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 – and difficulties – 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’s growth and future success.

With Great Power…

A crucial element of today’s state of play in the renewables space is the rapid acceleration in load growth made manifest by today’s 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 – not to mention widespread social benefit.

Companies across the industry are already embracing ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ solutions to use less energy, improve business operations, and meet sustainability goals. One global market leader in energy storage solutions and services recently selected ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ to help it scale faster, improve supply chain visibility, and boost overall efficiency. Another business – an established provider and owner of clean energy solutions nationwide for commercial and industrial businesses – chose ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ 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.

…Comes 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’s how you empower everyone in the organization to make informed decisions that drive the company forward.

Take supply chain management. Renewable energy companies can’t 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 ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ can offer a seamless platform for managing these enterprises’ 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, ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ 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’s 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 – 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’s about setting the foundation for whatever comes next – 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 ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄.

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 β€œnext wave” and for that, is the perfect option.

The RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ solution is a managed cloud offering that enables a smooth, secure migration of on-premises ERP, including ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ ERP and ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ 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 ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ 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, β€œdigital transformation” 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: β€œtraditional” 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 , ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ offers a premium plus edition that includes ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ 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.

ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Business Network for Procurement Extends ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud

When RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ is combined with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ 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, ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Business Network provides an environment in which procurement processes initiated from ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ 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.

ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ 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 ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ 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 β€œflip” 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 ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄, you are enabling your business to migrate core business processes to the cloud. By complementing this solution with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ 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 ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄.

*, doc #US50854723, July 2023

Deutsche Telekom is the first enterprise to implement RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ through ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄β€™s recently expanded partnership with , marking a significant milestone in the relationship between ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ and Deutsche Telekom.

As Europe’s largest telecommunications provider, with more than 252 million mobile customers, 25 million fixed-network lines and 22 million broadband lines, Deutsche Telekom operates in more than 50 countries. Aligned with the company’s vision to be the leading digital telecommunications provider in the world, Deutsche Telekom has chosen RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ to transform a major part of its ERP landscape to ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud. As a premium supplier of RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄, T-Systems will migrate, consolidate and manage more than 300 systems into the public and private cloud using T-Systems’ Future Cloud Infrastructure (FCI) and select hyperscalers. This is designed to enable customers to meet all German and European data protection requirements, as well as to benefit from tailored migration and orchestration of complex landscapes.

Peter Leukert, chief information officer of Deutsche Telekom, said, β€œΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ is a trusted and important partner for Deutsche Telekom in both reliably running core business processes and accelerating innovation in the cloud. Through RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄, we can drive business transformation and take our partnership to new heights. With ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud, Deutsche Telekom will be able to drive efficiency across key business functions such as logistics, procurement and finance.”

β€œDeutsche Telekom’s decision to select RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ to migrate and streamline more than 300 of their systems to the cloud marks an important milestone in their business transformation and continues a long history of our two companies innovating together for our customers,” said Scott Russell, member of the executive board of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ SE, customer success. β€œThis investment by Deutsche Telekom will give them new capabilities, drive greater efficiencies, and allow them to access key insights from across their enterprise so they can adjust to changing market conditions and seize new opportunities faster than they could before. We look forward to supporting Deutsche Telekom in this exciting new era of their cloud transformation.”

As a premium supplier of RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄, T-Systems offers “,” a collection of end-to-end transformation services that includes consulting, migration, implementation and operation of RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ and support for RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition.

Visit the ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ News Center. Follow ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ at .

About ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄

ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄β€™s strategy is to help every business run as an intelligent, sustainable enterprise. As a market leader in enterprise application software, we help companies of all sizes and in all industries run at their best: ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ customers generate 87% of total global commerce. Our machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and advanced analytics technologies help turn customers’ businesses into intelligent enterprises. ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ helps give people and organizations deep business insight and fosters collaboration that helps them stay ahead of their competition. We simplify technology for companies so they can consume our software the way they want – without disruption. Our end-to-end suite of applications and services enables business and public customers across 26 industries globally to operate profitably, adapt continuously, and make a difference. With a global network of customers, partners, employees, and thought leaders, ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ helps the world run better and improve people’s lives. For more information, visit .

