Susan Galer, Author at �鶹ԭ�� Australia & New Zealand News Center

Harvesting A Bumper Crop Of Agribusiness Innovation From Australia

Susan Galer — Sun, 20 Aug 2023 23:31:06 +0000

When it comes to sustainable innovation, it’s always growing season for , one of Australia’s leading agribusinesses that’s exploring alternative proteins, AgTech, animal nutrition, and agri-energy.

GrainCorp connects over 10,000 regional grain growers with customers worldwide to turn wheat, barley, canola, sorghum and specialty commodities into foods and animal feedstock. With the largest grain storage and handling network on the east coast of Australia, GrainCorp operates over 160 grain receival sites with bunker or silo storage, and seven bulk grain port terminals. Food supply chain resilience is fundamental to the company’s sustainability commitment to boost services and profits while lowering environmental impact.

“Our vision is to lead sustainable agriculture through the next century of growth, to create value for everyone’s future,” said Cate Hathaway, chief people and transformation officer at GrainCorp. “Through strategic partnerships and digitalisation that supports collaborative innovation and data-driven decision-making, we are building the workforce and supply chain resilience that we need for the next generation of agribusiness.”

Renewables feed agri-energy innovation

GrainCorp is well placed to help address growing global demands for renewable fuels and fuel feedstocks. The company exported over nine million tons of grain worldwide last year, and is the largest supplier of renewable feedstocks in Australia and New Zealand, including used cooking oil, tallow, and canola oil.

“We believe that GrainCorp has a responsibility to help the agricultural industry feed the world’s growing population in a changing climate with fewer resources,” said Hathaway. “We are uniquely positioned to support the transition to renewable fuels, reducing our own waste impact, and participating in the market’s growth.”

Last year, GrainCorp’s canola crushing facility in Victoria received International Sustainability and Carbon Certification (ISCC) to export canola oil into international markets for conversion to renewable fuels.

Workforce resilience from digitalisation

Replacing manual and disparate HR systems with one centralised digital platform has reduced costs and increased workforce engagement at GrainCorp. The company has saved approximately $1 million moving from in-person to online quality control training sessions, and reported over 90% employee satisfaction levels with the recruitment and onboarding experience, and 20% faster onboarding of new-hires.

“With strong Australian crop yields and GrainCorp achieving record results over the last two years, has been a huge leap forward in the technology we use to engage our workforce,” said Hathaway. “We brought in hundreds of permanent employees and thousands of seasonal workers on time and within budget while facing the greatest global talent shortage in the past 50 years.”

Despite challenges from extreme weather, the pandemic, and supply chain disruptions, GrainCorp’s workforce has remained impressively resilient.

“Given the volatility of the weather and fluctuating market conditions, the nature of our business demands a resilient workforce,” said Hathaway. “We have the data to understand and act on moments that matter within the employee lifecycle. We can better identify and nurture top talent, and proactively conduct workforce planning to mobilise talent for peak business periods, such as the Australian harvest season.”

AgTech investments pay off with growth opportunities

GrainCorp’s digitalisation strategy is designed to build relationships and explore new business opportunities. Its venture capital fund, GrainCorp Ventures, has invested in a regional that helps close broadband coverage gaps for growers in remote areas of Australia. GrainCorp’s investment – a 15% stake – in Hone, an Australian-based AgTech company, is another example of digital innovation. Touted as a quality testing revolution, grain growers can use Hone’s technology to make real-time, data-based decisions for healthier soil and crops, supporting sustainable farming practices and more profitable business.

GrainCorp has also launched a $4.4 million research partnership with Australia’s national science agency CSIRO to explore manufacturing and supply chains in the fast-growing plant-based protein ingredients market. The objective is to reduce reliance on imported ingredients and increase the value of grains and oilseeds for use in new products. The is predicted to total over $17 billion by 2027.

“We want to stay one step ahead of consumer trends like plant-based proteins by partnering with experts who have similar values and the same strategic focus on growth and innovation,” said Hathaway.

Unparalleled commitment to customers and community

Last year’s record-setting floods in eastern Australia were a major stress test of the region’s food supply chain resilience. At the time, GrainCorp’s teams literally waded in to support and prevention.

“Our employees are experienced and agile in responding to supply chain challenges, and are passionate about supporting the communities in which they live and work, while continuing to deliver for our growers and customers,” said Hathaway. “This is what happens when you create an environment where people find their passion, grow their potential, and thrive as part of a team dedicated to sustainable business.”

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Vital Truths About Business Digitalisation From High-Performers In ANZ

Susan Galer — Mon, 06 Sep 2021 04:24:26 +0000

Having experienced the equivalent of 10 years of digital change in the past 18 months or so, organisations are addressing the realities of transformation as digitalisation becomes the business norm.

