Lake Como, Italy, October 24, 2023 – Delegates from across Europe, the Middle East and Africa gathered  recently to attend the second edition of the SAP Signavio Business Process Transformation Executive Summit, held in Lake Como, Italy.

With the support of partners Qintesi, It-Link and Fujitsu, senior business leaders came together to discuss the challenges of an increasingly turbulent business scenario, and how process transformation solutions, coupled with new technologies such as generative AI can help organizations accelerate change.

“In this pivotal moment for businesses, influenced by the macro environment and the convergence of two transformative technologies, we see the cloud empowering businesses to innovate faster by breaking down silos, and generative business AI automating tasks and unveiling new insights. Change is a given, but conscious transformation, with people and processes at its core, is where SAP Signavio steps in,” remarked Manos Raptopoulos, Regional President Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa, SAP.

Florian Bauer, a partner at research firm McKinsey & Company speaking at the event, also reflected on the role of new technologies to transform businesses. “While we talk a lot about data as the new gold, at-scale value creation at enterprises requires us to transform the processes with technology. AI can dramatically reduce the time taken to implement process mining and produce tailored meaningful insights necessary to transform every business process effectively. If you want to leverage this technology at best, you need to have your processes well designed and enabled.”

Gero Decker, the general manager and head of product and engineering at SAP Signavio, highlighted the evolution of SAP Signavio, underscoring its journey from process modelling to analytics and now to its third generation of solutions with generative AI. Decker emphasized the importance of speed in transformation with the new “plug and gain” approach, which, combined with SAP Signavio’s emerging AI capabilities, significantly reduces the time required for insights and adaptation.

Several speakers at the event also touched on SAP Signavio’s ability to accelerate digital transformation through its ‘plug and gain’ approach. In terms of the approach, businesses are provided with a predefined starting point to kick-start their transformation project based on their existing SAP ERP Central Component (SAP ECC) and SAP S/4HANA data. This enables them to quickly understand how their business processes are currently running and determining what to keep and what to change as they embark on their transformation.

Discussions at the invitation-only event were also heavily influenced by SAP’s continued expansion of its business transformation portfolio, with the announcement last month that it would acquire LeanIX, a leader in enterprise architecture management software. Together with Signavio, this will enable SAP to offer customers a full suite of tools for accelerated, cost-effective and continuous business transformation with AI-enabled process optimization.

Rouven Morato, the General Manager and Chief Revenue Officer of SAP Signavio, stressed the need to focus on systems, processes, and individuals for a triumphant transformation. He described how Signavio acts as a bridge between IT and business, with a particular emphasis on the crucial role of individuals in the transformation process. Building on feedback from customers, Morato conveyed the idea that people truly make the difference in outcomes.

Customer success stories

Several SAP customers at the event welcomed SAP Signavio’s new approaches to accelerate transformation and to embedding AI across solutions. Among these, Emanuele Turra, Group CIO of Italy’s AFV Beltrame, said, “I was impressed by the possibilities offered by SAP Signavio to support businesses with process analysis using AI capabilities. At AFV Beltrame, we started our SAP S/4HANA migration journey a year ago, and I’m curious to explore how SAP Signavio could reduce the analysis time and further optimize processes and KPIs to accelerate our group transformation.”

Another customer keeping a close eye on AI developments is Dr. Sherif Farouk, Chairman of the Egyptian Post, which was recently named as a Transformation Champion by SAP Signavio. The award was made for initiating an ambitious transformation plan using Signavio Process Insights to understand and enhance its business processes leveraging SAP best practices, and for backing this up with an impressive workshop training program. Dr. Farouk said, “This forum has served as an invaluable platform to explore the latest advancements in digital transformation and the role of AI in boosting business growth across various sectors. I have also been impressed by SAP’s contributions to sustainable development and environmental conservation through digital transformation.”

Other areas of interest for customers included SAP Signavio’s role in process automation.  Paolo Pizzigati, IT Manager of Italy’s Alfasigma, said, “From this conference, I realize that Signavio can help my organization to design, model, and optimize most of the business processes. Moreover, it can be an important tool to identify areas for process improvement and automation of time-consuming activities, which is a key point in Alfasigma’s roadmap. I envisage using Signavio to conduct regular process performance analysis and to identify bottlenecks and areas for optimization.”

Select SAP Signavio customers, including Fady Emad, VP of Technology at the MAGRABi UAE, served on panels at the event, sharing their insights and experiences on how technology can future-proof businesses. He summed up the event saying, “This was a great opportunity to network with other business leaders and learn from their experiences with digital transformation. I was particularly impressed by the case studies presented by the SAP Signavio team and customers on how to use the platform to streamline processes and improve efficiency and overall company productivity. The insights were aligned seamlessly with our strategy in MAGRABi for the modernization of our core technology platforms.”