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SAP Sapphire 2024 was amazing. It was definitely the year of AI. In addition to the usual executive keynotes, customer presentations, and inspirational speakers, every product-focused session I attended included some discussion on how artificial intelligence will make the product experience better. Since my focus was on meeting customers and partners to explain our UX strategy and how to implement the SAP Fiori user experience as they transition to SAP S/4HANA Cloud, this summary will focus on those dimensions. You can see the full session catalog if you want to see what else was at the event, which also includes the ASUG Annual Conference.
UX Engineering solutions appeared across SAP Sapphire
It was extremely gratifying to see the solutions that our Cloud ERP UX Engineering team develops in so many sessions. My Home was in several keynotes, along with examples of SAP Fiori elements apps. The new SAP Fiori tools AI was in the SAP Build Code sessions and in the public cloud roadmap session. One of the most satisfying parts of the conference was having a gentleman introduce himself during one of the ASUG sessions on SAP S/4HANA migration. We had met at Sapphire around eight years ago and as a result of our conversation, he implemented SAP Screen Personas at his gourmet food company and it now runs in 15 factories, saving them lots of money every year.
The theme of SAP Sapphire 2024 was “Bring out your best.”
Unlock business agility with cloud ERP by adopting innovation more quickly
The first session I attended after the AI-heavy keynote was “Unlock business agility with cloud ERP”. Jan Gilg and Eric van Rossum discussed the evolution of ERP over the past decade. It continued the AI theme with examples of AI-driven insights and predictions of how they will change how customers use ERP to deliver new experiences to create new revenue streams. Eric also talked about different kinds of risk and how the risk of doing nothing is getting more expensive, as early adopters of AI will generate an insurmountable lead over their competitors.
One of the highlights was the demo of a new integration with Microsoft Copilot. They showed an intelligent, AI-based assistant that you can interact with via chat to locate any information in your SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition system. Ask questions in natural language and receive answers as text or charts, along with the ability to open the relevant app that contains the source data. It builds on the existing integration between SAP S/4HANA Cloud and Microsoft Teams that enables our collaborative ERP. This enhancement adds Microsoft Teams chat with an AI assistant in addition to the ability to chat with your human colleagues.
One topic in the unlock business agility session was how much the user experience improved in the last ten years.
Watch ERP169 “Unlock business agility with cloud ERP” on-demand.
The new ERP mindset is based on using standard processes everywhere you can
Another great SAP S/4HANA session was a panel discussion in which experts talked about “The new ERP mindset.” The mix of customer (Daniel Schumacher from Toyota Material Handling), partner (Rich Sernyak from PwC), and SAP (Eric van Rossum) vantage points provided a diverse perspective on what ERP means today. Maura Hameroff moderated.
The new ERP mindset means moving to standard processes and a more modular approach instead of using extensive customizations just because you can. Here are the key recommendations from the panelists”
- PwC: define a clear business outcome, implement a scalable and agile platform to integrate new technologies such as AI, focus on predictability of time and cost.
- Toyota: move from thinking about ERP for managing your current business to focusing on ERP as the platform to drive business transformation over next decade.
- SAP: Focus on “opportunity readiness” to give your business the agility to adopt new business models and consume continuous innovation from SAP.
As both a customer of SAP S/4HANA and implementation partner, for a successful project, PwC also recommended considering which of your business processes are standard and which give you differentiated capabilities. For the former, use standard SAP; for the latter, follow clean core processes and extend your core system.
Toyota advised that you should not be afraid to disrupt your own business. Embrace disruptive technologies and try them out to understand the impact. One point Daniel made about the new ERP mindset is that what you used before successfully might not work for you tomorrow. He recommended having an open mind when you evaluate your processes. Fit to standard works in most cases. 80% of what most companies do is a commoditized process. Save your customization for what defines and differentiates your business.
Watch TRE321 “The new ERP mindset” on-demand.
SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition roadmap session
Wow. This was a very fast-paced session, delivered by Arpan Shah, head of product management for SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition. He shared planned innovations in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition that are likely to ship by the end of the year. Each topic included a short demo. Sorry if I missed any; they came pretty quickly. Usual roadmap disclaimer - all of these are planned and might not make it into the product.
- My Home will make it easier access to the applications you use most with some AI-generated recommendations.
- Microsoft Copilot integration brings the next step of collaborative ERP with easier access to SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition through Microsoft Copilot.
- Joule copilot makes your experience easier within the SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition solution by offering context-based instructions of how to complete your work more effectively.
- Easy filter lets you intuitively filter data in SAP Fiori elements list report applications using natural language.
- Smart summarization makes information in object pages easier to share through email or the collaboration tool of your choice.