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This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄β€™s 2023 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
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It will modernize the company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and benefit nearly 30,000 global employees through integrating advanced functionalities, such as enabling global manufacturing, supply chain and finance business processes. This achievement signifies the third crucial phase in Seagate’s digital transformation journey, complementing for Supply Chain and ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ SuccessFactors solutions.

Seagate embarked on this transformative path in 2021, transitioning from its legacy systems to embrace ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA, ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ SuccessFactors, and ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain.

β€œWe chose ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ solutions for our integrated ERP landscape because its strategy closely aligns with our own: to implement a foundational platform on which the business can scale and grow,” said Grace Liu, senior vice president and chief information officer at Seagate.

Seagate’s leadership recognized the limitations of its existing ERP, prompting the need for an integrated platform to keep pace with evolving business models. ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ solutions address these challenges, offering an integrated ERP landscape with centralized business rules and roles. The implementation aims to enable unified global reporting, overcoming hurdles posed by diverse data repositories and laying the foundation for scalable growth while minimizing total cost of ownership (TCO).

The go-live phase was executed efficiently, without operational disruptions, reflecting ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄β€™s commitment to a smooth transition. Seagate’s reliance solely on the ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Value Assurance program underscored the efficiency of collaboration, while the use of cloud application services for pre-go-live testing ensured a robust launch.

Seagate’s move to ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA will provide the company with significant improvements in supply chain management, manufacturing execution, and even ongoing transformation. This recent go-live highlights the transformative power of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄β€™s innovative solutions and strategic guidance in driving digital transformation for its customers.

Visit the . Follow ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ at .

Media Contact:
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This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ.  Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄β€™s 2022 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
Β© 2024 ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ SE. All rights reserved.
ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ and other ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

Over the last year, artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm and captured our collective imagination – and it has been a clear focus for us. We see a lot of potential in how AI can improve user and organizational productivity: doing things faster, making better decisions, and automating business processes. We have been embedding intelligent capabilities in our product regularly and will continue to invest in AI to help organizations be successful. 

Simply Ask Joule

Available through the , Joule, our AI-powered copilot, can redefine user interaction, streamline business processes, and enhance productivity. It can offer quick, contextual access to content and applications; users can simply ask Joule for guidance and get pointed in the right direction.

Catch a glimpse into the future of AI in ERP and find more information about the development of AI and Joule in ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition .

Improve Productivity with Embedded AI

The 2402 update also enhances productivity across various business processes through embedded AI capabilities. Examples include:

• helps accelerate sales order creation and processing by providing smart input field recommendations.

• helps streamline material inspection for customer returns, enhancing logistical efficiency and flexibility.

Adopt a Modern and Collaborative User Experience

The launch of spaces and pages in the ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Fiori design system can offer a more intuitive user experience, enabling better task organization and quicker resource access. Highlights include:

• The helps enhance personalization for end users, including personalization export/import and improved language support for System News. Watch a to learn more.
• facilitates information sharing in Microsoft Teams, helping to enhance collaborative efforts across platforms. Watch a to see it action.

• Contact card collaboration is now possible by initiating chats, calls, or video meetings directly from the . Watch a to see how.

Transforming to Intelligent and Sustainable Finance

One important aspect is treasury and risk management, . Our latest finance enhancements are specifically designed to help elevate businesses into sustainable, intelligent enterprises:

• can increase transparency and process health, helping to ensure a more robust compliance structure in your financial operations.

• in ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Analytics Cloud allows planning alongside economic sustainability goals. This can provide a dual perspective on financial metrics and environmental impact, aiding in the development of eco-responsible strategies and identification of related financial risks.

• The focuses on seamless data management for enhanced efficiency in real estate and contract management processes.

