Category: SAP

How Cloud ERP and ERP Systems Support The Manufacturing Industry?

The manufacturing industry has always been highly dynamic and competitive. However, the COVID-19 pandemic and the extension of lockdown restrictions weigh down on manufacturing companies across the globe, causing many to lose momentum. At the same time, customers who are always on-marketplace are expecting high-quality, individualized products delivered within shorter timeframes. To meet these requirements, manufacturers must synchronize their demand chain with the supply chain. The appeal of ERP systems (enterprise resource planning systems) for manufacturing in this scenario is evident. Here’s everything you need to know about ERP systems for manufacturing.

What is the importance of ERP systems for manufacturing?

ERP systems for manufacturing enable manufacturers to compile and maintain their business in an easy-to-scale model. According to G2 (a leading tech marketplace), 47% of ERP users belong to the manufacturing sector, and nearly 50% of companies are keen on acquiring or upgrading their ERP systems.

Fortune Business Insights reports that the global ERP software market size is estimated to reach USD 71.63 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 8.5% during the forecast period (2019-2026). ERP systems for manufacturing encompass every function and streamline every business operation. 

Though automation is not a new concept, the convergence of the digital world with the physical world has transformed the supply chain. In manufacturing, AI can be used to increase uptime and ensure consistent quality. AI and analytics aid in better forecasting, which in turn means better business and better returns.

Read more: Top 10 Technologies That Will Transform Manufacturing in 2021 

Here are six reasons that emphasize the importance of ERP systems for manufacturing.

1. Reduces forecast anxiety

Most businesses worry about the next quarter. ERP systems for manufacturing help generate forecasts and sales reports based on historical transactions. This increases the accuracy and dependability of production and keeps stock levels in line with the increase and decrease in demand.

ERP systems can combine data, statistical algorithms, and predictive analytics to help businesses identify future outcomes based on the past. Predictive analytics can help you determine customer responses, forecast inventory, and even detect fraud. Improved supply chain visibility will help you set the level of preparedness required on the supply side to match demand. It can help you anticipate customer demand and stock goods to fulfill the orders. 

Read more: 5 Reasons to Integrate Your E-commerce Application with Odoo ERP 

2. Increased mobility and employee efficiency

With the lockdown measures tightening, working from home can be challenging for businesses. When the pandemic threw a curveball at companies, ERP systems for manufacturing have handed them a new strategy by enabling employees to work remotely and access all the relevant information they need from a single portal. They can access data through their laptops and computers and even from their phones and tablets, no matter where they are.

3. Flexibility

As each wave of the pandemic takes the world by surprise, manufacturing industries must ensure they are flexible to respond quickly to changing market trends. Such flexibility enables a business to be collaborative in meeting demands and promoting increased revenue and efficiency. 

4. Increased profitability

Are you focusing on increased revenue in the next few months? As you are already aware, getting more work done at a lower cost automatically improves profits and encourages growth. ERP enables manufacturers to be alert to changes and react quickly to variations in raw material costs and delivery timeframes. 

Cloud-based databases enable business leaders to process information quickly and equip them to make high-quality decisions rapidly. ERP systems for manufacturing increase organizational efficiency, eliminate unprofitable areas and cut down on waste. Moreover, ERP software dramatically reduces control and inventory management expenses. 

Read more: How Organizations can Gain a Competitive Edge by Implementing Digital Core ERP 

5. Enhanced security

Advancement in technology has made data available at our fingertips. Unfortunately, it has also made it readily available for hackers and criminals. The significance of data privacy and confidentiality has prompted most countries to have data protection laws in place, and compliance with those laws is non-negotiable. ERP systems for manufacturing have various features that enable your business to protect personal information. ERP system allows you to code your data and secure it by restricting the data through identity and access management. 

6. Customer service 

Every business must be concerned about customer acquisition and retention. ERP systems for manufacturing allow you to centralize and streamline your client information. This will help your sales team focus on building and maintaining customer relationships. End-to-end tracking and insights offered by ERP will help you provide better customer interaction. Since ERP supports e-commerce integration, businesses can handle web-based order processing and client interactions. 

Read more: How Odoo ERP Simplifies Sales Management in Your Organization 

Cloud ERP for manufacturing

Fear of misstep may prevent businesses from moving to the cloud, but outcomes prove that cloud-driven ERP is far more beneficial when compared to manual methods. Here are some benefits of cloud ERP:

• As each department has its own requirement, a customized ERP solution caters to operational and departmental needs. 
• Cloud ERP allows your employees to access their data on the go. This aspect has been very crucial given the unprecedented circumstances brought in by the pandemic.
• Real-time data and reporting help in determining the future of your business and accelerates your decision-making process.

Read more: Top 6 Reasons Why You Should Move to a Cloud-Hosted ERP 

Tried and tested ERP systems for manufacturing in 2021

Functionalities of ERP systems for manufacturing help organizations minimize production lead times and increase automation. Here are three tried and tested top ERP systems for 2021:

1. Odoo ERP system

Odoo manufacturing ERP software allows you to handle complex production workflows, product planning, order and inventory management, schedule management, warehouse management, bills of materials, purchase, PLM, maintenance, and quality. 

Odoo ERP for manufacturing allows you to:

• Create a manufacturing order
• Configure work center
• Configure routing
• Configure bill of material
• Create scrap
• Product life cycle management
• Preventive and corrective maintenance management

As an Official Partner of Odoo, Fingent is primed to provide the best Odoo ERP consulting, implementation, and maintenance services for your business. 

Read more: Why Choose Fingent as Your Odoo ERP Partner 

2. SAP ERP system

SAP manufacturing software and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) solutions enable manufacturing companies to accelerate time to market, gain new production efficiencies and lower costs.  

SAP offers a wide range of software solutions for manufacturing companies, such as SAP S/4HANA Manufacturing solutions, SAP Manufacturing Execution, SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence, SAP Digital Manufacturing Cloud, SAP Environment, Health and Safety Management, and so on. 

SAP ERP system helps in two specific categories:

Manage inventory and bills of material:

• Handle bills of material and multi-level bills of materials
• Record, track and produce serial numbers for incoming and outgoing products
• Manage multiple units of measure

Manage the production process:

• Generate both assembly and disassembly work order
• Maintain records
• Generate finished goods.

Read more: https://testingweb.fingent.net/sap-erp-central-component-sap-ecc/

SAP ERP software offers digital manufacturing solutions to meet the demands in a challenging market. SAP’s solutions for the manufacturing industry include Digital Manufacturing Cloud solutions, Manufacturing Execution System (MES), Production planning & scheduling, and IIoT. Being an SAP Silver Partner, we help businesses leverage the full potential of their SAP ERP software.  

Read more: SAP Business One vs. SAP Business ByDesign: Helping Businesses Pick the Best 

3. MS Dynamics ERP system

Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP system offers a holistic package of solutions for manufacturing companies that include ERP, CRM, BI, Analytics, and a horde of top-notch applications. You can easily manage your assets, supply chain operations, production and purchase orders, supply chain planning, bills of materials, and a wide variety of applications that enhance your business performance from the shop floor to the last-mile delivery. 

Tools of MS dynamics can help you:

• Control financial management
• Deliver better customer service
• Collaborate across your virtual organization

Read more: ERP Software Selection: 5 Step Checklist for CFOs 

Over to you

Manufacturing is the economy’s backbone. ERP is an excellent tool that gathers all information from every corner of the business and translates it into financial data and other valuable insights that help companies make strategic decisions in 2021. The potential of totally streamlined business functions makes the benefits of implementing ERP systems for manufacturing a worthwhile investment.

