2025 Annual Conference header with SAP sponsor

2025 Annual Conference: Sponsor Case Studies

As a trusted partner to industry-leading businesses, the UWEBC only invites sponsors that are valuable to attendees, and these sponsors have the option to share a Case Study. These case studies are designed to help you create your organization’s vision, make strategic decisions, prioritize your technology investments and create the tactical actions that will carry you forward.

Case studies are terrific opportunities to position your brand as a thought leader and difference maker with decision-makers. Learn more about them below.

Note that while the case study sessions were held concurrently, all sessions were recorded and available for on-demand viewing after the conference.

Morning Sessions



Learn How Generac Navigates Market Volatility with Confidence Leveraging SAP Supply Chain and Technology Solutions

Featuring speakers Ryan Champlin, Senior Director, Product Marketing, SAP; Sangeeta Kasbekar, Supply Chain Management Customer & Solution Advisor, SAP; and Shane Zahn, Global Business Process Owner Procure to Pay Purchasing, Generac

Are you looking to navigate market volatility with confidence? Especially when it comes to your supply chain and how to weather the uncertain and fast changing conditions in today’s global markets. Hear how Generac, a UWEBC member company and SAP customer, solved challenges with limited visibility to inventory, excessive manual effort from buyers chasing confirmations, poor supplier delivery data management, and high costs from expedited freight and FTZ pre-clearance.

In this session, learn how Generac modernized their supply chain management processes, organization, and adopted new technology from SAP such as SAP Supply Chain Collaboration (SCC). With SCC, Generac gained a modern and systemic ability to share forecasts, manage buy ship dates, and dynamically adjust based on logistics lead times. This improved visibility, reduced costs and manual workload, and also strengthened supplier collaboration, resulting in a more efficient, reliable, and resilient supply chain.

Attend this session to learn how Generac relies on SAP for supply chain resilience just how you rely on Generac when the power goes out.

Learn how Generac:

  • Developed solutions to the supply chain problems they were facing and how those solutions helped them through the pandemic and today’s volatile markets
  • On-boarded and enable suppliers to more efficiently engage with Generac and the SAP technology solutions they are using
  • Plans to build on the lessons learned and continue to innovate to build a more resilient supply chain
  • Uses the SAP Business Technology Platform to unlock the full potential of their applications and data



Accelerating Productivity Through AWS Agentic AI Services

Yash logo

Featuring Prakash Kajuluri, Associate Vice President, AWS Division – YASH Technologies

Artificial Intelligence is no longer a futuristic concept—it’s a practical tool that’s reshaping how organizations work today. By automating repetitive tasks, augmenting human capabilities, and unlocking real-time insights, AI frees employees to focus on higher-value, creative, and strategic activities.

In this session, Prakash Kajuluri, Associate Vice President of the AWS Division at YASH Technologies, will share how organizations across industries are harnessing the power of AWS Agentic AI to drive measurable business outcomes. Drawing on more than two decades of experience leading digital and AI-driven transformations for global leaders like BMW, Caterpillar, CNH Industrial, and Amazon, Prakash will highlight how companies are leveraging AWS frameworks to accelerate innovation, boost productivity, and achieve ROI.

Through real-world use cases, attendees will discover how generative and agentic AI solutions are enabling organizations to work smarter, faster, and more strategically.



The Chisel Tip: Synthesizing Perspectives to Sculpt Strategy, Control Risk, and Capture Growth

Aurora WDC logo

Featuring speaker Arik Johnson, Founder and Chairman of Aurora WDC

Executives often operate as if the world is exactly as it appears to them—until reality proves otherwise. In his talk, Arik Johnson, Founder and Chairman of Aurora WDC, introduces the chisel tip metaphor to illustrate how seemingly contradictory perspectives can all be true at the same time. Viewed from different angles, the geometry of a chisel tip casts shadows as a rectangle, a triangle, and a circle simultaneously. Each shadow is true and accurate, but looking from their one and only perspective conceals the whole truth and misleads strategic choices.

This paradox lives at the heart of modern leadership: the recognition that what we think we know often diverges from what is actually real. Johnson will challenge leaders to confront this gap–what he calls the stochasm–between assumptions and reality. Drawing on case studies from corporate history and lessons learned over his 30 years in competitive intelligence, he demonstrates how executives must seek out and reconcile business contradictions to avoid the costly mistakes of former success stories like Sears, Kodak, and Blockbuster.

The session equips Wisconsin leaders with a practical mindset for navigating uncertainty: embracing multiple perspectives to gain a higher resolution regard for the singular reality. By learning to see the chisel tip truth all around them, executives can lead with clarity, foster innovation, and create sustainable advantage in an increasingly paradoxical world.



