The Future of ERP

Episode 85: SAP Insider Benchmark Research & Global Tax Management with Michael Bernard of Vertex

Explore how tax management is evolving through technology and strategic innovation to become a key driver of business efficiency and insight. ===== Join Michael Bernard from Vertex as he unpacks the latest SAP Insider Benchmark Research on global tax management, revealing how tax departments navigate a rapidly changing landscape. From complex regulatory environments, such as fragmented e-invoicing standards in Europe, to critical pain points like automating tax control frameworks, this episode offers a rich exploration of what’s top of mind for CFOs and CIOs. Learn how granular tax data is becoming a strategic asset for sales and marketing, the growing role of managed services amidst workforce shortages, and why the adoption of AI-driven tax automation is still in early stages despite its promising potential. Michael shares memorable stats, including the impact of retirements on CPA talent pools and strategies companies use to overcome compliance time constraints. Perfect for business leaders seeking practical insights on optimizing ERP environments for tax operations with future-ready technology. Listen, learn, and lead the transformation today. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Episode Transcript⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://sap-podcast-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/the-future-of-erp/the_future_of_erp_ep85.pdf] Useful Links:   ⁠⁠⁠⁠SAP Cloud ERP⁠⁠⁠⁠ [http://www.sap.com/ERP] Follow Us on Social Media! SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP: ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/sap-erp-finance/] ===== Guest: Michael Bernard, Chief Tax Officer of Transaction Tax at Vertex Michael Bernard is the Chief Tax Officer of Transaction Tax. In his role, he provides insight and thought leadership around tax department operations, U.S. indirect tax, tax risk management, and tax policy, as well as emerging tax trends. He is also responsible for influencing emerging technologies which meet the continuing regulatory changes of the corporate tax community. He is an executive-level tax attorney with a diverse portfolio of experience in corporate tax, administration, and finance, including a substantive knowledge of U.S. and international tax laws.   Prior to joining Vertex, Michael was in various tax leadership roles at Microsoft Corporation for 28 years, the most recent being General Manager & U.S. Tax Counsel. He led teams in the following functional areas: direct and indirect tax controversy, sales and use, business license, property, tax IT, SOX, and telecommunications. He also co-led a corporate taxpayer advocacy group with the Washington Department of Revenue and was a Director on the Board of the Washington Research Council. He has also testified before administrative and lawmakers at both the federal and state level.   Michael earned both a J.D. and a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Creighton University. He is a part-time lecturer of Law in the LLM program at the University of Washington School of Law. He also served on the board of directors, executive committee, and chaired committees for The Tax Executives Institute (TEI) for nearly 25 years. Host 1: Richard Howells, SAP Richard Howells has been working in the Supply Chain Management and Manufacturing space for over 30 years. He is responsible for driving the thought leadership and awareness of SAP’s ERP, Finance, and Supply Chain solutions and is an active writer, podcaster, and thought leader on the topics of supply chain, Industry 4.0, digitization, and sustainability. Follow Richard Howell on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://url.sap/ys43wa] and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://twitter.com/howellsrichard] ===== Key Topics: Tax management, ERP, Tax control framework, Automation, Regulatory compliance, Managed services, Workforce skill gap, AI adoption, E-invoicing, Tax analytics

