Customers are looking for agile solutions that can work on multiple devices, from PCs to iPads to smartphones, says Martin Mrugal, senior vice president of manufacturing & consumer industries at SAP. Moreover, they need so-called orchestration - the ability to mine information from all of these devices at the same time.
Clients need agility in the solutions they use and the ability to "proliferate" information generated on every system and type of device in a company's arsenal of tools. They are also looking for the ability to collaborate more efficiently, both internally and outside, with suppliers and other partners, Mrugal says. Finally, they want to operate better. That means, they have to have a good handle on maintenance of assets, and on their schedules so they can be deployed to the right people for the right jobs at the appropriate time.
There is so much information spread across a company's processes, from planning to decommissioning, that SAP recommends taking a step-by-step approach. To help with that, SAP has created repaid-deployment solutions, which Mrugal calls "bite-sized" pieces of business process solutions. They allow a customer to implement a scaled-down solution within, say, three months in order to get a good feel for what the solution could do if it were really opened up, so to speak. "The goal is to add customer value directly."
In terms of the hot topic of sustainability, Mrugal says SAP feels it must be an exemplar first. "It's one thing to talk to customers about sustainability, but it's important to show them you are serious about it as well. That's why our buildings are LEED-certified. We lead the sustainability category for software companies on the Dow Jones Sustainability Index, and we're ranked 22 overall."
