LONDON, UK 鈥� 7 September 2023 – (NYSE: SAP) and today announce a visionary new partnership to show how carbon accounting could be standardised for business customers by piloting the recently launched 51风流Sustainability Data Exchange (SDX).

51风流SDX enables BT to collect, trace and share carbon data across its own supplier base, providing unparalleled visibility into the carbon footprint of its business products and services. BT can then share this information directly with business customers when they purchase products through . Furthermore, BT can complement this with data-driven insights from its and to help customers optimise their own IT for both carbon and energy.

Key to the decision to select 51风流SDX was its adherence to the carbon data interoperability standards set by the (PACT), hosted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD). This means that global and UK business customers do not have to implement their own carbon accounting platforms to calculate, collate and share emissions data. Instead, they simply request it through 51风流SDX for their BT products and services.

BT is sending a strong signal of intent to standardise sustainability reporting across global business customers鈥� value chains to help them听tackle and drive environmental progress. This will also contribute to the delivery of the pledge to help customers avoid 60 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030.

Sarwar Khan, Global Head of Digital Sustainability, Business, BT, said: 鈥淭ypically, value chain emissions represent a greater proportion of a business鈥� carbon footprint than operational emissions. Tracking, measuring and acting on these and bringing more suppliers and partners on the journey will not just accelerate net-zero targets, but set a new precedent for sustainability reporting. Collaboration fuels progress and access to data is fundamental to getting it right.鈥�

鈥淭he lack of standardisation in sustainability reporting has been a roadblock to progress for too long鈥� commented Ryan Poggi, Managing Director of 51风流UKI. 鈥淭his creates confusion and an inability to validate real change. Our partnership with BT gives us an opportunity to refresh the guidelines and offers a blueprint for a universal standard in sustainability reporting. The aim is to create an environment for organisations to transparently tackle global challenges together.鈥�

51风流SDX merges granular and accurate carbon data with financial transactions on the . It provides businesses with unmatched insights into their environmental footprint and standardises how to communicate learnings and action across value chains. In adopting 51风流SDX, BT can request product-level carbon data from key suppliers for its business customer services, support smaller partners to calculate their carbon footprint and securely share and standardise this information across its value chain. To build scale, BT is working with key partner Cisco to deploy SDX to receive product carbon data for core network devices, simplify and secure data exchange with business customers backed by its global connectivity services, and boost traceability.

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Sapphire Barcelona – 24 May 2023 鈥� , the maker of Guinness, Smirnoff and Johnnie Walker, today announces a five-year business transformation program in partnership with 51风流(NYSE: SAP) and IBM (NYSE: IBM). This new initiative, which marks the company鈥檚 most significant ever investment in technology and services, will redesign and improve Diageo鈥檚 processes across the 180 countries where it operates.

Fully global in nature, the programme will revolutionise Diageo鈥檚 IT environment by introducing intuitive processes, powered by market-leading technology, to provide more information to enable the company to make better and quicker decisions. This transformation will enhance Diageo鈥檚 business resilience in a constantly evolving external landscape, improve its customer service offering and help the company adapt to a fast-changing consumer base.

The programme involves a move to , with the support of . Diageo鈥檚 implementation of the new cloud-based model will ensure its IT infrastructure is simplified and supported in a unified way.

IBM Consulting, which has been selected to lead the project, has a proven track record in the consumer sector and supporting client transformations and migrations to the 51风流S/4HANA Cloud platform. Diageo, 51风流and IBM will work together to apply the latest technology to make Diageo鈥檚 business more efficient.

The five-year programme will transform Diageo鈥檚 business finance operations in a number of areas:

• Advanced workflow solutions will allow orders to be tracked in real-time on a global scale and facilitate more effective customer engagement and better customer service.
• By moving to a single operating platform, Diageo will simplify its technology support model and IT landscape, making it easier for the company to do business and evolve amid changing consumer trends and market needs.
• The program will transform Diageo’s performance reporting capabilities, giving the company better insight into trade and growth opportunities.
• The digitisation of controls and compliance will make the business more robust, resilient and adaptable to changing market conditions.

