Speaking at the event, , Chief Business Officer for EMEA, �鶹ԭ��, said businesses today operate in an environment characterised by volatility and uncertainty, with unpredictability exerting significant pressure on revenue, profit margins and supply chains.

Hype for AI’s transformative potential

Interest in artificial intelligence (AI) is at an all-time high. The global AI market is expected to grow from $184-billion in 2024��.

In her opening remarks, �鶹ԭ�� Southern Africa Managing Director, commented: “The vital question for African enterprises is: how can we transition from merely keeping the lights on to building a competitive edge, despite economic headwinds? The answer: by investing in continuous innovation that leverages technologies such as AI and cloud, organisations can drive sustainable business growth, optimise and connect end-to-end processes, leverage data for valuable insights, and stay ahead of competitors.”

Makhohliso says the excitement for AI among African enterprises stems from its potential transformative impact on all industries. “Business AI is gaining traction throughout the continent thanks to a growing list of practical applications that help companies solve challenges, accelerate innovation and drive greater efficiency. With the support of a vibrant ecosystem of expert partners and the growing maturity of cloud and business AI solutions, African enterprises can then supercharge their innovation efforts like never before.”

Innovation key to survival & success

According to Bertrin Pekeur, �鶹ԭ�� Business Group Lead at , the challenging global economy, inflationary pressures, and depressed revenues have put African enterprises under significant pressure. “As a result, enterprises are turning their focus to how technologies such as AI and cloud can help them overcome challenges and increase the rate of innovation. The rapid adoption of AI is creating unprecedented opportunities in digital literacy, the creation of new products, improvements to services and greater productivity. This is helping African organisations transform how they do business, how they interact with their employees, and how they engage with customers.”

Innovation has become essential to the survival of businesses as the accelerating impact of disruptive forces such as technology, climate change, geopolitical upheaval and economic headwinds lead to constrained growth and uncertainty. According to Accenture Technology Vision, 93% of executives agree that, with rapid technological advancements, it is more important than ever for organisation to innovate with purpose.

, Senior Manager: Solution Consulting at , added that innovation unlocks a world of possibilities for African enterprises and allows them to compete on the global stage. “Africa typically doesn’t have access to the same resources as more developed markets and often lags in its adoption of new technologies. Enter innovation, which levels the playing field. From agriculture to healthcare, technology-driven innovation is not only solving challenges unique to Africa, but delivering solutions that can be exported to the rest of the world.”

Cloud, clean core driving AI value

Makhohliso notes the vital role that digital transformation and cloud adoption plays to enable enterprises to unlock the full benefits of their AI investments. “Organisations that improve and automate their business processes in the cloud and achieve a clean core can more easily draw on a single source of truth for their business data. This enhances the value they generate from their business AI deployments by ensuring all AI outcomes are based on accurate, real-time business data from across the enterprise, enabling organisations to drive limitless innovation, efficiency and growth.”

She added that �鶹ԭ�� customers have an edge over their peers in their AI efforts. “Companies that leverage integrated with our have a strong foundation for AI-driven innovation. By following global best practices and drawing on the expertise and skills of our vibrant partner ecosystem, African enterprises can accelerate their AI-driven efficiency and automation gains while unlocking new capabilities that will support their success for years to come.”

The post Innovation ‘Essential to Growth of African Enterprises’, says �鶹ԭ�� appeared first on �鶹ԭ�� Africa News Center.

Most modern cars now have a feature called CarPlay, which allows you to connect your Apple or Android phone to your vehicle. CarPlay creates a platform for your car to interact with various applications on your phone, allowing you to do things like make calls and play music without having to physically interact with your phone.

For example, you can launch Google Maps from the CarPlay function via your car’s touch screen or select a new location using voice prompts. In this case, your car interacts with Siri on your phone and executes the instruction via the CarPlay platform.

A Business Technology Platform is like CarPlay for enterprises.

A Business Technology Platform is defined by four domains, namely Database & Data Management, Analytics, Application Development, and Intelligent Technologies. These four domain areas can be viewed as the primary applications on your CarPlay, allowing businesses to interact with data, for example predictive analytics to make predictions about the future state of the business to plan more effectively.

The Business Technology Platform serves as the foundation for all �鶹ԭ�� applications and enables the end-to-end integration of applications and business processes.

