In 2026, IT executives are expected to drive measurable operational impact, not just maintain systems. The paper maps SAP platforms to five priorities, with outcomes as quoted by the SAP Community: a 15–25% reduction in planning cycle time, a 10–18% inventory reduction, a 3–6 point OTIF improvement, elimination of more than 50% of manual planning effort, and real-time plant-to-corporate visibility.
For each priority it lists the key enablers and the impact for IT leaders — real-time MRP and AI-driven forecasting in SAP IBP and SAP S/4HANA, multi-echelon inventory optimization, execution monitoring with SAP Digital Manufacturing and real-time ATP, embedded AI and workflow automation in SAP Fiori, and a single digital thread through SAP Business Network and SAP Analytics Cloud.
It concludes that SAP has become an operational intelligence backbone, letting IT leaders deliver measurable business outcomes, enable AI-driven automation, reduce technical debt, and align IT investment directly with operational KPIs.
The full paper is available above as a PDF. See also "How Supply Chain Executives Can Improve Plant-Level Operations Using SAP" in the Resource Library.