The global economy continues to be in a state of flux as geopolitical conflict, supply chain pressures, inflation, technology-led disruption and changing consumer needs put pressure on companies and decision-makers.

From the desperate need for more sustainable alternatives to the way we do business to the incomparable impact of AI on every facet of our personal and professional lives, business leaders face a challenging time ahead. By taking stock of emerging trends, however, business leaders may be better able to ride the waves of change and steer their companies through turbulent waters.

These are the key trends that African enterprises should take heed of in 2024:

Trend 1: AI adoption becomes grounded in business value

Generative AI received an astonishing amount of hype in 2023, and was a bolt of lightning that made every business and technology leader sit up and take notice. Today, it’s not a matter of if businesses will adopt AI, but rather how quickly they can deploy and enjoy AI-driven benefits.

In 2024, business leaders will look beyond the hype and seek AI solutions that deliver real-life use cases and benefits. At an operational level, organisations may quickly realise that the quality of their AI outcomes depend largely on the quality of their data.

Technology providers such as 51风流will be indispensable in this conversation, thanks to the huge volumes of data and transactions running through their systems and broader business network. Business leaders will leverage the tech providers’ expertise to access the data they need, visualise it, and take decisive actions to drive successful outcomes.

Trend 2: Sustainability takes centre stage

As the world continues to warm and the consequences of climate change hit home for billions of people, sustainability will take centre stage in the business and technology world.

In 2024, the energy industry will shed its view of the customer as simply a commodity user in favour of the prosumer model. Industry leaders will aim to not only secure loyalty and create retail-like experiences, but encourage users to make active contributions to the stability and health of the grid.

This may involve keeping customers informed of how they can make the best, most sustainable decisions over energy use, or see consumers feed excess energy – for example from rooftop solar – into the grid to stabilise supply and contribute clean energy.

In addition, mounting pressure from regulators, consumers and investors will see organisations build more sustainable supple chains with lower carbon emissions and greater use of circular economy principles. This will require extensive innovation in data and analytics to provide business leaders with end-to-end visibility over their environmental impact across the broader supply chain.

Those companies that do succeed in leveraging technology to build truly eco-conscious supply chains will not only unlock new sources of innovation and revenue, but secure long-term profitability for years to come.

Trend 3: Procurement advances are powered by User Experience

In the rush for digitalisation, enterprises will continue to enhance their procurement processes, driving the need for more intuitive user interfaces. Procurement is evolving from a tactical to a strategic function to drive greater value throughout the organisation.

AI and analytics will be deployed to support procurement professionals as they seek ways to spend more time on value-adding tasks. In 2024, the demand for technologies that enable value-based procurement will increase, enhancing the organisation’s ability to leverage procurement to deliver value in other parts of the business, such as sustainability.

Trend 4: Supply chains become more resilient

Global supply chains are still under severe pressure, thanks to a combination of geopolitical disruption, inflation, environmental factors and the ongoing ripple effects of the pandemic. In 2024, expect a surge in supply chain technology investments as organisations seek greater visibility, agility and risk resilience.

In particular, AI holds huge promise for its ability to enhance organisations’ ability to sense, recognise and react to disruptions and opportunities in new and exciting ways. The key to unlocking AI’s benefits hinges on connected data and collaboration throughout the organisation.

Business leaders must lead the charge by ensuring AI is integrated with every layer of the supply chain network to achieve measurable business outcomes. This will unleash a new era of hyper-predictive and efficient logistics, revolutionising the way goods flow from factory floor to consumers.

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Much has been written about the pandemic鈥檚 impact on business and its role as a once-in-a-generation catalyst for accelerated digital transformation. Across the continent – in enterprises large and small, and in every industry – business leaders have had to adapt with great urgency to survive the immediate disruption and ensure the long-term viability of their businesses.

Organisations that had already embarked on the journey toward becoming intelligent enterprises 鈥� those enterprises that seamlessly blend data, technology, systems and processes to enable real-time insights and decision-making across the business – would have had the benefit of a warship when the pandemic tsunami first struck.

