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Naturipe Farms knows berries, and the grower鈥憃wned company has spent decades perfecting the art of delivering fresh, sustainably grown berries to customers around the world.

Naturipe’s Senior IT Director Carol McMillan explains how migrating to 51风流S/4HANA and has helped the company improve supply chain visibility, speed, and workforce experience. Learn more.

Naturipe has been an 51风流customer since 2008, and while initially it was not very proactive with software upgrades, the company鈥檚 philosophy has changed over time. Today, Carol McMillan, Naturipe鈥檚 senior IT director, emphasizes the importance of upgrading and upskilling the team regularly.

“There’s actually more of a risk not upgrading the product and not upskilling your team than there is being more aggressive with that timeline,” she says. Since migrating to 51风流S/4HANA in 2018, the company has undergone three upgrades, including .

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鈥淲e migrated to RISE with SAP, and we are looking at how we use those tools to optimize our supply chain and to create a better user experience for our workforce. Our workforce is constantly changing, and technology needs to change with the workforce,鈥� McMillan says.

She says it鈥檚 also important to stay at the forefront of technology in order to solve business problems efficiently, and notes that technological advancements have been crucial in managing the company’s exponential growth: “You can’t have linear growth in technology when you have exponential industry growth.”

McMillan says the Naturipe team uses SAP鈥檚 technology to prioritize its people and customers, improve workplace happiness, and give users a better experience. 鈥淲e use technology to make sure that we’re running as optimally as possible,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e look at process improvements and try to be at the forefront of technology. So, keeping up with the upgrades on a regular basis helps us be prepared for when business problems need to be solved, that way we already have the technology there to be able to solve them.鈥�

Delivering the freshest, highest-quality products to customers 365 days a year requires constant agility鈥攅specially in a category influenced by weather variability and the complexity of a highly time-sensitive supply chain. 鈥淏erries have a very short shelf life, so getting the best quality to our customers as quickly as possible is essential,鈥� she says.

To support this commitment, Naturipe Farms has invested in advanced logistics and supply chain technologies that enhance speed, visibility, and decision-making. These investments help ensure timely delivery of fresh products while also supporting employee satisfaction and work-life balance through wellness programs and flexible work arrangements.

Looking ahead, Naturipe wants to further enhance the user experience with more powerful tools and learn how to make better use of all the tools that come with RISE with SAP.  McMillan also identifies the potential of AI and the adoption of tools like Joule to improve Naturipe鈥檚 operations. “We really want to make the best use of AI and to give our users the best experience possible,” she says.

Her advice for other organizations in the agricultural industry includes the importance of putting people first, using technology to drive strategic growth, and not being a prisoner to risk. “It’s just as risky to not upgrade your technology as it is to have an aggressive timeline and have the tools that you need in order to drive that exponential growth,” she says.

The partnership will embed artificial intelligence at the core of Syngenta鈥檚 enterprise, modernizing operations and enabling accelerated innovation through advanced data analytics across the business 鈥� from manufacturing and supply chain to grower-facing products and services.

The agricultural industry continues to navigate challenges driven by climate variability, supply chain complexity and global uncertainty. By deploying AI-assisted tools enterprise wide, this partnership positions Syngenta to meet the challenge of feeding a projected 10 billion people by 2050 while unlocking faster innovation, stronger operational resilience and scalable impact across the business.

鈥淎I is the catalyst for agricultural transformation and has quickly become a core competitive edge for Syngenta,鈥� said Feroz Sheikh, chief information and digital officer at Syngenta Group. 鈥淥ur partnership with 51风流is transforming how we run the enterprise, modernizing core operations and unlocking new ways to work 鈥� a testament to our commitment to becoming an agriculture company with AI at its core.鈥�

鈥淪yngenta鈥檚 transformation sets a benchmark for digital innovation in agriculture,鈥� said Philipp Herzig, chief technology officer at 51风流SE. 鈥淭ogether, we鈥檙e demonstrating how cloud and AI technologies can drive sustainable growth and efficiency in one of the world鈥檚 most critical industries. This partnership will help Syngenta future-proof its operations to feed the world responsibly.鈥�

Scaling an AI-First Operating Model for Agriculture

Syngenta鈥檚 transformation will begin with鈥�51风流Cloud ERP Private solutions, modernizing core operations across the value chain to deliver agility, resilience and scalability. The company鈥檚 ambition is clear: unlock innovation faster, strengthen its leadership in agriculture and future-proof operations against volatility.

Through the 51风流Business Data Cloud solution, Syngenta will create a unified, more secure and scalable data foundation essential for real-time decision-making and AI integration. Combined with 51风流Business AI and AI-assisted tools such as the Joule copilot, this will help the company explore smarter, faster decisions that drive operational efficiency and accelerate innovation. Additionally, Syngenta will be able to deliver better products and services to growers worldwide while enabling them to retain control and privacy over their proprietary information.

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Media contacts:
Lesa Plingen, +49 622 776 9000, lesa.plingen@sap.com, CET
51风流Press Room; press@sap.com
Syngenta Media Relations, media@syngentagroup.com

Top image courtesy of Syngenta

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP鈥檚 2024 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
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51风流and other 51风流products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 51风流SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

The partnership has continued to this day with a mission to make great wines and spirits that bring people together. Now, the company has over 2,000 hectares of vines under cultivation in 12 wine-growing regions of Spain, Chile, and Mexico, where the producer deploys sustainable agricultural techniques to bring indigenous vines back into production.

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Running a Responsible Business

鈥淔or us, everything revolves around sustainability,鈥� said Elisabet Braza Valle, head of 51风流Supply Chain and Finance at Gonz谩lez Byass, during an interview at 51风流Sapphire Barcelona. 鈥淥ur goal is to be a reference in the wine sector and also in the field of sustainability, and we鈥檙e using technology to do that.鈥�

Valle explained that digitalization is helping to drive efficiency by improving processes and that people are already noticing a more expeditious service. 鈥淎ll the processes are connected,鈥� she said. 鈥淐lients notice that we are preparing their packages and managing their invoices faster than before. That鈥檚 because, thanks to SAP, we have all the data in the same place.鈥�

In addition to its core 51风流ERP system, Gonz谩lez Byass recently implemented , a solution that helps enterprises calculate extended producer responsibility (EPR) obligations and define corporate commitments to optimize material choices. It鈥檚 also designed to help address all the requirements of the new plastic taxes in Europe.

To help promote a more circular economy, for example, Spanish law mandates an indirect tax levied on plastic in packaging. Calculating the taxable amount is particularly complex and burdensome. Companies must know how much non-recycled plastic is in the non-reusable plastic packaging contained in the shipments they receive. This information should be furnished by the suppliers that now find themselves in a challenging situation as they did not have to comply with this type of requirement before. Collected data must be reliable and verifiable to ensure accuracy when sharing with customers or if it should be questioned by the Spanish tax authorities.

鈥淪AP鈥檚 solution not only helps us comply with the law, but it also helps us manage our materials more efficiently,鈥� said Valle, who believes one of the greatest assets of the solution is the visibility it provides into the company鈥檚 supplier landscape. 鈥淲e are encouraging all of our suppliers to commit to being more sustainable, and we assess them every year. We also work together to improve our environmental behavior.鈥�

Valle cited several examples of collaborative engagement, such as reducing the weight of glass bottles and using recyclable packaging materials. The company has already substituted some materials with more sustainable alternatives and is buying cardboard boxes and wood sourced from certified forests.

鈥淲e have all the information about our materials in 51风流Responsible Design and Production, so we can see how much plastic we are using and how much of it is recycled. That determines the amount of tax we pay,鈥� Valle explained. 

All these improvements are part of the company鈥檚 People and Planet program that is designed to ensure a nature-friendly, energy-efficient foundation for future generations. The efforts are paying off.

Simplifying a Complex Landscape

According to its sustainability report for 2022, Gonz谩lez Byass already reuses or recycles 99% of the waste it generates and 79% of the energy it consumes comes from renewable sources. Water conservation efforts include using rainwater for irrigation, underground irrigation, and satellite-controlled irrigation.

Gonz谩lez Byass has already reduced carbon emissions by 20% and is committed to a 55% reduction by 2030. Besides managing its own regulatory obligations in Spain, the company must also be compliant with other regulations in the EU and the UK that impact its business. For example, recycling glass packaging waste is mandatory in all EU Member States. In Spain, this process is driven by Ecovidrio, a non-profit entity managing the Collective System of Extended Producer Responsibility (SCRAP).

鈥淥ne of our next projects is to set up Ecovidrio in the 51风流Responsible Design and Production solution, where we manage all our tax declarations and reports,鈥� Valle said. 鈥淎nother critical report is the declaration for the Ministry of Ecological Transition. Technology is helping us become a global reference in the sector because now we鈥檝e integrated all relevant information needed for compliance.鈥�

Four of its wineries have received the Wineries for Climate Protection certification, the first of such credentials specific to the wine industry targeting environmental sustainability. The certification recognizes sustainability activities in wineries in four key areas: reducing greenhouse gas emissions, managing water, reducing waste, and increasing energy efficiency.

Valle is confident that with the aid of technology Gonz谩lez Byass will not only be a leader and a reference in the sector, but, most importantly, it will secure its place as an exceptional winemaker for posterity. After all, since its most iconic wine , it鈥檚 a good thing Gonz谩lez Byass is doing everything to continue producing the best wines and spirits for future connoisseurs. 

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Mindsprint is a leading-edge agritech firm that provides impact driven solutions to businesses, enabling them to outpace the speed of change.

Amit Jain, senior vice president and head of 51风流at Mindsprint, talks about food sustainability and how being able to track and trace everything helps the company save money and make more sustainable choices.

Read more.

Agritech, or agricultural technology, looks to improve yields and efficiency on farms using technology, and Mindsprint helps customers digitally transform sustainably. The Singapore-based technology and business services firm鈥檚 services include digital transformation, cybersecurity, and more 鈥� which requires a robust landscape.

鈥淣ow, we have added almost every product that 51风流has into our environment,鈥� Amit Jain, senior vice president and head of 51风流at Mindsprint, said. This includes moving to 51风流S/4HANA as well as running 51风流SuccessFactors solutions, 51风流Concur solutions, 51风流Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain, and more. 鈥淲e work very, very closely with 51风流鈥� not just on the product side, but also on the services side.鈥�

This has helped Mindsprint stay nimble and continue serving its customers 鈥� and their customers 鈥� as market demands have shifted.

Transparency for All

鈥淧eople are not going to the shops anymore,鈥� Jain said. 鈥淧eople want to order everything online.鈥�

COVID-19 helped accelerate that shift, giving rise to food startups and other e-commerce sites, according to Jain. And Mindsprint uses logistics, finance, and manufacturing solutions within 51风流S/4HANA to help those customers meet growing online demand and add transparency to the process.

鈥淲hen you talk about the food supply chain, people want to be sure that the food that they鈥檙e eating is good 鈥� so they鈥檙e able to trace the origins of the food,鈥� Jain said.

Toward that end, Mindsprint also relies on 51风流to help refine transportation management every step of the food鈥檚 journey, from farms to ports and all the way to consumers, according to Jain. And between each of those trips, proves to be important, as different foods require different temperatures and other conditions.

