sovanta at SAP Sapphire 2023
We travelled twice to SAP Sapphire 2023, the most important SAP customer event, in May – first to Orlando and then to Barcelona. Both events were important for us, because not only SAP had a lot to announce, but also sovanta used the international setting to announce some news. Christian Heinrich was there for sovanta and has summarized his impressions of the days in the heart of the SAP community.
SAP BTP was omnipresent at SAP Sapphire
Whether in Orlando or Barcelona, both events had a strong focus on the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). The customer interest in the SAP offering was overwhelming and the various SAP announcements around the innovation platform showed once again that the BTP has found a firm place in the SAP portfolio and in the future-proof system landscapes of the customers. In the announcements around new features on the SAP BTP, I see a nice combination of innovation, improvements and integration. They show that the platform is evolving in all areas to remain innovative, close functional gaps and integrate with all relevant other components of the system landscape.
SAP AI Business Services as next step
SAP AI Business Services were discussed at various points on the agenda. Artificial intelligence has been on everyone’s lips at the latest since the success of ChatGPT, so it comes as no surprise that SAP is now also taking up this topic. It will be interesting to see how generative AI is integrated into the SAP world via BTP. At Sapphire, a variety of use cases were shown, e.g. AI to support SuccessFactors users or SAP CAP developers. Through our AI team, we have already tried out a large number of such use cases and have had our finger on the pulse for a number of years. And we are also finding that Generative AI is opening up completely new possibilities. We see many exciting use cases for the business sector in combination with SAP data – another very valuable area of application for SAP BTP.
Qualtrics, SAP and sovanta at SAP Sapphire
For us as a Qualtrics Network Partner and long-standing SAP partner, it was certainly particularly exciting to see how SAP’s announcement of its intention to sell Qualtrics would affect us. The positive news: no matter who we spoke to, they all emphasised that it will continue to be important to work very closely and in partnership in the future. After all, many scenarios from the areas of HXM, CX, or also in the context of IT projects are only conceivable in a meaningful way in the combination of Qualtrics and SAP.
At the Qualtrics booth we were able to present our newly launched solution ETX for SAP RISE. With this solution, we are building a bridge from our Qualtrics expertise to our SAP expertise. With a survey landscape based on Qualtrics XM, the solution accompanies a company through the SAP RISE transformation and ensures that all stakeholders are on board and support the process at all relevant touchpoints. This provides companies with an early warning system, they recognize problems and stumbling blocks very early in the process and can react directly. Cody Wedl, our Head of Experience Management, was able to offer direct demos at the Qualtrics booth and guided many interested people through our solution.
Proximity to the SAP community is unbeatable
We enjoyed both events very much and especially the personal exchange with SAP, Qualtrics, but also other partners and of course with customers is simply irreplaceable. Anyone who wasn’t there really missed out. And in order to further expand this closeness to the American market, we announced at SAP Sapphire in Orlando that we are now also entering the US market as sovanta America Inc. We are looking forward to this new challenge.
