Last updated: SAPPHIRE NOW Procurement & Supply Chain: What you need to know

SAPPHIRE NOW Procurement & Supply Chain: What you need to know

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The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted global supply chains, exposing the fragility of business models and the importance of digitalizing procurement and spend management across all categories. And at the center of the action was the procurement and supply chain leader who helped keep the lights on for many organizations: SAP.

Many companies seized the opportunity to shake off the restraints of traditional processes and approaches to explore new ways of working with and finding alternative sources of supply, including PPE, to support their business operations. Successful companies harnessed the power of technology to help transform their business models, their mindset, and their products.

The crisis also taught us that no business does business alone.

It’s now very clear: to drive business forward in today’s networked economy, organizations must extend digitalization beyond their own four walls to transform today’s fragmented supply chains into unified, collaborative and intelligent networks.

To find out what’s really top of mind for procurement and supply chain leaders, I invited industry experts to attend the SAPPHIRE NOW After Party to share their key takeaways from the Procurement & Supply Chain Studio Broadcasts and Track Day. Watch the discussion here.

“Procurement is the heartbeat of the enterprise.”
– Thomas Saueressig, Member of the Executive Board, SAP Product Engineering

Thrive in the networked economy with a unified business network

Introduced this year at SAPPHIRE, the SAP Business Network will bring together Ariba Network, SAP Logistics Business Network, and SAP Asset Intelligence Network to unify business processes across supplier collaboration, logistics coordination and traceability, and asset intelligence.

The SAP Business Network harmonizes previously disconnected supply chains in a unified, collaborative, and intelligent way. It helps you collaborate on a single platform with all trading partners to achieve predictable, reliable supply chains, while also helping to connect and extend your ecosystems for new business opportunities.

When all your networks become one, collaboration becomes singular and synchronous using a common data model, set of services, intelligence, and analytics engine.

And Ian Moyse summarized it best: “Unification of systems, data, and people processes. The quicker we can get to accept this can be achieved, we have to be adaptable to change to thrive. What’s possible from what we see at SAPPHIRE Now, start taking the small steps now.”

Align intelligent spend & supply chain visibility with your business strategy

With a unified business network that can help you find and connect to the right trading partners, procurement has the opportunity to rise to the next level. Empower your people with technology by putting data at their fingertips.

Reinforcing a point made in last week’s global keynote featuring CEO Christian Klein: if we want intelligence in the network, every single enterprise must be investing in the ecosystem together, including to support sustainability.

And that includes creating a more inclusive community to build resilience and transparency. The ability to see connections across supplier collaboration, logistics coordination and traceability, and asset intelligence is extremely powerful. Consider the recent example of the Ever Given cargo ship that was stuck in the Suez Canal.

“Organizations and leaders should not look at the past year as a blip but instead take a meaningful look at their processes and leverage technology to really move forward. Change is going to continue to come with a lot more disruption. It’s about continuous adaptation.” – Scott Luton

“It’s all about experiential procurement. We’re no longer trying to change procurement but change the procurement experience that procurement & supply chains can get behind.” – Kelly Barner

Kelly and Scott highlighted the importance of sustainability in supply chains and building supply networks that can evolve and grow. In these times of supply chain vulnerabilities it’s about creating more inclusive policies and processes, too. For example, bringing in smaller businesses owned by women, minorities, and Indigenous people.

And Marcell Vollmer summarized this about the opportunity ahead, “Procurement and supply chain leaders are thinking about the future and how we can create it. There’s lots of great inspiration out there to lead for your business.”

HIGHLIGHTS from the SUPPLY CHAIN Broadcast Studio at SAPPHIRE NOW

From the SAPPHIRE NOW EMEA Region Broadcast Studio, “Build a Resilient and Sustainable Supply Chain:

  • SAP executive board member Thomas Saueressig talked to Microsoft Corporation about achieving a resilient supply chain from design to operate.
  • The World Economic Forum and De’Longhi Group addressed topics such as the effect of the pandemic on fragile supply chains, the revolutionary impact of Industry 4.0, and how digitalization has affected companies’ sustainability goals.
  • Meanwhile, SAP partner EY showcased inspiring winners of SAP Innovation Awards. SAP Innovation Award winner and SAP partner Accenture looked at reimagining treasury processes to be more digital, intelligent, and automated and why a customer-centric supply chain matters. And SAP partner Deloitte spoke about building a supply chain that is resilient, efficient, and integrated for value.

From the Americas session include:

  • In the “Digital Supply Chain Regional Leaders Forum,” Darcy MacClaren, SAP’s senior vice president, digital supply chain and Industry 4.0 for North America, and Juan Cartier, SAP’s regional vice president, digital supply chain and Industry 4.0 for Latin America, looked at supply chain trends across their regions
  • Juice company Citrosuco outlined how it transformed a long and complex supply chain with SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain

And in EMEA, highlights of the session include:

  • In the “Digital Supply Chain Regional Leaders Forum,” John McNiff, SAP’s head of digital supply chain, EMEA North; Mike Wade, SAP’s general manager digital supply chain, EMA South; and Andreas Wagner, SAP’s general manager digital supply chain, MEE, looked at supply chain trends across their regions
  • Arla Foods and its supplier Döhler Group explain how SAP solutions enable just-in-time dairy products

With interactive content and much more, this session is a must-see for anyone looking to build a resilient and sustainable supply chain.

HIGHLIGHTS from the Procurement Broadcast Studio Keynote at SAPPHIRE NOW:

Watch a recording of our SAPPHIRE NOW conference session, “Propel Your Business with Intelligent Spend and a Unified Business Network,” which includes these highlights:

  • John Wookey, president, Intelligent Spend and Business Network at SAP, described SAP’s vision to help organizations move from merely managing spend to managing spend intelligently.
  • And Salvatore Lombardo, SAP’s chief product officer and head of engineering for procurement, delved into redefining the future of spend management through solution innovation.
  • Over in the “Innovation Lab,” demos showed how smarter, guided, and more autonomous procurement lets you do more, faster, and with less effort and how SAP Fieldglass Assignment Management helps you reduce complexity by assigning workers to the right jobs from one simple screen.
  • Meanwhile, new research on procurement, supplier collaboration, and the impact of digital technology conducted by SAP and Oxford Economics revealed lessons from the leaders in procurement digital transformation.

During the Americas session:

  • Paige Cox, SAP senior vice president and global head of Business Network, talked to PepsiCo about how to leverage business networks to accelerate procurement and supply chain transformation.
  • Greg Mekjian, global vice president and general manager, SAP source to pay, direct materials, heard from regional leaders and customers on direct spend challenges, supplier collaboration, and how SAP solutions and SAP Business Network can help.
  • XPO Logistics talked about the strategic role of external labor in recovery and resilience.

And in EMEA, highlights of the session include:

  • Paige Cox, SAP senior vice president and global head of Business Network, talked to luxury goods group Richemont about how to use business networks such as Ariba Network to transform the supply chain.
  • Capgemini described how it has used the external workforce as a strategic asset for its business over the past 18 months.
  • Industrial company Georg Fischer explained how digital transformation can make direct spend run better.

Supply chain challenges can make for a wild ride. Get advice, best practices, + predictions from top experts HERE.

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