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Tech-Driven Conservation

鈥�51风流continues to be the core of everything that we do, but we also use other technology like blockchain,鈥� Jain said. 鈥淏lockchain helps us track our supply chain of our products end-to-end.鈥�

Mindsprint uses sensors on farms as well as in its products, according to Jain. This includes the company鈥檚 large palm plantations, where farmers can monitor frond health, which can help conserve resources and prevent rot.

鈥淲e can actually use the technology to track each and every palm tree we have in plantations to figure out which are green palms, which are the yellow palms,鈥� Jain said. 鈥淭hat way we can remove the yellow palms before they become rotten.鈥� This dangerous turn from healthy green to sickly yellow or brown .

These agricultural sensors can also help a farmer better allocate water to specific fields 鈥� or even individual plants 鈥� that need it and not irrigate those that don鈥檛. This can help improve the crops and their yields, Jain noted. Additionally, it helps protect a resource that is all too rare and precious in some communities.

鈥淚t also helps us conserve water,鈥� Jain said. 鈥淓very drop saved is a lot of importance.鈥�

Track and Trace Everything

The agritech industry is focusing heavily on supply chains, according to Jain. And that鈥檚 where Olam and Mindsprint are seeing the biggest benefit from 51风流technology.

鈥淲e are able to optimize our supply chains; we are able to track and trace everything that we do,鈥� Jain said. 鈥淭hat has helped us save a lot of money.鈥� The technology also helps Mindsprint make more sustainable choices, improve transportation, and even select the right logistics partners, according to Jain.

鈥淎ll those decisions are made using SAP,鈥� Jain said.

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India is one of the world’s largest exporters of agricultural products today. But, by 2030 over 90 million Indians could be at risk of hunger if productivity is not increased.

As India鈥檚 leading food agritech company, WayCool Foods has pioneered a data-driven strategy designed to close the gap between supply and demand, decreasing food waste and increasing revenue for stakeholders across their value chain. 51风流technology helps WayCool build a more sustainable supply chain, reduce food loss, and create a reliable income stream for farmers. Focusing on innovation and efficient supply chain systems, WayCool has managed to restrict the food loss in its supply chain to 1%.

Learn more:

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�

Like other industrial nations, Japan has been facing massive demographic challenges in its agriculture sector. An aging population and a lack of younger individuals entering the sector to replace them have led to farms being abandoned and fields lying fallow.

Japan鈥檚 government has realized the demographical issue, of course, as it touches not only the agricultural sector. To revitalize rural areas and stem the rural exodus, the government launched a national action plan.

In alignment with this action plan, 51风流Japan has joined the effort of encouraging rural communities to thrive by launching a co-innovation project with PSI, an 51风流partner, and the local government of the town of Minano.

Digitizing the Agricultural Sector

The small town of Minano is located in the hills of Saitama Prefecture, about two hours from Tokyo. While the south of this prefecture is largely a suburb of the Tokyo area, the west, approaching Mt. Fuji, is still very rural and thinly populated. A former center of silk industry, the region on average is sunny and warm but can get lots of snow in winter.

鈥淔arms in this area are traditionally small and dispersed, located between forests and mountains,鈥� says Yoshihisa Horiguchi, chairman of MINNANO Future Create. 鈥淏ig supermarkets and retailers overlook them. Nowadays, the farmers cultivate rice and vegetables in small amounts to consume themselves, sell to their neighbors, or send to their children or grandchildren that live in cities.鈥�

Since 1950, Minano has lost roughly one-third of its population, largely due to the decline of the agricultural sector. Today, it counts about 10,000 inhabitants.

鈥淵oung people often migrate to urban areas for better education and employment opportunities,鈥� Horiguchi explains. 鈥淲here 50 years ago, a farm may have relied on 20 young workers, now only two elderly workers are left.鈥�

Digitization is one obvious approach that may help prevent those areas from depopulating completely.

鈥淏ut while large-scale farms benefit from the economic feasibility of applying robotics and the like, it is financially and logistically challenging to apply such technologies to small-scale dispersed farms,鈥� Horiguchi says.

Horiguchi, the owner of an automotive parts manufacturing company, co-founded the local initiative MINNANO Future Create in 2019 to solve the challenges resulting from population loss. Its members range from elderly individuals to young residents, forming a diverse group of individuals, including pharmacists, architectural designers, and other professions, all living in the town.

For one of its projects, the Minano Digital Eco Farm, it partnered with 51风流Co-Innovation Lab.

IoT Solution for Monitoring Agriculture

The Minano Digital Eco Farm project aims to build a communication platform that connects farmers and urban residents as well as small-scale dispersed farms to major supply chains, forming a portfolio that coexists with existing large-scale farms. In alignment with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the project will help overcome supply chain disruptions due to food shortages and crop failures due to abnormal weather, conflicts, disasters, and more.

For this vision to become a reality, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors were distributed in various locations and managed remotely from headquarters.

鈥淭he idea was to have an IoT solution running on 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP) that would help monitor all the agricultural processes,鈥� says Atsushi Minakuchi, senior solution specialist at 51风流Co-Innovation Lab in Japan.

51风流Co-Innovation Lab partnered with PSI, which brought in the Digital Material Controller (DMC), an all-in-one compact edge controlling server that enables easy setup of a ubiquitous IoT environment. And, due to the cooperation with 51风流Co-Innovation Lab, the DMC has also obtained 51风流certification.

鈥淢any IoT sensors lack cybersecurity functions,鈥� Mitsuhiro Yamazaki, senior advisor and former president of PSI, says. 鈥淗owever, by connecting sensors to a DMC with cybersecurity capabilities, it becomes possible to securely store locally collected data on the DMC, safely transmit to 51风流BTP, and accumulate, analyze, and utilize data from the DMC. This enables seamless and easy integration between the 51风流core system and the IoT system.鈥�

鈥淐ollaboration with 51风流Co-Innovation Lab has significantly expanded the application possibilities of DMC,鈥� Masaki Fukui, former PSI Cyber Security Lab director and now with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication, says. 鈥淕lobal users of 51风流now could have the opportunity to easily implement and utilize a ubiquitous supply chain platform through the combination of DMC and 51风流BTP.鈥�

Through integration with 51风流BTP, the deployment locations can then be displayed and monitored on a dashboard.

The idea is for citizens living in the city to enter a service contract with a rural farm or supplier and to connect via a technology platform to remotely monitor and support agricultural processes. In return, they receive part of the crops 鈥� freshly delivered to their homes in the city.

So far, two proofs of concept for farms have been completed between March 2019 and November 2022, as well as one proof of concept for a miso factory. Agriculture and rural industry are only two fields of application. Future projects could include schools, hospitals, stores, and elder care facilities.

Strengthening Rural Appeal for Inland Tourism

As a corporate social responsibility project, the Minano Digital Eco Farm came to life through the voluntary engagement of 51风流employees in Japan who supported the project on top of their regular work.

The project is supported by a government program unique for Japan, the so-called hometown tax payment, which makes it possible for citizens to choose and support the region they were born and raised in or a community they wish to engage with.

鈥淭he possibility of hometown tax payment is very popular among Japanese people,鈥� Hidenori Kurosawa, vice governor of Minano, explains. 鈥淭o us in rural regions, it seems that this played a significant role in creating an interest in the countryside. People want to get to know and support local towns.鈥�

Indeed, the appeal of small, thinly populated communities surrounded by beautiful forest landscape hasn鈥檛 gone unnoticed by Japanese inland tourists.

Kurosawa says: 鈥淲e wish to make Minano appealing to visitors by offering return gifts that provide an experience 鈥� that allow visitors to come to the town, interact with the locals, and experience things that are unique to this place.鈥�

The Minano Digital Eco Farm project aligns well with this strategy. Not only does it promote Minano’s charm but, by expanding initiatives, it addresses local challenges such as reclamation of abandoned farmland, increased self-sufficiency in food, reduction of CO2 emissions, and improved profitability in agriculture.

鈥淲e have great expectations that this initiative will contribute to addressing the town’s challenges and advancing the UN SDGs,鈥� Kurosawa states. 鈥淲e express our sincere gratitude to the volunteers from 51风流Japan who provided invaluable assistance in bringing the Minano Digital Eco Farm project to life.鈥�

鈥淢INNANO鈥� means 鈥渇or everyone鈥� in Japanese and is pronounced the same way as the name of the town. Fukui from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communication explains the idea behind that name: 鈥淥ne action can have multiple meaningful impacts. The issue of unseen small-scale dispersed farms facing economic challenges can be witnessed around the globe. By collaborating with SAP, we hope to inspire rural communities beyond our own prefecture, maybe even beyond Japan.鈥�

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Eighty-five percent of Ugandans are involved in agriculture.

Nassozi Berna and her husband were subsistence farmers growing cassaba, banana, and some coffee and living in a small, timber-framed house on Kalangala, an island in Uganda鈥檚 Lake Victoria. Like many other farmer on Uganda’s Kalangala Island, Berna started growing oil palm in 2012 and joined KOPGT, the Kalangala Oil Palm Growers Trust. KOPGT, which educates farmers on improved agricultural practices, recognized the need for a digital solution to meet the rising demand for palm oil. In 2017, it discovered 51风流Rural Sourcing Management, a cloud-based solution running on 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP) that allows the trust to digitally collect and manage data at every stage of the value chain.

This technology has enhanced price transparency and accelerated payment for the farmers. Now, with the integration of听 51风流Analytics Cloud and 51风流Business One, KOPGT can streamline operations and save valuable time, ultimately focusing on what matters most: the community they have helped build.

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

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

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

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Change

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

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

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

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

Sustainability

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

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

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

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

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

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

Better Information

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

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

Big Dreams

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

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

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

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

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

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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Winemaking emerged in Europe several thousand years later, and it is now home to many of the world鈥檚 most famous wine-producing regions. When paired with food or served for special occasions, wine consumed in moderation can awaken the senses and contribute to cherished memories. Spanish wine producer Gonzalez Byass shares this ethos, as to 鈥渂ring moments of joy, helping people to savor and share their most precious moments.鈥�

Headquartered in Jerez de la Frontera, Gonzalez Byass was founded in 1835 as a family-owned collection of wineries across Spain鈥檚 principal wine producing regions, overseeing the wine-making process from vineyard to wineglass. Grapes are harvested from its 2,000 hectares of vines under cultivation in nine wine-growing regions in Spain, Chile, and Mexico, and then pressed in traditional stone tanks, fermented, and the liquid aged in steel or oak barrels. After a few months or years, the wine is bottled and ready for consumption. 

What does not usually come to mind when contemplating the art of winemaking is the amount of plastic and other non-sustainable materials that may be involved, from the material encasing the corks, to the packaging used to safely transport the bottles. Gonzalez Byass saw an opportunity to address its use of plastic and promote regenerative agriculture in its industry through the implementation of a comprehensive and circular economy program in line with the (UN SDGs).