- Financial business insights uses AI to discover what’s meaningful within selected review booklets.
- A new version toggle for the Manage Journal Entries app simplifies change management for new apps by letting people try out new applications without risk and the ability to switch back to the original app.
- Intelligent recommendations for advanced returns management reduces manual effort and facilitates faster returns order creation by prefilling fields using most common scenarios and history.
- Intelligent project recommendations for employees give you higher confidence in matching employees with projects.
- Hands-free production order management uses natural language through voice with Joule. This is useful in environments where there are typically no keyboards.
- AI-driven back order processing execution lets you change prioritization through the Joule natural language interface.
Watch ERP127 “SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition: Find out what’s next” on-demand.
Arpan Shah preparing to run through a rapid-fire stream of planned innovations in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition
The ASUG Hub was a focal point of conversations about SAP S/4HANA migration
As the SAP Point of contact for user experience within ASUG, I spent much of my time in the ASUG Hub, speaking with customers about UX issues, generally in the context of moving to SAP S/4HANA or bringing the SAP Fiori user experience to a larger percentage of their organization.
ASUG hosted several customer roundtables and community alliance meet-ups where ASUG members could learn from peers and interact with SAP experts about how to generate more value from their investments in SAP. Todd Lutz, Michael Giessner, and Peter Keller hosted a great discussion on best practices for migrating to SAP S/4HANA Cloud. Mohammed Siddiqui, Cristin Charbonneau, and Todd Lutz held a live town hall to understand what issues are most important to the ASUG community.
It was great to meet so many old friends and people who I knew only from online encounters in various ASUG calls or the various user groups that I host for SAP Fiori developers or business analysts that want to adapt classic UI screens using SAP Screen Personas.
Thank you to everyone that attended my session, ASUG301 in the ASUG Hub. I talked about the state of SAP Fiori today, how we got here, and where we are going by adding AI to further accelerate application development and streamline the user experience. The audience was a good mix, some customers that are using SAP Fiori throughout their enterprise, many with some SAP Fiori deployed, and a few who have not yet started their SAP Fiori journey. If you missed it, you can download the slides.
My ASUG session covered the past, present, and future of SAP Fiori
Leadership lessons have a longer lifetime than technology
Another great session was a panel discussion on “Commonalities, not differences: Insights in military leadership.” Daria Wick moderated the conversation with Doug Melville, and a senior military leader. Melville is author of “Invisible Generals”, where he shares his family history that includes America’s first Black generals, father and son Benjamin O. Davis Sr. and Jr., who helped integrate America’s military and create the Tuskegee Airmen.
Peter with Doug Melville, author of Invisible Generals
The panelists talked about a variety of leadership topics including teamwork, empowerment, diversity, inclusion, and how to leave a lasting legacy. The recommendation to lead with inspiration rather than intimidation moved the conversation to some funny sports references about which players you would want to coach. The take away was even the difficult players can help a team win championships. Watch The Last Dance to see what they talked about.
In another session on inclusion, Julia White, SAP’s Chief Marketing and Solutions Officer, Ada Agrait, SAP’s SVP and Global Head of Corporate Marketing, and Margot Goodson, VP, Head of North America Diversity & Inclusion, had a panel discussion about “Strengthening underrepresented communities: partnerships and best practices.” They talked about how to bring in under-represented groups to match your organization to the market it serves. Their top recommendations:
- Julia: rely on diverse teams or risk bringing a product to market that serves the needs of only the people on the design team
- Ada: follow the online conversations of the people you want to recruit so you learn what’s important to them and the language they use
- Margot: Make DEI part of your DNA so you naturally recruit diverse and inclusive teams rather than having to fill gaps later
These were some highlights. My full list of UX and Application Development sessions at Sapphire 2024was in my preview blog post.
My colleague, Paul Saunders, wrote an excellent summary of Sapphire on LinkedIn.
It was also great to meet so many SAP colleagues in person for the first time, including Paul, Sinit, Daria, Christian, Marco, Eric, Maura, Sid, Mark, Sibylle, Margot, Tracy, Steve, and more (apologies if your name doesn’t appear).
We are taking the conversation deeper at our next SAP Fiori Innovation Day
If you want to go deeper on SAP Fiori and adjacent topics, we have our next SAP Fiori Innovation Day in Chicago on Tuesday, August 13. Speakers from SAP, Mindset Consulting, Convergent IS, and Sovanta will cover what’s new in SAP’s UX portfolio, how to get started with SAP Fiori, AI innovations, the design process, and an optional hands-on workshop in which you will exercise all our tools and technologies to build an SAP Fiori app. Registration is now open.
On behalf of the SAP Cloud ERP UX Engineering team, Peter Spielvogel.
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