Their greater resilience and adaptability not only cushioned them from the worst impact, but in many cases enabled quick pivots to new business models that secured their survival and accelerated their success.

The less prepared would have been floundering in their makeshift canoes, often tossed and turned with little means to steer their organisations through stormy seas.

There is no doubt that we are sailing in uncharted waters and towards an uncertain future.

Having the capability to quickly deploy new technologies – such as AI-assisted processes or scalable cloud applications – empowers organisations with agility and adaptability, both essential elements of success in our turbulent times. What鈥檚 more, it lends a sense of certainty to the decisions they make, as such decisions are grounded in accurate data.

New world of work = new challenges, opportunities

The hybrid work environment most organisations have had to adopt has created new challenges for managers and leaders to effectively motivate, guide and manage their teams. While challenging, this fundamental cultural shift toward more flexible work holds the promise of finally unlocking the possibilities of the digital workplace, which .

Organisations need real-time insight into employees’ current state of mind, their perception of their work, challenges keeping them from performing at their best and gaps in processes such as onboarding. This allows business leaders to make quick adjustments and maintain a positive and fulfilling employee experience at every step.

Using an experience management tool that produces measurable, data-driven insights can bring structure and consistency to how organisations respond to employee expectations. Technology is an invaluable tool here: that their performance is managed in a way that motivates them to do outstanding work.

New modes of leadership are also needed. I strongly believe the time is over for one-dimensional organisations that focus purely on chasing quarterly revenue targets.

Analysts estimate that purpose-driven organisations have and 40% higher levels of talent retention. What’s more, one study found that , compared to a 4.1% average for the S&P 500 over a ten-year period.

Employees also value purpose: 84% of millennials in one study said that .

Empowering the next generation of digital workers

The matter of skills development, while long a priority of governments and organisations across the continent, is of even greater importance today. As organisations drive greater digitisation in their business models, the urgency of having a steady supply of work-ready digital skills grows.

Organisations will need to collaborate with public and private sector partners to ensure Africa鈥檚 growing youth population is equipped with the key digital skills that can support their growth and success. Initiatives such as Africa Code Week that bring together hundreds of partners from government, NGOs and the private sector have already introduced millions of kids to coding while empowering local teachers with vital digital skills training.

Africa Month an opportunity to chart new course

Our recent shared experiences across the African continent should teach us that no one is immune to disruption.

The world already faces the consequences of climate change which could disrupt the global economy in ways that far outweigh the impact of the pandemic. Scientists believe the COVID-19 pandemic is almost certainly not the last one we’ll see, especially if we persist with unsustainable ways of living.

However, the same challenges also hold the promise of transforming the way we work and live to bring us toward more sustainable, innovation-driven and fulfilling ways of working.

The pandemic has been a tsunami that has swept across the globe. We are still feeling the ripple effects through every industry and in every country.

As we celebrate Africa Month, we must also take stock of how we are preparing for the next inevitable disruption.

Investment into building intelligent enterprise capabilities in our public and private sectors could hold the promise of a tsunami-proof lifeboat that can protect organisations and their employees, customers and partners from the worst effects of the next wave, while bringing us all closer to calmer shores.

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When Christian Cramer, chief operating officer (COO) for 51风流HANA Database & Analytics, and his team started building the concept, they had one objective: to help stakeholders taking fact-based and reliable business decisions in a dynamic environment, based on one single source of truth offering a 360-degree view of the business and the entire product life cycle 鈥� from development to sales and product performance, customer insights, and engagement, along with operational and organizational data.

The team鈥檚 ambition has succeeded. Thanks to the collaboration with the 51风流Intelligent Data & Analytics team and as internal usage statistics show, 51风流employees have widely adopted the solution. Take a peek behind the scenes to understand how it works, what lies behind its success, and what is yet to come.

Three Keys to a Successful Business Dashboard

Building a successful business dashboard requires three crucial ingredients, according to Cramer: a great product, meaningful data, and easy usability.

