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With about 12,000 employees worldwide, along with offices in Bonn and Berlin and approximately 230 missions, the reach of the German Federal Foreign Office is vast, connecting with citizens abroad, along with other governments and international organizations. But in the modern age, the agency realized that its system of digitally managing citizen requests was outdated. The pressure was on to adopt a modern, flexible, and scalable system to route questions to the proper source and provide the necessary answers. But how? AI clears the way For years, requests were processed in a way that was highly individual, depending on the department and mission, usually via email. Not only was this time-consuming and difficult, but information tended to become muddled or lost along the way, with inquiries sometimes dispatched to the wrong place. A better-designed structure was needed to standardize answers, foster efficiency and collaboration, and proactively solve problems on a global scale. That would mean developing a platform using artificial intelligence (AI) to gain insights into the past, present, and future – and improve the lives of the citizens using it. Quid est facil? In addition to maintaining political contacts worldwide, the German Federal Foreign Office promotes dialogue, focusing on such areas as development, technology, sustainability, culture, business, and science. Given the expanding scale of questions directed at the agency, the new solution would decentralize the prior communication methods, replacing them with a central system. To avoid confusion, the platform had to be intuitive to use so both citizens and government employees could quickly familiarize themselves with the updated style of corresponding. The solution would go by the name “FACIL,” based on the Latin term for “easily done.” “For us, FACIL means efficient communication, satisfied customers, and a gain in personnel resources for other tasks,” observed David Genzel, counsel general of the German Embassy in Sarajevo. In keeping with the times, this would be the agency’s first cloud-native development, an approach to building, deploying, and managing applications in a cloud computing environment, ensuring scale, durability, and elasticity. Since 1999, SAP had been providing support across the office’s operations, and the decision was made to partner with the company to create the cloud-based innovation. Designed to manage high demand, FACIL would be able to provide a consistent customer experience across multiple channels.  FACIL’s foundation would be based on SAP’s Business Technology Platform (BTP), a suite that helped the agency personalize applications and integrate and connect landscapes throughout the uncertainty of the pandemic. A small team of SAP consultants collaborating with the German Federal Foreign Office would create the initial architecture. All parties agreed that AI would increase processing efficiency while minimizing the risk of converting to a new system.  Requests could instantly be assigned to the proper processor based on topic, providing citizens with quick, accurate answers. Speaking with one voice Although FACIL first went live in April 2021, the platform was enhanced by quarterly releases until December 2023. By that time, it was handling 40,000 new inquiries a month. Having processed more than 1.8 million messages via phone, fax, and email – among other sources – the solution had been utilized by more than 450,000 citizens. In total, about 83% of requests are categorized through the use of AI and then automatically answered. In other cases, FACIL’s AI model can resolve an issue by calculating the methods used to respond to similar questions. Since the solution was launched, 77% of all inquiries have been closed and answered the same day. In fact, because of AI, 50% of citizen requests no longer require human interaction at all. Without the traditional architecture and storage that was previously essential to operate this type of platform, the system can be updated with no downtime. SAP’s Malware Scanning System scans all files before storing them. For its creation of FACIL, the German Federal Foreign Office received first prize in the “Services Supernova” category at the 2024 SAP Innovation Awards, a yearly event celebrating organizations using SAP technologies to improve communication, as well as the quality of life. (You can learn more about what the German Federal Foreign Office accomplished to earn this coveted award by reading their Innovation Awards pitch deck.) “All staff are on the same page and communicate…with one voice to give customers necessary guidance,” noted Christiane Kapashi, consular section head for the German embassy in Copenhagen. source