Over the past 17 years, we have been helping businesses solve challenges through technology. Unlock your business value with custom ERP solutions or ERP implementation, migration, upgrade and support. Give us a call!

How Can Your Business Gain Value from SAP S/4HANA Implementation?

Companies need a digital core to overcome complexity and drive digital transformation. SAP S/4HANA is a digital core ERP that can help companies overcome complexity and thrive in today’s disruptive market.

Businesses are growing by the minute and are moving faster than ever before. Thanks to the innovative developments and improvements of the digital world! 

However, today’s unprecedented disruption calls for more. Businesses need unique ways to emerge stronger from intense challenges that they might never have encountered before. C-level leaders and business owners are looking for ways to become more resilient. They understand that to keep up with ever-changing customer needs, they must invest in automation, analytics, and cloud technologies. The key priority has consequently been the move to SAP S/4HANA. 

S/4 HANA is an intelligent ERP software that helps you reinvent your business model by providing easy access to real-time data.

Read more: SAP S/4HANA: Redefining End-To-End Solution  

C-level leaders and executives need to understand that the journey to SAP S/4HANA is not just an IT exercise. It is an integral part of their broader digital transformation. Business owners need to review their business processes, end-to-end data, and system integrations. Such a review would assist them in developing an overall business value to guide their journey. This blog explores eight practical ways to raise business performance with your SAP S/4HANA journey. 

What makes your SAP S/4HANA journey complicated? 

Before we get into how to get your business booming with SAP S/4HANA, let’s look at why some C-level leaders and executives find this journey challenging. 

Planning and delivering your SAP S/4HANA journey is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for transformation and generates significant investment returns. Today, C-level leaders and executives struggle to answer these three hows:

• How to articulate the business value case to generate substantial returns on investment?
• How to ensure that the program remains business-led?
• How to leverage the power of the cloud?

Leaders and executives must consider creative ways to harness the power of SAP S/4HANA. It includes the design phase, building phase, and running phase. Business value can only rise when new sources are developed that enable the business to react quickly to recover from disruption. 

Read more: 6 Capabilities of SAP S/4HANA That Will Help You Become an Intelligent Enterprise 

8 practical steps to gain business value from SAP S/4HANA journey

Here are eight practical steps that answer the ‘hows’ and more:

1. Articulate the business value case

You may have already set aside a significant amount of resources, both in terms of finances and staffing, to embrace the journey to SAP S/4HANA. Beginning this journey with a holistic, business-led value case will help you realize its full potential and make the best of these resources. Thankfully, there is a distinct and compelling business case for every digital function. What does this mean for C-level leaders and executives? 

It would mean that they must take the time to create a fact-based business value case that can be used as an anchor throughout the SAP S/4HANA journey. Why? Because a well-defined business value case will help you fund all digital transformation efforts, including SAP S/4HANA.

Read more: SAP S/4HANA: Transforming The CFO into a Business Value Creator and Role Model 

2. Avoid a ‘technically configured’ approach

A technology-led approach might not deliver the expected results. Why? In most cases, C-level leaders may find it daunting to understand their role in the digital transformation journey. So they prefer to delegate the responsibility to others. Such delegation instantly turns the digital journey into a secondary priority. Since others may not understand the business as you do, it will become challenging to configure the transformation to be truly business-led.

C-level leaders and executives must realize the potential and take an active role in the transformation. You can then think strategically to create a clear path to a more agile and insight-driven business. 

3. Unleash the power of cloud solutions

To make quick and informed decisions, combine your internal and external data sources. Cloud-based applications and infrastructure will help you create a data strategy to deliver real-time insights. A well-defined cloud strategy will enable you to align the data, identify the best data sources, understand how to measure and maintain quality data, and manage your data. 

Read more: Why It’s Time to Embrace Cloud and Mobility Trends To Recession-Proof Your Business? 

4. Integrate suppliers before it is too late

For specific industries such as automation, supply ecosystems are strategically important. Though it may seem expensive, ensure to integrate your suppliers before SAP S/4HANA is well advanced. Such integration can be less expensive where custom developments are not warranted. 

5. Leverage AI to boost your current and future business models

Businesses worldwide face extraordinary challenges and disruption today. Automation-driven growth will be the only constant during this period of uncertainty. Though SAP may not provide everything you currently need to build your business, it allows you to integrate non-SAP automation for various goods and services. Marrying historically siloed data with AI techniques can thus contribute to demonstrable ROI.

Read more: How SAP Supports Effective Business Continuity Planning 

6. Integrate third-party content into SAP S/4HANA 

SAP S/4HANA has been the backbone of most IT strategies. It provides critical infrastructure to support a variety of use cases. Most organizations know that connecting to third-party content is crucial for their ongoing success and competency. Such integration can help you create unique sector-specific use cases, so do not hesitate to integrate third-party content. 

Read more: Deploying SAP S/4HANA: Methodologies and Tools to Adopt 

7. Use available data to speed up innovation lead time

Intelligent data management can help you break down information silos and provide you with the insight and control necessary to make tactical business decisions. When organizations collaborate to share and manage data, both parties can create tremendous potential value for their businesses. 

However, tapping into the value of data ecosystems can be a challenge. You can overcome this challenge by starting small and scaling later and involving partners early on. SAP S/4HANA allows you to effortlessly harness their data by breaking down your corporate strategy into different streams. Thus, businesses can dramatically lower risk and accelerate implementation.

8. Leverage SAP Cloud Platform

SAP S/4HANA cloud database allows you to make faster decisions. Since you can integrate data from across your enterprise, you can develop applications and tools required to store volatile data. SAP Cloud Platform allows you to avoid repeating failures and minimize cost. 

Manage the change impact

The SAP S/4HANA journey brings in a significant change. Treating this journey as a minor upgrade can lead to missed opportunities to leverage its full potential. This makes it extremely important to partner with the right service provider to guide you.  

As an SAP Silver Partner, Fingent has the expertise and experience required to help you make your SAP S/4HANA journey a success. Let’s talk. 

Why is SAP the Go-to Solution for Managing Your Complex Business Functions

SAP is a powerful ERP solution for all kinds of enterprises and their subsidiaries. From streamlining and automating to standardizing your business, SAP for business performs numerous functions and accelerates business growth.

Systems, Applications & Products in Data Processing or SAP is one of the world’s leading ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning ) software. The software consists of several integrated modules that cover virtually every aspect of modern business management. Fingent, being an SAP Silver Partner, helps you realize the full potential of the wide-ranging SAP solutions that can maximize your business performance and boost profitability.

How does SAP help businesses?

Most of the traditional business models have decentralized data management, with each department storing its operational data in the individual database(s). Decentralized data storage makes it difficult for employees from different departments to access each other’s information needed to complete their tasks. Moreover, duplication of data across the departments leads to data errors and increases IT storage costs.

SAP software centralizes data management and provides multiple business functions with a single source of the truth. This enables companies to manage complex business processes efficiently, allow easy access to employees of different departments, and gain real-time insights across the organization. It helps businesses improve operational efficiency, increase productivity, boost customer experience, and eventually increase profits.

