In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital marketing and customer experience, a fundamental question is keeping CMOs and digital strategists awake at night: How healthy are your customer relationships? It is a question that goes far beyond open rates, click-through percentages, or quarterly sales targets. It strikes at the heart of brand longevity and consumer trust.
For most organizations, the answer is more complex than it appears. Over the last two decades, the corporate world has meticulously built its infrastructure around channels. We have email teams, social media departments, e-commerce specialists, and in-store coordinators. Each of these silos typically operates with its own technology stack, its own key performance indicators (KPIs), and its own definition of what a “win” looks like. From an internal perspective, these departments often look successful. But from the customer’s perspective, the experience is often fragmented, repetitive, and frustrating.
To address this growing disconnect, SAP Engagement Cloud is hosting a landmark virtual event, “Engage with SAP Online,” on March 11, 2026. This half-day digital summit is designed specifically for leaders who are ready to stop optimizing channels in isolation and start building a cohesive, relationship-driven strategy that actually resonates with modern consumers.
Understanding the Engagement Divide
The central theme of the upcoming event is the “Engagement Divide.” This term describes the widening gap between what customers expect from a brand and what those brands are actually capable of delivering. While many companies believe they are providing a seamless experience, the data suggests a different reality.
According to the SAP Engagement Index—a comprehensive global study of 10,000 consumers and 4,800 senior decision-makers—75% of consumers report being significantly put off by disorganized brands. These are brands that pass customers between multiple departments to resolve a single issue or fail to remember a customer’s previous interactions. Conversely, 77% of brands claim their engagement strategies already deliver seamless experiences. This discrepancy highlights a massive blind spot in the modern enterprise.
The Engage with SAP Online event aims to bridge this divide by providing leaders with the tools, data, and insights necessary to align their internal processes with external customer expectations. It is no longer enough to be “omnichannel” in name only; brands must be “relationship-centric” in practice.
Key Speakers and Industry Insights
The event features a high-caliber lineup of speakers who bring both academic rigor and real-world experience to the table. The day opens with Sara Richter, the CMO of SAP Engagement Cloud. Richter will unveil the full findings of the SAP Engagement Index, providing a data-driven foundation for the sessions that follow.
The keynote address will be delivered by Mark Ritson, a professor, founder of MiniMBA, and one of the most respected voices in the marketing world. Known for his “no-nonsense” approach, Ritson’s session, “Trends Shaping Customer Experience: What’s Real, What’s Not, and What Matters Most Now,” will cut through the industry hype. Ritson is expected to challenge the traditional view that loyalty lives solely within the marketing department, arguing instead that every touchpoint—from sales to service—shapes the brand’s health.
Following the keynote, attendees will hear from practitioners who are implementing these shifts in large-scale organizations:
- Jutta Richter (Head of 1:1 Campaign Management, BMW Group): Richter will discuss the complexities of modern customer journeys and how a premium brand like BMW ensures relevance in an era where customers often make up their minds before even speaking to a representative.
- Daniele Tedesco (Ecommerce Global Process Owner, Essity) and Venky Naravulu (Director of Partner Solutions, Sinch): This duo will join Mark Ritson to discuss the practicalities of modernizing engagement through AI and connected systems. They will provide a deep dive into how technology can facilitate human-like continuity at scale.
The Urgency of a Relationship-First Model
Why is this conversation happening now? Several macroeconomic and technological factors have converged to make customer engagement more difficult—and more critical—than ever before. First, the cost of customer acquisition (CAC) has skyrocketed across nearly every industry. When winning a new customer costs five to ten times more than retaining an existing one, the stakes for every interaction become incredibly high.
Second, the erosion of third-party tracking and the shift toward privacy-first browsing mean that brands can no longer rely on external data to “find” their customers. They must build their own first-party data ecosystems, which are only possible if customers feel a sense of value and trust in their relationship with the brand.
Finally, the rise of AI has empowered consumers. With AI tools at their fingertips, shoppers can compare prices, read reviews, and find alternatives in seconds. If a brand fails to recognize a customer or provides a disjointed experience, that customer has the tools and the motivation to switch to a competitor instantly.
The Mismatch in Channel Strategy
One of the most revealing aspects of the SAP Engagement Index is the mismatch between where customers are and where brands are spending their energy. The research indicates that:
- 41% of consumers prefer to shop and interact via mobile apps, but only 28% of brands have a significant engagement presence there.
- 43% of consumers prefer online and e-commerce shopping, yet only 26% of brands successfully engage via these web channels in a personalized way.
This “channel mismatch” is a symptom of a larger problem: legacy thinking. Many organizations are still catching up to the digital shifts of the last decade, while their customers have already moved on to the next phase of engagement. The “Engage with SAP Online” event will explore how to reallocate resources to meet customers where they actually spend their time.
Moving Toward Maturity: The 21% Goal
SAP’s research assessed how well organizations align their people, processes, and technology around customer engagement. The results were sobering. Only 21% of organizations scored at a “high maturity” level. These are the leaders who have unified their data, broken down departmental silos, and can deliver a consistent experience across every touchpoint.
The vast majority of businesses—63%—sit in the middle. These “middle-tier” companies can handle basic personalization, such as putting a customer’s name in an email, but they struggle with the deep coordination required to make a sales call aware of a marketing interaction, or an e-commerce site aware of an in-store return. Breaking out of this middle tier is the primary goal for most marketing and CX leaders in 2026.
The Role of AI and Unified Technology
While the strategy behind engagement is human-centric, the execution is undeniably technological. The “Engagement Era” is powered by integrated systems like Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) and operationalized AI. The event will showcase how AI has moved from a shiny new experiment to a core operational tool that can predict customer needs and automate relevant responses in real-time.
According to the Index, 77% of businesses plan to invest in AI-powered engagement this year, and 76% are investing in omnichannel technologies. However, the event speakers will emphasize that technology alone is not a silver bullet. The technology must be guided by a clear strategy that prioritizes the relationship over the transaction.
What Attendees Can Expect
Engage with SAP Online is not just a series of lectures; it is a strategic briefing for the future of commerce. Attendees will walk away with:
- A Strategic Playbook: Practical steps to transition from channel-centric tactics to relationship-centric orchestration.
- Data-Backed Benchmarks: The ability to compare their own organization’s maturity against the global findings of the SAP Engagement Index.
- AI Implementation Strategies: Real-world examples of how AI is being used to bridge the gap between marketing, sales, and service.
- Network Insights: Access to the perspectives of global leaders who are navigating the same challenges in real-time.
Registration and Event Details
As the digital landscape continues to shift, the brands that win will be those that view engagement not as a series of disparate events, but as a continuous, evolving conversation. Whether you are a CMO looking to prove ROI, a CX leader aiming to reduce friction, or a digital strategist building the next generation of commerce, “Engage with SAP Online” offers the insights needed to navigate the road ahead.
Event Name: Engage with SAP Online
Date: March 11, 2026
Time: 9:00 AM ET | 1:00 PM GMT | 2:00 PM CET
Format: Free, virtual, half-day event
Registration: Available now via the SAP Engagement Cloud portal.
In an era where the customer journey is no longer linear, the ability to see the customer clearly at every stage of the lifecycle is the ultimate competitive advantage. This event is the first step for many leaders in reclaiming that clarity and bridging the engagement divide once and for all.