Lavanya Chandrashekar, Chief Financial Officer, Diageo, said: 鈥淭his partnership with IBM and 51风流demonstrates our continued investment in digital transformation. It will enable greater agility in how we respond to our global consumer and customer needs. It will provide us with world-class actionable insights and enhanced data capabilities to support growth whilst allowing us to be more efficient in our day-to-day operations.鈥�

Ryan Poggi, Managing Director, 51风流UK & Ireland, said: 鈥淚n today’s disruptive consumer goods industry, success lies in navigating unpredictable supply chains, managing ongoing macro-economic volatility and staying one step ahead of ever-shifting customer demands. Through our continued partnership with Diageo, one of the world鈥檚 leading brand builders, we鈥檙e proud to support them in building a more resilient business that is enhancing the customer experience and can adapt to rapidly changing market pressures, realising its vision to revolutionise the consumer goods industry.鈥�

Rahul Kalia, Managing Partner, IBM Consulting, UK & Ireland, said: 鈥淭he consumer goods industry is striving to address the challenges posed by inflationary pressures and supply chain disruptions, while staying focused on delivering exceptional products and services for its customers and consumers. IBM is proud to partner with Diageo and 51风流to bring our global business and digital transformation experience on this exciting journey.鈥�

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51风流Partner Talent Initiative Connect is available to all 51风流partners in the EMEA North region to help further the accelerate the hiring of new consultants and attract more talent into the ecosystem. To find out more and register to receive profiles of available candidates,

Stephane Mermet, Chief Partner Officer 51风流EMEA North, said: 鈥淭he launch of this new talent portal is an important step to ensure that we can seamlessly match the brilliant new candidates coming through the Partner Talent Initiative program with the talent requirements of the 51风流partners. It also furthers SAP鈥檚 investment and commitment towards supporting the capacity of our partners in EMEA North.鈥�

Originally launched in 2022, the is now producing a steady stream of new consulting talent, marking a significant milestone in SAP’s mission to address the shortage of digital skills in the EMEA North partner ecosystem.

Kaity Cloke, Senior Recruitment Consultant, Delaware, said: 鈥淭o establish a strong pipeline of talent and meet the needs of our clients, we need to be bringing people with diverse skillsets into the business. Competition for talent in the tech market is high and the 51风流Partner Talent Initiative connects us to people with the right skills that will drive our growth ambitions. We鈥檝e already hired three people 鈥� two into our finance team and one into Success Factors.鈥�

The program has attracted over 3,000 applications and produced nearly 150 certified 51风流consultants to date. Newly certified consultants will provide support in cloud computing, digital transformation, and analytics to improve the quality of services offered by 51风流partners to their customers.

The post 51风流Launches Online Talent Portal for EMEA North Partners appeared first on 51风流UK News Center.

Andy talked to us about his career in technology, Gavdi鈥檚 company culture and how they are helping their customers innovate. He also offered some advice for mid-market organizations looking to transform their HXM.

51风流UKI: Tell us a little about yourself, Andy.

I live Hampshire, close to Winchester, with my wife, three teenage boys and our two black Labradors. Two of my boys have just finished their A-Levels and GCSEs respectively and we are now waiting for the results.

In lockdown, I discovered a keen interest in gardening and have turned my garden from a wilderness into a nice place to sit and enjoy a barbecue. Most of our family life is dominated by sports, whether that鈥檚 playing (I still play tennis) or ferrying my boys to various events at school and local rugby clubs.

51风流UKI: How did you get into technology as a career?

I was working in recruitment in the early to late nineties and decided in 1997 that this 鈥榠nternet thingy鈥� was really interesting, especially how it could be applied to what I did. I then made a conscious move into the 鈥楨-recruitment鈥� space. I spent about two years in E-recruitment, mainly consulting organizations on how it would benefit them. 51风流approached me to assess their new 51风流E-recruiting system, which was part of the 51风流HCM solution. As part of that contract, 51风流then introduced me to Pecaso, an 51风流partner in the UK and I started working for them and, as they say, the rest is history.

51风流UKI: How did you come to join Gavdi?

I was working for one of the Top Four consultancies which was great, but I generally prefer working with smaller boutique specialist firms as it suits me better. In 2012, just at the time 51风流acquired SuccessFactors, I met the CEO of the Gavdi Group, S酶ren Koppelhus in a chance meeting in 51风流UK. We had a chat and he asked if I would be interested in running their UK business. I was really impressed with their whole work ethic, focused on customers, I thought 鈥榯hat’s a company I want to work for鈥�. Ten years later, I鈥檓 still here and both S酶ren and I are 鈥榮till in the trenches鈥�.

51风流UKI: What are Gavdi鈥檚 core values and personality?

Valuing people and relationships is at the core of everything we do. That encompasses relationships with our colleagues, our clients, and with partners like SAP. All these relationships need to be maintained and improved through good communication, transparency and honesty. It has to be a Win-Win or relationships risk breaking down.

