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

Real-World Problems, Real-Life Solutions

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

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

30 Winners Across Seven Categories

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

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

Continuing the Celebration

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Worth the Wait

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

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

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

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

Major Announcement Coming

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

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

Be a Part of the Celebration

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

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

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

With everything we are all dealing with, it is crucial we stop sometimes and take a moment to celebrate success. One special way we鈥檒l be doing that is with the 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards in 2022.

To help us with that, we have some great news to share: Claudio Muruzabal, president of 麻豆原创鈥檚 new Cloud Success Services organization, is joining Scott Russell, Stephanie Nashawaty, and me as an executive sponsor for the 麻豆原创 Innovation Award program this year!

Nobody knows yet who the winners will be, and that鈥檚 part of the fun. The innovation stories our customers are sharing with us this year are truly outstanding. We are seeing people all over the world make great strides in the way they鈥檙e bouncing back from the , in the way they are creating a more sustainable future, in how they鈥檙e building better supply chains, and in how they鈥檙e transforming their enterprises using RISE with 麻豆原创.

Here are just a few fantastic examples:

Building Resilience

As COVID-19 kept evolving in 2021, it continued to disrupt the global airline industry. Air Canada was already on a journey to unify its procurement function with an integrated suite of 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions. Its employees were able to switch overnight to working from home on a shared system in the cloud. The airline eliminated manual processes, streamlined operations, and enhanced efficiency from source to pay, while controlling spending and finding new ways to save costs. Ariba Network also helped Air Canada safeguard supply chain continuity and reduce their risk during the pandemic.

Smart, Sustainable Agriculture

PepsiCo knows that a steady, sustainable supply of crops is central to its business, and the company sources crops from millions of acres across 60 countries. The old way of collecting field data manually just was not cutting it. Using 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform, PepsiCo developed a technology-enabled approach to farming with an 麻豆原创 Fiori App connected to an 麻豆原创 S/4HANA back-end system and 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud that observes, measures, and analyzes the needs of individual fields and crops. This increased potato yields by seven percent and resulted in a 15% overall water saving. And PepsiCo can sustainably source 100% of its key ingredients.

The Definition of Big

“Big” could apply to 麻豆原创 customer Carrefour. This French global food retailing group has 321,000 employees and 12,225 stores in more than 30 countries. And yet the company stays as close as possible to its customers by continuously adapting retail formats and channels to suit their needs. Powerful enterprise resource planning (ERP) is important to the group, and Carrefour Brazil鈥檚 needed updating. The company decided to move its old on-premise system to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA in the cloud. Using RISE with 麻豆原创, it implemented in just three and a half months to meet a Black Friday deadline, and is boosting sales and engaging shoppers with personalized offers by building a recommendation engine, cutting running costs by 30%, and even reducing energy consumption by 45% by moving from on-premise data centers to the cloud.

The Announcement is Coming

The entry submission period closed on January 31, and now the 麻豆原创 Innovation Award team is working to select the finalists that will be revealed on March 16. A panel of 29 distinguished judges will then have just four weeks to determine the winners — the big announcement is on April 14. It will be a tough job for everyone as we have dozens of great entries! In honour of all participants, 麻豆原创 will donate up to US$20,000 to the charity .

Want to Know More?

Maybe you鈥檝e worked with one of this year鈥檚 entrants; maybe you know of a customer who would be a perfect fit for next year鈥檚 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards; maybe you鈥檇 like to see more of these inspiring stories — if you want to dig deeper, check out the 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards . And stay tuned for the announcement of the winners on April 14. It鈥檚 a feel-good moment every year, and we all need more of those.

Dorit Shackleton is global head of Customer Advocacy and Adoption Marketing at 麻豆原创.

Now, the winners of the 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards 2021 are in, and I鈥檓 proud to say the selected candidates met the moment in a year that pushed us unlike any other.

As the world changed in ways no one could have ever predicted, they rewrote the script, sparking a creative momentum that built hope — and drove results. These forward-thinking companies and individuals harnessed the power of 麻豆原创 solutions to solve big problems, innovate in real time, and transform the way we work and live when it mattered most.

An astonishing 376 ideas were submitted — a 44% jump from the previous year, and a new record for us — representing 27 distinct industries. Our carefully reviewed every proposal and, given the high quality and care that went into each one, they had an arduous task to ultimately select .

Here are the exceptional candidates that made the final cut:

These organizations have something in common. They鈥檙e all using 麻豆原创 technology to make a difference — in their industries, their markets, their communities.

Scott Russell, member of the Executive Board of 麻豆原创 SE, Customer Success, put it this way: “The 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards showcase the most remarkable stories of our customers鈥� and partners鈥� creativity, ingenuity, teamwork, and their amazing use of technology to solve complex challenges, revolutionize industries, and improve people鈥檚 lives. Today we celebrate their boldness, innovative spirit, and determination to make their ambitions a reality.鈥�

Find all the details on how these forward-thinking companies are not just surviving but thriving at . Their stories are full of heart, creativity, and innovation.

