The Road to an Intelligent Enterprise requires choice and agility – AND an agile business platform
When I was in High School way back in the 1970s, Platform shoes became all the rage – for men and women alike. I think I had 4 or 5 pairs of Platform shoes, and I really believed my stature increased when I wore those shoes. Well at least my height increased to something like 6’3”. Thank goodness Platform shoes quickly went out of style, but little did I know that some 40+ years later, I’d be coming back to the topic of Platforms again!
Last year, SAP introduced the concept of an intelligent enterprise based on its 47+ years of being a successful business process software company. We have helped companies strive to optimize their business processes while continuously seeking to innovate their business models. Those successful in these endeavors reinvented themselves and warded off disruptive challengers, while those that failed, in many cases shuttered their business. And now with the advent of cloud- based platforms and intelligent technologies such as IoT, machine learning, blockchain, big data, and experience management, companies are again innovating and changing their business models by embracing and adopting these platform-based solutions as they journey to become an intelligent enterprise. SAP Cloud Platform is the agile business platform to enable our customers and partners to foster new innovations and offers choice and flexibility in the delivery of new customer and employee facing applications. At MWC 2019, we are sharing how we help customers innovate, while at the same time talking about lighthouse customers that are truly becoming intelligent enterprises with our agile business platform. Let’s start with the new platform highlights.
Experience for an intelligent enterprise is not just limited to automating processes, reporting in real-time and reducing repetitive tasks but it should lead enterprises to perform high value jobs on the go.
SAP Cloud Platform Mobile Services provide enterprise customers with the choice of deploying native mobile apps that deliver transforming customer experiences.
SAP Cloud Platform SDK for iOS has continuously been updated since its launch almost three years ago. In the latest version 3.0 you will find many new features,
and improvements based on customer feedback. My favorite one provides machine learning-based text recognition directly into any app, utilizing SAP’s pre-trained machine learning capabilities, even when offline. In addition, we have added many UI control improvements, includding an enhanced MapKit control to support rendering routes and location from mobile cells.
The recent enhancements of SAP Cloud Platform SDK for Android V2.0 tightens integration with SAP Cloud Platform capabilities. Developers can now easily connect to SAP API Business Hub and SAP API Management for API discovery and also quickly translate apps using SAP Translation Hub. There is deeper support for the Kotlin programming language and improved UI controls for SAP Fiori for Android. The SDK supports access even when the device is not connected to a network. Comprehensive enterprise security and support requirements are met through the SDKs security, enterprise-grade logging and usage reporting features.
SAP’s partner Incture Technologies has already developed an order management solution for an innovative customer. Delfi is a distributor of its own brand of confectionery products across Southeast Asia. Delfi developed an Android-native sales order management application using the Android SDK to support their strategy to maintain its status as the market leader and support their extensive sales and distribution network.
All sales data is updated in real-time on the app and with a single interface for all sales order related processes and information, order processing time has been reduced from one day to almost real-time. Dependency on paperwork is eliminated and the app also provides 100% visibility to the full sales cycle, inventory and collections status.
The SDK also allowed Incture to reduce their go-to-market time and made delivering new features easier. It also enabled Incture to create an app that accesses SAP S/4HANA and third-party systems while enabling innovation with the full set of SAP Cloud Platform capabilities and services.
SAP Cloud Platform Discovery Center is a solution designed to accelerate every SAP Cloud Platform customer’s journey and offer them learning flexibility to help chart their path to becoming an intelligent enterprise. Designed to be an open and exploratory experience for SAP Cloud Platform customers, the Discovery Center provides sample use cases partner-built solutions for their business needs, and self-paced , learning modules. This, combined with project management tools, available subject matter experts, and platform resources, enable every customer get up to speed on SAP’s agile business platform and ultimately develop and deploy their own solutions more quickly.
Customers can begin their SAP Cloud Platform projects with ready to use project templates called missions based on customer use cases or the solution applicable to their business challenges. With continuous addition of new features, content and an ongoing reward program for completing missions, there are now over a thousand customers using SAP Discovery Center to help them on their journey to develop innovative solutions on SAP Cloud Platform.
Piracanjuba, a Brazilian dairy product producer and manufacturer has been using SAP Discovery center to help them get started on using SAP Cloud Platform. As part of their roadmap to become an intelligent enterprise, they want an intuitive, mobile experience for their end users so they can complete tasks quicker and increase productivity. Simultaneously, they have identified a need to better integrate their IT landscape and are learning different integration scenarios.
“With SAP Discovery Center we can have access to learning content much faster. On a single board, the instructions and homework are maintained for all of the activities, bringing clarity and speed to the learning journey. Besides being very intuitive and easy to use, the platform can be accessed very quickly (easy to login)... Overall, we are satisfied with the use of the platform and what it has to offer.”
