Data Is the Key to the Intelligent Enterprise

The quality of a company’s decision-making depends on its ability to analyze massive amounts of information, both the structured and unstructured data that is the foundation of an Intelligent Enterprise. SAP Cloud Platform holds the components that make up the digital core for the collection, management, and analysis of that data, including SAP Analytics Cloud and opens the way for innovation through access to technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, and blockchain.

SAP Cloud Platform is the entryway for independent service vendors (ISVs) to create innovative applications. It has unleashed their ability to extend or build new applications that improve service to customers, the experience of employees, and the efficiency of operations such as manufacturing and the supply chain. SAP HANA allows massive amounts of data to be processed and analyzed instantly, and SAP HANA is the DNA of all the solutions and apps that SAP delivers to customers. By partnering with SAP, ISVs have access to powerful tools such as SAP Cloud Platform and SAP HANA, offering application development capabilities and data management capabilities, including governance, integration, and discovery from any source, in any format to rapidly develop, integrate, and extend business applications – all on the open digital platform.

For example, the finance industry faces the issue of fragmented data across multiple systems, making corporate performance management (CPM) complex. In response, ISV partner Wolters Kluwer has integrated its unified CPM software, CCH Tagetik, with SAP HANA, providing 50 finance processes from budgeting to planning and forecasting. With CPM processes on one platform and automated reporting and analytics, finance departments have better visibility into their companies’ performance. This digital transformation also helps finance departments make use of SAP Digital Platform capabilities around big data, advanced analytics, and cloud technologies.

Vertex Inc., a provider of tax technology and services, offers a range of tax services in a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model using SAP Cloud Platform. A long-time partner of SAP, it collaborated with SAP to integrate the Vertex Tax Accounting application. The application is also certified by SAP for use with SAP Business Planning and Consolidation (SAP BPC). It leverages SAP BPC data for calculating tax processes such as compliance, audits, and planning, thus reducing risk. It can manage multiple ledgers and currencies as well as track countries’ Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAPs). Vertex has also collaborated with SAP to offer SAP Cloud Platform-based applications, leveraging SAP HANA for use-tax calculations, reporting, and exemption certificate management in the indirect tax space, such as for the calculation of the value-added tax (VAT) or sales taxes. Automation ensures that users have access to accurate, real-time tax rules, rates, and exceptions.

Incture Technologies Pvt Ltd designs digital applications on SAP Cloud Platform. It has created applications that make employees’ work easier in the HR, finance, project management, and supply chain areas through digital transformation. In its Cherrywork venture, for example, Cherrywork Workbox consolidates workflows and tasks into a single inbox via pre-packaged workflow and user-interface templates. With a single view of all tasks and insights from the available data such as time taken or service level agreement (SLA) breaches, users can analyze where process improvements need to be implemented. The Cherrywork Leave and Attendance application improves attendance compliance with a workflow that routes requests for leave and travel duties through pre-defined rules. The Cherrywork Supply Chain Collaboration Portal application integrates suppliers into the supply chain ecosystem, allowing for automated entries that reduce manual errors and providing reports on the tracking of goods, services, and deliveries. Other applications cover processes such as budget allocation and management, shopping cart creation, order management, and accounts payable automation.

Embedded analytics through SAP Analytics Cloud provides the ability across industries to use augmented analytics, machine learning, and natural language to optimize decision making. For more information about the digital core, go to https://bit.ly/2yRXnbM. Additional SAP PartnerEdge Build information can be found here or by following @SAPPartnerBuild.

To read other articles in this series go to:

Transforming Business in the Era of Intelligence

The Intelligent Enterprise and the Workforce of the Future

The SAP Intelligent Enterprise and the Digital Supply Chain of One

The SAP Customer Experience and Connecting with Purpose