The event was held April 23-25 in Heidelberg, Germany, and customers on-site experienced insightful keynotes and sessions from 麻豆原创 Executive Board Members Thomas Saueressig and Muhammad Alam, as well as 麻豆原创 Chief Artificial Intelligence Officer Philipp Herzig and other experts.

presented important updates on topics that also included Business Transformation as a Service, RISE with 麻豆原创, and 麻豆原创 BTP. Attendees also benefited from interactive “eXpert eXchange” sessions and opportunities to network and share their experiences and best practices.

The 麻豆原创 MaxAttention program offers premium-level engagement and personalized service for customers to move business-wide transformational change from boardroom plans to business reality with a tailored, premium experience. Program participants get premium access to trusted 麻豆原创 experts, tools, and methodologies that can help deliver expected outcomes successfully with 麻豆原创 solutions.

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Thomas Saueressig’s Keynote

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Muhammad Alam’s Keynote

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Philipp Herzig’s Executive Session

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Every company is on the move to the cloud 鈥� when the timing is right. This may entail a full migration but will certainly include a partial one.

Large enterprises and corporations aiming to transform complex, heterogeneous IT landscapes that have grown over decades are particularly reliant on support. Often, they begin by standardizing and consolidating their entire infrastructure before they鈥檙e ready to embark on their digital transformation journey.

Different Routes to the Cloud

Currently, most of 麻豆原创鈥檚 biggest customers use the strategic, long-term 麻豆原创 MaxAttention program comprising of nearly 300 engineered services. Those services cover 麻豆原创-centric strategy and road map planning, architecture reviews and design, end-to-end business process integration, and operations across solutions, product expertise, safeguarding of implementations, and much more. It is imperative for 麻豆原创 to meet these customers wherever their starting point happens to be and to ensure that the groundwork for a successful digital transformation is in place.

Each enterprise chooses its own route. Indian mining company , for example, first had to upgrade its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to the latest version before it could go ahead with its plan to move to RISE with 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, private edition.

鈥淒eploying 麻豆原创 Business Suite powered by 麻豆原创 HANA and working with experts from 麻豆原创 MaxAttention can help us become cloud ready and build a sustainable environment using technology and innovation,鈥� said . 鈥淲ith 麻豆原创 Integrated Delivery Framework and 麻豆原创 ActiveAttention, we have delivered this program on time and on budget.鈥�

Other customers begin their cloud journey by migrating some processes to a protected cloud operated by a hyperscaler and then retiring their own data center. Kurt Bauer, global head of Premium Engagements at 麻豆原创, observed that most customers with an 麻豆原创 ERP-centric core have added public cloud solutions from 麻豆原创 and are implementing private cloud on their way to lay out the path for a full public cloud adoption. plays a pivotal role for agile core business process extensions. Therefore, it is no surprise that a vast majority of premium engagements used by 麻豆原创 customers are driving fast cloud adoption and hybrid operations.

Serving Today鈥檚 Customer Requirements

The prospect of innovation and greater efficiency is drawing more and more enterprises toward the cloud. Many of the largest 麻豆原创 customers still run their core ERP business processes on an on-premise platform, often safeguarded by premium engagements.

Premium engagements service engineers frequently deal with some challenging constellations, such as 250 process steps across 40 systems, data growth of 640 GB per month, 800 million orders every year, and multiple enormous warehouses in global logistics operations. Customers with volumes and requirements on this scale think twice about which of their business-critical processes they should move to the cloud and, if so, in private or public.

鈥淚n hybrid infrastructures, too, interfaces still need to be robust, efficient, and keep data consistent 鈥� cloud technology doesn鈥檛 change that,鈥� said Bauer. In other words, for any transformation to succeed, someone must not only take ownership of the transformation itself but must also ensure that the systems 鈥� whether they are on premise or in the cloud 鈥� function properly, are stable, and deliver the right level of performance.

