By Suresh Santhana
The ability to stay connected at all times and the ability to process data faster than ever has made Mobility and HANA the hottest topics in this year's Sapphire. At Infosys we leverage SAP's newest technologies to provide the best in class mobile solutions for our customers. At Sapphire Madrid we will showcase our Mobility capabilities and some of the smart apps like mBrochure, Guided Sales that we have built on devices like iPAD and smart phones.
In continuation to what we were talking on Opportunity Management (OM) in Part 1, following picture graphically shows how the OM is planned:
Continue reading " Opportunity Maintenance- A point of view: Part 2 " »
PAC US, Peter Russo - Managing Director
GRC - or Governance, Risk and Compliance - is a major area of concern for key executives, especially CFOs who ultimately sign the checks for major tech and consulting purchases. The issue sprang to prominence with the SOX regulations and changes to IFRS. But while organizations largely have those under control now, there are plenty of regulations on the way - in areas like sustainability and in some specific sectors like banking and insurance with Basel III and Solvency II. And, GRC is a wide field; other issues it helps with are perennial and common to most businesses - fraud reduction, for instance. And senior execs remain in the front line of accountability.
Continue reading " GRC remains top of mind for SAP users " »
PAC US, Peter Russo - Managing Director
Generally overlooked amidst all the ballyhoo at Sapphire about HANA in-memory database (not to mention social software, mobility, analytics and the rest) was an intriguing, if not unexpected, database announcement: that SAP ERP would soon be available running on Sybase's ASE relational database. The combination is being piloted at 'selected customers' right now and will be generally available later in 2011.
Continue reading " SAP and Sybase - a new strategic option, 20 years on " »
By
Naresh Ramamurti
Practice Leader - SAP RETAIL
The perception of value lies in the imagination of those who chose to perceive it. The reality of price, unfortunately, is there for everyone to see - on the package!
Over the last few years, in and out of the greatest recession of my time, the Consumer Package Goods (CPG) industry has been plagued with an unprecedented variety of challenges. Rising commodity prices, a fundamental change in US consumer behavior, intense competition from private labels, and the insatiable demands of increasingly powerful Retailers, have all haunted the CPG ecosystem with unfailing persistence. And yet, the cream of the CPG crop has survived, and survived in style! In doing so, the CPG leaders have gone back to the basics - focusing on select leading practices and executing with intense discipline.
By
Naresh Ramamurti
Practice Leader - SAP RETAIL
Customer Centricity and Cross-Channel shopping have been the two greatest trends in RETAIL since 2010. With Apple and Google taking the world's number 1 and 2 spots for global brands this year, these trends have taken a whole new meaning. On the foundation of tomorrow's mobile applications, customers have dynamited the way they interact with retailers - redefining and rewriting the shopper experience from product to point of sale. While organizations around the world continue to grapple with the challenges of reducing their cost of business, Retailers have an exceptional opportunity to take control of the shopping experience - from embracing social networks to crunching core analytics in real time.
The concept 'Service Introduction' is gaining rapid popularity in IT world as an 'effective tool' to introduce a new application/service into an established system.
In short, Service Introduction is the management of activities to ensure that applications/systems being developed to meet all operational requirements before getting introduced to 'Production or Live' environment. It also has to ensure 'Maintenance teams' are comfortable in providing the required services from the day one.
If we were to name some of the critical success factors for a successful SAP project implementation, what would be those;
Precise requirements gathering, Efficient Design, Minimum Customization, Effective program management...
Continue reading " SAP Projects Critical success factors - Ownership " »
With SAP set to acquire Sybase, SAP customers, mainly in Finance, Media, Telecom and Retail sector will find newer innovative ways to deliver information and distribute data with merger of the two technologies. Other customers will have more innovative process transforming their ERP systems to bring in more productivity.
On the application development side in the IT arena, we can expect niche and newer applications in the mobile segment resulting in better reach of business to customers and prospects.
Continue reading " SAP + Sybase = more mobility and productivity " »
This post will be the concluding one for the series on SAP in Transition Economies. Here, I would like to take you through the possible challenges that await organizations in this part of the world, as they embark on their ERP journey, and also, the likely benefits they can look forward to, once operational on SAP.
Continue reading " SAP in Transition Economies: Part III " »
In my last post on SAP in Transition Economies, I shared with you my observation, of organizations in and around the Caspian Sea region leaning more towards SAP adoption in the last few years. Let us now look at the probable reasons which might have led to this change of mindset and approach.
This is my first blog post ever. In this new journey, there are few things I plan to write about and hopefully they will prove insightful to the readers. However, to set the ball rolling, let me start with something on which I have been actually thinking for some time now i.e. SAP adoption around the Caspian Energy market. I had a chance of working on an SAP Projects in one of the countries adjacent to the Caspian Sea. Here to my utter surprise I found that for years international IT firms have seen this region less as a lucrative enterprise market. On the contrary I felt that this is just ripe for picking, and can turn out to be a priority segment.
The healthcare industry is one of the fast growing industries in the world. Some of the major segments of the Industry include:
• Hospital Management Services
• Clinical and Patient Management Services
• Biotechnology, Medical labs and Research
• Medical equipment and supplies
The healthcare industry on the present day faces many challenges. Some of them include: improving patient care, controlling costs, meeting government regulations and effective clinical services.
Continue reading " ERP adoption trends-A Healthy change for Healthcare Industry " »
In the previous blogs I have tried to explain what SAP means by Support and Maintenance, and the commercial importance of this function to SAP. Having set that context, I want to bring up a few issues which I think will determine the future of this business line for companies like SAP.
