The role of enterprise level CFOs has changed radically over the past decade with both a widening scope of influence and greater responsibilities for helping guide corporate transformation programs and technology choices. Instead of the historic backward-looking role focused primarily on gathering and reporting data, the Office of the CFO is now much more involved in proactively analyzing trends and formulating forward-looking strategies to drive future company results. 

With Sapphire now behind us, it is a great time for this Insights series to provide a quick overview of all the AI-related  new initiatives from SAP and strategic partners that were announced and/or spotlighted during the event.

Previous episodes in this Insights Series have explored the challenges created by new Digital Solutions Economy paradigms for billing, fulfillment, invoicing, revenue accounting, and compliance across a wide range of industries. In this new Insights post, we take a look at the management, revenue accounting, and compliance issues for Professional Services companies.

With the 54th anniversary of Earth Day on April 22, 2024, now is a good opportunity to review the progress of corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) initiatives with an eye toward the future and a review of available tools for monitoring, managing and reporting ESG information. 

Previously in this series, we have explored the big picture regarding How Generative AI is Impacting the Digital Solutions Economy. In this new post, we get more granular to provide an update on how AI and Gen AI can enhance productivity, insights, and results in finance applications such as order-to-cash to compliance (OTC²), along with a look at how new SAP AI initiatives are key to this transformation.

In recent years, the semiconductor industry has experienced a roller coaster ride of widely swinging changes in both challenges and opportunities. During the pandemic, the mass movement to work-from-home scenarios and heavy reliance on networked applications drove demand up at the same time that global supply chains were severely disrupted. Then, in the past two years, the meteoric rise of artificial intelligence with generative-AI applications popping up seemingly everywhere has been driving another peak in demand for chip makers.

In addition, geopolitical concerns about semiconductor IP and manufacturing are also significantly influencing decisions on where semiconductor foundries and assembly facilities should be located and whether advanced chip designs should be banned from export to certain countries.

According to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA), the industry will see a 13% sales rise in 2024, after declining 8.2% in 2023, while Gartner, Inc. forecasts that global semiconductor revenue will grow 16.8% in 2024 to total $624 billion.  International Data Corporation (IDC) also upgraded its Semiconductor Market Outlook, calling for a return to growth, with a 20.2% increase to $633 billion in 2024.

Recent posts in this series have provided updates on SAP RISE and GROW, with a focus on how they can help streamline the path for companies migrating to SAP public and private cloud editions.  This new episode drills down into the concept of maintaining a "clean core" in your ERP system to assure a solid foundation that minimizes unnecessary customization, which could impede organizational agility going forward.

As we come to the end of another year, this is a good opportunity to look ahead at the key trends to watch during 2024.