For 13 years, we have been shining a light on the people and organizations doing breakthrough work. Today, it鈥檚 my pleasure to announce the 2026 51风流Innovation Award finalists.

What distinguishes this year’s innovators is their ability to use 51风流technology to run, adapt, and innovate in the face of change and complexity. From using AI to unify financial and sustainability data to redesigning value chains for resilience and predicting risks rather than reacting to them, they are closing the “say-do” action gap and making innovation real.

Meet the 2026 finalists

The day we announce these finalists is always a highlight because we see how organizations are leveraging the 51风流landscape to make a tangible difference. This year, our finalists are setting benchmarks across 11 key categories:

• AI Excellence: harnessing 51风流Business AI to revolutionize processes and unlock new levels of productivity
• Cloud ERP Champion: embracing cloud ERP to future-proof operations
• Customer Experience Innovator: transforming businesses with cloud technologies to create standout experiences
• Financial Futurist: revolutionizing financial processes to deliver new business models and reduce risk
• People Experience Pioneer: reimagining the employee journey through digital transformation
• Procurement Visionary: automating procurement to manage spend for better control and greater value
• Supply Chain Catalyst: building strong, well-orchestrated supply chains that are resilient and compliant
• Sustainability Hero: harnessing the power of data to build an inclusive economy and shape a sustainable future (My personal favorite!)
• Technology Pathfinder: implementing 51风流Business Technology Platform to solve business problems with measurable impact.
• Transformation Impact: generating critical business value and strengthening transformation capabilities to remain resilient
• Industry Leader: leveraging multiple 51风流solutions to reinvent business models, collaborate across ecosystems, and create meaningful societal or environmental impact (Note: All entries are also automatically considered for the Industry Leader category, recognizing modernization within specific verticals from consumer industries to public services.)

The road ahead

To our finalists: congratulations.

You were selected by our distinguished panel of judges because you aren’t just comparing today against the peak of the hype cycle; you are building for the reality of the future. You have demonstrated case creativity, tangible outcomes, and the true spirit of the intelligent enterprise.

What comes next? The winners will be announced on April 14, 2026. Winners will receive a trophy and the option of a $1,000 charitable donation voucher or an admission ticket to 51风流Sapphire Orlando or Madrid, where we will hold the 51风流Innovation Awards reception.

But beyond the trophies, these finalists represent a signal to the market. They show us that while short-term risks are noisy and reactive, long-term value is built by those who integrate, automate, and adapt.

Let鈥檚 stay engaged, stay inspired, and keep closing the gap between saying and doing.

Sophia Mendelsohn is chief sustainability and commercial officer at SAP.

To support ongoing expansion, Far East sought more streamlined and efficient lease lifecycle management operations, leading the company to progressively digitalize the entire leasing lifecycle.

Manual processes prompt change

The leasing process at Far East has traditionally been resource-intensive, involving multiple manual steps and significant human intervention across various stages, including pre-offer approvals via e-mail, rental computations, budget comparisons, contract drafting, amendment management, and rental change tracking.

This approach required substantial manpower and created multiple data entry points across the leasing lifecycle, which could affect accuracy and timeliness. Manual updates to rental terms and amendments also contributed to inefficiencies.

The project marks an important step toward operational excellence. By identifying and addressing these systemic challenges, Far East is laying the foundation for a fully digital, integrated leasing platform that supports seamless process flow, real-time data visibility, and more informed decision-making. It is a bold shift toward a strategic, data-driven approach to leasing that enhances agility, accuracy, and growth.

A strategic move forward

For this reason, FEO decided to undertake a strategic transformation to digitalize its leasing operations through a robust, intelligent, and integrated 51风流ecosystem. This initiative unifies the full leasing lifecycle, from lead generation to contract execution and financial settlement, while enhancing operational excellence, data transparency, and customer service.

51风流was selected as the strategic platform for leasing digitalization due to its ability to deliver a comprehensive, end-to-end solution that connects business processes across the leasing lifecycle. With at the core, Far East benefits from a powerful digital foundation that aligns real estate, finance, and operational workflows into a single source of truth, supporting data integrity, process consistency, and real-time visibility. SAP鈥檚 cutting-edge technologies鈥攊ncluding 51风流Customer Relationship Management (51风流CRM), 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP), and 51风流Fiori apps鈥攅nable intelligent automation, advanced analytics, and a clean core architecture that supports both standardization and innovation.

This integrated ecosystem empowers FEO employees to leverage real-time analytics for data-driven decisions and reduce errors and eliminate bottlenecks with automated tasks, streamlined processes, and optimized workflows.

The result? FEO experienced an 80% improvement in sales process efficiency at closing leasing sales.

Impact of the leasing digitalization project

The successful implementation of the leasing digitalization project has delivered tangible improvements across the organization, from the residential and commercial group business unit to its financial, operational, and compliance domains. By streamlining and automating leasing processes, FEO achieved over US$500,000 in annual cost savings while reducing operational overhead. The project eliminated redundant data entry through intelligent field derivation and automated rental computations, helping to minimize errors and boost workforce productivity.

In addition, the leasing lifecycle has been accelerated, cutting the lead-to-contract process and reducing contract generation time from days to just minutes. With 100% system uptime since go-live and strong user adoption, the platform has become a reliable tool for leasing operations. Intelligent validations, including budget checks and competitive rent evaluations, have strengthened regulatory compliance and enhanced decision accuracy. Collectively, these outcomes have strengthened FEO鈥檚 position as a digitally enabled real estate business, well-equipped for agile, data-driven portfolio management and continuous innovation.

FEO has made significant leaps forward in the property management industry. Employee productivity has increased with streamlined processes. Regulatory compliance with industry regulations and standards is managed with intelligent validation. And, analytics provide valuable insights into tenant behavior, rent trends, and property performance.

An 51风流Innovation Award winner

For its property management achievement, Far East Organization was selected as a 2025 51风流Innovation Award winner in the Industry Leader category.

Nicolas Englo is program manager for the 51风流Innovation Awards.

Through their innovative implementation of Soley’s Product Mining Platform with SAP’s supply chain management technologies, they prove that sustainability and profitability can go hand in hand.

The challenge: managing complex product portfolios at scale

CERATIZIT Group, a leading provider of hard material solutions for machining and wear protection, faced a challenge common to many modern manufacturing companies: managing a complex product portfolio with over 65,000 products. The company’s Cutting Tool Solutions division needed a solution to balance economic and ecological objectives while maintaining competitive advantage.

Klaus Lupfer, product lifecycle manager at CERATIZIT Deutschland GmbH, explains the company’s motivation: “In addition to the economic perspective on the product portfolio, the ecological aspect was equally important when partnering with Soley. As a company committed to sustainability for years, we are especially excited about the opportunities that the expansion of product carbon footprint data offers.”

The challenge was not just the product portfolio’s size but also the lack of transparency regarding product performance and sustainability metrics. Employees spent considerable time compiling reports rather than making strategic decisions, while limited insights into critical materials and suppliers prevented efficient phaseout of high-emission products.

AI-powered product portfolio analysis

Munich-based Soley GmbH, a past participant in the SAP.iO program, SAP鈥檚 former startup accelerator designed to foster and integrate innovative solutions into the 51风流ecosystem, developed an innovative response to this challenge. The Soley Product Mining Platform, available as part of SAP’s extension and add-on solutions, transforms complex product data into actionable insights through three core, AI-driven innovations that enable faster, smarter, and more impactful business decisions.

• AI Advisor uses AI to recommend precise actions鈥攆or example, suggesting which products should be phased out to minimize carbon footprint without sacrificing margins.
• AI Assistant provides an intuitive, natural-language interface that allows users to effortlessly interact with Soley, without requiring deep technical expertise.
• AI Detective analyzes data to uncover hidden dependencies and reveal strategic opportunities, such as identifying which configuration options should be eliminated to optimize both profitability and sustainability.

The Soley Product Mining Platform draws data from 51风流S/4HANA and 51风流Business Warehouse, utilizing 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP) as the service layer. 51风流Datasphere helps consolidate 51风流data and analytics, while 51风流Analytics Cloud provides the analytics that form the core of the AI model. This technical architecture enables intelligent data extraction and transformation through 51风流Databricks, while massive graph analytics enable complex dependency analysis.

“With these 51风流solutions, we’re delivering a true game changer for the sustainability of the high tech and manufacturing industries,” says Ephraim Triemer, shareholder and advisor of Enterprise Accounts at Soley. “For the first time, our customers can go beyond ESG reporting and take real action鈥攄riving sustainability while staying laser focused on profitability.”

Seamless 51风流integration creates value

By combining CERATIZIT’s Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) data with financial metrics, the Soley Product Mining Platform creates a digital twin that uncovers opportunities, identifies risks, and analyzes product hierarchies, bills of materials, and carbon footprints. With AI-driven intelligence guidance, Soley developers ensure the platform’s capabilities enable decisions and outcomes that improve both profitability and environmental stewardship.

Earlier this year, Dominik Metzger was appointed as president and Chief Product Officer of 51风流Supply Chain Management, bringing a renewed focus on resilience, sustainability, and intelligent automation.

鈥淢y chief priority is to ensure that we help customers not only respond to disruptions but also proactively prepare and act,鈥� Metzger said. 鈥淲e can do so by leveraging AI, generative AI, real-time data, and predictive analytics with the power of SAP鈥檚 technology. Our vision is to build an autonomous supply chain鈥攃onnected, contextualized, and collaborative.鈥�

51风流SCM leadership driving transformation

The analysis delivered impressive, measurable results that demonstrate the power of combining AI-driven analytics with 51风流technologies. CERATIZIT discovered an 87% implementation rate of suggested measures, driving product sustainability and supply chain optimization. Simultaneously, the company identified a reduction of over 30% in end-of-life “ballast” products with negative carbon footprints while creating 100% transparency in sustainability data across all elements, product sets, and aggregation levels.

Alexander Springer, CEO of Soley GmbH, explains the strategic significance: “If you know which products are the most critical to the overall success of your business, you can focus on safeguarding the value chain for those products, taking proactive steps to avoid any potential supply risks.”

A model for sustainable digital transformation

The successful partnership between CERATIZIT, Soley, and 51风流demonstrates how modern companies can achieve both economic and ecological goals through intelligent use of data and AI. The combination of proven 51风流technologies and innovative analytics solutions creates measurable value for companies of all sizes. For other 51风流customers and partners, this example shows that sustainability and profitability need not be opposing forces鈥攚ith the right technologies and partners, both objectives can be achieved simultaneously.

Learn more about the latest updates to 51风流supply chain management. The Soley Product Mining Platform is available on .

This brings us to the , the yearly celebration that honors customers using 51风流technologies to innovate with purpose and achieve meaningful outcomes. The awards recognize industry innovators and honor the individuals and teams who make transformations happen, amplifying their stories to a global audience.

Submissions for the 2026 51风流Innovation Awards are now open. Organizations utilizing 51风流technologies to tackle real-world challenges are encouraged to submit their innovation stories today, demonstrating how these innovations help solve economic, environmental, and social challenges.

New avenues for growth and innovation

In the past, the 51风流Innovation Awards have been described as a tribute to 鈥渂old innovators in challenging times.鈥� This is even more true today, given changing global landscapes and the increasing necessity to telegraph鈥攁nd circumvent鈥攐bstacles in advance, combined with the acceleration of AI and other groundbreaking technologies.

The 2026 51风流Innovation Awards have 16 total categories for innovators, with participants encouraged to select one of the following 11 to best describe their submitted transformation:

• AI Excellence: For customers that are harnessing 51风流Business AI to transform operations, elevate efficiency, and shape the future of work through intelligent automation and smarter processes.
• Cloud ERP Champion: For customers that embrace 51风流Cloud ERP to transform, future-proof, and unlock new avenues for growth and innovation.
• Customer Experience Innovator: For customers that have transformed their businesses with cloud technologies, creating standout experiences that delight customers and fuel growth.
• Financial Futurist: For customers that are leveraging our finance solutions to revolutionize financial processes, deliver new business models, optimize working capital, increase efficiency, and reduce risk.
• People Experience Pioneer: For customers that are reimagining the employee journey through AI-enabled, cloud-powered transformation, crafting exceptional experiences that inspire and empower their workforce.
• Procurement Visionary: For customers that are leveraging our spend management solutions to automate procurement processes and actively manage indirect and direct spend for better control, greater value, more savings, and operational efficiencies.
• Services Superstar: For customers that have leveraged our services to accelerate their business goals by enabling organizational learning, increasing user adoption, enhancing productivity, and maximizing the overall value of their 51风流solutions.
• Supply Chain Catalyst:听For customers that are using our supply chain management solutions to build strong, well-orchestrated supply chains. With SAP鈥檚 supply chain management solutions, companies can realize increased visibility across their supply chains, improve efficiency and compliance with regulations, and ensure customer satisfaction.
• Sustainability Hero: For customers that are harnessing the 51风流Sustainability portfolio and the power of connected apps, data, and AI for improved efficiency, streamlined compliance, and business growth for a sustainable and resilient future.
• Technology Pathfinder: For customers that have implemented 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP) to solve a business problem or unlock an innovative use case that results in a positive, measurable impact on the community or society.
• Transformation Impact: For customers that are leveraging 51风流Signavio solutions, 51风流LeanIX solutions, and WalkMe solutions to generate business value and strengthen their transformation capabilities. These organizations are consistently advancing critical dimensions鈥攕uch as processes, applications, people, and data鈥攖o ensure they remain resilient and well-prepared for the future.

