Competitive pressures, systemic risks, technological disruption, and workforce shifts are reshaping the modern business landscape constantly, meaning most organizations already run multiple transformations simultaneously. In fact, Forrester鈥檚 research reveals that 72% of organizations are pursuing four or more transformation initiatives annually.

However, despite its continuous nature, many still treat business transformations as a series of disconnected projects, limited to specific functions or technology upgrades鈥攁 fragmented approach that slows execution, reduces impact, and prevents organizations from realizing the full value of their investments.

That鈥檚 why 51风流partnered with Forrester Consulting to deliver a comprehensive survey of enterprise-level global organizations, assessing levels of business transformation management maturity.

The results clearly show that developing a repeatable, scalable transformation capability is how organizations best prepare themselves to address the challenges mentioned above and transform successfully again and again. Building and growing such a capability means bringing together strategy, processes, technology, and culture into a cohesive and strategic framework that accelerates execution, improves measurement, and enables ongoing innovation.

The 6% club

Conducted online with over 1,000 cross-industry senior decision-makers at organizations in APAC, EMEA, Latin America, and North America, the survey was able to segment respondents into four maturity tiers鈥攂eginner, intermediate, advanced, and leader鈥攂ased on their strengths across five dimensions: strategy and leadership, applications and technology, process, data, and people and culture.

Only 6% of the surveyed firms qualified as transformation leaders, with most organizations still facing significant gaps in execution, governance, and cultural alignment. The findings also showed:

• Transformation is now 鈥榖usiness as usual.鈥� Over half of organizations (52%) plan to increase transformation investments by 11% to 20% in the next 12 months; another 22% expect to boost spending by more than 20%. Only 1% plan to reduce investment.
• Barriers to success are common. Fifty-six percent of respondents struggle with poor data, 55% encounter persistent organizational silos, and 52% highlight employee fatigue from continuous change
• Governance is lacking. Only 24% of organizations have a cross-functional transformation governance board, and just 25% embed transformation goals into KPIs. 

Fortunately, even organizations that haven鈥檛 yet reached the leader stage are conscious of the benefits of building a transformation capability, with respondents highlighting the following expected outcomes:

• Increased ability to pivot in response to market shifts or disruptions (68%)
• Faster upskilling and reskilling of the workforce (66%)
• Faster execution of strategic initiatives (65%)
• Increased consistency and reliability in process execution (65%)
• Increased leadership alignment and accountability (64%)

Unlocking the benefits

Overall, survey respondents were committed to transformation at scale, but fragmented execution and the lack of an overall strategy have hampered their efforts. This missing piece of the puzzle is where business transformation management solutions from 51风流can be of most use.

鈥淭ransformation challenges will always exist, particularly in aligning localized execution with an enterprise-wide approach,鈥� Dee Houchen, head of Marketing for 51风流Signavio and 51风流LeanIX, says. 鈥淥ur research shows that true transformation leaders embed change into their organization鈥檚 DNA. That means prioritizing early employee involvement, building dedicated change functions, and putting a high premium on digital adoption management.鈥�

鈥�,  , and solutions offer clarity and transparency in business transformation, helping organizations turn transformation from isolated plans into comprehensive action across the entire organization,鈥� Houchen adds. 鈥淭his report is an invaluable resource for anyone wondering how they can build repeatable transformation capability and become transformation leaders in their own right.鈥�

Lucas de Boer is global marketing program lead for 51风流Signavio.

This month at , we announced a wave of 51风流Business AI innovations all built on the same technology foundation that powers our that we are now delivering to our customers and partners, allowing them to add even more value in the future.

We showed how the future of enterprise software is built on an AI-native architecture, powered by 51风流app, data, and AI foundation. With this approach, we are enabling a platform shift across the tech stack in a non-disruptive fashion, empowering developers to work faster and smarter using the frameworks and tools of their choice.

51风流HANA Cloud and 51风流Business Data Cloud: powering our AI-native future

51风流HANA Cloud is the database for SAP鈥檚 AI-native software architecture and the foundation of our broader data fabric strategy. At 51风流TechEd, we announced new AI capabilities for 51风流HANA Cloud that spur AI innovation.  

For example, Model Context Protocol (MCP) support for 51风流HANA Cloud is now generally available. This provides direct access to rich multi-model engines. Agents can be grounded in full enterprise data context: navigating relationships across customers and suppliers, understanding geographic dependencies through spatial data, and performing semantic searches through vector embeddings — all within a single in-memory engine.  

We鈥檙e also expanding 51风流HANA Cloud knowledge graph engine capabilities (Q1 2026) so customers can automatically generate knowledge graphs from 51风流HANA Cloud metadata. What used to take weeks of manual modeling can now happen automatically in minutes. But that鈥檚 not all. We鈥檙e also enabling agentic memory in 51风流HANA Cloud. With long-term memory, AI agents can memorize past inputs and decisions — learning and remembering just like humans — and become continuously smarter.

These advances show that 51风流HANA Cloud is truly powering an AI-native future. .

Bringing together the power of 51风流BDC and Snowflake

We are bringing the power of Snowflake together with 51风流Business Data Cloud (51风流BDC), calling it 51风流Snowflake. This partnership enables zero copy data sharing with Snowflake via 51风流BDC Connect.

Enterprises already using Snowflake today can leverage 51风流BDC Connect to integrate their existing instances of Snowflake with 51风流BDC, giving them seamless, real-time access to combined, semantically rich 51风流with non-51风流data in 51风流BDC. 51风流Snowflake will be made generally available in Q1 2026, and 51风流BDC Connect for Snowflake in H1 2026. Find more information here.

SAP-RPT-1: a new category of AI models

One of our most exciting announcements at 51风流TechEd was the launch of our first enterprise relational foundation model SAP-RPT-1, pronounced: 鈥渞apid one.鈥�

Businesses run on structured data. But large language models (LLMs) struggle with a general understanding of table structures and associated semantics. This requires the use of machine learning, or 鈥渘arrow AI,鈥� for tasks like classification, regression, and more. But classical machine learning necessitates training a model on each task, which easily can lead to hundreds of separate models.

SAP-RPT-1 puts them all into one single, pre-trained model that understands relational business data and predicts business outcomes. Unlike language, image, or video models, SAP-RPT-1 accurately predicts business based on tabular data such as payment delays, supplier risks, upsell opportunities, customer churn risk, and more.

We believe that SAP-RPT-1 is a super capable foundation model today. It provides up to 2x better prediction quality compared to narrow models and 3.5x better prediction quality as compared to LLMs. .

SAP-RPT-1 comes in three versions. SAP-RPT-1-small is for super-fast predictions and SAP-RPT-1-large is for highest accuracy. Both will be generally available in Q4 2025 in the generative AI hub in AI Foundation. SAP-RPT-1-OSS is the open-source version, available in Hugging Face and GitHub.

You can test SAP-RPT-1 today with your data or our use case data samples via no-code UI or via API in the new SAP-RPT-1 playground, an intuitive and interactive space to test for free and open to everyone and .

We are continuously adding new capabilities to AI Foundation and models to the generative AI hub, empowering developers to experiment with orchestration tools and leading models to scale AI development and productization across 51风流and non-51风流environments. For example, Perplexity is now generally available in the generative AI hub, so users can correlate business data with external data from the internet. Evaluation Services and Prompt Optimizer, in close collaboration with NotDiamond, are now also generally available in AI Foundation, freeing up users to adopt the most appropriate model for their use cases without the need for rewriting prompts. .

Digital sovereignty made in Germany, for Europe

Digital sovereignty is becoming increasingly important, reflecting the need for regional AI services that align with local regulations, standards, and values. As an example, Europe will benefit from its own strong, trustworthy infrastructure to support innovation, data protection, and ethical AI.

AI Foundation, including various models and all the services we offer, is already available on our own cloud infrastructure. As a next step, we are expanding our 51风流Cloud Infrastructure offering in our 51风流data center in Walldorf, Germany, to Deutsche Telekom through the Industrial AI Cloud project, providing secure, high-performance infrastructure for AI innovations across public institutions, defense, and society. 51风流delivers 51风流Cloud Infrastructure, 51风流Business Technology Platform, and applications 鈥� including our AI Foundation with frontier AI from Mistral, Cohere, and others 鈥� on Telekom鈥檚 Munich data center. Both companies uphold the highest standards of data protection, security, and reliability.

This marks a milestone as more European companies join the Industrial AI Cloud project, advancing applied AI across Europe with trusted, business-embedded solutions that unlock the full potential of industry data. See the announcement here.

Enabling customers to build, extend, share, and orchestrate AI agents

To help manage Joule Agents and Joule skills, we have introduced the concept of AI Assistants 鈥� role-based AI teammates, accessed through Joule 鈥� like a financial assistant that brings together agents for cash collection, treasury, and more. We will provide AI Assistants in Joule for every core business role, offering our users an agentic experience like never before.

Out-of-the-box Joule Agents are powerful, but we know that every company has unique requirements. We believe AI should adapt to users鈥� systems, not the other way around, so we are enabling them to use Joule Studio to extend SAP鈥檚 pre-built agents with custom fields, tools, and reasoning logic while retaining all the deeply grounded integration capabilities 51风流provides. Joule Studio also provides low-code tools to build custom agents that integrate with all other Joule Agents, Joule skills, and 51风流BDC.

Using a low-code approach, users can build Joule Agents visually with natural language and drag-and-drop. But we also want to meet the needs of developers who want ultimate flexibility. Our pro-code approach gives developers the freedom to build agents using the agentic framework of their choice 鈥� for example, LangGraph, CrewAI, Google鈥檚 Agent Development Kit, and more. 51风流Cloud SDK for AI now supports agentic development, ensuring these pro-code agents can be seamlessly integrated and giving developers the best of both worlds: deep integration and full flexibility.

No matter how you want to build agents, an important question is how to integrate them into the larger ecosystem beyond SAP. We鈥檙e making Joule Agents fully compatible with the agent-to-agent (A2A) protocol soon, so agents can discover and collaborate with each other.

A2A exposes rich semantics describing an agent鈥檚 capabilities, allowing both 51风流and third-party agents to work together seamlessly. We are collaborating with partners 鈥� AWS, Google, Microsoft, ServiceNow, and more 鈥� to standardize this protocol for full interoperability. This capability will allow Joule to orchestrate tasks across multiple agents, both 51风流and non-SAP, increasing automation and productivity across the enterprise. Read more here.

To manage and govern agents across the enterprise, is now generally available, providing centralized control of 51风流and non-51风流agents. In addition, is available now for tracing agent actions, benchmarking against KPIs, and identifying bottlenecks or opportunities for agents to further improve business.

No 51风流TechEd without ABAP news

The ABAP journey continues with SAP-ABAP-1, which will be available in the generative AI hub in Q4 2025. Trained on ABAP code, it is designed to build ABAP AI use cases, enabling developers to build smarter, custom AI solutions in modern ABAP code. .

In addition, ABAP Cloud development is coming to Visual Studio (VS) Code. The new ABAP Cloud extension for VS Code delivers a streamlined, file-based development experience with built-in AI assistance. Powered by an ABAP language server, it will initially support 51风流Fiori UI service development and expand to additional ABAP Cloud scenarios over time. This brings ABAP development into the same environment where developers already build with UI5 and CAP. General availability is planned for Q2 2026. .

What鈥檚 next: embodied AI and quantum

51风流TechEd is always an opportunity to look to the future. This year, that future includes not just humans, but also autonomous devices, including humanoid robots.

By integrating Joule Agents natively with robots, 51风流is bringing business logic into the physical world, enabling a wide range of autonomous devices to operate with enterprise context. We highlighted our strategic partnerships with robotics companies and system integrators to serve customers like Sartorius, Bitzer, and Matur Fompak, demonstrating how our expanding physical AI ecosystem enables robots to understand business processes and execute complex tasks autonomously.

