Every company is on the move to the cloud 鈥� when the timing is right. This may entail a full migration but will certainly include a partial one.

Large enterprises and corporations aiming to transform complex, heterogeneous IT landscapes that have grown over decades are particularly reliant on support. Often, they begin by standardizing and consolidating their entire infrastructure before they鈥檙e ready to embark on their digital transformation journey.

Different Routes to the Cloud

Currently, most of SAP鈥檚 biggest customers use the strategic, long-term 51风流MaxAttention program comprising of nearly 300 engineered services. Those services cover SAP-centric strategy and road map planning, architecture reviews and design, end-to-end business process integration, and operations across solutions, product expertise, safeguarding of implementations, and much more. It is imperative for 51风流to meet these customers wherever their starting point happens to be and to ensure that the groundwork for a successful digital transformation is in place.

Each enterprise chooses its own route. Indian mining company , for example, first had to upgrade its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to the latest version before it could go ahead with its plan to move to RISE with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, private edition.

鈥淒eploying 51风流Business Suite powered by 51风流HANA and working with experts from 51风流MaxAttention can help us become cloud ready and build a sustainable environment using technology and innovation,鈥� said . 鈥淲ith 51风流Integrated Delivery Framework and 51风流ActiveAttention, we have delivered this program on time and on budget.鈥�

Other customers begin their cloud journey by migrating some processes to a protected cloud operated by a hyperscaler and then retiring their own data center. Kurt Bauer, global head of Premium Engagements at SAP, observed that most customers with an 51风流ERP-centric core have added public cloud solutions from 51风流and are implementing private cloud on their way to lay out the path for a full public cloud adoption. plays a pivotal role for agile core business process extensions. Therefore, it is no surprise that a vast majority of premium engagements used by 51风流customers are driving fast cloud adoption and hybrid operations.

Serving Today鈥檚 Customer Requirements

The prospect of innovation and greater efficiency is drawing more and more enterprises toward the cloud. Many of the largest 51风流customers still run their core ERP business processes on an on-premise platform, often safeguarded by premium engagements.

Premium engagements service engineers frequently deal with some challenging constellations, such as 250 process steps across 40 systems, data growth of 640 GB per month, 800 million orders every year, and multiple enormous warehouses in global logistics operations. Customers with volumes and requirements on this scale think twice about which of their business-critical processes they should move to the cloud and, if so, in private or public.

鈥淚n hybrid infrastructures, too, interfaces still need to be robust, efficient, and keep data consistent 鈥� cloud technology doesn鈥檛 change that,鈥� said Bauer. In other words, for any transformation to succeed, someone must not only take ownership of the transformation itself but must also ensure that the systems 鈥� whether they are on premise or in the cloud 鈥� function properly, are stable, and deliver the right level of performance.

It鈥檚 Not Just about Money

In Bauer鈥檚 28 years at SAP, one thing has remained unchanged for the company: the focus on the customer, which has always been about more than chasing KPIs. 鈥淐ustomers reward companies that listen to them and take their suggestions on board,鈥� ex-Board Member Gerhard Oswald said in an interview for 50 Years, a book published to mark SAP鈥檚 anniversary.

Bauer wants to see this 51风流tradition live on in the cloud era and for 51风流MaxAttention customers to benefit from expertise and best practice-fueled services offered as part of the 51风流MaxAttention program they have known and trusted for the last 20 years. This 20th anniversary calls for a proper celebration and experience sharing by best-running 51风流customers and 51风流top executives, exchanging how to leverage 51风流solutions and 51风流MaxAttention for years to come.

Therefore, we would like to invite you to the 51风流MaxAttention Summit in Munich, Germany, from March 19-21. Take advantage of this opportunity to network and engage in discussions with peer customers, gain knowledge from 51风流specialists, and listen to 51风流leaders, such as Member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE Scott Russell and Thomas Saueressig, as they reveal insights of 51风流technologies and innovations jointly with customers鈥� experiences. Be a part of shaping the future by building a resilient network of intelligent and sustainable enterprises.

Eleonore Gossart is senior marketing manager for Customer Success Services at SAP.

Digital transformation can be dicey work. While it鈥檚 well understood that technology plays a critical role, most businesses have yet to realize the importance of expertise, services, and support to drive meaningful change faster with greater visibility, focus, and agility.

