It’s been a whirlwind first half of 2023. With summer here in the northern hemisphere, many of us use this time to vacation and be with family and friends. I’ve been getting much-needed face time with our customers between multiple regional SAP Sapphire and SAP Concur Fusion Exchange events.
Through our many conversations, one common theme stands out: how SAP’s suite of spend management solutions helps maximize efficiency.
Maximizing efficiency is especially needed when the days are longer, and the vacations are too. A spend management strategy that enables cost savings, risk management, supplier management, and compliance with local regulations can give our customers peace of mind. No matter the industry or where you are in the world, our solutions never take a break.
But don’t take my word for it. Our customers have been strengthening their supply chains, managing talent through a polycrisis, controlling cost while boosting compliance, and gaining critical insight into their suppliers’ suppliers’ suppliers. Here are some of their stories:
- Richemont International SA works with more than 700 direct spend suppliers to create the highest-quality luxury goods. When manual procurement processes were limiting supply chain visibility, Richemont turned to SAP Business Network and SAP Business Network for Supply Chain. As a result, it saw up to a 50% reduction in employee effort for warehouse receiving and a 12-day decrease – from 17 days to five days – in the confirmation feedback cycle.
- Accenture is a leading global professional services company that helps the world’s leading businesses, governments, and other organizations build their digital core, optimize their operations, accelerate revenue growth, and enhance citizen services. It underwent a digital procurement transformation that included the implementation of SAP Fieldglass Vendor Management System to help gain visibility into its global external workforce to reduce costs and improve the quality of services and contingent talent.
- PACCAR is a global leader in designing and manufacturing premium commercial vehicles. Before implementing SAP Concur solutions, it had decentralized and inconsistent travel booking and expense reporting processes that blocked visibility into spend data, frustrating employees. Now, the employee travel and expense experience is dramatically improved, reducing costs and improving compliance. This mitigates risks so travelers can focus on moving the business forward.
- When Kenya Electricity Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO), one of Kenya’s leading state corporations, needed to enhance its procurement capabilities to meet regulatory commitments, it adopted SAP to leverage the power and scale of the largest procurement network in the world. With SAP Ariba solutions, KETRACO completely eliminated paper-based transactions and now has one centralized repository for invoices. It has 100% visibility into its supplier data and has standardized its templates for contracts. Additionally, SAP Business Network allowed KETRACO to monitor and manage suppliers from a single point of view, with a 360-degree view of data and performance. Read the full story here.
Award-Winning Customer Feedback
SAP has once again won honors from G2 and TrustRadius, two trusted review sites that source their rankings from the people that matter most, our customers.
We are G2 Summer 2023 Leaders for the following categories:
- SAP Ariba – Leader in Procure-to-Pay, Strategic Sourcing, Purchasing, Contract Lifecycle Management, Supplier Relationship Management, and AP & Spend Analysis
- SAP Fieldglass – Leader in Strategic Sourcing
- SAP Concur – Leader in Expense Management, Travel Management, and Invoice Management
Additionally, TrustRadius has honored us with these 2023 Top Rated awards:
- SAP Ariba is Top Rated in the Procurement, Expense Management, and Supply Chain Management categories.
- SAP Fieldglass is Top Rated in the Workforce Management, Freelance Management, and Vendor Management Systems (VMS) categories.
- SAP Concur is Top Rated in the Expense Management, Travel Management, and Accounts Payable categories.
What’s more, SAP Concur has won TrustRadius’ Top Rated award for the fifth year in a row. Thank you to all customers that left us reviews and helped us earn this winning record!
Join Me at SAP Spend Connect Live
I’d be thrilled if you would join me and our community of procurement, supply chain, and travel and expense professionals at SAP Spend Connect Live in Vienna, Austria. From October 9-11, 2023 at the Messe Wien Congress Center, you will be surrounded by peers sharing transformation stories and learning how SAP solutions can empower us all to reach our corporate goals.
Our keynote speaker is Jim Ridgwick, CPO for Save the Children International (SCI). SCI’s goal is to create a world where all children have a voice, receive a quality education, and are protected from violence and death due to preventable causes. Join us to hear how introducing source-to-pay SAP Ariba solutions led to 100% supplier visibility and a 50% reduction in procurement lead times for SCI.
Like my colleague Etosha Thurman says in her piece, “With today’s highly complex and sometimes volatile and disruptive environment, spend management and supply chain professionals’ remit is bigger than ever.” There will be over 100 interactive sessions covering the hottest topics in spend management – and we can’t wait to see you.
Check out the SAP Spend Connect Live 2023 Web site to learn more about joining us. Space is limited, so register today.
The Best Is Yet to Come
What a first half it’s been, and I believe the best is yet to come! I am so excited to see many of you at SAP Spend Connect Live in Vienna. Right now, we’re working hard to make this an event like no other, with tons of information and opportunities to help your business run better. Stay in touch!
Jeff Collier is chief revenue officer for SAP Intelligent Spend and Business Network.