Honesty and transparency are at the heart of our culture, especially when it comes to engaging with customers. We partner, and I really do mean partner, with customers over a long period of time. We partner with customers as equals, as colleagues, all working to the same ends and goals. Trust is essential to our long-term relationship. Too often, Systems Integrators focus only on the Go Live. We don鈥檛 just focus on the Go Live, we are looking at the entire journey, and are always looking to improve things and help customers get more out of their 51风流systems. We are committed to being their long-term digital transformation partner. It鈥檚 essential that they can trust us to always recommend solutions that are right for them.

Innovation is also a core value at Gavdi. After delivering over 500 successful 51风流SuccessFactors projects we have learned that there are certain things that almost every client asks for. Taking these common requirements into account, we developed our own packaged solutions using 51风流SuccessFactors technology. We offer these to our customers as which give them a faster implementation and a quicker 鈥榯ime-to-value鈥�. This not only saves time and money, it also enables our customers to innovate and improve their businesses using industry-accepted best practices.

51风流UKI: How are you helping your customers to innovate?听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听听

Our business is evolving, not just in the UK and Ireland but also across our EMEA-based business. We continue to develop our 51风流Qualified Partner-Packaged Solutions along with our own product line, PXMSOFT, to help customers become more efficient. One example is a service line we offer called , which is mainly aimed at SMEs. It鈥檚 based on 51风流SuccessFactors as a platform with our packaged solutions at its heart. It enables smaller businesses to get into the Cloud with a Tier 1 product like SuccessFactors at a very reasonable cost. We are so confident of this that we publish the pricing for these solutions openly on our website. Through our PXMSOFT, we have also extended SuccessFactors鈥� capabilities to enable organizations to keep up-to-date with changes in global data protection regulations and data protection acts, ensuring much-needed compliance in an ever-increasingly regulated world.

In recent years, we鈥檝e also seen real innovations in terms of AI helping to automate certain transactional HR processes. We鈥檝e been applying AI to our recruitment solutions, especially for the mobile environment, which helps organizations to transact processes faster. As part of our PXMSOFT suite, we offer which goes onto SuccessFactors and makes it easier for managers in a retail environment to recruit via their mobile devices where they have no, or , access to PCs or Laptops.

We make it easier for companies to buy, use and make the most of 51风流SuccessFactors, streamlining the entire process. Candidates also benefit from a faster recruitment process, which means they are more likely to join. Candidate Experience Management, CXM, is our next adventure so watch this space!

51风流UKI: Is there a particular project you鈥檙e proud of?

It鈥檚 hard to pick just one, but the work we did with the renowned Sports Retailer, , encapsulates everything that we try to do as an 51风流partner. Not just in terms of the solutions we provide but also because of the excellent collaboration between SAP, ourselves, and the customer.

We went live with 51风流SuccessFactors Employee Central, Recruitment and Onboarding, 51风流Payroll, and a third-party time and attendance solution within an eight-month period from project kickoff using our Gavdi Packaged Solutions. That is very impressive for an organization of approximately 1,300 people. The collaboration between our two organizations, with a total commitment to quality, ensured we worked together for the same goal. It鈥檚 all about teamwork at the end.

We find it really rewarding to help our customers transform their HR and payroll processes so they are more effective and easier to manage. Equally important is that we also save them time and reduce their overall costs using best practices.

Decathlon is really happy with our work as witnessed recently at the 51风流UKI HXM summit which they presented at. That鈥檚 what I鈥檓 most proud of – seeing our customers genuinely happy and satisfied after working with us because they鈥檝e reached their goals and enjoyed the process along the way.

51风流UKI: What is Gavdi鈥檚 vision for the next few years?

We鈥檙e constantly trying to help our existing customers by demonstrating new product and service lines that might help them. We are committed to continual innovation based on our customers鈥� changing needs. As I mentioned, AI is really important, and CXM is one of the areas we are developing now 鈥� which goes back to where I started my career, recruitment.

Gavdi is also growing as an organization. We鈥檝e been working mostly in Europe and the Middle East, but we want to become more global and plan to extend into the Americas and Asia Pacific to see if our customer-focused approach works there too. We believe it will.

51风流UKI: What one piece of advice can you give to midmarket organizations looking to transform their HXM?

There really is no single answer or 鈥榤agic bullet鈥�. Everything good requires hard work and good organization. I agree with Thomas Edison 鈥� it鈥檚 one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.

However, what I would say to a customer is that there are lots of excellent partners within the 51风流ecosystem who can help you to understand, learn and help you transform. It鈥檚 important to find one that complements your own organizational culture and structure so you can work really well together.