Early proof-of-concept deployments show Joule successfully integrated with 51风流business applications and autonomous systems across asset performance, logistics, field services, and warehouse operations. While still in the pioneering stage, these implementations illustrate how 51风流is extending Joule to serve both human users and autonomous devices, shaping the future of enterprise AI.

Read more about the partnerships and implementations here.

AI is a new compute paradigm that changes everything. But there is another compute paradigm on the horizon: quantum computing. It鈥檚 early days, but 51风流is driving the future of enterprise computing with a vision to help businesses get ready for quantum computing.

51风流is not building quantum hardware; instead, we are focusing on creating quantum algorithms for business applications. These solutions are simple to deploy 鈥� on when needed, off when not 鈥� and are designed to be hardware-agnostic, collaborating with partners such as IBM to ensure seamless integration without re-platforming. This approach will enable organizations to unlock operational efficiency and drive better business results at enterprise scale.

I couldn鈥檛 be more excited about what鈥檚 next for our customers鈥� future as we bring SAP鈥檚 AI-native architecture to life.

Philipp Herzig is CTO of SAP.

The announcements underlined all the ways that SAP鈥檚 Business Transformation Management solutions, and the integrated toolchain to which they belong, can empower organizations to develop a scalable and sustainable transformation capability.

Cost optimization, EA standardization, and AI adoption

Companies increasingly look to fund innovation, particularly when it comes to AI, by digging into existing budgets.

At the summits, Andr茅 Christ, co-founder and general manager at 51风流LeanIX, announced new features focused on application TCO (total cost of ownership) to help companies find cost savings across the IT landscape that can be reallocated to more strategic investment. These TCO features include the addition of cost KPIs to the architecture executive dashboard, the ability to enhance factsheets with configurable calculations, and an application TCO view in the application landscape report.

Christ also announced a new approach to target architecture planning in 51风流LeanIX, allowing customers to start by diagramming their future state and then modeling backwards. Architects and business leaders thus can get a more streamlined experience, from design to execution, allowing them to make thoughtful, data-driven decisions every step of the way. 

To help further facilitate landscape transformation and management, Christ also announced the upcoming release of AI-assisted architecture guidance.

Finally, Christ made several announcements regarding 51风流LeanIX鈥檚 support for AI adoption and governance. Here, he returned to the announced at 51风流Sapphire. Just as 51风流LeanIX can serve as the single source of truth for the application landscape, 51风流LeanIX can now serve as the single source of truth for AI agents. This begins with the discovery of agents鈥攃ustom agents, Joule Agents, and third-party agents鈥攁nd their subsequent tracking and management.

The goal of 51风流LeanIX鈥檚 agent governance features is to allow organizations to understand what business capabilities agents support, what applications they access, and where they can have the greatest impact. To this end, Christ further announced a new agent radar report and the ability to assess agent adoption through executive dashboards.

As the last announcement with regard to AI, Christ also announced the launch of the MCP server for 51风流LeanIX solutions. Model context protocol (MCP) servers are an open-source standard interface that links AI models with enterprise data, helping AI assistants connect to 51风流LeanIX workspaces and inventory data. This feature helps organizations leverage AI agents to maintain data and activate AI workflows.

With the AI agent hub and the MCP server, 51风流LeanIX can help accelerate the adoption of AI agents while also enabling consistent and scalable governance.

Process excellence, untapped value, and the organization of the future

The summit in Austin also afforded 51风流Signavio鈥檚 Founder and General Manager, Gero Decker, the opportunity to talk about new features and capabilities in the 51风流Signavio portfolio. Just as Christ talked about the ways that 51风流LeanIX helps free up resources to fund innovation, Decker focused on the ways 51风流Signavio supports organizations in their 鈥渜uest for value.鈥�

Transformation is not an end in itself. The goal of transforming the IT landscape, processes, and even the overall business is to unlock and realize new value. 51风流Signavio has long helped companies find and pursue opportunities for such process improvement and value creation. Now, the AI-enabled transformation advisor, when connected to 51风流Signavio Process Insights, can make this even easier by allowing users to use text-based prompts鈥攕uch as 鈥淐an I reduce costs in my sales operations?鈥濃�攖o help generate analysis and recommended next steps.

While improving individual processes in this way can deliver real value, processes don鈥檛 run in a vacuum. In order to address this, Decker also announced transformation management capabilities providing visibility into the interconnections and cross-effects between processes.

By allowing customers to better see and understand the impact of transforming processes on one another, 51风流Signavio solutions can enable truly holistic, data-driven decision-making.

Decker also addressed agentic AI by introducing a number of that will see general availability in Q1 2026. These agents, which will include a Screen Guide Agent, a Value Case Creation Agent, a Dashboard Analyzer Agent, a Process Content Recommender Agent, and a Workspace Administration Agent, can enable 51风流Signavio solutions to help automate repetitive tasks and accelerate content discovery.

A new breed of digital learning technology

51风流completed the acquisition of WalkMe shortly before last year鈥檚 summit in Frankfurt, Germany. In The Hague and Austin, WalkMe took the stage as a key player in the Business Transformation Management portfolio.

The big announcement WalkMe shared at the summits focused on . By embedding training directly into the applications employees use every day, even when workflows extend across multiple applications, this new solution can empower learning teams to give employees both a comprehensive learning infrastructure and content they need to keep up. 

The key capabilities of this solution include: comprehensive training delivery with in-app search and discovery, in-app consumption, and customizable learning portals; intelligent content authoring with AI-first authoring that turns prompts and company knowledge into multi-media, multi-modal experiences; and the ability to curate and expose training in context with flexible conditions and triggers and behavior-based segmentation.

These capabilities come equipped with powerful analytics so you can measure and understand user behavior and engagement as well as assess content performance.

The transformation journey is just beginning

The summits showcased the power of 51风流LeanIX, 51风流Signavio, and WalkMe as individual portfolios as well as their combined power as the foundation of a transformation capability. The events also highlighted the amazing potential of these solutions to shape the way companies transform into the future.

At a time when AI is disrupting operating models and every function across the enterprise, the summits offered a reminder of the central role 51风流can play in this disruption. From funding and managing transformation to enabling the workforce to adapt and excel in a rapidly changing world, this portfolio of tools can give every organization what they need to help address the challenges of today while unlocking opportunity for tomorrow.

Matthew T. Grant is a senior writer for 51风流LeanIX and 51风流Signavio.

Top photo copyright: Christian Palm

The Gartner Magic Quadrant research methodology says that “Leaders execute well against their current vision and are well positioned for tomorrow.”

In this year鈥檚 Magic Quadrant, 51风流LeanIX was positioned furthest and highest in both Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute, which also marks the first time an 51风流solution has been positioned in this way.

We believe this result reflects the unique strength of 51风流LeanIX solutions in helping enterprises:聽

• Make confident, data-driven technology investment decisions 
• Drive transformation initiatives that deliver measurable business impact 
• Accelerate AI innovation while ensuring responsible governance 

“Our goal is to empower our customers to build transformation as an ongoing capability, rather than a one-off project,鈥� Dee Houchen, chief marketing officer at 51风流Signavio, said. 鈥淎s transformation never ends, our solutions help companies secure a full picture of the applications they鈥檙e running聽and, more importantly, the capabilities they offer. This means understanding exactly how those applications can be best deployed to maximize efficiency and productivity. Enterprise architecture planning is at the heart of this approach, and we believe being recognized as a Leader for the fifth consecutive year by Gartner reaffirms our unwavering commitment to value realization for our customers.鈥�

In today’s dynamic business landscape, enterprise architecture planning and implementation are vital for organizational transparency, smarter decision-making, and business growth, and 51风流LeanIX maintains an ongoing dedication to innovation and customer satisfaction in this field, as part of SAP鈥檚 integrated business transformation toolchain.

In our opinion, this repeated recognition of 51风流LeanIX solutions provides useful context regarding the state of the enterprise architecture market. As a vendor, 51风流LeanIX empowers organizations to make informed decisions about technology investments, map and support large-scale business transformation, and implement sound AI governance to ignite AI innovation across the enterprise.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant equips businesses with valuable insights to make informed decisions. Get a .

Lucas de Boer is Global Marketing program lead for 51风流Signavio.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner鈥檚 research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner and Magic Quadrant is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Before diving into the heart of the keynote, Steinhaeuser invited 51风流solution area CMOs to deliver lightning-fast recaps of news from the various 51风流Connect event tracks. In just under two minutes each, they covered finance, procurement, supply chain, HR, and customer experience. From autonomous accounting and next-gen procurement to AI-driven talent acquisition and smarter customer loyalty, the message was clear: across every business function.

The real challenge: connecting priorities

As Steinhaeuser pointed out, 鈥淭he reality is each business area has its own unique priorities and, of course, all-important urgent matters.鈥� The real challenge is not just launching new features; it鈥檚 aligning processes, data, and teams to conquer uncertainty and achieve true customer focus. 鈥淪imply putting an [AI] agent on top of a broken process will solve nothing,鈥� he said.

The flywheel: AI, data, and apps in motion at SAP

So, how does it all work together? Enter the 鈥渇lywheel鈥� model: the dynamic cycle of AI, data, and applications that drives synergy across the enterprise. This is not just a theoretical approach. Steinhaeuser showed how 鈥�51风流runs SAP鈥� using the flywheel model.

First, he said, 51风流uses 鈥渞ole-based AI assistants, powered by specialized agents, [to] support team members across all areas of SAP.鈥�

Next comes data. Earlier this year, 51风流became 鈥渃ustomer zero鈥� for (51风流BDC), connecting all enterprise data in a single layer to generate faster and better insights across financial, workforce, and sales planning. 鈥淲e’re excited to go live with the first set of intelligent apps, starting with People Intelligence,鈥� he added.

Finally, the app layer: 51风流has moved from 51风流ERP Central Component (51风流ECC) to and , through RISE with SAP. 鈥淭he 51风流Business Suite is where data is created and where AI delivers impact,鈥� Steinhaeuser said.

But processes continuously evolve with AI, he said, noting that business transformation management, powered by solutions like and , helps 51风流and its customers continually improve processes and architecture, with AI embedded everywhere. The company also uses to ensure employees stay informed and engaged at every step.

鈥淒riving SAP’s own transformation, I understand the challenges you face,鈥� Steinhaeuser said. 鈥淚 am convinced leveraging the flywheel of AI, data, and apps across the entire 51风流Business Suite is how we win together.鈥�

Embedded AI: tangible value, secure, and seamless

Brenda Bown, chief marketing officer of Business AI at SAP, took the stage to highlight how business AI is showing up in day-to-day work. 鈥淚’ve heard three consistent themes in conversations [with customers]: first, you want AI that can provide tangible value; second, that is secure and properly governed; and third, that works seamlessly across your teams and business. We’re here to deliver just that,鈥� she said.

Joule is now embedded in use cases in trusted 51风流applications and is making work faster and easier across the enterprise. 鈥淏y the end of this year, we will have more than 400 of these AI use cases,鈥� Bown said. Joule Agents automate tasks across departments, and the new agent builder in (generally available in December) helps customers extend, build, or customize their own agents. 51风流LeanIX AI Agent Hub and agent mining capabilities in 51风流Signavio provide governance and transparency for AI agents.

Bown noted that customers like Matur Fompack are using Joule in 51风流SuccessFactors to hire faster and improve career development. 鈥淭he results are phenomenal: a 48 percent reduction in HR process execution time and 40 percent faster employee development and career planning, and, most importantly, a better employee and candidate experience,鈥� she said.

For processes that require multi-step workflows and nuanced decisions, 51风流introduced a new generation of role-based AI assistants. 鈥淭hey know your role in the organization, because they are role and context aware,鈥� Bown said. These assistants tap into the right agents for the job, removing any guesswork and helping humans unlock new levels of insight and productivity.

