Paving the Way to the Digital Age (Part 1)

How B2B companies can transform and future-proof their business with SAP S/4HANA

Everyone is talking about the challenges and opportunities presented by big data, the Internet of Things, and digitization. Then, like a rabbit out of a hat, SAP presents the solution: SAP S/4HANA. But many people are left scratching their heads: What tangible benefits does it deliver to my company? How much time and resources are required for the implementation?

In this short series of five articles, we will take a closer look at how SAP S/4HANA can help you to master the challenges of the digital age, and gain a competitive edge. First up, we will examine the benefits for management.

How to Keep Pace with Rapidly Changing Demands

The global business world is changing dramatically. Competition is fierce, and digitization continues to gather pace. From the first computers, to the Internet of Things and big data, enterprises have to constantly evolve and embrace innovation in order to stay competitive. While these developments offer enormous potential, they also present considerable challenges.

And technology is not the only thing that has changed; businesses have to react to ever-changing market demands, too. Staying competitive in global markets means launching new products more quickly and enabling highly efficient product customization (e.g., “batch of one” production). This also applies to B2B enterprises. In order to make this happen, most companies need to flexibly adapt their business model and simplify processes throughout the entire organization. SAP S/4HANA promises to ad-dress these challenges.

First and foremost, with the new business suite by SAP a company can create a single source of truth. This eliminates any duplicated or conflicting data, making it much easier for employees and managers to quickly access the information that they need. Furthermore, they can be safe in the knowledge that it is reliable and up-to-date. This forms a strong foundation for informed decision making. Real-time simulations and what-if scenarios show them which choices are truly worthwhile, how much resources need to be invested in a new idea, and how much profit it will return.

Rethink to Succeed—the Benefits of Real-Time Analytics

SAP S/4HANA delivers a considerable competitive advantages. B2B companies in any industry can adopt innovations, reshape or reinvent business models, and differentiate themselves from rivals more quickly and cost-effectively than ever before. For example, real-time analytical reports may reveal that service response times are far too long. Based on this knowledge, the management would be able to instantly react and introduce a new business model to solve the problem and improve customer satisfaction. It is even possible to link customer feedback on social media platforms with the research and development department to gain first-hand insights into further product and service improvements. And production itself can be accelerated by up to 50%.

This is how SAP S/4HANA drives instant value across all lines of business, helping companies to adapt to a constantly changing environment more easily than ever before. It enables them to capitalize on important emerging trends before others do, and reap the full potential of the digital transformation. They can exceed customers’ expectations and run profitably in the digital age—no matter how complex or specific the demands may be.

NTT DATA Business Solutions works on thousands of projects with companies just like yours. Based on this experience, we hope to provide you with guidance for your own specific situation. This is why we used real scenarios and KPIs from a variety of projects to create the story of LaGarda—a fictional company that takes the strategic decision to implement SAP S/4HANA. It is representative of the typical challenges of the digital transfor-mation and shows how your company can overcome them, too.

To find out more about the business cases for SAP S/4HANA, download the brand-new Reth!nk magazine.