Do you know how shoe shopping is going digital, driving an expected profit increase of 30%? Do you know how real-time customer insight and personalized interactions can lead to 5% revenue growth or how digital innovations can be used to predict earthquake damage and provide better disaster response? Digital transformation is leading to rapid changes across industries. New technologies such as IoT, Big Data, and Machine Learning dramatically change the way our customers are doing business. Here are 5 stories about companies using digital technologies to transform their businesses - and in some cases their industry!
1. Shoe Shopping Using Virtual Reality - and expecting 30% increase in profits.
Aimiqi is a shoe company and has a bold goal - to connect people and processes by using digital R&D machine learning to create a whole new consumer experience and respond to changing market requirements and fashion trends. Earlier, only 5% of design proposals would reach the production stage, and there was significant overstock and waste. Using digital innovations including product lifecycle management and virtual reality, the company is now able to collect and analyze customer requirements to design products that truly fit market needs. Customers can design personalized pairs, select the desired color and the right fit. Customers can virtually test the product and place the order. Aimiqi is seeing 25% reduction in design time, 40% reduction in overstock and expects to see a 30% increase in profits.
2. Predicting earthquake damage, reducing human casualty levels
Hakusan Corporation is a leading manufacturing of seismometers based in Japan. The company wanted to transform smartphones into seismometers to measure building movement during earthquakes. With more than 6 million people in Asia-Pacific affected by earthquakes last year, the prediction of building damage will help with disaster preparedness and mitigation strategies in earthquake-prone countries in the region. Using digital innovations, the company is now collecting and analyzing seismic data instantaneously to accurately pinpoint and predict damage to buildings, and share it with first responders and authorities - to provide help where it is needed most.
3. Using 3D printing to get closer to the customer
Jabil manufacturers parts for transportation equipment, industrial machines and medical diagnostic machines. The company works with 250 of the best known global brands in manufacturing and wanted to improve their competitiveness by being nimble and personal in relating to customers. The company is using digital innovations - including 3D printing - to create personalize products, closer to where their customers are. To date, Jabil has qualified and produced 100+ end-use (or functional) 3D printed parts. This new capability is leading to more innovative product design, new business models and happier customers.
4. Connecting People, Plants and Machines for Sustainable Farming
Stara manufactures agricultural machines and the IoT has revolutionized its business. When Rogerio Pacheco, the owner of a mid-sized farm in the south of Brazil, decided to invest in a tractor with infrared sensors from a company called Stara, neighboring farmers thought he had lost his mind. But in just two years, he was able to recover his investment. Today Rogerio is Brazil’s second largest producer of soybeans. “High productivity and sustainable farming practices are only possible with technology,” he says. “I was able to increase the yield per acre without having to cut down trees, maintaining the balance between cropland and forest on my farm.” The IoT revolutionized their business model. Previously, they viewed the machine and the farmer as separate entities. Now they can connect machines to people and plants.” Stara’s tractors already had sensors, and implemented a digital innovation system to make use of the data collected. Now Stara can offer data analytic capabilities to farmers so they can gain better insights and make better decisions.
5. Operating a mine based in financial margins, not tonnage
Roy Hill’s business and operating model is different than most mining companies. The entire business is designed to deliver 55 million tonnes per year with a margin focus rather than a reliance on tonnage volume as is typical in mining. The company thinks about mining operations differently to traditional approaches, and the technology strategy is then aligned to achieve the business outcome. For example, Roy Hill has a ‘Virtual Warehouse” concept is built on the idea that if you adopt a systems thinking mindset starting with an integrated operating model, and then apply disruptive digital technology that has been chosen for its ability to deliver sustainably against the margin focused business model, over lay that with advanced planning and scheduling and a flow approach to inventory that removes the obstacles to the flow from the supplier to the maintainer of the equipment, then this is transformative.
The old ways of doing business are clearly over for companies that want to continue to grow and thrive. Digital technologies surrounded by innovative thinking is driving new business models and processes and ignite a successful path into the future. We see organizations across and even between industries working together to design approaches that better balances demand with production, focus on profitability, yield a more efficient operations - and interact in new and exciting ways with customers.
Are you changing your industry using SAP applications and platform technologies? The SAP Innovation Awards 2018 is your opportunity to share your story and be recognized as a digital transformation leader. New this year is a Digital Disrupter category, for a company that can demonstrate how they use SAP innovative technologies to drive radical change in their industry, generate significant business value and improve their competitive positioning. Finalists for this award will highlight how they disrupted the way business is conducted in their industry. For example; establishing new business models, redefining a critical business process, or enabling strategies that break through existing boundaries.
Why tell your story?
By sharing your story, you can
- Get recognition as a leading digital transformation innovator
- Gain bragging rights for you and your team with a trophy for your office and a badge to share socially
- Earn a FREE pass to SAPPHIRE NOW if selected as one of 23 award winners
- Have your innovation showcased at #SAPPHIRENOW
- Share your expertise in exclusive promotional opportunities at SAPPHIRENOW and beyond
- Select your favorite charity from the list of eligible charities to receive a $2 000 donation in your name
Important dates:
- Now – February 2, 2018: Register your interest.
- Now – March 2, 2018: Entry Submission period.
- March 2-24, 2018: Award team will review all qualified entries and select finalists.
- March 24 – April 11, 2018: Finalists will be reviewed by a panel of judges.
- April 19, 2018: Winners will be announced
- June 5-7 2018: SAPPHIRE NOW in Orlando, Florida
How to get started:
Entering the SAP Innovation Awards is simple: Go to the SAP Innovation Awards website and start at the About page to learn more about award categories and judging criteria. Then, follow the simple steps on the “how to enter” page.
Get started today! Entry submission has already begun.
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