SAP aims to simplify spend management with AI copilot
SAP is injecting more generative AI into its Intelligent Spend Group via its Joule copilot. It also introduced new services for Business Network and Ariba.
SAP has added more generative AI capabilities to its spend management applications through its copilot, Joule. SAP also introduced new services designed to spur user adoption of SAP Ariba and help suppliers with recognition on the SAP Business Network, which connects them to buyers.
Unveiled at this week's SAP Spend Connect conference, the new copilot capabilities target the most used activities and processes across the SAP Intelligent Spend Group, which includes SAP Ariba for procurement, SAP Fieldglass for external workforce management, SAP Concur for travel and expense reporting, and the SAP Business Network. Doing so will increase process productivity and provide greater visibility across the spend management suite, according to the company.
"We are continuing our generative AI journey across the Intelligent Spend Group and Business Network, by embedding GenAI capabilities across the whole source-to-pay world," said Manoj Swaminathan, chief product and technology officer for Intelligent Spend and Business Network at SAP, in a briefing with TechTarget Editorial prior to the conference.
This means SAP Joule, which launched last year and is being embedded into SAP's cloud product portfolio, will cover 80% of customers' most used activities across the spend management applications, Swaminathan said.
"We've also infused GenAI capabilities across our user experience as well so that users [can] do more with less," he said.
Joule will help Ariba's source-to-pay users manage routine status updates, generate summaries and respond to frequently asked customer questions. Fieldglass users can use Joule for hiring and service requests such as generating the text for job openings and statements of work. For the SAP Business Network, the copilot can help users with logistics and asset management tasks, and can help match suppliers with new business opportunities in the Network Discovery application.
Joule is currently available in Ariba and will be available in Fieldglass and Business Network in the fourth quarter of 2024 through a phased rollout, according to SAP.
New services for Ariba and Business Network
SAP also introduced the new software service SAP Ariba Intake Management that's designed to drive more adoption of Ariba, as well as a new subscription service for SAP Business Network to help suppliers on the network find buyers.
Ariba Intake Management provides a single interface for procurement inquiries and status visibility, Swaminathan said. The application orchestrates information from Ariba and can integrate across a company's systems through the SAP Business Technology Platform, SAP's development and integration environment.
"This is for an organization that has both seasoned users and new users, as every CPO [chief procurement officer] is struggling to drive procurement adoption," he said.
Ariba Intake Management is expected to be available in the first quarter of 2025.
The new Business Network service, Promote, is designed to help suppliers differentiate themselves and find buyers, according to SAP.
Millions of suppliers are doing business on the Business Network, so standing out can be a challenge, Swaminathan said. Promote enables suppliers to gain insights on how to define their profiles to improve how they get selected in a request for proposal or sourcing process. Right now, only buyers have visibility into the RFP or sourcing process.
Suppliers can determine, for example, how many situations across the network's transactions resulted in a particular supplier recommendation, allowing them to adjust their profile accordingly, he said.
"This could be not having the right sustainability certificates, for example," Swaminathan said. "There's a lot more visibility for the supplier to understand better how to play well with the network."
Promote is a subscription service that's expected to be available in the first quarter of 2025, with pricing to be determined.
More details needed
Procurement is a popular use case for generative AI, and the added capabilities in SAP Ariba will help customers with sustainability, contract efficiency and buyer-supplier relationship management, said Ray Wang, an analyst at Constellation Research.
Ariba Intake Management makes particular sense, he said.
Given the transaction volume in SAP Ariba, anything to improve onboarding will be helpful.
Ray WangAnalyst, Constellation Research
"Given the transaction volume in SAP Ariba, anything to improve onboarding will be helpful," Wang said.
The focus on generative AI features for Intelligent Spend applications is expected, but customers need to approach them carefully, said Jon Reed, an analyst and co-founder of Diginomica, an enterprise industry analysis firm.
"GenAI is not cheap, and SAP's GenAI pricing is not always easy to grasp," Reed said. "Also, to get good enterprise results with GenAI, we need to see how this plays out on live projects with customer data."
However, procurement and spend are process-heavy areas in an enterprise, and steps toward automation as well as ease of use for casual users and new out-of-network suppliers are steps in the right direction, he said.
"If SAP's GenAI features for spend management and the SAP Business Network help customers toward these goals, they will be welcomed," Reed said.
Jim O'Donnell is a senior news writer for TechTarget Editorial who covers ERP and other enterprise applications.
