A report released by SAP outfit Avantra and its research partner ASUG reveals organisations are spending more than twice as much time executing on their current SAP strategies than planning for the future.
ASUG conducted an independent survey to identify drivers in the SAP operations market, understand SAP-centric enterprise operational challenges, explore challenges in digital transformation, and uncover the tools and technologies enterprise leaders need to solve these challenges.
Esoteric software maker SAP has entered into an agreement to acquire Austrian firm Emarsys. Emarsys produces software that businesses can use to interact with their customers ‘on a personal level’ through multiple online channels.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2020, subject to regulatory approval and no one is saying how much money SAP spent.
SAP will add Emarsys’ operations to its Customer Experience portfolio, which is anchored by the Qualtrics platform. SAP acquired Qualtrics in 2018 for $8 billion, and the platform now plays an important role in the company’s cloud growth strategy as SAP aims to combine customer data with operational data.
While the majority of SAP applications are still housed on-premise, 70 percent of those responsible for SAP believe migrating to the public cloud will be more beneficial than keeping it on-premise, according to a new report from Ensono
Ensono found that 61 percent stated that migrating SAP to public cloud is critical for business success.
There was consensus amongst the 100 IT leaders responsible for SAP within UK enterprise that public cloud provides businesses with opportunities. Almost 20 percent of those surveyed had one or more SAP application already hosted on public cloud and this is set to increase by 79 percent in the next two years as enterprise organisations launch their migration plans. This indicates that, following many years of barriers to public cloud such as security, loss of control and regulation, customers are edging towards public cloud maturity.
AI outfit ThoughtSpot has joined the SAP PartnerEdge programme as a partner to help enterprises milk more from their data.
As part of this partnership, ThoughtSpot’s Embrace software has been extended to SAP HANA, which, it’s claimed, empowers people to run search-driven analytics directly in SAP HANA, without having to transfer data. The idea is that organisations can find insights that enhance decision making, improve processes, and deliver more value to the business.
Thoughtspot thinks that enterprises are embracing new infrastructures and warehouses to handle the explosion of data, and looking for new ways to use this data to operate their business more efficiently and effectively. Its Embrace for SAP HANA allows business users to access all of their organisation’s data in SAP HANA in the cloud or on premise.
Tricentis has extended its flirtation with SAP to get its software-testing tools added to the products sold through the vendor’s channel as SAP Solution Extensions.
The move is seen as an attempt to increase the outfit’s exposure to more channel partners and a chance to widen a reputation.
Jonathan Boswell, director of strategic content for SAP and packaged applications for Tricentis, said that the visibility Tricentis gets from this partnership expands opportunities across the board and means that Tricentis solutions have a place in every SAP deal.
SAP consultancy Absoft has announced a step change in the way it monitors clients’ enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, with the launch of its next generation SAP Managed Service.
Claiming to be the first SAP specialist in the UK to offer this level of business process monitoring, Absoft has focused upon automated monitoring, incident self-healing and self-service features.
Real-time visibility of all critical business processes, the ability to eradicate repeated incidents and the option for users to request automated process implementation – without the need for human interaction – are set to revolutionise the SAP user experience and the results it can achieve, the company claims.
This development in Absoft’s Managed Service offering follows the company’s investment in an automated software solution created by Swiss software developers, Avantra.
With concerns about how they will suffer after Brexit, companies are not so keen to invest in esoteric management software which no one knows what it actually does,according to a new report published today by Information Services Group.
Apparently, Enterprises in the UK are cautious about adopting SAP S/4HANA and other SAP products, given the uncertainty surrounding the country’s exit from the European Union.
The UK & Ireland SAP User Group, the independent not-for-profit organisation representing all users of SAP software, launched its new Affiliate Member Portal, designed to help SAP users select the right technology partner. The portal will provide anyone visiting the site with an ‘at a glance’ one to five-star rating for each partner. Much like TripAdvisor, registered
The maker of esoteric business software which no-one really understands, SAP, has launched an innovation programme for its partners.
The programme means that they can build and go to market with new applications that augment the rich functionality of SAP S/4HANA Cloud. The partner innovation programme is designed for customers in micro verticals within priority industries, such as professional services and manufacturing.
The programme will help partners extend the intelligent capabilities of SAP S/4HANA Cloud using the open and agile SAP Cloud Platform. SAP said that its S/4HANA Cloud SDK, a software development kit that supplies partners with all the productivity tools and templates they need for quick innovations, makes the development process even faster.
SAP will co-market the solutions with partners to help them drive new business growth and profitability.