SAP for business

SAP for business offers solutions across different areas such as:

• ERP and Finance
• CRM and Customer Experience
• Network and Spend Management
• Supply Chain Management
• HR and People Engagement
• Business Technology Platform
• Digital Transformation
• Digital Supply Chain
• Small and Midsize Enterprises
• Experience Management
• Industry Solutions
• Industry 4.0
• Intelligent Enterprise Solutions
• Cloud solutions

SAP for business maximizes business performance by giving companies step-by-step guidance to set up their tech infrastructure. 

Here’s how.

1. Wide-ranging experience

From government financial institutions to small businesses, SAP provides tech solutions to everyone. We extend our support, right from identifying your requirements to implementing and testing your SAP solutions to maintaining them once they are in place.

Read more: Why partner with an SAP AMS provider like Fingent

2. Efficiency improvement

In the past, companies were forced to repeat tasks day in and day out. Thanks to technology! The situation has changed today. Technology has provided companies with more innovative ways of doing repetitive manual tasks. From collecting large amounts of data to filling the databases, SAP offers an efficient and faster way of doing things. 

Enter SAP IRPA. This Intelligent Robotic Process Automation suite accelerates your move towards Intelligent Enterprise. With SAP IRPA, you can redirect your resources to high-value functions.

Read more: Top 7 Business Benefits of Adopting SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation

Additionally, SAP provides several options to streamline different business processes and improve efficiency throughout your organization, such as SAP S/4HANA, SAP Analytics Cloud, SAP Fiori, etc.

3. Affordability and scalability

Small businesses and start-ups face the challenge of ensuring that their technology infrastructure is scalable. It means you will have to accommodate the growth in every aspect of your business. You will have to consider fitting more data, equipment, and employees. For this, you will need a system that can accommodate growth easily without the need to make changes from the grassroots level. That is where the SAP system comes into the picture. It is designed to scale up smoothly according to your business requirements post the initial implementation.

SAP for business ensures that you never invest in resources that you don’t need and instead try to derive the most out of your IT budget. 

Read more: SAP Preconfigured Solutions Boost Efficiency Among Industries

4. Enhanced predictability

As a business leader or owner, you must have access to the most accurate information related to your business so that you can plan well for your business. As SAP ERP solutions are designed to provide you with options in generating company forecasts, you can easily access the real-time facts and figures stored in the SAP system.

You can use the data, facts, and figures saved in the SAP system to prepare realistic forecasts of your business and make informed decisions.

Read more: Empowering CFOs to Derive Crucial Insights and Implement Strategic Decisions with Confidence  

5. Flexible solutions

SAP helps you achieve significant flexibility in adapting to changes in the market dynamics. Your business must adapt its functions to the changes in the market dynamics if you want your company to grow and expand.

It is well-known that user perspectives change over time, regardless of the industry. Hence, it is crucial to attain enough flexibility and provide what your target audience demands. SAP-enabled company structure will help you adapt to the changing market dynamics and cater to the industry demands.

Read more: How Organizations can Gain a Competitive Edge by Implementing Digital Core ERP

6. Smarter data management

Organizing data is one of the most crucial features of the SAP ERP system. Businesses need to store data in such a way that it could be accessed quickly and securely when required.

If you have multiple sources to feed information to your company, SAP helps you gather all the distributed data in one place and keep it organized.

With SAP, you can collect all the information in one place and keep it organized. For example, you can integrate your CRM with the SAP framework and keep all your customer-related information centralized. Fingent offers SAP HCI (HANA Cloud Integration) and PI (Process Integration) capabilities to integrate multiple independent systems/ applications required to run your business processes.

Read more: Create Intelligent Organizations with SAP Model Company

7. Improved compliance

SAP ERP offers the unique ability to track company regulations. Using SAP for business ensures that all operations comply with your company policies and the geographical regulations in the regions where you trade. The system will reject any exceptions automatically or set off an alert to notify you on time.

SAP helps you implement active cooperation among all your company departments and employees.

8. Cost and time savings

SAP will serve as the single source of data for all your company needs. When your employees access more accurate and up-to-date information from a single location, it will automatically reduce your organization’s operational complexities and expenses. Also, regardless of where your employees are working from, connecting to your company’s network will give them access to the centralized SAP system for trusted information, thereby saving a lot of time.

9. Streamlined communication

Whether it is marketing communication or company-specific communication, you can integrate SAP ERP to create compelling modes of communication. For example, you can create a more robust reputation management structure and focus on marketing strategies that help generate higher ROI.

Additionally, you can use flip books or online catalogs to create content that drives traction. If you are looking for business presentations for marketing or a professional portfolio, SAP can help you achieve a great level of finesse.

Read more: SAP Focused Industry Templates & Automation Solutions

To sum up,

Apart from the benefits mentioned earlier, there are many more ways that SAP for business can add a touch of sheer magic to your business endeavors and maximize your business performance to a significant level.

At Fingent, we provide SAP implementation and customization services that will help businesses phase out old infrastructure, upgrade to the new systems efficiently, and save money. If you are ready to get your business on to this revolutionary business suite, get in touch with us. 

SAP S/4HANA: The Torchbearer in Intelligent Enterprise Journey

In the present digital age with cut-throat competition in every sector, businesses must offer compelling and consistent customer experience and innovative products and services. Your organization will be able to create a superior, personalized, and enriched customer experience only when you leverage intelligent technologies such as SAP S/4HANA.

Intelligent Enterprise can empower organizations to grow faster in an ever-changing digital environment. As your organization battles with an excess of data from various systems, you may feel overwhelmed. You know you need that data to be doing so much more than it is right now because the ability to make decisions based on accurate and appropriate data is critical to gain a competitive edge in today’s dynamic world. With SAP S/4HANA, organizations can use data, people, and enterprise assets in an aggregated manner that best suits their business. 

Read more: How SAP S/4HANA transforms the end-to-end business process

This article explains how SAP S/4HANA can be the torchbearer on your journey towards an Intelligent Enterprise. Before that, let us consider the reasons why you must become an intelligent enterprise.

Top 5 reasons why your company must become an Intelligent Enterprise

An Intelligent Enterprise leverages intelligent technologies to enable the workforce to focus on higher-value outcomes. Here are the top 5 reasons why your company must become an Intelligent Enterprise.

1. Allows your organization to be more agile with a clear chance of sustainable growth
2. Achieve breakthrough outcomes in redefining the end-to-end customer experience
3. Makes your business processes more effective and reliable
4. Delivers a step-change in productivity
5. Helps your business to stay ahead of the competition 

6 capabilities of SAP S/4HANA that will lead your path to becoming an Intelligent Enterprise

All businesses can become intelligent enterprises by transforming their business models to become more flexible, customer-centric, and responsive to market demand. Here are six capabilities of SAP that can help transform your organization into an intelligent enterprise.

1. Intelligent suite

SAP intelligent suite is a carefully curated ensemble of solutions that address challenges faced by different business functions of an enterprise. This suite helps every aspect of your organization, including employees, clients, customer experience, products, supply chain, IT, and more. It also allows stakeholders to take advantage of in-depth business insights. In short, it enables you to have a 360-degree view of your business. 

Read more: How Fingent Helps CFOs Gain New Insights and Reliably Enable Key Decisions

2. Experience management

To understand why things happen, you must understand the thoughts and sentiments of the people involved. Experience management solutions of SAP are aimed to help businesses improve customer, employee, product, and brand experiences. It is a process of monitoring each interaction stakeholders have with an organization in real-time to spot the problems. Experience management solutions provide insights into the thoughts and feelings of your employees, customers, and stakeholders. 

