If your company manufactures products, you’re acutely aware of how fast your world is changing. The rise of millennials, increasing omnichannel behavior, and unrelenting customer demand are driving product proliferation at unprecedented levels of speed and scale. Mobile-empowered consumers expect products that fit their lifestyle, new ways to shop, and more transparency into what’s in the product and the brand behind it. This changing landscape opens the door to small manufacturers who are making big inroads into the profits of established firms. To compete with these smaller, more agile businesses, large companies must digitize and streamline the collection of SAP data to reduce new product launch cycles and gain the agility needed to thrive in today’s market.

Barriers to Speed and Scale

While the imperative to speed up launch processes is clear, many large manufacturers are not fully prepared to meet this challenge. Winshuttle (now Precisely) recently surveyed over 120 SAP manufacturing professionals and found that while 75% felt under pressure to move faster, more than half of respondents were still using manual processes to collect the SAP operational data needed to launch a new product. The most common manual methods of data collection were spreadsheets and email, but 9% of companies were still using paper forms (see Figure 1). These slow, manual data collection processes or sub-optimal automated processes become a hindrance to growth. According to the survey, 75% of manufacturers expect an increase in new products over the next four years, with 79% projecting they will need to grow capacity by over 25% to stay competitive. Some manufacturers may struggle to add headcount fast enough to meet new demands, and for those who can, the extra costs incurred will eat into margins or may even be cost prohibitive.

Product Launch Complexity

If you’ve had experience launching products, you understand the enormity of the task and the necessity for rapid and accurate data collection. For many companies, one new product requires the collection of several hundred data fields across multiple SAP objects. One small mistake in just a single field — like a unit of measurement — can have costly consequences downstream. And it’s not just the data that’s broad and complex — launching a new product requires data input or approvals from multiple teams across the business. Whether it’s an innovative new product, a line extension, a new geography, or a simple component change, there are often eight or more departments participating in the new product introduction (NPI) process.

Digitize and Streamline

Today’s workflow solutions can help digitize and streamline the NPI process thanks to features such as parallel task execution and automated data posting, which eliminates slow, error-prone manual data entry via SAP GUI. And today’s solutions are designed specifically for tech-savvy SAP business analysts or power users, enabling them to build and modify digitized launch processes without involving IT. Combine the right process with a sophisticated automation solution and you can decrease product launch cycles by 50% or more — a key advantage when every day counts and the first-to-market advantage can make the difference between product success and failure. For more information on how Precisely can help, visit precisely.com.