SAP and Alibaba Are Working Together

SAP and the Alibaba group have announced a partnership to accelerate cloud-based enterprise transformation. The partnership is particularly focused on the Chinese market. It includes Alibaba adopting SAP Cloud ERP Private for its internal enterprise infrastructure and supporting a broader go-to-market strategy to deliver SAP solutions to customers worldwide.

With this partnership, Alibaba will integrate several SAP products across its operations. These will include SAP Business Suite, SAP Business AI, SAP Business Technology Platform, SAP Ariba, SAP Integrated Business Planning, SAP SuccessFactors, SAP Concur, and SAP Emarsys. The aim is to improve system maintenance, support smoother upgrades, and enable tighter integration of artificial intelligence across business processes.

The joint go-to-market strategy is initially focused on China, where Alibaba will serve as a certified hyperscaler for SAP workloads. This will allow local enterprises to deploy SAP Cloud ERP solutions that meet regional security and scalability requirements.

Furthermore, both companies are exploring technological integrations, including embedding Alibaba’s large language model, Qwen, into SAP AI Core to offer localized generative AI tools within SAP applications. On the other hand, SAP is deploying its AI Foundation on Alibaba Cloud. 

However, it’s important to remember that the partnership is not limited to China. Both companies have planned rollouts in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. As part of this program, businesses in these regions will get access to SAP’s RISE with SAP and GROW with SAP programs. 

Our collaboration with Alibaba Group is a testament to the power and flexibility of SAP’s cloud solutions. Our joint go-to-market strategy can unlock new opportunities for enterprises by providing them with access to a comprehensive suite of tools and services. Together, we can help our joint customers drive innovation, improve operational performance and create new competitive advantages. We look forward to working with Alibaba to shape the future of cloud-powered digital transformation.

SAP CEO Christian Klein

But that’s not all. SAP has recently upgraded its Business Suite, a set of cloud tools that includes ERP, business apps, data integration, and AI. The latest update focuses on improving supply chain operations by connecting systems that usually work separately. The new features in SAP Supply Chain Management and SAP Cloud ERP help bring together product development, manufacturing, and service tasks. For instance, it’s now easier to share complex data like bills of materials and pricing across different systems.