At , I moderated a roundtable with supply chain and transformation leaders from Toyota, L鈥橭r茅al, Owens Corning, Ecolab, American Airlines, and Bayer. Across industries, one theme was clear: transformation succeeds when it is grounded in clarity, centered on people, and focused on customer impact.

If you can鈥檛 name the problem, don鈥檛 buy the technology

The most effective transformations begin with a clear articulation of the problem to be solved, the value at stake, and the outcomes expected. Too often, organizations chase new technology simply because it is available or gaining attention, not because it is tied to a specific business need. However, technologies like AI only deliver value when applied to well-defined business challenges.

Tying initiatives to measurable outcomes helps secure leadership alignment and supports change management. Clarity creates focus and helps teams understand why transformation matters. At its foundation, successful transformation rests on three pillars: people, process, and technology, all powered by high-quality data.

AI is only as smart as the network behind it

As supply chains become more complex, multi-tier visibility has moved from a nice-to-have to a requirement. Many of the biggest risks today, including regulatory exposure, disruptions, and cost volatility, originate deep in the supply chain, often beyond direct supplier relationships.

AI has emerged as a powerful enabler, but only when supported by trusted, shared data. More than half of the data needed to drive intelligent supply chains sits outside an organization鈥檚 four walls. Without visibility across trading partners, AI鈥檚 impact is limited.

Standardization also surfaced as a recurring theme during our roundtable conversation. While one-size-fits-all approaches rarely work, excessive customization slows progress and undermines scale. Leading organizations are finding a balance by standardizing where it drives speed and consistency, while allowing flexibility where it creates meaningful value.

Transformation doesn鈥檛 fail on technology, it fails on trust

Technology may enable transformation, but people determine whether it succeeds. Change management remains a critical factor, and even well-designed initiatives can stall if employees do not understand the purpose or feel threatened by the change.

Clear communication, local champions, and ongoing engagement help build trust and momentum. Leaders emphasized the importance of reinforcing that technology is designed to elevate roles by removing manual work and enabling employees to focus on higher-value activities, instead of replacing them. Being honest about what is working, what isn鈥檛, and when to pivot builds credibility and keeps teams engaged over the long term.

Customer-centric supply chains don鈥檛 happen by accident

A significant shift underway is the move from inward-facing efficiency to explicit customer-centricity. Many supply chain organizations historically assumed their work benefited customers without clearly articulating how.

Today, customer impact is a unifying principle. Whether serving consumers, passengers, farmers, or B2B customers, supply chains are increasingly recognized as drivers of experience, reliability, and brand trust.

Customer collaboration is also playing a larger role in transformation. Sharing data and aligning processes across networks creates shared value and unlocks differentiated services. Progress must be communicated in terms customers care about鈥攏ot internal metrics, but outcomes that improve service, speed, and transparency.

What the best transformation leaders do differently

Coming out of our conversation, the strongest transformation leaders shared a few defining traits:

• They pivot quickly when something isn鈥檛 working. Rather than protecting sunk costs or rigid plans, they recognize when assumptions change and adjust course. Speed and adaptability often matter more than perfection.
• They invest in people as intentionally as they invest in platforms. Adoption requires time, training, and leadership attention. Workforce readiness is treated as a core deliverable, not a side effort.
• They celebrate progress. Visible milestones help sustain momentum and reinforce positive behavior throughout a long transformation journey.
• They hold themselves accountable for real value creation. Success metrics are defined early and tracked consistently, whether financial, operational, or customer driven.

Turning ambition into measurable impact

What stood out most from my conversation at NASCES25 was the shared recognition that transformation is no longer optional. Supply chain leaders are embracing bold ambitions, people-centered change, and customer-focused innovation to turn intent into measurable impact.

plays a critical role in this journey by helping organizations connect processes, partners, and data across the value chain to improve visibility, resilience, and decision-making at scale. And beyond the network, helps orchestrate people, processes, and technology end-to-end鈥攅nabling leaders to move from intent to impact with integrated planning, execution, and insights that can drive real operational transformation.

To hear more directly from the leaders shaping this future, I encourage you to watch the and continue the conversation on how supply chains can lead meaningful transformation.

Keith Baranowski is global head of Sales for 麻豆原创 Business Network.

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.

External talent already represents a significant share of the labor: about 20% in the UK and 40% in the U.S., with projections reaching 50% globally by 2050. This surge reflects the growing demand for specialized skills and flexible cost structures.

A and conducted by Economist Impact captures this shift. Drawing on insights from more than 2,000 C-suite executives across industries, the report, 鈥淔rom Cost to Capability: Redefining External Workforce Strategy in 2025,鈥� reveals how the external workforce is evolving from a transactional resource into a core capability that drives adaptability and resilience in the AI era.

The findings underscore a critical imperative: organizations must rethink how they engage talent, integrate technology, and foster collaboration across procurement, HR, and finance to unlock the full potential of external workers.

From cost to capability: a strategic pivot

In 2023, nearly one-third of organizations cited risk reduction as their primary reason for using contingent labor and service providers. By 2025, that number dropped to just 6%. Today, cost efficiency (74%) and access to specialized skills (62%) dominate the list.

Cost efficiency is no longer about short-term savings. It鈥檚 about managing broader business risks, from financial exposure to talent scarcity. As Professor David Ulrich of the University of Michigan notes in the report, 鈥淭o mitigate risk, businesses need to reduce fixed costs, and labor is often a high fixed cost that needs to be seen as a source of growth.鈥�

Leaders increasingly view external talent as a long-term solution for project-based and technology-driven work, especially in fast-moving fields like AI, automation, and data science. Looking ahead, 64% of executives plan to expand their talent networks within three to five years, up from 54% last year鈥攃lear evidence that external workforce strategies are becoming integral to workforce planning.

Building a holistic talent ecosystem

Economist Impact鈥檚 research points to the rise of holistic talent supply chain management鈥攁 model that unites HR, finance, and procurement to forecast talent needs, close skills gaps, and treat the workforce as a dynamic ecosystem rather than a fixed headcount.

This evolution builds on the themes from previous Economist Impact reports, where procurement shifted from cost controller to strategic orchestrator of risk, sustainability, and innovation. Forward-looking organizations now embrace 鈥渢otal talent management鈥� models that integrate people, platforms, and partners while aligning culture and communication across internal and external teams.

Breaking down silos and embedding digital tools for real-time visibility will be essential to managing an integrated, skills-based workforce that adapts quickly to business needs鈥攚hile ensuring external workers feel valued and connected to enterprise goals.

Procurement at the center of workforce transformation

Procurement leaders are moving beyond sourcing and compliance to orchestrate entire talent ecosystems built on governance and collaboration. Yet the function faces challenges: confidence in procurement鈥檚 workforce management skills fell from 51% in 2024 to 43% in 2025, reflecting the complexity of its expanded scope.

CFOs and COOs are also taking a more active role, linking external workforce oversight to financial, compliance, and ESG performance. This trend echoes Economist Impact鈥檚 鈥溾�� report, which showed procurement鈥檚 remit expanding as risk management becomes central to business strategy.

To succeed, procurement must double down on visibility, digital integration, and strategic alignment. Platforms that unify workforce data鈥攆rom contingent contracts to skills mapping鈥攚ill enable teams to balance cost optimization with agility and governance.

AI: driving agility and accountability

Artificial intelligence is reshaping how organizations manage external talent. According to the report, 68% of procurement leaders cite AI proficiency and ethics as their top development priority over the next 18 months. AI can predict workforce needs, automate sourcing, and fill gaps in emerging fields like agentic AI and automation. The payoff: higher productivity and faster decision-making.

But AI also raises a critical questions: who benefits from efficiency gains? How should productivity improvements be measured? Answering these will require new cost models and shared accountability across the enterprise.

As seen in earlier Economist Impact research, AI is once again a catalyst for transformation, redefining how organizations manage, measure, and mobilize external talent.

The external workforce of the future

The evolution of the external workforce underscores a broader truth: agility, capability, and collaboration now define competitive advantage.

Organizations that treat external talent as a strategic asset鈥攊ntegrating governance, data, and culture across internal and external teams鈥攚ill be best positioned to respond to technological change and seize new opportunities.

To meet these demands, companies are turning to solutions like and , which help connect procurement and external workforce management. These solutions can deliver the visibility, intelligence, and agility needed to manage today鈥檚 dynamic workforce ecosystem.

Gordon Donovan is global vice president of Research, Procurement, and External Workforce at 麻豆原创.

According to a Gartner report, 70 to 80 percent of enterprise information lacks structure. This poses challenges for organizations that must unlock the potential and mitigate the risks of content to ensure data-driven decisions.

Take a simple, one-document example: It can cost up to $30 to process a single purchase order by hand. While this number seems small at first, it grows significantly when thousands of documents are processed every month over the years. And it doesn鈥檛 stop there鈥攅ach manual processing increases the risk of errors and potential loss of hours on the mundane job, hence missed opportunities. This leads to a high cost of running “business as usual” and a drag on innovation.

麻豆原创 Document AI: rescue business process

Manually processing documents is not just error-prone; it is also slowing down the response to market shifts, dragging down the creativity of skilled workers, and posing real threats to businesses.

麻豆原创 Document AI enables efficient and agile paperless business processes. AI-powered solutions can speed up business document processing by up to 70 percent through automating the extraction, classification, and processing of data鈥攊magine the boost in productivity, agility, and resilience.

This is not only theory. 麻豆原创 Document AI is enabling leaders to deliver reliable answers because it is grounded in the comprehensive and up-to-date training data of actual quality certificates:

• More than 180,000 annotated document pages
• Over 105 million annotated characters
• 28 countries in the data set
• More than half a billion unstructured documents processed each year

That is equivalent to approximately 8.5 years of manual information extraction and auditing, now available as a standard 麻豆原创 cloud product.

Take De Agostini Publishing as an example. With 麻豆原创 Document AI, the company is now saving around 500 hours per month, and more than 91 percent of purchase order-referred invoices are automatically processed. .

FRoSTA AG is one of the largest manufacturers of frozen foods in Europe. The company leveraged 麻豆原创 Build Process Automation together with 麻豆原创 Document AI, and it takes less than a minute to process聽an invoice from arrival to posting. Seventy percent of the invoices processed through automation are booked without any touch. What is even more interesting to note is that it took three months from project ideation to the go-live event. .

More than 34,000 customers are already using 麻豆原创 Business AI to transform the way they work.

From procurement and finance to HR and supply chain, 麻豆原创 Document AI is changing how work gets done. It is natively embedded in 麻豆原创鈥檚 key platforms, making it easier for leaders to orchestrate truly intelligent workflows.

The road ahead: leading with certainty

Leaders know that change is the only constant. Digitizing more paper is not the future of document management. It’s about using unstructured data to our advantage. Looking at the road map, 麻豆原创 Document AI will soon be able to handle even more types of documents. Enhancements such as vision-enabled information extraction, custom large language models (LLMs), and prompting are not too far off either.

Executive takeaway

Winning organizations do have one thing in common, and it is not the use of technology. They recognize that people drive business forward. By removing the manual burden, teams can be empowered to focus on what matters most: customers, strategy, and growth.

Leaders owe it to their teams to let them do what they do best, spending their time coming up with new ideas, making plans, and talking to customers. If employees are still buried in paperwork, it’s time to find out how much it really costs to wait. With 麻豆原创 Document AI, companies can develop the kind of flexibility and strength that today’s markets need.

Learn more about the benefits and new possibilities for business with .

Rashmi Kumari is a principal solution advisor at 麻豆原创.

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�

More than a support plan, 麻豆原创 Preferred Success offers a guided, proactive success model that helps accelerate outcomes, reduce risk, and drive continuous innovation. As companies move to cloud ERP solutions, especially in regulated and complex industries, the services can become a strategic advantage in bridging the gap between implementation and long-term business transformation.

Delivering transformation as a service

Technology implementation, even for cloud ERP with embedded AI and automation, can only take a business so far. To drive true business transformation, expertise is still essential.

麻豆原创 Preferred Success helps overcome challenges in realizing expected ROI and business outcomes, such as adoption gaps, siloed insights, and reactive operations that slow progress. The services can provide strategic support tailored to each organization with a structured engagement model, direct access to 麻豆原创 experts, and proactive recommendations aligned with business goals.

For example, organizations can realize the full value of 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition and other cloud solutions from 麻豆原创 faster and with less risk by leveraging:

• Tailored guidance and best practices from 麻豆原创 experts across industries
• Proactive insights to help customers align innovation with strategy
• Accelerated adoption of 麻豆原创 innovations, including embedded AI and 麻豆原创 Fiori apps
• Optimization support to help continuously refine system performance and processes
• Business-specific planning aligned with transformation milestones

麻豆原创 Preferred Success can also deliver best practice guidance through structured success checks鈥攖ouch points where 麻豆原创 experts assess alignment with standard processes, identify risks, and provide tailored recommendations. This proactive approach supports a 鈥渒eep clean, stay clean鈥� strategy, helping customers safeguard system integrity and accelerate future innovation.

For IT teams, the services can decrease time spent on incident resolution while increasing system stability. Access to architectural reviews, upgrade planning, and expert troubleshooting enables a critical shift from reactive support to proactive innovation.

At the same time, business teams can be better positioned to adopt new features quickly, leading to higher productivity and measurable progress on strategic KPIs. 麻豆原创 experts can assist in defining and tracking those KPIs from the beginning, helping ensure the technology evolves with the business. In addition, with each new release, 麻豆原创 Preferred Success can provide guidance on how to adopt what matters most.

To see the services within 麻豆原创 Preferred Success in action, let鈥檚 consider Eurofarma. Operating in more than 20 countries, the pharmaceutical company turned to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition to modernize and scale its operations. However, the turning point wasn鈥檛 just the technology but also the partnership through 麻豆原创 Preferred Success.

