For , Race to World First is a test of endurance as much as execution. The competition can require teams to compete continuously for weeks against some of the world鈥檚 most complex raid encounters, where fatigue, stress, recovery and coordination can influence performance while coaches still need to make decisions in real time.

That challenge has traditionally been difficult to solve because critical information often sits in separate systems. Gameplay metrics, combat logs, wearable-device signals, player wellness information and operational data can each provide insight. However, when analyzed in isolation, they leave coaches with an incomplete view of how player condition and in-game execution affect one another.

The solution helps Team Liquid bring those signals into a unified, AI-enriched analytics environment. Coaches, analysts and performance experts can view physical readiness, stress indicators, recovery metrics, scheduling context and in-game performance together, helping them identify patterns that are hard to detect across disconnected tools and spreadsheets.

The solution extends the connected data foundation with AI-powered recommendations. By analyzing trends across gameplay, wellness and biometric information, Joule can help coaches surface early warning signs and compare tactics against historical performance patterns. With Joule, coaches can also evaluate whether recovery breaks, role adjustments or strategy changes may help the team sustain precision during progression attempts.

鈥淎s we prepare for Race to World First, having player performance, health and game data in one place changes how we approach coaching and strategy,鈥� said Dr. Jesse Hart, Senior Director of Sports Science and Analytics, Team Liquid. 鈥溌槎乖� Business Data Cloud allows us to make decisions backed by data rather than intuition during one of the most demanding competitive periods of the year.鈥�

麻豆原创 and Team Liquid have collaborated since 2018 on esports performance, analytics and AI innovation, including solutions designed to support competitive preparation and real-time decision-making. 麻豆原创 Business Data Cloud marks the next evolution of that work by showing how connected data and AI can help teams turn fragmented information into action under pressure. The same challenge exists beyond esports: organizations across industries need trusted data, intelligent insights and human expertise working together so people can perform at their best when it matters most.

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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 麻豆原创鈥檚 2025 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
漏 2026 麻豆原创 SE. All rights reserved.
麻豆原创 and other 麻豆原创 products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 麻豆原创 SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

The deployment聽brings together聽core聽human resources (HR)聽processes聽on聽a聽flexible聽cloud foundation designed to聽simplify聽HR聽operations, enhance employee experience and聽support聽a聽global workforce.聽

A leader in aerospace, defense and advanced technology solutions, Lockheed Martin is modernizing its聽HR聽landscape by moving from legacy systems to a unified platform. The new environment provides a more connected experience for employees and managers聽while supporting聽greater consistency and operational efficiency聽across the enterprise.聽聽

With聽almost聽60%聽of聽its聽123,000 employees聽being聽engineers, scientists and technologists,聽attracting, developing and retaining highly skilled talent聽at scale聽is聽critical to Lockheed Martin鈥檚聽continued success.聽By creating a single source of truth for workforce data, Lockheed Martin is聽gaining clearer insight into its workforce, enabling聽more informed聽talent decisions.聽

This transformation聽allows Lockheed Martin聽to accelerate its robust applied AI strategy across the workforce聽to help聽employees and managers access information more efficiently and unlock new insights across the employee life cycle.聽

鈥淟ockheed Martin is advancing an聽enterprise-wide聽transformation of exceptional scale and complexity,聽while meeting the rigorous demands of a highly regulated industry,鈥� said聽Thomas Saueressig, Member of the Executive Board and Chief Customer Officer聽of 麻豆原创 SE.聽鈥淭his milestone reflects Lockheed Martin’s commitment to modernizing workforce operations and investing in technologies that support employees, strengthen organizational agility and position the company for future innovation.鈥�

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Top image courtesy Lockheed Martin

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.鈥� 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 麻豆原创鈥檚 2025 Annual Report on Form 20-F. 
漏 2026 麻豆原创 SE. All rights reserved.  
麻豆原创 and other 麻豆原创 products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 麻豆原创 SE in Germany and other countries. Please see  for additional trademark information and notices.  

As one of North America’s largest commercial vehicle manufacturers, DTNA supports a vast ecosystem of dealers, fleets, service providers, and customers. Over the last decade, the company has steadily transformed its digital commerce capabilities, creating a foundation that has enabled growth, improved , and positioned the business for the next generation of innovation.

Building a platform for growth

DTNA’s digital commerce transformation wasn’t driven by a single project or technology investment. It was the result of a long-term, strategic commitment to improving how dealers and customers interact with the business.

The company’s journey began with a basic digital parts-ordering platform to help customers and dealers purchase parts online. While the experience was relatively simple, it helped DTNA establish digital adoption, connect key systems, and build relationships with its dealer ecosystem. Most importantly, it created the foundation for what came next.

As customer expectations evolved, DTNA recognized the need for a more modern and scalable commerce experience. The company invested in the 麻豆原创 Commerce solution, expanded digital capabilities, entered new markets, migrated to , and continuously enhanced the platform over time.

Rather than treating commerce as a one-time project, DTNA embraced a mindset of continuous improvement.

Transformation is about people as much as technology

Technology may enable transformation, but adoption determines whether transformation succeeds.

For DTNA, one of the biggest challenges wasn’t implementing new capabilities. It was helping a large network of dealers and customers embrace new ways of working.

“We spent those years pursuing adoption of the tool, really educating our dealer body and getting their buy-in to start using the tool and introducing it to their customers,” said Brenda King, IT manager for eCommerce and Catalog at DTNA.

That approach remains a cornerstone of DTNA’s strategy today. The company works closely with dealers, gathers regular feedback, and maintains strong collaboration between business and IT teams. According to King, that alignment has been critical to ensuring digital investments translate into business value.

The partnership extends well beyond project delivery. King emphasized the importance of working closely with business stakeholders to identify priorities, evaluate opportunities, and ensure technology investments align with business objectives. Rather than operating in silos, business and IT teams work together to shape priorities, guide investments, and continuously improve the customer experience.

Preparing for what’s next

Today, DTNA is exploring how AI can improve commerce experiences through capabilities like product recommendations, customer assistance, and guided buying experiences. But the company’s approach remains grounded in business value.

“We really look at how AI can help us achieve our business goals,” King said. “It’s not AI for the sake of AI.”

That perspective aligns with a broader trend highlighted in the . As organizations accelerate AI investments, many are discovering that successful innovation depends on strong foundations, clear business objectives, and the ability to connect technology investments to measurable outcomes.

The road ahead: Success built on a strong foundation

The company鈥檚 digital commerce business has achieved approximately 40% compound annual growth over the lifetime of the platform, while digital adoption and customer engagement continue to increase. Today, roughly 30,000 users interact with the platform every day.

Those results were not driven by a single initiative. They were built on years of investment in platform modernization, cloud migration, dealer collaboration, and close alignment between business and IT teams. These foundational investments created the flexibility needed to continue growing while preparing for future innovation.

“Our decision to move to 麻豆原创 Commerce Cloud was critical for us to continue growing,” said King. “It stabilized our infrastructure, gave us access to new capabilities, and created the flexibility we needed to keep evolving.”

DTNA’s experience offers an important reminder for organizations navigating their own transformation journeys: long-term success comes from combining innovation with the right foundation.

To learn more about DTNA’s transformation journey and how the company is preparing for the next phase of AI innovation, watch the webinar

Moving to 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP Private as part of the RISE with 麻豆原创 journey, the company will consolidate its enterprise resource planning (ERP), business process intelligence, and service capabilities in a unified cloud-based subscription model. This creates the foundation to support further growth, optimize processes and integrate new technologies.

鈥淢oving to 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP Private is a strategic decision that goes well beyond IT infrastructure. With RISE with 麻豆原创, we are creating the foundation to run HARTING as a more agile, data-driven business鈥攕tandardizing our global operations, accelerating the integration of new technologies and unlocking the potential of AI across our processes. This contract marks a pivotal step in how we intend to grow and compete over the next decade,鈥� said Philip Harting, CEO, HARTING Technology Group.

麻豆原创 Cloud ERP Private will enable HARTING to transition to a future-proof, scalable and innovation-driven ERP environment. Cloud transformation will allow HARTING to consistently automate and standardize operations and infrastructure, direct IT resources toward value-adding topics and innovation, and continuously benefit from updates and new functionalities. At the same time, RISE with 麻豆原创 opens additional potential in the area of artificial intelligence and data-driven business models, with integrated AI functionalities and new automation options enabling faster, more substantiated data-based decisions. As a long-standing consulting partner, NTT DATA Business Solutions AG will accompany HARTING on its transformation path.

鈥淚ndustrial companies are under real pressure to move faster, operate leaner and integrate AI into their core processes as a present-day advantage. HARTING’s move to 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP Private with RISE with 麻豆原创 reflects exactly the kind of decisive, long-term thinking that separates technology leaders from those who wait, and positions them to scale efficiently and respond to market change with confidence,鈥� said Dirk Haeussermann, Managing Director, 麻豆原创 Germany.

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Media Contact:
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Top image courtesy HARTING Technology Group

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 麻豆原创鈥檚 2025 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
漏 2026 麻豆原创 SE. All rights reserved.
麻豆原创 and other 麻豆原创 products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 麻豆原创 SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

The hand-crafted stringing on the face of the racket, the customized design, the packaging and distribution, and the systems that enable each touchpoint are all part of a global supply chain that ensures the racket gets from the warehouse into the gear bag of the world No. 5 exactly when he needs it.

That journey鈥攆rom raw materials and global suppliers through manufacturing, warehousing, customs, and last-mile delivery鈥攊s a story. And 麻豆原创 helps power it.

The carefully curated racket, along with Wilson鈥檚 shoes, shirt, cap, and shorts de Minaur chooses to wear as he competes at the highest level, are just a few of the thousands of products Wilson manufactures and delivers to athletes and customers around the world.

Behind each product is an interconnected global operation spanning manufacturing, warehousing, retail, e-commerce, and B2B channels and a digital foundation that helps Wilson keep it all moving seamlessly.

Powering a global sporting goods business

Wilson is a global leader in sports equipment and apparel, with a legacy of more than a century of innovation across tennis, basketball, baseball, golf, and other sports. From developing high-performance equipment for the world鈥檚 best athletes to creating products for players at every level, Wilson combines deep sporting expertise, innovation, and craftsmanship to help athletes perform at their best.

For almost two decades, Wilson has trusted 麻豆原创 to run its global operations, connecting hundreds of employees across finance, sales, logistics, warehousing, and other critical retail functions.

Wilson’s 麻豆原创 landscape spans core enterprise resource planning (ERP), supply chain management, data and analytics, procurement, travel, global trade, integration and enterprise architecture. Its current environment includes 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component (麻豆原创 ECC), 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud, 麻豆原创 Datasphere, , and 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform, as well as 麻豆原创 Ariba, 麻豆原创 Concur, and 麻豆原创 LeanIX solutions, among others.

And Wilson’s 麻豆原创 digital transformation is continuing. The company is preparing for a major 麻豆原创 S/4HANA transformation beginning in 2027, which will unlock new capabilities across areas such as extended warehouse management (EWM), transportation, quality, and omnichannel operations. As part of its 麻豆原创 S/4HANA journey, Wilson uses Joule to assist with code conversion marking the beginning of introducing into its business operations

One connected foundation for a connected customer experience

Beyond professional athletes such as de Minaur that choose to utilize Wilson to perform on and off the court, Wilson’s global customers interact with the company in many ways鈥攖hrough retail stores, e-commerce, and B2B channels. Behind those experiences is a complex network of products, inventory, orders, warehouses, and business processes that need to work together.

Built for the pace of sport

The world of professional sports moves quickly. A tennis match can turn in a matter of seconds. Consumer goods organizations like Wilson run an equally dynamic and demanding global operation: designing, manufacturing, moving, and selling products to customers and athletes around the world.

A major event, such as a Grand Slam or a Wilson ambassador winning a tournament, can bring heightened demand for the products athletes use and fans want to buy. This requires Wilson to coordinate inventory, production, warehouses, retailers, and e-commerce across markets and respond quickly as demand changes. 麻豆原创 solutions such as 麻豆原创 Extended Warehouse Management, 麻豆原创 Global Trade Services, 麻豆原创 Concur and 麻豆原创 Ariba provide Wilson with the digital foundation to run smarter, operate faster, and respond to the ever-changing demands running a global retail business

This September in New York fans will see Alex de Minaur compete with his trusted Wilson racket and adorn his new customized Wilson kit. What they won鈥檛 see is the integrated ecosystem and the multifaceted journey behind every single racket, every pair of shoes, every piece of apparel鈥攁nd the 麻豆原创 technology powering it.

Tennis is a game of preparation. When I walk onto the court, every detail matters鈥攆rom how the racket feels in my hand to the kit I’m wearing. Knowing that Wilson and the technology behind their business makes sure everything is ready exactly when I need it, that’s the kind of confidence that lets me focus on competing at my best.

Alex de Minaur

Whether it鈥檚 a game of tennis or the demands of a global business, success depends on having everything working in harmony. With 麻豆原创, Wilson can perform at its best.

And on the court, Alex de Minaur knows he can trust that everything is in place when the moment matters most.

Across industries, businesses are already experimenting with AI to automate tasks, improve productivity, and create better customer experiences. The real question now is how do we move from experimentation to enterprise-wide transformation that delivers meaningful business outcomes?

