Cake, SAP and Quantum computing!

What has cake got to do with SAP? And how does Quantum computing enter the mix? (Do you see the what we did then) A 10 -minute read

SAP isn't tech, in every blog we say that, it’s actually an Industry 4.0 ready business target operating model. The nuance is most organisations have been digital for decades, operating highly people and process optimised automated business operating models.

It therefore necessarily follows that the ERP solution is both an enabler of the organisation and its digital twin(mirror), what it is not is "tech tooling" which is an absolute cop out, used to justify slamming in tech to an unsuspecting organisation and then watching the carnage it causes. (70% of ERP programmes fail to achieve their required outcomes).

Point being tech is engrained into everything an organisation does, and as tech moves forward, so there is a need for the business to follow....

So, when we say cake and SAP, we mean the business "get their cake and eat it"

How so? And you have not explained Quantum computing yet?

Well firstly when you move to SAP private and public cloud you incubate your business against being behind industry trends. (Remember tech is engrained in all industry innovation)

Industry trends evolve, based upon geopolitical events and social change driven by advancing tech, we call that process of progression singularity and its real.

This singularity graph as demonstrated in Time Magazine shows the pace of change,

You can read more on the subject in Time Magazine Singularity: Kurzweil on 2045, When Humans, Machines Merge - TIME

We have all witnessed this occurrence since the 70s (when SAP was born), the speed of tech change is advancing faster and faster.

And as tech drives industry innovation, so SAP adapts and adopts driving process innovation, process optimisation and process automation.

Cake Alert: SAP always ensures its customer base has the competitive advantage (cake), when you look at the top 100 global companies, 99 are wall to wall SAP users, all 99 are early adopters of SAP process and tech innovation.

SAP singularity in action:

This early adoption by the top 100, then enables a trickledown effect injecting and accelerating innovation into the global 2,000, and within 18 months the layer below is adopting and adapting, with the pace of change constantly accelerating.

Often early adoption is targeted Digital Kaizen, focusing upon value chain innovation, within a limited line of business, fast and efficient transformation, running at the speed the business can support and sustain.

Digital Kaizen is constant bite size continuous improvement of the business operating model. Kaizen - Wikipedia

We have three observations of SAP singularity in action, based upon 3 decades of emersion in the SAP ecosystem, all of which led Dragon ERP to believe adopting SAP cloud products and more specifically SaaS are essential for organisations to remain competitive, whilst incubating the organisation from the pace of change and global economic and geo-political shockwaves.

One: When SAP pre sales give an example of early adoption of a new release or product, don’t be sceptical that this is simply spin, the cycle of innovation adoption does exist as explained above, within the different layers of the SAP eco system and that the lower levels will at some point (+1.6 years) adopt the new innovation, but only if it is gaining wider traction. Let’s be clear the early adopters are really good at telling SAP when they get it wrong and when they get it right.

So, a top tip for any organisation seeking to innovate their operating model, look at the global 100 early adopters and the global 2’000. Ask SAP for specific examples from this group and the reason for change and the value driven.

Dragon ERP’s plug and play innovation methodology is tailored to help organisations embrace “Digital Kaizen” and deliver rapid, low risk, rolling innovation that delivers tangible benefits.

TWO: Not all organisations can keep up with or want to keep up with the pace of SAP singularity, over 50% of SAP ECC users have no intention of moving to S/4HANA before 2030 (Gartner).

Many will instead move to the private cloud as an interim step, some may adopt HANA data base, many wont. But at some point, they will want to innovate around their SAP ECC legacy core, meaning they will need to start the SAP cloud journey (Composable ERP) with a plug and play adoption strategy (see Dragon ERP plug and play adoption methodology).

Cake Alert: At this point they have moved to a hybrid SaaS model and over time (by the end of this decade) will have moved fully to a SaaS composable ERP model with SAP s/4HANA at its core. With elements of Business Technology Platform to the side and lots of sap and non-sap cloud apps plugged in, sitting around and enabling the process core.

All will have data lakes, but few will take true advantage of their data advantage until the end of the decade with the rise of ChatCBT and its AI buddies.

Again the focus is on the cloud supporting and enabling process innovation and Target operating model evolution.

Again, the enabler is Digital Kaizen, again a Plug and Play innovation strategy enables a low-risk sustainable adoption path with tangible benefit realisation.

It is at this point that organisations should consider process mining tools to look at areas of process pain, to identify process productivity issues, to identify new value chains leveraging new optimised intelligent processes.

Cake Alert: SAP Signavio is a game change, and not to help organisations migrate from Legacy SAP ECC6 to SAP S/4HANA but to identify and drive digital kaizen value.

Dragon ERP, has developed a Digital Kaizen service helping organisations identify and deliver ongoing continuous improvement, not surprisingly we focus on establishing the current operating model baseline. We work with customers to identify and deliver sustainable change, we can be sustained and adopted by the business. Plug and Play innovation is target and tailored enabling rapid low risk innovation and benefit realisation.

Three: SAP doesn’t innovate, it really doesn't, but it has the intelligence and mass to identify tech, industry and global economic trends and react as necessary. SAP takes forming ideas, refines them and commoditises them for mass consumption. They do this through product acquisition and ongoing process refinement. Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn’t. But 80/20 rule you cannot fault SAPs ability to transform itself and its core SAP product being a best of breed Industry 4.0 target operating model.

Cake Alert: In Feb 2022 SAP signed an alliance with global consulting firm McKinsey to work together to further refine the SAP target operating model and to develop industry flavoured operating models. SAP & McKinsey | McKinsey & Company

This linked to the acquisition of the Signavio process mining tool to identify process innovation opportunities means that when a new or existing SAP customer move to a form of SAP cloud, they will immediately benefit from best of breed innovation. SAP to Acquire Signavio | SAP News Center

And this is where Quantum computing comes in, and the rationale for the blog.
Sales Force purveyor of Customer Relationship solutions, announced they were going to embrace Quantum computing to innovate data analysis. Salesforce makes first quantum investment, backing Q-CTRL (information-age.com)

Within the next 5 years, CFOs and CIOs will have embraced the cloud, imbedded greenline and carbon footprint reporting and move towards an intelligent operating model, the pre sales clamour will switch to Quantum computing.

So, in summary:

SAP customers that have moved to the SAP cloud whether private, public or with a hyper scaler will automatically benefit from the pace of change and the value it will derive. So that at some point in the next decade if your on the cloud you will be able to leverage the power of Quantum computing automatically with little fuss, risk or investment

Ultimately the SAP cloud will de risk and the reduce the complexity of future innovation and incubate organisations from the ravages of singularity.

SAP Cloud enables business resilience by enabling Digital Kaizen continuous improvement.

This is a compelling rationale to look at SAP S/4HANA Cloud and SAP Business technology Platform cloud app plug ins.

The SAP Cloud will enable organisations to refresh how they transform, and by adopting Digital Kaizen can deliver a steady stream of continuous improvement benefits.

Dragon ERP, A SAP Target Operating model Innovation Integrator “TOMII”, changing the way organisations unlock the value of their SAP investment.   

If you want to know more about how SAP is changing and how Dragon ERPs Plug and Play transformation methodology unlocks accelerated benefit realisation then contact a Dragon today.   

https://dragonerp.co.uk/contact-us

About the Author:
Alisdair Bach is a SAP mentor and influencer with over
30 years’ experience in shaping the SAP journey for the
global 2,000.