By combining data, applications and AI, a holistic solution is created that helps those responsible for purchasing strategically control expenses, reduce risks and implement sustainability. Our webcast series shows what this means in practice.

Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of a company essentially pursue similar strategic goals: both want maximum transparency of expenses and supply chains, both need to identify risks as early as possible and manage them optimally, reduce costs and meet sustainability goals. This strategic intersection creates a common action agenda in which the purchasing department is not just a provider of data, but an active value driver and partner to the finance function.

Purchasing departments receive proactive recommendations for action

SAP Business Suite enables CPOs to perform their tasks more holistically and faster than ever before by bringing together applications, data and artificial intelligence on a single platform. All data from these processes is consolidated in the SAP Business Data Cloud, semantically harmonized and made usable for AI. SAP Business AI and its AI copilot Joule enable companies to access both structured and unstructured data sources through a range of specialized spend management agents. Purchasing departments receive proactive recommendations for action and can make decisions more quickly and reliably thanks to maximum transparency.

AI-supported analyzes identify trends at an early stage

Our webcast series on SAP Business Suite uses concrete use cases to illustrate how the integration described works:

• In the area of ​​productivity, all source-to-pay processes – from procurement and contract management to invoice processing and payment – are fully automated. AI-supported contract drafts, smart purchasing decisions and automated invoice verification significantly reduce manual effort and accelerate processes.
• In category management, AI-supported tools analyze markets, cost structures and supplier landscapes and automatically suggest strategies and KPIs. This means savings potential can be identified and implemented more quickly.
• In risk and sustainability management, suppliers and their ESG performance are continuously monitored. Data from a variety of sources flows into risk dashboards that, for example, keep an eye on CO₂ emissions, certifications and compliance requirements. This allows risks to be identified at an early stage and supplier relationships to be managed in a targeted manner.
• In the area of ​​visibility and collaboration, the SAP Business Suite offers central dashboards that bundle all expenses, supplier information and KPIs. In addition, companies can communicate with suppliers in real time and develop plans together via the SAP Business Network. AI-supported analyzes help to identify trends early and avoid bottlenecks.
• Finally, the SAP Business Suite also supports talent and workforce optimization: With SAP Fieldglass, external workers and service providers can be flexibly integrated, controlled and managed in a compliance-compliant manner. AI helps to plan capacities as needed, use benchmarks and deploy external and internal teams productively.

Catalog orders increased by 45 percent

Several customer examples from the webcast series illustrate the effects described. The telecommunications provider PLDT was able to minimize risks by digitizing its entire procurement management and at the same time significantly increase financial performance.
Smith+Nephew increased spend capture by over $400 million with SAP Ariba while automatically matching 84 percent of invoices in the first run.
A global company with over 470,000 users increased catalog orders by 45 percent and eliminated all manual intervention in certain procurement processes by integrating Amazon Marketplace.
And a Japanese industrial company runs over 500 online auctions annually via SAP Ariba, processes 30,000 orders and works with almost 6,000 active suppliers.

There are two ways to introduce the SAP Business Suite

In order to be able to serve very different customer groups, company sizes and industries, there are two ways to introduce the SAP Business Suite:

• “RISE with SAP” transforms existing SAP ERP landscapes in compliance with Clean Core principles, using tools such as SAP Signavio, LeanIX and WalkMe.
• “GROW with SAP” enables new SAP customers to quickly get started with the SAP Business Suite using preconfigured modules – with a plannable scope.

Spend management becomes the engine for resilience and competitiveness

The SAP Business Suite turns purchasing into a strategic partner at board level and thus contributes to uniform, consistent corporate management. By connecting data, applications and AI, a platform is created that allows you to strategically manage expenses, reduce risks, implement sustainability and thus promote efficiency and growth. Purchasing becomes the engine for resilience and competitiveness in the digital age.