Big Data and Digital Transformation

This article from Approyo CEO Chris Carter originally appeared in the Technology Headlines: https://www.thetechnologyheadlines.com/technology/big_data/Big-Data-and-the-Digital-Transformation/

Over the past two to three years, big data and digital transformation have become all the rage within organizations and IT departments around the world. This has led to a lot of confusion and myths in the marketplace. Let’s dig into some myths around Big Data and The Digital Transformation.

The first major myth is that every company has a digital transformation or a big data project in place. The truth is, not everyone has a need for digital transformation and even less have a need for big data and analytics. As you look out into the scope of these initiatives, companies are bypassing big data because of the lack of need within their organization. Companies might be utilizing applications and tools that feature some form of big data analytics, but as far as acquiring new tools, specifically for big data analytics, it’s just not happening.

As far as digital transformation projects, small companies with under a million in revenue per year, are already using some sort of tool or software, with features of digital transformation such as QuickBooks or Salesforce. These types of tools, already have the features and functionality, smaller companies need to succeed.

Another myth is that digital transformation is very difficult to implement within an organization. This really is not the case. As mentioned in our first myth, there are a lot of software tools available with various digital transformation and big data applications built into them out of the box. Many of these applications are available through a web browser or smart device, allowing every individual within the organization, the access and ability to transform their day-to-day activities with these software tools. That’s not to say digital transformation and big data initiatives are easy. This is an important fact to make sure your company understands. However, there are tools and applications out there that can make it easier. The hardest part is knowing what you want to analyze and accomplish. This is really where you start a big data analytics and digital transformation project.

Today, there are vast amounts of data everywhere. You can grab data from your website, apps, smartphones, smart devices in your home, your car and thousands of other devices. With all this information available to your company, it is important to figure out what data is the most valuable. That is the key for anyone working on a big data analytics project. Your business needs to know what data is most valuable, in order to make business decisions that will positively impact your company.

Valuable data is key. It can impact your business and bottom line in many ways. However, dirty data can make any digital transformation or big data project wasteful for you and your company. This is where most companies run into problems with big data projects. They get sidetracked by data that doesn’t have a positive impact on their business. When starting a big data and digital transformation project, your company needs to focus on what data is relevant in helping your business succeed.

The final area of big data, that has caused a lot of confusion in the marketplace, is how you are getting that data and using it. As part of a data transformation, you must make sure that you are compliant with the usage of that.

If you cannot be relied upon to do the right thing with your data, someone will step in to make sure that you are or you could have major legal ramifications like we are currently seeing with Facebook and Google. You need to make sure you have a controllable platform within your organization.

Big Data analytics and Digital Transformation will remain an important key to growing your business today and into the future. Your company needs to stay on the forefront of these trends, in order to succeed in the marketplace.

This article from Approyo CEO Chris Carter originally appeared in
the Technology Headlines: https://www.thetechnologyheadlines.com/technology/big_data/Big-Data-and-the-Digital-Transformation/

Digital Transformation for Asset Management with SAP powered by Approyo

Digital technologies are having a profound impact on asset management operations. Internet of things, real -time analytics, machine learning, and enterprise mobility are enabling entirely new outcome based business models such as asset - as - a - service and are revolutionizing existing maintenance processes.

These technologies can help organizations optimize return on assets by helping them identify the right maintenance strategies, by prediction and simulation of operational problems, by ensuring safe operations, and by empowering field workforce with all the information required to execute maintenance activities. They are also making it easier for organizations to effectively manage projects that involve operations and maintenance of different types of assets.

With SAP S/4HANA as the digital core and SAP Leonardo solutions, organizations can build a strong foundation for operational excellence with a real-time integration between information and operational technologies. The SAP S/4HANA Asset Management solution enables organizations to manage their asset-related cost, risk, and performance holistically. It helps them plan, schedule, and execute all types of maintenance strategies from reactive to predictive maintenance. The solution also provides the ability to systematically reduce risk and improve worker safety with one common view of process risks related to workers, assets, or environment.

SAP Leonardo solutions, such as SAP Asset Intelligence Network, SAP Predictive Maintenance and Service and SAP Mobile Asset Management redefine asset management in the digital world. These solutions enable an organization to use sensor technologies and predictive analytics to improve asset health. The extensions also allow an organization to collaborate effectively with business partners by providing the ability to share asset information and insight with the ecosystem.

With the solutions, organizations can also leverage digital twin to accelerate innovation, optimize operating performance conditions, and enhance decision making, SAP Capital Portfolio and Project Management solutions extend the asset management operations by providing organizations the ability to strategize capital investments in new assets, evaluate the performance of their existing capital portfolio, and manage the entire lifecycle of projects from planning to execution with real-time monitoring.

SAP solutions support organizations to efficiently and sustainably manage the entire lifecycle of physical assets, resulting in better utilization of assets and reduction in costs.

Optimize capital expenditure with comprehensive portfolio 
evaluation capabilities - Prioritize asset intensive projects that align with company strategy. Increase the percentage of capital projects that are completed on time and within budget by identifying project related issues in time and efficiently planning resources.

Reduce capital project administration cost with complete visibility into ongoing projects - Manage scope, timeline, and budget of capital projects in an integrated way. Track and report project-related data in an efficient manner.

Reduce asset service and maintenance cost with efficient maintenance planning and execution - Enable maintenance planners and technicians to effectively plan, schedule, and implement maintenance activities. Analyze maintenance activities in real time.

