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Navigating the Data Deluge: SAP’s Big Data Analytics Solutions

Apr 30, 2024

In the ever-evolving marketplace, organizations are on a relentless quest to stay ahead of the curve. They harness the power of modern data analytics to innovate and streamline their operations. At the heart of this revolution is Big Data, a vast reservoir of information flowing from sources as diverse as IoT devices, social media, e-commerce platforms, and operational logs. The challenge? To find an integrated solution that marries data analysis with core business processes. Enter SAP Big Data Analytics solutions, a cornerstone of the SAP ecosystem. SAP’s approach to big data analytics is cutting-edge, leveraging technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), and predictive analytics. The data landscape is rich and vast, encompassing structured, unstructured, and semi-structured data. To tame this data beast, a robust infrastructure is essential. SAP S/4HANA stands out with its in-column architecture and parallel processing prowess, offering a speedy solution for Big Data analytics. The HANA platform is a powerhouse for processing and analyzing hefty data sets, structured or not. It democratizes data analytics, allowing for swift insights without the need for intricate coding, positioning it as an exemplary SAP Big Data Analytics solution. SAP HANA Cloud is a behemoth with no bounds, catering to any workload model—be it vector, graph, geospatial, documents, relational entities, and beyond. It champions generative AI, secure connections, and compliance, making it the go-to for Big Data Analytics. Its Predictive Analytics feature empowers organizations to forecast future trends by analyzing present Big Data insights. The journey begins at the Data Lake, the springboard for SAP Big Data analytics solutions, addressing the following needs: Gather and Store: The process starts with the seamless collection of data from a myriad of sources. SAP Data Services is the key, connecting to a variety of file formats and object types, including Apache Cassandra, Hadoop, Impala, MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Amazon Athena, and HP Vertica. Big Data finds its home in SAP S/4HANA or other storage solutions like SAP BW/HANA, which offers optimized processes for SAP S/4HANA. It boasts flexible data modelling with BW Workspaces and user-friendly interfaces for streamlined analytics. SAP BW/HANA is adept at unifying disparate data sources, simplifying Big Data management. Whether deployed in the cloud or on-premises, SAP BW/HANA integrates seamlessly with SAP and third-party apps. SAP also presents the SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, a self-service data modeling haven that’s scalable and compatible with both SAP and non-SAP environments. SAP Data Warehouse Cloud syncs with SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), and a suite of open-source and partner solutions. It offers ready-made templates for various business scenarios and fosters a collaborative space for IT and business professionals to co-create. SAP Datasphere, the avant-garde iteration of SAP Data Warehouse Cloud, is brimming with advanced features that hasten the journey to value. It utilizes semantic associations from other SAP applications, harmonizes diverse data, and syncs data sources across on-prem, cloud, or hybrid setups. SAP Datasphere smooths the transition to the cloud and augments Big Data analytics with an open data ecosystem that supports real-time data streams and bolsters governance. These capabilities earmark it as the futuristic choice for an SAP Big Data Analytics solution. Quality and Compliance: The Data Lake must uphold regulatory compliance, ensuring data sources are traceable and meet the requisite quality standards for utilization. By embracing SAP’s Big Data Analytics solutions, organizations can navigate the data deluge with precision and foresight, unlocking new horizons of opportunity and innovation. Regulatory Compliance: Imagine a Data Lake—a reservoir teeming with data. To harness its potential, we must ensure regulatory compliance. The data source must be traceable, adhering to stringent quality standards. Statutory norms and geo-specific regulations play a pivotal role. Compliance isn’t just a checkbox; it’s the bedrock of responsible data management. Ease of Usage: Empowering Self-Service Analytics Architectural Harmony: The path to self-service analytics lies in well-architected data. Applications must align seamlessly with visualization models, warehousing tools, and custom analytics solutions. Simplicity breeds adoption, enabling even novices to wield the power of SAP Big Data Analytics. Advantages of SAP Big Data Analytics Solutions Holistic Analysis: SAP’s solutions dissect vast data volumes, catering to diverse business needs—both immediate sustenance and future growth. Strategic Planning: From budgeting to forecasting, SAP empowers informed decision-making. Customer Insights: Dive deep into customer preferences, enhancing their buying journey. User-Friendly Applications: SAP’s self-service model democratizes analytics, bridging the expertise gap. Social Sentiment: Extract valuable insights from social media posts using sentiment analysis. Operational Optimization: Uncover operational gems within massive transactional data sets. Unified Approach: SAP harmonizes disparate data types, models, and sources under one roof. AI and ML Magic: Beyond traditional analysis, SAP leverages AI and ML for profound insights. NLP and OCR: Conversational and documented data yield secrets when tapped via NLP and OCR. Scalability and Flexibility: SAP scales with your ambitions, adapting to your unique storage needs. SAP’s Expansive Toolbox: Beyond the essentials, SAP offers a treasure trove of Big Data analytics solutions. SAP Data Intelligence Platform: A hub for data orchestration, integration, and governance. SAP Business Technology Platform: A versatile suite for building, extending, and integrating applications. SAP Analytics Cloud: A cloud-native solution for business intelligence and predictive analytics. Your choice depends on specific requirements and synergies with other SAP offerings. Unlocking Potential with New Era Technology As an SAP Solutions Partner, New Era Technology tailors comprehensive Big Data Analytics solutions to your organization’s needs. Dive into the boundless potential of data analysis, gaining a competitive edge. Reach out to our experts—we’re here to guide you toward data-driven success.