Episode 84: Navigating Professional Services with IBM's Mark Hammack

Cloud ERP and AI are transforming professional services by tackling lean teams, complex billing, and forecasting pressures. Could these tools be your business's next competitive edge? ===== Professional services firms face intense pressures like razor-thin benches, skyrocketing forecasting demands, and shifts from time-and-materials to outcome-based pricing with AI agents and software assets. IBM's Mark Hammack debunks cloud ERP myths around customization loss or security risks, explaining how SaaS slashes hardware costs, enables real-time insights through integrated project systems, and frees cash for growth. AI delivers in use cases like automating billing and RFP responses, accelerating month-end closes, and enhancing customer support, often driven bottom-up by creative teams. Ethical AI orchestration powers tools like "Ask HR" for faster resolutions, paving the way for agile, modular cloud ERP with natural language tools like Joule and Copilot for predictive analysis. Want to learn more? Come join us and explore how these innovations can propel your operations forward. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Episode Transcript⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://sap-podcast-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/the-future-of-erp/the_future_of_erp_ep84.pdf] Useful Links:   ⁠⁠⁠SAP Cloud ERP⁠⁠⁠ [http://www.sap.com/ERP] www.ibm.com [http://www.ibm.com/] Follow Us on Social Media! SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP: ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/sap-erp-finance/] ===== Guest: Mark J. Hammack, Delivery Partner at IBM Consulting Mark J. Hammack is a Financial & Supply Chain Transformation Partner at IBM, specializing in driving business transformation and optimizing supply chain performance. They bring extensive experience in enhancing financial operations and delivering strategic business solutions. Within IBM's consulting environment, Mark progressed from Senior Managing Consultant to Associate Partner, demonstrating leadership competencies and a focus on delivering value to clients. Their tenure at IBM reflects a commitment to providing advisory services and implementing effective business strategies. Prior to IBM, Mark led order management initiatives and drove eCommerce strategies as the Order Management and eCommerce Track Lead at International Paper. Their work history also includes a role as Senior Manager at Grant Thornton, where they applied knowledge of accounting principles and financial management practices. Host 1: Richard Howells, SAP Richard Howells has been working in the Supply Chain Management and Manufacturing space for over 30 years. He is responsible for driving the thought leadership and awareness of SAP’s ERP, Finance, and Supply Chain solutions and is an active writer, podcaster, and thought leader on the topics of supply chain, Industry 4.0, digitization, and sustainability. Follow Richard Howell on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://url.sap/ys43wa] and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://twitter.com/howellsrichard] ===== Key Topics: cloud ERP, professional services, AI use cases, billing automation, resource planning, revenue recognition, ERP myths, ethical AI, Watson orchestration, predictive analysis

Episode 83: Silent Cyber War

In a world of silent cyber wars, ERPs sit at the center of risk and resilience. Discover how CIOs can design ERP as a crown jewel: assume breach, use AI wisely, and balance sovereignty, trust, and business continuity. ===== This episode dives into the “silent global war” on ERP, where cyber threats are constant, interconnected systems are fragile, and resilience is the new gold standard. Our guests, Bayer’s Asha Vartak and SAP’s Gabriela “Gabs” Fiata, unpack how to treat ERP as a mission critical crown jewel instead of a back office system, and why assuming breach changes everything about architecture, governance, and recovery. They explore how AI can both sharpen ERP security and create new risks, from detecting anomalies and reducing alert fatigue to acting as a privileged user that must be monitored. The conversation also covers digital sovereignty, data classification by design, and placing ERP at the core of digital trust, transparency, and compliance across borders. If you want practical, board level language for ERP cyber resilience, this episode is for you. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Episode Transcript⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://sap-podcast-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/the-future-of-erp/the_future_of_erp_ep83.pdf] Useful Links:   ⁠⁠SAP Cloud ERP⁠⁠ [http://www.sap.com/ERP] ⁠Bayer⁠ [https://www.bayer.com/en/] Follow Us on Social Media! SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP: ⁠LinkedIn⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/sap-erp-finance/] ===== Guest: Gabriele Fiata, Head of Security Market Strategy, RISE with SAP Thought leader with a strong background in security as well as business processes, controls, and enterprise risk management.   For more than 20 years, he has been leading teams in implementing innovative process improvements to identify and mitigate risks to promote resilience for the whole enterprise and enable overall business growth. Gabriele’s LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabrielefiata] Guest: Asha Vartak, Director, Cyber Security and Risk Management at Bayer Asha Vartak has a proven record of developing and executing comprehensive cybersecurity strategies that align with organizational goals. Her expertise spans Cybersecurity Risk Management, Compliance, Threat Modeling, and Mitigation Planning and Implementation.   She brings extensive experience in leading and consulting on business and information security initiatives for companies across multiple global regions. With an educational background spanning four countries—India, Australia, Germany, and the United States— Asha excels at building strong relationships with diverse stakeholders and teams. As a motivating and inspiring leader in cybersecurity, risk management, and compliance, she thrives on tackling complex projects and driving them to successful completion for organizations worldwide. Host 1: Richard Howells, SAP Richard Howells has been working in the Supply Chain Management and Manufacturing space for over 30 years. He is responsible for driving the thought leadership and awareness of SAP’s ERP, Finance, and Supply Chain solutions and is an active writer, podcaster, and thought leader on the topics of supply chain, Industry 4.0, digitization, and sustainability. Follow Richard Howell on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://url.sap/ys43wa] and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://twitter.com/howellsrichard] Host 2: Oyku Ilgar, SAP Oyku Ilgar is a marketer and thought leader specializing in SAP’s digital supply chain and ERP solutions since 2017. As a marketer, blogger, and podcaster, she creates engaging content that highlights innovative SAP technologies and explores key topics including business trends, AI, Industry 4.0, and sustainability. She holds dual bachelor’s degrees in Finance & Accounting and English Translation, along with a master’s degree in Business Administration and Foreign Trade, specializing in marketing. With her background in digital transformation, Oyku communicates technology trends and industry insights to help professionals navigate the evolving business landscape. Oyku’s ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/oykuilgar/] and ⁠⁠SAP Community⁠⁠ [https://people.sap.com/oyku] ===== Key Topics: ERP security, ERP resilience, cloud ERP, AI in ERP, cybersecurity,RISE with SAP, SAP S/4HANA, digital sovereignty, data protection

