SAP is integrating AI technology into its integrated platform-based cloud ERP solution to automate and accelerate corporate business operations.

SAP Korea held 'SAP NOW Seoul 2023' and a press conference at COEX in Samseong-dong on the 4th, sharing SAP's business plans and the latest innovation cases. The event began with a welcoming address by Shin Eun-young, CEO of SAP Korea, followed by a keynote address by Paul Marriott, President of SAP APJ.

Subsequently, Rudolf Heuss, Head of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Engineering, Joweilbach, Head of SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) Engineering, and Gunther Rottermel, Head of SAP Sustainability Engineering, shared updates on each of SAP's solutions and services.

Paul Marriott, President of SAP APJ, said, “Our biggest goal is to enable all companies to become sustainable, intelligent enterprises,” and added, “We will support successful customer businesses by providing applications that apply AI technology based on the Business Technology Platform (BTP).”

At the event, SAP shared its latest updates, including the responsible application of AI to SAP business solutions, ledger-based accounting for carbon tracking, and the establishment of a network to strengthen the supply chain.

As a business process automation expert in 25 industries worldwide, including finance and manufacturing, SAP collaborates with companies to automate their supply chains. Not only the five largest Korean conglomerates—Samsung, LG, Hyundai Motors, SK Hynix, and Kakao Enterprise—but also small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are adopting SAP Cloud.

SAP's S/4HANA is a cloud ERP solution specialized for a wide range of industries, from finance to supply chain management, offering a richer set of features than competitors.

Rudolf Heuss, Head of SAP S/4HANA Cloud Engineering, recently explained how he is applying AI, a hot topic, to solutions to help customers' businesses. When building and deploying scenarios that utilize enterprise AI, the latest cloud-based innovations can deliver business impact faster than on-premises environments, he said.

SAP complies with data protection laws and has procedures in place to build secure AI solutions and comply with regulations. "76% of global enterprise business is currently securely managed and protected within SAP systems, and we are also working to supplement data through partnerships with Microsoft and OpenAI," the company said.

At the core of SAP's solutions is the SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP), which provides integrated services centered on a portfolio.

The SAP Business Technology Platform provides solutions that integrate SAP database and data management, analytics, application development and integration, and intelligent technologies. It also integrates and extends SAP and third-party applications to support connected business processes.

■ Emphasize green ledgers for carbon tracking
Amid growing interest in reducing carbon footprints in the Korean manufacturing market, SAP announced that its S/4HANA platform can provide carbon accounting capabilities.

SAP exchanges standardized sustainability data with partners and supports supply chain decarbonization. Additionally, we will build a supply chain with enhanced resilience through the 'SAP Business Network for Industry'.

On this day, SAP highlighted the concept of the Green Ledger as its unique and powerful differentiating factor. Green Ledger not only addresses sustainability activities and carbon footprint reduction, but also demonstrates the financial impact of these activities on a company's bottom line.

The concept is to manage carbon accounting through a green ledger, much like managing money moving through a bank account.

SAP said it was "receiving a tremendous amount of feedback from customers regarding our sustainability efforts," and that "our carbon financial statements will provide companies with clear visibility into both sustainability and cost issues."

Finally, SAP added, "It will be important to secure a clean core and sustainability by leveraging SAP's solutions and to utilize AI in the right places in the future."

Meanwhile, at this event, SKT Group Leader Kim Jeong-hoon, LG CNS Managing Director Kim Dae-seong, and Google Cloud Korea CEO Kang Hyeong-jun presented customer case studies.

SKT has declared its leap forward as an AI company and is actively introducing AI into its services. As the scale and cost burden of system replacement according to EoSL increased, SKT felt the limitations of on-premise and SaaS methods and adopted IaaS method and operation.

SKT Group Leader Kim said, "During the conversion process, we were able to save time in verifying stability and focus more on developing application processes."