By 2025, women are expected to comprise 30% of the global cybersecurity workforce, with projections rising to 35% by 2031. While this represents notable progress, discussions at Gitex 2024 underscored that the journey toward gender parity is far from complete. One solution emphasized during the event was the critical role of mentorship and supportive networks in empowering women within cybersecurity. The panelists highlighted that mentorship from both men and women can serve as a vital mechanism for attracting more women to the sector, offering guidance, career development, and growth opportunities. “The cybersecurity barrier is challenging for women; we are breaking barriers and encouraging more women to pursue STEM careers. But we must do even more,” said H.E. Tigist Hamid Mohammed, Director General of the Information Network Security Administration in Ethiopia. Dr. Abeer Khedr, Group Head of Cybersecurity at the National Bank of Egypt, echoed this sentiment: “Cyber leadership at the client side means reaching CISO levels or beyond. In Egypt, entry-level positions in cybersecurity show a 60:40 ratio of women to men. The real challenge arises as women advance into middle management. To shift the narrative on cyber leadership, we need more women in boardrooms. The UAE and Saudi Arabia are among the top three nations with the highest percentage of women on boards, across both tech and other sectors.” source

Sevita is dedicated to providing adults, children, and their families innovative services and support designed to lead to growth and independence despite physical, intellectual, or behavioral challenges. With person-centered care, the company works to foster independence, improve quality of life, and promote overall well-being for the individuals they serve. As such, the data on labor, occupancy, and engagement is extremely meaningful. Here, CIO Patrick Piccininno provides a roadmap of his journey from data with no integration to meaningful dashboards, insights, and a data literate culture. You’re building an enterprise data platform for the first time in Sevita’s history. What’s driving this investment? When I joined in July 2022, the company had spent the prior 24 months completing more than 20 acquisitions, and the IT team was busy bringing all these new systems online. Our legacy architecture consisted of multiple standalone, on-prem data marts intended to integrate transactional data from roughly 30 electronic health record systems to deliver a reporting capability. But because of the infrastructure, employees spent hours on manual data analysis and spreadsheet jockeying. We had plenty of reporting, but very little data insight, and no real semblance of a data strategy. source

The multicloud calculus Mojgan Lefebvre, EVP and chief technology and operations officer at Travelers, says a multicloud architecture not only offers enterprises the freedom to use best-of-breed cloud services but also the ability to negotiate better financial terms from each cloud provider. “Different cloud providers offer various pricing models,” she says. “A multicloud strategy allows organizations to optimize costs by selecting the most cost-effective services for their needs.” [ Related: CIOs sharpen cloud cost strategies — just as gen AI spikes loom ] Lefebvre says Travelers’ approach to multicloud is intentional, with best fits for each workload being decided on a case-by-case basis — including keeping specific workloads in-house. She also notes that not relying on a single cloud provider reduces the risk of downtime and data loss, while also fostering better business opportunities. “Access to a broader range of tools and services, including advanced AI and machine learning capabilities, can drive innovation and improve business outcomes,” she says. “However, managing multiple cloud environments can be complex and requires specialized skills and tools to ensure consistent security and compliance and effective integration of services and data.” That often means applying vendor-supplied connectors to exchange data from cloud to cloud, interoperability management tools, and in many cases, pricey systems integrators to stitch it all together and ensure, above all else, that there is no data leakage. Bob McCowan, CIO of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, says taking a cloud-native approach can help ease some multicloud challenges. “For those organizations that embraced ‘native cloud,’ the architecture and design allow for movement of the work between different cloud providers without significant effort,” he says. “In most cases this is part of a business continuity play but it’s good practice to avoid getting overly committed to any provider, as well as leaving the door open for pivoting to cloud providers that may deliver a capability unique to their platform.” Given the pace of change in the cloud industry itself, that flexibility can readily pay off, McCowan says. “Cloud providers are going to be leapfrogging each other and if the capability, price point, or global reach warrants it, organizations will need to have the agility to change things up,” he says. “The rapid growth in AI, with very specific use cases will also require organizations to plan for change or risk getting tied to the wrong technology or cloud provider.” AI has become a game changer in many ways, and it is causing CIOs to rethink their cloud strategies. There is a lot to be gained from leveraging the latest tools in the public cloud and being able to defect as necessary. Still, Max Chan, CIO of Avnet, says IT leaders ought not fret about building a multicloud