Finance and Procurement

June 24–25

Get ready for two days of insights and real-world experience straight from the ASUG network of SAP customers. Your session will have a dedicated emcee who will serve as your host and facilitate Q&A with our speakers. Each day includes:

Opening: Listen to ASUG CEO Geoff Scott’s conversation with a global CXO and thought leader. They’ll discuss how COVID-19 has impacted their personal lives and business operations, and how they’re leading their teams through change.
Demos: See how specific technology solutions work in real-life scenarios.
Panels: Ask the Experts during these interactive sessions.
Customer Stories: Hear how your peers are conquering today’s challenges and ask questions about their experiences.

Wednesday, June 24

10:30 a.m. CT/11:30 a.m. ET
Opening Remarks

Danny Pancratz – Director, Product Development, ASUG

10:35 a.m. CT/11:35 a.m. ET
ASUG Connects With: Ford Motor Co.’s Keith Combs

Keith Combs – Director of Global Indirect Purchasing, Ford Motor Co.

Listen to ASUG CEO Geoff Scott’s conversations with global business executives and thought leaders from companies such as Moderna, Ford Motor Co., Kimberly-Clark, Under Armour, Intel, Coke One North America (CONA), New England Biolabs, IDC, and SAP, who are scheduled to speak during ASUGFORWARD. They’ll discuss how COVID-19 has impacted their personal lives and business operations, and how they’re leading their teams through change.

10:55 a.m. CT/11:55 a.m. ET
SAP Finance Solutions to Help You Steer Through the Current Crisis

Christian Mnich – VP, Head of Solution Management Treasury and Working Capital Management, SAP

The current crisis has thrown many corporations into an unprecedented phase of uncertainty that most have not predicted. Finance organizations and corporate treasurers have a central role to minimize the impact of the crisis, maintain business continuity, and emerge from those uncertain times even stronger.In this session, you will learn the challenges faced by finance and corporate treasury organizations, as well as understand the key focus areas for treasurers to navigate the crisis. Hear recommendations ontreasury workforce operations, managing liquidity needs, and balancing the risks. Experience how SAP solutions can help you get comprehensive working capital insights and act quickly on them.

11:15 a.m. CT/12:15 p.m. ET
Break

11:20 a.m. CT/12:20 p.m. ET
United Technologies Split: Ensuring Smooth Treasury Operations and Data Privacy

John Fede – Associate Director, RTX (formerly United Technologies Corp.)

Jaime Ryan – SVP, Serrala Group

To support a corporate split into three separate entities, United Technologies Corporation “cloned and cleansed” its SAP software systems. Using a rapid, phased approach, the company set up three new independent treasury operations with secure data management to accelerate finance transformation, protect data privacy, and ensure smooth operations and compliance.

11:35 a.m. CT/12:35 p.m. ET
Beyond Substantiation: Automating Accounting Processes at The Home Depot

Michael Hubbard – Manager, Finance Innovation and Transformation, The Home Depot

The accounting team at The Home Depot saw early benefits, including better visibility and auditability, from using a BlackLine reconciliation solution, but they wanted more. Recognizing the power of an integrated platform, they expanded their use cases to address journals, transaction matching, and much more.

12:00 p.m. CT/1:00 p.m. ET
Plugging Leaks in SAP AP: How JetBlue Prevents Fraud, Duplicate Payments, and Fines

Joni Geurts – Acting Director, Payments, JetBlue Airways

Danny Thompson – SVP, Market and Product Strategy, apexanalytix

Joni Geurts, acting director, payments at JetBlue Airways, tells her story of joining the AP department, found she couldn’t get the information she needed about suppliers, and uncovered solutions to address the company’s risk of duplicate payments, fraud, and regulatory fines. She will elaborate on how fraudsters are constantly trying to infiltrate their supply chain, ways suppliers are creating unwanted duplicate invoices, and compliance requirements with $650k fines attached to them. (Hint: She found apexanalytix.)
The discussion will focus on:
- What keeps the AP team up at night: duplicate payments, fraud, and fines
- How duplicate invoices slip through SAP but can still be caught before payment
- Why a supplier onboarding portal with automated bank account ownership validation will replace callbacks and eliminate payment fraud
- Technology and process improvements that ensure supplier compliance and stop fines

12:20 p.m. CT/1:20 p.m. ET
Using Real-Time Analytics Capabilities, SAP Unleashes the Extraordinary Power of Finance Suite for Airbus Providing Total Transparency

Richard Masci – Head of Financial Systems Services and Compliance, Airbus Americas Inc.

Darien Thayne – Financial Systems Analyst, Airbus Americas Inc.

Gregory Gil – SAP FICO, BPC and SAP Analytics Cloud Consultant, Airbus Americas Inc.

For Airbus Americas, 2018 highlighted a lack of efficiency and automation on its financial suite. The COVID-19 crisis created another level of strategic requirements. This mix of challenges requested a transformation, and SAP Analytics was the solution. The real-time analytics capabilities connected to our SAP BW-BPC solution and helped us unleash opportunities that benefit our operational teams as well as our executives. Today, our finance team issues a variety of dashboards, allowing teams to pilot their business in a more accurate, compliant, automated, timely, and optimized way. SAP Analytics Cloud is also helping us generate simulations to enable strategic decisions related to the current crisis.