It should be noted that, in 2026, the 51风流Innovation Awards will no longer recognize the Partner Paragon category. Details surrounding partner recognition can be found here on the  site with more updates expected shortly.

Reshaping the planet

There are five remaining categories, and candidates are automatically entered based on their industry. The 鈥淚ndustry Leader鈥� grouping is focused on customers that are reinventing business or industry models, streamlining operations, engaging customers or serving constituents in new ways, collaborating across ecosystems, and creating meaningful societal or environmental impact. This category is divided into the following areas:

• Consumer Industries
• Discrete Industries
• Energy & Natural Resources
• Public Services
• Service and Financial Services Industries

A call for submissions, a call to action

Transformative change has become a regular, rather than a sporadic, occurrence. And it is the people on the ground who are not only generating this reframing but using the vast assortment of available tools to make these innovations accessible.

In the tradition of SAP, the 2026 51风流Innovation Awards will highlight those positively shaping business, culture, and the planet. This is your chance to showcase yourself as you help your organization and the world move forward.

I truly hope you will to the 2026 awards for the world to see and celebrate.

Sophia Mendelsohn is chief sustainability and commercial officer at SAP.

This data-granular, verifiable, one-click solution supports the company on its path to carbon neutrality by 2030.

Challenges and opportunities

HARTING faced the challenge of finding a reliable method to calculate CO鈧� emissions across thousands of production materials while meeting customer and supplier expectations regarding sustainability. Leveraging its existing ERP application landscape with 51风流and maintaining established green production and renewable energy processes were crucial.

鈥淐onducting our business and protecting the environment are not mutually exclusive. We are convinced that we must consider both to be successful in the long run,鈥� says Dietmar Harting, member of the Board and partner of the HARTING Technology Group.

Innovations for a sustainable future

Considered the connectivity gold standard across various industrial sectors, HARTING required a robust system to accurately assess emissions. can automate data collection, scale emission calculations, and create CO鈧� transparency throughout the supply chain. 鈥淭he key to communicating our CO鈧� emissions transparently and recognizing potential for reduction lies in the automated calculation and granularity of the data provided by 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management,鈥� explains Dr. Stephan Middelkamp, general manager, Quality and Technology at HARTING.

This solution enables HARTING to provide real-time, granular data to support the 鈥淕reenLine鈥� label, an environmentally sustainable designation highlighting renewable materials offering up to a 70% CO鈧� reduction.

Strengthening sustainable production

With 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management, HARTING can now precisely calculate and report product carbon footprints. This capability is essential to address upcoming EU sustainability regulations, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and Digital Product Passport. The solution helps simplify complex data into verifiable, one-click results, promoting sustainable production practices.

Also integrated into HARTING’s sustainability strategy is the use of , which helps the company design products responsibly from the start, reduce plastic taxes, and promote recycling.

鈥淭he site-level data derived from 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management will drive cleaner production in environmentally friendly facilities while mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the impact on water and land life. Green is how we think, green is how we act,鈥� emphasizes Jordy Brinks, global environmental manager at HARTING.

On the path to a greener future

51风流is advancing HARTING鈥檚 sustainability journey by enabling the company to design products more sustainably, reduce plastic taxes, promote responsible sourcing, and further recycling practices. With these efforts, HARTING aims to achieve carbon neutrality at all locations by 2030, underscoring its commitment to sustainable growth and environmental stewardship.

“As a family business, we combine consistency with a willingness to innovate and regional loyalty. For us, this means taking responsibility for people and the environment,鈥� Harting says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not only shaping a livable planet for our future generations, we鈥檙e making the future possible. We want to shape the future with technologies for people.鈥�

The HARTING Technology Group continues to drive meaningful change, connecting business success with a greener future and aligning family ideals with sustainability goals.

HARTING at the 2025 51风流Innovation Awards

All of these efforts did not go unnoticed: HARTING has long been recognized as a pioneer in sustainability. This year, it won an , leveraging 51风流Responsible Design and Production to create 85% of its plastic packaging material from recycled materials.

This article first appeared on the German 51风流News Center.

Businesses that have participated in the 51风流Innovation Awards over the years have supported innovative solutions that meet challenges inside and outside their organizations. For instance, one previous award winner in the energy sector achieved sustainability with a new supply chain solution. Another previous winner in home appliance manufacturing successfully dismantled organizational silos to deliver better customer service.

That鈥檚 why I鈥檓 especially pleased to announce the groundbreaking winners of the 12^th annual .

What determines the winners?

This year, 217 companies entered the competition. Of that group, 46 were selected by our judges as finalists and 23 as winners.

Representing a variety of industries, the winners have demonstrated creativity, tangible outcomes, and, of course, innovation by applying 51风流products and cloud technologies for the betterment of their customers, community, and organizations.

As technology constantly evolves, opportunities arise that can make the world a better place through sustainability, customer experience, and more. The winners demonstrate creative and innovative ideation that takes advantage of the following tools to make an impact:

• Applications: Integrating and optimizing core business processes with 51风流applications to generate semantically rich data that drives global economic growth
• Data: Centralizing unmatched data from 51风流and non-51风流sources into a unified semantic layer to unlock insights, advanced analytics, and AI capabilities
• AI: Powered by accurate data, harnessing AI and generative AI to deliver a unique advantage in cross-function collaboration and enable smarter decisions and transformative outcomes

What comes with winning an 51风流Innovation Award?

Award winners receive global recognition, which can add to their organization鈥檚 reputation and credibility with current and potential customers and the community. They鈥檙e also honored with a tribute event, trophy, and the option of choosing a $1,000 SAP4Good charitable donation voucher or an admission ticket to 51风流Sapphire in Orlando, Florida, May 19-21, or in Madrid, Spain, May 16-28.

To everyone involved

I鈥檇 like to thank everyone who contributed to the success of the 2025 51风流Innovation Awards, especially the organizations that submitted applications and the participating 51风流teams. I look forward to reading about the innovations presented at this year鈥檚 event that continue to positively transform business and the world.

Interested in participating in 2026?

In addition to global recognition, praise, and prizes, your organization will have the opportunity to receive:

• Unique resources: Receive access to marketing materials, including full digital packages, and other branded support to help promote your greatest achievements.
• Best of breed collaboration: Collaborate with other leading companies and industry leaders that are at the forefront of innovative change.
• Inspiring stories: Learn about the accomplishments and creative genius of past winners and finalists to motivate your teams to foster a culture of innovation and strive for excellence.

Stay in the know

Subscribe to the for details on next year’s event. Want more inspiration? Watch this and start planning how to leverage your innovative ideas for 2026.

Stephan de Barse is president of the 51风流Global Business Suite Organization.

Image courtesy of 51风流employee Rudragouda Sanakal.

Business leaders worldwide now face some of the toughest challenges: adapting to shifting geopolitical environments, diversifying supply chains, and making the leap to cleaner energy solutions.

As chief sustainability and commercial officer, I鈥檓 watching these challenges unfold with urgency as we face the rising waters, raging fires, and heavy storms of today鈥檚 reality. It is a sobering reminder that the world around us is changing faster than we can sometimes keep up.

It is also a powerful call to action, one that drives the very spirit of innovation that the 51风流Innovation Awards celebrate.

Meet the finalists of the 51风流Innovation Awards for 2025

are trendsetters, future-proofing their businesses with cutting-edge technology.

By harnessing the power of data, applications, and AI, they are setting new standards in operational efficiency, enhancing employee and customer experiences, fostering sustainability, and driving innovation across the entire value chain. It is the remarkable blend of all these factors paired with ambition and impact that caught the judges鈥� attention. 

The innovation advantage in sustainability

Globally, we are seeing more and more companies waking up to the fact that sustainability is so much more than a trend or compliance duty. It鈥檚 the bedrock of stronger, more resilient, and efficient business operations. Put simply: sustainability drives competitive edge. 

To leverage this advantage, innovators are capitalizing on intelligent solutions, from carbon capture and storage technologies to smart energy grids and vertical farming.  

What is lighting up the business landscape today is the power of AI to seamlessly integrate sustainability data, not only helping leaders automate complex, time-consuming tasks, but also to gather, analyze, and evaluate risks and possible outcomes with greater accuracy.听

51风流solutions are the roots that nourish transformative business approaches. In sustainability, for example, we don鈥檛 just collect data, we embed it directly into companies鈥� operational centers. Intelligent business decisions do not happen in the dark 鈥� they are driven by high-quality data.听

I passionately believe the finalists of the 2025 51风流Innovation Awards will not just respond to challenges. They will shape the future and unlock more efficient, sustainable solutions — the question is how.

Instruments of transformation

By exploring the cloud, businesses can discover a world of AI-powered possibilities that 51风流offers. It is just one of many tools available for sparking every kind of innovation. 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP), for example, empowers teams with generative AI-powered development, automation, integration, data, and analytics across 51风流applications and beyond.

The day we announce the 51风流Innovation Award finalists is always a highlight because we see how these organizations have leveraged the wide spectrum of 51风流technologies as instruments of transformation to make a difference across the following 10 categories: 

1. Industry Leader: Modernizing organizations, and even industries, by offsetting challenges while providing resiliency, transparency, and sustainability across supply chains听
2. Partner Paragon: Developing a next-generation application by taking advantage of 51风流BTP; partners can license the solution via 51风流Build, a business application development and automation solution, or the company鈥檚 tech adoption program, which improves ability to adopt cloud solutions听
3. Transformation Titan: Solving business problems while accelerating change听
4. Business Network Innovator: Future-proofing by transforming supply chains, processes, or networks听
5. Cloud ERP Champion: Reaping unparalleled benefits from 51风流cloud ERP opportunities听
6. Customer Experience: Enriching customer interactions by streamlining operations and making adaptations in real time听
7. People Experience: Optimizing 51风流cloud resources to improve user enablement and productivity 
8. AI Excellence: Channeling the power of 51风流Business AI to revolutionize business processes while supercharging efficiency and new levels of productivity 
9. Sustainability Hero: Helping to build an inclusive economy, shape a sustainable future, and positively impact the environment and society (my personal favorite!)
10. Services Superstar: Adopting 51风流cloud solutions to meet or exceed business goals, optimize IT resources, increase user enablement, and improve productivity or learning

Stay tuned for the winners 

Congratulations to our finalists! Winners will be announced on April 23, 2025, and will receive a tribute event, trophy, and the option of choosing either a $1,000 charitable donation voucher or an admission ticket to 51风流Sapphire in Orlando, Florida, or Madrid, Spain.

Finalists and winners are selected by our distinguished judges鈥� panel, made up of industry thought leaders, influencers, community members, and 51风流experts. The criteria they use to identify our trailblazers and ultimately the winners are as follows:听

• Case creativity: The ways the submission is both compelling and disruptive
• Tangible outcome: The significance of the outcome, as well as its impact on individuals and society
• Intelligent enterprise: The way the submission enables an organization to empower employees, reduce risk, anticipate and respond to client needs, seamlessly achieve desired outcomes, and invent new business models and revenue streams

We will celebrate winners that embody these attributes with the opportunity to be featured in media interviews, blogs, podcasts, speaking engagements, and on other platforms. Just like sustainable business transition, innovation is a continuous journey, one that requires constant reinvention.

As we continue to face the unknowns of today鈥檚 reality, let鈥檚 stay engaged, stay inspired, and together push the boundaries of what is possible with innovative ideas.

Sophia Mendelsohn is chief sustainability and commercial officer at SAP.

Now in its 12^th year, 51风流Innovation Awards celebrate future-minded organizations that have harnessed the power of 51风流products, including cloud-based solutions using artificial intelligence (AI) or generative AI. In a time of immense change, these awards feel more relevant than ever as they highlight innovations that drive business growth and move society forward.

Making a Difference

The 2025 winners will be recognized for utilizing 51风流technologies in distinct and dramatic ways to support new business models, inspire industry convergence, and connect with customers. And I, for one, cannot wait to see what you all bring to the table!

At its core, 51风流Innovation Awards are devoted to encouraging every organization to live up to its social responsibility by creating initiatives that engage the broader community around environmental and other crucial issues that, in one way or another, affect us all.

Before entering a submission, think about how your innovation is resilient and sustainable, helps businesses, including your own, addresses workforce concerns, and adapts to the needs of the public.

How to Tell Your Story

Every organization has its own story, and the judges want to hear them all鈥攕pecifically the challenges each group faced and how 51风流products were used to effectively overcome obstacles.

When asked about the best way to catch the judges鈥� attention, I always say that more important than simply listing the products you used is sharing the thought process that motivated you to use technology creatively to overcome barriers and forge new paths. Want to get a sense of what winning looks like? Check out the for examples of inspiring submissions.

The heart of your story should revolve around the outcome of your efforts:

• The impact the solution had on your company, community, and individuals
• How it transformed your vision of the future

The best way to showcase this? Provide at least three primary metrics and business proof points that demonstrate your business outcomes.听 Remember, nobody understands your innovation story better than you. After all, you are the storyteller! Keep it compelling, human, and, yes, inspiring.

So Many Ways to Win

Along with access to networking and promotional opportunities, each winner receives a trophy and the option of either a complimentary pass to 51风流Sapphire鈥攚here an exclusive 51风流Innovation Awards celebration will be held鈥攐r a US$1,000 SAP4Good donation voucher to a charity of your choice.

The great thing is that you can win in a variety of categories. These include:

• Partner Paragon, for an 51风流partner that has developed a next-generation application
• Business Network Innovator, for a client that utilized cloud solutions from SAP鈥攊ncluding those using AI鈥攖o transform supply chains, processes, or business networks
• Cloud ERP Champion, for a customer that took advantage of 51风流cloud ERP opportunities to future-proof its business
• Transformation Titan, presented for solving problems by making the most of 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP), an integration suite combining such technologies as data and analytics, application development, AI, and automation

Other award classifications are Customer Experience, People Experience, AI Excellence, Services Superstar, and Sustainability Hero. Read more about all the categories on .