At 麻豆原创, our answer is clear: the next wave of transformation will be driven by聽Industry AI. This belief is also reflected in the evolution of our own organization, as聽Customer Innovation Services evolves into Customer Industry Solutions. This is more than a name change; it represents an expanded mission and a recognition that the future of enterprise AI will be shaped by the combination of technology, deep industry expertise, engineering excellence, and customer-centric innovation.

The opportunity ahead is immense. Analysts estimate that generative AI alone could create between $2.6 trillion and $4.4 trillion in annual economic value globally, while global spending on AI is projected to exceed $630 billion by 2028. Yet, realizing this value will require enterprises to move beyond experimentation and deploy AI in ways that are deeply relevant to their industries.

For years, enterprises have pursued digital transformation through broad platforms and horizontal capabilities that could be applied across functions and sectors. AI has followed a similar trajectory. Large language models (LLMs) and general-purpose AI tools have demonstrated remarkable capabilities and unlocked entirely new possibilities. However, as organizations move beyond pilots and proofs of concept, one thing is becoming increasingly clear: generic AI can only take us so far.

鈥淚n the enterprise world, context is everything. The future of AI lies not in generic intelligence but in intelligence that understands industries, business processes, and how enterprises create value,鈥� said Dominik Metzger, Global Head of Industry AI. “This is where Customer Industry Solutions plays a pivotal role, bringing together deep industry expertise, customer insights, and engineering excellence to bridge the gap between innovation and real-world business impact.”

A manufacturer seeking to optimize its supply chain faces challenges that are fundamentally different from those of a retailer personalizing customer experiences. A bank navigating regulatory requirements operates in a vastly different environment than a life sciences company accelerating research and development. Every industry has its own processes, data models, regulations, and ways of creating value.

This is precisely why Industry AI represents the next frontier of enterprise transformation. The Industry AI portfolio combines the power of AI with deep domain expertise and business context. It understands not only language, but also the nuances of industries and the realities of how businesses operate. It can address industry-specific challenges and deliver outcomes that are measurable, scalable, and relevant to the enterprise.

Building on our strong foundation of customer co-innovation, the Customer Industry Solutions organization brings together deep industry expertise, customer insights, and engineering excellence to accelerate Industry AI at scale. Importantly, we are also bringing together the strengths of customer innovation and forward-deployed engineering.

This combination is powerful. Customer innovation teams bring a deep understanding of business challenges, industry processes, and customer outcomes. Forward-deployed engineering brings the ability to rapidly build, deploy, and operationalize solutions in complex enterprise environments. Together, these capabilities enable us to bridge the gap between breakthrough innovation and real-world business impact.

Our role is not simply to help customers adopt new technologies. It is to work alongside them to address complex business challenges, rapidly translate ideas into solutions, and help move organizations from AI experimentation to enterprise-wide transformation.

Industry AI also changes the way innovation itself happens. The most valuable insights often emerge from solving real customer challenges. They come from understanding pain points on the ground, identifying opportunities to simplify complexity, and applying AI in ways that create tangible business value. This requires closer collaboration among customers, industry experts, engineers, and product teams than ever before.

This is another critical role that the Customer Industry Solutions organization will play. By working closely with customers across industries and regions, and by systematically capturing insights from the field, we can help inform future product development and accelerate the adoption of industry-specific AI capabilities at scale.

Every customer engagement becomes an opportunity to learn, refine, and build solutions that can benefit entire industries.

Sindhu Gangadharan is head of Customer Industry Solutions at 麻豆原创.

Returning humans to the Moon鈥攁nd building the foundation for an enduring presence in deep space鈥攔equires thousands of people, multiple government agencies, international partners, commercial providers, and highly complex systems to work together with extraordinary precision.

During the 麻豆原创 NOW event in Washington, D.C., Dr. Lori Glaze, associate administrator for NASA鈥檚 Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate, offered attendees an inside look at the Artemis program and the operational discipline behind it. I later joined Dr. Glaze for a conversation about managing complexity, sustaining momentum, and using emerging technology to support mission outcomes.

The discussion offered lessons that extend far beyond space exploration. For public sector organizations and enterprises undergoing their own transformations, NASA鈥檚 experience demonstrates how ambitious goals become achievable: one tested capability, one informed decision, and one coordinated team at a time.

Building momentum one mission at a time

NASA鈥檚 Artemis program is designed as a sequence in which every mission tests capabilities and generates knowledge for the next.

Artemis I, completed in 2022, successfully tested the Space Launch System rocket and the Orion spacecraft without a crew. Artemis II built on that foundation with the first crewed flight of the program, launching four astronauts in April 2026 for a nearly 10-day journey around the Moon before their safe return approximately nine days later.

During the mission, the crew tested Orion鈥檚 life-support and maneuvering systems, traveled farther from Earth than any humans before them, conducted scientific observations, and safely re-entered Earth鈥檚 atmosphere at nearly 24,000 miles per hour.

But the mission was not only about setting records. Every observation, test, and operational decision produced information that NASA can apply to what comes next.

鈥淓ach test flight in this program is going to inform the next steps of our mission,鈥� Glaze said.

NASA is now preparing for Artemis III, targeted for 2027. The mission will test critical rendezvous and docking capabilities between Orion and commercial human landing systems developed by Blue Origin and SpaceX. Those tests are intended to reduce risk before Artemis IV, currently targeted as the program鈥檚 first crewed lunar landing mission in 2028.

This incremental approach offers an important transformation principle: Meaningful progress does not require solving the entire future at once; it requires designing each milestone to validate assumptions, reduce risk, and create a stronger foundation for the next decision.

Standardization creates the capacity to accelerate

Speed is often associated with moving quickly. At NASA, it also means reducing unnecessary reinvention.

Glaze explained that one of the agency鈥檚 priorities is standardizing the architecture supporting future Artemis missions. Although exploration frequently involves building something that has never existed before, NASA also needs repeatable systems and processes that can support a more regular cadence of missions.

鈥淲e want to do this over and over again, so we need to standardize our architecture,鈥� she said. Standardization does not eliminate innovation. It creates the stable foundation upon which innovation can move faster.

NASA relies on an extraordinary range of technologies to support that complexity, including 麻豆原创 solutions. But technology alone does not make a mission like Artemis possible. Its value comes from how effectively it connects people, processes, information, and decisions around a shared objective.

This is equally relevant to organizations modernizing their finance, workforce, procurement, supply chain, and operational systems. When information and processes remain fragmented across different platforms, teams spend significant time reconciling data, navigating interfaces, and recreating decisions.

A connected digital backbone can reduce that friction. It provides a shared operational foundation so that organizations can scale proven processes, introduce new capabilities, and respond to change without rebuilding the enterprise each time.

Complexity demands faster, better-informed decisions

The scale of the Artemis program is difficult to overstate.

NASA must coordinate launch vehicles, spacecraft, landers, spacesuits, scientific instruments, communications, logistics, personnel, budgets, commercial contractors, and international partners. Each element has its own timeline, dependencies, and risks鈥攁nd all of them must ultimately come together at precisely the right moment.

Glaze said NASA is working to streamline decision-making by placing the right expertise closer to the work. Subject matter experts have been embedded with contractors and industry suppliers so that issues can be identified, evaluated, and resolved more quickly. The objective is to shorten the distance between insight and action.

That challenge is familiar across government. Leaders often have access to enormous amounts of information but lack a unified view of what is changing, where pressure is building, or which intervention will have the greatest impact.

Glaze identified this as one of the most promising applications for artificial intelligence: helping teams absorb large volumes of data, understand status across complex programs, and identify the areas that require attention.

For organizations, the opportunity is to move from systems that primarily document what has happened to systems that can help interpret conditions, anticipate risks, and support the next best action.

Autonomy works best when it expands human capability

NASA is already applying autonomous technology beyond administrative processes.

Robotic vehicles exploring the Moon and Mars can evaluate terrain, select safer routes, schedule scientific activities, manage communications, and avoid hazards with limited intervention from Earth. AI can also help researchers analyze the enormous scientific datasets generated by NASA missions and focus their attention on the most valuable discoveries.

These capabilities illustrate an important distinction: autonomy is not necessarily about removing people from the mission. It is about allowing technology to manage complexity at a scale and speed that enables people to make better decisions.

The same principle applies to the Autonomous Enterprise. Embedded AI can help coordinate routine processes, detect emerging issues, and recommend actions while keeping people responsible for judgment, accountability, and mission outcomes.

Partnerships turn ambition into capability

No single organization could accomplish the Artemis mission alone.

NASA鈥檚 architecture brings together government teams, commercial space companies, traditional aerospace manufacturers, international space agencies, scientific institutions, and military partners. Each contributes a specific capability to the larger mission.

For Artemis III, NASA is coordinating with Blue Origin and SpaceX on commercial landing systems. The Orion spacecraft includes a service module provided by the European Space Agency. Future lunar exploration plans also involve mobility systems, habitats, scientific instruments, and infrastructure developed through additional public-private and international partnerships.

This ecosystem is not adjacent to the mission; it鈥檚 how the mission gets done.

For public sector transformation, partnerships can provide specialized expertise and innovation that would be difficult for one organization to develop independently. But successful ecosystems require more than contracting. They require shared objectives, clearly defined responsibilities, trusted information, and mechanisms for making coordinated decisions.

Trust is the ultimate operating system

When I asked Glaze for her most important leadership advice, her answer was direct: surround yourself with smart people and trust them. 鈥淣o one person can do these things,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey require thousands of people to achieve these amazing things.鈥�

Technology, architecture, and process all matter. But none of them can substitute for teams that understand the mission and are empowered to act.

NASA鈥檚 progress under Artemis demonstrates what becomes possible when a bold vision is supported by disciplined execution. The agency is testing before scaling, standardizing where it can, bringing expertise closer to decisions, using technology to expand human capability, and building an ecosystem around a clearly defined mission.

Whether the objective is returning to the Moon, modernizing a government agency, or transforming a global enterprise, the lesson is the same: the most ambitious outcomes are achieved when people, data, processes, and partners move forward together.

Jamison Braun is senior vice president and managing director for U.S. Public Services at 麻豆原创 America.

NTT DATA is a $30+ billion global leader in AI, digital business and technology services, serving 75% of the Fortune Global 100.

The 麻豆原创 solutions will help NTT DATA replace multiple legacy HR systems with one unified platform for people data and processes, strengthening decision-making, employee experience and workforce planning. 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions will serve as the system of record for people and talent data, working alongside NTT DATA’s existing employee service platform and specialist workforce planning tools. 麻豆原创 Business Data Cloud will connect this data with insights across other business functions.

鈥淭he initiative reflects NTT DATA’s view of talent as a strategic differentiator and AI as a capability that should be embedded across enterprise organizations,鈥� said Stijn Nauwelaerts, Chief People Officer, NTT DATA, Inc. 鈥淯ltimately, this is about creating an environment where our people feel empowered to do their best work, wherever they are in the world.鈥�

The deployment builds on a strategic partnership between 麻豆原创 and NTT DATA spanning more than 36 years, during which NTT DATA has collaborated as an 麻豆原创 platinum partner, global service partner and global reseller for 麻豆原创. In 2025, NTT DATA adopted 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP Private solutions to modernize its core systems.

麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions will now be deployed internally at NTT DATA over a 12-month period, with the company applying its own 麻豆原创 expertise to design and roll out the platform. This will create a single, authoritative source of HR data and processes, laying the foundation for faster, more consistent HR services across the organization. Leading its own implementation will also strengthen NTT DATA’s ability to guide clients through AI-driven HR transformation, with firsthand experience of the solutions it delivers.

鈥淣TT DATA is demonstrating how AI and cloud technology can redefine the employee experience,鈥� said Thomas Saueressig, Chief Customer Officer and Member of the Executive Board of 麻豆原创 SE. 鈥淲ith a unified, intelligent HR platform, the company will unlock new levels of productivity and scale a people strategy that supports a connected workforce worldwide.鈥�

Visit the . Get 麻豆原创 news via  and .

Media Contacts:
Lawrie Benfield,聽lawrie.benfield@sap.com,聽+44 7776 515259, GMT
Sonya Domanski,聽sonya.domanski@sap.com, +44 734 546 5928, GMT
麻豆原创 麻豆原创 Room; press@sap.com

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 麻豆原创鈥檚 2024 Annual Report on Form 20-F.
漏 2026 麻豆原创 SE. All rights reserved.
麻豆原创 and other 麻豆原创 products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of 麻豆原创 SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

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Danish wholesaler Lemvigh-M眉ller transformed manual document handling with 麻豆原创 Business AI.

The company automatically processes incoming business documents, including orders, delivery notes, and invoices received as PDFs and emails, reducing manual work and helping teams focus on execution rather than paperwork. Discover how a 200-hour AI project became a scalable foundation for broader business process automation. Read the article.

For Lemvigh-M眉ller, an efficient supply chain isn’t a nice-to-have鈥攊t’s the business model. “Our company is low margin, and we are living from a very efficient supply chain,” says Frederik Aakerlund, CIO of Lemvigh-M眉ller. “We need to cut costs wherever we can, and we need to make sure our customers get our products as quickly as possible.”