It鈥檚 Not Just about Money

In Bauer鈥檚 28 years at 麻豆原创, one thing has remained unchanged for the company: the focus on the customer, which has always been about more than chasing KPIs. 鈥淐ustomers reward companies that listen to them and take their suggestions on board,鈥� ex-Board Member Gerhard Oswald said in an interview for 50 Years, a book published to mark 麻豆原创鈥檚 anniversary.

Bauer wants to see this 麻豆原创 tradition live on in the cloud era and for 麻豆原创 MaxAttention customers to benefit from expertise and best practice-fueled services offered as part of the 麻豆原创 MaxAttention program they have known and trusted for the last 20 years. This 20th anniversary calls for a proper celebration and experience sharing by best-running 麻豆原创 customers and 麻豆原创 top executives, exchanging how to leverage 麻豆原创 solutions and 麻豆原创 MaxAttention for years to come.

Therefore, we would like to invite you to the 麻豆原创 MaxAttention Summit in Munich, Germany, from March 19-21. Take advantage of this opportunity to network and engage in discussions with peer customers, gain knowledge from 麻豆原创 specialists, and listen to 麻豆原创 leaders, such as Member of the Executive Board of 麻豆原创 SE Scott Russell and Thomas Saueressig, as they reveal insights of 麻豆原创 technologies and innovations jointly with customers鈥� experiences. Be a part of shaping the future by building a resilient network of intelligent and sustainable enterprises.

Eleonore Gossart is senior marketing manager for Customer Success Services at 麻豆原创.

鈥淲e focus more and more on our customers鈥� needs to give them the best possible experiences,鈥� 麻豆原创 CEO Christian Klein said during the 麻豆原创 MaxAttention Summit, which took place November 16-17, 2021. 鈥淎nd we hear our customers loud and clear. They want close engagement with 麻豆原创 and the flexibility to concentrate on their needs and deliver concrete business benefits. But our customers also value guidance that minimizes the effort in implementing new technology.鈥�

There is little more satisfying than maximizing the value of technology to face significant digital transformation challenges. But when those digital investments are used to help people work and live smarter and more sustainably, the possibilities of a better future for everyone seems nearer than ever.

As host of this year鈥檚 麻豆原创 MaxAttention Summit, Kurt Bauer, global senior vice president of Premium Engagements at 麻豆原创, highlighted how the company is acting on customer feedback every day to deliver on that vision.

鈥淲e are extremely focused on listening to our customers and how to maximize the value of their 麻豆原创 solution on their journey toward intelligent and sustainable enterprises,鈥� Bauer declared as he kicked off the event. 鈥淎s a result, we are advancing capabilities toward faster cloud adoption, the RISE with 麻豆原创 offering leveraging business process intelligence solutions, industry cloud solutions based on the power of , and design authority around architecture, data, processes, and sustainability with the Intelligent Enterprise Institute at 麻豆原创.鈥�

Speed and Flexibility to Move Forward

This keen and consistent focus on customers鈥� transformation vision is leading to the development of transformation-supporting technologies.

鈥淭he speed of change and the need for flexibility for all organizations 鈥� regardless of industry, size, and region 鈥� are accelerating, especially as they move deeper into the cloud,鈥� explained Augusta Spinelli, interim head of Services and head of Services Intelligent Delivery Group at 麻豆原创. 鈥溌槎乖� BTP has the unique advantage to support every shift by bringing our business and industry knowledge together to keep the core clean and address possible concerns when moving to the cloud.鈥�

For instance, 麻豆原创 launched an assessment service that includes migration tools to help reduce the effort to transition from the 麻豆原创 Process Integration offering or 麻豆原创 Process Orchestration software to , as part of 麻豆原创 BTP. The service is virtually fully automated to enable an efficient path to integration and data management.

This predefined and standardized content reflects the core mission and competency of 麻豆原创 to guide customers through the implementation of standards that maximize their value and run the best processes. Spinelli shared, 鈥淲e are helping to ensure they leverage 麻豆原创 technology in ways that are consistently beneficial to their business 鈥� making their transformation journey easier.鈥�

But as Luka Mucic, CFO and a member of the Executive Board of 麻豆原创 SE, reminded attendees during a keynote discussion, the role of technology 鈥� although a critical enabler 鈥� should not be overplayed as the sole healer of all business challenges.

