SAP Sapphire 2023

SAP’s flagship event was back in full-force this year as Sapphire was rolled out across the globe with three key events in Orlando, Barcelona and Sao Paulo.

Several common threads ran through each event - but there were also some differences - most notably the absence of several executive leaders in both Europe and South America. That’s not uncommon for some locations but it was surprising that the European leg didn’t get the full SAP cast – especially given its proximity to SAP’s homeland.

Putting aside any grumbles from the press corps regarding absentees, Christian Klein was present in both the USA and Europe and delivered a keynote that brought together all the elements of SAP’s offering, underpinned by a simple message: future proof your business. Klein was in good form and used his keynote to set out the key tenets of SAP’s proposition without really defining what CIOs and technologists would call a roadmap.

Let’s look at the themes that cut across all three events:

It will come as no surprise that AI, and more specifically generative AI, was a hot topic for SAP. Klein talked passionately about SAP’s commitment to responsible AI, showcasing several innovations that customers could already benefit from. Most of SAP’s AI capabilities will be delivered through its partnership with Microsoft and Satya Nadella dialled in by video to extol the benefits of an alliance between two of the world’s most powerful tech companies. Microsoft’s Copilot is now embedded in numerous SAP applications and the example demonstrated on stage was an interesting use-case from the HCM stable where job requisitions and descriptions could be enhanced and improved by AI-powered prompts and generative suggestions.

SAP also launched Green Ledger, it’s most coherent sustainability solution so far, that integrates carbon tracking in S/4 environments with industryspecific networks to bolster supply chains and build resilience. Green Ledger is the obvious evolution for SAP as it has long been the loudest exponent for sustainable commerce and its reach into global business data pro- vides the perfect platform to develop a solution that has some real teeth.

Green Ledger can be implemented outside of RISE and GROW but the intention is to build it into the fabric of both routes to cloud ERP so that all S/4 customers inherit the capabilities as an intrinsic element of each new implementation.

SAP’s other big news was focussed on its partnerships which were demonstrated by the aforementioned Nadella and stage appearances by Thomas Kurian from Google and Rob Enslin from UiPath (although Kurian only made it to Orlando and Enslin appeared in Barcelona).

Partnerships are central to SAP’s strategy as it positions itself and cloud ERP as the control tower for modern enterprises while leveraging alliances with Microsoft for AI, Google for data, UiPath for automation and the GSIs for specific innovations. These partnerships will play an increasingly important role for SAP as Klein’s pared back approach increasingly leverages innovation from outside of SAP to support his ‘all-in’ on cloud ERP policy.