Reduce environment, health and safety risks with efficient handling of regulatory compliance and incidents - Develop one common view of process risks related to workers, assets, and the environment. Provide EH&S practitioners access to real-time data on compliance and safety. Efficiently record and analyze incidents.

Maximize return on assets with right maintenance strategy and higher asset reliability - Drive maximum value from field assets by identifying the optimal maintenance strategy, by transitioning from interval based maintenance strategy to predictive maintenance, and by closely
collaborating with partners throughout the asset lifecycle.

Reduce unplanned downtime or outages with integration of IoT technologies with asset management - Establish connection with field assets to remotely capture operational data, gain real-time visibility on asset health, and predict anomalies  based on machine learning algorithms.

Improve maintenance team efficiency with work order  management through mobile applications - Empower maintenance technicians with the right data at the right  time. Provide access to information on asset location, repair histories, work order details, and material required through mobile applications.

Improve asset data accuracy and completeness with central management of asset master data governance - Maintain a single version of truth for all asset related data by integrating structured and unstructured data and  by effective master data governance.

Read the full blog post on www.approyo.com 

Digital Transformation for Life Sciences with SAP powered by Approyo

In today’s digital economy, patients are more accountable for their care and have greater access to their personal health information. Patients and payers are seeking personalized treatments with superior outcomes, but cost-effectively. Increasingly, value-based and outcome-based reimbursement are being floated as reforms to healthcare systems, primarily in the United States.

There is immense pressure on life sciences companies to do more for less. They are facing new price pressures and competitive threats. New entrants into the marketplace have changed the way they deliver products, forcing them to adopt new approaches or face stagnant or declining revenue growth and margins. Digitalization is forcing life sciences companies to rethink their business models and restructure the value chain. New value will come from the ability to digitalize the model and accelerate innovation.

To execute on their digital strategy, life sciences companies will need to reengineer their business processes. Life sciences companies with a global presence must have lean processes that are consistently executed. They must get away from siloed processes that are implemented and executed differently at different sites. This will help ensure that the support systems (process and technology) can scale up quickly to match the company’s growth. Life science companies must also evaluate if they have the right technology platform that can deliver on the vision. The winning platform will require an IT architecture that provides both stability and long-term reliability for core enterprise processes, while allowing flexibility in areas of frequent change.

The digital core is the foundation for the core processes that need to run consistently and in a flexible manner. It provides uninterrupted, real-time transactions and analytics, the ability to work with extraordinary large volumes of data, and connectivity to line-of-business extensions that enable supporting processes, such as talent sourcing and networks. To succeed, firms will need to put in place a coherent digital vision with clearly articulated offensive and defensive strategies. They will need to address emerging business models to drive outcome-based engagements and achieve connected health. They must satisfy new and evolving compliance regulations, outsource manufacturing, and drive operations based on the Internet of Things (IoT). Increasingly patients are adopting a connected health system by resorting to wearables. Life science companies can leverage such devices and build apps that enable the physicians and the manufacturers to understand patient behavior in order to provide the right guidance and treatment as well as improve products for enhanced wellness.

To comply with newer regulations such as serialization and identification of medicinal products (IDMP), companies must have high-performing databases with close integration to their inventory management systems. For global pharmaceutical companies, serialization can easily add a few billion records into their databases. Furthermore, such data must be stored for long periods, retrieved quickly, and reported to various entities. The right technology platform, along with niche compliance solutions, will enable companies to comply with these evolving regulations effectively.

The right technology platform that delivers streamlined integration to supply chain partners and outsource manufacturers can help companies get their products manufactured on time, efficiently, and at much lower cost. For product visibility across the extended supply chain, optimal equipment maintenance, and effective distribution of specialized products, IoT device-based data and a rich analytics platform become the new imperatives. By leveraging IoT, life science companies can significantly cut costs on equipment maintenance, react in real time to exceptions while products are being delivered, and gain better insights into their product distribution.
.
SAP S/4HANA was specifically developed to represent the digital core in this bimodal IT architecture. It provides life sciences companies with a proven framework to adopt industry best practices while attaining operational excellence – specifically, but not exclusively, across core industry capabilities,such as real-time supply chain and digitalized sales.

A comprehensive solution for life science companies
Life science companies need to manage their product shipments very carefully. Some products, such as blood derivatives, plasma products, and biologics, must be shipped in a temperature-controlled environment. Other products, such as medical devices, must be guarded against exposure to light, shock, and other factors. SAP S/4HANA with other SAP solutions can monitor such parameters in real time during shipment. In combination with transportation management and event management modules, the software provides functions to send out real-time alerts. Such alerts can save shipments if product is not yet damaged. The software also helps reduce costs and time in aborting shipments when the product is damaged. The analytics provided by the SAP Leonardo digital innovation system can help predict which shipping lines are best and safe for continued engagement. The process below illustrates how temperature-controlled distribution is tracked.

Read the full blog post on www.approyo.com

Digital Transformation for Research and Development with SAP powered by Approyo

The market is experiencing a disruptive shift in customer demand for new, extensive, smart, and personalized products. The journey of a new product initiates from the research and development (R&D) department, where significant difference can be made to improve features and reduce cost. A successful R&D department brings new formulations and designs to life with speed and accuracy based on inputs from the marketplace, customers, and latest technologies. R&D integrates with downstream departments to manufacture, sell, and service products with higher quality and lower cost while continuously iterating formulations and designs to create more profitable, desirable, and reliable products.

