Becoming SAP intelligent enterprise

Infusing "intelligence everywhere" with new SAP solutions and technologies

Whatever industry sector your business is in, change is not optional. Winning in today’s market means making decisive strategic shifts. The goals? Innovation at speed and ‘always on’ intelligence for new kinds of interactions with customers and employees, value release through data and analytics and new business models.

It’s where new SAP solutions and technologies have such a pivotal role to play. The data and processes in the SAP systems that run many businesses provide the foundation for the intelligent enterprise.

What is the intelligent enterprise? I think of it as the application of technology and new service paradigms to improve business performance. These are supported by an intelligent framework, based on real-time information systems combined with intelligent agents including AI, machine learning, RPA, embedded analytics and more.

From the real-time systems of record and engagement powered by SAP S/4HANA and C/4HANA to new technologies (like analytics, IoT, augmented and virtual reality, blockchain and AI) enabled through SAP Leonardo and SAP Cloud Platform, this "new SAP" allows us to infuse intelligence everywhere to help our clients become an intelligent enterprise.

I believe the power of the SAP platform is ready to infuse intelligence and unlock value because:

• It brings end-to-end business process models for all lines of business and industries

• SAP S/4HANA serves as the real-time digital core (e.g. for finance, supply chain), combined with SAP Ariba (sourcing and procurement), SuccessFactors (HR), Concur and Fieldglass as the “system of record” for all transactions.

• The new customer experience suite, SAP C/4HANA, provides the “system of engagement” for customers, business partners and the wider ecosystem.

• SAP Cloud Platform enables intelligent agents and provides an open platform to connect to the outside world e.g. through a microservices framework to connect to other systems and integrate third-party technologies.

• All this is based on a new data-centric architecture to collect and integrate data from all sources in a trusted, unified landscape: the SAP HANA Data Management Suite

With new SAP solutions and technologies, "intelligence everywhere" is not aspirational, it’s a reality.

And none of this is theoretical. In this series of blogs—showcasing our Technology Vision for SAP Solutions 2018—we’ll show how new SAP-based applications, developed in our Liquid Studio for SAP Leonardo and by our SAP practitioners, are harnessing the latest digital advances to drive enterprise transformation forward.

The trends highlighted in Accenture’s 2018 Technology Vision, from Citizen AI, Extended Reality and Data Veracity to Frictionless Business and Internet of Thinking, are already proving to be powerful disruptors, reinventing marketplaces and industries overnight. Crucially, too, they also enable companies to tap into the powerful potential of the intelligent enterprise.

Embedded in the organization’s end-to-end business processes—old and new—we use new SAP technologies to infuse intelligence into the fabric of the enterprise, transforming its DNA, enabling new business models, new service paradigms and improving business performance through agile, adaptive processes.

This changes everything, for every business. That’s because, from reinventing business models to transforming the workforce, this new intelligence introduces continuous disruption as a force for competitive advantage.

Three waves of automation will bring all this about, continuously making organizations both more intelligent and more autonomous. The first of these, algorithmic automation, is already a fact of life for many organizations , automating easy tasks and data structure analysis.

We’re also starting to see more of the second wave, augmented automation, where machines, working with humans, automate more complex tasks using unstructured data. The third wave, autonomous automation, will see platforms and machines automating complex tasks and instantly resolving complex problems with limited human intervention.

The direction of travel is clear. And in the era of intelligence, the intelligent enterprise will lead the way. We are ready to support this journey, in real time, infusing intelligence into every area of the business.

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be bringing you examples of the 100+ applications we’ve developed using new SAP solutions and technologies. Spanning big data, AI, analytics, AR/VR, blockchain, IoT and data intelligence, these applications are enormously diverse. But they’re all focused on one objective: driving end-to-end intelligent enterprise transformation.

Until the next time, thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your views, so please get in touch or leave a comment below.