This inconvenient truth of digital transformation has led to rushed and incomplete transitions. And as companies pivot their operations and respond to dramatic changes in supply chains, employee expectations, and consumer behaviors, they must reconsider those earlier changes with an open and deliberate mindset to quickly take on whatever comes next.

Fortunately, our customers have positioned themselves well to sidestep this potentially damaging barrier to their transformation journey. By amplifying our technologies and platform with the expertise, implementation guidance, business advisory, hyperpersonalized innovations, and outcome-oriented support offered through the聽, they opened new doors to recovery and growth.

Improving Procurement with a Digital-Only Strategy

As one of the world鈥檚 largest technology communications providers,听聽is always looking to stay ahead of industry changes while making the best use of the time and brainpower of its 100,000 employees. This mentality led to a desire to integrate automation and intelligence into end-to-end business processes to streamline functions such as procurement.

奥颈迟丑听 services, Vodafone benefited from technical design, migration workshops, cutover planning, and go-live support to help mitigate risks and achieve transformation success. The company met established criteria for creating an integrated and intelligent infrastructure for 聽and connected it with聽聽(51风流BTP) in the cloud. Plus, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning were embedded in the technology to increase automation and accelerate innovation.

With the support of 51风流service experts and access to intelligent technologies, the communication provider now has the foundation for agile finance operations, supply chains, and procurement. As a result, Vodafone employees worldwide are empowered to act quickly with greater process efficiencies in nearly every aspect of procurement, including changing payment terms for 6,000 suppliers in as little as two days.

Extending and Automating Processes Business-Wide

Part of聽聽commitment to energy efficiency and sustainability is a digitalization strategy that applies both to plant and back-office operations. With so many systems and processes running across the enterprise鈥檚 IT landscape, accessibility and automation are central to the utility provider鈥檚 cloud-first approach that focuses on robotic process automation (RPA) and mobile technology.

The team of experts for 聽offerings helped Uniper deploy several solutions that are part of SAP聽BTP, including聽,听聽apps, and聽. These are helping the company expand by providing mobile apps to new lines of business and by using approximately 200 robots to make scheduling and maintenance more manageable with built-in capabilities for 51风流S/4HANA.

Additionally,听聽is used to help scale new RPA capabilities and enable HR to comply with the European Union鈥檚 General Data Protection Regulation by sorting personal data and archiving old data.

鈥淭he 51风流ActiveAttention program supports strong and close collaboration with 51风流and enables us to deliver innovation in a very short frequency to our entire business, helping us succeed in our strategy to empower energy evolution,鈥� states , Uniper鈥檚 vice president of Commercial Solutions IT.

Standardizing and Harmonizing Supplier Processes

(thyssenkrupp) 鈥� one of the world鈥檚 largest manufacturers of steering columns, steering systems, and cold forging components 鈥� is helping shape the future of automotive technology. The company set out to build a standardized process template for all plants as part of the 鈥渄aproh@steering鈥� project, which stands for harmonizing data and processes in all manufacturing sites across the world.

鈥淥ur partners in the automotive industry demand high-quality products. By deploying 51风流S/4HANA in the daproh@steering project, working with 51风流Services and Support, we have standardized and automated our processes to help us meet and exceed these demands,鈥� shares Alexander Stein, program management for daproh at thyssenkrupp Presta.

thyssenkrupp Presta鈥檚 goal with 51风流S/4HANA is realizing efficient and standardized processes. In addition, the company wanted to improve tactical and strategic reporting by adopting the 51风流BW/4HANA solution.

To achieve these objectives, thyssenkrupp relied on the support of the program. The company streamlined master data creation and management on the back end after implementing the first part for the 51风流Master Data Governance application as an embedded function. Then, it introduced selected functions of the 51风流Analytics Cloud solution for use as an analytical front end, enabling data-driven decisions. But more important, 51风流services experts provided assistance 鈥� such as with technical architecture design, solution design advisory, guided security design, and custom-code quality improvement 鈥� to assess the company鈥檚 readiness for the data migration, validate integrations, and identify any information or process gaps.

Improving the User Experience with a Chatbot

聽(HPE) improved access to back-end systems and information such as time-critical orders. The company integrated master data with 51风流S/4HANA and operationalized it with the聽聽service to innovate chatbots that provide serial numbers, shipment slip dates, and more.