SAP S/4 HANA Strategy and Assessment

Mar 29, 2024

A successful SAP S/4HANA digital transformation requires an enterprise-wide assessment of the current and future business needs, the existing and forthcoming technology ecosystem, and the organizational readiness to adapt to change – starting from the top. Stated differently, a holistic approach that analyses different value levers across your organization’s people, processes, and technologies is time well spent to bolster what good can look like. A well-defined strategy driven by insights from a strategy and assessment phase can reinforce the success of an SAP S/4HANA transformation and bolster the intended results. Ineffective strategic planning with incomplete or a lack of a strategy and assessment often leads to delays in implementation, suboptimized operational processes, poor user adoption, and ultimately does not give the intended benefits. Such implementations can lead to heavy losses in costs incurred, adaptability and can lead to failure. Optimizing the S/4HANA implementation is only possible when you have the right strategy and assessment up front. SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment is not limited to a single technology shift to S/4HANA or a migration from SAP ECC but is also essential for optimizing when an organization is faced with a merger, acquisition, or divestiture. If your organization is moving to an SAP S/4HANA adoption, there are a few things you should consider to make the Strategy and Assessment phase more aligned with your enterprise business goals. What Makes a Successful SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment? Your Existing Data and Operational Processes The fundamental aspect you need to consider is what you will do with your existing data and operational processes from the options below, which will provide the direction to the right S/4HANA deployment model. SAP S/4HANA can be deployed on-prem, in the cloud, or as a hybrid deployment model. This stage is crucial to SAP S/4HANA strategic planning and must be well-aligned with your organization’s requirements across the various functions that serve your enterprise. A Greenfield deployment model may suit your requirements if you start afresh by discarding all your legacy data and operational processes. The Greenfield deployment model also fits cases where you wish to have SAP-standardized data and processes. If existing transactional data and operational processes need retention, a Brownfield approach could suit the purpose. If you wish to use some of your existing data and processes and start fresh for others, a Bluefield model (Selective Transition) might be ideal. Optimizing the S/4HANA deployment strategy paves the way for a successful SAP S/4HANA implementation. In the case of multiple SAP and non-SAP landscapes, such as with Mergers and Acquisitions, a Landscape Transformation may be the suitable model. Such scenarios require the ERP landscape to be harmonized and consolidated with a selective approach. Other cases include merging multiple SAP deployments across various business units and geographies. If you are in the process of a divestiture, you need to have a carve-out approach to create different SAP landscapes from your existing deployment. For scenarios with numerous vital interfaces to SAP and third-party applications, a Brownfield or Bluefield approach may suit the requirements best for retaining existing interfaces and their linked processes. Choosing from the above models is an integral part of the S/4HANA assessment services and paves the way for a successful implementation. The Role of Change Management within Your Organization Many SAP S/4HANA implementations fail to get from the old to the new by making Change Management an end-phase exercise and often keep this capability at arm’s length in the initial phases of the program. The role of Change Management plays is integral to every phase of a deployment model. The inclusion of Change Management is vital in the SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment phase to understand and gauge the necessary levers to pull when moving from old processes and procedures to new ones. Training Effective employee training also needs to be well-defined and implemented. Conventional training systems often don’t efficiently deliver the intended results when you have a remote working or hybrid working model for your employees. The S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment phase considers the best training approach that suits your organization’s requirements and needs. Digital training assistants such as OnScreen can accentuate employee learning and adaptability by guiding employees, step-by-step, through various transactions that will be used to support their functions. Such solutions come with the flexibility of being accessed anytime and anywhere without any usage limitations. Support Flexible post-implementation support must be well-defined in your SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment phase. It needs to factor in your in-house technical capabilities and the required internal resources to effectively maintain the application, enhance existing processes, and innovate existing operations by developing new methods. All this is a necessary part of the S/4HANA assessment services and needs a well-defined strategy. In addition, an ideal SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment must include the strategy for providing required analytics and reports. It also needs to define how to deal with system integrations and extensibility. The Choice of a Technology Partner A successful SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment needs a reliable and experienced technology partner for well-defined SAP S/4HANA strategic planning based on S/4HANA assessment services. You need to factor in costs, resource engagement, post-implementation support, and, most importantly, their strategy for Change Management. Such requirements are vital to optimizing the S/4HANA deployment strategy to align with your organizational requirements. These considerations are crucial to a successful SAP S/4HANA implementation. New Era Technology, an SAP Solution Partner, provides comprehensive SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment services, combined with a wealth of implementation experience. Our proprietary RAPID S/4 solution accelerates the entire implementation process, giving you the much-needed savings in time. To know more about our SAP S/4HANA Strategy and Assessment services, contact us, and we will be glad to help.