3. Business technology platform

SAP’s business technology platform helps modernize business processes and turn data into action. This digital platform makes it easier and quicker for companies to become intelligent enterprises. It offers more options with one unified business-centric platform for data, analytics, and intelligence. Best of all, it supports application development and integration.

4. SAP industry cloud

As a service, the SAP industry cloud enables organizations to undertake application management work while the platform allows users to access data in real-time. SAP cloud is one of the most popular services today. Its key functionalities include analytics, transactions, security, integration, and more. Thus, SAP cloud empowers your business to discover and deploy vertical solutions leading to industry best practices and extend the current business process. 

5. Sustainability management

The SAP suite of sustainability management solutions addresses various sustainability needs. It can integrate compliance and safety activities while improving the sustainability performance of an organization. It enables businesses to understand and manage their impact on people and their environment. 

6. Business network

Across all industries, businesses have reported disrupted supply chains and effects on day-to-day business operations because of the pandemic. SAP’s business network helps enterprises adjust quickly and responsibly to disruption and fast-changing market demands. It enables companies to reinvent business methodologies with the help of interconnected value chains and flexible networks.

These six capabilities can help your business achieve the best possible results as you embark on the intelligent enterprise journey.

How do you know if you need to become an Intelligent Enterprise?

Answering the following questions will help you understand if you need to embark on the journey to become an intelligent enterprise:

• Is your company focused on customer experience?
• Do you employ an experience management platform to understand all the people involved?
• Does your company leverage intelligent technologies such as ML, AL to provide the agility and speed required for growth?
• Does an SAP cloud platform connect your business process to provide you real-time updates?

If your answer is ‘no’ to any of the questions, you know you need to get on to the path of becoming an intelligent enterprise TODAY.

Read more: Create Intelligent Organizations with SAP Model Company

Are you ready to implement an Intelligent Enterprise strategy?

The intelligent enterprise is a strategy that uses the above technology to turn data into actionable insights. This strategy enables your business to be more agile and increases the opportunity for sustainable growth. An intelligent enterprise is an approach or a strategy that your organization adopts by leveraging SAP S/4HANA. Now that you know what an intelligent enterprise is and how you can leverage SAP S/4HANA to become one, you must think about implementing it for your organization. 

Though every industry is different, and the outcomes may vary, a common link across sectors is “customer experience.” Hence, it is vital to remember that the journey to becoming an intelligent enterprise starts with defining your business goals across the organization with the customer experience at the forefront. Once you define your goals, your organization must implement the essential capabilities of SAP S/4HANA at the highest level. 

Read more: Deploying SAP S/4HANA: Methodologies and Tools to Adopt

Become an Intelligent Enterprise ASAP

SAP S/4HANA is a vital blueprint to becoming an intelligent enterprise. SAP solutions can empower you to become a leader in your industry. SAP S/4HANA provides you a risk-free approach that allows for a seamless transition into an intelligent enterprise without business disruption. 

Read more: 7 Tips To Ensure A Seamless Transition To SAP S/4HANA

Fingent offers SAP S/4HANA custom implementation and migration services. 

Let’s get talking!

Why partner with an SAP AMS provider like Fingent

SAP AMS provides many benefits in managing and maintaining a company’s SAP ERP system. IT management’s role in companies has changed dramatically during the pandemic. The demand for SAP AMS (Application Management Services) is no different. As a result, applications must be adapted and kept up-to-date with the latest technological developments. Moreover, problem-solving takes time. This is a risky situation for businesses that are dependent on perfectly functioning IT.

Therefore, it is clear that to derive all those benefits from Application Management Services (AMS) while managing complex SAP applications would require an expert technology provider. An experienced partner like Fingent can ensure successful SAP application support and management. Fingent is a certified SAP Silver Partner authorized to deliver a defined SAP application support process. This blog discusses the top six benefits of working with an SAP AMS provider. Let us begin by understanding what AMS is and why it is crucial for your business. 

What is SAP AMS, and why is it important?

SAP Application Management Services (AMS) are processes used to maintain, enhance and manage enterprise SAP environments. It includes development, implementation, testing, maintenance, and support. These services can be delivered by a qualified consultant that can leverage their expertise and business knowledge to provide maximum value to your company. Because they do this repeatedly, the time value is saved. An AMS provider gives you the ability to be more strategic with your SAP solution. 

Read more: What is Business Process Expertise in SAP and Why You Need it

Here are three reasons that make AMS vital for your organization:

• Your IT becomes more strategic and less tactical
• Tailored AMS solutions can meet your specific business needs
• You will receive 24/7 assistance for your applications

Top six benefits of partnering with an SAP AMS provider 

Gaining control of your digital landscape is imperative for business success. You will find it challenging to meet business requirements if your application demands too much attention. Working with an AMS provider allows your IT team to focus on strategic projects, giving your business the needed technology boost. Here are some key benefits of working with an SAP AMS provider:

1. Enhanced flexibility

We live in a world where you cannot predict what might turn everything on its head. This presents a need to be flexible in business. No matter which industry you are from, you are expected to adapt to any new situation and forge ahead. In other words, the more flexible and adaptable your business is, the more successful it will become. This makes it a smart move to keep up with new solutions constantly. Partnering with a capable SAP AMS provider will reduce the burden of suddenly having to implement more extensive projects. 

2. Strategic overview 

A mature SAP AMS provider will know what is essential to obtain more value from your SAP solution. With that aim, the provider will enable your organization’s IT team and resources to be more strategic than tactical. A good AMS provider will ensure that they fit seamlessly with your IT staff as an extension that enables your team to drive and deliver value-added SAP solutions. 

3. Round-the-clock, follow the sun operation 

Businesses looking for highly efficient, stable, robust, and cost-effective operations of their SAP environments must work with SAP-certified partners to enjoy maximum benefits. Most SAP AMS providers offer maintenance for daily operations, 24/7 production support, database services, etc. However, supporting more critical aspects such as functional and technical consulting of various SAP modules requires an experienced AMS provider who can bring in the prowess to turbocharge your applications’ landscape. 

Fingent as a certified SAP Silver Partner delivers beyond the promise of regular maintenance. You can rest assured of an infrastructure that is ready to meet future challenges.

Read more: How SAP Supports Effective Business Continuity Planning  

4. Tailored AMS solutions to fit your business requirements

The ideal SAP AMS partner knows your business so well that they will quickly adapt to fit your needs. Such knowledge about your organization is gained over time by maintaining a long-term relationship with your company. When you work together in partnership, you can define a right-sized and right-stored delivery model that perfectly fits your organization’s specific needs. A wide range of AMS solutions along with a capable AMS provider offers the possibility to custom-make your solution package to fulfill your unique requirements. 

5. Well-equipped to positively improve ROI

Many successful organizations look for new and innovative ways to help them improve their ROIs. Partnering with an SAP AMS provider will help your business adopt new technological changes without requiring to train your employees rigorously. The AMS provider can help your business handle demands more productively. Well-maintained AMS can generate automatic reports that can help your business determine the actions taken to improve your ROI.

6. Save money with AMS 

Working with an SAP AMS provider can help businesses save money. Your organization will no longer have to hire employees to carry out separate tasks. You could hire a team of professionals from your SAP AMS provider and pay only for the services you have used rather than pay for every employee individually. The amount thus saved can be directed to another department and used in the best way to generate more profits for your business. 

Choice of SAP AMS provider

Remember, the choice of your SAP AMS provider directly impacts your business operations. To find a perfect match when choosing an SAP AMS provider, you must ensure that they provide deep SAP expertise along with an in-depth understanding of your IT infrastructure and process. Apart from technical expertise, your provider must have the industry know-how to understand your company’s unique needs and possess the ability to add immediate value. 

