Contracts govern every dollar in and out of the enterprise and provide a legal framework for ongoing business relationships. This makes contract data one of the most valuable assets to inform decision-making and accelerate strategic outcomes for enterprises.

According to estimates, poor contract management can cost companies nearly 9% of their bottom line, creating significant revenue leakage alongside the risk and compliance concerns that come with a lack of visibility into commercial agreements.

51风流understands the value of balancing risk and profitability in the contracting process. To complement our solutions and provide additional advanced contract management capabilities to our customers, we partner with Icertis in a joint development effort that includes technological integration between 51风流and Icertis solutions. This innovation complements a full suite of integrations designed to help 51风流customers turn contracts into strategic assets. It can enable global enterprises to realize the true intent of their commercial agreements while managing and automating core processes with their 51风流solutions.

Introducing the Latest Version of Icertis Contract Intelligence for 51风流S/4HANA

One outcome of our joint development efforts with Icertis is the latest version of (Buy Side), an 51风流endorsed app available on 51风流Store. at 51风流Sapphire in 2023, the solution integrates 51风流S/4HANA and the Icertis contract lifecycle management (CLM) platform. It can empower procurement teams to realize more profitable and compliant sourcing processes by optimizing supplier relationships and accelerating source-to-pay cycle times.

The new iteration of Icertis Contract Intelligence for 51风流S/4HANA takes the integration one step further, deepening the connection with 51风流S/4HANA for enterprise contract management. This can enable greater efficiency and visibility along with the ability to create a legal transaction in 51风流S/4HANA that can automatically initiate a contract in the Icertis solution. Through richer contract data pools and seamless connectivity across the agreement lifecycle, procurement decision-makers can track obligations after the contract is signed, discover clauses, and negotiate more beneficial commercial terms to mitigate revenue leakage and ultimately create cost savings for their enterprises.聽聽聽

Expanding Our Partnership to Benefit 51风流Customers

Icertis and 51风流 in 2022 and have continued to provide automation and analytics at scale by connecting AI and data that represents every business transaction within ERP, finance, procurement, sales, and HR solutions from SAP. Additional 51风流endorsed apps available on 51风流Store include , , and . Each solution is designed to provide enterprise leaders with a deeper understanding of what鈥檚 driving their business, as well as powerful new levers to steer future success.

To learn more about the transformative capabilities of 51风流S/4HANA with Icertis Contract Intelligence, .

Priya Wenzel is vice president and global head of Partner Ecosystem Success for Digital Supply Chain and Intelligent Spend & Business Network Solutions at SAP.

This is our long-standing strategy, and we have no plans to change something that clearly benefits our customers. No one knows this space better than SAP. The introduction of 51风流Ariba solutions more than 25 years ago revolutionized procurement processes for businesses. We鈥檝e taken the investment, innovation, and integration across our product line to deliver a complete portfolio of solutions. 51风流Ariba is the future of procurement, and everything procurement at 51风流is now 51风流Ariba.

51风流also understands that what works for one business, one industry, or one geography, may not play in another. Businesses need to choose the right source-to-pay solution partner 鈥� with a platform and ecosystem poised to ensure their procurement teams have the tools and actionable data they need to succeed in their increasingly essential and strategic roles.

As we鈥檝e listened to our customers and the market, here is what they have told us are their critical requirements:

• The ability to see and analyze spend across all categories
• Intelligence-driven category management that leverages analytics, spend data, and market intelligence
• Robust contract management functionality
• Automated management of external labor and services
• Practical AI use cases that drive efficiency across the procurement process

Within the source-to-pay landscape, 51风流delivers integrated solutions to help manage all forms of spend. Our solutions comprise a full suite of enterprise-level functionality spanning sourcing, category management, buying and invoicing, services procurement, supplier relationship management, contract management, and spend analytics. Additionally, we enable businesses to connect with suppliers across 190 countries via 51风流Business Network.