The Signavio Plug and Gain Approach for Accelerated SAP S/4HANA Transformation

Feb 8, 2024

Business Process Management is a continuous task for progressive growth towards achieving digital transformation. The need to innovate, optimize, and expand has always been imperative when choosing SAP S/4HANA, which unifies your core business operations. While transitioning to SAP S/4HANA from SAP ECC, SAP Signavio’s “Plug and Gain” offering reduces your preparation time for the exercise with data-driven insights. It enables you to identify improvement areas, automate processes, and better manage your master and configuration data. What is SAP Signavio? SAP Signavio is an integrated cloud-based suite for Business Process Management. It is a leader in process mining tools, according to Gartner’s Magic Quadrant-20231 analysis. SAP Signavio enables organizations to improve and transform their business processes faster. Within the Signavio Process Transformation suite, we have the below components for S/4HANA transformation. Understand: The first step towards a transformation exercise requires understanding your existing business processes across your ERP system. SAP Signavio Process Insights and the Process Intelligence suite achieve this. Improve: With an understanding of your processes and systems, there comes a need to improve processes and set the stage for journey modeling. Signavio Process Manager and the Signavio Journey Modeler enhance employee, customer, and supplier engagement. Transform: With the stage set for innovative transformation from the above steps, the Siganvio Process Governance gives a roadmap for efficient governance. Based on the insights from the Understand and Improve phases, the Signavio Process Automation enables the automation of manually driven and complex processes, setting the stage for a seamless transition to SAP S/4HANA. The Signavio Plug and Gain Approach The Signavio Plug and Gain approach is not a solution or component but a proven approach that reduces the time for the preparatory phase of the SAP from months to a few hours. It works by leveraging the existing data and processes with components of the SAP Signavio suite and creates a clear starting point for the SAP S/4HANA transformation exercise. Benefits of the Signavio Plug and Gain Approach Get As-is identification of Line of Business and end-to-end processes in the current ERP solution by deep process mining capabilities and data-driven insights. Quantify the insights by enabling drill-down, filtering, and value calculators. Identify potential and existing bottlenecks (Process Blockers and other pain points) and provide insights on correction recommendations. The approach enables fact-based decisions that align with KPIs, industry best practices, and benchmarks. You can leverage internal best practices for the global template improvements. Drive innovation and automation with SAP SIgnavio workflow automation and process transformation solutions. Simply your S/4HANA Transformation with SAP Signavio Data Cleansing Data cleansing is an integral part of the S/4HANA Transformation activity. With Siganvio’s Plug and Gain approach, you get to analyze and cleanse your master and configuration data with a recommendation for deletion or retention, per the insights. Master data relates to your core identities and attributes across the core entities of your business, such as prospects, suppliers, and sites and hierarchies. Unused Master Data makes your ERP system challenging to use and increases the time to implement and test your S/4HANA landscape. Configuration data relates to the data not directly processed by the application but has a definite impact on your operations, such as a data report generated from a database. Obsolete configuration data and business documents heavily impact the memory of your S/4HANA landscape. They create chokepoints in your planning algorithms and the system’s efficiency, which can generate inaccurate results. The Plug and Gain approach with Signavio provides vast insights into your process reality with a transparent analysis. It provides insights into Process Performance Indicators (PPIs), such as backlog indicators, which determine the numeric count of documents or items not fully processed on time. The Plug and Gain approach also provides insights on Master Data and configuration entries and their usage, which will be a good starting point to cleanse your data. You can refine your data by deleting unused Master Data entries that can be archived or deleted. As outlined below, the Plug and Gain approach gives a comprehensive set of correction recommendations to improve the identified inefficiencies. Findings and associated recommendations The post-implementation impact on the performance Impacted business objects and value drivers The root cause of the findings in the source system With the above features and benefits of using the Signavio Plug and Gain approach, you can perform an efficient data cleansing exercise with tailored recommendations that help you quickly identify and remediate data inefficiencies in your system. With data in place, let’s move to another vital aspect of the Plug and Gain approach, which deals with process automation. Process Automation with Signavio Plug and Gain approach Enterprises have diverse ways of working with the SAP ERP system, which needs to be more streamlined. SAP S/4HANA will not support such variances in processes and systems. If you want to transition from your legacy SAP platform, now is the best time to explore potential automation opportunities with the Signavio Plug and Gain approach. The Plug and Gain approach provides insights into Process Performance Indicators within which the Automation Rate and Exceptions are vital parameters. While the Automation Rate conveys the number of processes running on an automation sequence, you get insights on how you can explore ways to automate and reduce manual processing. Exceptions are error messages that are displayed run-time. If your Exception score is higher, consider reworking them and exploring potential automation opportunities. Process Blockers are potential chokepoints needing remediation to bring system efficiency. Best-Run-Score is a measure of the efficiency of your processes. The Plug and Gain approach performs a process execution analysis. It determines the most suited way to enhance your strategies based on the Best-Run-Score and the frequency of adopting the specific process variant. Custom Code and the Clean Core Concept Businesses running on legacy SAP ERP platforms have a vast set of custom code that caters to various custom changes required. A transition to the SAP S/4HANA public code platform does not support custom transactions, and this is where you can leverage the Plug and Gain approach to identify and harmonize the custom code across your platform by leveraging the Transaction Code Analysis. The Transactional code analysis measures the usage of transaction codes across individual processes and company codes. SAP provides a standardized set of operational practices, with years of experience with its ERP customers and vendor-recommended processes. You must align to the standardization to achieve higher performance and efficient operations. The Clean Core Concept The Clean Core concept in SAP ERP is a way to achieve modern, flexible, and cloud-compliant processes with the required governance across Master Data and business processes. It makes the ERP system devoid of any custom code, with the advantage of having a standardized process. With the Plug and Gain approach, you can identify and remove custom codes within the system and create a harmonized ERP deployment. Transformation Planning Using the SAP Signavio Process Insights, the Plug and Gain approach gives insights on using the SAP recommended best practices inclusions, paving the way for streamlined operational processes in the Transformation Planning exercise. Innovation Recommendations The Plug and Gain approach also provides Innovation Recommendations derived from using each transaction or report within your ERP landscape. It measures their effectiveness and usage by other ERP deployments across your specific industry. The above features of the SAP Signavio Plug and Gain approach will help you get the best roadmap for your S/4HANA transition, saving costs and time, enhancing current operations, and moving towards a harmonized model. For any questions or to know more about process excellence with SAP Signavio, contact us, and we will be glad to help. References: https://www.signavio.com/downloads/analyst-reports/2023-gartner-magic-quadrant-process-mining/