In the same way CarPlay ensures a seamless integration of your phone with your car, improving the driving experience and enhancing usability, businesses can use the Business Technology Platform to keep their core ERP system “clean,” and then perform extensive customisation and integration using the Business Technology Platform’s application development and integration capabilities.

What are the benefits of the Business Technology Platform to companies?

A Business Technology Platform unlocks significant benefits for companies by improving the ease at which they can optimise core business processes and better integrate their most important business applications.

For example, every company needs analytics. Using the Business Technology Platform, companies can provide dashboards, real-time reporting, and predictive analytics to their employees and suppliers using embedded analytics capabilities, allowing them to have a forward-looking view of their business operations.

In financial planning, the Business Technology Platform gives companies the ability to ‘map out’ their financial journey. Think of financial planning as planning a trip using Google Maps: companies can leverage the Business Technology Platform to receive continuous and real-time information on the financial equivalent of traffic patterns and alternative routes.

Many companies are grappling with database and data management, which relates to how data is stored as well as how different types of data from various sources can be seamlessly integrated. The Business Technology Platform enables companies to integrate and process data from various sources without physically moving the data, much like CarPlay allows you to integrate with your mobile phone’s address book without physically moving your contacts to your car.

Finally, many companies are seeking to unlock the benefits of intelligent technology solutions. In some industries, such as manufacturing, the use of sensors to collect data and automate certain decisions in real-time has become a business imperative and a must-have for success. A manufacturing plant, for example, can completely automate the plant maintenance schedule, where sensors monitor the various pieces of machinery and compare this data to their output to determine and predict when the various machines will fail and when they need to be serviced.

In this regard, the Business Technology Platform enables companies to automate these processes to improve quality, efficiencies, and production output.

The Business Technology Platform is an enterprise-grade platform that allows companies to interact with data through applications and integrate their applications with business processes. It enables companies to leverage��data in a coordinated, efficient, and cost-effective manner, while also ensuring the seamless integration of various data sources and business processes.

It lends an uncertain and often difficult business journey a sense of predictability and control, and enables decision-makers to better orchestrate how the business responds to emerging challenges and opportunities.

In an unpredictable and ever-changing world, the Business Technology Platform gives businesses an advantage by allowing them to be more agile, mitigate risk, and capitalise on emerging opportunities.

��

The post What is the Business Technology Platform and What Does it Mean for Businesses? appeared first on �鶹ԭ�� Africa News Center.

The report recognized �鶹ԭ�� as a leader based on its “ability to execute” and “completeness of vision,” after evaluating Gartner evaluated 17 vendors and named �鶹ԭ�� a leader.

According to Gartner, “Enterprise iPaaS providers continue to broaden their go-to-market strategies to cover an increasing range of enterprise integration scenarios. This Magic Quadrant assesses 17 vendors to help application leaders meet the needs of their organizations.”

“Integration is becoming the number one strategic priority for organizations in the digital age,” said Gunther Rothermel, president, �鶹ԭ�� Cloud Platform, �鶹ԭ��. “Customers now demand integrated digital experiences across omnichannel engagements, connecting people, businesses and devices in their ecosystems and business networks. We believe that this recognition from Gartner shows how crucial �鶹ԭ�� Cloud Platform Integration Suite has become for customers on their digital journey”.

a Dutch producer and supplier of natural gas, electricity and heat serving more than two million business and residential customers, uses �鶹ԭ�� Cloud Platform Integration Suite.

“Thanks to �鶹ԭ�� Cloud Platform Integration Suite, we were able to cut down our IT spend for integration middleware to between 50 percent and 60 percent of our annual total cost of ownership,” said Marco Verhoef, integration consultant, IT Asset Management, Eneco Holding N.V. “At the same time, the ease of use and flexibility of the solution helped us go live in a matter of weeks.”

As part of , �鶹ԭ�� Cloud Platform Integration Suite provides a comprehensive set of integration capabilities for all enterprise integration challenges in a multi-cloud environment. Additionally, offers access to rich integration content packs with over 1,500 prebuilt, ready-to-run integrations, APIs and events that target specific business processes. �鶹ԭ�� Cloud Platform Integration Suite enables customers to connect their data and processes seamlessly and with agility to achieve desired business outcomes.

