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Author's profile photo PETER MAIER
PETER MAIER
April 10, 2015 1 minute read

Simplify to Multiply: A Paradoxical Truth?

Energy and Natural Resources Industries Grow by Simplifying their Businesses, Engaging their Users and Reducing Technology Costs

“Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it”, wrote American computer scientist Alan Perlis. People today constantly operate in a complex real-time environment – connected to people, machines, and business networks that produce staggering amounts of data. Ask people and you will find that they have been waiting for complexity to be over and for the advent of the “era of simplicity”.

And it’s not only about people: The Global Simplicity Index found that global companies could make 10% more profit by eliminating hidden complexity. Imagine the impact on business if operational complexity, workforce complexity, and IT complexity could be eliminated.

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Operational Complexities:


In the Energy and Natural Resources industries, even the leading companies lose money due to the difficulty of tracking the performance and the maintenance requirements of production assets – resulting in lower uptime and production. Slow information sharing between departments and with suppliers and customers drives redundancies and drains profits. Reactive workforce management makes it difficult to have the right people in the right location doing the right job.


Workforce Complexities:


Many people hesitate to accept new technologies: Complicated user interfaces, coupled with scattered information and slow processing capabilities, make it easier to stick with the status quo.  As a result it becomes increasingly difficult to adapt organizations to respond to their environment and capture new opportunities. Lowering the adoption hurdle of new technologies through intuitive user interfaces, relevant real-time data, and effective interactions can boost revenue-per-employee.


IT Complexities


Some operational and user complexities are a direct result of complexity hidden in the IT environment. The pace of IT innovation has left many companies struggling to support simultaneous expectations to support Big Data, Internet of Things, and distributed workforces. Incremental change is not sufficient to combat IT complexity.

Data redundancy to sustain performance results in an extensive data footprint, convoluted system landscape, and fragile data integrity. We need new concepts to compress the stack while maintaining the ability to analyze vast data sources in real time to extract relevant and actionable information. 


SAP S/4HANA is the “great simplifier” that optimizes business processes, engages people, and simplifies the IT environment:

S/4 HANA:

  • Gives businesses more agility with real-time transactions and analytics
  • Empowers users with an intuitive user experience
  • Simplifies the IT landscape into one platform

With multiple rollout options, it’s the solution the Energy and Natural Resources companies need to achieve greater efficiency and survive in today’s global marketplace. Here is a short video to learn a bit more.

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