SAP's industry-leading portfolio of cloud and industry-specific solutions is uniquely positioned to enable our customers’ digital transformation across all key aspects of their business value chain. SAP Leonardo capabilities combined with SAP S/4HANA as the digital core provide an intelligent, integrated, fast, and visual product innovation platform with built-in compliance. The SAP S/4HANA R&D/Engineering solution enables informed decision-making in ideation and concept development, portfolio and project management, product development, and compliance management. Smarter products are brought to the market faster and with full compliance.

With the new Industry 4.0 capabilities, customers can now personalize the product design in real time to meet their needs through the variant configuration engine. The production order moves with minimal human intervention through downstream processes such as product engineering, production engineering, and manufacturing to serve a “lot size of one” to the customers. Another paradigm shift is the capability to deliver consumer-centric business models so that you can “uberize” your business before someone else does.

SAP solutions powered by Approyo enable companies to substantially enhance, simplify, and visualize the entire R&D process from idea to product.

Increase revenue from new products by offering wider variants and personalized and smart products  - Run design and development processes on live insights into product performance and customer needs. Enable individualized products with flexible and high-performing configuration, formulation, and classification capabilities.

Accelerate time to market with real-time project control, informed product decisions, and streamlined compliance - Analyze live performance of the project portfolio with predictive insights at any stage of the innovation process. Reuse designs and recipes, work in an integrated development environment, handover to manufacturing seamlessly, and leverage embedded compliance to launch new products faster.

Reduce R&D expense by informed product decisions, integration of formulation and design tools, and efficient supplier collaboration
For discrete industries: Design and simulate in an integrated development environment (supporting mechanical, electrical, electronics, and software disciplines). Synchronize all downstream processes internally and externally with harmonized and consistent integration of different design tools.

For process industries: Streamline development of recipes with full process support from first trials to definition-of-process parameters, efficient reuse of existing formulations and specifications, and synchronization of all downstream product development needs internally and externally.

Improve profitability by having insights on cost of new products early on and across the lifecycle - Reduce existing product cost and launch new products with competitive pricing by simulating the impact of design decisions. Calculate cost and other dimensions for new products in the early stage of the product lifecycle to quickly identify cost drivers and compare alternatives.

Improve profitability of customer projects, such as engineer to order - Detailed project cost controlling and forecasting, including issue and change management.

Reduce compliance costs and recalls through embedded compliance in the R&D processes - Compliance checks are embedded in the system for R&D processes. The coverage extends to markets, industry, materials, and downstream processes.

Read the full blog post on www.approyo.com

Data Powers Digital Business

The digital economy is driving a massive increase in the volume of data created by devices, business networks, organizations, and individuals. This tidal wave of data is driving demand for capabilities like machine learning and AI, and dramatically impacting economic productivity.

But core to all of this opportunity, is data.

In the new digital economy, data is essential in powering digital business. Data is the currency that provides the foundation for business insight, action, and innovation across the extended enterprise, from partners and customers, to assets and employees, all driven by the digital core. 

Companies will need to capture and exploit data in increasingly creative and complex ways.  And the ability to digitize business events across customer touch points, partner interactions, asset states and employee activities, and to create meaningful insight, will allow businesses to be more agile and responsive than their competitors, and to open up new sources of value.

On average, companies today use only a fraction of the data they collect and store, and if a company is already struggling to store and analyze its own data, it will be drowning in data in the next few years.  Future success will depend on a company’s ability to:

• Transform Data into Insight – Data without insight is meaningless, it is essential for organizations to take the information at their fingertips, to understand it, and turn it into insight.
• Act in the Moment – Without the ability to take action quickly and effectively, there is no opportunity to create new value.  And thus companies must also focus on the ability to turn insight into action, in real time.
• Innovate without Constraints – And finally, with insight and the ability to act, the final critical need for competing in the digital economy is the ability to innovate and build new business models and create new outcomes for the organization

These three imperatives combine to demand the organization’s attention if it is to succeed in it’s digital journey.

SAP powered by Approyo can help you lead your organization’s digital journey and address the challenges of data proliferation from enterprise data, Big Data, IoT, and beyond.

And we help you to transform your all of data, the foundation of a digital enterprise, into insight to drive innovation and create business value.

As a result of optimizing existing processes and driving greater efficiencies, you can help fund new innovations.

Only SAP powered by Approyo allows you to innovate now with intelligent, real-time data to build new business applications

• Flexible and faster app development environment on ONE platform with choice of programming languages. Deployment available on cloud, in the data centers, and on laptops
• Applications can leverage hyper fast transactions and analytics to automate business processes with intelligent guidance
• Enrich applications with ONE platform that includes predictive, text, spatial, graph, and conversational UI capabilities

View the full blog post on www.approyo.com

Digital Transformation for the Technology Industry with SAP powered by Approyo

Although high tech is finding itself in nearly every product and service across all industries, high-tech companies are not themselves immune to disruption. Factors such as new entrants, blatant IP theft, and knowledge leakage due to key employee turnover accelerate the rate of disruption.

Strategic Priorities in a Digital Economy
The digital economy is disruptive. High-tech companies need strategic priorities that drive transformation. SAP supports a reimagined set of E2E business scenarios to support the strategic priorities of working in a digital environment.