Read more: How Fingent Helps CFOs Gain New Insights and Reliably Enable Key Decisions

We assure you that you can benefit from our SAP AMS approach at Fingent. Our AMS program can help your organization irrespective of your company’s size or your industry type. Fingent’s SAP AMS practice excels at helping you achieve operational and strategic objectives with superior technical expertise and industry knowledge. We ensure uninterrupted business operations and ongoing productivity improvement in your organization. Talk to an expert to learn more. 

SAP IRPA (Intelligent Robotic Process Automation) enables businesses to hyper automate their mundane processes to achieve process excellence, improve operational efficiency, and augment human intelligence. 

How businesses can successfully attain hyperautomation with SAP IRPA

The concept of hyperautomation has created a buzz across the business landscape. As more and more businesses turn to hyperautomation as a solution and adopt RPA, you must be eager to know what it is and if you need to implement it in your business. RPA, IRPA, SAP IRPA … It can get a little confusing, so this blog will aim to decode all this for you and help you on your journey to hyperautomation. We have compiled a list of advantages of embracing hyperautomation with SAP IRPA along with industry use cases for your benefit. 

What is IRPA? 

IRPA (Intelligent Robotic Process Automation) refers to software programs that can be easily programmed to perform repetitive, tedious, or mundane tasks. One typical example is data manipulation, such as filling in forms, updating spreadsheets, and more. SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation powers this automation through SAP’s Business Technology Platform. 

Read more: Top 7 Business Benefits of Adopting SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation

Advantages of SAP IRPA

By 2020, 53% of enterprises have already started their RPA journey. Interestingly, according to Grand View Research 2020-2027, the RPA market size is expected to reach USD 25.56 billion by 2027. However, just RPA is not enough. Gartner puts it this way: “Enterprise architecture and technology innovation leaders lack a defined strategy to scale automation with tactical and strategic goals. They must deliver end-to-end automation beyond RPA by combining complementary technologies to augment business processes. Gartner calls this hyperautomation.”

It is a clear sign that starting your hyperautomation journey is worth all the effort. Thankfully, hyperautomation with SAP IRPA brings together multiple components that stimulate the ability to automate work.  

SAP IRPA: Accelerating the hyperautomation journey of businesses

Here’s how SAP IRPA helps enterprises with hyperautomation:

1. Automate interface monitoring

The application interface helps complete all transactions on any given day. However, the feedback from a transaction failure may not be apparent immediately. Users tend to realize transaction failures only when they check the interface. Checking the interface to ensure that there are no transaction failures is a repetitive and mundane task. Automating this task can save a great deal of time lost in checking for an error within the system. Hyperautomation with SAP IRPA can be used to automate interface monitoring. 

Read more: How Automation Ensures Businesses Stay Afloat During COVID-19 Crisis

2. Source-to-pay (s2p) and procure-to-pay (p2p)

Procure-to-pay involves extracting invoice and payment data from multiple systems such as ERP (enterprise resource planning), supplier email, CRM, banks, vendors, and so on. However, not all these systems provide easy integration methods. There will be some form of repetitive tasks on the part of an employee. Thankfully, this is one area SAP IRPA can be an enabler. Hyperautomation with SAP IRPA can fill integration gaps. Since SAP IRPA bots work on the front-end, automating integrations is made easy. 

Companies receive information from various sources like invoices, estimates, and quotes. It is crucial to extract the data from these forms and validate them. Hyperautomation with SAP IRPA automates the entire process of procure-to-pay. This will ensure that you are following procurement’s best practices and that there is a single source of truth for all transactions. 

SAP IRPA Case Study: Villeroy & Boch

Villeroy & Boch was initially set up as a pottery company in 1748. Currently, it operates internationally, which requires impeccable operational efficiency and seamless workflow across all business functions. Villeroy & Boch thus decided to embark on their hyperautomation journey with SAP IRPA. They chose to rapidly automate simple, mundane tasks such as responding to starred email queries using SAP IRPA. This paved the way to create a fully automated invoice error handling process. IRPA bots increased the efficiency of the workflow while freeing their employees to focus on strategic tasks. SAP IRPA also enabled the organization to assist their wholesale customers in improving Villeroy & Boch’s top line. 

3. Purchase order follow-up

A company will have to follow-up on purchase orders sent to their vendors, and the business has to make numerous follow-ups. However, the process of each purchase order remains the same, and it can be very costly. Companies can make their follow-up system much more efficient by embarking on a hyperautomation journey with SAP IRPA. An SAP IRPA bot can be programmed to hunt down and categorize these disparate points into a single report, saving a lot of time and precious resources for the company.

Read more: How Fingent Enables e-Invoicing for SAP Users to Stay Compliant with GST India Regulations 

4. Improve user experience

Businesses that see lasting organizational change prefer to start small and eventually progress to change their organization’s entire culture. SAP IRPA can provide a great foundation to begin the hyperautomation journey. It allows you to transform one department or process at a time and then pick momentum. Such gradual momentum will have a positive impact, and your staff will be more inclined to embrace hyperautomation. Such implementation enables businesses to begin their hyperautomation journey with a small budget and in less time. 

Here is an example:

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) was able to do more with less and efficiently remove costly and ineffective work processes with SAP IRPA. The company achieved proof of concept in just 55 days and deployed the full portfolio in as little as four weeks. 

Read more: Top 3 UI Offerings from SAP: Fiori, Screen Personas, and Lumira

5. Customer relationship management

Level 1 of the customer contact desk processes a high volume of simple repetitive tasks. When a customer approaches a company with a query or complaint, a customer rep will have to perform the necessary actions by switching between various systems and applications before answering the customer. This has several disadvantages. Besides, this tedious search process may increase customer dissatisfaction. SAP IRPA can help avoid this as you can deploy intelligent RPA bots to manage repetitive tasks. 

6. Data consistency monitoring 

Most manufacturing companies rely heavily on live production data to make slight adjustments. Inconsistent data can lead to malfunctions across the company’s processes. At the same time, tracing data inconsistency is a mammoth task. However, it is a necessity to find the inconsistency and fix it. With SAP IRPA, a business can schedule automation to handle most of these issues. It can help collect and export the data stream details periodically. This will help in highlighting anomalies before they break the system.

Read more: How SAP Supports Effective Business Continuity Planning  

Are you ready to hyper automate?

Is your company ready to set about the journey of hyperautomation with SAP IRPA? Let’s find out together. Fingent works with clients across the globe, helping them understand and implement SAP IRPA in their business. Our experts understand the nuances of different industries and will help you on your journey to success with SAP IRPA.

Leveraging SAP solutions with a Silver Partner of SAP will help you realize the full potential of SAP IRPA hyperautomation. Fingent offers custom implementation and migration services to SAP and can help you move quickly and make the best use of this technology NOW when you need it the most. Let’s get talking.

Right ERP software helps CFOs contribute to organizational decisions more logically.    

Selecting the Right ERP Solution: Crucial Points a CFO should Keep in Mind 

The CFO is one of the most significant decision-makers in an enterprise today. CFO is the protector of your business’s financial records and has an ultimate say while making financial decisions for the company. However, in this digital age, the role of a CFO is evolving. A CFO takes a more holistic approach in the current scenario and guides the organization towards success by leveraging digital intelligence. CFOs must be equipped to keep their company afloat during an unexpected crisis such as the pandemic, identify new investment opportunities and help the business prosper in the face of intense competition. A tall order but not impossible. 