Leaders from two high-performing organisations in ANZ recently shared their experiences with digitalisation during a hosted by Des Fisher, innovation principal at �鶹ԭ�� ANZ. Here is a sampling of their far-ranging thoughts on the sustainable business realities behind innovating on cloud-based digital platforms.

Digitalisation is a mindset and tech transformation

For Australian-based Stockland, digitalisation involved transforming people’s mindsets along with systems company-wide. As one of the largest diversified real estate groups in Australia, the company owns, develops, and manages a large portfolio of retail town centres, workplace and logistics assets, residential communities, and retirement living villages. They’ve replaced over 100 disparate, legacy software systems with �鶹ԭ��’s integrated platform, including and , as well as embedded AI and robotics.

“We now have a single source of the truth,” said Tiernan O’Rourke, CFO at Stockland. “I’m absolutely convinced that in time we’ll look back and say that was one of the best things we did in the 70-year history of the company…our digitization journey shows that unless you’re on the journey you’re going to struggle in business, not only in Australia, but globally.”

Stockland began by defining digitalisation on the company’s own terms. The digital platform was designed to strike a balance between achieving three objectives: organisational risk, governance, and business growth.

“We first looked at what digitisation meant to us and came at it by putting the company on the core �鶹ԭ�� platform,” said O’Rourke. “We’re a tactile industry of property, bricks, and mortar. Getting people’s minds away from physical to digital was…one of the biggest obstacles to overcome.”

Digital backbone drives innovation

Oil and gas provider OMV New Zealand recently won an �鶹ԭ�� global Innovation Award for its groundbreaking digitalisation that included digital twins and augmented reality (AR) in onshore and offshore inspections. Replacing paper-heavy processes with digitalised and integrated workflows based on the latest mobile solutions and wearable technologies will help OMV improve decision-making, performance, and efficiencies in inspections and maintenance. Its integrated workflow management relies on �鶹ԭ�� Plant Maintenance (�鶹ԭ�� S/4 HANA), , , and HoloLens 2.

“T�� use of automation and AI-driven technologies for creating intelligent digital twins is a key enabler for global scalability, and accelerates creating the digital backbone of the company during digital transformation. Enhancing this technology with an augmented reality experience including mark-up annotations, provides a solid basis for data insights, data-driven decision making, and performance optimization,” said Farid Akbari, functional lead for digital transformation at OMV New Zealand. “This innovation project will change the way we are working, and enables us to position ourselves among digital frontrunners within our industry.”

Digital platforms are core to supplier relationships

Acknowledging that no business does business alone, Tiernan said that Stockland’s deep supplier relationship management strategy is foundational to customer centricity.

“If you don’t partner with best-in-breed, like-minded companies to help deliver premium services to customers you won’t win,” he said. “We have 14 percent market share in residential business…because we evaluate every step of the customer journey, including supplier choice…you can’t know your suppliers unless you have deep relationships and are collaborating with them at a very granular level…Collaboration is an absolute threshold issue in business today.”

Close gap between DX and business realities

When asked about some of the biggest DX challenges, Akbari discussed the gap between innovation aspirations and reality. He pointed out that while everyone wants simplicity, getting there means answering difficult questions.

“We asked ourselves if we had the right organisation in place to achieve digital maturity,” he recalled. “Other questions were about managing resistance to change, and how to actively support the change management process with tools that were changing the way we work…We asked how to build and retain skills over time as innovations like blockchain, IoT, and cloud computing continue [to emerge].”

Akbari also warned organisations not to neglect core details such as infrastructure capabilities, technology integration, and resultant business process changes.

“Often the business comes up with a good idea, but we’re not ready yet,” he said. “For example, AR had to be integrated into the environment…You also have to consider operational maturity…As a global gas and oil company, we have different maturity levels of all assets, and have to map where we are for each asset, and how we will achieve that automation level. “

Sustainability is much more than climate change

While ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) demands tend to emphasize climate change, O’Rourke urged companies to consider all aspects of sustainability, including diversity.

“Everyone talks about climate change, but that’s just about the environment. To do business successfully…you’re going to have to be very balanced in the E, S, and G of ESG,” he said. “Everyone is focused on net zero carbon, and rightly so. But we can’t do that in isolation…We have to jump on [behaviour change] proactively to get suppliers to work with us in a way allows us to operate effectively. On the diversity side, business has been playing lip service for so long, and needs to get serious about focusing on this change.”

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ANZ Leaders That Invested Early In Digital Supply Chains Had Tremendous Results

Susan Galer — Sun, 15 Aug 2021 23:32:41 +0000

Growing impatient with the onslaught of undistinguishable post-pandemic supply chain disruption stories, I perked up after watching a replay from the recent broadcast that promised to reveal the “winning formula” for resilience and sustainability.