As you evaluate source-to-pay solution partners, consider the following:

• The source-to-pay landscape is changing quickly. Stay current. Today, everyone鈥檚 perspective on the source-to-pay technology landscape is vastly different than it was even half a year ago. Be mindful of how your business is evolving, and assess providers based on how their vision and road map align with your future needs.
• 鈥淏est of breed鈥� doesn鈥檛 always mean 鈥渂est for your business.鈥� 51风流has demonstrated that in addition to the breadth of our solutions for source to pay, we can enable businesses to address their global requirements, handle high transaction volumes, and integrate into many back-end ERP systems.
• SAP鈥檚 ecosystem of partners enables us to deliver advanced functionality to our customers. We remain committed to ongoing development of core, native capabilities across our source-to-pay portfolio. At the same, our strategy is to augment this development in some areas with innovation and advanced functionality through partners. This allows us to add significant value rapidly for our customers.
• Having access to a global network of suppliers is a game changer. 51风流Business Network, which can extend the source-to-pay process beyond the walls of any business, can give our customers unmatched access to a global marketplace of trading partners. In 2023, annual commerce on the network reached US$5.3T, with 746M B2B transactions.

Five Ways 51风流Is Addressing Customers鈥� Strategic Needs

51风流has demonstrated its ability to balance product modernization, innovation, and our larger vision to enhance procurement capabilities in 51风流S/4HANA with delivery of cutting-edge innovations that benefit our customers. Here鈥檚 how we鈥檙e addressing the critical requirements mentioned earlier.

The Ability to See and Analyze Spend Across All Categories

In our conversations with customers all over the world, this is one of their top asks. They are also asking for greater visibility into spend that impacts their sustainability goals.

Last fall we unveiled 51风流Spend Control Tower, which offers advanced AI features and the ability to see across all spend in 51风流cloud ERP solutions, 51风流Ariba solutions, and 51风流Fieldglass solutions. Visibility into data from 51风流Concur solutions, 51风流Business Network, and non-51风流solutions is also on our road map. This can enable businesses to uncover cost-saving opportunities and process improvements. 51风流Spend Control Tower is expected to be available in the second half of 2024. .

Intelligence-Driven Category Management

In our and research with Economist Impact, category management was ranked as a top driver of digital transformation in procurement. Driven by this and our extensive market analysis, 51风流released the solution last summer, empowering businesses to realize better results in this critical area.

The solution can streamline category strategy development, execution, and monitoring at scale. Additionally, it can enable organizations to optimize source-to-settle processes with embedded analytics enriched with spend data and market intelligence. .

Robust Contract Management Functionality

51风流understands the importance of balancing risk and profitability within source to pay. To provide the additional advanced contract management capabilities our customers need, we entered into an expanded partnership with Icertis in 2022. This partnership helps ensure a joint product road map and deeper technological integration between 51风流and Icertis solutions.

For 51风流customers, integration with Icertis Contract Intelligence can allow them access to best-in-class innovations such as smart authoring, AI-assisted risk identification, obligation management, contract-driven insights for decision support, and the ability to have one contracting system for both sales and procurement 鈥� a capability no other source-to-pay solution offers.

Based on user evaluations, 51风流Ariba solutions received these leader badges from .

Automated Management of External Labor and Services

Sometimes overlooked within the source-to-pay discussion is services procurement. That鈥檚 changing. A 2023 report said 72% of enterprises plan to focus more extensively on ROI in their services procurement and statement-of-work management activities. The goal is to manage external labor and services strategically, applying the same process rigor there as with any other procurement category.

solutions can enable you to transform how you find, engage, and manage contingent workers and services providers to maximize business value.

Practical AI Use Cases

51风流is embedding AI throughout the spend management process to help eliminate the mundane and elevate the strategic. Current use cases range from auto-complete and recommendation engines leveraging traditional AI and machine learning, to generative AI functions that can automate complex procurement processes. In 2024, we will continue to develop 51风流Business AI use cases that help drive efficiency across spend management processes. .