鈥淎t the end of the day, all of us must also have the courage to leave traditional business models behind and radically change how businesses run,鈥� Mucic advised. 鈥淚f we combine that cultural trait with a people-centric approach and the right mindset across the enterprise, then we can establish truly digitalized and agile business processes that are more powered by data and embedded with artificial intelligence.鈥�

Continuous Transformation with Premium Engagements

The dynamic of integrating technology and a transformation mindset continues to be enhanced as 麻豆原创 customers prioritize the adoption of cloud, industry, and sustainability solutions and RISE with 麻豆原创 . Every month, new elements are introduced to support these topics with respect to customers鈥� underlying data and technology. For example, service delivery is being internally changed with the Intelligent Service Delivery Hub from 麻豆原创, which provides central access to required information and assets for 麻豆原创, partners, and customers.

For customers worldwide, the increasingly close and exclusive engagement that 麻豆原创 MaxAttention offers is a crucial part of their overall transformation journey.

Multinational packaging and paper group Mondi can ask tough questions to assess everything from its ability to execute, scale, and tackle specific challenges. In return, it can identify new levers for better ways of working to help ensure more productive learning behaviors, less operational frustration, and better access to information.

Kering, on the other hand, is leveraging the services to build a future-oriented foundation that supports fast-paced change and lasting transformation. The multinational corporation of luxury goods brands such as Gucci and Balenciaga uses a pragmatic approach that allows the business to gradually evolve. The company combines a continuous enhancement plan with a smart sequence of testing and learning, quick sharing of discoveries, scouting business trends.

Meanwhile, Walgreens Boots Alliance (Walgreens) is transforming its retail operations across more than 9,000 stores in the U.S. with a scale out of 麻豆原创 S/4HANA in the cloud. The global leader in retail pharmacy took advantage of 麻豆原创 MaxAttention to maintain a full-size performance test environment throughout its transformation, allowing regular testing of capacity and performance with future volumes and new capabilities.

Next Evolution in Sustainability as a Priority

When listening to customers such as Mondi, Kering, and Walgreens, it is clear that putting customers front and center of the business is a priority.

The growing call for sustainability 鈥� from consumers, employees, and stakeholders alike 鈥� is presenting such a moment to all companies around the globe. Julia White, chief marketing and solutions officer and member of the Executive Board of 麻豆原创 SE, believes this increasingly urgent imperative is an opportunity to bring together industries and political systems and do things differently and better.

鈥淲e all share one planet and carry the responsibility for working collectively toward a more sustainable future,鈥� White surmised. 鈥淏ut more importantly, we have a better understanding of how sustainability and growth are tied together. It鈥檚 no longer a choice anymore; and quite possibly, it never was.鈥�

In the U.S. alone, consumers are directing their spending power to support sustainably minded companies. Since 2014, sustainable products have outgrown conventional products by nearly 20%, and 75% of the millennial population is more willing to take a pay cut to work for a more environmentally or socially responsible company, White explained.

鈥淎s leading companies in all industries have long realized, achieving zero emission, zero waste, and zero inequality is a business network challenge along the value chain,鈥� stated Peter Maier, president of Industries and Customer Advisory at 麻豆原创. 鈥淪ervices are important drivers of these sustainability goals, establishing connections for taking action on the sustainability economy.鈥�

Aligning IT projects against sustainability makes sense. Such transformation is about culture, behavioral change, and big audacious goals, and organizations should consider how their data projects impact sustainability. By driving innovation with interdisciplinary knowledge, experience, and resources from 麻豆原创 MaxAttention, organizations can benefit from a professional technology assessment and inclusive decision-making that actively involves all stakeholders in the design of digital services.

