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[New] Prompt Optimization: Unlocking Hidden Power for Enterprise AI Success

Posted by WSS on December 10, 2025   |   Comments Off on [New] Prompt Optimization: Unlocking Hidden Power for Enterprise AI Success

Gaps in Prompt Design Derail the User Experience

What happens when gaps in prompt design or user intent recognition turns everyday AI interactions into a dead‑end waste of time?

Have you ever experienced this type of situation?

For example, I recently tried to claim a rebate for a kitchen appliance, but the company’s AI assistant misinterpreted my request and left me stuck with irrelevant FAQs. The issue was poor prompt design. With proper prompt optimization, the assistant could have recognized my rebate request and guided me to the correct, enabled form. A smarter workflow would have turned a dead end into a faster way to get my rebate money.

What fun!

This experience underscores a critical truth: when prompts fail to capture real‑world users’ intent, the customer experience collapses.

For business and IT users working with AI, this isn’t just a consumer inconvenience, it’s a wake‑up call. Prompt optimization has become a strategic discipline the bridge between user intent and AI execution. It ensures AI systems can interpret nuance, adapt to context, and deliver meaningful results.

Prompt optimization extends this discipline, helping organizations scale reliably across large language models (LLMs) and multiple AI systems so that business goals and IT execution remain aligned.

Whether in customer service troubleshooting, agentic AI-driven enterprise workflows, or customer engagement, the quality of prompts directly determines the quality of the user experience.

In this age of AI agents and assistants, refining prompts is no longer optional; it is essential for building trust, driving efficiency, enabling scalable automation, and achieving successful outcomes.

Reducing AI Project Failures – Understanding Prompt Engineering and Optimization

AI projects don’t fail because the models are weak, they fail because communication breaks down. When business intent isn’t translated into clear instructions, even the most advanced systems deliver poor results. Prompt engineering and prompt optimization have emerged as the disciplines that close this gap, turning human goals into AI assistant ready guidance.

Prompt engineering shapes the initial interaction, ensuring AI systems can interpret nuance and context. Prompt optimization builds on that foundation, refining prompts for accuracy, efficiency, and scalability across large language models (LLMs) and multiple AI systems. They enable organizations to move beyond ad hoc experimentation toward reliable, enterprise‑grade outcomes.

Together, prompt engineering and prompt optimization form the bridge between business and IT: business teams articulate goals and context, while IT ensures technical precision and scalability. When aligned, they transform user intent into reliable AI execution.

According to a RAND report, 80% of AI project failures stem from poor human to AI communication. Misunderstandings between business and IT teams about goals, data, and capabilities are the most common cause of failure. Companies that master prompt engineering achieve significantly higher ROI compared to those relying on basic or ad hoc prompting (1).

In short: success doesn’t come from the technology alone; it comes from how we communicate with it.

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Why It Matters

Prompt engineering, with prompt optimization as a key subset, is no longer a fringe skill. It is becoming a critical organizational capability embedded into everyday business functions.

According to Market Research Future (MRFR), the prompt engineering market [which includes prompt optimization] was valued at $2.195 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow to $32.78 billion by 2035, with a staggering 27.86% CAGR (2).

SAP Prompt Optimization Adoption

Prompt optimization transforms vague queries into precise instructions, guiding AI toward accurate, consistent, and actionable outputs. With AI agents and assistants like SAP’s Joule, Microsoft Copilot, Google Gemini, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT, organizations recognize that prompt optimization is essential to maximize AI’s potential and align outcomes with business goals.

SAP has embedded prompt optimization into Joule, powered by the Generative AI Hub in SAP AI Core and Launchpad (part of the SAP Business Technology Platform) and supported by SAP’s AI Foundation, delivering enterprise‑grade accuracy and trust with Large Language Models (LLMs).

At SAP Sapphire 2025, SAP announced a proprietary Prompt Optimizer built with the company, Not Diamond. This optimizer enables enterprises to migrate and adapt prompts across multiple LLMs, supporting consistency, accelerating adoption, and improving the user experience across diverse AI systems (3).

Not Diamond envisions “a multi‑model AI future, with thousands of foundation models, millions of fine‑tuned variants, and billions of custom inference engines running on top of them.” Their infrastructure routes, governs, and scales prompts across these systems, ensuring flexibility and trust.

This partnership confirms prompt optimization as an important, core enterprise requirement, bridging business strategy with technology capabilities for responsible AI.

From Hard‑Coded Prompts to Agentic AI Orchestration

Currently, there is a larger shift from static prompt engineering toward dynamic, context‑aware orchestration. Agentic AI is evolving as the inevitable evolution.

In this rebate example handling with prompt optimization means hard‑coding keywords such as “rebate” and product numbers and writing scripts to manually enable the routing to the appropriate form. It requires constant upkeep.

In the future, agentic AI changes the flow entirely. Instead of static prompts, the agent recognizes, in the rebate example, the intent dynamically, queries the product database directly, and routes requests to backend systems without manual intervention.

Responses adapt in real time, errors trigger self-correction cycles, and product updates sync automatically with the catalog.

This rebate scenario shows the shift from today’s manual prompt engineering to tomorrow’s agentic orchestration moving from scripted rules to adaptive intelligence.