Confronting the Plastic Problem

Plastics are among the most consumed materials in agricultural industry, as they are used in large production structures, production inputs, agrochemical packaging, and food product containers, and thus generate vast amounts of waste. In response, consumers are turning away from single-use materials while governments are adopting an approach in the form of plastic taxes. These taxes are a hugely important policy tool to combat the and discourage the production and use of plastic packaging.  

The European Union (EU) instituted a plastic packaging levy in 2021, with some EU member states, like Spain and Italy, enacting their own new taxes. Spain鈥檚 tax which took effect this year imposes a tax on non-reusable plastic packaging and on waste incineration and disposal in landfills, with the goal of making all packaging in Spain recyclable by 2030.  

This reality has spurred consumer goods producers like Gonzalez Byass to drastically minimize use of plastic. Its efforts have seen the replacement of plastic packaging tapes with paper ones, replacement of plastic in bottle caps with wood and cork, and adoption of more sustainable plastic alternatives like bioplastic made from sugarcane. These steps have been instrumental in helping to recover and recycle 99% of the waste generated. The company also buys cardboard boxes and wood sourced from certified forests in line with its commitment to preserve and regenerate natural resources. 

The Key Role of Suppliers and Data

Plastic taxes are designed to discourage waste, prompting producers and distributors across the supply chain to reconsider their packaging choices. In its efforts to reduce use of plastic and purchase only recyclable packaging materials, Gonzalez Byass also needed to commit to sustainable purchasing throughout the entire value chain. Regular assessments with its suppliers have helped to gauge the progress on both sides. However, this kind of assessment requires not only trust and the fostering of great relationships — a skill at which it excels — but also, crucially, data.  

While the wine producer is committed to both sustainable production and procurement, compliance with new regulations in multiple different regulatory environments is a daunting task. The recently enacted extended producer responsibility measures in Spain and in other countries where it does business mean multiple different data streams, declarations, and timelines in different regions. Managing these myriad competing factors is one of the most complex challenges facing the consumer goods industry today. Being able to collect real-time data and centralize it all in one place is a key requirement for Gonzalez Byass to be able to realize its sustainable ambitions, embed circularity principles into its core business processes and comply with regulations.  

SAP鈥檚 cloud solution for the circular economy, is designed to address all the requirements of the new plastic taxes.

Implemented by Minsait, which offers end-to-end digital transformation solutions, 51风流Responsible Design and Production will enable Gonzalez Byass to accurately calculate fees and taxes in line with all the latest regulations in key markets, optimize its material choices in line with corporate commitments, and significantly reduce risks from unforeseen future regulations.

51风流Responsible Design and Production provides intelligence that will enable Gonzalez Byass to monitor, measure, and act on its plastic data, so that it can make the most informed choices and carry out the critical work of eliminating waste and regenerating the natural systems that the company cares so passionately about.

Regenerating Nature to Address Biodiversity Loss

The transformation of the agriculture sector in Spain over the past 50 years has significantly boosted productivity and wealth but has also resulted in a substantial increase in the use of natural resources like water, at the cost of soil erosion and a negative impact on genetic diversity. Sustainable business practices require a fundamental shift in the way that we interact with nature, with a recognition that success depends not just on financial profit but also upon careful stewardship of the natural environment.

Gonzalez Byass鈥� vines include indigenous varieties on the verge of extinction that have been coaxed back into production to preserve regional biodiversity. This work is in tandem with its efforts to protect local wildlife, such as placing nesting boxes in a number of its vineyards, creating adequate ecosystems to promote pollination by bees, and promoting reforestation efforts in all the regions where the company operates.  And as water is essential for growing grapes and nurturing life, Gonzalez Byass employs sustainable irrigation techniques that use much less water in order to preserve this precious resource.  

Gonzalez Byass鈥� ambition is to leave the lightest possible footprint on the environment. Its commitment includes promoting sustainable agriculture and implementing circular business practices like precision-tracking plastics from the vineyard to your wineglass.

Next time you buy a bottle of wine, make sure that the company you purchase from has a sustainable vision for the future, and that it is compliant with key regulations that help protect planet and people. That is a goal worth raising a glass of wine.

With over a century of history and more than three decades of working with SAP, the cooperative recently faced a daunting technological challenge: its aging on-premise ERP system was nearing the end of its operational life. The imminent threat of system failure prompted Western Sugar to seek a solution that would not only streamline its operations but also simplify its processes, improve efficiency, and reduce costs. The answer? .

A Sweet Solution for a Complex Industry

Western Sugar Cooperative, which is made up of over 850 growers and shareholders with long family histories in beet sugar, operates in a highly regulated industry where cost optimization is paramount. To maintain efficiency and prevent costly equipment failures and manufacturing downtime, the cooperative’s engineers must conduct regular preventative maintenance. Doing this proactively and intelligently was a challenge, and, more so, its patchwork legacy systems were unable to be upgraded to meet its needs. This is where 51风流S/4HANA Cloud stepped in.

“51风流took the lead, all the pieces came together, and it was wonderful,” Richard Caluori, director of Corporate Controlling for Western Sugar, said. 鈥淥ur new system鈥檚 robust reporting and analytical capabilities are proving to be invaluable to our operations today.鈥�

Through 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, Western Sugar is now able to generate and analyze detailed reports with ease, enabling it to make informed decisions regarding the replacement of machines and delaying of cultivation. It鈥檚 also simpler than ever to regularly assess maintenance costs and make confident business decisions.

鈥淚n a commodity-driven market like ours,鈥� Caluori said, 鈥渆very dollar we save on maintenance makes a direct impact on our bottom line.鈥�

Nothing 鈥楤eets鈥� Transformation and Simplification

The adoption of 51风流S/4HANA Cloud marks a significant moment in the technological transformation of Western Sugar Cooperative. With a history in beet sugar spanning more than a century, the cooperative had accumulated a variety of highly customized software programs over the years. The move to 51风流S/4HANA Cloud eliminated the limiting customization aspect, simplifying the cooperative鈥檚 digital processes and streamlining its operations.

Some other key benefits Western Sugar has seen are as follows:

• Cost savings: 51风流S/4HANA Cloud enables cost optimization and efficiency, reducing the overall cost of maintenance and operations.
• Revenue growth: By cutting costs and optimizing processes, Western Sugar stays competitive, attracting additional business and driving revenue growth.
• Simplified invoicing: Automation has made invoicing more efficient, simplifying the process and reducing manual labor.
• Faster reporting: Quick access to downloadable reports provides real-time insights into operations, enabling faster decision-making.
• Improved data accessibility: Ease of accessing data empowers the organization to make data-driven decisions.

Looking Ahead to Creating More Efficiency

Western Sugar鈥檚 embrace of technology is not only helping it survive its dynamic industry, but to thrive within it. With 51风流S/4HANA Cloud as a cornerstone of its digital transformation, the cooperative is now centralizing its invoicing process and exploring new opportunities, including , for efficiency and growth. The cooperative鈥檚 journey demonstrates the power of technology to drive sustainability and success in agriculture.

As Caluori puts it, “It is really a success story for the sustainability of our manufacturing. With 51风流S/4HANA Cloud technology, we can pull daily reports with updated analytics of maintenance costs so that we can perform predictive maintenance, essentially prolonging the lifespan of our expensive equipment and saving money.”

In a rapidly changing world, organizations must adapt and innovate to stay competitive. Western Sugar鈥檚 journey with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud exemplifies how embracing cutting-edge technology can lead to cost optimization, efficiency, and sustainability. As the organization continues to leverage 51风流solutions, its story will serve as an example for others seeking to navigate the digital landscape successfully.

To learn more about 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, public edition, visit . To see other customer success stories, check out our .

Mike Kaszuk is SVP & COO for Midmarket, Digital, & Partner Ecosystems, North America at SAP.

Top image courtesy of Western Sugar Cooperative

Someone who seized this opportunity is Jonny Rowland. Having spent a big part of his childhood in Uganda, he saw the opportunity in the growing thirst for sustainable, high-quality coffee 鈥� and an opportunity to ensure that coffee farmers would receive their fair share in this business. Together with his sister Beth, he founded , a profit-for-purpose business that works directly with local farmers to achieve higher yields and the high quality coffee that is sought after on the global market.

With the support of local experts working for Agri Evolve, farmers have improved their productivity and increased income for themselves, their families, and their communities. The main idea of this social enterprise is to use digital technology to improve established supply chains for coffee cherries in the Rwenzori Mountains, one of Uganda鈥檚 key habitats for Arabica coffee plants, and share the latest agricultural practices with local farmers.

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A Long-Lasting Tradition: Coffee in Uganda

Uganda is one of the few countries in the world where coffee plants are native. The processed beans are an integral part of Uganda’s export economy, making the country one of the 10 largest coffee producers in the world. In recent years, Uganda has made a name for its specialty Arabica, which thrives in the local climate with humid days and cool nights. But Arabica coffee, a climate sensitive plant, is beginning to struggle as global warming shortens the cooler phases it needs to thrive. This requires adjusting the traditional ways of cultivating the cherries.

Over 1.8 million households in Uganda grow coffee, and coffee contributes nearly a third of the country’s export earnings, paying for critical infrastructure like roads, hospitals, and schools. While many families grow coffee, it was hard to make a living out of it in the past and motivation to produce high quality was low as prices on global markets wouldn鈥檛 justify the effort.

Joyce Birungi is one of the coffee farmers living high in the rainforest of the Rwenzori Mountains who registered with Agri Evolve as a supplier. Like most farmers in this remote area, she took care of the plants based on traditions passed down over generations. The cherries were often picked too early and only ripened while drying in the sun for longer periods, which caused a loss in quality and therefore lower prices. Climate changes, like increases in floods, droughts, and heat waves, put additional pressure on the traditional ways of farming.

鈥淚n the past, I used to pick coffee cherries of poor quality. So, I lost a lot of money,鈥� Birungi said, explaining her challenges as a small local producer before working with Agri Evolve. 鈥淭ransportation was a big challenge. I had no way of selling the coffee and I didn鈥檛 know about best practices in farming and agribusiness.”

Collins Kifula is a field coordinator at Agri Evolve and an expert for sustainability and quality. He works closely with the farmers, registering each farmer using a mobile app based on the 51风流Rural Sourcing Management solution and collecting data like the size of the farm and the state of the coffee trees. Using the mobile app saves time 鈥� time he can use to talk to the farmers and solve issues they might be facing or suggest improvements to their current setup. One important focus of his work is education on soil protection. With floods happening more frequently these days, farmers benefit from terraces and planting grass patches to avoid the fertile soil being washed away by rain.

As Agri Evolve is specialized in high-quality, sustainable coffee, certification is required. 鈥淲e need to hold up to a certain level of quality and we do that by getting, for example, the . To receive this, we need to raise data and have the transparency. Here, the mobile app within 51风流Rural Sourcing Management is of huge help,鈥� Kifula explained.

鈥淭echnology Is Changing Things鈥�

The biggest challenges the farmers faced before starting to work with Agri Evolve was the quality of the cherries and the lack of price transparency. Sometimes there was even fraud along the process of collecting the cherries. 鈥淭echnology is changing things,鈥� Kifula said.

