PwC and SAP deepen strategic alliance: PwC

Jill Notz

Chief Accounting Officer, Controller & Business Services leader, PwC US

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Key takeaways

Lived the transformation, not just led it: As one of SAP's largest Cloud ERP customers globally, PwC completed its own end-to-end finance transformation, including two upgrades and a year-end close. This experience gives the firm first-hand, practitioner-level insight into what it takes to succeed with SAP Cloud ERP.
Co-innovating the future of AI with SAP: PwC and SAP are jointly developing next-generation AI capabilities, including the Billing Assistant, which is projected to deliver up to $30M in value. PwC serves as both an early adopter and a design partner, helping shape how AI is integrated into real enterprise workflows.
The trusted guide: After navigating its own clean-core, AI-ready transformation at enterprise scale, PwC is uniquely positioned as an SAP Platinum Partner to support clients on their finance transformation journeys—reducing risk, accelerating time to value, and preparing them for continuous innovation.

PwC’s Jill Notz, Chief Accounting Officer & Business Services Leader, will join SAP’s Jan Gilg, Global President Customer Success & Americas, and Member of the Extended Board, on stage during the main keynote at the SAP Connect event entitled "Connected Intelligence: Bringing the Autonomous Enterprise to Life." It's a fitting stage for a relationship that has grown well beyond implementation.

This conversation comes at a pivotal moment. PwC is one of SAP's largest global clients, having completed its own transformation to SAP Cloud ERP, and is now applying those firsthand lessons to help clients across industries accelerate their own journeys to the Autonomous Enterprise.

PwC's internal transformation is a live case study in what's possible on SAP Cloud ERP. Guided by a clean-core architecture, PwC has built a foundation that is AI-ready by design, enabling the firm to adopt innovation quickly, without the drag of legacy customization.

That foundation was put to the test throughout the year, as PwC completed two SAP software upgrades, each executed with minimal disruption and substantial cost savings for the firm. The year culminated in a successful year-end close on the new platform, capping off a period that reflects the operational discipline and long-term value a true clean-core, Cloud ERP strategy can deliver.

PwC is moving quickly into AI innovation, most visibly through SAP’s AI-enabled Billing Assistant being built directly into PwC's SAP environment to help address one of the most persistent challenges in an ERP rollout: user adoption.

"One of the biggest challenges we saw was user adoption. Even when an ERP implementation is technically successful, getting people to use complex systems easily and consistently can be difficult, and that can limit the business value," said Jill Notz. " We are implementing a billing assistant to help simplify and accelerate billing, ultimately improving working capital and reducing days sales outstanding (DSO). Instead of navigating rigid menus and multiple steps, our people can be guided through the process in a much more intuitive way."

The projected impact is substantial. Based on early testing, the Billing Assistant is designed to reduce bill creation time from 35 minutes to about five minutes, freeing an estimated 150,000 hours annually. At full deployment, that could translate to up to US$30 million in value for the firm through direct cost savings and the redeployment of recovered capacity into billable hours.

"For us, that's the important point," Jill added. "AI isn't just an interesting technology, when it's embedded into a real business process, you see the impact directly in the numbers. That's the kind of business value we're focused on delivering, both internally and for our clients."

On why PwC chose SAP as its partner for this innovation, Jill was direct: "We are not a SaaS company. Building and maintaining custom software can be costly to evolve over time. We look for commercial software providers with the scale, rigor, and long-term commitment to continuously improve enterprise-grade solutions, and SAP is a partner that can help us scale these capabilities rather than build everything ourselves."

From Proof Point to Playbook: PwC's Cloud ERP Strategy for Clients

Clients are no longer asking whether SAP Cloud ERP is real. They are asking how to get there without a multi-year rebuild. PwC walked that path first. The same approach is now in the market with clients — accelerating time to go-live, reducing upgrade risk, and leaving a core that can absorb the next release and the next wave of AI without another transformation.

What's Next: Joint AI Innovation with SAP

Building on the success of SAP’s Billing Assistant, PwC and SAP are extending their collaboration into new areas of joint AI innovation, designed to help organizations move beyond automation toward truly autonomous, intelligent operations. "PwC is one of SAP's largest global customers of SAP Cloud ERP. They're not just implementing SAP for their clients: They've put their own business through the transformation, and they're running it on our software at enterprise scale," said Jan Gilg, Global President, Customer Success & Americas, SAP. "That combination of practitioner experience and technical depth is exactly what the market needs as organizations move toward the Autonomous Enterprise. We're excited to keep building the next chapter of AI innovation together."

“Our work with SAP has always been about more than implementation — it's about building the muscle to keep innovating," said Jill Notz. "What we've learned running our own business on SAP Cloud ERP, and what we've built together with AI, is exactly what we bring to our clients: proof that the Autonomous Enterprise isn't just a vision, it's achievable today."

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