Winners Named for the SAP Innovation Awards

SAP has selected 25 winners out of 200 submissions for its ninth annual SAP Innovation Awards, which recognize forward-thinking companies and individuals that use SAP products to disrupt industries and positively impact the world. The winners range from multinational companies to government agencies, small businesses, and even a school district.  

The 50th Anniversary Legend award winner, established this year to mark SAP’s half a century in business, is Freudenberg Home and Cleaning Solutions. The German consumer products firm harmonized enterprise-wide planning using a centralized data warehouse based on the SAP Business Warehouse powered by SAP HANA, SAP Analytics Cloud, and SAP Integrated Business Planning for Supply Chain solutions. 

The winners of the Adoption Superhero awards are Kanton Zürich, the government of the Canton of Zurich, and Netze BW, a utility in Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany.  

In response to the surge in short-time work applications during the pandemic, Kanton Zürich leveraged the SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation (iRPA) to develop an iRPA application to extract, validate, and process short-time working compensation documents submitted by companies affected by the pandemic. 

Netze BW developed and deployed the NeWa App on iPhones and Apple Watch to improve the health and safety of its service technicians and provide precise information to the technicians in case of emergencies.  

Business Innovator Awards 

The nine winners of the Business Innovator awards are:  

• Air Canada (travel and transportation) leveraged SAP Ariba Network to eliminate manual processes, streamline operations, and enhance efficiency using a digital marketplace to help it manage the procurement process.  

• Barclays (banking) worked with SAP to integrate Barclays Precisionpay virtual card solution with SAP Ariba and SAP ERP, which integrates into clients’ accounts payable processes.  
• Carrefour’s (retail) Brazilian unit partnered with SAP Brazil and MIGNOW, a technology company specializing in SAP S/4HANA updates, to complete the migration to SAP S/4HANA using RISE with SAP. 
• Cultural COVID-19 Aid-Platform (public sector), developed by the Hamburg state government, is a cloud application on the SAP Business Technology Platform that manages the application and payment of COVID-19 financial relief.  
• Los Alamos National Laboratory (defense and security) established a standardized, integrated digital foundation for procurement based on SAP Ariba and SAP Fieldglass solutions, enabling detailed reporting across purchasing activities.  
• Rehau’s (chemicals) Chinese unit leveraged SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation and SAP machine learning services to deploy end-to-end automation across its finance, manufacturing, and sales units, using SAP S/4HANA Cloud as the core infrastructure.
• Sycor (professional services), a German-based IT consulting firm, undertook a holistic re-design of its business platform using SAP cloud solutions, such as SAP Market Cloud, SAP Sales Cloud, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP SuccessFactors, and SAP Concur, to build a new intelligent business platform.
• Umicore (industrial machinery and components), a Belgium-based materials technology group, worked with Flexso to implement its competency matrix extension for SAP SuccessFactors in order to map skills and certifications to job roles, allow supervisors to assess and follow up on skills gaps, and guide employees to courses.
• Verizon (telecommunications) combined SAP Integrated Business Planning and SAP Customer Activity Repository into a unified supply chain system that improved demand forecasting by 25%. 

The winner of the Cutting-Edge Genius awards is AvanGrid, a US-based sustainable energy company that implemented an automated overhead network inspection system leveraging the SAP Business Technology Platform. 

The winners of the Industry Leader awards are French utility Engie and Turkish auto parts supplier MarturFompak. Engie employed SAP Predictive Maintenance to implement a digital twin of its solar farms to predict and optimize maintenance and repair components before they fail. And MarturFompak created digital twins using two-way IoT connections with the SAP MII/ME platform to monitor product and process parameters and calculate energy consumption and carbon emissions. 

The Partner Paragon award winners are Swiss renewable energy supplier Exnaton and German-based IT consulting firm NTT Data Business Solutions. Exnaton worked with SAP partner bpc AG to create local energy communities, enabling customers to optimize their energy use, sell excess energy to their community, and re-use waste. NTT Data worked with SAP to develop its AI Learning Helper, enabling schools to act as intelligent enterprises to reduce costs while improving lives. 

The Social Catalyst award winners are Italian building products supplier Arpa Industriale and British energy utility Bboxx. Arpa used the SAP Business Technology Platform and SAP Manufacturing application to enable predictive analytics for its next-generation FENIX factory, which reduces energy, water, and waste by 80%. Bboxx employed the SAP Business ByDesign solution to plan and implement logistics in supply chain networks, improve workflow, and unleash the power of the Bboxx Pulse energy management platform to provide developing countries with affordable energy. 

Transformation Champion Awards 

SAP conferred six Transformation Champion awards:  

• Clariant (chemicals), a Swiss chemicals manufacturer, deployed an end-to-end forecasting tool that includes a production benchmarking and simulation engine built by MIBCON NDC on SAP HANA and SAP Analytics Cloud.   

• Flo (retail), a Turkish footwear retailer, created a machine learning application powered by SAP HANA Cloud Services and SAP Business Technology Platform, which improved its in-store goods return process. 
• Fulton County Schools (higher education and research) in Atlanta, Georgia, created its Project Atlas solution to streamline business processes using a range of SAP applications, including SAP S/4HANA, SAP S/4HANA Payroll, SAP Ariba, SAP Concur, SAP SuccessFactors, and SAP Analytics Cloud. 
• Schnellecke Logistics (travel and transportation), a German cargo transportation and logistics firm, developed its digital control tower by aggregating and processing data from various sources leveraging the SAP Business Technology Platform. 
• Team Liquid (sports and entertainment), a Dutch/US video gaming organization, leveraged the SAP Business Technology Platform to develop a solution that analyzes and visualizes historical game data to provide data insights for coaches, team captains, and players. 
• Zuellig Pharma (healthcare), a Philippines-based pharmaceuticals firm, developed the eZRx business-to-business eCommerce platform for the Asian healthcare industry on SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC). 

Each winner receives a $1,000 SAP4Good voucher to donate to a charity of their choice, an invitation to attend a virtual awards ceremony with special guests, and the SAP Innovation Awards trophy. In addition, SAP is donating up to $20,000 to the Theirworld charity in honor of all participants.