The global supply chains are still under pressure and never -for -existent challenges. Geopolitical conflicts, climate events and the shortage of skilled workers result in serious upheavals. Persistent disorders shake the global economy and forces companies to adapt their processes and become more resistant to the increasing imponderables of the future through the use of innovative technologies.
In this age of constant changes, the SAP has positioned itself as a pioneer in the transformation of supply chains. We have a clear vision: We would like to support our customers in building transparent, resistant and sustainable supply chains. Our goal is to provide innovative cloud solutions and cooperative business networks that are autonomous and completely in the SAP Business Suite enable integrated supply chains.
In order to secure a management position in this important business area, the SAP recently appointed Dominik Metzger as the new President and Chief Product Officer of Supply Chain Management. Health to help companies deal with the complex challenges in their supply chains is an important concern of Dominik Metzger, who contributes many years of experience in this position. For many years he has supported customers to control risks and advance the transformation of their company. This brings the optimal conditions for the management of this new SAP business area. His team is for the solutions SAP Digital Supply Chain,, SAP Business Network and SAP Field Service Management Responsible with which customers can master the diverse challenges in the administration of modern supply chains.
Dominik Metzger has been wearing his new position for almost three months. I wanted to know from him if he has already got used to and what his future vision for supply chain management at SAP looks like.
You have worked in different positions at SAP in the past five years. What priorities have you set for the new position?
In my time at SAP, I have seen how the classic supply chain management has become a dynamic and networked ecosystem, continuous cooperation, continuous integration of data and agile processes in order to keep pace with new faults. For me, the top priority has to ensure that our customers not only react to disorders, but can prepare and act proactively. We can achieve this through the use of AI, generative AI, real-time data and predictive analyzes based on SAP technologies. Our vision is the establishment of an autonomous supply chain with which customers benefit from highly efficient processes and personalized, context -related insights into which data from all over the company flow into. This approach enables your teams to specifically devote themselves to the really complex decisions.
With the SAP Business Suite, we offer our customers closely linked, continuous supply chain processes-from product data management for discrete and formulated products to needs, procurement, production and existing planning and purchasing parts and materials to manufacturing control, logistics, plant operation and field service. These processes are optimized with a variety of AI functions and thus support users with a quick execution.
But AI is only as good as the data that is based on it. We would therefore like to ensure that all processes are relevant and responsible. The recent introduction of SAP Business Data Cloud (SAP BDC) significantly supports our customers in cleaning up their database in the context of their business processes. This makes discussions on ontology or data semantics superfluous: SAP can immediately provide ready -to -use, semantically coordinated data products that cover all functions in the supply chain and be enriched with unstructured data as part of our partnership.
With our AI First strategy, we help companies to use the abundance of their structured and unstructured data in order to become highly adaptable and ultimately act autonomously even with very complex disorders. This holistic approach ensures that customers can design their supply chain strategies based on real -time information. By closely integrating this technology into the SAP applications for supply chain management, we can increase productivity, make processes more efficient and create more resistant, agile networks that can adapt to new market conditions again and again. We are now preparing the way for completely autonomous supply chain agents who access extensive context information and are deeply anchored in the business processes of the customers.
One of the most valuable data sources that we have not yet talked about is the data from the various stamped stages of the supply chain. Today companies act in a strongly networked environment. This networking is also reflected in the supply chain. For me it has top priority that our customers can benefit from the enormous advantages of the SAP Business Network. Our focus is on giving better insight into processes and making them more efficient at the same time. Through close cooperation, buyers are able to determine new sources of supply even in times of supply chain disorders. Against the background, we help companies to identify risks deeply in their upstream supply chains in order to ensure smoothly processes and to cushion disorders much faster.
How much will your previous experience in your new position help you?
In the course of my different positions, I have already worked in many countries around the world – from Southeast Asia to Europe to the northeast of the United States. I took my first professional steps as a consultant for supply-chain applications and got to know the subtleties of SAP technologies, the complex structure of industry processes and the challenges with which SAP customers are confronted with their technological transformation. That shaped my approach. My goal is to create real added value by ensuring that our solutions are adaptable and enable tangible business results.
I live and work in Munich today, but I spent many years in Singapore and New York City. I had to deal with different corporate cultures, market dynamics, regulatory environments and languages. This made it clear to me how important flexibility, creativity and inclusion are when we want to provide globally scalable solutions with SAP Supply Chain Management. In my new position, I bring these insights and experiences together to design the future of supply chain management at SAP. My goal is that our offers are based on the concrete challenges that our customers are facing every day – regardless of whether it is a retailer in Asia or a manufacturer in North America. Ultimately, my experiences encouraged me to ensure that our solutions are relevant, adaptable and geared towards results.
Can you give us an outlook what the SAP supply team has planned for the next few months?
Our focus is on the more comprehensive AI-First and Suite-First strategy of the SAP, which enables customers to integrate modern technologies seamlessly into their daily processes. The focus is also on further automation functions, better coordination of the supply chain and strengthening cooperation through business networks. All of these are important steps to remain resistant in the face of constantly changing market conditions.
Another priority is to reduce emissions to help customers achieve their sustainability goals. With the SAP Green Ledger Customers can data about their CO2-Missions integrate into their existing systems and applications for digital supply chains and thus match their sustainability measures to the company’s procurement and supply chain management strategies.
My team also works on the introduction of various exciting products, which we will present at the SAP Sapphire in May and at the SAP Connect in October. Be with the two events to obtain detailed information.
A strong, diverse and narrow -working team is crucial to develop solutions to the challenges of customers. By merging different perspectives and expertise under a vision, we can develop platforms with which SAP customers all over the world can achieve tangible business results and can be successful in the long term.
Cindy McKendry is Director of Corporate Communications for Intelligent Spend and Supply Chain at SAP.
