In the beginning, there are needs to be filled, pain points to be identified, and processes to be improved. With the benefit of years of industry experience, close partnerships with leading organisations, and an eye on the latest technology, SAP’s Asset Intensive Industries Centre of Excellence keeps track of a backlog of topics. Through consultation with customers, partners and alignment with , this backlog is prioritised into a vision.

Vision is important; and formulating that vision along with high-level conceptual architecture, value to industry, and to 51·çÁ÷forms part of a business case that we socialise with stakeholders for consideration. Once a topic is approved, the rubber hits the road and the work can begin in earnest.

I’d like to share a real-world example. One topic the COE is passionate about is the efficient maintenance of assets. Over many years 51·çÁ÷has become a leader in this space with a feature-rich . Managing all aspects of an asset lifecycle including history, planning, spare parts, availability, the people involved, and their health and safety.

Increasingly the management of assets is outsourced to 3rd party service providers. Leveraging these partner organisations brings many benefits but also introduces new challenges and risks including double-handling of information, lack of visibility, data timeliness, and the management of asset knowledge.

Back when I started my career, we used to handle orders by fax; and these days we use the to manage procurement. And this network approach is the vision for a collaborative work order, where Asset Owners (for example mining companies, public sector organisations, and utilities) share their information with 3rd parties to enable modern collaboration that no longer relies on emails and phone calls.

To realise the network vision, we decided to leverage the and as the core foundation of the solution architecture. From here we have been able to design high-level process flows, data model, and screen concepts.

Inviting industry collaborators meant explaining the vision and agreeing to work together on the solution. The response has been fantastic with hundreds of hours of support from industry to articulate the as-is processes and associated pain points. And to provide input and review the to-be process and concepts.

During the pandemic, this has meant remote workshops leveraging tools such as Mural to collaborate. Along with the world’s leading mining and utility companies our co-innovation includes organisations such as Deutsche Bahn one of the world’s leading mobility and logistics companies.

With industry and 51·çÁ÷working together we have been able to develop and publish a to realise the vision of a collaborative work order. has been a breath of fresh air to help me through the pandemic. I knew I’d find some interesting challenges along the way. What I’m delighted to find is a passion from both our customers and our product engineering teams to make the world run better. about the new Centre Of Excellence for Asset Intensive Industries.

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In a , the move from an operational to an outcome based focus was outlined as a critical mindset shift, paving the way to develop new business models rather than simply optimise existing processes.

As we’ve seen through the impact of Covid-19 lockdowns and solutions offered by 51·çÁ÷to check in on , we also need to consider how technology can improve the experience for staff, beyond simplifying existing business processes.

Looking at emerging technology solutions, such as and the major benefits that can be achieved applying this solution to enable time savings and quality improvements, we need to look at the problem being solved not just from a process perspective. We also need to consider the people element and more importantly, the experience being delivered to employees to the same extent we now look at the .

For many business processes, the insights and skillsets brought by employees with many years’ experience in a domain are critical in maintaining a competitive edge, or perhaps required for regulatory reasons. While medical images can be interpreted by algorithms, we still rely on the expertise of radiologists and other medical professionals to analyse these insights and communicate the results and meet required medical professional standards.

This is an important factor in the design phase of automating processes – understanding those parts of a process that can be completely automated, those that need to be “augmented” by people with skills and expertise (this could be in-process supervision, quality assurance or other review mechanisms) and finally those aspects that must be undertaken by employees due to regulatory reasons or scenario complexity e.g. when a specific scenario is presented that can’t be automated.

A lens needs to be applied beyond just this process view – taking a “people first” approach to a situation or automation scenario to understand what employees are both good at and also enjoy doing – be it social interaction through to the opportunity to apply their valuable skills across a range of operational issues or perhaps customer engagements. Solutions such as are perfect to be able to ascertain these sorts of views and ideas when changing from a process- to a people- mindset as part of becoming an Intelligent Enterprise.

One current focus for SAP’s Innovation Services & Services Ventures’ group is on enabling energy traders at – using the insights from Machine Learning applied across massive datasets to empower traders in applying their expertise to trading decisions.

Rather than completely automating the trading process, our research has shown the insights traders have built up in understanding all facets of the market are critical to the operational and financial success of utilities. There is a role for technology derived insights to inform these traders, however by taking a people-led view of trading, not just process-led, our solution will enable utilities to continue on the path of becoming Intelligent Enterprises.

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From paying bills online to accessing Netflix, every action we make digitally creates data that shapes an incredibly accurate portrait of who we are, what we do, and everything that drives us as people. On an enterprise level, we rely on data constantly to connect with one another, to predict trends and movements, allowing us to leverage those findings to continually improve on our back-end systems and processes.

With so much data to manage and leverage daily, organisations need a system that connects and analyses data in a way that generates real insights while facilitating cross-business collaboration and building an intelligent enterprise.

Single Platform, Dynamic Solution
By unifying all systems and processes on a connected platform, businesses can continually improve their processes in an infinite loop of Optimisation and Innovation – at SAP, we call it (BTP).

BTP is comprised of four pillars: , , , and Combining these four elements, businesses create an ever-growing network of data and systems that helps refine operational processes, uncover efficiencies, and monitor every facet of the organisation.

The ability to accurately monitor and predict business processes can not only improve the way companies operate but safeguard them from unforeseeable crises. In , I noted how SAP’s missions is to help organisations make sense of the immense data it produces and offer a dynamic solution that evolves with the business. Now more than ever are employee experience, process data, and intelligent technologies are critical.

As a result of COVID-19, we have seen a significant shift in the ways we work and interact with one another, which consequently is generating new data and reshaping business systems around the world. With a massive increase in people working remotely, business data and robust systems are vital to building resilience during times of uncertainty.

Building and retaining trust in the digital world will cause us to rethink and alter our behaviours and expectations as we can’t just “shake on it” anymore. We will need to remain connected, aligned, and in constant yet socially distanced communication. Agile results will become so much more relevant and part of everyday life.

Industry Insights Go Virtual
When there is a global state of fear and confusion, it can be challenging to find reliable resources for knowledge and information. Furthermore, conferences and public gatherings have been canceled for the foreseeable future – with many industry events shifting towards digital platforms, webinars, and online presentations.

51·çÁ÷Business Technology Experience was a for businesses looking to thrive rather than simply survive during these difficult times. 51·çÁ÷Vice-President and Global Innovation Evangelist, Timo Elliott explained about the future of digital business and data analytics. He explored the important technology trends, challenges, and opportunities facing business and how to build resilience today.

Learn from key industry leaders, renowned analysts, and technology experts like broadcast technology journalist Johanna Botta who expressed their views and experiences of the latest business technology trends and customer experiences.

Chief Designer for SAP’s Innovation Center Networks & Chief Innovation Office, Martin Wezowski demonstrated how businesses can improve their digital transformation and improve agility to prepare for the future. As one of the most innovative minds in Germany – if not the world – he is passionate about crafting future outlooks, strategies, and products to help businesses become more intelligent, efficient, and innovative.

To learn more about how this event can help your business unlock the power of Business Technology Platform and data-driven insights – .

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