Powering Service-Centric Companies

We have seen a spike in service-centric companies using ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and were named a leader in this area by . Based on feedback from our customers and partners, we are continuously improving the product experience. Examples include:

• The can offer a detailed project overview, enabling managers to monitor project health and address issues like missing time entries, pending invoices, or unassigned roles. This can allow for more proactive and efficient project management.

• The improved billing solution helps prevent revenue losses and streamline billing processes for increased flexibility and accuracy. Enhancements include , , and , all within the Manage Project Billing app.
• The ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Business Technology Platform (ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ BTP)-based module of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Subscription Billing is tightly and seamlessly integrated. It can support customers’ transitions to subscription-based commercial models. Effective and detailed profitability analysis becomes instrumental to maximize revenue with tailored subscription-pricing models with the . Take a look at our brand-new .
• Advanced solution order management can elevate your sales strategies. By , we provide the tools to help enhance your solution selling approach, working to ensure that every sales opportunity is maximized for optimal results, enhancing the process from ordering to billing and accounting.

Boosting Manufacturing and Product-Centric Companies

The enhancements for product-centric companies help elevate operational efficiency, streamline processes, and unlock new revenue opportunities. . Highlights of the 2402 update include:

• For manufacturing sectors operating under the produce and sell standard products model, we now offer . This synergy allows you to leverage comprehensive data insights for precise production planning, helping to ensure that your manufacturing processes align seamlessly with market demand.
• is tailored for businesses in a two-tier ERP setting and can simplify direct shipments from suppliers to customers with enhanced order fulfillment, greater sourcing flexibility, and reduced logistical expenses.

• The helps improve the combined sales of a physical good and a service and enables you to increase revenue by selling combinations of physical products, one-time services, and recurring services. This also helps to avoid errors and reduce manual effort.

Enhancing Global Reach

We further invested in localization, so our software complies with local regulations and cultural norms:

• With the 2402 update we are to meet specific regional requirements.
• We , responding to customer needs and enhancing local compatibility.
• We enhanced scope in our Customer Local Version countries (formerly CLT) to include baseline, finance, and now product-centric capabilities, catering to a wider range of customer needs.

And So Much More…

Throughout this year, we will deliver many more innovations that help bring value to your business. For more details around what is being delivered for the 2402 update, see the . For more information on ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition:

• Watch product videos on ourΒ 
• Explore the early release webinar series 
• See what’s new 
• Visit on the ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Help Portal site
• Explore extensibility options by leveraging sample scenarios from ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ in the tool
• Learn more about

Arpan Shah is SVP of Public Cloud ERP Product Management at ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄.

This strategic move laid the foundation for future innovation targets and enables Fresenius to improve scalability, enhance application security and drive the digitalization of its global business processes.

The migration encompassed a wide range of systems, including ERP systems for core business processes in finance, manufacturing, supply chain and procurement as well as CRM system among others.

β€œThe cloud migration is accelerating our #FutureFresenius journey. The ability to scale our IT landscape more flexibly enables us to gain efficiency and to adapt to changes faster,” said Michael Sen, CEO, Fresenius. β€œDigitizing our organization and the healthcare industry requires scalable platforms and working in ecosystems with internal and external partners. Digitization will be a key enabler for our business to advance patient care.”

β€œWe are excited to partner with Fresenius on their digital transformation journey with RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄,” said Christian Klein, CEO and Member of the Executive Board of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ SE. β€œOur solutions will empower Fresenius to streamline operations, enhance efficiency and deliver even more exceptional value to its patients and customers.”

The migration project involved extensive collaboration between Fresenius and ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ where 29 system landscapes containing 134 systems were migrated to the cloud smoothly and in record time of less than 15 months. The project’s completion sets the stage for Fresenius to leverage the full potential of the latest ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ technologies, including ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud, to accelerate innovation and deliver exceptional value to the Fresenius Group.

The migration has resulted in improved security and resilience of all ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ systems. It allows the company to identify and resolve issues before they impact the business through delays or outages. The migrated systems show better performance in general.