Episode 82: From Prevention to Detection: Real-Time Security in a Digital World with Infosys

How real-time security transforms ERP systems in a cloud-driven world, spotting threats instantly, leveraging AI for proactive defense, and closing common blind spots before breaches escalate. Curious about staying ahead of cyber risks? ===== Mohammed Moidheen, SAP security architect at Infosys, unpacks why real-time monitoring is vital amid 2,200 daily cyber attacks costing trillions annually. He highlights blind spots like unmonitored access vulnerabilities, ignored audit logs, unsecured APIs, privileged accounts, insider threats, and poor event correlation in S/4HANA Cloud setups. AI evolves detection with predictive intelligence, automated responses, natural language queries, and cross-system pattern spotting, shifting from reactive to proactive security. Real-world cases show systems halting unusual data downloads and insider data exfiltration in minutes. Advice includes aligning with governance, prioritizing crown jewels, setting baselines, training teams, and correlating data. Infosys aids via assessments and foundational builds. Listen now and rethink what ERP can do for your organization! ⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Episode Transcript⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://sap-podcast-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/the-future-of-erp/the_future_of_erp_ep82.pdf] Useful Links:   ⁠SAP Cloud ERP⁠ [http://www.sap.com/ERP] Infosys.com [https://www.infosys.com/] Follow Us on Social Media! SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP: LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/sap-erp-finance/] ===== Guest: Mohammed Khan Moidheen, SAP Security Architect at Infosys Consulting Mohammed Khan Moidheen is a Senior SAP Security architect with over 12 years of experience securing and operating large scale SAP landscapes across global enterprises. His expertise spans SAP S/4HANA security, ERP platform services, DevSecOps enablement, and designing audit ready security architectures aligned with frameworks such as ISO 27001, NIST, and GDPR. Mohammed is CISSP and CISA certified and I excel at translating complex security requirements into actionable strategies that are practical , strategically aligned and strengthen organisational resilience. Host 1: Richard Howells, SAP Richard Howells has been working in the Supply Chain Management and Manufacturing space for over 30 years. He is responsible for driving the thought leadership and awareness of SAP’s ERP, Finance, and Supply Chain solutions and is an active writer, podcaster, and thought leader on the topics of supply chain, Industry 4.0, digitization, and sustainability. Follow Richard Howell on ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://url.sap/ys43wa] and ⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://twitter.com/howellsrichard] Host 2: Oyku Ilgar, SAP Oyku Ilgar is a marketer and thought leader specializing in SAP’s digital supply chain and ERP solutions since 2017. As a marketer, blogger, and podcaster, she creates engaging content that highlights innovative SAP technologies and explores key topics including business trends, AI, Industry 4.0, and sustainability. She holds dual bachelor’s degrees in Finance & Accounting and English Translation, along with a master’s degree in Business Administration and Foreign Trade, specializing in marketing. With her background in digital transformation, Oyku communicates technology trends and industry insights to help professionals navigate the evolving business landscape. Oyku’s ⁠LinkedIn⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/oykuilgar/] and ⁠SAP Community⁠ [https://people.sap.com/oyku] ===== Key Topics: real-time security, ERP monitoring, cloud threats, SAP S/4HANA, access management, audit logs, AI threat detection, insider threats, privileged accounts, predictive intelligence

