SAPinsider Magazine | 2021 | Issue 3

On the Cover

Leading enterprises in 2021 are seizing the opportunity to combine business strategy with IT knowledge and accelerate forward into uncharted territories. Companies using SAP technology in particular are implementing next-generation technologies like analytics, SAP S/4HANA, and the cloud at an increasing rate, according to our research, requiring teams to not only develop effective business cases around these significant investments, but also put forth plans that account for a myriad of new and evolving concepts. This issue explores how companies like Hershey, Delivery Hero, and Excelitas are implementing additional skill sets, managing remote workforces during implementation projects, and breaking down the barriers between business and IT to differentiate their companies and better serve customers and employees.

Featured research in this issue provides a look into how strategies around employee experience are being adapted to accommodate workplace disruption and remote work. SAPinsider’s Research Analyst Craig Powers writes: “Efforts to improve employee experience may be considered sentimental in nature as opposed to strategic, but the truth is companies want to achieve recognizable return on their people investment, and investment in experience is often about enabling more productive workers. So that begs the question — how are companies investing in employee experience?” Read his article starting on page 6 to learn the answer.

Additional articles featured in this edition include:

• The beginnings of a finance transformation for UGI Corp., a Denver, PA-based natural gas and electric utility serving over 730,000 customers in 45 Pennsylvania counties and one county in Maryland, to achieve efficiencies and cost reductions; 
• Getting to know SAP’s President of Cloud, Brian Duffy, and his thoughts and advice about leadership, diversity and inclusion, and imagination;
• Thought leadership perspectives on what is enabling finance professionals to experiment with automation, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, and what leading professionals are doing to elevate the finance function within their organization and with it, the company’s entire analytics strategy; and
• What it means to commit to customer experience today, including the right research to invest in, innovating with self-service, and the value of integrating SAP and non-SAP data.