Introducing Joule, the SAP Generative AI Copilot

Dec 12, 2023

Artificial Intelligence has evolved rapidly over the past years, with Machine Learning, Deep Learning, and Generative AI being its core capabilities. Generative AI has made a profound impact in simplifying the usage of modern technology platforms such as SAP. The crux of Generative AI in SAP lies in its inherent ability to simplify the development process by enabling easy interaction between users and the application in a natural language. Trends in Generative AI As quoted by SAP, a McKinsey1 study shows Generative AI adds $2.6 to $4.4 trillion annually to the global economy. Here are some trends from a diverse sample of organizations. 33% use some form of Generative AI across a specific business function. 40% want to increase their AI investments based on the latest advancements in Generative AI. The best part is that 60% of organizations adopting Generative AI had increased revenue. The SAP Copilot-Joule SAP has recently announced its own AI-powered Generative Copilot, called Joule, set to be deployed shortly across all applications in the platform. It aims to enable even novice users to seamlessly use the SAP platform, with automated code generation, analytics, and content creation, to name a few. While SAP’s foray into infusing AI capabilities in its solutions has been a part of its evolution in the past years, Generative AI Copilot Joule will undoubtedly be a game changer. The current versions of SAP applications come with AI-enriched capabilities across various functions, such as source to pay, recruit to retire, lead to cash, and design to operate, amongst others, and the SAP Copilot Joule aims to take it further and more straightforward. SAP uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities to interact with Foundation and Large Language Models (LLM). A model can be defined as a vast dataset containing billions of data parameters, provided by either SAP (planned) or its Partners or custom-built. They have an infrastructure similar to the neural networks that a human brain contains. Current LLMs used in the SAP environment include GPT-4, Aleph Alpha, and Azure OpenAI. Benefits of Using Joule Copilot for SAP Streamlines tasks within the SAP application and support your activities with a tailor-made approach that understands your role and required outputs. Users can get instantaneous and contextually relevant output with just a simple prompt. Delivers enhanced analytical insights that help you better manage your business processes and move to an enriched decision-making process. The SAP Copilot Joule scores high on data privacy with built-in security systems that enable users to work in a safe and highly regulated environment. Benefit from cost savings when compared to manual operations. Users also save on resource utilization and move your employees to more complex roles. Generative AI in SAP with Joule democratizes the use of applications in your organization and simplifies the interaction between man and machine. It also includes sentiment analysis features. With the above statistics and the accelerated adoption path, now is the time to make an imperative move. SAP Business AI gives you a simplified, robust, and reliable model to move towards Generative AI across its various applications using the Copilot Joule. Use Cases for Generative AI in SAP SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP) will have generative AI capabilities that simplify the development process for coders and citizen developers. The SAP Generative AI HUB is a centralized environment for using SAP Generative AI and includes Model Grounding, Prompt Editor, and Prompt Management. Let’s look at some use cases where Generative AI in SAP can simplify your operations. Supply Chain: Generative AI in SAP simplifies demand planning by accessing various parameters and data to drive insights, including proactive alerting and recommendations. Document Information Extraction: While SAP currently has a document extraction feature for some widely used scenarios, Generative AI in SAP takes it forward by expanding the scope for almost all business documents in over 40 languages. The SAP Transportation Management Application, which has many documents that need to be analyzed and processed, can use Generative AI. You stand to benefit from reduced time spent on manual extraction, improving your operational efficiency and reducing errors. SAP Analytics Cloud: Within the SAP Analytics Cloud, you can use natural language prompts to query the database and get real-time insights. Using Large Language Models (LLMs) ensures secure retrieval per your data policies. You can leverage workflow compatibility across multi-cloud models and connect to external data sources. SAP SuccessFactors: With the SAP Copilot Joule, you can automate the generation of job postings by simply using a natural language prompt. You can use multiple parameters, generate supporting descriptions, and create approval workflows. Joule also enables the creation of interview questions and other recruitment documents. SAP Customer Experience (CX) and CRM: Joule simplifies extracting information and action items from customers, such as emails, support requests, and workflow-based tickets. You can get a quick summary of relevant information, along with sentiment analysis, and can also create responses. SAP Build: With the SAP Copilot Joule, you can automatically create code, edit your existing code fragment, and create related data models per your requirements. The infographic below shows the announced Generative AI capabilities across the SAP ecosystem, as highlighted in blue. Limitations of Generative AI in SAP and Ways to Mitigate Inaccuracy With the above features that make Generative AI in SAP more efficient and productive, the solution comes with its limitations, such as only having relevant information until the creation of the model. There are also several scenarios where the output will be inaccurate, such as providing biased data and generation of Hallucinations (wrong but seemingly accurate results), which calls for a need to align them with business requirements. Take a brief look at the various methods to help align Generative AI in SAP to your business processes and data, collectively termed “Grounding” of your foundation models. Aligning Generative AI in SAP to Your Business Context Prompt Engineering Large Language Models are stateless and do not have prompt recollection features. This challenge requires users to give task-specific information in the prompt, and that’s where rapid engineering comes into place. Prompt engineering involves elaborating the prompt, giving specific instructions, examples, and references, or making a well-defined structure of the desired output to give in-context learning to the model. Embeddings and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) Data can also be stored in the model using vectors, which are numeric representations of information with a semantic meaning. Using a machine learning algorithm, vectors are stored as embeddings in the LLM and can be recalled by referencing the required numeric code using vector similarity scoring. Embedding grounds the prompt with the required information and references the output’s source. Orchestration Tools Using orchestration tools is an advanced technique to augment the effectiveness of prompts. The LLM accesses the tools that retrieve the required API specification, uses it to connect to the system having the relevant data, and creates the output. Fine-tuning Fine-tuning is a widely accepted grounding solution for enhancing output quality. It retrains a foundation model on a different data set and examples of the required input/output format. This practice improves the domain-specific task performance with the required solutions. Inherent drawbacks of this approach are being computationally complex and expensive in collecting the vast training data. However, Fine-tuning is well suited for improving task-specific efficiency for medium-sized foundation models but is not recommended as a first approach to ground your foundation models. Best Practices for Adaptation of Foundation Models Generic Generative AI models might not be accurate in giving output as per a specific business context. To ensure accuracy, you must ground and train these models on your particular business data. Ensure that the grounding begins within simpler processes such as prompt engineering and Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) rather than Fine-tuning. Test, adapt, and optimize different models based on performance and pricing. Ensure proper governance and change management within your organization. The above features of SAP Copilot-Joule will greatly simplify business operations across the SAP suite. Generative AI in SAP puts the power of application usage into the hands of citizen developers, driving greater business value and a definite cost advantage. To learn more about how this can benefit your business, contact us; we will gladly help. References: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/quantumblack/our-insights/the-state-of-ai-in-2023-generative-ais-breakout-year