“We have a long and successful history of working with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ for 30 years now. We’re thrilled with the outcome of the cloud migration. It is proof that all the hard work and close collaboration on challenges has paid off. The dedication, expertise and collaboration of everyone involved has been instrumental in achieving this significant milestone. As we move forward, we’re confident that the cloud transformation will empower our organization to innovate and excel in today’s competitive healthcare market,” said Ingo Elfering, CIO, Fresenius Group. β€œMigrating our core databases to the cloud with RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ will also provide a secure and stable platform for our future ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA journey.”

Visit the .

Media Contact:
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This document contains forward-looking statements, which are predictions, projections, or other statements about future events. These statements are based on current expectations, forecasts, and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results and outcomes to materially differ. Additional information regarding these risks and uncertainties may be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including but not limited to the risk factors section of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄β€™s 2022 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
Β© 2023 ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ SE. All rights reserved.
ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ and other ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

Delek US – a North American energy operator with midstream, downstream, and retail oil and gas assets in the Southwest United States – is one such customer as well as one of the earliest adopters of RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄.

I recently had a chance to connect with the leadership team at Delek US to get an update on how their RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ journey is going.

Drowning in Complexity

Over the past 20 years, Delek US has made a number of strategic acquisitions, always with the goal of positively impacting its shareholders, employees, customers, and the communities in which it operates. With each acquisition came a new enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to integrate – and technical challenges.

Delek US found itself with more than 6,000 customizations – or code modifications that change the way an ERP system works – and the volume and complexity of these customizations made it virtually impossible for Delek US to get the most value out of its ERP.

“We were previously at a point where every change had the potential to create an unwanted impact due to the modifications that had to be done,” said John Paul Palelil, senior director of ERP & Business Applications at Delek US.

Its complex ERP environment was also creating roadblocks and leading to a lack of utilization. Some employees were unaware of how to use the system for certain data management tasks. Others took to relying on Microsoft Excel spreadsheets to track information. Delek US knew it had to change, but how best to do that with such a highly customized ERP landscape?

β€œTo me, the biggest story of this project is how a company can go from 6,000 modifications to zero,” said Nir Yatziv, CIO for Delek US. β€œThat’s what Delek US brings to the table, the understanding that we needed to listen, evaluate, and ask how we can make it work.”

Embracing Standardization

In working with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ to assess the situation, Delek US realized it had an opportunity to leverage the RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ solution to standardize on ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud and also demonstrate its commitment to change management by adopting ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ standard content activation best practices.

“I don’t think of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ as just an ERP,” Palelil said. “I think of it as an all-encompassing solution.”

Standardizing with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud and ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ standard content activation represented a technology and process game changer for Delek US. It would give the company a unified ERP with a single instance of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄, digitally transform all in-scope processes to best practices, and improve maintainability. This prize outweighed the required change management, which Delek US addressed head-on.

According to Delek US’s executive sponsor and CFO Reuven Spiegel, β€œThe keys to success were detailed pre-project preparation, β€˜out-of-the-box’ implementation, and a strong change management program.”

Managing through Change

Digital transformation is a complex puzzle of people, processes, and technology. Delek US found that and ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ standard content activation provided the base technology and process pieces, which allowed Delek US to focus on its people.

Employees can be reluctant to change the way they work, leading to potential conflict among workers and management. There are also times when an organization adopts new technologies, only to find that its workers continuously go back to the systems and processes they’ve grown accustomed to using.

Delek US’s leaders, though, understood the challenge and developed a robust set of project controls and tight governance to maximize adoption and readiness. In addition, a heavy emphasis was placed on business function ownership – they didn’t want this to be viewed as merely an β€œIT project.”

Marie Sutton, senior director of Technology Strategy and Delivery at Delek US, shared: β€œWe were very intentional with all elements of our project plan and execution to maximize our probability of success. Beyond the β€˜what,’ we focused on culture to maintain an attitude of β€˜how can we make this work.’”