Best of Prompt Optimization Capabilities

Prompt optimization is the discipline that converts AI potential into measurable business outcomes, delivering benefits such as:

  1. Clarifies Intent – Ensures AI understands user goals, reducing miscommunication and aligning outputs with business needs.
  2. Customer Engagement & Personalization – Crafts prompts that drive tailored chatbot interactions, outreach, and recommendations, fostering loyalty and satisfaction.
  3. Structures Outputs – Guides AI to deliver usable formats (tables, lists, reports, narratives) for clarity and consistency.
  4. Improves Efficiency & Operational Automation – Minimizes unnecessary token usage, accelerates turnaround, and empowers agentic AI to automate repetitive workflows such as reporting, summarization, and FAQ handling.
  5. Adds Domain Context – Embeds industry‑specific language, governance and compliance rules, approved product names, synonyms, and brand tone for relevance.
  6. Supports Scalability Across Teams – Builds reusable prompt libraries and frameworks that allow consistent enterprise‑wide adoption without reinventing workflows.
  7. Content Quality & Consistency – Ensures outputs are brand‑aligned, accurate, and emotionally resonant across all channels.
  8. Optimizes Across Models – With tools like Not Diamond’s Prompt Optimizer, prompts can be migrated and adapted across Copilot, Gemini, ChatGPT, Joule, and other LLMs.
  9. Enhanced Accuracy & Decision‑Making – Produces precise, consistent outputs and extracts actionable intelligence quickly to support better business decisions.

By uniting these capabilities, prompt optimization becomes the foundation for trustworthy, scalable, and business‑aligned AI success.

Short on Time? Who Manages Prompt Engineering

The shift from prompt engineering to agentic AI isn’t just the domain of IT or developers. It is opening up a wave of business‑friendly, low‑code/no‑code opportunities.

Consultants, contractors, and employees can create value by helping organizations design, deploy, and optimize AI workflows without deep computer science level programming.

Examples include:

  • Prompt Engineer (Business‑oriented) – Designs and optimizes prompts for customer service, marketing, and enterprise workflows.
  • Agentic AI Workflow Designer – Uses low‑code tools to connect AI agents with backend systems, automating rebate claims, reporting, and customer engagement without heavy coding.
  • AI Solutions Consultant – Advises companies on integrating agentic AI into existing processes, bridging IT and business teams.
  • No‑Code AI Developer – Builds AI‑powered applications using drag‑and‑drop platforms and reusable prompt libraries.
  • AI Product Owner / Business Analyst – Guides adoption by mapping workflows, defining requirements, and ensuring AI agents align with business goals.
  • AI Governance & Compliance Specialist – Establishes rules for prompt libraries, agentic workflows, and data handling.

In fast‑paced, short‑handed work environments, these specialists provide focus and discipline, coach key stakeholders with standard operating procedures (SOPs), monitor performance, and refine prompts as business needs evolve ensuring AI systems remain accurate, consistent, and trusted across the enterprise.

Final Thoughts

Prompt optimization and its refinement through prompt optimization evolving into agentic AI is no longer a niche skill or technical curiosity; it has become a core business capability that drives efficiency, compliance, and innovation.

Organizations that embrace it gain a competitive edge, while those that neglect it risk wasted investments and inconsistent results.

By embedding prompt optimization as a business standard, integrated into workflows through enterprise‑wide libraries, governance, and automated refinement, companies can optimize AI strategies to keep pace with evolving models, regulations, and customer expectations.

The future of enterprise AI will not be defined by those who merely explore prompts and agentic AI, but by those who master prompt optimization and agentic AI, transforming raw model potential into trusted, scalable business value.

And as a result, users who want to get their rebates processed can save time by getting answers versus gaps and dead ends.

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Footnotes

  1. RAND Corporation, “The Root Causes of Failure for Artificial Intelligence Projects and How They Can Succeed: Avoiding the Anti‑Patterns of AI,” (August 2024)
  2. Market Research Future, “Prompt Engineering Market Size, Share, Trends, Analysis 2035.” Published (October 2025)
  3. Press Release, “Not Diamond Launches Prompt Adaptation, an Agentic System for Multi-Model Enterprise AI” (May 2025)

Note: This article is also available in the SAP Community | LinkedIn.

Measuring AI Access to Knowledge to Eliminate Thousands of Hours of Wasted Time

Posted by WSS on August 26, 2025   |   Comments Off on Measuring AI Access to Knowledge to Eliminate Thousands of Hours of Wasted Time

Organizations and their users often seek AI access to knowledge but rarely understand its full implications.

As subject matter experts or content contributors, how many times do we have to manually click on multiple internal enterprise-wide platforms (or locations) to find the structured and unstructured information we need securely…NOW?

What is the cost in terms of time and money?

Let’s step back and reflect! How many in our organization are struggling to find the latest information, the digital assets of record, to do their job as it relates to every line of business?

There must be a better way.

In Deloitte’s Global Human Capital Trends study(1) they found that AI access to knowledge ranks in the top three issues influencing company success, yet only 9% of the organizations feel ready to address it.

Survey responses included:

  • Over 50% of surveyed workers found it difficult to locate required information, and 80% reported needing to recreate documents because they couldn’t locate them in their company’s network.
  • 71% of individuals who found information easy to access, perceived its value as above average, emphasizing the link between accessibility and perceived value.

If organizations are carrying out these tasks manually and at great cost, it’s time to consider a better way to bring out the best of AI and search in heterogeneous landscapes.

How Streaming Services are Analogous to AI Access to Knowledge?

We can all relate to watching our favorite TV show or movie.

Imagine if your streaming service could only give you basic channels, but did not allow you the freedom of choice and seamless integrations with Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV+, BBC iPlayer, and/or WOW (Sky Deutschland). This access is expected.