SAP Mobile Platform: Helping Enterprise Build Mobile Strategy from Mobile Moments

Nov 1, 2023

A “mobile moment” is when someone texts, opens an app, or uses their mobile. Each mobile moment allows a business to engage with its users and build their custom mobile strategy. Identifying and working on mobile moments is the starting point for creating mobile apps and implementing an enterprise-wide mobile strategy. Mobile moments highlight touchpoints as opportunities to consider while making a workflow. For instance, when building a workflow automation App for your field staff, the touchpoints will cover customer data capturing, inventory access, expense reporting, and data access to the CRM system. An ideal mobility solution considers all these touchpoints and converges data from multiple sources into a single app, enabling easy access for the end user. Features like multimedia and mobile sensors add further value to your mobility app. Approaches to Enterprise Mobility Strategy There are two strategies to build mobility for your business. The first is identifying processes with multiple touchpoints by different users and converging as needed. The second is to act on those with delays or longer wait times for a user action and start building applications to address them. If your enterprise is already mobile, you can start by optimizing and refining the current processes for mobile deployment. Harness the Power of the SAP Mobile Services in your Mobile Strategy The SAP App Store has more the 1,800 SAP and Partner Apps and an active customer base of over 200,000+ users. With the SAP Mobile Platform, building and deploying mobile Apps on SAP has never been so effortless. The SAP Mobile Services platform is perfect for building Mobile Apps for B2B and B2C segments and enhancing the power of the SAP ERP platform with scalable and mobile-ready applications. It’s an open-source tool that supports rapid App development, configuration, and end-to-end management and governance. With SAP Mobile Services, you can build an enterprise mobile strategy by designing and managing Apps to provide your business with the required functionalities. The cross-platform application development environment empowers you to create an App that runs on any mobile system. Benefits of SAP Mobile Services SAP Mobile platform is a service based on the SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP). You can build and deploy new Apps or customize existing Apps quickly and host them on-prem or on the cloud. You also gain access to the 200,000+ existing SAP customers by featuring your App on the SAP App Store. Here’s what you need to know about the SAP Mobile Services platform to help you build an enterprise mobile strategy to make your business more accessible and mobile. Platform Agnostic Apps: Build Apps across Android and iOS platforms with SAP Business Technology Platform to experience faster implementation of features and functionalities. The platform supports Native OData, Hybrid, and Web Apps. Application Analytics: Get a granular overview of the App usage, with graphical statistics displayed in the Mobile Services cockpit. Such statistics enable administrators to track usage and make way for potential feature enhancements or update existing security policies by mitigating the effect of loopholes that compromise the system. Work Offline: Build Apps that run even in an offline mode with a local data source that synchronizes with OData and open accessibility standards. Such a feature enables users to work on the App, even with sparse network connectivity. Push Notifications: SAP Mobile Services uses push notifications to send updates to the App from a back-end source, making App communication simpler and easily accessible. Comprehensive App Management: Create, manage, and govern Apps with extensive features that facilitate easy administration. SAP Fiori Client: The included SAP Fiori Client is a native application container for real-time access with a responsive, consistent, and simple-to-use interface and runs the Launchpad online. App Security: Choose from a wide range of security policies, from two-factor authentication to role-based access and built-in virus scanning to data wiping and automatic removal of users where usage doesn’t conform with your organizational guidelines. In short, SAP Mobile Services gives you complete control of business Apps accessed from a mobile device. Tracking capabilities enable administrators to monitor data exchange between the App and SAP Mobile Services. The feature enables capturing HTTP traffic, policies, and downloads, both locally and through a dedicated tool. Building the Right Enterprise Mobile Strategy with SAP: Many enterprises are moving their applications to the mobile platform because of the rising focus on providing greater accessibility and information sharing. The right mobile strategy involves thoroughly understanding your end users and the data they need to access on the go. In addition, it involves making Apps and creating value by making data and operations more accessible for your end-users. Rapid mobile solutions development is no longer a limiting factor in SAP. With the SAP Mobile Services platform, develop custom Apps for your diverse business requirements and rapidly deploy them across all your users. It is time for businesses using SAP to look at enterprise mobility for its distinct advantages and unleash the full power of the SAP Mobile Services Platform. To know more, contact us, and our team of experts in SAP Mobile Services will be glad to help.