Well-Earned Success

Delek US completed its implementation of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud in October 2022 on time, on budget, and on scope – a total of 13 months from initial assessment to go-live for delivery of a full ERP solution.

“The day before go-live I sent people home at noon,” Palelil said. “Never in seven projects have I had that much breathing room.”

Delek US is already seeing benefits and has a clear path to capture more value leveraging its modern cloud ERP. Immediate benefits beyond full standardization were recognized in areas such as order processing, inventory management, and bank reconciliation.

β€œPreviously, we had to review multiple systems to receive an accurate count on things like how much equipment we had in the warehouse,” Yatziv said. β€œNow with our ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ system, we have the data presented in real time.”

Ready for What’s Ahead

Delek US is expecting bigger and better things from ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud in the foreseeable future. For instance, the company is using it to gather data and intelligence that further support its corporate governance and stewardship initiatives. It’s also continuing to look for new opportunities to integrate ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud advanced tools and technologies into its operations.

Delek US is also committed to improving its social and environmental performance, having recently launched its first greenhouse gas reduction targets, and maintains high standards of corporate governance. It’s also dedicated to finding ways to listen, evaluate, and understand how to make digital tools and transformation truly work.

Companies in every industry that are struggling with the complexities of their ERP system can learn from Delek US’s RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ journey to start a cloud ERP journey of their own.

“We did it,” said Yatziv. “It was not easy, but we accomplished it.”

John Tully is senior vice president and managing director of the NA South Market Unit at ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄.

In my conversations with Paul Saunders, head of Product Strategy for ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA, he says β€œERP is like music.” Whether its baroque, rock and roll, or punk rock, music is structured upon the same core building blocks, yet this essential core structure has been the basis for innumerable musical genres and flavors throughout history.

In Saunders’ view, ERP is no different.

The core purpose of ERP has always been to help customers manage their business functions within a centralized and integrated system, yet ERP has undergone significant changes since the 1960s. It incorporated customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain, evolved toward cloud and artificial intelligence (AI), and fundamentally recharacterized itself as agile, nimble, collaborative, mobile-friendly, and data driven. Like music, says Saunders, β€œERP exists to provide for the audience of the moment.”

For some customers, selecting the right ERP deployment option to suit their business needs is not quite as straightforward as choosing new vinyl at the record store. And for current on-premise ERP customers, some of which may not have run an upgrade in years, the prospect of change can feel overwhelming. ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ is ready to guide them through it and accompany them on the journey.

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The Next Step for ERP Customers

As is often the case in life, it’s first about defining the what before the how. At ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄, we encourage customers to ask themselves: β€œWhere do I want my business to be in the next five to 10 years?” The intention should be clear from the start. If you can already answer this in one succinct sentence, you’re already well on your way.

Next, it’s about the how: β€œWhat technology is best fit for purpose to make my company’s ambition a reality?” ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄β€™s purpose is always to have open and honest conversations about which technologies can help get customers to where they want to be. ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ ECC customers should carefully weigh up their options in conversation with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄, without blindly jumping on the cloud bandwagon.

As Cedric Price rightfully said, β€œTechnology is the answer, but what is the question?” Customers should first be clear on the destination before they start their transformation journey.

ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄β€™s job is to support customers in this process, and translate business needs into solution offerings that work — that applies to all customers.

Perhaps you’re a business owner looking for cost-effective, easy-access technological solutions to get your company up and running. Public cloud could be the perfect deployment option. For a large multinational that wants the freedom to customize elements of your own cloud infrastructure, a private cloud might be an ideal solution. Perhaps you want to exploit the flexibility and innovation of public cloud, while keeping sensitive data in your own data center to meet certain regulatory requirements. In that case, a hybrid deployment model could be a good fit.

For an ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ ECC customer, for whom this all sounds a bit overwhelming, there are plenty of options — whether continuing to run ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ ECC standard support or starting the next conversation with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ about how we can help you drive innovative value that differentiates you to your customers.

There is no right or wrong approach; there is just the best approach for your business and ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ can help you find that.

At ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄, we are proud to have an ERP solution for every business need.

Laura Marwood is a product strategist for ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA.

As 2022 draws to a close, the year looks much like 2021, with supply chain disruptions still plaguing consumers and companies, costs continuing to rise, and the added threat of recession.

What ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ has heard from customers both last year and this year is that to address these ongoing challenges, they want to digitalize their business to have more visibility, more control, and a better user experience. Simplifying procurement is central to their improvement plans.

Industry research supports these personal anecdotes. In an Economist Impact report commissioned by ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄, “,” C-level executives talked candidly about their procurement goals and challenges.

The introduced in ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Central Procurement, private cloud edition, both address respondent challenges and support their goals. Here’s how I see the data lining up with .

ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA is no longer a prerequisite for ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Central Procurement.

Large enterprises often have dozens to hundreds of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. These systems are not connected, which creates difficult to access, siloed data. Moving these disparate systems to ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Central Procurement had required ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA or RISE with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄, but that is no longer the case. ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ ECC customers and others can gain access to ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Central Procurement, private cloud edition, without first starting an ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA implementation.

The flexibility offered by the private cloud edition of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Central Procurement can help organizations reduce the complexity of multiple back-end systems and move toward digitalization while keeping an eye on their budget. It also enables them to continue using familiar systems without facing the disruption of migrating to a new technology.

Mass changes are possible for price conditions and custom fields in central contracts.

Large organizations can have as many as 3,000 line items that are distributed across back-end ERPs. The new feature means a user can add and update mass changes to price conditions using Microsoft Excel at item level and hierarchy level and distribute the changes across multiple backend ERPs.

This type of improved management is among the top focus areas for delivering increased value in procurement, based on survey findings. The list of focus areas includes cost savings, risk reduction, inventory management, and category management implementation/improvement. Category management also emerged as the second biggest driver of digital transformation. With every new release of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Central Procurement, we aim to add features that make it easier for procurement managers and their teams to do their jobs.

Integration with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Ariba simplifies RFP process allows quick ad hoc buying.

Within ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Central Procurement, private cloud edition, central sourcing is now integrated with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Ariba solutions. Having quick access to this global business network means improved supplier discovery, faster price updates, and a simpler process for ad hoc buys. Procurement managers can bundle various demands into their requests for proposal (RFPs), source across multiple back ends, negotiate better pricing on purchase contracts, and requisition price updates through the ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Business Network Discovery.

The full integration addresses respondents’ concerns about budget constraints. The research also points out that supply chain visibility has not improved during the past two years. In 2018, 65% of procurement professionals said they lacked visibility into their supply chain and the numbers have only worsened, with 90% of organizations rating their supply chain visibility as moderate to very low. Integration to ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Ariba improves visibility and offers benefits across both purchasing and selling.

Customers and industry analysts are giving these three new features lots of positive feedback, but they are not the only improvements in this recent release. Find out more about the private cloud edition of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Central Procurement .

Features to Look Forward to in Future Releases

ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ strives to be transparent about features that are in the pipeline. For 2023, we are excited to talk about two new features on the road map. The first is the addition of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and automation, which are among the biggest innovations being added to platforms to improve management, reduce errors, and increase productivity.

In the first quarter, our engineers plan to add a feature for intelligent recommendations that will support source to order across disconnected ERPs. This new feature will be especially valuable for companies that have different material classifications for the same product. When procuring raw materials, for example, the material group (classification) may be hardware in one system and connector in another system. In an upcoming release, AI will look at data across different ERP systems and intelligently recommend the more accurate material group. Hardware, from the previous example, would be changed to connector. These types of intelligent recommendations will be made across the disconnected ERPs. Overall, embedding AI and machine learning in the platform will open up more opportunities for automation improvements.

Unified key mapping is another improvement we look forward to releasing. This feature eases procurement management by enabling integration with third parties in heterogenous landscapes and in those that do not use ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ solutions for ERP.