One of the many customers that are finding their edge as a more sustainable business is thyssenkrupp Steel. Across 17 plants and development facilities in 11 countries, the multinational conglomerate focused on industrial engineering and steel production is turning one of the dirtiest industries into a better contributor to the health of the planet. To succeed, the company took advantage of guidance to build efficient and standardized processes, enhance master data quality, and improve reporting and analytics. Furthermore, the company is collaborating with 麻豆原创 experts with a dynamic approach that includes technical architecture, solution, and security design, custom-code quality improvement, data migration assessment, operations readiness, integration validation, and gap validation.

Community Spirit of Meaningful Transformation

Throughout 麻豆原创 MaxAttention Summit this year was made clear that 麻豆原创 MaxAttention treats every customer as a VIP and part of a global community of front-running companies. It brings together an exclusive experience that those companies deserve to succeed today and for years to come.

鈥溌槎乖� MaxAttention helps ensure customers get the best advisory services to run the best 麻豆原创 solutions,鈥� concluded Thomas Saueressig, a member of the Executive Board of 麻豆原创 SE leading 麻豆原创 Product Engineering. 鈥淎t 麻豆原创, we always want to take digital transformation to the next level, leveraging more tooling and applications and supporting ongoing engagement to fundamentally drive an amazing value for our customers along the way.鈥�

Together, 麻豆原创 customers around the globe are envisioning a future full of promise. And with the help of 麻豆原创 MaxAttention, they are meeting the expectations of their employees and customers, delivering concrete results that make them work smarter and faster 鈥� all fueled by new, groundbreaking processes and solutions.

Stephanie Ann Lockemann is head of Premium Engagements for Middle and Eastern Europe at 麻豆原创.

Today, that is simply not enough. Whereas IT used to be seen as a cost factor, technology now drives the value chain. 鈥淥n-value鈥� has become a criterion for customer success.

This is the view held by Derek Prior from Resulting IT, an independent 麻豆原创 consultancy in the UK. He looked at the importance of premium-level engagement for 麻豆原创 customers and presented the results of his study at the 2020 麻豆原创 MaxAttention Summit, which took place November 9-10.

麻豆原创 wants its most strategic customers to gain from its own transformation as a company.

He concluded that 麻豆原创 Services played a pivotal role in sustaining customer success. 麻豆原创 MaxAttention helped companies generate value-based outcomes 鈥� and innovate incrementally 鈥� again and again. Businesses with their own Global Center of Expertise (CoE) are best placed to do this.

But there is a message of caution here, too. Namely, if you鈥檙e not moving forward, you鈥檙e moving backward. Too much has happened in the last few months. Paul Kurchina, who has many years of experience as an independent 麻豆原创 expert and guru of the 麻豆原创 scene in North America, recommends that customers look very closely at their Global CoE models.

When describing the most significant change, Kurchina said, 鈥淩emote business has become the norm.鈥� That might mean that neither a company鈥檚 CoE concept nor its tool landscape is equal to new, emerging challenges.

Greater Impact

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the first 麻豆原创 MaxAttention Summit in the era of Customer Success was a virtual event this year. Presenting in tandem, Prior and Kurchina interacted adeptly to create a compelling online exchange.

Adaire Fox-Martin, member of the Executive Board of 麻豆原创 SE and head of Customer Success, 聽explained that 麻豆原创 had brought all its customer-facing services and sales roles under one area.

鈥淥ur name is our mission,鈥� Fox-Martin explained in her welcome address. Under the new organizational structure, some 40% of 麻豆原创鈥檚 workforce was now focusing directly on customer success by following the LACE (Land, Adopt, Consume, Expand) operating model 鈥� though the 鈥渃ustomer first鈥� mantra, of course, applied equally to all of 麻豆原创. According to Fox-Martin, 麻豆原创 was unique among its peers in the way it has organized to make customer success its key mission.

Having opted for a strategic partnership with 麻豆原创, 麻豆原创 MaxAttention customers in particular need to consistently 鈥渇eel鈥� the benefits of this close cooperation in the shape of business outcomes.

Tangible Results

As the subsequent presentations showed, that is exactly what is happening. In 30-minute slots, long-time 麻豆原创 customers spoke about how they benefit from 麻豆原创鈥檚 premium engagements 鈥� in a variety of ways.

