This is according to enterprise software and digital solutions provider , which also lists AI, digital skills and closer partnerships as trends that will impact the channel.

, SAP’s partner  and ecosystems lead for MEA, says the main role that technology plays in business is pushing customers to involve partners  in strategic discussions to ensure proper guidance from the start. Effective partnerships across sectors, from government to non-profits, are essential to address industry challenges, she adds.

, MD of , concurs and notes the era of fragmented systems is ending.

She adds that unified partner ecosystems are now vital for streamlining operations, boosting collaboration and delivering value to customers while driving efficiency.

51ˇçÁ÷also identifies data and security as the top issues for organisations in 2025, with companies aware that disparate data can skew analytics and rising cyber security threats pose increasing challenges.

“Disparate data stored in different places is typically drawn up into an analytics platform, as a result, losing its contextual relevance. Actual analytics then become skewed, impacting outputs,” says Pillay.

The second biggest issue facing customers and partners is security, she continues. “Increased and more sophisticated levels of malicious intent are negatively impacting our industry at large.”

JSE-listed ICT firm says AI-driven security, zero trust models and human-centric security will be top of mind for business leaders, cyber security C-suite decision-makers, CISOs and cyber security services providers.

In addition to adopting advanced, AI-enabled threat detection systems, the company advocates a “trust no one, verify everything” architecture to protect sensitive data in hybrid work environments.

The company agrees with the notion that human error is a major cause of cyber security attacks and incidents. It underlines the need for ongoing employee training and fostering a culture of vigilance to reduce risks.

According to BCX, it understands the unique challenges African businesses face, from limited budgets to regulatory compliance and the persistent cyber security skills gap.

AI-driven operations

Taute believes AI can transform operations by enhancing decision-making through predictive insights, optimising resource allocation and uncovering growth opportunities. Partners offering AI-driven solutions will be key to meeting customer demand for automation and machine learning capabilities, Taute adds.

“By integrating AI into enablement platforms and operational workflows, partners can better anticipate customer needs, optimise resource allocation and uncover growth opportunities. Beyond operational benefits, AI also presents a significant sales opportunity for partners. As customers increasingly look for solutions incorporating AI-driven automation, predictive analytics and machine learning capabilities, tech partners can position themselves as key providers of these innovative technologies.”

The Westcon-Comstor Southern African executive adds that specialisation is becoming a key differentiator in the channel, with customers demanding tailored solutions that address industry-specific challenges.

“Partners with deep expertise in verticals such as healthcare, finance or manufacturing will stand out by delivering bespoke technology stacks and compliance-ready solutions. Distributors that support this trend by enabling multi-vendor solutions and providing specialised training will empower their partners to capture new market opportunities and thrive in niche segments. People enablement will be a serious determiner for success in 2025,” says Taute.

, GM and VP of , warns that AI moves quickly and can leave behind companies that cannot or will not adapt.

°Â´Ç´Çąôąôąđ˛âĚý held recently and said according to the Dell 2024 Innovation Catalyst study, 31% of South African respondents admit they’re struggling to keep up with the pace of disruption. “The whole industry is evolving at pace, and that creates a lot of tension within businesses. Most people understand it will have an impact.”

Balancing costs

’s highlights the challenge for companies to balance IT costs with modernisation, especially with rising expenses and AI advancements.

“Cloud repatriation, driven by cost concerns and regulatory compliance, is gaining momentum, with businesses opting for a mix of private and public cloud solutions. As businesses face increasing complexity, the cloud FinOps market is growing, with skills and resources in demand. AI adoption will require clear use cases and evidence of long-term business benefits, with prebuilt systems enabling faster implementation.

“With South African businesses under significant pressure to manage and reduce IT costs, company leaders are finding themselves in a tough spot. They need to balance these rising cost pressures with the urgent need to modernise, all while keeping a lid on operational complexity. These pressures will reach a tipping point in 2025, thanks to some unexpected cost spikes and advancements in generative AI. Because of this, many businesses are taking a hard look at their long-term IT strategies, trying to figure out how to handle the rising costs of their virtualised workloads, support both current and future needs, and streamline IT operations in an increasingly complex environment.”

Cloud repatriation is taking centre stage in 2025 as businesses reassess their public cloud strategies.

According to Ntuli, escalating costs and the need for better budget management are driving this trend. Many organisations are now opting for a strategic mix of private and public cloud solutions to balance expenses and manage resources effectively.