To achieve this, CFOs must look at their existing systems to upgrade or replace those slowing down the organization. CFOs are responsible for ensuring that any new technology they adopt has what it takes to turn the business into an effective market disruptor. 

This article covers a CFO’s top 5 considerations when choosing an ERP solution.

Read more: How Organizations can Gain a Competitive Edge by Implementing Digital Core ERP

1. Obtain hands-on knowledge on the process

CFOs might find it tempting to leave the ERP process knowledge to technical teams, but this could mean that they miss out on learning the crucial aspects of the ERP that will affect the organizational costs. Technology assists CFOs in controlling accounting and tax standards and in engaging with the business to drive value jointly.

Read more: SAP S/4HANA: Transforming The CFO into a Business Value Creator and Role Model

Technical jargon can be overwhelming for CFOs. But they need to clarify their questions with their ERP service provider. 

To get you started, here are some important software concepts related to ERP implementation.

• Installation: Know what is required of your current server.
• Customization: Make sure the ERP software suits your organization’s specific requirements. Compared to other ERP systems, SAP requires minimum customization. It has many customizable solutions that are suitable for all types of businesses. 
• Configuration: Ensure your software is in harmony with your workflow. Thankfully, SAP is suitable for any size organization. 

Apart from this, confirm the ERP is hosted on the cloud because it is easier to handle and more secure to manage. Those who have migrated to cloud-hosted ERPs reap the benefits during the pandemic, where remote working is the only option to ensure business continuity. Making sure the solution is rewritten for the cloud will help CFOs keep up with any future changes.

2. Invest in a service provider with vision and efficiency

Your ERP solution’s longevity is determined by your service provider’s efficiency and capability. Do not hesitate to clarify certain aspects of your service provider and the services they have to offer you. Find out if their financial situation makes it a viable option for a long-term contract. 

You also need to identify if your service provider can give you access to all the information you need for years to come. Additionally, consider if your vendor is relevant to the current market scenario and can stay relevant in the future. To that end, it may be helpful to enquire about their research and development plans to ensure they will provide you with high-end products now and in the future. 

Read more: Why Choose Fingent as Your Odoo ERP Partner

3. What are the aspects of integration?

ERP is one of the multiple systems that determine your organization’s performance. To achieve optimum results, you will have to enquire about integration with other aspects such as EPM, SCM, HCM, and CX, to make way for a smoother workflow. How? When you have various platforms working together harmoniously, you can avoid data inconsistency between two systems. 

Read more: 5 Reasons to Integrate Your E-commerce Application with Odoo ERP

To avoid cumbersome processes after ERP implementation, you must consider if the vendor you are planning to hire can provide you the best support required. Talk to them to ensure that all the different platforms function as one unit. The most relevant integration for a CFO is integrating ERP with EPM (Enterprise Performance Management). Picking the right vendor will help you with such critical integrations.

4. Choose the right ERP                      

ERP that fits one company does not match the other because each company has its own unique needs. Whether a business is small, medium, or large, a CFO must be aware of the need for financial planning tools. Hence, as a CFO, you must confirm your ERP caters to the size of your business. Additionally, your current ERP must be scalable to accommodate employees from various departments. In other words, you will need a scalable ERP system for your entire operation to work smoothly.

Read more: 5 Tips For Getting The Best Out Of Your ERP System

5. Identify the needs of all departments to ensure teamwork

The ultimate aim of a CFO is to ensure that the ERP they select is delivering excellent results. Hence, it is crucial to have all your employees on board and understand the ERP system. 

To achieve that, you need to identify the needs of each department in your organization and make sure that ERP meets all those needs. This allows for an enhanced workflow among all employees. Include your organization’s CIO and other leaders during the planning and implementation of ERP software. They can spread a positive outlook toward the new system among the rest of the employees.

Read more: How Fingent Helps CFOs Gain New Insights and Reliably Enable Key Decisions

Are you ready to steer your business to success?

Understandably, implementing ERP will take time and effort. Besides, as a CFO, you will have to identify the potential and tangibly justify the cost of ERP. However, choosing the right vendor can make implementation hassle-free and result-oriented. 

It is no surprise that successful implementation and deployment of ERP hinges on the right partnership with the right vendor. 

As an Official Ready Partner for Odoo and SAP Silver partner, Fingent is the right provider to assess and understand your unique business requirements and help you become a cloud-powered enterprise. We offer dramatically shorter implementation timeframes. Our ERP allows for rapid configuration, customization, and deployment, significantly reducing the implementation cost. We provide both cloud and on-premises ERP solutions. So, do you feel ready to steer your business to success? Give us a call!

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit retailers hard. Overnight, malls, boutiques, and shops teeming with customers were evacuated. As the days dragged by and shutters remained close, many retailers had to let go of employees and even shut their shops permanently. We will see how, but this blog aims to show that this does not need to be the case for your retail business. You can still stay afloat, beat the competition, and rise to success with a little help from SAP!

Changing market conditions show no mercy on retailers

With the pandemic raising its ugly head, 2020 seemed to paint a dismal picture for the future of retail. Major retailers have been canceling orders and delaying payments to their suppliers. This forced some brands to store their seasonal articles or move them into distribution centers or outlets. For some retailers, the coronavirus pandemic increased the risk of bankruptcy due to store closures, while others barely made it through. 

For example, Rubana Huq, the president of BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association), told the press that 3.18 billion orders were suspended. This had an impact on more than half of the 4 million garment workers in Bangladesh. 

At the other end, brick-and-mortar presence is seeing a shift to the online commerce environment, which picked up at an exponential pace. E-commerce proved to be a pivotal moment for retailers, making it necessary for them to invest in digital capabilities. A critical aspect of staying competitive in such unprecedented times is the growth of technology and its importance in operational success.

Read more: How Fingent Helps CFOs Gain New Insights and Reliably Enable Key Decisions

Read on to find out how SAP plays a crucial role in turning things around for the retail industry.

SAP enables a differential strategy in the competitive market

More and more companies are recognizing the advantages of implementing SAP solutions. In the current recessionary and competitive market, delaying digital transition may prove a costly misstep that retail businesses will find hard to retrieve. Solutions offered by SAP can help retailers control various aspects of their business and identify trends in customer behavior and capitalize on opportunities at the right time. 

With ever-changing customer behavior, SAP equips retailers to become customer-centric. It can help retailers analyze buying behavior by providing much-needed consumer insights. These insights will help them offer more personalized and delightful buying choices that attract customers and retain them. 

Here is how SAP equips retailers:

• Provides real-time behavioral information, both online and in-store
• Reduces cycle time
• Helps retailers identify newer ways to find leads and build loyalty
• Streamlines operational process

Also, SAP solutions can help retailers offer a real-time personalized buying experience as it influences buyers’ behavior at the point of purchase. To create such a customized offering, retailers will need insight into buyers’ purchase history, profile, and shopping behavior. That’s where SAP solutions come to your rescue. SAP can provide retailers with all the information required to help them stay competitive. 

SAP solutions help deal marketing and merchandise challenges

The retail industry can be volatile, especially during times like these. Retailers who manage seasonal merchandise might find it challenging to maintain multiple products and keep track of all that product data. Any incorrect data can prove costly for the organization. Such inaccurate data can also lead to a mismatch of data across all sales channels, presenting inconsistent product pricing and customers’ eventual loss.

