SAP Spend Connect Live: Highlights From Day 1

Staged at The Venetian Convention & Expo Center in the heart of Las Vegas, Day 1 of SAP Spend Connect Live 2024 was packed with insightful keynotes, customer success stories and roadmaps for the future of SAP Business Network.

Ensuring your bets pay off

Proceedings got under way in the Keynote Theatre with a hand worthy of winning any poker game, as members of SAP's leadership team kicked off the two-day event. 

The opening session, entitled 'Spend Management: The ace up your sleeve', saw executives discuss topics including the strategic role of the CPO and how to achieve end-to-end visibility.

Etosha Thurman, Chief Marketing Officer at SAP Intelligent Spend Business Network, said it was time for companies to "bet big on themselves" as she outlined SAP's raft of spend management solutions. 

She added: "Like the best poker skills in the world, it won't matter without the right hand of cards. You, the best and brightest in spend management, need the right solutions to ensure your bets pay off.

"SAP is a partner you can count on, whether you're new to the tale or ready for the high roller world."

The keynote started the same moment as SAP announced a number of exciting updates to its spend management solutions, aimed at helping companies collaborate strategically, increase productivity, manage compliance effortlessly and gain business insights.

The session also featured customer success stories from ThermoFisher, Uber and Warner Music Group, whose Senior Director for Process Transformation, Daniel Chapman, who discussed the successful implementation of SAP Spend Control Tower.

Business networks transform supply chain visibility

The future of B2B collaboration was another key topic on Day 1.

Simon Ellis, GVP at IDC, and Weronika Zgryska, Product Marketing Consultant at SAP, considered how business networks have the potential to transform supply chain visibility, efficiency and compliance, ensuring businesses are ready to deliver on the customer promise.

Simon said businesses should focus on achieving resilience so they can react quickly in the face of supply chain disruption, adding: "I need to be able to do it quicker than my competition. If I'm quicker than my competition, I can get to alternatives more quickly; if I can find new suppliers quickly, I can mitigate the impact of disruption, which is a competitive advantage.” 

Searching for curiosity 

Day 1 also included a profound look ahead to the future of procurement. 

Gordon Donovan, Global Vice President - Procurement and External Workforce at SAP, and John Ferguson, who leads research on New Globalisation at Economist Impact, discussed findings from their recent research which surveyed 2,000 C-suite professionals.

The pair examined how procurement will evolve over the next five years, as well as the strategies leading businesses are adopting.

Gordon revealed there is one key skill everyone is looking for in recruitment: "Curiosity was identified as the number-one thing that many CPOs want because they want them [new recruits] to ask questions.”

Accelerating digitalisation is tied as the top procurement priority over the next 12-18 months, with 44% of respondents identifying AI as a crucial technology focus.

John said the companies working hardest to discover how AI can benefit their processes will be the ones who find success: “Everyone is experimenting to see where they can either be more efficient or get better insights or deal with risks. Everyone’s doing it, which is a great thing, but we’re still at the early stages, so the benefits will come to those experimenting, but we’ve got a bit of a way to go.”  

Manoj Swaminathan's conclusion to the opening session set the tone for the whole day: "They say in Las Vegas, the house always wins. But with SAP, that's not the case.

"With SAP by your side, you always win. From meeting your KPIs and delighting your stakeholders, to delivering a fantastic user experience for your employees, we make your processes smarter and your life easier. You can absolutely bet money on that."

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