The Digital Era Is Evolving into the Intelligence Era

Intelligent enterprise has become the latest buzzword in the software industry, yet few seem to be able to articulate what it really means and why it matters. Here’s a simple definition: An intelligent enterprise effectively uses data assets to achieve desired outcomes faster, and with less risk.

Using next-generation technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain machine learning and more, these businesses improve operations and achieve game-changing outcomes. They empower employees with information and automation. They proactively respond to customer expectations. They invent new business models and grow their revenue streams. 

Understanding the Benefits

Transforming your business in an intelligent enterprise helps eliminate data silos, automate data collection and integration, discover new patterns, and gain new insights. And that means better use of employee talent and providing better service to customers.

Intelligent enterprises can focus on where to direct scarce resources for the greatest impact, both for today and tomorrow. And by building flexibility into business processes to rapidly respond to change and pivot toward the right outcomes, businesses gain the ability to outmaneuver and guard against disruptive competitors.

Employees in an intelligent enterprise can automate complex processes such as invoice and payment matching, often freeing them up to do more forward-thinking and insightful work.

For customers, AI, chatbots and voice technologies anticipate their needs, create personalized customer experiences, and deliver best-in-class, proactive customer service.

Intelligent enterprises create business models that generate new revenue streams, monetize data-driven capabilities, and apply core competencies in innovative ways.

Partners Delivering on the Promise

According to the study Four Ways Leaders Set Themselves Apart, done by SAP and Oxford Economics, “93% of leaders say that technology is critically important or very important to retaining competitive advantage.”

As digital disruption continues to pose new challenges for customers, it’s the valuable expertise of partners and members of the ecosystem that play a critical role in assessing the customer’s needs in three key areas: an intelligent suite, intelligent technologies, and a digital platform.

Here are some ways you can set up your customers for success:

• Offer integration-ready applications that help manage customers, supply chains, networks, employees, and core processes for a consistent and intuitive user experience.
• Drive rapid and continuous innovation to digital transformation by combining intelligent technologies and services.
• Provide an open digital platform to manage data and integrate with other business applications.

Are You Ready to Create Intelligent Companies?

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that SAP is at the forefront of intelligent technology. We embed intelligence into our solutions. And our partners are developing applications with intelligence built in. This means you can do more than just gather data –self-learning algorithms and other attributes allow you to share data across the company so you can act on it, fast. With our partners we deliver easily integrated systems on a digital platform for optimal visibility.

SAP cannot deliver on the vision for the intelligent enterprise without a vibrant ecosystem. We need partners to build and extend our intelligent suite with expertise in micro verticals and LOB areas leveraging our intelligent technologies and digital platforms. We believe this is the biggest opportunity in decades–for partners to co-innovate and profit with us. So, if you think you’d like to join us on our journey to deliver on the promise of the intelligent enterprise and help the world run better, we’d love to talk. To learn more about partnering with SAP visit: https://www.sap.com/partner/become.apply-now.html and for a look at customer success in the intelligent enterprise visit https://www.sap.com/products/intelligent-enterprise.html.

Ira Simon (follow me on Twitter – @IraASimon) is global vice president, Partner & SME Marketing at SAP. Learn more about partnership opportunities at: http://go.sap.com/partner.html.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.