“This is a big step for us,” says de Freitas. “We're leaving the complex licensing infrastructure and service levels to SAP's one-stop shop in the cloud. This gives us more opportunities to benefit from news and the latest releases on security, functionality and technical stability.”
Strategic AI
Finding the right applications for AI is also a key challenge. “Applied AI is one of our strategic technology priorities,” Stranne says. The focus is on three areas. The first is how SKF can use AI with the various tools it has available via Rise from SAP and via Microsoft. “We’re currently testing M365 Copilot on a limited basis and gathering feedback from users to understand where the value is for the company,” she adds. “At the same time, we’ll understand how AI can contribute to the tasks our employees perform every day.”
The second area is SKF developing its own AI models within its core business. For example, the company has been working on condition monitoring for the past few years – checking the condition of machines in operation to determine when maintenance is due and to ensure that the right parts are installed. And to allow employees to test new models, SKF has worked with cloud providers to set up separate environments, so-called sandbox environments, where they can experiment in a safe way. There is also a community where interested employees can discuss, exchange experiences and test similar areas of use together.
