Fireside Chat: SAP CMI Program Case Study — Building World-Class CI
Rainer Michaeli opens the fireside chat by welcoming Jonathan Calof, who joins from Canada as one of the presenters at the upcoming ICI conference in June.
Jonathan Calof holds the position of UNESCO Professor and Co-Chair for Anticipatory Systems for Innovation and New Ventures at the University of Ottawa, Canada. His work focuses on supporting organizations — including governments and corporations — in developing competitive intelligence and foresight capabilities to better understand and navigate their external environment. In recognition of his contributions to this field, the Canadian Senate awarded him the King Charles III Coronation Medal.
Detailed Chapter Outline
Program Overview
Overview
Building a world-class competitive intelligence capability is a goal many organizations aspire to — but few achieve systematically. This fireside chat offers a rare inside look at how SAP evolved their Customer Market Intelligence program into a globally recognized benchmark.
Organizations seeking to strengthen their intelligence functions often lack a concrete, proven roadmap. In this session, Jonathan Calof and a former SAP executive share the real-world journey behind one of the most awarded CMI programs in the world. From the practical role of AI to the lessons embedded in intelligence maturity models, participants gain actionable insights grounded in both academic research and applied practice.
Introduction
Rainer Michaeli opens the fireside chat by welcoming Jonathan Calof, who joins from Canada as one of the presenters at the upcoming ICI conference in June.
Speaker Background & Expertise
Jonathan Calof holds the position of UNESCO Professor and Co-Chair for Anticipatory Systems for Innovation and New Ventures at the University of Ottawa, Canada. His work focuses on supporting organizations — including governments and corporations — in developing competitive intelligence and foresight capabilities to better understand and navigate their external environment. In recognition of his contributions to this field, the Canadian Senate awarded him the King Charles III Coronation Medal.
Conference Presentation Overview
The upcoming conference session is introduced as a unique opportunity. At a previous ICI conference, SAP presented the evolution of their Customer Market Intelligence (CMI) program — a program widely regarded as one of the best in the world and recognized with a major award from a leading competitive intelligence organization.
Jonathan Calof, together with colleague Klaus Soylen, approached SAP with a proposal to conduct a formal case study documenting how their CMI program evolved over time. The objective was to derive a practical and replicable guideline for building a world-class competitive intelligence capability. SAP agreed to participate and went further by contributing a former Vice President — the executive responsible for leading the program — as both a co-author of the case study and an active participant in the conference session.
A central insight from the case study is that while the vision for a world-class capability was established from the very beginning, realizing that vision required time and deliberate, step-by-step development.
A key element of the session addresses the role of artificial intelligence within a CMI function. Participants will gain insight into how to appropriately integrate AI into competitive intelligence processes, including common pitfalls, practical challenges, and the strategies necessary to implement AI effectively and responsibly.
The session is designed to bring together the theoretical framework of intelligence maturity models with the practical, real-world experience of a globally recognized organization. Participants are encouraged to actively contribute their own perspectives, making the session an interactive exchange between academic theory and applied practice.
Rainer Michaeli closes the conversation by expressing anticipation for the session at the upcoming conference.