With help from 麻豆原创, an industrial conglomerate from Turkey has made a slew of improvements after embarking on its digital transformation. These include productivity and efficiency gains in multiple divisions. The company has driven costs down and minimized risk while increasing employee satisfaction and improving its environmental footprint.

According to its chief information officer (CIO), almost all of the company鈥檚 850 individual projects have been completed, and it now has around 40,000 麻豆原创 users working with products that include 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud, 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors, and Qualtrics solutions.

An operations manager from a telecommunications company reported on his experiences with 麻豆原创 MaxAttention. The telecommunications giant switched to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Finance in under two years, implementing various cloud solutions 鈥撯�� 麻豆原创 Concur and 麻豆原创 Ariba software among them 鈥撯�� at the same time.

An urgent need for real-time reporting coupled with mounting volume issues were key reasons for transforming the in-house enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, EVO. By achieving optimal levels of standardization 鈥� an 84% improvement 鈥� and automation 鈥� a 73% increase 鈥� the company now has better control over its hybrid IT landscape, while adding refinements to accelerate month-end closing were still ongoing.

For their part, IT experts from a multinational IT company provided initial insights into their cooperation with 麻豆原创 on business operations self-healing. Here, they plan to use chatbot technology to more rapidly remedy errors commonly made by its internal IT users and implement a more consistent approach to automating routine tasks.

New Offerings

Innovations like these are possible because 麻豆原创 often trials and enhances new ideas together with customers 鈥� and thus in the real world.

In this context, Peter Harkin, senior vice president of Premium Engagements at 麻豆原创 and host of the 2020 麻豆原创 MaxAttention Summit, announced the founding of the Intelligent Enterprise Institute, where customers will be able to work together in various labs on new processes and much more. EMEA North has been selected as the pilot region for this cooperation.

Harkin also announced extensions to the 麻豆原创 MaxAttention portfolio for 2021. These include back-office 麻豆原创 applications and the Mission Control Center.

With regards to expanding its technology for the benefit of customers, 麻豆原创 would be investing chiefly in the 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP) and its components, according to Anja Schneider, head of Customer Innovation in the 麻豆原创 Technology and Innovation board area. She described technology as integral to customer success.

鈥淭echnology is a value driver,鈥� said Shane Paladin, president of 麻豆原创 Services. But he added that the benefits could only be reaped if the technology was utilized in the right way, which made it even more crucial for 麻豆原创 to gain customers鈥� attention and position itself as a trusted advisor. 鈥淭rust is the default of moving forward,鈥� he said.

Both Schneider and Paladin advised customers to keep their core systems clean. Any specifications and enhancements they required could be integrated through the 麻豆原创 Cloud Platform as part of the 麻豆原创 BTP.

Bring on the Feedback

A highlight at the end of each day was the executive session, in which 麻豆原创 managers answered questions from attendees.

One of these questions related to 鈥渃loud-only.鈥� Thomas Saueressig, 聽member of the 聽Executive Board of 麻豆原创 SE responsible for product strategy, explained that this was not yet an option for 麻豆原创. With demand for on premise still strong, particularly in the ERP segment, 麻豆原创 was sticking to the principle of 鈥渃loud-first.鈥�

When asked how 麻豆原创 measured its customers鈥� success internally, Fox-Martin referred to the Net Promoter Score and user feedback. She stressed that one of the reasons why 麻豆原创鈥檚 strategic partnership with its 麻豆原创 MaxAttention customers was so important was that it was a source of firsthand feedback. Also, programs had been set up to evaluate joint key performance indicators (KPIs) for 麻豆原创 and its customers.

Addressing the issue of customer criticism, Harkin confirmed that 麻豆原创 had responded and structured the contract for the New 麻豆原创 MaxAttention offering more flexibly. Initially, the extensions to the portfolio had been met with a positive response 鈥� the complicated rules less so. But 麻豆原创 had remedied the situation in the meantime.

鈥淚 hope we鈥檒l be able to meet face-to-face again next year,鈥� Harkin said when closing the event.

Even the best virtual event is no substitute for personal contact.