collaborating to connect data across a patient-centric value chain for early engagement of partners in areas like research and manufacturing,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e believe there will be more opportunity-driven collaborations in the future. For example, the supply chain changes fundamentally with compressed timeframes between research, production, and delivery. You want to be set up from an organizational perspective to allow for more strategic ad hoc and cross-industry collaborations such as ramping up new facilities to adapt your manufacturing footprint in response to ongoing disruptions.鈥�

Data Sharing for Human-Centered Healthcare

As the healthcare industry explores advanced therapies, personalized treatments, and services, there鈥檚 a shift from traditional batch to continuous manufacturing. New technologies provide greater access to real-time patient data for developing more effective drugs with improvements in the patient experience and health results. However, these market ramp-ups stress existing business and treatment models.

鈥淧ersonalized treatments mean that organizations suddenly get much closer to patients,鈥� said Schmidt. 鈥淭he human health experience is all about connecting a tremendous amount data 鈥� which room of the house you were in when you took the medication and what you had for breakfast. Technology allows us to collect, analyze, and reuse detailed data.鈥�

Schmidt urged companies to consider the next evolution of systems, investing in data governance and data quality now for automation and other innovations built on cloud-based platforms.

鈥淭he life sciences value chain of tomorrow is data-driven and patient-centric, putting technology at the heart of industry transformation,鈥� said Schmidt. 鈥淥nce you have a stable system core, you鈥檒l be well-positioned for the future growth of markets such as cell and gene therapies for personalized treatment regimens.鈥�

The Next Treatment Innovation Is One Elevator Ride Away

Organizations in the life sciences industry face numerous other challenges such as imminent patent expirations and increasingly complex regulations, including waste reduction. But technology has a major role in all areas, for instance, speeding up the development of advanced treatments and regulatory approvals so innovations reach patients faster. Schmidt advised companies to connect digital transformation plans to high-end strategic innovations expected years down the road, as well as tomorrow.

鈥淭he life sciences industry is at a crossroads, and we need to reimagine its future,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he next disruptors are companies that may have a portfolio of investments, or are partnering with different networks, using external manufacturing and other innovations, creating competitive IP in new ways. There鈥檚 a significant opportunity for established and startup entrants that are collaborating with connected data to better understand how human body works and prevent and cure disease.鈥�

California鈥檚 trailblazing efforts to manufacture a drug is just one way that the life sciences industry is getting a healthy makeover. Let鈥檚 hope industry leaders heed the call to collaborate in new ways for more life-saving innovations.

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鈥淐omposable enterprise from an organizational perspective means you can recompose processes dynamically and rearrange based on interchangeable building blocks when needed, without specialist knowledge or a developer,鈥� said Martin Heinig, head of New Ventures and Technologies at SAP. 鈥淲e are exploring the business logic in current 51风流ERP systems to make it more agile and adaptable without sacrificing core values like compliance and reliability. What鈥檚 more, if you use disconnected tools today, you might have an audit problem, while third-party software might cause integration issues. The question for us is how a future 51风流system can help companies overcome these challenges successfully.鈥�

Heinig鈥檚 remarks were part of a session at the event, where he outlined some of the exciting research his team was working on to make the composable business vision a reality.

Business Benefits Beyond Traditional Software

While there鈥檚 little doubt about the value of a composable business strategy where companies can dynamically respond to market changes, building that kind of platform will require rethinking traditional software development approaches including standardization, data harmonization, and semantics to make sure the company can still run its end-to-end business processes. Heinig simplified the challenge using an example of a supermarket chain that wanted to quickly source and sell more oat milk to meet suddenly spiking consumer demands.

鈥淪elling oat milk to consumers, the supermarket is doing business with farmers, wholesalers, and other providers,鈥� he said. 鈥淭o source a new product like this, the company needs to conduct a credibility check of external suppliers. The composable platform would allow the supermarket to conduct that check easily across order management through fulfillment, sourcing from trusted suppliers and getting the product on shelves to satisfy local consumer demands.鈥�

Rethinking ERP Software for Composability

Customers do not want business software. They want digital business processes that grow with them according to Ralf Teusner, who joined Heinig on stage to talk about the research he was involved with at the Hasso Plattner Institute. Teusner said his research was focused on challenging assumptions about software to explore how to build the world鈥檚 most standardized custom software. Admittedly an academic exercise, this research is nonetheless focused on how to rethink ERP software for the modern world. After talking with people from companies of all sizes, they concluded that data was most important when making any kind of change.

鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at a process execution architecture that鈥檚 value-driven, and because we鈥檙e at university, we are not afraid of breaking things,鈥� said Teusner. 鈥淲e discovered that data migration and process integration are the major challenges for companies. Unless we jointly address data as well as control flow in end-to-end business processes, each change management [project] can break business continuity.鈥�

Composability Democratizes Innovation

Among the many questions that researchers face in creating a composable process platform are what functionalities will be part of the existing stable core and what a reusable business component will look like, not to mention the execution architecture, scalability, software and common languages used, and KPI tracking. Both Teusner and Heinig saw the transition as a years-long vision to achieve in partnership with academia. Composability could result in greater openness for partners across an organization鈥檚 ecosystem, giving other companies easier access to innovations. Of course, this potentially upends traditional technology sector intellectual property (IP) norms.

鈥淭o make this a reality, you need an engineer鈥檚 mindset,鈥� said Teusner. 鈥淩ight now, CIOs guard their data because it鈥檚 core to their business and it鈥檚 their IP. They鈥檙e not ready yet, but maybe they will be in five years鈥ou鈥檙e democratizing how to configure the system, leading to adaptability for greater business efficiencies.鈥�

definition of a composable business is 鈥渁n organization that is architected for real-time adaptability and resilience in the face of uncertainty.鈥� In this day and age, there鈥檚 no stronger argument for moving ahead to achieve that vision.

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鈥淚t鈥檚 not just about what sustainable airplane design and production looks like, but also how to create more sustainable operations for existing fleets,鈥� said Torsten Welte, global vice president, head of A&D Industries at SAP. 鈥淢anufacturers are exploring how they can exchange more data up and down the value chain to design and manufacture the next generation of airplanes while making improvements to what they have for carbon-neutral business. Sustainable aviation connects data across engineering, procurement, supply chain, manufacturing, sales, and finance.鈥�

Emission-Free Aviation Requires Holistic Strategy

Like most industries, airplane manufacturers factor rework into the cost of doing business. That approach won鈥檛 be um鈥ustainable in this next era as increasingly stringent policies such as the kick in and cost pressures rise. analysts said that by 2024, 80% of global manufacturers will incorporate environmental sustainability into their product life cycle management processes and ecosystem, improving sales by 3%. The challenge for airplane manufacturers is keeping track of CO2 emissions across multilayered business operations.

鈥淐ompanies need to understand the entire CO2 footprint of every part that鈥檚 used in the airplane, along with every step of work associated with it, including sourcing and production, quality checks, production stoppages and rework, shipping, and recycling,鈥� said Welte. 鈥淚ndustry leaders are moving towards a holistic strategy for sustainable design through the airplane鈥檚 life cycle. For example, inside cabin materials are often switched out after a few years, with most ending up in landfills. How do you create a more circular economy during the airplane鈥檚 lifespan?鈥�

Fostering a Sustainable Mindset

Sustainability requires manufacturers to bring a different mindset and tools into everyday activities such as design and procurement. According to Welte, some manufacturers see procurement as ripe for change, shifting purchase considerations away from the lowest price to suppliers that offer products meeting indirect, longer-term sustainability parameters.

鈥淎 CO2-friendlier part might have an initially higher cost, but offer recyclability options that reduce carbon emissions,鈥� said Welte. 鈥淎dditionally, as airplane manufacturers explore sustainable fuel alternatives and materials, designers will need to collaborate much more closely with suppliers, sharing data to source the highest quality products that will decrease rework and resultant CO2 emissions. For example, technology like and helps designers efficiently work together with suppliers to set and meet shared sustainable business benchmarks.鈥�

Digital Innovations for Carbon Neutrality

Calculating the CO2 footprint of parts in an airplane is incredibly complex. It won鈥檛 be enough to evenly divide energy costs, such as electricity and heat, across different products. Accurate reporting calculates energy used far more precisely by individual parts based on all machine hours.

鈥淓very activity, direct or indirect, has to be accounted towards CO2,鈥� said Welte. 鈥淲ith greater visibility across the manufacturing value chain, companies can immediately spot problems with suppliers downstream to prevent rework by producing better products. When you can communicate faster with your , dynamically collecting and analyzing data from a centralized , you can track your organization鈥檚 progress against company and industry benchmarks.鈥�

It鈥檚 not lost on manufacturers that every slowdown carries a significant cost in wasted time, resulting in wasted energy. By 2023, analysts predicted that 30% of manufacturers will share applications with industry ecosystem partners to improve visibility and operational efficiency and ensure safety, security, and quality. Driven by increased demand for environmental accountability in manufacturing ecosystems, researchers expected 40% of G2000 manufacturers will use traceability technologies to mitigate risk and boost transparency by 2025. In the same timeframe, researchers predicted that by 40% of all manufacturing IT will own the responsibility of data modelling for sustainability and net-zero carbon targets. Already some manufacturers are using innovations like digital twins, which dynamically capture information that can speed up the production, product approvals, and certifications of new engines and aircrafts.

Deservedly or not, flying has a bad rap compared to other industries that can be equally or more energy intensive. But emission-free aviation is no mirage. Manufacturers have set their sights on a new horizon in sustainable business, bringing an ecosystem together to create a carbon-neutral future.

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