Not every business partner connects via EDI (Electronic Data Interchange), the standard for exchanging business documents directly between IT systems. For Lemvigh-M眉ller, that means a steady stream of orders, delivery notes, and invoices arriving as PDFs and emails鈥攄ocuments that, until recently, had to be read and entered manually.

“Today we are receiving so many PDF files and emails that we don’t have the time to read them,” Aakerlund explains. “Basically, we don’t update our system, or we don’t find the deviations from what we expect, quickly enough.”

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Letting AI read the mail

To close that gap, the team built a use case for receiving documents from business partners that can’t be exchanged via EDI and having them read automatically by 麻豆原创 AI engines.

“This is exactly where AI is helping us,” Aakerlund says. “It’s reading 10 20-page documents in a few seconds, updating our system, and there’s no person involved.”

Behind the scenes, the solution combines a mix of 麻豆原创 Business AI Platform, AI components, and 麻豆原创 Fiori apps, integrated with Lemvigh-M眉ller’s core 麻豆原创 system鈥斅槎乖� Cloud ERP Private, which the company adopted two years ago.

The shift in daily work is tangible. “Our users, instead of reading a lot of emails, are just working in a dashboard, finding the things they need to work on,” Aakerlund says. “We’re living the in a small part of our business.”
What started as a single use case has since become a template. “We’ve kind of made it a template for receiving business documents like orders, delivery notes, invoices, and so on,” Aakerlund notes. “Whenever we can’t get them digitally, we read them via this new system. It works for all kinds of PDFs and emails we receive from our business partners.”

Aakerlund’s advice to other companies considering AI projects: don’t start big.

“A good piece of advice could be to find the pockets of inefficiency in your company and apply AI there, instead of going for some really, really big project,” he says. The first version of the use case took just 200 hours over 10 weeks to build. “It turned out to be a reusable architecture, with reusable templates for a lot of other business processes.”

It reinvented circus arts and became a world leader in live entertainment, performing for more than 365 million spectators in 90 countries. Today, the organization operates 38 shows in cities around the world, supported by over 4,000 touring artists and staff from more than 80 countries.

Each touring show functions like a moving profit center. A production may operate in Mexico City, then move to London, then Paris鈥攂ringing with it new companies, employees, assets, tax requirements, local regulations, merchandising operations, and artists from dozens of nationalities.

As Philippe Lalumi猫re, vice president of Information Technology at Cirque du Soleil, explains, 鈥淧eople underestimate the complexity of running a circus.鈥�

Orchestrating an autonomous accounts payable process

This is especially true for the company鈥檚 accounts payable (AP) department. Every year, more than 70,000 invoices flow through Cirque du Soleil, non-stop, 24/7. Around 40% of vendor inquiries are standard requests for invoice status. But answering those questions was far from simple. AP specialists had to search across systems, review invoice histories, understand payment status, determine the cause of delays, and manually respond.

The work was repetitive, time-consuming, and emotionally draining. 鈥淔rom a morale point of view, receiving e-mails from suppliers, some of them a bit impolite because they鈥檙e asking, 鈥榃hen are we going to get paid?鈥欌�攊t鈥檚 not a fun job,鈥� Lalumi猫re says.

Finding the right problem to solve鈥攑utting AI into action

As an 麻豆原创 customer for more than 25 years, Cirque du Soleil knows firsthand how to leverage 麻豆原创 technology not only to run its operations, but also to reinvent them.

Cirque du Soleil, known聽as聽an early adopter and leader in digital transformation, was approached by 麻豆原创聽AppHaus聽with a question: how could 麻豆原创 generative AI technology be used to improve your business processes?

The answer emerged through collaborative workshops involving 麻豆原创, Cirque du Soleil’s IT team, and business users across its departments. Accounts payable quickly rose to the top due to its lean structure, high volume of interactions, and clear automation potential. And the choice aligned with the broader business evolution鈥擜P automation is one of the most widely adopted AI use cases across industries.

With a clear opportunity identified, Cirque du Soleil and 麻豆原创 moved from ideation to execution, developing an AI-powered solution that automated AP processes and improved responsiveness.

AI enters stage right鈥攆rom vision to reality

The workshops led to something more than an automation project鈥攖hey led to Genato, a multilingual AI agent that now works alongside the AP team.

The polyglot agent scans the AP inbox, analyzes sentiment, identifies urgency, extracts invoice numbers from messages and attachments, connects to 麻豆原创 data to retrieve invoice status, and drafts a response for human review. If it cannot find an invoice or resolve an inquiry, it flags the issue.

鈥淭rust in the quality of the answers coming from the agent was an initial concern,鈥� Lalumi猫re says. 鈥淏ut, the team quickly realized that Genato鈥檚 information was spot on.鈥�

Together, Genato and the AP team now serve Cirque du Soleil’s diverse global supplier network more efficiently.

Lalumi猫re, however, is clear about one thing: 鈥淵es, AI is a very powerful tool, but it鈥檚 not pixie dust. Sprinkling AI into processes is not going to solve everything. There is work involved.鈥�

That work included designing聽appropriate connectors聽and integrating with the company鈥檚 麻豆原创 and AP systems using . This enterprise AI foundation聽can bring together capabilities and technologies (think 麻豆原创聽Business Data Cloud, Business Transformation Management solutions, and 麻豆原创 Business AI), unifying AI, data, process context, and governance, so customers can build, integrate, scale, and run AI that delivers business impact聽while working to ensure the solution is sustainable and cost-efficient.

The impact was evident almost immediately. Generative AI began prioritizing urgent supplier requests, retrieving invoice information, drafting responses, and translating communications automatically, delivering measurable improvements across the AP organization:

• 97.92% improvement in handling priority requests
• 25% reduction in AP backlog
• 25% faster response times for non-urgent inquiries
• Improved vendor satisfaction and employee morale

The impact on employees cannot be overstated. By removing repetitive research and emotionally charged supplier follow-up from the team鈥檚 workload, Genato has become more than a tool. 鈥淲e now include Genato as a virtual team member,鈥� Lalumi猫re explains, 鈥淚t鈥檚 a paradigm shift.鈥�

That adoption is the clearest sign of success. Lalumi猫re recalls that after the prototype moved into production, one of the end users made her feelings clear: 鈥淣o, no, no, you cannot take it away from me! There is no way I鈥檓 going to live without it now.鈥� Today, she is one of the solution鈥檚 biggest ambassadors.

Collectively, the solution demonstrates how AI can be introduced into a focused business process, quickly earn user trust, and create a blueprint for broader enterprise innovation.

As Lalumi猫re puts it, 鈥淵ou鈥痗ould say we鈥檙e an 麻豆原创 shop.鈥�

The next act of AI innovation

For Cirque du Soleil, accounts payable is only the beginning.

Lalumi猫re believes that 鈥淎I is a huge and beautiful tool, but you still need human judgment to prioritize use cases and move forward.鈥� He also sees AI evolving across three layers: personal productivity with solutions such as Joule; AI applied to business processes, such as Genato; and, eventually, AI embedded in the audience experience itself. 鈥淚 think we鈥檙e at the dawn of a new era of circus arts,鈥� he says.

His advice to others beginning their AI journey is simple: start small, involve users early, and be willing to experiment. 鈥淭ry a small proof of concept and be ready to throw them away,鈥� Lalumi猫re says. 鈥淭he AI train is moving, and you have to hop on.鈥�

For a company built on reinvention, transforming accounts payable may seem far removed from the spotlight, but for Lalumi猫re, the principle is the same: innovation happens when people are willing to rethink what’s possible. Today, that mindset is improving back-office operations. Tomorrow, it may help redefine the audience’s experience.

Sid Misra is CMO of 麻豆原创 Business AI Platform Technology Foundation.
Top image courtesy of Cirque du Soleil.

Between technical deployment and actual adoption, there is often a gap. What is needed goes beyond tools鈥攊t requires enablement, communication, and organizational change management that puts people first. Experiences from 麻豆原创 customers show how this can succeed.

Global transformation, local anchoring as a guiding principle

Dulaan Punsag-Odefey cites a number that immediately makes the challenge tangible: 265. That is how many key users serve as change ambassadors at Hapag-Lloyd, distributed across six regions worldwide. The shipping company is one of the five largest in the world and is in the midst of an 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Finance transformation. The “Fast Forward” program affects 4,000 麻豆原创 users in more than 140 countries.

Punsag-Odefey, organizational change management (OCM) lead at Hapag-Lloyd, explains: “Change management is anchored in our program as a strategic enabler. Not as an add-on, but as a core element.”

In practice, this means the 265 ambassadors translate global standards into local language and local practice. Controllers are expected to evolve into business partners who no longer just produce Excel spreadsheets but deliver decision-ready recommendations for sales and operations. The message to the workforce is “It will be different, but better.”

How a federal agency demonstrates effective change management

That transformation can succeed without following the textbook is demonstrated by the Bundesanstalt f眉r Post und Telekommunikation (BAnst PT), Germany’s Federal Agency for Post and Telecommunications. The agency implemented 麻豆原创 S/4HANA in just one year: greenfield, public cloud, 1,000 affected users, go-live on January 1, 2026. In parallel, the organization moved to a new administration building with a new-work concept.

Simone Kunze, specialist in the 麻豆原创 Service Center at BAnst PT, knows the phrases that come up in every organization: “Is there an official directive for this?” or “Standard won’t work for us.” What helped was honest communication and direct moderation within business units instead of token feedback sessions.

A fit-to-standard approach replaced legacy custom solutions. Key users were developed from project experts who had already built depth through workshops, user stories, and test cases. The investment in support paid off: after go-live, dozens of thank you e-mails came in regarding the new 麻豆原创 travel expense management and Fiori apps, and survey response rates exceeded 70%.

Thilo Menges from the Medical University of Lusatia (MuL) takes this one step further. His project has a unique starting point: with 3.6 billion euros in funding, an entirely new organization is being built from scratch, including 麻豆原创 technologies. Menges makes a point that many organizations do not state this clearly: “For me, change management is an investment protection measure. This is an organizational project, and people need support in change processes.”

Change management in his project accounts for 4.3% of the total budget鈥攖he largest single line item in the 麻豆原创 contract.

麻豆原创鈥檚 change management framework with its six dimensions, which MuL follows, is integrated into the 麻豆原创 Activate methodology. Particularly important are early assessments, target-group-specific communication, and the identification of trusted multipliers rather than a blanket approach.

What was also highlighted: learning does not end at go-live. Tools like WalkMe enable context-sensitive support in the flow of work, especially for infrequent processes. Enabling the organization to independently maintain and evolve these systems is critical for sustained success.

The organizations mentioned above are supported by change management consultants from 麻豆原创. More information is available .

From shadow AI to structured integration at KIT

While BAnst PT and Hapag-Lloyd are primarily transforming 麻豆原创 system landscapes, the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) faces a different question: how do you get 25,000 students and 10,000 employees to use AI responsibly, instead of each person experimenting on their own in the shadows?

In 18 months, KIT made the journey from uncontrolled AI usage to an AI toolbox with governance rules. Rather than issuing bans, KIT focuses on enablement.

Andreas Sexauer from the Center for Technology-Enhanced Learning at KIT describes the approach as follows: a mandatory qualification module covers foundational knowledge and legal aspects before students and faculty gain access to the AI toolbox. In parallel, use case workshops run across departments, from leadership teams to the legal department. After the teaching rollout in April 2025, 31 didactic chatbots were created in the first seven days. Faculty configure them directly in the learning management system for their respective courses.

KIT also takes a pragmatic approach to costs: after initially providing free access, a budget cap per person per month was introduced.

What research confirms

Whether shipping company, federal agency, or university, all customers report similar patterns. Prof. Dr. Renate Osterchrist from the Munich University of Applied Sciences provides the scientific foundation: she analyzed 119 studies on the effectiveness of change interventions, examining six intervention fields: communication, support, involvement, reinforcement, social influence, and coercion. Key effectiveness factors in change include:

• Dialogue formats are more effective than one-way communication.
• Coaching for managers improves not only their leadership capability but also measurably enhances implementation competence. Coaching and peer exchange are also very beneficial for employees.
• The dimension of coercion had been under-researched until now: clarity in messaging about what behavior is expected proves helpful. Manipulation and political maneuvering, on the other hand, reduce commitment.
• The frequently cited claim that 70% of all change projects fail is not supported by current data.
• The statement “Honestly, I have never experienced a change where there was too much communication” further underscores the important role of communication.

When AI agents enter the picture, change becomes even more critical

What happens when not only new systems are introduced but AI agents take over parts of the work? This is precisely the question that arose when Joule Studio 2.0 was demonstrated live at the forum. With this solution, 麻豆原创 customers can create AI agents that access their business context: 麻豆原创 Knowledge Graph, process models, and domain knowledge. The agents are code-based and transparent. Developers describe the desired outcome in natural language; Joule Studio can generate the specification and executable code. Both no-code and pro-code approaches are possible.

The discussions that followed amongst 麻豆原创 customers and partners made clear that the change management described above will be essential here. When agents take over tasks, roles change, responsibilities shift, and the way humans and machines collaborate is transformed.

A full documentation of the 麻豆原创 Learning and Adoption Forum 2026, including videos, slides, and a chatbot, is .

Thomas Jenewein is business development manager for AI, Transformation, & Adoption Services at 麻豆原创.