Learn more about and its recent position as a leader in Gartner’s 2020 Magic Quadrant for Multiexperience Development Platforms.

Visit the . Follow �鶹ԭ�� on Twitter at .

Media Contact:
Julia Fargel, +1 (650) 276-8964, julia.fargel@sap.com, PT
�鶹ԭ�� �鶹ԭ�� Room; press@sap.com

*Published September 21, 2020 by Analysts Eric Thoo, Massimo Pezzini, Keith Guttridge, Bindi Bhullar, Shameen Pillai, and Abhishek Singh.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to �鶹ԭ�� are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. �鶹ԭ�� undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect �鶹ԭ��’s future financial results are discussed more fully in �鶹ԭ��’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including �鶹ԭ��’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
© 2020 �鶹ԭ�� SE. All rights reserved.
�鶹ԭ�� and other �鶹ԭ�� products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of �鶹ԭ�� SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

This article first appeared on the �鶹ԭ�� News Center.

The post �鶹ԭ�� Positioned as a Leader in Gartner 2020 Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform-as-a-Service appeared first on �鶹ԭ�� Africa News Center.

Modern organisations are faced with the daunting task of collecting, storing and analysing vast amounts of data and deriving insights from that data that inform decisions and lead to improved business outcomes.

The large volume of data means this is no easy feat: by 2025,��, equivalent to more than 212 million DVDs every day.

Organisations are dependent on technology tools to collect, reconcile and rapidly process data to deliver insights into the performance of the business.

In 2010, �鶹ԭ�� released what would be a game-changer for real-time data processing and insights generation: its in-memory relational database management system �鶹ԭ�� HANA.

“�鶹ԭ�� HANA sits at the heart of our business applications, including our flagship business suite �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA,” said Pieter van der Merwe, Regional Sales Director for Platform and Technologies at �鶹ԭ�� Africa.

“It is designed to help organisations make sense of a broad range of data types and make accurate decisions in real time thanks to the integration of intelligent technologies. Organisations can use �鶹ԭ�� HANA to embed real-time machine learning into business processes to empower them with predictive capabilities, while integration to the �鶹ԭ�� Analytics Cloud gives organisations confidence to make accurate end-to-end business decisions.”

In a recent study by IDC, organisations that are using �鶹ԭ�� HANA to achieve business gains and operational efficiencies had on average achieved return on investment of 679% over a five-year period, achieving revenue gains of $34.1-million per organisation.

“Organisations use �鶹ԭ�� HANA to enable the development of intelligent custom applications and increase the pace of innovation in a cost-effective way by simplifying the management of data, and improving access to data and insights,” said van der Merwe. “By leveraging data, organisations can more easily identify new opportunities for revenue growth and create new services to better meet customer demands.”

�鶹ԭ�� HANA is used by more than 28,000 organisations around the world to analyse complex data and deliver actionable insights in real time through custom applications and innovative use cases. According to Beveridge, �鶹ԭ�� HANA delivers business value along four key areas, namely:

1. Risk mitigation

By reducing the impact of outages on users and business, organisations can achieve higher business productivity and minimise revenue losses.

The IDC study found that��HANA users achieved 21% higher gross productivity for users.

2. Improved IT team productivity

�鶹ԭ�� HANA enables custom application development that substantially improves the productivity of developers and database administrators, with��up to five times higher productivity and an 18% gain in database administration efficiency.

3. Reduced operational costs

By leveraging HANA to identify inefficiencies and gaining a deeper understanding of expense structures, organisations can lower their operational costs and��make savings of more than R15-million ($845,800) per organisation per year.

4. Higher levels of business productivity

The IDC study found that leveraging data in innovative use cases for custom applications increased revenue and improved employee productivity levels while reducing business operational costs.����through higher revenue, increased productivity and lower costs.

“It’s critical that organisations leverage their data to drive competitive advantage,” said van der Merwe. “With the world in a state of widespread disruption and constant change, having the benefit of accurate data over the total performance of the business and developing insights in real time can mean the difference between growth and decline, success or failure. The tools we need to navigate this uncertain period are already available: organisations now need to take the bold step of empowering their decision-making with the powerful business technology platform from �鶹ԭ��.”

