As the pace of digital demand accelerates and mission priorities grow more complex, it is clear that traditional modernization approaches can no longer keep pace.

To deliver on rapidly evolving government missions, agencies must move beyond lifting and shifting legacy systems. The true transformation lies in reimagining operating models to support continuous, secure, and scalable innovation.

Shift from modernization to transformation

Legacy IT structures, designed for predictability and control, often limit progress. Risk-averse approaches that once provided stability now constrain agility and innovation. Federal agencies leading the way are adopting future-ready, cloud-native architectures that emphasize interoperability, flexibility, and resilience. These architectures do more than modernize technology; they modernize how agencies work, collaborate, and deliver results.

Reducing technical debt has become a strategic imperative, but emerging technologies also demand a balance of governance and innovation. Federal leaders are reframing their approach to modernization as an ongoing process, a state of persistent transformation where technology, mission, and operations evolve in sync.

Measuring what matters: from cost to capability

As agencies embrace new models of delivery, success must be evaluated through a dual focus:

• Total cost of ownership (TCO): Sustaining efficiency by lowering infrastructure costs and simplifying operations
• Total cost to innovate (TCI): Accelerating value creation by enabling teams to activate, test, and scale new capabilities with minimal risk and complexity

This broader lens allows agencies to view modernization as an investment in agility, resilience, and readiness鈥攅nsuring they can respond to what鈥檚 next, not just what鈥檚 now.

Partnering for a smarter, more agile government

Driving this shift requires strategic collaboration across the public and private sectors. Programs such as the U.S. General Services Administration鈥檚 initiative are redefining how government acquires and deploys technology. By consolidating procurement and engaging directly with technology providers, OneGov helps create greater transparency, efficiency, and long-term value for taxpayers.

In alignment with this vision, 51风流has partnered with GSA to provide federal agencies with expanded access to both 51风流licensed-based products and white glove migration, all while avoiding data egress fees. These initiatives help agencies reduce technical debt, accelerate digital transformation, and establish a secure, cloud-native foundation for the future.

Building the innovation-ready enterprise

Modernization is not a destination, it is a capability. Agencies that continually adapt their operating models will define the next generation of public service. The path forward is clear:

• Reimagine modernization as operating model transformation, not just technology refresh
• Balance efficiency with innovation by measuring both cost savings and speed to value
• Build future-ready enterprises where mission and IT operate as one, powered by cloud, automation, and AI

Together, we are shaping a smarter, more secure, and more agile federal enterprise, one that is ready to meet the demands of a rapidly changing world and deliver enduring value to citizens.

David Robinson is president of Cloud ERP and acting managing director of U.S. Public Services at SAP.

This achievement underscores SAP鈥檚 dedication to empowering federal agencies with secure cloud-ready solutions that align with the government鈥檚 modernization and transparency goals.

51风流S/4HANA Cloud, the company鈥檚 next-generation 51风流Business Suite foundation, delivers comprehensive financial management capabilities specifically designed for the public sector.

With advanced automation, real-time analytics, and a secure cloud architecture, agencies can optimize financial operations, strengthen oversight, and accelerate mission outcomes. From appropriations management to budget forecasting and performance tracking, 51风流S/4HANA Cloud enables organizations to work faster, smarter, and with greater accountability鈥攁ll while maintaining full compliance with federal policies and cybersecurity standards.

Advancing the government鈥檚 modernization agenda

The FM QSMO Marketplace, operated by the U.S. Department of the Treasury, is a key pillar in the government鈥檚 strategy to modernize financial management. By curating a pre-vetted catalog of approved commercial and federal solutions, the marketplace simplifies acquisition processes and enables agencies to adopt high-quality, secure, and standards-based systems with confidence.

New marketplace listings from 51风流include 51风流S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, 51风流Analytics Cloud, integration services for 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP), and a full suite of risk mitigation services covering activation, transition, and operational support. Together, these offerings give agencies the flexibility and agility to modernize their core systems while achieving improved performance, transparency, and accountability.

Accelerating modernization: a win for government and industry

The FM QSMO Marketplace reduces barriers to modernization by centralizing evaluation, contracting, and compliance, streamlining the path for agencies to adopt proven solutions. For government leaders, it offers access to technologies that promote consistency, interoperability, and data-driven collaboration across departments. The result is enhanced efficiency, transparency, and value for the American public.

For SAP, this selection is both a recognition of decades-long partnership and a reaffirmation of its mission to help government operate at the聽speed of mission. By making secure cloud technology and deep public sector expertise from 51风流easily accessible, agencies can modernize confidently with solutions that deliver measurable and lasting impact.

Partnering for the future of government

SAP鈥檚 inclusion in the FM QSMO Marketplace reflects a shared vision with the U.S. Treasury: to advance financial excellence, accountability, and trust in government.

Together, 51风流and its federal partners are shaping the next era of an聽AI-enabled, data-driven, and citizen-focused聽public service, one where modern technology forms the backbone of smarter decisions, stronger performance, and greater outcomes for every mission.

David Robinson is president of Cloud ERP and acting managing director of U.S. Public Services at SAP.

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

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

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

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

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

Why Is This Important?

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

What鈥檚 Next?

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

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

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

Hamburg has more bridges than any other city in Europe. For Germany鈥檚 second largest city it鈥檚 a complex task to maintain its 2,500 bridges and other structures like pedestrian tunnels, locks, flood barriers, and embankments.

The State Agency for Roads, Bridges and Waterways (LSBG) operates a large portion of the traffic infrastructure in Hamburg and is responsible for the entire lifespan of these public works.

鈥淲e鈥檙e an important player in flood protection and the prevention of water pollution as well as the maintenance of most roads and bridges in Hamburg,” Erdinc Karabugday, head of Planning and Controlling at LSBG, shares. “Together with our network, we build and protect everything that keeps Hamburg together.鈥�

51风流technology is one building block to perform this duty safely and efficiently.

Free Flow of Traffic as Top Priority  

Mobility plays a key role in the lives of people in Hamburg and other major cities. Bridges bear a particularly heavy load, because they are critical junctions in the city鈥檚 transportation network. Tracking the condition of bridges and planning for their maintenance needs and upgrades is vitally important to keep people moving in urban areas.

Karabugday describes the problem in a nutshell: 鈥淥ur objectives are long term, so basing operational decisions solely on the current situation isn鈥檛 enough. We need comprehensive data for the strategic context 鈥� not only economic aspects, but social and ecological impacts as well. Our 51风流solution supports us with this.鈥�

The manual entry of damage to structures like bridges used to be very expensive and time-consuming, a complex process made even more difficult by the fact that data entry and analysis are performed by both the agency鈥檚 own staff and external companies.

