With a diverse portfolio of brands鈥擪ito, Crosby, Harrington, Gunnebo Industries, Peerless, and eepos鈥攖he company has experienced rapid growth, scaling its business from millions to billions in revenue. But the number of acquisitions left the company with a fragmented IT landscape of outdated, unsupported, and unscalable systems.

To establish a unified digital core and standardize processes, Kito Crosby embarked on a journey, implementing 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition to achieve its long-term single global instance strategy.

A winning strategy

Kito Crosby chose a greenfield, clean core strategy to eliminate the existing fragmentation and enable long-term scalability, Johnson Lai, Chief Digital Transformation Officer and Chief Information Officer, . 鈥淚n the past, we did not integrate our ERP systems, and this left our IT landscape very fragmented and limited our business process capabilities,鈥� he said. 鈥淭herefore, we wanted to refresh all of our ERP systems and really lay down a greenfield start that we can begin to create a transformational change for the entire company.鈥�

Selecting a greenfield and clean core approach鈥攂asically standing up an entirely new system that prioritizes standard functionalities over customizations鈥攚as key to remedying Kito Crosby鈥檚 current technology landscape, so that processes like order to cash, accounting, manufacturing, and shipping could be integrated. This approach also allowed the company to take a close look at core processes and streamline operations, especially in warehouse management and S&OP, Lai said.

Considering the project scope, Kito Crosby did not have the internal talent needed to stand up the servers and infrastructure, so it decided to move forward with RISE with 麻豆原创 and . 鈥溌槎乖� comes with a lot of great stuff, and we wanted to take advantage of that,鈥� Lai said.

The company began the transformation in North America, as that is its largest market and therefore posed the greatest risk in operating on a legacy, unsupported ERP system.

Never underestimate change management

While Lai shared that employees were motivated and excited to get started initially, the enormity of the project quickly became overwhelming.

Ironically, many wanted to customize the new 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition solution to act like the legacy tech. 鈥淓veryone agrees to the clean core approach until it鈥檚 their turn to look at their function, at which point they want customization. There was a piece of resistance to using 鈥榲anilla鈥� functionality,鈥� Lai said. 鈥淥nce we showed people live demos with their own data, that鈥檚 when the change resistance started to decrease,鈥� he added.

In IT specifically, there was a strong desire to build and run their own infrastructure and servers rather than have another company step in. A sense of ownership and accountability is important, Lai said, but ultimately Kito Crosby鈥檚 need to get off the legacy system in North America quickly made it necessary to partner with 麻豆原创. And it was the right move: 鈥淣ow some of the folks who questioned why we outsourced some of that to 麻豆原创 are our biggest champions鈥e find working with the 麻豆原创 team is no different than working with ourselves.鈥�

For companies with digital transformation projects on the horizon, Lai cautions to 鈥渘ever underestimate the change impact that employees face.鈥� Projects of a global scale require planning on all fronts, including allocating time for employees and business leaders to get on board.

Lessons learned and benefits gained

The ERP system revamp delivered measurable business value to Kito Crosby, including improved customer service, stronger inventory control, and more efficient manufacturing and warehouse operations. Notably, the business process improvements and enhanced system functionality drove Kito Crosby鈥檚 on-time delivery to its highest levels in more than 10 years.

鈥淲e see that benefit across the globe and we鈥檙e excited about taking what we鈥檝e done in North America throughout the entire world, consolidating all those little ERPs that are outdated and unsupported into 麻豆原创 to get to that single global instance,鈥� Lai said. Since going live on 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and fully embracing its native capabilities, Kito Crosby has unlocked measurable business value and operational excellence. The transformation has driven strong performance gains across critical KPIs, including higher customer on鈥憈ime delivery, meaningful reductions in back orders, improved inventory accuracy, and accelerated intercompany processing.

At the same time, warehouse operations are setting new benchmarks for efficiency, achieving record volumes for receiving and put鈥慳way, replenishment, and shipping. These results have been delivered safely, with zero injuries and fewer resources.

To the cloud鈥攁nd beyond

Following its recent acquisition by leading worldwide designer, manufacturer, and marketer of intelligent motion solutions , Kito Crosby is continuing to build on its strong digital foundation.

鈥淏ecause we started with a greenfield and kept a clean core as much as possible, we feel like the upgrades will go even faster and with less effort,鈥� Lai said. 鈥淲e want to get to the latest [麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition] version so we can take advantage of the AI capabilities of .鈥�

Next on the ERP systems consolidation docket: the 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component (麻豆原创 ECC) 6.0 system in Europe.

鈥淭his is just one example of how our IT team is empowering the broader organization to further delight our customers and end user,鈥� Lai . 鈥淎s we continue to scale our business, we expect even greater returns as we further capitalize on the technology, expanded capabilities, and AI tools within our 麻豆原创 landscape.鈥�

Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at 麻豆原创.

Founded in 1917, the is comprised of 32 Clubs located across North America. It serves a global fan base of nearly 700 million annual spectators across in-arena, broadcast, and digital channels. With millions of fans worldwide watching and Clubs fighting for any edge they can find, the NHL needed a future-focused way to manage critical decisions shaping the game.

To develop, maintain, and grow a roster within the salary cap system’s guidelines is no small undertaking, especially given the numerous variables that change in real time. While instituting the salary cap helps maintain evenly balanced teams that deliver thrilling games, it also contributes to a complex front-office balancing act, where every potential trade or player acquisition poses a mind-numbing array of opportunities and complications, short and long term.

Across the League, Clubs develop their own roster-management approaches, each using different tools and resources. No matter the variations among the solutions, they were mainly labor-intensive, disconnected systems, which meant that teams did not necessarily have access to real-time data, let alone reliable data, or an efficient means to access and analyze the data they did have.

The NHL, however, had a vision鈥攁 unified system that would consolidate player and League data into one platform accessible to all Clubs.

The 麻豆原创-NHL Front Office App for iPad delivers on that vision by providing a centralized view of the League, down to the team level, and drilling further into player data, enabling front offices to make more informed, real-time decisions with greater accuracy and efficiency.

First steps: consolidation and collaboration

Before the League could make that vision a reality, several obstacles needed to be resolved, starting with what , VP of Digital Business Development at the NHL, described as the League鈥檚 primary pain point: disconnected, legacy data management systems. Pascal Bornet, AI and automation expert, applauded this approach, advising organizations to 鈥渟tart with the friction points.鈥�

Phase one, Foster explained, was 鈥渞eally updating our backend,鈥� consolidating all the League鈥檚 data, from contract to salary information, and combining it with player statistics and video clips on 麻豆原创 HANA Cloud.

Armed with a new database that would provide a seamless, fully connected single source of information for every NHL Club, the League was ready for its next challenge: creating a digital front-office solution that would meet the needs of 32 entirely different front offices, each with their own systems, priorities, 鈥渦se cases, day-to-day responsibilities, and current challenges with data or workflows,鈥� Foster explained.

The key to developing the League鈥檚 new application, Foster said, was leveraging 鈥渄esign-thinking principles鈥� and 鈥渁uthentic user feedback鈥� to create a single solution that would offer real added value to each user, from GMs to analysts to administrators, on each NHL team.

A power play digital solution

That disciplined, user-centered approach, combined with the NHL鈥檚 diligent attention to data consolidation, enabled the League to launch its 麻豆原创-NHL Front Office App for iPad in record time. While not mandatory, the app quickly proved its value and was rapidly adopted by all 32 Clubs. 

The app has already transformed day-to-day operations for Clubs, thanks to its ability to seamlessly access and interpret a single, reliable, and interconnected source of information on three different levels. The broadest level, the league view, offers data across the entire NHL, including current and projected salary caps for each club, off-season scenarios, and draft pick conditions; the team view breaks down the contracts of each player on the roster and provides visual cues for free agents or injured players; and the player view displays bios, contract PDFs, no-trade clauses, waiver status, performance bonuses, and even video clips of game highlights for every player in the League.

As Bornet said, 鈥淚t鈥檚 about the right data, instantly and everywhere.鈥� By rethinking the process first and prioritizing user needs, the League created a foundation for change鈥攐ne that keeps 鈥渉umans firmly in command鈥� and uses technology to 鈥渁mplify judgment, not replace it,鈥� Bornet added.

Foster attributed the new app鈥檚 resounding success to the processing power of (麻豆原创 BTP), which enables club-specific customizations and allows for real-time calculations to fuel mission-critical decision-making.

Playing the long game

The NHL and 麻豆原创 have a long-standing technology partnership that has powered several League-wide innovations, including NHL.com/Stats, the 麻豆原创-NHL Coaching Insights App, and NHL Venue Metrics. The Front Office App builds on this foundation and represents the next phase of the League鈥檚 digital transformation.

While the Front Office App is currently helping each NHL Club shape its team’s future, the League is continuing to look ahead. 鈥淭his is a project with a multi-year road map,鈥� Foster said.

As the NHL continues its innovation journey, it will remain laser-focused on user experience. Foster advised those looking to undertake their own digital transformation to take a page from the NHL鈥檚 playbook: 鈥淟et go of preconceived notions and realign your priorities according to user feedback. Be adaptable. Be fluid.鈥� And get excited, because 鈥渢he possibilities really are limitless.鈥�

That same approach, Bornet added, 鈥渁pplies far beyond Hockey.鈥� The NHL鈥檚 emphasis on identifying friction points and applying user-first design offers a practical template for any organization managing complex constraints and real-time decisions. Across industries, the challenge is the same: 鈥渢oo much data, too many variables, and decisions that can鈥檛 wait.鈥� The real breakthrough, he noted, 鈥渋sn鈥檛 the technology itself鈥攊t鈥檚 a mindset shift,鈥� from 鈥渁dding AI鈥� to 鈥渞emoving cognitive friction,鈥� and from 鈥渂uilding for power users鈥� to 鈥渄esigning for actual users.鈥�

Explore the episode, focused on the customer journey

Learn more about how the NHL engineered a game-changing, League-wide digital transformation:

• : Foster and Bornet talk with Thulium CEO Tamara McCleary about the untapped power of data, when it鈥檚 reliable, connected, and accessible, and how the NHL went from inspiration to iteration with the end users being essential to the transformation.

• : Foster聽talks with me about聽the process of creating a mobile app that聽meets聽the needs of 32聽distinct聽front offices, each with their own systems, use cases, day-to-day responsibilities, and priorities.

For five seasons on demand, visit .

Do you have ideas for topics or technologies we should cover, or would you like to be a guest on the show? We鈥檇 love to hear from you. E-mail us.

Timo Elliott is vice president and global innovation advocate for 麻豆原创 BTP at 麻豆原创.

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Naturipe Farms knows berries, and the grower鈥憃wned company has spent decades perfecting the art of delivering fresh, sustainably grown berries to customers around the world.

Naturipe’s Senior IT Director Carol McMillan explains how migrating to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA and has helped the company improve supply chain visibility, speed, and workforce experience. Learn more.

Naturipe has been an 麻豆原创 customer since 2008, and while initially it was not very proactive with software upgrades, the company鈥檚 philosophy has changed over time. Today, Carol McMillan, Naturipe鈥檚 senior IT director, emphasizes the importance of upgrading and upskilling the team regularly.

“There’s actually more of a risk not upgrading the product and not upskilling your team than there is being more aggressive with that timeline,” she says. Since migrating to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA in 2018, the company has undergone three upgrades, including .

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鈥淲e migrated to RISE with 麻豆原创, and we are looking at how we use those tools to optimize our supply chain and to create a better user experience for our workforce. Our workforce is constantly changing, and technology needs to change with the workforce,鈥� McMillan says.

She says it鈥檚 also important to stay at the forefront of technology in order to solve business problems efficiently, and notes that technological advancements have been crucial in managing the company’s exponential growth: “You can’t have linear growth in technology when you have exponential industry growth.”

