WEBVTT

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Hi, I'm Martin Paul,

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the Global SAP Alliance
and Competence Leader.

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And today, for my leadership
series, I'm here with Marc Bourdé.

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Welcome, Marc.

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Welcome.

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And let's come to the first question
and let's talk about SAP and so,

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what excites you most about
our relationship with SAP?

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Well, I believe, you know, first thing,

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it's a deep, trusted relationship.

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A 360 relationship.

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That means we buy products from SAP,
like S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition

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and implement it in the large
territories like Germany or the US.

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So, we are the guinea pig.

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We are client zero on that
one. So that's one aspect.

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The second aspect is we
deliver critical projects

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at SAP, like SAP Business
Data Cloud, where we work

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with our friends from
SAP to implement it at SAP.

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And again, that's another client zero.

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And then we take all
that together to the market.

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That means that when we
are talking to customers,

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we are not talking about
something that we don't know.

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We're talking about something

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that both of us have experience
in, that we've done together.

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Give us something private,
you know, from yourself.

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So, what's your main passion outside work?

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So, SAP. No. I'm joking.

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Probably world affairs.

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I like what's happening.

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I like what's happening with society,
with AI, with all these things.

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So, I think that's something
that keeps me busy.

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But also, I like to play some
sports, to watch some sports.

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So, I'm doing a little bit of sailing,
a bit of skiing, watch football.

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So being outdoors, is quite nice.

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We have just released, a set of
Express solutions in the market.

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Now tell us what value is
that bringing to our clients

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and how are they distinguishing
us from our competitors?

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So, I think that's a great
question, Martin, because,

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Cloud ERP Express, or Back Office
Express, we have a few solutions,

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as you mentioned, are here to
deliver a business value at speed.

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So, it's not only a package
to do a technical implementation.

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This is something to implement
rapidly, new features,

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and to help our customers
to get more with a bit of tax,

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with a bit of accounting, so making
sure that they get the right value,

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with PwC add-ons and accelerators,

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and not only a technical project
that doesn't deliver benefits.

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We have a lot of clients who are now,
following more a brownfield approach.

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So, a fast transition,
from ECC to SAP S/4HANA.

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What is the approach to brownfield
and how do we unleash more value

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for our customers?

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You know, Martin, that very often we get
customers who call us the in the middle

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of a brownfield, and then the CFO calls
us and says, “I don't see any value.

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I keep giving more money for the project.

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The project is costing more
money and taking more time,

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and there is no business value at all.”
So that's why we as PwC, we look at what

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we called small greenfield or bluefield,
as some of our partners call it,

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to effectively embed some
value into the transformation.

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So instead of doing a
very standard brownfield,

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we do a brownfield plus or enhanced
brownfield, we will do some changes,

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some transformation to
leverage the new features,

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but also some simplifications
that are required by the business.

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The result of that is a bit
more time but much more value.

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So, a lift and shift becomes
more a shift and uplift.

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That's the term Martin.

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Marc, what are the trends you
are seeing in the EMEA region?

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Well, Martin, as you
know, it is so diverse...

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Kenya, Middle East, Finland, UK,
Spain, very different countries.

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Anyway. Three things I see. Number one.

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Simplification. Okay.

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Every single customer
is facing complexity.

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Facing disruption. Technology.
Geopolitical challenges.

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So, they are looking for simplification
- running more simple businesses.

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They're also looking at standardisation.

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Why standardisation?

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Because they recognise that
if all their businesses,

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all their entities are different,
it's creating more complexity internally.

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And, in terms of responding
to the new challenges and technology.

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Then the third one is innovation.

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And this is really on the top
of the agenda of every single CEO

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with all the changes happening with tech,
all the changes happening in the world.

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Innovation is the way to stay on
top of their game, to stay on top

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of their industry, and innovation requires
simplification and standardisation.

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So, standardisation,
simplification, innovation.

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What are your big bets for the year ahead?

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I have to say AI. Okay.

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Because if I don't say AI people WILL say,

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hey, where did he live
for the last few years?

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I think AI is one, but AI is coming
in three different flavours.

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As you know, the first one
is what I call embedded AI.

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So, this is SAP effectively enhancing
their product with AI capabilities

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that will help clients

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to do more with specific transactions.

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Okay, so that's the first one.

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The second one is AI solutions.

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You know our global CoE for AI,

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has developed fantastic
solutions like the CSRD AI.

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We have solutions, and this
is to supplement, so effectively

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we push that out for the
benefit of our clients.

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Then the last one is we use AI

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to improve the quality of our delivery.

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Making sure that we
deliver the best outcome

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in a better way, and in
a smarter way for clients.

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And that's AI for delivery.

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Marc, thank you so much for your time.

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It's my pleasure.

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See you soon.