• Subscribing to outcomes -  High-tech companies are shifting from selling products and services to selling measurable results that are relevant to their customers. Becoming an outcome provider requires a different business model –one where customers can pay for the outcome. As high-tech companies realize this, they are increasingly acquiring, building, and joining the platforms and ecosystems that are needed for the outcome economy
• Realizing a digital supply chain - Transform your supply chain into a responsive network. Companies everywhere face volatile customer demand and heightened expectations of responsiveness. Innovative technologies can help resolve these issues by providing vital business information across the network, improving real-time analysis, and enabling better collaboration across departments and trading partners –thus making the supply chain more responsive.
• Providing digital smart products - Digitally connect your products and transform them into solutions. Enabling products to provide intelligence about their usage and to be upgraded remotely any time with the latest features required by customers allows for differentiation in an industry where products get rapidly commoditized. Data-based services can be monetized, and individualized offerings can be provided cost-effectively. Leverage IoT technology to connect products to R&D and sales processes.
• Achieving customer intimacy - Putting the end customers‘ point of view at the center of every decision is a key prerequisite for success in the digital age. This does not stop in the sales department but also applies to what products are built and what services are offered

So, how does the incumbent not only defend itself but also become the disrupter? 

Plan less, experiment more
Many refer to the high-tech industry as dynamic, however, it is better characterized as frenetic. Product launch delays, yield losses, and IP disputes can all lead to unexpected events that can throw off a perfectly crafted plan. However, for some, this also represents an advantage. Those who can leverage their data and incorporate more simulation and other sophisticated analytic techniques to model their environment will respond much faster to unforeseen events.

Harness the intelligence of the network
High-tech companies have a long-standing history of developing complex supply chain networks to enable high efficiency, which keeps prices down and quality high. These networks have evolved to handle more than just physical goods; they are now conducting commerce, distributing IP, and contain component pricing awareness. The data required for sophisticated decision-making has now shifted to the network, providing the next frontier for data exploration.

Make every meeting a decision making meeting
Most meetings are best described as information-sharing sessions. Participants often spend most of their time preparing and reconciling reports yet often end up with poor meeting outcomes due to a lack of current information. With the unprecedented speed of competition within the industry, executives need real-time information to make prompt decisions. Adopting innovative solutions to support rapid and informed decision-making can shift the focus from reporting to achieving outcomes.

Recognize the Knowledge Worker
Arguably, the most valuable asset for a technology company is the productivity of the knowledge worker. Far too often, these employees are straddled with excessive data preparation tasks involving spreadsheets and must spend precious time filtering through extraneous data. This leaves little time to focus on business outcomes. Decision support tools have evolved to take the burden of data preparation off individuals and provide them with predictive capabilities –accelerating productivity.

The intelligent ERP
Bringing SAP S/4HANA and SAP Leonardo technologies together as a digital core will result in a more flexible and intelligent enterprise. To achieve next-generation business processes, companies need an intelligent ERP solution that can be continuously enhanced and extended with innovative business services and applications built on emerging technologies, including machine learning, blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT). High-tech organizations that have big innovation appetites or prefer to be early adopters have already begun this journey.

Read the full blog post on www.approyo.com

Digital Transformation for the Insurance Industry with SAP powered by Approyo

Radical change in the insurance industry is occurring at a rapid pace. Changes in technologies, in business models, in standards, and in the makeup of insurance companies themselves require constant adaptation. Insurers must be able to respond to rapidly changing conditions yet still comply with all standards. How does a digital core with a true single source of truth help?

Responding to rapid changes
A digital core is an IT architecture that offers stability and long-term reliability for core enterprise processes yet also provides the flexibility to adapt quickly to new opportunities, challenges, and regulations. This solid foundation gives you a single source of truth, which, in turn, enables flexibility for innovation to accommodate new business models, new regulations, and new business events, such as mergers or acquisitions.

Simulation and analytics
The ability to respond quickly is an essential part of managing an insurance company. To do this, simulation, prediction, and analytical capabilities are important. Data is critical for gaining insight to make decisions. This insight must be at a granular level so decision-makers have the detail they need to understand trends, opportunities, and risks and quickly carry out what-if analysis using predictive algorithms.

Keeping data under control
Every insurance company needs the computing capability for carrying out complex risk assessments with large data sets to support timely, real-time analysis. Everyone in the company must have access to data they need, whenever and wherever they need it. They must also manage the enormous amount of data generated by connected networks to develop and deliver leading-edge products and services.

Addressing innovative opportunities
Customers in every industry are demanding innovation. Companies are responding with new products and services that better meet individual needs. These new offerings impact every facet of business, not just the front office. Companies must address end-to-end (E2E) processes across departments and lines of business to deliver on new customer experiences, products, and services.

The Intelligent ERP
Bringing SAP S/4HANA and SAP Leonardo technologies together as a digital core will result in a more flexible and intelligent enterprise. To achieve next-generation business processes, companies need an intelligent ERP solution that can be continuously enhanced and extended with innovative business services and applications built on emerging technologies, including machine learning, blockchain, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Insurance companies that have big innovation appetites or prefer to be early adopters have already begun this journey.

An End-to-End Intelligent Enterprise for Insurance
Insurance companies need to constantly innovate across their company value chain to drive profitable growth and adapt to how customers want to apply and pay for their policies and services. The capabilities delivered with SAP S/4HANA and the preconfigured, native integration with LoB solutions from SAP help ensure processes run smoothly and efficiently across the engagement lifecycle, allowing companies to drive sustainable revenue growth and maintain margins.