The post Four Statistics that Illustrate the Business Value of �鶹ԭ�� HANA appeared first on �鶹ԭ�� Africa News Center.

According to Gartner, “The data quality solutions market continues to evolve and grow, fueled by desire for cost and operational efficiency. The solutions leverage augmented capabilities to deliver automation and insights. Data and analytics leaders should use this research to make the best choice for their organizations.”

“Traditional IT-driven data quality tools will no longer cut it for today’s organizations,” said Andreas Wesselmann, senior vice president, �鶹ԭ�� HANA & Analytics, Data Management, for �鶹ԭ��. “In order to stay competitive, companies need modern, intelligent and business-driven tools. The intelligent enterprise advocates for information trust, enabling companies to transform data into a reliable, ever-ready resource for business insight. We believe this recognition from Gartner shows that with our comprehensive data management solutions, �鶹ԭ�� is helping customers transform into truly intelligent enterprises.”

�鶹ԭ��’s portfolio of data management solutions, which is part of , helps customers manage data to glean meaningful insights for creating efficient business processes. Users can proactively govern data across the organization to ensure trustworthy information for smarter decision-making. Data quality solutions from �鶹ԭ�� help businesses discover, understand and manage multifaceted data. Companies can profile, cleanse, enrich and match customer, product, supplier, material and other data, driving more accurate, trustworthy and timely information.

Visit the . Follow �鶹ԭ�� on Twitter at .

Media Contact:
Julia Fargel, +1 (650) 276-8964, julia.fargel@sap.com, PT
�鶹ԭ�� �鶹ԭ�� Room; press@sap.com

*Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Solutions, Published 27 July 2020 by Analysts Melody Chien and Ankush Jain. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to �鶹ԭ�� are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. �鶹ԭ�� undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations. The factors that could affect �鶹ԭ��’s future financial results are discussed more fully in �鶹ԭ��’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), including �鶹ԭ��’s most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
© 2020 �鶹ԭ�� SE. All rights reserved.
�鶹ԭ�� and other �鶹ԭ�� products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of �鶹ԭ�� SE in Germany and other countries. Please see for additional trademark information and notices.

This article first appeared on the �鶹ԭ�� News Center.

The post �鶹ԭ�� Named a Leader in 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Solutions 14th Time in a Row appeared first on �鶹ԭ�� Africa News Center.

“Many customers I have spoken with have expressed the need for agility and quick time to value, made even more urgent by the COVID-19 pandemic,” �鶹ԭ�� CTO and Executive Board member Juergen Mueller said. “To achieve both, technology becomes even more important, and �鶹ԭ�� can help meet those challenges. We’ve added significant enhancements to every major component of our Business Technology Platform to help customers across all industries overcome obstacles stemming from ubiquity of data, complexity of IT and business volatility.”

Organizations such as����in Dallas are using �鶹ԭ��’s Business Technology Platform combined with����for experience management to perform analytics and to plan for sufficient patient capacity, a critical need during the COVID-19 crisis.

“We at Parkland are dedicated to the health and well-being of individuals and communities that we serve by setting the standard of excellence for public and academic healthcare systems,” said Parkland Health and Hospital System’s chief data officer Scott Harrison. “Our clinical staff utilizes electronic dashboards built with �鶹ԭ��’s Business Technology Platform for analytics and planning, and Qualtrics XM Platform for sentiment analysis. We understand that a fully integrated technology foundation is critical for the 240,000-plus emergency room patients we care for yearly, and for supporting our future growth and innovation.”

The����business unit Adhesive Technologies, the global market leader for adhesives, sealants and functional coatings, is building an app for its some 4,500 sales representatives based on �鶹ԭ��’s Business Technology Platform.

“We aim to create a modern and effective digital workplace environment, increasing speed and efficiency for sales activities and thus strengthening the experience of customers globally,” said Sascha Latzberg, corporate director, Sales & Channel Excellence CRM at Henkel Adhesive Technologies. “Our digital CRM platform enables us to be fast and flexible and increases the independence of sales representatives as they travel and work from home. With the help of �鶹ԭ��’s Business Technology Platform and our advanced analytics we can leverage CRM data for insights that help us create additional customer value.”

