Businesses are bombarded by messages saying they must be “nimble,” “agile,” and “resilient.” But what’s often missing from these discussions is what needs to happen in the background to support these behaviors and to achieve the desired outcomes – that spark of kinetic energy that fuels continuous innovation.
The concept of innovation, especially innovations that deliver differentiated capabilities, superior customer value-add and other considerable advantages, is like a rollercoaster ride. First, you start at the top, teetering on whether the time is right to move forward. Then the one single push comes, sending every team member down a long, winding series of declines and inclines and wondering what will happen next. As long as the friction of complexity (such as convoluted processes, overly customized IT landscapes, and limited insight) are not present, the innovation rollercoaster continues, gathering more speed and taking on more challenging climbs.
That continuous motion builds the energy a team needs to turn the even smallest ideas into some degree of change. But as many physicists and engineers will tell you, converting kinetic energy into truly exceptional outcomes requires a flexible and efficient platform.
Transforming rapidly with a solid foundation
An
IDC market spotlight reported that innovation-led organizations that accelerate their initiatives could take digital ideas to production four times faster than the market average. While speed is a welcomed advantage,
Deloitte noted that digital experience, data and analytics, and the cloud continue to produce disruptive business models and strategies today and push their potential for future innovation.
All SAP customers can use SAP Business Technology Platform via consumption-based license options e.g. via RISE with SAP and innovate on their own. However, many of our partners – including Deloitte – have developed methodologies and a library of Industry Cloud solutions, Innovation Assets and service accelerators leveraging SAP Business Technology Platform to drive quick time to value and differentiate businesses from their competition. And in most cases, the use-case scenarios brought to life are specific to the industry and organization.
“When they can navigate the chaos of how things happen and focus on why they happen in the first place, our customers position their innovations for big outcomes,” shared Chip Kleinheksel, Principal and Global SAP CTO, Deloitte Consulting LLP. “This core principle is what Deloitte and SAP follow while collaboratively pursuing innovative assets and solutions to deliver an even greater advantage for our customers.”
With
SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP) serving as the foundation, Deloitte’s SAP Industry Cloud solutions and drivers empower the Kinetic Enterprise™ leveraging a clean ERP core with cloud solutions, intelligent technologies, and an ecosystem of capabilities. Customers can choose from a library of more than 60 ready-to-deploy and as-a-service offerings targeting industry-specific challenges – from AI-enabled risk sensing and cloud-enabled modernization to
monetization of customer buying patterns and
intelligent spend control and insights.
For example,
Costain Group is helping the UK Department of Transportation accomplish a ground-breaking goal: accelerating its net-zero carbon journey while optimizing its existing infrastructure and national development programs. Combining SAP BTP, Deloitte’s SAP Industry Cloud solutions and drivers, and the industry expertise of Keytree (a Deloitte business), the British technology-based construction and engineering company co-developed an intelligent infrastructure control center (IICC). This platform is designed to capture and synthesize comprehensive operational data onto a common digital platform.
This step in the transformation initiative may seem small in comparison to such a massive strategy. However, the IICC platform is the “brain” of the operation. It uses data intelligently to manage operations effectively and inform processes and decisions such as budgeting, measuring the carbon footprint, and building accurate investment cases for a £600 billion spend portfolio. Predictive analytics is also used to reduce unknowns and risks, cut costs further, and increase project efficiencies such as decarbonization and accurate investment cases.
Responding faster than disruption step by step
Costain’s project exemplified the value of co-innovating with multiple trusted partners to deliver a platform that will have a far-reaching impact beyond project success. Undoubtedly, this effort will ultimately help the entire United Kingdom reduce environmental effects, improve worker safety, and ensure infrastructure is cost-effective and reliable.
But this story is also a great reminder of balancing the urgency to respond to change faster with the necessity to incrementally transform without losing sight of what’s important. Who knows? Perhaps a “small” project within a much-larger transformation initiative will become the flashpoint where big outcomes happen.
Energize a bold future that addresses your strategic innovation needs today and tomorrow. Learn how by reading the IDC market spotlight, “Ignite Your Agile Enterprise: Five Key Trends to Future-Proof the Business in 2021 and Beyond.”
This blog is the fourth in a series on SAP Business Technology Platform, covering the following topics:
