SAP automation for the intelligent enterprise of tomorrow

From simple Excel macros to complex robotic process automation (RPA) deployments, organizations have long embraced automation. However, today's rapidly escalating business needs and complex IT landscapes have outpaced traditional automation approaches, rendering them obsolete. Enterprises urgently need a comprehensive, industry-standard solution that harmonizes people, processes and technology to create intelligent, sustainable operations that maximize return on investment (ROI).

Over the past decade, automation has witnessed rapid growth, fueled by advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies. Among the leading enterprise automation enablers, SAP has emerged as a powerhouse of state-of-the-art tools and solutions to build intelligent enterprises.

The rise of SAP automation

In 2018, SAP entered the RPA market by acquiring a European company, Contextor. Over the next five years, SAP pivoted classic RPA into a cloud-based hyper-automation service, Build Process Automation. Housed within the state-of-the-art ecosystem of SAP Business Technology Platform (BTP), SAP Build Process Automation is a suite of services that offers a simpler and faster way to automate end-to-end business processes. It integrates workflow management, RPA functionality, decision management, process visibility and embedded AI capabilities into one intuitive low-code experience. When combined with SAP BTP integration services and process mining capabilities, it delivers a holistic hyper-automation strategy.

In a nutshell, SAP Automation increases user productivity and efficiency by automating repetitive tasks and optimizing complex business processes. It seamlessly integrates with existing and new applications, collates data and enables automated as well as informed decision making through real-time insights, thereby significantly reducing compliance risks and costs.

Benefits of automating SAP

Automating SAP systems can bring a multitude of advantages to organizations, transforming the way they operate and compete in the marketplace.

Efficiency and productivity gains. You can automate mundane tasks, freeing your people to focus on more strategic work. This can lead to better decision-making, improved customer service and the development of new business strategies. Plus, automation helps ensure tasks are completed more quickly and consistently.

Data accuracy and consistency. Manual data entry is a prime opportunity for errors to sneak in. Automation is your trusty guardian here, ensuring that data is handled with precision every single time. This not only maintains the integrity of your data but also empowers you to make decisions based on solid, accurate information.

Compliance. Automation is a smoother, more reliable way to meet industry standards and regulations. By automating processes, you're reducing the risk of non-compliance and its consequences. Plus, you can position your organization as a trusted one to get things right.

Embrace SAP enterprise automation

A best-in-class automation framework built on SAP best practices consists of the following three collaborative cycles.   

1. Advisory: It starts with identification of automation opportunities through data sources such as IT Service Management (ITSM) data, financial data, process maps, subject matter expert (SME) inputs and runbook data, using AI/ML clustering and analysis tools. It involves developing a business case, creating and validating an automation strategy and assessing the automation opportunity from a financial perspective (ROI impact analysis).

2. Implementation and delivery: At this stage, processes are re-engineered to align with business objectives and organizational priorities, maximizing case benefits and value. This is the time to leverage standard SAP templates and partner SAP Automation assets, as well as IP/solutions tailored to client experiences, for rapid deployment and quick ROI realization.

3. Continuous optimization: It is critical to review and optimize automation solutions based on utilization and outcomes. Establishing a strong governance model between IT and business drives effective outcomes. Establishing a Center of excellence can help you continuously drive automation while your system integration partner provides strategic partnership, bringing thought leadership, expertise and implementation services.

Get started with SAP automation

Our recommended automation enablement guidance framework for SAP landscapes guides you to follow a crawl, walk, run and fly approach depending on your automation footprint and maturity. This helps you start with quick wins, know the technology landscape, understand adoption challenges and prepares you to drive larger automations as they scale and mature.

• Proactive automation: Deploy partner-built SAP autonomous monitoring and reporting bots that send timely and actionable notifications of system health and outages to support teams to take immediate action. It significantly improves business confidence through the reduction of high-priority tickets by up to 50%.
• Security automation: Deploy partner-built SAP automation solutions which provide predictive lead time for resource onboarding/offboarding, timely delivery of key security, audit and compliance reports to key stakeholders. This helps reduce security incidents by up to 60% in volume.
• Business process automation: Deploy end-to-end business process automations optimized to execute routine business processes, reducing many days of work to a few minutes or hours. This enables consultants to focus on complex and human-centric requirements, increasing productivity by up to 30%.
• Predictive automation: Deploy a self-learning and evolved state of enterprise automation powering companies to intelligently predict and prevent incident through auto-remediation and actionable insights, resulting in ~40% reduction in Mean Time to Repair (MTTR).

At NTT DATA, SAP automation is a strategic offering and is not an optional or siloed service. Our dedicated Center of Excellence has in-depth process expertise, unmatched domain knowledge and a global strategic partnership with SAP to drive innovation, advisory and implementation services. There is a focused annual R&D spend for continuous innovation and value creation.

To learn how we can partner with you in your SAP journey, explore our SAP services.