View the full post on www.approyo.com

Digital Transformation for Telecommunications with SAP S/4HANA powered by Approyo

Thanks to massive investments in mobile and fixed broadband and in wireless network infrastructure from telecommunications operators, our planet is now a true “global village.” The proliferation of connectivity, Internet access, smart devices, and SIM cards has created a new digital life and digital economy. 

The growth of mobile subscribers, mobile data, mobile applications, and mobile commerce has exploded over the past decade. Hyperconnectivity has changed everything from the way we communicate to the way we work, shop, pay, and play. 

Paradoxically, telecommunications operators risk becoming front-line casualties of the digital revolution they have helped create. They are disrupted by aggressive, new, over the-top (OTT) players such as Apple or Google, which deliver services on the operators’ network infrastructure and siphon off core revenue . Operators are restricted by regulations that bind them to domestic rules in an increasingly global world. Their core services are completely commoditized, putting pressure on their margins. They are engaged in an endless round of network upgrades, causing capital expenditures to skyrocket and making return on assets unpredictable.

To succeed in this competitive market, telcos will need to put in place a coherent digital vision with clearly articulated offensive and defensive strategies. In particular, they will need to ensure they are maximizing their operational efficiencies while defining and delivering new revenue generating services to drive profitable growth. To execute on this, telcos will not only need to reengineer their business processes, but they will also have to evaluate if they have the right technology platform that can deliver on that vision.

This platform requires an IT architecture that provides both stability and long-term reliability for core enterprise processes, and, at the same time, allows for flexibility in areas where change is happening on a constant basis. The digital core is the foundation for the core processes that need to run consistently and flexibly. It provides uninterrupted, real-time transactions and analytics; the ability to work with Big Data; and the delivery of new services such as connected cars, smart transportation, connected health, and much more. 

SAP S/4HANA was specifically developed to represent the digital core in this “bimodal IT architecture.” It provides telecommunications companies with a proven framework to adopt industry best practices while attaining operational excellence – specifically across core financial and engagement management processes.

Process simplification SAP S/4HANA provides reengineered and simplified business processes that can yield significant benefits. Financial processes are transformed by using central finance functions that integrate all ledgers into a single source of truth. Disparate close processes can be consolidated into a universal journal for more-efficient processing, enabling telcos to close more quickly. Support for new revenue accounting and reporting (RAR) add-on for IFRS 15 compliance enables telcos to view multiple ledgers comparing traditional, local GAAP results with new IFRS 15 results.

An end-to-end solution for telecommunications companies
Telecommunications companies need to manage the end-to-end lifecycle of bundle and service definition, marketing, delivery, and billing. This includes segmenting customers, defining thousands of unique bundles, efficiently delivering services and devices, analyzing margins on services, and managing the demands of customers through building the workforce and talent pools both internally and externally to meet these demands, and then efficiently and profitably delivering services to delight their customers.

The capabilities delivered with SAP S/4HANA and the prebuilt, native integration with LoB solutions help ensure processes run smoothly and efficiently across the end-to-end service delivery lifecycle, allowing telcos to deliver personalized and profitable services and drive sustainable revenue growth.

View the full blog post on www.approyo.com

Three game-changing technologies impacting Digital Transformation

Business leaders say they need three things from their data systems to help them compete effectively and embrace digital transformation: reliable data to empower their workers, deep insight from all their data, and access to the latest analytics and machine learning techniques to amplify their insights and apply them to their business.

In addition to new business demands, technology advances are creating new strategic opportunities for data management and analytics. The three key technologies that are having the most impact are:

• In-memory computing delivers real-time performance that obviates the need to have separate solutions for transaction processing and analytics. This has the added advantage of removing the need for multiple copies of data and eliminating latency between transaction systems and data warehouses introduced by batch or overnight replication.
• Storage for large data sets is dramatically lower in cost allowing almost unlimited data sets to be created. Coupled with in-memory performance that can handle these massive data sets, business can see insights into their business in real time.
• Cloud computing has reduced the need for huge capital investments and made powerful advanced computing more accessible. New applications can be deployed quickly to capture opportunities without waiting for data centers to be built and systems readied. 

Start your path to the Intelligent Enterprise with Approyo
Approyo provides full SAP service technology with extensive capabilities in consulting, solutions architecture, hosting and managed services, in order to develop the right solution for our customers. Get started today... 

Read the full post on www.approyo.com

Ask Approyo - What is the benefit of using an in-memory platform?

In-memory computing is the storage of information in the main random access memory (RAM) of dedicated servers rather than in complicated relational databases operating on comparatively slow disk drives. In-memory computing helps business customers, including retailers, banks and utilities, to quickly detect patterns, analyze massive data volumes on the fly, and perform their operations quickly. The drop in memory prices in the present market is a major factor contributing to the increasing popularity of in-memory computing technology. This has made in-memory computing economical among a wide variety of applications.

Some of the advantages of in-memory computing include:

• The ability to cache countless amounts of data constantly. This ensures extremely fast response times for searches.
• The ability to store session data, allowing for the customization of live sessions and ensuring optimum website performance.
• The ability to process events for improved complex event processing

SAP S/4HANA and In-Memory Computing
SAP  S/4HANA  delivers high-volume online transaction processing (OLTP) and high volume real-time online analytical processing (OLAP) based on a unified data model without the redundant data layers typically required by traditional RDBMS-based systems.  This reduces TCO while providing new opportunities to increase business value from existing investments.