Episode 81: AI-Powered ERP Support: Invisible, Proactive and Accelerated

Imagine ERP systems that spot cyber threats before they strike, using AI to predict outages and banish reactive support forever. How close are we to invisible, proactive defense that keeps businesses unbreakable? Dive into the future where data and smarts outpace chaos. ===== In this compelling episode of the Future of ERP podcast, SAP's Jens Bernotat, head of strategy, portfolio, and ecosystem management for SAP Support, shares transformative insights on evolving ERP customer support. He outlines a future where support becomes invisible through prevention, hyper-proactive with deep customer data insights, and accelerated by AI-driven recommendations. Jens emphasizes data's starring role in pattern detection via AI analytics, addresses change management for teams shifting from routine tickets to complex missions and AI curation, and reveals key KPIs like customer effort scores and health metrics. Practical advice includes starting with quick-win AI use cases, fostering team experimentation, and crafting transformation roadmaps. Listen now and rethink what ERP can do for your organization! ⁠⁠⁠⁠Download Episode Transcript⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://sap-podcast-bucket.s3.amazonaws.com/the-future-of-erp/the_future_of_erp_ep81.pdf] Useful Links:   ⁠SAP Cloud ERP⁠ [http://www.sap.com/ERP] Follow Us on Social Media! SAP S/4HANA Cloud ERP: LinkedIn [https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/sap-erp-finance/] ===== Guest: Jens Bernotat, Head of Strategy, Portfolio and Ecosystem Management, SAP Customer Support at SAP Jens joined SAP in 2007 as Vice President in the Corporate Strategy Group. Here, he has guided high impact programs with a focus on maintenance and support strategy, portfolio and commercial design. From 2011, Jens was driving strategy for Maintenance Go-To-Market, where he designed commercial transformation programs to the Cloud and new support offerings. Since 2017, Jens is driving SAP's maintenance and support strategy, orchestrating maintenance phases, end dates and the portfolio of support offerings. Jens also leads Ecosystem management, defining the setup of how partners deliver support to our customers. Host 1: Richard Howells, SAP Richard Howells has been working in the Supply Chain Management and Manufacturing space for over 30 years. He is responsible for driving the thought leadership and awareness of SAP’s ERP, Finance, and Supply Chain solutions and is an active writer, podcaster, and thought leader on the topics of supply chain, Industry 4.0, digitization, and sustainability. Follow Richard Howell on ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://url.sap/ys43wa] and ⁠⁠⁠⁠X⁠⁠⁠⁠ [https://twitter.com/howellsrichard] Host 2: Oyku Ilgar, SAP Oyku Ilgar is a marketer and thought leader specializing in SAP’s digital supply chain and ERP solutions since 2017. As a marketer, blogger, and podcaster, she creates engaging content that highlights innovative SAP technologies and explores key topics including business trends, AI, Industry 4.0, and sustainability. She holds dual bachelor’s degrees in Finance & Accounting and English Translation, along with a master’s degree in Business Administration and Foreign Trade, specializing in marketing. With her background in digital transformation, Oyku communicates technology trends and industry insights to help professionals navigate the evolving business landscape. Oyku’s ⁠LinkedIn⁠ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/oykuilgar/] and ⁠SAP Community⁠ [https://people.sap.com/oyku] ===== Key Topics: ERP support, proactive support, AI analytics, customer health, data patterns, change management, Black Friday uptime, support automation, ERP transformation, cyber prevention