As noted by William Almeida, operations support systems coordinator at Eurofarma, in a :

鈥溌槎乖� Preferred Success has significantly impacted our operations by driving innovation and enabling us to fully leverage all the tools contracted with 麻豆原创. We share our business needs with them, and they connect us with 麻豆原创 experts in each area. This partnership has been instrumental in improving performance, scalability, and our ability to utilize cloud-based tools, ultimately enhancing our overall modernization.鈥�

麻豆原创 Preferred Success helped Eurofarma align its cloud environment with evolving business goals, optimize infrastructure, and adopt new tools more quickly. With personalized guidance, the company moved from reactive maintenance to proactive transformation鈥攂oosting its productivity, improving compliance, and building a stronger digital foundation for growth.

Turning embedded AI into business outcomes

When embedded with purpose and backed by expert guidance, AI becomes more than a tool. It drives tangible business outcomes. Yet, most companies struggle to adopt the technology because they lack a clear path to value.

Although it鈥檚 designed to transform business operations with intelligent recommendations, automation of manual tasks, and foresight that once took hours to uncover, the full potential of AI requires more than flipping a switch.

麻豆原创 Preferred Success offers an AI acceleration path through its AI exploration service, designed to help organizations move from isolated pilots to strategic, embedded intelligence. The service can provide expert guidance to identify high-impact use cases, align capabilities to business goals, and help ensure secure, scalable adoption.

From streamlining financial close processes to enabling natural language interactions through the copilot, companies can gain the insight and support needed to make AI truly work for their business. For industries where speed, compliance, and innovation go hand in hand, this level of enablement helps clear the way for a personalized, scalable approach to innovation.

Creating a trusted foundation for future-ready businesses

Cloud transformation isn鈥檛 a one-time event; it鈥檚 a continuous journey. 麻豆原创 Preferred Success can support every step, from go-live and scaling to innovation and evolution.

Whether the focus is on modernizing finance, optimizing supply chains, embracing generative AI, or shifting to a clean core strategy, 麻豆原创 Preferred Success brings structure to transformation, clarity to complexity, and confidence to your most important decisions.

Ready to get more from your cloud investment? Find out how services can help you get there.

Mine Ecevit is global lead for 麻豆原创 Preferred Success Sales at 麻豆原创.
Andreia Bessa is global program lead for Global Customer Engagement and Services at 麻豆原创.

New research from IDC shows how 麻豆原创 Business Network can speed up product and order delivery, accelerate go-to-market speed, and deliver significant ROI to drive procurement success.

In today鈥檚 interconnected business landscape, procurement and supply chain management have evolved from back-office functions to strategic drivers of success. As organizations seek to build resilient, efficient, customer-centric supply chains, the adoption of innovative technologies becomes crucial. Enter 麻豆原创 Business Network鈥攁 game-changing platform that鈥檚 revolutionizing how companies procure products and services and manage their end-to-end supply chains.

A recent IDC white paper, sponsored by 麻豆原创, titled 鈥�,鈥� reveals the remarkable impact of 麻豆原创 Business Network on buyer organizations. The findings, based on in-depth interviews with existing customers across various industries, showcase the impressive improvements in efficiency, cost savings, and revenue growth. Let鈥檚 delve into the transformative power of this technology and how it鈥檚 reshaping the procurement landscape.

Accelerating revenue growth through agility and transparency

When organizations can better monitor and share global trend data across teams, they can respond to market demands quicker and accelerate their go-to-market strategy. According to the research, 麻豆原创 Business Network empowered these organizations to:

• Launch products and services 30% faster than before
• Monitor global trends and redirect stock to high-demand areas with agility
• Share real-time data and analytics across teams for quicker market responses

The result? An average annual revenue gain of $66 million, or $1.2 million per 100 trading partners. This impressive growth contributes to an average three-year ROI of 404% for organizations using 麻豆原创 Business Network, with a payback period of just 14 months.

Maximizing efficiency from partner onboarding to order processing

Global supply chain success relies on making repetitive, but essential, tasks as efficient as possible. The respondents indicated that 麻豆原创 Business Network delivered substantial improvements in this area:

• Partner onboarding time reduced by 70% (from 54 days to 16 days)
• Invoice processing time cut by 59% (from 16.3 days to 6.7 days)
• Percentage of invoices processed without exception increased from 64% to 89%
• 60% reduction in full-time equivalents (FTEs) responsible for invoice-related processes

These efficiency gains were particularly significant given that procurement team sizes have remained steady despite increased focus on business strategy and execution. By automating repetitive tasks and providing real-time data for informed decision-making, 麻豆原创 Business Network freed up team members to focus on strategic initiatives.

Similar effects were felt in procurement and supply chain planning, where respondents reported the number of FTEs necessary for these activities decreased by 19% and 47%, respectively.

Realizing millions in total cost savings

麻豆原创 Business Network provides capabilities to help streamline operations, reduce manual interventions, and optimize resource allocation across various functions. The result, as found through the research, was significant cost savings across departments for interviewed companies.

• IT maintenance: Average annual savings of $6.59 million
• Warehouse and logistics: Cost reductions totaling approximately $6.5 million annually
• Inventory management: Optimized stock levels, with one pharmaceutical respondent reducing on-hand safety stock by 50%

In total, respondents experienced average annual cost savings of $13.58 million through reduced operational costs and improved efficiency.

Streamlining operations for enhanced performance

The impact of 麻豆原创 Business Network on operational efficiency was truly impressive:

• Unified IT infrastructure: Elimination of multiple systems, leading to streamlined operations
• Enhanced supplier collaboration: Freeing up team members for strategic tasks
• Improved order tracking and shipment utilization
• Better demand forecasting and stock management

Real-world success

The transformative power of 麻豆原创 Business Network is best illustrated through the experiences of its users. One pharmaceutical company reduced its on-hand safety stock by half, while others reported significant improvements in transportation processes and demand forecasting.

These success stories underscore the network鈥檚 ability to deliver tangible benefits across various industries and business functions. Real-time data and analytics helped companies respond to shifting market demands and capitalize on new opportunities, allowing organizations to launch products and services and get to market on average 30% faster than they did previously.

The findings from the IDC white paper paint a compelling picture of the potential of 麻豆原创 Business Network to revolutionize procurement and supply chain management. By enabling faster go-to-market strategies, improving operational efficiency, and delivering substantial cost savings, the network is helping organizations thrive in an increasingly complex business environment.

As we look to the future, it鈥檚 clear that platforms like 麻豆原创 Business Network will play a crucial role in shaping the next generation of procurement and supply chain excellence. Organizations that embrace this technology stand to gain a significant competitive advantage, driving growth and innovation in ways previously unimaginable.

Next steps

Ready to explore the potential impact of 麻豆原创 Business Network on your organization? Here are some resources to help you get started:

• for an in-depth look at the findings.
• featuring representatives from 麻豆原创 and IDC discussing key findings from the business value study. 
• Try out developed by IDC for a personalized organizational assessment of the ROI 麻豆原创 Business Network could deliver for your company.

Stay tuned for upcoming insights that will highlight the benefits of 麻豆原创 Business Network specifically for suppliers, complementing the buyer-focused insights presented here. The future of procurement is bright, and 麻豆原创 Business Network is leading the way in unlocking procurement and supply chain management potential and driving business success.

Tony Harris is SVP and head of Marketing & Solutions for 麻豆原创 Business Network.

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.

WalkMe has just released our 2025 State of Digital Adoption Report: Special AI Edition. As the pioneers and leaders of the digital adoption platform (DAP) category, WalkMe has consistently tracked digital adoption鈥檚 evolution.

Aptly for our time, this year鈥檚 report focuses on the state of AI adoption in organizations across the globe. There is no doubt that AI is transforming enterprise ambitions, but its success depends on people. The human part of the equation seems to be what is standing in the way of realizing the great promises of AI.

The findings must be considered in context of the consistently missed opportunity that has characterized many digital transformation efforts. shows that while digital transformation leaders generated $9 trillion in shareholder value from 2018 to 2023, others missed $5 trillion in potential gains. Enterprises now face a choice: continue accumulating transformation debt and lag behind the competition, or embrace digital adoption as the bridge to AI-powered success.

The report outlines seven digital adoption best practices and their business impact. Implementing even a single digital adoption best practice can nearly triple digital transformation ROI from 22 to 64 percent. Success in the AI era will not be won with technology alone, but with holistic adoption excellence.

For our fourth annual State of Digital Adoption Report, we surveyed nearly 4,000 enterprise leaders and employees globally and dove deep into AI adoption trends. Likely the most comprehensive research into today’s digital adoption efforts, it provides a blueprint for harnessing AI to achieve HyperProductivity. At WalkMe, we鈥檙e committed to helping you turn the promise of digital transformation into measurable business impact.

Here鈥檚 a peak into some of the findings:

Despite AI spending projected to grow 64 percent in 2025 鈥� from $14 million to $23 million at large enterprises 鈥� many organizations struggle to translate investment into impact. Our research highlights that while 79 percent of executives express confidence in achieving AI transformation goals, only 28 percent of employees feel adequately trained, and just 25 percent can use AI to work more efficiently. This readiness gap proves that without strategic adoption, AI investments often fail to deliver meaningful business value. The cost of the resulting digital inefficiencies at large enterprises was found to be over $104 million in 2024 alone due to underutilized technology and poor productivity practices.

While executives estimate an average of 37 applications are in use at their organizations, WalkMe data shows the average large enterprise actually has on average 625 applications in use 鈥� a 17x discrepancy or visibility gap of 1,600 percent. How can organizations effectively optimize their technology investments if they lack the visibility into what applications are actually being used and how? The answer is, of course, they can鈥檛. Enterprises must first discover precisely which applications are in use across their organizations before meaningful productivity gains can be realized. It鈥檚 the most basic first step in setting up each individual employee, team, and business unit for success using the technology tools that are already being paid for.

Ninety-three percent of enterprises surveyed are reevaluating their IT infrastructure, software applications, and talent strategies to ensure AI success. With so much in flux at even the world鈥檚 most innovative companies, one thing is clear: AI鈥檚 promise can only be realized if people are using it. Enterprises that invest in human-centric workforce AI adoption will not only maximize their AI investments, but will also lead the charge in shaping the future of work.

The digital adoption imperative is not only motivated by ROI, employees are all but crying out for help using these increasingly complex and numerous technologies at work. The report found that employees are still struggling with the technology tools available to them, so much so they waste an average of 36 working days a year dealing with technology frustrations. That鈥檚 akin to having every single employee take almost two full months off purely to deal with digital friction.

We can do better.

I invite you to explore more of this year鈥檚 findings and talk to WalkMe about how your workforce can thrive with AI and achieve HyperProductivity. Download the full and join our webinar, 鈥�,鈥� on February 25, 2025, at 11:00 a.m. ET, featuring experts from WalkMe, Accenture, State Farm, and EDF Renewables (register ).

Dan Adika is CEO and co-founder of .

We manage security and compliance risks and operate cybersecurity and physical security programs across our technology landscape, including cloud environments, facilities, events, and employees. We apply our security framework for every customer, all the time.

Recent geopolitical shifts and technological advancements have heightened the challenges for organizations responsible for society’s most critical functions, such as government, defense, and essential infrastructure. These security-sensitive organizations face growing threats from malicious actors targeting their mission-critical operations. As national security and sovereignty become top priorities, regulatory requirements are rapidly tightening. Any lapse in security could have serious consequences not only for the organizations themselves but also for the states and societies they serve.

Many security-sensitive organizations may face obstacles in their digital transformation due to these unique requirements and challenges. This has consequences, because in today’s environment, leveraging data to its full potential is just as relevant for national security and sovereignty as the highest level of protection.

At 麻豆原创, the needs and success of our customers are our focus. 麻豆原创 understands the challenges these security-sensitive organizations are facing and is committed to supporting them in their sovereign digital transformation. Thereby, we are convinced that we need a new view on sovereignty in the digital age. One that goes beyond eliminating risk by actively creating value. With 麻豆原创 Sovereign Cloud, we are implementing this approach.

With 麻豆原创’s Sovereignty Commitment, we underline what we at 麻豆原创 consider also critical for sovereignty in the digital age: a commitment to contribute to building a secure and sovereign future, together.

麻豆原创 has been living this commitment through actions for many years. Starting in the U.S., UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Germany, we have highlighted our commitment to sovereign cloud solutions. The announcements of several billion-dollar investments in 麻豆原创 Sovereign Cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) alone in the past months underline that.

With 麻豆原创’s Sovereignty Commitment, we underscore this commitment and dedication to supporting even the most security-sensitive organizations with specific sovereignty requirements to navigate their unique challenges in their sovereign digital transformation in the selected countries. Recognizing the urgent need for transformative action, we are determined to cooperate with those organizations on building a strong pillar for a more secure and sovereign tomorrow.  

In the Sovereignty Commitment, we outline how we do it and what we plan in the future.

鈥淚n today’s complex geopolitical landscape, digital sovereignty is not just about reducing risk; it鈥檚 about actively creating value,” said Thomas Saueressig, member of the Executive Board of 麻豆原创 SE, Customer Services & Delivery. “麻豆原创 is proud to be a trusted partner for most security-sensitive organizations around the world. With 麻豆原创 Sovereign Cloud, even the most security-sensitive organizations are enabled to maintain control over their mission-critical workload while unlocking its full potential.”

We are an experienced and trusted partner

Most security-sensitive organizations with specific sovereignty requirements need a partner that can flex to their specific regulatory needs and unlock operational value without compromising on sovereignty, protection, or control.

Backed by the world鈥檚 leading business data and a more than 50 year legacy of enterprise innovation, 麻豆原创 is pioneering sovereign cloud transformation to help leaders in government, defense, and highly regulated industries comply with sovereignty requirements and seize new opportunities.

Pioneering sovereign cloud transformation, our sovereign cloud portfolio includes Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS), Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS).

