Stefanini TechTeam

Posted 14 July 2011 / 11:00 am by Cameron Ogden, Director, CXI – a wholly owned subsidiary of Stefanini TechTeam

Today a common theme we hear from many of our customers centers on the challenge of managing complex IT landscapes that must support the needs of dynamic business climates. More than ever, CIOs are forced to deliver greater value to the business with greater efficiency. As with many of business scenarios, the quickest way between points A and B is often the path with the least resistance – drawing a strong correlation between speed and simplicity. Additionally, companies recognize that information, and the speed at which it is delivered, are two game-changing variables that can lead to either great success or marked failure.

As an SAP Partner , we saw this theme underscored by SAP’s latest strategy to attack compelling business problems by offering lighter, more flexible solutions across three platforms – “On Premise, OnDemand (Cloud), and OnDevice (Mobile)”. Co-CEO Jim Hagemann Snabe commented at this year’s SAPPHIRE conference in Orlando, “Over the years we’ve added complexity and now it’s all about dramatically reducing the complexity. But not by solving simple problems. We need to continue to solve the complex problems of business, but we need to add the dimension of simplicity.”

SAP clearly wants to address the all too familiar ERP stereotypes of high complexity, cost, and effort. However, anyone that has been exposed to ERP knows that this is easier said than done. So how will SAP’s simplistic new approach be able to keep up with the complicated business demands of their customers? It’s a question best answered by taking a closer look at some of the solutions released under the new strategy.

For the “OnPremise” platform, SAP has spent millions on new preconfigured products and implementation strategies to get customers up and running on SAP more quickly. Specific vertical solutions for over 24 industries, rapid deployment solutions for common business functions such as sales and marketing, and predefined best practices are all part of a strategy to help customers reach ROI faster and with less risk. Customers are able to implement starter packages within weeks, as opposed to months, and then build additional functionality as needed over time.

“OnDemand” is SAP’s nomenclature for various cloud solutions that provide tools for full business integration, business intelligence, and collaborative decision making while removing the burden from the customer of having to manage an IT infrastructure. SAP’s ERP SaaS offering (Business ByDesign) typically can be up and running in the fraction of time it takes to implement SAP onsite but at the same time making the SAP Best practice business process available for its customers.

With the acquisition of Sybase in 2010 and ensuing enterprise mobility strategy of “OnDevice”, SAP is rapidly developing applications to enable faster performance through the proliferation of new devices such as tablets and smartphones. The end goal is to develop a seamless mobile platform to make it easier to deploy and manage mobile applications for employees on the go.

As most experts agree, in-memory technology is set to revolutionize enterprise applications both in terms of functionality and cost due to a vastly improved performance. This will enable enterprise developers to create completely new applications and allow enterprise users and administrators to think in new ways about how they wish to view and store their data. Chief amongst these is the need for separate operational and analytical systems. In-memory technology will allow analytics to be run on operational data, simplifying both the software and the hardware landscape, leading ultimately to lower overall cost. So it’s worth mentioning SAP’s in-memory computing appliance called HANA, which stores data in main memory (RAM).

While these new products are exciting to track, they are not without their limitations. ByDesign is geared more toward the midmarket, and SAP will be tasked to diligently scale these products over the coming years to be more attractive to larger Enterprises with greater complexity and heavier data needs. Also, the preconfigured OnPremise solutions might not be well-suited for customers in niche markets with quirky, inflexible business processes. However, overall SAP looks to have developed some fascinating products for the masses, which help companies get more from their ERP landscape in a shorter, simpler capacity.

Are customers ready to truly embrace these new SAP solutions? Time will tell. However, at Stefanini TechTeam/CXI, the demand for SAP services is growing as businesses of all sizes attempt to meet the changing business climate and IT industry demands for cost-effective, less complex processes that fit today’s global business objectives. By developing new solutions geared toward simplifying the complex and allowing business to reach ERP valuation more quickly, SAP seems poised to change the way businesses think about ERP.