SAP initially involve select partners and then extend the programme in the second half of 2019 to all partners focused on SAP S/4HANA Cloud
Franck Cohen, president, Digital Core & Industry Solutions, SAP said: “Many of our customers are asking for an intelligent enterprise resource planning solution that addresses not only broader industry needs but also supports their unique micro-vertical business challenges. They want a solution from out of the box to help them thrive. The SAP ecosystem and partners – one of the most robust networks of its kind in the world – will play a critical role in helping us meet the needs of our customers in particular markets. We are committed to empowering and supporting our partners, so they can successfully build and market solutions that are complementary to our core SAP S/4HANA Cloud software.”
SAP, the esoteric management software outfit which no one really understands, has chosen Jamf to manage its 17,000 Mac, 83,000 iOS and 170 Apple TV devices. SAP is managing these devices together with Jamf Pro to create a “native and integrated IT and user experience” across all of its Apple devices.
That’s several orchards of apples.
Martin Lang, vice president of enterprise mobility, SAP, said: “With a growing number of SAP employees choosing Apple devices, SAP decided to reorganise its IT teams to create an Apple Centre of Excellence team and chose Jamf because of its focus on the user experience. Jamf Pro combined with the Apple@SAP service ensure a consistent experience for Apple users.”
SAP claims that it is taking advantage of Jamf’s integration with Microsoft Enterprise Security + Mobility (EMS), which provides an “automated compliance management solution” for Mac and iOS devices accessing applications set up with Azure AD authentication.
“Through this collaboration, SAP leverages conditional access to ensure that only trusted users from compliant devices, using approved apps, are accessing company data. In addition to conditional access, SAP is also taking advantage of Jamf Self Service, which is a self-help destination that gives SAP employees instant access to resources, content and trusted apps through a single click on their Mac or iOS device without IT help.”
It claims it can keep pace with upgrade cycles. Streamline workflow for provisioning and provide a consistent user experience by segmenting Apple devices in separate management solutions forces end users to interact with different apps for Mac and iOS, ultimately creating confusion for where to go for what device. Streamlining ecosystem management with one solution gives users a common app for all Apple platforms. Users gain a “consistent experience” with Jamf Self Service that has one brand, name, look and feel across both macOS and iOS.
Reading between the PR lines, I guess that means everything works.
On-Demand Solutions has announced that Apico, the UK’s off-road parts and clothing distributor for motocross, trials, supermoto, trail riding, enduro and quad racing, has signed up for its ODSNet product for its B2B e-commerce site for use by dealers across the UK and parts of Europe.
ODSNet is an e-commerce platform for SAP Business One and was apparently selected following a recommendation of its SAP Business One provider, Signum Solutions, because of the platform’s tight integration with SAP B1.
This means Apico will manage its e-commerce site in a more automated and keep it continuously in sync with back-office systems.
Apico had been a family-owned business since its foundation in 1984 by three times World Trials Champion Yrjo Vesterinen. When the original owners retired in 2014, long-standing employees Anna Lena Eriksson and Dylan Brown took over the Burnley, Lancashire-based business. The new plans for the website are part of their aim to modernise the way the company operates by making more use of digital channels.
The business has seen growing interest from dealers going online to choose and order products, a trend it wanted to embrace. “People now expect to have all the answers readily available to them online, without having to call or email,” Brown said. “They also want instant visibility – of invoices, order status, new products, special offers and so on. With ODSNet we’ll be able to provide all of that.”
The sticking point with the old website was the inability to link Apico’s e-commerce activity to its standard business systems, where the latest stock, pricing and account information resides. “We had struggled to find a solution to connect our web activities to SAP B1,” Eriksson said.
“This created a lot of manual work and meant we could never be entirely confident that the website carried current stock and pricing. We deal with a large volume of part numbers, so it’s hard to check everything manually.”
The outgoing web platform was also geared more to consumer purchasing, she said.
“Although our provider couldn’t have been more helpful, we had to make a lot of compromises with what we wanted to do. When our SAP provider found ODSNet – a B2B e-commerce specialist with certified SAP integration, it was the answer we’d been looking for.”
Once Apico has deployed ODSNet, it expects online sales to grow from the current level of about 15 percent to represent 40 percent of total business, because of the increased convenience and transparency it offers to dealers.
The company will also take advantage of ODSNet’s Marketplaces option, allowing it to promote products on third-party sites such as eBay and Amazon. “We have done some limited business on eBay before, but it has been very manual, whereas with ODSNet it will be much simpler and more automated”, Brown said.
The maker of expensive esoteric business software which no-one is quite sure what it does has increased the support for partners keen on increasing their cloud revenue.