麻豆原创 Sovereign Cloud: A holistic approach based on national requirements

At 麻豆原创, we take a holistic approach to sovereign cloud, in which we consider four major dimensions based on the national requirements: data sovereignty, operational sovereignty, legal sovereignty, and technical sovereignty.

With 麻豆原创 Sovereign Cloud, we tailor solution delivery to the regarded countries鈥� specific national requirements — a sovereign cloud transformation is not empowered with a one-size-fits-it-all approach. We build on 鈥媡he 麻豆原创 solution portfolio, which is secure by design. We offer with 麻豆原创 Sovereign Cloud bespoke solutions on dedicated鈥� in-country infrastructure 鈥媋nd operations covering the central sovereign cloud capabilities in line 鈥媤ith our customers鈥� needs and deliver state-of-the-art solutions based on our innovation pipeline.

With 麻豆原创 Sovereign Cloud, our customers can simultaneously unlock the potential of technological advancements, ensuring competitiveness and innovation in fulfillment of the national sovereignty requirements. 麻豆原创 invests in and expands the 麻豆原创 Sovereign Cloud portfolio, recognizing our most security-sensitive customers鈥� urgent demand.

Today, 麻豆原创 Sovereign Cloud is available in six countries鈥�. We are planning to further expand our established footprint with additional geographies and 麻豆原创 solutions.

We take a forward-thinking approach

At 麻豆原创, we strive to think ahead, focusing on the unique and evolving needs of our most security-sensitive customers.

• Dedicated leadership for national security: Recognizing the critical importance of national security, the Supervisory Board of 麻豆原创 SE has established a dedicated Government Security Committee. This committee ensures that the specific requirements of our security-focused customers remain a strategic priority at the highest levels of our organization.
• Centralized unit for sovereign solutions: To better serve security-sensitive customers, 麻豆原创 has established the Sovereign Services & Delivery unit. This dedicated team consolidates expertise across cloud infrastructure, regulatory compliance, and digital transformation to address the most stringent sovereignty requirements. The unit ensures seamless collaboration along the entire value chain, enabling faster and more tailored responses to market demands. By fostering closer integration, we empower customers to achieve secure, compliant, and scalable sovereign cloud solutions.
• Investing in sovereignty: We are making bold investments to support cloud sovereignty. 麻豆原创 plans to invest more than double-digit billion into AI and research and development, as well as cloud infrastructure, over the next five years in Europe. In Germany alone, we plan to invest 鈧�2 billion in 麻豆原创 Sovereign Cloud, underscoring our commitment to strengthening digital independence and the sovereignty of the societies we proudly serve.

Martin Merz is president of Sovereign Services & Delivery at 麻豆原创.

Q: Your team recently made a comprehensive update to 鈥淢apping your journey to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition.鈥� Why?

A: Since the first edition of the guide was published in 2018, the technological landscape has changed significantly and, of course, we want to provide our customers with the most up-to-date information. That鈥檚 our ongoing goal: to offer comprehensive guidance to companies looking to transition to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition. There鈥檚 plenty of information on the subject online, coming from different perspectives and with various focal points. We wanted to create a central, reliable source of information that can serve as a planning tool. The entire transition process is covered, from initial considerations to go-live. At the same time, you can read the chapters independently if a specific topic feels more relevant. And it鈥檚 all written in a practical, hands-on way 鈥� no buzzwords, just real value for the reader.

鈥淎 successful 麻豆原创 migration starts with the right mindset. The cloud mindset makes all the difference.鈥�

Q: What sources did you use?

A: Our approach draws heavily on external sources and focuses on addressing real customer pain points. We gathered insights from various user groups and institutions, such as Koblenz University of Applied Sciences, to document the specific challenges customers face 鈥� or perceive they face. While our internal experts, such as the Regional Implementation Groups and the Customer Care Center, played a role, they primarily contributed 麻豆原创鈥檚 best practices and expertise to answer these customer-driven questions. Using the Pareto principle, we identified the challenges that account for 80% of project success. But we didn鈥檛 stop there. We are actively updating the guide based on ongoing customer feedback. For example, we were recently asked to add a chapter on our acquisition of WalkMe 鈥� and we鈥檙e on it!

Q: Were there any challenges that surprised you?

A: Surprised might not be the right word, but there are two main areas where I see easily avoidable issues.

First, there鈥檚 the lack of a cloud mindset. Some decision-makers still struggle to understand that a cloud environment has different requirements compared to an on-premise infrastructure. Throughout the guide, we address this need in several chapters, including the 鈥淐lean Core鈥� chapter, which emphasizes standardizing processes and moving away from old customizations. A true cloud mindset requires attention to multiple components, all aimed at achieving greater flexibility, simplicity, and innovation. Everyone involved needs to understand this before the project starts or else you end up with misunderstandings and delays.

Second, there鈥檚 often room for improvement in project management. A project setup with clearly defined responsibilities and the right expertise is crucial. And those in charge need to be empowered to make decisions 鈥� otherwise, too much time gets wasted on unnecessary approvals or multiple iterations for validation and consensus discussions.

Q: Considering the entire guide, what are the most important recommendations?

A: Having a clear goal is the foundation. It serves as the central guiding element for all individual decisions. The goal must be clearly defined from the outset and, most importantly, pursued consistently. It may sound simple, but it鈥檚 so easy to lose sight of the bigger picture in the heat of the moment! For example, does a company primarily want to reduce existing dependencies or get prepared for digital business models? Depending on the objective, the processes will be shaped quite differently.

The Only Book You Need to Read About 麻豆原创 S/4HANA

鈥淢apping your journey to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition鈥� provides IT leaders with the perfect blend of theoretical insights and practical guidance to help keep their company digitally prepared beyond 2027.

Thomas Bamberger is president of 麻豆原创 Customer Evolution.

鈥淥ur mission is to help the customer be fast-moving,鈥� Takuya Sakai, general manager of Hitachi High-Tech Corporation鈥檚 Digital Transformation Business Group, said in after appearing in an 麻豆原创 TechEd keynote last year. 鈥淎nd our corporate vision is a simplified customer process.鈥�

So, in the name of speed and simplicity, Hitachi High-Tech did more than just modify its solution architecture; the Tokyo-based subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd. opted for a greenfield 麻豆原创 S/4HANA transformation. That meant designing and building a new environment customized for its specific needs.

And it did so via an ambitious digital experience program with the goal of helping to simplify its customers鈥� high-tech processes across nano-technology, analytical and medical, as well as other business categories.

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Jumping into the Greenfield

Hitachi High-Tech had run 麻豆原创 ERP as the backbone of its global business since the 1990s, enabling decades of smooth operation and implementation, as well as allowing regions to tailor development to their specific needs. But it also resulted in about 9,000 add-ons 鈥� coding added over the decades to enable bespoke functionality 鈥� from reports and input screens to complex manufacturing-related processes.

Add-ons can help users customize software for specific tasks. But, especially over time, they can become unwieldy, hindering the organization鈥檚 agility and adaptability.

鈥淎fter our digital experience project, we made the decision to jump into a greenfield so that we don鈥檛 transfer all that from our legacy system to our new 麻豆原创 S/4HANA platform,鈥� Sakai said. 鈥淲e changed processes, and we changed technologies.鈥�

Indeed, the jump into a greenfield 鈥� implementing a new system on a virtual blank canvas, without migrating pre-existing data, customizations, and more 鈥� helped Hitachi High-Tech slash its 9,000 legacy add-ons to a mere 800 add-ons, according to Sakai. And Hitachi High-Tech developed most of those new add-ons side-by-side via 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP); not altering code helped minimize modifications, which safeguarded stability, agility, and speed.

And, Hitachi High-Tech stopped add-on development completely on 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, according to Sakai.

How Two Tiers Equal One Clean Core

In its greenfield, Hitachi High-Tech built a two-tier model: one tier featured 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for the company鈥檚 small and midsize sales offices overseas, allowing them to use relatively simple ERP tools, while the other tier runs 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition for Hitachi High-Tech鈥檚 larger domestic manufacturing.

鈥淪ide-by-side development on 麻豆原创 BTP…allows for faster upgrades,鈥� , 鈥済iving our people more immediate access to improved functionality.鈥�

Moving operations from an increasingly customized 鈥� and, therefore, cumbersome 鈥� legacy system to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud offered flexibility, speed, and security, . This can be useful when demand surges, for example, or for offering more frequent upgrades.

But the two tiers still need to exchange data. That鈥檚 where 麻豆原创 BTP fits.

鈥淲e have to integrate two ERPs, so that鈥檚 why we set up 麻豆原创 BTP between the two tiers,鈥� . 鈥淲e鈥檇 like to keep our 麻豆原创 S/4HANA core clean…so we use 麻豆原创 BTP as a business hub and a development foundation.鈥�

Building a Simple, Smart Digital Process

鈥淯sing 麻豆原创 BTP, we can build a simple, smart digital process without touching our 麻豆原创 S/4HANA core,鈥� Sakai said, echoing what he shared during his 麻豆原创 TechEd keynote appearance. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 very, very powerful because we can introduce new functions to the user…and we believe 麻豆原创 BTP is very important for accelerating our business.鈥�

Sakai appeared at 麻豆原创 TechEd to tell the story of Hitachi High-Tech鈥檚 greenfield transformation, during which employees had to adapt to new process, screens, and reporting. They ended up with every office digitally connected, which proved to be a tremendous benefit.

And that type of business case is 鈥渢he most important thing鈥� in a transformation, according to Sakai.

鈥溌槎乖� is not just a software company, but also something like transformation company,鈥� Sakai said. 鈥淥f course,鈥� he added with a smile, 鈥渢he system also is very important.鈥�

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The important thing about an ecosystem is that the companies don鈥檛 master the challenges of digital transformation individually.

Michael Tworek of BMW-supplier WITTE Automotive told 麻豆原创鈥檚 Winning Insights: 鈥淭hey master these challenges together.鈥� See how WITTE works with BMW, 麻豆原创, and other partners within the Catena-X data ecosystem to meet those challenges 鈥� and how scaling up the ecosystem can help everyone expand use cases and improve efficiency.

Fernet-Branca originated in Italy in 1845 as the creation of herbalist Bernardino Branca, who intended it as a medicinal digestif. Produced from a secret recipe of herbs, flowers, roots, and spices 鈥� thought to include saffron, rhubarb, myrrh, and artichoke 鈥� the drink remains popular for its many curative properties.

While the strong bitterness and unique flavor is arguably an acquired taste for most, sales of Fernet-Branca remain robust for global producer Fratelli Branca Distillerie, headquartered in Italy with production plants in both Italy and Argentina and from there they export to other countries.

Gaston Vega, director of IT at Fratelli Branca Distillerie in Argentina, summarizes the brand鈥檚 success: 鈥淚n the last three years, counting until 2023, Fratelli Branca has been exceeding the sales level every year 鈥� meaning that each year of the last three, from 2021 to 2023, was a record.鈥�

But with such success comes pressure to meet rising demand. For many years, Fratelli Branca in Argentina relied on a patchwork of outdated tools and time-consuming manual methods for its customer relationship management (CRM). To become a world-class, sales-driven organization, Fratelli Branca needed to carry out a digital transformation to modernize and automate its CRM processes for improved efficiency. But first, it urgently required an internal champion who could devote time to investigate the technology market and introduce new digital solutions. Vega, who had only recently joined the company in 2022 after many years in the consumer products industry, came to a disquieting realization: 鈥淚n the mass consumption sector, the truth is we were quite behind,鈥� he says. 鈥淭here were many opportunities for automation, digitalization, and technology modernization.鈥�

Valuing a Tradition of Continuous Innovation

For more than 175 years, Fratelli Branca has honored the company motto 鈥�Novare serbando鈥� 鈥� a Latin phrase that means to keep innovating while respecting tradition. This commitment to continuous innovation is evident in the broad portfolio of premium beverages that the company produces, including many brand-name brandies, liquors, vermouths, vodkas, and whiskies.

Now it was time for the sales organization to champion this commitment to innovation through its digital transformation. Would the team be ready for a new way of working? Yes, Vega says: 鈥淲hen I raised the idea of implementing a CRM, I had the unconditional and absolute support of the sales director and the entire commercial area.鈥�

With key stakeholders in agreement, Fratelli Branca evaluated a range of CRM solutions on the market. It chose 麻豆原创 based on best performance, value, and ease of integration with the organization鈥檚 existing 麻豆原创 enterprise resource planning software. 鈥� solutions won in that bid for different reasons: first, we liked the application better, for cost, for different reasons,鈥� Vega says, explaining that 鈥渂asically, the need arose from automation. Many very manual processes were being done here. The sales order system was obsolete, almost unsupported. That was why we looked for an application like this.鈥�

The sales team participated in the demo sessions and asked detailed questions to gain an in-depth understanding of how the new 麻豆原创 solution could enhance productivity. 鈥淚t is an application that they really liked from the first moment,鈥� Vega says. 鈥淭hey thought it was super agile, super versatile, and that it was going to bring them many benefits. Reducing their manual and administrative tasks meant that they gained productive time. So, that’s a very big benefit.鈥�

麻豆原创 Sales Cloud: Optimizing Each Customer Interaction for Improved Profitability

is an advanced CRM solution that helps sales-driven organizations maximize customer interactions and profit margins simultaneously. Using a data-driven approach, the solution expedites a comprehensive strategy to help optimize sales, customer service, and marketing operations. The integration of AI features can enable sales representatives to turn data into actionable insights to help enhance customer engagement, drive customer retention, and ultimately increase sales.

麻豆原创 Sales Cloud鈥檚 success can also be attributed to its versatility and adaptability; it can be seamlessly integrated into an organization鈥檚 existing IT infrastructure without interrupting routine workflow.