Thankfully, SAP is the backbone for merchandise management, nullifying all these challenges. It comes with a simplified data model that offers end-to-end support for all retail functions. This concept works across the product lifecycle, from master data creation to stock management. It allows retailers to create and maintain the data effortlessly while ensuring pricing consistency across all the channels. These features can increase the organizations’ revenue, minimize data errors, enhance time to market, facilitate a better customer experience, and increase conversions. 

Here is an example of how SAP solution helps:

Fewer markdowns: Retailers such as consumer electronics and fashion deal with seasonal goods. To stay competitive, retailers must ensure that these products are available in good time. SAP solutions offer more efficient season management and optimized ordering. 

SAP solutions can help manage challenges in the supply chain

Inaccurate data can create challenges in planning, leading to longer response times and increasing the risk of losing the consumer to competitors. Fortunately, SAP solutions come with a single platform for all warehouse and transportation management. Features such as real-time analytics and advanced shipping capabilities can eliminate inventory challenges and enable live inventory management. 

Thus, the supply chain process becomes agile and leads to higher revenue. It can also reduce the operating cost of the warehouse. By simplifying and automating processes, SAP can redefine retail and bring value to any retail business. 

Read more: How SAP Helps Realize Voice-enabled Warehouse Operations

Following examples prove SAP helps with supply chain:

1. Fewer stock-outs

Supply chains are typically complex and need high levels of agility. SAP solution enables retailers to track procurement journeys automatically that helps reduce revenue loss due to the late arrival of seasonal goods. 

2. Lower inventory costs

SAP can harmonize stock information and keep it up to date. At any given point, a retailer can intervene centrally and place a repeat order when necessary. This reduces inventory carrying costs and enables better inventory management which increases revenue. 

3. Create seamless customer experiences

Retailers realize the significance of adopting sensor technology to create seamless and highly personalized business processes across all channels. SAP simplifies logistics and digital channel processes from order to payment, both in-store and online. 

Key solutions from SAP for retailers

Here are some key solutions that SAP has made available, which can help your retail business:

1. SAP S/4HANA Retail solution for merchandise management

With the SAP S/4HANA retail solution for merchandise management, you can perform necessary checks on inventory, offers, availability across stores, and more in a single, unified view. It is instrumental in engaging your customers with cross-channel interactions.

Read more: SAP S/4HANA: Redefining End-To-End Solution

2. SAP Commerce Cloud

Through the SAP Commerce Cloud, retailers gain the ability to “launch new digital experiences with headless e-commerce capabilities.” SAP Commerce Cloud empowers your retail business with Web apps, chatbots, messengers, and other capabilities to enhance your customers’ digital experience, engagement, and conversions.  

Read more: Why is SAP Commerce Cloud A Complete Digital Business Solution

3. SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing

The SAP Ariba Strategic Sourcing Suite is “a single, closed-loop, source-to-contract solution bundle for managing sourcing and suppliers across all spend categories.” It helps retailers efficiently manage their direct materials sourcing without going through laborious and faulty manual processes.

Read more: SAP Ariba & SAP IBP Integration to enhance supply chain visibility in manufacturing

4. SAP Extended Warehouse Management

The SAP Extended Warehouse Management system is a brilliant solution to managing high-volume warehouse operations. It gives you complete visibility of your supply chain logistics, warehouse operations, and distribution process, giving you seamless control and maximizing the use of your resources.

5. SAP Business One for Retail

SAP Business One for Retail is a comprehensive digital solution that enables retailers to manage all their retail operations, including Point of Sale (POS) insights. It helps retailers with better inventory control, a streamlined ordering process, and seamless multi-channel e-commerce. 

Read more: SAP Business One vs. SAP Business ByDesign: Helping Businesses Pick the Best

Empower your retail business with SAP

An industry capable of adapting to new and evolving trends will rapidly recover from the pandemic’s effect. SAP solutions can help retailers examine those trends in great detail. SAP is a powerful tool that allows you to gather all the essential data needed to improve your business. Powered by insights gathered with the help of SAP solutions, retailers can redefine loyalty programs and stay competitive in the current market space. 

Fingent offers custom implementation and migration services to SAP and can help you move quickly and make the best use of this technology NOW when you need it the most. Leveraging SAP solutions with a Silver Partner of SAP will give your retail business an added advantage. Drop us a message, and let’s get you started. 

SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation accelerates your move towards Intelligent Enterprise. Redirect your resources to high-value functions with SAP IRPA. 

Supercharge your business with SAP Intelligent RPA!

Is it a good time to look toward the future while the world is in the thick of the COVID-19 crisis?

Yes, it is! 

Irrevocably, the pandemic has impacted business priorities in far-reaching ways. This global crisis has pushed businesses to pivot on a dime as they respond to changing factors such as customer needs, market, and new priorities. Even companies that were slow to adopt automation have begun leveraging powerhouse processes like Intelligent Robotic Process Automation (IRPA). 

Read more: How Automation Ensures Businesses Stay Afloat During COVID-19 Crisis   

Organizations are now using Intelligent RPA to provide faster service to customers, revamp operations for distributing work, and reduce costs during this economic turmoil. Most enterprises are embarking on their automation journey with SAP IRPA. This piece shortlists seven reasons how global IRPA from SAP can enhance business performance and productivity.

What is SAP IRPA?

The SAP IRPA suite is an end-to-end cloud solution of automation tools. The work on IRPA technology began in early 2018. Within two years, SAP managed to become a relevant global RPA player. SAP IRPA provides better integration into the SAP application stack. It uses intelligent bots to automate repetitive manual processes. What makes SAP Intelligent RPA is that it helps businesses stay relevant by providing insights that empower them to make the right decisions. 

Read more: SAP Focused Industry Templates & Automation Solutions  

7 ways SAP IRPA can enhance the performance and productivity of your business

1. Easy integration with SAP applications

Usually, employees will have to spend a lot of time moving from one application to another. This is where intelligent bots come in and address one of the biggest pain-points of employees. It allows them to execute processes over multiple systems, multiple software, and multiple cloud solutions. This way, employees enjoy the ease of data transfer while still accessing numerous applications quickly. Such easy integration improves speed and efficiency while reducing costs.

Read more: Top 3 UI Offerings from SAP: Fiori, Screen Personas, and Lumira 

2. Purchase order follow-up

It is the responsibility of the company to follow-up on a purchase order. This may mean that the business will have to follow-up on numerous occasions, right from the issuance of the purchase order to receipt of goods. However, this does not mean that the process keeps changing with each purchase order. A single SAP report is not capable of addressing all these follow-ups. A user will have to rely on various reports. 

SAP IRPA implementation enables a user to quickly generate daily reports on all open purchase orders. By implementing the SAP IRPA tool, a business could make its follow-up system much more efficient. It allows business users to pay attention only to a few cases while the rest could be handled by the SAP IRPA tool.

3. Supplier evaluation 

Keeping track of suppliers’ information helps the purchasing department negotiate the best rates. It can also help ensure the timely delivery of material and services. A supplier evaluation could include parameters such as price and delivery of the materials or services, goods receipt, invoice verification, quality, and price changes. 

The reports must be run to get the relevant data. Implementing SAP IRPA can help business users export the data to multiple Excel sheets, and run compares to create one report that can then be published weekly. This way, a business will have error-free, real-time data that helps them with the supplier selection process.

4. Workflow monitoring

In every business, transactions happen daily, and workflow failures are common. However, at a crucial time, workflow failures can affect crucial business processes. It would require a workflow support team to run data fixes and restart the workflow. 