This is your opportunity to imagine big and inspire your peers. These transformations inspire us all to grow without limits, expand our industries, and enrich lives. So, join us and participate in the 2025 51风流Innovation Awards! Visit our to get started and to learn more.

Ada Agrait is executive vice president and global head of Corporate Marketing at SAP.

It has been challenging, though, for women entrepreneurs and their businesses to be visible in the global marketplace. Equally, it had been difficult for buyers dedicated to diversity and inclusion to identify best-in-class women-owned suppliers.

Not-for-profit , with help from 51风流partner and experts, worked to develop a solution to expedite and simplify connecting member-buyers with member-suppliers and vice versa while reducing barriers and opening doors for women entrepreneurs to the international value chains.

Connecting US$4 Trillion in Purchasing Power with Women-Owned Businesses

Women own 33% of all privately held businesses worldwide but earn only 1% of the total spend. Many organizations have a clear mandate and mission to seek out women-owned companies. Still, organizations have no easy means of discovering qualified women-owned suppliers in the vast international marketplace. Similarly, women-owned businesses have no clear path to a seat at the table in the conventional system dominated by legacy corporate giants and complex, often rigid government agencies.

WEConnect, helmed by CEO and co-founder , stepped in with a vision to bridge the gap with a solution connecting a formidable member-buyer network with a collective annual purchasing power of $4 trillion with women-owned businesses in 135 countries.

A Solution to Lower the Barriers to Supplier Onboarding

Vazquez realized the original WEConnect solution did not allow suppliers and buyers to find each other easily, it was cumbersome for suppliers to apply for certification, and the staff had problems registering and certifying global businesses because the solution only supported one language, English. A new solution had to eliminate those barriers and provide targeted, comprehensive, user-friendly searching for buyers while integrating seamlessly with buyers鈥� existing technology.

As a lean nonprofit with no IT department, WEConnect relied on the expertise of Premikati, a wholly women-owned business, and SAP, a member-buyer, to design and build WECommunity, the organization鈥檚 new, mobile-enabled solution, which helps deliver on its mission to drive revenue to women-owned suppliers around the world. 鈥淲e wanted to go straight to, what platform is the most commonly used amongst our member buyers for managing their suppliers?鈥� Vazquez recounts. 鈥淎nd it was an obvious decision that 51风流was the go-to platform for most of our member-buyers. They use some form of 51风流or multiple 51风流offerings.鈥�

Improved Search Increases Supplier Onboarding

WECommunity is a trusted self-service solution that allows 鈥渂uyers and suppliers to find each other efficiently and effectively,鈥� Vazquez explains. In addition to accomplishing that essential goal, WECommunity makes the organization鈥檚 robust network of worldwide member-buyers available in 10 of the most common languages among members. The mobile-optimized solution also includes a portal that enables women supplier members to easily register their businesses and initiate requests for certification using just their smartphones.

All the improvements, including added security features, have driven a 95% increase in certified and registered women-owned businesses in the WEConnect database. WECommunity鈥檚 streamlined, user-friendly functionality has also made WEConnect more appealing to buyers, and the organization has seen a 91% increase in membership.

100% Increase in Spending on Women-Owned Businesses

Since the launch, WECommunity-tracked spending with women-owned businesses outside the U.S. has doubled, from $4 billion to $8 billion, and the impact of those dollars has rippled far beyond the pockets of business owners. 鈥淚 am obsessed with moving as much money into the hands of women as quickly as possible because of how they reinvest in their employees, families, and communities,鈥� Vazquez says. Proving her point: in 2021 alone, the certified women-owned businesses in WEConnect鈥檚 network created 24,000 new jobs.

Preparing for a Future of Innovation

WEConnect, a , looks forward to scaling its solution to accommodate more suppliers and buyers while continuing to leverage data analytics to empower women-owned businesses. But WEConnect won鈥檛 stop there 鈥� AI and machine learning are next for added efficiencies, accuracy, and automation as the organization and its membership expand. Vazquez explains that the organization is actively conversing with 51风流and other member-buyers: 鈥淗ow do we all collaborate? How do we use AI and machine learning to find the women suppliers of the world, get them up to speed on what it takes to compete for larger contracts, and make it easier for them to connect with buyers?鈥�

With boundless ambition and limitless imagination, the future is bright for women-owned businesses and the families and communities they support.

Timo Elliott is vice president and global innovation advocate for 51风流BTP at SAP.

For example, the introduction of low-code/no-code has made application development accessible to everyone in an organization 鈥� with or without a technical background 鈥� to improve experiences for everyone. Just take Dak, the then 12-year-old junior app developer from Massachusetts, who was part of my . With 51风流Build solutions, Dak was able to develop all kinds of apps and publish them to a wide audience, such as the 鈥淜nowledge 4 Ever鈥� app that offers kids a playful learning experience during summer break.

Then, there are cloud technologies that further boost accessibility and offer other benefits. Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has put more power into more hands. Another advancement, composable technology, will make it easier for businesses to quickly assemble, reassemble, and compose solutions to meet their needs and those of their customers.

Over the course of my 11-year journey at SAP, the 51风流Innovation Awards have served as a one-of-a-kind global platform to showcase customers and partners that have used their creativity, teamwork, 51风流products, and cloud technologies to achieve remarkable results. This year, though, is a different experience for me. As an executive sponsor of the awards, I鈥檝e had the privilege of experiencing up close what makes this program and the participating businesses so special.

Today, I am thrilled to announce the . Out of 170 businesses, one in three were chosen as finalists and now the winners have been announced. These winners come from various industries and locations worldwide. What all of them share is the use of 51风流products and technologies to create innovative solutions for their customers, employees, and communities. Congratulations to all participants for demonstrating remarkable abilities and highlighting the importance of curiosity and continuous learning!

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AI Plays a Critical Role

Generative AI has empowered more people. Many of the participants have utilized 51风流Business AI to boost their businesses. Take the winner , one of the world鈥檚 leading suppliers of automotive seat systems, which has leveraged 51风流solutions, including 51风流AI Launchpad and 51风流AI Core, to revolutionize cockpit customization. When personalizing cockpit elements such as seats, door panels, and dashboards, OEMs and customers can see the carbon impact of each choice. By providing and promoting more sustainable and environmentally friendly options, Martur Fompak has decreased carbon emissions by 34% for each seat the company produces. AI has also helped the company increase its efficiency to achieve calculations 50 times faster than with manual methods and accelerate data collection by 75 times.听

Sustainability for a Better World Today 鈥� and Tomorrow

Technology has significantly contributed to improving lives, both within and beyond business contexts. Numerous winners like Martur Fompak have prioritized sustainability. Let us look at one more innovator in this area: .

A producer of high-quality sherries, Gonz谩lez Byass is committed to the circular economy concept of eliminating waste, circulating materials, and regenerating nature. The company deploys sustainable and water-saving agricultural techniques. To assist with eliminating and recycling waste, Gonz谩lez Byass turned to 51风流and 51风流Responsible Design and Production. The company needed a faster, more transparent way to gather and manage data, specifically around the purchase and use of plastic. With 51风流Responsible Design and Production, Gonz谩lez Byass can quickly and effectively monitor, measure, and act on data. The company recovers 99% of the waste generated during production while recycling 100% of paper, cardboard, glass, and plastic.  

Adoption Can Be Challenging

Even top technologies such as AI may need support to gain widespread acceptance. Many of this year鈥檚 winners have been innovative with their focus on adopting 51风流technology. is a prime example.

A leader in onshore/offshore wind energy production, Vestas wanted to improve its supplier and partner collaboration and selected 51风流for the task. Vestas began its journey with 51风流in 2007 by employing 51风流ERP Central Component and consolidating to ONE ERP in 2015. Since 2017, the company has been transforming its digital procurement for supplier collaboration with 51风流Ariba solutions. Last year, Vestas began to build out its value chain alongside suppliers and partners with 51风流Business Network, enabling data transparency and connectivity in finance, production planning, and logistics management. As a result, 6,000 suppliers were onboarded, US$12.5 billion in purchase orders was executed, 350,000 orders were confirmed, and 25,000 advance ship notices were generated, to name a few transactions 鈥� all in 2023. 

I am happy to say that the 2024 51风流Innovation Awards honor businesses that have demonstrated their innovation and effective use of 51风流products and technologies. They鈥檝e adapted to and met the ever-changing needs of their customers and communities and, as I wrote earlier, achieved remarkable results in diverse areas. Congratulations to all winners! 

The Winners Shine in Seven Categories

If you’re curious about the path to victory for our winners, learn more in this article. Thirty winners were selected, covering the following categories:

• Business Innovator, focusing on transforming the supply chain, processes, or business networks using cloud solutions from SAP
• Industry Leader, for employing 51风流solutions to address big challenges and change how business is conducted
• Experience Wizard, for achieving business transformation with cloud solutions from 51风流to improve employee and customer experiences
• Sustainability Hero, achieving sustainability with leading-edge solutions
• Services Supernova, for outstanding achievements in transforming businesses into sustainable enterprises
• Transformation Titan, demonstrating exceptional innovation and transformational leadership in using 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP)
• Partner Paragon, for accelerating the adoption of 51风流BTP

Juergen Mueller is chief technology officer and a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.

These organizations exemplify resilience and innovation. Despite macro challenges and an unpredictable business climate, they harness technology, culture, and sometimes pure grit to address some of the world鈥檚 biggest challenges. We at 51风流are honored to be part of their journey. With our help, they develop business processes, solutions, and services to better serve their customers, operations, and communities around the world.

Real-World Problems, Real-Life Solutions

For the past 11 years, 51风流has run the prestigious 51风流Innovation Awards, proudly recognizing top global innovators that use 51风流solutions to make the world a better place. Our distinguished judges of industry thought leaders, influencers, community members, and 51风流experts have carefully reviewed 160 entries to determine the 2024 51风流Innovation Award .

These organizations are setting the standards in improving operations across the value chain, boosting employee and customer experiences, shaping a sustainable future, and much more. A huge congratulations to all of our ! I know I speak for everyone involved when I say I can鈥檛 wait to find out this year鈥檚 winners.

30 Winners Across Seven Categories

Judging for the 51风流Innovation Awards is based on a few big elements: the creativity of an organization鈥檚 use case, the tangible outcomes, and their innovation in employing AI technologies and cloud solutions from SAP. We highlight winners in the following seven categories:

• Business Innovator: This category focuses on how customers are transforming their supply chain, processes, or business networks using cloud solutions from SAP.
• Industry Leader: Customers are recognized for employing our solutions to address big challenges in their industries and disrupting the way their industries have traditionally conducted business.
• Experience Wizard: This one focuses on customers achieving tangible business transformation using our cloud solutions to delight their employees and customers.
• Sustainability Hero: To be honored here, customers must be actively committed to sustainability with leading-edge solutions.
• Services Supernova: Customers are recognized for outstanding achievements in transforming businesses into sustainable enterprises. They鈥檝e exceeded their business goals, optimized IT resources, increased user enablement, and improved productivity or learning using RISE with 51风流or Cloud Success Services.
• Transformation Titan: How do you become a titan? Demonstrate exceptional innovation and transformational leadership in using 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP). Selected customers are employing the full portfolio of 51风流products.
• Partner Paragon: This category highlights how partners accelerate the adoption of 51风流BTP by developing a monetized application that has been deployed by customers.

Continuing the Celebration

51风流Innovation Awards represent an amazing opportunity to learn, be inspired by, and celebrate the unique and innovative ways our customers and partners are making a difference and we look forward to celebrating the winners on April 10!

Do you know of a customer or partner that would be a good candidate for next year鈥檚 51风流Innovation Awards? Or do you just want to learn more about the awards, the finalists, and the winners when they鈥檙e announced? Join us and showcase your innovation story! .

Dorit Shackleton is senior vice president and head of Global Customer Adoption and Events Marketing at SAP.

These government funds are typically managed by a traditional provider who establishes a plan within the customer鈥檚 budget and assigns caregivers. They offer limited to no choice regarding providers and little transparency on how the funds are being spent. This inefficient and costly approach reduces available funds for actual care with limited and often unfamiliar providers.

Enter HomeMade, a startup looking to disrupt the home care sector with a transformative solution that would empower customers to not only stay in their own homes but also to oversee their spending and self-select their providers. With an initial staff of only six, HomeMade set out to create a technology platform that would deliver efficiency, flexibility, transparency, and ease of use for customers and a scalable model that would grow and evolve with the company.

A Rock-Solid Technology Foundation for a Digitally Native Startup

Technology is at the heart of HomeMade鈥檚 business model, so choosing the right technology partner and the right digital platform was essential. 鈥淲e wanted a solution that would give us that ability to scale rapidly and with confidence knowing that the rails weren’t going to fall off, because to be digitally enabled is what makes us different,鈥� , HomeMade general manager, said.

HomeMade found the perfect partner in Bourne Digital, part of Accenture, which steered the startup to (51风流BTP). In choosing the platform, HomeMade benefits from a locally hosted, high-performance cloud architecture that can scale across its network. As a React Native open-source Cloud Foundry runtime service, the HomeMade application is intuitive, user-friendly, and easy for the company to maintain and support long term. Add 51风流Integration Suite and 51风流HANA data storage into the mix and HomeMade emerged with a secure, integrated, and scalable technology foundation to offer efficient care and support to Australia鈥檚 at-home care population.