Altogether, the new features in the current release and the planned features for upcoming releases are exciting achievements for ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄. More importantly, our customers are on the winning side as they gain the visibility they need, improve user experience, and move further in their journey of digital transformation.

Salvatore Lombardo is senior vice president, chief product officer, and head of Engineering for ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Procurement.

However, some organizations put off integrating HR software with other areas of the business. To better understand the challenges that organizations face with enterprise technology, ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ SuccessFactors interviewed leaders in HR, finance, IT, and other operations at large and midmarket companies. Some of the comments that stood out include: β€œIt’s a complicated dance to integrate the data.” β€œIt’s hard to know how many people we have – let alone what they’re working on.” β€œHow do we use data to tell our people story?”

These business leaders were aware of the benefits of connected cloud ERP and HXM. What was the barrier to investment? It was their organization’s technology strategy. As one member of the group summarized, β€œOwnership or what’s on fire – it’s impacting our ability to make strategic investment decisions.”

Carrie Klauss from Solution Marketing for ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ SuccessFactors presented these findings at SuccessConnect 2022 in the session β€œImproving Business Performance by Connecting Cloud ERP and HXM,” .

β€œOne of the key things we identified is that while there’s a desire for a much more integrated approach between HR and other business operations – and a strong acknowledgement of the associated value – for many, this remains a challenge,” Klauss said. β€œTo no surprise, the overarching challenge theme was complexity due to silos.”

Thinking Beyond Walls to Connected Business

In the former model of enterprise technology, HR systems were separate from business systems. As a result, there was an inordinate amount of latency, inaccuracy, and complexity in the relationships between the business and the HR organization. Business and HR leaders struggled to understand the connection among management practices, employee engagement levels, and customer outcomes, Klauss noted.

This outdated model continues in some organizations, with business areas operating independent of one another. In these instances, HR is inefficiently connected to the rest of the organization through manual, offline, or similarly inefficient processes that reinforce inaccuracy and complexity.

Alternatively, when organizations take an advanced, connected approach with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA and ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ SuccessFactors running on a common cloud platform, they succeed in breaking down silos and enable enterprise-wide insights, processes, and experiences.

β€œIt was really interesting to hear the feedback from our research participants,” Klauss said. β€œWhile many of them started with a fairly narrow view, specific to their respective area and the associated challenges, the majority quickly pivoted to begin thinking beyond their HR or finance walls.”

Unified Data Leads to Expanded Mission in Healthcare

One ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ customer that is seeing the benefits of a connected approach is (HHC), a U.S.-based organization with 5,000 employees. A key pillar of HHC’s vision is to lead with innovation in clinical care, research, education, and service excellence. However, its four business units – healthcare, government, public health, and public safety – previously operated in silos. This business structure led to operational inefficiencies and a frustrating user experience for employees that could also carry over to the patient experience.

HHC deployed ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA for finance and the supply chain and ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ SuccessFactors software on a common platform. As a result, the organization improved its supply chain efficiency, with an 85% reduction in purchase order processing time. It has also seen vast improvements in employee productivity and satisfaction, with a 94% improvement in benefits admin for new and existing employees and an 80% improvement in ad hoc reporting capabilities.

With enterprise-wide data now available, HHC has set new targets to roll out strategic analytics across the enterprise to tackle larger public health issues, such as food insecurity, homelessness, and vector-borne illness.

Putting People at the Center of Business

ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ helps customers advance to a connected cloud approach with ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA and ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ SuccessFactors solutions so they can run as intelligent, sustainable enterprises.

The benefits of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄β€™s intelligent suite are manifold. Having data connected on a common data foundation improves speed, accuracy, and insights. The unified integration extends beyond the data to connect processes and employee experiences. In addition, a connected approach opens the opportunity for enterprise-wide adoption of intelligent technologies by removing the limitations of specific business silos or use cases and enabling automation.

Learn more about how connected cloud ERP and HXM can provide and .

That is what ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud is all about.