Clearly it is advantageous to connect to multiple apps and systems, pulling information from diverse sources.

Question: Would you want to be limited to the basic service only, without the technical capability to get the access to what you want and need?

This example highlights that whether we want access to our favorite streaming services, digital asset, or knowledge, it is important in both our professional and personal lives to pinpoint what we want, when we want it, regardless of where it is located for business or home use.

Beyond the technical capabilities, why move forward unless there is a clear return on investment (ROI).

The ROI Equation: Knowledge = Competitive Advantage

Organizations struggle to define and measure the exact impact of their knowledge access initiatives.

Consider quantifying the ROI that applies to all lines of business including sales, marketing, communications, HR, onboarding, call centers, finance, operations, supply chain, suppliers, business networks, IT and product support.

Here is a simple equation…

“X” Hours (to find information) x “Y” Users = “Z” Total Hours Spent Each Year

Suggestion: Assess your organization’s activities per line of business and calculate the math.

If there was a way to reduce the time and costs associated with this manual activity, would you be interested?

Suggestion: Use conservative numbers to equate the time, cost, and ROI for your organization?

If this ROI formula sounds hard to believe, consider how PepsiCo Saves 5000 Hours per Year with the Capacity Answer Engine.

The Capacity Answer Engine has a proven track record of saving their customers’ thousands of hours, which equates to dollars saved, by providing secure (ISO/IEC 27001 certified), AI access to knowledge in seconds versus hours (or never found manually in the first place).

This solution provides a library of 100+ connectors which require a huge investment to build, maintain and optimize using a federated search and indexing capability combined with Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) (with an emphasis in the “Retrieval”) to bring out the best of AI and search together.

For example, Microsoft Copilot isn’t designed to perform a federated search or index on internal company documents or digital assets directly. However, Capacity Answer Engine, which is part of the SAP Store and Microsoft Azure Marketplace, can provide knowledge to Copilot via RAG to become the cited bibliography for an organization’s generative AI.

How AI Can Unlock Knowledge Across the SAP Ecosystem and Beyond

So how does this apply to the SAP ecosystem?

When looking at the SAP Business Suite landscape combining AI, data, and applications with the SAP Business Technology Platform, let us consider one or more of the following: SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public or Private Edition, SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite, SAP Business Network, SAP Commerce Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central, SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain, and others.

Each SAP product or solution has a plethora of digital assets found in multiple internal global locations (or sites) that are at the core of running the business.

Most organizations have heterogenous environments, which includes 3rd party applications, tools, platforms such as:

  • Document Storage (e.g., SharePoint, Dropbox, Google Drive, GitHub)
  • Systems (e.g., Jira, Slack)
  • Messaging Platforms (e.g., Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Copilot)
  • Dashboards & People Search (e.g., Microsoft Power BI)
  • Publishers & Aggregators (e.g., Paid subscriptions, IDC, NielsenIQ)

Limits in the number of data sources and incomplete integration coverage can be problematic. Also, mixing internal with external searches may result in inaccurate, outdated, misinformation from questionable sources.

What is needed is the pre-built connectors from the Capacity Answer Engine library, which are maintained for ongoing performance, scalability, security, and continuously syncs as information is updated, leveraging ID management role-based access control, and ensuring that users have the appropriate access to information and systems based on their job roles and responsibilities.

Looking Ahead: AI Access to Knowledge Will Reshape What We Know—and How We Use It

With the constant changes of market conditions, facts, data, digital assets, products, solutions, services, regulations, compliance, and risks, it is crucial that employees have fast, secure access to the most accurate and up-to-date information.

Organizations that enable its workforce to leverage federated search and index navigation of the constant, overwhelming output of internal organization information (& intellectual properties) will have a higher rate of success with revenues, growth, operational efficiencies, and reducing costs.

Leaders, business and IT experts should consider:

  1. Recognizing the importance of the right information at the right time, anywhere in the organization.
  2. Embracing AI access to knowledge to empower the workforce today.
  3. Prioritizing rapid access to enterprise-wide digital assets as an accelerator, not a barrier.
  4. Optimizing next-generation tools such as the Capacity Answer Engine.

Once this Capacity Answer Engine solution is in place, organizations can consider reinvesting the cost savings (and better use of employees’ time) to shift towards higher priority, higher value activities.

Many organizations are already seeing these tangible benefits with a growing importance going forward.

Where do you stand?

Let’s explore this topic further—what questions, comments or ideas do you have?
– How would you rate your organization on a scale of 1 to 10 (10 = Best).
– Can you search multiple videos to find the specific topic or key word you’re looking for?
– What are your thoughts on the AI access to knowledge in your organizations?
– Does your organization have federated indexing for AI and Search capabilities?

Very much appreciate your insights! Happy to start a discussion per your posts below.

(1) Source: Deloitte Insights: The new knowledge management – The human factor activates the collective intelligence

Useful Links
– AI-Powered Game Changer: Revolutionizing Access to Knowledge – LinkedIn | SAP Community
– Capacity Answer Engine
– SAP Store – Lucy AI by Capacity Answer Engine
– Capacity Answer Engine pioneers next-gen enterprise search using Phi models from Microsoft
– RAG vs ChatGPT

About the Author
Rich Blumberg is a long time SAP Community member and contributor. For 20+ years he’s been an SAP consultant working with SAP ecosystem organizations around the globe. He’s the President of World Sales Solutions, LLC, (WSS) a business development and low-code no-code services company. In his spare time, he is a Drexel University Alumni Board of Governors Emeritus volunteer, ENGin English tutor for Ukrainian citizens, and an aspiring guitar player.

