Africa's foremost business and technology powerhouses, including such heavyweights as Deloitte, Dimension Data, BCX, EY, Accenture, PwC Africa, Wipro, Lemongrass and more, have pledged their support to the African SAP User Group's (AFSUG) upcoming SAPHILA 2023 conference, held in collaboration with SAP.

Taking place from 09 to 11 July 2023 at Sun City Resort in South Africa's North West province, SAPHILA has attracted the backing of a number of the continent's top business and technology services providers.

Unlocking business transformation and new opportunities with Deloitte

Deloitte Africa, a leading professional services firm, is excited to announce its support and Executive Suite sponsorship for SAPHILA this year.

As a one stop, end-to-end SAP and premium hyper-scaler partner, Deloitte is committed to helping businesses extract maximum value from their SAP journey through technology transformations. Thus, the firm's main focus and discussion points for SAPHILA 2023 will revolve around its expertise as an end-to-end SAP partner, partnerships with premium hyper-scalers, and ability to extract business value from SAP journeys through tech transformations.

"We are proud to bring global Deloitte and SAP leadership to our clients in one location, to foster new relationships and partnerships that will drive business growth and success. This recognition from Deloitte's global alliance partner, SAP, signifies the strong commitment we have towards customer value creation and making a meaningful impact in our client's business journey," explains Andre Vermeulen, Director & SAP Global Alliance Leader at Deloitte Africa.

Deloitte is offering one lucky Executive Suite client attendee a fantastic, as yet undisclosed, prize - one winner will be chosen at random during the course of the conference.

Dimension Data: helping to navigate the transition to the cloud

Diamond sponsor Dimension Data is placing a strong focus on helping African businesses in their transition to the cloud. As such, the organisation will be hosting a discussion on Monday 9 July at SAPHILA 2023, where a panel of clients will talk about how and why they navigated their unique SAP journey to the cloud across a range of deployment and subscription / licence options.

Says Lauren Wortmann, Vice President: Applications and Cloud at Dimension Data: "NTT and Dimension Data partner with clients to successfully navigate the wide range of complexities associated with transitioning to workloads to the cloud. With more than 20 years of SAP experience, we work to modernise, optimise and drive consistency across mission-critical landscapes.

"SAP on Cloud allows clients to successfully deploy and manage SAP products and solutions on a secure, scalable and enterprise-proven cloud platform. End-users can access SAP anywhere, any time and from any device," she adds.

"With our global and local service model, we act as a seamless extension of your IT teams, solving problems collectively through process improvements and consistent high-quality services across regions."

Dimension Data invites SAPHILA 2023 attendees to visit its stand within the exhibition area, where they can enter to win a signed 2023 Springboks Rugby World Cup jersey.

BCX emphasises human experience management gains with AECI

Platinum SAPHILA 2023 sponsor BCX will discuss the topic of 'Employee Central Payroll – An AECI Multi-National Success Story', speaking on Tuesday 10 June at 11:10 in the Human Experience Management stream.

During this talk, Toni Serra, the Chief Information Officer for AECI, a South African-based explosives and specialty chemicals company providing products and services to a broad spectrum of customers in the mining, manufacturing and agricultural sectors, will unpack AECI's success in leveraging SAP technology for its large, diverse workforce. Serra will be joined by Henlie van Rooyen, a Senior Manager in the BCX SAP Centre of Excellence, responsible for managing the Digital HR (SuccessFactors) team.

BCX will also be giving away power banks, so SAPHILA delegates are encouraged to visit the company's exhibition stand.

EY: Realising transformation through people, technology and innovation at SAPHILA 2023

Another Platinum sponsor, EY, will showcase how it helps organisations generate long-term value faster – which is simultaneously innovative, industry-focused, cloud-based and sustainable – with global alliance partner SAP.

Martin Zloch, Consulting Executive Director at EY, says: "As organisations redefine their business models, optimise their operations and strive toward greater sustainability, technology plays an increasingly important role in unlocking business value. SAPHILA offers an unmissable opportunity to see the latest and greatest innovations, customer success stories and product roadmaps within the SAP ecosystem, and to network and learn from like-minded business and technology experts."

