What is an intelligent enterprise and how can companies become one?
In today’s unpredictable market where political instability, a global health crisis and constant technological developments disrupt daily operations across the world, it’s not enough for companies to go through a digital transformation and become process-outcome driven. In order to be able to adapt quickly to changes that occur on a regular basis and maintain their competitive advantage, organizations need to evolve and become an intelligent enterprise.
At NTT DATA, we aim to help companies create their own journey to an intelligent enterprise that is flexible and competitive in an already saturated market.
But first, what is an intelligent enterprise and how can a company become one?
What is an intelligent enterprise?
An intelligent enterprise is an agile and adaptable entity that is able to react quickly to changes in the market by leveraging advanced IT tools and systems insights from data and using them to digitally transform the company. The more integrated and orchestrated these systems are, the greater capacity a company will have to be able to give quick and coherent answers to necessities. But an intelligent enterprise is more complex than just leveraging data successfully. It implies finding the meaning behind the data while taking into consideration company needs, which might be different depending on the areas of the business.
For SAP, the intelligent enterprise has three layers: its traditional ERP applications, a layer of cloud application solutions that complement the processes, and managing and optimizing processes with a Business Process Intelligence tool. SAP can help companies with this transformation by leveraging an intelligent suite, a digital platform and intelligent technologies, that will enable them to understand what’s happening across the business and why.
Business processes of the intelligent enterprise
The key element of an intelligent enterprise is a flexible infrastructure that enables quick changes in the company and has a direct impact on the business processes. Another important business process is managing its data and extracting valuable insights. However, interpreting data is very complicated when there is too much of it. According to our experts ever since the Big Data boom companies have gathered gigabytes and terabytes of meaningless historical data, in a moment when it makes less and less sense to look at the past for solutions. Contrary to traditional forecasting techniques, the business world is now changing so fast that what happened just a few years ago can’t help predict what will happen in the next year.
So, how do you leverage these advanced tools and turn your company into an intelligent enterprise?
How can you turn your company into an intelligent company?
The pivotal role that data plays in both an intelligent enterprise and a data-driven company has led to confusion between the two. As mentioned before, the popularization of Big Data led to a similar confusion between data-driven and a digital transformation when companies were drawn into a fever of generating and storing massive amounts of data thinking it was the key to digitizing their business. However, storing even the smallest level of detail makes it impossible to plan at a macro level, which is necessary before addressing issues at a micro-level. Companies ended up owning terabytes of data which now must be managed and processed.
The first step is to invest in IT systems that transform the company into an agile organization. A complete ERP system such as SAP S/4HANA manages operations in real-time from anywhere, introducing new business models and increasing agility across the organization.
Another important step is to develop an in-depth understanding of the customers, and the market in general by gathering information and processing the data with the help of the integrated IT systems. The goal here is to be able to integrate insights from customer experience and operational data in real-time, and increase brand loyalty by delivering seamless marketing, sales, and service experiences.
Integrating advanced financial automations that optimize costs, is another important step in transforming a company into an intelligent enterprise. Real-time financial insights allows decision-makers across the organization to make informed choices and remove unnecessary steps in the financial model, increasing efficiency across the entire organization.
It is impossible to change the organization from one go and, in fact, specialists like Gartner recommend that a digital transformation of this level of complexity be done gradually, especially so that talent has time to adjust.
Start your journey to an Intelligent Business
In today’s fast-forward socio-economic market, it’s not enough to digitize a company. Digital transformation should not be understood as purely technological, but rather an organizational and conceptual transformation. A complete digital transformation implies the reconstruction of the organization itself which includes many aspects such as fostering employee empowerment or developing a new customer service model. Only by going through this complex transformation can companies become an intelligent business that adapts to sudden changes in the market.
At NTT DATA our goal is to help businesses become an intelligent enterprise by leveraging SAP’s advanced technologies and systems. Our strategy begins by designing the roadmap that best fits each organization, understanding which SAP tools and systems are the most appropriate and then guide businesses through their digital transformation. Future-proofing your companies has never been easier.