While these descriptors weren’t immediately unique, the conversation was. I caught up with one of the experts, Aidan Brecknell, who leads the digital supply chain team at �鶹ԭ�� ANZ, for his thoughts on what leading organisations are experiencing right now.

Resilient supply chains pivot with incredible speed

Having worked closely with supply chain leaders in ANZ, Brecknell said that organisations were redefining supply chain resilience for sustainable business.

“T�� pandemic unleashed new challenges far beyond the capabilities of traditional lean supply chains that focused on executing repeatable processes at scale,” he said. “Leaders understand that they need to address a new set of challenges like being able to turn on a dime to find different sources for raw materials, or even design and produce entirely new products. These organizations are modeling different scenarios, building in contingency plans, and executing on those.”

During the broadcast, Brecknell and Martin Barkman, senior vice president and global head of digital supply chain marketing and solutions at �鶹ԭ��, shared the “winning formula” of modern supply chains. Unlike their lean predecessors, resilient supply chains are both customer and employee-centric, built on relationships with sustainable suppliers, and based on product sustainability across the entire lifecycle of an item.

Digitalisation transforms more than supply chains

The pandemic forced companies to understand and act on the difference between digitisation and digitalisation. Having data in digital form has long been the norm. Digitalisation means organizations can both capture intelligent data and change business processes including how supply chains operate. To be clear, this is not taking the same processes and making them digital. This is about creating completely new ways of managing supply chains by connecting information across applications company-wide and partners. During the broadcast, Brecknell summed it up like this:

“Supply chains have been pushed and tested to their limits, and they’ve become so reliant particularly locally on their ecosystem suppliers to access raw materials. It became evident quickly of the importance to digitalize processes within the supply chains, as well as the supply network itself,” he said. “In Australia and New Zealand, we saw some tremendous examples of where customers had invested ahead of the curve, and were able to transition quickly because of that agility in their supply chain.”

One global industrial materials manufacturer digitalised supply chain processes to centrally manage over 200 inventory processes across 60 sites. The objective was to improve forecast accuracy, for on-time delivery, and greater profitability. Another �鶹ԭ�� customer, an energy and natural resources company, digitalised operations to better track freight emissions, providing real-time metrics for compliance with carbon neutral goals.

Interconnected data for supply chain resilience

Brecknell said there’s been significant customer uptake of �鶹ԭ��’s Business Network solution that brings together information from sourcing and production through finance, transportation logistics and delivery, including the entire product life cycle. With immediate, connected insights, companies can more profitably sense and respond to disruptions in a strategic, synchronised manner. Organisations can create more individualised, high-quality products in response to changing customer demands. They can prove their sustainability commitment as reflected in their choice of suppliers and operations. They can even attract and keep top talent who increasingly expect employer goals and actions to mirror personal sustainability values.

“T�� allows organisations to connect all of their business partners on one central platform,” said Brecknell. “With complete visibility into the entire supply chain, companies can collaborate with suppliers to source, track, and trace materials faster for shorter product delivery time frames as well.”

As Barkman said during the broadcast, “by capturing all the information about how the supply chain is operating, we preserve the digital thread of the supply chain. We have the information of how a product is being used, how assets are performing, and feed that back not just to the supply chain and manufacturing, but all the way to how products are designed.”

Making a business case for supply chain networks

The elephant in the room is that interconnected business networks aren’t the reality in most organisations. Brecknell agreed that while connecting all this data and changing mindsets about how business operates is a huge undertaking, it’s well worth it.

“Organisations are getting on board with supply chain resiliency and sustainability because it’s good for business. With an extended collaborative network, organisations can mitigate supply chain risk even in the face of unexpected disruption,” said Brecknell. “If an organisation really wants to build resiliency and sustainability into supply chain, they have to have the data, and that has to be aligned across the entire supply chain.”

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�鶹ԭ�� CEO Christian Klein: When People and Technology Meet, Amazing Things Happen

Susan Galer — Wed, 01 Jul 2020 00:38:17 +0000

�鶹ԭ�� CEO Christian Klein kicked off �鶹ԭ��PHIRE NOW Reimagined with a sweeping vision for a safer, healthier, and more prosperous future driven by the intelligent enterprise.

“I’m asking you and all of us to become resilient, sustainable, and profitable companies,” he said. “Together, as intelligent enterprises, we can turn the world’s biggest challenges into our greatest opportunities. The recent pandemic is a crisis that will drastically impact societies and business for months and probably years. Digital transformation is no longer an option, but a must.”

Klein brilliantly brought the intelligent enterprise to life, spotlighting �鶹ԭ��’s newly launched Climate 21 program for sustainable and profitable business, as well as the company’s . Joined by customers and experts during the virtual broadcast, Klein reaffirmed �鶹ԭ��’s commitment to customer success, as well as partnerships with customers like Porsche for business adaptability and growth.

