Rustenburg – The African SAP User Group (AFSUG) welcomed more than a thousand delegates to the Sun City Resort, North West Province, for the recent SAPHILA 2025, its premier bi-annual local SAP user conference.
With the theme of “Transcend” for 2025, the intention of the user conference was to once again work towards building the future, together, thereby transcending into infinite possibilities.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) was acknowledged as a key element in the new journeys and pathways that are being forged at the cutting edge of today’s IT solutions.
The conference was jointly opened by Duke Mathebula, AFSUG Chairperson, and AFSUG CEO, Amanda Gibbs, who took the stage together.
They began with a heartfelt tribute to the recently deceased Reg Barry, the late and highly regarded former AFSUG Board Vice Chairman and SAPHILA Chairman.
Barry was an integral part of AFSUG and SAPHILA for many years and led the conferences with energy and warmth.
Acknowledging that he is greatly missed, Gibbs then added that SAPHILA has grown and evolved with each successive event.
“This year’s theme of ‘transcend’ is more than just a word,” clarified Gibbs, adding, “but is instead a mindset. We are here to play our role in building the future by sharing real stories and issues and offering real solutions.”
With an astounding 50-plus sponsors this year, Mathebula noted with pride that this included, for the first time, three global hyperscalers and multiple key players within the local IT landscape.
Harking back to another overriding theme, that of ‘community’, Mathebula commented: “We are custodians of the land, the storytellers of its progress and the architects of tomorrow, bound in a spirit of togetherness.
“Let us walk together as a collective force and transcend together.”
Nazia Pillay, MD of SAP Southern Africa, then completed the formal introductions by thanking AFSUG – “our valued African SAP user group” – and noting that SAPHILA is indeed a flagship industry event among partners, customers, and the broader SAP ecosystem.
“In the 34 years of its existence, AFSUG has worked to bring together customers and partners so all can benefit by sharing their ideas and experience on this community-based platform,” she said.
“Today, SAP’s AI co-pilot, ‘Joule’, is showing how AI can help businesses to adapt and stay agile.
“Through both SAP and AFSUG, we ask: ‘What will the parameters look like in the future, and how can we work together?’
“During volatile economic times, many in business are tempted to go into a defensive mode, but at SAP, we believe that in these moments, we require instead visionary leadership and a laser focus.”
The stage was then given to the three keynote sessions of the morning, as follows:
- Public Private Partnerships: A Conversation with SAP and the City of Johannesburg, outlining steps that have been taken to solve the years-long billing crisis;
- Unstoppable Business: How SAP’s AI-First Strategy and Integrated Support Drive Your Success; and
- Unleashing Your Business with Business Data Cloud and Business AI
During the conversation around Public Private Partnerships, delegates heard Aubrey Mochela, Group Chief Technology Officer, City of Johannesburg, and Sergio Maccotta, Senior Vice President, SAP Middle East Africa South, discussing the severe challenges that have taken place around billing and logistics issues within the City of Johannesburg.
Mochela has been working closely with SAP to solve these issues, which began as a result of the use of ageing technology.
“Our target is to increase revenue collection and engage with our customers in a fair way to get our customers to trust us after the billing crisis that began in 2010,” said Mochela.
“Our aim was to benefit from a solution that was cloud-based, and that also incorporated AI.
“Today, we are extremely pleased with the progress that we’ve made at the City of Johannesburg and have even received positive feedback recently from the National Treasury.”
Maccotta said: “Using the cloud is no longer an option for both the public and private sector.
“The complexity and speed of innovation is enormous.
“When we first became involved with the City of Johannesburg, they were using a system that was then 17 years old.
“We encouraged their transition to the cloud, and in partnership, we have created a situation whereby we are able to offer our services to allow them to concentrate on innovation.”
Stefan Steinle, Executive Vice President Customer Support & Cloud Lifecycle Management, SAP presented the keynote entitled “Unstoppable Business: How SAP’s AI-First Strategy and Integrated Support Drive Your Success”.
Steinle stated: “Living in uncertain times has become the new normal, and in this context, digital transformation volumes in Africa can turn challenges into opportunities.
“Here, AI will be a game changer, but organisations need to employ good strategies to handle artificial intelligence, and companies that do this will survive and prosper.”
Steinle explained that many organisations still have a mix of technologies which are heavily customised, but these outdated systems impede innovation.
However, with an SAP business suite in place, this allows the business to embrace continuous innovation and agility.
“We have recently introduced Business Data Cloud, which allows you to make sense of your data as a whole, including unstructured data, and brings you expanded reporting and integrated planning capabilities in one aligned system,” Steinle said.
“Additionally, AI is embedded across the entire portfolio in our ‘AI First, Suite-First’ philosophy, and this strategy is a reality today, using our AI co-pilot application, Joule, to solve issues that are entered into the system in natural language.”
Jan Bungert, Chief Revenue Officer for SAP Business Data Cloud & Business AI, SAP, presented the final keynote address of the morning, titled “Unleashing Your Business with Business Data Cloud and Business AI”.
Bungert, explained to delegates how Joule, in its capacity as SAP’s conversational assistant, makes it easier for users to interact with SAP’s business systems and applications.
“We’ve all experienced a situation where an important meeting is put into your calendar without enough time to prepare,” Bungert said.
“In such a scenario, using SAP’s technology, one could build a unique Joule ‘agent’ perfect to assist you with the required preparation.”
Bungert noted that SAP’s Business Data Cloud is a massive innovation and game changer, offering the following advantages:
- Data products: Contextually rich data assets fully managed by SAP/Partners
- Zero copy: Consistent mass data exchange without copying data (going away from having multiple sources of truth)
- Databricks: use ML and data engineering tools within SAP, powered by SAP Databricks
- Intelligent Apps: ready-to-run apps and dashboards out of the box for immediate value
- Flexible licensing model: made for the cloud transformation journey.
“You can extend Joule to other services and other applications,” Bungert clarified.
“We are building an open AI system and partnering with best-of-breed vendors to ensure that our customers get the best model for their purposes.
“With over 200 generative AI use cases, we have ensured that the system is made for business and thus is relevant, reliable and responsible.
“Over 34 000 SAP customers have already benefited from generative AI use cases using Business Data Cloud.”