Digital Representation of Infrastructure

To reduce Hamburg鈥檚 renovation backlog and create a sustainable long-term solution, LSBG teamed with 51风流to develop a standardized data platform. One central aspect involves merging data from a variety of sources on , making it possible to blend data such as the location and condition of each structure. The results feed into a digital model of streets and bridges and can be used to guide decisions and generate precise forecasts for maintenance and budget planning.聽

Ulrike Brecht, architect advisor in Customer Advisory Public Sector at 51风流Germany, explains: 鈥淭he project was initially intended to handle bridge maintenance. Employees conduct the necessary maintenance work and inspections on site. They also document the condition of a structure, ensuring that necessary maintenance measures are carried out at the right time.鈥�

All available data on the structures, including road and bridge data as well as geographic and monitoring data, is merged in 51风流HANA Cloud. When combined with aging models for the structures, this information can be used for forecasting when specific road segments will require resurfacing, for instance.

These data-driven forecasts put infrastructure budget planning on a new, firmer foundation and make it possible to define the priorities for object renovation to minimize the impact on traffic flows and the lives of urban residents.

Future Urban Platforms

Cities around the world face enormous challenges in the coming years when it comes to protecting and maintaining their residents鈥� quality of life. Dr. Philipp Schulz was a research assistant at the University of Heidelberg and wrote his doctoral thesis on digital urban development. Today, he advises cities and communities on topics like revitalizing inner cities, redesigning public spaces, and civic participation.

One trend Schulz has observed in the cities and towns he works with is the development of urban dashboards that show all the data collected in a city as important parameters such as air quality, weather forecasts, and movements of people.

For Schulz, developing a long-term digital strategy is one of the pillars of modern urban planning.

鈥淔rom my perspective the term 鈥榮mart city鈥� is outdated,鈥� he says. 鈥淭oday I call it 鈥榩latform urbanism,鈥� an approach in which different players and their information are brought together on one platform.鈥� Platform urbanism describes how apps and websites are changing the way people in cities live, work, and interact with one another. It involves the digitalization of individual areas, which are then brought together incrementally.

The city of Hamburg is on the right track. 鈥淗amburg鈥檚 goal is to handle the full maintenance management of its infrastructure through a standardized data platform,鈥� says Brecht.

The city is in the process of expanding the accomplishments of this project to other areas, such as the maintenance of public parks and municipal buildings.

This cloud infrastructure is designed to meet the unique national requirements set out in the German cloud strategy. There will be no network dependencies on systems outside Germany, and the independent operation of all services is ensured. All data will be processed and stored in Germany, and all services will be delivered from within Germany.

A completely new company is to be established to provide a sovereign cloud for the public sector in Germany. The aim of the new company is to drive digital transformation in Germany. It is planned that, in addition to SAP, Arvato Systems will also become a shareholder and additionally will take over operations.

The offering will be based on the broadly adopted Microsoft Azure platform and related Microsoft services, including cutting-edge collaboration and productivity solutions of Microsoft 365 along with industry-leading SAP庐 business applications and tools. Approved third-party providers can also offer their applications on the platform.

The planned new company will provide a broad catalog of digital solutions to support the digitalization efforts of the German government to accelerate the use of cloud technology in the German public sector and will meet the strict requirements put in place by the Bundesamt f眉r Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik (BSI).

The offering of this new company will be a vendor-neutral stack built on an open platform based on Microsoft鈥檚 secure cloud technology, and it will offer full interoperability with other tools. With that, the infrastructure can support a variety of cloud solutions from independent vendors including open source software. Already today, 60% of the workloads on Azure are Linux-based.

A Sovereign Cloud Platform from a Technical, Operational and Legal Perspective

This offering is designed to meet the technical, operational and legal sovereignty requirements of the German government. It will be governed by German law and address the data sovereignty needs of the German public sector.

The cloud infrastructure will be owned by the new German entity. Furthermore, it is planned that the technical operation will be taken over by Arvato Systems as an experienced infrastructure operator. The infrastructure will be strictly separated from Microsoft鈥檚 global data center infrastructure and the existing public cloud infrastructure in Germany.

“This partnership represents a breakthrough approach for cloud-based innovation,鈥� said Christian Klein, CEO of SAP. 鈥淭ogether we’ll provide a unique solution that not only meets the highest standards of cloud-based technology but also meets the strictest requirements of data sovereignty. This one-of-a-kind collaboration unlocks the potential of digital transformation for the German government and beyond.鈥�

“We are very pleased about the expansion of our partnership and the joint plans with SAP,鈥� said Matthias Moeller, CEO of the Arvato Systems Group and CIO of Bertelsmann. 鈥淎t Arvato Systems, we have been supporting large infrastructures, including those in the public sector, for many years and understand their unique requirements. The intended partnership offers the best outcome from various perspectives: to use the best available technology and secure German sovereignty interests while accelerating digitalization for citizens and employees alike.鈥�

鈥淎s digital technology continues to rapidly transform work and life, we have a critical opportunity to ensure these advancements benefit people and organizations everywhere, including in Germany,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “Together with 51风流and Arvato Systems, we will create a cloud platform that meets the requirements of the German public sector to help drive digital transformation across the country.”

Visit the 51风流News Center. Follow 51风流on Twitter at .

About Arvato Systems聽

Global IT specialist Arvato Systems supports major companies in Digital Transformation. About 3,000 staff in over 25 locations stand for in-depth technology expertise, industry knowledge, and focus on customer requirements. Working as a team, we develop innovative IT solutions, transition our clients into the Cloud, integrate digital processes, and take on IT systems operation and support. As a part of the Bertelsmann-owned Arvato network, we have the unique capability to work across the entire value chain. Our business relationships are personal; we work with our clients as partners so that together we can achieve long-term success.聽

About SAP

SAP鈥檚 strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 51风流customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers鈥� businesses into intelligent enterprises. 51风流helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want 鈥� without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 25 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, 51风流helps the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives. For more information, visit .

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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 2020 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
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As Mors explained it, Live Contract digitalizes complex sales processes, enabling agents to execute the entire consultation and transaction from end-to-end, with all the information they need close at hand. Live Contract is a cross-industry solution in use in telecommunications, automotive, energy, finance and insurance, and the public sector. What鈥檚 similar across these sectors is the requirement for intensive consultation during the sales process. And each has industry-specific workflows.

Live Contract incorporates those workflow processes to enable sales agents to work together with customers in an online session until every T is crossed and every I dotted. The legal contract is e-signed on the spot. And that is how Live Contract delivers a 100% conversion rate without any media disruption.

Signing on the Dotted Line 鈥� Online

I asked Mors what problem Live Contract solves and how the company came about.

鈥淚magine that you鈥檙e selling health insurance policies by phone,鈥� he explained. 鈥淣ine out of 10 people who said yes on the phone will not send their contracts back. You鈥檝e typically spent at least an hour building a relationship with the customer and building their confidence in making a purchase decision. How fast you can get the contract signed is critical 鈥� to avoid the time lapse during which people can change their minds.鈥�

That鈥檚 how the app was born in 2015, he said, when the company鈥檚 founders developed an app that securely handles the entire document- and contract-processing function online.

Mors used the example of a customer who wants to discuss the configuration of a new car. They can consult with a live agent to select options and understand how each choice affects aspects of performance, appearance, comfort, and, of course, price. Once they have made all their decisions, they can discuss financing considerations and finally, purchase the car with a signed contract.