McMillan says the Naturipe team uses 麻豆原创鈥檚 technology to prioritize its people and customers, improve workplace happiness, and give users a better experience. 鈥淲e use technology to make sure that we’re running as optimally as possible,鈥� she says. 鈥淲e look at process improvements and try to be at the forefront of technology. So, keeping up with the upgrades on a regular basis helps us be prepared for when business problems need to be solved, that way we already have the technology there to be able to solve them.鈥�

Delivering the freshest, highest-quality products to customers 365 days a year requires constant agility鈥攅specially in a category influenced by weather variability and the complexity of a highly time-sensitive supply chain. 鈥淏erries have a very short shelf life, so getting the best quality to our customers as quickly as possible is essential,鈥� she says.

To support this commitment, Naturipe Farms has invested in advanced logistics and supply chain technologies that enhance speed, visibility, and decision-making. These investments help ensure timely delivery of fresh products while also supporting employee satisfaction and work-life balance through wellness programs and flexible work arrangements.

Looking ahead, Naturipe wants to further enhance the user experience with more powerful tools and learn how to make better use of all the tools that come with RISE with 麻豆原创.  McMillan also identifies the potential of AI and the adoption of tools like Joule to improve Naturipe鈥檚 operations. “We really want to make the best use of AI and to give our users the best experience possible,” she says.

Her advice for other organizations in the agricultural industry includes the importance of putting people first, using technology to drive strategic growth, and not being a prisoner to risk. “It’s just as risky to not upgrade your technology as it is to have an aggressive timeline and have the tools that you need in order to drive that exponential growth,” she says.

Heartland Dental is the largest dental support organization in the United States, with over 3,000 supported doctors in more than 1,900 supported practices across 39 states and Washington, D.C. But beyond numbers, what sets Heartland apart is its tight knit community and people culture. As Jerome shared, “The first thing I associate with Heartland is community; we鈥檙e doctor-led. In our support role, we don鈥檛 tell dentists how to practice. Our role is to make their lives easier鈥攅nabling dentists to concentrate on patient care.”

Making lives easier is a vision Heartland shares not only for its supported dentists but for its own operations. The company’s digital journey began “backwards” starting in 2018 with 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP), instead of with ERP, to resolve disparate data from all over. Once 麻豆原创 BTP was established and adopted by the organization, it then began to incorporate .

What makes this journey truly stand out is how Heartland is using technology to serve people, supported through seamless integration with tools like 麻豆原创 Concur solutions, embedded聽AI鈥攕uch as smart invoice management鈥攁nd embedded analytics. These features are freeing up time and resources so teams can focus on what matters most: supporting doctors and improving patient care.

The team has rolled out聽麻豆原创 Build Work Zone across its supported practices and is investing in聽AI tools like 聽to help employees access information faster, automate repetitive tasks, and focus on what really matters鈥攑atient care and experiences. Jerome explained, “Just like we take the administrative burden off our supported doctors, 麻豆原创 takes the tech burden off us, so we can focus on supporting doctors and their teams.鈥�

Heartland’s next big milestone is going live with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition聽and taking AI a step further to automation.

Heartland Dental鈥檚 story shows that with the strategic adoption of technological innovations, it鈥檚 possible to build a future-ready healthcare support organization grounded in people and purpose.

Chris Putvinski is a communications specialist at 麻豆原创.

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BITZER, a聽global leader in heat and cooling technologies, partnered with NEURA Robotics and 麻豆原创 to showcase the potential of cognitive robots powered by embodied AI from 麻豆原创 to transform and streamline warehouse operation.

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In an interview, BSH Head of Governance, Methods, and Systems Heiko Schletz explained how the company is reshaping finance and why its move to the cloud is a critical ingredient to a successful AI-enhanced future.

Technology follows vision

Represented in more than 50 countries, BSH manufactures home appliances in 39 factories worldwide. Schletz鈥檚 team oversees group controlling and is responsible for ensuring that financial data flows smoothly from its core systems, such as ERP, all the way up to the consolidated group level. His team manages how financial data is structured and integrated across all global entities, ensuring it can be used effectively for company-wide reporting and decision-making.

BSH is working to bring accounting and controlling together into one integrated process, supported by real-time data and analytics. One principle is guiding this transformation: technology follows vision, not the other way round. As part of its transformation journey, BSH is embracing change by testing new technologies to support its vision.

To simplify reporting efforts, for example, , 麻豆原创鈥檚 next-generation data management platform that can unify and govern all 麻豆原创 data and seamlessly connect with third-party data.

A recent use case automatically connected accounting balances, controlling P&L data and market metrics in 麻豆原创 Datasphere and delivering consolidated reports without spreadsheets and manual effort. 鈥淭his shows where the journey is going鈥攋oining sources, bringing them together,鈥� Schletz says.

Breaking down silos to empower AI

BSH鈥檚 long-term goal in the financial area is to get rid of silos between accounting, controlling, and treasury. Schletz envisions a parallel ledger architecture that supports both鈥攍egal entity and consolidated group views鈥攅nabling advanced analytics such as value-driver trees. By moving to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition, integrated with 麻豆原创 Datasphere and 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud, BSH aims to create a single source of truth for finance spanning from subsidiary ledgers to group-level consolidation.

Schletz is convinced that with a cloud-based, synchronized toolset, his finance team can deliver the latest figures for decision-making faster and with less manual consolidation. 鈥溌槎乖粹�檚 AI evolution is running in the direction we also want to go,鈥� Schletz explains. 鈥淭he technology meets our vision and that鈥檚 why it鈥檚 a perfect fit.鈥�

The company has relied on 麻豆原创 solutions for decades, starting with 麻豆原创 R/3 and now running 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, 麻豆原创 Business Warehouse, and 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud. The next milestone is cloud migration: RISE with 麻豆原创. 鈥淚n the next two years, we go into the cloud,鈥� Schletz says. 鈥淲e want a synchronized toolset that gives us a holistic view.鈥�

To get the most out of analytics and AI functionalities, BSH is currently consolidating and simplifying its comprehensive business application landscape. The company鈥檚 target is to move from six separate ERP solutions to one global 麻豆原创 S/4HANA environment that covers all subsidiaries and geographies.

How to prepare an 麻豆原创 S/4HANA transformation

Schletz鈥檚 advice for other organizations exploring the RISE with 麻豆原创 journey is to start with a clear vision. 鈥淚f you don鈥檛 begin with a concept that combines accounting and controlling, don鈥檛 start with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA,鈥� he says, noting that a finance transformation is not an isolated IT project鈥攊t requires alignment across logistics, sales, and customer service. 鈥淭he 麻豆原创 S/4HANA conversion is a cross-functional adventure,鈥� he adds.

BSH鈥檚 journey is ongoing, but the direction is set. Cloud migration via RISE with 麻豆原创, integrated data, and a finance function designed for insight rather than manual effort. 鈥淲e want the machine to do what it does best, so people can focus on creating value,鈥� Schletz concludes.

As the business expanded, so did the complexity of its operations and the expectations of its customers. The existing manufacturing development team, focused on small-scale factory applications, found it increasingly difficult to keep up with the pace. The data was often locked in silos or other systems. To address this, Howdens set out to automate and collect data from multiple points across its supply chain. 

Considering off-the-shelf solutions that could be tailored to its needs, Howdens Joinery needed a solution that would continue to evolve with the company. Through a detailed assessment of several manufacturing execution systems (MES), Howdens Joinery decided to replace all outdated manufacturing execution systems with the  solution, making it the heartbeat of its production processes with the help of a featured partner, . 

Reinventing kitchens with an innovative and customer-centric process 

The kitchen has evolved from a simple cooking space into the heart of the home. Knowing this, Howdens Joinery has adapted its offerings to meet the changing needs of its customers. 鈥淭he kitchen market has changed a lot over the years,鈥� says David Peacock, IS Manufacturing System technical lead at Howdens Joinery. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 sell a kitchen; we provide a living space, the central part of their homes.鈥� 

Howdens expanded its range beyond the standard kitchen colors and styles. This approach enables customers to experiment with various colors and styles before making a final decision. 鈥淚t鈥檚 almost like a trial run,鈥� Peacock explains. 鈥淲e can see if a new color is worth adding to our main range. If it鈥檚 popular, we can roll it out on a larger scale.鈥� 

This strategy not only helps customers find the perfect kitchen but also provides Howdens with valuable feedback on what works best. To support this expanded offering, the company invested in a new factory and upgraded paint lines. These improvements enhanced production capacity and equipped the team with new skills and expertise. 

Traditionally, the company made a stock model, but now customers can visit depots and order kitchens in any color and style they want. 鈥淲e have a fast turnaround, with manufacturing and shipping taking just five days,鈥� Peacock says. 鈥淭o make this possible, we updated our entire order strategy and implemented the new system in less than 12 months.鈥� 

By embracing innovation and listening to customer needs, Howdens Joinery has successfully transformed its business to stay ahead in a competitive market, making it easier than ever for customers to get the kitchen they truly want. 

鈥淗aving our own homegrown MES provided us a clear view of what needed to be produced on each production line,鈥� he says. 鈥淚n real time, operators could start or stop orders and receive confirmations. And we continued to add more features and functionalities to our MES.鈥�

Reducing order production lead time from 21 days to 14 days 

Howdens Joinery faced two major challenges as it transformed its approach to kitchen manufacturing. The company sells the individual pieces of a kitchen, such as cabinet doors or shelves, that are ordered separately.听

Highlighting that the company is聽sales order-driven, Peacock further adds,聽鈥淲hen you convert the sales orders into production orders, you get a sort of production order per piece. Tracking this is easier said than done.鈥� Each聽piece follows a specific route through the factory, depending on its shape and the machinery it needs to pass through. Since the company isn鈥檛 selling finished panels that are simply waiting on a shelf, tracking each part and keeping everything together was a great challenge.听

Another major hurdle was managing the concept of process lots. Because of the specific routing required for different components, orders often needed to be split and sent down two separate production routes. These production orders would then be grouped into SFCs (shop floor controls), but this sometimes made the process more complicated rather than simpler. 

鈥淲e are potentially in a one-for-one relationship with the production order, so the SFC number became a bit redundant,鈥澛燩eacock explains. The complexity increased when multiple orders were launched simultaneously.听He adds: 鈥淲e might be launching different production orders at a time, but we did not want in [麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing] the guys on the shop floor to press start 40 times.鈥澛燭his led the company to create a mechanism for efficiently grouping orders, allowing, for example, all orders of a certain color to be processed together on the same production line.听

鈥淲hen you purchase [麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing], you鈥檙e not just buying manufacturing, but you’re buying the ability to build a manufacturing landscape. So you can do your own customizations,鈥� he adds. 

With 麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing, Howdens Joinery enhanced operational efficiency and achieved a supporting mechanism to support both make-to-stock and make-to-order production models. 

Continuous improvement as a key driver for the future of manufacturing 

Howdens Joinery is leveraging diverse technologies in production systems. Particularly as a company expanding its manufacturing capabilities, this requires the integration of IT and operational technology, as well as seamless communication with machinery and the automation of production workflows鈥攕uch as custom 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP) processes and production connectors.听聽

With this integration, Howdens Joinery achieved direct communication with various types of machinery, thereby enhancing production efficiency and reducing the need for manual intervention. 

鈥淲ith 麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing, we gained operational excellence in our supply chain processes, leading to more efficient planning and an enormous increase in production. We reduced order production lead time from 21 days to 14 days in 2023 to 2024, contributing to faster customer fulfillment,” Peacock says.

Moreover, Howdens achieved a 99.98% service level from primary sites to depots in 2024, demonstrating near-perfect product availability. “We will continue this journey of continuous improvement to deliver the best products for our customers,鈥� he says. 

The innovative manufacturer plans to replace its legacy MES systems with a fully digital manufacturing solution, ensuring streamlined and efficient operations. With robust data quality and a flexible approach to integrating new technologies, Howdens Joinery is planning to integrate AI into its manufacturing processes as the next step. Its proactive approach to utilizing new technology for operational excellence is a great industry example for the broader manufacturing community.  

To learn more about Howdens Joinery’s transformation story, check out the full customer story .听

Oyku Ilgar is part of 麻豆原创 Supply Chain Management Thought Leadership & Awareness.