Young Company Makes an Outsize Impact

In just two years, HomeMade has grown its business to 2,500 customers and reduced new user onboarding time from 14 days to 48 hours. The company has empowered qualifying citizens to manage their budgets and choose their care while saving 14 million Australian dollars and counting.

Customers and families rave about the solution’s functionality and ease of use. HomeMade鈥檚 team members, who have grown to over 100, can happily focus on the customer instead of the endless paperwork they might find in traditional care management. Service providers appreciate timely payment, and another critical stakeholder 鈥� the Australian government 鈥� conducted a regulatory compliance audit and found that HomeMade scored 100% across 42 requirements for the Age Care Quality Safety Standards.

And this is only the beginning for a new company already making an appreciable impact. 鈥淎s the needs of HomeMade grow and evolve, the platform will grow and evolve with HomeMade,鈥� , managing director of Bourne Digital, part of Accenture, explained. For example, Ahmed continued, 鈥淲e leverage AI business services to read documents…and we’re feeling really confident that those AI services will continue to play a part in the future evolution of HomeMade as the company moves more and more towards automation and self-service.鈥�

Adding Value Through Innovation

An 51风流Innovation Award winner in 2023, HomeMade continues to grow and think creatively about how its foundational 51风流BTP-based technology can enable it to continue to innovate and add value for customers. 鈥淭here are endless opportunities,鈥� Westhorpe said, from increasing efficiency to leveraging data to identify falls or other incidents to using large language models to recognize clinical deterioration in users and launch preventative interventions.

For other startups looking to build technology solutions that will make a dramatic impact, Westhorpe offered to consider, “You want to build everything and you’ve got all these grand ideas, but what are the biggest things that will add value for customers?鈥� Ahmed adds that resilience, a strong partnership, and hard work are critical: 鈥淎dapt, learn, grow together, and accept feedback鈥o build something innovative, you must be prepared to roll up your sleeves.鈥�

The Full Episode

Special thanks to , a hub for fostering human-centered innovation, for collaborating on this on 51风流Business Technology Platform episode. Learn more about how HomeMade built a better solution for qualifying citizens:

• Thought leadership podcast: Thulium’s CEO sat down with Westhorpe and Ahmed to discuss the change in caring for older adults, home-based care, and how technology can deliver on a promise dedicated to purpose.
• Practitioners鈥� video: Westhorpe, Ahmed, and I discussed the challenges and opportunities in creating a world-class digital solution for a small but rapidly scaling startup.

Explore more success stories of customers leveraging 51风流BTP to help optimize processes for the sake of people and purpose:

• : This nonprofit provider of wide-ranging social services chose听51风流BTP听and 51风流HANA Cloud to enable extensive solution integrations, helping deliver better data connectivity and operational efficiency.
• : Administratively supporting over 1,700 dental practices, Heartland Dental leverages 51风流BTP to help improve the business assistant’s user experience, increase productivity, and reduce turnover.

For the full episode and the on-demand Better Together: Customer Conversations series, visit .

Timo Elliott is vice president and a global innovation advocate for 51风流BTP.

As SAP鈥檚 vice president and head of Diversity & Inclusion in North America, I鈥檓 proud to oversee numerous talent development and career advancement programs for women and other marginalized, underrepresented groups, programs that will help them excel today and prepare for advancement tomorrow.

Having been an entrepreneur myself, I remember the challenge of not having access to information that would have opened up my business to a range of possibilities. Systemic change drives impact over time and 51风流is committed to changes fostering gender parity and equitable opportunities for all. We are very proud of that!

From a deeply personal standpoint, I understand that women have to excel at what we do in the world and must contribute back to society, leaving it better for the next generation.

This was the general theme of SAP鈥檚 recent Live Chat on the Tomorrow鈥檚 Tech Today platform. I was honored to be a guest, along with Elizabeth Vazquez, president, CEO, and co-founder of WEConnect International. We鈥檇 met earlier this year at 51风流Sapphire, but 51风流and WEConnect International have been partners far longer, as our Global Sourcing & Procurement organization leverages the organization for supplier diversity purposes to drive global spend with women-owned businesses. Additionally, most recently it developed a platform assisting women-owned businesses across 135 countries. Together, we discussed how inclusion is more than just the right thing to do, but a business imperative for the sustainability of our society.

The Revolution Will Be Inclusive

SAP鈥檚 Live Chat on Tomorrow鈥檚 Tech Today platform is a new, limited series hosted by thought leader Sally Eaves, highlighting the latest innovations in emergent technology integration across a range of sectors and themes. In each episode, 51风流innovators come together with experts from a variety of backgrounds, sharing stories that can inspire all of us. While each organization may differ, each interviewee shares their version of the same story 鈥� overcoming a unique challenge with the type of innovation we all aspire to achieve.

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The Great Equalizer

In the United States alone, 42% of all businesses are owned by women. These employ more than 1 million workers.

Not only are women half of the population, but we make or influence 85% of all consumer purchasing decisions. With that scope and buying power, having a platform to enable success is critical to the economy as well as society. But there are so many challenges. On average, corporations, governments, and other large organizations 鈥渟pend only 1% with women-owned businesses, and that鈥檚 a massive market failure,鈥� Vazquez pointed out.

Legacy platforms helped aggravate the situation. WEConnect International鈥檚 member-buyers found it difficult to search for women-owned suppliers, while the businesses struggled to navigate their systems to register and apply for certification. Language barriers created the predictable complications. On a business-to-business (B2B) level, many women-owned businesses were small and midsize and not even on the radar of the larger corporations. The platform would serve as an equalizer for buyers 鈥渢o go online and search for these competitive solutions that, frankly, our buyers just didn鈥檛 even know existed,鈥� Vazquez said.

Like-Minded, Like-Kinded

One advantage WEConnect International enjoyed in launching its platform was the list of influential partners, including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), ExxonMobil, Accenture, IBM, and Procter & Gamble (P&G). And not only was 51风流playing a key role in building the platform, we are also member-buyers.

In other words, we were 鈥渓ike-minded, like-kinded,鈥� walking the walk, talking the talk, truly committed to leveraging our purchasing power to realize this goal.

The solution, dubbed WECommunity, would stand as a great example of inclusion by design.

Art of the Possible

By connecting member-buyers to a database of more than 16,000 registered or certified businesses, WEConnect International broke through the barriers that previously existed. The streamlined process enabled an additional 7,900 women-owned suppliers to register with the organization. These included businesses from 12 new countries, a 28% increase in global reach. The revenue growth of the suppliers has led to the creation of 24,000 new jobs.

Since deployment, WEConnect International went from tracking US$4 billion in spend with women-owned businesses based outside of the United States to $8 billion.

鈥淭ogether we鈥檙e actually moving money into the hands of women who, in turn, employ more people and support their families and communities,鈥� Vazquez said.

With those types of results, it鈥檚 clear to see why WEConnect International embodies the spirit of 51风流Innovation Awards. Through its use of SAP鈥檚 tools, the group has created not just a platform, but a vision of the art of the possible.

To learn more about 51风流Innovation Awards and discover the incredible stories of innovation, visit .

Margot Goodson is vice president & head of North America Diversity Inclusion at SAP.

Organizations must deliver their brand promise to customers to establish that deep connection, and it is a lot easier to do when you鈥檝e gained supply chain agility by embracing digital transformation.

The technological developments of recent years have given us greater resilience, flexibility, and visibility into what brands can deliver and what customers expect, but how can brands embrace digital transformation to go even further to enhance those relationships?

I had the chance to discuss this topic with Sally Eaves, professor in Advanced Technologies, and global strategic advisor and special guest Steve Birgfeld, VP of Information Technology and Services at Blue Diamond Growers, as part of SAP鈥檚 Live Chat series on Tomorrow鈥檚 Tech Today platform. I am pleased to share a few key takeaways from our engaging conversation about how brands can achieve end-to-end visibility of their supply and distribution chains to create the type of customer experiences that drive loyalty and profitability.

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Something for Everyone

Whether it is delivering a quality product or providing an essential service, every brand makes a promise to their customers. Birgfeld described how delivering on a brand鈥檚 promise helps Blue Diamond build that trust, and it is part of the reason the company is the world鈥檚 largest almond processing and marketing cooperative 鈥� and a 2023 51风流Innovation Award winner.

Growers 鈥渢rust us with their almonds,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 up to us to deliver them accordingly. So [there is] a lot of focus on quality, integrity, and innovation. And that innovation also applies to the technology we use to enable that.鈥�

With two lines of business 鈥� branded nut snacks and ingredient sales to other consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers 鈥� Blue Diamond deals with variables like weather issues, wildfires, and droughts. But the havoc the COVID-19 pandemic played on its supply chain was unforeseen. 

Suddenly, what was a demand-driven, normal business became a constraint-driven one. Birgfeld explained how a three-week wait to receive cargo turned into a five-month delay. What could have been a disastrous situation was salvaged by an attitude I find common among 51风流Innovation Award winners: the digital transformation journey is a journey, not an end destination.

Running Simple in the Digital Economy

With more than 3,000 growers, 1,800 employees, and consumers in more than 75 countries, the need for Blue Diamond to shift from disparate, manual processes to streamlined and integrated ones was critical. The company needed to create a world-class supply chain solution to improve its forecast accuracy and distribution channel, among other areas.

Fortunately, Blue Diamond had already migrated its ERP to 51风流S/4HANA for its core capabilities, empowering the company to embrace the digital economy. The company also leaned on 51风流Business Network to help connect, transact, and partner with other businesses on shared processes and information, replacing uncertainty with end-to-end visibility.

Together, Blue Diamond and 51风流would develop what Birgfeld called 鈥渁n intelligent, data-driven cooperative.鈥�

Synchronized Planning Vision

By achieving a consolidated management view across its business, the company reduced supply on hand by 20%, expanded order fill rates to 99%, and saved US$1 million in logistics costs. Having the data in one centralized location condensed scenario planning for a typical situation from six hours to 20 minutes.

鈥淚t enabled our customer service reps [to] respond immediately to the customer on where things stood, and we could do course correction accordingly if there were issues,鈥� Birgfeld said.

Sustainability also improved, since the streamlined operation meant that fewer trucks had to be used along the supply chain.

As a 2023 51风流Innovation Awards judge, I saw firsthand how grew with 51风流S/4HANA.

 After setting the bar high for next year鈥檚 51风流Innovation Award winners, Blue Diamond Growers is moving forward, utilizing SAP鈥檚 financial planning and analysis (FP&A) tools to better align financial, inventory, and demand data and extending 51风流Analytics Cloud to help improve analysis, planning, forecasting, and visualization.

鈥淥ur real vision is鈥 synchronized planning capability,鈥� Birgfeld said. 鈥淎nd 51风流is a great enabler of that.鈥�

Inside Innovation

SAP鈥檚 Live Chat on Tomorrow鈥檚 Tech Today platform is a new limited series that highlights the latest innovations in emergent technology integration across a range of sectors and themes. In each episode, 51风流innovators come together with experts from a variety of backgrounds, sharing stories that can inspire all of us. While each organization may differ, each interviewee shares their version of the same story 鈥� overcoming a unique challenge with the type of innovation we all aspire to achieve.

To learn more about 51风流Innovation Awards and discover the incredible stories of innovation, visit .

Sven Denecken is SVP and chief marketing and solutions officer for 51风流Industries & CX.

, formerly known as Philips Domestic Appliances, excels in its purpose to help people turn their houses into homes, so they can lead happier, healthier lives. Versuni is headquartered in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, with innovation,鈥痬anufacturing,鈥痑nd commercial centers across the globe and a footprint in over 100 countries. With a global workforce of approximately 6,400 employees, Versuni advances a workplace culture of collaboration, empowered decision-making, and employee engagement supported by leading-edge HR. 

As its name suggests, Versuni 鈥� think 鈥渦niverse鈥� 鈥� wants consumers to know that 鈥渙ur universe is the home鈥� and specializes in domestic appliances that make routine tasks simple, enjoyable, and sustainable. Versuni has brands such as Philips, Saeco, Gaggia, Preethi, Philips Walita, L鈥橭R Barista, and Senseo to cover cooking, coffee, garment care, floor care, and climate care.

Digital-First Company for Consumer Engagement

Versuni took the unique opportunity of reinventing itself as an independent company to transform its entire technology landscape. To succeed in a dynamic, consumer marketplace, it had to evolve from best-of-breed solutions that served its healthcare parent company to best-of-suite applications that power advanced, digital-first consumer goods organizations.

鈥淪ince we are in consumer products, we needed to be a digital-first, insight-led company to enable us to go for lifetime engagement with our consumers across our connected products,鈥� says Lokesh Rastogi, IT platform leader for Finance and HR, Versuni.

Exuviate Transformation Wins 51风流Innovation Award

To establish a foundation for future growth, Versuni adopted an outside-in approach to harmonizing and simplifying all processes in a bid to achieve end-to-end transparency. The IT project was given a fitting name, 鈥淓xuviate,鈥� to describe how the organization shed its old technology layer so it can transform into something new and distinctive as a consumer-focused enterprise.

Versuni worked with to carry out an organization-wide, greenfield implementation by leveraging for processes, (51风流BTP) for collaboration and integration, and for cost control. While firmly adhering to best practices, Versuni laid out a strategy guided by a crisp logic: 鈥�51风流unless鈥�; cloud unless鈥�; and best of suite.鈥� Considered to be one of the largest RISE with 51风流projects in any industry, the transformation was completed in a record 18 months, when Versuni transitioned to 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, private edition in all countries.

