The partnership will see both companies offer generative AI-based services to enterprises via RISE with SAP offering. Credit: Shutterstock IBM’s consulting arm and SAP are partnering to offer generative AI-based services to enterprises to help accelerate digital transformation. The partnership, announced on Wednesday, will see both companies offer generative AI-based services via RISE with SAP offering, the companies said in a statement. RISE with SAP is the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software provider’s managed offering that helps enterprises move their on-premises ERP operations to the cloud. Earlier in May last year, SAP partnered with IBM to infuse the latter’s Watson AI engine across its solutions portfolio, including SAP S/4 HANA, S/4 HANA Cloud, SAP Business One, and SAP Business ByDesign. That move was expected to help SAP exploit the natural language processing capabilities of Watson AI along with predictive insights, with the aim of jointly developing large language models (LLMs) and generative AI capabilities. Thursday’s partnership, according to the companies, will help them jointly provide generative AI use cases and services to enterprises for business processes and platform architecture. “Initially, IBM plans to extend AI capabilities across SAP’s portfolio of cloud solutions and applications, all of which are underpinned by SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP),” the companies said. These applications and offerings include RISE with SAP, GROW with SAP offering, financial services for the office of the CFO, supply chain management services, human capital management, SAP Customer Experience and intelligent spend management offerings. IBM also plans to leverage SAP Signavio and SAP Business AI solutions to help define next-generation business processes through a proof-of-concept adoption program, the companies said. Targeting new industry use cases Additionally, both companies said the partnership would help them foster innovation for several industry sectors, with an initial focus on industrial manufacturing, consumer packaged goods (CPG), retail, defense, automotive, and utilities industries. “As part of this initiative, IBM has begun the development of an extensive portfolio of over 100 AI solutions across industry, line-of-business and product delivery,” the companies said, adding that enterprises will be able to access all of these new AI solutions through the global IBM Innovation Studios and SAP Experience Center sites.In order to onboard enterprises, the companies have devised a value-generation initiative. “Through the Value Generation partnership initiative, IBM intends to provide next-generation reference architectures that enable a clean core approach. To do this, IBM plans to leverage SAP BTP, SAP Signavio, and LeanIX offerings,” the companies said, adding that the new reference architectures will define standards across data, process, systems, process orchestration, and automation. Further, the companies said that IBM consultants supporting enterprise clients on SAP projects can also leverage IBM Consulting Advantage, IBM’s AI services platform, and its portfolio of proprietary methods, assets and Assistants. The collaboration will also see SAP access IBM’s Granite family of large language models to develop AI use cases. Related content feature Don’t fall into the AI buzzwords trap when evaluating vendors By Shane O'Neill Jun 05, 2024 6 mins Machine Learning Artificial Intelligence Vendors and Providers news SAP to buy digital adoption specialist WalkMe for $1.5 billion After Signavio and LeanIX, SAP is acquiring the Israeli provider WalkMe to help user companies with their digital transformation. By Martin Bayer Jun 05, 2024 4 mins SAP Mergers and Acquisitions Enterprise Applications feature Is your data ready for AI? CIOs lack answers Many CIOs are skipping the crucial data management step before rushing forward with AI deployments. By Grant Gross Jun 05, 2024 7 mins Master Data Management Artificial Intelligence Data Management feature How H&M integrates tech into its stores The Swedish clothing retailer’s tech department is working beyond agile, in a more modified hybrid structure with both product teams and platform thinking. Here, CDIO Ellen Svanström explains the model that will bring the tech department c By Karin Lindström Jun 05, 2024 6 mins CIO E-commerce Services Retail Industry PODCASTS VIDEOS RESOURCES EVENTS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER From our editors straight to your inbox Get started by entering your email address below. Please enter a valid email address Subscribe