BMW Group Chooses RISE with SAP to Drive Business Transformation

BMW Group Chooses RISE with SAP to Drive Business Transformation

WALLDORF & MUNICH — SAP SE (NYSE: SAP) today announced that BMW Group will expand its strategic partnership with SAP to accelerate its digital transformation. On January 25, 2023, this was sealed by both companies. Using the RISE with SAP solution, BMW Group will move its entire SAP software landscape. The company will merge its cloud strategy with its existing SAP S/4HANA systems, allowing for joint innovation for critical business areas, including finance, parts supply, warehousing, supply chain and production. This will help BMW Group to digitalize faster, more comprehensively and more efficiently in the future. Expanding a Long-Standing Strategic Partnership BMW Group and SAP look back on a long-standing strategic partnership. As part of RISE with SAP, BMW Group will have access to a cloud platform for end-to-end business processes. Alexander Buresch, CIO and Senior Vice President, BMW Group IT, said: “This strategic decision will help us to drive our digitalization leadership even faster forward. We are increasing the flexibility of our infrastructure and creating maximum global scalability. And most importantly, it allows us to bring business innovations to our customers and users much faster than before. That’s why I’m very much looking forward to the next steps […]

The Future of Publishing: AI, digital transformation and the biggest challenge ahead

The Future of Publishing: AI, digital transformation and the biggest challenge ahead

In thinking about the future of publishing, AI provides many opportunities beyond ChatGPT. Here are some of the best strategies and tactics that are driving growth in audiences, revenue and innovation at media businesses around the world. The attention economy, competition and AI This is a report from a Future of Publishing conference that I’m taking part in. Our panel focused on the future challenges for publishers in terms of technology and revenue. Here is a sampling of the questions and my answers. The opening icebreaker question covered a range of challenges including intense competition in digital publishing both for attention and digital ad revenue, and on top of that of course, we were asked about the digital spectre du jour is ChatGPT and what it might mean for publishers. In terms of competition, the business of digital media has always been governed by paradoxes. The barriers to entry are much lower than print or broadcast media, which has led to intense competition. Some refer to this as the attention economy. The idea that content in the broadest sense is no longer scarce with easy access to an endless supply of music, movies, TV, news updates, long-form journalism, video […]

SAP, PwC partnership driving digital transformation & cloud success in West Africa

SAP, PwC partnership driving digital transformation & cloud success in West Africa

Businesspeople having conversation, while on the way to a meeting, in modern office space With more businesses in West Africa adopting cloud technologies than ever before, the region is set to enhance its competitiveness significantly. Following years of disruption, and hampered by a lack of legacy investment into technology, West African businesses now have an opportunity to leapfrog tech adoption and leverage the cloud for rapid growth and success. Titilayo Adewumi, Managing Director at SAP West Africa, says: “Companies across the region are adopting cloud to achieve greater scalability, improve their data and analytics capabilities, drive innovation and build greater resilience. A huge part of our success in supporting the region’s digital transformation efforts is our close collaboration with expert partners that continuously find new ways to innovate.” Digitalization a huge opportunity The World Bank recently noted that digitalization is one of the most transformational opportunities of our time , highlighting its role in alleviating poverty and boosting shared prosperity in West Africa. In light of this, cloud technologies offer tremendous benefits to organizations in the region. These include lowering the total cost of ownership of technology capabilities, achieving faster deployment cycles, automating manual processes to boost efficiency, enabling […]

Half a billion euro investment in digital transformation

Half a billion euro investment in digital transformation

Cyprus’s goal for this year’s DESI index is to be in the 15-16 range, according to Deputy Minister of Innovation Kyriakos Kokkinos. Over the next five years, a little more than half a billion euros (€512 million) will be set aside for digital transformation. Deputy Minister Kyriakos Kokkinos explained at the State Ministry of Innovation project presentation that 23% of the Recovery and Resilience Plan is dedicated to digital transformation projects, i.e. around €282 million plus another €150 million which comes from national resources, plus €80 million for business innovation, primarily digital, means that the total amount of money available over the next five years exceeds $500 million. The Ministry’s budget is approximately 120 million for 2023, rising to 157 million in 2024 and 135 million in 2025. For the period 2021-2027, the National Programme Plan allocates €34 million to innovation, €35 million to internationalization, €30 million to research, €17 million to strengthening structures and capacities, and €34 million to collaboration and knowledge transfer. According to Mr. Kokkinos, the Foundation’s funding programs have provided €30 million to start-ups and scale-ups over the last three years, resulting in €15 million in private capital leverage, the creation of more than 240 […]

Digital transformation is now about taking ownership of fan engagement in house, says Ferre

Digital transformation is now about taking ownership of fan engagement in house, says Ferre

January 31 – The digital focus within football marketing started as being all about web sites and building social media numbers on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. But there has been a strategic shift and while the social media platforms are still important it is the new fan engagement platforms that are making the marketing difference. “It is all related to fan engagement which is at the core of the matter. How do you communicate to a vast majority of supporters of clubs, especially in the world’s top 20 clubs, who are not in the city or the country?” says Juli Ferre Nadal, formerly with Barcelona, AS Monaco, and FIBA before joining Tally Technology to run its European expansion. “This space has been given away to social media platforms and everyone jumped into that. We are now trying to reverse that,” said Ferre. “Clubs have fans all over the world who they know nothing about.” Ferre has been at the heart of the digital transformation taking place across football for 15 years. Now he has joined Tally which was originally founded as a free-to-play prediction game for brands, sports teams, leagues and media companies, but has evolved into a fan […]

