SAPHILA 2023
Saphila 2023 was a truly amazing experience, from Vusi’s inspirational talk to the Gala Evening with an unforgettable performance by Mi Casa. View our image Carrousel to view photage from the event.
Saphila is a biennial event hosted by the African SAP User Group (AFSUG) in collaboration with SAP. The two day conferencing and networking was located on the backdrop of the beautiful Sun City Resort Conference Center.
As the first post-pandemic Saphila since 2019 it gave the African & International delegates an opportunity to collaborate, connect, share insights, network and chats with first class experts and major customers in both physical and digital presence. Below our team highlighted the following key takeaways from Saphila.
Future-Nomics - Vusi Thembekwayo
The ASPIRE-themed agenda kick started with an inspirational speech by Vusi Thembekwayo. Vusi reminded us that "Greatness is a Choice".
What we believe will often lead us. Greatness can be achieved by aligning business vision with a connected cultural impact that sees friction as an asset and recognises psychographics to lead business context. Though the path to success may be ever changing, the destination can be clear and undeniable if you have the courage to choose it. He also prompted the need to think about inclusivity within the realms of AI. How do we as businesses ensure we are matching diversity into our programs as to not repeat innovations of the past.
Vusi highlighted 4 rules for businesses to lead by:
- Find the Truth - the numbers don't lie as long as your asking the right and inclusive questions. Consider all perspectives to formulate the truth.
- Be the Best not the Biggest - progress over profit will often result in long term sustainability and greater return.
- Have a Vision that Excites - to excite employees and customers, businesses need to have a impactful and clear vision.
- Lead by the Business Case - there should always be aligned value in business ventures and management decision. How does doing x server the company purpose.
AI a Continuous Theme
Artificial Intelligence(AI) was a continuous theme throughout Saphila as organisations aim to leverage AI for business value. “SAP is looking to implement AI confidently, mindfully and responsibly,” says Kholiwe Makhohlosi the newly-appointed MD of SAP Southern Africa. This echoed SAP Business AI Solutions which focuses on AI being built into processes, relevant and responsible.
The growing trend towards AI is no surprise, “AI is making headlines all over the world,” - Kholiwe Makhohlosi. Businesses are shuffling to integrate AI as to stay with business trends. However, the real concept of AI can only be realised when deployed in the correct manner. Timo Elliot, Global Innovation Evangelist says” at SAP, we want to use the best of these models to further your business processes.” SAP AI is built for business, he adds – it needs to be built in, relevant and responsible. This was affirmed by Peter Blignaut “that SAP’s principle is that AI needs to be integrated into IT systems in a responsible and ethical way, in a way that provides unbiased and sustainable support to people. We need to retain human agency”. AI needs instruction and developers need proper governance to ensure responsible builds. While generative AI can certainly speed up code development we need human interaction to ensure ethicality, diversity of scenarios and inclusivity in access and use is applied to our solutions.
Business Transformation & Industry Convergence
As technology continues to shape the world, business transformation is often right behind. Alongside the need for business transformation, is industry convergence where more business partners are seeing opportunity in alignment. Sven Denecken show cased a SAP solution which leveraged convergence between e-mobility and retail by using AI. With the aim to attract and retain customers businesses can offer services like electric vehicle charging alongside retail rewards by using location data and promotional prompts. The King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) Team further affirmed this in their partner collaboration and stakeholder management to create a living lab and smart city. The convergence however must add value to lives of end user.
Industry convergence in the midst of business transformation highlights the need for organisations to be agile and an intelligent enterprise. SAP launched its Signavio Business Process Intelligence to assist in this regard. Signavio is a powerful, integrated platform to align organisations with process changes needed. Ultimately, it reduces time to insight and increase time to adapt. This allows businesses to focus on key elements on innovation as stated by Timo Elliot "Ideation, Collaboration, Value Creation and Implementation".