Examples of redundant data layers are custom-built layers based on database tuning efforts such as secondary indexes, or application built-in performance accelerators such as aggregate tables or multiple general ledger versions for different managerial reporting needs. The massive simplifications of the data model and the data processing layers enable business and technological innovations on a broad scale, across all lines of business (LoBs) and industry solutions. The new application architecture simplifies system landscapes and accelerates cloud deployments on an economical scale.

SAP HANA and In-Memory Computing
SAP HANA relies on in-memory computing to quickly analyze massive amounts of data. In-memory computing is a technology that allows the processing of tremendous quantities of data in main memory to provide immediate results from analysis and transaction. The data is available for processing or analysis immediately after it is created. SAP HANA's performance is 10,000 times faster when compared to standard disks, which allows companies to analyze data in a matter of seconds instead of long hours.

Ask Approyo: How can SAP S/4HANA impact the Financial Industry?

The finance processes and technology platforms that have been utilized in the last 20 years are simply not agile enough for the digital economy. In the current connected world, new business models are limited by disconnected processes and legacy technologies, and enterprises can no longer wait until the end of the month to see results, or for the annual budget cycle to make investment decisions. Finance is at the heart of the digital business. Becoming digital enables finance organizations to reimagine the ways they achieve their CFOs’ key priorities; improving efficiency and ensuring compliance, driving business performance, and defining new corporate strategies. With SAP S/4HANA, this  can drive the ability to:

Reimagine Strategy

Companies require a platform that is open and adaptable, that enables real-time evaluation and analysis of new business models through dynamic planning and forecasting, accelerates integration of mergers and acquisitions, and also provides enterprise-level risk awareness and active management.

Reimagine Business Performance

As cycle times diminish and volatility increases, instant insight and decisions at the speed of thought become even more critical for senior executives and front-line workers alike. Every employee can become a profit manager utilizing a single version of the truth, available live and at the most granular level, with drill- downs by any dimension for instant plan-actual variance analysis, and prediction and simulation on the fly.

Reimagine Efficiency and Compliance

With radical automation, regulation, and embedded compliance, the time has come for “lights-out” finance. Business networks, coupled with faster deployment models in the cloud, allow for dramatic leaps forward in process automation. The rewards are more agile organizations, operational cost reductions of 40% or more, and, most importantly, access to information for timely decision-making to drive business outcomes. With core compliance automated, focus turns to protecting the brand. Enterprise risk topics become a focus while business networks provide visibility into supplier and credit risk.

Try SAP S/4HANA today! 

The opportunity exists to transform business processes and achieve the digital transformation of your business with more automation, real-time visibility, and better alignment to your end customer by delivering products tailored to their specific requirements. Our SAP HANA and Big Data solutions address these important these needs and more. Let us show you today! Set up a free consultation.

Are you going to SAP SAPPHIRE NOW 2017?

Visit us along with our partners, PCM, CoreALM and Abreon on the show floor at Booth #1027. And stop by our exclusive SAP SAPPHIRE NOW 2017 After Party at the Icebar Orlando on Tuesday, May 16. RSVP today....

Manage your Business in Real Time with SAP S/4HANA

Manage every aspect of your business in real time.

• What if you could price a custom item, the moment the request is made?
• What if tomorrow’s weather shifted your inventory today?
• What if your suppliers told you what you needed, not the other way around?

These are not concepts from some distant future. These are actions happening today, thanks to the transformation that small and midsize companies are realizing through the use of a digital core.

The modern digital core serves as the nerve center of the enterprise. It is interconnected, agile and fast. While still retaining elements that made enterprise resource planning (ERP) critical to success, the digital core is a revitalization of that stack, allowing more external inputs and providing the information that helps yield a truly live business.

You can meet these challenges and more with SAP S/4HANA. This solution covers end-to-end processes with expertise for 25 industries, localized for 62 countries. It provides midsize or quickly growing small companies with the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software required to manage sales growth, operational efficiency, and financial agility. You can gain an integrated
view of your business, and the software can scale and adapt easily to meet your evolving business needs. SAP S/4HANA  can help you run your business more efficiently, in line with industry specific best practices and in real time.

With SAP S/4HANA, you can also benefit from smarter business innovations, faster business processes, and simpler business interactions. You can reduce your IT overhead through the efficiency of SAP HANA applications.

Leveraging SAP S/4HANA, organizations are realizing the benefits of a digital core that allow their enterprise to be:

• IMMEDIATE - Empowering business users with insights to act in the moment
• INTELLIGENT - Beyond automation, to predictive suggestion
• INTEGRATED - Not only between your departments, but connected to the world

Try SAP S/4HANA today
Don’t let the new digital world pass you by. Approyo can help your company deal with the changing world. Our SAP HANA and Big Data solutions address these important questions and more. Let us show you today! Set up a free consultation.

Embrace Digital Transformation Today with Approyo

Digital transformation is the reinvention of an organization through the use of digital technology to improve the way it performs and serves its constituents. Digital refers to the use of technology that generates, stores and processes data.
​​

Is your business ready for the Digital World? 
The growth of technology in everyday life cannot be ignored, with everything available at your fingertips. With growing customer demands, businesses must adapt new technologies, independent of the industry or size of the business.