Bringing a sport like dressage into the digital age would be no small feat, but that is precisely the challenge Black Horse One undertook in 2016.

Partnering with 麻豆原创, Black Horse One CEO Daniel G枚hlen and his team of 12 brought a quiet digital revolution to the paper-based, tradition-bound world of equestrian sports鈥攊ntroducing digital scoring systems, streamlining event operations, and facilitating fan engagement鈥攖hat supported and enhanced the experience of trainers, athletes, judges, federations, event managers, and fans all over the world.

However, Black Horse One saw room for even more innovation in equestrian sports, particularly in addressing the operational challenges of equestrian event management and the untapped potential of the industry鈥檚 heavily siloed data.

Digital transformation unlocks boundless potential

With its 鈥渃onsistency, affordability, and proven reliability,鈥� 麻豆原创 quickly became mission-critical for Black Horse One. Building on that success, G枚hlen turned to to bring the company鈥檚 next vision to life鈥攁 digital event management system designed to transform how equestrian competitions are run. The new system delivers real-time, end-to-end oversight and streamlines every workflow, giving 鈥渟how organizers and national federations a 360-degree software鈥� that has cut event preparation time in half.

The industry quickly took note, and Black Horse One went from 100 equestrian shows a year in 15 countries to around 300 in 32 countries and from 50,000 unique users per month to as many as 3 million鈥攁n exponential increase in operations that the company supports with the same small team.

Further digitization of processes and information has helped Black Horse One dismantle the data silos that challenge many industries, especially one as rooted in tradition as equestrian sports. Data pours in from multiple sources: national federations maintain separate records for each horse, judges and audiences submit marks in real time, and organizers update competition systems on the fly. Every change must be reflected instantly, not only to maintain accurate results but also to meet fans鈥� expectations for real-time updates.

G枚hlen, himself a former equestrian athlete, explains that many seasoned trainers and riders struggle to capture and pass on their hard-earned expertise and knowledge built over decades in the arena. A platform that enables real-time recording and sharing of performance data, scoring insights, and training techniques across a global, always-on network is transforming how the dressage community preserves and transmits its know-how.

And, in a sport where animal welfare is paramount, continued technological advancement offers additional layers of information and accountability when it comes to tracking and monitoring horses, which, G枚hlen hopes, will continue to equate to happier, healthier equine athletes.

Leveraging AI in a world of tradition

Black Horse One continues to take a storied sport across new technological frontiers, leveraging 麻豆原创 BTP to help bring artificial intelligence (AI) into its offerings. The company is already using AI to analyze performance data and biomechanical metrics, delivering personalized training and technique insights. It can even generate AI announcers when human ones aren鈥檛 available. G枚hlen notes that Black Horse One is still in the early stages of exploring the 鈥渢remendous鈥� potential of AI鈥攗sing it to support and advance equestrian sport in ways that are not only exciting but also wise and effective.

G枚hlen himself offers sage advice when it comes to assuaging stakeholders鈥� fears around digital transformation and AI in particular: 鈥淧eople really need to see that the technology supports them rather than replaces them.鈥�

Real and sustainable innovation

Black Horse One鈥檚 remarkable story of leveraging technology to transform an age-old sport demonstrates that there is no company too small or industry too niche to benefit from digital transformation.

For those looking to embark on a similar journey, G枚hlen has advice: first, start with the pain points, 鈥渨here processes are currently inefficient or fragmented,鈥� and then find the technology to ensure meaningful innovation. Second, G枚hlen advises companies to earn and keep their customers鈥� trust. 鈥淚n many of our mission-critical settings, if we make a mistake, we can鈥檛 undo it. So, make sure that you choose your technology wisely,鈥� he says.

Finally, and most crucially, remember that innovation is a process, not a destination. 鈥淣ever stop learning,鈥� G枚hlen says. 鈥淓ach project should push you and your team to grow technically and strategically. This is how innovation stays real and sustainable.鈥�

For the full Black Horse One episode and the on-demand Better Together: Customer Conversations series, visit .

The full episode

Learn more about how Black Horse One brought digital transformation to the tradition-bound world of equestrian sports.

• : G枚hlen, CEO of Black Horse One, talks with Tamara McCleary, CEO of Thulium, to share his motivation and journey merging tradition with technology to transform equestrian events, improving the sport and the sporting experience for athletes and audiences and winning over even the most traditional participants.
• : G枚hlen talks with me about what it took and the technologies that have resulted in a suite of applications that revolutionized the dressage world.

To access the whole series, on demand, visit .

Do you have ideas for topics or technologies we should cover, or would you like to be a guest on the show? We want to hear from you, just e-mail us.

Timo Elliottis vice president and global innovation advocate for 麻豆原创 BTP at 麻豆原创.

To support ongoing expansion, Far East sought more streamlined and efficient lease lifecycle management operations, leading the company to progressively digitalize the entire leasing lifecycle.

Manual processes prompt change

The leasing process at Far East has traditionally been resource-intensive, involving multiple manual steps and significant human intervention across various stages, including pre-offer approvals via e-mail, rental computations, budget comparisons, contract drafting, amendment management, and rental change tracking.

This approach required substantial manpower and created multiple data entry points across the leasing lifecycle, which could affect accuracy and timeliness. Manual updates to rental terms and amendments also contributed to inefficiencies.

The project marks an important step toward operational excellence. By identifying and addressing these systemic challenges, Far East is laying the foundation for a fully digital, integrated leasing platform that supports seamless process flow, real-time data visibility, and more informed decision-making. It is a bold shift toward a strategic, data-driven approach to leasing that enhances agility, accuracy, and growth.

A strategic move forward

For this reason, FEO decided to undertake a strategic transformation to digitalize its leasing operations through a robust, intelligent, and integrated 麻豆原创 ecosystem. This initiative unifies the full leasing lifecycle, from lead generation to contract execution and financial settlement, while enhancing operational excellence, data transparency, and customer service.

麻豆原创 was selected as the strategic platform for leasing digitalization due to its ability to deliver a comprehensive, end-to-end solution that connects business processes across the leasing lifecycle. With at the core, Far East benefits from a powerful digital foundation that aligns real estate, finance, and operational workflows into a single source of truth, supporting data integrity, process consistency, and real-time visibility. 麻豆原创鈥檚 cutting-edge technologies鈥攊ncluding 麻豆原创 Customer Relationship Management (麻豆原创 CRM), 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP), and 麻豆原创 Fiori apps鈥攅nable intelligent automation, advanced analytics, and a clean core architecture that supports both standardization and innovation.

This integrated ecosystem empowers FEO employees to leverage real-time analytics for data-driven decisions and reduce errors and eliminate bottlenecks with automated tasks, streamlined processes, and optimized workflows.

The result? FEO experienced an 80% improvement in sales process efficiency at closing leasing sales.

Impact of the leasing digitalization project

The successful implementation of the leasing digitalization project has delivered tangible improvements across the organization, from the residential and commercial group business unit to its financial, operational, and compliance domains. By streamlining and automating leasing processes, FEO achieved over US$500,000 in annual cost savings while reducing operational overhead. The project eliminated redundant data entry through intelligent field derivation and automated rental computations, helping to minimize errors and boost workforce productivity.

In addition, the leasing lifecycle has been accelerated, cutting the lead-to-contract process and reducing contract generation time from days to just minutes. With 100% system uptime since go-live and strong user adoption, the platform has become a reliable tool for leasing operations. Intelligent validations, including budget checks and competitive rent evaluations, have strengthened regulatory compliance and enhanced decision accuracy. Collectively, these outcomes have strengthened FEO鈥檚 position as a digitally enabled real estate business, well-equipped for agile, data-driven portfolio management and continuous innovation.

FEO has made significant leaps forward in the property management industry. Employee productivity has increased with streamlined processes. Regulatory compliance with industry regulations and standards is managed with intelligent validation. And, analytics provide valuable insights into tenant behavior, rent trends, and property performance.

An 麻豆原创 Innovation Award winner

For its property management achievement, Far East Organization was selected as a 2025 麻豆原创 Innovation Award winner in the Industry Leader category.

Nicolas Englo is program manager for the 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards.

Bekaert aspires to become a people- and data-driven company. This requires a thorough strategic and cultural transformation, in which artificial intelligence plays a crucial role. To get started, the company set priorities, leveraging the already available in its existing HR solutions such as 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions. By focusing on a few embedded AI use cases and creating a stand-alone AI tool on top of that, it started exploring and seeing the AI benefits.

“AI is a means to achieve our goals, a logical extension of our HR strategy,” says Jorn Waterschoot, global head of HR Technology at Bekaert. 鈥淎I’s growing capabilities, cost-effectiveness, and versatility are transforming businesses by enhancing user experiences, enabling experimentation, and encouraging adoption. At Bekaert, these strengths are leveraged in HR while carefully managing hidden costs and focusing on end-to-end implementation to maximize AI鈥檚 potential. At Bekaert, the goal is to make AI feel like a candy store: once employees experience its versatility, they are encouraged to explore it further.鈥�

First use case: the AI Master Data Assistant

Together with its long-standing partner and , Bekaert worked along a human-centered approach to innovation to identify opportunities and use cases. One of these identified use cases was a stand-alone AI tool that Bekaert used for HR data improvement. This tool was not integrated in the existing software landscape and required of users to extract and import data. 

To improve this laborious process, Flexso helped design and build a custom AI solution, called AI Master Data Assistant, with the help of 麻豆原创 AI Core in 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform. This new solution has been fully integrated with 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions, using 麻豆原创 Integration Suite. Currently, the solution uses a specific AI model from generative AI hub in 麻豆原创 AI Core. However, the flexibility with various models offered through the generative AI hub capability would allow the partner to use another AI model for this solution in the future.

Who benefits from AI in HR at Bekaert?

The AI Master Data Assistant allows the Bekaert HR teams to enhance data quality by automatically identifying, correcting, and preventing errors in employee records. The assistant can detect inconsistencies, duplicates, and missing information, ensuring that all data is accurate, complete, and up-to-date. In practice, it means that users can enter natural language prompts to get proposals for improvement. Via chat-like conversations, they can standardize formats, correct errors, and validate entries in real time.

For innovation projects, Bekaert usually rolls out new solutions gradually first through a number of role-specific use cases, then deploy them indiscriminately across the organization. For the new AI Master Data Assistant, the HR business partners and HR admin roles benefitted first.

Flexibility for the future

As part of the global 麻豆原创 AppHaus Network, Flexso always strives for a human-centered and sustainable co-innovation approach with its customers. It is about bringing innovation into the hands of people. David Pierre, AI practice lead at Flexso explains: 鈥淭he AI world is developing so fast. So, the principle in our solution is that we are AI model agnostic. Today, we are using model GPT to support our use case. But if we have a better model in the future, then we can also switch to other models as they are all supported by 麻豆原创 BTP.鈥�

Imke Vierjahn is 麻豆原创 AppHaus communications lead.

Through their innovative implementation of Soley’s Product Mining Platform with 麻豆原创’s supply chain management technologies, they prove that sustainability and profitability can go hand in hand.

The challenge: managing complex product portfolios at scale

CERATIZIT Group, a leading provider of hard material solutions for machining and wear protection, faced a challenge common to many modern manufacturing companies: managing a complex product portfolio with over 65,000 products. The company’s Cutting Tool Solutions division needed a solution to balance economic and ecological objectives while maintaining competitive advantage.

Klaus Lupfer, product lifecycle manager at CERATIZIT Deutschland GmbH, explains the company’s motivation: “In addition to the economic perspective on the product portfolio, the ecological aspect was equally important when partnering with Soley. As a company committed to sustainability for years, we are especially excited about the opportunities that the expansion of product carbon footprint data offers.”

The challenge was not just the product portfolio’s size but also the lack of transparency regarding product performance and sustainability metrics. Employees spent considerable time compiling reports rather than making strategic decisions, while limited insights into critical materials and suppliers prevented efficient phaseout of high-emission products.