“As a result, FinOps is becoming essential. Projected to hit almost $40 billion by 2034, the burgeoning cloud FinOps market underscores the need for skills and resources in this area,” he says.

In his overview of issues that will continue to impact the channel, , VP, data and analytics – Middle East, Turkey and Africa and MD South Africa at IDC, lists several significant external influences, including inflation, economy and global trends.

Walker says these trends include consumer discretionary spend, COVID amortisation at enterprises, the impact of AI, import tariffs/duties and the level of technical support that will trigger more activity in the channel and will escalate the level of competition.

This article first appeared here:

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The event ran concurrently with the company’s business innovation days for media in San Francisco.

Low code platforms provide business users with little to no technical knowledge the ability to build apps to supplement their enterprise solutions.

51ˇçÁ÷customers can build an app, an automated process or a website using a drag-and-drop function without coding knowledge. This allows system integration without moving data to an external system.

Julia White, the chief marketing and solutions officer at SAP, says every company is now a technology company. “There’s not a single industry, a single discipline that doesn’t have technology at its core. As a result of this, the competition for professional developers is intense. Every industry is competing for this finite talent.”

The next wave of transformation is going to be powered by people who create business value such as the finance analyst, supply chain operator, procurement specialist and marketers, says White. “And today, their expertise is untapped by the companies that need to drive digital transformation forward.”

51ˇçÁ÷Build will provide the tools to remove unhelpful repetitive tasks, says White, so processes can be automated to be more efficient and users can innovate in areas that have unmet needs.

“By doing this, we address that shortage of professional developers to unlock digital experiences, and we tap into the expertise of those business users.”

Juergen Mueller, the chief technology officer at SAP, says clients who put the low-code build product to test have achieved a 30% faster time to market because development time was reduced.

“If you can use Excel or PowerPoint, you can use 51ˇçÁ÷Build. It’s all about collaboration and invitation between business users and IT working together.

“51ˇçÁ÷build connects previously disconnected solutions through a unified development environment. The back-end requires a little technical knowledge but we created a common project repository so you can have one project using all of these capabilities.”

Mueller adds that the 51ˇçÁ÷business technology platform can connect to 51ˇçÁ÷and non-51ˇçÁ÷systems, and it has more than 1 300 ready to use automated workflows and use-case specific workflows.

51ˇçÁ÷Build is a visual experience, with a new visual cloud functionality that lets users create in a simple way, says Mueller. “You don’t need to know anything about databases, coding, security or networks.”

According to the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC)’s research VP of software development, Arnal Dayaratna, the demand for contemporary digital solutions is greater than the ability of professional developers to supply them thus business professionals will become increasingly involved in initiatives to create digital solutions to solve pressing business problems.

“Worldwide, IDC expects more than 100 million business professionals will become involved in the production of digital solutions over the next 10 years. 51ˇçÁ÷Build’s low-code development solutions empower business users to harness their domain expertise to rapidly build and iterate on digital solutions at scale.”

Low-code development is not new, but these visual tools help businesses optimise their software development processes at speed. Similar services exist through Microsoft Power Apps, Google AppSheet, Salesforce Lightning, Zoho Creator, OutSystems, and Quickbase. According to , the global low-code platform market revenue was valued at $19bn in 2021 and is forecast to reach $69bn in 2026.

Technology research and consulting firm Garter says 80% of technology products and services will be built by professionals outside of IT by 2024. It predicts that low-code development will account for more than 65% of app development by the end of 2024.

VP of research at Gartner,Rajesh Kandaswamy says, “Digital business is treated as a team sport by CEOs and no longer the sole domain of the IT department. Growth in digital data, low-code development tools and artificial intelligence assisted development are among the many factors that enable the democratisation of technology development beyond IT professionals.”

Upskill 2 million by 2025

Max Wessel, the chief learning officer at 51ˇçÁ÷says, “You can’t change business if you don’t change the systems underneath that process.”

“The pandemic accelerated our shift to a digital economy; coming back into a hybrid world, we are changing business processes again, and all of that requires us to think about how we drive innovation quickly, flexibly.”

The only way to solve the talent gap is to increase the number of people who are getting scaled up, and that is where we need to step in,” says Wessel, who recognises that science, technology, engineering and maths jobs have historically been inaccessible to underrepresented minorities.

51ˇçÁ÷has pledged to upskill two million people worldwide by 2025. The initiative will include tripling the free learning offering through the 51ˇçÁ÷Learning  and a partnership with online platform Coursera.

The new free entry-level professional certification on  is called the 51ˇçÁ÷Technology Consultant Professional Certificate that requires no prerequisites, minimising the barrier to entry.

