As lockdown measures start to be reduced around the world, we are left facing a landscape where many businesses have been forced to tackle remote working and digital transformation just to keep themselves ticking over. Huge increases can be seen in software packages like Zoom, Slack, and Microsoft Teams speak for themselves, with Teams seeing 44 million daily users – a 40% rise in just one week recently.
At the same time, we’ve seen big, measurable drops in air pollution worldwide since the start of the pandemic, and some big companies like Twitter are already planning to extend homeworking indefinitely. At the same time, businesses are starting to realise the cost of converting open-plan offices to meet new social distancing recommendations.
Whether or not your business can or will be sticking with homeworking as the default option for staff that are able to do their jobs remotely, almost every company has noticed how much easier their lives would have been at the start of the pandemic if they had already digitised all of their operations. Now is no longer the time to be dragging our feet when it comes to digital transformation.
Tackling transformation should be easier than before
For all of the reasons listed above, and even the fact that your organisation has just lived through a period of forced digital working should make it easier than before to convince people it’s time for digital transformation to take a big step forward.
In fact, when compared with the added cost of things like making your open-plan office spaces COVID-19 secure, it might even prove cheaper to carry on doing many things remotely. But surely the actual change itself will involve people working in your physical locations?
The physical aspects of changing to a digital workplace
Obviously, someone will have to turn up and pack away all of the office equipment if you aren’t all going back to the office. One thing you should know is that much of the actual change to computerised systems can be done remotely.
For instance, in many circumstances the switch to a cloud-based source-to-pay system like SAP Ariba can be done entirely at a distance. Minimising how much physical contact your new deployments need will help reduce costs, as well as reducing the potential risks from COVID-19 that are still out there.
Procurement is a particularly good area for digital transformation
Whether or not your workplace is still in lockdown, there’s a lot that can be done to digitise and automate your supply chain and procurement pipelines. Given the current state of global manufacturing and logistics, the ability to get some of the harder parts of sourcing and procurement dealt with by a cloud solution like SAP Ariba are clear:
- Logistics capacity is maximised: Limited logistics capacity is causing problems worldwide while we deal with the current pandemic. Our software solutions can help you get the most out of your logistics capacity, as well as helping you sidestep parts of the supply chain that are struggling due to the current outbreak or various lockdown measures.
- Face-to-face contact is minimised: Even the face-to-face contact usual when setting up new suppliers. Thanks to the Ariba Network, vendors are thoroughly vetted without you or your management team needing to leave home.
- Quick deployment times mean it’s easy to get ready for the next crisis well in advance: If you’re one of the many businesses left reeling when the current pandemic reared its ugly head, you won’t want to risk being faced with another crisis in the future. Now is the time to make sure your business is ready for any eventuality that could be lurking around the corner.
- Many businesses are heavily reliant on their position in the supply chain: Therefore, anything you can do to maintain your position in the global supply chain is an important step towards maintaining business viability in the short and long term.
What can SapeicenceS2P offer to help you get the most out of your digital procurement systems?
We can install SAP Ariba, Ariba Snap, Ariba CIG (cloud integration gateway), and SAP S/4 HANA. Most of the time we can configure and deploy these systems remotely, helping to reduce both travel costs and the risks inherent in today’s face-to-face contact. Additionally, we can do a lot to help companies that already have these technologies installed.
We can help you with in-place upgrades, whether you’re moving to these solutions or just upgrading them to the latest versions. We’re also offering businesses 60 days free advisory support that could be key in helping you get the most out of your current SAP procurement solutions.
It doesn’t matter whether you got your SAP procurement or ERP software from SapienceS2P – get in touch and we’ll help you get the most out of it. Our skilled team is waiting to talk to you.