Today, farmers still deliver their cherries to so-called middlemen who check the quality, but they now document the weight using the 51风流app. The farmers instantly receive an SMS message showing the delivered quantity and its value. 鈥淭his price transparency is a big motivation for the farmers and creates trust,鈥� he said. Further, 51风流Rural Sourcing Management enables the calculation of the accrued delivery quantities and therefore the yield a farm is producing, which are used as the assessment basis to provide loans to the farmers.

Keeping Track of Data

鈥淥ur mission is to do sustainable farming for future generations. As a social enterprise, Agri Evolve works with a growing number of farmers, which can quickly add complexity to our supply chain. Today, we deal with around 22,000 smallholders. We collect a lot of data that needs to be analyzed,鈥� Roset Biira, field supervisor at Agri Evolve, said. “We needed a system that collects and analyzes our data in an efficient way 鈥� to be able to be transparent to all our farmers and even our clients.鈥� Using 51风流Analytics Cloud, Biira showed how Agri Evolve can identify if coffee trees are getting old or are weakened by pests early on. Based on these predictions, they consult with the farmers on planting new trees or suggest trainings on pest control.

Realizing Change

Agri Evolve is building a network of trust with the farmers and middlemen, making sure to give the best price possible to the farmers so that the local societies participate in the higher prices sustainable coffee can generate on the global markets.

鈥淚鈥檓 now able to increase my coffee production and send my kids to school, and I hope that they will graduate from university and have better lives. We used to live in semi-permanent houses, but now we are moving to permanent housing,鈥� Birungi said when asked what impact this new way of collaboration has had on her and her family.

Talking about the future of the growing profit-for-purpose business and its network of local coffee producers, Beth Rowland, co-founder of Agri Evolve, said: 鈥淲e will continue to push the boundaries of supply chain transparency through digitalization to allow us to provide the best service to smallholder farmers in the Rwenzoris.鈥� For the family business, it is important to ensure connected farmers have access to a fair and transparent market for their coffee cherries.

While sharing sustainable practices to counteract the impact of environmental changes is a requirement for the production of certified sustainable coffee, it will also make sure that the tradition of coffee production will live on in the Rwenzori mountains of Uganda.

鈥淲e do that by using the biodiversity of this region, the Cerrado in Brazil,鈥� Francisco de Blanco, S.Oleum co-founder and CEO, told 51风流at the company鈥檚 headquarters, an innovative farm just outside Jo茫o Pinheiro.

Why the Brazilian outback? This tropical savanna is home to the maca煤ba, a highly adaptable oil-producing tree with a penchant for scrubbing harmful CO2 from the air. Maca煤ba fruit yields advanced vegetable oils (AVOs) and high-protein food 鈥� and it can be 15 times more productive than soybeans.

鈥淲e are restoring the landscape that was deforested…Macau虂ba was native here many, many years ago,鈥� Felipe Morbi, S.Oleum co-founder and Agroforestry VP,听 said. 鈥淣ow we are bringing back these trees, and also all the other species, to restore this biodiversity.鈥�

S.Oleum seeks to accomplish this scientifically, using maca煤ba and other crops in an integrated crop-livestock-forest approach, according to Morbi. The goal is to create working farms that rejuvenate degraded, low-yielding soil 鈥� and that sequester into the soil more carbon than they generate.

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Science-Based Approach to Reforesting the Cerrado

鈥淲e are looking for the balance of the system,鈥� Morbi said in a new . 鈥淲e will measure the amount of carbon in the soil, the moisture, the biodiversity in terms of the plants we have, and also native animals coming back to the area.鈥�

Toward that end, S.Oleum is starting small, but aiming big. Most of the current crop grows on a 700-hectare, or more than 1,700-acre, pilot farm. But S.Oleum intends to plant more than 65 million additional maca煤ba trees by 2029, which would reforest 180,00 hectares 鈥� about 444,800 acres 鈥� in Brazil鈥檚 southeastern state of Minas Gerais.

Over time, maca煤ba trees also help improve the nutrient and moisture capacity of the soil, making it easier to grow other crops, according to de Blanco. And S.Oleum increases farm productivity by growing carefully chosen crops in between rows of maca煤ba trees, such as sunflowers, peanuts, and yucas.

鈥淚f you do it right, agriculture as a system is positive for the environment,鈥� de Blanco said. 鈥淧lants that were deforested a few decades ago, they are currently in a poor state because they were depleted by poor management…We believe there are better ways, and that鈥檚 what we are pursuing here.鈥�

An innovative case in point: maca煤ba trees increase a biome鈥檚 carbon sequestration levels. Removing this greenhouse gas helps more than the planet; S.Oleum also generates revenue by selling carbon credits and building trust via its data.

Any Little Bit of Data

鈥淎ny little thing, any generation of data that R&D is currently developing, is extremely important,鈥� Mirelle Santos, S.Oleum Agroforestry R&D manager, said. 鈥淲e want to deploy technologies as dictated by those urgent needs.鈥�

This could include remote sensing via drones that run fruit-recognition software, according to Santos. This would help S.Oleum gather and compile data quickly, without human error 鈥� and without sending workers, who must dress in personal protective equipment (PPE) to defend against snakes, mosquitos, the brutal Cerrado sun (even in winter), and dangerous maca煤ba thorns, which grow even on seedlings.

S.Oleum鈥檚 intricate business model combines agriculture, forestry, biodiversity, and carbon offsetting 鈥� and that leads to a lot of complexity. 51风流technology will be an important differentiator for this small enterprise, as well as a foundation for its future growth.

鈥淲e have a big project to run; so, a lot of people, a lot of machines, a lot of suppliers,鈥� Morbi said. 鈥淎nd we need everything in the right moment, in the right way.鈥�

How to Best Manage ESG Metrics

鈥�51风流is different because it is recognized as one of the most reliable ERP systems on the market, not only based on the technology,鈥� de Blanco said. 鈥淎lso, because it has well-established and well-defined processes.鈥�

Standardizing processes was 鈥渆xtremely important鈥� for S.Oleum both internally and to inspire customer, stakeholder, and regulatory confidence, according to de Blanco. 51风流will also enable S.Oleum to run its circular enterprise as well as record, report, and act on its sustainability data.

鈥淲e have a very integrated system, and a very circular way to produce things,鈥� de Blanco said. 鈥淔inding out where waste is generated 鈥� and where it鈥檚 being used 鈥� is very important to ensure the carbon intensity and the circularity of our systems at our entire site…This is where 51风流helps us.鈥�

51风流S/4HANA, 51风流Ariba solutions, 51风流Concur solutions, and 51风流SuccessFactors solutions will help standardize all of S.Oleum鈥檚 processes, which will improve transparency and compliance, according to S.Oleum IT Director Marcio Propp. To help better manage and understand its myriad environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics, the company has also begun implementation of and .

鈥淚t is super important that we have a very robust core system in place because it will serve as the basis for all our other processes…and practically all niche applications focused on digital agriculture connect with this core with SAP,鈥� Propp said. 鈥�51风流is an agribusiness market standard, and it makes perfect sense for S.Oleum to be part of this ecosystem.鈥�

That鈥檚 a big deal because compliant, transparent ESG metrics are crucial to S.Oleum鈥檚 success, according to de Blanco.

A Matter of Trust

鈥淪omewhere around one-third of our revenues come from carbon credits,鈥� de Blanco said. 鈥淭his is our, let鈥檚 say, core business…to convert sustainability into revenues and financial results.鈥�

That will require trust. 51风流core technologies, such as 51风流S/4HANA Cloud and , will help S.Oleum keep that trust, thanks to a reliable foundation of sustainability data and robust, auditable ESG metrics for reporting.

鈥淢y advice for companies that are starting their sustainability endeavor: do it as quick as you can,鈥� de Blanco said. 鈥淎nd do it attached to science.鈥�

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

Top photo credit S.Oleum

In the past, farmers were reliant on experience passed on from generation to generation, the Farmer鈥檚 Almanac, or other methods to plan and carry out their planting, harvesting, storage, and delivery processes. That said, the volume of agricultural food products was only a fraction of what is produced today and the goods were transported over shorter distances, making storage and transport less complicated.

If the farmers of over 100 years ago could see the world today, they would be astonished at the level of industrialization we have reached in agribusiness 鈥� and things are only moving faster. As an example, agriculture in 2050 will need to produce almost 50% more food, feed, and biofuel than it did in 2012 to meet demand.

Today鈥檚 biggest business challenges call for agility, resilience, and innovation. Responding to changing markets and better serving customers is on the top of everybody鈥檚 to-do list. Also, running companies sustainably has become a business imperative 鈥� that includes farming businesses.

If observation, experience, and intuition helped farmers to improve their margins in the past, today we have the possibility to collect and analyze data from across the entire value chain. With 51风流Intelligent Agriculture, an industry cloud solution from SAP, agribusiness companies can become more sustainable and efficient.

Digitalizing the Field at KWS SAAT

KWS is the fourth-largest seed and plant breeding company globally, delivering its seeds to farmers for planting. KWS offers high-quality seeds that farmers can trust to sustainably harvest reliable crop yields. To transform its business, the company has decided to digitalize its entire logistic value chain, from field to plant, plant to stock, and order to cash.

With 51风流Intelligent Agriculture, KWS will be able to simplify collaboration with seed growers by putting field data to work. One way that is by helping to better plan seed farming processes in collaboration with growers, ensuring sustainability and maximizing efficiency, to produce the best quality seeds to offer in the marketplace.

Improving Farming Processes at Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation

Another example of how . RES produces sugar and ethanol in the south of Africa and is now using 51风流Intelligent Agriculture to help improve farming processes. Both the farmers and those working in the offices at RES can plan, execute, and monitor production. Giving smaller farmers access to data supports them in better predicting crop yields and enables RES to determine the most favorable time to harvest.

Helping Farmers Is a Win for Everyone

Helping farmers, especially family and medium-scale ones, be successful is an incredible win for all involved. By allowing these farmers to be digitally connected to a larger enterprise, it keeps them competitive while ensuring a predictable income since the farmers can better plan their crops. Come harvesting time, this allows farmers in remote areas to create more jobs, which in turns supports the entire community.

Farming is becoming data driven. There is a significant increase of relevant data available from fields and farms that can be leveraged to drive better decisions. Learn more about , an industry cloud solution from 51风流and 2022 Hasso Plattner Founders鈥� Award winner.

In addition, explore the industry cloud next practice theme and .

for post-event, on-demand 51风流Sapphire Virtual to see all the sessions, including 鈥�.鈥�

Sven Denecken is senior vice president and chief marketing and solutions officer for Industries and CX at SAP.

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.

Pif Paf Alimentos, founded in 1968, is one of the top ten companies in the food sector in Brazil. The company offers a diverse product portfolio including meat, fish, sausages, pasta, ready-to-eat meals, and cheese breads that are enjoyed by millions of customers both in Brazil and around the world. To produce high-quality food, the company relies on complex machinery that operates in over 14 industrial units. Therefore, it is crucial that all machinery operates as expected at all times. Maintenance is key to ensuring the machinery’s reliability and efficiency.