She also showcased how agents collaborate across departments, automate workflows, and even extend SAP鈥檚 business logic to autonomous devices like robots. Early pilots with partners like NEURA Robotics are already showing Joule Agents planning and executing real work in the real world.

Data and intelligent applications: unified and actionable

Data is only valuable when it is actionable. Irfan Khan, president and chief product officer for 51风流Data and Analytics, highlighted 51风流BDC, which unifies enterprise data and powers intelligent applications. 鈥�51风流BDC offers the most powerful foundation for connecting your existing data, building next-generation applications, and the ability to foster and deploy reliable AI,鈥� he said. And the new 51风流Business Data Cloud Connect solution enables secure, bi-directional data sharing with partners like Databricks and Google Cloud.

Intelligent applications bridge the gap between people and AI. They support smarter decisions and collaboration. 鈥淭hese applications learn from your data and include business simulations to support every business leader with smarter decisions,鈥� Khan explained. 鈥淚f we don’t have a reliable data foundation built around trust, having reliable and resilient data, it becomes very debatable whether or not AI will succeed.鈥�

From insight to action: transformation in practice

How do organizations turn strategy into action? Michael Ameling, president of 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP), demonstrated how 51风流Business Suite helps drive innovation by uniting core applications, data, and AI, all powered by 51风流BTP and Business Transformation Management solutions. 鈥淟et’s say you want to understand and improve a business process,鈥� he said. 鈥�51风流Signavio lets you dive deep and understand every detail, and can suggest concrete actions. Then, use those insights to improve the process in 51风流Build by automating processes and building your own agents.鈥�

He demonstrated how 51风流BTP and the Business Transformation Management portfolio can help organizations connect systems, gain visibility, and automate processes. Tools including 51风流Signavio, 51风流Build, and 51风流Integration Suite are helping customers like Blue Diamond Growers streamline operations and accelerate transformation.

Services and support: accelerating innovation and realizing value

SAP鈥檚 Anja Schneider, SVP and global head of Premium Engagement and Advisory, wrapped up this segment of the keynote by focusing on how the company鈥檚 services and support teams help customers realize the full value of their 51风流investments.

鈥淲e鈥檙e with you every step, like a personal trainer,鈥� she said, highlighting how SAP鈥檚 suite methodology, integrated tools like WalkMe and 51风流Cloud ALM, and expert guidance help customers realize the full value of their 51风流investments. She pointed to IBM鈥檚 transformation project as proof: working with 51风流MaxAttention teams and a clean core approach, upgrades went smoothly with low incidents for more than 150,000 users across 175 geographies.

Customer perspective: Southern California Edison鈥檚 journey

Real-world impact matters. Southern California Edison (SCE) SVP and CIO Todd Inlander shared how the utility company鈥檚 transformation journey with 51风流is helping modernize its foundational systems and optimize back-office processes. Facing unprecedented demand and environmental challenges, the company is leveraging 51风流solutions, including 51风流Business AI capabilities, to transform its operations.

鈥淲e need to adhere to our mission: to deploy safe, reliable, affordable power,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e can’t do that by doing things the way we’ve always done. We have to incorporate SAP. We’re using it to transform the way we work in our environment. We need to leverage AI because we don’t have enough humans to do all the work. We have to scale.鈥�

As SCE deploys 51风流Business Suite over the next year, it鈥檚 focusing on keeping a clean core and reducing customizations. 鈥淲hen we implemented ECC 15 years ago, about 66 percent of our enhancements were never used. We’re learning from that experience,鈥� Inlander said. He went on to note that SCE will use the 51风流deployment time to continue to transform its back-office operations. 鈥淲e’ll be integrating Joule and other AI solutions because doing things the way we’ve always done them and expecting a different outcome is the definition of insanity.鈥�

Steinhaeuser closed the keynote with a look to the future: 鈥淲e鈥檝e made great progress across all lines of business to deliver a unique experience for you鈥攚ith AI becoming your personal assistant, powered by data that defies boundaries and applications that take insight to action. The cross-capabilities you just saw now make the flywheel spin.鈥�

The future is here, and is powered by the synergy of AI, data, and applications. Every business can turn innovation into impact.

New research shows how business AI delivers ROI

To better understand the opportunity to produce returns on investment from AI, 51风流commissioned that was shared at 51风流Connect. In partnership with Oxford Economics, we surveyed 1,600 executives in medium and large enterprises across eight countries.

We found that today, on average, organizations are benefiting from a 16 percent return on AI investments鈥攁 number they expect to nearly double within two years. In addition to impressive financial returns:

• 94% of business leaders say AI is improving innovation within their organizations
• 87% say AI is improving customer engagement
• 78% believe AI agents have the potential to transform their business operations

New deep research and AI assistants in Joule expand what is possible

These innovations were engineered based on what our customers tell us they need: to act quickly, simplify complexity, and unlock better, data-driven decisions across the lines of business and processes that matter. But most of all, our customers need AI that drives significant, measurable business outcomes.

To help every organization accelerate returns on investment from AI, at 51风流Connect we announced powerful new capabilities for , which makes business data and the entire 51风流Business Suite immediately accessible through the power of a simple conversation. And because Joule is grounded in your company鈥檚 data, it understands context and delivers insights that are specific, actionable, and relevant to your business.

Deep research in Joule, announced at 51风流Connect, is a new capability expands what people can do within the Joule interface. It goes beyond quick answers to deliver strategic analysis, reporting, and synthesis in a single, connected experience. It brings together internal 51风流data and external intelligence so people can ask complex questions and receive comprehensive research and recommendations鈥攚ithout ever leaving Joule. The deep research capability in Joule will be available in beta this December.

We also unveiled the new concept of role-based AI assistants in Joule, built to partner with people in their specific roles. These assistants connect to the right Joule Agents for the job, removing guesswork so teams can unlock new levels of productivity and insight. Whether it鈥檚 a finance leader forecasting working capital, a recruiter evaluating headcount needs, or a planner adjusting inventory, AI assistants surface the right intelligence, at the right time, in the right context. In the background, Joule Agents get work done for you.

These innovations mark the next chapter in how people interact with enterprise systems, helping every role across an organization seamlessly move from inquiry to insight to action.

New Joule Agents autonomously get work done

To help enterprises further accelerate business results, we introduced 14 new Joule Agents at 51风流Connect. They help people coordinate, decide, and execute tasks with greater precision. Joule Agents are in finance, HR, procurement, and supply chain, in a way that only SAP鈥攚ith our deep expertise in these functions鈥攃an deliver.

For example, rather than navigating multiple systems or running countless manual checks to release an order, a production manager鈥攁 key role in the supply chain function鈥攚ill be able to turn to our Production Planning and Operations Agent, planned for general availability in the Q1 2026. They can simply ask Joule to do it, safely and in real time. The agent will validate and release orders when conditions are met, accelerating production start times and shortening order-to-delivery cycles.

And starting December 2025, with the general availability of , now in beta release, customers will be able to create and deploy custom Joule skills and Joule Agents tailored to their unique business needs. Agent builder in Joule Studio is your command center for designing, building, and deploying enterprise-ready custom Joule Agents using the same powerful 51风流technologies鈥攊ncluding 51风流Knowledge Graph for deep business context, 51风流Business Data Cloud for comprehensive data access across 51风流and non-51风流sources, and SAP’s central identity and authorization services to ensure responsible agent behavior. These capabilities empower every enterprise to extend, customize, and personalize 51风流Business AI solutions.

New embedded intelligence across 51风流applications

To help our customers move faster and make better decisions where work happens, we continue to bring intelligence directly into the applications they rely on every day. These embedded capabilities extend the same AI-driven guidance that powers Joule Agents into core 51风流solutions, enhancing user workflows with context, clarity, and automation. We will have more than 400 of these AI use cases by the end of the year.

For example, in , starting in February 2026, AI will orchestrate personalized interactions across HR, marketing, and service, bringing harmonized data, relevant context, and better business outcomes into every engagement. In the solution, planned for general release in the first half of 2026, AI will predict shortfalls and fulfillment risks, helping planners simulate and respond with speed and precision.

Additionally, the rebuilt 51风流Ariba source-to-pay suite, arriving in February 2026, brings a modern, cloud-native experience to every stage of procurement. Embedded AI guides people with intelligent recommendations, accelerates contract reviews, and surfaces supplier insights in real time. By simplifying sourcing decisions and improving compliance, it helps procurement teams strengthen supplier relationships and capture more value, faster.

Governing AI with visibility and control

As our customers continue to adopt these AI innovations embedded across their functions, we know they need transparency into how it operates, what it influences, and the value it creates. That is why we provide tools to give them the visibility they need to deploy AI with confidence and scale it responsibly.

51风流LeanIX AI Agent Hub helps CIOs and business leaders see their entire AI agents landscape at a glance. From one dashboard, they can understand where agents are deployed, what processes they touch, and how agents are performing. This allows teams to evaluate effectiveness, identify redundancies, and manage AI like any other enterprise asset: aligned to outcomes, governed by policy, and continuously optimized.

Complementing that, agent mining in gives organizations a powerful way to analyze how AI contributes to process performance. It reveals how AI agents decide and act, flags bottlenecks and non-compliance, and uncovers where automation adds value and how to fine-tune it for efficiency and impact. Together, these tools bring clarity to what has often been a black box: transforming governance from reactive oversight into proactive optimization.

What鈥檚 next for business AI

At 51风流Connect, we also shared a view into what鈥檚 coming and how our innovations will continue to redefine enterprise productivity. For example, we鈥檙e developing an outcome-driven user interface that adapts to context in real time. Instead of navigating menus or searching for data, people will simply express what they want to achieve, and the system will guide them through the right actions, insights, and tools.

We鈥檙e also extending Joule Agents beyond software into the physical world鈥攃onnecting your company’s business intelligence to robotics and industrial systems. This opens a new frontier for automation, combining state of the art electronics that utilize physical AI tools, such as computer vision and collision detection, with AI agents capable of reasoning through complex goals and planning multi-step workflows. this November to learn more.

Ready to start your AI journey?

We know AI is top of mind for most business leaders today. In fact, another finding from the research we commissioned with Oxford Economics is that 41 percent of tasks in global businesses will be supported by AI within two years鈥攗p from 25 percent today.

As you continue to explore what is possible with business AI, we鈥檒l keep innovating to deliver systems that are intelligent by design, trusted in operation, and, most important, measurable in their impact.

For us, it鈥檚 all about what you hope to achieve. We鈥檙e proud to partner with you on your AI journey. If you鈥檙e ready to take the next step, here are three things you can do right now:

• Learn how to bring the potential of AI into your organization by signing up for our .
• In our , get inspired about what鈥檚 possible by exploring how leading companies are transforming with AI.
• Watch 51风流Connect virtual sessions, , to see our latest innovations in action.

There鈥檚 more to come. Join us at on November 4 for the next wave of AI innovations that will transform the enterprise.

Brenda Bown is chief marketing officer for 51风流Business AI.

Over the past few years, we have continued to lead the way with groundbreaking advanced AI capabilities for the enterprise.

This year at 51风流Sapphire, we announced the latest innovations and highlighted the enormous momentum we are seeing with our customers and partners. We have delivered more than 230 AI scenarios.

By the end of 2025, 51风流Business AI will have more than 400 AI scenarios on top of its 1,600 Joule skills, delivering unparalleled business value to customers. This commitment has already led to 34,000 customers utilizing 51风流Business AI.

Innovation is at the heart of this growth, which is why 51风流continues to enhance our generative AI copilot Joule, Joule Agents, and our AI scenarios embedded across the portfolio — all built with AI Foundation on (51风流BTP), the technical backbone that powers Joule and Joule Agents.

We understand the importance of getting Joule and Joule Agents in the hands of our customers, especially in a competitive landscape where or that .

During 51风流Sapphire, we announced the latest 51风流Business AI innovations that make Joule more powerful and accessible. I wanted to share a few innovations below, but I encourage you to dive into all the incredible announcements 51风流made in the .