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Salling Group, northern Europe鈥檚 largest retailer, shares how a modern 麻豆原创 landscape is helping support more than 2,100 stores across six countries

Learn how 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud, RISE with 麻豆原创, and a strong supply chain foundation are helping the company improve efficiency, support employees, and better serve customers. Read the article.

The company鈥檚 history goes back more than 100 years, and what began as a small textile shop in Aarhus, Denmark, is now an international retailer with 鈧�12 billion in revenue.

麻豆原创 has supported Salling Group for over 20 years and is central to its operations, said Alan Jensen, CIO and executive vice president at Salling Group. Recently, the company has modernized its ERP system to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA Cloud via RISE with 麻豆原创.

With this cloud-based infrastructure in place, the retailer is ready to begin its AI transformation.

Improving everyday life

Salling Group鈥檚 reason for introducing AI is threefold: improve customer experience, simplify for employees, and boost operational efficiency. 鈥淲e want to make everyday life better for our customers by having the right product for the right price every time they need it,鈥� Jensen said. 鈥淲e also want to make every day better for our employees, so the tools and systems they work with are intuitive and easy to use.鈥� This aligns with the company鈥檚 purpose to improve everyday life for customers, colleagues, and the communities it is a part of.

The company views AI as a key enabler, focusing on how to turn AI into real business value for customers, employees, and the company overall. One such area where AI will have real impact on the retailer is logistics, Jensen said. Currently, Salling Group uses in its 29 distribution centers. The application helps manage high volumes of goods and run sustainable, risk-resilient operations via digitalized warehouse processes in the cloud. For Salling Group, this means on-time delivery to stores and efficient supply chain operations.

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What鈥檚 next

Salling Group is using 麻豆原创 solutions and AI to modernize its retail operations end-to-end, with a clear emphasis on customer experience, employee productivity, and supply chain excellence鈥攚hile ensuring new technologies deliver tangible business outcomes.

When it comes to 麻豆原创, Jensen is looking forward to seeing how the Autonomous Enterprise will further Salling Group鈥檚 success with AI.

鈥淭he Autonomous Enterprise looks very exciting,鈥� Jensen said. 鈥淭here is definitely a lot in how we can improve the way we run our business every day, so we need to be curious and see how we can use it.鈥�

Managing logistics operations has become increasingly challenging in recent years. The coronavirus pandemic and its repercussions caused unprecedented disruption across global supply chains, and today, hostilities in the Strait of Hormuz are severely hindering shipping traffic.

In situations like these, the only option many companies have to protect their manufacturing and delivery timelines from delays and uncertainties is to carry larger inventories. This inevitably leads to higher costs.

Now, a combination of container tracking technology and real-time data is revolutionizing supply chain visibility, enabling businesses to keep their inventories at efficient levels. Hapag-Lloyd, the world’s fifth-largest shipping company, provides live position data for its containers. 麻豆原创 uses this information in its ERP systems and 麻豆原创 Business Network Global Track and Trace cloud solution, connecting it to the shipment and material data that is stored there. Which means that, as well as being an 麻豆原创 customer, Hapag-Lloyd is an 麻豆原创 supplier and partner, too.

Karsten Schmidt, director and product owner of the Live Position and Track & Trace tools at Hapag-Lloyd, and Sven York Pohl, chief expert for Digital Adoption at 麻豆原创 SE, discuss how the collaboration between the companies began, how it is benefiting users already, and what opportunities lie ahead.

Q: Tracking technology has advanced rapidly in recent years. What sparked the wave of innovation we鈥檝e seen here?

Pohl: During the coronavirus pandemic, we experienced serious delays in the movement of goods and materials. And we realized that logistics processes need to be much more transparent.

Schmidt: Until recently, we could only track certain milestone events in sea shipping, such as a container arriving at a port or being loaded onto a ship. We knew when a container had been loaded onto a ship or when it left the Port of Hamburg, but if it failed to arrive in Munich as planned, we had no way of knowing what had happened to it.

Q: So how do you track containers today?

Schmidt: After the pandemic, we decided to equip all our dry containers with IoT tracking devices that continuously transmit location data. By mid-2024, we had fitted these devices to 90% of our container fleet. Since then, we have been able to track more than 2 million containers worldwide and provide position data every 15 minutes for shipments on land鈥攁nd every six hours for shipments by sea. This means that our customers can check the precise location of 鈥渢heir鈥� containers online in real time.

Q: How did the collaboration between Hapag-Lloyd and 麻豆原创 begin?

Pohl: I was involved in an 麻豆原创 transformation project at Hapag-Lloyd, which meant I had frequent meetings with Karsten. We realized early on that position data had immense potential, both for Hapag-Lloyd as a shipping company and for its customers. If you know exactly when an intermediate product will arrive, or how many days late it will be, you can plan your downstream production steps with pinpoint precision. And this obviously works best if position data is visible not only on a separate website, but also in the applications you use to manage your production and other business processes. So Karsten and I began discussing how we could feed position data into 麻豆原创 ERP systems.

Q: Which 麻豆原创 applications use this data?

Pohl: The 麻豆原创 Business Network Global Track and Trace cloud solution offers companies transparent shipment information in real time along the entire supply chain. And it enables this data to be embedded natively in back-end systems. Which means, for example, that you can integrate automated alerts directly into 麻豆原创 S/4HANA that show where a container is currently located. The data can also be leveraged in 麻豆原创鈥檚 cloud-based supply chain collaboration platform, 麻豆原创 Business Network for Logistics, to seamlessly connect shippers with logistics services providers and carriers. And, aside from ensuring visibility, real-time data such as that provided by Hapag-Lloyd maximizes supply chain security and drives sustainability by enabling businesses to track materials from their source to the finished product.

Q: Who benefits most from Hapag-Lloyd’s tracking data?

Schmidt: Logistics managers, definitely. Because they need precise information about where their containers are located and when they will arrive. The tracking data also provides insights into how sustainable a transportation chain is. Warehouse planners benefit too, because they can keep inventory levels as low as possible, without them dropping too low. And as well as enabling carriers to plan their routes with maximum efficiency, tracking data can also help streamline and optimize payment processes.

Q: Would you say that the current conflict in the Middle East has highlighted the value鈥攁nd necessity鈥攐f using tracking technology to plan shipping routes?

Schmidt: Absolutely. A huge number of containers have been transported from the Persian Gulf across Saudi Arabia to the Red Sea port of Jeddah to be shipped on from there. Our container tracking solution keeps me constantly updated on the land route I have chosen and on where my container is currently located.

Q: What happens if the container is held up somewhere? How does the system help?

Schmidt: That鈥檚 what we鈥檙e working on right now. Usually, when customers want to know where their container is, they call our customer service number. But with 15,000 containers held up in the Persian Gulf, we were unable to handle the sheer volume of inquiries we received by phone. So we gave all our customers access to our live positioning service, even those who had not booked it. The solution we implemented to deal with this exceptional situation showed us the potential that was there going forward to simplify our customers鈥� processes鈥攁nd our own.

Pohl: Looking ahead, 麻豆原创 users will be able to ask their software what options they have when shipments get held up, and what alternative modes of transportation are available to them.

Schmidt: If, for example, a ship is delayed and misses its scheduled rail connection, the system will provide a predictive service, telling the user whether onward transportation by truck is possible and how much longer the journey will then take.

Pohl: We will also use Joule, the flagship AI brand that is built into 麻豆原创鈥檚 cloud portfolio, for this service, so that users will be able to ask AI to suggest specific actions.

Schmidt: Obviously, when goods are transported over long distances, and especially by sea, you can never rule out delays entirely. But what we can do is remove that feeling of helplessness and of having no room to maneuver when events occur that are out of my control.

Top image via Hapag-Lloyd

Regulatory frameworks are shifting across multiple jurisdictions simultaneously. Energy costs, labor markets, and customer expectations are each moving in their own direction, often in direct conflict.

The question I am most often asked, across industries and geographies, is a version of the same thing: how do we build an organization that can absorb continuous turbulence without losing operational coherence?

My answer is increasingly the same: you cannot manage permanent disruption reactively. You build systems that can anticipate, adapt, and act鈥攁utonomously, at scale, and in real time. That is what business AI, properly embedded into an organization’s digital core, now makes possible. And the clearest evidence I can offer comes from our customers, many of whom shared their incredible AI innovation journeys at our recent flagship 麻豆原创 Sapphire events.

Data is the foundation, not an afterthought

Ericsson’s journey is instructive precisely because the company confronted a truth that many organizations are still resisting. As Esra Kocat眉rk Norell, vice president of Customer Experience and Enterprise IT at Ericsson, put it directly: “Once you scale AI, it stops being an AI problem and becomes a data problem.”

That insight drove a deliberate investment in a unified business data fabric built with 麻豆原创 Business Data Cloud, a governed architecture that allows data to remain in place while centrally managing business semantics, governance, and lifecycle policies.

More than 85,000 users are now live on the unified AI platform Joule, with Ericsson moving confidently from experimentation to enterprise-wide execution. The company is advancing on two parallel fronts: modernizing its ERP backbone through RISE with 麻豆原创 while simultaneously unlocking AI-driven value in decision-making, efficiency, and new business models.

What Ericsson demonstrates is that the path to trusted, repeatable AI runs through data governance, and that building that foundation early is a strategic advantage, not a cost.

From the digital core to the physical world

If Ericsson illustrates what AI transformation looks like at the level of data architecture, Martur Fompak International, a global leader in automotive seating and interior systems, shows what it looks like on the shop floor. The company has deployed an autonomous intralogistics model enabled by Joule and embodied AI capabilities from 麻豆原创, working with robotics partner Humanoid to integrate AI-powered robots directly into live manufacturing operations.

The system connects production signals and business context to autonomous physical execution. Guided by material data, storage locations, sequencing, and production priorities, humanoid robots now execute material flows across the manufacturing environment鈥攊dentifying, transporting, and delivering materials to the line while continuously confirming back into 麻豆原创 systems.

The logic is about “combining cognitive autonomy with physical automation,” 脰zlem Alt谋n谋艧谋k, Group Intelligent Technologies director at Martur Fompak International, described it, to “transform execution, accelerate decisions, and scale intelligent enterprise capabilities across the organization.”

Early results show increased throughput and fewer errors, with a future target of up to five times greater work efficiency set for mass production. Martur Fompak International was the sole winner in the AI Excellence category at the 2026 麻豆原创 Innovation Awards, recognition not just of the technology, but of the willingness to reimagine factory environments.

Speed, scale, and the intelligent platform

Prysmian, the global cable solutions leader with 鈧�20 billion in revenue and operations spanning more than 50 countries, took a different but equally decisive path. The company completed its evolution to an AI-ready cloud platform through RISE with 麻豆原创 in just four months, then used that foundation to pursue more than 100 AI use cases across its business. The results are measurable: 70% automation of repetitive activities, an 80% reduction in implementation time for new solutions, and 50% acceleration in time-to-market for new products.

What strikes me about Prysmian’s journey is how it reframes the role of enterprise technology. Giovanni Cauteruccio, group CIO and digital officer at Prysmian, described embedded AI as “a key differentiator, enabling us to accelerate solution deployment and strengthen AI skills and culture across the organization.”

In other words, the platform is not simply a system of record, but a capability-building engine that makes the organization smarter over time.

Architecture of agility

Viewed together, these three stories point toward something larger than the sum of their parts. The Autonomous Enterprise is not a distant aspiration. It is being built now, by organizations that have made a deliberate commitment to embedding AI into their operational core as a fundamental design principle instead of a feature.

What makes this possible is the convergence of a governed data foundation, an intelligent ERP platform, and AI capabilities that extend from the desktop to the production line to the supply chain. When these elements are properly integrated, organizations gain something that no amount of reactive management can provide: the ability to sense, decide, and act faster than disruption can mount.

Uncertainty is not going away. The organizations that will navigate it best are the ones building systems today that turn volatility into signal and signal into advantage.

Manos Raptopoulos is global president of Customer Success Europe, APAC, Middle East & Africa and a member of the Extended Board of 麻豆原创 SE.

Headquartered in Itabera铆, Goi谩s, S茫o Salvador Alimentos S.A. (SSA) is one of Brazil鈥檚 leading food companies. Its brands such as SuperFrango and Boua offer a wide portfolio of fresh and processed poultry as well as other meat, egg, and dairy products, fish, and frozen foods. The company’s products are exported to dozens of countries worldwide.

While SSA has built a reputation for quality and innovation in the food industry, one of its internal processes,聽the management of PPE delivery,聽still relied on manual paperwork. After successfully implementing 麻豆原创 S/4HANA in 2024, the company continued its journey with 麻豆原创. The company started to collaborate with the 麻豆原创 AppHaus team to explore opportunities with 麻豆原创 Build and Cloud Foundry.

The point of departure was that every day around 150 physical signatures had to be collected to confirm that PPE had been delivered to employees. These signed documents were then handed over to the archive team for manual scanning and storage. There was no digital record of which equipment was delivered, to whom, or when. As a result, it was impossible to track usage or send timely reminders for mandatory PPE replacements every six months.