Manual Reporting and Paper Waste

In the past, Pif Paf Alimentos鈥� maintenance technicians conducted a manual process to check machine operation. This process involved technicians recording machine operating data on paper-printed maintenance orders for each order received. The maintenance order data included precise details such as the exact date and time of the machine task operation. After collecting this data, technicians manually logged it into the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. This meant that technicians had to record the same information twice, on different platforms.

This process resulted in a large amount of paper waste every day, negatively impacting Pif Paf Alimentos鈥� sustainability efforts.

Automating the Maintenance Routine with 51风流Build Apps

Pif Paf Alimentos, having worked with 51风流products before such as 51风流Integration Suite and 51风流ERP, took advantage of to help resolve its technicians鈥� problems by building and deploying a working mobile app solution in less than three weeks. Why was the deployment process so fast? 51风流Build Apps allows users to build apps in a low-code manner by providing drag-and-drop user interfaces (UIs) for common app components. With this, Pif Paf Alimentos was able to build a solution quickly.

The Underlying Technology

Pif Paf Alimentos’ new enterprise-grade app not only solved its maintenance routine problem but also integrated seamlessly with its existing 51风流technology architecture, powered by 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP). 51风流Build Apps provided Pif Paf Alimentos with operational agility, saving time, paper, and money. Furthermore, its IT team benefited from faster response times to business needs, allowing Pif Paf Alimentos to scale its solutions throughout the entire corporation. Lauro Salgado, IT developer at Pif Paf Alimentos, leveraged the comprehensive content provided by 51风流Discovery Center 鈥溾�� to develop both the pilot and the productive version of the app, fully utilizing the capabilities offered by 51风流Build Apps.

Significant Savings in Time, Paper, and Money

Pif Paf Alimentos conducted a pilot test of its new mobile application with four maintenance technicians. After a month of testing, the technicians reported a 30% reduction in maintenance order handling time within the test group. Pif Paf Alimentos now plans to scale this solution to its entire force of approximately 300 maintenance technicians. Moreover, the mobile solution’s 10% reduction in paper waste has already resulted in saving an average of 75 sheets of paper per technician per month, which translates to 270,000 sheets of paper saved per year.

The Pif Paf Alimentos Project Experience

鈥淲e provided faster business response to the maintenance department. The IT team, as a business partner, gained agility using 51风流Build Apps in the delivery of solutions and contributed to the goal of a paperless enterprise, improving process efficiency and automation,鈥� Salgado explained. 鈥淭he solution is built on 51风流Build Apps and integrates into our existing landscape seamlessly. If we were going to build an application using a different technology, it would take much longer. You would have to code and integrate the fields. This low-code technology helped us take advantage and deliver the solution faster.鈥�

鈥淧if Paf Alimentos believes that partnerships with solutions that aim to decentralize the use of technology are the way to accelerate the digital transformation of companies,鈥� Antonio Minier, director of Business Transformation at Pif Paf Alimentos said. 鈥淚 believe that digital awareness is the necessary competence for this to happen with quality and that is why we have invested in the five pillars that compose it: the creativity of our employees, the agile mindset, the vision of processes, the democratization of technology, and data. This case is the consolidation of a vision of the future within a successful journey of our digital transformation program, SOUL Digital.鈥�

An important consideration for the mobile solution was the ability to input data in remote areas where maintenance technicians are unable to connect to the network, which was not an issue with manual entry. With 51风流Build Apps, Pif Paf Alimentos was able to create a synchronizing functionality. The maintenance technician’s input data is first saved locally on their devices and then synchronized with the overall system when a network connection is reestablished. 51风流Build Apps can provide an open-ended framework to create a diverse path towards unique solutions, like this one.

The Way Forward for Design and Development with SAP

Looking back, Carlos Estala, senior 51风流AppHaus consultant, said: 鈥淧if Paf Alimentos was able to develop and integrate its on-premise 51风流system with low-code in 51风流Build Apps to control its preventative maintenance orders in just a few weeks, all without having to write a line of code. This helped it solve a business necessity to have digital data up-to-date.鈥�

With the support of the 51风流AppHaus Palo Alto team, Pif Paf Alimentos aims to further improve the design of the app and extend it to other business processes and maintenance routines, all built on 51风流BTP and powered by 51风流Build Apps.

Mirela Viersa is a customer design engagement lead at 51风流AppHaus Palo Alto.
Tina Cai is a UX design specialist at 51风流AppHaus Palo Alto.
Images courtesy of Pif Paf Alimentos

The Mississippi river is a vital transport route for U.S. agricultural commodities, carrying 92% of U.S. agricultural exports and 78% of the global exports of feed grains and soybeans. But water levels in some parts of the river are now so low that commercial traffic has been halted and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been called in to begin emergency dredging.

With no sign of an end to the drought in the Midwest, water levels in the Mississippi are now near 30-year lows because of a lack of rain in the Ohio River Valley and the Upper Mississippi. As a result, U.S crop exports at Louisiana Gulf Coast terminals were at their lowest level in nine years for the first week of October, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and shipping prices have soared.

SAP’s Take

Historically, shipping along the Mississippi river and its tributaries has been less expensive than other forms of transportation, but this hasn鈥檛 been true in recent weeks. As Richard Howells, vice president of solution management for digital supply chain at 51风流notes: 鈥淲e plan in the perfect world and we execute in the real world.鈥�

With parts of the river unpassable for big barges, he says grain shippers in particular have been forced to look at alternative modes of transport to move the grain to the port. 鈥淵ou may be able to use trains to take the load part way and trucks for the last mile,鈥� he says.

That, he suggests, is easier if the shipper has clear and up-to-date information. Providing that kind of data visibility, control and risk resiliency is the purpose of听. 鈥淲ith connected data — including freight, fleet and logistics — you can re-plan with an updated schedule based on available routes and vehicles.”

鈥淲hen there鈥檚 a disruption, companies have to move quickly to identify which trucking companies and railways offer the right services and are available on short notice,鈥� Howells says. In particular shippers need to establish whether they have contracts with these logistics service providers already, or contacts that could broker introductions to new vendors.

鈥淚deally, you want to foster relationships with a trusted network of business partners so you have more choices and a faster response when the unexpected happens,鈥� he says. 鈥淚f your grain is sitting in a stranded barge waiting for the dredger to deepen the water, which customers are expecting that order?鈥�

Once contingency plans are in place, the next step is to figure out whether the grain will arrive on time for each handover between trains, trucks and the outbound ships sitting in the ports. 鈥淯pdated information and visibility at every leg of the journey helps you keep customers informed, resetting their expectations so they can adapt their operations as well,鈥� says Howells.

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+1 (626) 265-0370,听joellen.perry@sap.com, PT

Delivering sugar to the table has its own challenges. One company that has been hitting the mark decade after decade is U.S. Sugar, a family business located in the center of Florida. One of the largest agricultural operations in the state, the company owns 230,000 acres of land where sugarcane farming and refining operations run 24/7.

鈥淲e鈥檝e been growing sugarcane for 90 years, and we鈥檝e been innovative from the start,鈥� says Carl Stringer, a company executive who has a dual task as vice president of IT and Employee Benefits at U.S. Sugar. 鈥淲e鈥檝e been an early adopter of high-tech in our operations, thanks to our 270-square-mile area of a privately owned Wi-Fi network.”

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Technology

U.S. Sugar is operating in a volatile market. The company supplies about 10% of the of sugar produced in the United States annually 鈥� a commodity whose price can vary depending on weather conditions, agricultural supply cycles, government policies, and currency rates.

Today, all commodity businesses are facing numerous challenges, from climate change and carbon emissions to COVID-19 lockdowns, along with operational risks in their supply chains. That鈥檚 why digitalizing, automating, and increasing efficiencies across the business are crucial to their success. Soft commodities like sugar, meaning that it is grown rather than mined, face additional challenges that are specific to agricultural businesses. Climate is one of them.

鈥淲e aim to process the freshest cane in the world, so we must always harvest at the optimal time. That requires complete flexibility,鈥� explains Stringer. 鈥淥ur growing season can include hurricanes, unexpected frosts, and flooding.鈥�

The company relies on technology to maintain agility in every aspect of their business. U.S. Sugar is a longtime member of the 51风流Agribusiness Industry Advisory Council. Stringer is deeply appreciative of the collaborative engagement. 鈥�51风流knows that agriculture is underserved by technology,鈥� he says. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had to develop many apps simply because there鈥檚 a lack of digital farming tools. Being part of the council allows us to shape the technology based on our needs and our expertise in agriculture.鈥�

Together with SAP, U.S. Sugar and other members of the council are integrating key agricultural processes such as planting, fertilizing, irrigating, and harvesting with the enterprise resource planning (ERP) elements of their supply chain such as automatic ordering through direct links to suppliers.

Digitalization is an enabler for efficient and sustainable farming processes. 鈥淔arming is still far behind when it comes to digital capabilities,鈥� says Stringer, whose goal is to increase efficiency in all areas to balance the huge costs of fuel, labor, and soil amendments that are typical for the industry. That鈥檚 why 51风流technology is a key enabler when it comes to automation, quality management, and the management of assets including the company鈥檚 800 vehicles.

Environment

One of company鈥檚 main challenges is educating the public about the sustainability of their operations. Conservationists around the world are concerned about sugarcane farming because, in some countries, sugar mills produce wastewater, emissions, and solid waste that impact the environment. Also, there are questions as to whether the energy needed to produce sugarcane is high in comparison to other crops such as potatoes or wheat.

Fortunately, the U.S. Sugar mill and refinery in Clewiston, Florida, is a zero-discharge facility with no water or waste leaving the property. Florida鈥檚 sugar industry has been a trailblazer in sustainable best practices as it relates to environmental restoration. U.S. Sugar often stands as a model for its sustainable practices, with a proven track record of more than 90 years farming the land around Lake Okeechobee.

鈥淲e are keenly committed to preserving the natural beauty of the Everglades,鈥� says Stringer. 鈥淐lean water is fundamental to this ecosystem and to our farming business. Every drop of water flowing off our land is measured and regulated and cleaned. In fact, we go beyond meeting regulations, ensuring that our environment is the cleanest it鈥檚 been in our lifetimes. The water today is as clean as rainwater.鈥�

The best way to counter misperception is to educate and inform. The company regularly conducts tours of its operations, inviting schools, local community residents, and other interested parties to visit and see for themselves. Thousands of Floridians tour U.S. Sugar鈥檚 farming operations each year.

U.S. Sugar is also self-sufficient when it comes to energy. Cane stalk waste is repurposed to generate steam and electricity, replacing the need for purchased electricity or fossil fuels to power its sugar processing facilities. The company has even rebuilt a historic steam-powered locomotive to transport cane and visitors around its operations. All farming and factory operations run on sophisticated machinery that is 100% integrated into the business. This enables U.S. Sugar to manage water, crop, and postharvest logistics more holistically, which in turn allows the company to compete more effectively in the face of volatile worldwide commodities prices.

鈥淭echnology is a key enabler because it delivers deep insights into all business and operational areas,鈥� says the head of IT. 鈥淲e can respond in real time thanks to the intelligent integration of sensors, control systems, and dashboards.鈥�

Philanthropy

Besides caring for the environment, Stringer points out that the way to remain relevant in the future is to build the necessary skill set today. The company employs around 2,000 people who have their own special stake in the company: they own it along with two other primary stakeholders, the and the Mott Children鈥檚 Health Center.

