No one can predict the unpredictable, but becoming an intelligent enterprise is certainly helping businesses take on new opportunities and risks that may come their way. Find out how making customer success a priority is inspiring a range of SAP Digital Business Services that are helping customers win in unprecedented ways.

The SAP Digital Business Services organization is committed to helping our customers become these intelligent enterprises for an era where every experience matters. We’re fostering a cloud-based world that delivers competitive outcomes with tremendous speed, agility, and efficiency. Our collaboration with a globally expanding partner ecosystem is providing the tools and standards customers need to be successful, including services that provide clear advice, deliver 24×7 support, and accelerate projects with less risk.

Our portfolio of services and expertise continues to grow stronger as we innovate and develop offerings that align with customer needs, no matter how quickly they change. Such close attention to customer success has led to the introduction of two significant transformation-enabling opportunities:

• SAP S/4HANA Movement: This program gives customers the freedom to reflect on why they should transform their enterprise resource planning (ERP) landscape, as well as what should be moved and how to execute the conversion.
• SAP Integrated Delivery Framework: The roles and responsibilities of SAP, partners, and customers are clearly defined, so everyone involved in an SAP project shares in the successful delivery of business outcomes.

Every service, offering, and engagement model is created, refined, and delivered with the customer in mind. But the real proof is the outcomes they provide. Let’s take a look at a few proof points that show how we enabled our customers on their digital journey this past year.

Premium Success: Long-Term Advantage Through Close Collaboration and Expertise

One of the most challenging aspects of any business initiative is breaking through the buzz of the latest technologies. In most cases, our customers look to SAP to provide not only strong enablers of their digital strategy, but also innovations that help them keep up with consumer expectations.

Take, for example, AES Corporation. The global power generation and distribution business is experiencing increasing demand from customers, which often seem at odds with its commitment to a 70 percent reduction in carbon intensity by 2030. To set the right balance, AES chose the SAP Value Assurance program for SAP S/4HANA and entered into an SAP MaxAttention engagement to guide a path toward an integrated IT landscape that supports its global operations. Now, AES has better transactional performance, the ability to scale up or down based on demand trends, and an improved basis for introducing next-generation technologies.

ATB Financials had a similarly supportive experience with SAP MaxAttention. The financial institution completed a conversion and migration of its deployment of the SAP ERP application to SAP S/4HANA on the Google Cloud Platform in 10 months. However, this project was more than just another upgrade to its IT landscape, it’s about creating a solid platform for future innovation.

For VINCI Energies, the most significant advantage of SAP MaxAttention, along with a partnership with SAP Digital Business Services, is access to the right partner expertise. “I can tell you it works. We have a very strong innovation agenda,” says Dominique Tessaro, CIO of the information and communications technology provider to the energy sector. “By having a professional near us working close, hand in hand with my team, we can deliver new services to our users.”

Project Success: Push the Limits of the Possible with Inspired Innovation

While “transformation” and “innovation” are two separate line items in the budget, they certainly work together to inspire organizations to think bigger, work smarter, and run faster. Business leaders need to foster new processes, identify promising solutions, manage monetary investments, and collaborate with new partners strategically.

By having the right technology partner by their side, SAP customers can get on the fast lane to successful implementation. According to Alexander Peters, vice president of Otto Group IT, “SAP S/4HANA Adoption Starter Engagement gives us access to all the relevant tools and information from SAP needed to provide successful outcomes and prepare a tailored road map for our SAP S/4HANA transition in just three months.”

SAP Digital Business Services is also giving customers the freedom of finding innovation success on their terms:

• BYTON Limited: The new player in the smart-car market is getting ready for high-volume production by relying on a portfolio of SAP Advisory Services to set the core foundation for its critical supply chain processes – from manufacturing to warehousing, logistics, sales, and service.
• Daimani: The first genuinely customer-friendly platform of its kind offers a friction-free, click-and-buy marketplace. With the guidance of the SAP Innovative Business Solutions organization, the company aggregates the best VIP hospitality experiences worldwide into a single sales channel.
• OSRAM Continental: The rising player in the automotive industry is taking the future of intelligent automotive lighting to a new level with SAP Model Company services that are radically shifting how new business systems are quickly created and hit the ground running.
• Schaeffler: The global automotive and industrial supplier is relying on the SAP Innovation Services portfolio to create a digital assistant-enabled experience that is driving intelligent employee engagement.

Continuous Success: Fast-Track Outcomes for Sustainable Growth

Finding the right path and executing the initial digital project is just the beginning of a journey of continuous, growth-focused evolution. Our pledge to help customers run as intelligent enterprises goes well beyond the implementation stage.

Sobeys knows how invested SAP Digital Business Services is in its success. “Our partnership with SAP Preferred Success has been a long one,” reflects Stephanie Forsythe, director of Human Resource Solution and Innovation at Sobeys. “They know our business, our platforms, and our configuration, and so they are able to offer solutions that fit with our needs and our HR strategy.” The latest advantage to come from the partnership is the full automation of HR processes and delivery of self-services, which are empowering employees to do their jobs better every day.

Colombina is using the support and expertise of the SAP Enterprise Support team to access the structured, personalized guidance and enablement for a conversion to SAP S/4HANA. With direct access to experts for project planning and a dedicated project manager during the entire process, the food manufacturer is streamlining its path to SAP S/4HANA and strengthening its position in a highly competitive and evolving marketplace.

For Beyond Technologies, the promise of our commitment plays a critical role in its future as well as its clients’. The SAP Cloud ALM solution enables the professional services firm to accelerate the delivery of SAP S/4HANA. “Our projects are faster and more to the point,” observes Leonardo De Araujo, chief technology officer of Beyond Technologies. “Because we are better positioned to address our customers’ needs, everyone is winning.”

First Priority for SAP: Customer Success

Customer success is at the heart of everything for SAP Digital Business Services. From advisory services and preconfigured model companies to a globally expanding partner ecosystem, we’re creating a world of intelligent enterprises that are delivering experiences that matter.

No matter the digital strategy, investment, and project, every SAP customer is undergoing a shift that is paramount to their success for today and for years to come. And for us, there’s no better reason for keeping our customers’ success our first priority – every day.

Michael Kleinemeier is a member of the Executive Board of SAP SE and head of SAP Digital Business Services. Follow him on Twitter at @MichaelKleinem and on LinkedIn.