Nov 11, 2021
•4 minute read
Analyst Insights
Analyst Insights are written by SAPinsider’s research team. Based on information gleaned from surveys of the SAPinsider Community, conversations with experts, SAP employees, vendors, and SAPinsiders, Analyst Insights provide a thoughtful analysis of critical topics, technologies, and challenges that SAP customers face today.
Building a Winning Culture For Data Analytics ExcellenceA Series on Data Excellence By Deepa Salem, Vice President and Research Director, SAPInsider “Culture eats strategy for breakfast” – a quote commonly attributed to Peter Drucker, the management expert. This fact rings true today in the realm of enterprise data analytics strategy. Without a data culture that catalyzes the strategy and brings it to life, any […]
Technology And Empathy: Creating The LinkDisruption is a norm in the world of technology. We attribute the phenomenon of big companies being disrupted by new entrants to many aspects, like advancements in technology, emerging technologies, agility of new entrants etc. but have we explored deeply the aspect that at the core of disruptions in the world of technology is the ability of the organization, that is getting disrupted, to empathize with its customers? The fact is, a majority of problems in the world of technology can be addressed with the power of empathy- the ability to understand the pain, needs, wants and emotions of other human beings. This article explores the need to integrate technology with empathy.
Oct 28, 2021
•4 minute read
Breaking Down SAP’s SwoopTalent AcquisitionSAP recently acquired SwoopTalent, but not for SwoopTalent's current go-to-market strategy. SAP intends to bring SwoopTalent's underlying models into SAP SuccessFactors. In the article, find out:
- How SAP hopes to bolster its skilling and upskilling recommentations with SwoopTalent
- Why that fits into the upcoming SAP SuccessFactors Opportunity Marketplace
- What this means for SAP SuccessFactors customers overall
Aug 25, 2021
•2 minute read
Make 2023 The Year of Building Supply Chain Data FoundationAs we head into the new year, you have already read many articles predicting supply chain trends for 2023. I am not a big fan of predicting trends when it comes to supply chains. My primary reasoning is that these trends are not a surprise for seasoned supply chain leaders and executives. These leaders and executives experience the challenges associated with these trends on a day-to-day basis in their roles. This article, therefore, aims to look beyond the trends to understand how we can use this year to build foundation in an area that can help build supply chains that can address challenges associated with these trends: Effective supply chain data management.
Aug 16, 2021
•7 minute read
The Three Key Ingredients of Business Analytics SolutionsJust like marketers have struggled with the question “what does the customer want?” for eternity, analytics leaders have struggled with the question “how to build a data-driven organization?”. It is very clear at this point that the key is to inculcate the culture of data and analytics in the frontline of the organization, making them a breeding ground for citizen analysts and data scientists. But how to attain that objective has been a challenge. Millions have been invested in tools and technologies to become a “data-driven” organization. Though a majority may not admit it, most organizations are far away from becoming one. Despite investing millions in “best-of-breed” tools. So is it not about tools and technologies? It is about the tool. It is the analytics tool that these frontline workers leverage will determine if they end up embracing those tools as the most important arsenal in their toolchest. While analytics tools become more and more powerful and feature rich, many of them still lack three key ingredients that I believe needs to be embedded in a business analytics solution . These three ingredients are:
Intuitive
Interactive
Integrated
In this article, we will review these three key ingredients an analytics tool needs to have to become a significant contributor in your journey to become a data driven organization.
Aug 13, 2021
•3 minute read
Spend Analysis and SAP MMA wide range of business processes falls under the SAP MM (Materials Management) module, from purchasing to inventory management. Such an extensive portfolio of business processes also means much data being generated and captured. As SAPinsiders highlighted in our research reports like Process Automation and SAP S/4HANA, as well as in Process Automation in Supply Chain, capturing this data to generate visibility into these processes is critical. However, the crux is not just capturing the data. The value of capturing that data can be realized only through analytics. That is why SAPinsiders indicated a need for focused research on data and analytics in the supply chain. To cater to this interest, SAPinsider will publish a research report, Supply Chain Analytics, and Data Management, in Feb 2023. This article will highlight how one of the analytics technologies covered in the report, spend analytics, can help generate value in SAP MM business processes.