Following Sector-Specific Workflows

Since the process of automotive sales is so different from, say, insurance, I was curious to know about how long it takes for the SYNCPILOT team to understand the intricacies of a specific workflow to develop an app for a new industry.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 resource-intensive work that can take from two months to a year,鈥� Mors replied. 鈥淗owever, in the current COVID-19 environment, our timelines have accelerated by necessity. In April, we had two major customers in Germany that were using the app for a proof of concept. Suddenly, their sales force needed to switch from in-person to online consultation, literally overnight.鈥�

That required a fast scale-up and extensive user training. 鈥淥ne of the bricks in our offering is the SYNCPILOT Academy that supports user adoption,鈥� he noted. 鈥淓ven in ordinary circumstances, in most cases, sales agents are highly experienced and have been working in the same fashion for years. Even though the app greatly simplifies their lives, they need to get comfortable with doing things differently.鈥�

One way that Live Contract simplifies their work is integration with 51风流solutions, including 51风流Marketing Cloud and 51风流Sales Cloud. Customer data is linked with internal processes for a collaborative customer experience. Live Contract is simple to deploy and works on any mobile device and web browser.

Sealing the Deal with 51风流Partnership

I asked Mors about the company鈥檚 relationship with SAP, how the partnership began, and how it鈥檚 going. 鈥淚t started with a friend, who introduced us to an 51风流partner manager three or four years ago,鈥� he recalled. 鈥�51风流has a lot of great solutions for consultants in 51风流Marketing Cloud, but not necessarily for the last mile to the customer. So, it was a perfect match. But then the main step began 鈥� product certification and the readiness check. That was the hard part, but we had a lot of help through the 51风流PartnerEdge Build program.鈥�

Now, 51风流partner managers work closely with the SYNCPILOT team to discuss use cases and the potential to build product suites with other 51风流solutions, as well as opportunities to present internally at SAP.

Any thoughts for other partners coming online on 51风流App Center? 鈥淢y advice is to take all the help you can get from the 51风流team,鈥� he said, 鈥渆specially when it comes to developing the content and understanding partner management processes. And I recommend building a network with other partners to share ideas and best practices.鈥�

If your organization focuses on one of the industries covered by Live Contract 鈥� what are you waiting for? It鈥檚 a great way to enhance the customer experience and help your sales team improve their conversion rates.

Bill Rojas is senior director of Business Development and Partner Alliances for 51风流Digital Commerce.

Since 2017, Mercy Technology Services has been working with drug and medical device manufacturers, extending RWE to enhance their research efforts. So, when the COVID-19 pandemic reached Mercy’s region spanning four states in the Midwest, this 51风流partner was uniquely positioned to deliver the RWE that Mercy, its neighboring health systems, and manufacturers needed to help provide smarter care and the best outcomes.

Mercy Technology Services began building its data analytics capabilities through participation in the FDA-sponsored BUILD initiative, now , which was established to improve how to evaluate longitudinal safety and efficacy of medical devices in real-world settings. Mercy has collected and analyzed electronic healthcare (EHR) data and developed tools to create visualizations of the real-world costs and outcomes of medical devices and supplies, such as sutures, stents, and implants.

In addition, Mercy has extended these new RWE capabilities to manufacturers to provide insights that help them study the real-world uses, effectiveness, benefits, and risks of medications and medical devices, accelerating innovation all along the product life cycle.

Mercy is also a pioneer in using natural language processing (NLP) in healthcare settings to capture data from doctors鈥� notes and patient records and create important new data sets to use in analysis.

Crucial Real-World Evidence in a Pandemic

When the pandemic began, Mercy was uniquely positioned to leverage its RWE, in part due to its partnership with SAP. To enable Mercy to create the analytics dashboards for this project, 51风流provided 51风流S/4HANA and 51风流Analytics Cloud to Mercy at no cost for a brief time.

Mercy formed a COVID-19 task force made up of key Mercy leaders and used its dashboards to inform the task force and others within Mercy of critical capacity and inventory data as it faced the unprecedented challenge of managing a pandemic.

Mercy also participated in the St. Louis area’s regional task force. Mercy and neighboring healthcare systems agreed to share EHR data and perform analyses collectively. Because of Mercy鈥檚 leadership in healthcare analytics, it was also able to enter into an agreement to use statewide data from Missouri in its analysis.

Kerry Bommarito, Ph.D., director of Data Sciences for Mercy, explained that this strategy provided Mercy and its neighboring healthcare systems with a broader view of COVID-19. Data analytics based on both state and local data helped the region鈥檚 healthcare systems track current and projected needs for hospital and ICU beds, personal protective equipment (PPE), and medical supplies, including ventilators and drug therapies. The team also built epidemiological data models to predict surges of COVID-19 patients to ensure there were enough capacity and supplies to meet the projections.

Bommarito added, “Mercy also uses that data to do predictive modeling, such as the risk of mortality or the risk of the patient requiring a ventilator. We use that data at Mercy to indicate which patients are at low, medium, or high risk.”

She added that the dashboards created for COVID-19 insights also show the role a patient鈥檚 age plays. “Over the summer, cases were primarily in younger people, so even though cases increased, it didn’t immediately affect hospital admissions,” she explained. Additionally, Mercy worked with pediatricians in its region to keep them apprised of the case rates among children.

Powering RWE in the Future Through Partnerships

Throughout the development of the COVID-19 dashboards, Mercy considered how it would continue to provide COVID-19-related real-world evidence long after the height of the pandemic. Bommarito said, “Mercy’s general approach is that we believe we are going to move the needle in healthcare with our collaborations. Now that we have established unique capabilities, we see the opportunity to collaborate for the greater good, particularly across industries.”

“Collaborating with manufacturers informs the design and enhancement of pharmaceuticals and medical devices to optimize them for real-world scenarios. Clinical trial data is limited and only tells a narrow story of safety and effectiveness,” she explained. “We feel collaboration within and across our industry is where we’re really starting to break ground, innovate, and increase our power to create better, more informed healthcare.”

Currently, Mercy is working with a global manufacturer to provide insights that help identify risk factors for COVID-19 patients. These insights help better predict which patients will need certain treatment like respiratory support through ventilators and other oxygen support, how long they’ll require treatment, and the variables that help predict progression and mortality.

Bommarito added, “Given that COVID-19 vaccines are in their end stages of clinical trials, which have limited sample sizes, we’re also anticipating the need for near real-time, real-world evidence related to those vaccines. These insights will help manufacturers validate the safety and effectiveness of their products once they’re in use in clinical settings, as well as inform healthcare providers of the various COVID-19 treatment protocols and their outcomes.”

Bommarito feels that collaborations are key to meaningful RWE from data analytics. Mercy has worked on this project with clinicians, statisticians, and epidemiologists from neighboring healthcare systems as well as manufacturers’ data scientists and tech experts at SAP.

“It’s a good strategy to work with the best and brightest because it raises your game,” she said. “Hopefully, our work will lead to more groundbreaking insights to inform providers to prepare for changes, adapt how they treat patients, and improve outcomes.”

51风流and our partners. Improving lives. That is our purpose.