Is your company ready for this new and evolving digital world? Monitoring data across the internet and evaluating security and financial data in real-time can transform the way a company does business.

Recent studies back this up time and time again. The IDC report “FutureScape: Worldwide CIO Agenda 2016 Predictions” emphasized that, "One-third of the top 20 firms in industry segments will be disrupted by new competitors within five years," and that it's a matter of "transform or perish."

The same IDC report goes on to predict that, by 2018, “70 percent of siloed digital transformation initiatives will ultimately fail because of insufficient collaboration, integration, sourcing or project management."

CIOs should not only care about digital transformation for the sake of their company's survival, they should focus on securing company-wide support and collaboration to get digital transformation right – before they get disrupted by a competitor or a startup.

Create a plan for Digital Transformation at your company.
Don’t miss this exciting time to take your business to the next level. Approyo can help your company deal with the changing world. Our SAP HANA and Big Data solutions address these important questions and more. Let us show you today! Set up a free consultation.

Ask Approyo: Why should my company implement SAP S/4HANA now?

SAP S/4HANA is the next generation business suite for the digital world. 

SAP S/4HANA is built on the advanced in-memory platform, SAP HANA, and offers a personalized user experience with SAP Fiori. Deployable in the cloud or on-premise, SAP S/4HANA is designed to drive instant value across all lines of business and industries.

Why SAP S/4HANA? 

• With in-memory technology and embedded analytics, SAP S/4HANA provides instant, real time insight for better decisions
• Because of it’s maximized throughput and speed, as well as its native integration into SAP solutions, SAP S/4HANA gives you greater performance
• SAP S/4HANA leverages the FIORI user experience so that your entire workforce can benefit from not only intuitive, mobile first design, but also proactive decision-making support
• And finally, SAP S/4HANA uses a simplified architecture with a lean data footprint, and cloud deployment, to lower your total cost of ownership

THE NEXT GENERATION BUSINESS SUITE FOR A DIGITAL WORLD.

Instant, real-time insight for better decisions
 • In-memory technology
 • Embedded analytics

Reinvented processes for higher performance
 • Maximized throughput and speed
 • Native integration to SAP solutions

SAP Fiori user experience = higher productivity
 • Intuitive on all devices, mobile first
 • Proactive decision-making support

Simplified Architecture for lower TCO
 • Lean data footprint
 • Cloud deployment for higher flexibility

Seeing is believing - Try SAP S/4HANA today! 
Approyo is the leader in SAP S/4HANA deployments. Bring your data and licenses, we’ll set up a POC/sandbox in our environment for you to see how SAP HANA works in the cloud and can help your business. Get started today...

Ask Approyo: What are the key benefits for moving to SAP S/4HANA now?

SAP S/4HANA is designed to drive instant value across lines of business and industries with the ultimate sophistication: simplicity. SAP S/4HANA is only built on SAP HANA because, as of today, only the SAP HANA platform can deliver such level of massive simplifications and innovations.

From a business value perspective, this means that SAP S/4HANA creates unique opportunities to reinvent business models and drive new revenues and profits. First, enterprises can now easily connect to people, devices, and business networks to deliver new value to their customers on any channel – the Internet of Things and Big Data become accessible to any business. Second, enterprises can dramatically simplify their processes, drive them in real time and change them as needed to gain new efficiencies – no more batch processing is required. And finally, business users can now get any insight on any data from anywhere in real-time: planning, execution, prediction, and simulation – decisions may be made on the fly with a high level of granularity for faster business impact.

From an IT value perspective, this means that SAP S/4HANA creates unique opportunities to simplify the landscape and help reduce total cost of ownership (TCO) with SAP HANA as the great simplifier. First, enterprises can now reduce their data footprint and work with larger data sets in
one system (for example, ERP, CRM, SRM, SCM, PLM co-deployed) to save hardware costs, operational costs, and time. Second, innovation is also made simple with an open platform (SAP HANA Cloud Platform) to drive advanced applications – for example, predicting, recommending, and simulating – while protecting existing investments. Third, business users can leverage a simple
and role-based user experience based on modern design principles which minimizes training efforts while increases productivity. We also support customers with simple configuration: setting up the system and during its use. And finally, enterprises get choice of deployment: cloud, on premise, and even hybrid to drive quick time-to-value.

Try SAP S/4HANA from Approyo today! 
Approyo can help your company deal with the changing world. Our SAP HANA and Big Data solutions address these important questions and more. Let us show you today! Set up a free consultation today. 

Ask Approyo: Can my application provide analytics while updating the same copy of data in real time with SAP HANA?

SAP HANA Platform vs. Disk-Based Database with In-Memory Cache

SAP HANA
YES - Transactions and queries performed on same data in-memory

SAP HANA Platform is an ACID, persistent, in-memory, columnar database that accelerates both queries and transactions using one data copy, in-memory. SAP HANA column table’s temporary delta store makes it efficient to process high-speed transactions. With SAP HANA Platform, applications can execute transactional and analytical workloads in parallel while preserving data integrity and system performance.

Disk-Based Database with In-Memory Cache
NO - The in-memory cache is not a database, it is just a read-only cache.

Disk-based databases with an in-memory cache typically process transactions (update, insert or delete operations) on disk and then update the data in the in-memory cache to ensure read consistency. Applications that perform both transactions and queries would have to wait for transactions to complete on disk before accessing the updated data in the cache. Since disk access is much slower than memory access these applications will experience delays.

