SAP Business Suite Innovation Day held in Belgrade

SAP recently successfully organized the SAP Business Suite Innovation Day at Sava Centar in Belgrade, where it brought together business leaders, users, and experts to explore SAP’s bold new vision for enterprise management.

The event demonstrated how SAP Business Data Cloud and SAP Business AI were integrated into SAP Business Suite to deliver exceptional business value.

Through expert insights and real-world user examples, it was presented how SAP innovations combined powerful cloud applications with contextual and reliable data to enable the application of artificial intelligence in solving the most demanding business challenges of the modern era.

At the very beginning, the attendees were welcomed by Branislav Sekulovic, Managing Director of SAP Balkans, and Ljubica Barbulj, CEO of EneTel Solutions, announcing the topics of the meeting - Business Suite and AI, that is, SAP’s view on artificial intelligence.

– Our idea is to show how SAP Business Suite combined with artificial intelligence opens up new opportunities for improving all aspects of business. Some possibilities were not even imaginable until recently – said Managing Director of SAP, Branislav Sekulovic.

He later referred to both users and partners.

– We see engagement from users and partners and a willingness to honestly share experiences. Every implementation comes with challenges. As a software company, we are glad to have a serious network of partners and professional services that can help and respond to every request. With each passing year, our clients and we become more mature. Expectations are clearer, goals are more precise - and together we are moving forward with SAP – said Sekulovic.

Ljubica Barbulj, CEO of EneTel Solutions, said:

– Our mission is to enable agility, efficiency and sustainable growth through innovation and SAP solutions for clients. We believe that domestic teams can implement projects of strategic importance and set new standards in digital transformation.

During the first presentation - “SAP Business Suite: Future-Readiness Starts Now. How timely strategy execution drives real business impact.” - Martin Scharmach, SVP & CRO Cloud ERP Private, MEE SAP, presented the strategy of SAP Business Suite, which integrates applications, data, and artificial intelligence into a single system.

– I want to start with Belgrade, the place where rivers meet. I think it's a great symbol - where two rivers meet. What we want to achieve here is to connect innovation with artificial intelligence and with data in your company.

From a Business Suite strategy perspective, we believe that the only way to get the most value out of AI is to connect it to your data - to train the AI on your data. And the only way to achieve this at scale is with SAP, because SAP runs your processes, SAP generates data, and this is the data that you can use to train your AI – Scharmach explained at the beginning of his presentation.

Alexander Zaytsev, Head of BTP & BDC Customer Advisory, SAP CEE, in the presentation “Explore SAP’s Application, Data, and AI Innovations” talked about how we could position AI for every business process and why this was of key importance for SAP customers and partners.

– True AI integration is not just adding a chatbot. It’s about how AI impacts business processes and how we can use it in the future. To achieve this, we need to provide the right data. That’s why we announced SAP Business Data Cloud earlier this year, our new system that allows us to unify data from different sources, both from the SAP environment and from non-SAP systems.

We can integrate all of these components using the SAP Business Technology Platform. This is also an important point, because when we integrate different processes, we can create a single environment for all business processes.

Artificial intelligence is changing the way we work. Many companies have already implemented AI solutions, and this is a positive sign. This means that we need to adopt innovations faster, because AI brings real business benefits to all users – explained Zaytsev.

Migration of Telekom Srbija’s on-premise SAP system to SAP Private Cloud

Success stories of SAP system users were also presented at this year’s conference. The most significant process of migration to SAP Private Cloud was discussed by Ivan Mijailovic, SAP Program Manager at EneTel, and Mirjana Jevtic, Head of IT Strategy and Corporate Support at Telekom Srbija, which has been using SAP solutions for more than ten years.

– Telekom Srbija, a leader in the region, one of the most successful telecommunications operators in Southeast Europe, as an innovative company made the decision to migrate its SAP on-premise solutions to Private Cloud in order to provide a scalable, flexible and innovative solution, as well as long-term technical support.

As regular support for the ECC solution expires in 2027, we decided to start this process in 2025 and ensure business continuity – explained Mirjana Jevtic.

She added that “by using the SAP Rise Cloud service, part of the responsibility for infrastructure and security is transferred to the cloud provider.”

– This significantly relieves our IT team. In addition, the cloud allows for more flexible scaling of resources and faster introduction of innovations, including AI tools and advanced analytical platforms – said Jevtic.

Ivan Mijailovic pointed out that Telekom Srbija had a complex SAP IT architecture with four SAP systems and numerous integrations.

– Together with SAP experts and colleagues from Telekom Srbija, we opted for a PTO approach in two phases - the first phase is the migration of existing solutions to SAP PCE (Private Cloud), and then in the second phase, the system conversion and updating to the latest S/4HANA version – Mijailovic pointed out.

Telekom Srbija has also successfully implemented HR solutions, and Suzana Marovic, Head of the Human Resources Development Sector, spoke about this at the conference.

Noteworthy stories also coming from Pestan and Swisslion Takovo

The company Pestan, which implemented SAP in 2009, this year implemented the migration to SAP Private Cloud.

– In SAP Private Cloud, we get privacy and the ability to maintain existing customized processes and integrations. It is a unique environment, where we have access to advanced SAP tools as well as faster access to innovations through regular upgrades that are automatically delivered – said Lazar Simic, Head of IT Service in Pestan.

According to Natasa Adzic, IT Director of the company, Swisslion Takovo “is growing with SAP.”

– We implemented SAP ERP in 2005. In 2022, we converted and were among the first to make the transition from SAP ERP on-premise environment to SAP S4HANA Private Cloud, using the “lift and shift” method, with the help of our partner - Axians Serbia – said Natasa Adzic.

The conference was supported by partners: EneTel Solutions, Axians, Solving - IT Solutions and Services, Atos, MI Systems, Deloitte, B-One Solutions, Coming, Infinus and Hircunus.

SAP West Balkans Beograd

SAP Business Suite Inovation Day

SAP Business Data Cloud

SAP Business AI

Enetel Solutions

Branislav Sekulović

Ljubica Barbulj

artificial intelligence

personal data