AI-powered product portfolio analysis

Munich-based Soley GmbH, a past participant in the 麻豆原创.iO program, 麻豆原创鈥檚 former startup accelerator designed to foster and integrate innovative solutions into the 麻豆原创 ecosystem, developed an innovative response to this challenge. The Soley Product Mining Platform, available as part of 麻豆原创’s extension and add-on solutions, transforms complex product data into actionable insights through three core, AI-driven innovations that enable faster, smarter, and more impactful business decisions.

• AI Advisor uses AI to recommend precise actions鈥攆or example, suggesting which products should be phased out to minimize carbon footprint without sacrificing margins.
• AI Assistant provides an intuitive, natural-language interface that allows users to effortlessly interact with Soley, without requiring deep technical expertise.
• AI Detective analyzes data to uncover hidden dependencies and reveal strategic opportunities, such as identifying which configuration options should be eliminated to optimize both profitability and sustainability.

The Soley Product Mining Platform draws data from 麻豆原创 S/4HANA and 麻豆原创 Business Warehouse, utilizing 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP) as the service layer. 麻豆原创 Datasphere helps consolidate 麻豆原创 data and analytics, while 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud provides the analytics that form the core of the AI model. This technical architecture enables intelligent data extraction and transformation through 麻豆原创 Databricks, while massive graph analytics enable complex dependency analysis.

“With these 麻豆原创 solutions, we’re delivering a true game changer for the sustainability of the high tech and manufacturing industries,” says Ephraim Triemer, shareholder and advisor of Enterprise Accounts at Soley. “For the first time, our customers can go beyond ESG reporting and take real action鈥攄riving sustainability while staying laser focused on profitability.”

Seamless 麻豆原创 integration creates value

By combining CERATIZIT’s Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) data with financial metrics, the Soley Product Mining Platform creates a digital twin that uncovers opportunities, identifies risks, and analyzes product hierarchies, bills of materials, and carbon footprints. With AI-driven intelligence guidance, Soley developers ensure the platform’s capabilities enable decisions and outcomes that improve both profitability and environmental stewardship.

Earlier this year, Dominik Metzger was appointed as president and Chief Product Officer of 麻豆原创 Supply Chain Management, bringing a renewed focus on resilience, sustainability, and intelligent automation.

鈥淢y chief priority is to ensure that we help customers not only respond to disruptions but also proactively prepare and act,鈥� Metzger said. 鈥淲e can do so by leveraging AI, generative AI, real-time data, and predictive analytics with the power of 麻豆原创鈥檚 technology. Our vision is to build an autonomous supply chain鈥攃onnected, contextualized, and collaborative.鈥�

麻豆原创 SCM leadership driving transformation

The analysis delivered impressive, measurable results that demonstrate the power of combining AI-driven analytics with 麻豆原创 technologies. CERATIZIT discovered an 87% implementation rate of suggested measures, driving product sustainability and supply chain optimization. Simultaneously, the company identified a reduction of over 30% in end-of-life “ballast” products with negative carbon footprints while creating 100% transparency in sustainability data across all elements, product sets, and aggregation levels.

Alexander Springer, CEO of Soley GmbH, explains the strategic significance: “If you know which products are the most critical to the overall success of your business, you can focus on safeguarding the value chain for those products, taking proactive steps to avoid any potential supply risks.”

A model for sustainable digital transformation

The successful partnership between CERATIZIT, Soley, and 麻豆原创 demonstrates how modern companies can achieve both economic and ecological goals through intelligent use of data and AI. The combination of proven 麻豆原创 technologies and innovative analytics solutions creates measurable value for companies of all sizes. For other 麻豆原创 customers and partners, this example shows that sustainability and profitability need not be opposing forces鈥攚ith the right technologies and partners, both objectives can be achieved simultaneously.

Learn more about the latest updates to 麻豆原创 supply chain management. The Soley Product Mining Platform is available on .

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America鈥檚 biggest integrated cannabis company Trulieve chose 麻豆原创 S/4HANA to provide it with the scale and flexibility it needs in a highly dynamic market.

Read the article to learn more about Trulieve鈥檚 success: https://sap.to/6056AiWNe.

鈥淲e are an agricultural company,鈥� she continued, 鈥渂ut we also have to be able to process the product, so we are simultaneously a manufacturing company and a distribution company because we have to control how things are being moved to all of our stores. And then we are a retail company because we sell it in our stores. We track the entire supply chain.鈥�

Trulieve has been an 麻豆原创 customer since 2020. It initially chose 麻豆原创 because its legacy system couldn鈥檛 keep up with the company鈥檚 growth and demand. 鈥淲e needed to leverage and the scale it gave us just to be able to keep up with sales,鈥� Zimmerman explained. Today, Trulieve鈥檚 麻豆原创 portfolio also includes 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions and 麻豆原创 Concur solutions.

Trulieve started in 2016, so the company is only nine years old, which gave it the ability to be cloud-native from the start. 鈥淲e didn’t have any of the legacy technical debt that a lot of other companies may have. That enabled us to have all cloud-based solutions and when new technology becomes available, we’re able to quickly adopt it. That definitely puts us in a position to be able to leverage technology of the future, as opposed to being tied to legacy technology,鈥� Zimmerman said.

That鈥檚 important because keeping up with the growth in the marijuana market is top of the agenda for Trulieve, which already operates in multiple states and is a market leader in Arizona, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

鈥淥bviously we want to continue that growth,鈥� Zimmerman said. The biggest catalyst for growth is when states legalize recreational marijuana use, which opens up the entire market for Trulieve鈥檚 hand-grown marijuana products. 鈥淭he big focus for us is scalability and stability in our solutions to make sure we are able to support that growth,鈥� she said.

鈥溌槎乖� enables us to have more insight into our growth and manage production better than any other system that’s out there,鈥� Zimmerman said.  And since Trulieve is a publicly traded company, running 麻豆原创 S/4HANA also helps ensure that Trulieve鈥檚 management has access to all the internal controls and other features they need for regulatory and other purposes.

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Zimmerman emphasized that Trulieve also relies heavily on data鈥攖he company鈥檚 customer data platform combines data from multiple applications, enabling it to market more effectively to its customers and make operational decisions. 鈥淭hat definitely empowers our teams to be able to provide real-time information to our leaders, who can then make decisions literally on the fly in terms of pricing our products, or whether we need to make a promotion in order to achieve sales targets.鈥�

She also believes that the AI tools 麻豆原创 is embedding in its solutions will deliver real benefits: 鈥淚 think we have a number of opportunities in terms of being able to leverage AI with our retail dispensary associates operating on the actual sales floor.鈥� For example, she said it might be used by associates in the stores or on the phone to suggest products to customers based on data previously captured through Trulieve鈥檚 supply chain, coupled with other information and metrics.

But she said the biggest thing Trulieve has learned is that to be able to scale your business you have to have solutions that are going to be able to adapt to that scale. In addition, in a dynamic market, companies need solutions that adapt and are highly flexible.

鈥淭his environment is incredibly dynamic, so that means that tomorrow we could get legislation that opens up cannabis to the entire country,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hen that happens how would it change our organization? We have to be super adaptable to any of those types of changes that are going on in the in the larger political realm.鈥�

麻豆原创 technology, she said, provides the scalability and flexibility, together with the data, the company鈥檚 leaders need to make the best decision in real time.

Top image via customer video

The manufacturer was heavily reliant on manual documentation, which caused delays in accessing and updating critical data and documents, resulting in data quality and compliance issues.

To address these challenges and optimize asset management, LESER sought to establish seamless data integration through a unified single source of truth. After thorough research and careful comparison of options, the valve manufacturer successfully chose to implement digital twin technology with to help optimize collaboration with customers.

Error-free asset data and streamlined collaboration with smart asset management

Relying on a manual documentation process was not only time-consuming but also prone to errors and delays. This was causing significant challenges in accessing and updating critical data and documents, leading to poor data quality and inefficiencies across the ecosystem. Recognizing the need for a modern solution on the operator side, LESER identified the importance of supporting customers with a centralized asset management system. LESER decided to digitize its asset management system by implementing a centralized, cloud-based platform. This platform enables LESER to seamlessly share the digital twin with customers, enhancing transparency and data sharing while continuing to manage internal processes separately.

By implementing the technology integrated with , LESER created a one-to-one virtual replica of each piece of physical equipment and product, consolidating all relevant data and documentation into a single, accessible platform.

鈥淭he digital twin acts as a precise digital mirror of the physical safety valve, enabling our customers to receive complete, error-free, and up-to-date data about the safety valves,鈥� Pierre Draheim, manager of Product Data Management at LESER, explains.

LESER provides digital twins both for new () and existing () safety valves, centralizing all relevant data and documents. Each valve is labeled with the globally-standardized ID link, or QR code, IEC聽61406聽that allows LESER’s customers to directly access and sync product-specific information with their asset management systems, enabling seamless data transfer, documentation compliance, and cost reductions of up to 95% for initial recording.

鈥淏y embracing digital innovation, we have empowered our customers to boost their operational efficiency,” Draheim says. He emphasizes that this not only helps LESER achieve substantial time-savings but also enables the company to focus on core activities and drive greater business growth: “It’s a win-win. Not only us, but also our customers achieve significant improvements in overall productivity.”

Reduce operational costs with real-time digital twin integration

Automating valve data sharing within has made it much easier for LESER operators and service providers to coordinate maintenance, eliminating the need for manual data reconciliation. This automation cuts down on administrative work, helps avoid unnecessary downtime, and optimizes spare parts inventory, all of which contributes to a substantial decrease in operational costs.

By standardizing and digitizing data with a globally-standardized ID link, multiple service providers get instant access to accurate, up-to-date information.

鈥淲ith the introduction of the digital twin and 麻豆原创 Business Network Asset Collaboration, we can now automate valve management, making the entire process faster and more reliable,鈥� Draheim says.

Ensure safety and quality through global and regulatory compliance

Making sure safety valves meet international standards at every step requires a high level of automation in managing product data. This is especially important for LESER. 鈥淐ompliance is not just about meeting regulations, but about the ‘rules of the game’ in the industry, which enable an automated exchange of information across different IT systems and stakeholders,鈥� Draheim says.

With such a significant market presence, LESER holds its suppliers and materials to very high standards, ensuring every part complies not only with global regulations but also local rules. This level of care is particularly essential for operators working in industries with strict safety and regulatory conditions.

Beyond setting these standards, LESER keeps detailed records to maintain full transparency and traceability across the supply chain. This integrated approach helps the ambitious company reduce the need for additional level approvals and supports safe, reliable plant operations all over the world. In return, its customers experience improved reliability and confidence in the products and services they receive, creating a positive impact throughout the entire value chain.

Oyku Ilgar is part of 麻豆原创 Supply Chain Thought Leadership & Awareness.

Since its humble beginnings in 1971, Merrifield has flourished into one of the largest full-service garden center, nursery, and landscaping companies in its region, employing more than 600 individuals and comprising over 70 acres of plants, property, and storefront in northern Virginia. Its business includes three brick-and-mortar locations carrying plants, gardening supplies, and home and holiday d茅cor; an online store; a wholesale division that supports other local landscape contractors; a materials production division that recycles materials from landscaping jobs; and a line of private-label products tailored specifically for the environmental conditions in the greater Washington, D.C. area.

Clearly, the business has expanded and evolved over the years to meet changing industry and customer standards, but its founding principles of providing the highest quality customer services and unparalleled plant and product selection remain steadfast. The same is true for the systems supporting the products and services in Merrifield鈥檚 retail operations. With its omnichannel strategy, it鈥檚 critical that Merrifield delivers a consistent, seamless, and personalized experience across all its customer touchpoints.

Blooming into a modern, tech-savvy enterprise

Luckily, CFO Lynn Warhurst has made it one of her personal goals to bring technology into the company since joining in 1978. 鈥淭here was zero technology鈥o we knew going forward that if we wanted to grow and be successful, we needed to change something,鈥� she said.

After coming across 麻豆原创 at an NRF event in the early 2000s, Merrifield went live with 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component (麻豆原创 ECC) in 2013 to replace its 20-year-old garden center legacy system, providing the company with modern audit trail capabilities and increased data reliability.

