The SAP way to an Intelligent Enterprise

Intelligent enterprise & integration – the basis for innovation

An intelligent, sustainable enterprise is defined as one that applies advanced technologies and best practices within agile, integrated business processes consistently. An intelligent, sustainable enterprise can:

Employ tools to understand what is happening across its business and why
Infuse AI and machine learning into business processes
Embed sustainable practices into business strategy and operations
Build flexible value chains and apply leading-edge industry practices to optimize the business
Implement processes specific to the vertical industry in the cloud to handle the value chain end to end

End-to-end integration across the IT landscape is essential for an Intelligent Enterprise. The integration happens across the four processes or steps:

Process Identification
Documenting and Mapping
Planning Through Modeling and Design
Implementation and Management

Business Transformation with SAP Intelligent enterprise

An intelligent enterprise uses advanced technologies and best practices within integrated, agile processes making it more profitable, resilient, and sustainable, while also transforming into a best-run business.

Intelligent enterprises use modern cloud-based technologies like AI and the Internet of Things (IoT) to use their data better and get real-time insights about operations, market environment and customers. A company can transform its business model with SAP Intelligent Enterprise, whether it is a Fortune 500 or SMB (small & medium size business).

Intelligent enterprises can improve their business processes with automation tools to handle tedious and time-consuming back-office finance operations like receivables. The data from the systems can be used for running the business and research, designing new products, and forecasting their revenues accurately.

The intelligent Enterprise promise of SAP

The SAP Intelligent Enterprise Solution Portfolio consists of the following components:

Business Network
End-to-End Processes (E2E)
Experience Management
Intelligent Suite
Industry Cloud
Sustainability Management
Business Technology Platform, and
Infrastructure.

Source SAP

Intelligent Enterprise lays the foundation for a future-proof company. The three themes central to a future-proof company are profitability, resiliency, and sustainability. SAP feels profitability, resiliency, and sustainability are gradually converging and it works to support the convergence.

Towards an Intelligent Enterprise

There are three components: the operations, the experience, and the intelligence that form the core of an Intelligent Enterprise strategy and SAP’s technology approach for the intelligent enterprise. The use of operational and experience data helps businesses create and implement an intelligent enterprise strategy.

Operational data forms the “what” of business data while experiencing data in the form of stakeholder sentiments forms the “why”. Intelligent technology combines the two to provide powerful business outcomes based on insights and predictions. SAP’s portfolio of enterprise software links the components by connecting experience and operations with intelligent technology.

Business Process Integrations Across the Four End-to-End Processes

Intelligent Enterprise has four key processes that are also its key drivers

Lead to Cash
Recruit to Retire
Source to Pay, and
Design to Operate

They span multiple SAP systems and are unified with SAP One domain model. Most companies now have hybrid system landscapes. SAP provides integrations for cloud-first, but not cloud-only landscapes and these integrations are provided in subsequent on-premises releases.

While integrations can be often complex and time-consuming, the comprehensive collection of pre-packaged and well-documented integration content on the SAP API Business Hub lowers the entry barriers for any integration project. Its scenario descriptions provide a consistent overview of the end-to-end processes supported by the Integrated Intelligent Suite based on a standardized methodology.

As part of the integration roadmap, SAP recommends its customers to embrace the required technology components for integration and extensibility into their landscapes. Some of the integration innovations are:

SAP Mobile Start

SAP Mobile Start is a native app that serves as a central, native entry point to the SAP Universe. It offers a selection of content for industry-specific personas and business roles while the integrated approach allows easy access to SAP applications.

SAP Integration Suite

SAP Integration Suite is a versatile Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) solution in the cloud that enables process integration, especially with third-party applications. By deploying the SAP API Business Hub (a website to discover, explore, and test APIs from various SAP products and detailed information on business processes and partner assets) customers can use the broad range of APIs, and reference integration flows. Customers also gain access to 170 connectors to third-party applications (Open Connectors) and about 70 adapters (generic and application-specific) to jump-start their integration projects.

Aligned Domain Models

Aligned Domain Models are expected to be the platform for all new integration scenarios between SAP’s applications in the future. SAP’s One Domain Model helps applications synchronize business objects with common attributes and use common semantics.

Identity and Access Management

The SAP Cloud Identity services on the SAP Business Technology Platform help companies manage all users and provide access to users across the organization. The SAP Cloud Identity services along the end-to-end scenarios provide a full single-sign-on experience for users.

Integration and Application Lifecycle Management

The SAP Cloud Integration Automation Service (CIAS) provides more than 100 guided workflows. These role-based, semi-automated step-by-step procedures help to significantly reduce the manual integration configuration efforts.

Analytics

The SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC), which provides insights to drive intelligent decisions and actions, is embedded in various SAP applications. Business users also gain personalized access to data, pre-defined reports, and ad-hoc analytical capabilities to derive value out of their enterprise data.

Capabilities of an SAP Intelligent Enterprise

SAP outlines six capabilities of SAP intelligent enterprises that help achieve the best possible results, unlock new sources of growth, and importantly, become industry leaders. They are:

Intelligent Suite: SAP’s integrated suite of applications supports end-to-end business processes with a 360-degree view of the business using embedded analytics. It helps in managing every part of an organization, including employees, products, customers, finance, spending, and IT.
Industry Cloud: The SAP cloud platform helps businesses deploy vertical solutions from SAP and partners, adopt industry best practices and enhance current business processes.
Business Technology Platform: This digital platform enables businesses to use intelligent technologies like conversational AI, machine learning, and IoT to drive innovation. It provides analytics and data management and supports application development and integration.
Experience Management: Experience management solutions help businesses understand the sentiments and feelings of employees, customers, and other business stakeholders to make the right decisions.
Sustainability Management: SAP solutions help customers understand and manage their impact on people and the environment.
Business Network: The SAP business network helps businesses in digitalizing business processes by building upon current procurement, travel, and contingent workforce solutions. This helps intelligent enterprises collaborate and create flexible value chains.

The Connected, Intelligent Enterprise

To benefit from the increasing use of smart digital technologies there is a strong need to create a fully connected, intelligent enterprise that is highly focused on customer centricity and operational excellence.

Solution providers like RTS can provide an Intelligent Enterprise platform on the strength of their expertise and experience. You can contact us and visit website for more details.

Intelligent Enterprise in Action- Industry implications and examples/use case

An intelligent enterprise can make the most of the data, building intelligence that in turn drives new efficiencies, improves service, and spurs growth. The connected, intelligent enterprise empowers users so they can perform process steps more efficiently with vastly improved decision-making aided by better insights that are real-time, user-friendly, fit-for-purpose and actionable.

A leading provider of integrated well completion services, formed by the merger of two public oil- field services companies, wanted to integrate multiple ERP and related systems on one platform. It wanted to simplify systems and processes so that there is synergy across the merged companies apart from simplifying workflow reporting processes and making its supply chain more efficient.

The intelligent enterprise solution built around SAP S/4HANA helped the company to build tools that were fit for purpose and aligned with the business. It also helped reduce the run-rate costs for the maintenance of the ERP application. It brought about 12% reduction in month-end closing time, 50% reduction in ERP costs and US$120 million in cost savings across IT and ERP systems.

An intelligent enterprise is thus able to redefine the end-to-end customer experience, increase productivity, provide savings, and transform workplace engagement among employees.