Innovation along the human-centered approach

In dedicated workshops, SSA stakeholders and users analyzed the situation along 麻豆原创鈥檚 human-centered approach to innovation. They explored new ways to improve and redesign this process with 麻豆原创 Build and Cloud Foundry. After some iterations and testing, the new solution was implemented in January 2026.

SSA employees can now use digital signature capture linked to an automatic tracking of what was delivered and when. Via automated WhatsApp reminders, they learn聽when it鈥檚 time to replace their equipment, thus ensuring compliance,聽efficiency, and more visibility to the warehouse.

This new process has already shown the following benefits:

• From 150 manual signatures to electronic signatures using digital authentication
• 100% elimination of paper in the process
• Simplified service and an easy-to-understand and intuitive app
• Higher visibility to the warehouse
• Reporting capabilities available
• Better cost management
• Regulated issuance and compliant PPE distribution

Implementation

Although the implementation also had to integrate external applications via specific application programming interfaces (APIs), the new solution went live in January 2026. Based on previous innovation projects and its experience with 麻豆原创, the customer team was able to act mostly independently. Typical questions mostly referred to best practices for integration.

Innovation journey and outlook

鈥淲hat truly stood out was the SSA team鈥檚 remarkable maturity, fast learning mindset, and determination,鈥� Mirela Viersa, customer innovation principal at 麻豆原创 AppHaus, said. 鈥淔ollowing our exploration workshop, where we identified the key challenge, we partnered closely to design their future journey鈥攖urning vision into a structured and actionable path forward.鈥�

After this latest successful implementation project with 麻豆原创, SSA plans to use 麻豆原创 Build for future developments as their single source for development, especially now with 麻豆原创 Build Code. And based on this confidence and proven enablement, the SSA team plans to look into opportunities that 麻豆原创 Business AI and other intelligent solutions might hold in stock for them.

Top image via S茫o Salvador Alimentos

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The family-owned maritime group Damen Shipyards is taking the next step in its digital journey.

The company is using intelligent capabilities to support operations, employees, and customer-facing processes. Read more.

The Netherlands-based, family-owned maritime group has been building vessels since 1927 and today operates internationally with more than 12,500 people and over 35 yards across six continents. With an ambition to become the world鈥檚 most sustainable maritime solution provider, Damen is combining its long-standing craftsmanship with innovation, digitalization, and operational excellence.

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After investing heavily in 麻豆原创 S/4HANA as its core ERP foundation, Damen is now focused on applying 麻豆原创 Business AI to extend the impact of that platform.

鈥淲e really would like to harvest the business value of that initial investment,鈥� said Han Coenraad, product manager ERP at Damen. 鈥淲e use AI, especially in our operational processes, to get things running more smoothly and support more data-driven decision-making.鈥�

Damen has enabled 麻豆原创 Joule for Consultants and 麻豆原创 Joule for Developers and is exploring conversational capabilities that allow employees to interact with 麻豆原创 systems and processes using natural language.

Looking ahead, Damen sees opportunities to use embedded and custom AI use cases to improve data quality, enhance operational processes, and help teams work faster and closer to customers.

One example is using AI to support parts sales engineers by reading customer documents from email and automatically transferring the right information into sales orders. The goal, Coenraad explained, is to 鈥渂uild vessels sooner, with lower costs and more customer satisfaction.鈥�

Inspired by 麻豆原创 Sapphire and the vision of the Autonomous Enterprise, Damen is ready for the next step: 鈥淭he strategy shift from 麻豆原创鈥攚e are really looking forward to it and we really embrace it. Let鈥檚 make that happen.鈥�

AI as a key element

In the AI category, the Austrian energy company OMV prevailed with its transformation project. Building on an existing 麻豆原创 S/4HANA landscape, the transformation focused on intelligent automation, advanced analytics, and AI-driven decision-making in core business processes. A key factor for success was a step-by-step approach: instead of a hasty implementation, OMV first laid a solid foundation and introduced AI in a targeted manner into the user experience and business processes. The focus was on regulation, security, and continuous evaluation. The clear principle was to standardize, integrate, and establish a stable data foundation before it scaled more broadly. Early in the process, the company relied on Joule in 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions and 麻豆原创 S/4HANA. In the next step, the transformation will continue so OMV can make even greater use of AI.

Intelligent water supply

With a data-driven platform for monitoring its water network, the Belgian water utility Farys was recognized by the jury in the Innovation category. With the help of 麻豆原创 technology and AI, the utility can now deploy resources more efficiently and optimize its processes in a targeted way. Water leaks can be detected early before greater damage occurs, water quality issues can be predicted, and energy consumption can be reduced. The result: less downtime, lower repair costs, and a noticeably better quality of service. Having a unified solution also fosters cross-departmental collaboration by breaking down existing data silos. In the future, risk assessments for pipelines and facilities will be integrated, and data-driven decisions will help determine where repairs will have the greatest impact. With this strategy, Farys is preparing its infrastructure for the demands of climate change.

Achieving goals through teamwork

E.ON UK won the Best Team category with its 麻豆原创 S/4HANA transformation project. With its group-wide project running from 2021 to 2027, the company aims to standardize processes and build a future-proof, scalable IT landscape. The central challenge was to consolidate various legacy systems in a highly regulated market. What sets this project apart is the close collaboration between the company, IT, and external partners. The company used workshops, road shows, and a targeted key user network to focus on team culture and cohesion from the very beginning. The result is not only a successful technical transformation, but above all a lived team culture鈥攁 key factor to the project鈥檚 success.

A new data foundation

In the Transformation category, Electrica Furnizare came out on top. The starting point was a fragmented system in which data was scattered and an overarching overview was missing. The company鈥檚 existing infrastructure was neither scalable nor able to respond flexibly to growing regulatory and customer requirements. With the introduction of 麻豆原创 S/4HANA combined with 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform (麻豆原创 BTP), 麻豆原创 Customer Experience solutions, and 麻豆原创 Business AI, Electrica Furnizare achieved one of the largest transformations in the utility sector. The result: a single, reliable data source for all departments, end-to-end optimized processes, and a solid foundation that paves the way for future innovations and the full deployment of AI capabilities.

Better customer service through comprehensive modernization

Loudoun Water鈥檚 far-reaching modernization project won the Customer Experience category, with the company using 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, 麻豆原创 Service Cloud 2.0, and 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions to optimize its processes. With the introduction of 麻豆原创 Service Cloud 2.0, Loudoun Water is the first utility company worldwide to take this step. The effort paid off: customer service is faster and more modern, work orders are better organized, billing and payments are managed more efficiently, and time tracking for employees has been simplified. The migration was carried out in a single, coordinated step, creating a future-proof, scalable foundation on which Loudoun Water can further expand its position as a technology leader in the industry.

Innovation as a driver of the energy transition

The winners of the first Energy and Utilities Innovation Award demonstrate the wide range of possibilities through which companies in the energy and utilities sector are actively shaping digital transformation. Whether AI-driven decision-making processes, intelligent infrastructure monitoring, or a consistent realignment of the IT landscape, all the projects have one thing in common: they rely on solid foundations, step-by-step implementation, and close collaboration among all stakeholders. Melanie Fiolka, go-to-market & community engagement lead for Utilities at 麻豆原创, summarizes it as follows: 鈥淭he energy and utilities industry is undergoing profound change. The winners of the first Energy and Utilities Innovation Award demonstrate how vision is turned into tangible value through clear strategies, solid data foundations, and the adoption of AI.鈥�

The award makes it clear that innovation in the industry is no longer the exception, but has become a strategic necessity.

Anyone who is looking for a prime example of how migration to the cloud can do far more than just simplification and standardization should take a closer look at Swarovski. The legendary manufacturer of precision-cut crystals, jewelry, and watches鈥攚ith its origins in Wattens, in the Austrian region of Tyrol鈥攈as transformed its IT landscape from a cost factor into a strategic tool for a digital future.

The transformation was guided by Lea Sonderegger, serving in a dual role as CDO and CIO at Swarovski, with such great success that she was awarded the special 鈥淐loud Excellence鈥� prize in the large enterprise category at the CIO of the Year ceremony held by CIO Magazine last October.

The judging panel found her brownfield approach to be especially praiseworthy: Swarovski employees use but continue to use the familiar processes and databases. A complete redesign of these processes in parallel to the migration would have been too risky and cost-intensive. It would have also resulted in a much longer project duration, Sonderegger is convinced.

25,000 tests with 600 participants

The brownfield implementation was carefully executed. Preparations took two years and involved more than 600 participants performing around 25,000 tests. Two dress rehearsals with strict governance ensured that every function and every data point was ready for the migration.

Sonderegger and her colleagues reserved a 66-hour conversion window for the go-live on April 20, 2026. During this period, all global IT processes at Swarovski were paused. During the subsequent sensitive hypercare phase, 24×7 support ensured that any issues that arose could be dealt with quickly. Thanks to these measures, the transition was seamless. After the conversion window closed, all processes resumed without problems.聽

Simplification and standardization ensure consistent data

Despite the large effort involved, this migration was merely the first step. While the switch to 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP Private created the technical foundation, it鈥檚 the subsequent investments that deliver additional added value. These investments concentrate on the incremental reduction of complexity through consolidation of fragmented solutions, the reassessment of user-specific code, and the harmonization of data鈥攁ll with the overall goal of creating a more coherent, easier-to-handle ERP landscape.

To achieve this, Sonderegger and her team are replacing user-specific applications with 麻豆原创 standard solutions step by step and only leaving custom developments in place where they offer clear advantages. 鈥淭he combination of simplification and a return-to-standard solutions improves data consistency, provides for robust, reliable processes, and, ultimately, makes our entire organization more agile,鈥� Sonderegger says.

Cloud technology is not an end in itself

By integrating key functions such as finance, supply chain management, retail, and e-commerce鈥攁nd enabling their combined use in the cloud鈥斅槎乖� Cloud ERP Private provides for reliable processes and consistent data quality all while enabling customer experiences on a wide variety of front-end solutions on this side of the ERP system.

麻豆原创 Cloud ERP Private manages a diverse product range at Swarovski across different regions and price points and integrates with the planning results provided by other 麻豆原创 and non-麻豆原创 systems.

鈥淚n all of these activities, cloud technology is never an end in itself, but rather a lever for improving efficiency, resilience, and innovative capabilities,鈥� Sonderegger says. This determination is especially important to her.

It鈥檚 not an IT project, it鈥檚 a business transformation

Ultimately, Sonderegger and her team succeeded in executing the project on time and on budget because its scope was clearly defined, and strict discipline in change management prevented mission creep. In addition, the company benefited from the experience of its implementation partner, 麻豆原创 Consulting, and its unrestricted access to 麻豆原创 expertise.

The example of Swarovski proves that even an essential, unavoidable migration can and should do much more than just avoid risks and cut maintenance costs. The implementation of 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP Private was imperative here, because 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component (麻豆原创 ECC) had reached the end of its lifecycle.

And the implementation is showing the luxury goods manufacturer the way to the future because everyone involved in the process didn鈥檛 just consider it to be an IT project but, above all, a business transformation from day one. One that involved hundreds of experts from different fields and that enjoyed full management support from the beginning.

AI-driven demand forecasts optimize warehouse stocks

Artificial intelligence is also playing a key role in this implementation, with 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP Private as the operational backbone of an AI ecosystem that can deliver reliable, real-time data and robust, standardized transaction processes.

Swarovski doesn鈥檛 use artificial intelligence as a standalone technology, but instead as an integrated capability that complements business processes across all functions. The company is already using AI for demand forecasting, for example, and then uses the results to optimize warehouse stock levels across regions, with the aim of improving the customer experience.

And the AI agent factory initiative enables the development of AI agents that link 麻豆原创 Cloud ERP Private data with data from non-麻豆原创 systems, always with the objective of 鈥渁utomating repetitive tasks, supporting decision-making, and boosting productivity along the entire value chain,鈥� Sonderegger emphasizes.

Top image courtesy of Swarovski

麻豆原创 remains committed to open competition, customer choice and innovation. The commitments provide greater clarity, choice and safeguards for customers managing complex on-premise environments, while supporting flexible IT strategies aligned with business priorities.

As the only Fortune 50 technology company headquartered in Europe, 麻豆原创鈥檚 maintenance practices are aligned with industry standards and offer customers a broad range of deployment, licensing and maintenance options across on-premise and cloud environments.

The commitments strengthen customer choice and predictability by making policies more transparent, introducing targeted flexibility for exceptional shelfware situations and reinforcing consistent execution through improved guidance, training and independent oversight.

The decision relates solely to on-premise maintenance policies and does not concern 麻豆原创鈥檚 cloud offerings. However, the added clarity and flexibility support customers as they modernize toward an AI-enabled autonomous enterprise at their own pace. In closing this matter, 麻豆原创 is able to move forward with a clear framework for customers, partners and investors.

Learn more here.

At the center of that effort sits a deceptively complex challenge: understanding, in real time, which revenue and cost factors are driving or eroding gross margin across a highly diversified business. For years, answering that question meant manual reporting, delayed insights, and finance teams spending valuable time on data gathering rather than analysis.

That鈥檚 now changing, thanks to a co-innovation initiative developed together with 麻豆原创 and Numen, a global 麻豆原创 partner specializing in digital transformation and enterprise software implementation.