�鶹ԭ��PHIRE NOW Reimagined is a digital program of livestreamed and on-demand broadcast channels featuring senior �鶹ԭ�� executives, customers, solution demonstrations, and experts in 14 languages across regions worldwide.

Building a More Sustainable, Profitable Future

, Klein shared how companies using technology to adapt supply chains and automate for new digital business revenue streams were more competitive before the pandemic. They were also emerging more resilient after the crisis. Pointing out that increasingly companies were measured on both their financial performance and contribution to society, Klein saw business and society at a turning point.

“Just like we cannot ignore the pandemic… we cannot ignore climate change and the major contributions of enterprises,” he said. “Together, we can lead this change and become intelligent enterprises, to make sustainability profitable and profitability sustainable. With our new Climate 21 program, we will support all of our customers to become sustainable companies by building analytical and transactional capabilities [to track greenhouse gas emissions] into our core business applications. It is a huge step in taking climate action.”

�鶹ԭ�� as Trusted Partner

While Klein acknowledged that �鶹ԭ��’s more than 400,000 customers did not question the company’s ability to generate business outcomes, he said what they needed was a trusted partner to help in their digital transformation. He explained how the �鶹ԭ�� solution portfolio reflected the intelligent enterprise vision, based on integration, innovation, agility, and speed. This included how the integrated connected end-to-end business processes — finance, human experience management (HXM), customer experience, spend management, and supply chain — for more informed decisions.

“No other company is more experienced than �鶹ԭ�� to transform your business, because we have been doing this for almost 50 years,” he said. “Our product strategy has one goal: to be the innovative and trusted partner for your holistic business transformation.”

Klein showcased how the open with embedded analytics and real-time reporting was the technical foundation of the intelligent enterprise, allowing an ecosystem of partners and customers to integrate with �鶹ԭ�� and non-�鶹ԭ�� applications and data across hybrid landscapes to extend and create innovative business applications.

Industry Cloud for Vertical Differentiation

Emphasising the importance of partners, Klein explained how the industry cloud supported the development of cloud-native applications for differentiating business capabilities, powering the “fourth industrial revolution.”

“We will partner with our ecosystem to gain broad coverage across all industries… because you know which industry best practices matter most to you… Business processes and steps have many dependencies,” he said. “Only �鶹ԭ�� can bring together all this data of the many stakeholders in one business network, allowing you to manage all these dependencies in real time.”

Partnership with Porsche Drives Results

While it might seem counter intuitive to hold up the automotive industry as an innovation leader during the pandemic, Lutz Meschke, CFO of Porsche, discussed how his company’s partnership with �鶹ԭ�� was instrumental in helping both organizations usher in a new era of digitalisation.

In Porsche’s case, the innovations included electric vehicles, automated driving, new services, and digital sales channels.

“T�� pandemic showed us insistently how important it was to act with a sustainably profitable strategy… and to work with a resilient supply chain,” Meschke shared. “We see a unique opportunity to become a completely digital company… We believe in strong partnerships, like our strategic partnership with �鶹ԭ��, driving forward co-innovations and jointly delivering new solutions for our digital transformation.”

Meschke said that Porsche is putting data at the “heart of everything” for decision-making backed by . Using ��Ի��, Porsche will have one integrated reporting system across its application landscape.

Data Fuels Circular Economy

Meantime, Klein detailed �鶹ԭ��’s vision for the intelligent automotive company, taking viewers on a data-driven electric car buying and ownership experience from customised configuration through delivery and beyond. In this future, data provided an informative window into the customer’s entire driving experience, during a car’s lifetime and even after. Businesses could provide new services to customers, cities could increase road safety, and car manufacturers could make continuous improvements in a perfect rendition of the circular economy.

Amazing Intelligent Enterprise Journey

Klein closed his keynote with a heartfelt pledge of �鶹ԭ��’s commitment to its customers, and a resounding call to act.

“We want to serve you with the best possible business outcomes to help you quickly adopt and get the most value from our solutions to ensure your long-term success,” he said. “Together, we’ve embarked on the journey to become intelligence enterprises. We have come a long way already, making a significant contribution to growth while acting sustainably. Let’s show the world when people and technology meet, amazing things happen.”

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From �鶹ԭ��PHIRE NOW: How the Pandemic Is Reshaping the Future

Susan Galer — Fri, 05 Jun 2020 06:01:23 +0000

As most of us stay hunkered down doing our best to survive the global pandemic, business leaders are trying to make sense of what we can expect from institutions, alliances, and global leadership in the aftermath. Ian Bremmer, president and founder of , does not believe we are headed into a new global order.

