Once a year, over 10,000 decision-makers and influencers from key industries head to Orlando, FL, for the annual SAP Sapphire & ASUG Conference. The global SAP community comes together to share knowledge and plan for changes that may impact business functions. The goal is to help SAP customers and partners stay ahead of the ever-evolving business landscape by leveraging tools to future-proof their business growth.
If you missed the sold-out conference, don’t worry, the Fairmarkit team was there in full force and has rounded up the key takeaways! Below you’ll find a recap of the Fairmarkit session, news, networking events, and partner highlights from the event.
Details
Event Page:
SAP Sapphire & ASUG Annual Conference Orlando
Dates
May 16th & 17th
Location
Orange County Convention Center, 9800 International Dr, Orlando, FL 32819
Key Departments
Finance, procurement, supply chain management, and technology
Key Industries
Energy & natural resources, sustainability initiatives, financial services, consumer services, discrete manufacturing, and public services
Key Themes
Future-proofing your business, business transformation, supply chain resilience, business innovation for sustainability, adoption and time-to-value
This two-day event hosted over 2,600 companies and 250+ customer speakers, all with a focus on preparing for change or “future-proofing” an organization. With this in mind, five key themes emerged as the main pillars to promote the evolution of business. While the Keynote speakers like Serena Williams and leaders of SAP focused primarily on the larger scope of future-proofing through innovation, organization, and investments, other speakers like Fairmarkit focused on the practical implementation of this concept.
Fairmarkit Session: Fairmarkit and Maxar: Journey to Autonomous Sourcing
In line with the overarching themes of the event, Fairmarkit CEO Kevin Frechette and Maxar Director of Strategic Sourcing and Procurement Duncan Macfarlane hosted a session on how Maxar is leveraging the power of autonomous sourcing to the procurement organization to make it more efficient, competitive, and visible.
Prior to partnering with Fairmarkit, Maxar’s procurement team was sourcing goods & services manually and with little visibility into their spend across categories and buyers. Maxar partnered with Fairmarkit to leverage autonomous sourcing in ways that helped them source more competitively, at scale, and manage more spend per FTE.
“If you have a very manual sourcing process, with Fairmarkit, you can be up and running within a matter of days, and if you have an unstable supply base, Fairmarkit can help you utilize your current market network of suppliers to make them competitive and then deliver the items you need,” said Macfarlane.
The procurement function has now moved beyond tactical reactions and allowed the team to focus on more strategic initiatives within the sourcing process. AI/ML has enabled the Maxar team to scale, reduce cycle times and achieve cost savings while improving the customer experience without adversely impacting the procurement team. The results are staggering. By implementing Fairmarkit, Maxar boasts over 15% new cost savings and $22M in new spend brought under management. To learn more, read the Maxar case study.
Latest Integration Announcement: S/4HANA & Fairmarkit
On May 16th, the first day of the conference, Fairmarkit officially announced the completed API and certified application with S/4HANA, allowing customers to focus on autonomous sourcing, which is increasingly essential as companies face downward pressure on spend. This seamless integration can share and transmit data for a touchless process. That means Fairmarkit can be implemented in weeks, not months, with no need for IT involvement. With SAP and Fairmarkit together, procurement teams can automatically get quotes for purchase requests from existing suppliers and find new ones - this efficiency translates to a realized cost savings of over 10% for most organizations.
Autonomous sourcing capabilities through platforms like Fairmarkit are quickly being adopted by companies around the globe to solve business challenges around efficiencies and cost savings. Fairmarkit integrates with ERP and P2P systems to automate manual source-to-award workflows so procurement teams can manage 10x more events and reduce cycle times by 40% without adding resources. While AI-powered supplier recommendations find the best-fit suppliers for every event by leveraging a company’s existing procurement data. This data, combined with data from the thousands of daily buyer and seller interactions on the Fairmarkit marketplace, results in a competitive bidding structure that allows for over 11% cost savings across categories without compromising compliance and ESG requirements.
