At the SAP Sapphire conference in Orlando, Florida, the world leader in enterprise resource planning (ERP) software announced innovations that, it says, will deliver business value for customers in four critical areas: supply chain resilience, sustainability, business process transformation and no-code application development.
According to a recent survey from Boston Consulting Group, while 80% of companies are turning to digital solutions to navigate current business challenges, only about 30% are successfully achieving a true digital transformation of their business. The innovations announced this week, says SAP, will help customers accelerate their transformation journey with cloud-based solutions that provide the end-to-end business process support customers most need. The announcements come on the first day of SAP Sapphire, SAP’s global customer and partner conference, taking place in person and virtually from May 10 to 12.
“For 50 years, SAP’s mission-critical solutions and deep industry expertise have helped businesses around the world run their best,” says Christian Klein, CEO and member of the executive board of SAP. “We’re uniquely positioned to continue enabling our customers’ success in a rapidly evolving world by driving cloud-based digital transformation that solves customers’ most pressing challenges, from supply chain resilience to sustainability.”
Resilient Supply Chains and Intelligent Business Networks
SAP innovations improve supply chain efficiency and transparency, enabling improved performance and resilience. Through its ongoing partnership with Apple to transform the way people work on iPhone and iPad, SAP announced a new suite of apps that streamline the digital supply chain and empower workers with intuitive tools. The first two of these apps – SAP Warehouse Operator and SAP Direct Distribution – launched this week and are available now in the Apple App Store.
The new SAP Digital Manufacturing Cloud solution brings together the latest analytics, edge computing, automation and state-of-the-art innovations supporting manufacturing processes end to end to help customers optimise manufacturing performance. SAP Business Network also continues to evolve as the world’s largest business network, and with the planned integration of Taulia software customers can unlock the value tied up in their working capital.
The increase in the number of SAP solutions for sustainability uniquely positions the software to help companies move from well-meaning talk to meaningful action. Innovations include new capabilities in the SAP Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises solution to help companies innovate across key areas of sustainability management. The enhanced SAP Product Footprint Management solution helps customers reduce product carbon footprints at scale with live connectivity with SAP S/4HANA Cloud, including transport and travel capabilities.
Enabling Business Process Transformation
Customers continue to adopt the RISE with SAP solution to redesign their end-to-end business processes and transition to a modular, agile ERP in the cloud. Several customers will be on stage at SAP Sapphire to showcase how they use RISE with SAP to deliver business innovation. Partners are also helping our customers scale these innovations through best practices and bespoke solutions: RISE with SAP and SOAR with Accenture now integrate and deliver what businesses need for a cloud-based transformation, including cloud infrastructure management, application management and operations services. The latest release of the SAP Service Cloud solution includes new dynamic case management and case modelling capabilities. The solution supports native integration with Qualtrics XM Discover and Microsoft Teams to improve organisations’ ability to deliver on their brand promise with better visibility, greater accountability and faster time to resolution.
Accelerating Innovation with No-Code and Low-Code Development, Process Automation, Data and AI
SAP AppGyver, a leading no-code, low code development environment for enterprise applications, now includes native integration with the SAP Service Cloud solution and is available as part of the free tier model for SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). The SAP Process Automation solution, also part of the free tier model for SAP BTP, has been enhanced for no-code workflow management and robotic process automation (RPA).
SAP AI solutions deliver AI-powered innovations to intelligently optimise business processes end to end, including lead-to-cash, design-to-operate, recruit-to-retire and source-to-pay. SAP provides free access for all academic students to tailored learning resources and experiences in the “student zone” of the SAP Learning portal. To support the growing need for accelerated app development by nontechnical users, SAP is launching additional free learning journeys, including an enhanced learning journey that prepares for new certifications in low-code/no-code skills.