12:45 p.m. CT/1:45 p.m. ET
Break

12:50 p.m. CT/1:50 p.m. ET
SAP Signature Management by DocuSign for Procurement

Angie Halderman – Global Head of SAP Partnership, DocuSign

Shift from a paper-based procurement system to the digital power of e-signatures to gain efficiency and save money. SAP Signature Management by DocuSign is integrated with SAP Ariba and provides e-signature capability to fully automate your procurement process, eliminating the need to fax, scan, email, or overnight documents. With e-signatures, contracts are signed and returned online in minutes from almost anywhere in the world. And SAP Signature Management by DocuSign helps organizations reduce risk and maintain compliance with audit trails and certificates of completion.

1:00 p.m. CT/2:00 p.m. ET
Ask-the-Experts Panel: Procurement

Chris Haydon – President Procurement Solution Area, SAP (More panelists will be announced soon)

Danny Thompson- SVP, Market and Product Strategy, apexanalytix

Moderator: Danny Pancratz – Director, Product Development, ASUG

Bring your questions for our experts during this live panel discussion.

Each day of ASUGFORWARD will close with a panel of experts. The theme of day one’s panel is procurement. Join finance and procurement leaders as they share insights and best practices for creating opportunity, driving efficiency, and embracing innovation during a time of complexity and change.

1:20 p.m. CT/2:20 p.m. ET
Closing Remarks

Join the Experience

Thursday, June 25

10:30 a.m. CT/11:30 a.m. ET
Opening Remarks

Danny Pancratz – Director, Product Development, ASUG

10:35 a.m. CT/11:35 a.m. ET
ASUG Connects With: Kimberly Clark Corp.’s Manoj Kumbhat

Manoj Kumbhat, Global CIO, Kimberly Clark Corp.

10:55 a.m. CT/11:55 a.m. ET
Goodyear’s Procurement IT Road Map with SAP S/4HANA and SAP Ariba Solutions

Saleem Bahezaad – Global Business IT Partner, The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company

Rajiv Palkhiwala – Chief Solution Architect, SAP

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company kicked off its procurement landscape transformation initiative by creating an IT road map. This includes a major initiative to replace the SAP Supplier Relationship Management application. Its goal is to centralize and digitalize processes to get control over spend, enhance user experience, resolve pain points, and add business value—a major step in the procurement's digital transformation journey.

11:15 a.m. CT/12:15 p.m. ET
Improving Cash Flow and Customer Service While Reducing Costs with Accounts Receivable Automation

Tom Berdan – CMO, Dade Systems

Learn how organizations of all industry verticals are now automating their business process of cash application (checks, ACH, wires) and integrating with SAP. This session will focus on the key drivers for automating this critical process, which will substantially increase your efficiency, reduce costs, and provide a better experience for your customers. The session will also review e-payments portals, its use case, and how mobile can create expanded payment efficiency for your organization.

11:35 a.m. CT/12:35 p.m. ET
Break

11:40 a.m. CT/12:40 p.m. ET
Global Vertex Tax Implementation Case Study with SAP S/4HANA

Jaydeep Dakhawe – IT Project Manager, First Solar Inc.

Mike Spivey – Senior Consultant, Vertex, Inc.

In this session, you will learn how a leading global provider of comprehensive photovoltaic (PV) solar systems implemented Vertex Indirect Tax O Series for North America. Since then, the business has worked towards tax process automation, deploying Vertex O Series globally. This session will highlight the challenges faced during the implementation, how they were overcome, project management lessons, and the benefits realized through this investment.

12:00 p.m. CT/1:00 p.m. ET
W. R. Grace Enriches and Transforms Finance Analytics with SAP Analytics Cloud

Sunil Kumar – SAP Enterprise Architect, W. R. Grace

Sebastian Rogge – Finance Data Analyst, W. R. Grace

By using designated workshops and technical deep-dive sessions, and by creating detailed design documents, W. R. Grace and Company managed to design, develop, and implement a FICO-based data structure within the SAP Analytics Cloud solution. This makes our financial reporting more visually attractive, user-friendly, scalable, and powerful.

12:20 p.m. CT/1:20 p.m. ET
Business and Finance Continuity: The 3M Story and How to Digitize Everything

Robert Thiele – Senior Director, Ecosystem Strategy, OpenText

Jonathan Beardsley – Senior Strategic Ecosystem Manager, OpenText

In a fireside chat, Rob Thiele and Jonathan Beardsley will cover current trends and impacts such as supply chain disruption, changes to the way we are working, and how to ensure business and finance continuity. Real-world examples from organizations such as 3M and others will illustrate how OpenText and SAP solutions can be leveraged to generate positive business outcomes and ROI.

12:30 p.m. CT/1:30 p.m. ET
Break

12:35 p.m. CT/1:35 p.m. ET
Ask-the-Experts Panel: Finance

Mike Bernard – Chief Tax Office, Indirect Taxes, Vertex

Lane Leskela – Director, Global Finance, Trade, GRC and Security Center of Excellence, SAP

Moderator: Danny Pancratz – Director, Product Development, ASUG

Bring your questions for our experts during this live panel discussion.

Each day of ASUGFORWARD will close with a panel of experts. The theme of day two’s panel is finance. Join finance and procurement leaders as they share insights and best practices for creating opportunity, driving efficiency, and embracing innovation during a time of complexity and change.

12:55 p.m. CT/1:55 p.m. ET
Surprise Guest Introduction and Closing Remarks

1:00 p.m. CT/2:00 p.m. ET
Surprise Musical Guest

Thank You to Our Sponsors

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