Jose Augusto Storti Starkbauer de Souza Negrao
Systems Analyst
SAP Cloud Platform, is the agile business platform and a key component to the core foundation of an intelligent customer , enterprise, helping our customers deliver on their mission, whether to be an industry leader or to transform themselves from being a brick and mortar business into a digital enterprise. But don’t take our word for it, with over 12 thousand customers, we see SAP Cloud Platform used across different industries, disciplines and for different goals, spanning from improving user experiences, digitizing traditional processes to extending new functionality and in some cases, disrupting the entire business model and operations.
Comm-Unity, an e-government solution provider, has developed apps for 500 cities and communities. They have improved user experiences with SAP Fiori Cloud on SAP Cloud Platform, while at the same time remaining agile enough to add new incremental capabilities to their apps quickly in order to better support and serve their customers.
Then there is JK Tyre, a leading tire manufacturer who digitized their distribution network consisting of hundreds of thousands of dealers, distributors and sales personnel. The new applications allow distributors and dealers to perform key business transactions such as order generation, goods receipt creation, with real-time stock visibility, and daily reporting. Additionally, they optimized sales and supply chain processes while the data allowed for enhanced control over pricing strategies. The outcome was improved product availability by 5% and increased sales efficiency by 20% to 25% across their sales force.
For businesses that want to leverage their investments and remain agile while supporting changing business demands, SAP Cloud Platform offers the ease of extending functionality quickly. Jemena, a utility distributor did just that by extending the core capabilities of SAP SuccessFactors to build a Network Compliance Solution. This system extends management of field worker requirements to include third party resources, and covers network worker inductions, authorizations, compliance and certifications. The end result is a system enabling proactive management of employees and 3rd party contractors with increased visibility to ensure compliance requirements were met across the network of workers.
Then, there are entities that have completely reinvented their operating model to deliver exceptional value to their customers while improving business processes. Government agencies across different continents - Christchurch City Council in New Zealand to San Diego, CA and Heidelberg, Germany are leveraging the agility, flexibility and connectivity of SAP Cloud Platform to deliver on the promise of helping improve citizen customer experiences, optimize business operations while utilizing the smartest and most innovative technologies such as IoT and machine Learning to create smart cities.
What we share at MWC 2019 are just a preview of what’s to come. We offer choice and agility to our customers and partners with continued rollout of new platform-based cloud services, but they are the ones delivering new innovations that have a positive impact on our lives. We expect many, many more customers innovating in the months and years ahead as the cloud platform economy becomes a dominant vehicle for innovation! Let’s just hope that Platform shoes remain a distant memory and a long forgotten innovation…
When I was in High School way back in the 1970s, Platform shoes became all the rage – for men and women alike. I think I had 4 or 5 pairs of Platform shoes, and I really believed my stature increased when I wore those shoes. Well at least my height increased to something like 6’3”. Thank goodness Platform shoes quickly went out of style, but little did I know that some 40+ years later, I’d be coming back to the topic of Platforms again!
Last year, SAP introduced the concept of an intelligent enterprise based on its 47+ years of being a successful business process software company. We have helped companies strive to optimize their business processes while continuously seeking to innovate their business models. Those successful in these endeavors reinvented themselves and warded off disruptive challengers, while those that failed, in many cases shuttered their business. And now with the advent of cloud- based platforms and intelligent technologies such as IoT, machine learning, blockchain, big data, and experience management, companies are again innovating and changing their business models by embracing and adopting these platform-based solutions as they journey to become an intelligent enterprise. SAP Cloud Platform is the agile business platform to enable our customers and partners to foster new innovations and offers choice and flexibility in the delivery of new customer and employee facing applications. At MWC 2019, we are sharing how we help customers innovate, while at the same time talking about lighthouse customers that are truly becoming intelligent enterprises with our agile business platform. Let’s start with the new platform highlights.
Enriched Mobile SDKs
Experience for an intelligent enterprise is not just limited to automating processes, reporting in real-time and reducing repetitive tasks but it should lead enterprises to perform high value jobs on the go.
SAP Cloud Platform Mobile Services provide enterprise customers with the choice of deploying native mobile apps that deliver transforming customer experiences.
SAP Cloud Platform SDK for iOS has continuously been updated since its launch almost three years ago. In the latest version 3.0 you will find many new features,
and improvements based on customer feedback. My favorite one provides machine learning-based text recognition directly into any app, utilizing SAP’s pre-trained machine learning capabilities, even when offline. In addition, we have added many UI control improvements, includding an enhanced MapKit control to support rendering routes and location from mobile cells.
The recent enhancements of SAP Cloud Platform SDK for Android V2.0 tightens integration with SAP Cloud Platform capabilities. Developers can now easily connect to SAP API Business Hub and SAP API Management for API discovery and also quickly translate apps using SAP Translation Hub. There is deeper support for the Kotlin programming language and improved UI controls for SAP Fiori for Android. The SDK supports access even when the device is not connected to a network. Comprehensive enterprise security and support requirements are met through the SDKs security, enterprise-grade logging and usage reporting features.
