Renowned MIT professor Alan Kay says technology is, “Anything invented after you were born. Everything else is just stuff.” For organisations, business innovation is often delivered through some form of technology or process. In fact, innovation is an ongoing process itself.
Thanks to ERP cloud systems, we’ve all now become accustomed to large, dedicated development teams continually working behind the scenes to deliver clever updates and innovative new capabilities to us at regular intervals throughout the year.
Until recently, larger companies were the only ones who could afford sophisticated, enterprise-grade ERP with all the latest innovations, powerful technology and best practice expertise at their fingertips. Their ongoing ability to harness innovation at scale often widens the productivity and efficiency gap between competitors, especially smaller companies. But tier one innovative ERP is no longer just for large multinationals with deep pockets. Innovation has become affordable.
Initiatives, such as GROW with SAP, are making ready-to-run cloud ERP accessible for midsize businesses with rapid deployment, scalability, seamless adoption – and of course, ongoing innovation. This means mid-market companies can now benefit from 50+ years of pre-built, pre-configured proven industry best-practice processes that multinationals have been leveraging for decades. And when it comes to innovation, it’s not just SAP’s own teams of developers working behind the scenes. SAP’s extensive partner ecosystem is continually building IP on the platform, creating a fulcrum of innovation covering every industry.
This type of Public Cloud ERP accessibility also means that many common obstacles facing midmarket businesses – such as legislation and regulations, cross-border taxation, adherence to local compliance, robust cybersecurity, and other time-consuming complexities – are already pre-built, enabling midsize businesses to grow with confidence. You can stay ahead, avoid technical debt from missed upgrades, and always get the latest process and technology innovations. These regular updates ensure business continuity, minimise disruptions, and guarantee the latest compliance and security.
While innovation has become an expectation, it’s also become easier. Today, AI-driven bots and no code development tools require minimal assistance from IT. This is especially important for attracting and retaining younger developers, while giving management a layer of access and control. While technology natives want the ability to drag and drop and easily create cool new functionality that keeps the technology core clean, management wants control and governance over access. Public Cloud ERP gives you both.
It means you can build your own IP on a fully extensible platform – so you can still differentiate your business by developing unique capabilities on a cloud business platform, supported by development tools, templates and APIs.
For example, LetsGetChecked, an innovator of global healthcare solutions, recently adopted SAP S/4HANA Cloud to manage its exponential growth. In addition to significantly simplifying its business processes in the cloud, the company is now better able to navigate the speed of change in the global healthcare market and leverage scalable intelligence and innovation for its complex business model.
If you’d like to learn more about how you can apply ongoing business process innovation within your own business, get in contact today!
Paul Clements is Head of Midmarket and New Customer Success for SAP UKI.