SAP has launched its cloud accelerator programme as part of its cunning cloudy plan. The vendor thinks the channel is in the best position to reach out to the SME market and deliver the growth in that segment it wants.
Writing in his bog, SAP head of channelsKarl Fahrbach said that digital transformation was here to stay.
“The move to the cloud is reaching a fever pitch – the cost, speed, and agility benefits are too good to pass up. More companies than ever will be making the switch and those that don’t are at risk of falling behind. This means that cloud growth will be a number one priority for SAP and our partners in 2018 and beyond.”
The Cloud Accelerator programme is a global initiative and supports resellers developing and executing a digital marketing plan, access to some business development funds and the involvement of a partner marketing advisor.
“Throughout the year, SAP partners’ co-funded marketing plan will be put into action to build a pipeline, gain new customers, and expand the potential of a fast-growing cloud business,” said Fahrbach.
“Any company with a strong commitment to investing in the cloud demonstrated through a business plan that outlines a yearly target to grow their SME cloud business by at least 50 percent can qualify for the programme.”
Human evolution
The maker of expensive management software which no one is really sure what it does, SAP, is discovering that its customers are not so keen on getting the latest and greatest versions.
SAP appears to be struggling to get users to move to its S/4HANA offering with many quite happy sticking with their existing ERP products from the vendor.
Research from Rimini Street has found that the overwhelming number of respondents – 89 percent – were going to stick with existing products because they continue to meet business needs.
When asked if they would move to S/4HANA the reasons for not making the effort included struggling to find a strong business case, unclear ROI and fears of high migration and reimplementation costs.
Rimini Street CEO Seth Ravin said that the survey highlights that CIOs and IT decision makers prefer to maximize the value of their current robust SAP ERP system that more than meets their business requirements, rather than advancing to a new platform that is still in development with no current business case to support a full reimplementation.
“It also illustrates how they are pursuing innovation strategies, such as hybrid IT, to help their business gain competitive advantage now, without having to wait indefinitely for meaningful new innovations and capabilities from SAP,” he said.
The hybrid IT approach is also one of the reasons why many customers are quite happy to use software that has largely been designed for on-premise use.
Cloudy Salesforce has written a $2.8 billion cheque for Demandware whose software is used by businesses to run e-commerce websites.
The move is part of a cunning plan to open a new front as Salesforce wants to take more market share from traditional software providers such as Oracle and SAP who offer cloud-based e-commerce services.
The e-commerce market has been growing as retailers expand their online presence, boosting demand for software that helps manage functions such as payment processing and inventory management.
Salesforce appears to have paid rather a lot for the company to see off any of the other outfits which were bidding for the company. Word on the street is that Adobe and Oracle were also snuffling around.
Demandware has not been doing that well. Its shares, which have fallen about 21 percent in the past year. Its customers include Lands’ End, L’Oreal (because it is worth it) and Marks and Sparks. It has reported sales growth of more than 30 percent for the last 10 quarters.
While Salesforce has beaten up everyone in the CRM war, it still needs to stay in front. To do that it needs lots of products which is something it lacks.
Global spending on digital commerce platforms is expected to grow over 14 percent annually to about $8.5 billion by 2020, Salesforce.
The deal, slated to close in Salesforce’s second quarter ending July, is expected to increase the company’s 2017 revenue by about $100 million-$120 million.
Salesforce had forecast fiscal 2017 revenue of $8.16 billion-$8.20 billion in May.
The European Commission has announced BT, IBM, Accenture and Atos will get most of the contracts to supply its new cloud services.
Contracts were broken out into three “lots,” covering a private cloud setup, public cloud setup, and platform-as-a-service, for which it will pay $38.5 million.
The whole lot will be platformed by Telecom Italia which is a bit unfortunate. That outfit is under resourced and its mobile arm TIM just adopted the iChing hexagram for “standing still” as its logo.
It is unusual that Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Amazon and none of the other big cloud outfits managed to get their paws on the EU’s clouds.
The Commission said that all the systems will be physically located within the European Union, the Commission noted, “to be compliant with EU data handling requirements” basically it means that the US will not be able to steal it.
According to the announcement, the contract will “enable the Commission to follow the ceaseless pace of today’s technological race.”
The EU hopes that use of cloud services will help it come up with future improvements to how it works, such as using “Big Data.”
The private cloud service will provide computing and storage facilities through a private network link connected to the EC’s data centres, and will be hosted by a single provider. The public cloud infrastructure will be run over the public internet. And the public platform-as-a-service will include both operating systems and database services run over the cloud.
The first cloud services should appear this year.
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