Whether on premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid landscape, �鶹ԭ��’s Business Technology Platform allows companies to:
• Manage diverse data stores in real time with��
• Integrate and extend enterprise applications across any IT landscape using����and��
• Analyze data for better planning and decision-making with the����and��
• Continuously innovate their businesses with new��

Data Excellence
This year marks the 10-year anniversary of �鶹ԭ�� HANA, which now has more than 32,400 customers. The latest version,��, is planned for delivery at the end of June. It will support hybrid scenarios with the �鶹ԭ�� HANA Cloud data platform and provide new capabilities, including the enhanced �鶹ԭ�� HANA native storage extension for simplifying data management and lowering total cost of ownership. According to��, �鶹ԭ�� HANA customers will realize a 679 percent average five-year return on investment. �鶹ԭ�� HANA Cloud provides a powerful data management and analytics foundation for innovation solutions such as �鶹ԭ�� Data Warehouse Cloud. It is now available on Amazon Web Services, in addition to Microsoft Azure, to provide greater flexibility and choice to customers moving to the cloud. �鶹ԭ�� plans to have an����for early July.

��and �鶹ԭ�� Analytics Cloud include an expansive lineup of����packages consisting of end-to-end business scenarios that answer key business and technical questions for companies looking to quickly gain insights from data.����includes business content centered on the retail industry. A rapidly growing ecosystem with hundreds of partners is expected to provide more prebuilt content and data connectors for �鶹ԭ�� Data Warehouse Cloud on��.

To help business users and analysts more easily create understandable data models using business terms, the����of �鶹ԭ�� Data Warehouse Cloud is planned for release in the early third-quarter 2020. �鶹ԭ�� Data Warehouse Cloud also will offer built-in and deeply integrated��, allowing customers to select from a broad range of connectors for building highly scalable data integration processes to and from any data source.

To offer customers even more value and benefits, �鶹ԭ�� has been integrating more products and functions. �鶹ԭ�� Data Warehouse Cloud is more����for a more unified data and analytics environment. This allows for a clear, accurate picture of all data for turning analytics into real business insight.����platform was����on June 12, 2020, and is more tightly integrated with �鶹ԭ�� Analytics Cloud for an easier transition to the cloud.����functionalities are further integrated in the latest update of����for faster, more powerful planning, and is currently available for a��.

Read how��today’s intelligent enterprises, such as Geberit AG, Porsche AG and Idorsia Pharmaceuticals Ltd., plan to use the power of �鶹ԭ�� HANA Cloud, �鶹ԭ�� Data Warehouse Cloud, �鶹ԭ�� Analytics Cloud and �鶹ԭ�� Cloud Platform.

Integration
With����of �鶹ԭ�� Cloud Platform Integration Suite, customers can benefit from value-based packaging and attractive pricing as well as simplified purchase and consumption of integration services. Customers can now sign up once to use all capabilities instead of going through licensing multiple services. This offers them the flexibility to consume a service within the suite on demand at any point in time with streamlined, message-based metering. Further, �鶹ԭ�� is delivering prebuilt����between �鶹ԭ�� applications with standard messages at no additional charge.

Extension
��with �鶹ԭ�� Cloud Platform Extension Suite and new����will help customers adapt and extend their business processes on the fly and in real time to meet changing demands and increase efficiency. Business process experts can now manage workflows on live running processes such as for capital expenditure approvals by using dedicated tooling to discover, configure and run application extensions, all without help from an IT department. This results in faster time to value and lower implementation costs.

��and �鶹ԭ�� recently announced that they have teamed up to create a joint cloud-based solution for the real estate industry. The solution is planned to be based on Honeywell Forge and �鶹ԭ�� Cloud Platform and aims to streamline operational and business data to drive greater efficiencies, improve company performance by gaining valuable business insights, and improve employee experience management through powerful sentiment data analysis. Read more details��here.

Find, try and buy �鶹ԭ�� solutions online at����and��.

Visit the���鶹ԭ�� News Center��and download a copy of today’s��. Follow �鶹ԭ�� on Twitter at��.

The post �鶹ԭ��’s Business Technology Platform: A Trifecta of Data Excellence, Integration and Extension for the Intelligent Enterprise appeared first on �鶹ԭ�� Africa News Center.