Digital Now! Without S/4 to the Intelligent Enterprise

Agile is the buzzword of the moment. But has the term even arrived in practice yet? For us, yes. Here is a selection of specific cbs projects:

We have developed a machine-learning-based audit of expense reports, an app for end consumers to detect counterfeit products and a blockchain application for contract management between multiple partners.

There is also a service technician app with automatic recognition of machine statuses via neural networks. Many IT managers believe that it will only be possible to increase the pace of innovation and implement digital solutions in short cycles by switching to S/4 and establishing a digital core.

Far from it. Digital Now - that's the motto! But how? After all, the SAP on-premise system landscape of many companies has grown historically and is inhomogeneous. Hundreds of in-house developments are slowing down the modernization of IT.

Co-creation, design thinking, trial and error

Let's simply separate the two tasks! The on-premise world goes its own way, ensures the stability of core processes and meets Six Sigma quality standards.

New solutions that extend the core functionality are developed elsewhere, in the Enterprise Garage. Our favorite playground is the SAP Cloud Platform, so all in all we have a hybrid solution.

Cloud in the sense of Platform as a Service (PaaS). New technologies are offered there as a service. A cumbersome installation and licensing of software components as in the on-premise world?

Not necessary. Simply try out new technologies on the cloud platform based on usage. Brainstorm new technical possibilities together with the specialist department based on specific processes.

In the spirit of co-creation, design thinking or the Google project methodology. Speaking of which, we are talking about multi-cloud, because the PaaS openness means that you can flexibly select and combine the platforms that are suitable for your individual needs, such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform or Azure.

Implementation is not carried out in the classic waterfall model, but in agile iterations. This means that a minimum viable product (MVP) is usually ready for use after just a few weeks. If the specialist department gives it the thumbs up, the new solution is quickly put into production.

The innovation is a resounding success? Great. Platforms can be easily scaled up. User feedback is continuously incorporated so that the solution matures step by step in real use.

If you never fail, you are not brave enough!

One of our customers, a German chemical company with billions in sales, is already successfully on the fast track to becoming an intelligent enterprise with this approach. And without having to wait for the sluggish on-premise world.

It is crucial that both worlds interact well (stable back-end versus new technologies). After all, it's not about developing apps for a small group of hipsters. Rather, the aim is to expand and supplement business processes for global industry players or to rethink processes from scratch.

Or even to launch completely new business models. This is what we understand by the term Enterprise Garage. And this is precisely where the SAP Cloud Platform has proven itself in customer projects, as it can play to its strengths in conjunction with the SAP system landscape. And if, contrary to expectations, a newly developed application fails with the specialist department, that's no problem either.

The investment is manageable. Services can be canceled at any time. In this environment, failures are deliberately factored in, following the example of the private American space travel company SpaceX: "Failure is an option here. If you don't fail, you don't innovate hard enough!"