Leading with Impact: How to Pick and Sustain the Right AI Use Cases

CCMC logo

Featuring James Molski, Chief Data & Analytics Officer, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services USA LLC

AI isn’t plug-and-play — it requires leadership and focus. This session introduces a practical framework for prioritizing AI use cases while highlighting the leadership behaviors and culture needed to sustain adoption. Attendees will leave with tools to identify early wins, build organizational support, and deliver lasting customer impact.

 

 

Afternoon Sessions



Driving Data Agility at Scale: Schneider National’s Journey with Denodo

Denodo and Schneider logos

Featuring Sam Bass, Director of Advanced Analytics at Schneider National, and Terry Dorsey, Sr. Data Architect at Denodo

Schneider National, one of the largest logistics and transportation companies in North America, faced the challenge of modernizing legacy on-prem data systems while minimizing disruption to the business. They turned to Denodo to create a virtual data layer that unified disparate sources and supported their transition to a modern cloud-based data lake.

Today, Schneider continues to rely on Denodo as the enterprise semantic model and abstraction layer, ensuring agility, avoiding vendor lock-in, and providing governed data access across BI and analytics platforms. Looking ahead, Schneider is planning to explore GenAI applications and chatbots, using semantic models built in Denodo and supported by Denodo’s AI SDK, which offers advanced features such as RAG Query and Deep Query.

Join this session to hear how Schneider’s leaders are leveraging Denodo to deliver value today while preparing for the AI-driven future.




Breakthrough logo

Miller Electric’s Journey to Transportation Cost Reduction and Continuous Improvement

Featuring Heather Mueller, Chief Client Strategy Officer, Breakthrough; and Nic Kieper, Director of Logistics & Warehousing, Miller Electric

Discover how Miller Electric achieved significant cost reduction and enhanced operational efficiency by implementing a market-based fuel reimbursement strategy. This approach streamlined their logistics processes, leading to measurable improvements across their supply chain. Learn how the program’s multi-year roadmap continues to deliver value, support cost savings, and drive continuous improvement for the organization.



Enghouse logo

Creating Engaging and Accessible Video

Featuring Chris Scholtens, Director of Product Management, Enghouse Video

Every organization today understands the power of video as a communication medium. From informative to viral, videos are an essential tool. Now, more than ever, making videos that are engaging and accessible to all viewers is critical. But making video content engaging and accessible to all viewers is more than just meeting compliance checkboxes; it’s about creating meaningful experiences that reach everyone in your organization.

In this session, we’ll walk through an 8-step journey to elevate your video strategy, from foundational accessibility practices like captions and transcripts to advanced features like interactivity, multilingual delivery, and intelligent search.

You’ll see how accessibility and engagement go hand in hand, and where AI can accelerate progress without compromising quality. Using real-world examples and lessons from Mediasite customers, we’ll explore practical steps you can take today, along with a roadmap for building toward more inclusive and impactful video experiences tomorrow.

Whether your organization is just beginning with captions or already experimenting with AI-driven video enhancement and creation, you’ll walk away knowing exactly where you are on the journey and what the next step looks like.



MATC and CoE logo

Building Abundant Tech Talent: Co-Creating Wisconsin’s STEM Workforce Future

Featuring speakers Randy Way, Associate Dean, Madison College School of STEM; and Chelsy Cegielski, Engagement Manager, Office of Corporate Relations, UW-Madison College of Engineering

Wisconsin’s long-term competitiveness depends on more than incremental hiring—it requires a coordinated talent strategy that spans technical education, industry leadership, and innovation across critical technology areas like energy, robotics & automation, and advanced manufacturing.

The Workforce Development Alliance, a new partnership between Madison College’s School of STEM and the UW–Madison College of Engineering, is taking a bold step to align technical and research institutions with industry needs. But this initiative is still being shaped—and industry’s voice is essential.

In this interactive session, Randall Way (Associate Dean, MATC School of STEM) and Chelsy Cegielski (Engagement Manager, UW–Madison College of Engineering, Office of Corporate Relations) will share the Alliance’s vision to create seamless academic pathways, accelerate workforce readiness, and foster innovation. More importantly, they will invite feedback and co-creation from business and technology leaders in the room.

If your organization depends on a strong, adaptable STEM workforce in Wisconsin, this is your opportunity to influence the design of a statewide alliance that could expand technical talent pipelines for years to come.

Learning Outcomes
By participating in this session, business and technology leaders will:

  1. Assess Talent Gaps Across Sectors: Understand how energy, robotics, and manufacturing industries face critical workforce shortages and what this means for employers statewide.
  2. Explore New Education–Industry Models: Learn how the Workforce Development Alliance seeks to merge technical college strengths with research university capacities to better serve employer needs.
  3. Co-Create Industry-Aligned Pathways: Provide direct input on how curricula, internships, apprenticeships, and applied research should evolve to prepare workers for the future of your industry.
  4. Shape a Scalable Ecosystem: Contribute ideas on how Wisconsin can build an abundant, cross-sector STEM talent pool that strengthens competitiveness and attracts future investment.