Resilience and sustainability come to the fore at SAPPHIRE NOW Reimagined

Last week, SAP’s “SAPPHIRE NOW Reimagined” virtual conference took place – providing SAP with an opportunity to update customers on the company’s products and strategy. The event kicked off with a keynote from SAP CEO Christian Klein, who reiterated the message that customers need to become “intelligent enterprises” to enable new business models and focus on growth, productivity, and automation. Klein argued that this is the best way for organisations to improve resilience and drive sustainability in the wake of COVID-19.

After highlighting some technical issues from SAP that prevented viewers from accessing the event stream, diginomica noted that the presentation focused on SAP’s vision for the future more than looking at current SAP measures to help companies during the crisis. At the end of the session, Klein took questions, with diginomica covering his answers on everything from the company’s app-based approach, to the benefits of working with hyperscalers on cloud infrastructure, and future partnerships. The publication also wrote up an interview with BusinessOne and ByDesign SVP Rainer Zinow, who discussed how ByDesign can help users overcome engineering challenges with Machine Learning, Industrial IoT and cloud platforms.

Computer Weekly also covered the keynote, picking out how Klein had moved SAP away from using SAPPHIRE NOW to focus on new product launches, which had been the custom for several years. The publication then covered the presentation from Lutz Meschke, Chief Financial Officer at Porsche, who spoke about how the company was using SAP Master Data Management and digital boardroom dashboards for decision making.

During the conference, SAP announced it was launching the SAP Business Technology Platform, which brings together products including the SAP HANA database, SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, and SAP Analytics Cloud. The platform uses AI, Machine Learning and Robotic Process Automation, as well as integrated Qualtrics Experience Management, to help customers overcome “new challenges” using a single tool.

SAP also launched the Climate 21 program, which is designed to support users with climate-related objectives using data from S/4 HANA and SAP Analytics Cloud. This should help users to better understand their carbon footprint, analyse their data and take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

If you missed SAPPHIRE NOW Reimagined, all the sessions can be viewed on demand, here.