Talk­ing about busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion is almost as com­mon as talk­ing about the weath­er. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, actu­al­ly trans­form­ing busi­ness is much hard­er. The ques­tions are huge, hard, and complex:

• Where to start? 
• What to change? 
• Why is change needed?
• How could/​should we change?
• What does suc­cess look like?

These are just a few of the many ques­tions about busi­ness trans­for­ma­tion. They begin to con­vey why orga­ni­za­tions may dwell in talk, and not actu­al trans­for­ma­tive action.

Speak­ing of talk, ASUG recent­ly tack­led some of these ques­tions with SAP experts in a con­ver­sa­tion that may help our mem­bers and cus­tomers become more com­fort­able with trans­for­ma­tive action. Specif­i­cal­ly, I had a can­did con­ver­sa­tion about Busi­ness Process Trans­for­ma­tion with Rou­ven Mora­to, Senior Vice Pres­i­dent and Gen­er­al Man­ag­er of SAP Sig­navio, and Was­sil­ios Lolas, Glob­al Vice Pres­i­dent, Cen­ter of Excel­lence, SAP Sig­navio. Mora­to and Lolas are unique­ly posi­tioned to pro­vide rel­e­vant insights into how cus­tomers are trans­form­ing their busi­ness­es and how SAP can help sup­port these trans­for­ma­tion efforts. We cov­ered sub­stan­tial ground; here is some of what I heard and learned.

Where Can We Transform?

One of the chal­lenges that I hear from cus­tomers is not whether they want to trans­form, but rather where to start. Mora­to and Lolas con­tend process trans­for­ma­tion always should start with analy­sis. If you don’t under­stand where exist­ing process­es are weak or strong, or how process­es com­pare to oth­er com­pa­nies’ sim­i­lar process­es — inside or out­side your com­pet­i­tive set or indus­try — then find­ing the best prac­tices solu­tion can be a shot in the dark. 

Addi­tion­al­ly, how can you iden­ti­fy dif­fer­en­ti­at­ing process­es – ones that deliv­er unique busi­ness val­ue — from process­es that are mere­ly dif­fer­ent, ones that may rep­re­sent improve­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties? Mora­to and Lolas shared sev­er­al exam­ples where cus­tomers used Sig­navio process intel­li­gence tools to gain a deep­er under­stand­ing not only of what their process­es are, but where improve­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties exist.

Process­es Are Not Application-Specific

Even in the least com­pli­cat­ed tech­nol­o­gy land­scapes, it is unlike­ly that core busi­ness process­es are exe­cut­ed in a sin­gle sys­tem or appli­ca­tion. To under­stand a busi­ness process, you must look at the process end-to-end, and not just at the appli­ca­tions that sup­port the steps. Dur­ing our dis­cus­sion, Mora­to and Lolas both rein­forced this idea. They point­ed out that the Sig­navio process intel­li­gence tools are designed from the ground up to focus on process intel­li­gence, not just on appli­ca­tion intel­li­gence. In fact, pri­or to the SAP full acqui­si­tion of Sig­navio, most of its cus­tomer were not SAP users. This means Sig­navio can eval­u­ate a process end-to-end, and span both SAP and non-SAP solutions.

When Can We Transform?

Although I did not real­ize it, I went into this Mora­to-Lolas con­ver­sa­tion with a nar­row view of where a process intel­li­gence solu­tion could help a busi­ness trans­form. My focus pri­mar­i­ly had been on process trans­for­ma­tion as an event or a project; an effort with a defined end-state or goal. Because of this, my ​“when” ques­tion was more around how to incor­po­rate process trans­for­ma­tion into a larg­er appli­ca­tion upgrade.

Yet I came to real­ize through the dis­cus­sion that cus­tomers can use the solu­tion as a con­tin­u­ous improve­ment enabler. Using Sig­navio as a frame­work for deliv­er­ing oper­a­tional excel­lence and con­tin­u­ous improve­ment, even tying in cus­tomer expe­ri­ence and inno­va­tion, can pro­vide a busi­ness-focused solu­tion that sup­ports an ongo­ing trans­for­ma­tion agenda.

Con­tin­u­ing Con­ver­sa­tion Connections

The con­ver­sa­tion with Mora­to and Lolas was valu­able, impor­tant, and not a unique expe­ri­ence. ASUG Edi­to­r­i­al has inter­viewed and fea­tured con­tent from these experts in 2022 and will con­tin­ue to tap into them. What’s more, this recent con­ver­sa­tion is part of the ASUG Exec­u­tive Exchange Fire­side Chat series that includes audio/​video inter­views of SAP and SAP part­ner exec­u­tive lead­ers. ASUG Exec­u­tive Exchange mem­bers have on-demand access to the entire chat to learn more about Sig­navio and how cus­tomers use the toolset to iden­ti­fy and deliv­er mean­ing­ful process trans­for­ma­tion to their businesses.