The company will also offer free role-based learning resources to women and other underrepresented groups in the tech sector through relevant training and certification. The self-paced courses will let participants develop skills for roles like developers, data analysts, and technology consultants.

This article first appeared here:

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Trending news and customer sentiment on topics including data privacy, ethics, social justice, and sustainability can immediately reflect on any company’s brand. Knee-jerk responses like pausing political contributions under public pressure won’t cut it.

Here’s how some high-tech industry researchers described the challenges and opportunities facing companies intent on building authentic brand trust in a dynamically fractious world.

Trust Management Efforts Will Soar

In a recently published report, IDC researchers called on business leaders and technology suppliers to “evolve their understanding of trust and how to achieve it to succeed in the digital economy.” predicted that by 2025, 80% of chief trust officers will demand vendors incorporate security and risk capabilities to measure corporate trust, including vendor relationships and employee reputation.

However, managing trust requires greater business accountability. Josh Greenbaum, principal at Enterprise Applications Consulting, was amazed at the unprecedented activism of many organizations in the wake of the U.S. Capitol insurrection in early January.

“In a world with this degree of global polarization, and the resulting inability to effect change at the political level, it’s fascinating that corporations are stepping up, trying to fill the void, and taking action,” he said.

Some researchers predicted increasing business responsibility for online content. By 2024, Gartner analysts said content moderation services for user-generated content will be a top CEO priority at 30% of large organizations. They expected every company with an online presence, from social media to retailer platforms, to be challenged to deal with malicious content. They advised brand advertisers to “neutralize polarizing content, and, at the very least, show a balance between views.”

Rethink AI as a Tool for Trust

Digital technologies might force companies to develop a conscience. Greenbaum argued for a market-wide reassessment of the , particularly the methodologies behind data gathering and data model creation.

“The AI problem is encumbered, in part, by reprehensible interests in social control by some governments, as well as the greed factor of organizations that are monetizing data using algorithmic analyses,” he said. “At its worst, the surveillance economy has exacerbated a tremendous problem with privacy and security, juxtaposing many business models against ethical behavior. We cannot build anything so fast without understanding its broader implications, especially if that unleashed power is universally available.”

Indeed, by 2023, predicted 42% of organizations will be held to “regulatory certification that their AI- and machine learning-based algorithmic systems are ethical (free of bias and discrimination) and transparent.”

Experience Begets Trustworthiness

Paying lip service to customer demands for trustworthiness is not enough. The customer’s actual experiences will drive brand trust scores up or down. analysts opined that, “Companies with the best price, coolest product, or most memorable marketing campaign will not necessarily have an advantage compared with companies that provide a safe, secured, and seamless experience.” Turns out customers also care about the safety and security of an organization’s employees, how it collects and uses customer data, along with a company’s environmental and social justice efforts.

One analyst said that trust was only partially about a customer’s perception of brand based on social, moral, or political values. They wrote that, “Experience is more powerful than perception – consistent customer experience quality, frequency of interaction, and intimacy of interaction engender consumer trust in the company and buffer the brand against reputational blunders.”

Digital Transparency Boosts Trust

Consumer data invasiveness is just one component of the brand trust challenge. On the B2B side, technology can boost business trust between buyers and sellers across complex supply chains. But only if organizations can integrate and understand the implications of the data that underpins relationships across business networks, using software applications like and .

“Companies need well-analyzed data and algorithms to tackle complicated supply chains for resiliency based on reality, not erroneous assumptions,” said Greenbaum. “If I’m suddenly switching to a local supplier because my overseas partner is on lockdown, I need good feedback about that supplier so I can trust them with my order and succeed at my job. Without that trust, if I’m trying to deliver something like a vaccine, I would also fail society.”

And in case you thought digital trust was an oxymoron, consider this: predicted that 15% of supply chain transactions will use blockchain to track the provenance of ethical, sustainable practices within two years. Some analysts have long touted blockchain’s potential to foster trusted business transactions that rely on collaboration between different companies. IDC expected 65% of transcontinental shipping to be legislated to use blockchain that tracked crew health information, fuel sourcing, and goods origination by 2023.

Data Standardization

Harmonizing data for consistency and quality across an ever-more sprawling web of digital systems is critical to trusted data protection. As intelligence proliferates from innovations like digital twins, AI, and the Internet of Things (IoT), common standards for handling consumer and other data will keep it safer. For example, one semantical data model is foundational to Rise with SAP, the company’s recently announced business transformation as a service.