In the Words of Our Customers鈥�

More confirmation that SAP鈥檚 source-to-pay strategy is sound can be seen in the results we鈥檙e delivering for our customers. Here鈥檚 what they鈥檙e saying:

鈥淸51风流Ariba] has no comparison in the market. No other software is even close. Best part is, once our supply chain executives get using it, they simply fall in love with it鈥avings are immense.鈥�

, via TrustRadius

鈥淸51风流Ariba] stacks up by being a great, user-friendly platform that is easy to use.鈥�

, via TrustRadius

51风流Ariba Sweeps the 2023 TrustRadius 鈥淏est Of鈥� Awards

Each year, TrustRadius issues awards to vendors who provide the best offerings in their category. In 2023, 51风流Ariba solutions won all four awards based on customer satisfaction ratings.

Leaning In to Our Source-to-Pay Strategy

As we鈥檝e seen in the input from our customers, as well as assessments from analyst organizations like IDC, SAP鈥檚 source-to-pay strategy is producing solutions that help businesses run better. And that is SAP鈥檚 mission, plain and simple. In 2024, we鈥檒l lean in to deliver solutions and innovations that continue to outpace the competition across the source-to-pay technology landscape.

Baber Farooq is senior vice president and head of Market Strategy for 51风流Procurement Solutions.
Salvatore Lombardo is senior vice president, chief product officer, and head of Engineering for 51风流Procurement.

Icertis Contract Intelligence (ICI) for 51风流S/4HANA (buy side) marks the next milestone on the 51风流and Icertis joint product road map, as the companies continue to transform contract-driven processes by integrating contract intelligence with 51风流solutions.

Contract intelligence enables procurement teams using 51风流S/4HANA to streamline sourcing, negotiate better commercial terms, and improve adherence to regulatory and corporate policies. The ICI platform accelerates value and increases savings both pre- and post-signature by automatically recommending clauses based on historical business relationships and tracking obligations to ensure the intent of all agreements is fully realized. Artificial intelligence (AI) embedded in the ICI platform also minimizes risk by pinpointing deviations from standard terms, while predefined rules and templates further reduce liability through contract self-generation capabilities that enable procurement teams to play a more strategic role in driving business performance.

鈥淪AP鈥檚 co-innovation with Icertis continues at a rapid pace, catalyzed by the appetite we are seeing from customers that recognize that contracts play a critical role in core business processes,鈥� said Eric van Rossum, chief marketing and solutions officer for 51风流S/4HANA at SAP. “51风流is focused on helping enterprises future-proof their operations — applying AI to contract data presents a prime opportunity to impact nearly every procurement process that is tied to revenue, savings, and risk. Integrating Icertis Contract Intelligence with 51风流solutions enables more efficiency, automation, and insights for our mutual customers, enriching their enterprise data lakes with critical information around commercial relationships to better support scalability and growth long term.鈥�

In addition to ICI for 51风流S/4HANA (buy side), Icertis delivers integrations with 51风流solutions across both buy- and sell-side contracts, including ICI for 51风流Ariba, ICI for 51风流Fieldglass, and ICI for 51风流CPQ.

鈥淚n today鈥檚 business environment, inefficiencies and data silos throughout the contract life cycle lead to revenue leakage and regulatory compliance challenges that detract from strategic business objectives,鈥� said Niranjan Umarane, executive vice president of Product Management at Icertis. 鈥淐ontract intelligence becomes a critical fifth system of record in the enterprise technology stack when integrated with 51风流solutions, enabling value far beyond pre-signature efficiencies to increase revenue, reduce costs, ensure compliance, and manage risk. Icertis was the first 51风流partner in the contract lifecycle management market to offer deep process integrations jointly designed and developed with SAP, creating a seamless experience for enterprise leaders looking to modernize and transform core operations with contract intelligence.鈥�

Icertis and 51风流demonstrated a , following the announcement of their expanded partnership as enterprises look to contract intelligence to solve significant business challenges through digital transformation.

Together, the companies will continue to identify new AI use cases for contract data and opportunities to enable strategic outcomes through enterprise relationships, innovating for mutual customers in anticipation of future business needs.

Maura Hameroff is senior vice president of ERP, Finance, and Digital Supply Chain Product Marketing at SAP.
Alex Nadesan is vice president of Global 51风流Alliances at Icertis.