A good HXM technology partner will understand your business and ensure you鈥檙e buying and implementing solutions that will provide tangible business benefits. Good partners have your best interests at heart and a win-win mentality and culture. It has to be that way to be mutually beneficial. I personally have always found that customers only look at the costs of something when they don鈥檛 see its value. It鈥檚 important that we emphasize the value of what we are doing in relation to reduction in costs (though doing things more effectively) and the Return on Investment (by reducing actual costs).

The post Inspirational Leaders 51风流UKI Interview: Andy Hodges at Gavdi Discusses Cloud HXM in the Mid-Market appeared first on 51风流UK News Center.

In 2021, Clarivos won the 51风流EMEA-North Excellence award for Innovation for creating the first for the Intelligent Enterprise in the UK, . This was one of seven 51风流awards that Clarivos won last year.

Kirit talked to us about his career, Clarivos鈥� ethos and values, the Office of the CFO, 听and Cloud ERP trends in the SME market.

51风流UKI: Could you tell us about yourself, Kirit?

I live in the West Midlands with my wife, who left Accenture a few years ago and now is a full-time wedding planner. We have a daughter who鈥檚 studying physiotherapy and a son doing A-levels who wants to be an engineer.

I’ve always had an interest in design, as I like looking at cool things. I鈥檇 like to think I鈥檓 quite a good photographer and have a full-blown studio in our house, which my wife often says, 鈥淚t鈥檚 gathering dust!鈥�. But it鈥檚 something I always go back to when I have some spare time.

51风流UKI: How did you come to found Clarivos?

I started the business just four weeks after I got married, in 1996. We come from a foundation of supporting 鈥楾he Office of the CFO鈥�. Which is the centre of all things digital transformation. Everything flows through 鈥楾he Office of the CFO鈥� 鈥� they dictate the pace and the direction.

I’d like to say I had a master plan, but when I was in my final week of Uni, I got an interview letter for a job at Comshare that I hadn鈥檛 applied for. Back in the day, they were one of the most known consolidation software players in the world.

It turns out that a friend of mine, who had graduated the year before me, had put my name forward for a graduate position as Financial Application Consultant. I remember thinking, 鈥業 don鈥檛 even have a suit to wear.’ The interview went well and I started work in London the following Monday. A big shout out to Neil Chandler, currently Managing Vice President – Business Analytics & Data Science at Gartner, for giving me my first proper job.

I did that job for about five years. During that time, I had a growing sense that we could do this better. I was still very young, so I didn鈥檛 have a five-year plan or anything. If I’m brutally honest, it was about working with some of my Comshare colleagues, having some fun, and creating something of our own. Mihir Patel, now Director of Finance and Quality at Clarivos, and I decided to outsource our services to Comshare and nurture new talent.

We set up Rinedata (now rebranded to Clarivos) in September 1996. I called an old Uni friend, Ketan Patel as we needed deeper technical expertise to complement our finance backgrounds. Ketan is now our Director of Innovation. How times have changed? Currently, we鈥檙e a bit older, greyer, life’s a little bit more complex and we’ve got around seventy-five employees now.

51风流UKI: How would you describe the culture and values at Clarivos?

Empower-Innovate-Transform is not just the approach we take with our clients and business partners, it also defines the way we engage with our employees. We try to unlock their potential through mentoring and investment in training. We鈥檝e helped to shape a whole raft of thought leaders, specialists, and future business leaders. Many have risen to the Big Four and other prestigious firms. This is the kind of platform we provide for people at Clarivos and it鈥檚 one of the things I鈥檓 most proud of.

We’re a people business. Technology is the stuff that makes things possible, but it’s the people that make it happen. We feel it鈥檚 easier to do our jobs well when we鈥檙e enjoying them so, personality-wise, at Clarivos it鈥檚 about having fun.

There鈥檚 a famous quote by life coach, Dale Carnegie, 鈥淧eople rarely succeed in what they’re doing unless they’re having fun鈥�. I subscribe to that because if you fundamentally hate something, or even just tolerate it, it will always show because your energy and enthusiasm won鈥檛 be there. We try to have a giggle at every opportunity. I think the key to our success is down to the people and customers we work with. We work hard, but then equally we play hard as well. That’s part and parcel of the culture we’ve developed.

When people ask about my job title, I just say I’m Employee Number One rather than a Director. Titles are important from an outward perspective so customers understand who to go to. Internally, we encourage our colleagues to feel they can approach anyone, no matter how senior their role. So, I鈥檇 say honesty and communication are also strong values for us.