“Rather, it’s that we’re recognising suddenly that a lot of things that have been happening slowly and under the surface for years now have changed the global order, and now we have to pay attention to it,” Bremmer said. “Not only is this the largest crisis of our lifetimes, but it’s the largest crisis against the backdrop of no global leadership.”

Bremmer’s remarks came during a provocative conversation about the interconnection of health, business, society, and technology with Adaire Fox-Martin, member of the Executive Board of �鶹ԭ�� SE and head of Customer Success.

Their talk was among the many perceptive broadcasts from , part of the digital program.

Geopolitics Unaligned with Institutions and Alliances

When Fox-Martin asked what lessons could be learned, Bremmer pointed to the mismatch between dramatically changed geopolitics in the last 10 to 20 years versus institutions and alliances that have stayed relatively the same.

“It really implies that those institutions or alliances are no longer as fit for purpose,” he said. “And even if we’re committed to them, we’ll be less committed to them, and even if we’re strongly committed to them, they won’t be as useful as they used to be. I think it will be about a three-year period before we come to the new normal for the global economy, and that’s a long time.”

Diversify Supply Chains for Resilience

Noting that almost every CEO is attempting to figure out how to make their business more efficient, Bremmer expects companies to diversify supply chains for resiliency and flexibility. This is a huge pivot away from traditional supply chain management.

“T�� hope is that you can do that and create more resilience in supply chains by moving it closer to consumers without necessarily having to make it so expensively over-redundant,” Bremmer said. “You do need a just-in-case as opposed to just-in-time supply chain. Some of that is going to be redundant, but a lot of it can be just by shrinking the supply chain and getting it close to where the consumption actually is.”

Digital Is a Must

Admitting the crisis was not good for anyone, Bremmer saw a desperate need for the digital economy to help in getting through this. He urged companies to move quickly toward the 21st century because “if they weren’t digital and they weren’t post-industrial before, they’re going to have to be, or they’re going to be looking at bankruptcy or they’re going to be looking at getting acquired.” He also called for the development of a world data organisation to manage the ethics of artificial intelligence (AI).

As Bremmer enumerated a dizzying array of geopolitical challenges by country with razor-sharp realism, he was also optimistic about the potential of a world data organisation. To show what was possible, he pointed to recent unprecedented partnerships between competitive tech vendors that were exploring contact tracing for COVID-19 cases.

“What we really want is to have an institution that allows for opening a whole bunch of chapters around different ways that data and technology affect our lives and allows us to integrate and coordinate those things and invite everyone in the world to do so within a set of rules,” Bremmer explained. “It’s a really good time to create an institution around this.”

Globalisation as a Force for Good

Regarding what needs to change most, Bremmer harked back to the 2008 recession, where nothing really changed afterwards. He saw the pandemic as a much larger crisis and speculated that it might just be big enough to address the ongoing problems of globalisation that has historically benefited the few at the top, while fractured institutions and alliances no longer address geopolitical realities.

“This a much bigger crisis, so maybe it’s big enough for us to start addressing some of these problems, but we don’t want it to be too big,” Bremmer said. “If it’s too big, the institutions will start to break, so we really need this crisis to be in that narrow window – that not-too-hot, not-too-cold, just right to force us to adapt our institutions, our alliances, our values, our supply chains to a very new global order, a very new global reality.”

Perhaps most surprisingly, Ian Bremmer did not predicate country success in emerging from the coronavirus on wealth. He said the biggest winners would be well governed countries that were less exposed to globalisation and had young populations and leaders more focused on science.

This article first appeared on the Global News Centre.

Registration for �鶹ԭ��PHIRE NOW Australia and New Zealand is now open. To get your free access today, .

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AI Is Top Game-Changing Technology in the Healthcare Industry

Susan Galer — Tue, 02 Jun 2020 23:57:40 +0000

Of the many ingredients that go into quality healthcare, comprehensive patient data is close to the top of the list.

No one knows this more than Mayur Saxena, CEO and founder of . Saxena created his startup while pursuing his doctorate degree at Columbia University and working at a healthcare company conducting clinical trials on new medication.

He is energised by the plethora of opportunities to improve healthcare using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

“Patient data is notoriously disorganised and complex,” Saxena said. “With machine learning, healthcare professionals can organise that information to better understand the disease of every patient and reach them faster with interventions that improve their lives. It’s an amazing feeling when you talk with someone who’s recovered from an illness because they received the right care.”

The idea behind Droice is to make messy data neat so people can spend less time organising it and more time analysing it.

