SAP HANA revolutionary column store-based database enabled customers to re-imagine their business and finally it made possible to companies to use real-time analytics and take real-time decisions and helped customer to take decision upfront of an event with predictive analytics.
The power of SAP HANA allied to AI & Machine Learning make it easier to uncover valuable information and enable companies to turn big data into smart data.
With this innovative technology, SAP came with a new product also revolutionary that is intent to be the SAP Business Suite successor.
I am talking about the SAP Business Suite 4 SAP HANA, or in short words, S/4HANA, the next-generation business suite designed to run real-time, fitting perfectly for companies that wants to take benefit from the Digital Transformation.
The digital transformation can provide a better customer experience, help companies to enhance their reputation, streamline processes, increase revenue, retain talents, increase decision-making efficiency, make companies more innovative and etc…
SAP S/4HANA can drive instant value across all lines of business and the Digital Transformation is absolutely necessary for companies that want to perpetuate themselves with a prominent place in the market, regardless of their size.
Those changes represents the transformation of business from end-to-end and affects the whole organization, as companies must have a clear dimension of where they want to go and how these changes will impact the whole business, being aware that the innovation is may have risks but not innovating is much more risky! With the risks it also comes greater opportunities.
15 years ago it was necessary 5 million dollars to kick-start a technology company… Today in the start-up era, this cost is near to 5 thousand dollars, that means, your company’s competitor next year could be starting their operation today!
Implementing SAP S/4HANA is not like downloading an app to your smartphone. It is also not taking what you have on ECC and putting on S/4HANA. It requires a new way of thinking. Companies will have to find new talents or the existing talents will have to “take the pill” and develop new skills, look for self-education (or paid education) and be prepared to change, think and act different.
The cultural transformation in companies that have a legacy of long dates and very strong cultural roots (means R/2 to R/3, to ECC to Business Suite), and often show resistance in changing, even on a strategic implementation that will prepare the company for the digital world.
Anyone involved in a S/4HANA project will have to have a macro view of the processes that the company is running, without emotional attachment to what they will have to left behind! Many people spent years developing, customizing, configuring and enhancing processes, programs and features that they consider their “perfect creation” and they don’t want to abandon it, and because of that, they don’t open their horizon to to try doing something different, to investigate how companies are doing the same process, and if it is really necessary to do the way their company have been doing one process or another? It is important to understand that running simple is running live. If it is “simple”, why is the simplicity so hard to achieve?
More than ever, you have to think outside the box… or as I like to say, imagine there is no box! People spend lot of time trying to get out of the box to start thinking different, but they are the ones who got the boxes there! They created their own walls… SAP is doing their homework to allow companies, IT professionals, consultants, employees, system analysts, business analysts, managers, project managers and etc., to make the impossible become possible.
It is opt to us to make it happen now and prove the value of the changes. Let the IT organization be part of something bigger than ourselves and imagine how companies will look like in 5 or 10 years from now! Think on the opportunity that you are having now and how proud you could be from the legacy that you are helping to build to your company, to your customers, to the people that you interact with.
To quote Mr. Keith Sturgill (ASUG Vice Chairperson & Eastman Chemical CIO) on his keynote last year at SAP SAPPHIRE NOW:
“Buckle your seat belt, the best is yet to come.”
“What an awesome time to be an IT professional.”
If even after that you are not convinced, which I doubt, see below what SAP prepared for the 10 TOP reasons why you should consider implementing SAP S/4HANA today!
The content to the information below was taken from http://sap.com/
Improve order fulfillment by 25%
Visualize and optimize the entire sales process from prospect to payment. Leverage in-depth insight into the start-to-finish sales cycle, paired with real-time inventory tracking, to drive improvements in on-time order fulfillment while simultaneously reducing the amount of stock inventory held on hand by 30%.
Increase customer satisfaction by 20%
On-time order fulfillment, enhanced service, personalized products delivered in a lot size of one, and lower defects all contribute to as much as 20% higher customer satisfaction levels and repeat business.
Reduce manufacturing error rates by 20%
Utilizing SAP S/4HANA in your manufacturing environment will reduce the manual effort related to rework in manufacturing because of incorrect or incompatible product configurations. This can lower your production costs by 20% and drive a greater volume of product to market.
Reduce procurement costs by 15%
Supply chain productivity can be increased by 15% with SAP S/4HANA by leveraging discount options on early payment, reducing worker acquisition time by one-third, and maximizing your inventory ordering and raw material tracking in real time.
Respond to market fluctuations faster than ever
Produce new products catering to the latest in consumer trends while expediting time to market, or enter new markets based on suggestions from predictive analytics.
Streamline your supply chain by 12%
SAP S/4HANA lets you integrate your entire supply chain and realize a 12% reduction in the number of days in inventory. This means a reduction in stock-outs, and a simplified landscape yielding a logistics cost savings of up to 10%.
Anytime, anywhere access
SAP S/4HANA utilizes SAP’s award-winning SAP Fiori user interface. This means Advanced Available to Promise checks and back-order processing, leading to improved order fulfillment capabilities and instant insight from any device, anywhere.
Improve your manufacturing cycle time by 10%
Live inventory data combined with drastically reduced MRP processing times allows for a more transparent and responsive exception-based working approach, improving manufacturing cycle time by 10% while enhancing planning accuracy.
Reduce capital requirements by 35%
A live business with a single source of the truth allows you to transform your finance department by eliminating forecasting errors, reducing unnecessary capital requirements by 35%, and creating a 40% improvement in invoice processing productivity.
Reduce unplanned downtime by 10%
Decrease unplanned asset downtime by 10% while improving asset management FTE production in your enterprise.
The 10 reasons were listed by SAP and taken from http://sap.com/
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