Ever since generative AI's debut in late 2022, ERP vendors have raced to embed its human-like communication, research and analytical capabilities into their software. Besides responding to customer demand for AI, they're keen to use the technology to make their complex systems easier to use and more responsive.

At its annual Sapphire 2024 conference in Orlando, Florida, the biggest ERP vendor, SAP, made generative AI the focus of almost every major product announcement, stage presentation and demo. It also announced AI partnerships with Nvidia, Microsoft and Google and significant enhancements to its Rise with SAP program, which is designed to ease the transition to SAP's newest ERP platform, S/4HANA Cloud.

In this podcast, TechTarget Industry Editor David Essex and News Writer Jim O'Donnell discuss the major developments at Sapphire and what they mean for SAP and its customers.

Other topics discussed in the podcast include:

• SAP's plans to make its Joule generative AI assistant the new user interface to its business applications
• the surprise announcement that SAP is buying WalkMe, a digital adoption platform, for $1.5 billion dollars
• how the role of implementation partners such as Deloitte, EY and PwC in S/4HANA migration is evolving
• SAP's advocacy of an ERP "clean core" as a foundation for multitenant SaaS applications
• where the Sapphire announcements leave SAP in the generative AI race against ERP competitors

Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, TechTarget

As the largest ERP vendor, SAP makes the software that runs much of the world's business. And whenever SAP makes a major change in its product portfolio, its customers often must scramble to adapt.

No change in the past two decades has had more impact than SAP's decision to replace its popular ERP Central Component (ECC) software and related Business Suite applications with S/4HANA, a new generation of ERP that only runs on SAP's HANA in-memory database. SAP is also pushing customers to change deployment models by moving off Business Suite and the first incarnation of S/4HANA – both of which run on premises – to cloud versions of S/4HANA. More recently, the technological tsunami from the 2022 introduction of generative AI is transforming the SAP product portfolio yet again.

Since 1991, Americas' SAP User Group (ASUG) has strived to help members through such changes with networking events, education and research on SAP products while serving as their advocate with SAP. ASUG claims to be the world's largest SAP user group with 130,000 members across North America.

In this podcast, ASUG CEO Geoff Scott shares member feedback and his personal take on SAP S/4HANA, cloud migration and generative AI with TechTarget Industry Editor David Essex and News Writer Jim O'Donnell.

Scott, who has been ASUG CEO since January 2014, came from senior IT roles that involved implementing and managing enterprise applications from SAP, Oracle and other vendors. He was CIO of TOMS, a footwear and apparel maker, and JBS, a global meat processor and distributor. Prior to that, he was a senior IT manager at Ford, after being CIO of Edcor Data Services and a consultant at PwC.

Other topics discussed in the podcast include:

• what to expect from the upcoming Sapphire conference in Orlando, which ASUG co-sponsors with SAP
• the success of the Rise with SAP and Grow with SAP services for moving to S/4HANA
• how ASUG manages its relationship with SAP to keep customer concerns front and center

Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, TechTarget

E-learning technologies, such as online courses, instructional videos and augmented reality apps, are in hot demand at corporations. Much of that demand is driven by the sheer number and complexity of the software applications employees must learn to use.

It's a massive training and onboarding challenge, one that many organizations are addressing with a digital adoption platform (DAP), a layer of software that works inside applications to guide users through their daily tasks.

The market for DAPs is growing, according to research firms Gartner and IDC. Companies are using DAPs to streamline employee onboarding, speed up training, foster compliance and even handle some tech support. DAPs are also becoming important tools in digital transformation initiatives.

In this podcast, Krishna Dunthoori, founder and CEO of Apty, explains how DAPs work and how organizations are using them. Apty, founded in 2018, specializes in making DAPs to ease the adoption and use of enterprise applications, including Salesforce, ServiceNow, Workday and Microsoft Dynamics ERP.

Dunthoori was previously founder and CEO of Excers Inc., which provides professional services for project portfolio management and enterprise software implementation. Before that, he was a solutions architect at the World Bank and the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston.

Other topics discussed in the podcast include:

• using DAPs in change management
• where DAPs fit in learning and development strategies
• Apty's plans to add generative AI to its platform

Host: David Essex, Industry Editor, TechTarget