Promocean transformes procurement with SAP Business AI

SOA People helped Promocean automate procurement, improve operational efficiency, and take the first step towards the Autonomous Enterprise.

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Global brands such as Heineken, Lindt, Bacardi and Lacoste depend on Promocean to deliver creative, high-quality promotional materials on time and at scale. Behind every campaign lies a complex global procurement operation involving thousands of suppliers, customised products and demanding delivery schedules. To support continued growth, Promocean partnered with SOA People to rethink one of its most business-critical processes: procurement. The result was an intelligent procurement solution powered by SAP Business AI that reduces manual work, accelerates decision-making and enables employees to focus on higher-value activities. The solution was recognised with the Technology Pathfinder Award at the 2026 SAP Innovation Awards, demonstrating how AI can deliver measurable business value in real-world operations.

The Challenge Solution Benefits

The Challenge

Promocean manages procurement for highly customised products sourced from suppliers around the world. Every purchase order requires continuous communication with vendors to confirm delivery dates, resolve exceptions and ensure customer commitments are met.

As the business expanded, these activities increasingly relied on manual work.

The procurement team spent around 19 hours every day following up on purchase orders via Outlook and Excel. Communication processes differed from supplier to supplier; there was limited visibility into supply chain issues, and valuable operational knowledge remained locked inside individual employees.

The organisation needed a smarter way to:

- Reduce manual follow-up

- Improve supplier communication

- Increase visibility across departments

- Create consistent procurement processes

- Prepare for future business growth without increasing administrative workload

Solution

Working together through an SAP Business AI Hackathon, SOA People and Promocean identified procurement as the ideal starting point for applying AI.

SOA People designed and implemented an intelligent Procurement Control Centre on SAP Business Technology Platform, combining generative AI, business rules and process automation into one integrated solution.

The solution continuously analyses incoming supplier emails, combines them with live SAP data and recommends the next best action for each purchase order.

Rather than replacing employees, AI acts as an intelligent co-pilot. Operational buyers receive AI-generated recommendations inside an intuitive SAP Fiori interface while remaining fully in control of every decision through a human-in-the-loop approach.

⁠Behind the scenes, the solution combines:

SAP Build Process Automation
SAP Generative AI Hub
SAP CAP and SAP Fiori
SAP Build Work Zone
SAP ECC
Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)
Large Language Models including Mistral and Claude

This architecture allows Promocean to innovate on top of its existing SAP ECC landscape while creating a clear path towards SAP S/4HANA.

Benefits

The new solution has fundamentally changed how procurement operates. Instead of spending the majority of their day processing emails and tracking purchase
orders manually, buyers can focus on supplier relationships, exception handling and tactical decision-making.

Turning AI into measurable business value:

63%

Reduction in manual procurement effort

19 → 7 hours

Daily purchase order follow-up

90%

Less development effort using AI-powered software engineering

1 year

ROI

<20 weeks

From concept to production

The solution also enables faster and more consistent vendor follow-up and improves visibility into supplier performance. It strengthens collaboration across
business functions, reduces processing errors, and frees procurement teams to focus on higher-value tactical activities. At the same time, its scalable
architecture provides a solid foundation for future AI innovation and Promocean’s journey to SAP S/4HANA.

Building trust in AI

One of the project’s defining principles was trust. Rather than fully automating procurement decisions from day one, Promocean chose a human-in-the-loop
approach.

Every AI recommendation is reviewed by procurement specialists before execution. Their feedback continuously improves the system, allowing the solution to
become smarter over time while ensuring complete governance and transparency.

This approach helped employees quickly adopt the solution while maintaining confidence in AI-supported decision-making.

We were curious to understand the benefit AI can bring to us, and this solution proved that the opportunity is very big. We have multiple ideas for further use of AI. It’s exciting!

Luc van Elk

Managing Director ,Promocean / Executive Vice President, Li & Fung