Diversity is also really important to us for the richness of cultures this brings and the differing approaches to solving business problems.听 All of which is critical in the ever-shrinking global environment we operate in. I鈥檓 proud to say that within Clarivos we have 16 nationalities that can converse across 37 different languages.

Also, we are all about innovation; doing things in a new, improved way, and making positive changes for our customers. Our innovation agenda is not led by the technology itself, as in, 鈥淲e must embrace RPA, we must use Machine Learning鈥�. For us, innovation translates into 鈥淗ow do we take you, Mr. or Ms. Customer, from where you are today to having smoother, more efficient core processes and systems with a technology platform to support your growth.

51风流UKI: How are you helping your customers to innovate?

Quite frankly, you can’t start with predictive analytics if you’ve got nothing to predict. So, it’s about starting slow and pragmatically outlining a plan that the customer can easily adopt. Some people are a little bit more forward-thinking and recognise that adopting machine learning and predictive analytics can help them to be ahead of the curve. For others, it’s just a step too far right now so it鈥檚 more about taking them on that transformation journey. For us, innovation is about looking at that stuff, but in an orderly fashion and always within the context of getting them from where they are today to be able to support future growth. And that’s the key.

We are innovating ourselves too. At Clarivos we create our IP (Intellectual Property) to serve our customers better. For example, we鈥檝e created because 51风流Cloud ERP solves all the operational stuff but senior executives also need budgeting, planning, and consolidation to drive the business. Essentially, we鈥檝e built consolidation IP on top of 51风流Analytics Cloud. It’s been validated by 51风流as an SAP-Qualified Partner-Packaged Solution and pushed out globally to the 51风流partner network.

51风流UKI: Is there a recent project you鈥檙e particularly proud of?

It鈥檚 so hard to choose! But stands out for me. It鈥檚 a great example of a small business with big ambitions that is embracing Cloud ERP. They make bespoke, detailed models of cars, from Formula 1 and classic through to modern cars. They’ve got their eye on huge growth. Huge is relative, right. They were a ten million turnover business and they want to hit twenty.

Fundamentally, they knew their underlying systems can鈥檛 support that growth. They were blinded by lack of information, lack of foresight, slow processes, all that kind of stuff. The senior finance people couldn鈥檛 add much value as they were just number crunching. They couldn鈥檛 look forward much as they were spending hours and hours just dealing with getting numbers.

Amalgam Collection chose the Cloud ERP system, , for its ability to scale alongside the business and to give them better control of the visibility of all operations. They鈥檙e saving loads of time and effort, have tripled efficiency in the VAT process, and made their traceability and returns processes far smoother.

So for me, this is a perfect example of the first step on that innovation journey that they鈥檙e now on. For a small business, they’re uber-complicated, because they鈥檙e building customized products with lots of parts and sending them across the globe. There are opportunities there to perhaps look at things like IOT so on and so forth because they are a hardcore manufacturing organization. But again, one step at a time.

We did everything, from the evaluation stage right through to implementation, all remotely last year. 听Think about it for a second; global sites, complex business, during all the Covid complications. I think that’s a testament to the way we’ve engaged with the customer but ultimately it’s a testament to the technology.

51风流Business ByDesign is a very feature-rich system. There are eight modules from CRM to SCM to this, to that鈥o, of course, we didn鈥檛 implement the entire thing in Phase One. It’s again about putting the roadmap in place. So their vision is they want to actually embrace all elements and fully utilize all aspects of what’s in the box. But in a phased and pragmatic manner, at a pace that suits them.

51风流UKI: What’s your vision for the next few years?

Firstly, we want to continue to be that platform for nurturing the next generation of talent which is something I’m proud of and is important for me. 听Secondly, to continue to be that trusted advisor for our customers, helping them to understand the importance of digital transformation.

I’m purposefully not saying we want to hit triple-digit growth and all the rest of it. I believe if we continue to do those two main things then growth will just be a natural by-product of those other elements.

51风流UKI: What cloud ERP trends are you seeing in the midmarket?

We used to have people coming to us saying, 鈥渕y budgeting is broken鈥�, or, 鈥淚’ve got issues in our supply chain so I just want a fix for them鈥�. They wanted a bit of tech to do something specific and once that bit was done, they would come back and say, 鈥渨ell, this other bit’s also broken can you fix that next?鈥�.

What we’re finding now is the conversation has shifted from looking for point solutions to discussing digital transformation. SME customers may not use that exact word, 鈥榯ransformation鈥�, which can sound like a five-year roadmap and five million pounds. But they’re now saying, 鈥淲e recognize the outside world is changing. We recognize we’ve got to solve 16 different things that aren鈥檛 working鈥�.