Building Community: Fairmarkit Engagement & Events
The Fairmarkit team was thrilled to host a variety of events to harness the power of networking at the annual SAP Sapphire & ASUG Conference. It was important for the team to use this time to foster a community and learn from the experience of others. From a happy hour to breakfast invites and VIP giveaways - attendees had a chance to share their experiences with the team.
Networking Highlights
Opening Night Happy Hour
A round of TopGolf sponsored by Fairmarkit, Candex, and Capgemini
Fairmarkit Booth
Custom demos from our Director of Solutions Consulting
Fairmarkit Rest & Relax Lounge/Meeting Suite
Drop in for a demo or just a quiet place to relax with a coffee
- Co-Founder and CEO Kevin Frechette was on-site to connect
- Attendees were able to drop in for happy hour & breakfast
VIP Giveaway: $100 Uber gift card, $100 Visa gift card & $300 Disney parks gift card to upgrade your Sapphire experience in Orlando. Attendees were able to enter by RSVP-ing for TopGolf happy hour.
Congratulations to VIP Giveaway winner Patience Stern, Director of Supply Chain at Hess!
If you’re interested in attending a Fairmarkit event in the future, check out upcoming events!
Fairmarkit Partner Network
As mentioned above, two Fairmarkit partners made the trip to Orlando to help co-host the Fairmarkit TopGolf event. Capgemini and Candex are a part of the Fairmarkit Partner Network created to accelerate the shared vision of complimentary organizations to help enterprise procurement modernize, digitize and automate their technology and processes. The network includes a variety of partners, from large managed service providers to boutique consulting groups.
Meet two Fairmarkit partners!
Capgemini
Capgemini is a global consulting and technology services company that helps organizations harness the power of technology to drive business transformation. They provide a wide range of services, including strategic consulting, technology solutions, digital transformation, and outsourcing. With expertise in various industries, Capgemini assists clients in optimizing operations, improving performance, and achieving their business objectives. They leverage emerging technologies such as AI, cloud computing, and IoT to deliver innovative solutions that enable organizations to stay competitive in today's digital age. Capgemini's focus is on empowering clients to navigate complex challenges, embrace digital innovation, and achieve sustainable growth.
Candex
Candex is a fintech consolidator for large organizations so that they can make purchases from one-time, irregular, and low-risk suppliers using existing P2P processes. Candex operates globally, managing setup, support, tax, and regulatory complexity - making it simple, fast, and compliant to pay suppliers even across borders and cross currencies. Available in multiple deliveries, Candex works directly within existing e-procurement systems via bulk uploads or integrated into any workflow via API. Candex completely takes care of the 70-80% of vendors getting 3-5% of spend, ensuring that "No PO, No Pay" becomes achievable.
Learn more about the Fairmarkit Partner Network.
Conclusion: Key Takeaways
The SAP Sapphire & ASUG Conference covered a lot of ground in just a few short days. While it is impossible to capture and summarize all the information shared, there are a few things worth highlighting. For more in-depth takeaways, visit the SAP blog.
Generative AI is here
Microsoft and Google Cloud announced collaborations with SAP in the AI and data space. That is a huge deal! SAP announced its partnership with Mircosoft to embed AI in enterprise applications both companies collaborate on. This means AI has officially hit the big leagues, and we will continue to see rapid advancements.
Future-proofing starts with data
New systems, new platforms, and new AI are only as effective as the data they are connected to. In order to effectively manage Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), the core system of record at any organization must be clean. The age of innovating by creating highly customized and complicated management systems is over. It is now time for organizations to leverage the technology and tools available by adapting and not try to adapt those tools to outdated systems.
Partner networks are essential for supply chains
Companies like Pfizer and Unilever are using the SAP Business Network to supercharge their supply chain. Not unlike the Fairmarkit Partner Network. In order to sustain supply chains and work towards a common goal, now more than ever, organizations need to work together.
That’s a wrap on the 2023 SAP Sapphire & ASUG Conference! If you’d like to continue the conversation on any of the topics listed above or to learn more about Fairmarkit, connect with our team by booking a demo or visiting our SAP listing.
