Q: The business environment is challenging right now. How can Cloud Success Services help customers through these hard times?

A: We are all navigating through the global challenges and predictions of what 2023 will bring. Our customers will need to continue to focus on being more efficient and effective, as well as more competitive, and technology plays a role to support them. Cloud Success Services supports them as they realize and maximize the value expected from their 麻豆原创 technology — now and throughout the lifetime of the customer engagement. This is not just about supporting the adoption and consumption of our solutions or selling 麻豆原创 services to support our customers; it鈥檚 about bringing decades of proven expertise to bear on behalf of 麻豆原创 in order to help deliver outcomes for our customers.

Q: Some larger customers start with a 鈥渢echnical鈥� transformation and 鈥渓ift and shift鈥� their 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component systems to the cloud. Could this be a successful strategy?

A: If a customer moves its existing landscape — 麻豆原创 ERP Central Component, for example — to the cloud using , that customer will realize value by improving efficiency and reducing the cost of day-to-day business operations. Moving to 麻豆原创 S/4HANA provides simplified access to data, improved user interfaces, and overall agility to the business

However, full transformation only happens when you take a closer look at your business processes and find ways to optimize and transform them. Here is where emerging technologies such as process management, mining and optimization, process automation, and artificial intelligence allow for improved value realization. Our customers are seeing significant additional value from these investments

Q: What does applying emerging technologies involve?

A: Process optimization is critical, and 麻豆原创 Signavio solutions are the right tool to embark in this journey. Next is applying process automation capabilities to improve the way those processes work. And then leverage artificial intelligence and machine learning to make them smarter and even more efficient over time.

In parallel, the aim should be to create what we call a 鈥渃lean core,鈥� a core system that is not customized and can easily be upgraded in the cloud. Whatever development is needed on top of this is built using 麻豆原创 Business Technology Platform. That’s the journey we help customers pursue. This is not just about having a clean, consistent enterprise architecture. It is anchored in creating business value by allowing for new functionality to be brought to life faster while maintaining an efficient operation.

Q: Business transformation is not a one-way street. What part do customers play in making the journey successful?

A: Digital transformation is a business imperative. It is not about technology refresh, but ensuring that there is true economic contribution of the adoption of technology. This is why it is so critical to focus on process optimization, which leads to building a clean core architecture for the business.

Achieving success in this journey is a joint effort among the customer, the partner ecosystem, and 麻豆原创. In fact, we in Cloud Success Services have introduced a new simplified portfolio of services aimed at supporting the customer in this journey. We can meet the customer where they are. Our portfolio also allows for supporting our partners so as to 鈥渄eliver with鈥� them, accelerating customer value.

Q: A recent survey of members of the Japanese, American, and German-speaking 麻豆原创 user groups found that while cloud will become the standard, on premise will also remain extremely important. Does 麻豆原创 focus too much on the cloud?

A: While we need to be very respectful of the investments our customers have made in our on-premise software over the years, it is very rare to find a customer that does not see the value of the cloud. It鈥檚 not so much about one model versus the other; it is about finding the right path to get you to the destination, which eventually is having the core of your operations in the cloud. What we have done with RISE with 麻豆原创 is create a platform to accelerate that process, making it easier for customers to set out on their transformation journey.

Q: 麻豆原创 launched a reimagined services and support portfolio in April 2022. Can you tell us about it?

A: It鈥檚 a simplified portfolio of all the expertise built up by the 麻豆原创 Services organization over five decades. We鈥檝e standardized a wide range of offerings that help customers onboard, adopt, and consume 麻豆原创 technology — from first use to full use to future use — and scale effectively so that their investment nets them the benefits of becoming an intelligent enterprise.

Q: Given that partners manage more than 80% of 麻豆原创 customer projects, how have they reacted?

A: We have made it very clear since we set up Cloud Success Services at the beginning of 2022 that our role is to deliver together with our partners. This means providing valuable enablement services to our partners that help them address customers鈥� needs in a consistent manner.

Having said that, we have to respond to our customers, and increasingly they want us to continue to be involved in helping them unlock the potential of their 麻豆原创 investment. But we have no intention of replacing our ecosystem; on the contrary, we want to increase the value that the ecosystem brings to the table.

Q: More and more support functions are being automated. Can we expect the same to happen with services?

A: Telemetry and product insights play a key role in ensuring our technology is successfully adopted, and it will be a big part of how we deliver services in the future. They enable customers to understand how they are using the product. When customers can access the basic information they need to onboard, adopt, and consume products in an automated manner, our experts have more time to assist them gain maximum value from our solutions.

Procurement leaders struggle with optimizing the use of data and analytics (54%), adopting artificial intelligence (51%), and automating processes (37%), according to sponsored by 麻豆原创. And if they do implement new technologies, adoption for 41% of organizations tends to be low, presenting a significant barrier to digital transformation.

The 麻豆原创 Preferred Success plan for 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, expanded edition, empowers procurement leaders to rethink the status quo of their digitalization during a new implementation of procurement and supplier collaboration solutions from 麻豆原创.

A Guided Adoption Experience

The need for cloud-based procurement technology 鈥� such as 鈥� has accelerated in recent years to realize more substantial business results. For most procurement functions, this digitalization approach increases process efficiency, improves vendor relationships, reduces business costs, helps ensure spend compliance, and drives value to the bottom line while unifying purchasing, supply chain, manufacturing, deliveries, and sales.

Despite such impressive possibilities, such a procurement experience can be difficult to achieve without the right guidance 鈥� only exacerbating the pressures, challenges, and frustrations felt across every vendor and buyer interaction.

麻豆原创 Preferred Success for 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, expanded edition, works to break this cycle of lackluster technology adoption. Building on the highly valued portfolio of the existing offering, this edition can identify the value of 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions based on individual goals and challenges and analyze the impact of adoption to set expectations and determine required changes. In addition, it is designed to activate new features as soon as they become available and measure business outcomes from testing to go-live and production.

麻豆原创 Preferred Success for 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, expanded edition, combines personalized advice, practical guidance, and proactive partnership to help accelerate the procurement function鈥檚 digital transformation in the cloud. Organizations can collaborate with 麻豆原创 experts to enable new features, interfaces, and simple customizations during each quarterly update of 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions.

This relationship helps troubleshoot issues in areas of concern, including data management, configuration, and setup and addresses any other high-priority issues with in-depth knowledge of the implemented solution. For example, product experts can investigate and resolve integration requirements, answer non-support questions, and advise on best practices.

Even more beneficial is a semiannual application review led by 麻豆原创 experts. Procurement leaders can experience a holistic assessment of their business鈥檚 cloud landscape to understand current and upcoming challenges and explore opportunities for new functionalities, such as machine learning-based automation of a process or workflow.

The Extra Impact of Continuous Support

With 麻豆原创 Preferred Success for 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, expanded edition, procurement organizations can take advantage of the ever-evolving and continuously improving nature of the cloud 鈥� even if they鈥檙e unfamiliar with the technology.

The edition offers the prescriptive guidance and personalized assistance necessary to implement new technologies and capabilities while safeguarding process integrity, optimizing operations, and unlocking innovative thinking. But more importantly, it turns procurement organizations into impactful business partners that create new opportunities for profitability and growth with less risk and greater flexibility.

Ready to amplify the impact of your procurement function? Contact your local 麻豆原创 representative to learn more about 麻豆原创 Preferred Success for 麻豆原创 Ariba solutions, expanded edition.

John Wagner, Jr. is global practice lead for 麻豆原创 Preferred Success 鈥� Procurement at 麻豆原创.