ERP Insights >> Magazine  >> September - 2019 issue

Digital Transformation: A Critical Requirement for Every Business and Organization

Author :
Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Digital transformation journey may carry
different meaning to different businesses.
There is no unequivocal answer on digital
transformation of businesses. But one
thing that everyone can agree to is the
common denomination of every business:
delivering value proposition as per the end
customer�s expectation. What should be
the end goal of digital transformation of
a business? New technologies like machine learning, the Internet of everything, blockchain and cloud, are set to transform
value chains in order to enable completely new business models. Digital is about intelligently connecting people,
things, and businesses. Digital transformation has become a critical requirement for all businesses and organizations.

SAP�s concept of Intelligent Enterprises works towards creating a seamless ecosystem which is one of the key goals of any digital transformation process. By
migrating to Intelligent Enterprises, SAP helps customer in responding to individual end-user needs, engaging talent in new ways, and creating disruptive business
models. One important goal of digital transformation includes creating a robust information logistics system
that can collect and analyze data fast enough to be useful.To be able to respond on time may involve transforming many different IT systems, business processes and organizational structures to facilitate business agility and speed.

To successfully implement the digital
transformation journey, companies need to
find the right partner who can understand
and implement the business goals while
maintaining the uniqueness of the value
proposition of products and services. How is SAP guiding conglomerates throughout the digital transformation journey, helping
them attain the desired outcome of
transformation?

There are a lot of trends around the world causing businesses to rethink their service, operating models, client bases,
and transformation strategies. SAP�s systematic analysis has found that businesses take the first step on the digital
transformation journey by innovating business models, business processes, and modes of work using demand-oriented design thinking. SAP has developed a very simple,comprehensive approach to help customers with digital
transformation. It is a combination of the three factors described below:

We help organizations optimize their existing landscape and release resources to fund innovation. We do this by
consolidating and simplifying IT landscapes and moving them to the cloud
� Extending value is mainly driven by adoption of our comprehensive cloud portfolio that helps businesses reduce
spend, improve employee engagement, and improve decision-making process though advanced innovations like
SAP Digital Boardroom
� We bring SAP Leonardo technologies to identify several strategic scenarios. We co-innovate with the customer and
start to prove the value of innovation with these new technologies in a specific environment.

One of our most versatile offerings is SAP Leonardo that combines next-gen technologies and industry expertise
so as to rapidly transform a business into an Intelligent Enterprise. Our scalable approach to digital transformation helps in creating future-ready technologies which is accessed
through the cloud and augmented by design thinking services for rapid prototyping and adoption. To give you an example, Kansai Nerolac, the leading Indian paints
company, is adopting SAP Leonardo to streamline operations by leveraging next-generation technologies including Machine Learning and IoT. This is a prime example of how SAP helped one of its customers in the digital transformation journey.

Another of SAP�s latest offerings is the SAP C/4HANA which covers consumer data, marketing, commerce, sales and customer services. With this offering, we are able to
help build stronger relationships with customers and earn and keep their trust. This in-memory customer experience
(CX) suite offers cloud solutions for marketing, commerce,sales, service, and customer data � and uses technologies
like machine learning to power real-time engagements.

Businesses need innovative tools that
would cut down on product development
lifecycle, enhance networking and
collaboration and help with strategic
planning. How do you think companies
can deploy cutting edge innovative tools
to bring in more creativity in handling
core operations?

Let me begin with an example to explain this better. Globus, one of India�s leading fashion retail chains, is acceler-
ating its growth roadmap, by transforming operations with SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud. The implementation aims to build omnichannel retail for the brand through seamless
integration on the cloud. The company also benefi ts from insights into operational data to empower store staff with
contextual details, while providing real-time information for faster and better decision making to the board.

The basis of this success is SAP HANA that has been our fl agship in-memory database, enabling businesses to make business decisions based on the most up-to-date information. The innovative architecture in SAP HANA reduces time-consuming tasks and supports intelligent applications that use advanced analytic process-
ing. HANA has helped simplify working processed for companies, minimize the total cost of ownership of their
technology, and has allowed for faster and more informed business decisions.

We also launched S/4HANA Cloud last year � an intelligent ERP Cloud offering leveraging the same game changing innovations we delivered with S/4HANA, but now via a SaaS delivery model. S/4HANA Cloud is best
suited for large organizations as well as for subsidiaries and operational units of larger enterprises, and we have already
started witnessing immense traction in India for the same.

Running a successful digital transformation
includes IT-Business collaboration and
acquiring right talent is of paramount
importance for this. How do we address
the lack of skill set and how will this impact the growth of digital transformation?

India is slated to become the world�s youngest nation by 2022. A shortage in digitally skilled workforce could come
in the way of India establishing itself as a technology superpower. Large, medium and small organizations are transforming with the deployment of new age technologies
for digital initiatives like Industry 4.0, connected products, connected assets, connected people or connected markets.
To ensure this growth is scalable, it's critical to have a pool of talent that is equipped with skills to ideate, innovate and
work on transformational technologies. We recognized this early on and have been engaged with several programs to
augment the entire ecosystem� right from school children to graduates to the elderly. We are not only preparing the present workforce but also preparing and training the future workforce.

For example, our i360 Program works with universities to ensure students fi nd themselves at the top of the skill
curve of IoT, Machine Learning, AI, Analytics, and Big Data. SAP's customers and partners have joined in bringing
in real industry projects for students to propel young India to take a leadership position in innovation. Last year SAP signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium
Enterprises (M/o MSME) to jointly launch Bharat ERP an exclusive program to empower MSMEs with next-gen technology to fuel their digital journey. As a part of the
MoU, SAP India and the Ministry of MSMEs have been working to make MSMEs become future-ready by helping them focus on innovation and business profitability.

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