From manual reporting to proactive decision intelligence

The project鈥檚 goal was to replace a labor-intensive gross margin analysis process with a generative AI application embedded directly into Natura &Co’s financial workflows. Built on 麻豆原创 Business AI Platform, 麻豆原创’s unified foundation integrating business technology, data, and AI capabilities, the application connects directly to data in 麻豆原创 S/4HANA to provide finance teams with automated insights and narrative recommendations in real time, without the need for manual data pulls or offline reporting.

The application enables users to explore revenue, cost, and margin drivers interactively, identifying at a glance which elements are protecting or eroding margin performance across markets and product lines. Crucially, human oversight remains central to the design: the AI application generates insights, while finance professionals retain full control over interpretation and decisions.

鈥淭he implementation of gross margin analysis using AI in 麻豆原创 S/4HANA marked an inflection point in the analytical capability of our finance area,” said Rog茅rio Dias Garcia, tech manager, ERP Latam, Natura &Co. “We overcame delays and raised the standard of insights by integrating margin analysis from 麻豆原创 S/4HANA with a large language model connected via the 麻豆原创 AI Core layer. This architecture allowed us to provide, in an agile, secure, and completely anonymous manner, a stratified and precise view of gross margin offenders and protectors鈥攄iscriminating exactly which revenue or cost elements were driving market performance.鈥�

A collaborative architecture for scalable AI adoption

Natura &Co鈥檚 application derived from a prototype 麻豆原创 partner Numen created in early 2024 at 麻豆原创鈥檚 global on business AI, leveraging the generative AI capabilities of聽麻豆原创 Business AI Platform. The solution was designed and developed through close collaboration between Natura &Co, Numen, and 麻豆原创. From the outset, the approach was to align AI adoption with concrete business priorities, ensuring the application would be scalable and production-ready rather than a standalone prototype.

Numen brought deep 麻豆原创 implementation expertise to the project, combining knowledge of 麻豆原创 S/4HANA architecture with hands-on experience in building solutions on 麻豆原创 Business AI Platform. The technology stack鈥斅槎乖� S/4HANA, 麻豆原创 AI Core, 麻豆原创 Fiori, and 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform鈥攑rovided the secure, integrated foundation needed to connect financial data with generative AI capabilities in an enterprise context.

鈥溌槎乖� enabled the transformation by providing the technological foundation and expert support,鈥� said Carlos Aravechia, head of Data Design & Intelligence at Numen.

The success of the project has validated a broader conviction at Natura &Co: that generative AI, embedded directly in ERP workflows, can fundamentally reposition finance from a transactional function to a strategic business partner.

A blueprint for other businesses

The Natura &Co project demonstrates a pattern that other organizations can replicate, particularly those running 麻豆原创 S/4HANA. The combination of structured ERP data with the contextual reasoning capabilities of large language models creates a foundation for decision intelligence that goes well beyond traditional business intelligence tools.

The project was built within a six-month co-innovation sprint and went live in August 2025. It is currently in use across Natura &Co鈥檚 Equador operations.

Looking ahead, Natura &Co is already planning the next phase: integrating Joule Agents to further automate the extraction of standard analytical content and deepen the AI-driven optimization of financial processes.

鈥淭he success of this initiative validates the transformative potential of embedded AI within our ERP,鈥� Dias Garcia noted. 鈥淲e are now ready to move forward鈥攄eepening these insights and integrating the capability of Joule Agents to maximize the extraction of standard content and further optimize our business decisions.鈥�

For 麻豆原创 customers evaluating how to move from AI experimentation to AI in production, the Natura &Co project offers a concrete, replicable model: start with a high-value, well-defined business process, embed AI directly into existing workflows, and build in human oversight from the start.

When suppliers send order confirmations as PDF files, even minor discrepancies in price, quantity, or delivery dates can trigger significant manual effort within procurement. For Lemvigh鈥慚眉ller, one of Denmark鈥檚 largest wholesalers within steel, plumbing, heating and electrical products, this has long been a familiar challenge, consuming substantial time and resources.

The company has now tackled the very point where earlier automation initiatives often stalled. With a new solution based on several specialized AI agents, developed on 麻豆原创 technology and implemented in close collaboration with NTT DATA Business Solutions, supplier PDF order confirmations can now be read, interpreted, compared, and processed automatically鈥攄irectly against 麻豆原创 systems.

鈥淲e have previously tried both RPA and traditional automation approaches without really achieving the desired effect. The key difference this time is that we broke the task down into multiple independent AI agents, each responsible for a specific part of the process. Together, they now handle what previously required manual review,鈥� says Frederik Aakerlund, IT director at Lemvigh鈥慚眉ller.

10 weeks from idea to AI agents in production

The project originated with an e-mail from Jess Frederiksen, an AI鈥憇avvy project manager in Lemvigh鈥慚眉ller鈥檚 Market and Procurement organization. After successfully matching an order confirmation with a purchase order using ChatGPT as an experiment, he approached the IT director to explore whether this could be turned into a fully integrated system solution.

From the initial tests to production deployment, the entire project took just 10 weeks. According to Lemvigh鈥慚眉ller, this short implementation timeline was critical in allowing the solution to demonstrate tangible business value quickly and build internal support.

鈥淭his was not a long-running project. In 10 weeks, we moved from idea to AI agents in production, already delivering measurable value to our procurement officers,鈥� Aakerlund says.

Over time, Lemvigh鈥慚眉ller expects the solution to free up resources equivalent to three to four full-time employees. These resources will instead be redeployed to higher-value activities, including handling the most complex and exception鈥慸riven orders.

鈥淭he objective is not to reduce headcount, but to use our expertise more effectively. The AI agents take care of routine tasks, enabling procurement officers to focus on cases where their experience genuinely matters,鈥� Aakerlund adds.

More than 100,000 order confirmations automated

Each year, Lemvigh鈥慚眉ller sends approximately 175,000 purchase orders to more than 2,000 suppliers. While part of this volume is handled in a structured manner via EDI, around 60% of supplier order confirmations are still received as unstructured documents.

With the coordinated AI agents in place, the company can now automatically identify delays, quantity changes, and price discrepancies鈥攁nd respond significantly faster.

鈥淧reviously, when order confirmations were handled manually, it could take hours or even days before changes were reflected across the organization. Today, the AI agents update the data almost immediately, allowing customers to receive a much more accurate picture of deliveries far sooner,鈥� says Klaus Heinemann, head of 麻豆原创 ERP at Lemvigh鈥慚眉ller, who led the development together with the project team. 鈥淚n addition, we now identify price discrepancies before the final invoice is issued, saving time both for us and for our suppliers.鈥�

Multiple AI agents orchestrated in a single workflow

The solution is built around three cooperating AI agents, each with a clearly defined role in the process. One agent handles incoming e-mails and attachments, a second extracts and structures data from PDF documents, and a third compares the extracted information against purchase orders in 麻豆原创 to determine whether there is a match or a deviation.

As a result, complex and unstructured supplier data can be processed in a unified, automated workflow without requiring procurement officers to open and manually review lengthy PDF files.

鈥淲hat makes this solution robust is the interaction between the agents. Each agent is highly specialized, but they are orchestrated in a way that ensures the process flows seamlessly from start to finish,鈥� Heinemann explains.

During the project, the importance of master data quality also became increasingly clear.

鈥淚n areas such as Incoterms and other master data, we identified improvements that need to be addressed. This has been an important learning not just for this initiative, but for our broader work with AI,鈥� he says.

While it is still too early to measure the full impact on customer experience, error rates, or claims, expectations are that faster and more precise handling of supplier confirmations will, over time, lead to fewer surprises and significantly improved delivery transparency. Internally, the solution has been met with strong interest and curiosity among employees.

鈥淧rocurement officers clearly recognize the value of being relieved from the most tedious routine work. This has sparked a constructive dialogue about how technology can best support their day鈥憈o鈥慸ay responsibilities,鈥� Heinemann says.

Business AI with a clear business outcome

According to Lemvigh鈥慚眉ller, the investment is expected to deliver a return within a relatively short timeframe.

鈥淲e are talking about quarters rather than years when it comes to ROI. That is why it was essential for us to get the solution into production quickly and focus on processes with a clear and measurable impact,鈥� Aakerlund says.

For 麻豆原创, the project serves as a concrete example of how artificial intelligence can be embedded directly into core business processes rather than remaining a disconnected experiment.

鈥淢any companies talk about AI agents primarily in terms of automation. Lemvigh鈥慚眉ller demonstrates that the real challenge鈥攁nd the real opportunity鈥攍ies in coordination,鈥� says David Pontoppidan, head of AI at 麻豆原创 for the Nordics and Baltics. 鈥淚t is the orchestration of three specialized agents directly within the core process that makes this solution robust. This is also where many multi鈥慳gent initiatives fail, not due to limitations of individual agents but because of insufficient coordination. Lemvigh鈥慚眉ller has succeeded by anchoring the solution in its 麻豆原创 landscape, where data, business rules, and governance frameworks are already firmly established.鈥�

He continues: 鈥淚nnovation is not about company size. Lemvigh鈥慚眉ller shows that a Danish organization with short decision paths and a pragmatic approach to technology can move faster than many large global enterprises that are still in the planning stage. Ten weeks from idea to production is far from the norm, but perhaps it should be.鈥�

Designed for operations and scalability

The solution was implemented in close collaboration with NTT DATA Business Solutions, which was responsible for making the solution production鈥憆eady and fully integrated into Lemvigh鈥慚眉ller鈥檚 麻豆原创 landscape.

鈥淏y distributing responsibilities across multiple AI agents, Lemvigh鈥慚眉ller has been able to automate a complex process without losing transparency or control. This has enabled a fast and secure transition from pilot to production and ensures a more robust solution that can easily be expanded as new requirements emerge,鈥� says Kristian Dahl, 麻豆原创 UX manager at NTT DATA Business Solutions.

According to Dahl, the modular, agent鈥慴ased architecture was a key enabler in moving efficiently from proof of concept to live operation.

First step in a broader AI agent strategy

Initially, the AI agents have been deployed for selected supplier inboxes and business areas. However, Lemvigh鈥慚眉ller already sees significant potential in applying the same agent鈥慴ased approach across additional administrative processes.

鈥淭his is the first AI agent solution we have put into production. The experience has given us the confidence to consider similar approaches across other areas, including invoice processing and order management,鈥� Aakerlund concludes.

Ellen Vig Nelausen is a Nordic Integrated Communications Expert at 麻豆原创.

Few companies embody that philosophy better than .

Innovation is not a department

鈥淲e are living at a remarkable crossroads in history. For decades, the sky was simply a place we traveled through. Today, it has become a testing ground for the future of humanity,鈥� said Nicolas Jourdan, senior strategist at Airbus SAS. He was speaking at the for 麻豆原创 Energy and Utilities in Toulouse, the operational headquarters of the company.

At Airbus, the mission goes far beyond manufacturing aircraft. It鈥檚 about designing systems that connect cultures, advance technology, protect the planet, and extend humanity鈥檚 reach into space.

鈥淔or us, innovation is not a department. It鈥檚 a way of thinking. It means asking ‘What if?’ when others say something is impossible,鈥� said Jourdan. 鈥淚t鈥檚 very simple. Innovation is about creating value for someone, somewhere, at a moment in time鈥攁nd sustaining it over time.鈥�

While this may sound simple, it requires challenging the status quo. It means embracing cultural change, taking calculated risks, and accepting failure as part of learning.

Legacy of breakthroughs

In 1970, Airbus entered an aviation market dominated by giants like Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, and Lockheed. They didn鈥檛 compete by being similar, but by being fundamentally different. The company has consistently challenged conventional thinking in aviation.

• At a time when experts believed twin-engine aircraft couldn鈥檛 safely cross oceans, Airbus proved them wrong with the A300 revolution, forever changing long-haul aviation.
• When most aircraft required a three-person crew, Airbus redesigned the cockpit to automate the flight engineer鈥檚 role. Despite resistance, the two-pilot cockpit became the global standard.
• Replacing analog dials with digital displays transformed how pilots interact with aircraft; glass cockpit innovation made flying safer and more intuitive.
• Airbus introduced digital flight controls, replacing mechanical systems with computers. Fly-by-wire technology increased safety and enabled flight envelope protection and more efficient operations. What once looked like a video game controller is now industry standard.

One of Airbus鈥檚 most impactful innovations is cross-crew qualification, meaning pilots can transition between aircraft models鈥攆rom the A319 to the A350鈥攚ith minimal additional training. This reduces costs for airlines and improves operational flexibility.

鈥淚nnovation isn鈥檛 always flashy. It鈥檚 mostly about making complex systems simpler and more human-friendly,鈥� Jourdan reminded his audience.

Running the factory

Airbus builds big sections such as the fuselage, the wings, and the tail in different places. The sections are then shipped to one factory for assembly and testing in the Airbus Beluga, an oversized cargo aircraft developed especially to transport large components between production sites across Europe. Altogether, this process can take up to 12 months, especially for wide body aircraft.

The company uses 麻豆原创 ERP systems, including 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, to manage core business functions. It also uses 麻豆原创 Manufacturing Execution directly on the factory floor and assembly lines, as well as 麻豆原创 Integrated Business Planning to plan production, manage supply chain complexity, and optimize resource usage.

