vVolve Takes On Technology

In the recent SAP Global Partner Summit event and its global SAPPHIRE NOW conference, SAP unveiled the RISE with SAP transformation packages for select industries. To me, this was a natural progression to leverage on the successful launch of the RISE with SAP offering in January. When I first heard about RISE with SAP, I was intrigued by the name but not by the rationale for its launch. Although SAP has been beating its drum on its intent to be a cloud-first company for some time now, it had to create an easy path for its on-premise ERP users to migrate to the cloud. Otherwise, its drum beats would be weak. RISE with SAP was the easy path for cloud migration.

From my conversations with customers and colleagues, it is evident that businesses don’t gain an advantage from their transition to the cloud unless they first digitize their core business process. RISE with SAP is an attempt by SAP to help these customers, and many other on-premise SAP ERP users overcome the hurdles for more straightforward cloud implementation.

RISE with SAP adopts a subscription model approach which includes software, infrastructure, and technical services. It is flexible to allow customizations, source code modifications, and optional upgrades. In addition, it includes SAP S/4HANA on-premise software and specifically defined add-ons, both from SAP and its partners. With this offering, SAP expects customers to benefit from a quick and easy move to the cloud.

The industry-specific RISE with SAP packages offers business transformation as a service for five specific industries, to begin with. SAP will add more to this list over time.

SAP executives say that its industry experts will help companies in the five industries maximize their business outcomes through SAP’s “vision-to-value” method. A method supported by a toolset, industry-specific best practices, benchmarking, and value management tools.

The packages are already available for five initial industries – Automotive, Retail, Consumer Products, Industrial Machinery & Components (IM&C) and Utilities. SAP expects customers to benefit from the significantly lower total cost of ownership (TCO), more innovation for their business, speed and agility, and seamless collaboration with suppliers, customers, and service providers.

The pandemic has proven that digital transformation is not an option but mandatory for companies to stay relevant. Therefore, there is a massive rush by companies to digitize. However, several businesses continue to look at digital transformation as a technical topic while ignoring their people. In my view, organizations intending to transform themselves digitally should not stop at stabilizing and improving their IT processes. They also need to prepare their employees to accept the change that the digital transformation will usher in. Digital transformation is not an end in itself but a path that leads to several new opportunities.