SAP’s partner Incture Technologies has already developed an order management solution for an innovative customer. Delfi is a distributor of its own brand of confectionery products across Southeast Asia. Delfi developed an Android-native sales order management application using the Android SDK to support their strategy to maintain its status as the market leader and support their extensive sales and distribution network.
All sales data is updated in real-time on the app and with a single interface for all sales order related processes and information, order processing time has been reduced from one day to almost real-time. Dependency on paperwork is eliminated and the app also provides 100% visibility to the full sales cycle, inventory and collections status.
The SDK also allowed Incture to reduce their go-to-market time and made delivering new features easier. It also enabled Incture to create an app that accesses SAP S/4HANA and third-party systems while enabling innovation with the full set of SAP Cloud Platform capabilities and services.
SAP Discovery Center offers agility
SAP Cloud Platform Discovery Center is a solution designed to accelerate every SAP Cloud Platform customer’s journey and offer them learning flexibility to help chart their path to becoming an intelligent enterprise. Designed to be an open and exploratory experience for SAP Cloud Platform customers, the Discovery Center provides sample use cases partner-built solutions for their business needs, and self-paced , learning modules. This, combined with project management tools, available subject matter experts, and platform resources, enable every customer get up to speed on SAP’s agile business platform and ultimately develop and deploy their own solutions more quickly.
Customers can begin their SAP Cloud Platform projects with ready to use project templates called missions based on customer use cases or the solution applicable to their business challenges. With continuous addition of new features, content and an ongoing reward program for completing missions, there are now over a thousand customers using SAP Discovery Center to help them on their journey to develop innovative solutions on SAP Cloud Platform.
Piracanjuba, a Brazilian dairy product producer and manufacturer has been using SAP Discovery center to help them get started on using SAP Cloud Platform. As part of their roadmap to become an intelligent enterprise, they want an intuitive, mobile experience for their end users so they can complete tasks quicker and increase productivity. Simultaneously, they have identified a need to better integrate their IT landscape and are learning different integration scenarios.
“With SAP Discovery Center we can have access to learning content much faster. On a single board, the instructions and homework are maintained for all of the activities, bringing clarity and speed to the learning journey. Besides being very intuitive and easy to use, the platform can be accessed very quickly (easy to login)... Overall, we are satisfied with the use of the platform and what it has to offer.”
Jose Augusto Storti Starkbauer de Souza Negrao
Systems Analyst
Insights into an Intelligent Enterprise
SAP Cloud Platform, is the agile business platform and a key component to the core foundation of an intelligent customer , enterprise, helping our customers deliver on their mission, whether to be an industry leader or to transform themselves from being a brick and mortar business into a digital enterprise. But don’t take our word for it, with over 12 thousand customers, we see SAP Cloud Platform used across different industries, disciplines and for different goals, spanning from improving user experiences, digitizing traditional processes to extending new functionality and in some cases, disrupting the entire business model and operations.
Comm-Unity, an e-government solution provider, has developed apps for 500 cities and communities. They have improved user experiences with SAP Fiori Cloud on SAP Cloud Platform, while at the same time remaining agile enough to add new incremental capabilities to their apps quickly in order to better support and serve their customers.
Then there is JK Tyre, a leading tire manufacturer who digitized their distribution network consisting of hundreds of thousands of dealers, distributors and sales personnel. The new applications allow distributors and dealers to perform key business transactions such as order generation, goods receipt creation, with real-time stock visibility, and daily reporting. Additionally, they optimized sales and supply chain processes while the data allowed for enhanced control over pricing strategies. The outcome was improved product availability by 5% and increased sales efficiency by 20% to 25% across their sales force.
For businesses that want to leverage their investments and remain agile while supporting changing business demands, SAP Cloud Platform offers the ease of extending functionality quickly. Jemena, a utility distributor did just that by extending the core capabilities of SAP SuccessFactors to build a Network Compliance Solution. This system extends management of field worker requirements to include third party resources, and covers network worker inductions, authorizations, compliance and certifications. The end result is a system enabling proactive management of employees and 3rd party contractors with increased visibility to ensure compliance requirements were met across the network of workers.
Then, there are entities that have completely reinvented their operating model to deliver exceptional value to their customers while improving business processes. Government agencies across different continents - Christchurch City Council in New Zealand to San Diego, CA and Heidelberg, Germany are leveraging the agility, flexibility and connectivity of SAP Cloud Platform to deliver on the promise of helping improve citizen customer experiences, optimize business operations while utilizing the smartest and most innovative technologies such as IoT and machine Learning to create smart cities.
What we share at MWC 2019 are just a preview of what’s to come. We offer choice and agility to our customers and partners with continued rollout of new platform-based cloud services, but they are the ones delivering new innovations that have a positive impact on our lives. We expect many, many more customers innovating in the months and years ahead as the cloud platform economy becomes a dominant vehicle for innovation! Let’s just hope that Platform shoes remain a distant memory and a long forgotten innovation…
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