Continuing its long-standing innovation journey and partnership with 麻豆原创, Merrifield is now transitioning its 麻豆原创 ECC system to the cloud with .

Merrifield Garden Center sees up to 300 transactions per hour per location, Warhurst said, and so the company needed a solution with enhanced processing speeds that can handle a high volume of retail transactions. What鈥檚 more, the company also wanted a system that supports Apple Pay and Google Pay, has customer loyalty tracking and data analytics capabilities, and ensures enterprise security and compliance.

Merrifield also wanted to bring together its retail and wholesale divisions onto one platform as opposed to hosting them on fragmented solutions. 鈥淲e knew [麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition] could handle our complexity and give us the detail we needed to run and grow our business,鈥� Warhurst said. 鈥淎fter 54 years in business, both divisions will run on the same platform. It鈥檚 very exciting that we can interchange cashiers for retail and wholesale, which means being more efficient as a company.鈥�

麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business is a new solution introduced in January of this year. Built specifically for retailers, the ERP solution is tailored to the industry鈥檚 unique complexities around scaling, merchandising, store operations, and supply chains. The flexibility of its public cloud architecture helps unify and integrate industry-specific processes with out-of-the-box integrations.

Merrifield is also implementing 麻豆原创 Omnichannel Sales Transfer and Audit to help ensure the completeness of sales transactions across multiple channels, improve data reporting, and comply with local regulations.

Strong partnerships build a foundation for success

To facilitate its cloud transformation, Merrifield engaged as its implementation partner. 鈥淗aving a trusted partner is very important,鈥� Warhurst said, explaining that Merrifield has worked with Syntax since 2018.

For the move to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion, and vertical business, Syntax came on-site to Merrifield to experience its current system first-hand and better understand what the business sees as mission-critical during this transformation, Warhurst said. Together, they identified solution provisioning and integration, data migration, and business continuity as priorities. With this insight, Syntax is working with 麻豆原创 to integrate any remaining project gaps into an upcoming solution release in August.

鈥淪yntax and 麻豆原创 have been great. We are one of the first to go public cloud for retail and they have been there for us,鈥� Warhurst said. 鈥淚t was very important to find somebody who believed in us and was there for us, and I feel that that鈥檚 really one of the most important things for our success.鈥�

While the new system is projected to go live in September, the project is currently in the configuration and realization stage and Merrifield is excited for the future. Adopting this holistic, omnichannel, cloud-based solution will help the garden center achieve its goals of expanding into more locations and online offerings by having trusted, complete data from across its divisions available in one place.

Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at 麻豆原创.

Top image courtesy of 麻豆原创 employee Tom Lennart-Krupp.

鈥淭he business will always rely on its industry-leading team selling through an institutional business model but has evolved in recent years to be more consumer-facing, data-driven, and insight-driven, so we can help the coaches and the players with relevant information on how they can improve performance,鈥� Aravind Kashyap, Chief Information Officer, Riddell, said. For example, Riddell innovated with smart helmets that utilize the Internet of Things (IoT) to get deeper insights into head impact exposure and athlete performance. 鈥淭he company itself has gone through several routes of transformation because the game and its players demand it,鈥� he said.

Riddell is now transforming its enterprise foundation, embarking on a robust, three-year enterprise solutions revamp. The company has used 麻豆原创 solutions for almost 20 years, and its current solution is highly customized and very complex. 鈥淲e really want to get to a situation where we鈥檙e not uber customized and difficult to upgrade,鈥� Kashyap said. To benefit from technologies like data visibility, process automation, and AI, the company is working with 麻豆原创 and , a global 麻豆原创 consulting company, to adopt a cloud-first, clean core approach.

Legacy built it, strategy will fix it

Riddell is modernizing and simplifying its ERP system via a greenfield approach with . 鈥淥ur IT strategy is primarily looking at the next three years and what can we do at a foundation level, what are the things we鈥檙e doing on the information aspect, and what things we are doing for greater efficiency,鈥� Kashyap said. The renewed IT strategy will enable the business to focus on growth, efficiency, and automation projects by leveraging information and advanced technologies while still driving down IT operation costs.

The project is as much about improving Riddell鈥檚 IT foundation as it is about improving the experience for employees who use the systems, many of which are remote. Kashyap explained the focus on delivering a modern digital experience across the company: 鈥淒igital experience is huge for us. In fact, that鈥檚 one of the big themes that I鈥檓 driving in the organization. How do I bring experience to our business users鈥攚hether they are in a warehouse, whether they are in a sales position, whether they are a finance clerk, whether they are in the manufacturing location or plant鈥攁nd give them the best experience as a solution user?鈥�

This is in alignment with the strategic business transformation and change management approach KaarTech recommended to Riddell. Connecting the technical ERP transformation to the consumer experience and sales side of the business was key. 鈥淚f you just do a technical assessment and try to understand the IT landscape without connecting with the business, the transformation will go wrong,鈥� Parameswaran N, vice president, KaarTech, said. He added: 鈥淲e wanted this to be a business-led transformation and the business priorities and vision were much more than just a technical upgrade, so we mutually agreed that a greenfield approach was the right approach.鈥�

As a result of a thorough migration readiness assessment exercise undertaken with , a KaarTech proprietary digital transformation as a service (DXaaS) automation platform for 麻豆原创 digital transformations, available on , Riddell鈥檚 IT landscape was found to have 1,270 custom objects, 556 custom reports, 794 enhancements to standard programs, and 10 third-party integrations. The current endeavor, called Project STRIDE, aims to streamline these customizations and instead take a fit-to-standard approach wherever possible.

The team has identified about 180 global scope items and is looking at each one individually to compare the out-of-the-box scenario with the customization opportunity, Kashyap said. This process of determining what in the current system stays and what goes is time consuming and involves about 10% of the company鈥檚 850 employees, he explained, but it鈥檚 also necessary to prioritizing the fit-to-standard and clean core approach. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not easy, but that鈥檚 the only way it鈥檚 going to happen,鈥� he said, adding that it鈥檚 a 鈥渙ne team, one platform鈥� mindset. Keeping 麻豆原创 S/4HANA as the core allows for a 鈥渓imitless plane鈥� on which Riddell can take advantage of innovative technologies like AI.

In addition to the Riddell team, who supplies the internal expertise, knowledge, and working experience to Project STRIDE, 麻豆原创 helps with the valuation of each scope item and KaarTech helps with implementation.

鈥淥ur partners KaarTech and 麻豆原创 are making it possible. It鈥檚 a long journey,鈥� Kashyap said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about making the business comfortable with using the new enterprise solution.鈥�

Project learnings鈥攕o far

Riddell鈥檚 Project STRIDE demonstrates the potential behind a fit-to-standard approach, how digital experience drives user adoption, and the need for strong governance to accelerate decision-making.

The path to the cloud and a clean core is a worthy cause to achieve long-term agility, but it鈥檚 as much a method shift as it is a mindset shift, Kashyap said. 鈥淚t is an IT transformation; more importantly it is a business transformation.鈥�

Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at 麻豆原创.

The company, which employs 37,000 people and had revenues last year of DKK 31.7 billion (EUR 4.2 billion), can trace its origins back to 1982 and a small family-run shop in Copenhagen.

In the 42 years since then, Pandora has grown into the largest jewelry brand in the world, with jewelry sold in more than 100 countries through retail stores and online.

鈥淧andora is the brand that鈥檚 all about love, and it is about gifting to your loved ones but also celebrating yourself when you have had an amazing achievement,鈥� said Mariane Heidingsfelder, Pandora鈥檚 senior vice president of Business Transformation.

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As an omnichannel retailer with ambitious growth plans, Pandora鈥檚 digital strategy is focused around enhancing consumer experience. 鈥淭hat’s our number one priority,鈥� Heidingsfelder said. Pandora selected to support its ambitious digital journey and serve as part of the foundation for the company鈥檚 future growth.

麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud will serve as the core of Pandora’s new ERP system, which will enable the company’s business processes to be standardized, simpler to manage, and more connected.

鈥淚 truly believe that business is technology, and technology is business,鈥� Heidingsfelder said. 鈥淚n our journey of growth, we are really digitalizing our business end-to-end, from manufacturing all the way to our offices and our colleagues, and all the way to our stores and the way that consumers interact with us in a very personalized way.鈥�

As part of this journey, Pandora is aiming to simplify the lives of its employees. Lean and digitized processes in combination with user-friendly dashboards are only some of the initiatives that will allow employees to spend more time with customers or undertake more innovative tasks and complex problem-solving. 鈥淎t the store, we are leveraging multiple technologies,鈥� Heidingsfelder said. 鈥淲e definitely want to simplify the way our stores operate, so we’re trying to have one place for the store associates to be able to get all the information they need in order to have those conversations with the consumer.鈥�

When it comes to digitalizing the backbone, she added, 鈥淲e also want to make sure that our store associates spend more time with the consumer and less time in the back office.鈥� Pandora is already looking at ways that it can use the embedded AI capabilities in 麻豆原创 S/4HANA.

鈥淲e’ve consciously decided to start small, learn, and then leverage where we can find efficiencies to support the way that our colleagues work,鈥� Heidingsfelder explained.

鈥淔rom there, I think the sky is the limit,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e are really a bold organization, and we want to make sure we leverage the best that there is out there from a technology point of view to boost our business and accelerate our growth.鈥�

鈥淚 think Pandora is a very open company,鈥� she added. 鈥淲e are a company that believes in our core values. We dream, we dare, we care, and we deliver.鈥�

This data-granular, verifiable, one-click solution supports the company on its path to carbon neutrality by 2030.

Challenges and opportunities

HARTING faced the challenge of finding a reliable method to calculate CO鈧� emissions across thousands of production materials while meeting customer and supplier expectations regarding sustainability. Leveraging its existing ERP application landscape with 麻豆原创 and maintaining established green production and renewable energy processes were crucial.

鈥淐onducting our business and protecting the environment are not mutually exclusive. We are convinced that we must consider both to be successful in the long run,鈥� says Dietmar Harting, member of the Board and partner of the HARTING Technology Group.

Innovations for a sustainable future

Considered the connectivity gold standard across various industrial sectors, HARTING required a robust system to accurately assess emissions. can automate data collection, scale emission calculations, and create CO鈧� transparency throughout the supply chain. 鈥淭he key to communicating our CO鈧� emissions transparently and recognizing potential for reduction lies in the automated calculation and granularity of the data provided by 麻豆原创 Sustainability Footprint Management,鈥� explains Dr. Stephan Middelkamp, general manager, Quality and Technology at HARTING.

This solution enables HARTING to provide real-time, granular data to support the 鈥淕reenLine鈥� label, an environmentally sustainable designation highlighting renewable materials offering up to a 70% CO鈧� reduction.

Strengthening sustainable production

With 麻豆原创 Sustainability Footprint Management, HARTING can now precisely calculate and report product carbon footprints. This capability is essential to address upcoming EU sustainability regulations, such as the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and Digital Product Passport. The solution helps simplify complex data into verifiable, one-click results, promoting sustainable production practices.

Also integrated into HARTING’s sustainability strategy is the use of , which helps the company design products responsibly from the start, reduce plastic taxes, and promote recycling.

鈥淭he site-level data derived from 麻豆原创 Sustainability Footprint Management will drive cleaner production in environmentally friendly facilities while mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and reducing the impact on water and land life. Green is how we think, green is how we act,鈥� emphasizes Jordy Brinks, global environmental manager at HARTING.

On the path to a greener future

麻豆原创 is advancing HARTING鈥檚 sustainability journey by enabling the company to design products more sustainably, reduce plastic taxes, promote responsible sourcing, and further recycling practices. With these efforts, HARTING aims to achieve carbon neutrality at all locations by 2030, underscoring its commitment to sustainable growth and environmental stewardship.