Zloch believes organisations can unlock immense business value in four strategic areas: supply chain optimisation; finance transformation; sustainability; and governance, risk and compliance.

"Modern organisations need real-time insights from their digital supply chains to reduce costs and optimise their end-to-end supply chain processes. Through integrated business planning leveraging SAP's extensive solutions portfolio, we can help organisations improve their supply chain efficiencies.

"We see a great opportunity to support and guide companies as they define their sustainability journeys, enhance their supply chain efficiencies, and transform their finance functions, leveraging SAP solutions. We look forward to valuable discussions at SAPHILA 2023."

Business-led transformation key, says Wipro

Wipro, a leading technology services and consulting company, rounds out the Platinum sponsors for SAPHILA 2023.

Warren Zambelli, Managing Director – Africa, Wipro Limited, says: "The need to precisely target value has never been greater. Wipro operates across Africa and is focused on partaking broadly throughout our clients' unique journeys in varied markets to realise business-led transformations, enabled by technology. We are excited to join SAPHILA 2023 as Platinum sponsors and look forward to engaging in dialogue on effective strategies for modernising operations, and how role players might also gain advantages through the exploration of transformative solutions."

Wipro enables global enterprises to standardise, automate, and accelerate by harnessing the power of the cloud and digital technologies. With over 20 years of experience in handling complex SAP engagements and being a Global Strategic Services Partner (GSSP) with SAP, Wipro is uniquely positioned to offer cutting-edge and transformative solutions to customers through multiple joint co-innovation programs. Wipro provides a host of services across SAP's consulting, implementation, and managed services arms, leveraging the 360° relationship with SAP.

Collaboration and business development are the name of the game for Accenture

Accenture is proud to be a global leader in delivering SAP-based business transformations, and the organisation's participation at SAPHILA 2023 reaffirms its commitment to driving innovation and delivering exceptional value to local clients.

Accenture will have a prominent presence as a Gold SAPHILA sponsor in two dedicated spaces:

A collaborative space: which will serve as a hub for fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing. Accenture experts will be on hand to engage with clients and partners, exchange ideas, and explore potential synergies.

A business development and leads space: Designed to facilitate growth and showcase Accenture's capabilities, this space will focus on driving business development and generating leads. The team will highlight its latest innovations, success stories, and transformative solutions. It is an excellent opportunity for our sales and marketing teams to engage with prospects, nurture relationships, and demonstrate the value Accenture brings to organisations.

PwC Africa focuses on accelerated outcomes

It is not enough to simply implement new technology—technology also needs to advance business objectives. Using investments already made, SAPHILA Gold sponsor PwC takes a human-led, tech-powered approach that starts with the desired business outcome and works backwards to build the technology

PwC and SAP have co-created a number of leading solutions for PwC's clients through its partnership. As such, PwC's main goal and discussions at the SAPHILA 2023 conference will be centred around creating awareness and educating teams on innovative technologies, transformation projects and award-winning solutions.

The PwC SAP community of solvers will be present at its exhibition booth, featuring real-time demonstrations that will include the following topics:

·       Digital Manufacturing

·       SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP)

·       SAP BTP and ChatGPT integration

·       Check your Value Chain solution — a SAP Innovation Awards 2023 winner

·       Climate Excellence solution — a SAP Pinnacle Awards 2022 winner

·       S/4 HANA migration strategies

·       SAP Tax solutions

·       SAP Risk solutions.

SAPHILA attendees stand to win PwC-branded merchandise and other giveaways throughout the conference. They are also invited to participate in SAP BTP challenges, which will involve interactive gamification led by PwC's global SAP head of innovation, who will be present at SAPHILA 2023 to talk to attendees about PwC's latest innovations.

Simplify your SAP S/4HANA migration journey with iOCO

"At iOCO, we understand that migrating to SAP S/4HANA can be a complex journey," explains Gary Khan, Sales Director – Enterprise Applications at iOCO, an EOH company. "That's why we've developed our S/4HANA Discovery Programme, a guided approach that leverages the practical skills and learnings gained by our highly experienced S/4 migration team to lead your business through a comprehensive step-by-step process.

