SAP Sapphire 2022 has officially kicked off in Orlando City on the 10th-12th of May 2022 with SAP CEO Christian Klein and Chief Marketing Officer Julia White opening the floor with the inspiring keynote “Realise the Power of Becoming an Intelligent, Sustainable Enterprise”.  More than ever, the conference is putting its customer and partners in more than 140 countries at the core of the global series, paying both an homage and encouragement for demonstrating agility and success amidst the pandemic disruptions. 

In his keynote, SAP CEO Klein expressed SAP’s continued commitment to support its customers’ modernisation journey to becoming intelligent, sustainable enterprises. He said:

“For 50 years we have revolutionized together the way businesses are run, and in the next 50 years, together we will continue to deliver market-making innovation. While the world around us has changed significantly, our purpose is more relevant than ever: to help the world run better in times of geopolitical tensions, disruptive industry transformation, and supply chain disruptions, and to improve people’s lives in times of war and climate change.”

Throughout the three-day hybrid conference in Florida, SAP announced multiple cloud and product innovations and collaborations across the supply chain, sustainability, business process transformation, and no-code application development domains. The event also showcased the tech giant’s contributions, achievements, and vision for the intelligent, networked, sustainable enterprise.

SAP Sapphire 2022 Highlights

Cloud and Product Innovations

Helping customers achieve a resilient supply chain and harness intelligent business networks, SAP launched a suite of new apps centred on supply chain management made available on the Apple App Store on the 10th of May. This includes mobile apps SAP Warehouse Operator and SAP Direct Distribution, making SAP apps accessible to iPad or iPhone users. Klein compared SAP Business Network, the world’s largest B2B network that connects buyers, suppliers, manufacturers, and logistics providers, as the LinkedIn of the B2B space.

Acknowledging the increasing demand for no-code/low code development platforms, enhancements on SAP AppGyver and SAP Process Automation– both part of the free tier model for SAP BTP– were also announced. In addition, SAP is also including in its pipeline free learning journeys in the SAP Learning portal designed for citizen developers to prepare them for new no-code/low-code certifications skills.

New capabilities in the SAP Cloud for Sustainable Enterprises and SAP Product Footprint Management solutions were highlighted to help enterprises better manage their green line. The SAP CEO mentioned other solutions that help organisations measure environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors such as SAP Concur, SAP SuccessFactors, and SAP Sustainability Control Tower.

Driving Customer Success

RISE with SAP, the company’s concierge, Business Transformation as a Service offering, was also highlighted throughout the conference, featuring customer success stories and solution collaborations with partners. Several SAP partners including Philips, AMD, and Accenture shared how they maximised business value in their digital transformation journey by leveraging the BTaaS offering. Klein stated:

“We want to transform each and every enterprise into an intelligent enterprise. RISE with SAP takes you on a transformation journey that’s tailored exactly to your needs. Over 2,000 customers have selected RISE with SAP; more than 60{aa282f308afcc222aaa21b0478c79e01a8fedd01972e2180867097bd93930f22} are new customers to SAP.”

SAP CMO White led a series of innovation demonstrations featuring SAP SuccessFactors and SAP Fieldglass that helped companies deliver excellent, digitalised employee experiences such as the success story of Vodaphone Group.

During Day 2 of SAP Sapphire, keynote speaker Scott Russell, SAP Executive Board Member and Customer Success lead, shared that customers recognise leadership and transformation as critical success factors. He invited Melissa Goldman, Vice President of Engineering at Google, to detail how SAP enabled the tech company’s digital transformation journey.

“Google is a data-driven company, and SAP is the foundation. There is a lot of complexity around change,” stated Goldman. “Google has the best engineers in the world, but SAP is the industry leader in this domain and has the best practices for bringing change to an enterprise from start to end. If you want rigor and discipline and the right data model, get SAP.”

Russell acknowledged the 2,200 partners in the SAP ecosystem that ensures customer success including his final guest Geoff Scott, CEO of ASUG, who highlighted that establishing trusted, collaborative partnerships increase the chance of a company’s success during these unprecedented times.

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SAP has announced the official appointment of SAP Asia Pacific Japan President Scott Russell as a new member of the Executive Board effective February 2021. Appointed by the Supervisory Board, Russell succeeds SAP’s Customer Success lead Adaire Fox-Martin who will depart the software company by end of the month.

Further to the major announcement, Microsoft alum Julia White will also be joining SAP in a new Executive Board role as Chief Marketing and Solutions Officer. She had led the product marketing for Microsoft Azure and Microsoft Office 365 during the transition to the cloud.

Welcoming the two new Executive Board members, SAP SE Chairman of the Supervisory Board Professor Hasso Plattner said:

“We are very pleased to have both Julia and Scott join the Executive Board to help continue SAP’s strategic direction.”

Professor Plattner also expressed his gratitude to Fox-Martin’s exemplary and long-standing contribution to the German enterprise.

SAP CEO Christian Klein shared his enthusiasm in having Russell and White as new members of the SAP Executive Board. With much respect and commendation to the two exceptional leaders, Klein said:

“Julia and Scott bring outstanding customer empathy coupled with strong experience in transformation and innovation. This sets us up perfectly for delivering on our strategic commitment to maximise customer success, foster co-innovation, and amplify stakeholder value. The Executive Board and I welcome Julia and Scott. “

Following the footsteps of Adaire Fox-Martin

Fox-Martin and Russell’s milestones in SAP seem like history repeating itself. Both have been Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, and President of SAP APJ overseeing the software giant’s business in the region, driving productivity improvements, revenue, and profitability.

Before Fox-Martin’s appointment in the Executive Board in 2017, Russell became Fox–Martin’s successor in the APJ leadership as President responsible for growing the SAP business across Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea, the Indian subcontinent, and Southeast Asia back then. The new Australian Executive Board member has taken SAP APJ under his leadership for three years, catapulting SAP’s business growth and expansion in the region. Today, APJ is one of SAP’s fastest-growing cloud markets across the globe.

In the same vein, Russell will be leading the Customer Success unit, which was appointed to Fox-Martin last year when SAP underwent a major leadership and organisational change geared towards more customer-centric operations and processes. The company revamps came after long-term SAP leader Bill McDermott’s departure.

“I am honored and would like to thank the Supervisory Board for putting trust in me,” said Russell. 

“With our industry-leading team, I will build on the great foundation laid by Adaire, who has my deepest respect for the leadership and foresight she demonstrated during our many years of close collaboration. Our future is bright, driving and accelerating the strategic digital transformation of our customers around the world,” he added.

Russell brings to the SAP Executive Board and in the Customer Success unit over 20 years of experience in sales, management, consulting, and technology from his SAP and IBM stint.

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