Editor’s Choice

SAP TechEd 2026 Continues to Push the Autonomous Enterprise Vision

At SAP TechEd 2026, the company emphasized its shift from AI as an assistant to AI as an autonomous executor in business processes through the launch of Joule Work, an AI-native work environment enabling intent-centric execution and enhancing enterprise efficiency.

automated bottling line at a manufacturing facility.

Human Capital Management

Inside Lion’s ServiceNow Overhaul: From Fragmented Services to AI Readiness

Lion, a beverage manufacturer, improved employee service efficiency and satisfaction by redesigning its HR, IT, and finance workflows with EY and ServiceNow, consolidating over 56 legacy channels into a unified system that increased self-service usage by 200% and reduced operating costs by about 30%, while laying the groundwork for future AI integration.

Data and Data Management

SAP ECC Retirement: What Happens to the Data Left Behind?

SAP's 2027 maintenance date sets the timeline for the new system, but the history left in ECC needs its own plan and owner. Payment history, stored currency amounts, and custom Z reports are the records most often lost or distorted.

A robotic arm with a red nozzle positioned above a black circuit board in a production laboratory.

Analytics and AI

AI Is Breaking the ERP Migration Bottleneck

AI-assisted migration and implementation automation are changing the calculation behind deferred ERP modernization projects. Nancy Majure of QAD explains how manufacturers can reassess estimates, protect expert time, and capture the acceleration now available.

Exterior of ICC Sydney, where SAP developers will gather to discuss AI, ABAP, and technical debt.

Analytics and AI

“You Can’t Take Away a Job That’s Not Being Done”: Developer Paul Hardy on Using AI to Clean Up Bad ABAP

Developer Paul Hardy explains how AI can take on neglected ABAP work such as unit testing and refactoring, while experienced developers remain responsible for reviewing the code and giving AI precise instructions.

Analytics and AI

Five Key Takeaways from SAP Connect 2026

SAP Connect 2026 emphasized the ongoing strategic importance of the Autonomous Enterprise and governance in SAP's vision, despite low adoption among customers, highlighting that successful users have laid a strong foundational groundwork for leveraging AI technologies.

Financial Management

Bringing AP Payments Into One Process Protects Cash Visibility

Disconnected supplier payment channels create manual work and leave finance teams with an incomplete view of cash. Priority Commerce brings checks, ACH, cards, and wires into one ERP-connected process, helping businesses simplify reconciliation, maintain consistent controls, and improve payment visibility.

Black-and-white symmetrical footbridge representing data independence and enterprise AI readiness

Analytics and AI

Enterprise AI Readiness Through Data Independence and Business Context

Enterprise AI needs the business context behind ERP records, and that context often sits inside the applications that created it. Data independence keeps that context governed and available to AI after source systems are migrated or retired.

Analytics and AI

SAP Pushes the Autonomous Enterprise from Vision to Reality, But Adoption Still in Infancy

At SAP Connect 2026, the company presented its Autonomous Enterprise vision, showcasing advancements in AI-driven business processes while acknowledging that widespread adoption remains limited and emphasizing the need for foundational data readiness and robust governance frameworks for successful implementation.

Security

The Great Divide: How To Address Security Concerns About AI and ERP Tools

AI is entering ERP systems through vendor code, third-party tools, and agents faster than security teams can assess it. New survey data shows where security objections come from and what visibility and controls CISOs need to support continued adoption.

Analytics and AI

IFS Loops Moves From AI Insight to Enterprise Execution

IFS Loops brings agentic AI closer to operational execution through Digital Workers that act within enterprise workflows. As manufacturers expand AI automation, trusted data, decision rights and measurable business outcomes will determine how much authority these systems earn.

Analytics and AI

SAP Enters Payments as Joule Assistants Expand Across Every Line of Business

SAP has launched new AI-powered Joule Assistants across various business functions as part of its Autonomous Enterprise vision, aimed at automating critical workflows and enhancing operational efficiency, with the broader goal of integrating intelligence throughout organizations, despite some assistants not being available until 2027.

Analytics and AI

Is the Autonomous Enterprise the Future SAP Customers Want?

In May 2026, SAP announced its Autonomous Enterprise vision, featuring new AI capabilities and agents designed to transform business operations, yet customer enthusiasm has shifted to concerns about governance, cost, and the uncertain timeline for AI integration, highlighting a disconnect between market expectations and the cautious approach adopted by organizations within the SAP ecosystem.

Security

AI Warnings Merit a Second Look at the Risks Businesses Are Willing To Carry

AI-enabled cyber threats are becoming faster, cheaper and easier to scale. As evidence accumulates, businesses may need to revisit security assumptions embedded in ERP migrations, AI deployments, and other technology investments.

Cloud Platform and Technology

Having It Both Ways: How Hybrid Cloud Control and Orchestration Achieve Reliable, Resilient Enterprise Ops

Hybrid cloud orchestration gives enterprises a way to coordinate legacy, SAP and cloud-native environments without sacrificing reliability or control. AI-powered automation is expanding that model by improving workload management, resilience and operational visibility.

Analytics and AI

Agentic AI in Finance: Why Autonomy Must Be a Risk Decision

Agentic AI promises to move finance beyond scripted automation, but greater autonomy does not automatically mean better outcomes. Finance leaders need to assess where agents can act independently, when humans should intervene, and how every decision can be governed and explained.