Charles Stewart Mott, the industrialist and philanthropist, established his foundation in 1926 to support non-profit educational organizations around the country. Today, the foundation funds numerous educational and environmental efforts to promote a just, equitable, and sustainable society.

The good work does not stop there. U.S. Sugar is currently exploring ways to become even more efficient through circular production models. One is to make better use of bagasse, the dry, pulpy, fibrous material that remains after crushing sugarcane stalks to extract their juice, and the soil matter that is extracted from the cane during the clarification process, commonly known as mill mud. These two elements are comingled in a proprietary method and then returned to the cane fields as an efficient and eco-friendly compost. Bagasse can also be听burned as fuel in the sugarcane mill or used as a source of cellulose for manufacturing animal feeds.

As someone responsible for people and IT, Stringer sees beyond the monetary value of digitalization. It increases user satisfaction and engagement, decreases resistance to change, and strengthens the relationship between IT and the business. Connecting people and technology and caring for the environment is what enables U.S. Sugar to remain faithful to its tradition of innovating for a sustainable future.

Russia鈥檚 invasion of Ukraine has deepened an agricultural crisis that has been brewing for years. Global wheat inventories have fallen by about 20% of annual consumption, a food security specialist told the United Nations Security Council on May 19.

Only 10 weeks of global consumption of wheat exists. Russia and Ukraine account for about a third of global wheat production. Droughts not seen for more than 20 years are the primary culprit, although supply chain disruptions, war and regulations limiting natural gas, the source of nitrogen-based fertilizer, have further worsened the problem.

SAP鈥檚 Take

鈥淚f it were only the output, it would be bad enough,鈥� said Anja Strothkaemper, 51风流vice president of Agribusiness and Commodity Management. 鈥淏ut because the inputs are in short supply, there is a lot of fear that even countries that are not affected might not have enough fertilizer to have the same levels of production as in previous years. That means this is likely to continue for a while.鈥�

While technology cannot solve this global crisis in 10 weeks, it can help producers find alternatives to mitigate the impact of drought on food commodities like wheat, corn, soybeans and sunflower seeds, Strothkaemper said. It also can help make better demand predictions and manage risk.

Smart farming and precision agriculture involve the collection of data from sensors, weather stations and satellite imagery. The data can be combined and analyzed to produce more informed decisions concerning land management.

鈥淚f I know what the soil looks like, I can have a better planting pattern,鈥� Strothkaemper explained. 鈥淚 can have a better fertilization pattern.”

The cost of nitrogen-based fertilizer, important for growing wheat and corn, is rising fast, meaning it must be used carefully, Strothkaemper said. 鈥淎s fertilizer prices skyrocket, you will try your best to increase the output of what is available to you and that’s where technology can play a role.鈥�

Industry cloud software allows producers and makers of products such as agrochemicals and sensor equipment to collaborate. Data modeling can standardize information from hundreds of thousands of growers, machinery makers and fertilizer manufacturers, so it can be processed to reveal insights and discover the most efficient farming model under various scenarios.

Geospatial technology, which combines huge amounts of data with geographical mapping, can create rich maps that can be used to create more accurate weather forecasts for individual fields, which can help producers more precisely determine what to plant and when. Land once thought unproductive because of changes in climate, for instance, may be made productive. Similar information can help manage risk and price futures contracts used for hedging agricultural commodities.

Growing is only half the battle; supply chain management is also an integral part of the solution. While technology cannot lift a massive quarantine or put a truck driver back on the road, it can provide visibility and offer alternatives. Customer relationship software can analyze demand, helping ensure products are sold to the right buyers.

Contact:
Ilaina Jonas, Senior Director of Global Media Relations, SAP
+1 (646) 923-2834,鈥�ilaina.jonas@sap.com
51风流Press Room

As France is one of the largest agricultural powers in the world, SAP.iO Foundry Paris was a natural location for the first accelerator program from SAP.iO entirely dedicated to this industry. The selected startups specialize in procurement, supply chain, production monitoring platforms and decision support tools.

鈥淒igital technology and collaboration are key enablers to feed the rapidly growing world population in a sustainable way,鈥� said Anja Strothkaemper, 51风流vice president of Agribusiness and Commodity Management. 鈥淲orking together with startups, we can combine our innovation power and serve the evolving needs of our agribusiness customers.鈥�

The program addresses three key industry challenges:

• Integrating data, artificial intelligence, analytics and decision-making into agribusiness
• Combining compliance and traceability throughout production and processing
• Ensuring agriculture is more responsible and environmentally sensitive

Over the next 10 weeks, the startups will have access to curated mentorship from 51风流executives, exposure to 51风流technology and application programming interfaces (APIs), and opportunities to collaborate with 51风流customers around the world.

The following startups are participating in the SAP.iO Foundry Paris program:

• enables processors and traders of agricultural commodities to save time on procurement and distribution processes.
• offers an automated quality control platform for fast, objective and consistent fresh fruit and vegetable quality control.
• uses blockchain technology and smart modules to provide transparency, traceability and digital auditing of food products.
• . combines blockchain and Internet of Things鈥揹riven technologies to verify and auto-execute smart contracts, creating fully automated and digitalized workflows at every stage.
• develops easy-to-use mobile software that digitalizes paper-based compliance workflows in farming and processing.
• connects all players in the dairy supply chain, improving visibility and generating valuable insights across the raw milk supply chain.
• digitalizes seafood trading by connecting all partners on one digital platform for optimized and secured purchasing and sales processes.
• designs and sells connected weather forecast solutions farmers use to measure humidity, temperature, wind speed and rainfall.

To learn more about how SAP.iO is helping innovators start up and scale with SAP, please visit .

Visit the . Follow 51风流on Twitter at .

Media Contact:
Benjamin Nickel, +49 170 4920616, benjamin.nickel@sap.com, CET
51风流Press Room; press@sap.com

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鈥淒riving through the rural areas of Chile, you will notice how severely the country has been going through a major drought during the last five to seven years,鈥� says. 鈥淧art of it is due to climate change, but it cannot be denied that intensive farming is adding to the problem.鈥� Chile鈥檚 GDP relies heavily on agriculture. Apart from avocados, food crops include blueberries, cherries, and walnuts. 鈥淲ater efficiency is a huge topic for Chilean farmers and the country as a whole.鈥�

For Gulin, Aganimo鈥檚 Russian-born founder and CEO, and his Chilean co-founder, CTO , this was an obvious problem to tackle.

鈥淚n Chile, everybody knows someone working in the agricultural sector, whether it鈥檚 an uncle or the friend of a friend,鈥� Esteban says. 鈥淲hen we looked at the problem and solutions already available, it became clear that there was much room for improvement by means of technology 鈥� and we had the skills to do that.鈥�

To combine their technical knowledge with research on agriculture, they made contact with academia. 鈥淭he University of Chile immediately wanted to collaborate,鈥� Gulin says. Agranimo has 10 employees located in Chile, Russia, and Germany with backgrounds in technology, research, and practical experience in agriculture.

鈥淐hile is not the only country with this problem,鈥� Gulin explains, 鈥淚t鈥檚 really all over the world — water is rare. From our first application for water efficiency, our vision grew as we expanded to more climate-related issues. Water is still one of the key components, but we are now working with any information that can be derived from climate and soil data.鈥�

From the Field Into One Data Warehouse

Esteban explains: 鈥淏asically, we connect a lot of sensors together into one system to provide field managers with crop-specific information. Some of those sensors we actually manufacture ourselves, some are third-party. The sensors are sending information to the cloud, where we try to combine information from different sources. We collect plant-relevant information and provide the industry with climate analytics or what we call climate intelligence.鈥�

Agranimo is working with large producers of fruit and vegetables that source their crops all over the world. The basic idea is to support field managers and commercial teams in decision-making.

鈥淭his includes irrigation, disease management, such as whether to apply fungicide or pesticide, frost damage assessment, and harvest forecasting,鈥� Gulin explains. 鈥淲ith this set of indicators, we also assess the later stages of the supply chain: export, import, distribution, and retail. They all have to know what they can expect from the coming harvest. And with a drive toward traceability and sustainability, consumers are also demanding more understanding of how the field where their avocados come from is being managed.鈥�

Growing Impact With SAP

Very early in their journey, Agranimo鈥檚 founders came to regard 51风流as a potential partner. 鈥淚ntegration with 51风流was on our mind right away, because a lot of companies use SAP鈥檚 applications 鈥� and so do our customers,鈥� Gulin says.

Once in contact with 51风流Germany, the SAP.iO Foundries program looked like a natural fit. 鈥淚t seemed like a more straightforward pathway to integration, so we applied,鈥� Gulin says. Agranimo was accepted into the SAP.iO Foundry Berlin in March 2020 as part of the Industry 4.0 cohort.

, head of , says: 鈥淭he demand for avocado and other intensive food crops are causing substantial environmental damages and has led to biodiversity loss, extreme weather conditions, and, in some cases, villages losing access to clean water. By tackling this issue, Agranimo is really having an impact to improve people鈥檚 lives. We at SAP.iO absolutely want to support that.鈥�

“At SAP, we see a growing demand from our agribusiness customers for highly specialized industry-specific capabilities that startups can bring to the table,” shares Anja Strothkaemper, vice president of Agribusiness and Commodity Management at SAP. “ simplifies access to innovative vertical solutions across industries built by 51风流and our partners. As a result, we see great interest from the startup community to partner with SAP. Just now, we are launching a startup cohort with SAP.iO focusing on agribusiness and industry topics such as origination and supply chain transparency.鈥�

Cedrik Kern, who is mentoring Agranimo since the company joined SAP.iO Foundries, adds, 鈥淎granimo is a great example of a startup that adds capabilities that are relevant for our customers when it comes to realizing more efficient and sustainable farming processes.鈥�

A Window to the Customer: 51风流Business Technology Platform

At the time, the startup program within 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP) was scouting for high-potential startups that could grow faster by using the unified, business-centric, open platform. Agranimo was invited to join the program and accepted.

鈥淭his program was brand-new at the time,鈥� shares ,听 program manager for adoption activities for 51风流Business Technology Platform. 鈥淎granimo was one of our pilot startups.鈥�

The startup program targets startups that are already collaborating with SAP,听 including those in an accelerator cohort within SAP.iO Foundries. 鈥淭he overall goal of the program is to increase the adoption of 51风流Business Technology Platform,鈥� Bronowski says.

鈥淲e offer 51风流BTP to chosen, promising, enterprise-relevant startups that can have massive impact for our customers,鈥� explains , co-founder and business owner of the program. 鈥淭hey get up to 鈧�50,000 worth of cloud credits, and they can decide how to spend that to get full benefit of 51风流BTP as they progress and grow.”

With these investments, he says, 51风流BTP can help startups to scale their dream and become enterprise-grade with access to the powerful technology portfolio, community, and the 51风流ecosystem of customers and partners. 鈥淐ontinuous enablement and expert support are key to joint success, and we are proud to have Agranimo and 51风流taking significant steps together toward a sustainable future.鈥�

The program offers two options for startups; they can either build their own services from scratch on 51风流BTP so that they are compatible with 51风流products right away, or use the 51风流technology stack to integrate their existing solution into SAP, as Agranimo did.