SAP Build Apps Challenge: Can You Enable a Dropdown With an Options List in Under 20 Minutes?

Posted by WSS on July 5, 2023   |   Comments Off on SAP Build Apps Challenge: Can You Enable a Dropdown With an Options List in Under 20 Minutes?

Originally published on the SAP Community

The purpose of this SAP Build Apps blog is to foster ideas, share innovations, and encourage the sharing of experiences with fellow business professionals and coding experts. 

Low-Code/No-Code Is an Ongoing Journey

The best way for a Citizen Developer (aka business practitioner) to gain hands on experience with SAP Build Apps is to learn how to develop an app beyond drag-and-drop.

The 5-step “dropdown with an option list” capability below is (a) guaranteed to work; and (b) helps build confidence in empowering business users.

The benefit of learning SAP Build Apps and Low-Code/No-Code overall is that business professionals, as activity and process experts, can develop applications without the technical coding skills. Given the current and projected global shortage of skilled IT and technology talent, there is an enormous opportunity for data-driven business users to respond quickly to digital-first requirements.

As a result, here’s what I have done before and after teaming with two outstanding Drexel University student interns (co-ops), Kai Thompson and Mari Cincotti who helped take my skills to the next level:

  1. Learn – Reviewed the SAP Low-Code/No-Code Learning Journey (Units 1 & 2)
  2. View – Completed the SAP Build Apps “in-apps tutorials” (located at the bottom of the UI Canvas) –  Learned new terms and concepts such as logic, variables, data, and formulas.
  3. Proof-of-Concept – Identified and built a use case that provides value and impact.

The more of us Citizen Developers who successfully take small steps forward to develop SAP Build Apps, which are impactful, the better we can build our knowledge around Low-Code/No-Code app development throughout our ongoing learning journey!

As result, business practitioners (with occasional help) can deploy proof of concepts, pilots, and full deployment (within an IT governance framework), which provide value to our organizations, customers, partners, and employees.

Building a Dropdown With an Options List in 5 Steps

Dropdowns are very common on PC, Tablet or Mobile apps so let’s build one!

By definition, they are the way to show the user what selections they can make to help pinpoint their search results.

Step 1: UI Canvas Set-up

a) Drag the “Dropdown Field” component onto the UI canvas
b) Click anywhere on the “Dropdown Field” component to open the Properties field on the right.
c) Click under “Label Text” to rename the Dropdown.


Step 2: Set-up the list labels

d) Click on the “Option List”
d) Add labels (in this example we’ll use Food A, B, …)
Note: Make sure to use lower case for values, as it makes it easier to reduce errors later on when leveraging a backend / database.

e) Click on “Save”


Step 3: Return to the UI Canvas and click (1) “Save” and then (2) “Launch”


Step 4: Preview Your App

f) Click on “Open Preview Portal”

g) Click on “Open Web Preview” and “Open” the SAP Build App you are working on.

Step 5: Congratulations! You did it!


Where do “you” go from here?

In my case, every time I have built a part of SAP Build Apps, such as dropdowns, I feel a sense of victory!:-)

One building block of success leads to another.

Next, I suggest learning about backend / database (hosted in Visual Cloud Functions). I would have written a blog on it, but the two that were written, by Daniel Wroblewski are excellent and highly recommended:

Both blogs represent an excellent step-by-step explanation.

Once you get further along, A Business User’s Guide to Becoming a Citizen Developer with SAP AppGyver (now SAP Build Apps) by Kimay Ramnarain provides an intermediate level explanation of variables, conditional logic, and REST APIs.

As business practitioners seeking this knowledge, she makes it easy and straight forward to understand concepts, which otherwise might feel daunting.

Overall, I encourage you to have a hands on understanding of how to use SAP Build Apps and focus on a use case or scenario that adds value and interests you, your team, and your organization.

Where do “we” go from here?

First, as Citizen Developers let me know if you succeed with this challenge!

Recognize that there are 2 key personas who both need to collaborate and foster ideas together:

  • Software Developer/Engineers (e.g., professional coders) can provide insights on the more technical aspects of SAP Build Apps.
  • Business Professionals (low- or no-coders) who have an expertise around processes, change management, and/or a specific activity requirement.

For us Citizen Developers we must realize that SAP Build Apps goes beyond drag-and-drop to make it work at an optimal level with backend data, REST APIs, automation and more.

And that’s O.K. We can do it!

Keep in mind.. Low-code does not mean low effort! 

Remember that according to leading analysts from Gartner, Forrester, and IDC, the Low-Code/No-Code (LCNC) market will grow exponentially over the next few years! All the more reason for business professionals to start LCNC development and help their organizations respond quickly to digital data-driven requirements.

A few questions or comments?

  • Are you a business professional leveraging SAP Build Apps? Yes or No?
    – Where are you in the process? Beginner, Intermediate, Expert?
    – What can you build confidently now?
  • What do you want to learn?
    – What use cases or scenarios are you considering or working on now?
    – What other how-to’s or tips are you looking for from a Citizen Developer perspective???

Let’s continue this discussion.

Greatly appreciate your comments below along with any insights, so that more Citizen Developer related content and how-to’s can be shared with a straight forward way to follow the steps and put them into action.