The new system went live in late October 鈥� at more than 80 companies with 21 production sites in 41 countries, from New Zealand to South America. The ongoing global transformation is taking place in stages in different markets and will be completed by 2025.

The go-live in these countries was executed nearly simultaneously, in just four days. More than 600 employees were involved worldwide, running more than 3,400 test scripts. The brownfield approach posed a special challenge to the project: completing a 1:1 conversion of the existing ERP system 鈥淕BS鈥� to 51风流S/4HANA within the regulated processes. Due to the myriad documentation requirements in the pharmaceutical industry, it is especially important to build on the existing ERP system without reimplementing or disrupting ongoing business processes.

鈥淲ith 51风流S/4HANA as our digital core, we have created the foundation for using additional innovations like predictive analytics, AI-based automation, and SAP庐 Asset Intelligence Network, combined with a new user experience. As such, Boehringer Ingelheim remains an early adopter in the industry,鈥� said Markus Sch眉mmelfeder, CIO at Boehringer Ingelheim.

Alexander Kl盲ger, managing director, 51风流Germany SE & Co. KG., also emphasized the importance of the partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim: 鈥淲e need the courage to innovate to meet the challenges in the healthcare system. Boehringer Ingelheim is moving key innovations forward as part of its digital transformation, and our technologies are creating the foundation. We see partnering with companies from the healthcare sector as a societal obligation, not just an important area of business.鈥�

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Media contact:
Dana Roesiger, +49 6227 7 63900, dana.roesiger@sap.com, CET
51风流Press Room; press@sap.com

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as 鈥渁nticipate,鈥� 鈥渂elieve,鈥� 鈥渆stimate,鈥� 鈥渆xpect,鈥� 鈥渇orecast,鈥� 鈥渋ntend,鈥� 鈥渕ay,鈥� 鈥減lan,鈥� 鈥減roject,鈥� 鈥減redict,鈥� 鈥渟hould鈥� and 鈥渨ill鈥� and similar expressions as they relate to 51风流are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. 51风流undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect our current views and assumptions and all forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those statements. The factors that could affect SAP鈥檚 future financial results are discussed more fully in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. The future-oriented statements reflect the point of view at the time they were made. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.
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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 (or an 51风流affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. For more information about the trademarks, copyrights, and their usage, see .

This COVID-19 coordination center allows doctors to control and manage all information to more effectively coordinate patient care and transport during the pandemic. Furthermore, the regular district offices must continuously report to the state and federal authorities how many COVID-19 hospital beds are available in the region, with and without ventilation options. The coordination center manages this transfer of accurate information in real time using the newly developed bed capacity management solution from SAP.

The project stands out through amazing and fast collaboration, with the Heidelberg University Hospital (UKHD) leading the effort. The Integrated Control Center Rhein-Neckar/Heidelberg (ILS) also works closely with the new COVID-19 coordination center, acting as partner and interface to emergency and ambulance services. Together with the Center for Information and Medical Technology (ZIM) at UKHD, along with SAP,听 the COVID-19 platform for bed management was setup in just about a week.

The COVID-19 coordination center serves as central contact point for all needs-based management of COVID-19 in-patients. Using the software, doctors have a real-time overview of available capacities in the entire Rhein-Neckar area and the city of Heidelberg so that patients can be easily assigned according to availability and receive the best care in the fastest possible way. To further support this goal, Heidelberg University Hospital has automated the occupancy plan for all related hospital beds in the region with the help of this solution that is specifically tailored to the very needs of all parties involved. UKHD and 17 affiliated hospitals, as well as the fire brigade control center and the health authority, can use this solution free of charge for six months.

51风流Cloud Platform, 51风流Fiori, and 51风流Analytics Cloud serve as the technological backbone, supporting the required cloud-based, scalable, and expandable solution, including a highly secure authorization and role concept. The solution itself is easily accessible via a web browser and a wide variety of devices — desktop computers, laptops, or smartphones — regardless of location.

鈥淚t is important to centrally coordinate the distribution of patients and bed occupancy in Heidelberg and the region. In this way, existing structures, which reach their limits in the event of a crisis, can be efficiently relieved,鈥� says Professor Dr. Ingo Autenrieth, chief medical officer and chairman of the Board of Heidelberg University Hospital. “The new solution helps ensure that the necessary data is always available and up-to-date.”

“We are very pleased with SAP鈥檚 prompt support and help, and the successful project implementation in such a short time,” adds Prof. Dr. Hugo Katus, clinical director of the Department of Cardiology, Angiology, and Pneumology, and managing director of the Medical University Hospital Heidelberg, who initiated the project together with Prof. Dr. Erik Popp, head of Emergency Medicine at Heidelberg University Hospital, and PD Dr. Michael Preusch, Department of Cardiology, Angiology, and Pneumology. The doctors head the central COVID-19 coordination center located at Heidelberg University Hospital.

The platform can be expanded further in the future. For example, managing COVID-19 patients at a hospital or clinic level, as well as the integration of specific materials management are possible. The hospital could then use the new platform to manage all materials required for COVID-19 intensive care and estimate future demand. Thus, the consumption and the necessary stockpiling could be predicted in relation to the occupancy with COVID-19 patients.

In my role as head of the Healthcare industry business unit at 51风流globally, it delights my team and me to work closely with our customers, helping them during this time of need. Living in the Rhein-Neckar region, it also gives me great pride to support my community and to be a part of a municipal project that will make a difference to my family, friends, and neighbors.

Michael Byczkowski is head of Healthcare at SAP.

To deliver in-patient care effectively to people who have COVID-19, the region鈥檚 health department, clinics, and hospitals joined forces to set up a COVID-19 coordination hub under the leadership of Heidelberg University Hospital.

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Coordinating Bed Management

A bed management solution from 51风流helps coordinate across hospitals in Heidelberg and the surrounding Rhine-Neckar region. The solution can also be used to organize the transfer of patients to and from medical facilities, helping to place patients at hospitals that have capacity and providing medical staff at the coordination hub an overview of all intensive care resources in the region.

Using this data, they can see capacity levels at a glance and decide which hospital can best care for the patient in question. This information is also shown on an interactive geomap, enabling medical staff to see where each hospital is, pinpoint a facility where beds are available, and coordinate directly with the team there. This helps relieve the burden on healthcare systems.

Each hospital uses the system to report its capacity. The software then updates the occupancy plan for all hospital beds in the region. The solution is already being used to manage bed occupancy in 45 wards across 25 clinics.

Software Helps Find Available Hospital Beds

Medical staff at the coordination hub were part of the project right from the start. The software was built in only one week in response to the COVID-19 crisis and was tested by end-users, whose feedback enabled the developers to design the solution to the meet the requirements of everyone involved.

Users can access the bed management solution via a Web browser wherever they are and on any device. It presents data in different ways to meet different needs, and users can define the priorities for their particular roles.

How Technology Helps Optimize Medical Care

The bed management solution runs on cloud technology from SAP. With 51风流Cloud Platform, 51风流Fiori, and 51风流Analytics Cloud, the solution is easily scalable and can be enhanced. This means the software can do more than simply report intensive care capacity. For instance, using its built-in analytics capabilities it can show how bed occupancy and the number of hospital beds have changed over time. The analytics function can also analyze past metrics and depict time lines, enabling hospitals to respond to trends.