鈥淲ith the help of 51风流MaxAttention, we began our work by creating a proof of concept [POC], leveraging the conversational AI component of 51风流Business Technology Platform,鈥� explains Arun Navaneethan, senior director of global IT at HPE. 鈥淲e quickly learned from the POC and finished our chatbot design in a matter of 20 days. That鈥檚 the power of transformation.鈥�

The services acted as an accelerator and a catalyst to build chatbots quickly as well as an enabler of future migration of some of their traffic from a legacy Web-based application to an innovative experience. For example, HPE customized chatbot scripting to streamline the user experience and support 24/7 user-query entry and faster generation of the right information.

鈥淭he feedback from the [POC] user community has been very positive,鈥� Navaneethan reports. 鈥淭he initial POC was very pivotal. Although we had a lot of challenges, 51风流MaxAttention helped us overcome them.鈥�

Enabling Real Business Transformation

Digital transformation may have been a central theme for businesses in the past. Now more than ever, it has shifted organizations toward going beyond new technology adoption to drive meaningful, impactful, and sustainable change.

Personally, I only see this trend strengthening across all industries. As most 51风流customers indicate, executives have a voracious appetite for transforming their business more holistically聽 潭聽 driving a surging interest in services partners that can further differentiate their offerings, business model, and brand reputation.

Augusta Spinelli is executive vice president and global head of Success Delivery Center at SAP.

Q: What has COVID-19 meant for 51风流Services?

A: COVID-19 is a human moment, people helping each other in need. From the minute that COVID-19 hit, we鈥檝e been helping customers keep their operations going. Many are medium and small businesses; if they don鈥檛 continue projects to achieve their outcomes, it could adversely impact the local economies they serve. We have a moral imperative, almost a fiduciary responsibility, to continue working creatively with customers. Working remotely under great stress, our consultants are going above and beyond when they鈥檝e been asked. At some point, the pandemic will recede. We have to be smart about how we manage this 鈥渋n between鈥� time so as many businesses as possible come back in the new normal.

What do customers want most from 51风流Services?

The number one thing customers want from us is an outcome to execute their business strategy. We are their trusted partner, a consistent force at every stage of their journey with 51风流— from when they initially select our software through their entire life cycle. In some cases, customers prefer us to take a primary role, typically when exploring just-released solutions or innovations new to an industry. They may also want us to work in an advisory capacity, either strategically or collaborating with our partners.

How do the recent organizational changes in the global 51风流Services team address customer needs?

Our decision to bring all services for our solutions under one umbrella was 100 percent about the customer. Like every large, successful company, we鈥檝e grown organically and by acquisition. Now we鈥檝e simplified the customer experience by centralizing services, including , , , and , in one organization. We鈥檙e breaking down silos between the various teams, paving the way to more seamless interactions and better outcomes for our customers.

What鈥檚 top of mind during your conversations with and why?

Everything we talk about involves the customer journey. The customer is our North Star, and we are committed to make every customer experience something they feel good about, whether it鈥檚 the first contact, a renewal, services, or product support. When it鈥檚 easier for customers to do business with SAP, they get results faster from our solutions that power their outcomes.

How is 51风流Services aligned with the company鈥檚 experience management strategy?

In some ways, we are a market maker. Partnering with customers to bring the latest solutions to the market together with our ecosystem is a win-win-win. We provide customers with expert hands-on help in getting that functionality up and running for their growth. Innovation is central to our charter; in fact, one of our teams specifically explores 鈥渕oonshot鈥� ideas with customers for disruptive differentiation and competitive advantage. These co-innovations often become solutions that reshape markets.

In addition, and are among our best kept secrets. Even as they support customers during go lives, they are also innovation engines helping customers design the future. Using them, customers can figure out novel ways to more rapidly adopt and consume current solutions and innovations.

What鈥檚 your vision when it comes to collaborating with partners across the 51风流ecosystem?

Over 95 percent of 51风流implementations involve our partners. We鈥檙e continuing to amplify their ability so they can run faster and better to deliver solutions more cost-effectively to customers. We also collaborate with partners that are using prepackaged and other tools, providing a path to faster business results for customers.

Looking ahead, what can customer expect from 51风流Services?

Regardless of business size, every customer should have the opportunity to benefit from our premium services offerings. This is particularly important in a fast-changing world of unpredictable challenges. Whether customers are running on-premise or cloud solutions, we want to make available adoption-focused, outcome-oriented, and ecosystem-friendly services. We鈥檙e focused on customers’ short and long-term success.

When you have a relationship with SAP, especially in hardship times like these, customers can continue to depend on us to step up and do more for a better future.

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