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Useful Links

RISE with SAP and Capgemini: Spotlight Interview with David Lowson

Posted by WSS on July 29, 2021   |   Comments Off on RISE with SAP and Capgemini: Spotlight Interview with David Lowson

Originally published on the SAP Community

Many organizations are assessing the best ways to address digital transformation holistically.

SAP and Capgemini are teaming with customers around the globe as trusted partners, to go beyond technical migration, and address intelligent business processes and new business models as part of the RISE with SAP initiative.

Capgemini’s Renewable Enterprise with SAP S/4HANA approach which is designed to put the user experience at the center. It uses modern approaches such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and embedded analytics, DevOps, Cloud architecture, APIs and Microservices to help organizations reimagine themselves, unlock business value, and outpace competition.

Recently I had the pleasure to meet David Lowson, Capgemini’s head of SAP Center of Excellence (COE) Europe, to learn more about his journey and views related to RISE with SAP and the digital core.

Philippe Schmitt (PS): What inspired you to get into the field of consulting and high tech?

David Lowson (DL): When I worked in high-tech, I found I was a very poor engineer so when I had an opportunity to work on an enterprise resource planning (ERP) project, I took it. This experience proved I was quite good at this kind of work and is why I made the move to consultancy.

PS: In your blog Consumer Intelligence Products and Retail Therapy, you shared, “As countries around the world reopen, we observe four priority themes emerging with consumer products: sustainability, digitalization, efficiency, diversification.” How does the RISE with SAP initiative enable these themes based on Capgemini’s expertise?

DL: RISE with SAP reinforces many of the messages we have been giving to the market about the renewable enterprise, a standard core, savvy use of a cloud infrastructure and application program interface (API) led architectures. These features have been provoking more activity in the market and shifting SAP to be a platform for digital transformation.

PS: You presented at the SAP Global Partner Summit and shared that you, “believe SAP needed to launch the RISE initiative to remain relative for digital transformation for the next 25 years.” What makes this initiative so impactful to the success of customers?

DL: SAP and Capgemini are in position to address business process redesign, technical migration, and building the intelligent enterprise in one package to simplifies customers’ journey. By focusing on innovation and differentiation taking place in the SAP Business Technology Platform surrounding it, the RISE initiative is a clear statement of the importance of providing accelerated business outcomes with integration, data to value, and extensibility. It opens the door to exciting new consumption models.

PS: You’ve recently commented that the market has responded positively to RISE with SAP. Can you share one or two examples of this positive reaction from Capgemini customers?

DL: As you can appreciate, I can only speak of overall projects vs. individual projects. We have started RISE based projects all over the world. With the use of the RISE model, I have seen customers become more confident that we can deliver and provide a standard core, as well as an architecture that does not build technical debt.

PS: When Capgemini refers to the Renewable Enterprise with SAP S/4HANA, it refers to the “S Curve of Innovation” and Intelligent Technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Internet of Things, Block Chain, and the Customer Experience power by data and driven by people. What are one or two examples of how customers are adopting these intelligent technologies to support their customers and keep a competitive advantage?

DL: There are so many user cases, and we keep a library of them available for our clients and partners to access. They are also published every week by our innovation leader, Alex Bulat, Chief Technology & Innovation Officer of Global SAP Business, but the two I would pick out are:

  • Servitisation – Where clients move from selling products to selling services. Think of a connected car or washing as a service; this is a perfect solution for the new away of thinking. Multiple products orchestrated to deliver new digital businesses that flex as the market develops.
  • Sustainability – So many of our large engagements are driven by this concept, especially the desire to operate in new, low carbon markets. This requires greater connectivity, artificial intelligence (AI), use of data and a fast-agile core.

PS: When students and recent graduates contact you for informational insights what guidance do you give for them to pursue a career in consulting and high tech?

DL: I see SAP consulting as a three-legged stool:

  • Be nice and have good people skills
  • Know about the industry you’re working in
  • Learn about SAP products and solutions

A company like Capgemini can provide the third bullet, but the other two can be done on your own. Also, read business papers and the SAP website at least once a week. Do a bit more to engage with and understand the direction of the company and products that stand out.

—

Thank you for sharing comments on the Renewable Enterprise, Digital Transformation, or advanced Intelligent Technologies.

Please post any feedback below.

Useful Links

• SAP S/4HANA Cloud
• RISE with SAP
• SAP Analytics Cloud
• SAP Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

SAP Champions & SAP Mentors Spotlight Interviews

Posted by WSS on July 2, 2021   |   Comments Off on SAP Champions & SAP Mentors Spotlight Interviews

Check out the SAP Spotlight Interviews which combine a combination of videos and Q&A format. These blogs help showcase SAP Community experts and advocates. View >>

Elevating SAP Collaboration with Microsoft Teams and SharePoint

Posted by WSS on July 17, 2020   |   Comments Off on Elevating SAP Collaboration with Microsoft Teams and SharePoint

Originally published on the SAP Community.

When SAP and Microsoft announced they are building integrations to Microsoft Teams across solutions many of us were inspired. With the new reality of remote and hybrid work, the importance of elevating collaboration has grown significantly.

While the advancements of this integration are impressive, it is important to deploy these solutions the right way to achieve tangible business outcomes.

Since today’s globally distributed workers are no longer confined to office buildings, the “workplace” has transformed into a digital “workspace” allowing colleagues to meet, collaborate, and connect virtually across organizational boundaries. A great user experience is a necessity versus a “nice to have.”

