Accelerating Verticalization: Lenovo & SAP showcasing new levels of partnership at Sapphire

Today it gives me great pleasure to share that Lenovo and SAP will be showcasing their partnership, highlighting the power of verticalization in the central showcase at Sapphire 2023.

Let me start by putting this into context. To truly be a business of the future, enterprises need to rethink and redefine the Status Quo. The best opportunities to do this are in the core business of our customers in their respective industries. SAP is the perfect partner to have at your side thanks to unbeatable knowledge and expertise across 25 industries.

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Times have however changed and companies are no longer limited to one industry which results in what is known as verticalization. When speaking to innovators and thinkers the conversation often takes on a whole new dimension when verticalization enters the discussion. Industry lines are blurring. More and more industries are embracing this verticalization as a preferred growth model. And I must admit, it is the aspect that excites me the most. There are infinite opportunities for businesses to break out of the mold and provide a perfect playground for innovation.

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In a recent BCG report “Your Software Customers Need a Tailored Industry Approach”, they state that “Our research finds that the trend of verticalization is accelerating, with more than 40% of software companies increasing their verticalization efforts in existing industries and almost a third expanding to additional industries.”

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Let’s take the retail industry for example.

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SAP’s portfolio includes SAP S/4HANA Retail for merchandise management , where businesses can not only be a best run retail business, but can grow into new business models that provide customer more options and possibilities than ever before. The results speak for themselves with exceptional customer experiences based on real-time customer and sales information by connecting and transforming retail processes across the entire value chain.

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We can increase the innovation even further when we add SAP’s industry cloud solutions . Take SAP Intelligent Returns Management for example, which improves customer retention and brand connection with a fluid returns experience for consumers, while increasing productivity of store associates and reducing process costs. Reverse logistics are a pain point for many companies and can make or break customer loyalty. If the returns process does not run smoothly, your customer is likely to order elsewhere in the future, I am speaking from experience .

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BCG also reported that “The right partnerships can be tremendous accelerators in verticalization for software vendors.”

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In my opinion, SAP is the best software company in the world with the greatest ecosystem in the world. One such example of a hardware company mostly known for its laptops, computers, and tablet is our trusted partner Lenovo They too have embraced verticalization and are making great strides in the retail industry equally committed to addressing customer pain points. Lenovo also offers self-service kiosks, electronic shelf labels and point of sale systems. Following a visit to our award-winning experience center in Walldorf it became clear that we should bring best-in-class software and hardware together to offer a series of total solutions to continuously advance customer success. We will be sharing more details on this soon, in the meantime, this expanding interoperability is on show at the central showcase at Sapphire in Orlando . We look forward to seeing you there either in-person or online.Register here for SAP Sapphire Virtual 2023 .