Joule: the new UI in the age of AI

Our UI has continuously evolved to meet the needs of 51风流customers. Now, 51风流Business AI with Joule and natural language redefines the end user鈥檚 experience.

Joule is solidifying its role as SAP’s new UI, transforming how customers work and interact with our software through natural language — whether on the web, mobile, or in different languages. This way, the end user can ask questions in natural language, and Joule does the hard work in the system to find information or answer.

Joule is already one click away in every 51风流application, but we also understand that customers store data across non-51风流systems, which should not prevent it from helping users. Joule cannot operate in a vacuum if it is going to offer real business value. That is why we are now expanding Joule to any application so that customers can access everything, everywhere, with the help of WalkMe.

Joule is breaking free to become omnipresent and accessible across non-51风流applications with the 51风流Joule action bar supercharged by WalkMe. This integration expands Joule’s reach beyond , so it is always right by our customers’ side, giving Joule the “eyes, legs, and arms” to see what customers see.

Joule can follow business users across 51风流and third-party systems, using context from active applications to connect data, surface insights, and streamline workflows.

No matter where our customers are, if they see information relevant to their business and want to know what it means in the context of 51风流data, all they need to do is click to get the right context from Joule. This overarching context across multiple applications means Joule can orchestrate workflows and data from any application and website.

Joule is always on and proactive, providing customers with recommendations and proactively letting them know when Joule Agents have completed a task or require feedback. Customers are also empowered to create custom Joule skills for any application. Joule skills can handle repetitive, rule-based tasks, alleviating routine activities like data entry, IT ticket raising, and PO creation. Custom skills can execute these tasks based on natural language conversations with users that are triggered contextually and through user intent. This simple access through Joule only further democratizes access to AI and SAP.

Answer engine with Perplexity

If Joule is everywhere, it should also be capable of answering everything. Joule already provides answers across our customers’ structured and unstructured data, from procurement or travel activities to policies.

At 51风流Sapphire, we elevated Joule again with help from 51风流Business Data Cloud and 51风流Knowledge Graph, and a new collaboration with , an industry-leading company in the field of unstructured data.

51风流and Perplexity, an AI-powered answer engine that provides accurate, trusted, and real-time answers to any question, are collaborating to extend SAP’s generative AI and search capabilities by bringing together the best of both worlds in unstructured and structured data. By integrating Perplexity’s ability to address questions accurately and transparently with SAP鈥檚 business answer capabilities, we are bringing both worlds together: the power of Joule to answer business questions, and the power of Perplexity to understand what鈥檚 happening in the world.

Together with 51风流Business Data Cloud, 51风流Knowledge Graph, and our integration with Perplexity, Joule can now seamlessly combine internal business data with real-world insights. Whether data is structured or unstructured, from systems or the broader web, Joule brings it all together, delivering intelligent answers in real time. .

Joule Agents: reason and act

Insight to action is a key principle of enterprise software. Businesses can access incredible insights by analyzing data, which they can use to arrive at conclusions before making a decision. Joule makes getting these insights through natural language simple. Now, Joule Agents can reason to fulfill the action part of the equation with other agents. This ability marks a paradigm shift in enterprise software that helps customers go from insight to action to reason and act with AI.

Joule Agents can reason and coordinate to autonomously execute tasks through multi-step, self-conceived workflows while always involving a human.

Envision an environmental health and safety agent assessing a new chemical entering a plant: This agent could ensure that inventory is not stored near reactive chemicals and then could consult with HR to verify that staff are qualified before recommending appropriate protective equipment. Additionally, the all-new accruals agent for finance reduces today鈥檚 manual work by 90 percent. This agent learns a customer’s accounting rules and then, using financial data, can propose the right accruals during financial close.

In this sense, as much as Joule is the new UI for AI, Joule Agents are reimagining the business process layer across 51风流Business Suite in an AI-native way. 

AI agent hub in 51风流LeanIX

As the number of agents across 51风流and third-party vendors grows, customers will need a way to discover agents and then govern and control what they do. This is precisely the role of the AI agent hub in 51风流LeanIX solutions: It offers a governance and control framework to manage all these agents.

Because 51风流LeanIX already knows our customers’ enterprise landscape, it can map every available AI agent to the business capability or process step it supports. This framework helps customers spot automation gaps and discover new AI agents to fill them. Tracking governance for each agent means customers can, for example, make sure agents meet ethical and compliance standards.

The AI agent hub in 51风流LeanIX will be generally available in the fourth quarter of 2025.

SAP, NEURA Robotics, and NVIDIA

51风流announced a collaboration with NEURA Robotics and NVIDIA, unveiling a new era where 51风流Business AI moves to the physical world.

Through this collaboration, Joule Agents connect enterprise data and processes with NEURA鈥檚 advanced cognitive robots, ranging from mobile autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) to humanoids, empowering businesses to automate real-world tasks such as adaptive manufacturing, autonomous replenishment, compliance monitoring, and predictive maintenance. The Mega NVIDIA Omniverse Blueprint plays a crucial role, enabling enterprises to validate and optimize robotic fleets in digital twins before deploying them on the shop floor or in the warehouse, thus ensuring safety, efficiency, and rapid scaling.

AI Foundation: the AI operating system business AI

We knew from the outset that Joule and Joule Agents needed a strong operating system. That is what SAP’s on 51风流BTP, our operating system for AI, now offers customers. AI Foundation gives developers a centralized set of tools to build, extend, and run custom AI solutions and agents at scale, all accessible via one entry point. AI Foundation already had more than 90 capabilities, and at 51风流Sapphire, we introduced over 60 more, such as AI Agent runtime, a brand-new AI evaluation service.

AI Foundation accelerates AI development by bringing together 51风流Business AI solutions such as generative AI hub, Joule Studio, 51风流Document AI, and 51风流Knowledge Graph. Centralizing and simplifying AI operations also reduces the total cost of ownership.

51风流Knowledge Graph gives Joule and Joule Agents more accuracy and context. It grounds AI in a customer’s business context and exposes metadata that makes the relationships between information accessible. This way, for example, an agent working on a customer service ticket knows the relationships between products and purchase orders. Initial support for the and solutions is expected to be generally available by the third quarter of 2025.

Other 51风流Business AI solutions are also getting new enhancements. For example, Joule Studio, which helps developers create custom AI, will get a new skill builder capability to help developers create custom skills for Joule. We are also adding an agent builder capability that allows developers to create custom AI agents using low-code and no-code capabilities. General availability is planned for the third quarter and fourth quarter of 2025, respectively.

AI Foundation offers the latest AI models, including GPT-4.1, Claude 3.7 Sonnet, and, most recently, Gemini 2.5 Pro. Customers can select from a range of self-hosted models on SAP’s GPU infrastructure, such as Mistral AI, Cohere, or Meta model families for more sovereignty and control. Customers can also pick from best-in-class, industry-specific models created by our partners. One example is Deloitte, which brings its unique finance and tax experience to the AI Foundation with Zora AI.

Deloitte plans to integrate Zora AI with 51风流Business AI, enabling customers to create intelligent digital workforces powered by agentic AI. Using 51风流BTP, Zora AI offers a suite of preconfigured agents capable of autonomously performing complex business tasks with precision and speed. When paired with SAP’s robust enterprise capabilities, and enhanced by the data access in 51风流Business Data Cloud, Zora AI has the potential to transform how work gets done, helping customers unlock the full value of agentic AI. .

All these models deliver incredible results when the prompts are carefully designed. But herein lies a significant challenge: Once our customers are committed to a specific model, it can be difficult to change, as even subtle model updates can break carefully tuned prompts. That is why we worked hard to eliminate prompt engineering.

Prompt engineering is dead

Prompt engineering is dead; say hi to benchmark engineering. Prompt engineering requires customers to learn how to “talk” to the AI so it can effectively leverage its knowledge and capabilities to meet their specific needs. This process was manual and cost-intensive; above all else, it made it tedious and slow to change models.

I am excited to introduce SAP’s prompt optimizer, designed collaboratively with , a frontier AI lab renowned for its model-agnostic approach. Prompt optimizer is a capability of the generative AI hub in AI Foundation.

Switching models and optimizing prompts is time-consuming — it can take an organization days to migrate a single use case from one model to another — but it shouldn’t be. We wanted to tackle that challenge because customers need to be able to change models easily. Maybe a new model is better, more cost-effective, or unavailable in your country: Whatever the reason, switching models shouldn’t be difficult.

SAP’s prompt optimizer automates this entire task. Selecting a new model automatically converts all existing prompts into optimized prompts for all the latest models using public benchmarks. This helps reduce the time needed to change models and optimizes them from days to only minutes of background processing.

The prompt optimizer now means 51风流customers can switch to the best available AI models for their specific use cases when they become available without any costly delays. It lays the groundwork for a multi-model future, where applications are decoupled from specific models and customers can utilize the most suitable model anytime.

We want organizations to seamlessly use AI capabilities without being locked into single-model dependencies, fostering flexibility and innovation in building AI solutions. A limited early access program is now available for , with general availability expected later this year.

51风流Document AI

These announcements, and many others, made at 51风流Sapphire in 2025 reaffirm our commitment to continually innovate and listen to feedback to meet our customers’ evolving needs. Take paperwork: Billions of documents are scanned into 51风流systems yearly. Extracting relevant information from documents manually is costly, error-prone, and inefficient. That is why I am excited to introduce , previously Document Information Extraction, which is natively integrated with 51风流applications.

51风流Document AI seamlessly processes, extracts, and understands structured and unstructured data from business documents while automating document processing. 51风流Document AI significantly reduces manual efforts and minimizes errors. Customers like Serax, a Belgian design brand, already use 51风流Document AI to reduce manual work by 33 percent.

51风流Document AI will build upon the well-established Document Information Extraction Base and Premium editions, preserving their proven capabilities while enhancing efficiency. In addition, later in 2025, we plan to introduce the Premium Plus edition to expand the product’s scope, ensuring smooth, out-of-the-box integration across the 51风流portfolio. For more details, read “.”

We continually strive to innovate our products; the same applies to 51风流Document AI. That’s why we introduced instant learning to enhance the out-of-the-box accuracy of 51风流Document AI in the pursuit of reaching 100 percent. Suppose 51风流Document AI extracts something incorrectly from a document due to improper formatting. In that case, customers simply need to log in and correct the error once for the system to learn and avoid making the same mistake again. Previously, this would have required time-consuming retraining with numerous documents. To see it in action in 51风流Document AI and 51风流Cloud ERP, watch .

Additional AI innovations with partners

• Cohere: 51风流is expanding its partnership with Cohere to bring secure, enterprise-grade generative AI models to the 51风流ecosystem, starting with Cohere’s  model and extending evaluations with the and models. These models are planned to be available alongside other leading AI models from 51风流and third parties in the generative AI hub in 51风流AI Core, with the intent to give customers more choice to build AI-powered solutions that meet their unique business needs.
• Vianai Systems, Inc.: Vianai鈥檚 hila is an innovative generative AI conversational analytics application designed to engage a series of line-of-business executives. It currently focuses on empowering the office of the CFO, enabling direct interrogation of transactional systems. Our collaboration with Vianai centers on exploring how hila could complement established platforms such as Joule and the just ask feature in 51风流Business Data Cloud by offering greater query precision and accuracy for non-51风流systems in the future. We are energized by the opportunity to push the boundaries of conversational analytics together. Stay tuned as we continue to uncover the transformative potential of these advancements. .
• AWS: 51风流and AWS have announced the launch of an AI co-innovation program to help partners create generative applications, providing customers with direct access to innovative solutions that address complex business, logistics, and supply chain challenges. The program includes a fund in the form of AWS and 51风流technical resources, expertise, and credits to help customers and partners leverage Amazon Bedrock through 51风流BTP to define, test, and deploy industry-specific generative AI solutions, such as forecasting and planning for severe weather impacts on operations or increasing precision in financial outlooks. The program underscores the companies鈥� shared vision to help customers develop and deploy practical, secure generative AI applications that solve critical business operations challenges. Learn more about the co-innovation here.