“As a family business, we combine consistency with a willingness to innovate and regional loyalty. For us, this means taking responsibility for people and the environment,鈥� Harting says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not only shaping a livable planet for our future generations, we鈥檙e making the future possible. We want to shape the future with technologies for people.鈥�

The HARTING Technology Group continues to drive meaningful change, connecting business success with a greener future and aligning family ideals with sustainability goals.

HARTING at the 2025 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards

All of these efforts did not go unnoticed: HARTING has long been recognized as a pioneer in sustainability. This year, it won an , leveraging 麻豆原创 Responsible Design and Production to create 85% of its plastic packaging material from recycled materials.

This article first appeared on the German 麻豆原创 News Center.

The dressings were so well loved, customers could be seen leaving the restaurant with bottles of their favorites. By 1955, the restaurant鈥檚 upstairs kitchen had become a full-scale salad dressing factory and Marzetti dressings could be found in grocery stores throughout Ohio. Today, Marzetti produces many of the salad dressings, fruit and vegetable dips, frozen baked goods, and specialty brand items found on U.S. store shelves.

Liam Durbin, Marzetti鈥檚 Chief Information Officer, was brought onboard in December 2018 by Marzetti鈥檚 CEO, Dave Ciezinski, who had worked with Durbin previously at Heinz. Durbin was charged with replacing Marzetti鈥檚 legacy green-screen PRISM software, which had become outdated, with a modern ERP system.

After a competitive bidding process, 麻豆原创 was chosen as the new ERP system. Durbin says 麻豆原创 was selected in part because of its dominance in the industry, which aligned well with Marzetti’s business requirements.

Tailwind

The transformation project, known as Project Ascent to reflect its aspirational nature, received board approval within months of Durbin joining, and by April 2019 the company had begun hiring personnel for the project with Capgemini as the system integrator.

Durbin emphasized the strong support the project received from both the CEO and the board鈥攕upport which he said 鈥渃reated a lot of tailwind鈥� for a project they saw as crucial to ensure the company’s future success.

鈥淭he CEO and the board were clear that they wanted the 鈥楢 players鈥� for the project, creating a dream team to ensure its success,鈥� Durbin said, so they rented a new building to house the project team, providing separation from the main office and allowing the team to focus on the project. This approach ensured that the project team had the necessary resources and environment to work effectively and deliver the project on time, Durbin said.

The initial plan was to execute the project and move to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud running on Microsoft Azure in four waves, but it eventually became six waves because of COVID-19. The pandemic forced the team to send everyone home, adding an extra year to the project timeline.

Implementation waves

To adapt, they created wave zero, which involved moving a facility in New Jersey鈥攐ne of about 16 facilities overall鈥攐nto 麻豆原创 from a technical perspective. 鈥淭his allowed us to kick the tires and make sure the functionality worked,鈥� Durbin said.

The project team also implemented during this extra time. Overall, the phased approach allowed the team to manage risks and ensure that each wave was successfully completed before moving on to the next.听For example, wave one covered finance, trade, procurement, and customer support鈥斺�渆verything touching the customer,鈥� Durbin said, adding that waves two, three, and four went pretty much as planned. 鈥淲e chose to split wave four in two to de-risk it because it contained two large facilities,鈥� he added.

Project Ascent is now considered complete, and over the past two years the IT team has focused on standing up the product organization and building relationships between product owners and department heads. The product owners, who were part of the project team, now work closely with their respective departments to prioritize and implement enhancements. Durbin said this structure ensures that the company continues to optimize and improve its ERP system, delivering ongoing value to the business.听

Master data project and analytics

As part of the final wave, the team undertook a master data project to ensure data accuracy and consistency across the organization. By standardizing and cleaning the master data, the company improved its ability to make data-driven decisions and enhance overall business operations.

The company chose Microsoft for its analytics platform, which, Durbin said, 鈥渁llowed us to keep the clean core so we now do most of our reporting and analytics on the Microsoft platform.鈥� 聽

He said one of the objectives of the project is to democratize access to data within the company. As part of this process, the team is trying to build a community of super users who can create reports themselves using Power BI and Power Platform, 鈥渟o the democratization is underway,鈥� he said while acknowledging that those employees in operations 鈥渁re going to need some help.鈥�

AI projects

The company already has several AI projects underway, including an accounts payable (AP) automation project using optical character recognition to streamline the process and reduce manual effort.听鈥淚n addition to projects like AP automation, we are also very excited to see what AI capabilities 麻豆原创 will be adding to its products,鈥� Durbin said.

Looking back at the Project Ascent, he highlighted the importance of having a fully-staffed organizational change management team for 麻豆原创 training and change management. He said the team played a crucial role in ensuring the project was rolled out on time and provided training and support to employees, helping users鈥攕ome of whom had never used a computer mouse鈥攁dapt to the new system.

鈥淭he amount of work involved in training people on how to interact with 麻豆原创 was a lot bigger than we thought because how technology has changed,鈥� Durbin said, adding that another challenge has been recruitment. 鈥淎s COVID-19 started to ebb and people were starting to go back into their jobs鈥攁nd this condition still persists today鈥攁 lot of factories and manufacturing businesses have had difficulty hiring hourly workers again.鈥�

鈥淪ome of the glamour of a well-paying manufacturing job has sort of gone away in America, and I think other companies, other countries as well, need to restore that,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o, we’ve had to deal with high turnover in some of our locations. Turnover is a wild card, and for the success of a project you just can’t understate it.鈥�

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Vital tapped 麻豆原创 to modernize its ERP system.

Vital also chose 麻豆原创 so it could share data across the company to make better pricing decisions and garner significant savings in Argentina鈥檚 fast-paced economy where speed matters.

TUI implemented eight years ago, and now the company鈥檚 over 41,000 employees use various 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions for performance management, talent management, learning, HR data management, and more. “With so many capabilities and so many employees, as you can imagine, it’s a steep learning curve for our employees,” Dean said. This is where TUI turned to to help standardize and automate its HR processes for an improved employee experience and increased efficiency.

Benefits for the business and employees

TUI faced three main challenges when it came to HR processes, Dean explained: employees struggled to learn new systems, legacy training approaches were expensive and difficult to maintain, and time-consuming HR tasks were impacting overall business operations. “We needed something that was going to bring us into the future but that could support the organization as well,” Dean said. The solution also needed to be available 24/7 and in multiple languages to effectively support TUI鈥檚 global employee base, which includes flight attendants, pilots, travel agents, and other seasonal roles.

TUI implemented WalkMe to help employees navigate the company鈥檚 HR processes more easily and efficiently as well as aid HR staff members. With WalkMe analytics, TUI can identify where users have challenges in existing processes and then build WalkMe solutions to create personalized and automated experiences to help mitigate those challenges. For employees, this can mean the software feels easier to use; for HR staff and the business, it can lead to fewer employee and manager errors and faster time-to-value for 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions.

Dean described how WalkMe automation helped simplify TUI鈥檚 onboarding processes for new employees by automatically assigning e-mail addresses in the 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors system during the hiring process to reduce login issues on an employee鈥檚 first day. This not only improved the new hire experience, it also saved HR teams time and proactively addressed any errors.      

TUI also simplified the time-off request process for HR staff and employees.    

“We set up a process whereby if somebody is booking sick leave and they have annual leave at the same time, WalkMe will intercept them. It will say 鈥榊ou鈥檝e actually got holiday at the same time so we need you to cancel that holiday and put it through as sick time,鈥�” Dean said. 鈥淲hat that means then for us is that we’ve got less questions going to HR, less tickets being raised, and more people following the actual process for their region.鈥�

The data speaks volumes

WalkMe analytics can offer visibility into what software is being used and how. With this insight, companies can identify opportunities for improved efficiency and deploy in-app guidance and automations to address specific points in processes. “One of the real benefits of WalkMe is how the data that is available helps us make decisions around how we support employees and how we build digital adoption solutions for our employees,鈥� Dean said. 鈥淲e’ve focused a lot on the data that’s within the annual employee process and how our users are actually using their system currently.”

Analyzing aggregated annual employee form process data collected by WalkMe over 90 days, Dean saw that HR completed the process with no errors 70% of the time, completed the process with some errors 5% of the time, and did not complete the process 23% of the time. Even more, Dean could see where the errors were occurring and where users who didn’t complete the form were getting stuck. Based on this data, Dean used WalkMe to highlight the most-missed fields on the form, reminding users to complete them before moving on. “If 5% of the time they don鈥檛 know that information, I need to do something when they get here to say, 鈥楶lease make sure you have this information before you carry on.鈥� So, I鈥檓 telling them in advance they need to have that, which I can do with WalkMe,鈥� she said.

When asked how easy the analytics dashboards are to build, Dean explained that WalkMe gathers all the forms automatically so there’s no need to build anything additional. With WalkMe flow analytics, you set up the process step-by-step and then the report collects data over time. “It’s super quick and easy. With UI intelligence you get an out-of-the-box set of insights that shows usage of forms in the system. It shows me where people stop and start processing and points of friction,” she said.

Self-service employees

TUI鈥檚 brand purpose to 鈥渃reate the moments that make life richer鈥� not only applies to its customers, but extends to its employee base as well. With the help of WalkMe and 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions, TUI has certainly succeeded in enriching and empowering HR and end users.

“What we’ve been able to see is 80% higher employee self-efficiency,鈥� Dean said. 鈥淪o the good news is they don’t need to contact their local support team because actually what they can do is go into our WalkMe menu and search for any of the content, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, across six different languages.鈥� TUI has also experienced 70% less time spent on training, a 40% increase in task completion, and 50% fewer support calls with the help of WalkMe.

For Dean herself, WalkMe has enhanced her role as a trainer: “It actually supports me to do that change management piece within my organization. It supports me to educate and enable our end users without me having to be available and fly all around the world.”

Discover how  can help drive adoption and streamline HR processes.

Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at 麻豆原创.

With major tournaments generating millions of data points every minute, esports has become increasingly data-driven. League of Legends is one of those highly strategic games, which generates vast amounts of data. Team Liquid faced the challenge of quickly analyzing and interpreting complex statistics without having to search different dashboards and making the data available to more users across the business. But how can players, coaches, and analysts efficiently access the information in natural language without slowing down decision-making?

AI-powered insights as a game-changer

To perform at the highest level in professional gaming, Team Liquid is constantly thinking of new ways to gain more insights from its data. Traditionally, Team Liquid analysts manually gathered data from multiple sources, slowing decision-making and limiting real-time strategy adjustments. In the Next Level Esports Center built on 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP), centralizes its game data, ensuring a single source of truth for performance analysis. However, accessing insights remained a challenge for non-technical users like players, coaches, and marketing teams, who needed a more intuitive way to extract even more meaningful data.

With agents in 麻豆原创鈥檚 AI copilot Joule, Team Liquid is entering a new world of getting fast and precise insights out of its existing database. By simply typing in a question about a respective player or team, the agents can go through more than 1.6 terabytes of game data from 10 million games to find the right answer to the question and can even suggest strategies to beat the opponent. This allows both analysts and non-technical users to request insights using natural language, eliminating the need for manual data retrieval. With seamless integration of 麻豆原创 HANA Cloud and 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud, Team Liquid gains a robust and scalable data infrastructure, ensuring fast, actionable insights. Joule enables users to instantly access game statistics, player performance trends, and strategic comparisons, making critical information available within seconds.

The impact of Joule Agents can be truly game-changing:

• Faster data access: Analysts can retrieve and analyze data instantly, which saves valuable time and enhances preparation for upcoming matches. With easy access to insights, different departments from coaching teams, marketing, or communications can align their strategies or content based on data-driven narratives.
• Empowered users: Players, coaches, and staff can effortlessly access insights through AI-driven queries, improving their ability to make data-informed decisions.
• Enhanced strategy: Real-time data comparisons can enable precise, data-backed decisions, giving Team Liquid a competitive edge in one of the most dynamic gaming environments.
• Proactive pattern recognition: The agents can uncover patterns in the large data sets that might not have been discovered in manual data analysis.

