Business transformation is a necessity. It was Heraclitus, the Greek Philosopher, who said “The only thing that is constant is change.” Even though Heraclitus said this around 500 BC, his words are relevant even today—and much more in business. What adds to the inevitable change is the speed at which things are changing.
In the past, business was able to handle one or two simultaneous changes but looking into today’s change management dashboard, it keeps evolving. In different dimensions that results in more complexity to handle and adjust within the business.
Such diverse business changes mandate business transformation to survive. Business leaders equipped with digital acumen have an even more strategic role to play for driving this transformation.
Per the Santa Fe Institute, the average lifespan for a company is down to about 10 years before the company is bought, acquired, or liquidated. The companies that have been able to survive for decades have done it by being agile, flexible, cost-efficient, and innovative. Making both the right decisions at right time and business transformation at the right time are key.
However, business transformation is easier said than done. It requires clear insights to your business and getting the right guidance to strengthen the integration among various business elements at each step of your business processes.
Enterprises must be prepared to form new digital ecosystems and partnerships across industries, and to get into unexplored domains that can enhance their customer experience. To put this to context, IDC reported in 2019 that by 2025, 20% of revenue growth will come from “whitespace.”
Business Leaders in the Transformation Strategy
Technology is the key to driving business transformation and business leaders must acknowledge this by bringing their IT and business strategy together.
There are additional perspectives to be considered before business transformation is executed.
The Right Time
Leaders know they must identify risks and see around corners before disruptions occur, when there is still time to do something about future challenges. Data is an asset and a business leader’s ability to use data is the skill for driving strategic decisions. This is why 59% of decision-makers are actively using data and analytics to define and shape their strategies.
Connecting the Dots
Good customer service is no longer a business differentiator; it is a business fundamental. Leaders know traditional system and organizational silos within their companies are holding back their businesses and overall customer experience. Seventy-nine percent of business leaders agree that the ability to connect processes across systems and ecosystems allows organizations to improve customer experience and streamline business operations and reduced total cost of ownership (TCO).
Business Anticipation
Leaders know that digital disruption is not something to watch out for; it’s something to lead. This is why 72% say that rather than waiting to be disrupted by competitors, their organizations are actively disrupting their own sectors and processes. Being able to continuously invent new approaches and implement them rapidly through technology is essential to lead the race.
By 2024, more than 50% of all IT spending will go toward digital transformation and innovation—up from 31% in 2018 and growing at a compound annual rate of 17% as outlined by IDC in October 2019
Time to Reimagine ERP
Over the last few years, the pace of business and innovation has accelerated dramatically. Legacy enterprise resource planning (ERP) has failed to satisfy the appetite for real-time information. The sad reality is that for almost every business, “version-lock” is the Achilles heel of their on-premise ERP.
Yesterday’s ERP solution is not keeping up with today’s business and technological demands. Take a look at some key business strategic priorities:
Outcome-based engagements
According to the Future of Jobs Report 2020 by the World Economic Forum, 50% of human tasks will be automated by 2025:
- Move to outcome- or performance-based engagements
- Adopt intelligent bid management to increase predictability and decrease risk
Enabling new business models
IDC’s worldwide IT industry predictions 2020 report finds that 20% of revenue growth will come from “whitespace” offerings by 2025 and accordingly companies need to create new lines of business:
- Monetization of data
- Innovative partnerships
- Efficient order fulfillment and delivery
Greater integration of applications, data, and management across all cloud providers and locations
By 2022, 70% of enterprises will integrate their public and private clouds by deploying unified hybrid/multi cloud management technologies, tools, and processes, according to IDC.
Modular Cloud ERP: SAP’s Vision for Intelligent Enterprises
SAP’s vision of the Intelligent Enterprise in a digital world is poised for the future. SAP understand that customers are looking for cloud ERP to allow timely access for business data by all users, from anywhere and on any device. This helps ensure that employees across the organization are working with the same data, no matter the business unit or location, and can make decisions faster and more confidently.
Through the RISE with SAP offering, SAP S/4HANA Cloud—both public and private editions—helps customers to lay the foundation for ERP over cloud.
Now, RISE with SAP for Modular Cloud ERP extends the core offering with more value-add ERP modules in different domains and lines of business, beginning with procurement, human experience management (HXM), analytics, and governance. Going forward, more modules are planned to be added to the offering.
Being modular, it plays its part to customer success by providing the flexibility needed to pick and choose modules that are relevant to customer business and industry. Highly appreciated suite qualities between the products are brought up from different lines of business together in one solution, with integration, openness, and modularity on top of such qualities
Through the RISE with SAP offering, we deliver business transformation as a service to help IT organizations lead business transformation and be a change agent.
To be set for success today and for the future means your foundation must be based on an outstanding ability to reach out to your customers as people—at the right time, in the right way, and with the right offer. We want to help you be there for your customers to improve their lives and to help the world run better.
Uwe Grigoleit is senior vice president and general manager for SAP S/4HANA Solution Management GTM.
Khaled Musilhy is vice president of Solution Management for SAP S/4HANA and solution owner for RISE with SAP.
