Intelligent Roadmap
The big thinkers and product experts at SAP have been laying out their vision for customers and the future is looking – Intelligent. That’s the buzzword that informs much of what SAP is up to at the moment. But refreshingly there is a concerted effort to cut through the hype and come up with innovations customers actually want to use. Rainer Zinow – product godfather to SAP Business ByDesign has been laying out his vision and I’d like to summarise his thoughts so you can keep up to date with all the product goodness coming your way.
4 Key Customer Challenges for SAP Business ByDesign
There are 4 key challenges to be faced by any mid-sized organisation looking to get the most from their business systems. They can be summarised as follows;
- I don’t want to worry about hardware
- I don’t want my business interrupted by upgrades
- I need help getting the most from my data
- Get me out of Microsoft Excel spreadsheet hell!
Industry grade business processes
Anyone interested in using industry grade business processes without having to go on-premise or bespoke will appreciate what Business ByDesign can do. Each of the challenges outlined above is met head on by this suite in a box. Business ByDesign is accessed in the cloud so there is no hardware at all to maintain. Upgrades are fed through quarterly and automatically so that software is always up to date and business is not disrupted. Analytics are built in so data works hard revealing insights and even making predictions. As for Excel spreadsheets – well you can wave goodbye to them when you set sail with Business ByDesign – replacing several different versions of the truth for one single accurate source.
Impressive numbers
SAP were able to reveal some great numbers – with 5.595 companies using Business ByDesign every day which is in increase of 23% year on year. In addition – more than 4606 add-ons have been created by partners in the last year which reveals the level of attention being paid to customer needs. It also highlights the role of partners like InCloud Solutions who are vital in helping customers run that last mile. You can go to SAP and ask for Business ByDesign direct – but it is the partner network which plays that vital role in closing the loop with implementation, training and customisations that really makes the whole thing fly.
Practical uses for the Intelligent Enterprise
Rainer Zinow knows his customers well and that is why when it comes to the big beasts at the heart of the intelligent enterprise like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence etc it is more about the concrete practical applications he can offer customers than it is about theory. For example BusinessByDesign’s ability to keep track of your On Time in Full Deliveries – as a KPI – which I wrote about last week.
Rainer’s Intelligent Roadmap includes a best practice KPI library for you to pick and choose from, improved mobile enhancements to create a better user experience on the go and a fabulous Machine Learning initiative which features a picture recognition algorithm for speeding up invoice processing. Meanwhile research continues into natural language processing to help in all kinds of “alexa-style” scenarios from the warehouse to CEO’s checking in from home.
In Conclusion, SAP’s Intelligent roadmap represents a strong future for their flagship mid-market SMB offering Business ByDesign and as home to the UK’s biggest source of expertise in that product we couldn’t be happier.
Please get in contact if you would like to know more – drop Caroline a line at [email protected] to kick start the process.
You can watch a video about what SAP means by the Intelligent Enterprise here
or watch a video about SAP Business ByDesign here
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