Dynamic and Strong Support Drives Project Success

To ensure project success, Fratelli Branca chose global consultancy , an 麻豆原创 partner with a proven track record in helping clients accelerate value from digital transformation of core technologies. The work chemistry with Avvale was an important consideration, Vega says: 鈥淲e have a great dynamic with them. They are people who understood very well what we needed and did not try to go a different path. They recommended things to us; we adopted them. So, that was the first milestone.鈥�

Also, 麻豆原创 continued to monitor the project鈥檚 progress, so Fratelli Branca was never alone or stuck for answers. 鈥溌槎乖� obviously sold us the product, it sold the licenses, but it never stopped accompanying us in the implementation,鈥� Vega says. 

With a strong team and stakeholder support, the implementation of 麻豆原创 Sales Cloud, including the platform, proceeded quickly, so that within five months, Fratelli Branca was ready to introduce the new CRM solution to the sales team. The implementation team knew that selecting highly motivated key users would be necessary to ensure acceptance and spur adoption. 鈥淲hen you bring a new tool that no one knows about, finding the key user who is your internal partner is essential,鈥� Vega says. 鈥淟uckily, we had that commitment on the side of the key users.鈥�

Real-Time Data Access with Mobile-Ready Solution

With a host of powerful capabilities for sales teams, 麻豆原创 Sales Cloud offers a mobile-ready solution to help meet the needs of a remote and traveling workforce, meaning that salespeople can have immediate access to critical data and analytics from anywhere. For the sales team at Fratelli Branca, access to real-time information while in the field has been a game-changer.

With sales coverage responsibility for the entirety of Argentina 鈥� from rugged Patagonia in the south to the wine-growing region of Cuyo in the west and the sunny wetlands of the Argentine Littoral in the northeast 鈥� Fratelli Branca鈥檚 sales team is on the go to meet customers, take sales orders, check invoices, and monitor sales progress. Now equipped with tablet computers and mobile phones, the team is achieving new levels of efficiency, as they can better perform their work in the field. 鈥淸It鈥檚] everything that a CRM gives you and in a super agile way,鈥� Vega says. 鈥淚magine that we went from almost prehistory to modernity.鈥�

Fratelli Branca continues to evolve its use of the new digital solution to further automate sales processes and eliminate onerous manual and repetitive tasks. One of the features it plans to implement is a survey module that can save photographs at the point of sales 鈥� usually a bar or restaurant 鈥� and gather important sales-related information about pricing and competitor data.

Overall, Vega describes the adoption of 麻豆原创 Sales Cloud as 鈥渟uper positive, with always good positive comments. The truth is that I never had a complaint.鈥� He notes that previously the 鈥渟ales team was manual and today they are digitalized; you clearly notice that the sales team and the directors value precisely this greater efficiency [from] having digitized certain processes.鈥�

Here, she shares about how the pair work together to help supercharge customers鈥� digital transformations.

Q: Can you give a little background on 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center?

A: 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center was envisioned as a one-stop shop for customers that want to transition from 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component (麻豆原创 ERP) 6.0 to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA. The challenges to such a transformation are, of course, numerous and daunting. Customers need to cull current data, pull together fragmented tool sets, line up the right human resources, and keep an eye on time to value.

With 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center, we鈥檝e done our best to bring together the latest functionality and expert guidance to smooth the way 鈥� in a single, powerful software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering. And 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center is easily accessible, deployed on 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM atop 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP). It comes with any implementation of RISE with 麻豆原创 or any cloud solution from 麻豆原创 and can be ready to use in less than half an hour.

Q: Where can customers go for further details?

A: The support materials at include a quick summary of features and benefits, along with the .

Q: What does 麻豆原创 see as the core mission of 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center?

A: Kilian Carolan from the Premium Hub 鈥� CoE Ireland Data Management has described the mission this way: 鈥淭o play an active part in the 麻豆原创 S/4HANA adoption journey by supporting key data management and data migration topics and to serve as the trusted advisor for our customers.鈥� He continues to explain that we do this through end-to-end support, including hands-on execution, optimization, transformation, upgrade, and migration of Big Data and data platforms. In short, we apply our vast portfolio of enterprise information management and landscape transformation tools, methodologies, and processes to the customer鈥檚 unique transformation scenario.

Q: Where are we in the ongoing evolution of 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center?

A: Our first step was to help customers fully understand the structure of their 麻豆原创 legacy systems through the digital blueprint. This supplied the background they needed to begin scoping the transformation project. And now we鈥檝e completed the second step for moving data across to the target system 鈥� with lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA.

Q: What exactly does the lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA do?

A: Data transformation is traditionally a highly complex undertaking, and we鈥檝e made a huge dent in that complexity. Right at the start, lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA helps radically reduce the decision-making efforts involved in choosing data to migrate. The underlying principle is to provide smarter suggestions and fewer difficult choices through market-leading services and tools 鈥� and end-to-end advice on making the most of them. That approach helps customers ensure that they only move data that will continue to be useful, reducing the volume of data for the testing and go-live phases and accelerating the transition exponentially.

With lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, customers can pare down 麻豆原创 legacy data and bring the target system live with a clean data foundation. In combination with the digital blueprint, lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA can give 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center the power to do all the heavy lifting of accessing source systems; extracting, transforming, and loading relevant data; and validating data for completeness, consistency, and correctness.

Q: What types of data can customers choose to exclude from the transfer?

A: For example, they could decide to completely ignore obsolete company codes, such as data for companies they have since divested or which are no longer in use.

Q: What does the wider market see as the single most revolutionary aspect of lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA?

A: For the very first time, 麻豆原创 provides standard functionality not only for complete rebuilds, greenfield implementations, system conversions, or brownfield implementations, but also for projects somewhere in the middle. This is a third path, if you will, and it鈥檚 a holistic approach to the big transformation from 麻豆原创 ECC 6.0 to 麻豆原创 S/4 HANA Cloud Private Edition.

Q: Can you take us a little deeper into how lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA works and how customers can benefit?

A: With the 麻豆原创 Readiness Check tool for 麻豆原创 ERP usage and data profiling, we can collaborate with the customer to read the data from the source system and identify legal entities that are no longer in use or will soon be obsolete. 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center then can propose that these entities and the associated data are “removed from the scope” before starting the data transition and can provide clear instructions on how to do this. It can also help to identify customer-specific data in the 麻豆原创 legacy system. Here, too, the customer has the option of leaving this data behind on the way to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA to support its clean core strategy and move closer to the standard again.

Both these jobs would previously have meant time-consuming manual work for the solution architect 鈥� and higher costs and longer time to value for the customer. With the addition of lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA to the already popular functionality for digital blueprinting, 麻豆原创 Business Transformation Center can now provide optimal support and transparency in each phase of the transformation project. It helps customers analyze the source system, define migration scope, create migration cycles, and finally transform the leaner body of data they鈥檝e elected to move across. From strategy to execution, we serve as a trusted partner, helping to ensure that every step of the way leads to meaningful insights and sustainable results. And that lowers both total cost of implementation (TCI) and total cost of operation (TCO).

Q: What have customers been saying about lean selective data transition for 麻豆原创 S/4HANA?

A: Long-term partner BMW Group, for example, has told us, 鈥淭his feature significantly speeds up our evolution into an intelligent enterprise by applying sustainable and efficient solutions and methodologies.鈥�

Karin Baeumler is part of Go-to-Market, Business & Data Transformation Solutions, at 麻豆原创.

This marks a milestone for Bain & Company since the firm embarked on an enterprise resource planning (ERP) modernization project in 2020.

Choosing the Cloud to Support Future Growth

Having grown significantly over two decades, Bain & Company now operates globally in over 65 offices. This growth, both organic and through acquisitions, led to a rise in manual and localized back-end processes, in addition to the challenges of integrating acquired businesses into the wider company. For these reasons, Bain & Company made the choice to migrate to the cloud with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

鈥溌槎乖� S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition was the best ERP option to meet our needs because of its standard processes, latest industry best practices and continuously delivered innovation, and I believe that adopting an SaaS solution will help future-proof our technology stack as we continue to grow,鈥� Bain & Company Chief Information Officer Ramesh Razdan said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e already completed our first year-end close on 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and are very pleased with the results we鈥檝e seen. I鈥檓 confident that we鈥檙e on course to deliver significant value from this implementation in the coming years.鈥�

A Strategic Opportunity to Optimize Business Operations

In implementing 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition across its global business in 40 countries, Bain was determined to realize the full potential of its new ERP system. From the outset, the program was owned by stakeholders from across both business and technology functions with the goal of fully standardizing core processes end to end and enabling its global users to deliver desired business outcomes with the new technology.  

Using its own ERP transformation teams and digital transformation expertise to deliver a 鈥渂usiness-led鈥� technology transformation of this magnitude, Bain worked together with 麻豆原创 to design and deliver its end-to-end 鈥溌槎乖� S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition modernization program.鈥� Additionally, Bain also invested in significant change management and training efforts to ensure global users were ready to harness the full value of 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition.

鈥淲e treated this as a business-led transformation in the same way we advise our clients,鈥� Bain & Company CFO Steve McLaughlin said. 鈥淲e standardized many processes to create real business value and execution efficiency. For example, we simplified and standardized our chart of accounts enabling us to utilize 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, group reporting to provide the management reporting our leaders need to make timely decisions. Our business leaders and finance team have owned our 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition journey from day one, which was a real key to our initial success and knowing we have more to do.鈥�

Successful 鈥淏ig Bang鈥� Implementation Across the Globe

Bain is now live globally with fully standard processes following a big-bang implementation across 40 countries. Today, it has a system built around a standardized core, which has enabled faster and better-informed decision-making, automated processes that will lead to reduced manual work, quicker onboarding of acquisitions, and seamless ERP upgrades and innovation.

鈥淏ain & Company and 麻豆原创 have been long-standing partners,鈥� said Scott Russell, chief revenue officer and member of the Executive Board of 麻豆原创 SE. 鈥淲e are delighted to support them in their journey to the cloud so that they are poised to continue transforming their business as well as the businesses of our joint customers. I look forward to seeing Bain & Company fully utilize all the latest innovations, including industry best practices and new technologies like generative AI, available to them through 麻豆原创 solutions.鈥�

Visit the 麻豆原创 News Center. Follow 麻豆原创 at .

About 麻豆原创

As鈥痑 global leader in enterprise applications and business AI, 麻豆原创 (NYSE: 麻豆原创)鈥痵tands at the鈥痭exus鈥痮f business and technology. For over 50 years, organizations have trusted 麻豆原创鈥痶o bring out their best by uniting business-critical鈥痮perations spanning finance, procurement, HR, supply chain, and customer experience. For more information, visit鈥�.

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Perhaps surprisingly, private equity firms are a huge driver of this trend, whether via investments in solar, wind, biomass, or some other type of renewable energy. These companies recognize not only the social, humanitarian benefit but the economic benefit of renewables: low-cost power, reduced dependence on imported fuel, and more secure, reliable energy supply.

The numbers bear out this trend. According to S&P Global Market Intelligence data, private equity and venture capital transactions in the global renewable energy sector reached , the highest total in the last five years. More so, funds raised in recent years are approaching the value of fossil fuel asset fundraising, per The Impact Investor.

However, there are challenges inherent in this tectonic shift. With broader strategic change in how we produce and consume energy comes more narrow change 鈥� and difficulties 鈥� in areas like engineering, manufacturing, procurement, supply chain management, human resources, and finance. These areas make it hard for private equity investors to easily operate and scale businesses, highlighting the present need and opportunity for scalable, cost-effective solutions that truly support the renewable space鈥檚 growth and future success.

With Great Power鈥�

A crucial element of today鈥檚 state of play in the renewables space is the rapid acceleration in load growth made manifest by today鈥檚 technology advancements. Whether it be ChatGPT, Bitcoin, or some other artificial intelligence- or machine learning-related innovation, our tools are requiring more energy production and consumption than ever.

That means there is expansive economic benefit to finding cheaper, faster, less energy-consuming ways to run these tools and solutions 鈥� not to mention widespread social benefit.

Companies across the industry are already embracing 麻豆原创 solutions to use less energy, improve business operations, and meet sustainability goals. One global market leader in energy storage solutions and services recently selected 麻豆原创 to help it scale faster, improve supply chain visibility, and boost overall efficiency. Another business 鈥� an established provider and owner of clean energy solutions nationwide for commercial and industrial businesses 鈥� chose 麻豆原创 to help amplify its growth efforts via the acceleration of its ability to both scale and innovate in the energy space.

By iterating and streamlining processes to meet modern needs, companies like these can not only equip themselves for success today but for success tomorrow, as they grow and change alongside the evolving and progressing energy transition.

鈥omes Great Capability

In our current industry moment, renewable energy companies demand unparalleled visibility and insights into financing, projects, operations, and more. Whether it be land acquisition, asset construction, or maintenance, a centralized data model that facilitates intelligent business insights is vital. It鈥檚 how you empower everyone in the organization to make informed decisions that drive the company forward.

Take supply chain management. Renewable energy companies can鈥檛 just order new parts or materials with a short delivery time. Some of the materials necessary for renewable energy products, like graphite, have order lead times spanning years rather than months. Top technology solutions will meet engineering requirements for things like storage, transportation, and integration of natural resources into the production process so that they can ensure supply chain management goals are met. In short, efficient and effective development and implementation of renewable assets requires careful management of the supply chain.

So, yes, these companies and their private equity backers are innovating toward a cleaner future. But they may not always have the time or resources to fully innovate and advance their business processes, sometimes resorting to manual ones that slow things down and add risk. Companies like 麻豆原创 can offer a seamless platform for managing these enterprises鈥� various business needs, in an integrated way that can enable them to focus on their core business and not have to worry about IT risks.

