by Patrick Levesque
You work for a medium-sized company and are looking for the resources to help your business grow and optimize your processes and productivity? You’ve come to the right place!
Today, I’d like to introduce you to Grow with SAP, an ERP implementation solution. We will mainly talk about business, and how adopting SAP S/4HANA Cloud will enable your company to thrive. It is to you, entrepreneurs, executives, managers and IT analysts, that I am addressing and not SAP experts.
I’ve been working in the ERP sector for several years now, first as a customer and then as an expert consultant. Here’s what I found.
Challenges to face
Your company needs to be agile, responsive and able to seize opportunities. Yet many of them face the following challenges:
Labour shortage : A real problem in Quebec, in November 2023 as the unemployment rate was 5.2%, i.e. almost full employment. The Quebec government has estimated that 1.4 million jobs will need to be filled by 2030. Ontario is in a slightly better position than its neighboring province, with an unemployment rate of 6.1% over the same period.
Lack of time : Quite simply, all companies lose time if their processes are not optimized. The time you spend looking for a quote or an invoice, or picking up a product from a warehouse, is time you can’t spend on higher value tasks.
Facing global competition and price pressure : It’s hard to compete with companies from other countries offering similar products at ever lower prices. Globalization means that, yes, you can sell what you produce more easily, but you also have more competitors.
Lack of visibility on supply chain and lead times : That’s often the problem for companies that don’t work with a robust ERP system. Communication between internal and external departments is not always smooth, and can have a major impact on your customer and supplier relationships. But that’s not the only major logistical problem. Companies can find themselves faced with:
- poor inventory management
- production disruptions leading to delays in the supply chain
- additional costs due to delays in the delivery of raw materials or components, requiring more expensive last-minute purchases to alleviate shortages.
One of the solutions to all these challenges is to refresh your technological tools to help your company take the next step and become more competitive.
Several questions may be on your mind:
For all these situations, the new Grow with SAP offer should be just what you need.
Companies’ expectations of ERP Grow With SAP
Today’s companies expect more than just business solutions when they choose to implement an ERP system:
Short, low-cost implementation time to maximize ROI
What companies want is to limit or avoid disruptions during the transition to the new SAP system. Quite simply, in today’s fast-moving and competitive market, they need access to the efficiency and functionality of ERP software as quickly as possible, without interrupting their business.
A SAAS mode requiring minimum maintenance effort to reduce TCO
No investment in infrastructure is required, and minimum maintenance and monitoring resources are needed with Grow with SAP. Working in the cloud is ideal, not to say essential, for today’s businesses, given the boom in teleworking in recent years.
Integrating AI into business processes
AI will revolutionize the way we manage our businesses, but the vast majority of ERP systems are slow to integrate it! It should enable us to predict trends, help us with equipment maintenance and automate time-consuming, repetitive tasks.
The Grow with SAP solution gives you the edge over your competitors, thanks to the AI at the heart of its machine-learning capabilities. As a result, AI automatically analyzes the data it is fed. Its algorithms enable you to optimize your warehouse management by predicting demand, optimizing inventory levels, improving stock management and optimizing logistics routes to reduce costs. To this, Grow with SAP adds RPA (robotic process automation) technology which, combined with AI, gives rise to IPA (intelligent process automation), a tool for automating more complex processes such as warehouse management. Among other features, the IPA system can monitor your inventory in real time, forecast future demand (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA), reducing shortages and costly surpluses.
Intuitive UI and UX for simplified change adoption and management
Switching to a new ERP management system always requires investment in the training of its collaborators. That’s why companies need the solution’s interface (UI) to be as intuitive as possible, with a good user experience (UX) at stake.
Grow with SAP has been specially designed to adapt effectively to different company sizes, from teams of 100 to over 10,000 employees. What’s more, the smooth, step-by-step integration of the solution, based on a proven methodology, means that your company can rapidly achieve added value. Grow with SAP solution keeps pace with your continuous growth and adapts easily to your changing needs. With over 1,000 qualified solutions, you’re sure to find the one that’s right for your business!
The easier the solution is for company members to comprehend and take control, the faster the change will be accepted, and the more the company will be able to reap the benefits of its new ERP.
As part of its commitment to simplifying change management, Grow with SAP offers training programs and additional resources to help teams gain a better understanding of SAP solutions.
Sustaining long-term growth
As a company, you need a management tool that evolves with you and supports your growth, for decades to come. Your ERP needs to evolve and constantly push out new functionalities.
SAP understands this, and that’s why they’ve created “GROW with SAP”: a SaaS solution (or rather a set of solutions) SAP S/4HANA Cloud - public edition, which has the ability to be integrated in a simplified way, step by step, and to add modules adapted to the changing needs of the company.
In short, how can GROW with SAP meet your needs and expectations?
GROW with SAP has been designed especially for new SAP customers, who want a tool that is quick to implement and adapts to their industry: a turnkey solution. It comes with a wide range of integrated functions and processes, which, when implemented as standard, considerably reduce implementation time and costs:
- ERP: S/4HANA Cloud (the digital heart)
- Basic activation services provided by SAP and project accelerators
- Access to the learning hub and the SAP community for mutual support
- Access to the Business Technology Platform to develop by extension
- Additional software, depending on the package chosen (basic or premium)
Integration in 4 months
The ERP can be implemented in 4 months. This will of course depend on the functionalities you wish to implement, but you’ll be able to grow it according to your needs, because ERP is modular.
Simplicity, safety and compliance!
The solution operates in SaaS mode, hosted on SAP’s secure servers, which manage the infrastructure, redundancy and security. Your data is encrypted and access is well protected. As long as you have an internet connection, whether on a computer, a tablet or even a cell phone, you can use your ERP system easily with GROW with SAP.
An ERP that puts AI at the service of operational efficiency
SAP has bet on AI, and is introducing it in new functions update after update. You’ll be able to finalize your end of the month more quickly with automated tasks, such as accounting of accruals on purchase orders. Use OCR for supplier invoices or payments.
ERP for mobility
Are you used to working with applications on your cell phone and browsing the web? S/4HANA Cloud has been designed for you. The days of complex-to-understand and unsightly software interfaces are over. SAP takes you directly to the tasks you need to do, so you don’t have to waste time looking for them.
An ERP that renews itself without your intervention
The ERP has 2 updates per year to bring the system up to date. They’re free and, best of all, they require no effort on your part, because they take place in the cloud, where SAP takes care of them for you. With GROW with SAP, get access to SAP innovations from the comfort of your office.
You want to optimize your business processes? GROW with SAP is the scalable, cloud-based ERP for you if you’re looking for a tool that’s quick and easy to learn. You can count on Talan’s experts to support you in this process of change.
Find out which solution, between Rise with SAP and GROW with SAP, is best suited to your company’s needs by reading our dedicated blog post.