With SAP IRPA, you can quickly identify the issue and fix it. This process does not require a support ticket, and you can do it regularly. It takes the load off the workflow consultants as they need to be involved only for issues that require code changing.   

5. Cost optimization

SAP IRPA can create cost savings by enabling 24/7/365 execution at a fraction of human equivalents’ cost. Using robotic technology proves to be cost-effective and helps businesses cut down operational costs. 

The likelihood of human error is higher in routine manual tasks. SAP IRPA can help improve that while saving costs by eliminating the need to repeat a job. This translates into reducing costs incurred by human-error.

6. Maximize business process performance

Bots can learn patterns without explicit training. This capability helps in identifying structured and unstructured data and takes necessary actions automatically. These self-learning bots maximize business process performance. 

SAP IRPA can deliver bots that provide human-like interactions with customers. By automating repetitive business processes that need human intervention, digital assistants improve user productivity and efficiency.

Read more: How Robotic Process Automation Is Revolutionizing Industries?  

7. Interface monitoring 

While interfaces help in numerous transactions, they also encounter many failures. Sadly, most users are unaware of an interface failure unless they identify a failed business transaction. This may force a business to depend on support teams to identify and fix the problem to ensure that the business transaction can be completed on time. 

However, identifying the problem is a tedious and complicated task that takes a considerable amount of time. Typically, an organization starts monitoring its interface only when a business user realizes that his/her business transaction failed. 

A better approach would be to implement SAP IRPA to program interface monitoring that can be done daily. This allows the support team to focus on solving issues before a support ticket is raised.

Why is it essential to choose SAP IRPA now?

Before COVID-19, RPA has played a vital role in delivering digital transformation, driving-up productivity, improving work capacity, and augmenting overall worker satisfaction. During the COVID-19 crisis, RPA enabled businesses to take urgent action to reduce the pandemic’s negative impacts. This allowed companies to turn resources around to ensure business continuity. Moving forward, SAP IRPA will facilitate business continuity and future growth of organizations as they emerge from the current economic downturn. 

Read more: How SAP Supports Effective Business Continuity Planning  

If you haven’t yet enabled SAP IRPA powerhouse, it’s high time you did! Give us a call and let us help you get on-board ASAP.

Digital core ERP can help bring about innovations across the value chain. Companies have to get ready to compete by leveraging the digital core or be left behind. 

Take your business to the next level using digital core ERP!

Organizations commonly use Enterprise Resource Planning or ERP software to streamline their back-office functions, logistics, customer service operations, and inventory management. However, it is not agile enough to match the ever-changing requirements of a digital customer.

To establish agility within the foundation of ERP, providers worldwide are repositioning themselves to adapt to the new shift of digital core. Digital core ERPs such as SAP S/4HANA can help companies to stay relevant in today’s digital economy. Odoo ERP and SAP are two of the leading core ERP vendors that help automate back-office functions and accelerate your journey to the intelligent enterprise.

Read more: Unlock the Potential of Intelligent Enterprise with SAP Leonardo  

What is meant by digital core?

Simply put, the digital core includes technology platforms and applications that enable organizations to transform into digital businesses and meet the changing customer needs. Digital core ERP allows companies to overcome complexity in enterprise and resource management and drive business innovation.

It includes emerging technologies such as IoT, AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics that require businesses to adopt flexible, scalable, and cloud-based platforms. Digital core prepares data for machine learning systems, text to speech, neural networks, decision making, and other advanced applications and creates algorithms for business and IT.

The digital core will allow organizations to improve their existing business processes or develop new business models using digital transformation initiatives.

This new integrated system allows business leaders to predict, simulate, plan, and predict future business outcomes in the digital economy.

Read more: SAP S/4HANA: Transforming The CFO into a Business Value Creator and Role Model 

Why is digital core significant for your business?

Businesses that fail to address the changing enterprise and consumer demands due to their rigid core systems face the risk of losing the competition to their more agile counterparts.

To prevent losing business and reputation, enterprises must leverage digital core in the right way and integrate it seamlessly with their internal and external partners. In other words, enterprises must look beyond digitizing peripheral processes and align their core to meet the changing demands. It will not just eliminate manual steps and deliver agility but also provide a seamless user experience.

Examples of digital core

Finance

Finance professionals can leverage the digital core to obtain a single source of truth for finance. Finance departments have to handle reconciliations between internal and external reporting and multiple sources of truth stored in different ledgers. While traditional applications can help optimize and control functions, they cannot create a single source of truth, resulting in data accumulation by reconciling ledgers and valuations. With the digital core, businesses can eliminate reconciliation and execute seamless closing from unified data models. It also improves the allocation and closure of processes by ten times. The digital core’s main advantage is that it helps simulate financials in real-time with many ‘what-if’ possibilities.

Read more: How Fingent Helps CFOs Gain New Insights and Reliably Enable Key Decisions 

Automotive manufacturing

The digital core can provide a digital experience along the automotive manufacturing value chain. The digital core can power a connected car to offer a personalized driving experience to drivers, including services like parking and fuelling options based on real-time information. The connected vehicle captures data that can be used for predictive analysis to gain insights into driver behavior and preferences. The digital core also helps enhance manufacturing by moving from batch orders to real-time manufacturing resource planning to meet the growing demand.

What are the benefits of the digital core?

Digital core allows enterprises to integrate business process and transactional data from back-office ERP systems with a large amount of data (structured and unstructured) from different sources. Advanced analytics can be embedded in the digital core data to produce new insights, such as proposing further actions and predicting outcomes. Interestingly, many of these processes can operate automatically in near real-time.

How to prepare for digital core transformation?

Firstly, it is essential to have an all-inclusive digital strategy along with effective executive leadership. Additionally, enterprises can focus on three critical tasks:

• Restructuring the organization
• Transforming the organization’s culture
• Re-platforming their technologies

As digital core transformation will have an impact on both the core and the peripheral assets as well as technologies, the new strategy must allow them to: 

1. Push tailor-made solutions

Companies that use SAP products can move to SAP HANA products such as SAP S/4HANA and opt for the right cloud-based products to allow better agility during deployment. 

2. Establish strong collaboration with partners

Collaboration with partners will help you achieve faster time-to-market for innovations. Also, you can leverage partner innovations along with data integration to deliver value to your customers continually.

3. Enhance the business

Use business process management tools to optimize your business processes and meet customer expectations. Technologies like cognitive analytics allow businesses to identify strategies that lower their value.    

Advanced skill sets and enterprise-wide scale are required for digital core transformation, which may be challenging for most businesses. Therefore, it becomes imperative that you find an experienced and trusted partner who can support your digital core journey.

Here are a few tips for choosing the right implementation partner:

• Evaluate their investments
• Understand their willingness to collaborate
• Gauge their implementation expertise
• Look for SAP or Odoo ERP partners
• Gauge their desire to embrace new products and platforms

Read more: 5 Salient Features of Odoo that Make it a Reliable ERP for Enterprises  

Why choose Fingent as your digital core ERP implementation partner?

Fingent offers ERP implementation and consulting services to businesses worldwide. We are an Official Partner of Odoo. Our Odoo ERP implementation and customization projects are tailored for easy adaptability. Fingent is also an SAP Silver Partner. With our expertise in cloud computing and custom ERP development and implementation, we can support you through this critical time and help stabilize your business operations and strategize for the future. Get in touch with our expert to discuss your requirements.