No matter where a renewable company is on their journey, 麻豆原创 and its partners have solutions that can automate and optimize core business processes to help meet their maximum potential. This is due to elements like:

• Centralized ERP data providing a single source of truth and improved decision-making ability
• Fully managed supply chain procurement and logistics, with deep supplier networks
• Faster ROI thanks to repeatable, trustworthy, and accurate processes empowering business users

These seamless integrations and true end-to-end insights will power renewable companies well into the future, so that they can power us as well.

A Brighter Tomorrow

Leading private equity firms are leading for a reason. They see what鈥檚 possible in the renewable energy space and recognize the tremendous economic and social benefits that are available. For them, digital transformation is the skeleton key for unlocking a bigger and better future 鈥� one where they can easily scale up or down depending on their needs.

Leading ERP solutions can meet these companies where they are, with the speed and flexibility necessary to streamline business processes and build on them in exponential ways.

For the renewables space, it鈥檚 about setting the foundation for whatever comes next 鈥� not just for individual companies, but for our world and the way we all consume energy.

Mark Hollis is an industry executive advisor for Renewable Energy & Utilities at 麻豆原创.

Formula One is a technologically innovative form of motorsport, where each car features over 300 sensors onboard that generates 1.5 terabytes of data in a single race weekend 鈥� data that needs to be analyzed to detect potential performance enhancements and reliability and safety concerns.

But until the late 1960s, Formula One cars were designed on traditional drawing boards by engineers using retractable pencils and a set of French curves. This is not dissimilar to the tech industry, where for decades the value cases for investing in technology were architected for customers by busloads of engineers armed with Excel spreadsheets.

Cloud computing changed not only what technology to buy, but also how businesses engage with their vendors when making investment decisions. Enabled by new technologies like mobility and artificial intelligence (AI), customers now expect immediate responses, exponentially faster time-to-value, immersive experiences, and flexible and intuitive engagements powered by robust low-touch and self-service capabilities. Not surprisingly, industry research shows that four out of five B2B customers will want to be engaged digitally by 2025.

麻豆原创 executes digital customer engagement via digital hubs located on six continents. The hubs are home to highly collaborative teams of diverse, digitally skilled talent that can deliver comprehensive, virtual customer engagement services. Like an F1 team, digital hubs use cutting-edge technologies to help drive accelerated business outcomes for customers with great customer experience, incredible innovation speed, and optimal levels of productivity achieved through data-driven, surgically precise execution.

Speed of Execution: Embracing Flexibility and Adaptability

Formula One teams operate in a relentless pursuit of speed, continuously refining their strategies to gain a competitive edge. Similarly, the ability to deploy teams to serve 麻豆原创 customers virtually with the latest digital innovations allows us to reach more businesses faster at precisely the time they need us, no matter where in the world they might be and which stage of their digital transformation journey they are at.

Digital customer engagement can allow us to close the feedback loop across thousands of customers around the globe at velocity, helping to shorten their time to value from years to months and from months to weeks. In 2023, 麻豆原创 digital hubs supported more than 22,000 digital customer engagements across the globe, setting these customers up for successful digital transformation journeys at unprecedented speed.

Speed matters and the race is on. The ability to recognize what a customer needs to grow and to work with partners that can quickly address these needs has foundationally elevated the need for digital customer engagements.

Precision in Execution: Leveraging Data and Technology for Optimal Performance

In Formula One, every aspect 鈥� from car design to the race strategy 鈥� hinges on harnessing and analyzing terabytes of data, often in real time. Similarly, in an increasingly competitive business environment, embracing precision through technological innovation allows organizations to balance accelerating their digital transformation decisions and optimizing profitability. The balance can be struck only through an almost unreasonable obsession with measuring and executing on fact-based insights.

At 麻豆原创 digital hubs, we can track key value metrics across the entire customer journey, be it for demand campaigns, customer value propositions, personalized digital asset performance, the adoption of new productivity-driving tools, and so on. We do this not only to understand what鈥檚 most relevant to our customers but also to track the effectiveness of what we do and how we do it in the context of what our customers need.

Customer Experience: Focusing on Value, Personalization, and Great Experiences

In Formula One, success is not solely measured by speed. The sport thrives on delivering a captivating experience tailored to engage multifaceted fans from a multitude of angles, making sure everyone gets value from the event. The same is true in the digital business world.

麻豆原创鈥檚 digital hubs virtualize and leverage 麻豆原创鈥檚 rich heritage of industry best practices and benchmarks to help personalize the customer journey, bringing customer stakeholders in alignment with one another and delivering on 麻豆原创鈥檚 value promises across geographies, cultures, and industries through immersive and memorable experiences. 麻豆原创 digital hubs can accomplish this across the entire customer journey with 麻豆原创 鈥� from the time we create awareness, to customer onboarding, to supporting customers with valuable solution and industry expertise, until we help customers realize the full value of the 麻豆原创 solutions they adopt.

AI-Powered, Human-Led Approach: Focusing on Digitally Native and Digitally Skilled Talent

In Formula One, decisions pivot on data. But it’s the team that uses their experiences to apply that data and simulate different scenarios to discover new ways to drive superior outcomes. Similarly, while data and AI technologies fuel decisions and actions in 麻豆原创 digital hubs, it’s human ingenuity that leverages the tech and data and elevates customer outcomes.

Just like the F1 teams, our hubs attract and employ only the best of the best, offering a high-energy working environment that thrives on intricate collaboration. The individuals who join us can gain immediate cross-role and cross-geography exposure, enabling them to become productive members of the team in record time. Continuous learning and pointed diversity, with gender parity in half of our digital hubs today, form the backbone of our digital culture, where everyone is treated with respect, skills are constantly honed, and different roles are seamlessly orchestrated to present a unified customer experience.

The rules change, and we have to as well. Every pit stop and each customer touchpoint is a chance to pivot in real time, refine, and go faster, helping 麻豆原创 customers and shareholders gain more value at exponential velocity and great volumes. This is the 鈥�3V鈥� promise of 麻豆原创 digital hubs and this is how we win the race!

Sam Masri is global head of Digital Hub, Customer Success at 麻豆原创 SE.

On top of that, we still need to foster relationships with suppliers, manage costs, address sustainability mandates, and build resilient supply chains — all while transforming procurement into a more strategic business function. Not surprisingly, procurement leaders are looking to the next wave of technology to help them position their organizations to adapt quickly to changing conditions.

For many, moving key business processes to the cloud represents that 鈥渘ext wave鈥� and for that, is the perfect option.

The RISE with 麻豆原创 solution is a managed cloud offering that enables a smooth, secure migration of on-premises ERP, including 麻豆原创 ERP and 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, to the cloud. Its holistic approach to business transformation empowers organizations to better adapt to changing market dynamics and innovate more quickly.

Businesses can leverage RISE with 麻豆原创 to modernize their IT infrastructure, optimize and automate key processes, and unlock new levels of efficiency. They can also harness the power of data and analytics to make informed decisions, enabling them to achieve their business goals more effectively and efficiently.

The Challenge for Procurement: Extending Digital Transformation to Suppliers

For many years, 鈥渄igital transformation鈥� has been the hot trend for business functions, including procurement. Organizations are moving their internal business operations from manual processes and disparate software applications to integrated ERP systems. These systems are starting to leverage generative AI to improve the user experience, digitalize manual processes, and accelerate strategic decision making.

This is a win for the business with one caveat: 鈥渢raditional鈥� digital transformation does not go beyond the four walls of the organization. This creates a challenge for procurement because suppliers operate outside those four walls, where communication can be anything but digitalized. In fact, * revealed that 68% of respondents use email to transmit and receive data and documents for procurement and supply chain collaboration. Other methods include telephone (44%), supplier/customer portals (38%), and EDI (26%).

Given the technology available today, this is not only unproductive, but it also is completely unnecessary. With , 麻豆原创 offers a premium plus edition that includes 麻豆原创 Business Network for Procurement. This enables businesses to extend the digital transformation of business processes outside their walls.

Better Collaboration, Faster Invoice Processing, and an Improved User Experience

is a cloud-based collaboration offering that gives buyers and suppliers a way to find each other and do business within a single, networked platform. The network makes it possible for organizations to:

• Exchange data and documents digitally with suppliers, eliminating the need for phone calls, faxes, emails, or snail mail
• Achieve enhanced spend visibility and compliance
• Access a marketplace of suppliers to ensure business resilience, diverse spending, and alignment with sustainability objectives

Additionally, improved transactional operations and invoice status visibility enable better working capital management for stronger trading partner relationships. Finance colleagues can enjoy a faster month-end close due to improved accounts payable efficiencies and increased procurement and payment compliance.

麻豆原创 Business Network for Procurement Extends 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud

When RISE with 麻豆原创 is combined with 麻豆原创 Business Network for Procurement, procurement teams can collaborate digitally with suppliers across procurement and invoicing processes. This dramatically improves transactional efficiency.

A natural extension of ERP, 麻豆原创 Business Network provides an environment in which procurement processes initiated from 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud can be transmitted digitally to suppliers. As a result, suppliers can view and generate transactions like orders, order confirmations, ship notices, and invoices, and then act quickly to accelerate the procure-to-pay process.

麻豆原创 Business Network for Procurement improves process efficiency in many areas, including:

• Purchase order processing: Digital purchase orders that are created in ERP are sent automatically to suppliers. Once confirmed by the supplier, buyers have visibility into order acceptance and delivery dates.
• Invoice payment status: Invoice and payment status information is available on the 麻豆原创 Business Network dashboard to update suppliers, eliminating the need for phone calls.
• Invoicing business rules: Buyers have the flexibility to configure applicable business rules that require adherence to business process and regulatory compliance.
• Change order update: Buyers and suppliers can communicate changes to open purchase orders, which creates an auditable record of changes and variations. Related documents, such as shipping notices, are also synchronized with updates.
• Payment compliance: Quick invoice processing and data accuracy minimizes wrong or duplicate payments, while improving accounting processes and overall financial visibility.
• Supplier collaboration: Digitalization enables quicker feedback from suppliers, making it possible for suppliers to 鈥渇lip鈥� purchase orders into confirmations and invoices, reducing errors and manual effort.
• Promotional opportunities: Networked suppliers have additional opportunities to grow their business by using the network to promote their offerings and connect with new customers.

The Next Wave of Digital Transformation

When you invest in RISE with 麻豆原创, you are enabling your business to migrate core business processes to the cloud. By complementing this solution with 麻豆原创 Business Network, you extend your digital transformation to interactions with trading partners though a single, end-to-end technology landscape built on standardized processes and consistent data.

This is the next wave of technology that will enable you to address the ever-growing list of business challenges you wake up and face every day.

is chief marketing and solutions officer of Intelligent Spend and Business Network at 麻豆原创.

*, doc #US50854723, July 2023

Jowat SE鈥檚 annual production amounts to 100,000 tons of industrial adhesives. Production is complex and requires high volumes of specialized chemicals and a tremendous amount of power. With raw materials and energy costs skyrocketing, premium manufacturer Jowat looked to get a tighter grip on its inventory management and production processes.聽聽

To ensure maximum efficiency, Jowat requires enough raw materials to fulfill orders while minimizing waste and inventory costs. Moreover, the company needs smooth workflows, as any delay in order placement, production, or the delivery of raw materials can have huge cost implications for the company.聽As a result, Jowat works hard to ensure that its 24/7 manufacturing processes always run like clockwork.

With demand for industrial adhesives surging, the company was eager to ensure that its production processes could scale to meet increasing order numbers and still deliver optimum efficiency.

Targeting Seamless Digital Workflows

Originally established in 1919, Jowat is no stranger to innovation. Leaders at Jowat identified that the next stage of the company鈥檚 evolution would require a radical digital transformation of its production and inventory management processes. 

鈥淥ur factory workers relied heavily on paper-based processes,鈥� explained Dirk-Alexander Segger, Detmold plant manager at Jowat. 鈥淔or instance, when employees had finished mixing and decanting adhesives, they handwrote notes to track the volume and type of raw materials that they used during the process. Shortly after decanting, workers would then input the information from their notes into our inventory management and manufacturing execution systems, adding to their workload and increasing the risk of errors.鈥� 

Tracking materials usage manually created time delays, potential for human errors, and discrepancies between the stock numbers recorded in Jowat鈥檚 inventory system and the actual volume of raw materials available on the factory floor. Moreover, with information stored across multiple systems and in different formats, plant managers had no clarity to identify process bottlenecks or potential enhancements.聽聽

Annette Podleschny-Borchardt, project lead at Jowat, commented: 鈥淭o enhance efficiency, improve transparency, and prepare for growth, we decided it was time to go entirely paperless. Building digital processes would give us a more detailed, up-to-date picture of our stock position, which would help drive smarter raw materials purchasing decisions and production improvements.鈥澛�

鈥淲e aimed to take a more proactive approach to our manufacturing processes. Developing robust, reliable, end-to-end digital workflows was the perfect way to achieve this goal,鈥� explained Christine K眉nne, head of IT and Business Process Services at Jowat SE. 

Embracing Digital Transformation

To find the best solution to support its digital transformation initiative, Jowat invited multiple technology vendors to outline the strengths of their solutions. To keep customization low, Jowat targeted a solution that it could easily adapt to meet the highly specialized nature of just-in-time chemicals manufacturing.  

After reviewing 15 different solutions, Jowat selected . In addition to providing a solid foundation for digitalization, 麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing can also integrate seamlessly with Jowat鈥檚 existing 麻豆原创 solutions, including , , and (麻豆原创 BTP). 

“We were immediately interested in 麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing because it is a cloud-native solution,鈥� commented Segger. 鈥淧reviously, we used on-premise solutions that required us to carry out extensive and disruptive updates. With 麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing, we get instant access to the latest features thanks to the quarterly release schedule.鈥� 

Jowat also valued 麻豆原创鈥檚 proactive engagement with the chemicals manufacturing industry. 鈥淲e really appreciate that 麻豆原创 is eager to co-innovate with industry leaders like Jowat to develop next-generation manufacturing solutions,鈥� said Podleschny-Borchardt. 鈥淭hrough the 麻豆原创 Customer Engagement Initiative, we can help expert developers at 麻豆原创 build smart factory solutions that meet the needs of our sector down to the finest detail.鈥� 

Sticking with the Experts 

To ensure a smooth implementation of 麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing, Jowat relied on support from 麻豆原创 Services and Support.

