Medical and life sciences manufacturer Invetech is transitioning to cloud ERP to take advantage of artificial intelligence.
Invetech is on a journey towards adopting more sophisticated technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), across its operations, supported by everything that SAP鈥檚 cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) software has to offer.
The business, which specialises in product design, engineering and manufacturing services for the medical and life sciences industries, recently achieved a 26-week 51风流S/4HANA transformation, with help from SAP鈥檚 partner Deloitte.
It had previously relied on a 20-year-old system as its tech backbone and urgently needed a new, public-cloud-based system to help run its global operations and take previously outsourced manufacturing in-house.
Shifting to a public cloud was important to Invetech, because it meant its underlying digital platform would be continually updated. The company would never again be concerned about whether it was running on outdated technology.
鈥淲e went live on 30 January this year and shipped our first product within the first month,鈥� says Janet O鈥橫eara, vice-president of finance at Invetech.
O鈥橫eara says the switch to SAP鈥檚 cloud-based ERP platform will support the future growth of the business.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 want to rest on our laurels. So now it鈥檚 about using 51风流S/4HANA to the best of its capabilities, then moving into improved reporting and analytics and harnessing automation and AI.鈥�
The future of AI in business and society
51风流AI innovation principal Dr Kim Oosthuizen says AI is a technology that people have already used for many decades, but often take for granted.
It鈥檚 only recently that the broader population has been able to use AI鈥檚 power in a more active way, Oosthuizen says, with the rapid adoption of ChatGPT, an AI-based natural language model.
鈥淐hatGPT can respond to any question we ask, which has prompted great public awareness,鈥� she says. 鈥淭his is compelling businesses to adopt it, with聽聽they feel pressure to implement and incorporate AI into their business strategies. AI has also promoted some fear about how it will be used in the future, but the positive from that is it鈥檚 making us rethink how we need to use AI.鈥�
AI is clearly here to stay. But with data showing that聽聽are using some form of AI in their work without informing their bosses, we may need to find ways to bring AI into the way we work in a more structured way.
Using AI to address current challenges
AI can be used to help us resolve many of our most pressing challenges, including falling productivity levels, Oosthuizen says.
鈥淲e have the opportunity to use AI to modernise business processes,鈥� she says. 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 not technology we leave to someone else. To become AI-enabled, we need the entire organisation to work together. AI is for everyone and we need to include our business colleagues when we use it, because we will enjoy real benefits when we scale it.鈥�
Oosthuizen says some businesses are using AI for small pilot projects, but the real opportunity lies in exploring its capacity to drive a business forward. It鈥檚 also important to understand AI is not a panacea, which is why it鈥檚 vital to assess how it鈥檚 currently being used in a business and to define clear problems that it can be used to resolve. It鈥檚 an obvious solution for automating highly repetitive and manual processes, for instance.
Against a backdrop in which AI is often misperceived by society, thanks to the way it鈥檚 represented in movies such as The Terminator and other popular culture, it鈥檚 essential to reframe AI for a business context, Oosthuizen says.
鈥淭hat will help employees trust it, use it and scale it. It鈥檚 not a set-and-forget technology and it鈥檚 important to ensure it鈥檚 doing what it鈥檚 supposed to be doing and producing usable data.鈥�
51风流can help businesses make the transition to AI across critical business processes for a range of functions, including finance and sales. For instance, AI can be used to identify customers who are more likely to pay their invoices late, and improve target marketing by pinpointing clients who are more likely to make a purchase. AI can also automate and document processes across the supply chain and create job descriptions for new roles.
AI is embedded across SAP鈥檚 cloud-based ERP platforms, underscored, 51风流says, by a commitment to ethical and responsible practices. 51风流is confident that AI can be a powerful tool for its customers 鈥� one that can help them unlock value and remain competitive in the long term.