Insights Drive Personalised Patient Care

The startup has collected data from 50 million patients while working with healthcare providers, payers, and government organizations in the U.S. and Europe. Healthcare professionals in hospitals, pharmaceutical firms, medical device manufacturing, and insurance rely on Droice Labs’ natural language understanding (NLU) technology. NLU makes sense of patient information in multiple languages from anywhere, such as electronic medical records (EMR), insurance claims, research reports, and medical devices.

“Our machine learning system takes all the data about an individual into account and breaks it down so that a doctor, pharmaceutical scientist, or healthcare insurer can understand patients better and faster,” explained Saxena. “Instead of repetitive, disparate, one-on-one diagnoses and follow-up care, we’re automating personalised care for a much larger patient population. With shared insights across a large patient population, physicians can chart disease progress and prescribe the best treatment plan. Clinical research into new drugs that took years could be reduced to days or weeks.”

Saxena said that one hospital reduced the amount of time it took to arrive at an appropriate patient diagnosis by over 20 percent.

�鶹ԭ��.iO Foundries Opens Up World of Healthcare Opportunities

Droice Labs recently participated in the latest healthcare-focused accelerator program at �鶹ԭ��.iO Foundry New York. It was one of seven up-and-coming startups working with hospital system providers, employee health and wellness solutions, medical devices, and health IT.

“We’ve learned so much about customers in the healthcare industry from �鶹ԭ��’s sales and product teams,” said Saxena. “T��se large organizations have unique needs, and we’re grateful for the opportunity to partner with �鶹ԭ��, a company with a massive presence across so many geographies. We’ve gained valuable insights about strategic global selling and scaling our technology to meet the unique requirements of these customers.”

The Droice Labs machine learning platform is .

Turning Long-Time Passion into Thriving Startup

Droice Labs reflects Saxena’s long-time personal and career commitment to healthcare. After earning his undergraduate degree in bio-engineering and biomedical engineering, he worked in high-performance computing in Singapore before arriving in the U.S. That is when he acted on his passion, exploring how AI and machine learning can help improve patient care and potentially eradicate disease.

“We’re looking at data from hundreds of thousands of patients a day, helping improve their care pathways across the healthcare system,” said Saxena. “We have the technology to work with patient data at scale. I’m most excited about working together with recognised healthcare experts using state-of-the-art technology to address major challenges in this complicated, regulated industry.”

Digitally Trustworthy Strategy at Droice Labs

In an environment where patient concerns and regulations around data control continue to increase, Saxena emphasised his company’s strategy of digital trust.

“Everything we do is designed to respect individual patient privacy,” explained Saxena. “We don’t possess related identifying data on patients, and we remove any identifiers. Working in a mission-critical environment like healthcare brings a set of responsibilities. If there is a population suffering from disease, and by looking at their information we can partner with healthcare providers to help make their quality of life better, that’s what we’ll do. But we don’t participate in business models targeted to specific individuals.”

Saxena expected his company’s rapid growth trajectory to continue, and it was easy to see why. According to �Ҳ��ٲԱ��’s 2020 CIO Survey, AI is the healthcare industry’s top game-changing technology. Analysts 75 percent of healthcare delivery organizations will invest in an AI capability to explicitly improve either operational performance or clinical outcomes by 2021.

This article first appeared on the Global �鶹ԭ�� News Centre.

Registration for �鶹ԭ��PHIRE NOW Australia and New Zealand is now open. To get your free access today, .

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Four Essential Steps for Moving to �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA

Susan Galer — Fri, 17 Apr 2020 01:43:25 +0000

One of the central questions �鶹ԭ�� customers have about moving to is how to get started.

In this interview at the event, Raphael Maultzsch, principal IT architect at �鶹ԭ��, took me through four primary steps designed to give IT and business teams a window into the future for practical planning.

“T�� two biggest questions customers have about moving to �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA are ‘How can we find out which business processes we have to change and what happens to our custom code?’” said Maultzsch. “We’ve designed the four-step journey to �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA to answer those questions, helping customers map the best route to achieve their individual business demands.”

Step 1: Know What to Expect

According to Maultzsch, companies can start with the tool, essentially a preparation step for what is to come.

“Whether you have already decided to move ahead with �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA or have just begun exploring your path to the intelligent enterprise, �鶹ԭ�� Readiness Check helps you see what lies ahead after project kick-off and factor that information into your decision-making,” explained Maultzsch. “T�� idea is to help people understand what they need to prepare beforehand so they can better budget time and resources for the project.”

For example, during our interview, we watched as the full-colour, interactive dashboard identified which business processes, functions, user interfaces, and data management practices a company would need to evolve to take full advantage of �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA innovations. The in-depth analysis covered business functions, transactions, and even compatibility with add-ons across enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications, such as finance or supply chain, as well as industry-specific processes. It identified which custom code companies would need to adapt. The tool’s comprehensive report also provided people with an in-depth understanding of software prerequisites and infrastructure requirements.