See the Benefits of SAP HANA today with Approyo!
Approyo can help your company deal with the changing world. Our SAP HANA and Big Data solutions address these important questions and more. Let us show you today! Set up a free consultation today.

Five Key Pillars for Digital Transformation

Business leaders need to digitally transform across five key pillars

Assets and Internet of Things - How can I better utilize my products and assets?

• Analyze sensor data from products, and deliver outcome-based experiences
• Monitor assets on the factory floor to predict failure and decrease downtime
• Gain instant visibility into whereabouts of in-transit materials to drive new scheduling efficiencies

Customer Experience - How can I deliver an omnichannel experience?

• Personally with one-to-one marketing
• Personalize products and offerings by slicing and dicing customer data on the fly
• Predict customer behavior, and make context-relevant product recommendations

Core Business Processes - How can I digitize my core?

• Move away from lengthy and time-consuming batch processes 
• React quickly to market signals happening in real-time across the value chain 
• Connect my enterprise to people, devices, business and social networks

Workforce Engagement - How can I better engage my workforce?

• Attract and retain talent by clearly communicating business impact
• Enhance decision making with a cross-device, personalized user experience
• Gain full visibility into critical human resource gaps to prevent business disruption

Suppler Collaboration and Business Networks - How can I increase supplier collaboration?

• Extend business processes, and deliver new value to customers 
• Gain the flexibility to customize to changing customer demands in shorter planning cycles 
• Orchestrate profitability with real-time sensing of demand-and-supply data

Are you ready to experience Digital Transformation?
Approyo can help your company deal with the changing world. Our SAP HANA and Big Data solutions address these important questions and more. Let us show you today! Set up a free consultation today. 

Living in a digital economy

The digital economy is developing rapidly worldwide. It is the single most important driver of innovation, competitiveness and growth, and it holds huge potential for entrepreneurs and businesses of all sizes across the world.

In the last two years:

• 90% - Of the world’s data has been generated
• 40% - Growth in adoption of business networks

By 2020, its estimated:

• 9 billion - Mobile users in the world
• 212 billion -  “Things” will be connected

Are you keeping up with the changing world?
Our SAP HANA and Big Data solutions can help your company address the changing digital world. Let us show you how!  Set up a free consultation today. 

How to become a digital business? Start with a digital core.

You can digitize your entire business and beyond with Approyo and the first digital core for digital business: SAP S/4HANA. Now you can go beyond traditional transactions and drive end-to-end digitized processes based on a single source of instant insight from planning, execution, prediction, simulation and analysis - all in real time with one system.

Designed to break the limitations of the past, it is a brand-new product fully built on the most advanced in-memory platform today – SAP HANA – and the modern user experience (UX) provided by SAP Fiori.

Drive Instant Value

This next generation business suite is designed to drive instant value across your lines of business in your industry with the ultimate sophistication: simplicity.

• Modern and role-based UX on any device
• Massive data model simplification (no indexes, no aggregates, no redundancies)
• Real-time connection to the Internet of Things and business networks
• Real-time insight on Big Data (predicting, recommending, simulating) 
• Real-time business processes (no more batch processing)
• Full choice of deployment (on premise, cloud, hybrid)

More than 1,300 customers have already chosen SAP S/4HANA since SAP launched it in February 2015, making it the fastest growing software in SAP’s history.

Start Your Journey Now

SAP S/4HANA leverages the same data semantic as the SAP Business Suite for maximum compatibility and non-disruptive migration. Approyo and SAP S/4HANA are the digital business foundation to help enterprises run simple in a digital economy. Schedule a consultation today...

Run Simple in the digital economy

Drive digital transformation with the ultimate sophistication: simplicity

 The business landscape is increasingly digital, networked and complex. It is expected that by the end of 2020, there will be 9 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide. The number of connected devices will increase nearly 30-fold in just over a decade, growing from about 900 million connected devices in 2009 to more than 30 billion by 2020. The Internet of Things will create over $3 trillion in economic opportunities by 2025.

We are in the middle of a digital transformation where every business is becoming a digital business and change is coming fast. Businesses need to face it – or get disrupted. However, complexity stands in a way of the digital transformation effort.

Complexity comes at an enormous cost High levels of complexity are exacting a real, ongoing toll on businesses. According to the survey of more than 750 business managers by Harvard Business Review Analytic Services (HBRAS), 86% of respondents feel that their business processes and decision making had become so complex as to hinder their ability to grow in a digital economy. In fact, the 200 biggest companies in the world are losing over 10% of their annual profit because of complexity – over $237 billion. How do we pull ourselves out from this expanding quagmire of complexity?

The answer is SIMPLE

Run your enterprise with the ultimate sophistication – simplicity.

Simple is about mastering the complexity that is inevitable and turning it into a competitive advantage. So that you can generate new opportunities for innovation and growth. Forge new partnerships in the digital economy. Create unique advantages. Transform supply chains.

Today Approyo and SAP is making it simple for organizations to implement better solutions to innovate and simple for people to more easily control the complexity in their jobs and lives. New software from SAP lets you rethink enterprise management, simplify and run the organization in real time, and connect people, networks, and systems.

Approyo can help your company today.  Approyo and SAP S/4HANA are the digital business foundation to help enterprises run simple in a digital economy. Schedule a consultation today...