With agents in 麻豆原创鈥檚 AI copilot Joule, Team Liquid is preparing to unlock AI-driven analytics that will make critical insights instantly accessible. “Thanks to 麻豆原创’s AI copilot Joule and the upcoming Joule Agents, even non-technical users like our players and coaches will be able to ask for the data they need using natural language queries. What once took hours of manual work will become available instantly, driving our strategies and enhancing team performance,鈥� said Haitham Algbory, head of Analytics & Data, League of Legends at Team Liquid. 鈥淭his partnership is setting a new standard in esports, proving that AI and data integration are the future of competitive gaming.鈥�

Team Liquid embraces AI-powered analytics and pushes the boundaries of innovation, proving that the future of esports is data-driven and that AI can play a crucial role. As competitive gaming continues to evolve, AI solutions like Joule will be critical in unlocking the full potential of esports teams and maintaining competitiveness.

Dr. Benjamin Blau is Chief Process & Information Officer at 麻豆原创.

Top image: @LTA North @Riot Games

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When Bain & Company chose 麻豆原创 S/4HANA as its new ERP system, it took a page out of its own playbook to guide its implementation journey.

Serax is a customer-centric company that prioritizes excellent service for its B2B and B2C customers. It was precisely this customer focus that led Serax to implement solutions to help automate its order-to-cash process.

The challenge

The order process is straightforward for most customers, including B2C. Customers order what they want on the web shop, and the order is directly entered into 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

However, Serax鈥檚 B2B customers often still place orders by generating a PDF in their ERP system and automatically sending it to Serax鈥檚 customer service mailbox. These B2B manual orders amount to 30% of all orders coming into Serax.

Serax鈥檚 strong commitment to customer service means the company is happy to facilitate this, but it strains the customer service team. Once Serax receives the order, the customer service team must manually download the PDF, double-check dates and quantities, and then enter the order details into 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition to create the sales order. This entire process is time-consuming and error-prone.

鈥淧roviding excellent service is one of our core priorities, and this can be enabled by gaining efficiencies in certain processes,鈥� says Sara Goris, 麻豆原创 product manager at Serax. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 basically what led us to this use case. Our customer service team was still entering 30% of all orders manually into the system. We wanted to streamline that process from our side, especially since many of our customers will continue to send sales orders in PDF format.鈥�

The solution

Serax needed a solution to automatically create sales orders from PDFs. It achieved this by activating and fine-tuning an app called . This app was built with using , which allows businesses to create web and mobile applications.

With the app, Serax can drag and drop the PDF from the customer鈥檚 e-mail into the app before it orchestrates the entire process. First, it sends the PDF to 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP), where extracts the data. The document API uses pre-trained AI to take PDF files as inputs and return structured data. The second step is data matching. The application maps the extracted data to the master data, such as sold-to party, ship-to party, and product. This helps ensure the extracted data from the PDFs makes sense in the context of Serax鈥檚 business.

A sales order request is created, and the customer service employee is notified to review it and convert it into an actual sales order in 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

Results

The application has cut the number of manual B2B orders by 33%.

The time saved lets Serax invest back into better customer service. 鈥淭ime savings mean our customer service employees can spend more time on real customer service instead of putting in an order,鈥� says Ragna Qvick, digital business manager and HR performance manager at Serax. Serax鈥檚 employees also have more time for value-adding activities like upselling or cross-selling.

This jump in efficiency enables Serax to grow its business by adding more capacity for the team. 鈥淲e either needed more resources or for our existing people to become more efficient so that they can focus on more value-adding tasks for our customers,鈥� Goris says.

Another benefit of automation is reduced errors, as customer service employees no longer need to enter precise values from the PDF when creating sales orders. Instead, they can rely on document extraction to populate the order; they only need to confirm the values. 鈥淚t reduces the risk of errors because when it’s a human action, there’s always a chance of errors in quantities or other details,鈥� Qvick says.

Future

Serax and its partner are already looking at additional capabilities to automate the flow fully. This way, customer service employees will no longer need to open the emails and drag and drop the PDF. 鈥淲e have a proof of concept running to automate the process fully. It will pick up the attachment from the mailbox directly into 麻豆原创 S/4HANA,鈥� Goris says. 鈥淚t will also inform the customer service rep if anything is missing. They get a notification via Situation Handling to know when to intervene.鈥�

Learn more about how 麻豆原创 Business AI can help transform your organization鈥檚 efficiency and help drive success:

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Valvoline Global created a single point of entry, where internal and external stakeholders can meet their business requirements.

The company is also turning to AI tools in its efforts, identifying early adopters within its ranks and giving them the tools they need to map the path forward.

Read the article .

With more than 1,500 employees at 50Hertz alone, the company has a well-defined digitalization strategy in place that focuses on sustaining a clean core system. To meet this objective, it chose to utilize the no-code tool, 麻豆原创 Build Apps, which aids its transformation journey with 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP).

50Hertz鈥檚 citizen developers implemented a mobile application for the company鈥檚 specialized maintenance electricians that significantly reduced both the manual effort and the risk of errors. This mobile application supports them by maintaining and calculating the master data of power circuits, which are represented in the 麻豆原创 system as functional locations.

Why 50Hertz decided to use 麻豆原创 Build Apps

In 2023, 50Hertz conducted an analysis of its plant maintenance processes. In summary, it concluded that it was time-consuming to create new entries in its plant maintenance system and fill in master and operational data. A lot of manual effort was invested in maintaining data in Excel files and value calculations for technical objects were prone to errors. Due to the complexity of the process,聽the responsibility for certain areas could only be shared between a few technicians.

After collaborating with the 麻豆原创 AppHaus team in Berlin, the company identified a use case for its future accounting solution and evaluated different scenarios. Ultimately, the innovative capabilities of 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform convinced the 50Hertz expert team because the platform would allow them to scale up a new solution once it’s successfully piloted and rolled out across the entire corporation.

What鈥檚 more, in 麻豆原创 Discovery Center, they discovered the “” mission, which provides guidance and support with a repeatable actionable use case to solve exactly that. The analysis showed that 麻豆原创 Build Apps could not only help enhance operational agility and speed responses to business requirements, it could also integrate seamlessly with existing 麻豆原创 S/4HANA architecture.

Martin Glatzel, enterprise architect at 麻豆原创 AppHaus Berlin, expressed his satisfaction with the collaboration with the 50Hertz team: 鈥淲ith only very limited support from our side, the 50Hertz citizen developers succeeded in using 麻豆原创 Build Apps to solve their defined use case. Their four new apps will have an immense impact on the efficiency of the important high-voltage grid maintenance work in the future.鈥�

What the maintenance apps improved

麻豆原创 Build Apps enabled the team of 50Hertz citizen developers to implement the new maintenance applications with very limited support from 麻豆原创. Today, they cover the following maintenance tasks:聽

• The electric circuit display app shows circuit attributes.
• The circuit section display app allows users to look for a specific circuit and select it. All circuit sections of the selected circuit are shown, and users can view corresponding attributes and characteristics.
• The circuit section adjusting app allows users to search for a specific circuit and select it. All circuit sections of the selected circuit are displayed, and users can modify corresponding attributes.
• The circuit section design app allows users to select a circuit and create a circuit section by entering and saving necessary requirements and attributes.

After rolling out the new apps to the specialized electricians, they have benefited in different ways, such as:聽

• About 15% shorter process duration for maintaining functional locations and a significant reduction in the use of both paper- and Excel-based process steps.
• 10% faster onboarding of new technicians because the app is very easy to use, leading to quick adoption by its end users, the specialized electricians.
• Intuitive search for technical locations based on historical data.
• Automatic calculation of business-critical numbers, thus improving accuracy significantly.

Looking back 

Looking back, the 50Hertz team appreciates the opportunity to develop complex apps with 麻豆原创 Build Apps in relatively short timeframes. Christian Salewsky and Desiree Possi, both working for the Maintenance Systems & Processes department at 50Hertz, shared about their experience: 鈥淲hile we still had to code at least to some extent in JavaScript and learn to keep track of all the different flows, the overall project experience was encouraging. The detailed product documentation allowed our team to grasp the basics quickly. Once we used the standard functionalities of 麻豆原创 Build Apps, calculating electronic data became very simple. We found clear explanations of all the functions, and the tabular presentation of data was very helpful, too.鈥�

Imke Vierjahn is communications lead at 麻豆原创 AppHaus.

Edgewell鈥檚 portfolio of more than 25 well-known personal care brands, including Schick, Banana Boat, Wilkinson Sword, and Wet Ones, drove . The company relies on a people-first culture that enables the right environment for employees to be efficient and the company at large to 鈥渨in the shelf,鈥� as Colin Emery, director of Global HR Systems at Edgewell, puts it.听

In 2022, Emery was tasked with establishing a People Analytics function at Edgewell, but he quickly realized that the underlying data he needed was inaccurate. 鈥淥ur system of record was no longer the system of record. We didn鈥檛 actually have one,鈥� Emery explains. At that time, the company鈥檚 HR data accuracy was just 37% for key data fields within the Position and People Profile. 

Since Edgewell was formed in 2015, Emery says, it has relied on the 鈥渋nfinite configurability鈥� of to scale, systemize, and standardize the company鈥檚 HR systems across the world. While the solutions were working as designed, the data housed in them wasn鈥檛 being maintained properly, causing a backlog of inaccuracies to flow downstream. 鈥淚t was clear that the quality of our data within 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors was less than perfect in some parts of the world, particularly in countries where we don鈥檛 have 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors Payroll integrated,鈥� he says.

Knowing that high data quality is crucial for effective decision-making, reporting accuracy, a painless user experience, and future innovation鈥攂ut not having the budget or time to engage external resources鈥擡mery decided to develop Edgewell鈥檚 methodology in-house to tackle the issue.

Upskilling to establish HR data champions

After identifying the priority data fields that needed to be cleaned and maintained to have the most impact on data quality, Emery turned to the people who owned and best understood the data: the HR business partners (HRBPs). To ensure the success of the data quality project, the HRBPs needed to buy in. This required a mindset shift and significant change management, he says, since not all HRBPs felt responsible for maintaining the data in the 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions and some needed training to understand systemized HR processes. 

To help with the transition, Emery established an HR data steward program to upskill Edgewell鈥檚 HRBP community. Designated data stewards receive weekly reports and are tasked with personally resolving the data errors or informing an appropriate colleague. They are trained on the causes and consequences of the inaccuracies and how to remedy them, empowering the data stewards to become experts and educate other HRBPs. Upskilling the HRBPs helped them shift from a reactive to a more proactive mindset, which was a critical factor in the data quality project鈥檚 success, Emery says. 

Case in point: the number of data inaccuracies has decreased from 2,700 to just a handful. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a tiny, tiny fraction of what it was,鈥� Emery says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 based on the fact that the HRBPs are getting it right the first time, instead of making errors that need to be fixed.鈥�

The project began in the U.S. and eventually flowed to Europe, LATAM, and APAC. Now, Edgewell鈥檚 data accuracy consistently holds at 96%鈥�97%, Emery says.

Quality data drives quality decision-making

The success of its data quality and data steward project is clear, and now Edgewell can reap the rewards of a clean HR data foundation. This has had profound effects on the reliability of the company鈥檚 HR reporting, for which Edgewell uses stories in 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions. 鈥淭here’s a massive advantage to using stories when we’re using live, in-the-moment 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors data,鈥� Emery says, adding that the ability to send a link that is accessible based on existing role-based permissions makes sharing the data simple and fast. Edgewell uses stories to look at data around inclusion and belonging, leadership, tenure, talent acquisition, and more, sharing the insights with company leadership, HR leaders, and HRBPs.