Christian Klein, SAP CEO and member of the Executive Board, said it best that this partnership will address, “New ways of working, collaborating and interacting to completely transform how we operate,” and bring collaboration to the next level.

Collaboration is changing rapidly. Each of us are collaborating more often, increasingly mobile, and working on a schedule that enables us to connect more virtually.

Disparate information kept in silos and organized in ad-hoc ways becomes an impediment to performance and productivity. One of the challenging things to do is to keep Microsoft Teams and SharePoint, along with the SAP portfolio, organized so that the content is valuable to users.

Thoughtful leaders step back and ensure that SAP Collaboration represents how the business works both in the short-term and going forward.

The Information Architecture Pre-Request 

Each time you create a new Microsoft Teams you automatically get SharePoint with the Microsoft 365 Apps including Power App, Power BI, OneNote, and Exchange with email and calendaring.

Project teams working with SAP applications such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud, Digital Supply Chain, SAP SuccessFactors and learning communities, SAP CRM and Customer Experience, Industry 4.0 solutions and/or SAP Activate Methodology should prioritize and implement a well-planned information architecture as a pre-request for a high quality, high-performing intranet, central hub, or group.

It’s important to understand the audience and help them find what they need quickly to support them in getting their work completed efficiently. One expert once referred to it as “help the user get to where they need to go in ONE CLICK versus many clicks and endless folders to assist in completing a task.”

Putting in the time to address Information Architecture helps improve user satisfaction and adoption while reducing information overload.

Customer-Centric Enablement

In this video, “Remove Barriers for Your Sales Teams with SAP and Microsoft it shows the power of the integration,” there are many exciting front-line capabilities, but the power is in the information architecture that supports the tangible outcomes.

Could a sales, marketing, consultant, pre-sales, operations, services or other front-line worker to customers, strategic partners or suppliers have everything they need by primarily using their own individual OneDrive or SharePoint?

Clearly, they need the right resources (“assets”), at the right time for effective engagement including:

  1. Access – Enable secure private, enterprise, and/or external access.
  2. Central Hub – Deploy one location for individuals, teams, and the enterprise to find pertinent information.
  3. Teamwork – Allow for collaboration, chat, video conferencing, calls, meetings, and surveys.
  4. Content – Ensure easy to find central hub for content, information, contributions, and useful links.
  5. Components – Leverage multiuse calendars, planning, notebooks, and other tools and web parts.
  6. Collaboration – Microsoft Teams, comments, surveys, discussion treads, and news updates.
  7. Communications – Engagement and outreach to bring the audience to the central hub and share news, planning, announcements, updates, and access to key assets.
  8. Continuity – Plan that the collaboration continues versus the initial excitement and the investment in a quality set-up drop off months later.

When these items are brought together in full or part, the sum is truly greater than the parts.

Digital Transformation Realized with SAP Collaboration

Collaboration is nothing new and yet it remains a critical success factor for every organization.

Enabling workers to leverage and build upon the work of others is a fundamental principle. When team members work in a silo, they reduce productivity and have a higher probability of duplicating efforts.

With SAP Collaboration, Microsoft Teams and SharePoint the goal is to…

  • Help elevate workers to take advantage of modern platforms and digital transformation environments
  • Increase high quality teamwork, cooperation, and communications
  • Impact the value, growth, revenues, services, and outcomes with a focus on exceeding customer satisfaction.

Working together, people feel more connected to their work and their organization.

With these integration capabilities in place, combined with a well-deployed information architecture, users will always have access to the right content at the right time, to find what they are looking for more quickly and consistently, and support their business requirements.

14 Ways to JumpStart #SAPJam Collaboration, Communities or Groups

Posted by WSS on November 16, 2016   |   Comments Off on 14 Ways to JumpStart #SAPJam Collaboration, Communities or Groups

How a Group Admin or Leader Ensures Adoption!

Important strategic initiatives, business outcomes and processes, collaboration, content, communications, and/or community building takes “time and effort” to translate onto SAP Jam.

The recent study, “Forrester Total Economic Impact™ of SAP Jam Collaboration for Learning, Onboarding and Employee Development” showcases the impact to cost savings, productivity,  operational efficiencies, and overall strategic objectives. Several customers that my team and I work with participated in this study and continue to realize the value highlighted. Together we see on a first hand, daily basis …that it works!

And yet, sometimes a SAP Jam group admin, business owner, or leader needs to consider ways to drive (or “spark”) sustainable growth and momentum for their respective audience. They need to step back, assess, and plan out the priorities. The last thing any of us want to see is that 3 to 9 months after go-live that the group has “zero” activity.

As a result, my team and I, based on hundreds of work experiences and success stories pinpointed a “Top 14” list to help organizations JumpStart their SAP Jam initiatives.

Which of the following are applicable to you and your current or emerging SAP Jam initiative?

Business is complex. And from complexity we want simplicity. It takes a certain skill set to turn the complex into simple. There are business challenges and technical requirements. SAP Jam can be stand alone or integrate with other SAP, SuccessFactors, or 3rd party applications and data. All of these requirements take cross-discipline expertise.

Every quarter their are new SAP Jam releases. New features and capabilities. My team and I welcome the challenge on a daily basis with the multitude of business and IT considerations (& approaches) to help our customers achieve successful SAP Jam implementations and adoption.

At the end of each day, we appreciate the many important and diverse groups we work with to address their challenges and find solutions. It takes both the “science and art” forms to achieve success.  No matter how many implementations take place and questions are answered there is always more to address, learn about, and discover.