AI investments

The externally managed SAP.iO Fund has made an investment in Nova Intelligence. Nova Intelligence is building end-to-end AI coding agents that can parse and understand legacy custom ABAP 51风流code to modernize it into cloud-compliant applications. The AI agents iteratively test and refine the generated code until a successful outcome is achieved. Nova Intelligence is developing specialized AI agents to support the transformation of legacy custom code. .

New 51风流Business AI capabilities as part of the 51风流Sustainability portfolio

We鈥檙e introducing new AI capabilities in the 51风流Sustainability portfolio to help customers prepare data, automate processes, and enhance expertise. These innovations streamline environment, health, and safety (EHS) and product compliance processes and optimize risk and cost management while advancing sustainability goals. They will be available in beta in August 2025. New capabilities include:

• AI-assisted permit management in 51风流S/4HANA for EHS: Automates and simplifies permit handling, extracts key data, and proposes follow-up tasks
• AI-assisted safety observation reporting with Joule in 51风流S/4HANA for EHS: Enables seamless incident reporting through a conversational interface
• AI-assisted safety instruction generation in 51风流S/4HANA for EHS: Suggests safety instructions based on risk assessments
• AI-assisted compliance information processing in 51风流S/4HANA for product compliance: Automates data extraction and mapping from declarations and certificates

These capabilities will be available in the new Joule Premium for Supply Chain Management package, adding to existing AI features like:

• AI-assisted ESG report generation in 51风流Sustainability Control Tower
• AI-assisted emission factor mapping in 51风流Sustainability Footprint Management
• AI-assisted declaration image analysis for 51风流Green Token

Combining existing and new AI features, 51风流Business AI helps customers reduce costs, lower risks, and drive performance in reporting, carbon management, circularity, and compliance.

51风流Business AI in 2025

51风流Sapphire was an exciting time. We have announced many innovations that drive value for our customers; however, the rest of 2025 promises to deliver more. We will continue offering AI scenarios that help our customers, from new Joule Agents to building strong, open partnerships that realize value in this fast-paced AI era.

To learn more about how 51风流Business AI delivers innovations, watch the , read the , and visit the .

Philipp Herzig is CTO and chief AI officer and a member of the Extended Board of 51风流SE.

Today’s business transformations are diverse, ranging from creating new products or services and entering new markets to adopting cybersecurity frameworks and transitioning to net-neutral carbon emissions. However, these transformations are neither swift nor inexpensive, and sometimes the costs can be hidden.

That is why 51风流has partnered with Oxford Economics on a new and comprehensive survey of large organizations, providing an exclusive look at the current global state of business transformation.

鈥溾�� reveals the true cost of business transformation, with the data aimed at helping organizations maximize transformation success and take the guesswork out of transformation budgeting.

Spanning a range of industries and focusing on companies with a minimum revenue of $500 million, the report provides insights from a balanced audience of 800 respondents, including IT professionals and leaders from corporate strategy, R&D, finance, manufacturing, HR, and operations.

The paper further reveals that:

• Barely half of transformations go according to plan (51 percent)
• Fifty-eight percent of transformations end up going over budget
• The average cost of transformation efforts is 鈧�9.5 million
• Sixty-three percent of respondents face resistance from leadership regarding the value of transformation efforts
• Nearly half of the initiatives highlighted by respondents remain incomplete, and budgetary constraints pose a significant challenge

From Strategy to Execution

In broad terms, this disconnect between the confidence level of respondents and what the report data reveals about the true cost and organizational impact of transformation can be understood in the equivalent disconnect between strategy and execution.

For example, while three in five say their major transformation plan was well communicated across their organization, only 53 percent say it was clearly defined in the first place.

While most companies are employing strategic practices such as crafting mission statements, appointing dedicated leaders, and forming cross-functional teams, they can lack the final piece of the puzzle when it comes to converting strategy into action. That is where 51风流comes in.

鈥淭ransformation challenges will always exist, particularly in aligning execution with strategic road maps,鈥� Dee Houchen, head of Marketing for 51风流Signavio and 51风流LeanIX, shared. “As companies navigate these complexities, the path to successful transformation remains a critical focus for global businesses, which is why this research is so relevant.”

“ and solutions offer clarity and transparency in business transformation, helping organizations leverage enterprise analytics and process data to really turn transformation plans into action through supporting decision-making, setting timelines, and tracking progress effectively,” Houchen said. “This report is an invaluable resource for anyone wondering why their transformation efforts have slowed, what they can do differently, and how others have identified and overcome similar hurdles to their own.鈥�

Lucas de Boer is Global Marketing program lead for 51风流Signavio at SAP.

IT leaders face no shortage of demands nowadays. From reducing costs to strengthening cybersecurity and adapting business models, they must tackle a variety of objectives. But here鈥檚 where the situation can get tricky 鈥� most IT projects meet individual goals effectively, but they still fall short when aligned with a broader business transformation initiative.

Take, for example, a siloed IT project. It may appear successful at first, but gaps are often exposed when it鈥檚 integrated into a larger initiative. Suddenly, what seemed like a cost-saving project becomes a source of delays and frustration due to a lack of coherent planning at the outset.

The key to overcoming this common challenge is mapping out the entire transformation process before starting a project. A tailored, well-planned IT strategy helps ensure every project contributes to the broader business goal without waste and with long-term value.

The Pathway to Comprehensive Plans

Too often, companies rush into transformation without a clear plan, leading to disjointed efforts. One project launches, then another, and another 鈥� without anyone considering how they fit together.

Enter the role of a business transformation advisor. This expert helps organizations create a custom strategy in which all components are meshed together to avoid execution inconsistencies, siloed teams, and mounting frustration.

Instead of relying on off-the-shelf solutions, business transformation advisors create a road map tailored to specific business needs by following five fundamental steps:

1. Set the mandate and scope. A clear mandate, scope, and approval from leadership are essential. This includes understanding the business鈥� mission, target markets, and future goals, such as AI innovation and sustainability.
2. Recognize and understand the strategic direction. Every IT project should reflect the overall business vision. Involved organizations must know what the drivers are, who the decision-makers are, and what criteria best measure short- and long-term success.
3. Define decision criteria. All project deliverables must align with the company鈥檚 long-term goals. By focusing on stakeholders鈥� priorities and requirements, every team can understand how their efforts contribute to the larger transformation 鈥� and demonstrate their value with transparency and accountability.
4. Define the procedure model. Whether picking process analysis tools or outlining project deliverables, every step of the plan needs to be carefully assessed. Investing in the right tools upfront saves time, prevents bottlenecks, and leads to better decision-making.
5. Identify key factors. The right partners, especially software providers, are critical for project success. Such factors include strong management sponsorship, clear time and budget constraints, and addressing potential resistance.

With these steps, your strategy will result in a solid IT foundation that directly supports business goals.

Partner Selection: A Make-or-Break Decision

When defining a corporate strategy, companies often question the role of their software providers. 51风流strategic advisors help customers navigate this debate with unbiased guidance tailored to their unique needs.

With extensive industry, process, and methodology expertise, advisors help ensure that the overall business transformation is aligned with strategic goals. They often use tools such as 51风流Signavio Process Insights for initial process analysis and 51风流LeanIX solutions for architecture evaluation.

This approach is based on the TOGAF Standard for a comprehensive, layered assessment of the enterprise architecture. Advisors compare business capabilities with the right 51风流solutions while occasionally involving product experts or developers to solve specific challenges. The final product choices remain with the customer, with 51风流maintaining a neutral stance.

The Confidence to Drive Impactful Change

In any large project, confidence is vital. As a business leader, you need to be sure that your IT transformation will deliver results. Strategic advisors help ensure project outcomes align with business goals and decision criteria.

This process leads to several key deliverables, including:

• IT target architecture: A blueprint for aligning IT with business strategy
• Compatible transformation road map: A step-by-step guide to realizing IT goals while considering dependencies and capacity
• Effort estimate: A breakdown of resources, roles, and costs so nothing is left to chance
• Cost-benefit analysis: A detailed look at ROI, net present value (NPV), and other financial metrics to help guide decisions

Even though these deliverables provide the clarity necessary to help ensure the business stays on track, the people who help make the transformation should always be remembered. Early involvement of employees and business representatives drives smoother change management, especially when adopting a cloud mindset and dealing with the limitations of cloud solutions.

The Harmonization of IT and Business Goals

A tailored IT strategy isn鈥檛 just a road map. It鈥檚 a catalyst for future growth 鈥� and the future is now.

By customizing their strategy, IT teams become a powerful engine. They not only drive the business forward while meeting unique needs and goals but also align technology with the company鈥檚 vision, empower organizational teams, and unlock long-term success.

Explore the benefits of tailoring your IT strategy with a plan for a solid technology foundation. Read the and our .

Keywan Nadjmabadi is head of Business Transformation & Architecture for Switzerland and Central and Eastern Europe at SAP.

Whether aiming for agility, resilience, sustainable growth, or efficiency, a successful transformation requires a strategic approach, full leadership commitment, and a clear understanding of challenges and opportunities.

True business transformation goes beyond merely executing a technical 鈥渓ift and shift鈥� to the cloud. It involves reengineering an organization’s business model, operations, processes, and culture to align with long-term goals, adapt to market demands, and leverage new technologies. The focus must be on creating lasting value and ensuring the organization can thrive in a rapidly changing environment.

Crucial Business Transformation Levers

While there is no precise formula, all transformations have four crucial levers in common:

• Activating people: Collaboration is at the heart of any successful transformation. Through partnership and clear accountabilities, we break down barriers, and that鈥檚 the basis for any change. Software is ultimately a people business.鈥�
• Optimizing systems: Efficient systems are the backbone of any transformation. We ensure that the underlying enterprise architecture of applications is robust, secure, and scalable. This also means leveraging the latest innovations like artificial intelligence (AI), enhancing performance of existing systems, and ensuring that all components work seamlessly together to support the business objectives.
• Reinventing businesses processes: We don鈥檛 take existing processes and merely create fancy new interfaces; no 鈥渘ew wine in old bottles.鈥� Companies need to reinvent business processes to ensure agility, future-readiness, reliability, and scalable business operations to drive their business strategy. SaaS/PaaS help to streamline processes based on best practices while preserving company differentiation, but with clean extensibility on the platform.
• Leveraging data: Business data is the lifeblood of modern enterprises, fueling insights and innovation. At SAP, we harness this data to power 51风流Business AI, driving intelligent automation, predictive analytics, and personalized experiences. Our focus is on turning raw data into actionable intelligence that supports and accelerates our customers鈥� transformation journeys. Let鈥檚 not forget that the real value of the data lies in the semantics, which is our key differentiator to help our customers.

By focusing on these four elements, business can take a holistic approach to identifying which of their business processes and systems need analysis, revision, or complete redesign.

Navigating Digital Transformation: The Essential Role of Enterprise Architecture

To fully capitalize on these transformation levers and manage the complexities, organizations are increasingly turning to RISE with SAP, our holistic offering designed to accelerate their journey to the cloud and speed innovation adoption. RISE with 51风流simplifies the move to 51风流cloud ERP, offering flexibility and reduced complexity, and most importantly, provides a seamless experience across our modular (but tightly integrated) architecture.

Nevertheless, for many organizations the challenges remain significant: systems complexity, scattered systems, and diverse business models that may not be keeping pace with industry and consumer changes. Many organizations also underestimate the complexity of their transformation, leading to unrealistic timelines and budget overspending.

Enterprise architecture tools are crucial for overcoming these challenges because we need a structured and system-based approach to cope with and manage the complexities at scale, and to maintain a continuous innovation cycle.