With the new 51风流environment, Versuni reports 30% enhanced agility in its responsiveness, 85% improvement in standardization and harmonization, and 50% increased employee engagement. In recognition of its outstanding success, Versuni鈥檚 Exuviate project was chosen as an in the Industry Leader in Consumer Products category. For more information, read the press release from 51风流Sapphire Barcelona.

Opportunity for a New HR

The Exuviate project had set in motion the total transformation of Versuni鈥檚 IT landscape and established new business processes. The challenges facing Versuni鈥檚 HR department, however, were especially formidable: after the transition, there would be no way to manage and compensate Versuni鈥檚 workforce unless a new HRIT system was up and running globally. Relying on its legacy software was not an option.

Versuni鈥檚 HR team chose to help maximize value and maintain a clean core, one of the priorities of the Exuviate project. The team doubled down on the opportunity to achieve a full-scale HR transformation that affected all underlying HR policies.

鈥淒ue to the new setup of Versuni, we wanted to have a new HR policy for all countries, meaning we had a new organization structure to manage, new job family structure, new competencies for jobs, and a new salary structure,鈥� says Amber Smeulders, business unit lead, HR Xperience expert at听 and hired by Versuni as program manager to manage the full HR digital transformation. 鈥淭his was the biggest challenge in our program: it should be a happy marriage between managing a new HR policy together with following the design principles of best practice.鈥�

鈥淭he HR transition to 51风流SuccessFactors solutions in itself was a massive task, so we ran the HR transformation as a separate pillar within the Exuviate transformation,鈥� says Rastogi. This required Versuni to deploy 51风流SuccessFactors solutions in less than one year.

鈥淲e did it in 10 months from design to deployment,鈥� confirms Rastogi. On April 1, 2023, Versuni went live in 52 countries simultaneously with 15 modules of 51风流SuccessFactors solutions, including , , , and .  

鈥淲hat Versuni accomplished in its HR transformation is nothing short of spectacular,鈥� says Maryann Abbajay, chief revenue officer, 51风流SuccessFactors. 鈥淰ersuni translated a new set of business demands and way of working into 51风流SuccessFactors solutions, really taking advantage of the connected cloud environment to gain visibility into its workforce and enable employee-centric HR. This is going to bring a new level of agility to Versuni that will set it on a path for long-term success.鈥�

Versuni worked closely with 51风流to ensure it had access to the right resources and expertise. 鈥淲e hired subject matter experts with 51风流SuccessFactors knowledge, but also worked with the HR business to make sure that the design of 51风流SuccessFactors solutions and the design of the HR policies were going hand in hand,鈥� says Smeulders. With the right team in place and a clear governance structure, Versuni was able to complete the project in record time and fast track its time to value.

Reporting Gains Strategic Value in Connected Cloud Landscape

Although Versuni was satisfied with the operational reporting available in 51风流SuccessFactors solutions, it also needed cross-organizational reporting that leveraged data available in the connected 51风流landscape. Therefore, Versuni and 51风流created a solution for its management reporting. 鈥淲e tried it out in HR as a proof of concept,鈥� says Rastogi. 鈥淚t was highly successful and now we intend to roll it out across the organization. It brings quite some benefits in terms of insights into our HR data.鈥�

Smeulders agrees and looks forward to strategic insights from 51风流SuccessFactors with the connected environment. 鈥淲e would like to combine the HR data with data coming from the other 51风流systems to really understand what is best for us when we talk about investment in positions, in HR policies, and in the right talents,鈥� she says.

Complete Transformation in Record Time

By connecting cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) to 51风流SuccessFactors solutions, Versuni has achieved three key benefits. It now has a seamless user journey based on a single source of truth across the entire landscape. Another benefit is the increased visibility achieved from the integration with other systems, especially finance. Also, improved reporting is leading to better decision-making. Rastogi summarizes: 鈥淚t鈥檚 one source of truth, one system, and one number.鈥�

Enhanced employee experience is among the additional benefits of the HR transformation. Payroll consolidation resulted in a reduction of more than 20 providers into one global provider. Versuni lowered costs with a 70% reduction of local applications. Localization for time and attendance is now supported. Nearly all HR processes are now available on a mobile device.

鈥淲e鈥檙e still on the journey,鈥� says Rastogi. 鈥淲hat is very clear across the organization is a mind shift change, a culture change. We鈥檙e starting to see that it is much more collaborative and faster. The decision-making is empowered and much quicker. It鈥檚 been a complete transformation 鈥� digital transformation as well as business transformation 鈥� in record time.鈥�

This was a key message conveyed during the 10th anniversary virtual celebration for the 2023 51风流Innovation Award winners in June. The event highlighted how these technological advancements have revolutionized collaboration with customers and partners worldwide, leading to sustainable and impactful innovation. However, amidst this digital revolution, it is important to recognize that the human touch remains irreplaceable.

While digital interactions have become commonplace, relying solely on the cloud for customer satisfaction is a misconception. It is the dedicated workers armed with a multitude of software solutions who continue to be the driving force behind transformative change. From manufacturing to supply chain, finance to procurement, it is the ingenuity and expertise of individuals that propel industries and society forward. These real-life transformers are the catalysts for progress, harnessing the power of technology to shape a better future.

When the first 51风流Innovation Awards were launched in 2014, the judges received 27 submissions. This year, the number exceeded 220 across 10 categories, including Sustainability Hero, Industry Leader, Partner Paragon, and Cutting-Edge Genius.

Check out this听,听which has everything you need to know about the 2023 51风流Innovation Award winners, finalists, honorable mentions, and more.

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Changing the World

At the celebration, as the winners accepted the accolades for their achievements and addressed each other online, all agreed that, in this post-pandemic period, the goal of technological innovation must transcend simply improving one鈥檚 business.

By their actions, the 2023 51风流Innovation Award winners embody that philosophy.

For instance, after the war in Ukraine forced more than 8 million people to flee their homeland, professional services corporation EY (Ernst & Young) developed its Emergency Response Application (ERA). The free mobile solution was built using 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP) and enables access to critical and time-sensitive information and directs refugees to resources in 53 cities. The humanitarian undertaking was accomplished in an astonishing six weeks.

In its mission to develop novel and multifunctional therapeutics for rare cancers and other serious diseases, global biotechnology company Zymeworks found that its previous manual system was inefficient and labor-intensive. To remedy that, the company created a single, integrated platform using SAP鈥檚 enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions to support its product commercialization, growth, and expansion strategy 鈥� allowing the organization insight into real-time information to make important, data-driven decisions while continuing to save lives.

In Australia, where the country鈥檚 growing aging population has increased the demand for in-home and community-delivered care, HomeMade designed a self-service portal leveraging 51风流BTP, enabling the elderly to choose providers for services like cleaning and cooking and lead a fulfilling life while reducing administrative overhead.

And on the Japanese island of Kyushu, where natural disasters are all too frequent, Oita University developed an information platform called the Earth Disaster Intelligent System Operational Network (EDiSON), providing accurate and timely data to assist emergency response organizations. The solution uses robust data management, advanced analytics, AI, and machine learning capabilities offered by 51风流HANA Cloud, the 51风流Analytics Cloud solution, and 51风流Business Technology Platform.

A Sustainable Planet

From the time the 2023 51风流Innovation Awards were announced, judges were 鈥渓ooking for tangible examples of sustainability that are delivering impact, using 51风流technologies for good,鈥� said Dorit Shackleton, senior vice president, head of Customer Advocacy and Global Events Marketing at SAP.

In addition to supplying people in Switzerland鈥檚 Basel region with electricity, heat, and drinking water, along with telecom and mobility solutions, Industrielle Werke Basel (IWB) produces and sells renewable and CO2-netural energy to achieve climate goals. Using machine learning algorithms, a new adaptable application leveraging 51风流Business Technology Platform can predict solar power production with unprecedented accuracy, supporting IWB鈥檚 ongoing sustainability drive.

As host Timo Elliot pointed out, 鈥淚f you can help with just a small percentage [of reducing the carbon footprint], you can make a big difference to the planet.鈥�

In trying to reach its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) objectives, Indonesian mining, infrastructure, and oil and gas services company Petrosea was frustrated that its old, largely paper-based system complicated the process. By creating a unified platform and utilizing 51风流Analytics Cloud, the company now has one source of truth to monitor carbon emissions, waste, and water usage to make informed choices and realize what it calls its 3D strategy 鈥� diversification, digitalization, and decarbonization.

As the 2023 51风流Innovation Award winners continue to bask in the glow of their success, planning for the 2024 festivities is underway. And even organizations that don鈥檛 plan to enter will be watching to find inspiration for new ways to improve.

Join us in celebrating innovation and transformation by sharing your success stories in the 2024 51风流Innovation Awards! We invite you to submit your transformation stories.

Together, let’s shape the future of innovation. Participate in the 2024 51风流Innovation Awards and share your remarkable journey with us. Visit our to get started!

Julia Ponzini is a customer marketing senior specialist at SAP.

is a leading international bank headquartered in London with a presence in 59 markets. With over 83,000 employees and almost 14,000 external workers, implementing a strategy was crucial for the bank to remain competitive and compliant. Guided by a workplace culture that champions innovation, technology, and sustainability, Standard Chartered supports customers from around the world to open opportunities in new markets and to live up to its brand promise to be here for good.

鈥淔or us, it鈥檚 really important to have that total workforce management view, where we鈥檙e starting to think about workforce planning and skills planning as the future of work,鈥� said Melinda McKinley, global head, HR Strategy and Digital Transformation, Standard Chartered. McKinley key insights from Standard Chartered鈥檚 HR transformation at 51风流Sapphire Orlando.

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Due to changing regulations, the banking sector has faced an increasing demand for workers with specialized skill sets to meet IT and cybersecurity requirements. This has led many finance organizations like Standard Chartered to tap into the external workforce. Today, Standard Chartered鈥檚 external workers are integral to how the organization operates. But initially, it lacked the technology and insights to effectively manage them.

The bank had an over 20-year-old HR system that made it increasingly difficult to innovate and respond quickly to changing business and regulatory requirements, according to Steve Leighton, head of HR Digital Enablement, Standard Chartered and a member of the team undertaking the HR transformation journey since it began in 2017. 鈥淲e wanted to replace that legacy system, transform, simplify, implement a global process, and really make an improvement in the experience.鈥�

One strategic requirement stood out as key to the success of the HR transformation: 鈥淗ow do we join together our permanent employees and our contingent workers to get a total view of the workforce across the organization?鈥� said Leighton, who presented the project results at 51风流Sapphire Orlando. 鈥淭his is a building block in our long-term ambition of being able to perform our strategic workforce planning.鈥�

HR Transformation Wins 51风流Innovation Award

Standard Chartered adopted a total workforce management strategy by integrating with solutions in the cloud to help deliver a truly holistic capability across its permanent and contingent workforce. 鈥淭hat kind of integration 鈥� [51风流SuccessFactors and 51风流Fieldglass] together 鈥� was key for this particular transformation,鈥� Leighton said.

With the implementation of position management, a foundational capability in 51风流SuccessFactors Employee Central that helps organizations create and manage job positions to maintain a desired org structure, the organization achieved a breakthrough in its HR transformation journey as the result of its clear strategic vision.

鈥淥ne of the key things that set us on a path for a future-ready workforce was really embracing the foundational architecture that position management brings,鈥� McKinley said. 鈥淭hat meant immediately we had a visualization of our total workforce 鈥� our contingent and our employee base. It is leading to much stronger data-driven hiring decisions.鈥�

Standard Chartered remediated 75 interfaces to third-party systems, including outsourced payroll solutions, and migrated 3.5 million data records from its legacy platform. It overhauled processes to achieve an 87% reduction of HR reports. With improved visibility of the entire workforce, where legally permissible, it can now capture richer data for diversity and inclusion metrics to further enable its inclusive culture.

A clear focus on employee experience has significantly contributed to the transformation鈥檚 ongoing success. Applying a 鈥渄eep鈥� experience approach, the team evaluated each phase and decision in the project for its potential impact on employee experience. Approximately 200 colleagues participated in user acceptance testing, providing valuable feedback through surveys and interviews. Collecting insights post-deployment also enabled the team to continuously innovate and improve the experience. Among the resulting innovations is a new employee portal with a modernized interface that integrates adoption nudges and chatbots to support colleagues during the hiring process.

鈥淧osition management was a key tenet of being able to facilitate this single workforce capability,鈥� said Leighton, who shared learnings from the project, including the effort required for change management to educate and prepare stakeholders and the diligent approach to the data integration. He noted that this effort paid off by 鈥渃learly culminating in that success.鈥�

Standard Chartered recently for its success in delivering on total workforce management with a focus on experience.

Strategic Vision for Future-Ready Workforce

鈥淲ith SAP, we now have a truly holistic view of our permanent and external workers,鈥� McKinley said. 鈥淭his has not only improved the employee experience and given us richer insights into our entire workforce but has also helped set the foundation for strategic corporate planning, integrated talent management, and management of regulatory requirements.鈥�

Standard Chartered is now focused on leveraging and expanding future-ready workforce capabilities by using the 51风流Analytics Cloud solution for workforce planning. McKinley described how the collaboration of the HR and finance teams is building success for the organization: 鈥淲e鈥檙e working closely with our finance colleagues to bring finance and HR data together a little more seamlessly through the use of 51风流Analytics Cloud, with a view to actually making a difference to bottom-up planning through our corporate plan.鈥�

She noted, 鈥淭he value that will create, by moving agreed workforce modelling into the position charts, I think will be a game changer for us in terms of our future workforce planning and skills planning.鈥�

Total Workforce Management from SAP

A total workforce management strategy allows businesses to keep the whole workforce in focus for increased agility, productivity, and bottom-line impact. 51风流SuccessFactors solutions combined with 51风流Fieldglass solutions can deliver value and efficiency by providing a single view of the entire workforce, allowing managers to onboard, oversee, and pay employees and contingent workers in one place. Organizations using 51风流SuccessFactors solutions 57% greater HR process speed, 54% reduction in time spent by managers on administrative HR, and 40% less time required to fill positions. Organizations using 51风流Fieldglass solutions saw 7.81% savings through competitive candidate sourcing and 16.4% lower project budgets.

