Recap of SAP Sapphire 2025: Exploring the Next Phase in Enterprise Architecture Development
Unleashing the Future: AI, Cloud, Business, and the Evolution of SAP
At SAP's mega event, Sapphire, we traveled to Orlando to soak up the insights from Christian Klein and his team's unveiling of SAP's upcoming platform and strategy. Here's a lowdown on what went down at Sapphire 2025:
Day 1 - Suite-as-a-Service: SAP's Bold Bet, AI Everywhere, and the End of SaaS
1) Say Hello to Suite-as-a-Service, AI's Perfect Partner
Long gone are the days of "Best-of-Breed" and loosely-knit SaaS tools that don't work together in today's AI-driven world. Say hello to Suite-as-a-Service. SAP's vision is all about powerhousing applications, data, and AI within a single ecosystem, a flywheel that spins insights back into the apps for a smarter world.
2) Joule, Your Personal AI Assistant, Taking Over the Interface
Adapting to us, not the other way around, Joule is no longer just a feature. It's the AI interface layer. Living across SAP's suite, Joule handles tasks, surfaces insights, and ties together systems and non-SAP apps like ServiceNow, Gmail, and LinkedIn through a WalkMe integration. It's all about moving from "insight to action" to "reason and act", aiming for a productivity boost of more than 30%.
3) Farewell Prompt Engineering, Welcome Benchmark Engineering
Enter a new era with Prompt Optimizer, a tool that rewrites prompts automatically in the background, letting users focus on their goals (not how to phrase them). This is all about benchmark engineering, a departure from traditional prompts and a focus on the system's ability to reach your desired outcome. SAP's multi-model support means Prompt Optimizer adapts your input to optimize for the model you're using.
4) AI Agents Go Big: SAP and NVIDIA's Partnership
SAP made waves with its partnership with NVIDIA, setting sights on bringing the power of AI agents into the real world through robotics. Testing use cases with robot inspections and procurement tasks are on the horizon, initiating a new era of business-aware robots.
Day 2 - Rebuilding and Reinventing with SAP: Enterprise Architecture for Resilience
SAP Sapphire's Day 2 was a testament to what real transformation looks like in a world of uncertainty. The takeaway? Enterprise Architecture is key to building resilience in today's fast-paced, unpredictable world. Companies took the stage to share their experiences, putting SAP's suite of solutions to the test.
1) Mercedes-Benz: Reinventing (at Scale)
With over ten thousand apps in the company, Mercedes-Benz faced deep fragmentation. Integrating their ecosystem and shifting to SAP Ariba, S/4HANA, and BTP, they saw a 30% cost reduction and 35% faster execution cycles. Life after complex systems? Simplified, streamlined, and efficient.
2) Phoenix Global: From Chaos to Control
In just eight months, Phoenix Global embraced the digital age, moving its entire operation to SAP S/4HANA Public Cloud. Bye-bye legacy systems, hello efficiency and control. The result? Potential savings in the millions.
3) Mars Wrigley: Uniting a Diverse Portfolio with Hybrid Cloud
Exceptional complexity called for a hybrid cloud model. Mars Wrigley connected its vast array of applications through SAP's Business Suite, making acquisitions a breeze. Now, they can impact growth at record speed.
The Bigger Picture: Complexity is Our Hidden Enemy
SAP's CRO, Jan Gilg, reminded us of the staggering truth: companies today operate with over 600 apps, while productivity continues to slide. Enter SaaS sprawl. Fragmented systems result in fragmented outcomes. SAP is out to change that by dishing up cloud migration, AI integration, and customer-centric solutions.
The Future: Toolchains, AI, and Real-Time Action
SAP's Integrated Toolchain weaves architecture visualization, scenario simulation, governance, and user adoption into a single platform. AI is at the core of SAP's strategy, with Joule set to star in 400 AI use cases across the suite. The future? Intelligent, adaptive, and agile architecture to guide us through an unpredictable world.
1) To improve efficiency and productivity, SAP has integrated AI, such as Joule, into their Suite-as-a-Service, creating a single ecosystem that powers applications, data, and AI for a smarter business world.
2) In the realm of finance, SAP's partnership with NVIDIA aims to bring the power of AI agents into the real world through robotics, potentially revolutionizing industries like procurement and quality assurance with robotic inspections.
3) Recognizing the need for simplicity and streamlined operations, SAP proposes benchmark engineering through their Prompt Optimizer tool, which automatically rewrites prompts in the background, allowing users to focus on their goals rather than the intricacies of prompt engineering.
4) As part of their strategy to bridge the gap between business and technology, SAP is investing in training and development, aiming to empower employees with the skills necessary to navigate the digital transformation, fostering a workforce capable of driving growth and innovation.