Gulin says, 鈥淲orking with the 51风流BTP team, we covered the integration of our solution with 51风流Analytics Cloud. We’re still in the process of interfacing our solutions with what 51风流systems our customers use. As a startup, we had our focus on immediate cash flow-generating activities. Collaboration with 51风流on the other hand, is a long-term project. We think of this as an investment to help us scale.鈥�

He鈥檚 pleased with the progress: 鈥淲e’ve received a lot of personalized attention; we’ve never had the situation that a question of ours went unanswered. I would definitely recommend it to other startups.鈥�

Back then there was very little reason to look back. , but through government initiatives and entrepreneurial spirit, .

Since 2015, Li has maintained orchards full of blooming dragon fruit plants, one of . An annual yield nearly 30,000 kilograms per acre has helped earn Li the honor of 鈥渢op return entrepreneur鈥� in Sichuan in 2020.

Supported by SAP, he is now learning to apply new technologies in combination with trickle irrigation to achieve even greater yields at less cost.

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Li Jie鈥檚 story is an integral part of China鈥檚 transformation to economic superpower and its negative impact on rural areas. Four decades of strong growth and increases in per capita income have and improved food security, nutrition, and human development.

But there has been a palpable drain on rural towns, whose populations are projected to drop from 40% of China鈥檚 total population today to 31% by 2030. If not checked, this trend is predicted to have a , according to Matteo Marchisio, head of East Asia Regional Hub at the International Fund for Agricultural Development.

Urban-Rural Divide Is Global

The worldwide exodus from rural areas to cities is not new and it is not limited to China. The world鈥檚 rural citizens currently but bear a disproportionate burden of poverty, malnutrition, and poor quality of life. This is why to make rural areas more attractive to young people.

Rebalancing initiatives, referred to as 鈥渞ural revitalization,鈥� are essential to achieving sustainable living conditions for all, concluded a . 鈥淧olicies, institutions, and investments that take advantage of new opportunities and technologies, increase access to basic services, create more and better rural jobs, foster gender equality, and restore the environment can make rural areas vibrant and healthy places to live and work,鈥� the report stated.

51风流Introduces The Leader Plan

Dragon fruit farmer Li Jie is at the forefront of an emerging trend in China, as more and more young people are attracted by government-sponsored incentives to move back to their rural communities and start new livelihoods as farmers. According to China鈥檚 Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, 7.5 million young people returned to rural areas in 2019.

Since 2017, 51风流has been supporting China鈥檚 鈥渞ural renaissance鈥� by providing digital skills training and mentorship to these returning workers. Under the title 鈥淭he Leader Plan,鈥� 51风流partnered in 2019 with , , and to launch the new initiative. 51风流provides funding and volunteer expertise to develop learning courses that are delivered online. By 2023, 51风流aims to train 50,000 rural entrepreneurs across 30 provinces.

After moving back to his village, Li took online courses which focused on the industrialization and commercialization of agriculture. With his new knowledge and skills, Li plans to build intelligent greenhouses and manage the temperature in them automatically.

Now in its third year, online courses have reached more than 43,000 learners. 51风流has also supported Tsinghua University in conducting an 鈥淓lite Camp鈥� courses and mentoring for entrepreneurs. 鈥淲e鈥檝e had great impact with The Leader Plan, and I look forward to more success in the future,鈥� said Mark Gibbs, president 51风流Greater China.

Next Steps for The Leader Plan

In the future, 51风流in China will explore how digital farming technology and information systems can help agricultural productivity in rural China. This includes the use of e-commerce, Internet of Things (IoT), data analytics and other technologies that support the entrepreneurs鈥� ambitions of improved productivity and commercialization. Employee volunteers will contribute their expertise to the program, and other opportunities such as the program will be explored to train rural entrepreneurs with the skills they need to grow their businesses sustainably.

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Led by Acumen, a non-profit organization that invests in companies, leaders, and ideas to tackle poverty, the fund is a radical departure from the group鈥檚 typical strategy. Small grants and loans provide an immediate infusion of support to entrepreneurs aiding impacted communities.

鈥淟ow-income people already living on the edge, underserved by infrastructure and markets, intensely feel the rippling effect of the pandemic,鈥� said Yasmina Zaidman, chief partnerships officer at Acumen. 鈥淲e needed to be both nimble and radical, so we created an emergency fund to keep investing in social entrepreneurs during this critical time period.鈥�

Since its inception almost two decades ago, Acumen has disbursed $132 million in equity or debt to 136 companies. With offices in India, Pakistan, Colombia, Kenya, Nigeria, the UK, and the U.S., Acumen has made more than 60 grants and loans through its emergency fund to social entrepreneurs that support people with training and education, reliable employment opportunities, and more. Here are three of their stories.

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Food with Purpose from Field to Table

Acumen has provided significant relief — both business-wise and on a personal level — to SiembraViva, a social entrepreneur in Colombia that brings healthy food to people in cities by supporting local smallholder farmers in rural communities. When the coronavirus hit, Founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Diego Benitez shifted operations, expanding its selection of foods as well as increasing direct-to-consumer sales.

鈥淎s a small business owner, the challenges can get overwhelming,鈥� Benitez said. 鈥淎cumen has been there with funds, practical strategies, and professional coaching. With their help, we created a finance committee to better manage cash flow. Having someone to talk with was just as important psychologically, helping us stay focused even as we changed our business model.鈥�

A self-described food system 鈥渉acker,鈥� SiembraViva provides hands-on training for farmers to become certified in organic, regenerative agriculture. When crops are harvested, the for-profit company helps farmers distribute and sell them at high-volume market prices. SiembraViva鈥檚 in-person and digital training curriculum provides farmers with 鈥渂io inputs,鈥� including organic fertilizers, soil improvers, and pest control, as well as planting instructions for high-demand products. Despite the pandemic, SiembraViva had experienced growth of 87 percent in the number of participating farmers and more than 60 percent in sales in the first half of this year compared to 2019. The company has also reduced food waste by 20 percent compared to conventional practices.

Funding Profitable Relationships with Farmers

Bridgetta Amoateng, co-founder and CEO of Lambano Limited in Sierra Leone, is an Acumen fellow who has applied her emergency funding to prevent employee layoffs, open up a new channel delivering groceries on motorbikes, and purchase technology for remote farmer education.

鈥淒uring this pandemic, we had to step up and take action,鈥� Amoateng said. 鈥淲e began providing farmers with ingredients for meals to cushion the impact of the pandemic, helping their families and extended community. At the same time, we increased food sales by 50 percent with our deliveries.鈥�

Born and raised in Sierra Leone, Amoateng was aware of the challenges local farmers faced even before the pandemic. Her for-profit company provides interest-free loans of seeds, fertilizer, and animal feed to local farmers, many of whom are women. Lambano builds relationships with these motivated farmers, providing hands-on training in high-yield crop production, including cultivation and plowing. The organization buys the farmer鈥檚 harvested crops at market value and processes the ingredients for packaged food sales.

Looking ahead, Amoateng hopes to support more farmers and pursue new opportunities, such as online selling.

鈥淭he need is so great for our services that we鈥檝e had to turn people away 鈥� women with children on their backs 鈥� and we鈥檇 like to expand our ability to help farmers earn a self-sustainable livelihood,鈥� she said. 鈥淣ow that people have seen value in increasing their productivity and profits, they ask us to keep coming back and working with them.鈥�

Education Leader Adapts to Fast-Moving Crisis

When COVID-19 shut down KEEP Liberia鈥檚 in-person storytelling sessions in reading rooms nationwide, the non-profit organization increased the number of students it reached by using money from Acumen鈥檚 emergency fund for interactive television and radio broadcasts. It also purchased and distributed phones that students used to access government-sponsored education sessions on the radio, preinstalling some of the devices with their storytelling sessions.

鈥淭he grant from Acumen helped us keep our doors open, making sure children remained academically engaged,鈥� said Brenda Moore, executive director at KEEP Liberia. 鈥淲e鈥檝e amplified our social media presence and can also stay in touch with calls to families, tracking their children鈥檚 progress and emotional well-being. We鈥檝e kept our staff employed and continued to conduct our all-important ongoing fundraising efforts.鈥�

Originally founded during the Ebola outbreak, KEEP Liberia offers community programs designed to promote a culture of reading in children and self-sufficiency in their parents. It is no easy feat in a country where only 10 percent of people have regular access to electricity. Children from pre-school through grade 12 participate 鈥� now remotely 鈥� in after-school storytelling sessions. During broadcasts, typically aired multiple times each week, teachers encourage children to listen, ask questions, and tell their own stories. Meantime, their mothers can participate in skills-training programs as well as micro-savings and loan programs to start or expand a business.

鈥淲e wanted to instill a passion for reading and learning in children from a very young age, so we stocked our libraries with leisure books 鈥� folk tales, storybooks, and novels,鈥� said Moore. 鈥淥nce someone鈥檚 reading, writing, and thinking skills are solid early on, their potential to excel in other subjects is equally strong.鈥�

KEEP Liberia has trained more than 50 teachers in reading strategies, and now has almost 20 libraries located in over half of the country鈥檚 townships.

Tackling Systematic Inequity Everywhere

Zaidman was optimistic about applying lessons learned during the pandemic to the wider world.

鈥淚鈥檓 proud of the relationship we have with 51风流because we both see social entrepreneurs as a source of innovation and are constantly trying to find new ways of overcoming the challenges of poverty,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e learned a lot about how enterprises can pivot to address systemic issues associated with poverty. Those insights will be valuable more broadly to help us build a more resilient and equitable society when this crisis is over.鈥�

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Most executives are aware that generic business software creates a foundation that tackles the basics of running a business during constant business change, economic uncertainty, and market volatility. But 51风流customers also understand the value of extending their digital strategies with听. They are tailoring processes and codifying reporting and analytics to become more efficient, cost-effective, and compliant in terms of employee and customer expectations.

Below is a snapshot of how 51风流Solution Extensions cater to the unique needs of specific industries and subindustries.

Wholesale Distribution: Unleashing the Potential of Negotiations

Negotiating better agreements is critical for wholesale distributors when driving savings, increasing profitability and margins, and fostering customer and supplier relationships. But it’s still an intricate function of various partners, extensive information, and complex calculations.

With a comprehensive solution such as the听, distributors can increase control of the negotiation lifecycle, simplify processes, and gain insights into possible enhancements for profitability. Real-time simulation and analysis of the impact of any actively negotiated deal give distributors the visibility to strike an agreement that protects their profitability, lowering the cost of goods sold through a streamlined, closed-loop process.

Fashion Retail: Redefining the Purpose of Brick-and-Mortar Stores

For fashion retailers, the new norm of mask wearing, social distancing, and controlling the number of employees and consumers in one location is particularly challenging, considering their high-touch nature. However, with the right business model, they may create a mobile-responsive, integrated service that delivers a consistent, reliable, and safe digital experience across all devices and channels.