Neon highway sign reading "AI Adoption Speed: Unlimited" over a digital motorway, symbolizing Infor forward-deployed engineering accelerating AI into ERP execution

Analytics and AI

Infor Uses Forward-Deployed Engineering To Move AI Into ERP Execution

Infor is pairing forward-deployed engineering with its AI Adoption Hub to move AI from feature availability into ERP execution. The four-week deployment claim gets attention, but reuse, governance and measurable operating improvement will decide whether the model scales.

Hangzhou East Railway Station in China, illustrating the rise of Chinese AI models in enterprise ERP.

Analytics and AI

Chinese AI Models Are Changing the Economics of AI in ERP

Chinese AI models such as DeepSeek, Qwen, and Kimi are giving European enterprises lower-cost, open-weight alternatives to US providers. Their rise could change the economics of embedding AI into ERP while increasing pressure on vendors to support more flexible, multi-model strategies.

Enterprise Architecture

Stable Core, Movable Edges: What SAP’s Vercel Partnership and Tirlán’s Nine-Month Carve-Out Have in Common

SAP's new Vercel partnership and Tirlán's nine-month SAP carve-out from Glanbia look unrelated, but both follow the same architectural pattern: keep the SAP core stable, isolate the layer that must move, and rehearse the change before it reaches production.

Financial Management

Why Finance’s AI Advantage Depends on Governance, Evaluation, and Control

AI adoption is accelerating across finance, but deploying more tools does not automatically improve financial control. Sustainable advantage depends on continuous evaluation, explainability, human oversight, and governance infrastructure that can detect failures, model drift, and emerging risks as AI scales.

Governance, Risk, and Compliance

The Two-Year Materiality Cycle Is Quietly Becoming a Liability

Two-year materiality cycles can leave companies working from outdated assumptions. Novisto’s Nick Sanscartier explains how connected, technology-enabled materiality workflows can make ESG assessments more continuous, traceable and audit-ready without replacing human judgment.

Analytics and AI

Why Frontline Trust Will Determine the Success of UK Government AI

Civiteq Managing Director Edward Pearson argues that UK government AI will succeed only if public sector leaders make frontline trust, adoption and change management central to transformation.

Modern office buildings representing ERP accounts payable integration and embedded payment workflows

Financial Management

Why Isn’t Your ERP System Paying Off? The Answer May Be Hidden in AP

Priority Commerce finds that fragmented accounts payable workflows are preventing organizations from realizing the full value of their ERP systems, making deeper AP integration, embedded payments, and workflow adaptability increasingly important.

Mawared MENA: Portal for local sourcing across the MENA region for humanitairan, charity and health agencies.

Spend Management and Procurement

ERP Transformed Organizations. Can Procurement Technology Transform Markets?

ERP systems transformed procurement execution, but market visibility remains a challenge. Mawared MENA demonstrates how shared procurement infrastructure can help organizations discover suppliers, strengthen local sourcing, improve resilience, and create healthier supplier ecosystems before a purchase order is ever issued.

Supply Chain Management

Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP MCP Server Lets Agents Move from Supply Chain Insight to Action

Microsoft is positioning Dynamics 365 ERP MCP Server as the bridge between AI-generated recommendations and operational execution. The platform gives AI agents controlled access to real ERP workflows, allowing organizations to move from supply chain visibility toward governed action while maintaining human oversight.

AI is doing more than making enterprise systems smarter. It is exposing weak data, disconnected processes and unclear ownership that were already there.

Automation

AI Reveals Vulnerabilities in the Enterprise Operating Model

Enterprise AI is not held back only by technology. ERP, supply chain, data, security, and people need to work together in a connected operating model that turns trusted context into controlled action.

Analytics and AI

How SNP Is Addressing the Manual Work Behind SAP Modernization

SNP is collaborating with a leading AI company to bring AI into one of the most labor-intensive areas of SAP transformation: test-data selection. The collaboration highlights a broader shift toward software-led delivery models that promise faster, more predictable, and more auditable ERP modernization projects.

Analytics and AI

Report: AI Is Moving Faster Than the Enterprise Systems Built to Support It

Microsoft's 2026 Work Trend Index reveals a growing disconnect between employee AI capabilities and the enterprise systems designed to support them. As workers move faster with AI, ERP leaders face growing pressure to connect intelligence, governance, and operational execution.

ERP Strategy and Planning

The Mid-Flight ERP Decision: What to Do When the Platform Changes Before Go-Live

Cloud ERP vendors continuously release new capabilities, creating a challenge many organizations never anticipated when they approved their business case. This article explores how ERP leaders should respond when a platform changes before go-live and offers a practical framework for balancing customization, standardization, governance, and long-term value.

Data and Data Management

SNP Advances AI for Unstructured Data in M&A with Kyano Oros

SNP is expanding its AI capabilities through Kyano Oros, helping organizations bring unstructured enterprise data into mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and SAP transformation projects. The move highlights a growing challenge for M&A teams: understanding the risks, obligations, and opportunities hidden beyond structured ERP data.

ERP Strategy and Planning

Decision Debt: The Hidden ERP Liability No Dashboard Tracks

Most ERP programs measure budgets, milestones, testing progress, and deployment readiness. Few measure the hidden liability created by unresolved business decisions. As AI compresses implementation timelines, decision debt may become one of the most expensive risks in enterprise transformation.