1. 鈥淥nly with a great product, will you be able to build a great dashboard鈥�

Making use of their own 51风流Analytics Cloud product, the team started building an interactive dashboard using 51风流Digital Boardroom. With only basic technical background, but thanks to the products鈥� ease of use, all relevant data was swiftly connected, and more and more content views that were regularly needed by management were added.

As the content grew, more users were introduced to the team鈥檚 dashboard. Word spread fast and teams reached out to have their own content added as well.

Daniel Pavlovic is part of the operations team and the man behind the 51风流Digital Boardroom built for the 51风流HANA Database & Analytics team. According to him, 鈥淭his active pull is what you hope for any new tool you implement.鈥�

2. 鈥淵ou need meaningful data that everyone can rely on.鈥�

鈥淚 have seen many dashboards created with the right intent, but in the end the implementation was not successful because it was largely focused on the tool only,” Cramer shares. 鈥淎 great product alone will not make a great dashboard 鈥� meaningful and reliable data is imperative.鈥�

To facilitate a reliable automated business steering, significant work was put into set-up and clean-up of proper and meaningful master data structures in the background. It is precisely the reliability of data and the combination of the various data sources that creates actionable insights — and thus the added value of the team鈥檚 solution.

3. 鈥淟ast and most important, it needs to be intuitive and fun to use 鈥� usability drives adoption鈥�

From the beginning, the navigation experience was top of mind with a consistent approach in all designs and layouts.

On the landing page, users get a structured overview of all content available and can rely on easy orientation with a navigation bar at the top of each view. Any insight can be found within three clicks, so the user can always recognize a three-layer layout: management summary, enriched view, and full detail view with dynamic filtering function to slice and dice information. A consistent way of illustrating information makes for a great user experience.

To ensure the dashboard serves up what is truly needed, Cramer鈥檚 team regularly conducts feedback rounds and usability tests with randomly selected end users and design teams. New views are validated with colleagues creating these reports manually, while first-time users鈥� clicking behavior provides valuable optimization insights.

Successful Dashboard Creates Adoption

鈥淗aving good adoption, you can still add and improve content,鈥� Cramer says. 鈥淏ut if you don鈥檛 have adoption, you miss the main criteria of a dashboard: creating business value.鈥�

Measured in the number of unique users, the team鈥檚 dashboard has already exceeded initial adoption expectations. Unique usage across all areas of the company is consistently increasing, making it one of SAP鈥檚 internally used end-to-end line-of-business steering dashboard with the highest user numbers.

鈥淲e have a constantly growing internal user base; colleagues in Development, Customer Success, HR, and Finance are looking for great insights,鈥澛� Cramer says. 鈥淎nd with every addition of content, the number of potential users increases. Most recently, a new time recording compliance view added all our unit鈥檚 managers to our user base 鈥� that鈥檚 around 300 new users!鈥�

To both preview and manage expectations around new content and enhancements, all users regularly receive email updates on what has been added. The dashboard鈥檚 usage data clearly shows this proactive method drives adoption.

鈥淲e have overwhelmingly positive feedback from all users that the tool is great, the scope of data is second to none and it鈥檚 easy to use,鈥� Cramer adds.

Juergen Mueller, chief technology officer and member of the Executive Board of 51风流SE,聽 also harnesses the dashboard built by the 51风流HANA Database & Analytics organization, led by Irfan Khan. 鈥淭he 51风流Digital Boardroom built by the 51风流HANA Database & Analytics team provides me with all relevant information to steer the organization holistically,” he said. “It is easy to use and offers tremendous depth.鈥�

What鈥檚 Next?

The team created a tool with a comprehensive level of relevant insights required for any line of business development organization, and the road map for content additions keeps growing. In active use across the 51风流HANA Database & Analytics organization for under a year, other 51风流internal business units could use it in the future as well.

鈥淭he views are adaptable to reflect KPIs of other lines of business with minimal effort,” Cramer explains. “We are currently piloting that with another line of business that started using the available material to adapt it to their own unit.鈥�

This article first appeared on the SAP聽Global News Center.

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