鈥溌槎乖� and Airbus have a long-term partnership,” Jourdan said. “Without 麻豆原创, our systems would not be as efficient as they are. We鈥檙e in continuous development.”聽

Future scenarios

When it comes to pioneering new horizons, Airbus doesn鈥檛 rely solely on internal expertise but regularly explores unconventional approaches with external thinkers. These exercises help identify blind spots, validate strategy and understand societal and environmental shifts

To maintain both an inside and an outside-in perspective, Airbus created Skywise, an aircraft data analysis engine platform which acts as a digital brain, connecting aircraft, operations, and maintenance systems. A data platform for airlines and aircraft operations, it collects vast amounts of data into one system. It then performs predictive maintenance increasingly supported by AI to detect patterns and predict failures before they happen in order to prevent delays, failures, and expensive repairs.

Airbus鈥檚 future strategy is built on three transformational pillars:

• Decarbonization: The aerospace industry faces mounting pressure to reduce emissions. Airbus is tackling this head-on by exploring hydrogen-powered aircraft, sustainable aviation fuels, blended wing body designs, and fully electric propulsion concepts. Their goal is to launch the world鈥檚 first zero-emission commercial aircraft.
• Digital transformation: To enable fully connected ecosystems, Airbus is developing satellite-based connectivity networks, smart cabin and cargo systems,. and real-time operational data platforms. This enables better decision-making, reduced costs, and improved passenger experiences.
• Automation and autonomy projects: Projects like DragonFly are pushing the boundaries of pilot assistance and automation. Future capabilities include automatic emergency landing, weather-independent operations, and advanced navigation systems. The goal is not to replace pilots, but to enhance safety and efficiency.

Beyond Earth 

From orbit to deep space, Airbus is helping shape humanity鈥檚 next frontier. The company plays a key role in searching for life on Mars together with the European Space Agency using the ExoMars rover. It also collaborates with the European Service Module for NASA鈥檚 Artemis program missions and is helping to develop satellite systems enabling global communication and climate monitoring.

Often, new ideas are met with skepticism, cultural resistance can slow adoption, and mistakes are inevitable. Airbus embraces this reality and considers it part of the process.

鈥淭he biggest challenges of our time鈥攃limate change, global connectivity, and space exploration鈥攃annot be solved by one company or even one industry. Decarbonization alone depends on energy providers, governments, infrastructure developers, and airlines and manufacturers. It鈥檚 a shared responsibility,鈥� Jourdan concluded.

Managing abundance

These are just some of the challenges facing KETRACO, , as Africa鈥檚 energy sector is undergoing a shift from a centralized power system to a more diversified, renewable-energy-based grid.

鈥淩enewable energy is abundant. The real challenge is how to manage, integrate, and stabilize it,鈥� Dr. Njogu Kimando, energy expert at KETRACO, said, speaking at the TAC Insights conference for in Toulouse. 鈥淭he energy transition is not constrained by capacity, but by our ability to manage complexity in real time.鈥�

Geothermal power generated in the Great Rift Valley provides about 40% of electricity in the region, making Kenya Africa鈥檚 largest geothermal producer. About 24% is generated by hydro power from rivers. The rest of the demand is met by wind power coming mostly from Lake Turkana, Africa鈥檚 largest wind farm, as well as solar. The fastest growing sector, solar is widely used in rural homes and businesses. Kenya has one of the highest household solar adoption rates in the world.

While renewables reduce costs, support climate alignment, and provide energy security, challenges include drought-induced water shortages, sun and wind variability and grid instability.

Lack of synchronized intelligence

In the traditional grid, power is generated at a few centralized plants, creating a stable source of supply that is easy to control based on demand forecasts. The renewables (REN) grid, on the other hand, fluctuates with the weather, requiring real-time monitoring, rapid balancing, and more dynamic system control.

The core challenge in modern power systems is not the absence of data, but the lack of unified, real-time visibility across fragmented systems. This lack limits the ability to make timely and coordinated operational decisions. 

鈥淲e鈥檙e constantly balancing supply and demand,鈥� Kimando explained. 鈥淲e have limited real-time visibility across generation sources, transmission assets, and demand patterns.鈥�

As renewables expand, KETRACO鈥檚 role has evolved from simply building and operating transmission lines to managing power flows in real time, coordinating variable energy generation, and ensuring grid stability and reliability. The company is relying on digital systems to accomplish these tasks.

Kimando outlined the company鈥檚 new, integrated smart grid infrastructure. Forming an end-to-end digital value chain, it functions as the digital twin foundation for the grid and links operational technology with enterprise systems and advanced analytics.

Data is captured by SCADA, an industrial control system for infrastructure and utility networks, and is securely routed through 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform middleware to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA, which serves as the enterprise backbone. It is here that operational data is translated into structured business processes.聽

From data to decisions

鈥淲e鈥檙e relying on 麻豆原创 technology to transform that raw data into predictive, actionable intelligence,鈥� said Kimando, citing asset lifecycle management and outage reduction metrics as examples of ways to shift from reactive maintenance to predictive grid reliability. 鈥淒igital transformation is no longer a technology choice, but a strategic necessity. It鈥檚 a balancing game: values versus risks.鈥�

For KETRACO, the goal is to unlock the full value of renewable energy while avoiding the escalating risks of operating in a complex and dynamic power environment. Inaction leads to grid instability and operational inefficiency, underutilization of energy investments, rising costs, and exposure to regulatory and compliance risks. Action based on data analytics leads to improved financial efficiency and better CAPEX decisions. It also leads to enhanced operational resilience with reduced outages and faster system recovery.

鈥淭ogether, this strengthens our strategic positioning for the energy transition and ESG compliance,鈥� Kimando explained.

The next frontier

At KETRACO, AI is considered a capacity multiplier, enabling a crucial shift from resource-intensive grid expansion to intelligence-driven grid optimization. 

鈥淎I is helping us achieve more with the same workforce. We鈥檙e enabling engineers, not replacing them,鈥� the expert shared. 鈥淎utomation is enabling our people to focus more on predictability and decision making.鈥�

In addition, AI supports long-term sustainability goals because simulating scenarios before investing reduces errors and costs. It also enables self-optimized grid operations, reducing manual interventions and improving collaboration and integration among regional power systems and cross-border energy flows.

KETRACO鈥檚 role is to transmit electricity across Kenya and connect the country to the wider East African power market. Its importance is growing as Kenya has become a REN hub, expanding its geothermal, wind, and hydropower generation. Without its transmission infrastructure, much of Kenya鈥檚 renewable energy could not be delivered efficiently to consumers or neighboring countries.

In closing, Kimando summarized how digital transformation is changing the way power is managed, stabilized, and optimized: REN presents a system challenge, not a technological one. Technology must align to operations and strategy, control is achieved through visibility and integration, and partnerships accelerate scale and execution.

鈥淭he future grid will not be defined by how much power we generate, but by how intelligently we manage it,鈥� he concluded.

鈥淲e operate primarily to serve the needs of our customers and communities, so reliability is critical to SRP,鈥� Drake Winfrey, ERP solution architect at Salt River Project, said. 鈥淲e must ensure that anything we implement within our technology ecosystem doesn鈥檛 impact that reliability in any way鈥攁nd, ultimately, enables our team members to deliver the best possible service.鈥�

WalkMe鈥檚 superpower to work seamlessly on top of 麻豆原创 and non-麻豆原创 systems helps ensure technology enables reliability without disruption. SRP鈥檚 first encounter with WalkMe was part of its 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors implementation. At the time, Winfrey was the IT administrator for 麻豆原创 Concur solutions at SRP and, based on the success of the 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors implementation, saw an opportunity to add WalkMe in its travel and expense processes.

鈥淥ur employees only travel maybe once or twice a year, so no matter how user-friendly the system may be, there鈥檚 always going to be some pain points and friction,鈥� Winfrey said. And, for those who travel frequently, the SRP team knew they could benefit from in-app guidance to ensure processes were completed quickly and accurately.

It was a perfect use case for . At 麻豆原创 Sapphire Orlando, Winfrey shared five wins that Salt River Project experienced by applying WalkMe to its processes.

1 Greater process efficiency

At SRP, there are several standard expense reports that employees can submit in Concur Expense, such as personal mileage, safety gear, and telework.

To improve process efficiency, Winfrey built 鈥攕tep-by-step solutions that guide users through a series of actions to help complete a task鈥攖hat direct SRP employees through the report completion and submission process. 鈥淲ith WalkMe, we automate some of the fields and fill in critical information for the user, taking away some of those hidden dependencies,鈥� he said.

This proactive, in-flow guidance not only creates a simplified user experience for SRP employees when submitting expenses, but it has domino effects on IT support overhead. Since employees get the in-app guidance they need as they鈥檙e completing key steps, they submit reports accurately the first time, reducing support tickets or time spent correcting inaccurate submissions. 鈥淲e鈥檝e eliminated a lot of the support tickets and hand-holding we saw previously,鈥� Winfrey said.

2 Risk mitigation and improved compliance

Winfrey applied WalkMe solutions in SRP鈥檚 payroll system to help with policy reinforcement. By adding in-app reminders, especially during important times of the year like holidays, SRP ensures employees are following procedures, boosting data and process accuracy.

When users log in to the system, they see in-app pop-up messages to remind them about key dates, such as time card due dates and approval timelines, and can opt to take action immediately or receive a reminder. If the user opts to act, they鈥檙e automatically redirected to the company鈥檚 time and attendance system via another WalkMe solution. 鈥淲alkMe solutions are very simple to build and deploy鈥攁nd very effective compared to e-mails or chasing down people at the end of the pay period,鈥� Winfrey said. He knows this for a fact because he can use WalkMe analytics to see how many users have viewed the in-app reminder and how many have clicked through to the time card. 鈥淚t鈥檚 all reportable,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here are a lot of metrics behind the scenes that you can use to understand trends and find ways to improve the experience.鈥�

3 Faster cycle times

Making changes to enterprise-wide systems can take time, as organizations are often constrained to the development cycles set by the IT department. 鈥淎t SRP, we have monthly releases, so unless it鈥檚 a critical update or fix, getting a change is usually going to take a few weeks,鈥� Winfrey said. 鈥淏ut with WalkMe, I can build and deploy content in 15 to 30 minutes.鈥�

This agility is especially powerful for real-time communication and keeping the employee experience seamless. For example, Winfrey explained how SRP can instantly support users during routine system updates or maintenance windows. When a specific tile requires temporary maintenance, Winfrey鈥檚 team can immediately place a real-time message directly over the feature. This keeps employees informed and guides them to alternative workflows, ensuring business continuity and a smooth user experience while IT completes its work behind the scenes.

4 Boosted cost efficiency

Empowering employees with self-service support 鈥渇rees up their time for more value-added activities. By achieving this impact, my team can deliver enterprise-wide value without increasing headcount,鈥� Winfrey said.

鈥淲e use WalkMe and the analytics it provides to look at different pages and see where the friction is and what processes are causing issues,鈥� he explained. 鈥淭hen we look at the support tickets and say 鈥極kay, these are the same questions we get on this screen every time, so we鈥檒l build a self-support solution.鈥欌�� A user can then see those top support questions in the flow of work and get guided assistance. As a result, they鈥檙e able to complete the task themselves. No help ticket required.

5 Enhanced digital user experience

Optimizing the digital employee experience means empowering employees with the digital tools and support needed to perform at their best. SRP uses WalkMe to anticipate user needs and ensure seamless change during major UI transitions. Using highly visual, contextual callouts like targeted Launchers that connect users to resources, eye-catching ShoutOuts for feature adoption, and Banner Reminders for critical updates, the team delivers personalized support that provides a unified, consistent user experience across multiple enterprise applications. 鈥淭here鈥檚 just a lot of flexibility and, honestly, a lot of creativity鈥� about the solutions they can deploy, Winfrey said.

What鈥檚 more, WalkMe solutions exist on top of current system landscapes. 鈥淎s we continue to see everything moving to the cloud, it鈥檚 all about clean core,鈥� he added. 鈥淚 think we鈥檙e going to be limited on what we can customize going forward.鈥�

What鈥檚 next for WalkMe at SRP

Salt River Project is building on its success with WalkMe solutions and establishing a center of excellence to better balance central governance and cross-departmental collaboration. 鈥淚n order to scale it, we really have to start building department-level WalkMe experts who know how to develop impactful content,鈥� Winfrey said.

It鈥檚 clear: with WalkMe, Salt River Project can improve process efficiency, strengthen compliance, accelerate change, reduce support burden, and create a better digital experience for employees. As SRP expands its internal WalkMe expertise, it is positioning itself to scale those gains across the business while maintaining the high operational standards the organization is known for.

is a site where potential and existing 麻豆原创 customers can explore 麻豆原创 Business AI solutions, access pre-built applications and content, and discover use cases, services, reference architectures, and best practices鈥攁ll free of charge.

The self-service portal offers opportunities to not only explore solutions but get a feel for how 麻豆原创 technology could work in your organization. Cost and ROI estimator tools prompt users to input information unique to their organization鈥攃ustomizations, hyperscalers, and number of users, for example鈥攁nd get tangible, personalized use cases to bring back to the business. Maturity assessments use details about an organization鈥檚 current platform strategy and architecture landscape to guide users on next steps to achieve the Autonomous Enterprise.