The first point is whether customers have options to sign Maintenance contracts with companies other than the product vendors?
No, they do not. In spite of what Riminy Street and other similar companies may come up with, I strongly believe there are reasons why customers will not, actually cannot, terminate their AMCs. In the current circumstances, doing otherwise (signing an AMC with another service vendor) would definitely be a massive risk – imagine putting your complete SAP landscape maintenance in the hands of a service provider who does not have access to SAP’s future roadmap, who will not have access to patches and security updates, and if I assume correctly will be violating copyright laws by attempting to change SAP code, etc.
(However this option maybe realistic if customers decide to let go of their current IT landscape and plan a complete revamp one or two years down the line.)
Continue reading " The SAP Support and Maintenance Series – Part 3 of 3 - What can customers do? " »
What exactly constitutes Software-related Services? [Sourced from the SAP Annual Report 2008 - On Form 20F - The SAP Portfolio]
SAP categorizes software-related services into four buckets; Custom development, Support services, On-demand software services and Managed services.
Custom development as the name suggests implies building new developments, extensions and enhancements on the SAP platform to address unique customer requirements which otherwise cannot be met by the standard offering.
Support services include support to the customer through the complete lifecycle of the implementation – before, during and after. This involves round-the-clock technical support, as well as proactive and preventive support services. It can vary from SAP Enterprise Support (involves holistic IT landscape support with the aim of optimizing operations, based on defined service level agreements), SAP Product Support (provides day-to-day support needs), SAP Safeguarding (aims to mitigate technical risks during implementation and upgrade) and SAP Max Attention (includes technical account management from SAP).
Since last year, SAP Support has been a major part of the news - first with SAP announcing Enterprise Support, the market’s reaction to a rise in support cost - from 17% to 22%, a critical reception from customers, the SAP response of rolling back the support price in DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland), the emergence of service partners who ‘supposedly’ offer AMC (Annual Maintenance Contract) equivalents to SAP customers, and more recently the erstwhile rumors in the market about Siemens planning to cancel their Annual Maintenance Contract with SAP and the trend which could begin if this had come true.
SAP is dealing with various challenges since HY2 2008. In the last few years, I have not seen a more difficult time for the company. The way I look at it, this can be the wake-up call the world’s largest ‘business software provider’ requires to maintain its leadership in the coming years.
There is a new management team at the helm; it was not the easiest time for them to take charge, but definitely it is the time which presents them with the best opportunity to prove their value. The economic slowdown has had its effect on SAP; starting with the announcement in the beginning of October 2008.http://www.sap.com/about/newsroom/news-releases/press.epx?pressid=10209
Continue reading " The SAP Support and Maintenance Series – Part 0 of 3 – Current Challenges " »
Are you an SAP Consultant? What is/are the module/s which you have worked on? How many implementation/roll out/support projects you have worked on? How are your configuration and technical skills? Which versions of SAP you have worked on? Do you have experience in handling client remotely and onsite?
Continue reading " SAP Consulting - changing faces Part 1 " »
The objective of this blog series is to give an overview of how SAP has evolved in the recent years and what were the drivers that compelled them to grow the way they did. The blog series also gives a flavor of various components in SAP landscape today and how they form pieces of a Jigsaw puzzle that needs to be arranged correctly to be of business relevance.
Continue reading " The ever evolving SAP landscape – Part 1 of 3 " »
Global business houses, in their innovation journey for being competitive, leverage existing distribution channel network evolving with a multi-commerce platform. Internet sales continue to grow healthier even at the economy tried times. Businesses are keen to value add their existing channel assets to collaborate with customers to personalize experiences thereby driving the market demand to enable a customer driven growth.
Your existing dealer, reseller or channel assets need to take advantage of Internet and improve the sales and distribution channels. It will not only be a value add to your existing reseller network asset but also key to establish a customer driven growth.
Improve value chain of your existing channel assets
What if you could provide customers with a unified and guided selling experience across your sales channels with a seamless selling experience integrating the value-add of your reseller network? What if you could leverage the channel without additional investment of CRM (Customer Relationship Management) server? The answer could be to establish lean E-Commerce (focusing pre-sales and sales only) system that can meet such requirements.
E-Commerce solution leveraging your existing infrastructure
An e-Commerce system without additional investment of CRM server, where products, orders and promotions are properly configured to route the sales orders to the distributor. This brings in a truly collaborative commerce with distributor - you - customers with increased focus and participation in the sales cycle.
Distributor (vendor) managed inventory system while you still maintain with frequent updates from the distributor system. Replenishment of inventory could be planned, advised and executed reducing the touch points or improving the automation thereby helping increased focus more on the core activities. Additional core business areas of planning, availability and capability also receives improvised attention.
Collaborative platform
Collaboration with channel asset involving customer will allow active participation of all stakeholders in all aspects of your customer's sales and marketing experience, from shopping and product configuration to order fulfillment and feedback. It is a single platform offering from Infosys based on a composition environment that leverage SAP E-Commerce application. CSR, Customers and Vendor will have a single platform and a single view – bet it orders, products, promotions, status info etc.,
Return on investment (ROI)
Immediate returns are reduced cost of order processing and improved efficiencies. While on a steady state system, your returns include increased customer and partner loyalty and the ability to create strong sell-side partnerships that help differentiate products designed and created by you.
Web Based Channel Platform
Enable e-commerce with SAP ERP without the need for a full CRM implementation. Set up, manage, and extend your online presence to deliver best-in-class business experiences that are Web (2.0) enabled including:
Business benefits