This data-driven culture has helped Edgewell identify areas of improvement and make strategic HR decisions. For example, in looking at the data, the People Analytics team uncovered a short-term turnover issue for specific roles and locations. Based on this insight, Edgewell鈥檚 HR function created a new candidate experience to help improve and systemize recruiting and onboarding processes. Called 鈥淛oyful Journey,鈥� the program also doubles as a way for the company to share about itself and attract talent to the organization. 鈥淲e never would have known that was the right thing to do without the data,鈥� Emery says. 鈥淭hat then led us to invest time, effort, and dollars in those processes, which immediately made a positive impact on short-term turnover.鈥�

鈥淥ver the last three years, we have been providing data and explaining its importance by cleaning up the data within the system to make it more meaningful to us,鈥� Emery adds. 鈥淔or us, it鈥檚 never going to be data for data鈥檚 sake. It has to be about what the actions that this data suggests.鈥�

Ready for the future

Not only does Edgewell鈥檚 impressive data quality equip its leaders with actionable insights, but it creates a strong foundation for the personal care company to take advantage of HR innovations, especially considering that many, like AI, require clean data to work properly. AI copilots and agents, like , are only as good as the data they run on, which is why data quality and data governance initiatives are becoming business imperatives.听

In that case, Edgewell is ahead of the curve. 鈥淲hen I started working on People Analytics three years ago, I knew that we had to focus on [cleaning up the data] first to prepare for super automation and the AI tools that were coming,鈥� Emery says. 鈥淚t will set us up in good stead for the next iteration of tools.鈥�

Gillian Hixson is an integrated communications specialist at 麻豆原创.

The boot camp focused on addressing and analyzing the real challenges faced by the company鈥檚 work order coordinators to optimize their daily work experience and routines.

The challenge: A fragmented, manual process

Before the boot camp, badenovaNETZE’s work order coordination was a fragmented mix of tools and processes. Coordinators were juggling 麻豆原创 software, custom programs from SmartService Solutions, and basic applications like Word and Excel to complete their tasks. The status quo resulted in a couple of challenges to address and optimize:

• Improve user experience: The existing interface was difficult to navigate, leading to user frustration and reduced productivity.
• Avoid manual processes: Coordinators had to both transfer information across multiple systems and update data manually, making routine tasks time-consuming and prone to errors.
• Reduce error rate: The repetitive, manual tasks increased the risk of data entry errors, causing delays and additional workload.
• Increase transparency: With limited visibility into work order statuses, coordinators spent a lot of time tracking down information and monitoring progress.

The solution: A hands-on transformation

The company participated in a four-day 麻豆原创 Fiori Makers boot camp, bringing together customer end users, IT teams, and partners. The focus of the boot camp was to improve the usability of the work order cockpit by transitioning from manual tasks and workarounds to an 麻豆原创 app prototype as a tangible starting point. It aimed at implementing process automation, incorporating dashboards, enhancing the user experience, and reducing error rates.

The boot camp provided badenovaNETZE with the tools and an open, agile workshop format needed to tackle these challenges. Based on this close collaboration with the company鈥檚 coordinators, the 麻豆原创 team developed customized solutions that streamlined processes and the final outcome. 鈥淭he beauty of our boot camps is that we get to know and truly understand the challenges of our end users,鈥� 麻豆原创 UX Designer Christina Salwitzek summarizes. 鈥淭ogether with the end user and from the beginning, we designed and developed a more efficient solution for this complex workflow.鈥�

The objectives

badenovaNETZE faces operational challenges when managing numerous customer requests in metering, including meter replacement, installation, and removal. Together, the teams set ambitious yet achievable objectives to ensure long-term success. Operational readiness by 2025 was the top priority, with a clear goal of transitioning to an optimized, future-proof system in the first half of the new year.

To support this transition, the boot camp helped increase 麻豆原创 technology knowledge and development skills within the badenovaNETZE team. The team is now prepared to maintain, adapt, and expand the new solution as their needs evolve. 鈥淲hat surprised me the most is that we actually made such good progress together and that everybody was able to contribute something,鈥� says Paulina Deren, order coordination advisor at badenovaNETZE.

Finally, the team established a prioritized road map鈥攁 clear, phased approach designed to guide the customer through each stage of the transformation, enabling a smooth journey from concept to realization. The 麻豆原创 Fiori Makers team included three UX designers, an 麻豆原创 Fiori elements front-end developer who brought the visual designs to life, and a backend developer specializing in the 麻豆原创 Cloud Application Programming Model framework to help ensure robust, scalable functionality. The team was guided by Andreas Spahn, principal technology & innovation manager from the 麻豆原创 Services team, who moderated the boot camp and facilitated collaboration. 鈥淲hat makes 麻豆原创 Fiori Makers so special is that we have one problem statement and we have one team to analyze today鈥檚 problem with the end user and solve it,鈥� he says. 鈥淭his involves experts from technology, design, and development.鈥�

The experience

A core element was the creation of a user-centric and future-focused design for a new work order cockpit. The team used design thinking techniques in combination with the capabilities of 麻豆原创 Fiori, 麻豆原创 Fiori elements, and 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP) to get started. Being one of Germany’s largest regional suppliers of electricity, natural gas, heat energy, and water, badenova already used 麻豆原创 BTP for integration scenarios and started using it for application development with this project.

For its intuitive, streamlined interface, the team conducted a thorough feasibility assessment to validate the proposed solution’s technical and operational viability. They then rapidly co-created and prototyped solutions in close collaboration with actual users.

The derived prototype not only simplified complex workflows but also significantly reduced manual tasks, minimized errors, and eliminated data silos. By centralizing all relevant information into a unified system, the team delivered a seamless user experience, initiating the groundwork necessary for full deployment.

The result garnered positive feedback from participants, reflecting the practicality and innovation of the solution. 鈥淢ost impressive to me was the headway made,鈥� Daniel Oberle, business architect at badenovaNETZE, says. 鈥淲ithout the 麻豆原创 Fiori Makers boot camp, we would be looking at another half a year to get to where we are just now.鈥�

Real user feedback

To ensure the solution truly resonated with its users, the team conducted three on-site, moderated usability tests using a Figma prototype. Each session included two notetakers capturing live feedback directly within Figma, allowing for immediate insights and adjustments. The initial user stories were visualized using 麻豆原创鈥檚 storytelling tool, which enabled the team to quickly create collaborative, visual narratives without the need for drawing skills. These early concepts were then refined with 麻豆原创 Fiori design stencils in Figma, streamlining the transition from rough ideas to polished prototypes.

The involvement of 麻豆原创 users during the boot camp was instrumental, providing real-time evaluation through cognitive walkthroughs. 鈥淚f the user experience fits, employees are happy and enjoy using the software,鈥� Teresa Mayer, UX designer at 麻豆原创, says. This hands-on, iterative process helped ensure the final design aligned closely with user expectations and needs.

This example underscores the critical role user research plays in driving successful, error-free, and beneficial product development. To strengthen its user feedback approach even further, 麻豆原创 introduced the聽 program. This initiative invites users to participate in remote research activities, allowing 麻豆原创鈥檚 product teams to get feedback along the product life cycle. Users can share their product and design experiences to help shape 麻豆原创 products to better align with their needs while also getting a preview of new features or products.

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Conclusion

The 麻豆原创 Fiori Makers boot camp proved to be a pivotal step in badenovaNETZE鈥檚 digital transformation journey. By combining cutting-edge 麻豆原创 technologies with a user-centric design approach, the team not only tackled complex operational challenges but also delivered a solution that significantly enhances efficiency and user satisfaction. The rapid progress made during the boot camp鈥攃utting down development time by six months and projecting savings of 115 working days per year鈥攗nderscores the power of collaboration and innovation.

With the project already underway and goals for 2025 set, badenovaNETZE is well-positioned to continue refining and optimizing processes with an even more engaged and satisfied workforce.

Make your voice heard by聽. Registration is easy and taking part in research studies is convenient. To learn more about the 麻豆原创 Fiori Makers boot camp, which includes a workshop following the design-led development process, visit聽our .

This story originally appeared on with the support of Suparna Chawla.

Tobias Essig is a user research advocate for 麻豆原创 Design.

This challenge reflects broader trends in the 麻豆原创-sponsored Economist Impact report titled 鈥�,鈥� which dives into how companies like Capgemini are leveraging external workers to meet skill deficits and productivity demands. The report highlights how organizations are turning to innovative technologies and strategies to seamlessly integrate external talent, ensuring they stay competitive in a rapidly changing workforce landscape.

In Capgemini鈥檚 case, it used to help manage its contingent workforce program across more than 30 countries. The cloud-based solutions can integrate with other 麻豆原创 solutions and leverage artificial intelligence (AI) to help optimize external workforce management, helping companies stay resilient in an evolving talent landscape. With the addition of 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions, Capgemini has managed contractors and temporary workers across its entire supply chain. The company has successfully leveraged data from over 50 countries, seeing a 26% increase in unitary cost savings with a 50% increase in productivity from the internal procurement services team.

鈥淭he increased visibility into all external workforce-related outcome and process steps has enabled sharpened insights, along with smaller fulfillment time frames, higher fill rates, and improved compliance,鈥� says Andreas Hettwer, group procurement category director at Capgemini. 鈥淲e have truly optimized functions around the external workforce.鈥�

Smart and efficient talent acquisition

In today鈥檚 dynamic business environment, the external workforce鈥攃omprising freelancers, contractors, consultants, and gig workers鈥攈as become a critical component of many organizations. However, efficiently hiring and managing this diverse talent pool while staying adaptable to future workforce needs can be daunting.

This is because talent acquisition for an external workforce requires finding the right people at the right time, often under tight deadlines. The Economist Impact report also shared that internal skills and talent gaps have increased the demand for proper recruitment of the external workforce.

Capgemini serves as a prime example of how this approach works in practice. When it experiences a surge in demand, its preferred suppliers are notified and 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions pull recommendations from distribution lists of candidates who have the necessary skill sets. This helps accelerate the hiring process and can ensure Capgemini is choosing from the best possible pool of potential candidates. The data is developed in 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions and extracted into Capgemini鈥檚 various dashboards, instantly providing a comprehensive snapshot of each supplier鈥檚 performance.

Robust data maximizes ROI

Managing an external workforce is a delicate balancing act that involves countless variables. Beyond sourcing talent, it requires tracking budgets, ensuring compliance, and measuring performance. AI-powered automation can help streamline these processes, making it easy to capture, compare, and collaborate on critical information about non-payroll labor. This empowers companies to make informed decisions that maximize their return on investment (ROI).

When inflation surged in 2023, Capgemini fielded a large volume of rate increase requests. Through constructive and fact-based discussions with its supply base, the company managed a cost-rate evolution and shared inflation impact KPIs with its board. This increased executive trust in the global contingent workforce鈥檚 ability to deliver productivity. At the end of the implementation, Capgemini fulfilled 80% of its eligible contingent worker demand.

鈥淲e have full visibility,鈥� Hettwer says. 鈥淲e know the number of contractors, we know our demand per geography, per business line, and we know the cost rates we pay for certain roles, and we measure how the cost rates evolve over time.鈥�

Capgemini is also exploring new ways to use the large amount of data coming from the global deployment of 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions, including AI. Economist Impact data reinforces Capgemini鈥檚 perspective, as executives cited integrating traditional systems with AI and machine learning as a top priority over the next three to five years.

鈥淎I will certainly be an important factor in our business,鈥� Hettwer says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e being patient and methodical in order to make sure that we introduce it safely and effectively.鈥�

Driving workforce excellence through innovation and insights

Capgemini’s journey with the 麻豆原创 Fieldglass portfolio demonstrates the transformative power of leveraging advanced technology to manage and optimize an external workforce. By enhancing visibility, streamlining processes, and utilizing AI-powered insights, Capgemini has achieved significant improvements in talent acquisition, supplier performance, and cost efficiency. This resulted in the firm capturing 98% of its global contingent workforce spend with a 60% quicker fulfillment time compared to the start of the program.

As the workforce landscape continues to evolve, 麻豆原创 Fieldglass solutions can equip organizations with tools that enable them to manage the complete lifecycle of their external employees, from requisition and engagement to offboarding and evaluation. These capabilities are vital to remaining resilient, agile, and data-driven while transforming external labor into a versatile, value-driving resource.

Capgemini鈥檚 strategic focus on innovation and compliance sets a benchmark for businesses aiming to unlock the full potential of their contingent workforce in today鈥檚 competitive global environment.

Amber Roth is vice president of Global Presales & Strategy for 麻豆原创 Fieldglass.