1. The Innovation
TransformationIN TODAY’S INCREASINGLY DIGITAL WORLD, INNOVATIONS ARE BORN FROM NETWORKED
INTERACTIONS BETWEEN PEOPLE, BUSINESS, AND THINGS. ARE YOU READY?
T
HE WORLD’S MOST NIMBLE companies have
been rebuilding for a world in which systems are
integrated and ready for change.“As our world
becomes hyper-connected, it is producing a
major shift where individuals, businesses, and societies
are interconnected—all in real time—revolutionizing the way
we live, how businesses operate, and how society functions,”
says Ana Ammann, senior director of global marketing,
big data, and analytics services at SAP, a market leader
in enterprise application software whose systems touch
74% of the world’s transaction revenue.
In a study by McKinsey & Company, CEOs expect
15–50% of their companies’ future earnings growth to
come from disruptive technology. Profitability and success
will depend on how organizations respond to challenges
and prepare to capitalize on the opportunities. According
to Ammann, companies in the best position to capitalize
on this shift will be capable of supporting:
• The Internet of Things: Embedding sensors into
devices, appliances, and vehicles will achieve optimization
when everything is connected all the time. This will not only
serve as an accelerator to creating new business models;
it also means that new parts of our business experience
will be digitized.
• The Business Network: New patterns and models
will emerge as business processes that used to stop
at the walls of the enterprise are extended to vendors,
suppliers, partners, governments, financial institutions,
and other entities. Frictionless commerce will develop
across goods and services, contingent workforces, and
travel and entertainment.
• People: Cultivating a workforce across geographies,
growing new leadership skills, and allowing employees
the freedom to integrate their talents, expertise, and
interests into their work: We will see this happen as mobile
technologies bring more flexibility into the workday.
• Customer Experience: These companies will provide
customers richer and more engaging experiences driven
by a deeper understanding of individualized preferences
through better tracking and analysis of their data.
UNDERGOING THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
If a company wants to lead in its industry, it needs to embark
on a “digital transformation,” says Richard Strattner, senior
director of global marketing at SAP.
Most executives want to transform their operations,
but many are working in large and complex organizations—
and that complexity makes it difficult to evolve. An SAP-
sponsored Harvard Business Review study found six out of
10 business managers say complexity increased operational
costs by at least 11%. And according to SAP, businesses
spend 66% of their IT budget to maintain the status quo;
a CIO of a $20 billion company typically has about 1,000
applications to manage.
If companies are too busy overseeing multiple systems
or too focused on their day-to-day operations, they won’t be
able to innovate.“Complexity in decision making, business
processes and information management lies in the way
of companies embarking on their digital transformation
journey,” says Amr El Meleegy, SAP’s senior director of
product marketing.“For enterprises to succeed
in their digital transformation they need to tackle these
complexities which more often than not are rooted in IT.”
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“Thriving in this era of digital ubiquity is about optimizing experiences
and staying relevant.”— ANA AMMANN, GLOBAL MARKETING EXECUTIVE, SAP
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2. CREATING A FOUNDATION
For more than 40 years, SAP has helped executives
reimagine the way they do business. Through its
technology and consulting services, the company
has guided over 290,000 clients in more than 170
countries in the innovation and simplification
of their operations.“It’s about helping customers
build a digital foundation that can assist them
in reinventing their business models, offer new
customer experiences, better engage with their
workforce, suppliers, and partners, and drive new
operational efficiencies,” says El Meleegy.
To address these challenges, this year the
company launched SAP® Business Suite 4 SAP
HANA (S/4HANA), a next-generation business
application designed to help enterprises simplify
in today’s digital economy.
SAP® S/4HANA fundamentally redefines how
enterprise software creates value across industries,
with instant insight and real-time connections to
big data, the Internet of Things, and business and
social networks.“It’s more than an application; it’s
a foundation that enables digital transformation in
a more refined way,” says Ammann.“Businesses can
simplify and reinvent their processes, change them
as needed to gain efficiencies, and get insight on any
data in real time. They have access to personalized
information and recommendations on the fly while
driving business decisions with confidence leveraging
a single trustworthy version of data, combined with
advanced and predictive analytic capabilities.”
SERVING CLIENTS FASTER AND SMARTER
Companies can now enhance their customers’
experiences, provide guidance, and even predict what
they need before they know they need it.“Curating the
integration of digital and physical experiences down
to the level of the single customer is becoming the
new norm. Organizations are looking to technology
leaders like SAP to help them undergo a digital
transformation to revolutionize their customers’
experiences,” explains Strattner.
For example, in the world of travel, when a flight
is delayed, an airline can run simulations on the impacts
of the delay on all affected travelers. With SAP technology,
data crunching— which used to take several hours to
come up with alternative travel scenarios—can now be
completed before the traveler is even aware of a problem
and the airline has rerouted them.
In the retail space, major players are staying relevant
with their customers by becoming lifestyle advisers.
Media, music, and publishing companies are changing how
consumers entertain themselves. These and other disruptive
models are forcing businesses in all industries to think
outside the traditional boundaries to find ways to innovate.
“To be able to adapt to these ever-changing dynamics,
organizations require a digital foundation built on the latest
technology and thousands of examples of best practices,
and that is something SAP does best,” says Ammann.
Find out how SAP Service and Support can help you
envision and implement an innovation foundation that’s
right for your enterprise. Visit sap.com/S4HANA.
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