Thousands of attendees came to Las Vegas, Nevada, to celebrate the HR community, discuss what artificial intelligence (AI) means for the future of work, and share new ideas for how to ignite the potential within every workforce and business.
Indeed, from the mainstage keynote and breakout sessions to networking with customers and partners, AI was at the center of every conversation. If you weren’t able to attend this year’s event, you can catch the latest product announcements and select content now available on demand.
Here are three takeaways from this year’s SuccessConnect.
The Time Is Now to Adopt AI
As the pace of technological innovation continues to accelerate, organizations face an incredible opportunity to explore new ways to get work done – ways that take engagement and productivity to new heights for everyone at work. Special guest Josh Bersin, global industry analyst and CEO of The Josh Bersin Company, discussed the urgent need for companies to get on board with AI, emphasizing how AI can help keep companies ahead of the curve by transforming the employee experience. Bersin also shared ways to increase everyone’s knowledge and confidence when it comes to adopting AI, as well as the real economic benefits organizations can achieve based on early case studies.
In addition, Julia White, member of the Executive Board of SAP SE and chief marketing and solutions officer, shared what AI means for businesses today and how SAP is embedding AI into its cloud HR solutions. She talked about the latest addition to SAP Business AI, Joule – a natural-language, generative AI copilot designed to help improve the experiences of everyone at work by making it easy for users to find information, get answers to questions, navigate processes, and complete tasks related to HR as well as finance, supply chain, and customer relationship management. She emphasized how Joule, with its AI-powered insight and assistance, can help organizations unlock new levels of performance, productivity, and efficiency.
Talent Intelligence Is Key to Closing Skills Gaps
The power of talent intelligence has far-reaching implications for how organizations can more accurately and efficiently evaluate talent across all levels and address skills gaps. During the event, there was a lot of buzz around the general availability of the talent intelligence hub, an AI-powered skills framework that’s built into the foundation of SAP SuccessFactors Human Experience Management (HXM) Suite. Now organizations can have the power and simplicity of a single skills model to fuel everything from recruiting and onboarding to learning and development, as well as performance and succession.
Sam Passman, vice president, Product Management at SAP SuccessFactors, provided a comprehensive overview of the talent intelligence hub, including how organizations can better understand and leverage the skills of their workforce. “An organization that is not focused on skills is going to be left behind,” he said. “Customers often struggle with having visibility into their full skills picture and having employee profile data integrated throughout talent management processes. The talent intelligence hub is how we are making sure our customers can match the right people, doing the right work, at the right time – truly helping them become skills-based organizations.”
In addition, Tim Gregory, managing director of HR Innovation and Workforce Technology at Delta Air Lines, shared how the company is using SAP SuccessFactors solutions, including the talent intelligence hub, to create personalized career development plans for employees based not only on the skills most important to Delta but also each individual’s capabilities, strengths, and aspirations.
Other sessions provided tips for becoming a skills-based organization and focused on how to get ready for the talent intelligence hub and use it to help guide actions across all areas of talent management and development. And, of course, a live demonstration brought the talent intelligence hub to life as part of the SuccessConnect keynote.
A Powerful Cloud Foundation Drives True HR Transformation
Having a cloud-based HR foundation is key for achieving true HR transformation – the kind of transformation that makes data-driven insights, smarter decision-making, automation, and a positive employee experience a reality. At the event, Mihael Sutalo, vice president, People Technology at Pandora, the world’s leading jewelry brand, shared how the company is digitalizing HR and adopting new technologies to create amazing employee experiences as a unified, global company. “We wanted to scale to future-proof the company, and we believe strongly in the power of the cloud,” he said. He explained how Pandora has successfully moved from a fragmented HR landscape to SAP SuccessFactors HXM Suite, improving the company’s ability to attract and retain top talent.
Avery Williams, manager of HR Operations Strategy at Starbucks Corporation, also discussed how the company modernized its core HR technology, service delivery, and employee and partner experience by migrating 250,000 employees and partners from the legacy, on-premise SAP ERP Human Capital Management solution to a new cloud-based platform with SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central.
In addition, Todd Asevedo, GVP, chief expert, SAP, shared a host of best practices for how customers can minimize risk and disruption as they make the move from SAP ERP HCM to the cloud. He also outlined the various deployment options to help organizations understand the transition paths available for a smooth migration.
Couldn’t attend the in-person event? You can get the best of SuccessConnect wherever you are! Be sure to access the keynotes, customer success stories, and expert sessions, including road maps, product demos, and more, all available on demand. Plus, don’t forget to sign up to stay informed about the SuccessConnect event in 2024.
Lara Albert is global vice president of Solution Marketing for SAP SuccessFactors.