Consider a 1000 piece puzzle. We work together to put the pieces together.Plane.Blog.png

The Many Attributes of SAP Jam
SAP Jam is compared to other platforms which is fine.

The part that’s comforting is that SAP, SuccessFactors, and the SAP Jam product team are market leaders.

SAP Jam and the attributes it represents rank very high in Analyst reports including:

  • Integration – SAP SuccessFactors integration is built in by way of SuccessFactors foundations (previously BizX) (i.e. SuccessFactors Learning / LMS, SAP HCP, SAP CRM, Hybris Cloud 4 Customer, Fiori, S/4HANA, SAP ECC (SD), Document Repositories such as OpenText, Box, etc.) with an excellent Developer and Open API environment (OData).  SAP Jam  works well with SharePoint, Microsoft Office 365 SharePoint (Web Parts), Outlook Plug-in and YouTube. Public documentation is excellent.
  • Social Learning – SAP Jam for Social Learning (Jam + LMS) reduces the cost of training
  • Roadmap – SAP Jam is part of the overall SAP roadmap so the enhancements and value continue to grow in leaps and bounds throughout the SAP portfolio. The SAP Jam roadmap is based on customer feedback and provides continuous innovations on a regular basis.
  • Admin Controls – Strong Permission Levels… Moderation Levels… Language capabilities built into the platform for the users… Users can be removed (made inactive quickly…)…
  • Groups –  Enterprise collaboration goes beyond feed conversations. Both structured and unstructured collaboration is available along with sub-groups and auto groups.
  • Feed Aggregator – SAP Jam provides a feed aggregator, SAP Jam Activity Hub, that can be used. to follow and chat in Yammer, Connections and Jam which allows for one view without having to log-in to multiple applications..
  • Mobile App – SAP Jam Mobile App, which is used for Apple (iOS – iPhone or iPad) or Android, is ready out of the box! No extra programing required.
  • OpenSocial Gadgets – Feeds and data can be embedded  such as RSS Feeds, Stock Tickers, Countdowns, Facebook, Twitter… Survey Monkey which go into widgets.
  • Work Patterns – Admins can leverage templates available, out of the box, to enable repeatable best practice and business processes when creating a group. With work pattern builder, templates can be changed and enhanced easily for custom specific needs.
  • ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS…
    >     SAP has “1” enterprise collaboration platform only which it invests heavily in.
    > All the information is in one place (uploaded, linked, or embedded), one enterprise collaboration platform, one “central hub.”
    > Offline access allows users to select content from SAP Jam to and from a local file system via Jam File Sync Client

Summary: SAP Jam is the Best Bet!
Given the investments and attributes of SAP Jam and with a long-time career in the high tech, entrepreneurial, cross-industry, and SAP Ecosystem space, my team and I bet on SAP to make the continuous investments in collaborative enterprise business software as an essential part of the portfolio to support customers.

The value of SAP Jam is both a today and tomorrow decision. Today for what it can deliver and tomorrow for the investments to the roadmap which is based on a 40+ year history of SAP success.

At the end of the day, my team and I enjoy working with a diverse, smart, progressive group of senior executives, leaders, business owners, instructors, group admins, and stakeholders who want to work on a platform, which delivers the most value and impact, to help them and their fellow internal and external colleagues do their jobs and realize the type of outcomes highlighted in the Forrester Study.

The ideas associated with enterprise collaboration have been around for hundreds of years. However, the realization in the cloud with digital transformation are available NOW in full force with SAP Jam.

About the Author

  Richard D. Blumberg is a SAP Jam Practice leader who works with both SAP and SAP Services. He is the President of World Sales Solutions, LLC (WSS) (www.WorldSalesSolutions.com) providing 29+ years of thought leadership on a variety of “View from the Top” strategies including: Enterprise Social Business, Go-to-Market Strategies, Business Development, Talent Development, and Community Building.  He and his team are recognized SAP Jam global experts for implementations and adoption.


Blogs

Featured Link: SAP Jam Collaboration Help Portal

This video highlights the value of turning the complex into a more simple productivity resource.

SAP Jam: Using all the Piano’s Keys and Pedals

Posted by WSS on August 11, 2016   |   Comments Off on SAP Jam: Using all the Piano’s Keys and Pedals

The Importance of SAP Jam Implementation & Adoption Expertise

The rewards of using SAP Jam are awesome! Getting to the point where business and IT value is realized takes time, logic, dedication, and expertise.  Successful SAP Jam implementations and adoption requires many considerations, some of which are often overlooked.

pianoIt reminds me of the day when my family got a piano from my in-laws house for our son. While other children and friends would bang on the keys he wanted to play meaningful songs at an early age. There were adult friends and teachers who remembered playing a bit growing up (or knew a few songs) but could only offer a few ideas around how to play the piano beyond the basics.

Only when we got an expert piano teacher (on the second try) who had the style and skills which were complimentary to his interests did we see his enjoyment and piano playing skills soar forward.

untitledFor my team and I working with leading customers and business units around the globe we see that no two SAP Jam implementations are alike. Like a snow flake each one has its own unique work patterns based on their customers, industry, lines of business and culture.

As a result we must be agile and dig deep on each engagement to address a wide range of skills, requirements, work experiences which range from HR, Learning, Onboarding …to Sales, Marketing, Services, Commerce and Customer Engagement …to Communications, IT, Procurement, Operations, Communities of Practice, and User Experiences …to working within a wide range of SAP and 3rd Party Apps and related Management Information System (MIS) environments …to the ability to write, provide visual consistency, and program management …as well as help turn complexity into …simplicity.

