INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cloud
Bill McDermott, CEO, SAP
operations, new business models and new
products and services.
According to research firm Gartner Inc,
two-thirds of all business leaders believe
that their companies must pick up the pace
of digitalisation to remain competitive.
As leaders in enterprise software, SAP and
Microsoft are aligning closely to provide
customers with the safe and trusted path to
digital transformation.
“We are taking our partnership to the
next level with this new capability to
run SAP S/4HANA in the Microsoft
Azure environment,” said SAP CEO Bill
McDermott. “The world’s significant
businesses trust Microsoft and SAP.
Together, we will help companies win the
customer-driven growth revolution.”
SAP and Microsoft both will run SAP
S/4HANA on Azure for their internal
operations. Microsoft is transforming its
internal systems – which include legacy SAP
finance applications – and will implement
the SAP S/4HANA Finance solution running
on Azure. Microsoft also plans to connect
SAP S/4HANA to Azure AI and analytics
services for more efficient financial reporting
and more powerful decision-making. SAP is
migrating more than a dozen business-critical
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systems to Azure for the optimal efficiencies,
flexibility and innovation the platform offers.
This includes the SAP S/4HANA software
supporting Concur, a SAP company.
Both companies will document the internal
projects to provide customers with guidance
and enterprise architecture for deployment
of SAP applications on Azure.
With SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud on Azure,
customers get the best of both worlds:
application management and product
expertise from SAP and a global, trusted
and intelligent cloud from Microsoft Azure,
including the range of Microsoft cloud
services. Enterprise customers of all types,
such as The Coca-Cola Company, Columbia
Sportswear Company, Coats and Costco
Wholesale Corp, count on SAP and Azure for
their businesses.
“The strategic partnership announced
between Microsoft and SAP is an extremely
important development for the Coca-Cola
System,” said Barry Simpson, Senior Vice
President and Chief Information Officer at
The Coca-Cola Company.
“The value of aligned engineering, sales
and delivery between these two strategic
partners will allow our system to accelerate
our digital agenda. This is a very positive and
exciting development for us.”
“SAP and Microsoft are key partners with
Costco, and this alliance will help drive our
cloud strategy and digital business forward,”
said Jim Rutherford, Senior Vice President of
Information Systems at Costco Wholesale.
“Microsoft and SAP are strategic partners
helping us grow our wholesale and direct-to-
consumer businesses. Their close alignment
is an integral part of advancing our technical
architecture and cloud strategy to better serve
our customers around the world,” said Mike
Hirt, Vice President and Chief Information
Officer at Columbia Sportswear Company.
“We produce innovative products that
allow our customers to pursue and enjoy
their outdoor passions. Our partnership
with Microsoft and SAP is essential to us
continuing to deliver on that commitment.”
“With SAP HANA on Azure, we have the
data intelligence to operate more efficiently
across all aspects of our business and
accelerate the delivery of finished goods to
our customers,” said Hizmy Hassen, Chief
Digital and Technology Officer, Coats. “The
Microsoft and SAP alliance provides us with
the assurance we need for our innovation in
the cloud.” n
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