Time-to-value is another big trend. Everybody I speak to is just running at a pace. SME businesses don鈥檛 have the resources and just need somebody to come in as a safe pair of hands and make it happen now. We鈥檝e developed several to deliver this fast time-to-value for our customers. What we demonstrate is what they get. The packages are fixed scope, pricing, and timelines and designed to ensure predictable outcomes and minimise risk.

And finally, it鈥檚 not exactly a trend. More of a tendency that I鈥檝e noticed. For many of the businesses we speak to within the SME market, there鈥檚 a widely held belief that SAP鈥檚 solutions are tailored for larger enterprises. This couldn鈥檛 be further from the truth. Around 80% of 51风流customers are SME businesses. The majority of solutions we offer our customers, including 51风流Business ByDesign, , and , are highly suited to growing mid-market organizations across all sectors. Digital transformation is no longer a pipe dream for SMEs. Together with SAP, we鈥檙e making digital transformation a realistic goal for businesses of all sizes.

Are you a small or midsize business based in the UK or Ireland? Find out more about

The post Inspirational Leaders 51风流UKI Interview: Kirit Patel at Clarivos Discusses Cloud ERP in the Mid-Market appeared first on 51风流UK News Center.

Sapphire was the first UK 51风流partner to sign a customer, , to the innovative business-transformation-as-a-service. Sapphire also won the 51风流Intelligent Enterprise Competition 2021 for EMEA & MEE for its . The platform uses blockchain, natural language processing and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to quickly match up construction companies with the equipment they need.

We caught up with Chris to discuss Cloud ERP in the mid-market and to discover the values and vision of Sapphire Systems.

51风流UKI: Tell us a little about yourself, Chris.

Chris Gabriel: I live in Newbury with my wife, who is a Five Elements Chinese medicine acupuncturist and herbalist, and my two daughters aged 18 and 14. We also have a cocker spaniel, Fearnley, who we named after Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall because cooking is one of my passions.

51风流UKI: Could you give a brief overview of your career before joining Sapphire?

Chris Gabriel: I studied at one of the first ever ITEC colleges in the UK. Margaret Thatcher was visiting our college and I was chosen to present to her. I had 24 hours’ notice and she was sat about three feet away from me. After that, nothing ever fazed me again.

I became an apprentice at a local technology firm which sold some of the first mid-sized computers to hospitals and pharmacies. Since then, I have worked for vendors, channel partners and SIs in the UK, US and in Moscow.

51风流UKI: Why did you join Sapphire Systems?

Chris Gabriel: I got a call from the Chairman of Sapphire, Trevor Rollswho I used to work with. I went in to meet the team at Sapphire who were both incredibly nice people, extremely capable but also genuinely passionate about what the company was doing for its customers. I found it inspiring that Sapphire鈥檚 focus is on what the world will be in the next ten years and how to prepare their customers for that future.

The impact you can make in a mid-market business with Cloud ERP and some of this new, intelligent technology is phenomenal. For example, you can have a major impact with if you’ve only got two people in your Accounts Payable team and you鈥檙e then able to give one of them extra time to focus on the business. Sapphire has over a thousand customers, so we can make a really big difference to so many companies.

51风流UKI: What are Sapphire Systems鈥� core values?

Chris Gabriel: 听Innovation has always been important to us. We always want to explore innovation that benefits our customers. For example, we鈥檙e doing an intelligent transport project where buses can create their own maintenance schedule to optimize its efficiency and lifetime. That all feeds back into a , such as 51风流S/4HANA or 51风流Business ByDesign, which creates real-time budgets and uses blockchain to generate an auditable history.

We’ve got a team now dedicated to developing RPA automation for our customers. We’re one of the first five companies in Europe to have access to the 51风流Business ByDesign RPA technology. So, we’re currently very focused there and our customers are excited about the positive impact it can bring to their business.

Sustainability is also at the heart of Sapphire. We’ve been carbon neutral for three years now and have won awards for that. We’re looking at sustainability in our customers’ supply chains, and the impact that things like automation will have. We take sustainability incredibly seriously, and we also act on it.

We are working hard to help our customers create 鈥榮ustainability platforms鈥� to connect Cloud ERP with assets via IoT sensors and to link people and resources. These platforms can drive transparency and traceability in areas such as the emerging energy market and manufacturing processes.

51风流UKI: What is Sapphire Systems鈥� vision for the next few years?