We deliver innovation on a regular basis, and we do not just deliver ERP capabilities that support new business processes and models, but also modern experiences that simplify the way people and businesses work. It is humbling to be able to do this, as many customers — such as and — trust ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud to run their businesses. (.)

I want to share some of the innovation highlights from the most recent August (2208) release.

Modern, Fast, Intuitive User Experience

The user experience (UX) of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud lets users easily access business processes and data. We deliver tailored experiences across a wide range of devices, including laptops, tablets, and phones.

Our customers want an easy way for their user base to collaborate and make better decisions based on business data and processes. For example, there may be blocked sales orders or supply chain issues; you may need your sales team to review metrics or your marketing team to be aware of product delays. We make it easy for any user to collaborate using their preferred productivity tools, such as Microsoft Teams, Office, and Google Workspace.

Some of the new UX highlights in the ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud 2208 release include:

• New that delivers a clean, beautiful user experience across devices in a light and dark mode.
• Building on the functionality of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ Fiori launchpad, orchestrates information, tasks, and applications so that you can do your job with speed and agility.
• offers easy sharing, plus a new , and an Excel add-in for analytics.

Best-in-Class Product and Service-Centric Functionality

We are committed to enabling all organizations to operate globally. Whether you are an organization that sells services or products, we deliver out-of-the-box pre-configured business processes built on industry best practices. We focus on time to value so you can be up and running quickly. We have even been recognized as cloud ERP leaders, both service-centric and product-centric, by analysts including IDC and Gartner.

Other 2208 highlights include:

Support for , meeting business and legal requirements, including Bulgaria, Colombia, Chile, and Qatar.

For service-centric industries, we are releasing functionality to improve project planning and project resource management. You can now . It is also possible to improve and .

For product-centric industries — alongside innovations to enhance the end-to-end process visibility and efficiency such as the and stock transfer — we are introducing capabilities such as that reduce risk and costs of changes. To accelerate the pace and quality of decisions with an integrated information flow from planning to execution of an outbound transportation process, we are introducing the .

Designed for Extensibility and Lifecycle Management

While ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud delivers a wide range of ready-to-use core capabilities, we know that customers and partners want flexibility to extend based on their business needs. With that in mind, extensibility is a key attribute of every scenario — not an afterthought. We deliver an extensive range of cloud and tools to support these scenarios without compromising innovation updates. If you are curious about the different extensibility capabilities, check out the sample scenarios on the Μύ°Υ³σ±π allows the building of extensions directly in ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud and makes extension options even more powerful.

Extensibility and lifecycle management highlights include:

ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud already offers extension capabilities for business users with a low-code/no-code tooling and the possibility to add functionality by . We will also provide an offering to implement new functionality directly on the ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud stack to realize development projects that need a tight coupling of business processes — in-app available via a three-system landscape (3SL).

We expect to make generally available in the near future. In addition to quality and production systems, we are adding a dedicated development system to the ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud system landscape, giving you a more powerful, granular, and transparent distribution of developments and configuration changes. You can continuously implement, test, and deploy, even during a software update period.

Immersive Analytics and Intelligence

Whether it is quick actions and insights on the home page, embedded analytics in different places, or recommended actions and automation based on your data and goals, we strive to make our users more productive.

Highlights of this release include:

The supports accountants by automating payment advice processing. This artificial intelligence-supported capability enables automatic matching and clearing of invoice and payment items while creating more transparency and reducing otherwise time-consuming tasks.

With , purchasers can gain more transparency on the carbon footprints of their products with material movements. The data can be analyzed across various dimensions, such as by product category or plant. A trend view analyzes the carbon footprint across a timeline.

And Much More

At ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄, we stand on the shoulders of giants: 50 years of leadership in industries, 50 years of business applications innovation, 110,000 employees, 23,500 partners, and more than 100 development locations worldwide. The numbers are impressive, but what matters most is how we can help our customers run their businesses efficiently and securely.

Arpan Shah is senior vice president of ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄ S/4HANA Cloud at ΒιΆΉΤ­΄΄.