The Future of Finance: AI-Driven FP&A with SAP + SimpleFi

In today’s constantly shifting business environment, finance leaders working in the Office of the CFO are under greater pressure to deliver real-time insights. As regulatory scrutiny heightens, the convergence of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and big data offers financial planning and analysis (FP&A) teams a way to move from reactive reporting to predictive and proactive decision making. SimpleFi is leading this redefinition by helping FP&A teams to harness SAP’s data foundation and advanced analytics.

SimpleFi’s solutions built on deep integration with SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC) and SAP S/4HANA. This integration gives finance teams the ability to connect the dots between data that resides within SAP and data that is maintained in external repositories. These connections make it possible to unlock predictive insights and detect anomalies throughout the planning cycle. SimpleFi empowers financial leaders to meet the dynamic nature of their environments with AI-driven planning, creating a way to move beyond reliance on spreadsheets and one-dimensional dashboards.

The real power of AI in finance isn’t just about automation—it’s about surfacing insights you didn’t even know to ask for. Imagine having a system that connects the dots across your data and proactively flags risks or opportunities before you even think to look. That’s not magic, it’s the future of finance.

Henner Schliebs

Executive Vice President

SimpleFi

Including data in the FP&A process from outside of SAP creates a more holistic view of the business and the ability to make real-time decisions with greater confidence and speed. SimpleFi Solutions give FP&A teams the ability to incorporate external big data sources (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks, and Google BigQuery) into SAP-native environments. Combined with data from SAP, finance teams can infuse real-time operation, market and customer data stored in data lakes outside of SAP to build robust planning and forecasting scenarios/models.

That’s why I believe the future isn’t about centralizing data—it’s about connecting it. SAP’s partnership with Databricks is a great example. Databricks can pull from any data lake beyond their own—Google BigQuery, Snowflake, you name it. That’s the power of modern architecture. You don’t need to move the data. You just need to make it visible and usable.

Henner Schliebs

Executive Vice President

SimpleFi

CFOs are using SimpleFi with SAP Analytics Cloud to make SAP data actionable. They are applying predictive insights to guide mergers and acquisitions, optimize capital allocation, and minimize risk exposure. By tapping into SAP’s Unified Data Model, SimpleFi ensures consistency across financial, operational, and external data sources. As a foundation AI drives automation powered by ML that helps FP&A teams explain trends and variances faster and more accurately than ever before. Within a single, deeply integrated platform FP&A leaders can develop sophisticated planning scenarios, rolling forecasts, and drive proactive planning.

As finance continues to evolve to meet business demands of today and the future, agility is critical. SimpleFi and SAP are setting a new standard for intelligent planning, one where AI and ML embedded into the planning process, gives finance leaders the ability to anticipate outcomes and drive business decisions with more precision. Organizations using SAP’s enterprise-grade technology with SimpleFi’s planning and analytics innovation are building a finance team with even more predictive and data-driven decision-making capabilities.

What This Means for SAPinsiders

• SimpleFi and SAP are driving the future of AI in finance now.
• External data (e.g., Snowflake, Databricks, and Google BigQuery) when added to SAP data gives an organization a more holistic view of the business.
• FP&A teams can more confidently make decisions and build scenario models using data connected across the business.
• AI and ML instantly connect the dots between data that allows finance teams to detect anomalies and make predictions that are not possible when using spreadsheets and one-dimensional dashboards.