Why VAT Teams Can’t Afford to Ignore SAP’s Innovation Flywheel: What Sapphire 2025 Really Means for You

We’ve just wrapped up another #SAPSapphire, and for me, this marks the tenth time attending. As always, the event delivered a flurry of announcements, showcasing SAP’s latest innovations and new programs designed to help customers evolve with SAP’s rapidly advancing technology landscape.
This year’s highlights included:

• Joule — SAP’s AI assistant being positioned as “everywhere for everything.”
• The SAP Flywheel — a concept unifying Applications, Data, and AI into a momentum-building cycle.
• The Business Suite — a fully integrated set of tools designed to help companies harness this momentum.
But let’s be honest. If you’re in a VAT team, you might be thinking (or yelling), “What does any of this have to do with us? We’re still trying to figure out what BTP even stands for!”
I get it. After attending ten Sapphires, here’s the biggest lesson I’ve learned: these announcements only make sense when you view them as part of a long-term direction. SAP, like the entire enterprise tech ecosystem, is on a journey — and whether you realize it or not, your company is on that journey too.

Why VAT Teams Need to Pay Attention Now
Understanding the trajectory SAP is on — and where your company fits within it — is essential if you want to prepare for the changes ahead. These shifts will transform how VAT teams operate, especially as we move closer to real-time data exchange with tax authorities.

Every organization will have its own version of this journey:
• Some are already using S/4HANA, BTP, and Joule across the enterprise.
• Others are still running on ECC with no immediate S/4 migration plans.
• Most are somewhere in between.
Wherever your company stands, you need to know your position — and more importantly, where you’re headed over the next 12, 24, and 36 months. That knowledge will help you identify opportunities to not only keep pace but to get ahead.

The Real Opportunity for VAT Teams
For VAT, the potential is enormous. These innovations aren’t just about automation or cost-saving — they’re about finally solving the challenges we’ve been stuck with for years:
• Getting VAT right the first time.
• Ending the need for catch-and-correct cycles.
• Having the resources, access, and support to work proactively instead of reactively.
What made this year’s Sapphire different — and in my view, the best yet — wasn’t just the announcements. It was the realization that the pieces are finally coming together. We’re moving from the “wow, that’s cool” phase to “this could actually transform how we work.”
Instead of focusing on the technology itself, I spent my time thinking about real use cases — tangible ways VAT teams can work smarter, create more value, and lead instead of lag in the adoption curve.

But There’s a Catch…
This isn’t magic. No one’s going to hand you a plug-and-play solution. To benefit from these advances, VAT teams must play an active role. That means:
• Asking questions like: “What would we do differently if…”
◦ Our company is moving to S/4 in the next 12 months.
◦ BTP is on the roadmap.
◦ A clean core strategy is being adopted.
◦ Joule will be rolled out across departments.
• Learning just enough about these technologies to think strategically and communicate effectively.
• Starting now, before other departments define your future for you.

If you wait, you risk becoming an afterthought. Other teams will move ahead, shaping how these technologies are used — possibly in ways that don’t suit VAT’s needs.

Our Focus: VAT in SAP. Nothing Else.
Our company has attended ten Sapphires and consistently returned with insights that influence our own development roadmap. We don’t try to be all things to all people. We build only for VAT, only in SAP. That focus has made it clear: the end-to-end VAT process must be automated and accurate the first time. Real-time data flow leaves no room for delay or correction.
The good news? The tools to do this are here — now.

The Time to Act Is Now
We are at a unique moment. For the first time, VAT teams have a chance to leverage SAP’s innovation wave to become leaders, not just support functions.
So, don’t sit on the sidelines. Get involved. Understand the roadmap. Think beyond compliance and envision new ways of working — ways where VAT becomes a driver of value, not a perceived drain on resources.
Because if you don’t shape that future, someone else will.