Gold standard for flexibility and security

While cloud ERP solutions were frowned upon a few years ago, many companies are now seeking protection from large providers such as SAP in order to remain resilient against external attacks, as their own IT can only do this at great expense or not at all. Keeping the core clean and supplementing it with configurable solutions lays the foundation for innovation and significantly lower maintenance costs.

In the past, when only a few standards applied, on-premises ERPs were tailored to requirements with additional programming at great expense. With its Clean Core strategy, SAP is now taking a new, future-proof path. Why? Because it enables a better transformation to new systems, the core of the SAP software can be better maintained and users always work with the latest version of the SAP core application. At the same time, there are major advantages for individualization.

Instead of inefficient individual solutions, there is now a large selection of add-on programs available with which companies can supplement their ERP infrastructure as they wish - for example with BlackLine's financial automation. The added value lies in the fact that these additional functions and platforms are connected via certified standard interfaces and that both the core of the ERP and the supplementary solutions remain untouched. This is a decisive advantage for everyone - including the providers of cloud solutions, who allow their customers to participate in innovations with less maintenance effort.

Cloud makes it possible

The cloud has arrived and will remain the core technology for any IT application for a long time to come. It makes it possible to provide applications such as ERP with all additional functions, for example the finance function, so that companies can react to changes quickly, in a targeted manner and with reliable information. Thanks to the cloud, technologies can be operated at a level that provides immediate and long-lasting benefits as well as a measurable return on investment. The ERP and the additional platforms are brought together in the cloud via harmonized interfaces in a way that was previously not possible.

The result is an ecosystem of core and additional functions that guarantees a comprehensive data flow. All of this is only possible thanks to standards, the clean core principle and, above all, provision in the cloud. The advantage for companies is clear: they can replace the goals of their previous individual programming, including the hodgepodge of individual programming, with the much simpler and more elegant connection of configurable solutions to the core of their ERP, thereby gaining security, speed, flexibility and, above all, a high level of automation potential.

Getting more value from the data

In the past, individual programming severely restricted companies. The traditional type of customization was usually developed for a specific problem, with the result that one customization after another was added over the years; there was no maintenance, updating or modern further development; the data also had to be prepared in the data warehouse. It was not uncommon for the relevant knowledge to no longer be available as soon as those who had done the programming were no longer working for the company. The challenges were literally pre-programmed.

Today, in times when the far-reaching compilation, evaluation and correlation of different data is the measure of all things for economic added value, these individual programs can no longer keep pace. Studies, such as those conducted by BlackLine, have repeatedly complained that the large number of data sources entails an enormous risk of error. With individual programs, it is almost impossible to flexibly merge all data and make it transparent.

In contrast, cloud solutions with the clean-core approach in conjunction with configurable solutions and universal connections are able to combine data from a wide variety of sources into one pool, making it immediately usable and transparent. This allows highly automated processes to be mapped. BlackLine, for example, enables companies to expand and protect the core without programming - with solutions tailored to financial processes such as financial closing, intercompany or Invoice2Cash. This strengthens the function of the finance department, ensures accurate financial data in real time and increases the resilience of companies.

Close gaps

Even if the clean-core principle poses an initial challenge for many companies facing a transformation, the result is far more attractive than solutions based on traditional custom programming. "Close the gap" is the keyword here, i.e. closing all gaps between data pools and processes. To achieve this, companies must decide which processes should be standardized, automated or individual. The challenge is to find a balance between standardization and the specific requirements of individual areas or regions.

At the heart of Clean Core, however, is always the requirement to protect the core of the platforms and not to change them. This offers flexibility and the opportunity to integrate innovations such as AI or machine learning. This becomes particularly clear in the area of a company's finances, as this is where - like a lifeline - all essential company data flows together. The requirement is to use valid data to efficiently review or redesign business strategies - even at short notice if critical variables in the market or company change.

With the help of the cloud-based clean-core principle, BlackLine closes gaps in complex financial and accounting processes as a solution supplement to SAP. Companies receive a solution that can be adapted to their business requirements and provides real-time insight into the status of their financial statements. This saves a great deal of effort in the creation and maintenance of individual programming and takes into account an end-to-end process.

The solution combination offers decisive functions for the "last step" of automating manual activities outside the ERP system - such as clearing with all its facets and the topic of accruals - in SAP. And it closes gaps in the financial close, intercompany, invoice-to-cash or consolidation and financial analytics processes that cannot be realized in ERP solutions with individual programming under economic and strict compliance guidelines.

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