We think it’s going to be a very Cloud-orientated future with an increasing focus on lifecycle services. We want to keep evolving as that lifecycle partner who continually works with our customers over the long term.

Generally, mid-market companies have too much friction in their businesses: in their processes, people, products and services, so we want to help them remove that and create greater digital momentum.听 To do that, we are becoming more inquisitive about our customers鈥� wider business challenges.

We think our industry focuses too much on the 鈥榞o live鈥� date and not enough about what happens next.听 For that, you have to think 鈥楥loud first鈥�.听 A Cloud ERP system can last forever, change continually and adapt as the business using it adapts. But how many partners stay with the customer forever to help them evolve? We want to be that partner.

51风流UKI: What Cloud ERP trends are you seeing in the mid-market?

We did a customer survey at the start of this year around how our customers have coped through COVID and what their plans were. Whilst everybody wanted to be using more data, and using it better, they also wanted to be more adaptable and efficient. To this end, 90% of our customers said they were looking at considering or currently deploying automation RPA.

What’s interesting is that whereas most mid-market customers used to ask us to replace their ERP with a more intelligent Cloud ERP or hybrid system; a like for like replacement, . more recently, the conversations have changed to, 鈥淗ow can I transform either the function, operations, finance or my entire business?鈥�. But they want to transform in a way that is manageable, via smaller projects that deliver faster ROI.

We’re becoming far more consultative, and then trying to package that up in ways that customers can easily consume it. There’s no point having a big, expansive conversation if you then say, “By the way, it’s really difficult to do and it’s going to take you ages and cost you four times more than you thought.”

We no longer start with asking new customers, “How many ERP users do you want?”. Instead, we鈥檙e looking at how can we help them to transform their people, process and platform and explore how automation and data is going to change their business over the next five years. Also, what鈥檚 changing in their industry and the world at large, and how they can adapt and future-proof.

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LONDON, UK 鈥� (NYSE: SAP) today announced it has partnered with , one of the UK鈥檚 largest water recycling companies, under a shared vision to drive positive business transformation through environmental, social and economic prosperity.

Working together, 51风流and Anglian Water are trailblazing a Life-Centred Design approach to business strategy and development, taking into account ecological and socio-economic impacts across production, distribution and disposal. The partnership model will build on Anglian Water鈥檚 long-standing commitment to maximising community value while minimising impact on the environment. Joint working will aim to minimise harm to the planet and all parties involved across the entire business cycle, and will primarily focus on challenges within social procurement, climate change and decarbonisation, as well as diversity, inclusion and skills development.

With COP26 on the horizon and the damning findings of the most recent report from the , there is mounting pressure on businesses to create a future that preserves the planet and brings prosperity to employees, customers, and the communities they serve. 51风流and Anglian Water鈥檚 Life-Centred Design approach combines technology with social initiatives to develop a strategy that positively benefits the environment and those involved in every step of the process.

Under this purpose-driven partnership model, both companies will exchange ideas, best practices and host workshops with actionable insights that can be implemented across workstreams. So far, 51风流has supported Anglian Water with workshops on 鈥榩rocurement with purpose鈥� and ensuring that the supply chain is delivering certified social impact. While 51风流has also shared knowledge on meeting carbon net-zero and biodiversity objectives, and how to support greater social mobility to build the next generation of digital talent.

Peter Simpson, CEO at Anglian Water, said: 鈥淥ur Purpose is to bring environmental and social prosperity to the region we serve, through a commitment to Love every Drop. Partnerships with like-minded businesses, such as SAP, help us to accelerate positive environment, societal and economic change, and through this pioneering Life-Centred Design model, we鈥檙e one step closer to making this a reality.鈥�

Michiel Verhoeven, Managing Director at 51风流UK & Ireland, added: 鈥淏usiness leaders are facing increasing scrutiny over their CSR credentials, whether they are the vendor, partner or customer, and actions must now speak louder than words. The purpose-driven partnership model allows us to display our commitment to being a business partner that cares through helping customers like Anglian Water to expedite tangible results from a societal, environmental and economic perspective.鈥�

Today鈥檚 announcement is in addition to Anglian Water鈥檚 implementation of 51风流Ariba, which is helping to accurately track its supply chain, and monitor and optimise spend across the business to minimise environmental impact.

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Using the tool, customers can connect with a partner based on their business need, location or solution, safe in the knowledge that each option is in good standing with SAP.