Step 2: Debunk Custom Code Fears with Reality

Once the project begins, the second step was running the ABAP test cockpit to find out which reports depend on custom code that would be affected in moving to �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA.

Surprisingly, while many people equate custom code with greater project effort, just the opposite is often true.

“People tend to make custom code their first priority because they have the most fears about what happens to it when they move to �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA,” said Maultzsch. “However, we’ve found that companies aren’t using approximately 50 percent or more of their legacy custom code. What’s more, adapting custom coding takes far less effort than most companies expect.”

Step 3: Maintain Data Consistency

Quality data is paramount to any system transformation. In fact, researchers predicted that “2020 will be a wake-up year for many organizations, as the total cost of getting data wrong will become apparent.” Maultzsch agreed that bringing together accurate, consistent, and relevant data from anywhere in a company is critical to bringing advanced technologies like artificial intelligence ( into business. He then showed me the third step in moving to �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA, which involved scanning the system to “make sure data is consistent for proper conversion.”

Step 4: Keep Downtime to a Minimum

Companies have several options to minimise downtime during the switch over to �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA, notably the Software Update Manager tool. Maultzsch suggested the near-Zero Downtime technology for companies with tight downtime requirements. It is designed to manage large data transfers in relatively short time frames, typically accomplished over the weekend, even for huge database sizes.

Of course, there are more than these four overview steps involved in moving to �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA. Maultzsch encouraged both business leaders and IT professionals – including consultants and architects – to think of these four steps as a foundational project guide.

“Maybe your CIO has said we’re moving to �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA, or you’ve heard about the importance of �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA in becoming an intelligent enterprise in the experience economy, but you don’t know where to begin,” he said. “T��se are the four steps to help structure your project and start planning for your next business innovation.”

This article first appeared on the Global �鶹ԭ�� News Centre.

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Intelligent Robotic Process Automation: Not Your Average Top 2020 Trend

Susan Galer — Tue, 10 Mar 2020 22:44:41 +0000

Hidden behind the tsunami of expert predictions on the rise of (RPA) are sweeping changes for the customer and employee experiences in every industry.

Gartner analysts included RPA as a key component of “hyper automation,” a major theme woven into the firm’s for 2020. In a recent survey, respondents said the top two reasons they were investing in artificial intelligence (AI) were to automate repetitive or manual tasks (66 percent) and improve the customer experience (63 percent).

By 2022, predicted that 75 percent of enterprises will embed intelligent automation into technology and process development, using AI-based software to discover operational and experiential insights that will guide innovation. Over the next few years, researchers expected spend on AI-enabled RPA will outpace that of non-AI-enabled RPA. While IDC analysts found most RPA vendors were not using AI and machine learning in big ways yet, I discovered how �鶹ԭ�� helped developers inject intelligence into software applications across �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA Cloud in this interview at the ��𱹱�Գ�.

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“Machine learning, intelligent robotic process automation, and embedded analytics are core to becoming an intelligent enterprise,” said Sven Denecken, head of Product Success and Customer Co-Innovation for �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA. “With preconfigured bots, machine learning models, templates, and reports, we’ve made it easy for developers to bring these capabilities into �鶹ԭ�� S/4HANA Cloud, innovating how people work and business operates for growth.”

Intelligence Delivers Business Results

Unlike historical RPA that only automated disparate, manual data processing tasks, the intelligent version offers employees and their companies unique opportunities ─ provided it is pervasive across a business process like finance, procurement, sales, or the supply chain. When I caught up with Denecken after �鶹ԭ�� TechEd, he urged companies to focus on business results in order to gain the greatest value from intelligent technologies.

“Embedding intelligent bots into the invoice-to-cash process dramatically improves not only the efficiency of accountants and their ability to speed up payment management, but equally important, customer satisfaction,” Denecken explained. “T�� same applies to the process. AI can automate routine tasks and find new opportunities. Sales managers can spend more time on up selling the right products, at the right prices, to the right customers. Every business process becomes more streamlined, improving sales forecast accuracy, on-time customer deliveries, and cash flow.”

Different Kind of Employee Experience

This next level of intelligence does not cancel out the value of people. Gartner analysts saw RPA tools augmenting knowledge workers and taking on tedious, mundane, and repetitive tasks. analysts characterised employees in this new intelligent-driven era as “the critical cultural glue and internal force in the future of work. With fewer employees, they are self-initiating, adaptable brand and culture ambassadors. They keep the core organisation whole and maintain the soul of the company’s front-and-centre gig economy workers, who come and go while robots make more and more decisions.”