鈥淲henever we hit a stumbling block, the experts helped us work through the issues. For instance, we wanted to develop a dedicated production operation dashboard, which would give plant managers fast access to key production metrics. As this was uncharted territory, it naturally took a lot of time and energy to work through and 麻豆原创 was behind us every step of the way,鈥� said Segger.

Currently, Jowat is completing the first phase of the 麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing implementation at its Detmold factory before expanding the solution across all plants. K眉nne explained: 鈥淲ith a phased implementation, we can ensure that the processes we build at our Detmold plant are tried and tested to deliver maximum efficiency. This will give us the best chance of success when we roll out these processes across all our facilities.鈥� 

鈥淐onsultants from 麻豆原创 Services and Support brought not only their expertise to the project, but also the willingness to listen to the needs and the challenges of our industry. Because of this, we were able to collaborate extremely effectively,鈥� added Podleschny-Borchardt.

Driving Efficient Manufacturing with High-Quality Data 

With 麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing, Jowat left error-prone, manual processes behind and now benefits from seamless digital workflows with end-to-end transparency. This helps increase quality and ease work for shop floor operators. The activity confirmation is automatically done in the 麻豆原创 system, enabling real-time inventory insight. 

Consequently, Jowat gained the following benefits:

• 100% digitalized manufacturing process
• One source of truth for detailed production information
• Time savings of three person days per week through automated raw material consumption updates allowing employees focus on higher value activities
• 100% accurate inventory

鈥淭oday workers feed consumption information at the point of production. Previously, it would take one full-time employee three days a week to track raw materials consumption,鈥� said Segger. 鈥淲ith 麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing, we have a real-time, accurate picture of our raw materials usage and needs. This is helping us optimize usage and reduce costs.鈥� 

Podleschny-Borchardt added: 鈥淧roduction processes are so much faster now that we have built streamlined digital processes. Before, our paper-based ways of working could add up to five days to production timelines. With 麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing, we鈥檝e shaved off this time, allowing us to produce and distribute products to our customers much faster, boosting satisfaction.鈥� 

Planning Ahead for an AI-Driven Future 

With reliable, up-to-date information in 麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing, plant managers and leaders at Jowat can have full visibility across the entire manufacturing cycle. 鈥溌槎乖� Digital Manufacturing has helped improve the traceability of our products and given us a much more detailed understanding of our manufacturing operations. Ultimately, that helps to enhance planning and provides new insights into potential process improvements,鈥� said K眉nne.  

Jowat鈥檚 plans for 麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing go far beyond a global rollout. The company is already exploring the potential to scale and streamline manufacturing processes further with artificial intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT) technologies. 

鈥淎I holds tremendous potential for us,鈥� reflected Podleschny-Borchardt. 鈥淲e鈥檙e excited to explore how it can help us to ensure consistently excellent quality across heavily customized product lines and how we can enhance production uptime with IoT-driven predictive maintenance. Having an AI-ready solution like 麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing at the heart of our operations makes taking these next steps in our innovation journey much easier.鈥� 

Summarizing the overall benefits, K眉nne concluded: 鈥淲ith the implementation of 麻豆原创 Digital Manufacturing through 麻豆原创 Services and Support, we see ourselves on the way to becoming a transparent factory with a reduction in risks, errors, and process costs thanks to optimized processes.鈥� 

, including improved quality with AI-assisted visual inspection. Be sure to listen to the about how a renowned manufacturer revolutionizes manufacturing with Industry 4.0. Also, read this from Oxford Economics about making supply chains more resilient and sustainable.

Karin Fent is senior director of Global Customer Success for Digital Supply Chain at 麻豆原创.

Top image courtesy of Jowat.

We鈥檝e Come a Long Way Together

As we deeply value your continuous success, it’s crucial to acknowledge that those currently operating on 麻豆原创 ERP 6.0 will soon face the imminent end of mainstream maintenance provided by 麻豆原创. This is scheduled to take place in 2025, 2027, and 2030, depending on your 麻豆原创 enhancement package. Without proactive measures following the end of mainstream maintenance, your ERP solution will not receive any further legal updates or support packages. Additionally, mission-critical support and service-level agreements for your ERP solution will be impacted.聽

This is a pivotal moment, and you must start thinking about the trajectory of your ERP system. However, you do not need to worry about getting lost in the various options that lie upfront 鈥� 麻豆原创 is here to empower you with adequate information and tailor-made business cases. We can help you make the decision and choose the path that suits you the best to support your future innovation and success.

Explore the Future Path of Your ERP with 麻豆原创

As your trusted advisor on this evolution journey, we are pleased to present several paths for you to explore further:

• If you currently have no 麻豆原创 enhancement package or 麻豆原创 enhancement packages 1-5, you could extend your mainstream maintenance to 2027 by upgrading to 麻豆原创 enhancement packages 6-8, which typically takes several months to complete. Please note that this path would still require a shift to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA by 2027 or 2030.
• You might continue with your current system, venturing into customer-specific maintenance. However, this path will lead to limited support and potential costs associated with addressing new issues.
• You could initiate a migration to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA with various transitioning paths available for you to choose, empowering you to:
  • Streamline your system by discarding unnecessary custom code, extensions, and workarounds.
  • Boost productivity through more straightforward processes and a more intuitive user interface.
  • Enhance user acceptance with easy-to-access help and content solutions exactly when they are needed.
• Our top recommendation for you is to adopt to be able to enjoy multiple benefits of the latest innovation of 麻豆原创. This option can encompass all the advantages mentioned in the third option and also allows you to innovate using your data to solve business challenges with the use of generative AI.

Embracing RISE with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, private edition can offer a multitude of benefits. Join the ranks of numerous companies across diverse sizes and industries by initiating your cloud transition today to help enhance the agility and resilience of your business.

Take inspiration from B-ON’s success story, backed by 麻豆原创 support. In just four months, it seamlessly migrated to its new ERP and CRM platform, resulting in an impressive 200% increase in production capacity and 100% financial visibility across subsidiary operations.

As another example, after using 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component 6.0 system for nearly two decades, Shanghai Clyde Bergemann Machinery encountered challenges such as operation complexity and high maintenance costs. Opting for RISE with 麻豆原创 allowed SCB to improve its financial operations, with an 85% reduction in financial closing time and a 50% decrease in IT expenses.

Discover the transformative power of RISE with 麻豆原创 through our , showcasing enhanced efficiency and innovation and paving the way for your own seamless transition.

Navigate to the Future

Learn more about adopting the latest cloud offering, RISE with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, private edition.

The 麻豆原创 Customer Evolution team is here to support you in your future transformation, helping you define and realize the next steps of your business and IT evolution so you can be well prepared for the upcoming opportunities. Enhance your digital transformation journey with the 麻豆原创 Customer Evolution kit 鈥� a cost-free, quick, and efficient engagement model. Elevate your transition to the cloud through personalized, one-on-one sessions with dedicated 麻豆原创 experts, leveraging powerful tools like 麻豆原创 Readiness Check and Process Discovery.

today, and we look forward to unlocking the potential together with you!

Thomas Bamberger is president of 麻豆原创 Customer Evolution.

The ability to innovate is a . Yet companies also have to be able to transform market innovations into value for their customers if they want to stay ahead of the competition. It is hard to imagine attaining this kind of performance today without cloud computing. to be one of the most effective tools of the digital age on the way to becoming an agile, highly innovative, competitive company. 麻豆原创 has systematically embraced this technology since 2020 and is currently realigning its own organization to become a cloud provider. In my experience, it has become evident that the cloud is the only way to add value quickly at a manageable level of cost and effort.

Cloud computing is disruptive, however, and demands enormous changes. 麻豆原创 users, for example, also have to switch to the new architecture of the 麻豆原创 portfolio, with as the digital core, as the new environment for innovation and customer enhancements, and the portfolio as the foundation for more efficient business processes.

Overcome Mental Barriers to Cloud Transformation with Customer Success Partner

鈥淭he paradigm shift in IT to cloud computing has changed everything, especially the way I provide and deploy software at companies today,鈥� explains Alexander Michnov, head of Strategic Sales, RISE with 麻豆原创, at 麻豆原创. To better support customers in this dynamic situation, 麻豆原创 established the post-sales unit Customer Success Partner team in early 2022. Our role at 麻豆原创 is to understand the business objectives our customers are pursuing in a cloud transformation context and helping to ensure they actually achieve them, above and beyond the technological implementation.

According to 麻豆原创 experts, the greatest obstacle to fully capturing the benefits of the cloud 鈥� such as faster time to market and simple use of resource-intensive high-tech 鈥� is an outdated process mindset. Therefore, a cloud transformation must focus on holistic changes to the corporate culture and business processes, not only on the technology.

Smooth Transition from Contract Signing to Implementation

This change process is where the Customer Success Partner team comes in, assigning a customer success partner to every RISE with 麻豆原创 customer as a complement to the 麻豆原创 implementation partner. When an 麻豆原创 customer starts a cloud migration project, they set off on a journey that can fundamentally change their organization 鈥� from their business processes to the way their employees collaborate with each other.

First, the customer success partner works with the customer to determine the business objectives. This is followed by developing a road map that defines what needs to be done for the customer to achieve these objectives soundly. In the early phase of a transformation project, the customer success partner also helps ensure that the transition from contract signing to the actual implementation phase goes smoothly. This transition is the first critical element. The customer success partner helps make sure that all the aspects needed to add value early on 鈥� maintaining a clean core first and foremost, ensuring that training schedules have been developed, and confirming the customer has the right contact person if they change their mind on a specific process, for instance 鈥� are taken into account from day one.

Looking Back and Looking Forward in the Post-Go-Live Phase

The next critical phase begins when the technical implementation is complete. This is usually when tensions start to ease after the exciting go-live phase. But it is especially important at this stage to ensure users use the system in the intended manner, no communication gaps have arisen, and people do not lose focus. That鈥檚 also the perfect time to start the evaluation. Have the business objectives been achieved? Has the initial problem that triggered the implementation been solved? And, of course, this is a great time to discuss the next wave of innovation with the customer.

Key Factors of a Customer Success Partner

Here are three key factors for a customer success partner鈥檚 work from the customer perspective:

• Early involvement of the customer success partner, ideally during the sales process, to help define the expected added value of the project
• Organizational networking of the customer success partner in the organizations of the customer, the implementation partner, and 麻豆原创
• The customer success partner鈥檚 ability to harmonize the customer鈥檚 road map with 麻豆原创鈥檚 strategy 鈥� for the customer, it鈥檚 extraordinarily valuable to have a counterpart with whom they can discuss 麻豆原创鈥檚 strategic direction and planned innovations in day-to-day business

As such, the customer success partner represents an ideal complement to the 麻豆原创 implementation partner. The latter still bears overall responsibility for the system changeover during the entire transition process. In contrast, the customer success partner helps make sure that everything necessary is done so the implementation corresponds to the value targets defined in the beginning. They help ensure that all the aspects strategically important to the customer and 麻豆原创 鈥� starting with a clean core 鈥� are taken into account throughout the course of the project.

The Value of Long-Term Relationships

鈥淭he customer success partner is the guardian of the clean core and customer lifetime value,鈥� summarizes Michnov, bringing a further dimension of the new post-sales organization into play. In the new cloud world, innovations and enhancements take place continuously and become available to customers extremely quickly, thanks to short release cycles.

Cloud migration is like a journey from one milestone to the next. In this world, the commitment never really ends; it鈥檚 a world of long-term relationships. As such, my team鈥檚 mission is to support customers from day one and in perpetuity. The customer success partner enters a lifelong commitment with the customer. The customer success partner is there before the implementation, they are there after the implementation, and they are there even when no implementation is needed at all.

Ara Aguzumtsyan is head of Customer Success Solution Areas, CSS MEE, at 麻豆原创.

Guided by the organization鈥檚 clear , Coles鈥� team of 120,000 employees is dedicated to making a difference in the lives of customers and the local communities it serves.

In fiscal year 2020/21, Coles Group hired nearly 30,000 people to deliver on its business needs. Mike Virgo, head of Talent Acquisition for Coles Group, said this hiring volume was necessary to make sure the company was 鈥減ositioned well to support our customers.鈥�

The business environment, however, dramatically shifted as the public health crisis of the pandemic unfolded, resulting in repeated lockdowns and restrictions. As a neighborhood retailer dependent on in-person interaction to deliver most of its services, Coles found its workforce impacted by the pandemic. Faced with supply chain disruptions, panic buying behaviors by consumers, high employee absenteeism, and increased turnover, Coles urgently needed to step up its volume and pace of hiring to support its customers.

鈥淎round 2020-2021, we started to experience one of the most significant shifts in the employment market we鈥檇 ever seen,鈥� Virgo said in a at . 鈥淚t started to create huge challenges for organizations around the world 鈥� around how we attract, retain, and hire talent.鈥�

Catalyst for Change and a New Way of Working

To meet pressing business demands, Coles doubled its hiring volume from 30,000 to 60,000 people and increased recruitment advertising spend by a factor of three. Its talent acquisition team grew proportionally to manage the increased workload 鈥� but then labored under manual transactional activities that slowed processing times. As a result of the huge strain, variability in the candidate and hiring manager experience became noticeable.

