Digitally-determined companies in virtually every industry are launching initiatives focused on strengthening their digital capabilities. They are competitive not just because they are operating more efficiently, innovating new business models, and opening up new revenue streams. But more importantly, they are generating new levels of disruption that reverberate across entire industries and marketplaces.
However, these digital leaders are not successful by implementing the “right” technology. Instead, they are going even further by developing an enterprise landscape and architecture strategy that aligns people, processes, and technologies.
SAP Advisory Services: Design. Scale. Optimize.
How are these companies building a digital environment and structure that magnifies the full potential of their digital investments and ignite a future of transformative business growth? For our customers, one key enabler is the landscape strategy and architecture service as part of the SAP Advisory Services portfolio.
The services help our customers form the foundation necessary to actively pursue new opportunities and proactively mitigate risks by establishing five fundamental aspects of business-wide transformation:
- An enterprise architecture and road map: Receive a suitable digital enterprise architecture, on-premise or cloud-based transformation strategy, and value proposition based on your business priorities and SAP S/4HANA.
- A cloud strategy and road map: Find the right landscape with a mix of on-premise, managed cloud, and public cloud solutions that address business needs and vision.
- A digital IT strategy and governance: Bridge the gap between the digital strategy and defined tactics to foster closer cooperation and joint decision-making between IT and the rest of the business.
- A Customer Center of Expertise organization: Reorganize the IT organization to meet the requirements of digital innovation – aligning stakeholders, managing SAP solution operations, and helping to deliver change at the best price and quality.
- Operational optimization: Gain transparency and reduce the cost of IT operations while increasing and accelerating cloud adoption.
For customers, such as Life & Mobility, such an approach can become a transformational moment for their business and customers. By redefining its enterprise landscape and architecture in the cloud, the innovative manufacturer of wheelchairs and scooters is leveraging the Internet of Things (IoT) and predictive analytics to innovate a smart wheelchair business model.
For Life & Mobility, this initiative led to a technical breakthrough that aligns its digital investments with the values of its people and processes. Now, the company is uncovering greater insight into optimal sitting positions, reducing the adverse effects of long-term wheelchair use, and supporting its mission to enable greater freedom for those living with a disability.
According to Harmen Leskens, manager of Product Management and Development at Life & Mobility, “We will now be able to deliver a highly innovative product without creating any market prototypes – and make a greater contribution to the lives of people with disabilities.”
Opening the Door to an Era of Intelligent Evolution and Growth
Like the many ways digitalization has proven disruptive, businesses are using a variety of strategies to keep up with the pace of those changes. Some companies are strengthening their end-to-end processes while others seamlessly integrate a diverse IT landscape of on-premise and cloud environments. Meanwhile, a growing number are moving entirely to the cloud to expand the best capabilities of their existing capabilities with simplicity, scalability, and speed.
However, none of these approaches are accomplished with unquestionable certainty. Businesses still need to standardize, automate, streamline, personalize, and scale operations quickly and with ease to catch the attention of customers and competitors.
And this is where many of our customers benefit from our landscape strategy and architecture services. With objectivity and intelligence, they can adapt their strategies to an ever-evolving connected world and shape an enterprise architecture that supports new requirements and the entire workforce with the right digital experiences.
Throughout this series, we will examine how this portfolio blends established applications with emerging technologies, industry and functional expertise, and an ecosystem of innovators to further optimize operations and inspire history-shaping change. Bookmark the series landing page and check it each week. In the meantime, read our infographic, “Accelerate Business Optimization and Innovation with SAP Advisory Services,” or visit our website for an overview of SAP Advisory Services.
Marc-Alexander Winter is service offering manager for SAP Digital Business Services.