Its highly secure, role-based access controls mean that stringent data protection and security standards apply to all information.

Meeting Challenges as One Team

Besides technical challenges, the team had to overcome commercial and legal hurdles as well. Developing the solution successfully was the result of close collaboration and alignment inside SAP.

鈥淭he network of organizations around Heidelberg University Hospital wanted a reliable partner it could have every confidence in,” says Michael Byczkowski, vice president and global leader of Healthcare Providers at SAP. “As a team, we have shown that we can rapidly meet entirely new requirements and, even in times of crisis, play an essential part in helping society.鈥�

Listen to the full interview with Michael Byczkowski on or .

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To support this, 51风流is pleased to announce a . With this trial 51风流will provide learning content and access to experts that assist subscribers in leveraging 51风流Analytics Cloud for facing uncertainties while raising opportunities.

According to a , companies need a new, realigned approach to planning and performance management. To adapt to the 鈥渘ew鈥� or 鈥渘ext鈥� normal from COVID-19, CFOs must plan and provide forecasts on not just one business scenario but the impact of multiple scenarios and their intersection points. Examples of these impact scenarios include cash flow and liquidity, employee utilization, exhaustion of credit lines, and cost and spend reductions while planning for future growth.

With 51风流Analytics Cloud, CFOs and finance departments can leverage a powerful and fast planning solution that enables what-if scenarios on the fly, modern analytics to visualize and communicate results, and predictive planning and machine learning capabilities to provide additional insights.

All industries need strong business planning and forecasting. In healthcare, organizations analyze everything from patient capacity to supply inventory and staff scheduling. 51风流Analytics Cloud offers resources management capabilities that connect costs to opportunities, providing an accurate fiscal picture and plan.

Organizations like in Dallas, Texas, are using 51风流Analytics Cloud, 51风流Cloud Platform, and 51风流HANA during the COVID-19 crisis to perform critical analytics and plan for sufficient patient capacity.

Heidelberg University Hospital is using 51风流Cloud Platform, 51风流Fiori, and 51风流Analytics Cloud to support its staff in helping throughout the COVID-19 crisis by thoughtfully managing patient beds, including intensive care and ventilators for the region, as well as estimating future needs and planning accordingly.

, one of the largest Catholic health systems in the U.S., is using analytics from SAP, 51风流Cloud Platform, and 51风流HANA to monitor how medical devices are being used for patient care and safety.

51风流Analytics Cloud provides an opportunity for planners within the healthcare industry and beyond to make the best decisions and use of their plans. With this fully integrated analytics platform, all plans can be connected and scenarios can be easily modeled to assess the impact of decisions with the assistance of built-in machine learning and predictive capabilities.

Powerful analytics with built-in collaboration allows teams and individual planners to collectively decide on the best team-oriented framework to achieve the best possible outcomes. 51风流 like the unique allow businesses to run multiple simulations that retrieve the results on the fly for immediate insights.

51风流Analytics Cloud helps organizations find the footing and confidence to make immediate and reliable decisions. CFOs, finance departments, and all other planners can collectively plan across numerous situations and scenarios to validate the best outcome for long-term business success, which couldn鈥檛 be more important than in today鈥檚 challenging times.

For more information, .

Matthias Kraemer is head of 51风流Analytics Cloud for Planning at SAP.

Before the introduction of shelter-in-place and social distancing policies, many government agencies were not equipped to support employees in working at home. For others, working at home was simply not an option.

According to Brian Roach, head of Regulated Industries at SAP, this highlights the 鈥渉aves and have-nots鈥� in government agencies. The 鈥渉aves鈥� had already invested in digital technologies and mobile capabilities. The 鈥渉ave-nots鈥� were often paper-driven and spent the day working on desktop computers.

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Factors like budget, work culture, and agency objectives influence the divergent maturity levels for digital government initiatives. For example, wealthier cities like San Diego have surged ahead in technology adoption, whereas agencies that depend on in-person signatures or notarized documents may still be analog.

Regardless, the pandemic has underscored the need for government agencies to raise their digital game. As digital government becomes a bigger priority, Roach identifies three trends he believes will accelerate as governments and their agencies tackle issues linked to the pandemic — and prepare for health crises in the future.

Data-Driven Government

Roach believes that the pandemic will speed up governments鈥� investment and use of data analytic technologies. 鈥淭he government needs the ability to mine data, learn from it, and turn it into actionable items 鈥� that will improve government in general,鈥� he said.

Organizations can use data to monitor public health, simulate financial models, and to conduct what-if analysis for pandemics. These insights inform smarter policy, programmatic decisions, and the ability to manage risk.

When crises hit, public agencies that act based on accurate information are best positioned to weather emergencies.

鈥淲e鈥檙e seeing hospital systems that were prepared with predictive technology doing extraordinarily well, they’re not getting overrun,鈥� said Roach.聽 鈥淭hose that act as a result of what they’ve learned, and those that don’t 鈥� that will be the difference maker.鈥�

Focus on Constituent Experience

Before the crisis, public agencies were leveraging technology to improve citizens鈥� experience and Roach expects this trend to accelerate.

鈥淲e’re going to see the value of citizen experiences, and agencies need to interact with citizens in a different way,鈥� he said. 鈥淧eople haven’t been able to walk into a social security office to receive a check and you have to transform how you’re interacting with the citizenry.鈥�

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) highlights how U.S. government agencies had already started using technology for better constituent experience, before the virus outbreak. In 2019, the agency announced its multi-year focused on updating how the agency 鈥溾�� (source: IRS).

鈥淭he IRS is interacting with citizens in a different way 鈥� digital interactions and digital transactions have been improving over the years,鈥� Roach explained. 鈥淚t’s getting to where it’s far more integrated, far more capable, far more organic to the functions of those departments, as opposed to just thin layers of filling in a static website with information.鈥�

Uneven Path to Digital Government

According to Roach, when we speak of the government, we are actually talking about a 鈥渓arge and complex set of services and institutions, where technology innovation and inclination really varies: 鈥淭here’s always an element of government that is leading edge, and others, whether it be for budget or regulatory reasons, that tend to lag.鈥�

But one thing is certain: The lockdown is pushing all institutions to put a better digital strategy and a technological infrastructure in place.

鈥淭here’s no question that things will change going forward, and for the better. We will come out of this much stronger and smarter. It’s easy to be armchair quarterbacks today, but I think the difference will be in the future,鈥� said Roach. 鈥淭here’s not a silver bullet, there’s not a button that you press and suddenly, you’re digitized, data-driven, and citizen centric. But it’s a journey and we will all get on it together.鈥�

Listen to the full interview with Brian Roach:

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However, as patients become more proactive and involved in their wellness and providers face new market and regulatory expectations, the industry鈥檚 playbook is evolving 鈥� continuously, at an ever-accelerating pace.

Now, in addition to commercialization and profitability, they are at the front lines of patient safety and experience. From the globalization of drug supply chains to the competing alternatives for treatment or care and rising threats from counterfeit and fraudulent medicine, the role of pharmaceutical companies has never been more important.