SAP Cloud Migration: Path to Becoming an Intelligent Enterprise

Oct 23, 2023

What is the path towards becoming an intelligent enterprise? Is it optimal digital maturity, data security, ease of accessibility, and high-end performance with flexible pricing and usage options? The answer is a mix of all the above criticalities, and migration to SAP S/4HANA cloud offers all of them in a unified ERP suite. Cloud adoption has been seeing a steady spike during the pandemic and its aftermath. SAP S/4HANA can be deployed across leading Hyperscalars such as Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and Azure, apart from its cloud storage model, or in an SAP S/4HANA private cloud edition. Very few businesses today can dispute the importance, urgency, and need to move to the cloud. The shift to a public cloud model has seen a global surge, with a projected growth of 21.7% to reach $587.3 billion in 20231. At the same time, there is significant apprehension over the imminent challenges in making the transition. Organizations fear it could be a disruptive transition leading to downtimes and loss of business continuity. Some need help navigating the migration strategy and the ensuing process, and others with legacy systems may not be ready to deal with the change independently. The Solution A well-thought-out strategy, a clear roadmap, and a partnership with an experienced team of experts will ensure a migration with minimal disruption. The benefits of migrating to the SAP S/4HANA cloud are manifold, and the transition will be worth it. You can also consider the RISE with SAP offering, designed for enterprises making their foray into the SAP ERP landscape or moving to the cloud. Organizations that implement a cloud migration with the SAP S/4HANA platform gain from savings in infrastructure, hardware, and maintenance costs. The adoption also gives a competitive edge, such as better performance, security, and improved ROI. SAP S/4HANA Cloud Features Migrating to a cloud-based environment involves transitioning data, applications, and technology from a local deployment to a remote cloud platform or a hybrid one, including both deployment models. Such migration has distinct advantages in performance, scalability, security, and ease of development, achieving greater productivity and efficiency. Accelerated Digital Transformation: Cloud adoption enables and supports digitization. The integration of the latest technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), and Machine Learning (ML), is now native to cloud services and is tuned to be easily leveraged. Migrating to the cloud is the first step in preparing your enterprise for the future and transforming it into an intelligent enterprise. Insightful Analytics: The anytime-anywhere access to data is a powerful feature that businesses gain from moving to the SAP S/4HANA cloud, ensuring a winning combination of easy availability of real-time data with powerful analytics. In addition, predictive analytics equip you better to charter and implement a future change or enhancement. Such essential features are a potent addition to organizations' arsenal of business intelligence insights. Simplified and comprehensive analytics give the competitive edge by enabling efficient data-driven decisions. Flexible Resources: Dynamic business requirements create challenges in optimally managing workloads. Easy scalability in real time eliminates the need to invest in a CapEx model and shift to an OpEx form of operational costs. Agility and flexibility in managing workloads ensure optimal performance levels, and cost management becomes simpler. The SAP S/4HANA cloud offers tools that help businesses manage and maintain the systems themselves or with minimal IT support teams. You stand to gain from the advantage of assigning your in-house resources to focus on business and strategic initiatives. However, complex deployments, dedicated maintenance resources, and feature enhancements require a third-party Application Managed Service provider, and that's where New Era Technology comes in place. Workflow Enhancements: Process streamlining and performance optimization are a direct outcome of an SAP cloud migration exercise. The SAP HANA in-memory database minimizes the data footprint and leads to faster data access and analytics in sync with your operational processes. These features are absent in conventional on-prem deployment models, denying you the essentialities of a modern ERP platform. Security and Resilience: Built-in access controls, extensive data encryption, and continuous support ensure that your SAP S/4HANA cloud implementation is up to date with the latest security practices, securing your data and connectivity. The included disaster recovery systems and replicated data storage make the systems more resilient when compared to on-prem implementations. The focus is securing data and connectivity to ensure seamless business operations and continuity. Cost Savings: One of the most important considerations of any business decision is the impact on finances. The TCO in SAP S/4HANA cloud migration decreases due to multiple factors, such as scalable subscription models, savings from reduced infrastructure costs, the need for less support and maintenance staff, and data storage optimization. The flexible pay-per-use model can be scaled up or down per your technology requirements, benefiting from a flexible SAP S/4HANA cloud deployment. The reduced dependence on large IT teams, infrastructure costs, and the flexibility of provisioning, in addition to improved performance, create a harmonized model for significant cost savings. Cloud-enabled provisioning facilitates deployment across even geographically scattered locations in record times. Such flexibility suits enterprises which have a diverse global presence. Integration Capabilities: SAP S/4HANA includes constituent modules such as Finance, Supply Chain Management, Human Capital Management, Production, Sales and Distribution, and many more. The unified SAP S/4HANA suite provides a platform for diverse business functions, with easy integration with other SAP modules and third-party applications. Over and beyond all these reasons, business owners using SAP must also remember the recent announcements to end support for SAP's Business Suite 7 software suite by 2027. The migration to the SAP S/4 HANA cloud is now inevitable. In such a scenario, it makes sense to transition to the cloud as early as possible. Delays can only cause costs to rise further and can disrupt business continuity. With the above overarching reasons to transition to the cloud, rapid provisioning, and enhanced agility, making a move is now a business imperative. If cloud adoption is your priority now, or if you want to explore options, contact us, and our team of experts will be glad to help. References: https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2023-04-19-gartner-forecasts-worldwide-public-cloud-end-user-spending-to-reach-nearly-600-billion-in-2023

