At the SAPPHIRE NOW 2021 virtual conference, new initiatives were launched aimed at assisting companies in modernising and digitalising business processes as they transition towards the intelligent enterprise with SAP.
The next steps in establishing an intelligent enterprise, according to SAP, are to develop strong business networks and to place a strong focus on sustainability. One of the tech giant’s biggest initiatives unveiled at the SAPPHIRE NOW 2021 online event for partners and customers is the SAP Business Network, a business-to-business (B2B) social network made up of 5.5 million connected businesses.
In his global keynote speech, SAP Chief Executive Officer Christian Klein shared:
“While we have all seen the power of networks in our personal lives, this networked ecosystem for businesses doing business together is unique. Members of the new SAP Business Network will be able to access a single, unified portal to gain a holistic view into their supply chain ecosystem, logistics and traceability, and equipment management and maintenance.”
Furthermore, the SAP Business Network brings together three current SAP networks to help businesses easily locate and connect with new partners who satisfy particular requirements. Under a unified user portal and shared data model, the SAP Business Network incorporates the Ariba Network for procurement, SAP Logistics Business Network for logistics and supply chain management, as well as the SAP Asset Intelligence Network for asset performance monitoring and equipment tracking.
Moreover, SAP has also launched a portfolio of new sustainability-specific products that aims to enable businesses to foster environmentally conscious initiatives and new business models. The portfolio includes the SAP Responsible Design and Production solution, ensuring that product designers can make sustainable decisions from concept to production; the SAP Product Footprint Management solution, which tracks sustainability throughout the product lifecycle; and the SAP Sustainability Control Tower solution, which provides end-to-end visibility.
Transitioning Towards the Intelligent Enterprise with SAP
Meanwhile, the enterprise software giant has also introduced RISE with SAP for Human Experience Management (HXM), a new HR module aimed at strengthening operations and planning and improving engagement and productivity. It is a rebranding of SuccessFactors, SAP’s existing cloud human capital management (HCM) platform, with new capabilities added on top of the company’s Qualtrics survey functionalities.
During the launch, Julia White, Chief Marketing and Solutions Officer and Member of the Executive Board at SAP, said:
“With the integration of SuccessFactors and Qualtrics, employee understanding is available any time. Employee experience data identifies what is going well, and areas for improvement, in a data-driven way.”
On the other hand, several companies have already made the leap to become intelligent enterprises. Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad is one of the numerous customers utilising SAP SuccessFactors to transform and modernise their HR operations in Asia. As Malaysia’s biggest standalone Islamic bank, it aims to further boost employee productivity and step up its human capital management (HCM) efforts with the installation of SAP SuccessFactors Employee Central.
According to Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad CEO Mohd Muazzam Mohamed, the company is committed to investing in the latest innovations to help employees gain their fullest potentials. He further stressed in a Bernama report:
“With the SAP SuccessFactors cloud-based solution, it empowers the bank to use the various functions that align with business priorities and get immediate commercial value. The solution’s seamless, mobile-friendly user experiences and social collaboration capabilities mean that employees can access information anywhere, anytime.”
Similarly, SAP Korea has also revealed that businesses across different sectors in the country — from large companies to small and medium-sized enterprises, not-for-profit organisations, and start-ups — have already introduced human resource management solutions from SAP Successfactors. This includes Doosan Group, KB Kookmin Bank, Hyundai Mobis, Amorepacific, Lotte Chemical, and Kakao Enterprise.
