“Guarding our Heritage”
By Paul Pretko 07/10/13
To guard is to protect or watch over. Heritage is anything that has been transmitted from the past or handed down by tradition. Here at SAP we are mindful to watch over our traditional core enterprise applications as we continue to grow our company through the introduction of new innovative technologies.
The market demands new solutions that are delivered on cloud, mobile, and in-memory platforms, in order to help companies differentiate and transform their businesses. In the Wholesale Distribution industry, many distributors are concerned that their current IT systems will not support or coexist with these new innovative platforms, which are required to remain competitive. These distributors continue to look to SAP to deliver core enterprise applications that will provide an IT foundation for growth, and that will ultimately enable them to embrace more innovative technologies.
As the industry experiences a consolidation of players, a changing product mix, a blurring of the roles in the value chain, and evolving business models, legacy systems are being stretched beyond their original intent. Distributors continue to embrace enterprise technology (ERP) to replace old systems and enable strategic initiatives to help them better manage margins, enable shared services, extend value added services, provide one face to the customer, and make real-time decisions.
SAP is committed to concurrently investing in core enterprise technology solutions, while continuing to launch new innovative solutions that address the mobile user, big data, and a networked economy.
SAP is a journey, not a project, for most distributors, and that journey begins by standardizing and simplifying their IT landscape with an enterprise (ERP) solution that leads to innovative technologies. The SAP Industry Business Solutions and Industry Value Engineering teams for Wholesale Distribution are committed to helping our customers begin that journey, and help guard our core enterprise application heritage by providing…
1. 1. Industry specific wholesale distribution functionality that enables holistic planning, procurement, logistics, sales, chargeback, and financial processes.
2. 2. Flexible wholesale distribution capabilities, where the ERP solution can be configured and personalized, not modified, to meet business and user requirements.
3. 3. The safest, most stable, and functionally rich enterprise technology option in the wholesale distribution industry.
4. 4. An integrated and open platform that can leverage both SAP and non-SAP applications and data for complete business visibility.
5. 5. Timeless wholesale distribution solutions, designed to meet current needs without compromising the ability to meet future business requirements.
In the soon to be released “Facing the Forces of Change”, published by the National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors, examines how the speed at which technology is changing has a profound effect on a distributors day-to-day operations and long-term growth outlook. The topics in the chapters of this book are closely aligned with the SAP product strategy and solution categories that include applications and analytics, as well as cloud, mobile, and in-memory technologies.
We should be proud to have worked with hundreds of distributors to help them architect a roadmap to begin or continue their journey as they face the forces of change in the wholesale distribution industry. In guarding our heritage, we insure that distributors of all sizes can continue to invest in IT to unite their companies over time towards a common set of information systems to help profitable grow their businesses.