So how can pharmaceutical companies work faster and smarter to relentlessly pursue proven solutions, meaningful provider relationships, and personalized patient outcomes? For many 51风流customers in the industry, reliance on the 51风流Model Company service for Pharmaceuticals is illuminating strategic priorities and new opportunities.

What Is 51风流Model Company for Pharmaceuticals?

Using insights and knowledge acquired from long-term experience within the pharmaceutical industry, 51风流has developed a portfolio of reference solutions and content called 51风流Model Company for Pharmaceuticals.

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The service is prepackaged with 51风流S/4HANA, ready to be used across end-to-end processes, and based on the latest industry best practices and master data. It delivers business value within two to four weeks by providing an advanced IT architecture and the highest degree of standardization in order to lower implementation risks and build a future-proof digital foundation.

For most customers, 51风流Model Company for Pharmaceuticals is a critical component in their accelerated conversion to 51风流S/4HANA. Interoperable with a library of model company offerings available through SAP, the service covers a large variety of core processes. It also allows hands-on experiences to experiment and test new use cases. These capabilities have inspired innovation for business areas, including product development, manufacturing, procurement, sales, logistics, and asset management. Industry-specific concerns are also addressed, such as batch traceability, active ingredients subcontracting, quality control, and regulatory compliance.

Additionally, 51风流Model Company for Pharmaceuticals allows customers to innovate their operational processes by leveraging intelligent technologies and analytics capabilities. Doing so can drive considerable changes in product safety and stewardship and tank-level monitoring. As new innovations are added to the model company portfolio, new opportunities for improvement will introduce more efficient practices for functions such as compliance, sales, management of safety data sheets, and advanced track-and-trace capabilities.

Find Your Place in a World Where the rules of Patient Care Always Change

The ability to respond to patient expectations, provider demands, and government requirements will determine the winners in the pharmaceutical industry 鈥� in 2020 and beyond. Successful business model innovation, process optimization, and workforce productivity will always be inextricably linked to great patient, customer, and employee experiences.

Luckily, 51风流Model Company for Pharmaceuticals is designed to help businesses pull away from the competition and widen the performance gap with each new innovation. By creating a landscape of exceptional experiences and patient assurance, customers can kickstart a new era of profitability with new technologies, practices, and methodologies that help deliver lifesaving products and services more efficiently.

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Maurice Carl Zettel is a business process consultant for 51风流Digital Business Services.

Each week, physicians in Germany test around 400,000 people for COVID-19, according to the Robert Koch Institute. If a test is positive, the physician has to inform the patient and the local health department. Pursuant to the provisions of the German Protection Against Infection Act, the local health department is then required to record the details of every person who has had close, face-to-face contact with the patient in the past two weeks.

鈥淭racing the people who have come into contact with a COVID-19 patient is a huge task; having an IT solution will make it much simpler,鈥� says Roland Bernhard, chief administrative officer for the district of B枚blingen in southern Germany, of the successful collaboration between the district鈥檚 local health department and SAP. 鈥淭he processes have been streamlined for the municipal and district administration offices, which ultimately helps prevent the virus from spreading.鈥�

The people identified as having been in close proximity to a COVID-19 patient now receive an e-mail from the local authority in B枚blingen containing a link to the Web application developed by SAP. After just one click, they can enter the required data from any device. But to do so, they must consent to their data, pursuant to the German Protection Against Infection Act, being used, processed, and sent 鈥� in anonymized form 鈥� to health institutions, such as the Robert Koch Institute, for inclusion in statistics, for example. Other advantages of the system include, for instance, that vulnerable people are notified faster and can therefore take appropriate action, such as going into isolation, sooner. And the app frees up the employees at the local health department for other, more important tasks.

The local health department for the district of B枚blingen initiated the project by reaching out to SAP. The 51风流team was happy to help and together, they quickly finetuned the idea. The new software, which runs on 51风流Cloud Platform, went live at the district administrator鈥檚 office in B枚blingen early on April 10, 2020. By leveraging 51风流Cloud Platform, no time needed to be spent looking at hardware or other IT requirements. Because the solution supports multitenancy, its use could be extended to all of Germany鈥檚 approximately 400 health departments. And the solution will remain relevant once the coronavirus pandemic ends: Physicians are also required to report cases of other infectious diseases, such as measles, meningitis and salmonella, in Germany to prevent other outbreaks.

For more information, please visit the . Follow 51风流on Twitter at .

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Dana Roesiger, +49 (0) 6227 63900, dana.roesiger@sap.com, CET
51风流Press Room; press@sap.com

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as 鈥渁nticipate,鈥� 鈥渂elieve,鈥� 鈥渆stimate,鈥� 鈥渆xpect,鈥� 鈥渇orecast,鈥� 鈥渋ntend,鈥� 鈥渕ay,鈥� 鈥減lan,鈥� 鈥減roject,鈥� 鈥減redict,鈥� 鈥渟hould鈥� and 鈥渨ill鈥� and similar expressions as they relate to 51风流are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. 51风流undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect our current views and assumptions and all forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those statements. The factors that could affect SAP鈥檚 future financial results are discussed more fully in our filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including the most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. The future-oriented statements reflect the point of view at the time they were made. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements.
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No one knows this more than Mayur Saxena, CEO and founder of . Saxena created his startup while pursuing his doctorate degree at Columbia University and working at a healthcare company conducting clinical trials on new medication.

He is energized by the plethora of opportunities to improve healthcare using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

鈥淧atient data is notoriously disorganized and complex,鈥� Saxena said. 鈥淲ith machine learning, healthcare professionals can organize that information to better understand the disease of every patient and reach them faster with interventions that improve their lives. It鈥檚 an amazing feeling when you talk with someone who鈥檚 recovered from an illness because they received the right care.鈥�

The idea behind Droice is to make messy data neat so people can spend less time organizing it and more time analyzing it.

Insights Drive Personalized Patient Care

The startup has collected data from 50 million patients while working with healthcare providers, payers, and government organizations in the U.S. and Europe. Healthcare professionals in hospitals, pharmaceutical firms, medical device manufacturing, and insurance rely on Droice Labs鈥� natural language understanding (NLU) technology. NLU makes sense of patient information in multiple languages from anywhere, such as electronic medical records (EMR), insurance claims, research reports, and medical devices.

鈥淥ur machine learning system takes all the data about an individual into account and breaks it down so that a doctor, pharmaceutical scientist, or healthcare insurer can understand patients better and faster,鈥� explained Saxena. 鈥淚nstead of repetitive, disparate, one-on-one diagnoses and follow-up care, we鈥檙e automating personalized care for a much larger patient population. With shared insights across a large patient population, physicians can chart disease progress and prescribe the best treatment plan. Clinical research into new drugs that took years could be reduced to days or weeks.鈥�

Saxena said that one hospital reduced the amount of time it took to arrive at an appropriate patient diagnosis by over 20 percent.