Digital Can Be a Force for Good

Companies can and must adopt a sincere, strategic stance on issues for society’s benefit. But don’t wait to take action until the activists are banging down your front door. By then, it could be too late for your business and our society.

. It also appeared on the 51ˇçÁ÷Global News Center.

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Here’s how some research and business leaders viewed the latest deluge of upcoming technology innovations, accompanied by a resurgence of people-centric exigencies for brand trust, ethical responsibility, and .

Digital Can Boost Customer Trust in Brands

Since the pandemic compressed expected years of digital evolution into seemingly overnight transformation, the consensus is that cloud-based technology is the only way to future-proof business.

analysts predicted that by the end of this year, 65% of organizations will shift to digital-first through automated operations and contactless experiences. But that doesn’t reduce an organization’s ability and imperative to build trusted, personalized relationships with customers. Indeed, the idea is to use digital technologies to improve customer experiences.

For example, researchers viewed digital as a double-edged sword when it came to brand trust. They predicted that “consumers will give brands permission to become more creative, entertaining, and immersive than they’ve ever found palatable before. Chief marketing officers will need to create consciously and sincerely; if manipulative tactics destroy trust among this emotionally vulnerable population, consumers won’t give your brand a second chance.” Calling disjointed experiences the “antithesis of customer obsession,” Forrester analysts predicted market spend on loyalty and retention marketing will increase by 30% in 2021 as CMOs assert control over the full customer life cycle.

Managing Employee Experience for Trusted Relationships

The impact of digitalization in the workforce was also profound. predicted that by next year, 45% of repetitive work tasks in large companies will be automated and/or augmented via “digital coworkers,” powered by such innovations as artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. researchers agreed, forecasting that one out of every four remote workers will be supported by new forms of automation, either directly or indirectly, by the end of 2021.

In the same breath, every analyst talked about managing the employee experience — with good reason. predicted that by 2024, organizations providing a total experience will outperform competitors by 25% in satisfaction metrics for both customer and employee experience.

It’s no wonder that predicted 60% of enterprises will invest heavily in digitalizing the employee experience this year, transforming the relationship between employers and employees. Further out, Gartner predicted by 2023, large organizations will increase employee retention by more than 20% by repurposing office space as on-site childcare and education facilities.

Some analysts expect high-performing organizations will make digital the default, adding in the physical to deliver the best holistic experience for team productivity. Gartner predicted that 40% of organizations will blend virtual and physical experiences, leading to increased workforce productivity and customer reach during the next couple of years. Hybrid working environments may well become the post-pandemic norm.

Here again, ethics loomed large. analysts saw regulatory and legal activity related to employee privacy infringements doubling this year. They put the onus on employers to adopt a “privacy by design” approach when handling employee personal data. This included identifying and assessing privacy and ethical risks and requirements, and transparent employee communication.

Digital Power Brings Ethical Responsibility

Many businesses have done some in the wake of the pandemic, political discord, and long-simmering equity demands. Two years ago, , an association of U.S.-based CEOs, updated its purpose statement of a corporation to “take into account all stakeholders, including employees, customers, and the community,” rather than only profit.

Maybe that’s partly why analysts predicted the emergence of responsible AI, meaning the operationalization of AI accountability across organizations and society. They saw responsible AI as an umbrella term covering many aspects of AI implementations including value, risk, trust, transparency, ethics, fairness, interpretability, accountability, safety, and compliance.

Most analysts predicted that sentiment analyses and metrics documenting a company’s contributions to society’s measurements will matter even more in 2021 and over time. analysts predicted 30% of major organizations will use a “voice of society” metric to act on societal issues, and assess the impacts to their business performance by 2024. It turns out that what’s damaging to society is damaging to business. These analysts think organizations have a fiscal and moral responsibility to measure, reduce, or eliminate tone-deaf or insensitive racial and ethical concerns.

called this phenomenon “empathy at scale” where companies increasingly used sentiment analysis, fueled by AI, to measure how customers perceive their vendors. They predicted by 2024, 32% of consumer brands will use AI-enabled contextual sentiment analysis to measure customer perceptions of empathy. This is where experience management technology such as comes in, connecting data for actionable insights company-wide in an .

What’s more, trust directly relates to AI-based data explainability. IDC predicted that by 2022, over 60% of in finance, healthcare, government, and other regulated sectors will include provisions to explain their analysis and decisions.