For instance, available on premise or through the cloud, the听听allows retailers to support an authentically omnichannel consumer experience. The solution extension enables our customers to control their worldwide outlets centrally. With scanners, scales, kiosks, vending machines, and other peripherals and storefronts, fashion retailers can acquire the real-time visibility and transactional capabilities to provide a seamless and personalized shopping experience.

To succeed with this omnichannel retail model, fashion brands deliver a diverse, dynamic array of products that consumers want through听. It replaces spreadsheets and e-mails to deliver a single version of correct and complete master data to all users 鈥� leading to lower costs, informed decision-making, and timely response to market change.

Furthermore, no matter how sophisticated the brick-and-mortar model for retail becomes, fashion brands still need to mitigate an ever-present risk: revenue loss. The听听facilitates an advanced approach to distinguishing potentially fraudulent activities from irregularities, such as business process issues, gaps in employee training, or cases of deception. In return, our customers are eliminating time-consuming and error-prone manual reporting methods and empowering their stakeholders to understand anomalous data better to control and prevent loss on their own.

Agribusiness: Widening Slim Margins with Insight and Efficiency

Agriculture’s economic fragility is a concern across the industry. For years, weather disasters, a trade war, and commodity pricing below production costs have placed tremendous stress across the value chain. And with today’s fluctuating demand across all forms of grocery and food services, agricultural futures are becoming more uncertain.

Although the same stress is felt across the entire industry, virtually every category of farming is governed by distinct regulations and best practices when responding to dynamic market shifts. The needs and requirements of running a dairy farm, for example, are vastly different from those of a grower running an orchard.

51风流understands that reality and offers four unique solution extensions to aid customers as they address issues that are vital to their long-term continuity:

: Designed for farm management operations, the application facilitates everything from planning and planting to growing and harvesting. It addresses the daily need for information and visibility among field managers, supervisors, and workers while delivering crucial analytics to senior executives.

: This integrated solution helps manage complex processes and relationships between buyers and growers of perishable products, such as fruits and vegetables. 51风流Grower Management for Perishables establishes a contract setup and a wide array of farming, logistics, and accounting services that assist all players in efficiently and profitably fulfilling commitments.

: The application streamlines and optimizes processes, from raw milk reception to processing finished products. Dairy farmers can use the technology to streamline operations, turn real-time data into revealing insights, and improve performance and competitiveness.

: With data-driven technology embedded, this application enables meat, poultry, or fish businesses to simplify the storage, processing, and flow of information and insight across the organization. The entire meat or fish value chain can oversee food-processing functions in ways that help ensure quality products are delivered to store shelves to meet the needs of every consumer that wants them.

Capital-Intensive Industries: Creating Lasting Value for Customers and the World

Capital-intensive industry segments 鈥� such as utilities, oil and gas, manufacturing, mill products, mining, transportation, chemicals, engineering, and construction 鈥� are taking on a new life of their own as they help create livable homes, towns, and cities running on sustainable energy. Delivering on this promise requires intelligent solutions for energy generation; storage, water, and waste management; and energy grids efficient enough to keep up with fluctuating demand and inspire consumers to generate their own power.

51风流customers are realizing this goal by tapping into accurate, up-to-the-minute transactional data to manage complex assets, maximize uptime, and improve responsiveness to changing circumstances. The听听unifies and streamlines data governance to improve maintenance planning, reduce asset downtime, increase productivity and profits, and support compliance and safety. A smooth exchange of trusted master data is also facilitated with business partners through mobile apps and devices, across cloud and on-premise applications and services.

To keep consumers engaged in this vision of a more sustainable world, utilities are no longer merely providing an online presence with basic account functions and a call center. They are interacting with consumers on the Web and through mobile apps by using the听. The tool provides a user-friendly engagement platform with self-service capabilities that serve as a starting template for intuitive, multichannel experiences.

Meanwhile, from an operational perspective, connecting asset lifecycle management with digital technology fosters enterprise collaboration and data-driven decision-making. Controlling engineering information, work processes, and risk allows firms to improve efficiency and time to production for their capital projects and operations.

础听听opens the door to a more intelligent approach to capital projects and operations. The add-on integrates structured engineering data with unstructured information, including computer-aided design drawings, models, technical specifications, user manuals, maintenance records, and service contracts. Plus, it gives businesses the control they need to handle engineering documents, work processes, and risk across the distributed enterprise, which enhances decision-making and agility while reducing costs.

The solution extension add-on for 51风流Extended ECM also supports role-specific workspaces to increase operational efficiency with aggregated content, data, people, and tasks related to a common business function, project, or use case. Content is seamlessly available to employees who need it, when they need it and governed automatically and transparently according to current policies.

Media and Entertainment: Unifying Rights and Royalties with Intelligence and Clarity

The use of disconnected spreadsheets, generic applications, and bolt-on technologies can create a dangerous landscape when competing against massive global players and emerging competitors 鈥� most of whom are offering content. Content distributors need a single point of truth to control their rights and royalties while gaining the trust of their consumers and network of creators, licensors, and publishers.

Consider the occasion when distributors negotiate their right to exploit new content. A core of听rights and royalty intelligence and clarity, supported by听, enables distributors to听prove their financial viability, platform strength, and audience growth. The solution extension consolidates multiple sources of truth to just one enterprise system to create legal-approved contracts, acquire rights, move content to production, and trigger royalty payments based on a schedule.

Impactful Digital Transformation Is Within Reach for Your Business

This series has covered how听听can help companies address unique needs across functional areas and distinct industry requirements. 51风流customers embrace our portfolio of solution extensions to simplify IT complexities while reducing their risk, accelerating business change, and futureproofing their digital investments.

Learn more about 51风流Solution Extensions at .

51风流partners are highly specialized in delivering industry-specific solutions to the market.

is one such partner 鈥� the kind of partner that will play a key role in the new solutions from 51风流and partners.

Announced in July 2020, industry cloud is where partners can create innovative cloud solutions and applications for customers who want to drive cost-effective and sustainable growth in their particular industry. 51风流works with partners to create offerings that meet specific, vertical industry requirements, so customers can achieve positive business outcomes.

For example, 51风流works with partners that have expertise in the to enable customers building the new world of mobility. 51风流provides the cloud platform that is so crucial to business today, while 51风流partners 鈥� that have years of experience in transportation 鈥� understand the additional requirements, like product life-cycle management, mobility service bundles, and repair and service parts management, needed to make the industry cloud portfolio useful to automotive customers.

Vistex combines its unique industry expertise in more than 10 industries with leading 51风流technology to benefit customers in areas including agriculture, wholesale distribution, consumer products, life sciences, chemical, and high tech. Vistex鈥檚 solutions use 51风流ERP and 51风流S/4HANA to help streamline processes and cost-efficiency for mission-critical areas like pricing, rebates, royalties, and paybacks. This includes solutions such as 51风流S/4HANA for rights and royalty management by Vistex, 51风流Paybacks and Chargebacks by Vistex, 51风流Farm Management by Vistex, and 51风流Data Maintenance for ERP by Vistex.

We鈥檝e seen success with cloud-based, industry-specific solutions before, like with 51风流Cloud Platform, ABAP Environment. To help make the environment cloud ready, 51风流and Vistex partnered to help ensure the product road map matched customer needs for enterprise quality solutions in the cloud. Working together, Vistex will help provide industry-specific updates focused on improved customer experience.

We are excited about partnerships like the one we have with Vistex to help customers realize opportunities in the cloud. In fact, 51风流 made a minority equity investment in Vistex, showing how committed we are to strategic partnerships that create successful cloud strategies.

51风流and our partners want to make the cloud as accessible as possible for all customers, especially in a time where transformation is needed more urgently than ever to cope with the effects of rapidly changing market conditions due to COVID-19. These solutions are purpose-built by 51风流and partners to simplify the traditionally complex provisioning of high-value, vertical solutions.

The cloud offers endless opportunities for customers and partners. Next-Generation Partnering places great focus on partner-developed intellectual property through new offerings like .

This is the year for 51风流partners to make the switch to the cloud. We cannot wait to work with our customers as they strive to become intelligent enterprises.

In fact, the urgency for food and agriculture innovation is so high that the听听predicts it will become a US$700 billion market by 2030. We are beginning to see the power of these investments as recent advancements 鈥� such as artificial intelligence, crop monitoring systems, extremely localized weather data, agricultural drones, and graphene soil sensors 鈥� find their way into agribusiness ecosystems worldwide.

According to听听research, industry players that seed and grow their business with such disruptive technology often realize at least nine percent higher revenue creation, 26 percent higher profitability, and 12 percent higher market valuation. These outcomes reverberate across the entire value chain, including farmers, producers, and cooperatives; farm machinery and equipment manufacturers; agrichemicals providers; and food companies, originators, and traders.

Is your agribusiness ready for increasing digitalization? If your answer is 鈥渘o,鈥� maybe it is time for the 51风流Model Company service for Agribusiness to help navigate the way.

What is 51风流Model Company for Agribusiness?

51风流Model Company for Agribusiness is the right solution for companies operating within the agriculture value chain that want an accelerator to support a comprehensive portfolio of processes. Particular attention is given to areas such as third-party commodities procurement and sales, back-to-back trading, comingled stock, spot purchasing, inter- and intra-company business practices, washout, product transformation, risk management, and commodities analytics.

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The industry-specific model company service is especially helpful during digital transformation initiatives such as the migration, conversion, or implementation of the next-generation enterprise resource planning (ERP), 51风流S/4HANA. Customers can create, experiment, and test their unique proof of concept in the context of a defined use case while providing a framework for learning and enablement activities.

This reference approach supplies a system of ready-to-use business process scenarios that are based on 51风流Best Practices packages and 51风流S/4HANA. It includes best practices and industry standards that are proven, documented, and continuously improved to address the changing dynamics in agriculture and business needs. The service also covers industry-specific scenarios such as business configuration sets and transports.

51风流brings industry best practices and standards to life with a set of accelerators, including configuration guides, test scripts, 51风流S/4HANA migration cockpit, templates for master data upload, and business content documentation. The 51风流Cloud Appliance Library tool quickly deploys these tools, which are then delivered through services such as handover sessions and an optional business process workshop.

Customers use the model company service to prove their concept of the implementation and encourage their entire organization to adopt the new technology early on. This approach fast-tracks blueprinting, design, and planning of the implementation project, as well as training and knowledge transfer that support the adoption, use, and maintenance of the new technology.

Transform Agribusiness Network to Feed the World Sustainably

By choosing 51风流Model Company, agribusiness players can free up their talent to focus on meaningful innovation and decrease resource costs and utilization through a show-and-tell modeling system, hosted and run by SAP. They can also explore the potential advantages of leveraging standard best practices and processes, such as an agile and lean implementation that is delivered quickly and cost-efficiently.

For the agribusiness industry, this transformation can bring a new era where technology is no longer a barrier, but a driver of a connected and collaborative network. Every member of the food value chain can then realize maximum value in terms of digital capabilities, organizational insights, and industry opportunities.

Stay in the conversation by following 51风流Services and Support on ,听, , and听.

Kristian Kauffmann is global head of Service Portfolio Management for Consumer Industries at SAP.