SAP customers know that effectively managing their company’s spend is as important to us as it is to them.
That’s why we’ve built our industry-leading suite of spend management solutions that span direct and indirect procurement, external workforce, and travel and expense management. These solutions help you gain visibility into your supply chains, procure what’s critical to get the job done, and protect your bottom line – whether you’re simplifying expense, travel, and accounts payable processes, or finding the right talent to ensure your company’s profitability.
With our core commitment to SAP Business AI, we are focused on applying generative AI technology to all categories of spend. Like my colleague Muhammad Alam says, we’re “driving efficiency, quality, and insight into processes that cut across spend management.” Here are 12 generative AI scenarios we’re hard at work on.
Our spend management and business network solutions continue evolving and improving with time – and 2024 will be no different. But before I get ahead of myself, let’s reflect on the incredible last half of 2023, which has laid the foundation for all the amazing innovation to come in 2024.
Enhancing Your Control over Company Spend
New enhancements to SAP Ariba solutions, SAP Concur solutions, and SAP Business Network can take spend management from the most mundane part of your day to the most strategic. Here are a few enhancements we announced late last year:
- Region-specific strategy and planning for category management: Different regions of the world require different procurement strategies. The ability to import and use regions in SAP Ariba Category Management is now a reality. With its advanced analytics, AI-driven insights, and integrated frameworks and tools, users of SAP Ariba Category Management can reap the benefits of data-driven decision-making, identification of strategic sourcing opportunities, and mitigation of risks.
- The biggest Concur Travel release to date: As we continue rolling out the evolution of Concur Travel globally, the new end-to-end booking experience became available for customers whose travel management companies use the Sabre GDS from the U.S. point of sale for air, hotel, and car rental bookings. Congratulations to all our customers that made the strategic switch.
- Supplier catalogs within SAP Business Network: With the newly released SAP Business Network catalog feature, suppliers can upload a catalog that is publicly searchable and viewable by buyers on the network. With a network catalog, suppliers can maintain a single list of all the products they offer, creating high-quality buyers looking for the exact items listed. More improvements to the catalog and user demos are coming your way soon.
Customer Love
With Valentine’s Day coming up, it’s only right to brag about all the customer love we’ve been receiving. Words of affirmation is our love language.
- SAP Fieldglass is the G2 Winter 2024 Leader in Vendor Management.
- SAP Ariba is the G2 Winter 2024 Leader in Procure to Pay, Strategic Sourcing, and Supplier Relationship Management.
- SAP Concur is the G2 Winter 2024 Leader in Expense, Travel & Expense, and Invoicing.
To top it off, SAP Fieldglass, SAP Ariba, and SAP Concur swept the 2023 “Best Of” Awards from TrustRadius! TrustRadius, the most trusted review site for business technology, also released more wins for our spend management solutions:
- SAP Fieldglass is Top Rated in Workforce Management, Contractor Management, Freelance Management, and Vendor Management Systems (VMS).
- SAP Ariba is Top Rated in Procurement, Expense Management, and Supply Chain Management.
- SAP Concur is Top Rated in Expense Management, Travel Management, and Accounts Payable.
SAP Recognized by IDC MarketScape
I am also thrilled to announce that SAP was positioned as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Commerce Network 2023 Vendor Assessment.*
According to the assessment report, “SAP Business Network is a comprehensive B2B collaboration platform that connects people, processes, and systems across multiple enterprises, digitizing transactions and creating transparent, resilient, and sustainable supply chains.”
The report highlights these SAP strengths:
- Depth and breadth of product features, functionality, future road map covering all major B2B collaboration categories (indirect, direct material, MRO logistics, financial, services, sustainability), and scenarios in an end-user, persona-based manner
- Integration and extensibility capabilities including integration between SAP ERP, SAP procurement modules, and other applications (other ERP, SCAM, and customer applications) and technologies (machine learning, AI, blockchain) through SAP Business Technology Platform
- Global adoption and breadth of collaboration among the industry’s largest, highly adopted B2B collaboration platforms, enabling trading partners to collaborate in real time
- Ongoing efforts to harmonize commerce, asset intelligence, and logistics continue to enhance the power of the connected economy.
Thank you to our customers and my colleagues for collaborating on this fantastic win.
Customer Success Stories
Al Dahra, one of the world’s largest agribusiness logistics companies, manages food and animal feed supply chains from its home in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to countries around the globe. Learn how the company uses SAP Business Network to gain greater visibility into daily operations and as its digital solution to connect the company with its partners and clients.
Building material manufacturer Heidelberg Materials AG knew that visibility across its supplier base was key to enabling the smart decision-making that would help it improve financial performance while meeting sustainability goals. See how it achieved this by harmonizing its procurement processes across its operations with SAP Ariba solutions.
Watch how Chobani, America’s top Greek yogurt brand, uses SAP Business AI embedded in SAP Concur solutions to fully automate its expense processes.
BT Group aims to be the world’s most trusted connector of people, devices, and machines. Read how it overhauled its HR processes with the help of SAP Fieldglass solutions to deliver a modernized, connected colleague experience.
Register for SAP Concur Fusion
If you’re lucky enough to attend SAP Concur Fusion this year, don’t miss my colleague Etosha Thurman, chief marketing & solutions officer for SAP Intelligent Spend and Business Network, presenting in the keynote. She will be demonstrating transformative AI in SAP Concur travel, expense, and invoicing solutions, and how we’re creating a world where travel and expenses can practically manage themselves.
Jeff Collier is chief revenue officer for SAP Intelligent Spend and Business Network.
*Source: “IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Commerce Network 2023 Vendor Assessment,” by Simon Ellis, December 2023, IDC #US49948423.