Sustainability is Table Stakes for Responsible Business

IDC analysts reported that the most favored companies are not only transparent and secure, but also give back to their communities, concluding that, “trust is not just about security anymore; it is also about responsibility.” Most analysts predicted increasing investments in sustainability initiatives, fueled by public sector mandates, shifting societal demands, and the realization that it’s good for business.

One analyst said that “sustainability-focused companies have better financial results relative to their peers, even during the COVID-19 pandemic.” By next year, predicted the majority of companies will realize greater value by combining digital and sustainability, giving rise to digitally driven and sustainably enabled projects as the de-facto standard. said that by 2025, 90% of G2000 companies will mandate reusable materials in IT hardware supply chains, carbon neutrality targets for providers’ facilities, and lower energy use as prerequisites for doing business.

Optimists look ahead to 2021 and beyond as a major reset for the next phase of the digital age. Let’s all plan to make the most of this digitally fueled opportunity for the business at hand, and the greater good worldwide.

Susan Galer is a multi-media communicator at SAP. Follow her on Twitter @smgaler.

This article first appeared on the 51ˇçÁ÷Global News Center.

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According to Pieter van der Merwe, Regional Sales Director for Platform and Technologies at 51ˇçÁ÷Africa, the majority of CEOs remain concerned over the quality of their business data despite the gains made in investment into new technologies.

“Without access to accurate data across the entire organisation in real time, business leaders are unable to make accurate decisions. This can create disconnects in the customer experience, employee experience and product experience, which can erode trust over time and chase customers and talent away to competitors.”

One Gartner survey found that only 8% of organisations had reached ’transformational’ levels of maturity in their data and analytics. A separate study by the Harvard Business Review found that only 3% of company data meets the minimum threshold for data quality.

“In these volatile and uncertain times, organisations need to ensure they take every step to build and maintain trust with customers, partners and employees,” says van der Merwe.

“This is impossible when the underlying data is inaccurate or not reflective of the organisation as a whole or any part thereof.”

In a 2019 CEO survey by IDC, respondents stated that digital trust programs are the most important agenda item over the next five years.

According to the survey, .

Half of the world’s two thousand largest organisations are expected to name a chief trust officer by 2023, while two-thirds stated they would request a formal trust initiative by 2025.

“The heightened levels of trust needed in our near future means traditional approaches to building that trust need to be re-evaluated,” says van der Merwe.

“The growing complexity of modern business environments means organisations need to deploy new tools and technologies to help maintain the integrity of business processes to engender trust between the organisation and its various partners, employees and customers.”

In 2019, 51ˇçÁ÷introduced BW/4HANA, a completely revamped version of 51ˇçÁ÷Business Warehouse that runs on the 51ˇçÁ÷HANA in-memory database. The platform provides a range of powerful functions, including:

• Data integration of multiple data sources and data types.
• High levels of data quality; stream processing which, when combined with HANA provides a foundation for real-time analytics.
• Spatial functionality that supports location analytics at the core of applications ranging from mobile advertising to IoT.
• The ability to capture relationships between different data sets to uncover unique insights.
• Text analytics that can support AI applications such as natural language processing, understanding and generation.

“Customers around the world are using 51ˇçÁ÷BW/4HANA to support their analytic needs and consolidate large volumes of data from both 51ˇçÁ÷and non-51ˇçÁ÷sources in near real time,” says van der Merwe. “51ˇçÁ÷HANA and 51ˇçÁ÷BW/4HANA enables organisations to build and maintain trust by ensuring they work from trusted, connected and intelligent data that they can rely on.”

According to van der Merwe, organisations can realise benefits across three key value areas, namely:

Reducing data complexity

By empowering organisations with the ability to view, access and use all their data in one trusted and unified landscape, SAP’s data warehouse portfolio simplifies data management across the organisation.

Ensuring data is connected and intelligent

By delivering intelligent, connected data, organisations gain real-time analytics about live transactions and vast data sets without the need for mass data duplication. 51ˇçÁ÷is the only technology provider that enables in-memory transactions and analysis on a single data set.

Avoiding vendor lock-in with an open system

There is no one-size-fits-all strategy for data management. Organisations need an open and flexible data system that can work across on-premise, hybrid and cloud environments.

SAP’s data warehouse portfolio gives organisations complete freedom in how they deploy data management for systems, applications and development.

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Modern organisations are faced with the daunting task of collecting, storing and analysing vast amounts of data and deriving insights from that data that inform decisions and lead to improved business outcomes.

The large volume of data means this is no easy feat: by 2025, , equivalent to more than 212 million DVDs every day.