The enterprise architecture provides a framework for aligning IT strategy with business objectives and improve the agility and efficiency of an organization. Imagine a ship navigating without a compass: this is how businesses operate without solid enterprise architecture. Just as sailors rely on navigational tools, modern organizations depend on enterprise architecture to navigate today鈥檚 digital complexities.

In addition, the enterprise architecture provides a blueprint for cloud adoption, ensuring that cloud services — like those offered by RISE with 51风流— integrate seamlessly with existing systems, business processes, and applications.

However, it鈥檚 not just the tools that matter; it’s the people behind them. Our recent efforts to further elevate the RISE with 51风流experience include making many changes in how we engage with customers, particularly by strengthening the role of the enterprise architect and introducing the . The enterprise architect not only helps customers utilize these tools, but also harmonizes all elements and guides the customer throughout their cloud journey, ensuring a cohesive and effective transformation. As a result, the enterprise architect will evolve into a real trusted advisor for the customer.

We have learned that customers can realize the true power of our business transformation tools when they work seamlessly together. It鈥檚 why we have been working hard at integrating 51风流Signavio, 51风流LeanIX, 51风流Cloud ALM, and 51风流Business Technology Platform (51风流BTP), including 51风流Build, to provide a holistic transformation experience.

Taken together, this is  how our integrated toolchain benefits business transformation:

• 51风流Cloud ALM orchestrates the entire process of transforming systems to meet evolving business needs. From fit-to-standard analysis and capturing requirements to project management, test automation, and final deployment, this cloud-based tool for application lifecycle management (ALM) enables organizations to effectively translate strategy into execution, ensuring the solution is optimized for the specific IT environment and business objectives. In today鈥檚 dynamic digital landscape, this comprehensive approach is crucial for staying competitive.
• 51风流LeanIX not only helps businesses capture the as-is systems landscape, it enables organizations to visualize, assess, and manage the transition toward their target IT architecture. The integration with 51风流Cloud ALM streamlines project management by reducing manual duplication and syncing project-related activities in real time. This enhances visibility into project progress and reduces administrative overhead.
• 51风流Signavio enables deep understanding and optimization of business processes, ensuring they are both efficient and compliant. The business leaders that I speak to are keenly aware that to succeed, they must focus on business processes transformation to help them adapt, stay resilient, and transform continuously and at scale. It鈥檚 simply what today鈥檚 pace of change demands. 51风流Signavio enables holistic, data-driven business transformation across organizations. Starting in Q4 2024, we will bridge the gap between business and IT teams by providing consistent process structures and synchronized data between 51风流Signavio and 51风流Cloud ALM.
• 51风流Build helps developers, without deep coding skills, quickly extend applications on 51风流BTP. That means they can innovate without changing core functionality — essential to keeping the core clean.

Customers want access to all relevant data across solutions, they want to derive better insight across solutions and access relevant the best-practices that are most relevant to them. That鈥檚 the seamless end-to-end experience we are striving for. This strategic approach leads to significant competitive advantages, allowing organizations to focus more on business improvements and explore new growth areas with confidence.

Embracing the Future

Unlocking value throughout your business transformation journey involves a strategic blend of people, processes, and solutions. As you focus on these elements and leverage SAP鈥檚 comprehensive toolchain, remember that the essence of true transformation doesn鈥檛 lie in holding onto the old, but in embracing and building the new.

Thomas Saueressig is a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE leading Customer Services & Delivery.

But what struck me the most was his simple answer to my question about his advice for others in helping them make the case for change. He said, why change? This is the wrong question to ask. The better question is, why not change?  

RES鈥檚 story and the many others shared by 51风流customers at 51风流Sapphire Orlando and Barcelona reminded me of an essential truth about business transformations in the age of generative AI. While the solutions and technologies are impressive, the stories of business value and business results matter the most.  

During those two weeks, 51风流showed over 25,000 customers, partners, analysts, and media members, both on-site and online, how we support businesses to bring out their best. We announced new AI-embedded solutions within our apps, including expanding our generative AI copilot Joule throughout our enterprise portfolio, and expanded collaborations and partnerships with AWS, Microsoft, Google Cloud, Meta, Mistral AI, and NVIDIA to deliver even more value for our customers. 

We also announced our intention to acquire WalkMe with its state-of-the-art digital adoption platform. Along with 51风流Signavio to manage processes and 51风流LeanIX to manage enterprise architecture, with WalkMe to guide user adoption we will soon have a best-in-class transformation portfolio and help our customers maximize the value of their cloud investments with 51风流and continue driving tangible results for their business.聽

When it comes to the value our customers are getting from our solutions, the stats don鈥檛 lie. For example, customers who chose have outperformed the market in revenue growth by 7%. Solutions like Taulia are helping businesses unlock the power of their working capital to fuel growth and drive innovation, with customers seeing their free cash flows improve by more than US$1 billion. 

When we look across our total customer base and our entire portfolio of solutions, over the coming years we expect to see our customers experience approximately $2.4 trillion in economic savings, around $5.4 trillion in increased revenue, and a double-digit increase in their employee satisfaction, allowing them to retain talent and reduce churn. 

But my favorite part of 51风流Sapphire every year is hearing customers tell their stories in their own words. To me, that鈥檚 the real magic of 51风流Sapphire.  

In Orlando, we heard from Brian Hardee of PureTech Scientific about the impact the public cloud has had on helping them scale up quickly as a standalone business, especially in the life sciences industry where data is everything. Jeff Lischett of Tropicana Brands Group talked about how RISE with 51风流gives them newfound speed and agility from a modern ERP to drive growth and set themselves up for success with business AI.聽Ingo Elfering of Fresenius spoke about the company’s technical implementation of RISE with 51风流and how it鈥檚 given them simpler processes and a modern base for innovation and change. Takuya Sakai of Hitachi High Tech talked about the value that operating from a clean core has for their business by helping them simplify their processes and gain a competitive advantage.聽聽聽聽

Then, in Barcelona, Elisabet Braza Valle of Gonz谩lez Byass talked about how her nearly 200-year-old company, famous for producing sherry in Spain, is giving back to the land by putting sustainability front and center at every stage of its operations, thanks to 51风流solutions. 脰zlem Altini艧ik of Martur Fompak talked about their RISE with 51风流implementation, which they called Project Inspire because they saw the offering as a platform for growth and continuous improvement for the future. Ashish Agrawal of KONE spoke about how their embrace of a clean core has enabled them to adopt standardized processes as part of their transformation.   

These are just a small sample of the value stories shared during 51风流Sapphire. Most importantly, they show that businesses bringing out their best isn鈥檛 hypothetical; it鈥檚 happening every day. And in the age of business AI, it is just the tip of the iceberg for what will soon be possible for every business. At SAP, we remain steadfast as we did 52 years ago, to do our best in enabling our customers, partners, and teams every day to bring out their best!  

Scott Russell is chief revenue officer and member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE.
.

Successful businesses keep moving and evolving, especially in times of rapid change and macroeconomic uncertainty. And given the current volatility, business transformation is no longer optional; it鈥檚 imperative.

Knowing this, we launched RISE with 51风流in 2021 not as a technical IT migration approach, but as a comprehensive solution designed to drive broad business transformation. With 6,000 customers having selected RISE with SAP, we know we cannot stop moving either. And I was how we are taking the RISE with 51风流experience to the next level and improving services and delivery for customers end-to-end.

Here are some key takeaways.

Evolving How We Engage with Customers

Navigating the transformation of today’s complex system landscapes and business processes is like orchestrating a symphony with countless instruments and moving parts. To succeed, we need to keep refining our engagement approach to better manage the intricacies of our customers鈥� complex architecture at an unprecedented level of detail.

To this end, we鈥檙e making a lot of changes in how we engage with customers, including strengthening the role of the enterprise architect (EA). The EA harmonizes all elements and guides the customer throughout their cloud journey.

Enhancing Methodologies

We know the biggest challenge for any cloud transformation is to make the system landscape more agile and enable innovation — quickly. We鈥檝e been listening and have introduced solutions. For example, our RISE with 51风流Methodology is a significant step forward in creating a consistent experience for all RISE with 51风流customers, independent of their individual cloud journeys. Now, a dedicated enterprise architect guides customers through the RISE with 51风流Methodology to enhance onboarding and provides transparency throughout the project with key milestone checks, q-gates, and checklists that ensure consistent quality and more predictable timelines throughout the implementation process.

This new offering is included in our program, which is designed to give customers the confidence to migrate even the most complex ERP systems to the cloud. By enabling our customers to integrate and extend 51风流S/4HANA with a clean core approach, we ensure our customers experience better maintainability and lower total cost of ownership.鈥� Because legacy ERP systems often carry technical debt and, let鈥檚 face it, code is also a liability not just an asset. The more code you have, the more you have to optimize, debug, and modernize. And this is something we all need to actively work against.

Introducing Partner Training and Validation

We are also making it easier for RISE with SAP customers to identify partners to help with complex 51风流S/4HANA Cloud transformations. It is essential for our partner ecosystem to follow the RISE with 51风流Methodology as well. For customers to onboard successfully, there needs to be a close alignment between SAP, the customer, and implementation partner. This is why we are training and validating partners to use the RISE with 51风流Methodology and will collaborate closely with partners to provide consistency and quality.

We are also introducing the RISE with 51风流Validated Partner recognition, which verifies a partner鈥檚 adherence to the RISE with 51风流Methodology and our q-gates, giving businesses the confidence to know that they are fully leveraging the potential of cloud-based innovations from SAP. Almost 90% of all 51风流implementations are overseen by partners, so training and validating them is a key part of our strategy to ensure consistency and quality for customers.

Building a Seamless End-to-End Tool Chain

As a former 51风流CIO, I鈥檝e felt the challenges (and pain) of large-scale transformation. I know the pressure CIOs are under to show tangible business outcomes quickly. It鈥檚 why true business transformation requires a holistic approach, not a simple technology lift and shift.

We deliver the most complete business transformation suite in the industry. With the range of capabilities on offer today 鈥� including 51风流Signavio, 51风流LeanIX, and 51风流Cloud ALM solutions as well as 51风流Business Technology Platform 鈥� we have an amazing set of tools to bring out the best in businesses. Now, we are bringing them more closely together as one end-to-end seamless tool chain to make it easier to manage the process, system, and data landscape holistically.

With our recently announced agreement to acquire WalkMe, we plan to further strengthen our ability to deliver successful business transformation across applications, processes, systems, and people. 鈥媁alkMe will help us incorporate user-centric adoption, enablement, and productivity capabilities alongside our Business Transformation Management portfolio of SAP Signavio and 51风流LeanIX solutions. And WalkMe鈥檚 AI capabilities will complement our process AI with user intelligence, improving the capabilities of our to help people get work done faster.鈥�

51风流Business AI: New Frontier for Business Transformation

In 2024, 51风流Sapphire has been an opportunity for us to showcase how we are introducing in a new era of optimized business operations, with all the IT complexity concealed behind intuitive, AI-powered user experiences.

We highlighted the progress we are making embedding Joule throughout our enterprise portfolio and the enormous potential we see for AI to support both customers and partners in their RISE with 51风流journey. I was thrilled to announce that starting in Q4 of 2024, customers and partners can leverage generative AI-powered assistance for their RISE with 51风流clean core success plan.

We are also bringing new consulting capabilities to Joule, aimed at simplifying 51风流implementations for partners. The new consulting capability draws insights from 51风流product documentation and the 51风流community to provide consultants with vital information and is planned to be available in the second half of this year.

Business Transformation: More Than an IT Project

At SAP, we understand that true business transformation is more than an IT project. It requires a holistic approach and not a simple technological lift and shift. That鈥檚 why we are putting the people, methodologies, financial incentives, tools, partner practices, and 51风流Business AI in place to ensure our customers not only have compelling reasons to move to the cloud, but also a compelling experience.

