Promocean - From Business Challenge to SAP Global Innovation Award Winner

Artificial Intelligence has become a strategic priority for many organisations. Yet turning AI ambitions into measurable business value remains a challenge. Together, Promocean and SOA People developed an AI-powered SAP solution that transformed a real business challenge into an internationally recognised success story. Explore the complete journey through this interactive video knowledge hub.

Why this story matters

Many organisations are exploring AI, but few succeed in turning innovative ideas into measurable business value.

Promocean's journey demonstrates how a clear business challenge, a pragmatic implementation approach and close collaboration resulted in an award-winning AI solution within SAP.

Rather than presenting one long interview, this knowledge hub allows you to explore the story by topic. Watch the chapters that matter most to you, from business drivers and implementation to measurable outcomes and future ambitions.

Meet Promocean

Business Challenge

Building the Solution

Global Recognition

Business Impact

Lessons Learned

Future Plans

Partnership

Meet Promocean

Every successful innovation starts with understanding the business behind it.

Before exploring the AI solution, its implementation and the measurable business impact, it's important to first understand who Promocean is and the environment in which the company operates.

In this introductory chapter, Luc van Elk, Managing Director of Promocean, introduces both himself and the organisation. He shares the company's background, explains its position within the promotional products industry and provides insight into the scale and complexity of its operations.

Business Challenge

Every successful transformation starts with a business challenge, not with technology.

For Promocean, the goal was to improve operational efficiency, enhance the customer experience and free employees from repetitive manual work. Procurement quickly emerged as a priority, with purchase order confirmations consuming 19 hours of manual effort every day. Fragmented processes across SAP, Outlook and Excel limited visibility and increased the risk of delays.

Together with SOA People, Promocean explored how Artificial Intelligence could solve these challenges. An AI Explore Workshop translated business needs into practical use cases, forming the starting point of an innovation journey that ultimately resulted in an award-winning AI solution.

Building the Solution

Promocean developed an AI-driven procurement solution within its SAP landscape to support operational buyers in managing purchase order follow-ups more efficiently. The solution combines PO data from SAP with incoming supplier emails and attachments to generate timely, consistent action proposals.

The AI interprets unstructured communication such as emails and PDFs and translates them into structured recommendations. Users remain in control through a human-in-the-loop approach, where suggestions are reviewed and either accepted or rejected. In this first phase, the focus is on recommendations only, with automation introduced gradually as trust in the system grows.

Key objectives included a real-time PO monitoring dashboard, a RAG-based rules engine grounded in procurement processes, and full compliance with Promocean’s procurement policies. Building within SAP was a strategic choice, ensuring seamless integration across finance, procurement and operations while enabling broader AI adoption across the organisation.

Global Recognition

What Makes This Achievement Special

Promocean achieved 100% automation in key procurement processes, eliminating the need for manual SAP exports to Excel across time zones. This shift replaced a fragmented, reactive workflow with real-time intelligence, giving teams immediate visibility and control.

Despite the advanced engineering behind the solution, the interface remains simple and intuitive, designed for users working under daily operational pressure. The impact of this innovation was recognised externally, winning both the SAP NL - VNSG BTP Hackathon and the global SAP Innovation Award in the Technology Pathfinder category.

Beyond the technology, the awards brought strong validation of the chosen approach, as well as a sense of pride and recognition for the team behind the solution.

Business Impact

The solution went live on 20 January 2026, following a 19-week implementation completed within budget. Although initially planned as a three-month project, the timeline was extended to allow for additional user testing and adoption.

From a business perspective, the results were immediate: 63% less manual effort in purchase order management, 20% faster vendor follow-up, improved supplier performance insights, and more efficient collaboration through standardized workflows.

On the IT side, Promocean established a scalable AI architecture within SAP BTP that combines intelligent automation with governed business rules. The solution is fully aligned with the organisation’s future migration to SAP S/4HANA, providing a future-proof foundation for further AI innovation. With an expected ROI within one year, the project demonstrates how targeted AI investments can deliver measurable business value in a short timeframe.

Lessons Learned

Like many innovation projects, success depended as much on people as on technology. One of the biggest challenges was finding time for key team members while maintaining daily operations, as well as preparing realistic test cases and matching procurement data.

From the outset, Promocean also focused on change management. During the kick-off, the team was explicitly told that the project was not about reducing headcount, but about eliminating repetitive work and enabling employees to focus on higher-value activities. This transparent communication helped build trust and supported user adoption throughout the project.

The experience reinforced the importance of involving end users early, investing in testing, and introducing AI in manageable steps to build confidence before increasing automation.

Future Plans

Promocean sees this project as the starting point of a broader AI journey. With the foundation now in place, the next phase will focus on introducing automation, analysing the growing volume of procurement data, and expanding vendor performance evaluation to support better decision-making.

Looking further ahead, the organisation plans to extend the AI platform beyond procurement, bringing the same intelligent capabilities to other business processes and departments. By building on a scalable SAP-based foundation, Promocean aims to accelerate AI adoption across the organisation.

Partnership

The success of the project was built on a close partnership between Promocean and SOA People. From the outset, SOA People helped identify a high-impact AI use case that was both strategically important and realistic to deliver within a short timeframe. The team then managed the project end-to-end, from solution design and implementation to deployment.

The collaboration combined deep SAP expertise with the practical knowledge of Promocean’s operational buying team. Supported by strong executive commitment on both sides and AI technology that delivered measurable results, the project became a showcase for how business and technology can innovate together.

Promocean - From Business Challenge to SAP Global Innovation Award Winner

Why this story matters

Meet Promocean

Business Challenge

Building the Solution

Global Recognition

Business Impact

Lessons Learned

Future Plans

Partnership

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