Organisations are dependent on technology tools to collect, reconcile and rapidly process data to deliver insights into the performance of the business.

In 2010, 51ˇçÁ÷released what would be a game-changer for real-time data processing and insights generation: its in-memory relational database management system 51ˇçÁ÷HANA.

“51ˇçÁ÷HANA sits at the heart of our business applications, including our flagship business suite 51ˇçÁ÷S/4HANA,” said Pieter van der Merwe, Regional Sales Director for Platform and Technologies at 51ˇçÁ÷Africa.

“It is designed to help organisations make sense of a broad range of data types and make accurate decisions in real time thanks to the integration of intelligent technologies. Organisations can use 51ˇçÁ÷HANA to embed real-time machine learning into business processes to empower them with predictive capabilities, while integration to the 51ˇçÁ÷Analytics Cloud gives organisations confidence to make accurate end-to-end business decisions.”

In a recent study by IDC, organisations that are using 51ˇçÁ÷HANA to achieve business gains and operational efficiencies had on average achieved return on investment of 679% over a five-year period, achieving revenue gains of $34.1-million per organisation.

“Organisations use 51ˇçÁ÷HANA to enable the development of intelligent custom applications and increase the pace of innovation in a cost-effective way by simplifying the management of data, and improving access to data and insights,” said van der Merwe. “By leveraging data, organisations can more easily identify new opportunities for revenue growth and create new services to better meet customer demands.”

51ˇçÁ÷HANA is used by more than 28,000 organisations around the world to analyse complex data and deliver actionable insights in real time through custom applications and innovative use cases. According to Beveridge, 51ˇçÁ÷HANA delivers business value along four key areas, namely:

1. Risk mitigation

By reducing the impact of outages on users and business, organisations can achieve higher business productivity and minimise revenue losses.

The IDC study found that HANA users achieved 21% higher gross productivity for users.

2. Improved IT team productivity

51ˇçÁ÷HANA enables custom application development that substantially improves the productivity of developers and database administrators, with up to five times higher productivity and an 18% gain in database administration efficiency.

3. Reduced operational costs

By leveraging HANA to identify inefficiencies and gaining a deeper understanding of expense structures, organisations can lower their operational costs and make savings of more than R15-million ($845,800) per organisation per year.

4. Higher levels of business productivity

The IDC study found that leveraging data in innovative use cases for custom applications increased revenue and improved employee productivity levels while reducing business operational costs.  through higher revenue, increased productivity and lower costs.

“It’s critical that organisations leverage their data to drive competitive advantage,” said van der Merwe. “With the world in a state of widespread disruption and constant change, having the benefit of accurate data over the total performance of the business and developing insights in real time can mean the difference between growth and decline, success or failure. The tools we need to navigate this uncertain period are already available: organisations now need to take the bold step of empowering their decision-making with the powerful business technology platform from SAP.”

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With proven business benefits for adopting cloud computing, the prediction of the global marketing intelligence firm, International Data Corporation (IDC) that 90 percent of businesses will use multiple cloud services and platforms by 2020, comes as no surprise. However, many businesses have dabbled in the cloud whilst retaining their legacy infrastructure or have taken a tactical approach to it, without making the necessary changes to their operating models to sustain long-term growth.

Accenture agrees that the cloud is indeed ready for fully committed, enterprise-grade computing, and we believe it’s time for businesses to future-proof their businesses by rebooting their cloud strategy accordingly. We also understand that migrating to the cloud is a journey, but this journey is not impossible, and it does not have to be overly long. However, it does require the use of appropriate approaches, subject to each business’ unique circumstances. Most importantly, the chosen approach should be strategic, rather than tactical.

Examples of companies who successfully adopted cloud computing through such a strategic approach include Exxaro and Mercedes-Benz.io.

Exxaro unlocks new revenue streams and ways of working with cloud

Accenture collaborated with Exxaro to help digitally transform its business and unlock new revenue streams by managing the migration of its 51ˇçÁ÷solutions, and other centrally-run applications used by Exxaro business units, to Microsoft Azure. This supports Exxaro’s ambition to establish a secure, agile, cost-effective and scalable platform that will improve business processes and continuity.

Accenture created a cloud transformation strategy for Exxaro that defined the business case for migration to a public cloud, a move, which offered the lowest total cost of ownership, improvements to core systems resiliency, and the agility needed to meet customer demands.