SAP.iO Foundries Opens Up World of Healthcare Opportunities

Droice Labs recently participated in the latest healthcare-focused accelerator program at SAP.iO Foundry New York. It was one of seven up-and-coming startups working with hospital system providers, employee health and wellness solutions, medical devices, and health IT.

鈥淲e鈥檝e learned so much about customers in the healthcare industry from SAP鈥檚 sales and product teams,鈥� said Saxena. 鈥淭hese large organizations have unique needs, and we鈥檙e grateful for the opportunity to partner with SAP, a company with a massive presence across so many geographies. We鈥檝e gained valuable insights about strategic global selling and scaling our technology to meet the unique requirements of these customers.鈥�

The Droice Labs machine learning platform is .

Turning Long-Time Passion into Thriving Startup

Droice Labs reflects Saxena鈥檚 long-time personal and career commitment to healthcare. After earning his undergraduate degree in bioengineering and biomedical engineering, he worked in high-performance computing in Singapore before arriving in the U.S. That is when he acted on his passion, exploring how AI and machine learning can help improve patient care and potentially eradicate disease.

鈥淲e鈥檙e looking at data from hundreds of thousands of patients a day, helping improve their care pathways across the healthcare system,鈥� said Saxena. 鈥淲e have the technology to work with patient data at scale. I鈥檓 most excited about working together with recognized healthcare experts using state-of-the-art technology to address major challenges in this complicated, regulated industry.鈥�

Digitally Trustworthy Strategy at Droice Labs

In an environment where patient concerns and regulations around data control continue to increase, Saxena emphasized his company鈥檚 strategy of digital trust.

鈥淓verything we do is designed to respect individual patient privacy,鈥� explained Saxena. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 possess related identifying data on patients, and we remove any identifiers. Working in a mission-critical environment like healthcare brings a set of responsibilities. If there is a population suffering from disease, and by looking at their information we can partner with healthcare providers to help make their quality of life better, that鈥檚 what we鈥檒l do. But we don鈥檛 participate in business models targeted to specific individuals.鈥�

Saxena expected his company鈥檚 rapid growth trajectory to continue, and it was easy to see why. According to Gartner鈥檚 2020 CIO Survey, AI is the healthcare industry鈥檚 top game-changing technology. Analysts 75 percent of聽healthcare delivery organizations聽will invest in an AI capability to explicitly improve either operational performance or clinical outcomes by 2021.

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Jutta Vinzent enters the room like a whirlwind of positivity. As she talks with the doctors, nurses, and other clinic staff, it鈥檚 clear that she has a real zest for life. You would never guess that she鈥檚 facing a serious medical issue: Vinzent has cancer.

鈥淢y life suddenly got 40 years shorter,鈥� she reveals, referring to the moment she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2011 at the age of 43. She has since endured five rounds of chemotherapy and three operations that turned her normal life upside down. Ultimately, it was a new approach to analyzing her tumor with the help of 51风流HANA that led to a turning point.

, a computational biomedical company and 51风流partner, developed a tool that helped find a more effective and tolerable therapy. As a result, Vinzent now leads a relatively normal life; she鈥檚 able to go to work and enjoy spending time with her family.

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Video by Angela Klose

MH Guide: Global Research Matching with 51风流HANA

is the tool developed by Molecular Health and used by Jutta Vinzent’s doctors. After analyzing genetic data on patients and their tumors, MH Guide looks for similarities between this very person-specific information 鈥� also known as the molecular profile 鈥� and the globally available data from biomedical and pharmaceutical research.

What insights have already been gathered on a particular tumor mutation? What treatment worked for other patients with that particular mutation, and which treatments involved side effects? The software can answer questions like these on a global scale. The results aid doctors in determining the most promising therapy options for each individual patient.

The comparison between the genetic analysis of the tumor and the medical research results built into the Molecular Health database runs in the background in a very short time with the help of 51风流HANA. The process can lead to interesting insights on the cutting edge of cancer treatment. For example, in some cases, the software identifies matches with certain characteristics of tumors and then recommends a drug that is typically used to treat a different type of cancer.

鈥淓ven the world鈥檚 best oncologist can鈥檛 keep track of all the knowledge out there,鈥� says Dr. Christian Meisel, chief medical officer at Molecular Health. 鈥淥ur tool enables physicians to find the optimal therapy options and to select the most suitable one from these. MH Guide supports doctors in making informed, evidence-based, and personalized treatment decisions for their patients.鈥�

When abnormal changes in cells occur, it is called cancer. Cancer cells divide in an uncontrolled manner more quickly and frequently than healthy cells. This results in a mass of degenerate cells 鈥� the tumor. The malignant formation spreads to healthy tissue nearby and destroys it (Source: ). According to the (WHO), cancer is the second-leading cause of death globally, and was responsible for an estimated 9.6 million deaths in 2018. Approximately one in six deaths around the world can be attributed to the disease.

Giving Patients More Time

MH Guide is already being used at oncology clinics and practices, including Berlin鈥檚 Charit茅, one of the largest university hospitals in Europe. The physicians there use MH Guide to identify new personalized treatment options for patients with ovarian cancer. The results are part of the preparation of the individual treatment plan.

Professor Dr. Jalid Sehouli has been Vinzent鈥檚 doctor for a number of years. He is the medical director of the Department of Gynecology, which includes a center for oncological surgery at Charit茅 as well as director of the European Competence Centre for Ovarian Cancer.

He says that when treating rare tumors or attempting to stop tumors from growing, the use of MH Guide can buy patients more time. For Professor Sehouli, the advantages of MH Guide are clear, which is why he envisions using it to identify therapy options for every cancer patient right from the initial diagnosis. 鈥淜nowing more about each tumor improves my ability to treat my patients effectively and with fewer side effects,鈥� he explains.

In Vinzent鈥檚 case, the analysis of her cancer cells enabled the doctors to modify her treatment. In lieu of chemotherapy, she currently takes her medication in pills, which leaves her feeling better and gives her back some freedom.

Jutta Vinzent says the feeling that she is now really on the right treatment path for her specific form of cancer gives her confidence. 鈥淢H Guide has changed my life completely,鈥� she says.

In 2015, Dr. Juliana Esquivel was attending a medical conference with her husband in Orlando, Florida, when she felt a lump that had not been there before. Her husband, an oncologist, confirmed the small lump but didn鈥檛 want to rush to conclusions. They decided to wait and conduct further tests when they returned to their home in Costa Rica.

Once Esquivel returned, she underwent a series of tests; after several agonizing weeks, the doctors confirmed that she had stage I breast cancer.

鈥淚t was December 23, right before Christmas, that I got the call from the pathologist,鈥� says Esquivel. 鈥淗e said he checked the biopsy over and over 鈥� and then told me the bad news: I had cancer. I just burst into tears.鈥�

After considering her treatment options, Esquivel decided to have both breasts removed: 鈥淚 told the surgeons 鈥業 don’t want any part of me that can put me through all this again, so let’s do this.鈥欌��

Before her double mastectomy, the doctors encouraged her to consider undergoing reconstructive surgery at the same time. Esquivel鈥檚 first step was to consult with Dr. Manuel Chac贸n-Quir贸s, one of the top plastic surgeons in the country and brother of Juan Jos茅 Chac贸n-Quir贸s, CEO and founder of Establishment Labs.