architecture unless there is a well-defined need. “Public cloud interoperability is increasingly important for gen AI deployment, but whether it is critical or more of a ‘nice to have’ depends on the specific use case and enterprise needs,” he says. “Enterprises with complex workflows that require integrating data and services from multiple cloud providers, such interoperability is essential for seamless data flow and service integration. However, for most other organizations that use a single cloud provider, interoperability might be less critical.” And, Chan notes, the added complexity, as well as the potential costs associated with managing multicloud environments, might outweigh the benefits for many organizations. Still, for those organizations embracing multicloud, all eyes will be on interoperability advancements. Oracle has taken a big step in that direction but only time will tell if enterprise demand forces cloud providers to build further interoperability directly into their clouds or risk losing customers. In the interim, there are many tools and data integration strategies CIOs can use to make a hybrid, multicloud environment functional, says Nick Golovin, senior vice president of enterprise data platform at CData. Amazon, for instance, advises customers to use homegrown services such as AWS DataSync, Glue, Athena, and CloudWatch to enable hybrid, multicloud interoperability. In a blog post this summer, AWS claimed Phillips 66 achieved multicloud interoperability by deploying its Managed Service for Prometheus but acknowledged AWS Professional Services was hired to make it work. AWS also pointed to Elastic Container Services and EKS Anywhere, as well as AWS Outposts Family and AWS Snow Family as additional tools to enable interoperability. “CIOs and data decision-makers can create a comprehensive data management strategy for the hybrid cloud environment by considering their environment as a data ecosystem and focusing on aspects such as integration, data quality, governance, master data management, and metadata management,” Golovin says. “Cloud platform vendors often provide parts of these aspects, so understanding where the gaps are and leveraging third-party specialized tools for critical data management functions can help overcome the limitations of proprietary cloud ecosystems, ensuring seamless connectivity and flexibility,” he adds. source

The approximately 60,000 employees of BSH Home Appliances Group (BSH) would agree with a phrase invented more than 400 years ago by an Englishman, Sir Francis Bacon. For those employees striving to meet their company’s goal of improving customers’ quality of life at home, Bacon said it best, “Knowledge is power.”   Based in Munich, Germany, BSH, a part of Bosch Group, has become one of the world’s top home appliance manufacturers – from large appliances such as ovens, dishwashers, washers, dryers, and refrigerators to small appliances such as vacuum cleaners and espresso machines. You may even be familiar with some of their brands, like Bosch, Siemens, Gaggenau, NEFF, and Thermador. BSH has 38 factories worldwide and a network of sales, production, and service companies. Lacking a unified experience In the past, BSH faced challenges in effectively utilizing consumer knowledge, which included understanding their preferences, purchasing history, service requirements, and product usage. This valuable information plays a crucial role in driving sales, marketing, service, and product development efforts, ultimately leading to satisfied customers and employees. BSH recognized the need for a unified engagement platform to streamline consumer data management across all touchpoints in its direct-to-consumer (D2C) operations. Previously, the company relied on a collection of insufficiently connected legacy systems, making it difficult to identify consumers and cater to their specific needs. Inefficiencies resulting from a knowledge void Going deeper into the issues, the knowledge disconnect challenged the company to provide timely, complete responses to marketing and sales opportunities. BSH struggled to offer the level of self-service capabilities today’s consumers expect in terms of one ID, one portal, affecting consumer satisfaction. The lack of easily accessible data and BSH’s complex system landscape also affected the company’s ability to quickly and effectively implement improved customer relationship management solutions. This deficiency impacted the targeted marketing campaigns that would help boost the consumer experience (CX) and engagement.  The insufficiently connected systems even prevented BSH from taking full advantage of what the Internet of Things and the company’s “smart” appliances have to offer. In short,  BSH could not leverage the potential of connected “smart” home appliances to gather application information for building loyalty and new business models. The launch of an omni-channel CX revolution To get connected, BSH reached out to SAP to create its OneConsumer (OCO) platform, a unified engagement platform that revolutionizes how the company handles consumer data.  