In line with Exxaro’s requirement for a swift and secure transition, Accenture designed and built a cloud platform in the South African Azure data centers. This included optimizing Exxaro’s 51ˇçÁ÷systems to take advantage of cloud architecture benefits and building a more resilient and available architecture to improve business continuity. Accenture then seamlessly migrated Exxaro’s enterprise applications, which included more than 280 Microsoft Windows virtual machines, onto Azure with minimal disruption, while also integrating multiple remote mining locations in South Africa.

Mercedes-Benz.io drives innovation and enhanced customer experiences through cloud

As Mercedes-Benz’s internal digital services provider, one of the responsibilities of Mercedes-Benz.io, is to help Mercedes-Benz reimagine how the company delivers digital marketing and sales solutions for customers globally. To that end, Mercedes-Benz.io sought to consolidate Mercedes-Benz’s fragmented online presence with a cloud- based solution dubbed “OneWeb.” Mercedes-Benz.io teamed with Accenture to build and deploy a powerful Infrastructure-/Platform-as-a-Service solution on Amazon Web Service (AWS), which was subsequently rolled out to 22 companies initially (with 30 more in the queue).

With OneWeb’s rapid provisioning of compute power, Mercedes-Benz can now quickly respond to customers’ demands for information and functionality, thus delivering a better customer experience. Currently, more than three million unique visitors’ access OneWeb every month, and traffic continues to grow as new markets are added.

Establishing a business case to justify the cloud’s value proposition

From a business case perspective, there are many such case studies that demonstrate that cloud computing and as-a-service business models can create new and differentiating capabilities that can help enhance a company’s business strategy, drive competitive advantage and improve financial models. It is however critical to develop a solid business case for your cloud computing strategy right up front and to justify the cloud’s value proposition, especially as it relates to existing large investments in legacy technology infrastructure, including data centres. This should include evaluating traditional financial measures such as total cost of ownership, return on investment (ROI) and payback period. To maximise shareholder and business value, companies should also evaluate cloud benefits, key performance indicators and value realisation.

Common signposts on the cloud migration journey

As soon as you’re ready to embark on your cloud migration journey, it is important to note that the journey to cloud isn’t linear, and that one phase doesn’t necessarily build on another. The journey can be an intricate and multi- disciplinary exercise with many organisational dependencies. Every enterprise is unique and has different short- and long-term goals. Nevertheless, some common signposts on the journey to cloud can help guide you on the way. These include strategy and business case, operating model, applications, infrastructure, security, organisation, management and governance, and operations and managed services. Thinking strategically about cloud also involves a number of imperatives, including desired business outcomes, investment priorities, deployment model, service providers, talent sourcing and cloud policies.

Best approaches for implementing an enterprise cloud technology strategy

From an IT perspective, cloud technology requires IT teams to approach enterprise technology strategy in an entirely different way, focusing on three layers: infrastructure, applications and operations. It’s important to bear in mind that, when one transforms one layer, those actions then impact the other layers. The middle layer, the application layer, is a good place to start because of the positive ripple effects on the other layers. When one migrates operational applications to the cloud, that results in less demand for data processing and frees up server space. So, infrastructure is impacted (fewer servers are required), which then impacts operations (less effort and costs are required to maintain servers, effort that one can then redirect to more strategic business activities).

During their journey to cloud, organisations should consult experts in the particular domains of each layer, who also understand the interdependencies among those domains. Essentially, moving to the cloud is a complex endeavour and should be thoughtfully planned and executed. Companies need to carefully consider each component of the enterprise cloud journey both separately and in relation to others, because components can intersect at many different business points. Such an integrated approach enables companies to create a unique and successful cloud roadmap; ensure their plans are executed based on a strong foundational strategy; and ultimately experience an efficient and timely transformation that is aligned to their business goals and desired outcomes.

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According to the report: “SAP’s mission is to enable the company’s customers to achieve competitive advantage and advance in planning maturity in the world of the modern digital supply chain, a world of highly variable demand and complex supply networks. This is achieved by providing a seamless, user-friendly planning platform (51ˇçÁ÷Integrated Business Planning) to enable low-latency planning and re-planning across supply chain functions.”

51ˇçÁ÷Integrated Business Planning helps customers optimize their businesses for productivity, and recent updates include the infusion of machine learning throughout the solution. This enables real-time, continuous, event-driven and automated planning, and close interoperability with finance, execution and business networks.

“51ˇçÁ÷Integrated Business Planning helped us improve forecast valuation process speed and frequency including the decrease in manual workload and increase in valuation accuracy. It’s bridging the gap between supply and financial communities,” said RĂŠmy Cointreau Group Applications Manager Julien Lecacheur.