Due to the volume of work, Coles looked for ways to evolve its system to create more speed, efficiency, and scalability. With a list of criteria, Coles began to review technology solutions on the market to find one that could support its vision for a new way of working. 鈥淲e wanted to reimagine how we recruit for our stores,鈥� Virgo said. 鈥淲e needed automation and AI to remove a lot of the manual work in our systems. We wanted to create more consistency and uplift the experiences we were giving our candidates and our hiring managers. And ultimately, [the solution] needed to drive commercial benefit for us.鈥�

As a key requirement, the new solution needed to integrate with . In 2020, as part of an organization-wide digital transformation that introduced 麻豆原创 S/4HANA and 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, Coles modernized its HR and payroll processing, replacing a patchwork of outdated systems with 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions. It became the first organization in the southern hemisphere to launch all modules of the 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors portfolio in one go. With all HR processes unified on a single platform, Coles benefits from having a single source of truth for people data that is accurate and available in real time for the entire organization.

Two-Way Integration Ensures Single Source of Truth in Data

To help with the project, Coles chose , an 麻豆原创 partner whose AI-powered Intelligent Talent Experience platform provides two-way integration with 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions. Virgo said the two-way integration 鈥渁llows us to have a holistic view of the candidates that progress through the process, no matter whether the team is operating in Phenom or 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors, and it allows 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors to be our single source of truth.鈥�

There are several key benefits of Phenom鈥檚 solution at Coles. One is candidate attraction and engagement, which is achieved primarily through the Coles career site and chatbot. Another is recruiter automation and interview management, which provides automation and process efficiencies from when a job requisition is created in 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions and replicated into Phenom until a hiring manager chooses a candidate for the job. Once a candidate is chosen, the two-way integration enables the HR team to access the data in 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions and complete all compliance aspects, such as working rights, contract generation, and onboarding.

The Coles team gains additional efficiencies in its onboarding programs through the application of robotic process automation (RPA) powered by two bots that work in the background: Ashbotty processes the working rights and Usain Bot processes onboarding and manages pending recruits. 鈥淭hey take a lot of the transactional, manual work that we used to have team members doing. It can do that quickly, accurately, and it can do that 24/7 鈥� which is particularly important for us as a seven-days-a-week business,鈥� Virgo said. 

AI-Powered Experiences for Candidates and Recruiters

Coles reimagined the candidate experience to launch a modern, tech-enabled career site 鈥� which has been chosen as a two-time winner of Australia鈥檚 Best Careers Site. The site includes an AI-powered chatbot to guide candidates as they look for information, search relevant job postings, and submit their applications. It also includes Coles鈥� Expression of Interest, always-on advertising that drives the growth of its talent pool and advances its talent marketing by reducing the need to advertise every role. A Hosted Apply process, facilitated by integrations with Phenom, presents a consistent candidate experience and increases the conversion rate on applications.

Phenom AI Scheduling, a key part of Coles鈥� hiring experience, enables candidates to book themselves an available interview slot and automates the coordination of hiring team calendars. The new solution provides a fully mobile-enabled experience to meet the demands of candidates for an omni-channel, real-time experience where they can learn, read, and apply for jobs where and when they want.

Inundated by nearly 1 million applications each year to review, Coles also took steps to elevate the recruiter experience and increase the speed and accuracy of candidate screening and job matching. It implemented Phenom Fit Score, an AI-powered feature that assesses a candidate鈥檚 suitability for an open role, based on location and optimal travel distances, availability, and working rights; then, assigns a fit score and surfaces the most closely matched candidates to the recruiters. In addition, the new solution empowers in-store managers to collaborate with recruiters to review candidates and make quick hiring decisions with confidence.

Talent Pools Grow with Improvements to Hiring Speed and Efficiency

With the new augmented solution, Coles is experiencing tangible benefits across multiple categories and key metrics for success: time-to-fill is down six days; time-to-hire is down two days, which is impressive considering candidates can book the in-store interview up to two weeks in advance; and advertising spend is down 50%.

Most notably for Coles as a people-centric organization is the development of its talent pool, now numbering 2 million potential candidates. It achieves an 85% application conversion rate on up to 1 million applications per year. Through its to be a safe, inclusive, and diverse workplace, Coles has applied the new solution to provide greater accessibility for more diverse candidates, resulting in an increase of 24% more hiring for people who identify as having a disability. 

Virgo said that the talent acquisition team will continue to evolve its solution and assess more opportunities for AI and automation to bring value to the recruitment process. Although these technologies are not cure-alls for every recruitment scenario, they can save recruiting teams precious time and resources to focus on more high-touch interactions further down the recruiting funnel. In sharing lessons learned, Virgo noted, 鈥淚 think the important call out is the level of automation you can inject in your process will likely diminish as the seniority, complexity, and requirements of your roles increase because they are likely to be more high touch, perhaps need more interpretation or judgment calls from your recruiters to identify who the right talent is for your organization.鈥�

Watch on demand.

Organizations must deliver their brand promise to customers to establish that deep connection, and it is a lot easier to do when you鈥檝e gained supply chain agility by embracing digital transformation.

The technological developments of recent years have given us greater resilience, flexibility, and visibility into what brands can deliver and what customers expect, but how can brands embrace digital transformation to go even further to enhance those relationships?

I had the chance to discuss this topic with Sally Eaves, professor in Advanced Technologies, and global strategic advisor and special guest Steve Birgfeld, VP of Information Technology and Services at Blue Diamond Growers, as part of 麻豆原创鈥檚 Live Chat series on Tomorrow鈥檚 Tech Today platform. I am pleased to share a few key takeaways from our engaging conversation about how brands can achieve end-to-end visibility of their supply and distribution chains to create the type of customer experiences that drive loyalty and profitability.

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Something for Everyone

Whether it is delivering a quality product or providing an essential service, every brand makes a promise to their customers. Birgfeld described how delivering on a brand鈥檚 promise helps Blue Diamond build that trust, and it is part of the reason the company is the world鈥檚 largest almond processing and marketing cooperative 鈥� and a 2023 麻豆原创 Innovation Award winner.

Growers 鈥渢rust us with their almonds,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 up to us to deliver them accordingly. So [there is] a lot of focus on quality, integrity, and innovation. And that innovation also applies to the technology we use to enable that.鈥�

With two lines of business 鈥� branded nut snacks and ingredient sales to other consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers 鈥� Blue Diamond deals with variables like weather issues, wildfires, and droughts. But the havoc the COVID-19 pandemic played on its supply chain was unforeseen. 

Suddenly, what was a demand-driven, normal business became a constraint-driven one. Birgfeld explained how a three-week wait to receive cargo turned into a five-month delay. What could have been a disastrous situation was salvaged by an attitude I find common among 麻豆原创 Innovation Award winners: the digital transformation journey is a journey, not an end destination.

Running Simple in the Digital Economy

With more than 3,000 growers, 1,800 employees, and consumers in more than 75 countries, the need for Blue Diamond to shift from disparate, manual processes to streamlined and integrated ones was critical. The company needed to create a world-class supply chain solution to improve its forecast accuracy and distribution channel, among other areas.

Fortunately, Blue Diamond had already migrated its ERP to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA for its core capabilities, empowering the company to embrace the digital economy. The company also leaned on 麻豆原创 Business Network to help connect, transact, and partner with other businesses on shared processes and information, replacing uncertainty with end-to-end visibility.

Together, Blue Diamond and 麻豆原创 would develop what Birgfeld called 鈥渁n intelligent, data-driven cooperative.鈥�

Synchronized Planning Vision

By achieving a consolidated management view across its business, the company reduced supply on hand by 20%, expanded order fill rates to 99%, and saved US$1 million in logistics costs. Having the data in one centralized location condensed scenario planning for a typical situation from six hours to 20 minutes.

鈥淚t enabled our customer service reps [to] respond immediately to the customer on where things stood, and we could do course correction accordingly if there were issues,鈥� Birgfeld said.

Sustainability also improved, since the streamlined operation meant that fewer trucks had to be used along the supply chain.

As a 2023 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards judge, I saw firsthand how grew with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA.

 After setting the bar high for next year鈥檚 麻豆原创 Innovation Award winners, Blue Diamond Growers is moving forward, utilizing 麻豆原创鈥檚 financial planning and analysis (FP&A) tools to better align financial, inventory, and demand data and extending 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud to help improve analysis, planning, forecasting, and visualization.

鈥淥ur real vision is鈥 synchronized planning capability,鈥� Birgfeld said. 鈥淎nd 麻豆原创 is a great enabler of that.鈥�

Inside Innovation

麻豆原创鈥檚 Live Chat on Tomorrow鈥檚 Tech Today platform is a new limited series that highlights the latest innovations in emergent technology integration across a range of sectors and themes. In each episode, 麻豆原创 innovators come together with experts from a variety of backgrounds, sharing stories that can inspire all of us. While each organization may differ, each interviewee shares their version of the same story 鈥� overcoming a unique challenge with the type of innovation we all aspire to achieve.

To learn more about 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards and discover the incredible stories of innovation, visit .

Sven Denecken is SVP and chief marketing and solutions officer for 麻豆原创 Industries & CX.

Recognizing this potential, the City of Antibes and have joined forces to redefine digital contract management with a focus on public procurement processes. Patrick Duverger, chief technology officer of the City of Antibes, describes its previous procurement operations as follows: 鈥淎lthough we achieved a high level of operational proficiency, our business processes lacked full traceability. This resulted in process opacity when it comes to recurring delays, delivery errors, or administrative sanctions. By gaining a deeper understanding of our processes, we can optimize them, reduce costs, and minimize business risks.鈥� 

Transparent and Traceable Collaboration 

The lack of visibility and traceability in these processes hindered automation, cross-organizational data and process mining, and intelligence. This directly affected how disputes were resolved and impacted organizational budgets.聽

To address this challenge, 麻豆原创 Innovation Center Network developed a prototype based on the service, combined with a blockchain-based shared ledger on 麻豆原创 HANA Cloud. 鈥淭his prototype aims to replace manual practices with automated, cross-company orchestrations. By using an 麻豆原创 HANA Cloud shared ledger, organizations like the City of Antibes can benefit from a permissioned, publicly verifiable, and immutable audit trail of cross-organizational interactions,鈥� says Benjamin Stoeckhert, innovation product manager at 麻豆原创 Innovation Center Network, illustrating the potential of this innovation.聽

鈥淟everaging the full potential of an 麻豆原创 HANA Cloud shared ledger allows us to connect digital platforms that unite businesses and government to track the compliance of services and product deliveries according to contractual terms and conditions,鈥� explains Duverger. 鈥淲e can leverage data from different parties, such as logistics companies and quality certification bodies, and move beyond the era of cumbersome paperwork and manual processes. For example, this pattern is applicable to procurement processes where multiple parties verify the compliance of suppliers and their deliveries.鈥�

Complete Control of Unencrypted Data 

However, opening up collaborative processes directly conflicts with customer privacy concerns. This dilemma poses a significant challenge for next-generation contract management. How can businesses ensure transparency without compromising the privacy of private business information and processes? Duverger emphasizes the importance of protecting sensitive public procurement secrets: 鈥淐onfidentiality, including negotiated prices and deal sizes, is paramount for us and our suppliers.鈥� 

In response to this pressing need, the 麻豆原创 Security Research team, in collaboration with the 麻豆原创 Innovation Center Network blockchain team, has extended 麻豆原创 Cross-Company Workflow Collaboration with a hardware-based privacy-enhancing technology (PET) innovation. Dr. Laurent Gomez, who led this innovation with Antibes, explains: 鈥淏efore committing a transaction to the shared ledger, organizations encrypt it along with its associated sensitive information, using their own managed cryptographic material. Encrypted data and processes are only processed within secure and trusted hardware modules, with the explicit consent of each stakeholder.鈥澛�

This innovation can unlock significant business value by helping to automate cross-company operations and protect the privacy of customer data while still allowing for analysis. The key contribution of this approach is that it gives customers complete control and ownership of their encrypted material. 鈥溌槎乖� can never access unencrypted data; the only data that leaves our information system is encrypted by us,鈥� says Duverger. 鈥溌槎乖� Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP) allows us to hold our own encryption keys, which is different from competing solutions.鈥� 聽

5% Less Late Payment Penalty Costs 

The co-innovation has revealed the bottlenecks that slow down the procurement process at the City of Antibes and lead to late payment penalties for suppliers and delivery delays. 鈥淏y adopting this secure distributed ledger approach, we have improved these key performance indicators without changing the process itself. We can now reliably manage all our procurement transactions,” says Duverger. “A key achievement was that we reduced our delinquency rate by 5%, which significantly minimized the impact of late payment penalty costs on our global spend budget.鈥澛�

The project was recently recognized at the highest national level with the Territoria Gold Award by the French Ministries of the Interior, Ecological Transition, and Territorial Cohesion.

To find out more about 麻豆原创 Cross-Company Workflow, get in touch with us at icn@sap.com.

Corinna Schmidt is part of NVT Communication at 麻豆原创.

Luckily, as consumers, we rarely have to look underneath the surface, onto the complexity required to make these systems function. Businesses aren鈥檛 that lucky. As business processes become more and more digitized, it is more important than ever to understand the impact of operational systems on business outcomes and to align business strategy with IT architecture.

It’s like watching your favorite professional sports team 鈥� everyone can be an armchair expert, but fielding a winning team week after week and year after year takes consistent and ongoing effort. Coaches and players need to work together, pulling in data from various sources and applying creative, exploratory analysis to discern the best strategy, mental and physical fitness, and tactics needed to win a particular match. Every business decision is like a new match and the schedule has become more crowded and the stakes higher.

In the same way, businesses need to take a holistic team view that looks at the health of the overall business, identifies key processes and functions, and creates the opportunity for improvement and change. This team view requires understanding end-to-end business processes, the operational systems they touch, and how well they meet business goals as well as the needs of customers and employees. As businesses look to drive complicated business and technology transformation faster, at scale, and with more confidence, they are turning to the emerging practice of process observability.

What Is Process Observability?