With the OCO project, BSH connected all relevant systems and processes through SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) to achieve holistic data integration and established a common consent and preference management solution based on SAP Customer Data Cloud. It connects and leverages consumer interactions from sales, service, and marketing through additional SAP Customer Experience solutions and smart home application integration, collecting and storing data for easy, centralized single-sign-on access.  The company is now able to achieve real-time data exchange across all touchpoints and BSH brands quickly and completely.  Creating a seamless experience with the goal of a holistic 360° approach Through seamless integration and unique consumer identification, BSH breaks down silos to move toward holistic 360° consumer data capabilities combining customer profiles and smart home data of registered products.  The new solution is designed to optimize the customer journey at all ends with a single ID. Customers gain a personalized view of their data, accessible through their web accounts or the Home Connect app. Self-service and customer engagement have been strongly enhanced.  With OCO at work, the company has been able to create personalized emails to address shopping cart abandonment, leading to a 3x higher conversion rate – less consumer churn and higher D2C revenue.  In addition, the dedicated BSH teams across touchpoints, from contact centers to showrooms and stores, can confidently engage with consumers, equipped with accurate information.  Another milestone achieved OCO and its SAP tools have also helped accelerate the time to market for better service, saving up to 40% in development time for CRM-related implementations and significantly increasing the efficiency of marketing campaign deployments.  “With our new OneConsumer Engagement Platform we are creating a transparent win-win for both our consumers and our employees, leveraging unified data across brands, touchpoints, and processes to improve quality of life at home in every interaction. After pilots in a few of our markets so far and incorporating several further improvement ideas, we are now preparing the rollout to boost Customer Experience with our brands, products, service and Home Connect ecosystem around the globe,“ says Rainer Jersch, Global Head of B2C Analytics & Marketing at BSH Home Appliances Group. OCO is more than just a project; it’s a strategic game changer. It lays the foundation for essential key capabilities such as state-of-the-art loyalty management, AI-powered personalized recommendations, and a seamless omnichannel purchase, smart home, and service experience. Recognized for these achievements At SAP Innovation Awards 2024, BSH and its employees were honored for elevating the consumer experience with OCO, receiving the “Experience Wizard” award. You can read more about how that powerful experience was created by checking out the BSH pitch deck. source

In the course of the year, there were already indications that the conversion could go deeper than originally planned. In the current quarterly report, SAP speaks of 9000 to 10,000 jobs that will be affected by the restructuring. Most of them would involve volunteer programs and internal retraining measures, it said. According to SAP, the program is to be completed at the beginning of 2025 and cost around €3 billion. But the conversion leaves clear traces. The satisfaction of SAP employees is declining. Employee engagement was at 86 percent in 2020, and never fell below 80 percent in the years before or since, but now SAP management expects only a value of between 70 and 74 percent for 2024. Last year, 76 to 80 percent had been expected in Walldorf. The software company is a long way from the 2022 target of achieving 84 to 86 percent next year. In the meantime, no concrete figures for 2025 are given in the boardroom. There is only talk of wanting to steadily increase the number. Cloud business is going well for SAP Financially, on the other hand, things are going splendidly for SAP. For the third quarter of 2024, the software manufacturer reported revenue of just under €8.5 billion, an increase of ten percent after adjusting for currency effects compared to the same quarter last year. The operating result even improved by 28 percent from just under €1.8 billion to a good €2.2 billion. The bottom line was a profit of over €1.4 billion, compared to €1.3 billion in the previous year. source

ServiceNow and end‑to‑end enterprise software support provider Rimini Street have jointly developed a new enterprise software model, designed to reduce costs for enterprises by providing an alternative to digitally transforming existing ERP software. The new enterprise model ensures that enterprises don’t have to “rip and replace” or “lift and shift” their ERP software, which could lead to delayed or often unrealized return on investment, the companies said. “The new enterprise software model from Rimini Street and ServiceNow can produce significant and immediate savings that fuel net‑new innovation, unmatched user experiences, and AI‑driven productivity gains, in weeks to months, not years, with the ServiceNow platform,” the companies said in a joint statement to the press. source