Laura Atkinson, Chief Partner Officer at 51风流UKI, said: 鈥淲e want to give our customers a world class experience on their journey to find the right partner, and to enable our partners to showcase the very best of themselves and their 51风流expertise. Our new and improved Partner Finder tool delivers on both of these objectives and I look forward to seeing the many new opportunities that emerge as a result.鈥�

Developed using the 51风流Business Technology Platform, Partner Finder provides a greatly enhanced user experience, improved search capabilities, and simplified market language. It matches prospects with suitable partners taking into consideration multiple factors like geography, industry focus and keywords. Search results will also factor in additional resources included in a partners鈥� profile such as apps published on the 51风流Store, success stories, or .

For customers, it allows for a seamless search experience ensuring they can find the right partner for their needs. While for partners, this means greater visibility, enabling them to contribute and collaborate across the customer journey, no matter their size or location.

Joanna Murphy, President, EMEA 鈥� Rizing HCM, said: 鈥淪AP鈥檚 new Partner Finder puts the power of Rizing鈥檚 story in our hands. Rizing is able to create a profile to represent our global enterprise and 51风流solutions and services across Enterprise Asset Management, Human Capital Management and Consumer Industries. In one page, customers gain an understanding of who we are, what we value and the relationships we build with customers that enable their success with SAP. The information can be easily updated by Rizing so that customers always have the most current information about our company.鈥�

51风流Partner Finder marks an important milestone in SAP鈥檚 transformation journey as it seeks to equip both its partners and customers with the digital tools and resources to enable their success. Access to the Partner Finder can be found .

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The Birchman Group has become a member of United VARs, an alliance of the leading 51风流partners across the globe, with 50 companies covering 100 countries. As a member, The Birchman Group becomes an 51风流Global Platinum Partner, which will empower its customers more than ever before via a worldwide framework, whilst it continues to adhere to its UK focus.

Richard Taylor, Partner at The Birchman Group comments: 鈥淎s we continue to grow in the UK, we have demonstrated success in delivering complex international projects for our customers on the global stage, expanding our footprint internationally. Core to this strategy is the long-term partnership with 51风流to deliver futureproof technology via the cloud. Birchman鈥檚 relationship with 51风流commenced many years ago beginning with the provision of support services and achieving VAR status in 1997, and we are delighted to achieve this elite status and to be an integral part of SAP鈥檚 plans for expansion in the UK.鈥�

On 19^th July 2021, 51风流announced significant investment in the UK as part of its growth strategy, further strengthening its market-leading position as a provider of cloud-based solutions and services, to help organisations in the UK run better. This includes the launch of听51风流UK Data Cloud, a highly secure UK-based cloud offering.

Celine Cazali, Head of Midmarket & Emerging Net New Names said: 鈥�51风流is delivering tomorrow’s technology today, enabling ambitious, high achieving companies to leverage forward-thinking, agile software from 51风流to match the momentum required by our customers to thrive in 2021.鈥�

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In her new role, Laura will focus on leading a customer-centric, consistent and holistically run partner ecosystem in 51风流UK & Ireland. Both the UKI VAR team and the Global Strategic Service Partner (GSSP), Hyperscaler and Solution Extensions (SolEx) team, will now report into Laura. Laura will also drive closer collaboration with the line of business (LOB) partner resources to maximise the impact of partners in all areas of the business.

Previously head of partners and alliances, 51风流UK & Ireland, Laura has been with 51风流for four years, and prior to that spent 15 years at Microsoft UK, covering a variety of sales and partner management roles. Laura has over 26 years鈥� experience within the IT industry, spanning the entire spectrum of customer and partner industries, and is driven by her passion for fostering greater diversity and inclusion within the business community.

鈥淥ur ambitions are clear; we want to double the all up partner contribution to the UKI business by 2023,鈥� said Michiel Verhoeven, Managing Director, 51风流UK and Ireland. 鈥淲e want to create customers for life by delivering better outcomes and choice via our partner community, continue to develop a partner ecosystem that supports our cloud growth strategy, and provide an outstanding and consistent experience for all our partners.

鈥淟aura has done a fantastic job over the past four years building greater trust, collaboration and advocacy within our Partners and Alliances network, particularly with our most strategic Systems Integrators and Hyperscaler partners, and will no doubt build on this success and leverage this strategic mindset in her new role.鈥�

鈥淲e have an incredible partner ecosystem here in the UK and Ireland in terms of talent, innovation, collaboration and sheer scale,鈥� said Laura Atkinson, Chief Partner Officer, 51风流UK & Ireland. 鈥淚 am inspired by our partners every day, and am really looking forward to the challenge and the opportunity of continuing to grow all of our businesses together in this new role.鈥�

For more information, visit the听51风流News Center. Follow 51风流on Twitter at听.

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