In some industries, intelligent RPA just might become essential to survival. predicted that by 2023, 60 percent of G2000 manufacturers will address growing industry talent shortages with significant investments in intelligent RPA. These analysts wrote that “the integration of optical character recognition (OCR), natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning in AI-infused RPA opens up opportunities for data collection, workflow, and operational/tactical decision making.” IDC aligned intelligent RPA with Industry 4.0 aspirations, helping manufacturers move beyond greater efficiency and productivity to new business models such as dynamic sales models and hyper-personalisation.

Courtesy of traditional RPA, business entered the first phase of automation. With advanced intelligence that helps connect all organisational information and activities, intelligent RPA trends promise to be much more than a blip on 2020 lists. It is certain to reinvent business and industries as never before.

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Top 2020 AI Trends: Why People Actually Want More Machines in the Workplace

Susan Galer — Fri, 17 Jan 2020 00:50:22 +0000

will soon be everywhere, and we will learn to love them for all the right reasons. That is my prediction after seeing the latest research about these fast-evolving technologies. Read on for a quick update on 2020 AI trends from leading industry analysts.

Expect Booming Growth for AI and Machine Learning

Begin with the big picture: analysts said that AI — with a particular emphasis on machine learning — will eventually infiltrate just about every existing technology. predicted companies will invest over $265 billion worldwide in new intelligence technologies by 2023.

Slightly further out, researchers predicted that AI will be inescapable by 2025. These analysts saw AI as a “key ingredient” in 90 percent of business software applications. They also said that over 50 percent of user interface interactions will incorporate AI into computer vision, speech, natural language processing, and augmented and virtual reality. analysts called automation “a force-multiplier that will disrupt economic opportunity for many… a dynamic already underway that will pick up substantial speed and scope and requires attention now.”

AI: Fastest Route to Victory

One pervasive theme in 2020 AI trends was speed, or as many analysts called it, “hyper-automation.” analysts predicted that hyper-automation will spread big-time, notably into more traditional knowledge worker tasks. By 2024, IDC said AI-fuelled enterprises with “proactive, hyper-speed operational changes and market reactions, will respond to customers, competitors, regulators, and partners 50 percent faster than their peers.”

Regarding customer experience (CX), researchers saw near-real-time experiences becoming table stakes for most industries as companies were pressured to build matching real-time customer experience signals. Forrester researchers predicted that CX leaders will manage a “portfolio of automation experiences, from the building and testing of data to the delivery and perceived value (or lack of value) of those experiences.”

Humans Plus Machines: The New Norm

Here is the kicker, and it’s heartening to us humans: researchers said that AI and machine learning will not completely replace people because “AI-driven autonomous capabilities… cannot match the human brain’s breadth of intelligence and dynamic general-purpose learning. Instead, they focus on well-scoped purposes, particularly for automating routine human activities.”

analysts picked up the human-machine thread, predicting that work will depend on “a symbiotic relationship between [hu]man and machine. This is not a [hu]man-led, machine-do structure; instead it will match leadership, decisioning, and executive tasks across robots and machines that best deliver the desired outcome.”

Additionally, about those 90 percent of enterprise applications that IDC predicted will be chock-full of AI, the same researchers said most will “deliver incremental improvements to automate processes and replace heuristic or rule-based techniques to make applications smarter and more dynamic.”

How Machine Learning Benefits Daily Business

There are many places in the business where a strategic dose of AI and machine learning will quietly, yet dramatically change how people work and companies operate. These include order to cash, design to operate, customer experience, and procurement.

In this demonstration at the event, I saw how image-based recognition helped automate the procurement experience. It showed how a buyer ordering everyday equipment – such as a laptop, keyboard, or mobile device – would not need to type in product names or model numbers. The buyer could simply take a picture of the product on their mobile device and the algorithm would quickly find the exact product or suggested comparable items from the supplier catalogue.

“This just one example of how we’re applying machine learning in small steps in hundreds of places across �鶹ԭ�� solutions,” said Jana Richter, chief product owner of �鶹ԭ�� Leonardo Machine Learning Applications. “It doesn’t completely change procurement, but brings automation and convenience where it counts — in this instance, to image-based purchasing.”

What the AI Future Holds

�� latest surveys, respondents who wanted AI to help with tasks outnumbered those who wanted AI to completely take over tasks three to one. That is likely because the same respondents ranked, in order of importance, their top-three reasons for using AI as: automating repetitive or manual tasks, improving customer experience, and reducing costs.

As for where people come in, analysts advised workers to learn core skills, adapt to new working models, and “understand what it means to be ready and fit for the future, maximising their ‘Robotics Quotient (RQ).’” For the uninitiated, Forrester coined the term RQ, which scores someone’s ability to work with machines.

Naturally, analysts have caveats about AI’s growing prevalence, but that’s for another article.

This article first appeared on �鶹ԭ��’s global newsroom.

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