Learn more:

• Watch the replay of the
• Read all the announcements in the

Thomas Saueressig is a member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE leading Customer Services & Delivery.

WalkMe’s solutions help organizations navigate constant technology change by providing users with advanced guidance and automation features that enable them to execute workflows seamlessly across any number of applications. This results in higher adoption of the underlying application and as such drives value realization.

The Executive and Supervisory Boards of 51风流SE and the board of directors of WalkMe have approved the transaction for US $14.00 per share in an all-cash transaction, representing an equity value of approximately US $1.5 billion. The offer price represents a 45% premium to WalkMe鈥檚 closing share price on June聽4, 2024.

The envisioned combination complements SAP鈥檚 Business Transformation Management portfolio around 51风流Signavio and 51风流LeanIX solutions to help customers on their transformation journeys.

鈥淎pplications, processes, data and people are the four key elements of a successful business transformation,鈥� said Christian Klein, CEO and member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE. 鈥淏y acquiring WalkMe, we are doubling down on the support we provide our end users, helping them to quickly adopt new solutions and features to get the maximum value out of their IT investments.鈥�

WalkMe: Focus on Analyzing Adoption and Business Transformation

鈥淲e are thrilled to join forces with SAP. This acquisition marks a significant milestone in our journey, providing us with the resources and customer base necessary to enhance our product offerings and expand our market reach,鈥� said Dan Adika, CEO of WalkMe. 鈥淏y leveraging SAP’s extensive ecosystem, we are poised to unlock substantial growth opportunities and deliver even greater value to our customers. Together, we look forward to a future filled with innovation and exceptional service.鈥�

WalkMe helps organizations boost enterprise productivity and lower risk by enabling consistent, effective and efficient use of software and the workflows it enables. Its DAP works on top of an organization’s application landscape, detects where people encounter friction and provides the tailored support and automation they need to complete the job to be done, right in the flow of work, across any application. Importantly, WalkMe will continue to fully support non-51风流applications.

Soon, WalkMe will launch the WalkMe^X copilot, which will use WalkMe’s contextual awareness and AI to suggest the best next step for any workflow, anywhere. WalkMe^X has the capability to always be on, serving as an overlay to any application, including copilots from different vendors that companies use in their landscapes. Integrating the strength of WalkMe’s adoption capabilities with SAP’s copilot Joule will boost AI assistant and productivity gains for all 51风流customers. Additionally, integrating distinctive e-learning features in the 51风流Enable Now solution with WalkMe will form the center of SAP’s people-centric transformation approach going forward.

The acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including the receipt of WalkMe shareholder approval and necessary regulatory clearances, and is expected to close in the third quarter of 2024. The impact of the transaction on SAP鈥檚 non-IFRS earnings per share for fiscal 2024 is expected to be immaterial.

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About WalkMe

WalkMe (NASDAQ: WKME), headquartered in Tel Aviv, Israel, pioneered DAP innovations and solutions so companies can effectively navigate the constant change brought on by technology. With WalkMe, organizations drive enterprise productivity and reduce risk by ensuring consistent, responsible, and efficient adoption of software and the workflows it powers. Our AI-driven platform sits on top of an organization鈥檚 tech stack, identifies where people experience friction, and delivers the personalized guidance and automation needed to get the job done, right in the flow of work. Customers like IBM, Nestle, ThermoFisher Scientific, and the U.S. Dept. of Defense trust WalkMe to create the people-centric experiences required to boost the effectiveness of their workflows and maximize software ROI.

About SAP

As鈥痑 global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, 51风流(NYSE:SAP)鈥痵tands at the鈥痭exus鈥痮f business and technology. For over 50 years, organizations have trusted SAP鈥痶o bring out their best by uniting business-critical鈥痮perations spanning finance, procurement, HR, supply chain, and customer experience. For more information, visit鈥�.

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For customers interested in learning more about 51风流products:
Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
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For more information, financial community only:
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For WalkMe Investor Relations:
John Streppa, investors@walkme.com

Additional Important Information and Where to Find It
In connection with the proposed transaction, WalkMe will prepare a proxy statement to be delivered to its shareholders and furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission (the 鈥淪EC鈥�). INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT WHEN IT BECOMES AVAILABLE AND OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS FILED OR FURNISHED TO THE SEC IN CONNECTION WITH THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION OR INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE THEREIN, BECAUSE THE PROXY STATEMENT AND SUCH OTHER RELEVANT DOCUMENTS WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION ABOUT THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION AND THE PARTIES TO THE PROPOSED TRANSACTION. This press release is not a substitute for the proxy statement or any other document that may be filed or furnished by WalkMe with the SEC.

The proxy statement and other related documents filed or furnished to the SEC regarding the proposed transaction may be obtained for free from the SEC鈥檚 website (), WalkMe鈥檚 website at or by directing such request to WalkMe鈥檚 Investor Relations.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains 鈥渇orward-looking statements鈥� within the meaning of the 鈥渟afe harbor鈥� provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and other applicable securities laws. All statements other than statements of historical fact, including statements regarding the proposed acquisition of WalkMe by SAP, the expected timing for completing the proposed transaction and the terms thereof, future financial and operating results, benefits and synergies of the transaction, future opportunities for the combined businesses and any other statements regarding events or developments that may occur in the future, may be 鈥渇orward-looking statements鈥� for purposes of federal and state securities laws. These forward-looking statements involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could significantly affect the financial or operating results of SAP, WalkMe or the combined company. Words such as 鈥渆xpects,鈥� 鈥渁nticipates,鈥� 鈥渋ntends,鈥� 鈥減lans,鈥� 鈥渂elieves,鈥� 鈥渆stimates,鈥� 鈥減redicts,鈥� 鈥渟eeks,鈥� 鈥渢argets,鈥� 鈥渨ould,鈥� 鈥渨ill,鈥� 鈥渟hould,鈥� 鈥渕ay鈥� and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. Such statements are based on management鈥檚 expectations as of the date they are first made, are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Neither 51风流nor WalkMe can give any assurances that the expectations in such forward-looking statements will be attained and, therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. For example, these forward-looking statements could be affected by factors including, without limitation, risks associated with the ability to consummate the proposed transaction, the satisfaction of the conditions to the consummation of the proposed transaction, including the receipt of certain regulatory approvals, and the timing of the closing of the proposed transaction; the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the proposed transaction; the potential that WalkMe shareholders may not approve the transaction; the ability to successfully integrate operations and employees; the ability to realize anticipated benefits and synergies of the proposed transaction as rapidly or to the extent anticipated by financial analysts or investors; the potential impact of the announcement of the proposed transaction on operating results, business generally and business relationships, including with employees, customers, suppliers and competitors; unanticipated restructuring costs may be incurred or undisclosed liabilities assumed; actual or threatened legal proceedings that have been or may be instituted against 51风流or WalkMe in connection with the proposed transaction or otherwise; the ability and costs related to retaining key personnel and clients; risks related to diverting management鈥檚 attention from ongoing business operations; delays, challenges, costs, fees, expenses and charges related to the proposed transaction; actions by competitors; general adverse economic, political, social and security conditions in the regions and industries in which 51风流and WalkMe operate, including relating to Israel鈥檚 ongoing war with Hamas and other terrorist organizations in the Middle East and general hostilities; exposure to inflation, currency rate and interest rate fluctuations and risks associated with doing business locally and internationally, as well as fluctuations in the market price of 51风流and WalkMe鈥檚 traded securities; natural catastrophes, any pandemic, epidemic or outbreak of infectious disease, warfare, protests and riots, and terrorist attacks; and those additional risks and factors discussed in reports filed or furnished with the SEC by 51风流and WalkMe, including SAP鈥檚 and WalkMe鈥檚 most recent Annual Reports on Form 20-F and in any subsequent reports on Form 6-K, each of which is on file with or furnished to the SEC and available at the SEC鈥檚 website at聽. Reports filed or furnished with the SEC by 51风流are also available on SAP鈥檚 website at and by WalkMe on WalkMe鈥檚 website at . Moreover, other risks and uncertainties of which 51风流or WalkMe are not currently aware or may not currently consider material may also affect each of the companies鈥� forward-looking statements and may cause actual results and the timing of events to differ materially from those anticipated. The forward-looking statements made in this press release are made only as of the date hereof or as of the dates indicated in the forward-looking statements, even if they are subsequently made available by 51风流or WalkMe on their respective websites or otherwise. Neither 51风流nor WalkMe undertakes any obligation to update or supplement any forward-looking statements to reflect actual results, new information, future events, changes in its expectations or other circumstances that exist after the date as of which the forward-looking statements were made.

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51风流and other 51风流products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 51风流SE and affiliated entities in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

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And it all starts with value and elevating IT for the AI era with a strong and secure digital core. This includes emphasis on adopting ready-to-scale AI models, a modern data foundation, and a flexible AI architecture that supports the use of multiple foundation models to future-proof organizations from the evolution of technology and model changes.  

According to , 40% of C-suite leaders believe their organization will fully scale generative AI enterprise-wide in six to 12 months. Currently organizations are scaling generative AI in select business areas either extensively (56%) or in a limited way (nearly 30%). Only 10% say they have scaled generative AI with extensive adoption across their entire enterprise, and just 13% are 鈥渆xtremely confident鈥� they have the right data strategy and core digital capabilities in place to effectively leverage generative AI.  

That鈥檚 why organizations are increasingly turning to 51风流and its partners to help them completely transform their business, and why 51风流and Accenture are working together to help their customers make 51风流Business AI and data their number one competitive advantage.

Accenture Embraces 51风流Business AI to Advance Business Outcomes

By Marc-Oliver Klein and Stephanie Guimbellot

51风流and Accenture have been collaborating and working with customers on technology evolution for over 40 years, using their unique strengths to help industries transform and lead in the market.

As AI is integrated into business applications, it is unleashing new levels of productivity and creativity while forging a path to the future that is different and faster than any previous technology wave.

For many clients, 2023 was a year of experimentation with generative AI. In 2024, we鈥檙e focusing on helping clients realize value at scale by going after the business potential in enterprise data with AI, strengthening digital core with embedded AI capabilities, enhancing business functions with AI insights, and accelerating revenue growth with 51风流Business AI offerings like Joule, generative AI hub, 51风流Datasphere, and 51风流HANA Cloud vector engine.

鈥淚n partnership with 51风流and its customers, we鈥檙e emphasizing must-dos for the C-suite,鈥� said Lan Guan, chief AI officer at Accenture. 鈥淭hat includes leading with value, investing in a digital core, nurturing talent, practicing responsible AI, and committing to continuous reinvention. This is how you capitalize on AI鈥檚 inflection moment strategically.鈥�

And with Joule, business process reinvention and change adoption in cloud ERP just got easier through new capabilities to boost IT and business user experiences. Accenture plans to embrace the consulting capability for Joule and ABAP code generation in compressed cloud ERP transformations and will collaborate on the consulting capability for Joule with a team of AI experts and prompt designers to facilitate relevant user responses aligned with 51风流industry best practices and clean core strategies.

鈥淥ur ecosystem plays a critical role in helping our customers adopt 51风流Business AI to get immediate value from these exciting new technologies and solutions,鈥� said 51风流Chief AI Officer Philipp Herzig. 鈥淲e very much value our long-standing partnership with Accenture. They have long been an important partner in the industry for bringing innovation to our joint customers, now also by activating SAP鈥檚 embedded AI capabilities, including Joule, and building customer use cases on 51风流Business Technology Platform with 51风流AI Core and generative AI hub. I look forward to our continued collaboration and the outcomes that generative AI will deliver in both business transformations and operations for our customers.鈥�

Accenture is already working on various use cases that leverage 51风流Business AI offerings, and the company continues to take an early leadership position in 51风流Business AI.