The site also includes missions that provide step-by-step guidance on how to materialize 麻豆原创 solutions, including what solutions and services may be needed, what the architecture can look like, how other customers are deriving value, and more. For AI specifically, there are almost 400 features and agents available for customers to explore in the 麻豆原创 Business AI Catalog.

At 麻豆原创 Sapphire Orlando, two customers using 麻豆原创 Discovery Center shared the value they鈥檙e getting from the site and how it鈥檚 guiding their approach to digital transformation.

Agilent

is a global leader in life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets, producing and supplying analytical laboratory instruments, software, consumables, and services. Looking to avoid manual analysis and late detection in tariff and compliance changes, Agilent turned to 麻豆原创 Discovery Center. 鈥淲e have one core principle: do not solve the problem that has already been solved,鈥� Manthan Peshne, chief enterprise architect at Agilent Technologies, Inc., said. 麻豆原创 Discovery Center allowed Agilent to stay true to this principle.

鈥淲e started exploring 麻豆原创 Discovery Center and we found quite a few good building blocks, essentially in the form of missions,鈥� Peshne said. 鈥淲e also looked at some composable services which we could assemble together鈥t鈥檚 not a complete solution鈥ut we found a completely unrelated industry and use case that we could use.鈥� Using a mission set in the context of the oil and gas industry, the Agilent team was able to explore how an AI agent could interpret unstructured regulatory signals, extract the tariff context, determine its relevance, and convert that fragmented information into actionable alerts. Not only did Agilent find a solution to its problem, but the 麻豆原创 Discovery Center mission accelerated design thinking and development for the project.

鈥淲e also ended up with an enterprise pattern by building this solution, which gives us a platform where I could replicate this to other scenarios where I have external inputs or signals that we need to capture and put in the context of Agilent data,鈥� Peshne added.

Sutherland  

 is an AI-driven business transformation company that designs, runs, and automates enterprise operations at scale to help its clients achieve real, measurable business outcomes. A large part of this includes building and delivering production-grade agentic AI solutions on top of leading foundational models.

For Sutherland, 麻豆原创 Discovery Center has kick-started many projects. 鈥淚nstead of starting an MVP to see what the problem is and where to start, we have a ready-made solution from which we can pick up from,鈥� Amar Busireddy, 麻豆原创 enterprise architect at Sutherland Services, said. 鈥淚t gives us a start somewhere around 20%-30% depending on the scenario.鈥�

Having a starting point boosts confidence, Busireddy said, and enables Sutherland鈥檚 consultants to create solutions faster, which means faster time-to-value for its customers. Specifically, the missions available in 麻豆原创 Discovery Center have helped: 鈥淲e are using missions to kick-start educating our consultants and with implementing and helping our customers,鈥� Busireddy said. Missions around Joule are plentiful, including how to integrate the AI solution with 麻豆原创 SuccessFactors solutions, 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, and 麻豆原创 S/4HANA.

鈥淭here are many reference architectures given for many problems, which might not be sufficient for us or might not fit our requirements 100%, but that definitely give us the direction on what to use and what not to use. From there, we can plan budget and time,鈥� he said.

麻豆原创 Discovery Center: The starting point

The experiences of Agilent and Sutherland show that 麻豆原创 Discovery Center is more than a resource hub鈥攊t is a catalyst for action. By offering practical guidance, reusable missions, reference architectures, and planning tools that help evaluate fit, cost, and value, the site enables organizations to accelerate innovation without starting from scratch. For organizations looking to turn AI ambition into actionable business outcomes, 麻豆原创 Discovery Center is the place to begin.

鈥淭he global energy demand won鈥檛 stop growing,鈥� he explained. 鈥淎s renewables only provide a small share of the energy we currently use, we鈥檒l still need oil and gas that are safely produced as we transition to a lower carbon world.鈥�

Crude oil still remains indispensable where alternatives are limited, particularly in heavy transport and the chemicals industry, and natural gas plays a key role in the low-carbon transition, both as an energy source and in large-scale hydrogen production.

A unique model

What鈥檚 interesting about Harbour Energy, one of the world’s largest and most geographically diverse independent oil and gas companies, isn鈥檛 just that it鈥檚 big. What鈥檚 interesting is how it got big and how it operates differently from traditional energy companies. The company was founded in 2014 by private equity firm EIG Global Energy Partners with a goal to build a global, independent company by acquisition.

鈥淲e鈥檙e basically trying to solve a very hard problem. How do we scale like a major, but stay agile like a startup?鈥� Young said during his presentation about Harbour鈥檚 rapid growth journey. He explained that in a company that grows through acquisitions and runs multiple ERP systems, the role of technology is less about 鈥渙ne system鈥� and more about connecting everything, standardizing insight, and accelerating change.

Masters of integration

Most oil and gas giants grew over decades. Harbour did it in about 10 years by pursuing an aggressive strategy of mergers and acquisitions, buying assets such as oil fields from industry giants like Shell. The company also scaled rapidly across 11 countries giving it a broad geographical reach. Crucially, Harbour Energy was often able to integrate acquisitions within a year, demonstrating a rare combination of speed and integration.

鈥淎 lot of companies struggle after acquisitions,鈥� Young said. 鈥淪ystems break, processes clash, value gets lost. At Harbour, we focus on quickly stabilizing new assets, extracting synergies early, and reducing operating costs even while growing.鈥�

Young鈥檚 team took a different approach to technology. While most companies push for one massive ERP system, Harbour doesn鈥檛 blindly take that path. It runs multiple ERP systems when it makes sense, focuses on fit-for-purpose architecture, and uses tools to connect processes rather than force everything into one box. Such flexibility is a big advantage for a company that keeps acquiring new businesses.

The digital backbone

Because Harbour Energy operates multiple ERP systems rather than a single monolithic platform, complexity is unavoidable. , particularly 麻豆原创 LeanIX solutions and the 麻豆原创 Signavio portfolio, connects this landscape by aligning processes, linking capabilities to systems, and providing a unified view of 鈥榳hat鈥檚 where,鈥� ultimately creating visibility across an otherwise fragmented environment.

鈥淏efore we implemented the 麻豆原创 tool chain, processes were hidden in Excel and PDFs. It was all part of the local knowledge we acquired,鈥� Young said. 鈥淲e had no clear view of duplication or inefficiencies. For example, we found that we had dozens of HR systems, which we were able to reduce by half.  We were able to consolidate 33 different ways to do travel expenses into just one.鈥�

One major impact is speed. Whereas traditional transformation planning took up to 24 months, now, with the tool chain and process modeling, key design cycles can sometimes be achieved in four to six weeks. This is enabled by standard process templates and automated modelling for faster validation cycles leading to faster execution of integration and transformation programs.

In addition, tools like the 麻豆原创 Test Automation solution by Tricentis and 麻豆原创 Cloud ALM for application lifecycle management help ensure that releases are safer and fewer operational surprises occur during go-lives, which is critical in an industry where downtime is expensive.

By connecting systems and processes, the tool chain enables cost transparency across business units and investment prioritization based on real data. This directly supports financial discipline and shareholder value creation

For a company built on acquisitions, probably the biggest value driver is that the tool chain helps rapidly map the systems of acquired companies and compare them against Harbour鈥檚 core model identifying what to keep, retire, or migrate. This is why Harbour can integrate acquisitions quickly instead of getting stuck in years of IT consolidation.

Structure before automation

Only when processes are structured and visible can they be used for automation, which is why these tools all play a crucial role in enabling AI adoption. Standardized workflows and process maps are input for AI tools, and digital adoption platforms guide users through systems.

The three key engines provided by the 麻豆原创 tool chain include:

• Transparency engine makes the business visible end-to-end
• Standardization engine aligns processes, systems, and capabilities globally
• Acceleration engine speeds up M&A integration and transformation delivery

Together with 麻豆原创 Analytics Cloud for global forecasting and planning, these tools are at the heart of the company鈥檚 successful business transformation.

Young listed the three strategic levers keeping the company strong, resilient, and ambitious. The first is maintaining strict financial discipline, followed by using data driven insights that ensure the company remains competitive, and, last but not least, equipping the business teams with advanced capabilities ensures resilience.

鈥淭he 麻豆原创 tool chain allows us to grow aggressively through acquisitions without collapsing under complexity,鈥� Young concluded. 鈥淚t鈥檚 essentially the difference between chaotic expansion and controlled, scalable growth.鈥�

Check out the 麻豆原创 integrated tool chain and its core capabilities .

The journey began in early 2019 with the launch of Agile Finance, an end-to-end transformation initiative designed to support the company’s aggressive growth trajectory, which included a goal to double in size. The initiative was built around three strategic pillars: enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of the finance organization, promoting career fulfillment, and establishing a robust digital operating model. The impact was significant, with the finance function achieving approximately 35% productivity gains in its labor force.

The third pillar鈥攖he move to a digital operating model鈥攊s where the partnership with 麻豆原创 Taulia began.

鈥淭he 麻豆原创 Taulia Dynamic Discounting solution was introduced not merely as a cost-cutting measure, but as a strategic tool to transform and digitize the interaction with Applied’s extensive, global supplier base,鈥� Junaid Ahmed, corporate VP, Finance at Applied Materials, says. 鈥淲e understood that to reap the benefits of digitization, we had to ensure the suppliers were on board. It needed to be a win-win outcome.鈥�

Unprecedented flexibility for suppliers

The program empowers suppliers鈥攖housands of them worldwide鈥攖o self-select which approved invoices they wish to discount for early payment. This is not a continuous, all-or-nothing commitment but rather a decision made on an invoice-by-invoice basis. This flexibility allows suppliers to manage their working capital needs with greater precision, taking advantage of early payment during their own critical periods, such as quarter-end or year-end, to help meet their own financial targets.

The system also drastically improves transactional efficiency. Suppliers no longer have to call Applied to track invoice status, approval, or payment date. All this information is available 24/7 in the 麻豆原创 Taulia solution, reducing resource allocation on both sides and ensuring both reap the benefits of moving to an integrated, digital system.

Strategic benefits for Applied Materials

For Applied, the program is a testament to its focus on balancing efficiency with strong supplier relationships. The philosophy is a 鈥渨in-win鈥� built on a crucial spread: Applied Materials, as a Fortune 500 company with strong cash flow, has a significantly lower cost of capital than many of its suppliers. By funding the discounts, Applied captures a return鈥攖he discount income鈥攚hile offering its suppliers funding at a rate close to their cost of capital, but with greater convenience.

This relationship-focused approach is critical. Applied鈥檚 supplier account managers actively support the program because they recognize its mutual benefit, not viewing it as a finance mandate to push costs onto the supply base.

Furthermore, the “dynamic” nature of the discount rates is a powerful risk mitigation tool. Unlike fixed contractual discounts, the rates can be adjusted in response to global economic changes, such as shifts in interest rates. When interest rates rose after the pandemic, Applied was able to adjust the discount rates accordingly with minimal pushback, as the core proposition remains the valuable spread between the parties’ cost of capital.

The 麻豆原创 Taulia Dynamic Discounting solution has been rolled out globally, giving all suppliers the opportunity to use it. This has been critical over the last 12 months as many businesses around the globe have been subject to new and often unexpected tariff costs impacting their margin and their liquidity.

鈥淭he flexibility of the solution means suppliers can access funds when they need them, which helps them navigate some of the economic uncertainty that many businesses are facing,鈥� Dirk Holoubek, managing director, Finance Shared Services, explains. 鈥�2025 saw a 23% increase in usage of the discounts, reflecting the pressures that suppliers are feeling right now on their cash flow.鈥澛�

The solution’s capability to drive sophisticated analytics is also a major strategic asset. It helps provide insights into the different costs of capital between Applied and its supplier base. This data allows for targeted outreach and communication, ensuring that the offer of capital support is proactively extended to the suppliers that need it most.

The strategic value of the solution is further cemented by its ownership. The acquisition of Taulia by 麻豆原创 brings several advantages.

鈥淭rust is really important to both us and our suppliers,鈥� Ahmed says. 鈥淔or our suppliers to adopt a new solution, they need to know its technology they can rely on in the long term. Being part of 麻豆原创 creates that assurance in the long-term future of the program.鈥�

Looking forward, Applied Materials is already focused on the next stage of the transformation project: Agile Finance 3.0, which is focused on enabling the organization to become AI-first. The company is deploying a global, organization-wide AI assistant to drive personal productivity, but the strategic application of AI in the supplier management space is even more profound.

AI is expected to transform decision-making enablement by analyzing critical information and communicating effective options. In the future, AI will be able to proactively assess the specific needs and attributes of the supplier base, enabling Applied to address issues more quickly and resolve them earlier. The benefits are already tangible in e-invoicing: AI has made the solution more flexible and “human-like,” capable of reading minor changes in invoice format that would have previously caused electronic errors. This reduced rigidity and increased flexibility are directly contributing to the overall efficiency of the digital operating model.

By leveraging the 麻豆原创 Taulia Dynamic Discounting solution, Applied Materials has not only digitized a process but also strategically transformed its financial operations, creating a system that is agile, resilient, and focused on maintaining mutually beneficial relationships with its global supplier ecosystem.

Cedric Bru is CEO of 麻豆原创 Taulia.