At its most basic level, 鈥榦bservability鈥� is the ability to measure the internal states of a system by examining its outputs. It also implies an ability to separate critical information from routine information. A 鈥榩rocess鈥� is simply a description of how something gets done. So 鈥榩rocess observability鈥� provides a better understanding of the state and performance of how work is getting done within an organization. A process is observable if stakeholders and systems understand how it operates 鈥� where the process outcomes are known 鈥� and actions can be derived to improve or change these outcomes.

Of course, anything that sounds that simple is usually extremely difficult to execute. Here, the challenge is ensuring that the right observations based on the right data are being collected and that the right people have the right tools to analyze that data in real or near-real time. Identifying patterns, trends, anomalies, and potential issues in this way requires strong alignment of business strategy and IT architecture, as well as the ability to directly connect business processes to the underlying IT landscape they rely on.

Where to Start

Supporting better business outcomes must always be the driving force behind ongoing process analysis, insights, and change. Increasing process observability is not about vanity metrics for executives but the alignment needed to make change easier. This depends on three key pillars 鈥� data, models, and benchmarks.

Obviously, a key part of observability is accessing the data that tells you what is happening at a granular level. Every business process produces data in the form of event logs, metrics, and traces. There鈥檚 also data from application monitoring and data on the cycle times or costs for processes. Experience data can be gathered from customers, employees, or other stakeholders. In other words, there鈥檚 no lack of data sources.

The bad news is that a recent research study with IDC* found that simply having access to multiple sources of insight was not enough by itself. In fact, when organizations leverage multiple data sources but do not integrate them, they encounter significant challenges. The good news is that the organizations that perform best are significantly more likely to integrate different data sources to analyze processes than the organizations performing less well. 

Just like the pre-game stratagems of your favorite team, business process models are more of an idealized version of reality that rarely survives unscathed at first contact with the reality of the opposing team or the reality of the business.聽 Because of this, it is necessary to bridge the gap between the results of modeling and what is happening in real life. This requires feedback from human experts about underlying issues that cannot be captured by the data alone. Keep in mind that perfect observability is an unattainable goal. It is important to avoid analysis paralysis by understanding the interplay of process models and data, and make conscious, reasonable trade-offs between maximizing process observability and making efficient use of limited time and resources. Don鈥檛 let perfect be the enemy of good when you see a clear goal in front of you. You can take one right step at a time.

Benchmarking is a great way to take one such step towards increased overall observability of your processes. Comparing your outcomes to best-in-class performers in similar organizations provides useful insights on its own. In addition, it can help identify which processes can provide the most competitive differentiation for your business. Benchmarks are most useful when they show us more than just our destination 鈥� they need to provide content and guidance on the best way to arrive at that destination.

At the End of the Day, It’s about People

For decades, business leaders have been waiting for technology to fully deliver on the promise of seamless and delightful customer experience; ubiquitous, clean, and secure data; robust and complete applications; and a way to easily test and embed new technologies. In other words, they want to know how technology is supporting business outcomes. This is the promise and the challenge of process observability.

As in any team sport, communication 鈥� frequent, data-driven, curious 鈥� is vital for success. Historically, one of the toughest communication gaps has been linking business strategy with technology architecture, mapping business outcomes with underlying operational systems. Bridging this gap is critical to success. The good news is that we are hearing from our most innovative customers that their teams are finally starting to have the right conversations. Instead of IT reporting to the business about system performance and the like, the conversation is now centered on how processes are performing and what needs improving.

*IDC White Paper, sponsored by 麻豆原创, Business Process Observability: A Collaborative Approach to Transformation Enablement, doc #EUR251308223, November 2023.

Dee Houchen is global lead for the Market Impact Team at 麻豆原创 Signavio.

To achieve consistently superior levels of service, efficiency, and maintenance, , also known as Swiss Federal Railways, bolsters its sprawling network of spurs, stations, and switches with an even larger one in the cloud, where vast repositories of operational data converge to propel the organization forward with resilience, visibility, and sustainable growth.

Integrated digital networks enable enterprises to carry out core operational processes with unrivaled efficiency at unlimited scale. Not only do they facilitate procurement, supply chain, logistics, and financing between businesses and their trading partners, but they increasingly connect remote assets through the Internet of Things (IoT) as well.

Cloud-based applications are revolutionizing the maintenance and service of dispersed equipment such as that at SBB. For routine maintenance and repairs, SBB professional staff work alongside skilled contractors to support the highest levels of safety and reliability.

But how can SBB while minimizing downtime for its substantial infrastructure? To do so, SBB has chosen to gain maximum transparency across its and those of its service partners.

鈥淎s a part of our 麻豆原创 S/4HANA transformation, SBB鈥檚 energy operations are set to go live with 麻豆原创 Business Network Asset Collaboration in early 2024,鈥� says Urs Gehrig, the railway鈥檚 principal consultant for business development for enterprise asset management. 鈥淥ur energy operations are responsible for the production and transmission of power within SBB to run trains and to deliver to third parties. The use case is about service providers who are executing maintenance in the field, such as inspections on high-voltage transmission lines. Based on what we learn from the use case, we can apply this knowledge to other areas of our operations set to occur on a three-year road map.鈥�

鈥淚t鈥檚 best to understand SBB鈥檚 needs through how we鈥檙e organized,鈥� Gehrig explains. 鈥淥ur rail infrastructure division provides all our networks: telecommunications, water, and energy production and distribution. Then we have our passenger transport division, covering marketing as well the end-to-end life cycle from acquisition to decommission of rolling stock assets. SBB also owns a freight transport organization. Meanwhile, there鈥檚 our real estate division, which includes our train stations, with facilities that we manage. In addition, our traditional corporate department bears responsibility for supply chain, which presents another use case. All these departments use third-party providers to provide services when it comes to asset management. They all hold the potential to derive benefit from 麻豆原创 Business Network Asset Collaboration.鈥�

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Depending on the department, SBB currently processes work orders in different ways.

鈥淪ometimes it鈥檚 on paper; other times there鈥檚 a more systematized exchange of information, particularly if a service involves something regulated,鈥� Gehrig points out. 鈥淏ut our work orders today are not integrated across the business, let alone across the providers of services for the assets we manage. What we鈥檙e looking for is an integrated solution, a standardized process by which we can plan and execute a comprehensive asset management strategy.鈥�

鈥淭hrough 麻豆原创 Business Network Asset Collaboration, we are handing over that information to our third-party service providers to ensure transparency, accountability, and a seamless coordination not only of the energy-related work orders and assets managed but of the underlying master data as well,鈥� Gehrig shares. 鈥淚f we buy a new pump or valve or sensor, the network exchanges all the associated data instantaneously with our service providers, thereby removing barriers to visibility, productivity, and efficiency. So for SBB, it鈥檚 full speed ahead with our digital transformation.鈥�

At 麻豆原创, meanwhile, we couldn鈥檛 be happier to ride along on SBB鈥檚 journey.

Joern Keller is executive vice president and chief product officer for 麻豆原创 Business Network.

鈥淭he value, relevance, and velocity demanded from a cloud leader extend to both the solutions provided and the end-to-end customer engagement. Industry research shows that by 2025, four out of every five B2B customer engagements will be executed through digital channels,鈥� said Sam Masri, global head of Digital, Customer Success, 麻豆原创. 鈥淥ur customers need to achieve the business outcomes from their digital transformation much faster with streamlined interactions, reduced engagement complexity, and robust tech-enabled capabilities that make the buying journey agile, personalized, and memorable.鈥�

With operations spanning more than 10 sectors and 80 business units across Europe and the Middle East, ONEX Holding entrusted 麻豆原创 with its five-year digital transformation plan. For the 35 legal entities in its oil and gas division, ONEX adopted , among other solutions, complemented by to support its sustainability strategy. In six months from the initial digital contact, ONEX鈥檚 digital transformation journey was mapped out and the implementation successfully kicked off. Such velocity was gained through digital customer engagement with about 90% of the entire process being completed virtually, through 麻豆原创鈥檚 digital hubs in Cairo, Egypt, and Barcelona, Spain.

麻豆原创 digital customer engagement is executed via digital hubs, attractively located on five continents. The hubs are home to highly collaborative teams of diverse, digitally-native talent that help deliver end-to-end, virtual customer engagement services. By continuously applying AI and the latest technologies, these teams help drive our customers’ business outcomes at an exponential velocity while maintaining memorable and personalized customer experiences.

鈥淥ur experience with 麻豆原创 was frictionless and seamless,鈥� said Waqas Butt, ICT and digital transformation leader at ONEX Holding. 鈥溌槎乖� digital engagement gave us an incredible jump start on our digital transformation and removed all the lags you typically experience with a traditional, in-person buying journey. With the immersive, tech-driven capabilities, we had access to the demo versions of 麻豆原创 solutions that had already been mapped to our KPIs, enabling us to experience what these cloud solutions could do for us in an engaging way and at our own pace.鈥�

鈥淭he best part of our experience was having immediate access to 麻豆原创’s 50 years of leadership in enterprise processes. We had 麻豆原创鈥檚 industry, solution, and value best practices at our fingertips, made available fast through digital modalities and powered by cutting-edge technologies,鈥� added Butt. 鈥淎lthough digital, the experience felt more like we were seated at the same table with top minds in 麻豆原创 who had profound knowledge of all the regions and sectors ONEX operates in, including energy, oil and gas, power generation, and even infrastructure management and investments.鈥�

Part of ONEX鈥檚 digital transformation journey includes the development of a new way of working, called 鈥淒igital Workplace,鈥� focused on embedding digital approaches into routine business processes to gain efficiencies and promote sustainability.

鈥淒igital transformation is not a transaction; it is a partnership in which both parties need to be like-minded. When we finally shook hands in person with the 麻豆原创 digital customer engagement team, we did it because we spoke the same language 鈥� we both understand the power of starting a digital transformation, digitally. We know we are in good hands on our path to redefine how ONEX runs,鈥� stressed Butt.

鈥淭he relationship between ONEX and 麻豆原创 is a beautiful example of how virtual immersive engagements can enable and scale human relationships and interactions, not diminish them. We call this human-led, digitally-powered customer engagement with a mandate of ensuring that all 麻豆原创 customers have the same path to success with 麻豆原创, regardless of where they are or when they needs us,鈥� concluded Masri.

Edina Manuel is part of Digital, Customer Success at 麻豆原创.

As a provider of steel mill services to steel manufacturers worldwide, the company has been looking to revolutionize its operational processes, ensuring both efficiency and sustainability going forward. To achieve this vision, Phoenix Global chose to strategically align with 麻豆原创, a renowned pioneer in enterprise software solutions.

Choosing GROW with 麻豆原创 for Digital Transformation

In its pursuit of accelerating transformation and further enhancing its overall operations, Phoenix Global selected . This gives the company a ready-to-use, out-of-the-box cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution that can incorporate the latest industry best practices and ongoing innovation efforts.

Jeff Suellentrop, chief information and technology officer at Phoenix Global, explained the choice this way: 鈥淚鈥檝e overseen many large-scale digital transformations, and the comprehensive nature of the 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud solution with pre-configured best practices enabled us to deploy everything much more swiftly, without having to gather a ton of requirements or map a bunch of things. It offered a new, better path forward.鈥�

Meeting the Demands of a Rapidly Expanding Enterprise

Phoenix Global鈥檚 growth trajectory has been remarkable, solidifying its standing as a significant player in the metals and mining sector. Nevertheless, its rapid expansion necessitated a more streamlined and unified approach to overseeing global operations.

The firm鈥檚 previous ERP system was fragmented, hampering both efficiency and visibility. To address these challenges, Phoenix Global initiated an extensive ERP selection process, scrutinizing various solutions available in the market. 麻豆原创, along with partner Illumiti, emerged as the obvious choice, owing to their extensive experience and well-developed best practice templates, especially those tailored specifically to the metals and mining industry.

鈥淲e opted for 麻豆原创 because of its familiarity with our industry and the maturity of the best practice template for our sector,鈥� said Suellentrop.

With 麻豆原创鈥檚 best practice templates, Phoenix Global can now employ a global approach that enables uniformity and efficiency in its operations. The out-of-the-box capabilities of 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud have strongly accelerated its journey to a unified, digitally integrated system.

Revolutionizing the Metals and Mining Services Sector

Phoenix Global鈥檚 objectives extend far beyond the implementation of an ERP system, however. It aspires to establish itself as a technology-driven leader within the metals and mining industry. Recognizing that the metals and mining industry is still in its initial phases of digital transformation, Phoenix Global sees an opportunity to reshape its service landscape and elevate the digital competency of the entire industry.

Its aim is to deliver near real-time insight into operations and present this as a value proposition to its clientele. By harnessing the potential of 麻豆原创 solutions, Phoenix Global can bring transparency, efficiency, and an elevated level of safety into the metals and mining sector.

Synergistic Rewards

With the help of 麻豆原创, Phoenix Global is poised to usher in transformative changes in its industry. The benefits include:

• Swift implementation: The pre-configured best practices of 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, public edition allow rapid deployment, helping to conserve both time and resources.

• Industry knowledge: 麻豆原创鈥檚 extensive understanding of the metals and mining sector and mature best practice templates help make it the ideal ally for Phoenix Global鈥檚 digital transformation journey.

• Global consistency: The 麻豆原创 solution can provide a global reach, helping to establish uniformity and efficiency across Phoenix Global鈥檚 worldwide operations.

• Leadership in digital transformation: Phoenix Global aims to spearhead the metals and mining industry into a new era of digital transformation, delivering value to both its operations and its customer base.

By utilizing , Phoenix Global is establishing a new benchmark for the metals and mining sector, demonstrating the vast potential that can be unlocked through a comprehensive digital approach. As Phoenix Global continues to innovate and integrate, the metals and mining industry at large stands to gain from its leadership in operational excellence and digital transformation.

Mike Kaszuk is SVP & COO for Midmarket, Digital, and Partner Ecosystems North America at 麻豆原创.

Top image courtesy of Phoenix Global