Clarity in business key at SAP World Tour

The need to have a clear view across the enterprise and its extended value network was the main topic of this year’s SAP World Tour for Large Enterprises, held at Gallagher Estate in Midrand last week.

Over 900 delegates attended the two-day event, which forms part of SAP’s global programme that was held in more than 50 countries.

In his keynote address, Jeff Word, SAP’s vice president of Product Strategy, highlighted the benefits to companies of having an immediate view of their organisation, customers and suppliers.

“Clarity is the key to implementing effective business improvements,” he said. “The globalisation of business networks has brought about a changed environment in which the reliance on other companies, partners and clients is a reality.”

Word sees a significant shift in the balance of power away from traditional, developed markets to emerging economies such as the so-called BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India and China.

He says companies in these, and other emerging economies such as Africa, have a distinct advantage over those in mature markets as they are able to move quicker to implement systems that will help them identify gaps in the market and act accordingly.

SAP’s latest Business Suite 7 also featured prominently as the solution of choice at the two day event.

Simon Carpenter, Director of Strategic Initiatives, pointed out that new solutions and features in Business Suite 7 combines all of SAP’s various services – whether ERP, SRM, CRM etc, into one platform.

Carpenter adds that one of the key features of the Business Suite 7 application is the introduction of Business Explorer, which is a powerful tool to extract and share information across the organisation.

“It is a tool that allows you to deliver information to anybody in the organisation on top of any data source using very simple search terms as it has Google-like search capabilities.”

He concludes that this adds a level of transparency that has never been possible before, thereby giving company executives the ability to quickly access information that will give them an advantage over competitors.