Empowering your SAP Eco-System with Self-Enablement

Oct 19, 2023

The key to a successful implementation of SAP S/4HANA and other applications of the SAP suite depends on the level of user adoption. Unless your end users are familiar with the new application platform and its benefits, there will be challenges in deriving the intended value from your investment. At times, adoption challenges might critically impact your business operations and create chokepoints in the system. Such challenges need a comprehensive training process and organizational change management approach where self-enablement comes into play. Conventional training processes lack the agility and efficiency that suits modern business requirements. It's imperative to blend such traditional methods with new technology solutions which are accessible anywhere and anytime. The idea is to equip and empower users and stakeholders with the required know-how, catalyzing operational efficiency. A blended approach to just-in-time end-user training is of utmost importance for every new technology implementation. Training is an integral part of change management, and you cannot afford to ignore it and create disruptions in your business continuity. Self-Enablement vs Conventional Training Processes Conventional training processes include workshops, community reach, instructional material, user guides, or manuals. With the modern workforce getting increasingly remote, such traditional methods will not accrue the intended benefit in its entirety. For example, a physical workshop requires in-person attendance, while a virtual meeting has people participating from everywhere. There is also a drawback of having the required know-how stored in an easily accessible format for use in later stages. Such are instances where businesses need to evaluate the efficiency of their training programs. The very success or failure of a SAP S/4HANA implementation lies in optimal training and user adaptability. Focusing on training users and making them technologically aware and equipped, we have modeled a Self-Enablement training paradigm for the SAP suite that centers on making users self-sufficient. Specific to SAP implementations, a Self-Enablement process equips your in-house team to carry on the migration activity by themselves, effectively maintain the application, and take care of troubleshooting and feature enrichments. Such an approach makes the end user less dependent on external resources for minor tasks and sets the stage for a digitally mature workforce. Our S/4HANA Self Enablement solution offers several benefits to businesses looking to harness the power of S/4HANA in their business operations with the below features of a virtual assistant. Clients are even seeing value from using these virtual assistants in the short term with their legacy ECC temporary users while they are transitioning to S/4HANA in the interim. A lean enablement model that focuses on delivering micro-content ranging from 2-5 minutes, along with training facilitators, is one of the best approaches. Users need flexibility for anytime access, which forms the crux of the Self-enablement approach. New Era has partnered with several virtual training tools (such as OnScreen, EnableNow, or WalkMe) that create a digitally immersive experience for your users. These solutions enhance the end user's actions in their operations and provide the steps whenever required within the SAP persona’s interface for a continuous learning experience. With virtual real-time access to all instruction manuals, workshop resources, and online tools, self-enabled users feel empowered to discover their unique answers independently. A well-built repository of instructional knowledge is invaluable to a user looking for solutions. The purpose is to develop the capability to identify problems, search, and find answers independently. Such an approach is a core feature of our SAP solutions and drives value and better ROI for your SAP investment. For any clarifications or more information on our Self-Enablement process, contact us, and our team of SAP experts will be glad to help.

GxP Compliance for SAP HLS-A Primer

Oct 6, 2023

Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals are among the most important and highly regulated sectors operating on critical products and services. As per recent statistics, the US spent 17.4% 1 of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on Healthcare in 2022. Such a focus shows the enormous importance of the sector, and the keen focus on ensuring the safety of end-users. If you are running a HLS organization, there are essential guidelines to be followed, which will be covered in this blog. Life Sciences and Pharmaceutical companies are subject to stringent regulatory norms by the FDA to ensure they reach the optimal quality criteria. Companies in the HLS segment must comply with regulatory norms that would ensure that they meet the required standards, including the compliance of their software environment. What is GxP GxP validation is a set of guidelines and regulations for Life Science and Pharmaceutical companies. These ensure their products are safe, meet intended use, and adhere to strict quality processes during manufacturing, storage, and distribution. In GxP, "G" stands for Good, and "P" for Practice. The "x" refers to various processes such as M for "Manufacturing," C for "Clinical," L for "Laboratory," S for "Storage," D for "Distribution," R for "Review," etc. A certification for GxP compliance across all core operations and solutions is necessary for Health and Life Sciences organizations. Let’s look at the basics of the activity within the SAP S/4 HANA Environment and the different factors for regulating, measuring, and analyzing them for your organization through Computer System Validation. The Importance of GxP Validation in the HLS Sector GxP compliance is necessary to regulate the operations in the HLS sector so that both products and services meet specific established criteria and standards of quality. The HLS sector is among the most secure industry verticals, and its offerings are mission-critical. There is an imperative focus on clearing regulatory checks and getting GxP certified in various operational stages to avoid non-compliance penalties. Computer System Validation for GxP Compliance in SAP SAP is one of the most widely used ERP systems in the HLS segment. Compliance with GxP norms involves a regulatory process called Computer System Validation (CSV). It covers the entire regulatory validation lifecycle starting from implementation to the operations phase and from decommissioning to archiving. The validation process for the SAP S/4HANA environment in HLS covers the complete HANA landscape in that organization. It aims at regulating all the major functions, including production, distribution, supply chain, and other associated modules. The validation process for GxP Compliance seeks to ensure that all the procedures, processes, and activities establish a compliance level at all testing and production stages. Most relevant to this activity are the documents that Computer System Validation provides after meeting all the regulatory criteria as below. The Computer System Validation for SAP S/4HANA includes the below stages and associated validation documents, which are critical to passing regulatory approvals. Stages for Validation Documents User Requirement Specification: This stage defines the user's specific requirements and ensures that the system meets them. It also includes safety and operational requirements and regulations. Functional Specifications: The focus here is on the functional aspects of the system. It looks at whether the system delivers as per the User Requirement Specification and checks the logic and calculations. Design Specifications: Design Qualification ensures validating the system environment and requirements, with preparation, review, and approval of the documents. Installation Qualification: This phase validates the hardware and software installations in the system and ensures that they comply with the requirements and installation specifications. Operational Qualification: This stage ensures the designed systems work per the intended operational specifications. It is similar to functional testing and is related to the design specifications. Performance Qualification: Performance Qualification ensures that the entire system performs as per the performance requirements in all operating stages. It is similar to user acceptance testing and includes compliance with requirement specifications. GxP Impact Assessment: The GxP impact assessment is carried out on all computer systems to ensure no negative impact on quality, patient safety, and data integrity while using them. This stage is an essential checkpoint for GxP compliance in SAP S/4HANA. Organizations in the HLS sector are increasingly looking to move towards the cloud for its multi-fold advantages compared to an on-prem solution. With SAP S/4HANA, you can leverage the many tools and features it offers to meet regulatory GxP compliance and ensure the smooth functioning of business operations. The idea is to bring continuous compliance in business processes and infrastructure, lowering operational costs and increasing agility. If you are looking for GxP compliance solutions for your healthcare organization, contact us, and we will be glad to help.