Aug 7, 2021
•5 minute read
Web3.0 and Inventory ManagementWhile Web3.0 may take time to mature enough to replace Web2.0 if an end-to-end supply chain can develop an internal network based on the underlying principles of Web3.0 defined above, it can address the following challenges of inventory management (illustrative examples, not exhaustive):
Information transparency: The decentralization of information between entities will help build trust and significantly enhance collaboration and planning across the supply chain. Stakeholders within the network. With rapid digitalization, every movement in the supply chain today is captured in some form of a transaction within systems. A secure and transparent record of these transactions, accessible to all players in the network, can be leveraged for collaborated supply chain planning. This type of collaboration can go much beyond traceability and quality aspects. There is an opportunity to see consumer-level demand in real-time, which will completely transform demand planning and management. It can truly help build a demand-driven inventory planning and management capability.
Advanced planning and analytics: The same technologies that aim to provide semantic capabilities to Web3.0 can also address data management issues regarding inventory. Algorithms, in conjunction with other smart devices on warehouse floors, can flag if the transaction captures a product that is not being moved in the physical world. There will be no "manual entry" or even "system errors" that can impact inventory data quality. Similarly, AI and ML algorithms can take over many manual inventory planning and management tasks due to access to actual, real-time transactions. With these AI and ML algorithms, Web3.0 can help you build your Inventory planning "smart" digital twin.
Ubiquity: Inventory in any form, whether pipeline, in transit, or on-order, can be traced and tracked, thereby leaving no dark corners when it comes to inventory management and planning. When we talk about real-time visibility in the supply chain from an inventory perspective, it is mostly in the physical location of inventory. But the fact is, many other aspects and transactions need to come together to complete the full picture.
Aug 2, 2021
•6 minute read
Anomaly Detection Algorithms in Supply Chain AnalyticsAnomaly detection algorithms do exactly what the name suggests – detect anomalies in the data. The simplest example is your body temperature. If you had a sensor measuring your body temperature, and the date is being fed to an anomaly detector in the form of time series data (like every one hour), if the temperature value exceeds 99 degrees Fahrenheit, the anamoly detector will flag the temperature as mild fever. Obviously, this example is very simple but the gist of these algorithms is the same. These algorithms look at data to identify the data points that are inconsistent with the rest of the data and are an outlier or anomaly. In this article, we discuss how this algorithm can be leveraged for supply chain analytics in SAP technology ecosystem.
Jul 26, 2021
•2 minute read
Evolving Supply Chain Control TowersSupply chain control towers are becoming a standard module in leading supply chain planning solutions. This specific module is marketed very prominently and, in some cases, is often marketed as THE capability required to run fully autonomous supply chains in the future. Suppose you are familiar with the features within the control tower functionality of any leading supply chain planning solution. In that case, you know that they are currently not close to what is needed to run a fully autonomous supply chain. In this article, we will discuss the kind of integration a supply chain control tower, one that can help control, plan, and run a fully autonomous supply chain, needs.
Jul 22, 2021
•3 minute read
Supply Chain Product Innovation With Data and AnalyticsThe pressure to innovate to launch new products and solutions emerged as a top business imperative in the response to the recent SAPinsider survey on the use of data, analytics and automation in supply chain. The survey results intend to help us formulate our storyline for upcoming February research report, Building Resilient and Agile Supply Chains Leveraging Data, Analytics and Automation. The emergence of this specific business driver highlights that data and analytics in supply chain can not only help organizations streamline their supply chains but in some industries, can help launch innovative or new products and services as well. A good example is the logistics and transportation industry. In this article, we discuss how this industry can use data and analytics beyond building efficient logistics and transportation networks.
Jul 17, 2021
•4 minute read
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