The tectonic shift in global economic growth over the last couple of years is presenting a flashpoint of concern and opportunity. One S&P 500 company, on average, is being replaced once every two weeks, with a tumble rate that’s likely to accelerate. Meanwhile, some businesses are experiencing record profits powered by new business models, often surpassing their legacy market leaders.
The competitive landscape may be fierce, but the difference between winners and losers is clear cut. It’s all about turning enterprise applications and large volumes of curated data into a powerful engine for unlimited change and high-potential innovation.
- Sixty percent of human tasks will be automated by 2025
- Ninety-nine percent accuracy in voice and video recognition will be achieved by 2020
- Ninety-seven percent accuracy in image recognition is available now, outpacing the capability of humans
Welcome to the new era of the Intelligent Enterprise. These advancements, as well as many others, are unlocking unprecedented competitive means, ranging from the automation of repetitive tasks and insight-driven decision-making to increased focus on higher-value outcomes and faster response to ever-changing market demand.
But how do you become an intelligent enterprise in a digital world that changes faster than any of us can handle?
When executives discuss their version of an intelligent enterprise, three initial action items always emerge:
- Transfer business processes based on-premise to those provided in the cloud
- Put into place a next-generation intelligent business suite as the digital core of the Intelligent Enterprise
- Ideate and deliver industry-disrupting innovations and business models
Companies need to take a more comprehensive approach to fully realize the benefits of this journey to the Intelligent Enterprise. For example, businesses should consider:
- Identifying, implementing, optimizing, and using the latest innovations: With continuous attention, monitoring, and refinement, companies can deliver strategic outcomes across the entire application life cycle as technologies mature and become more intelligent.
- Managing hybrid landscapes: Businesses can leverage a combination of on-premise and cloud solutions to enable a seamless, end-to-end support experience across all deployment scenarios and capture the unique benefits of each environment.
- Driving a value-based methodology: This approach helps improve business and IT performance by leveraging a series of benchmarks, best practices, targeted improvement recommendations, and reallocation of digital investments.
These requirements and many more are supported by SAP Enterprise Support. Designed to guide our customers through their transformation strategy, this offering helps optimize business operations and uncover valuable capabilities to seize three critical opportunities.
1. Fast and Consistent Innovation Adoption
Success in today’s fast-changing, intelligent world depends on speed and agility while fulfilling security and data protection requirements. By adopting a hybrid landscape, companies can introduce the latest technology quickly in the cloud while keeping associated cost and risks low. A central part of this approach includes SAP S/4HANA – our next-generation, intelligent enterprise resource planning (ERP) suite – to create the digital core from which all captured data and newly acquired capabilities are leveraged across the business between the cloud and on-premise.
2. Seamless Support for Business Processes Across Deployment Environment
When using hybrid landscapes, companies should rely on business partners that have the reliable and actionable insight necessary to prevent and resolve issues before any hint of operational disruption emerges. This delivery of a seamless, end-to-end support experience is a core aspect of the SAP approach to becoming an intelligent enterprise.
3. Business Outcomes from Intelligent Tools and Services
Market leadership is measured by the ability to drive sustainable outcomes. This includes streamlining processes and engaging a business partner that is continuously measuring business and IT performance across hybrid landscapes. With a recommended selection of dedicated support services, tools, and methodologies, companies can determine areas of improvement that can deliver the greatest benefits to customers, employees, and the overall business.
Join Us to Learn How to Optimize the Full Potential of Your Intelligent Enterprise
Over the next few weeks, we will offer an in-depth, real-world view of how the SAP Enterprise Support offering can help your business transition into an intelligent enterprise. Bookmark the series landing page and check it each week. In the meantime, read our brief, “Enabling the Intelligent Enterprise with SAP Enterprise Support,” for an overview of the SAP Enterprise Support offering.
Jens Bernotat is global vice president of Support Portfolio for SAP Digital Business Services. Follow him on LinkedIn.