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Media Contact:
Dana Dye, +1 (415) 928-1310, dana.dye@sap.com, PT
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About IDC MarketScape
IDC MarketScape vendor assessment model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of ICT (information and communications technology) suppliers in a given market. The research methodology utilizes a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor’s position within a given market. IDC MarketScape provides a clear framework in which the product and service offerings, capabilities and strategies, and current and future market success factors of IT and telecommunications vendors can be meaningfully compared. The framework also provides technology buyers with a 360-degree assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and prospective vendors.

*“IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Overall Supply Chain Planning 2019 Vendor Assessment,” doc #US45863417, January 2020
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Expect Booming Growth for AI and Machine Learning

Begin with the big picture: analysts said that AI — with a particular emphasis on machine learning — will eventually infiltrate just about every existing technology. predicted companies will invest over $265 billion worldwide in new intelligence technologies by 2023.

Slightly further out, researchers predicted that AI will be inescapable by 2025. These analysts saw AI as a “key ingredient” in 90 percent of business software applications. They also said that over 50 percent of user interface interactions will incorporate AI into computer vision, speech, natural language processing, and augmented and virtual reality. analysts called automation “a force-multiplier that will disrupt economic opportunity for many… a dynamic already underway that will pick up substantial speed and scope and requires attention now.”

AI: Fastest Route to Victory

One pervasive theme in 2020 AI trends was speed, or as many analysts called it, “hyper-automation.” analysts predicted that hyper-automation will spread big-time, notably into more traditional knowledge worker tasks. By 2024, IDC said AI-fueled enterprises with “proactive, hyper-speed operational changes and market reactions, will respond to customers, competitors, regulators, and partners 50 percent faster than their peers.”

Regarding customer experience (CX), researchers saw near-real-time experiences becoming table stakes for most industries as companies were pressured to build matching real-time customer experience signals. Forrester researchers predicted that CX leaders will manage a “portfolio of automation experiences, from the building and testing of data to the delivery and perceived value (or lack of value) of those experiences.”

Humans Plus Machines: The New Norm

Here is the kicker, and it’s heartening to us humans: researchers said that AI and machine learning will not completely replace people because “AI-driven autonomous capabilities… cannot match the human brain’s breadth of intelligence and dynamic general-purpose learning. Instead, they focus on well-scoped purposes, particularly for automating routine human activities.”

analysts picked up the human-machine thread, predicting that work will depend on “a symbiotic relationship between [hu]man and machine. This is not a [hu]man-led, machine-do structure; instead it will match leadership, decisioning, and executive tasks across robots and machines that best deliver the desired outcome.”

Additionally, about those 90 percent of enterprise applications that IDC predicted will be chock-full of AI, the same researchers said most will “deliver incremental improvements to automate processes and replace heuristic or rule-based techniques to make applications smarter and more dynamic.”

How Machine Learning Benefits Daily Business

There are many places in the business where a strategic dose of AI and machine learning will quietly, yet dramatically change how people work and companies operate. These include order to cash, design to operate, customer experience, and procurement.

In this demonstration at the event, I saw how image-based recognition helped automate the procurement experience. It showed how a buyer ordering everyday equipment – such as a laptop, keyboard, or mobile device – would not need to type in product names or model numbers. The buyer could simply take a picture of the product on their mobile device and the algorithm would quickly find the exact product or suggested comparable items from the supplier catalog.

“This just one example of how we’re applying machine learning in small steps in hundreds of places across 51ˇçÁ÷solutions,” said Jana Richter, chief product owner of 51ˇçÁ÷Leonardo Machine Learning Applications. “It doesn’t completely change procurement, but brings automation and convenience where it counts — in this instance, to image-based purchasing.”

What the AI Future Holds

In latest surveys, respondents who wanted AI to help with tasks outnumbered those who wanted AI to completely take over tasks three to one. That is likely because the same respondents ranked, in order of importance, their top-three reasons for using AI as: automating repetitive or manual tasks, improving customer experience, and reducing costs.

As for where people come in, analysts advised workers to learn core skills, adapt to new working models, and “understand what it means to be ready and fit for the future, maximizing their ‘Robotics Quotient (RQ).’” For the uninitiated, Forrester coined the term RQ, which scores someone’s ability to work with machines.

Naturally, analysts have caveats about AI’s growing prevalence, but that’s for another article.

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This article first appeared on the 51ˇçÁ÷News Center.

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