SAP S/4HANA Cloud-Keeping Your Data Safe and Your HLS Business Compliant

Aug 24, 2023

According to the Health IT security report1, the first half of 2023 had over 39 million patient records compromised. When placed in the wrong hands, sensitive information such as patient health records, SSNs, prescriptions, personally identifiable information (PII), addresses, and other confidential information can put the Healthcare provider and the patient at great risk. The breaches reported were hacking incidents by unauthorized users who gained access to Electronic Health Records (EHR) by breaking existing security protocols. Such security incidents brought to the fore the importance of adequate data security in the Healthcare sector, given its criticality and the sensitivity of the information it generates. If you own a Healthcare facility or a related industry, cybersecurity is what you need to enhance to avoid data breaches and consequent loss of your organization’s reputation and market value. The Healthcare sector is one of the most regulated sectors in the US, covering both information security and the entire lifecycle of operations, from procurement to distribution. HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) governs the storage and administration of EHRs and data, with the entire Healthcare industry operations subject to compliance with FDA regulations. The SAP S/4HANA landscape supports the healthcare sector in ensuring compliance and abiding by the rules and regulations set by regulatory bodies. Healthcare and HIPAA The HIPAA Security Rule is a specific part of HIPAA and provides the below regulations for securing electronically stored patient information. Ensure Data integrity, accessibility, and confidentiality of all electronic health records Identify and mitigate threats to the stored information Protect against unauthorized usage and disclosures Ensure complete compliance with security norms by the workforce Healthcare regulatory compliance is critical, as the stakes involved are high. Even a slight deviation can lead to fatal consequences, which is the reason for the focus on regulatory compliance. The major challenge you face is ensuring the security and confidentiality of data, whether stored on-premise or on the cloud. You also need a comprehensive ERP system that covers the entire gamut of operations, enabling optimized systems and workflows compliant with regulatory norms and leading to better productivity and profitability. The Role of Cloud-based Solutions in the Healthcare Sector The Healthcare sector has steadily adopted cloud-based storage and application environments as they seek greater digitization. The cloud model accords the opportunity to benefit from greater data security, as cloud solution providers offer a wide range of features to ensure data security and protection from unauthorized usage and malicious hacking attempts. Cloud-based solutions also provide remote access to data and applications, increasing productivity and connectivity. Security features offered by cloud-hosted solutions: Access restrictions Password management Firewalls Data encryption Virus protection Retention and destruction of data Faster incidence response and management Risk identification and mitigation SAP S/4HANA SAP S/4HANA is a widely used cloud-based ERP solution and offers a range of constituent applications that cover major business functions, along with extensible modules for specific needs of diverse business verticals. For the Healthcare sector, SAP offers products such as SAP Patient Management, Marketing Cloud, Qualtrics CE, Advanced Track and Trace for Pharmaceuticals, BO Enterprise, Analytics Cloud, and many more, giving end-to-end solutions for the complete needs of the Healthcare sector. The S/4HANA Cloud is the core of the entire SAP environment and stores the critical data for operational processes and analytics. It uses hyperscalar providers to offer a Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS). Below are the major security aspects of S/4HANA Cloud and the distinct advantage they provide to the Healthcare sector to ensure HIPAA compliance. Data Security Data security is provided by customer data isolation with a virtual ABAP Server and database for each tenant. The “Security Group” provides application isolation, which allows communication between different application instances belonging to the same tenant. Cross-tenant communication is prevented at the network level, which mitigates the risk of unauthorized tenant data access. Data Encryption SAP S/4HANA Cloud provides encryption for both data-at-rest and in transit. Data-at-rest includes local and central file systems, backups, and databases, whereas data-at-transit consists of data movement between applications and has end-to-end encryption. The key management system (KMS) manages the cryptographic keys with a ‘segregation of duties’ guideline. It gives complete encryption of data-both at the storage level and while being shared and prevents encrypted data from unauthorized access. Application Security Applications developed on the SAP S/4HANA cloud follow the secure software development lifecycle (SDLC) with an extensive focus on data security, privacy, and protection. They undergo in-depth risk analysis, testing processes, and assessment of security controls to ensure complete safety. All traffic to the applications is accessed through HTTPS, providing the secure movement of data. Network Security Network security in SAP S/4HANA Cloud is enabled by dividing the network into zones and segments, with security controls for each zone. These controls work on the type of data and its interaction with a virtual backup cloud for data backups, administration, and internal systems. Operational Security The operational security team performs 24/7 monitoring of the database and infrastructure, securing administration access, taking backups, checking for vulnerabilities, simulating hackings, and mitigating risks. They also work on incident management and remediation, data breach notifications, and provide security patches and complete support to ensure the data is secure for business continuity. The above features of SAP S/4HANA Cloud make it a preferred choice for having a cloud-based ERP system for the Healthcare sector, as it ensures compliance with the regulatory requirements of HIPAA. Having HIPAA compliance ensures that your Healthcare business builds trust and value among your customers and gives you a competitive edge. If you want to enhance your security posture with SAP S/4HANA and ensure regulatory compliance, contact us, and our experts will be glad to help.

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