Find out more about .

Together with our customers and partners, we are happy to celebrate the 10^th anniversary of the . The awards extend the cofounders鈥� vision to create positive economic, environmental, and social impact, help the world run better, and improve people鈥檚 lives.

From the very beginning, the awards have recognized the achievements of future-minded organizations and individuals with fresh perspectives that have harnessed the power of the latest 51风流products and technologies to achieve:

• Sustainability and purpose by creating opportunities to accelerate climate action, regenerative economies, and prosperous communities
• Optimization by reinventing how resources are managed, including people, products, raw materials, and capital
• Data-driven decision-making by enabling effective business processes and real-time information flows across business networks, supply chains, and value chains

The 51风流Innovation Awards celebrate customers and partners that are exploring new ideas and business models to deliver real-world innovation:

• Empowering women-owned businesses 鈥� helps women-owned organizations gain access to over US$3 billion in global purchasing power.
• Digital transformation scales equitable opportunities 鈥� automates and enables its new hire processes to efficiently onboard 1,000 new hires each month.
• Scientific predictions to increase sustainability 鈥� is committed to forecasting the hourly customer demand of products and rolling it out to hundreds of stores.

This year, we received and published over 220 submissions that were filled with inspiring and innovative use cases. And now, the judges selected across 10 categories from among the that were announced last month.

With immense pleasure and pride, I鈥檓 excited to announce the 30 winners of our 10^th Anniversary 51风流Innovation Awards for 2023!

We thank all the individuals and teams who participated in the 2023 51风流Innovation Awards, along with our judges. Innovation, digital transformation, and agility continue to play a big role to help manage successful outcomes for our customers. I personally look forward to the road ahead with our 51风流ecosystem of customers and partners to positively impact this ever-changing and often unpredictable market.

Visit the to read more about the winners, honorable mentions, finalists, and participants and to learn more about the 51风流Innovation Awards.

Claudio Muruzabal is president of Cloud Success Services at SAP.

This is the perfect opportunity to share an inside look at the judging process, announce our esteemed finalists, and provide a preview for what is next.

Judging Process

This year鈥檚 awards represent our greatest yet, as we are celebrating our 10^th anniversary with ten categories:

• 10^th Anniversary Superstar
• Sustainability Hero
• Industry Leader
• Partner Paragon
• Transformation Titan
• Cutting-Edge Genius
• Business Innovator
• Experience Wizard
• Adoption Champion
• Services Supernova

Being selected as an 51风流Innovation Award finalist is an incredible accomplishment on its own 鈥� it takes a wealth of ingenuity and perseverance. Entries are evaluated based on three main criteria:

• Use Case Creativity: how compelling or disruptive the use case is
• Tangible Outcomes: the magnitude of the outcome, impact on individuals and society, and how significant the quantified results are
• Intelligent Enterprise: how well the entry demonstrates the company鈥檚 journey to becoming an intelligent enterprise

What makes being selected as a finalist even more remarkable is how competitive it is. In total, we published over 220 submissions, now visible on the , and of those only 70 are selected as finalists.

Celebrating the Finalists

On that note, I would like to give a very well-deserved 鈥淐ongratulations!鈥� to all the finalists. I encourage everyone to check out their submissions . I must say, these are truly among the most impressive entries we have received over the years. As I鈥檝e said before, their stories have inspired us. And I know you will draw inspiration from them, too.

The Winners Announcement Is Rapidly Approaching

The winners will be announced on April 12, 2023. Out of the 70 finalists, will narrow it down to 30 entries to be crowned as 2023 51风流Innovation Award winners.

The winners will be globally recognized as innovators, earn bragging rights, and be featured in numerous promotional opportunities such as podcasts, media interviews, CIO.com blogs, speaking opportunities, and more. They will receive all of that on top of a prestigious trophy, an exclusive celebration event, and an 51风流Sapphire Orlando 2023 pass or a US$1,000 for a charitable donation.

You can always check out for more information.

Once again, a big thank you to all the 51风流Innovation Award participants and we wish all of our finalists the best of luck. Stay tuned for the big announcement coming in April!

Stephanie Nashawaty is global head of Customer Advisory at SAP.

Each day, news outlets serve up headlines screaming about new issues that affect the global supply chain, the climate crisis, the workforce, and the world economy. Yet somehow, resilient, brilliant, dedicated people in organizations across every industry and region are undaunted. These leaders step up to improve, invent, and innovate their way to a better place. I, for one, find this inspiring, motivating, and just plain awesome.

In the vast 51风流ecosystem, we see real-life examples of this every day: people who prove that when the going gets tough, the tough keep going 鈥� and innovating 鈥� to help the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives.

I want to recognize these 鈥渟uperheroes鈥� 鈥� made up of our customers, partners, and their respective teams from every corner of the world. They are remarkable, forward-thinking pioneers who are able to capitalize on current 51风流technology to create solutions for today and tomorrow. We are excited to honor these pioneers at the 10^th anniversary 51风流Innovation Awards for their innovative use of 51风流software, services, and solutions within their organizations.

My fellow executive sponsors Scott Russell, Claudio Muruzabal, Stephanie Nashawaty, and I are very excited to be a part of the 51风流Innovation Awards once again. Though we don鈥檛 yet know who the winners are at this point, we are looking forward to hearing all their inspirational stories using 51风流technology. Celebrating the award winners is truly one of the highlights of our year.

Worth the Wait

In just three weeks, the 51风流Innovation Award finalists will be announced. You will be able to see for yourself how these companies are building a sustainable future, creating better supply chains, and transforming their enterprises using leading-edge solutions like . In the meantime, here are a few examples from our current submissions that showcase just how innovative organizations can be:

Empowering Women-Owned Businesses
was founded to help women-owned businesses gain access to over US$3 billion in global purchasing power. The organization’s mission requires making it easy to identify, certify, and train women-owned businesses around the world as well as for member organizations to select qualified suppliers for procurement opportunities. WEConnect International worked with 51风流to build a next-generation 51风流Ariba Supplier Lifecycle and Performance platform that can scale to meet the requirements of buyers and suppliers globally.

Rise with Employees, Customers, and Consumers
initiative focuses on building a better tomorrow for its employees, customers, and consumers. A key objective is to improve employee engagement and empower them to make data-driven decisions. RISE with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud establishes a foundation towards this vision of becoming a customer-centric enterprise. It enables Philips Domestic Appliances to develop a holistic view of its consumers, understand their needs, respond to their feedback, innovate, and create products that positively impact their daily lives.

Actionable Performance Indicators
Brazilian electric utilities company deployed 51风流Digital Boardroom and 51风流Analytics Cloud for its board members and leaders to track performance indicators via a single source of truth. Fast, accurate, reliable tracking of data is required to generate the company’s key performance indicators (KPIs) for decision-makers to eliminate the manual work of spreadsheets and slides. Given the virtual environment, it was critical to provide a secure, collaborative platform to access and integrate analytics from over 10 disparate data repositories. Electronorte can now quickly identify trends and gain actionable insights anytime, anywhere.

Major Announcement Coming

The entry submission period closed on February 1. Now, the 51风流Innovation Awards team is working to select the finalists that will be revealed on March 14. A panel of 29 distinguished judges will spend four weeks determining the winners, announced on April 12.

Finally, in celebration of all our participants, 51风流will donate $100 per entry, up to $20,000, to the and .

Be a Part of the Celebration

Maybe you鈥檝e worked with one of this year鈥檚 entrants? Or you know of a customer who would be a perfect fit for next year鈥檚 51风流Innovation Awards? If so, check out the 51风流Innovation Awards听 for more information.

And stay tuned for the announcement of the winners on April 12. It鈥檚 a feel-good moment that we can all celebrate!

Dorit Shackleton is senior vice president and head of Global Customer Advocacy and Events Marketing at SAP.

This is especially true in the current fast-moving market when businesses are still facing material sourcing and supplier challenges triggered by the international pandemic. Yet are moving forward with expansion despite economic concerns and supply chain challenges.

As the COVID-19 threat accelerated, SAP鈥檚 longtime client examined its operations and saw that there was an overwhelming opportunity to improve how the business runs and come out of the pandemic as an even stronger business.

Freudenberg鈥檚 vast footprint 鈥� its presence can be found in 35 countries 鈥� was both a blessing and a curse. Different regions, as well as business areas, utilized dissimilar planning approaches and sources, limiting the ability to gain an overall picture across the entire company. Some of these planning processes were carried out manually, with employees relying on hundreds of different spreadsheets to compile reports. Often, comptrollers had to be personally consulted during this period to confirm data and statistics, slowing the pace. Yet, even with confirmed figures, discrepancies between financial and production plans remained.

Franco Giacomini, vice president for big markets in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, stated, 鈥淚n a rapidly fluctuating market鈥orecasting is crucial for us. We need it to ensure we produce enough of the right products at the right time and understand the financial impact of various planning scenarios.鈥� Clearly, a new 鈥� and fully digital 鈥� approach was needed to bring business processes into a single platform to anticipate, understand, and meet customer expectations to keep the company thriving.

Remodeling a Long-Established Business

Based in Weinheim, Germany, the Freudenberg Group鈥檚 legacy goes back more than 170 years. Of its diverse branches, Freudenberg Home and Cleaning Solutions produces everything from floor cleaning systems to laundry care products to household cloths and rubber gloves.

SAP鈥檚 relationship with the company began in the 1990s, when the Freudenberg Group first adopted 51风流software. In an early example of the type of platform that would later be required as the pandemic intensified, Freudenberg Home and Cleaning Solutions merged multiple applications into a global, centralized pricing scheme in 2003.

Fast forward nearly 20 years, that remains in use, but now a new platform was created to deploy a hybrid architecture consisting of data and analytics solutions based on . Using consolidated finance and supply chain data, and integrating it with a cloud planning tool that operates in real-time across multiple regions and product categories, Freudenberg is able to simulate best- and worst-case scenarios to grasp operational impact, along with potential profit and loss. A definite game changer for the disparate business unit planning that had been taking place.

Digital Legend

As ambitious as this project sounded, the architecture was deployed when it was needed most and when much of the world was locked down in 2020.

Forging through the start of the pandemic paid off for Freudenberg. The single-source repository has revolutionized how Freudenberg runs, harmonizing the planning and forecasting processes across the consumer products division, regardless of international boundaries.

The enhanced knowledge allowed planners to quickly scan details about product volumes, available raw materials, and sales value, closing gaps that might have otherwise remained open and undetected.

鈥淭he smart combination of sales plans, forecasts, and operative plans in one integrated global simulation and planning platform truly accelerated decision-making,鈥� said Andreas Hass, Freudenberg鈥檚 corporate IT manager for Analytics Processes and Systems.

Through this innovative method of scenario planning, and the deeper understanding of profits and loss, planning transparency and accuracy increased. What decreased was inaccurate, manually derived figures and time spent on repetitive report preparation tasks, freeing up teams to evaluate new trends and engage in other high-value work that could lead to increased growth in current and potential markets.

Most impressive though was how, despite the massive amount of data acquired for analyzing and processing, planning occurred at a rate that was 10 times faster than in the past.

The earned Freudenberg Home and Cleaning Solutions the unique and well-deserved distinction as a 2022 51风流Innovation Award winner in the 50^th Anniversary Legend category. More significantly, like companies everywhere that have benefited from digital acceleration, Freudenberg has begun rethinking the future, using the current momentum to extend its solution to other business functions.

Claudio Muruzabal is president of Cloud Success Services at SAP.

鈥淭here is no life on earth without the sun, and it鈥檚 there for everyone,鈥� said Anselma W枚rner, COO and one of the three cofounders of Exnaton, a Swiss company that develops software for communities trading renewable energy in local neighborhoods.

W枚rner was explaining how her company created a smart energy system at the recent听听in Munich, Germany. 鈥淲e have a new generation of prosumers 鈥� people who consume and produce their own energy 鈥� who are using new connected technologies and renewable power like solar to exchange energy through the grid.鈥�

Sun Powered

Humans have always depended on the sun for light, heat, and food, and its all-encompassing power has influenced cultures and religions around the world. Although advances in technology have decreased our dependence, the importance of solar energy in our efforts to reduce our carbon footprint is a reminder that we still depend on it for survival. That鈥檚 why the cofounders picked the name 听for their enterprise. Looking for a word that connects 鈥渆nergy鈥� and 鈥渆xchange,鈥� they hit upon the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten (pronounced Echnaton) who raised the status of the sun above that of all other gods and created an early monotheism that briefly became a state religion.

The goal of Exnaton is to help integrate prosumers into the grid. Currently, the legal framework is very complex, and there is no clear ROI for them. There are no feed-in tariffs or policy mechanisms designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies by offering long-term contracts to renewable energy producers.