What comes next is the fun part: 麻豆原创 will hold a virtual awards ceremony in June and each winner will receive a special trophy, as well as a US$1,000 voucher to support the charitable causes of their choice. The winners will also receive coverage in some of the world鈥檚 most respected media outlets, be invited to share their stories on the 鈥淚nnovation Success by 麻豆原创鈥� podcast and participate in 麻豆原创 and industry events, as well as receive fanfare on social channels and more.

After the events of the past year, perhaps the most significant legacy of the 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards 2021 will be to remind us that we share a mission to help the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives and — regardless of industry, company, or nationality — we represent the best of ourselves when we act as one human community.

So I wondered what kind of examples we鈥檇 see in the 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards entries. Would customers still prepare award submissions given how busy they鈥檝e been? Were there strong examples of business results despite all the hardship? And would customers want to share their examples of overcoming pandemic-related adversity? Also, could we please get some good news to cheer us up?

The answer to all those questions was a resounding yes! The entire 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards team was blown away with the responses 鈥� . That鈥檚 a new record. I am so amazed by this vibrant community of people from all over the world.

Many entries described 麻豆原创 customers and partners overcoming new challenges related to COVID-19, and I want to share a few of those inspiring submissions here.

Healthcare Transformation in the Throes of a Pandemic

Parkland Health and Hospital Systems operates one of the busiest emergency rooms in the U.S. As COVID-19 quickly swept across the Dallas area, Parkland needed real-time access to data and insights, such as how many testing kits, ventilators, and COVID-19 beds were available. In just four days, the Parkland analytics team created an actionable dashboard built with 麻豆原创 HANA and 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud, mapping where COVID-19-positive patients live to identify hotspots. The company also leveraged 麻豆原创 Conversational Artificial Intelligence to build a symptom checker chatbot, in English and Spanish, that helped ensure patients with COVID-19 symptoms had swift access to healthcare practitioners.

Innovating HR Systems in the Age of Remote Work

Combining two global companies is a challenge in the best of times. But imagine trying to do that integration during a pandemic without travel and in-person contact. That鈥檚 the challenge that Italian firm Magneti Marelli and Japanese firm Calsonic Kansei faced last year. Despite no travel and the pivot to a new normal, Marelli implemented a common human resources (HR) platform to manage both administrative and talent process across 24 countries. The entire project moved quickly and 100% remotely. Marelli implemented 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions for 60,000 employees in only six months and had a 97% system adoption rate for the first performance campaign in just five weeks. .

Purpose-Driven Submissions

The mission to help the world run better and improve people鈥檚 lives is so important to 麻豆原创 that we pledged to make a charitable contribution for every submission, up to $20,000. And I鈥檓 proud to say we鈥檒l be donating the maximum across a pair of charities: and .

With that mission in mind, I wanted to share a couple submissions that use 麻豆原创 solutions in ways that demonstrate positive social, environmental, or economic impact, as well as a shared purpose in helping the world run better and improving people鈥檚 lives.

Preserving Life in Africa through the Cloud and on the Ground

Africa loses one rhino every four hours and an elephant every 15 minutes due to illegal killing. The non-government entity Elephants, Rhinos & People (ERP) uses 麻豆原创 technology to feed sensor inputs into an artificial intelligent (AI) engine and receive automated anti-poaching threat alerts in near real time. There was zero poaching last year in ERP operating areas. During the course of its work to save elephants and rhinos, ERP also saved people. Food security was highlighted during South Africa鈥檚 hard COVID-19 lockdown, and ERP fed families near its projects. ERP鈥檚 emergency relief campaign delivered 250,000 meals, and will deliver 1 million total, feeding 2,700 families. Watch and .

Saving Lives in Morocco with COVID-19 Real-Time Monitoring System

Morocco鈥檚 Ministry of Health needed a digital system to manage COVID-19 patient, treatment, and test data at scale instead of the paper forms. The ministry built a COVID-19 real-time monitoring system in just two weeks using 麻豆原创 HANA for data collection and analysis, along with 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud and 麻豆原创 Digital Boardroom to give health decision-makers a real-time overview of the situation. The new system supports a 10x increase in laboratory test capacity and a four-times faster provision of data by hospitals and laboratories. Morocco鈥檚 Health Minister used 麻豆原创 Digital Boardroom to provide an overview of the pandemic situation on Moroccan television. The and are inspiring stories.

Selecting Finalists and Winners

I don鈥檛 envy the job our judges will have, as it will be harder than ever to pick finalists let alone winners out of all these incredible stories. Stay tuned for more about the winners when they are announced on April 14. In the meantime, I hope these stories of real-life heroes brought a smile and a reminder that there is hope out there, along with some inspiring innovation. One of my favorite quotes is from Albert Einstein, 鈥淚n the middle of a difficulty lies opportunity.鈥