"SAPHILA aligns perfectly with iOCO's mission and expertise and, by supporting the conference as a Silver sponsor, we can showcase our deep industry knowledge and extensive expertise in SAP solutions, engage with like-minded professionals, share insights, and build relationships within the SAP community. It allows us to demonstrate our commitment to excellence and how we can help businesses maximise the power of SAP to drive value and growth."

iOCO will showcase the various solutions available on the journey to a successful SAP migration, including hyperscalers such as AWS, with the company's AWS Migration Services offering a scalable, secure, cost-effective solution for migrating SAP workloads to the cloud. In addition, SAPHILA attendees can also take part in iOCO's 'spin the wheel' competition, where they can try their luck for a chance to win amazing prizes. 

Lemongrass showcases local cloud journey examples

Cloud-focused SAP partner Lemongrass, a Silver sponsor at this year's SAPHILA conference, will be sharing examples of how companies locally in South Africa and across the globe are making significant gains from migrating and operating their mission critical workloads on AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud. This will include key discussion areas such as:

·       Controlling cost in the cloud

·       Cloud security

·       Cloud operating models and DevOps

·       Automation

·       SAP S/4HANA and RISE

·       Minimal Downtime Operations (MDO)

·       SAP Analytics Accelerators

The management and operation of SAP workloads in South Africa requires different considerations to other countries, with challenges including energy supplies and latency experienced on a daily basis. Lemongrass and AWS customers Pick n Pay and Aspen Pharmacare will be presenting their own unique journeys to the cloud and what they are now achieving as a result.

The Lemongrass team of Rogan Morrison, Joe Campbell and Keith du Plessis look forward to welcoming visitors to the organisation's stand, where they will have an opportunity to be entered into a prize draw to win a luxury hotel stay in Cape Town, as well as a Lego Technic set.

Quintica foresees bright future with S/4HANA cloud transformation

Companies using SAP as their core ERP have a bright future as SAP S/4HANA Cloud is a complete ERP system with built-in intelligent technologies that help companies adopt new business models, manage business change at speed, and orchestrate internal and external resources—all using the predictive power of AI. However, says SAPHILA Silver sponsor, Quintica, to take advantage of these new innovations, customers on older SAP releases must first move to S/4HANA. For SAP ECC customers, this is particularly complex due to the dramatic differences in software architecture and technical differences between ECC and S/4HANA.

ServiceNow helps SAP customers balance today's need for innovation with the long-term strategy of moving to S/4HANA. With ServiceNow's expertise in automating and optimising business processes, delivering great end-user experiences, and unifying the technology landscape, ServiceNow® Creator Workflows help customers maintain their speed of innovation while supporting a seamless transition to S/4HANA when they are ready. Organisations are empowered to make the most of their existing investment with SAP and move towards more modern finance and supply chain operations.

Quintica, an Elite ServiceNow Partner in Africa and the Middle East, helps large complex global customers to get more value from their SAP investment with ServiceNow the platform for digital business. SAPHILA delegates are invited to see how Quintica does this by building unified experiences for SAP that are fast and automate ERP processes end to end during the modernisation process.

For more information or to register to attend SAPHILA 2023, please visit www.saphila2023.com, or get in touch via email: info@SAPHILA2023.com.

ABOUT AFSUG:

The African SAP User Group (AFSUG) is an independent, non-profit organisation. Its primary focus is to create a platform where SAP customers and partners can connect within the SAP ecosystem, share information, and communicate with peers and experts. This platform enables members to access first-hand success stories and gain intelligence on new releases and features.

AFSUG serves as a forum for SAP customers to represent their industries, business processes, and technological requirements to share information and experiences. The goal is to accelerate the implementation of successful business solutions and influence the local and global directions of SAP Africa and SAP AG. AFSUG achieves this by promoting the needs and wishes of the user community through regular, focused, and highly professional contact between members, business partners, and SAP Africa at all levels.

The board of directors, which comprises CIO customers, executive partners, and an SAP representative, volunteer their time to manage AFSUG as an independent and non-profit organisation. By providing this platform, AFSUG aims to create a community where SAP users can access valuable resources, gain industry insights, and network with peers.