Unlocking Big Leaps: Insights from SAP's Rise Into the Future Event

What does a big leap look like to your business?

Is it sharing internal files more easily? Or is it reducing the time from days to minutes for a customer request?

Clearly, the second example is a big leap times ten. This is a true story I learned from attending the virtual SAP Rise Into the Future event this past week. I got a front row seat to data handling at scale; SAP Build , a developer’s dream for low-code, no-code business applications; and a handy AI copilot named Joule that eliminates the small talk and gets things done. The vision for SAP’s more than 300 million users is clear: you need a KPI-driven approach to modernizing business processes.?

Speakers didn’t toss around idle promises like “efficiency” and “productivity.” Instead, they shared specific examples – and all of them were big leaps made possible by technology.?

Don’t worry, I jotted down the most important ones for you:

• Why now? Eric Van Rossum, SAP’s chief marketing officer for cloud ERP, pointed out that businesses of all sizes have hit the ceiling in terms of speed, scale, resiliency and more. Enter the era of AI. He said: “AI is the key to driving value from all the data you’re capturing and the connected digital processes you’ve created.” AI transforms data into meaningful decision points – especially in highly regulated industries like manufacturing, energy and utilities. SAPs mantra: responsible, relevant, reliable.
• The future. There’s a top line, bottom line – and green line –?for business resilience (and our planet’s endurance as well). Data is the new currency. SAP’s President and Chief Product Officer, Cloud ERP, Jan Gilg, talked about easily analyzing the impact of decisions – from potential revenue to carbon footprint based on, for example, a plant built closer to a customer versus where raw materials are produced. AI has the power to crunch lots of data points quickly.
• A story. Getting granular is a superpower for SAP. Jan cited a story about AI accelerating sales to delivery. Power Technologies is a battery manufacturer with 12 cell plants in Europe, U.S. and Asia. It has 1,500 R&D engineers and 9,000 people in sales and operations. It uses Joule to improve the customer experience and supply chain resilience. In Jan’s story, a customer changed the shipping address – but there was a problem. Joule discovered there was a delivery block. The new address is in an emission-free zone for eco-friendly vehicles only. The sales rep could not remove the block so Joule proposed a workflow to resolve the situation. The sales rep approved and the request to remove the block was sent to the sales manager. Joule even sent a confirmation email to the customer (communication builds trust!) that their request was completed.

?

This story is a big leap for everyone involved – the customer, sales rep, sales manager, Power Technologies and SAP.?

?

I interviewed Jan Gilg on my show CXO Spice talking about AI in finance. He shared why he believes big leaps are even possible through technology like Rise with SAP, a methodology to transform on-prem SAP ERP systems to cloud ERP. He said: “Technology has evolved significantly over the years and that’s also where I believe the cloud technology converges with AI technology because I feel without the compute power that is available now at scale – almost unlimited in the cloud – it only enables this now.”

Explore the SAP Rise Into the Future event on-demand. I invite you to share the big leaps you anticipate in the era of AI or any that you are making right now.

?

?