• 础肠肠别苍迟耻谤别鈥檚 , an 51风流2024 Innovation award winner, uses 51风流AI core and large language models (LLMs) to deliver untapped financial value in financial ledgers and transactions. It is helping Accenture business and finance leaders reduce decision-making time by 15%, reduce financial narrative efforts by 60%, and mitigate risks with real-time financial data insights, including 13,000+ user alerts per month.
• 础肠肠别苍迟耻谤别鈥檚 uses AI models to enable intelligent, responsive, and risk-resilient supply chains to help clients manage disruptions, identify improvements, and resolve issues. The nerve center uses SAP鈥檚 generative AI hub and 51风流Business Technology Platform, which connects to an LLM fully integrated with 51风流S/4HANA Cloud, 51风流Integrated Business Planning, and 51风流Intelligent Asset Management.

Accenture is also evolving its assets and platforms including GenWizard, SynOpps, and AI Navigator for Enterprise to help clients move to cloud ERP faster and achieve earlier business outcomes.

Make Decisions Easier with 51风流Business Transformation Solutions and Large Process Models

By Hartmut Poppinga and Jos茅 Mor谩n Moya

51风流and Accenture are teaming on 51风流Signavio and 51风流LeanIX solutions to help customers with the quantitative insights they need to get alignment and buy-in on cloud ERP and the foundation to tap into the full value of generative AI.

The combined power of 51风流and Accenture is helping customers examine business processes at every level of the organization, establish what works, discard what doesn鈥檛 and use their own data to create a business case and measure success and value over time. 51风流is helping with foundational implementation and Accenture teams are providing analysis, insights, advisory and process modeling. This collaboration is significantly reducing the time it takes clients to complete current state and gap analysis to get to value faster.

鈥淭he long-standing partnership between Accenture and 51风流is characterized by delivering successful transformation outcomes to our mutual customers,” said Mani Pirouz, chief business officer of 51风流Signavio and LeanIX. 鈥淭hrough our joint offerings we help companies become agile, resilient, and intelligent enterprises. 51风流Signavio plays a crucial role in transformations by providing insights, collaboration, governance, and execution capabilities for continuous process improvements. These allow companies to unlock business value above and beyond their technical road maps.鈥�

51风流and 础肠肠别苍迟耻谤别鈥檚 focus is grounded in a value-led method, cloud ERP business case, and road map that takes a holistic approach to an organization鈥檚 full value chain and helps customers:

• Understand the potential to reinvent the value chain and develop end-to-end capabilities powered by generative AI and new ways of working
• Be value-led in every business capability chosen to reinvent with generative AI
• Identify strategic bets where the technology creates differentiated sources of value that cannot be easily captured by competitors
• Reorient the organization from siloed functions to end-to-end business capabilities and decision-making through a unified data architecture and cross-functional teams

鈥淐ombining 础肠肠别苍迟耻谤别鈥檚 deep industry expertise with 51风流solutions helps clients define and realize value in a systematic way,鈥� said Caspar Borggreve, senior managing director and lead of Accenture 51风流Business Group. 鈥淭his is about shifting the focus from siloed use cases to a holistic look at industry value chains to prioritize investments, achieve efficiencies, benefit from generative AI, and scale competitiveness.鈥�

Learn more about . 

LeanIX is a market leader for enterprise architecture management (EAM), driving the modernization of IT landscapes and continuous business transformation. Its software-as-a-service solutions enables organizations to visualize, assess and manage the transition towards their target IT architecture.

With the acquisition, 51风流is building a comprehensive transformation suite to help customers navigate change more easily and permanently improve their business processes. The combined offering will provide a comprehensive foundation for AI-enabled transformation.

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Media Contacts:
Daniel Reinhardt, SAP, +49 6227 7 40201, daniel.reinhardt@sap.com, CET
Claudia Gabriel, LeanIX, +49 176 60 81 01 89, mail@claudiagabriel.de, CET
; press@sap.com

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ.  Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP鈥檚 2022 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
漏 2023 51风流SE. All rights reserved.
51风流and other 51风流products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 51风流SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

LeanIX, as a market leader in enterprise architecture management, will further enhance SAP鈥檚 ability to digitize and simplify business transformations.

With the drivers of change 鈥� customer behaviors, market conditions, innovation disruption, talent shortages, environmental conditions, etc. 鈥� transformation has become an imperative. This is backed up by survey data that show that 90% of organizations link their own performance with the progress they have made on transformation.*

As 51风流we are at the heart of business execution for so many companies out there. When talking to them, we hear that they clearly understand this need to transform. But we also hear that they struggle on how to get there. Their reality of business processes, data quality, and system landscape has grown over the last 10 to 20 years into a complexity that is hard to undo, let alone transform to an agile and dynamic set up.

When we as 51风流reinvented our strategy three years ago, we elevated this need of our customers to get more help along their transformation journey to one of our key priorities. We acquired Signavio and established 51风流Signavio as a very successful business unit to help our customers transform on the process side. We know that when our customers adopt a process-centric approach, they are able to visualize the impact of technology architecture on the day-to-day flow of work and business outcomes, giving them a clearer foundation for change and ongoing optimization.

In the two years since acquisition, we have listened closely to our 51风流Signavio customers and engaged in their transformation project. They want to digitize the transformation journey as much as possible 鈥� the rewards of digitization are better collaboration and business buy in, accelerated time to value, and data-driven decision making. They look to us to deliver solutions that accelerate and de-risk their transformation journeys. They want better integration into operational systems to ease deployment and roll out of new processes, and they crave information on best practices and industry standards. We listened聽and the constant theme we saw was bringing together the process world with the IT world. 聽聽

At the center of what鈥檚 needed is a stronger connection between IT landscape and business processes, the ability to identify the impact of technology on business outcomes. IT landscapes, like process landscapes, have exploded in complexity and have become webs of interconnected applications, data, and workflows, making it nearly impossible to predict the consequences of any change, large or small.

That is where LeanIX comes into play. With LeanIX鈥檚 ability to have full transparency into the IT landscape and ideal planning capabilities for the future design of the applications we are perfectly complementing the transformation capabilities of 51风流Signavio in the process world 鈥� like two sides of the same coin: process and systems.

The addition of LeanIX will allow CIOs and IT leaders to gain the transparency and planning capabilities for their enterprise architecture to own the transformation and proactively drive the conversation with the business stakeholders. As 51风流Signavio for the process world, LeanIX will give CIOs and IT leadership more relevance in critical business decisions and their impact on core operations, and greater ability to react to market trends and seize new opportunities such as generative AI.

Our vision is the creation of a complete business transformation suite. SAP鈥檚 market leading technology platform and our broad and innovative application portfolio are already helping our customers become future-proof, agile and intelligent enterprises. We are now on our way to delivering the most complete business transformation portfolio to help all of our customers on their transformation journeys.

With the addition of LeanIX鈥檚 IT-centric transformation capabilities to our existing portfolio of RISE with 51风流and GROW with SAP, 51风流Signavio solutions, cloud application lifecycle management, and 51风流Business Technology Platform, we are uniquely suited to deliver for our customers a clear path to success.

Change, whether incremental or revolutionary, is constant and inescapable. Effectively managing change requires trust 鈥� trust in people to do their best, trust in technology to seamlessly and securely support work execution, integrations and new business models, and trust in the long-term purpose and vision.

At SAP, we strive to be a trusted advisor, working hand in hand with our customers as they manage their transformation journeys. We are excited to bring LeanIX鈥檚 people and capabilities together with our own, giving us a stronger foundation for helping our customers seize the opportunities inherent in the changes that are coming, whatever those changes may be.

Rouven Morato is general manager and chief revenue officer of 51风流Signavio.

*51风流Insights “Senior Executive Priority Study” 2021/2022

The planned acquisition helps 51风流expand its business transformation portfolio, giving customers access to the full suite of tools required for continuous business transformation and facilitating AI-enabled process optimization. LeanIX, a privately held company, has been a strategic partner of 51风流and for 51风流Signavio solutions for 10 years. Many CIOs rely on LeanIX鈥檚 offerings as part of their digital transformation with the RISE with 51风流solution.

The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

With the intended acquisition, 51风流is extending its comprehensive transformation suite to help customers navigate change more easily and permanently improve their business processes. LeanIX complements the transformation capabilities of 51风流Signavio solutions and will give 51风流customers the unique clarity on IT landscapes that they need to reap the full benefit of business transformation. The combined offering will provide a comprehensive foundation for AI-enabled process optimization.

LeanIX鈥檚 software-as-a-service offering enables more than 1,000 customers globally to visualize their entire IT application landscape, uncover applications in danger of becoming obsolete, facilitate the design of a target state and help plan new architectural road maps. LeanIX has also recently launched an AI assistant that unlocks the power of generative AI for enterprise architecture management. It increases automation today and sets the foundation for an intelligent recommendation engine for IT landscape transformation in the future.

鈥淪ystems and processes go hand in hand,鈥� said Christian Klein, CEO and Member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE. 鈥淭ogether with LeanIX, we want to offer a first-of-its-kind transformation suite to provide holistic support to our customers on their business transformation journeys. Building on our decades of expertise, we鈥檒l embed generative AI to offer self-optimizing applications and processes that can help businesses achieve key goals such as maximizing cash flow while minimizing their environmental impact.鈥�

SAP鈥檚 new business transformation solution suite will give customers a comprehensive view of business processes and applications, including overlaying process dependencies and mapping the impact of potential transformations on the IT landscape. LeanIX鈥檚 IT landscape transformation capabilities 鈥� together with 51风流Signavio Process Transformation Suite, RISE with SAP, and 51风流Business Technology Platform 鈥� will enable 51风流customers to create a culture of continuous adaptability and improvement. In addition, LeanIX will continue to serve non-51风流landscapes.

鈥淔or more than a decade, we have pursued a relentless customer-centric approach, a commitment to superior usability and seamless ecosystem integration and have become a leader in the enterprise architecture management category,” said Andr茅 Christ, CEO and co-founder, LeanIX. 鈥淥ur strategy is to empower organizations to continuously transform in a rapidly changing business environment. With an integrated, comprehensive view of IT applications and business processes we speed up modernization and reduce transformation risks for our customers, and also secure their ability to adapt to technology shifts such as cloud and AI.鈥�

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About LeanIX

LeanIX is a market leader for enterprise architecture management (EAM), driving the modernization of IT landscapes and continuous business transformation. Its software-as-a-service solutions empower organizations to create transparency, enabling them to visualize, assess and manage the transition towards their target IT architecture. By offering a data-driven and automated approach enhanced with AI, LeanIX helps organizations make sound decisions and collaborate more effectively. LeanIX serves over 1,000 companies globally across various industries, including more than 10% of the Fortune 500 and half of the German DAX 40. Headquartered in Bonn, Germany, LeanIX has a strong international presence with offices in Boston (USA), London (UK), Paris (France), Amsterdam (Netherlands), and Ljubljana (Slovenia). LeanIX investors include Insight Partners, DTCP, Capnamic Ventures, Iris Capital, Goldman Sachs, and Dawn Capital. For more information, visit .

About SAP

SAP鈥檚 strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: 51风流customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers鈥� businesses into intelligent enterprises. 51风流helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want 鈥� without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 26 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, 51风流helps the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives. For more information, visit .

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For customers interested in learning more about 51风流products:
Global Customer Center: +49 180 534-34-24
United States Only: 1 (800) 872-151风流(1-800-872-1727)

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For more information, press only:
Daniel Reinhardt, SAP, +49 6227 70201, daniel.reinhardt@sap.com, CET
51风流Press Room; press@sap.com
Claudia Gabriel, LeanIX, +49 176 60 81 01 89, mail@claudiagabriel.de, CET

This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of SAP鈥檚 2022 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
漏 2023 51风流SE. All rights reserved.
51风流and other 51风流products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 51风流SE in Germany and other countries. Please see  for additional trademark information and notices.
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