鈥淎t the moment, there is no value for the community, and we want to change that,鈥� said W枚rner, who is responsible for fundraising, data science, and recruiting at Exnaton. 鈥淲hat most people don鈥檛 realize is that renewable energy is not always produced when it鈥檚 needed most. So, when it is available, prosumers should be able to sell their energy directly.鈥�

People who own solar panels could actually sell a lot of energy to other households, if only they had the means. W枚rner and her team believe it should be as easy to sell to other consumers as it is to sell any other products on the market. 鈥淧rosumers are faced with fragmented solutions, complex regulations, and frustrating user experiences. What they need are simple solutions, trusted local providers, and proactive community and user groups,鈥� she explained.

Community Centric

Enter Exnaton鈥檚 EnergyCommunity software add-on for听 solutions, which won an听听in the Partner Paragon category together with Best Practice Consulting (BPC) and is now available on 51风流Store. This user-centric extension enables utility companies to empower prosumers to buy and sell energy within their local communities and also track all relevant data.

Here鈥檚 how it works. Any prosumers in the community can sell their solar energy to any consumers in the grid. The EnergyCommunity tracks their energy data and informs them exactly where the energy is coming from and how much CO2 it is generating. The utility company can easily bill these energy exchanges with their regular 51风流billing system thanks to the integration offered by Exnaton in working with the 51风流system integrator BPC. At the same time, the utility company can sell additional hardware installations to members of the community, making it an attractive option for all parties.

鈥淭he EnergyCommunity makes it easy to exchange energy within the community. Participating in their local community creates a closer bond between people, and the platform provides a new customer channel for the utility company,鈥� said听the technology expert, who has a PhD in Information Systems. 鈥淎t the end of the day, with Exnaton鈥檚 energy sharing software-as-a-service platform, energy suppliers can offer their customers more independence.鈥�

Exnaton is responding to the challenge faced by prosumers who currently have no possibility to sell their extra energy directly on the market and the one faced by utilities companies as they realize they must offer new models as they transition to renewables with a decentralized approach. A number of utility companies are already running the solution in communities across Germany, Austria, Luxemburg, and Switzerland, and the goal is to expand to other European countries where there is a strong regulatory framework. More importantly, the solution enables energy companies to equip their customers for a sustainable future.

Future Focused

Over 733 million people on the planet still don鈥檛 have access to affordable, sustainable energy, which is why providing energy is goal seven on the list of the听. For Exnaton, goal seven is its core business, but at the same time, it is equally committed to goal 11, developing sustainable cities and communities; goal 12, enabling responsible production and consumption; and goal 13, taking urgent action to combat climate change and its impact.

The good news, according to the recent听听report, is that renewables overtook fossil fuels as the number one power source in the European Union for the first time in 2020. Renewables generate 38% of electricity, compared to 37% for fossil fuels. Also, at least two million people in the EU are already involved in more than 7,700 energy communities, and engagement is rising. Energy communities have also contributed up to 7% of nationally installed capacities of renewables, estimated at 6.3 GW.

For W枚rner and the team at Exnaton, producing energy where it is consumed decreases the dependence of the region on imported resources. Energy from the sun is practically limitless, and it more than covers the entire demand of the planet. With advances in technology and solutions like the EnergyCommunity, households and small businesses benefit from electricity powered by the sun, making renewable energy accessible and cost effective. What could be more natural, sensible, or sustainable?

.

鈥淭he well-being of our service technicians is very close to our hearts,鈥� says Claus J眉rgen Bader, product manager at Netze BW. 鈥淲e want all our people to return home safely at the end of their work assignments.鈥� With this in mind, Netze BW approached 51风流in the second half of 2021 to work on a solution that supports its service technicians in the field. The network group belongs to the large German utilities鈥� provider EnBW and is responsible for more than two million customers in the German state of Baden-Wuerttemberg.

How Service Technicians Benefit from the 鈥淣eWa鈥� App

Together with SAP, Netze BW started developing an Apple Watch app called 鈥淣eWa鈥� (Netze Watch). This way, Netze BW鈥檚 service technicians can always be up-to-date on their assigned work orders and can directly submit data from the app to 51风流systems.

In fact, thanks to the app they will be able to:

• Reduce accidents and the time to be at the scene of an accident with the help of the dead man switch function.
• Perform their jobs on-site with increased security with the help of the time slot alarm function.

Netze BW鈥檚 Challenge

Netze BW service technicians are responsible for maintaining public power, gas, and water supply infrastructure. For compliant reporting, their tasks and statuses must be updated in frequent intervals. All information they might require during their work in the field needs to be available so that they can submit details, such as damaged components, that are automatically identified and assigned. As the service technicians have shifts of up to 24/7 job availability, their jobs come with a lot of risk. What鈥檚 more, they often work at remote locations, many times under hazardous conditions and alone.

Conceptual Design from 51风流within One Week

Netze BW and 51风流outlined a solution with 51风流AppHaus in a very short time. 51风流sent off the high-fidelity screens to development in just four business days by applying the so-called 鈥渟peedboat鈥� method based on . This approach focuses on understanding the users鈥� needs within their daily routine at work first, before technologies are evaluated to fulfill those needs.

Next to increasing the well-being and security of its technicians, Netze BW also asked 51风流to show a solution that can ensure efficient bidirectional data exchange from Apple Watch to 51风流and back 鈥� that is, between service technicians and central departments.

Working closely with Netze BW, the 51风流AppHaus team conducted on-site research shadowing service technicians at work and created initial design wireframes that were immediately verified with the Netze BW service technicians. The final high-fidelity screens were then delivered remotely a week later.

Based on those high-fidelity screens, the Netze Watch (鈥淣eWa鈥�) Apple Watch app has been developed by Netze BW and EnBW in-house developers based on metering processes for utilities solutions from 51风流and 51风流EAM Work Order on Apple Watch.

鈥淲ith the help from Apple and 51风流we now improve and, in some cases, save the lives of Netze BW鈥檚 service technicians,鈥� says Mark Zimmermann, head CoE Mobile Solutions at EnBW. 鈥淎 big thank you to the design thinking method applied by 51风流AppHaus. We had an extraordinary journey and learned a lot.鈥�

The NeWa Apple Watch App

The NeWa app will soon be seamlessly connected to Netze BW鈥檚 existing workforce management iOS app on smartphones. It acts as a kind of digital companion that provides technicians with all details related to their current job or order and tracks a technician鈥檚 heart rate or detects if there has been a crash or signs of an accident. If the technician does not respond via the watch, then an emergency protocol is automatically triggered.

The NeWa app is running on iPhone and Apple Watch systems. This app and the Netze Mobile Workforce Management, or 鈥淣eMo鈥� app, run on iPhone and enable data exchange with 51风流applications like 51风流S/4HANA via 51风流Gateway.

The NeWa Apple Watch app offers additional safety features. Based on predefined triggers the safety control tower is automatically alarmed. Information from the Apple Watch is combined with task data from NeMo and sent to 51风流backend systems with no extra effort.

The currently planned NeWa and NeMo app architecture looks like this:

In the future, Netze BW鈥檚 IT team plans to replace the existing on-premise architecture 鈥� 51风流Gateway and 51风流Mobile Platform 鈥� with 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP) and the corresponding software development kit (SDK) for iOS, as well as 51风流Integration Suite and 51风流Extension Suite to connect with 51风流S/4HANA for a best-in-class system architecture.

The following functionalities of the NeWa app support the Netze BW service technicians in:

• Setting a job timer (dead man switch) on the Apple Watch: in case the timer is not canceled or extended, the safety control tower is notified and will take adequate measures, such as informing emergency services. Information from the Apple Watch, like location and duration, is cross-checked with job information available from 51风流databases.

  

• Benefiting from the fall detection functionality: in case the service technician slips or collapses, the Apple Watch will automatically inform emergency services. The NeWa app recognizes this situation and informs the safety control tower about the situation at the accident site.

Netze BW Won a 2022 51风流Innovation Award

Due to the fast turnaround time of the Apple Watch app, 听category.

Simon Hartmann, software architect for Mobile Development at EnBW, says: “We at Netze BW and EnBW were delighted to receive an 51风流Innovation Award. It encourages us to continue driving forward for not only productivity, but also the safety of our service technicians. Our special thanks to not only our internal colleagues, but also to Apple and 51风流for the initial trigger and to 51风流AppHaus for the support we received in the project itself. It helped us incorporate the UI and UX components together with the service technicians right from the start.”

A Day in the Life of a Service Technician

Before the NeWa and NeMo apps:

• Dispatching service technicians and data exchange including documentation was mainly based on e-mails and paperwork. In addition, bad data quality occurred due to media discontinuity between digital and analog processes.
• There were no standard solutions available for reducing the risk of working alone. Individual arrangements existed at a team level as well as stand-alone technical solutions like activating additional devices as interim solutions.
• Long waiting and response times were common due to no consistent digital solution being available.
• Previous implementations did not meet the requirements regarding user-centricity

  

After the apps:

• Service technicians have access to 51风流databases via their mobile devices, iPhone, and Apple Watch, and can submit task data and status information immediately.
• Service technicians are automatically informed about new jobs that have been assigned to them.
• Health and safety applications on the Apple Watch are linked to specific job information from 51风流systems and enable a 24/7 safety control tower that may initiate further action.
• Thanks to its open architecture, the NeWa app can also communicate with other apps on the employee’s iPhone and thus can be operated by other 51风流systems, such as within the wind offshore environment.

What鈥檚 Next?

Netze BW is working closely with its internal colleagues from the EnBW development department to release the NeWa app with the planned implementations. A publication for companies in the DACH region is also planned. Clearly, the effects and results of the NeWa app have encouraged the company to continue on its innovation path. There are plenty of new use cases in discussion around new technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence, and augmented reality. For example, in 2021, EnBW developed the REVisAR app running on Apple iPad. It focuses on renewable energy visualization with the help of augmented reality (AR) functionalities for building wind turbines out in the field.

Constanze Reichelt is Project Expert Communications at SAP.

For that reason, I could not be more excited to kick off the one forum completely dedicated to the impact that comes from these kinds of innovation: the 2023 51风流Innovation Awards.

What makes this year particularly noteworthy is the fact that this will be the 10th annual celebration recognizing forward-thinking organizations that have harnessed the power of 51风流technologies to disrupt industries and improve lives.

鈥淭he 51风流Innovation Awards are incredibly special to me,鈥� said Scott Russell, member of the Executive Board, Customer Success, 51风流SE. 鈥淚t鈥檚 an opportunity to witness firsthand how the most innovative companies in the world are developing incredibly creative solutions to solve some of the world鈥檚 toughest problems, revolutionizing the way things are done in order to drive lasting change.鈥�

New Awards for a Groundbreaking Time

In keeping with the 10th anniversary theme, the 2023 awards will have 10 categories, increasing the number of winners from 25 to 30. An additional 60 finalists will also be selected, based on cutting-edge thought leadership, originality, and diversity.

Among the added awards are the 10th Anniversary Superstar, commemorating continuous innovation and building on prior successes, and the Experience Wizard, focusing on strides made in improving customer and employee experiences.

The other categories include Sustainability Hero, Industry Leader, Transformation Titan, Adoption Champion, Cutting-Edge Genius, Partner Paragon, Business Innovator, and Services Supernova 鈥� all adding to the fun and excitement of the awards.

Elite Disruptors

Since its initial launch in 2014, the 51风流Innovation Awards has had more than 1,600 participants from 80 different countries. In my third year as executive sponsor of this program, I always tell our participating customers that they are really part of an elite few disrupting their respective industries. Each year, I love seeing how these ideas scale and become part of our innovation DNA.

鈥淔or a small company like us to have 51风流alongside us and to be recognized at an award ceremony like this means the world,鈥� said Diarmuid Byrne, managing director of EquiRatings, an Irish sports data and analytics company whose fan experience app gained international attention during the pandemic. A contributing factor to this visibility occurred simply because EquiRatings extended its global network by stepping forward to declare it was worthy of an award.

In addition to a prestigious trophy, one of the prizes available to entrants is a ticket to 51风流Sapphire Orlando or a $1,000 gift card for a charity of their choice. By simply entering, each contestant receives an 51风流donation of $100 (up to $20,000) for a worthy cause 鈥� yet another example of how these innovations are benefiting society.

Now鈥檚 Your Chance

Submissions for the 2023 51风流Innovation Awards begin today, August 15, 2022. Finalists will be announced in March 2023, followed by the winners in April.

51风流customers and partners can participate by following . Learn more in the 51风流Innovation Awards and get the latest updates .

Stephanie Nashawaty is chief customer innovation officer NA at SAP.

Sanlam knows that its company culture significantly impacts employee productivity, performance, job satisfaction, and commitment. Highly aware of the inestimable value its people bring to the company, Sanlam is committed to helping everyone develop their full potential to achieve even more. Its mandate and promise is 鈥淲e know that your worth is infinite and unique 鈥� and want to inspire you to realize this worth.鈥� Sanlam follows through by giving each of its employees the opportunity to make the most of who they are while they gain recognition, respect, and commensurate compensation for their capabilities and contributions.

鈥淥ur people are key in enabling the success and sustainability of our business,鈥� says Jeanett Modise, group HR director at Sanlam. 鈥淭o compete in a rapidly changing world, we need to attract the best people in the market and empower them to learn, lead, and live our shared purpose.鈥�

Delivering a Better Experience for All Workers

Previously, Sanlam鈥檚 decentralized business model resulted in a disjointed employee experience and limited talent mobility across the group. Disparate systems and data sources made reporting and analytics inconsistent, complex, and time-consuming.