Announcement: AM's digital transformation

Announcement: AM’s digital transformation

Dear AM-online users, it’s time to tell you of an important and exciting development at AM. We are planning to transform digitally towards a more sustainable future where we put the focus on our website and newsletters, as well as our highly successful events, webinars and podcast. We will also produce new digital ‘Industry Special’ reports, offering insight into all the key elements of motor retailing as our industry evolves rapidly digitally, supports consumers in their transition to zero emission vehicles and trials new retail business models. Please see further down this page to find out what we have in store for 2023. If you’d like to opt-in and ensure you see our new content please register . AM magazine In March 2023, we plan to publish our final issue of AM magazine. AM needs to be more flexible, agile, accessible, and distinctive and we are confident that this development will achieve our goals. This will ensure we continue to enable senior management in franchised dealers, independent dealers and aftersales to make informed decisions, navigate change, save costs and deliver profitable and sustainable business growth. Should you have any queries, please feel free to contact us . Yours sincerely, […]

5 Urgent Priorities Guiding Investments in Higher Ed Digital Transformation

5 Urgent Priorities Guiding Investments in Higher Ed Digital Transformation

Economic and regulatory pressures are bringing more colleges and universities to the IT marketplace for digital transformation. The IT partners they choose will be the ones that best understand higher ed’s top modernization priorities, say Kelly Otter, Dean at Georgetown University School of Continuing Studies and Richard Sheehe, principal and founder of Sheehe Consulting Group, as they examine and elaborate on those transformation necessities. Colleges and universities are typically major enterprises, yet they remain seriously behind in digital transformation (DX) compared to other sectors. In just one recent sign of this, a January 2023 report showed fewer than half of colleges and universities use CRM software, a ubiquitous technology that a majority of companies with even just ten employees or more are using. The timing couldn’t be worse to play DX catch-up as institutions face declining enrollment, revenue and government funding while also bracing for tougher compliance, including a recent GAO directive for the U.S. Dept. of Education to enhance regulatory oversight. Let’s take a closer look at how these combined pressures are increasingly bringing colleges and universities to the DX marketplace. We’ll see how this creates a huge opportunity for IT partners to engage on solutions – provided […]

Bank of Abyssinia Selects Newgen for Delivering Superior Customer Experience

Bank of Abyssinia Selects Newgen for Delivering Superior Customer Experience

The Ethiopia-based bank aims to transform its retail and SME loan processes DUBAI, UAE, Feb. 2, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Newgen Software, a global provider of low code-based digital transformation platform, NewgenONE , today announced that Bank of Abyssinia, one of the fastest growing banks in Ethiopia has onboarded Newgen for end-to-end automation of retail and small and micro enterprise (SME) loan types. With the loan origination solution , built on NewgenONE, the bank will streamline the origination, processing, tracking, and disbursement of loans. The solution will be used in 750+ branches spread across Ethiopia. The Bank will leverage Newgen’s platform with capabilities such as business rule engine , workflow management , and document management and ensure 360-degree process visibility in the business activity monitoring and reporting. The robust system will equip the bank to meet the growing business demands and allow them to transform digitally and scale operations to handle high-volume transactions. "Newgen’s loan origination solution will enable us to respond faster to customer queries and requests. It is vital for us to offer a premium user experience to our valuable customers. Newgen’s solution will help us achieve operational excellence and business innovation, enabling us to stay ahead of […]

Freightify secures $12M funding round to power digital transformation for freight forwarders globally

Freightify secures $12M funding round to power digital transformation for freight forwarders globally

Freightify is providing freight forwarders enhanced capabilities to procure, manage and quote Freight prices instantly. Customer numbers and revenues tripled in the last 12 months. Denmark and Singapore –News Direct– Global freight forwarding is a $300B industry that facilitates the movement of cargo from one place to another through a series of manual and legacy processes. Freightify’s freight rate management platform is solving the complex challenges facing freight forwarders and helping them to do more business faster at lower costs. Today, Freightify is announcing a $12M debt & equity Series A funding round to help power digital transformation of Freight forwarders through Freightify’s suite of products. This is how you can potentially earn extra income every single month… Benzinga’s full-time trader Chris Capre is sending simple options trade alerts to traders like you. Click Here to get his trades for only $0.99! Freightify empowers freight forwarders by providing rate automation solutions to digitize their rate procurement, rate management and quotation processes with ease. The platform allows any forwarder to create a digital storefront to serve their customers better.In addition to this, it includes track and trace solutions that help freight forwarders in getting the live location of vessels and […]

For one energy company, digital transformation was the catalyst for positive social impact

For one energy company, digital transformation was the catalyst for positive social impact

As energy prices rise, it’s especially vital for companies to commit to caring for their customers. Gas distributor SGN uses Lenovo’s suite of products to help vulnerable customers out in the field. This human-centered approach honors Lenovo’s commitment to innovation, while ensuring that SGN makes a positive social impact. As the cost-of-living crisis and energy price rises start to seriously affect people , it’s arguably never been more important for companies to commit to caring for their customers — especially those who are vulnerable. SGN, a company that looks after the network of pipes sending gas to homes and businesses in Scotland and south-east England, has a focus on making a positive impact on people in its communities, and making sure customers are safe and warm. Its staff work around the clock to make sure gas is safely distributed, and it has thousands of people in its teams of engineers out in the field. The gas distributor uses Lenovo’s whole ecosystem of products, including its moto g31 smartphones and ThinkPad X13 devices, to access digital resources to help vulnerable customers in the field. "This technology enables us to really go over and above what our customers expect from us […]