There are a number of best practice guidelines to consider:

ROI_DiagramConsideration #1 – Getting Started!

  • Understanding the business requirements
  • Enabling overall usability
  • Translating the business process to SAP Jam
  • Ensuring relevance by way of content / communications
  • Utilizing dynamic widgets vs. static text and images
  • Assessing Change Management
  • Ensuring participation

Consideration #2 – ROI & Value

Pinpoint the SAP Jam Return On Investment (ROI) and business drivers important to your organization centered around “Time” “Money” and “People” scalability to ensure measurable (“quantifiable” and “qualifiable”) gains.

Consideration #3 – Differentiators

SAP Jam is a unique market leading solution.  It seamlessly integrates social business capabilities into existing (& planned) business process whereas as other 3rd party platforms are focused on the tools.  SAP has made SAP Jam an integral part of all SAP solutions addressing:

  • All lines of business centric vs. CRM as the primary
  • One SAP Jam vision vs. multiple roadmaps which have overlaps
  • SAP’s proven 40-year history of business software, processes, and market leadership
  • Collaborative ecosystem (Out of the Box – i.e. OpenText, Box, SharePoint, etc.)
  • Application integration (i.e. OData, REST APIs) by utilizing the SAP Jam Developer Center
  • Integrated platform as a foundational principal vs. a standalone which increases costs
  • Internal & external SAP Jam group capabilities which easily set-up
  • Structured collaboration to support problem solving, issue resolution, and decision making
  • Screen and video capture
  • Mobile App alignment with SAP Jam Page Designer provides out of the box mobile capabilities

Consideration #4 – Roles & Responsibilities

When addressing an SAP Jam initiative the executive sponsor, business owner(s), and project leader must consider 3 key roles including:

  • Administrator(s) (or Power Users)
  • Content Manager(s) (& Contributors)
  • End Users

While one SAP Jam tactical action can be straight forward. Each action has a consequence on another aspect of the project or initiative.

ChessFor those of us who watch (or remember) Star Trek and Spok’s 3D chess game, each move has an impact to another chess piece which may be on the board you are working on or another.  It takes a lot of SAP Jam experience to address these moves which have important relationships to other business processes.

A successful SAP Jam implementation addresses 5 phases:

  1. Preparation
  2. Realization
  3. Verification
  4. Launch
  5. Post Go-Live

EagleIt takes vision, leadership, teamwork, compelling business outcomes, and passion to build any successful community which meets either face-to-face or virtually. SAP Jam requires the same consideration to achieve successful implementations and adoption.

Whether its learning how to play the piano or SAP Jam, it takes multi-dimensional expertise to ensure that all the “keys and pedals” are optimized.

SAP Jam has many self-evident, out of the box templates and capabilities that are excellent, but to gain the full advantage it takes the right skills, work experiences, and expertise to achieve the highest level of success.

— About the Author

RDBRichard D. Blumberg, President, World Sales Solutions, LLC (WSS) (www.WorldSalesSolutions.com) provides 25+ years of thought leadership on a variety of “View from the Top” strategies including: Enterprise Social Business, Go-to-Market Strategies, Business Development, Talent Development, and Community Building.  He and his team are recognized SAP Jam global experts for implementations and adoption.
WSS is a SAP Service Partner for SAP Jam and long-time supporter of the SAP Community Network and the SAP Ecosystem.

Prior Blogs:
– View from the Top: Bill McDermott shares his success secrets at a #fireside chat!
– The Path to SAP Jam ROI Success
– SAP Jam Work Patterns:  The Big $ or € &/or ¥ Game Changer for a New Product Launch!
– SAP Jam: The ROI Impacting Sales Productivity
– Split Second Selling with SAP Jam – 7 Use Cases!
– The Customer Go-to-Market Imperative – Transforming Silos to Social Business and Community Building

Originally posted on the SAP Community Network – full blog >>

 

Workshop & Blog: The Customer Go-to-Market Imperative – Transforming Silos to Social Business and Community Building

Posted by WSS on April 20, 2013   |   Comments Off on Workshop & Blog: The Customer Go-to-Market Imperative – Transforming Silos to Social Business and Community Building

Featured Blog: SAP Community Network

Announcement:
The following workshop took place as part of Drexel’s CEO LEAD (“Creating Experiential Opportunities for Leadership Education and Development”) on Drexel University’s campus.

Title: The Customer Go-to-Market Imperative – Transforming Silos to Social Business and Community Building

Date/Time: May 16, 2013 @ 6 PM, EST – Complete

Presenter: Rich Blumberg, President, World Sales Solutions, LLC (Alumni Board of Governors and Volunteer)

Summary: Increasing revenues, profits, value, and growth depends on collaboration with customers at the center of an organization’s support system. Silos impact performance when geographic, business unit, and functional boundaries impact sales and the delivery of products, solutions, and services.

For today’s students, who are the future business and technology leaders, it is critical to recognize the compelling business issues, priorities, and market conditions which impact CEOs and customers’ decisions.  Those who understand these trends have better job and career opportunities which ultimately results in more hiring or firing.

Learn about the best practices, case studies, tools, and resources required to help organizations go from ordinary to extraordinary. Understand the critical importance of equipping the sales team on a daily basis. Find out how executives, experts and content contributors provide the essential source of information which customers require one economic decision maker at a time.