Sanlam launched a HR shared services model using 51风流solutions to embrace a total workforce management strategy. From a single solution, Sanlam has been able to better manage and optimize the experience of all workers 鈥� both its permanent employees and contingent workers, who make up 28% of its South African workforce. The solutions make it easier for HR, vendors, and recruiters to find, procure, and manage external talent. In addition, Sanlam has bridged the gap between full-time employees and contingent workers in terms of experience and opportunities, helping to foster an inclusive and equitable workplace.

New insight into the skills and competencies of its employees is helping Sanlam to identify skills gaps and put programs in place to reskill and upskill its workforce for the future. For example, the company anticipates that many underwriting tasks will be automated using robotics. In response, it is investing in equipping underwriters with new competencies, such as forecasting and data analytics skills, so that they can take on new roles.

Sanlam鈥檚 reskilling program has proven such a success that the company was selected as a .

Capturing the Voice of the Employee

The importance of making employees feel heard is hard to overstate. By giving people a voice, organizations can create a culture of openness and feedback, build trust, and increase workplace happiness. Sanlam captures feedback from both permanent and contingent employees on a continuous basis, at key points across their life cycle. This insight enables the company to take specific actions to make improvements. For example, when employees commented on the need for better wellness practices, Sanlam reacted immediately, introducing new programs and policies to support employees鈥� health and well-being.

Meanwhile, group-wide reporting and advanced analytics for HR, finance, and other corporate data empower leaders make better data-driven decisions and help Sanlam to achieve its diversity and inclusion goals.

鈥淕reater visibility into the total workforce and enhanced transparency and reporting have enabled us to set recruitment and succession targets around race, gender, and disability,鈥� says Modise. 鈥�51风流solutions are helping us to build a more diverse workforce, which we see as a critical factor for serving our diverse clients well.鈥�

Lara Albert is vice president of Solution Marketing at 51风流SuccessFactors.

Now in its ninth year, 51风流Innovation Awards honor and celebrate the achievements of forward-thinking companies and individuals that have harnessed the power of the latest 51风流products and technologies to disrupt industries and, more importantly, make a positive impact that benefits our world.

This year, we received nearly 200 submissions. Finalist judges reviewed each applicant pitch deck to select the 60 finalists — . From that ocean of excellence, 25 were chosen by our .

It gives me a great pleasure and pride to announce the 2022 51风流Innovation Award winners:

To learn more about the 51风流Innovation Awards,听 as well as the winners and finalists, or even participating in next year鈥檚 awards, visit the.

We thank all who participated in the 2022 51风流Innovation Awards, and our judges for evaluating our 25 winners. I personally look forward to what 2023 has in store for our听 community — and the world.

Claudio Muruzabal is president of 51风流Cloud Success Services.

Its health information systems were weak, outdated, and underfunded. Data was manually collected and siloed. Information tended to be listed on paper forms rather than in the cloud.

Given the circumstances, it was difficult for health officials to identify high-risk regions, spreaders, and asymptomatic patients. Administrative delays prevented all but a few labs from testing. But even when the results came in, details about available drugs were hazy at best.

A Need for the Ugly Truth

Aggravating the situation was the nature of the Moroccan healthcare system, which was divided into complicated layers, distinguishing facilities by location, university affiliation, and other categories.

The conditions had officials alarmed about the possibility of COVID-19 exploding up and down the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts, as well as the country鈥檚 mountainous interior.

To save lives, Morocco鈥檚 Ministry of Health needed to quickly come up with a single source of truth 鈥� whether the truth was ugly or not. At a glance, officials would then be able to gain insights into total confirmed cases, instances of recovery and death, the growth of daily outbreaks across the various tiers of the country鈥檚 healthcare network, and the stock of drugs in various hospitals and regions.

鈥淲e didn鈥檛 have a system like this,鈥� observed Dr. Ahmed Rguig, director of Morocco鈥檚 Centre of Epidemiology. 鈥淲e were very aware that we had to put something in place that allowed us to manage the scale of the pandemic with professionalism and in real time.鈥�

Quickly Partnering to Combat a Crisis

With no time to spare, the ministry turned to the ALGO Consulting Group, an international technology services provider based in the city of Rabat.

ALGO proposed a user-friendly, innovative solution, enabling country-wide monitoring of the pandemic in real time. The application would be available on numerous devices and help officials make accurate decisions swiftly.

As the first partner in Africa to be certified for , ALGO already had experience developing a solution for Morocco鈥檚 transport sector. Now, it went back to 51风流to use its enterprise software proficiency to help manage the pandemic.

鈥淏ecause of our analytics expertise鈥e could help our country adopt its first-ever digital tracking system in response to the coronavirus outbreak,鈥� noted Naoual Hammane, the 51风流director working with ALGO.

The use of 51风流Analytics Cloud allowed for the creation of real-time, role-specific dashboards, which could be accessed via desktops and mobile devices. Every 10 minutes, the control center data would be updated, empowering experts to make efficient, life-saving decisions.

鈥淭wo teams worked in 24-hour shifts to get the project delivered,鈥� said Hammane. 鈥淚 have been managing 51风流projects for 14 years and this is the first time ever a project has been managed virtually. We used video conferencing and telephone calls.鈥�

Working at Breakneck Speed to Slow Outbreaks

On March 1, 2020, just two weeks after the first case of COVID-19 was recorded in Morocco 鈥� and 11 days before the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak a pandemic 鈥� the country鈥檚 COVID-19 Real-Time Monitoring system was deployed.

Officials accustomed to tracking down data with phone calls now had all the data they needed at their fingertips.

The results were nothing short of miraculous:

• ALGO developed training videos that enabled users to learn the intricacies of the new system in just four hours.
• Laboratory test capacity increased 100 times 鈥� from 100 to 10,000 COVID-19 tests administered each day.
• The ability to receive IT resources, data, and other technology services increased four times.
• The speed at which information was received allowed the government to deliver tests where they were most needed.
• With the enhanced understanding of the drug stock, allocations could be capably targeted.

Using Mass Media to Save Lives

To ensure that everyone 鈥� regardless of technological capacity 鈥� was informed, the Ministry of Health provided televised updates each night at 6:00 p.m.

The number of lives saved as the result of these broadcasts is impossible to calculate.

鈥淲e can use this project as something to be proud of,鈥� said Dr. Rguig. 鈥淚t demonstrates that we have succeeded in this crisis.鈥�

Its quick deployment of the COVID-19 Real-Time Monitoring system helped the Moroccan Ministry of Heath earn recognition as a 2021 51风流Innovation Awards finalist. The yearly awards honor organizations that have used 51风流solutions to improve business and society.

Get all the details about the Moroccan Ministry of Health鈥檚 innovative solution .

Keith Greenberg is an 51风流global marketing contributor.

Discovery鈥檚 workforce of 12,000 talented professionals is the engine driving the company鈥檚 ambitions. As such, ensuring that its employees have the tools, support, and guidance they need to thrive is a top priority for the company.

鈥淗appy, informed, and empowered people make productive, engaged employees,鈥� comments Kammy Sing, group head of People Operations at Discovery. 鈥淲e鈥檙e always on the lookout for ways to better enable and support our people. Our existing processes generated complexity, high costs, significant inefficiencies, and high volumes of mundane administrative tasks. We needed to make a change and transform the services we provide to our people.鈥�

Previously, employees at Discovery had to call or e-mail HR managers to carry out routine tasks such as booking leave and holiday inquiries or accessing company policy information. Working in this way meant that HR professionals spent a large proportion of their working day dealing with routine queries and employees had no way of tracking the progress of their queries 鈥� creating a frustrating employee experience.

Recruiters at Discovery also had to deal with a high volume of low-value administrative tasks, such as conducting pre-employee background checks. As a result, the hiring process at the company was lengthy, expensive, and risked putting off talented candidates.

Discovery recognized that intelligent technologies and employee empowerment go hand in hand. Harnessing the power of cutting-edge robotic process automation (RPA) and virtual assistants, the company automated over 11,000 recruitment admin tasks and provided employees with almost-instant answers to their queries via intelligent chatbots. Employee productivity and satisfaction have significantly improved as a result. 鈥淏y putting HR in the hands of our employees with , we have created a culture of people empowerment,鈥� says Sing.

The project was so successful that it was selected among hundreds of other companies as a finalist of the 51风流Innovation Awards 2022.

With 51风流solutions, Discovery has reduced time-to-hire by 25% while also freeing up time for 37% of HR staff to develop new skills and focus on higher-value tasks. At the same time, the company has gained granular insight into every aspect of its HR operations, which has helped the company stamp out inefficiencies and realize cost savings of up to 鈧�1.3 million.

Sing concludes: 鈥�51风流has helped us to bring HR into the 21st century and develop an even more supportive culture throughout Discovery. We look forward to working with both 51风流and our technology partners as we continue to develop and enhance the employee experience.鈥�

Lara Albert is vice president of Solution Marketing for 51风流SuccessFactors.

In 2021, the company became the foremost purchaser of green power in India by acquiring more than 350 million units of renewable energy. This is significant. The purchase of green power has enabled Vedanta and other sustainability-oriented organizations to achieve their carbon-mitigation targets while producing 鈥済reen,鈥� value-added products.

Setting a Foundation for Growth with Intelligent Technology

Vedanta, a Mumbai-based company, is one of the world鈥檚 leading mining companies and is India鈥檚 largest aluminum producer, exporting its products to approximately 35 countries globally.

Its aluminum 鈥� or 鈥渕etal of the future鈥� as it likes to refer to it 鈥� is used in critical applications by key industries such as automotive, aerospace, defense, transportation, construction, and more.

The company is also one of the largest captive power generators in India, supplying power to its aluminum smelters.

But as successful as Vedanta is today, the company still aims to become a future-ready intelligent enterprise. Though the company had been using 51风流solutions for the last dozen years or so, Vedanta鈥檚 current enterprise resource planning (ERP) software was unable to keep pace with growing digitalization requirements due to the company鈥檚 business growth and its ever-increasing complexity and customization.

Boosting Its Growth Trajectory

The company understood it needed to get past its own internal kink in the aluminum, so to speak, to bring agility, flexibility, and responsiveness in how it operated as a business.

And to get there, Vedanta needed to unify master data for an integrated 360-degree view into the aluminum sector, which includes the power plant previously mentioned, plus other manufacturing units, refineries, and mines.

A Sustainable Partnership

Vedanta found the right partner in 51风流to create a multi-year program to become an intelligent enterprise in order to help achieve its ambitious goals.

51风流began by creating an intelligent enterprise road map for the next three years after taking a deep-dive look into Vedanta鈥檚 current deployment. 51风流also helped bolster Vedanta鈥檚 strength in metals and mining industry sectors supported by best practice examples. Finally, 51风流worked with the company to set foundations for innovation to enable reimagined business processes and a future IT strategy.

This ultimately resulted in one of the largest transformational deployments in the metals industry.

In a nutshell, what Vedanta did was undertake an 51风流S/4HANA greenfield deployment and use additional 51风流solutions, namely 51风流Ariba solutions, for supplier onboarding, sourcing, and performance management, among other tasks.

鈥淎dopting 51风流S/4HANA is an important step toward this transformation that provides real-time analytics for enterprise-wide business insights, thus aiding agile monitoring and decision-making,鈥� said Rahul Sharma, CEO of Vedanta Aluminum.

A Happy Outcome for All

According to Anup Agarwal, CFO of Vedanta Aluminum, 鈥淥ur intelligent enterprise journey with 51风流has helped us transform our finance processes. We now have even more robust business processes and enhanced governance across the entire business 鈥� no mean feat given the complexity of our operation.鈥�

For its accomplishments, Vedanta Aluminum was named a 2021 51风流Innovation Award finalist in the Business Transformation Initiative category. You can read more about its accomplishments in this .

Michael Kure is an 51风流Global Marketing contributor.

As we recognize the outstanding contributions of customers, we underscore that 51风流stands in solidarity with Ukraine. The company is working constantly to lend support and mitigate impact on those affected. To learn more, please read the statement from 51风流CEO Christian Klein.

Standing in Solidarity

Recognizing and Addressing Needs

Customers and partners that participate in the 51风流Innovation Awards are recognized for their brilliant work in helping the world rise above key challenges with the help of 51风流technology. These innovative solutions provide long-term benefits that impact our planet and, ultimately, all of us.

What Does It Take to be an 51风流Innovation Awards Finalist?

How does a company become a finalist for the 51风流Innovation Awards? The answer is simple: these are businesses that have made great strides in bouncing back and moving forward during a global pandemic, companies that have dedicated themselves to creating a more sustainable future.

For instance, especially in times of great uncertainty, businesses have focused on building more resilient supply chains, so corporations and their customers are not left wanting. At the end of the day, companies that are transforming into intelligent enterprises to make the most efficient use of limited resources are the ones whose forward-looking use of technology will leave the world a better place than they found it.

Selecting the Best of the Best

Of the hundreds of amazing entries we received across multiple vertical categories ranging from the airline industry to wholesalers, finalists were selected by our panel of expert judges. This was no easy feat 鈥� across the board, the submissions were incredible. And for that, I extend my admiration and kudos to our judges who had the difficult job of narrowing down the list of submissions into eight categories.

The Final Sixty

And now, our finalists for 2022:

Congratulations to all our customers for incredible submissions. .

Save the Date: April 14, 2022

From the 60 finalists will come 25 winners of the 51风流Innovation Awards for 2022, to be announced on April 14.

To expand your knowledge of the 51风流Innovation Awards, learn more about the finalists, or participate in next year鈥檚 awards, visit the .

Juliana Roxa is global customer marketing director and head of the 51风流Innovation Awards.