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Based just outside of San Jose, the company designs and manufactures breast implants. And luckily for Esquivel, Establishment Labs had released unique 3D imaging technology, called Divina, to create models of patients鈥� breasts. Using Divina, the company developed personalized implants, which made all the difference to Esquivel. 鈥淢y surgeon did both the mastectomy and reconstruction at the same time,鈥� she explains. 鈥淚t was a very long surgery but when I came out of it, I looked down and saw I looked like I had before. It was like a weight was lifted and I felt this huge relief.鈥�

Establishment Labs began in 2004 as a startup run out of Chac贸n-Quir贸s鈥� parents鈥� house. It is fitting that the company began in his family鈥檚 house, Chac贸n-Quir贸s explains: 鈥淚 come from a family of doctors. My father is a plastic surgeon and my mother is an obstetric nurse. Listening to them, I realized that those worlds could be combined to further women鈥檚 health and give women a voice. That鈥檚 why I started Establishment Labs.鈥�

Establishment Labs Grows, Goes Digital

Establishment Labs is also the first Costa Rican company listed on NASDAQ. It is registered to sell in more than 80 countries across Latin America, Europe, and Asia. To help scale its operations, the company turned to 51风流and , an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution designed for small businesses.

But over the past 10 years, the company has expanded and now has the ability to manufacture more than 500,000 units yearly. It quickly outgrew 51风流Business One and is upgrading to , an ERP system for large enterprises that runs on an in-memory data base and can process large amounts of data more quickly.

According to Salvador Dada, chief operating officer and co-founder of Establishment Labs, 鈥淲e鈥檝e gotten to the point that we鈥檙e public and have grown from one local subsidiary to different subsidiaries around the world. That means we need a more efficient process to close our books and deal with the various reporting regulations like the Securities and Exchange Commission.鈥�

51风流S/4HANA will help the company manage its global sales and financial data more quickly and efficiently by establishing controls and helping ensure the company has the latest information.

Additionally, Dada says, 鈥淭raceability for medical device manufacturers is critical. We鈥檒l be able to trace all the information related to our products with one click and deliver it to any surgeon or regulatory agency. Now, within a month we produce what we were producing in a whole year like five years ago.鈥�

This is why the company needed a system help orchestrate financials, as well as manufacturing, distribution, and planning at a global level across eight locations.

Technology Benefiting Women鈥檚 Health

Both Dada and Chac贸n-Quir贸s believe that digitizing the business will benefit women customers. First, the company can improve efficiency and pass on cost savings. But more importantly, technology will help Establishment Labs achieve its mission: to deliver better, safer devices to women, resulting in fewer complications.

Moving forward, Chac贸n-Quir贸s wants to deepen the bond with customers. 鈥淲e want to reach women interested in breast aesthetics and reconstruction, to educate them about their options, and to get feedback about our products. To be able to listen and respond will help us improve women鈥檚 health. We can translate that information into better products for women and the markets we serve,鈥� he says.

The company is also considering 51风流Customer Experience and Experience Management solutions from 51风流(Qualtrics) to open up bi-directional channels with customers.

In the meantime, Esquivel has this message for women facing breast cancer: 鈥淓stablishment Labs gave me my life back. They brought me back to myself. I want other women to know, even though this horrible thing is happening to you, you can opt for reconstruction and come back from this as the same person you were.鈥�

So what lies ahead for a sector under pressure to limit carbon emissions and create a different future for hydrocarbon-based businesses?

To start, there is no point in visionary planning for 2030 or for worrying about efficiency and productivity in the oil and gas sector unless steps are taken to prevent catastrophic climate change in the same time period. El-Molla is keenly aware of the need to address this issue 鈥� now.

We are focusing on gas in the interim as we work to fill 40 percent of our energy needs through wind and solar by 2030,鈥� he says. In addition to meeting the demands of the domestic market, the Minister鈥檚 vision is to help Egypt become a clean energy hub for the region. Thanks to a clear strategy and massive efforts undertaken by the Ministry since El-Molla鈥檚 appointment in 2015, that long-term goal has every chance of success.

This ongoing strategy for sustainable economic reform along with the discovery of the offshore Zohr gas field in the Mediterranean are behind the that Egypt will be one of the top 10 global economies in just 10 years 鈥� ranked number seven, ahead of Russia, Japan, and Germany.

Provide an Outlook

El-Molla spent 24 years in various operational and executive positions at and recalls turbulent times during the early part of the decade when two revolutions were followed by a period of instability and insecurity for Egypt鈥檚 120-year-old oil and gas sector. The Ministry is responsible for securing refined products for the entire country and for maintaining and ensuring production through joint partners. But during that time it was facing the practical problems of shortages and a decline in production.

Stability returned under the current President, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who realized the need for someone with El-Molla鈥檚 experience to lead necessary change.One of El-Molla鈥檚 first steps was to reach out to partners, vendors, and suppliers.

鈥淒uring difficult times it is easy for investors and multinationals to just shut down and leave,鈥� he explains. 鈥淚t鈥檚 critical to keep them engaged. They need to feel confident that their investments are protected, and that the government is a stable, reliable partner.鈥�

The next steps were more difficult.

Modernize for Change

Becoming the regional energy hub requires massive changes, so the Ministry created a comprehensive modernization strategy that addresses key areas such as production performance, refining and distribution, and enterprise resource planning (ERP). But the core area for overhaul was human resources (HR) development.

The Ministry is a fragmented organization comprising different holding companies, joint ventures, public sector entities, and investment groups. More than 240,000 people are part of it, but they were not connected to each other.

鈥淭he last organizational change was 20 years ago,鈥� El-Molla says. 鈥淲e need to communicate our vision of change, we need to connect people to the vision, and we need the right people to make it happen.鈥�

Pulling it together requires one global system, one consolidated balance sheet, and mostly importantly, one team. The Ministry first created an intranet to facilitate unified updates and messaging and get buy-in from employees. El-Molla knew from previous experience that people often feel threatened when new systems are implemented; they only accept change once they realize the system will help them work more efficiently and save time for more fulfilling tasks.

Together with his team, El-Molla then identified key competencies and announced internal openings for subject matter experts and core business disciplines such as finance and administration. Out of 3,000 applicants, they selected 700 motivated and ambitious individuals and then whittled that group down to 400. Those selected were sent abroad for on-the-job training and given mid-management roles upon their return, ready to fast-track the organization into the future.

鈥淲e now have the most diverse, highly qualified, dynamic team to take us to the next level,鈥� says El-Molla proudly.

With the right people in place, El-Molla can focus fully on the modernization process, which requires the right technology. was his first choice not only because he was familiar with it from his Chevron days, but because he believes it is the right ERP solution for preparing a national industry to work more efficiently with minimum losses at higher productivity rates.

El-Molla believes in leading by example. The modernization program at the Egypt Ministry of Petroleum will not only set an example for the nation; as it begins to show results, it will help unlock the potential of the entire region by improving the economy, empowering people, and creating sustainable sources of energy for generations to come.

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